positive	films adapted from comic books have had plenty of success whether they're about superheroes batman superman spawn or geared toward kids casper or the arthouse crowd ghost world but there's never really been a comic book like from hell before for starters it was created by alan moore and eddie campbell who brought the medium to a whole new level in the mid with a series called the watchmen to say moore and campbell thoroughly researched the subject of jack the ripper would be like saying michael jackson is starting to look a little odd the book or graphic novel if you will is over pages long and includes nearly more that consist of nothing but footnotes in other words don't dismiss this film because of its source if you can get past the whole comic book thing you might find another stumbling block in from hell's directors albert and allen hughes getting the hughes brothers to direct this seems almost as ludicrous as casting carrot top in well anything but riddle me this who better to direct a film that's set in the ghetto and features really violent street crime than the mad geniuses behind menace ii society the ghetto in question is of course whitechapel in london's east end it's a filthy sooty place where the whores called unfortunates are starting to get a little nervous about this mysterious psychopath who has been carving through their profession with surgical precision when the first stiff turns up copper peter godley robbie coltrane the world is not enough calls in inspector frederick abberline johnny depp blow to crack the case abberline a widower has prophetic dreams he unsuccessfully tries to quell with copious amounts of absinthe and opium upon arriving in whitechapel he befriends an unfortunate named mary kelly heather graham say it isn't so and proceeds to investigate the horribly gruesome crimes that even the police surgeon can't stomach i don't think anyone needs to be briefed on jack the ripper so i won't go into the particulars here other than to say moore and campbell have a unique and interesting theory about both the identity of the killer and the reasons he chooses to slay in the comic they don't bother cloaking the identity of the ripper but screenwriters terry hayes vertical limit and rafael yglesias les mis rables do a good job of keeping him hidden from viewers until the very end it's funny to watch the locals blindly point the finger of blame at jews and indians because after all an englishman could never be capable of committing such ghastly acts and from hell's ending had me whistling the stonecutters song from the simpsons for days who holds back the electric made steve guttenberg a star don't worry it'll all make sense when you see it now onto from hell's appearance it's certainly dark and bleak enough and it's surprising to see how much more it looks like a tim burton film than planet of the apes did at times it seems like sleepy hollow the print i saw wasn't completely finished both color and music had not been finalized so no comments about marilyn manson but cinematographer peter deming don't say a word ably captures the dreariness of london and helped make the flashy killing scenes remind me of the crazy flashbacks in twin peaks even though the violence in the film pales in comparison to that in the comic oscar winner martin childs' shakespeare in love production design turns the original prague surroundings into one creepy place even the acting in from hell is solid with the dreamy depp turning in a typically strong performance and deftly handling a british accent ians holm joe gould's secret and richardson dalmatians log in great supporting roles but the big surprise here is graham i cringed the first time she opened her mouth imagining her attempt at an irish accent but it actually wasn't half bad the film however is all good r for strong sexuality language and drug content
positive	every now and then a movie comes along from a suspect studio with every indication that it will be a stinker and to everybody's surprise perhaps even the studio the film becomes a critical darling mtv films' a high school comedy starring matthew broderick and reese witherspoon is a current example did anybody know this film existed a week before it opened the plot is deceptively simple george washington carver high school is having student elections tracy flick reese witherspoon is an with her hand raised at nearly every question way way high mr m matthew broderick sick of the megalomaniac student encourages paul a jock to run and paul's nihilistic sister jumps in the race as well for personal reasons the dark side of such sleeper success is that because expectations were so low going in the fact that this was quality stuff made the reviews even more enthusiastic than they have any right to be you can't help going in with the baggage of glowing reviews which is in contrast to the negative baggage that the reviewers were likely to have a good film does not live up to its hype what makes so disappointing is that it contains significant plot details lifted directly from released a few months earlier the similarities are staggering tracy flick is the president of an extraordinary number of clubs and is involved with the school play max fischer is the president of an extraordinary number of clubs and is involved with the school play the most significant tension of is the potential relationship between a teacher and his student the most significant tension of is the potential relationship between a teacher and his student tracy flick is from a single parent home which has contributed to her drive max fischer is from a single parent home which has contributed to his drive the male bumbling adult in matthew broderick pursues an extramarital affair gets caught and his whole life is ruined he even gets a bee sting the male bumbling adult in bill murray pursues an extramarital affair gets caught and his whole life is ruined he gets several bee stings and so on what happened how is it that an individual screenplay and a novel contain so many significant plot points and yet both films were probably not even aware of each other made from two different studios from a genre the high school geeks revenge movie that hadn't been fully formed yet even so the strengths of rely upon its fantastic performances from broderick witherspoon and newcomer jessica campbell as paul's sister tammy broderick here is playing the mr rooney role from and he seems to be having the most fun he's had since then witherspoon is a revelation it's early in the year it's a comedy and teenagers have little clout but for my money witherspoon deserves an oscar nomination and once campbell's character gets going like in her fantastic speech in the gymnasium then you're won over one thing that's been bothering me since i've seen it there is an extraordinary amount of sexuality in this film i suppose that coming from mtv films i should expect no less but the film starts off light and airy like a sitcom as the screws tighten and the tensions mount alexander payne decides to add elements that frankly distract from the story it is bad enough that mr m doesn't like tracy's determination to win at all costs but did they have to throw in the relationship even so there's no logical reason why mr m has an affair when he does there's a lot to like in but the plot similarities to and the tonal nosedive it takes as it gets explicitly mark this as a disappointment
positive	you've got mail works alot better than it deserves to in order to make the film a success all they had to do was cast two extremely popular and attractive stars have them share the screen for about two hours and then collect the profits no real acting was involved and there is not an original or inventive bone in it's body it's basically a complete of the shop around the corner only adding a few modern twists essentially it goes against and defies all concepts of good contemporary filmmaking it's overly sentimental and at times terribly mushy not to mention very manipulative but oh how enjoyable that manipulation is but there must be something other than the casting and manipulation that makes the movie work as well as it does because i absolutely hated the previous teaming sleepless in seattle it couldn't have been the directing because both films were helmed by the same woman i haven't quite yet figured out what i liked so much about you've got mail but then again is that really important if you like something so much why even question it again the storyline is as cliched as they come tom hanks plays joe fox the insanely likeable owner of a discount book chain and meg ryan plays kathleen kelley the even more insanely likeable proprietor of a children's book shop called in a nice homage the shop around the corner fox and kelley soon become bitter rivals because the new fox books store is opening up right across the block from the small business little do they know they are already in love with each other over the internet only neither party knows the other person's true identity the rest of the story isn't important because all it does is serve as a mere backdrop for the two stars to share the screen sure there are some mildly interesting subplots but they all fail in comparison to the utter cuteness of the main relationship all of this of course leads up to the predictable climax but as foreseeable as the ending is it's so damn cute and that i doubt any movie in the entire year contains a scene the evokes as much pure joy as this part does when ryan discovers the true identity of her online love i was filled with such for lack of a better word happiness that for the first time all year i actually left the theater smiling
positive	jaws is a rare film that grabs your attention before it shows you a single image on screen the movie opens with blackness and only distant underwater sounds then it comes the first ominous bars of composer john williams' now infamous score  from there director steven spielberg wastes no time taking us into the water on a midnight swim with a beautiful girl that turns deadly right away he lets us know how vulnerable we all are floating in the ocean and once jaws has attacked it never relinquishes its grip perhaps what is most outstanding about jaws is how spielberg builds the movie he works it like a theatrical production with a first act and a second act unlike so many modern filmmakers he has a great deal of restraint and refuses to show us the shark until the middle of the second act until then he merely suggests its presence with creepy subjective underwater shots and williams' music he's building the tension bit by bit so when it comes time for the climax the shark's arrival is truly terrifying he doesn't let us get bored with the imagery the first act opens with police chief martin brody roy scheider a new york cop who has taken an easy peaceful job running the police station on amity island a fictitious new england resort town where there hasn't been a murder or a gun fired in years the island is shaken up by several vicious great white shark attacks right before the fourth of july and the mayor larry vaughn murray hamilton doesn't want to shut down the beaches because the island is reliant on summer tourist money brody is joined by matt hooper richard dreyfuss a young ambitious shark expert from the marine institute hooper is as fascinated by the shark as he is determined to help brody stop it his knowledge about the exact workings of the shark it's a perfect engine an eating machine make it that much more terrifying when vaughn finally relents hooper and brody join a crusty old shark killer named quint robert shaw on his decrepit boat the orca to search for the shark the entire second act takes place on the orca as the three men hunt the shark and inevitably are hunted by it jaws is a thriller with a keen sense of humor and an incredible sense of pacing tension and horror it is like ten movies all rolled into one and it's no wonder it took america by storm in the summer of taking in enough money to crown it the box office champ of all time until it was unceremoniously dethroned in by star wars even today fascination with this film is on par with hitchcock's psycho and it never seems to age although grand new technology exists that makes the technical sequences including several mechanical sharks obsolete none of it could improve the film because it only would lead to overkill the technical limitations faced by spielberg in may have actually produced a better film because it forced him to rely on traditional cinematic elements like pacing characterization sharp editing and creative photography instead of simply dousing the audience with digital shark effects scheider dreyfuss and shaw were known actors at the time jaws was made but none of them had the draw of a robert redford or paul newman nevertheless this film guaranteed them all successful careers because each gave an outstanding performance and refused to be overshadowed by the shark scheider hits just the right notes as a sympathetic husband and father caught in the political quagmire of doing what's right and going against the entire town it's your first summer here you know mayor vaughn warns him dreyfuss who had previously been seen in american graffiti and the apprenticeship of duddy kravitz gives a surprisingly mature complex performance for someone who had literally only played kids and teenagers however most outstanding is the gnarled performance by robert shaw as the movie's captain ahab a performance sorely overlooked by the academy awards bordering of parody shaw plays quint as a grizzled old loner whose machismo borders on masochism he's slightly deranged and shaw's performance is almost a caricature however there is one scene late in the film when he and brody and hooper are below deck on the orca comparing scars quint is drawn into telling the story of his experiences aboard the u s s indianapolis a navy ship in world war ii that was sunk by the japanese his tale of floating in the water for more than a week with over other men while swarms of sharks slowly devoured them them is actually more than anything spielberg put on screen shaw delivers the story in one long take and it is the best acting in the film of course we can't leave out the shark itself with its black eyes endless rows of teeth and insatiable urge to eat it is basically the epitome of all mankind's fears about what is unknown and threatening in nature a shark is such a perfect nemesis it is real having survived sinch the dinosaurs great whites do exist they can be as large as the shark in jaws and they are a threat every one of spielberg's subjective underwater shots makes us feel queasy because lets us see how we look to the shark a bunch of writihing dangling completely unprotected legs just ready to be chomped into the shark in jaws was actually a combination of actual footage and five different mechanical sharks all nicknamed bruce by the crew built to be shot from different angles many have forgotten but jaws was a sort of precursor to waterworld a movie's who soggy production and cost overruns had universal studios worried about a bomb but as we can see now spielberg overcame all the obstacles and delivered one of the finest primal ever to come out of hollywood
positive	moviemaking is a lot like being the general manager of an nfl team in the cap era you've got to know how to allocate your resources every dollar spent on a defensive tackle is one less dollar than you can spend on linebackers or safeties or centers in the nfl this leads to teams like the detroit lions who boast a superstar running back with a huge contract but can only field five guys named herb to block for him in the movies you end up with films like spawn with a huge budget but not enough money to hire any recognizable actors jackie chan is the barry sanders of moviemaking he spins and darts across the screen like sanders cutting back through the defensive line watching jackie in operation condor as he drives his motorcycle through the crowded streets of madrid fleeing an armada of pursuers in identical black compact cars is reminiscent of sanders running for daylight with the chicago bears in hot pursuit except that sanders doesn't have to worry about rescuing runaway baby carriages but like the lions star jackie doesn't have anybody to block for him almost every cent that's invested in a jackie chan movie goes for stunts and as chan does his own stunts the rest of the money goes to pay his hospital bills this leaves about cents to pay for things like directors chan directs scripts and dubbing and supporting characters not to mention the hideous title sequence this also explains why the movie was shot in odd places like morocco and spain chan's first release in this country rumble in the bronx was supposedly set in new york but was filmed in vancouver and in the chase scenes the canadian rockies are clearly visible heck jackie doesn't even have enough money for a haircut looks like much less a personal hairstylist in condor chan plays the same character he's always played himself a mixture of bruce lee and tim allen a master of both and jackie is sent by the un to retrieve a cache of lost nazi gold in the north african desert and is chased by a horde of sympathizers and two stereotypical arabs one of the things i like about jackie chan movies no political correctness he is joined by three women who have little to do except scream jackie save us and misuse firearms the villain is an old nazi whose legs were broken in the secret base so that he has to be carried everywhere and he's more pathetic than evil en route we have an extended motorcycle chase scene a hilarious fight in the moroccan version of motel with the and two confrontations with savage natives once at the secret desert base there is a long sequence followed by the film's centerpiece a fight that's even better than the one in this is where the money was spent on sequences on giant kevlar hamster balls on crates of bananas and on scorpions ignore the gaping holes in the plot how exactly if the villain's legs were broken did he escape from the secret nazi base and why didn't he take the key with him don't worry about the production values or what exactly the japanese girl was doing hitchhiking across the sahara just go see the movie operation condor has pretentions of being a raiders of the lost ark knockoff but one wonders what jackie could do with the raiders franchise blocking for him with a lawrence kazdan screenplay a john williams score spielberg directing and george lucas producing condor might be an movie however you've got to go with what you've got and what you've got in jackie chan is something special a talent that mainstream hollywood should could and ought to utilize
positive	on june a idealistic yet pragmatic young man became at age the first head of government of a newly independent african state formerly the belgian congo two months later he was ousted from his powerful position and hunted by government troops until he was captured and brutally murdered along with two aides this story of this meteoric rise and fall is told my international filmmaker raoul peck in lumumba patrice lumumba's eriq ebouaney story has been told previously by helmer peck in his award winning documentary lumumba death of a prophet virtually guaranteeing that his new fictional account of a patriot remains true to its subject peck with pascal bonitzer begins at the end of the story of the young political leader we watch as two white men perform the gruesome task of dismembering the bodies of three black men images of hatchets saws and whiskey bottles accompany the grisly image jump back a few years to a meeting among the black leaders in the congo a third class postal worker lumumba speaks his mind to heads of the most powerful tribes proclaiming himself not tribal not regional but a national leader his small mobile party the congolese national movement mnc is gaining prominence and patrice leaves his clerical job to sell beer and get his face known in the bustling capital stanleyville at a time when the colonial empires are falling down around the world lumumba is in the right place at the right time and through political savvy and manipulation achieves a position of leadership of the mnc as the date for independence approaches he tactically positions himself to be the new nation's first prime minister and defense minister supporting the presidency of joseph kasa vubu maka kotto the coalition he created soon starts to fall apart as the former belgian masters continue to exert influence on the struggling nation as they strive to maintain economic hold on the country's vast natural resources of copper diamonds gold and more lumumba won't seek the help of the us knowing that they would try to create de facto american control of the fledgling government his initial investigation into soviet assistance immediately tags patrice as a communist and his integrity is overshadowed by the cold war threat of russian domination the situation goes from bad to worse as the army mutinies the remaining whites begin to evacuate or arm themselves belgian troops violently intervene the lucrative katanga province succeeds under the leadership of rival moise tschombe pascal nzonzi and lumumba is refused access to his own country when he returns from a conference abroad this tumultuous and little known period of modern african history saw a score of nations struggling for independence from the colonialists who have ruled much of the world from their european seats of power for centuries peck focuses his story on familiar material that strives to give an honest portrayal of patrice lumumba his friend and foes and the independence movements that gripped africa in the and during the time the story takes place many new nations including nigeria and somalia were born with varying degrees of success and failure usually dependent upon which country colonized them some colonial masters were better than others the effort involved in lumumba is quite ambitious as peck and his crew before and behind the camera strive to bring to life this slice of world history that might have gone unexplored for decades if at all production values are first rate on what must be a small by us standards budget the period feel and realistic african settings are nicely maintained in a production that traveled from zimbabwe to mozambique the screenplay covers a lot of ground and does yeoman's work in providing a great deal of detailed history while trying to do justice to the story of lumumba's life the political side of things is evenly told in a linear straightforward manner that teaches not preaches it concentrates on the good deeds of the man if a bit as a stalwart saint but doesn't embellish on a larger than life persona the family side of patrice's life is handled in several perfunctory and brief interludes that show him talking to one of his children embracing his wife or lamenting the death of his child i know the intent is to flesh the man out but too short a shrift is given to the family man side of lumumba the story as such has a lopsided feel about it high marks go to eriq ebouaney as the title character the actor gives a convincing charismatic performance as the multifaceted politically deft patrice lumumba who has the good of his people and his country as the force driving his own ambitions in true docudrama tradition the supporting cast does not outshine the star complementing his good efforts instead lumumba is a solid interesting educational and honest docudrama that should appeal to film buffs and politicos both it has more intelligence in its telling than anything i've seen out of hollywood for months and i give it a
positive	apparently director tony kaye had a major battle with new line regarding his new film american history x i don't know the details of the fight but it seems that he is not happy with the final product and nearly removed his name from the credits altogether i've heard about this kind of thing happening before and it makes me wonder how much input a studio has over the films they produce as it is i found american history x to be an extremely good film not just because of tony kaye's focused look at the touchy subject of racism but because of a powerful charismatic performance from edward norton it's hard to believe that it has only been two years since norton's fantastic role in primal fear but here he is now starring in his own film and making himself a star norton is one of those performers who becomes his character and his work in american history x is one of the very best performances this year he plays a young man named derek vinyard a skinhead living in venice beach with his brother danny edward furlong mother beverly d'angelo and sister davin jennifer lien the film opens with a flashback in which derek brutally kills two black men vandalizing his car we find out that this lands him in prison and the film from that point is seen through the eyes of danny in the of the film danny is in high school and eager to follow the footsteps of his brother much of the film is told in flashback and we see the path that leads to derek's adoption of white supremacy when derek is released having served three years in prison he finds that his brother is now a skinhead derek however has given up the violence and tries to get his brother to understand why racism and the violence that comes with it are bad things what makes this all interesting is that these two young men are not stupid thoughtless people they are intelligent and articulate and voice their beliefs in disturbingly straightforward terms it's hard to make a controversial movie and not preach but kaye has found the right note for his material because american history x is a mainstream film there has to be a redemption phase for our main character some people may think that this is the only way to make him sympathetic i partially disagree with this because although i do not advocate racism in any way it's interesting the way kaye presents derek he is a loud obnoxious man but he's also very smart the reasons for why he becomes a skinhead are believable his father was arbitrarily killed by a group of black men it's clear that he's passionate about his beliefs and that he's not just a punk looking for an excuse to beat people up of course it helps that kaye has an actor as talented as norton to play this part it's astonishing how frightening norton looks with a shaved head and a swastika on his chest in addition to getting the look just right he's perfect for this role derek requires intelligence depth and a whole lot of shouting and norton does it all with ease even when he's at his meanest derek has a likable quality to him and that's a gutsy approach when telling a story about a skinhead what adds depth to the story is a subplot in which the principal of danny's school avery brooks becomes obsessed with purging the hatred from danny the other performances are all terrific with standouts from furlong d'angelo and lien visually the film is very powerful kaye indulges in a lot of interesting artistic choices and most of them work nicely lots of and strange camera angles add to a moody atmosphere but like a lot of movies lately american history x skims past greatness in the last few minutes although the climactic scene is very moving the picture ends with a pretentious preachy resolution featuring a brief narration from a character who was killed for a movie so smart a subtle up until that point it felt like a slap in the face to be a theme in such a simplistic way it makes me wonder what exactly tony kaye disliked about the final version of his film perhaps this last scene was the problem it's hard to imagine any director not being at least partially pleased with a film this good in a time when so many movies are timid and weak american history x manages to make a compelling argument for racism without advocating it any way
positive	one of my colleagues was surprised when i told her i was willing to see betsy's wedding and she was shocked to hear that i actually liked it her reaction was understandable when you consider that the film revolves around molly ringwald who hasn't made a worthwhile film since but the fact is betsy's wedding is also an alan alda film and while ringwald has been making duds for the last four years alda has been involved with several noteworthy projects including crimes and misdemeanors and a new life written and directed by alda betsy's wedding is a vibrant mixing a few dramatic moments into a big bowl of whimsical humor alda's comic elixir is smooth and a welcome change of pace from the usual summer fare as bride and groom molly ringwald and dylan walsh are the pivotal characters in the film but they are by far the least interesting walsh is a nonentity with all the screen presence of a door knob ringwald is simply unbearable and is easily the weakest link in the chain she looks hideous with her orange hair red and grotesque outfits she's supposed to be a dress designer but she looks more like a clown and to make matters worse ringwald's performance matches her appearance thankfully alda keeps ringwald's screen time to a minimum he is far more interested in the colorful periphery characters the wedding is just a device to bring together the bride's italian family and the groom's rich gentile family ringwald's folks are homey and with alda as her father madeline kahn as her practical mother and ally sheedy as her lonely sister walsh's clan on the other hand is prim proper and ostentatious when the two families meet and mingle the movie becomes a story of culture clash or as one character puts it money versus values ally sheedy in a wonderfully understated performance is one of the film's most pleasant surprises sheedy expresses more with just her eyes than ringwald does with her entire body it's anthony lapaglia however who seizes the spotlight lapaglia plays stevie dee a suave overly polite mafioso who is formally courting sheedy with chivalry lapaglia's sincere but character is a riot and what's uncanny is that lapaglia is a dead ringer for robert de niro with a little bit of alec baldwin thrown in for good measure lapaglia seems to have attended the de niro school of gangster acting and his inspired performance is partly a tribute to his and partly a i don't know whether to say a star is born or a star is but i do know that lapaglia's performance should not be missed the scrumptious comic acting however extends well beyond sheedy and lapaglia joe pesci in particular sinks his teeth into his role as alda's unscrupulous a slum lord with mob ties who is cheating on his wife catherine o'hara alda faced with challenge of both directing and acting somehow finds just the right comic touch as the bride's father a carpenter whose dreams are bigger than his wallet the film adopts alda's psychological point of view as he tries to one plan the wedding and two pay for it as a filmmaker alda's style of humor is remarkably restrained and tasteful and while he doesn't have the comic genius of a woody allen alda does possess the inspiration to make movies which are ten times more entertaining than the slop which usually passes for comedy
positive	after bloody clashes and independence won lumumba refused to pander to the belgians who continued a condescending and paternalistic relationship with the congo their officers particularly general janssens rudi delhem in the force publique the congo's army caused rebellions undermining lumumba who was outraged at the rape and murder of belgian nationals with unrest building moise tshombe pascal nzonzi and the province of katanga which contained percent of the country's resources proclaimed secession lumumba replaced janssens making mobutu a colonel and went on a pacification tour with congolese president joseph kasa vubu maka kotto but it was too late you want to drown a dog you say it has rabies prophesies lumumba of his own fate peck and bonitzer do an exemplary job telling a complicated tale with a myriad of players although they frequently succumb to cliche particularly regarding lumumba's private life peck's script illuminates bantu sayings like hand that gives rules' when lumumba uses it with the american ambassador peck's direction is less assured with many scenes unfortunately playing like standard television fare he's served well though by his casting of ebouaney in the title role ebouaney is dynamic radiating his character's fierce passion for his people and his country lumumba's intelligence and ability to strategize even as he's cornered by insurmountable odds are given life by ebouaney peck's subject and lead actor elevate his film above its mediocre production lumumba is a story that deserves to be told and ebouaney's performance makes the tragedy personally felt
positive	the american action film has been slowly drowning to death in a sea of asian copycats it's not a pretty death and it's leaving the likes of schwartznager stallone and van damme wearing cement galoshes at the bottom of a kung fu sea sometimes the mix results in a spectacle unlike any other quality action with amazing and exciting stunt work as in the matrix can be a real gem but too often hollywood gets it wrong even when they pay off chinese directors flying ninjas and floating karate masters have been replaced by soaring bronx detectives and slow motion kicking scientists mostly it's laughable in hollywood's rush to emulate the success of the matrix trademark asian stunt choreography has become more of a joke than an art form but iron monkey the latest asian import shows us how to get it right iron monkey actually a reissue of a film is the story of a chinese vigilante rongguang yu fighting with his own unique style of shaolin kung fu for the rights of the oppressed and the bellies of the hungry but it is also a piece of the narrative of legendary chinese film hero wong most recently seen in one of the most overlooked and possibly best films of drunken master released in the u s as the legend of drunken master unlike drunken master which stars jackie chan as an adult iron monkey finds a much younger tsang and his father wong yen chi dan thrust into the middle of iron monkey's fight against oppression iron monkey succeeds as no kung fu film since drunken master at times fighting styles especially that of monkey himself do devolve into the ridiculous floating of films like crouching tiger hidden dragon director yuen wo ping eventually remembers to bring his action scenes back to earth iron monkey is at its heart a hardcore kung fu action film rather than any kind of drama a la crouching tiger however there are brief moments of profoundness shared between characters such as those that pass between our outlaw hero and his but misguided enemy chief fox in those moments and in others iron monkey manages to transcend its mindless kung fu nature to touch the hearts and minds of its audience while in no way the equal of a masterpiece like drunken master iron monkey dances quite nicely to the invading kung fu tune aka siunin wong tsi titmalau
positive	after watching rat race last week i noticed my cheeks were sore and realized that when not laughing aloud i had held a grin for virtually all of the film's minutes saturday night i attended another sneak preview for the movie and damned if i didn't enjoy it as much the second time as the first rat race is a great goofy delight a dandy mix of energetic performances inspired sight gags and silliness hands down this is the most fun film of the summer the movie begins with zippy opening credits that look like they were torn straight out of a slapstick comedy featuring animated photos of the cast attached to bodies bounding around the screen then comes the setup donald sinclair john cleese the extremely rich owner of the venetian hotel and casino in las vegas enjoys concocting unusual bets for his high rolling clients to that end he places a half dozen very special tokens in his slot machines gathering together the lucky token holders he explains today you have a chance to play a game where the odds of winning are one in six the competition is simple each contestant gets a key that opens a locker in silver city n m containing million in cash there is a transmitter in every key so that sinclair and his cronies can keep track of who is ahead the race has no rules whichever contestant reaches the locker first gets the money since it would be wrong to spoil any of the jokes let's use the next few paragraphs to profile the racers decked out in flashy trashy clothing and sporting big hair vera baker whoopi goldberg is in town to reunite with the daughter she gave up for adoption as a baby she finds that merrill lanai chapman is erudite conservative and more than a little bit wary of this stranger trying to jump into her life thrown together it becomes clear that both women share a fierce competitive nature owen templeton cuba gooding jr is currently the most hated man in america an nfl referee he cost gamblers all over the country enormous amounts of money by blowing a call in a game after escaping from a vengeful cab driver owen gets to new mexico by masquerading as the driver for a busload of lucy ricardo impersonators heading to a convention mr pollini rowan atkinson is a cheerful odd little italian man on holiday in america he also is narcoleptic and falls asleep at the most inopportune times pollini hitches a ride with zack wayne knight a ambulance driver carrying a human heart across country for a transplant operation randy pear jon lovitz promised his wife beverly kathy najimy and two kids a vacation in las vegas fearful that beverly will be angry over his involvement in the race he claims that he must travel to silver city for a job interview beverly insists the family stay together so they hop in the and tear off into the desert brothers duane seth green and blaine vince vieluf cody are young crooked and stupid blaine has a speech impediment due to his poorly tongue piercing and duane is the only person who can come close to understanding him the boys will stop at nothing to reach their goal finally nick shaffer breckin meyer is a who recruits helicopter pilot tracy faucet amy smart for the journey at first glance they seem blandly wholesome but all that changes when tracy buzzes the home of her boyfriend shawn dean cain and spies him swimming with another woman director jerry zucker airplane ghost leaps from racer to racer periodically returning to las vegas where sinclair and mr grisham dave thomas his right hand man continue cooking up bizarre bets for the gamblers as with any zucker production a few jokes fall flat but the momentum of the comedy zooms past those missteps high points for me include a bit involving kathy bates as a roadside squirrel salesperson and an intricately set up gag that carries jon lovitz and family from a bizarre museum to an outdoor rally with an utterly tasteless and screamingly funny had i been part of the filmmaking team i would have ditched a joke where a key is dropped into a baby's clothes and instead had the key get lost in the cleavage of a dozing society matron it would have drawn the same laugh without the hint of child molestation i also would have selected a different band for a concert sequence my god do we really need yet another movie with smash mouth performing all star but enough carping rat race is a riot with terrific performances from the diverse cast see it see it again and when the dvd comes out buy it because a movie this hilarious will surely have outtakes to die for
positive	i've noticed something lately that i've never thought of before substance hollywood faking deep meanings in their films have you ever seen a movie that you really enjoyed then when you look back you realize there was something missing more and more filmmakers seem to be putting out well rehearsed melodramatic films that evoke strong connotations of being a great film but if you step aside and reflect on your movie going experience you may just discover nothing more than elegantly presented fluff i'm not trying to say city of angels is that bad it had a lot going for it but somewhere along the way it faltered somehow underneath the seemingly poetic beauty of it all there was a gigantic hole somebody covered with iridescent performances and glossy cinematography the predictable ending that shattered our hopes even though we saw it coming only added to the disappointment but for over an hour city of angels is well worth the time nicolas cage is seth a guardian angel who like hundreds likely thousands or even millions of other angels spends eternity watching over the citizens of mortality humans never aware of how much celestial intervention occurs in their life meg ryan in her most subdued performance yet plays maggie a doctor who begins to ponder exactly who it is we're fighting against when we fight to keep someone alive after losing a patient on the surgery table these questions envelope maggie and seth the angel who was there to oversee the patient's transition into the afterlife is immediately captivated by the doctor he begins following and observing maggie falling more and more in love with her everyday angels who we quickly learn are not and never were humans can not experience human sensations such as taste and touch but they do have the ability to make themselves seen to anyone they desire seth's adoration is too much to resist and eventually he does appear to maggie quite regularly although such a thing seems taboo among the angelic community the angels are interestingly presented all of them dressed in black and more reminiscent of hitmen than traditional glowing white entities but it's a nice touch that never seems like a mere attempt at uniqueness cage is a wonderfully versatile actor think raising arizona and it could happen to you what a combo who slips into the role of a heavenly agent quite nicely but threatens sappiness more than once it's nice to see ryan pick up roles like this and the one in courage under fire the two aren't very comparable to each other but they both deviate from her usual intelligently ditzy romantic comedy roles and it's an impressive side of ryan movie goers rarely have the chance to enjoy but even though the two leads do an impressive job it is dennis franz who grabs us with his interpretation of a hospital patient who knows more than meets the eye it's a shame that with so much going for it city of angels falters so much in its final stages leaving us with the realization that an emotionally incredible movie was out there they just didn't know quite how to get to it they struggle for an impacting conclusion and wind up with painful thud rather than an exhilarating high filmmakers should know your final impression will be the one you linger on remember and convey to others thru word of mouth so after telling us for minutes that this film is a glorious masterpiece they sure leave us with a disheartening taste of mediocrity in our mouths based on the german film wings of desire that being the english title of course city of angels is ninety percent success enough to make most people forgive its shortcomings even the devastatingly disappointing ending most movie goers the anyway will be too wrapped up in the surreal atmosphere to give criticism to that which needs to be criticized nonetheless city of angels is beautifully captivating which is probably enough to satisfy those poetic viewers who will appreciate a delve into rich emotional territories
positive	synopsis bobby garfield yelchin lives in a small town with his mirthless widowed mother hope davis bobby's world revolves around his friends especially the spritely carol boorem then one day a new boarder arrives at bobby's house ted brautigan hopkins is an enigmatic man to whom bobby takes an immediate liking as the bond between bobby and ted deepens bobby becomes privy to ted's great secret an event which will change both of their lives forever review a small but enchanting movie hearts in atlantis easily recalls another film stand by me both in terms of its setting and the sentiment it conveys hearts is a tribute to the magic of childhood to those summers when the days seem neverending and nothing means more than your closest friends unlike stand by me there is a supernatural element to hearts but although it is key to the plot it is not prominent like stand by me this is a mostly film and as such it benefits greatly from superb casting yelchin is very good as bobby finding a good mix of innocence and resignation more splendid still is boorem whom i praised highly for her work in along came a spider and who is simply radiant here as carol and then there is hopkins who despite playing such a quiet introspective character as ted nonetheless commands our attention every time he is onscreen less successful is davis whose strident elizabeth comes across as overly cartoonish i also found it odd that bobby and carol's other friend sully whose death as an adult sets up the movie's flashback framing device is paid virtually no attention but hicks' direction is lovely without being cloying and despite the movie's general lack of incident it never ceases to weave its spell over the audience
positive	synopsis in this movie steven spielberg one of today's finest directors attempts to spice up the story of a long courtroom battle over the fate of prisoner cinque djimon hounsou a young angry man from sierra leone who was kidnapped into slavery and his fellow prisoners cinque and friends have landed a ship on the shores of america after escaping spanish slave traders but since the americans don't speak cinque's language the black men are hauled into court to determine whether or not they are legally slaves technically since the international slave trade was outlawed at that time people like cinque couldn't be kidnapped into slavery one had to be born a slave to be legally considered a slave lawyers baldwin and adams matthew mcconaughey and anthony hopkins must prove cinque and the others were captured into slavery rather than born slaves in order to get them out of prison as free men three lengthy court cases are portrayed with spielberg's trademark panache flashy beginning lots of facial big music and dramatic imagery a final speech by adams is followed by an anticlimax where subtitles show what eventually happened to the various characters opinion making a fictional movie is easier than making one about real life in fiction one invents purposeful good guys and bad guys puts the fictional characters in conflict and takes the tale to its exciting conclusion real life however consists of long stretches of boredom with a few dramatic moments and characters who stand around think thoughts and do nothing or come and go before events are resolved spielberg gives us a visually spicy and historically accurate real life story djimon hounsou and anthony hopkins turn in excellent performances
positive	the police negotiator is the person with the entirely unenviable job of going into ground zero and attempting to talk a dangerous criminal out of doing whatever he or she intends to do lives are often at stake and the criminal is usually armed and most likely mentally unstable prone to turn on the negotiator at a moment's notice the negotiator must therefore be something of an actor psychologist and sham artist in addition to being a police officer he must be able to think on his feet and either work toward the goal of ending the confrontation without violence or failing that must be prepared to facilitate the conclusion of the crisis through firepower most of all the negotiator must be able to enter a situation with as little intelligence about the scenario as possible and quickly gain control of the situation dominate the conversation and influence the perpetrator into thinking that the end of the conflict is what he really wants it takes a pretty smart person to do that but what if the criminal is just as smart what if he's also able to think on his feet in fact what if he also knows all the tricks to turning the situation to his favor it is this circumstance which forms the basis for f gary gray's the negotiator in this film police negotiator danny roman samuel l jackson is tipped off by his partner to corruption within the chicago police force when his partner turns up shot to death and internal affairs finds incriminating evidence in roman's home roman becomes the prime suspect of both embezzling from the police disability fund and murder faced with the scorn of most of the police department and under close scrutiny by the media roman is forced to turn in his badge in one of those typical scenes in the captain's office i don't quite remember if the captain actually said i hate to do this but although it wouldn't surprise me if he did luckily the film soon shakes off the conventionalism and concentrates on the interesting premise mentioned above after being offered a deal by the district attorney roman resolves to prove his innocence by walking into the office of internal affairs inspector niebaum j t walsh taking him and others hostage and proclaiming he has been framed although roman's actions seem forced due to the compressed nature of his motivational gray redeems himself by involving us with the negotiations between roman and fellow police negotiator chris sabian kevin spacey which soon ensue jackson while a superb actor is miscast in the role of roman the actor has become so popular and so often identified as a protagonist notable exceptions can be found such as in jackie brown that we as an audience have a difficult time believing he will carry out his threats the script also clearly sets him up as the good guy who is only trying to prove his innocence how can we believe he's going to shoot a hostage no matter if the hostage tried to kill him earlier unfortunately this preconception saps the film of some of it's suspenseful moments and anything good left in those scenes is largely attributed to jackson's acting ability almost every time he's in a scene jackson steals it without looking back when spacey appears the film has already run about a third of its course his is an interesting character made out to be some kind of negotiating superman our first look at him has him hopelessly trying to get his family moving to set out on vacation i can talk a man out of blowing up the sears tower but i can't talk my wife out of the bedroom or my daughter off the phone he says when he gets the call to action however he quickly changes gears and becomes the man we expect him to be soon his character has to negotiate not only with roman but also with the swat commander david morse who is itching to send in a team to take roman out all the while keeping wary of the fbi agents who are waiting to take over the operation should negotiations fail this complex set of pressures are reflected well in sabian the negotiator and spacey the actor as the second protagonist spacey measures up nicely gray really lucked out with this cast david morse as commander beck ron rifkin as commander frost and john spencer as police chief al travis are all more than competent and can hold their own in scenes with jackson and spacey the only problem is the bit of typecasting that results from these choices morse played a similar role in the rock rifkin played the d a in l a confidential and spencer played a police detective in cop land with the level of acting however this can be forgiven also in the supporting cast paul giamatti as rudy one of the hostages is notable for the comic relief he provides his character is initially so slimy and giamatti himself just looks so shifty that you expect to laugh before he even says anything fortunately this doesn't distract from the seriousness of the rest of the film but instead provides some nice breathers from the level of tension which gray manages to sustain throughout j t walsh as the suspicious internal affairs inspector clocks in with one of his final performances sadly the talented but underrated actor passed away in late february of this year and the soon to be released pleasantville will mark his last film walsh appeared in dozens of movies such as good morning vietnam backdraft and nixon for one of his best performances check out sling blade in which he plays a mental patient sharing a ward with billy bob thornton when jack nicholson accepted his best actor oscar in march walsh was one of the men to whom he credited his success the actors performed together in a few good men the negotiator is actually dedicated to walsh and while inspector niebaum may not have been his best role it certainly characterizes the type of character for which walsh had become most famous for playing in the end the negotiator has a plotline that parallels it's reality we're served with the premise that two equally deft negotiators are battling each other to resolve the conflict in the manner which will suit each of them best as an audience we're also given a situation where two wonderfully talented actors are thrown into a movie and we'd like to see if one will dominate the film both provide some pretty good entertainment
positive	plot a young man who loves heavy metal music and especially the band steel dragon to whom he's devoted a tribute band in which he sings gets launched into stardom when the real group get rid of their lead singer and call on him to take his place critique i'm a sucker for movies like this a young man with a humble background and lofty dreams works hard devotes the time the energy and the patience and ultimately hits it in the case of this film our boy loves a certain heavy metal band and as luck would have it yup luck always finds its way into these types of equations although generally tied very closely to hard work they need a new singer his entry and adaptation to the whole rock roll lifestyle fills the rest of the film and is really fun to watch although i will preface this by saying that one thing that would definitely enhance your appreciation for this film is your own love or past love of heavy metal music and the whole scene around it metal was one of my first loves as a teen and even though the genre of music isn't that prominent anymore i still check out my motley crue twisted sister and anthrax cds every now and again that's not to say that you won't like this film if you don't like the music but the music and live performances from the band play a big part in the movie and i for one had a blast watching and listening to it all but the even greater draw in this film is the standout performance given here by mark wahlberg wow hand this fella some major props as he totally becomes this heavy metal incidentally metal god was the film's original title and a much better one if you ask me he is this movie and i was quite taken by his character pretty much the whole way through he came off like a regular guy with extremely passionate goals and work ethic who was willing to do anything in order to fulfill his dreams aniston was also surprisingly good as the girlfriend and the romance angle between them was sweet but she didn't pull me in hard enough during their emotional scenes i was also impressed by some of the real musicians who played in the film zakk wylde from ozzy osbourne jeff pilson from dokken stephan jenkins from third eye blind blas elias from slaughter but actor dominic west as kirk cuddy made the biggest impression among the band members it's to note that this film was based on a tale of a young man who used to sing in a judas priest cover band and then went on to become their actual singer their original singer also admitted to being gay as in this film just for the record i'm certainly not recommending this film for its originality or surprise elements since most of this stuff has already been covered in some way or another in other movies but because it's a fun uplifting movie with a solid central showing by wahlberg and energetic live performances oh yeah and for those who dig the heavier side of music the soundtrack also rocks you see dreams can come true where's joblo coming from almost famous blow boogie nights detroit rock city girlfight goodfellas
positive	carry on matron is the last great film in my opinion made in it still features most of the regulars of this genre sid james plays the head of a gang of crooks intent on stealing contraceptive pills from the local maternity hospital and selling them off to make a profit kenneth williams is sir bernard cutting head of the hospital but also a hypochondriac hattie jacques her role as matron and charles hawtrey is the psychiatrist dr goode the jokes come in fast and so do the laughs with humorous antics between the matron and sir bernard this time williams is after matron jacques when he needs to prove himself that he is a man after visiting dr goode the doctor hawtrey is sworn to secrecy i assure you that anything you say to me today will go in one ear and straight out of the other bernard thinks he is having a sex change and needs to prove himself there are great cameos from joan sims an expectant mother who is many weeks overdue and is eating constantly in every scene and from kenneth connor as the expectant father who still thinks he's at work at the railway station sid james' gang including cyril his son kenneth cope try to find out where the pills are by getting cyril to dress up as a nurse and live in at the nurses home he has to share a room with nurse ball barbara windsor and she soon sees through him the film ends with the attempted robbery of the hospital's pills with panic ensuing there are good performances by hattie jacques as the matron however her character seems a little more subdued and quieter than her previous williams is as usual on top form but sid james isn't given a very good part in this movie and i would forgive anyone to forget that he was in the movie at all the same does not go for charles hawtrey for although he only first appears in the movie after minutes gone and has scarce screen time he seems to steal every scene he is in by not making use of sid james and barbara windsor's talent to full effect the film seems to flounder but it certainly makes up for it with it's good storyline and it's other appealing characters this film is genuinely funny and i could watch it again and again and not get bored
positive	the ultimate match up between good and evil the untouchables is an excellent movie because it looks deeper into an already examined rivalry based on the television show of the same title the untouchables may be an exaggeration of the real life events that took place but it fits together perfectly with some beautifully filmed action sequences some excellent acting a memorable score and a clever script the film takes place in chicago during the prohibition era where mobsters led by the ruthless al capone run an underground market of liquor to the demanding public elliot ness and a small force of men known as the untouchables attempt the impossible by trying to stop capone and trying to maintain peace and order however as ness soon learns in order to stabilize peace you have to bend a few laws the fact that capone is evil is very apparent from the first few scenes the film begins with capone played perfectly by deniro declaring that he is not a violent man and he is a firm believer in following all laws the film then quickly transfers to the next scene in which one of capone's men bombs a restaurant that contains many innocent people including a little girl from this point we know capone is evil not only because he kills without hesitation but also because he is a lying bastard right from the first five minutes of the film de palma has created a hatred towards capone and he shows that this man must be brought down at all costs this developed hatred is before the film's hero ness is even introduced i found this approach to be very clever because in a small duration of time there is a great amount of admiration for ness and an equal amount of hatred for capone the film only gets better from this point with the formation of the untouchables there is a group of men wearing long dark overcoats and hats they walk in unison and they only look forward as they walk down the streets they are observed and feared by citizens holding shot guns and pistols in their hands to stop criminals this image of vigilantes must have influenced future films one that comes to mind is the matrix when neo morpheus trinity and the rest of the gang first come into the virtual world wearing more futuristic outfits of the same style the similarities between these two are countless the untouchables has some of the hippest bravest heroes in any action film the four members were the only ones willing to go against capone's army each member of this special group also had their own characteristics that separated them from others elliot ness played with perfect ingenuity by kevin costner is a character that surely grows during the course of the film he begins as a man who is determined to follow all laws no matter how unfair they may be however as the film develops so does ness his beliefs involving the law are shattered when he realizes that those he trusted are actually members of the other side he also begins to lose his stability when his adversaries begin to murder his friends his anger becomes so thunderous that he can no longer hold it in sean connery who won an academy award for best supporting actor in his role plays malone an aging cop who decides to make one final run as a member of the untouchables malone acts as a mentor to ness he teaches him the chicago way to do things when they attack with a knife you attack with a gun connery plays his character with the exact amount of wit and experience needed andy garcia does a wonderful job as george stone a young man who is just becoming a police officer as ness grows he begins to teach stone some valuable lessons that malone once taught him charles martin smith is also fantastic as the final member who attempts to use an income tax offense against capone smith is perfect for his role as he adds some valuable comic relief to the film the action scenes are also some of the most beautifully choreographed i have ever seen also very similar to the matrix they are exciting and intense a battle to the famous confrontation at the train station steps the scenes are well thought out and well executed the score during these scenes ingeniously adds to the excitement its pounding drum beats act as a rhythm for the actors the combination of image and music is very impressive and also very effective although the real life untouchables may have been excessively glorified this film is pure entertainment and contains a unique blend of great acting great directing and great action some scenes capone and the baseball bat the train station have stuck in my mind for years and seeing them again will only make them more vivid
positive	having not seen who framed roger rabbit in over years and not remembering much besides that i liked it then i decided to rent it recently watching it i was struck by just how brilliant a film it is aside from the fact that it's a milestone in animation in movies it's the first film to combine real actors and cartoon characters have them interact and make it convincingly real and a great entertainment it's also quite an effective while the plot may be somewhat familiar the characters are original especially baby herman and watching them together is a lot of fun the story begins in hollywood in cartoon star roger rabbit is blowing takes and having trouble keeping his mind on work so private detective eddie valiant bob hoskins is called in by studio head r k maroon alan tilvern to try to help get roger's mind back on work maroon thinks that roger's wife jessica's possible unfaithfulness to him might be the cause of distraction and tells eddie to get some photos of her in the act before it costs him any more money in reshoots valiant takes some photos of jessica playing cake' with marvin acme stubby kaye the owner of toontown where all of the cartoon characters live and takes them to maroon upon seeing them roger is emotionally destroyed and soon after acme is found dead and roger rabbit is the prime suspect the rest of the movie follows valiant and roger as they run around town and eventually toontown trying to clear roger's good name along the way they meet judge doom christopher lloyd a executioner type who's out to get roger and has discovered the one and only way to kill a framed roger rabbit' won academy awards including a special achievement award for richard williams for animation direction and creation of the cartoon characters williams and his teams went through the film frame by frame and hand drew the cartoon characters in director robert zemekis must be given an equal amount of praise for overseeing the entire production which included hundreds of animators also bob hoskins' performance should be credited he in addition to the rest of the human cast finds the right note to play in all of the scenes with his cartoon according to the internet movie database hoskins studied his young daughter to learn how to act with imaginary characters and i guess his hard work paid off framed roger rabbit' is a rare film one that not only presented a great challenge to the filmmakers but one that can be enjoyed by the whole family although some very young viewers may be a little scared by judge doom do yourself a favor and rent it
positive	there's something about ben stiller that makes him a popular choice among casting directors these days stiller currently has three projects in circulation and what other actor can lay claim to that he's in there's something about mary which i still haven't seen and he's in the acerbic your friends neighbors playing a talkative drama coach called jerri now there's permanent midnight in which stiller plays another jerry this one a television writer last name stahl there's also something about this industry that pushes bankable stars like stiller into doing pictures the minute they've proved themselves commercially ewan mcgregor springs to mind who after successful turns in emma and brassed off received greater respect and admiration for his realization as renton in danny boyle's transatlantic trainspotting the philosophy appears to be a simple one if you want to be taken seriously make do drugs permanent midnight is based on the true life experiences of jerry stahl a successful hollywood writer who in the had a job churning out plotlines for disposable tv sitcoms and a heroin habit a habit in stahl's own words the size of utah as stahl stiller contributes a commanding performance unlike trainspotting which was successful in having it both ways by chronicling both the highs and the lows of heroin abuse permanent midnight instead focuses on the concept of drug addiction as maintenance one of the earliest observations in the film is a casual reference to naked lunch author william s burroughs who when asked why he shoots up first thing in the morning responds so i can shave stahl rarely appears to be puncturing veins for the thrill of it all in permanent midnight it's so he can talk to his mother on the phone show up for work on time even pay his bills while the film itself occasionally wobbles around along with stahl the writing adapted from stahl's autobiography by director david veloz is controlled and pointed permanent midnight shows how stahl moved from new york to l a in the author's escape the drug scene yeah right why he entered into a convenient marriage with a british tv exec elizabeth hurley so impossibly polite you'd swear her single profanity was dubbed and that he conceived a child in between his random hirings and firings stahl narrates all this in a motel bedroom to a sympathetic lover called kitty norristown's own maria bello with whom he spent some rehab time janeane garofalo is a hollywood talent agent who fails to get her hooks into the wordsmith and that's stahl himself playing a jaded clinic counselor stiller unshaven burroughs take note and with lots of mascara around the eyes has stahl stumble through the film looking like a train wreck but to his credit never once pushes his performance over the top the ubiquitous stiller is the reason to see permanent midnight a dark comic and strangely absorbing study of assisted living
positive	by phil curtolo mel gibson braveheart gave a gripping performance as the father of a young kidnapped boy in ron howard's ransom gibson plays tom mullen a wealthy business tycoon whose past actions are coming back to haunt him as a deranged psychopath played by gary sinise forrest gump and his band of thugs kidnap his only son for million tom and his wife kate played by rene russo tin cup were instructed not to inform the police but they contacted the fbi minutes later an elite team of agents led by delroy lindo broken arrow are in tom's house and wiring every phone the plot sounds average just like most other kidnap movies that you've already seen and it was nothing more than that that is until about through the movie suddenly tom goes to the fox news room and makes a live broadcast saying this is your ransom but this is as close as you will ever get to it instead i am offering this money as a reward on your head dead or alive at this point the plot thickened and the unusually slow start of the film turned into a action film with great stunts the last half of the film is very well done another thing that carries this film are the superb performances by gibson and sinise as they collide in a game of wits over their cellular phones for most of the movie owen gleiberman of entertainment weekly commented on the subject it makes you wonder what kidnappers did before cell phones before this movie sinise played mostly good guys first in of mice men then in forrest gump and most recently in apollo but he was surprisingly devilish and cold in his portrayal of a gibson of course was just being gibson in an performance although most of the scenes were quite predictable ransom is a very entertaining and suspenseful film 
positive	one can not observe a star trek movie and expect to see serious science fiction the purpose of star trek is to provide flashy innocent fun sometimes the stories are compelling sometimes they're not but with the exception of the first film in the series which provides little more than endless shots of amazed faces i've never been bored by any of the enterprise's numerous missions star trek insurrection is no exception the film has gotten some negative reviews a friend of mine actually thinks it's the worst in the series but i'm not really sure why it's an exciting often hilarious movie that engaged me and left me ready for the next star trek film some say it's a bit too light and more of a long episode than a film others say the special effects are cheesy and that it's boring i simply enjoyed the film insurrection which is the second film to feature strictly the next generation cast introduces us to a race of people called the ba'ku the ba'ku are very old most of them are about three hundred years old but they actually appear younger with age due to strange radiation in the rings of their planet of course these peaceful people can't horde this fountain of youth all for themselves leave it up to their archenemies the son'a led by ru'afo f murray abraham to mess everything up the son'a who are horribly disfigured and rely on daily reconstructive surgery to be aesthetically acceptable strike a deal with the federation to move the ba'ku elsewhere and exploit the secret to keep their race from dying that's when captain picard patrick stewart steps in he realizes that moving the ba'ku would kill them it also helps that he falls in love with a ba'ku woman donna murphy so with his trusty crew picard defies the federation to keep the ba'ku in their natural habitat when dealing with a series with as much history as this it's not entirely necessary to your characters with each episode this is why i believe have a hard time getting into star trek in order to enjoy it one has to understand how to approach it insurrection however does a surprisingly good job of us new aspects of the characters stewart is bold as always a magnetic screen presence and perfectly capable of holding an entire film together jonathan frakes who also directed is funny as commander riker a subplot with data brent spiner discovering his lost childhood is fairly interesting and abraham makes a perfect star trek villain overacting like crazy frakes showed similar aptitude for direction in first contact insurrection is an exciting film with some really attractive special effects and a lot of good action this is apparently the first star trek film to utilize computer animation and the result is very pleasing to the eye particularly in the climactic scenes in which the son'a employ a giant space ship to suck up the rings of the ba'ku planet the special effects have a clean impressively sharp look if i have any complaint about the film it's that it tries to take a moral stance when it's not very appropriate to do so i don't think it's that big of a deal that the federation wanted to move ba'ku in order to save the lives of thousands better yet why couldn't they have insurrection feels a little to light to spring these kinds of big moral questions on the audience with it's inherent camp factor the star trek series doesn't seem to deal with issues like this i prefer to just enjoy the spectacle
positive	a fully loaded entertainment review website coming in july ace ventura to truman burbank jim carrey has run the whole gamut of comic yet sympathetic characters the cable guy was supposed to be his big breakthrough role from zany humor into darker more dramatic acting as most everyone knows the results were well not only did the film not do so hot at the box office but it was also panned by critics as far as i know gene siskel and i are the only ones willing to admit that we dug it the first time i saw the cable guy in theatres i was in super and didn't really like it however due to the fact that hbo shows the movie every single day i've had time to lean back relax and take in the film and to my surprise it grew on me the plot is rather simple broderick plays a guy named steven who befriends his cable guy played by carrey then is stalked by him when steven tries to break off the relationship see steven's been having some problems with his girlfriend robin leslie mann and he doesn't think he has any more room in his life for a new friend also some of the cable guy's antics have been creeping him out carrey as the cable guy gives steven various aliases which later we find out are all tv characters larry tate chip douglas ricky ricardo etc he apparently lives in his cable van and while many critics didn't enjoy this newer darker performance from carrey i thought it was interesting and rather for me its not the movie as a whole that's enjoyable but rather several individual scenes a karaoke jam at steven's apartment a medieval fight at a theme restaurant and a bathroom beating a la liar liar just to name a few perhaps the fact that more of carrey's humorous side comes out during these scenes is what makes them so funny and if you really want to see something you've got to hear his version of jefferson airplane's somebody to love sung at the aformentioned karaoke jam the cable guy has its bad spots like most any movie i didn't particularly like steven's girlfriend and i felt that more focus should have been used on the relationship between steven and his best friend also the ending while having you fooled for a moment is rather contrived and somewhat dissapointing still i found the cable guy to be a worthwhile venture if you're at the video store and can't think of anything to rent i suggest you try it out or if you have hbo just wait till it comes on you won't have to wait long hell that's what i do every day
positive	when bulworth ended i allowed myself a sigh of relief it is possible for me to enjoy political satire there have been several recent political films that didn't do a whole lot for me wag the dog for instance i found to be an intelligent but heartless film while primary colors is unbearable and unwatchable in its awfulness bulworth is a far better film than these both in its execution and lasting impression it's a tremendously funny and intelligent picture but it also has an emotional center warren beatty allows the audience to identify with his character and in turn we like him and actually care about the story  beatty plays incumbent democratic senator jay billington bulworth the film opens and we see bulworth sobbing as he watches his television spots over and over again he hasn't slept in days nor has he eaten and almost instantaneously he goes insane he's not stark raving mad not outright anyway but he's definitely bonkers it's the final weekend of his campaign and his assistant murphy oliver platt has written him a speech to feed to a group of black people in a church in the ghetto bulworth begins the speech but suddenly goes off track and just starts being honest you mean one lady asks the democratic party doesn't care about the african american community well he shouts laughing isn't that obvious the story is propelled by a device in which bulworth puts out a contract on his own life he muses later that it's a bad thing to make decisions when you're suicidal he keeps seeing a man in sunglasses graham beckel whom he believes to be the hitman bulworth also meets nina halle berry with whom he becomes infatuated suddenly in the short span of this weekend bulworth's truth in politics methods become a national sensation and he shoots ahead in the polls despite the fact that he's appearing on television wearing gang clothes and spewing more profanity than coherent sentences beatty's work on both sides of the camera is excellent his script and direction are both extremely sharp as is the surprisingly strong characterization of bulworth himself here is a man who's reached his limit and his way of lashing back is by screwing over the entire political structure i like that the film doesn't take a clear shot at any of the political parties or affiliations but at politics in general and how everything is run by the rich although the sentiments do get a bit tiresome by the end of the film some of the segments are simply hilarious such as a lengthy rap that he delivers at a luncheon dedicated to him much of the film is completely absurd but that's the fun part about it it's an angry serious film at the core but the package that beatty has created is so much more accessible than recent attempts in the genre what adds to this feeling is beatty's portrayal of bulworth this is a performance that deserves recognition on a higher scale beatty is so much fun to watch here he's always funny but he's also subtle in ways that flesh out his character without dialogue or hugely noticeable actions beatty is so good that bulworth despite his shortcomings as a human being is an entirely sympathetic and likable character almost from the beginning the supporting cast is vast and colorful berry is luminous as always and adds to her repertoire of solid supporting roles don cheadle has a good role as a drug dealer who uses toddlers to do his dirty work oliver platt is an actor who should be careful for someday i fear he may induce a heart attack with the intensity of his acting though he's very funny to watch paul sorvino adds the southern accent to his list of mastered inflections is bulworth offensive i suppose some may see it that way i wasn't offended by the film but then again i hardly care about politics i think that people who find this film offensive will just be blindsided by the honesty of the story the film isn't perfect of course the ending didn't quite work for me and the a few of the scenes between bulworth and nina feel forced although the eclectic dance sequence is fantastic but these are minor quibbles about an otherwise brilliant film bulworth is a smart uproariously funny picture that proves to me that political satire can scratch far deeper than the surface
positive	call for the cliche police if you must but the eyes are the window to the soul the finest actors working in films are those who can command the screen with a gaze paul newman ralph fiennes anthony hopkins morgan freeman you look at these men on screen and you can tell without them saying a word that there is something going on in their minds that the characters they play are real human beings we will never have a chance to discover if tupac shakur could have been a great actor but he had that unique quality in his eyes in gridlock'd an oddly effective combination of gritty drama and social satire shakur and his tim roth take sketchy characters and make them exciting to watch through the pure energy of their talent and chemistry shakur and roth play ezekiel spoon whitmore and alexander stretch rome two detroit buddies who share a spoken trio an apartment and a drug addiction with cookie thandie newton when a new year's eve party ends with cookie comatose after a drug overdose spoon and stretch begin to wonder if they are living on borrowed time they soon make a new year's resolution to get into rehab but that proves to be easier said than done as though the temptation to fix were not hindrance enough spoon and stretch also find their attempts to get clean hitting a road block of bureaucracy confusion and red tape the government might be the least of their obstacles however as they find themselves suspects in the murder of a drug dealer and on the run from a nasty thug vondie curtis hall in order for you to buy into gridlock'd at all you have to accept it as a surreal odyssey rather than as urban realism unless spoon and stretch sleep through an entire day at the hospital after bringing in cookie they are going to government offices on new year's day in which case they should be thankful they get any help at all gridlock'd may actually be a response to the fatuous social commentary of another urban odyssey falling down which found a besieged middle class white male venting his righteous anger against the system during a trek through inner city los angeles in falling down michael douglas' the character's personalized license plate echoed in gridlock'd by the drug lord plates whips out a gun because he can't get breakfast at mcdonald's in gridlock'd spoon and stretch are unarmed against the demands placed on them before they can get into a rehab center and where the unhinged became a heroic surrogate for audiences vondie curtis hall refuses to let spoon and stretch off the hook for their own part in the situation one bureaucrat responds to a tirade from stretch with the question do you expect the world to stop just because you picked to clean up the world in gridlock'd is just as frustrating as the world in falling down but the cathartic moments yield no easy answers this time hall has some interesting things to say about what we expect from the system but perhaps not enough of them a significant chunk of gridlock'd is devoted to spoon and stretch's flight from and from the police and those serve up some thoroughly predictable moments in one scene stretch scares off by getting chummy with a police officer another presents that old chestnut of the two heroes in a public place watching a television news report of the crime which shows their pictures the entire sequence of events seems designed merely as an excuse to get spoon and stretch running while the other primary plot has them standing in line or sitting down much of the time hall also plays with gratuitous inserts of drug paraphernalia and flashbacks to the day before the film's main events perhaps making a particular effort to point out the talent the characters are wasting through behavior oh the irony of it tupac shakur made a career in music and movies playing the hard case and living the life to back it up in gridlock'd shakur gets the chance to play someone who has seen enough of the way his life could go to know that it scares him spoon is an idea for a character at best as written by hall but shakur displays an intelligence and survival instinct which struggle with his addiction mostly it comes through those eyes eyes with none of the hardness you might expect from the infamous gangsta it is spoon who plays conscience to stretch's pure appetite and roth plays stretch with a gleeful he reveals that he is hiv positive even as he is preparing to shoot up again which is as much an obstacle to spoon's goal as any agency or enemy gridlock'd's most cruelly comic scene finds stretch helping spoon get into an emergency room by repeatedly stabbing him with a tiny pocket knife and it becomes an appropriate symbol for how the company he keeps has slowly drained the life out of him with friends like that spoon doesn't need enemies and shakur looks at stretch with the tired eyes of a man who has seen too much the tragedy now is that we won't get more chances to see those eyes again
positive	hilarious budget comedy from film school dropout kevin smith chronicles a day in the life of two convenience store slackers brian o'halloran and jeff anderson they spend most of their day ignoring customers while discussing everything from fellatio to the premise is strictly sitcom and the photography is grainy as all but you could spend ten times the film's budget a reported and still not get dialogue half as good as this originally rated for language not recommended for viewers with sensitive ears killing zoe remake reservoir dogs as a french art film and you're halfway to killing zoe roger avary's story of a failed bastille day bank robbery eric stoltz stars as an american in paris who gets in way over his head when hooks up with a band of nihilistic bank robbers he's the safecracker who's blissful unaware that the bank job is a botch job from the word go though intriguing on all fronts the film is paced at half the speed of pulp fiction which avary with quentin tarantino in english and french the road to wellville based on the novel by t coraghessan boyle the road to wellville doesn't go very far bowels bowels and more bowels are explored by dr john harvey kellogg a and bespectacled anthony hopkins who in the early advocated abstinence vegetarianism and frequent defecation he also invented the cornflake really to kellogg's battle creek sanitarium are matthew broderick and bridget fonda just two of the many faces in this failed comedy leave your laughter at the door and you can marvel at the unfunny antics of john cusack michael lerner lara flynn boyle john neville and dana carvey the art direction is impeccable and some of the early sequences are amusing but the novelty quickly wears off as alan parkers tries his darnedness to turn into drama what he ends up with is something that i can't print here phew stargate lawrence of arabia meets star wars this epic film is more sheer spectacle than anything else director roland emmerich universal solider shamelessly rips off lucas and spielberg and just about any other cosmic cliche that he can lay his hands on the film is overlong the characters are cardboard and the script is filled with some of the most laughable details in modern history that said there's still plenty to watch here fans should enjoy the sculpted sands the morphing headdresses and a surprisingly spunky james spader he plays the egyptologist who gets to prove his theory that that somebody else built the pyramids less interesting are kurt russell and jaye davidson of crying game fame star trek generations trek fans may be more forgiving but for the rest of us the sluggish star trek generations is a mixed bag at best the story is interesting but each scene goes too long the cast is earnest but the direction lacks punch and so on the best example of the latter is a klingon comeuppance that delivers none of the impact of a similar scene in star trek ii original enterprise captain james t kirk appears on both ends of the story though they cut the scene where shatner turns to the screen to plead get a life remarkably unremarkable miracle on street in a season of the specialist and pulp fiction et al maybe a remake of miracle on street is necessary john hughes certainly believes in santa claus and his les production does nothing to tarnish the memory of the original the romance between costars dylan mcdermott and elizabeth perkins doesn't work too well but the film makes a strong case that richard attenborough is the definitive kriss kringle his chemistry with children can moisten any eye no claus for alarm junior arnold schwarzenegger pregnant sure billy crystal did it before in rabbit test but the sight of schwarz with a bulging belly is a casting coup comparable to dustin hoffman in tootsie what should be nothing more than a premise actually gets better as it goes along director ivan reitman dave twins wisely keeps the farce to a minimum so the first hour moves slower than you might expect don't expect too many yuks from danny devito but you can't beat those early romantic scenes between emma and arnie how's that for a collision of acting styles
positive	for those of us who weren't yet born when the rock rolled around monterey pop affords an affectionate glimpse of the music that influenced our parents to be hippies from otis redding to jimi hendrix janis joplin to the mamas and the papas and jefferson airplane to the who this documentary is with contagious energy but i give fair warning that i will reveal the ending which does not do the rest of the film the justice it deserves shot in at an outdoor concert that precluded woodstock the film defies the stereotype of the general population at the time sure some have painted their faces and smoke joints but d a pennebaker the war room moon over broadway surprisingly chooses to show a broad spectrum of the audience no matter who is watching it all comes back to the talented musicians that stir your soul the excitement starts before the music even begins a young girl is cleaning thousands of seats and when asked why by an interviewer she replies that she feels lucky to do so there are moments of organized craziness as john phillips leader of the mamas and the papas and one of the concert organizers tries to get in touch with dionne warwick and when one band is tuning up a member remarks finally a decent sound system you can tell just by watching these first few moments that this show isn't about vanity it's about playing the music you love to those who have an appreciation for it a street this interaction between audience and performer continues throughout the film and becomes infectious to the audience it's impossible to tear your eyes away from janis joplin as she belts out her ballad about love being a ball and chain and while the lyrics to wild thing may not be all that complicated watching jimi hendrix mime having sex with his guitar is as captivating as otis redding singing about love even if you don't recognize every band you see on stage you can imagine being as enthralled by their work as the public sitting in those seats the only drawback to the film is the ending which unfortunately i must reveal all the other bands big names then and still today got approximately to minutes of screen time in contrast the last band on camera a wholly forgettable one gets an entire minutes of screen time for a film that's only minutes long that's too large of a chunk especially when previous acts are much more stimulating all in all monterey pop is a precious rare look at a time period that still holds sway over us the variety of music as well as the beautifully shot performances are easy to become immersed in if there was ever any question as to why most of these bands were so popular this is quickly dispelled it's almost depressing to think that music this moving doesn't get made much anymore instead we're stuck with nsync the backstreet boys and jennifer lopez all of whom should have stuck with modeling
positive	the most common and in many cases the only complaint against francis ford coppola's masterpiece the godfather is glamorising of mafia which is presented as an institution guided by ancient tradition and virtues like honour loyalty and solidarity more suitable for some gentler kinder ages martin scorsese another italoamerican moviemaker confronted that perspective with his own more vision of mafia in mean streets movie that dealt with lower echelons of organised crime unfortunately for scorsese his film was unspectacular and too artsy to compete with coppola's influence on mafia portrayals in the movies seventeen years later scorsese returned to mean streets of new york with another film that dealt with darker side of american organised crime this film was goodfellas epic black comedy which is today considered as one of the best and most influential films of goodfellas owes some of its initial success and popularity to the fact that it was based on the true story told in book wiseguy by nicholas pileggi who would the screenplay for the film the book as well as the film chronicled thirty years in the life of henry hill played by ray liotta criminal from new york at the age of he gets recruited in the criminal organisation of paulie cicero played by paul sorvino local mob boss and gradually climbs up the ladder starting with small errands after couple of years together with his best childhood friend tommy de vito played by joe pesci he joins the crew of expert thieves led by jimmy conway played by robert de niro three of them spend years as best friends and associates gathering enormous wealth from their criminal enterprises that would culminate with one of the most spectacular robberies in american history wealth influence and privileges of men connected with mafia are enough for henry hill to seduce his future wife karen played by lorraine bracco who would afterwards remain loyal to her husband despite infidelities domestic abuse arrests and would even be accomplice to his own private drug dealing business but the perfect world of wiseguys gradually begins to fall apart tommy's unpredictable outbursts of homicidal violence jimmy's reluctance to share his part of the loot with partners and finally henry's own drug habit would lead to his downfall and make him question his loyalty to the friends goodfellas is an excellent example of a film that represents work of a film genius in his full glory scorsese managed to create a vision which is effective and complete despite being full of contradictions that would ripped the film apart in the hands of less talented filmmaker world depicted in this film is both ordinary and fascinating scorsese spares no effort to show us all the violence hypocrisy and inherent paranoia of organised crime yet it manages to make it both seductive and funny after being exposed to two and half hours of the film and three decades of criminal history based on some notorious real life events the audience understands why the characters chose such dangerous life paths trading the superficial and glamour and prosperity of a criminal to the dullness and poverty of honest citizens scorsese also manages to break viewer's moralistic inhibitions by showing truly revolting material scenes that depict personal tragedies broken homes human depravity violence bloodshed and murder in all their uncompromising reality but in a manner that would make it amusing and funny to the audience with the use of ironic soundtrack manipulative shots character's dialogue or narrator's commentary goodfellas represents the new standards of black humour that would became very popular few years later during tarantino era even if we don't pay attention to skills with which potentially disturbing material becomes eye pleasing and entertaining we should admit that scorsese displays his talents of truly original and creative filmmaker first we might notice unusual structure of the plot relatively minor subplot is used as movie's ironic prologue then instead of single narrator scorsese switches to the second character as narrator in the middle of the film only to switch back to the original shortly afterwards this multiple points of views both in terms of narration and various subjective shots only lengthens the ironic distance towards characters and their situation same ironic distance comes with extremely effective choice of soundtrack nostalgia for good old times is illustrated with pop songs while depression paranoia and bad times find their expression in more neurotic rock songs of late and but the soundtrack is most effective when it is used as ironic comment almost pastoral easy listening tunes make strong and very ironic contrast to the scenes of violence and bloodshed however thing most associated with this film is couple of continuos shots that feature characters moving through large rooms and interacting with dozens if not hundreds of people such scenes although they require very great skill and patience during their shootings became very popular among other directors in fragmentary character of the screenplay which doesn't have straight plot and instead bases film on series of loosely connected vignettes gives another interesting opportunity for scorsese he uses this structure of film to experiment and most successful of such experiments is hilarious a day in life segment near the end of the film another essential element of goodfellas is large but superb collection of great acting talents the most respectable among them is robert de niro but his character who happen to be most quiet and member of criminal trio gets overshadowed by two of his friends and colleagues joe pesci deserved his oscar for supporting role of homicidal psychopath tommy and his lines including probably represent the most memorable element of the film ray liotta although equally talented perhaps doesn't look as the best choice for narrator and nominal hero of the film liotta's henry hill looks somewhat too hollywoodised and glamorous among this bunch of street thugs liotta on the other hand improves general impression by very realistic and menacing portrayal of drug addiction lorraine bracco is on the other hand very effective and believable as karen hill wife who gradually descends into same moral cesspool as her husband paul sorvino is also very effective as patriarch mafioso and among the supporting cast most memorable is chuck low as pestering gangster who unknowingly digs his own grave as a combination of clever sociological study black humour and innovative filmmaking goodfellas became something only the truly great films could do work of art and excellent popular entertainment in the same time because of this achievement and also because of the great influence on future filmmakers this cinematic gem deserves its rightful place among the best films of
positive	the blair witch project was perhaps one of a kind a unique film that played completely on its own merit managing to scare even the most experienced horror fans out of their senses its success made a sequel inevitable but this is not the sequel i suspect anyone much wanted after the release of the blair witch project tourists have practically invaded the small town of burkettsville in order to get a glimpse of the blair witch locals have turned this mass hysteria into a great business opportunity selling stones and dirt like those in the movie and the exasperated local sheriff patrols the woods with a bullhorn shouting get out of these woods and go home there is no goddamned blair witch jeff is one of those people who has used the sudden popularity of the small town to his advantage after he got released from the mental institution he created a mobile business that attracts thousands of customers through the internet as the movie starts he is leading one of these groups into the woods on the blair witch hunt among the five strangers is stephen and his girlfriend the pregnant tristen who are writing a book on the hysteria caused by the film called the blair witch history or hysteria and kim who dresses in black and has some psychic powers the last member of the crew is erica a young beautiful who constantly quotes from the wiccan lore saying the first rule of wicca is do no harm because whatever you do will come back to you threefold this strange group plunges into the woods where they begin to argue about their different approaches to the experience on the very first night that they decide to spend under the stars amidst the ruins of parr's abandoned house strange things start happening when they wake up their equipment is gone and only the tapes remain after a while they discover strange markings on their bodies they are somehow lost in time as it loops uncontrollably back and forth they are all haunted by hallucinations and horrible nightmares and soon they can not see the difference between dreams and reality the only thing that they are sure of is that they have brought something or someone with them from the woods documentary director joe berlinger paradice lost helms blair witch leaving the creators of the first film dan myrick and ed sanches in the background the opening documentary showing the townspeople affected by the first is a more promising approach because instead of trying to cover similar ground it goes outside the first film and makes its own stand but soon the movie gets confused and sidetracked by its own story that is never resolved and ends with a very anticlimaxic epilogue in a way this is a typical hollywood sequel more money has been spent and more people have worked on a project that was doomed to fail the horror and suspense of the original simply could not be repeated of course in these situations quantity is more important than quality and profit is more important than the artistical values from its opening scenes when the camera gracefully panes over the forest with carter burwell's being john malkovich and fargo musical score in the background you realize that with the exception of its title this film has absolutely nothing to do with the blair witch project blair witch was filmed by handheld videocameras and nfeatured acting that was mostly based on improvisation in the sequel the technical aspect of the film is close to perfection creating a completely different atmosphere with its graceful cinematography production design and flashy editing the film has a very polished look which is impossible to associate with the first installment and though berlinger directs his film with an energy and pace that makes the adrenaline rush through the body a couple of times he has obviously misunderstood the nature of his predecessor the key is simplicity blair witch project had a story which was incredibly simple that allowed the audience to fill the gaps with our own imagination the film was practically an empty screen on which we projected our most frightening nightmares the effect was incredibly powerful lasting and entir e everyone but in a different way book of shadows feels incredibly controlled and restrict here very little is left to our imagination and the story is so complex and clever that the screenwriters are the first to get lost in it there is is no book of shadows and no conclusion that we can be satisfied with this is simply a less artistic film that doesn't have the talent and originality of its predecessor it resorts to fancy cinematography and special effects to create the right effect and doesn't always succeed but most importantly it stands on its own ground and has almost no connection with the first movie which doesn't allow it to destroy the original in the end i can't call it a bad effort it's less artistic not so scary and less original but certainly not bad it's simply different in fact if you haven't seen the blair witch project you might like this film for what it is a cross between the blair witch project and the scream the only element that remains constant and similar between the two films is the solid acting jeffrey donovan and tristine skyler should be mentioned and incredible sense of surrealism but it's a common knowledge and experience that with a few exceptions every movie sequel is worse than the original and some are even not worth making to me the story of the blair witch project seemed completed but there are obviously no limits to commercial success that the book of shadows is certainly assured and it's already time to look forward to blair witch
positive	seen may on home video rented one of the best things about the movies is that they can make you really start to wonder and analyze things in your own everyday life that you might not have thought much of otherwise with some films it might be just a secondary issue but with city' what we get is nearly an entire film committed to philosophizing and theorizing about human memory and how it defines who we are which is a poignant theme made through an absolutely film with the kind of story and setting that could only happen in a movie there's an old computer game called ja v wherein the player takes on the role of a man who can't remember who he is where he is and how he got there the goal is to gather as many clues as possible to figure that out and along the way overcome a conflict the premise to this film is not unlike that game only this time we don't have control over the protagonist we begin by meeting a seemingly ordinary man living in an extremely dark and dirty city actually it's more than just the city it's the whole reality that isn't just that look a la runner but is so fully developed it's almost a different genre completely later he will learn that his name is john murdoch sewell but for now he has no idea what's going on other than the fact something is not right the fact there's a dead body in the corner goes to enhance the feeling of paranoia and a mysterious hurried call telling him to leave immediately is also very chilling this opening scene alone goes a long way to define the setting of the film and its bizarre horrific tone the man doesn't know who he is nor where he's going and it's interesting to follow him since we the viewers have no idea either we can sympathize and identify with him in fact this is the way all stories begin since it's impossible to know the history of a character their feelings values morals etc until after we've observed them for a while but in this case the total feeling of amnesia is an excellent tool towards characterization developing the mood and outlining the story eventually some semblance of a plot begins to unfold as it appears that john is a serial killer wanted by the police we met inspector frank bumstead hurt a quiet unemotional deadpan man who appears to have been on the trail of the killer for some time two other important characters are also introduced dr daniel p schreber sutherland a neurotic psychiatrist who claims to be john's doctor and emma murdoch connelly a jazz singer dolled up to look like a caraciture right out of the old dick tracy serials or any given leading lady of the old movies it was schreber who contacted john for reasons that are continually revealed throughout the course of the film he also contacts emma which further helps the film reveal what is seemingly a complex mysterious back story but absolutely nothing is as it appears to be in city which is what makes it so fascinating throughout its continual scenes of confusion and vertigo everything the filmmakers want us to see has some significance considering how intricate the detail is to every single shot its lighting art direction and overall production design they don't seem to be able to afford any gratuities however that might also be what's keeping it from reaching its maximum potential by continuing to follow john as he wanders around this strange place so much unlike the real world we know we come to realize that it's all a hoax everyone in the city is the subject of an experiment being conducted by a race of aliens to understand what makes humans tick in their efforts to somehow save themselves from extinction but as the film's tagline says night one of us went off for reasons that are never clearly explained it appears that john possesses telekinetic powers to can do pretty much whatever his mind can conceive a process known as the aliens which look like very old bald human men with pasty skin also possess the power en masse and use it to change the city every night at midnight at the same time all the humans fall asleep and after the changes are made they awake and either continue where they left off or begin a new life they have no idea they did not have until then this premise certainly is interesting and director and alex proyas is able to keep the film consistently mysterious in this regard he does provide some explanations such as that dr schreber is an assistant to strangers' because he somehow could synthesize memory into chemical form the aliens mix and match the memories of the city's population to see who will change and who will not in the process this creates for a good deal of deep philosophies that could be applied to the real world however where the film errs is by not playing up the idea of memory versus the human heart as to what makes a person who he or she is the main characters are all closely intertwined within the seemingly complex murder mystery which never actually happened yet when they start to go through some of the expected emotions it comes off as distant static and cold mediocre performances by hurt and connelly don't help either for example john realizes emma is not and probably never was his wife so he does not feel an emotional bond to her yet in some scenes crucial to the film's plot we are expected to believe they do have a genuine love for each other which is also part of the film's climax and ending and that's what proyas seems to be inferring with the film but never quite manages to convey in its fullest sense ironically this is what made his first film crow' work so well which had a similar theme of struggling to find hope and the human spirit within a nearly identical dark twisted world with city' the messenger seems to be mistaken for the message still the film is by no means bad and is consistently entertaining and enjoyable there's a lot to like here most notably the sheer visual look and style of it all which accounts for at least half the reasons the film is able to tell the story it does the story as a whole is one of the most original to come out of hollywood in years city' is what the movies are all about the escape from the real world
positive	linda fiorentino disappeared off the radar after a deservedly heralded turn in the cable pic the last seduction and her being cast as dogma's lead is nothing short of inexplicable she's still in fine form as bethany an abortion clinic worker who's lost her faith one night a visitor from heaven makes a fiery entrance in bethany's bedroom he is metatron alan rickman the voice of god and he needs her help she must stop two fallen angels from entering a new jersey fate of the universe depends on it god would do it but is missing having taken up human form somewhere on earth never to be heard from again bethany is joined on her road trip to the garden state by the prophets jay jason mewes and silent bob kevin smith doing the slacker minstrels who have appeared in all of smith's films thus far at some point rock drops naked out of the sky as rufus the undocumented and very black thirteenth apostle and offers his assistance as does divine stripper serendipity salma hayek it's a wild ride they're in pursuit of loki and bartleby damon and affleck is probably the sharpest either has ever been who were banished from heaven to wisconsin and have discovered a dogmatic loophole that will enable their return loki decides to wreak havoc along the way with the knowledge that his sins will be absolved at the pearly gates at one point he terrorizes a boardroom full of suits with an angry combination of words and bullets it's a nasty guiltily enjoyable little scene that asks how corrupt are you wings of desire this ain't since debuting with clerks smith has grown as a director particularly in terms of working with actors chris rock is this film's only weak jokes he's wooden his visual style hasn't changed much over the years though dogma's widescreen compositions at least have blockbuster affectations nor has his characters still sit around delivering one caustic hilarious speech after another dogma chips away at big religious the hypocrisy that accompanies any organized system of and articulately but a few of the monologues sound too much like blatant exposition as well the verbal introduction of each new person seems to take forever any movie with this much weighty talk would have a hard time maintaining momentum hurlyburly anyone and eventually dogma's pacing goes slack a long diatribe from bartleby late in the game in which he laments the destiny of celestial beings comes at a point when we've heard enough because his change of heart bartleby is initially the good cop to loki's bad drives the climax said rant is given a great deal of screen time sure affleck deserved a big moment damon steals their scenes together prior but it ultimately makes the film and us feel bloated like tarantino smith was a sponge who became a indie filmmaker dogma pays welcome homage to an eclectic batch of movies including indiana jones and the last crusade with silent bob doing his best harrison ford and weird shit demon attacks our heroes smith also has a kitchen sink brand of humour his dexterous maneuvering between the satirical a cardinal played by george carlin attempts to mount a publicity campaign with the slogan catholicism wow and the scatalogical ensures that no lover of comedy will leave dogma feeling malnourished i bust ed a gut on several occasions proceedings also get off on the right foot with the opening with the funniest disclaimer ever it's a disclaimer unlikely to put protestors at ease for to read it one actually has to see dogma the prerelease ballyhoo is in the tradition of the last temptation of christ's martin scorsese's adaptation of nikos kazantzakis' controversial novel in that it is not directly linked to the picture's content but to rumours and heresy there's a famous anecdote about fletch director michael ritchie inviting picketers of the last temptation of christ into a screening on his dime just so they could know for certain what they were rallying against not one of them had watched it every single person refused smith and scorsese have a lot in common and so do the two films in question because both smith's bethany and scorsese's jesus are hollow shells without their faith in fact dogma's denouement which follows a thrilling showdown that's worth the wait is a catholic a veritable recruitment poster i felt sentimental about a religion i don't belong to now that's powerful filmmaking smith is nothing if not sincere about his own devotion to god and that spirituality shines through it's enough to make me forgive dogma for its editorial sins my religion is movies when the catholic league beats on dogma for imaginary crimes against a doctrine in a roundabout way they're attacking what i live for freedom of expression through celluloid i therefore feel that although i'm no i'm at least as qualified to criticize dogma as william donohue and his followers
positive	you've heard all the hype you've seen all their faces natalie portman the professional as queen amidala liam neeson schindler's list as jinn ewan mcgregor trainspotting as kenobi and jake lloyd jingle all the way as young anakin skywalker if you've read any reviews you've also probably heard that this movie fails to live up to the magic and humanity of the first trilogy you also may have heard that this one's too and doesn't have enough content for adults believe the hype the effects are stunning the digitalized creatures are amazingly realistic the lightsaber duels are amazing and queen amidala's sumptuous robes are fit to be worn by queen elizabeth but there's something missing here and it isn't budget or effects it's everything money can't buy the actors struggle as best they can to flesh out and flat characters the most successful at this is liam neeson who as jinn a jedi master to young kenobi has quiet dignity and a wise commanding presence he is the anchor to this movie as he is the one character who george lucas apparently spent some time fleshing out portman's queen amidala and mcgregor's kenobi don't fare nearly so well amidala the future mother of luke and leia and the queen of a peaceful planet being invaded by the trade federation comes off as stoic stilted and caricatured it appears as though she was a vulcan geisha in a former life and although mcgregor makes him very endearing has so little screen time that he's nothing but a robin to jinn's batman however mcgregor does struggle manfully to infuse this surprisingly small supporting role with a spark of genuine insight and humanity and he does a good job he also absolutely nails alec guiness' in episode scottish accent and that really makes his presence in the film more profound than it might have been otherwise in fact lucas seems to bank on that preexisting knowledge quite a bit and that's one of the problems with this film i would never call myself a star wars fan especially not considering what it means to be a fanatic these days but i've always enjoyed the films along with everyone else in america however if you are the one person in america who hasn't seen the films at all or even recently or who doesn't bother to on the names of obscure characters you may be hopelessly lost for example one of the film's main nefarious characters is senator palpatine for those of you not recently steeped in star wars trivia emperor palpatine is that scary hooded apparition who was darth vader's master in return of the jedi and empire strikes back so obviously his appearance in phantom menace is meant to stir some echoes of his later role in the series thus making his role here more meaningful a lot of the movie is like that and make token appearances and it's obvious that lucas is banking on the audience's fondness for them because he doesn't do much to add to it in any way same goes for jabba the hutt who doesn't look as much mean here as he does corpulent and lazy even planets make foreshadowing guest appearances in this film tatooine the desert world where luke grew up coruscant the cloud city from empire strikes back and alderaan leia's home planet which we never actually see that gets blown up in star wars show up or are mentioned briefly in passing what's the result of tying so many plot points and characters to future films the answer is that this one seems surprisingly empty there's no meat no substance that makes you want to love the characters as they are not as they will be another problem is that there are actually too many alien characters in the film i was distracted by the fact that two of the main evil characters strange looking aliens who looked like gila monsters had mouths that barely moved making them look more like muppets than actual characters and jar jar binks a silly roger rabbitish amphibious character is intended as comic relief but what he really becomes is annoying and fast unlike chewbacca and who got their humanity if you'll pardon the expression from their interactions with the human characters jar jar is often left to interact mostly with others of his kind at times making the movie seem like nothing more than a very expensive teenage mutant ninja turtles furthermore the dialogue is often stilted and corny and sometimes downright infantile thereby rendering some characters into nothing more than bystanders to the plot oddly this isn't just my judgment lucas has said that he designed this film for kids well he's done a good job the hero of this film of course is young anakin but it was very hard for me to feel any kinship or identify with an boy that's not jake lloyd's fault though he does a good job of being a cute kid which is apparently all lucas asked of him that's another mistake of course because the cute tyke becomes darth vader warning spoilers ahead in my opinion there was not nearly enough foreshadowing of anakin's future evil in the film the boy is all blond flowing hair and rosy cheeks and there's nothing more than a spark of aggression in him throughout the entire movie he has a doting mother pernilla august making her first language film and is a slave to a gross flying gnome on tatooine but the only indication the audience gets that this kid isn't all hearts and roses is yoda's hesitation in allowing him to train as a jedi under jinn his explanation his future is clouded warning major spoiler ahead enter at your own risk of course the noble dies at the hand of darth maul a sith lord who excels at the jedi arts but has turned to the dark side this dude has maybe two lines in the entire movie but he establishes his presence through his amazing moves with his lightsaber and his scary facial makeup because never gets a chance to train the young anakin in the ways of the force young padawan apprentice one level below knightdom must take over the training himself so at the end of the movie we end where the saga actually begins with kenobi and his young apprentice anakin darth vader skywalker did this story need to be told i would say no but is it a worthwhile movie to see absolutely if you don't enter the theater with expectations and you simply want to be treated to an enjoyable visual spectacle then this is your movie the tatooine pod races are a triumph of effects and computer animation the digitalized backgrounds on some of the planets are an astonishing sight and yoda and young are worth seeing for their origins in a simpler happier time above all this is a fun movie not deep not meaningful and not profound but fun maybe next time lucas will hire lawrence kasdan to the script and the guy who directed empire will direct because if lucas does the next one himself it will be lacking the one thing it needs the most potential 
positive	as african american detective vergil tibbs questions a suspected white murderer inside a jail cell there is a wonderful shot which instantaneously presents the main message of the entire film the shot has tibbs' face completely covered by the shadows of the prison bars to see these bars blocking his face we see how separated tibbs is from the rest of the characters in the film as a black detective conducting an investigation in a southern town full of violent white bigots no matter how innocent tibbs is he is still seen by these bigots as a threat simply because of the color of his skin the bars show that tibbs has not been given a fair chance to show exactly who he is instead others have chosen him as different and dangerous this one shot amazes me because it captures a whole theme in a matter of seconds it perhaps may be the most powerful image i have seen in a film in the heat of the night was the first and the best of the three films norman jewison directed concerning racism in america jewison has a very keen style of displaying various cases of racism as he is neither pedantic nor overly sentimental in these three films he does an excellent job creating very detailed equal analyses of characters from the abused to the abusers he is also not afraid to tell the absolute truth about how corrupt society was in the past and is in the present preceding the very original a soldier's story and the recently released the hurricane in the heat of the night contains some classic lines and some very memorable characters the film which won best picture in focuses on vergil tibbs played superbly by sidney poitier as a fearless african american police officer from philadelphia who refuses to give up on an investigation in a white town where is he not wanted tibbs is a man who rarely loses his temper and that is worth mentioning because he is constantly facing abuse from those around him as a hero who is not afraid to face off against five men with chains tibbs is the perfect protagonist poitier also gives an excellent noteworthy voice to his character never nervous and always commanding his speech patterns are very manipulative as they range from stentorian to soothing however unlike the hurricane where denzel washington dominated over the rest of the cast poitier shares the spotlight with rod steiger who won best actor for his excellent performance as a sheriff who helps tibbs and warns him of the dangers around him steiger shows a great amount of skill in his role he starts off as racist and blind as the other townspeople he would refer to tibbs as boy and would always suspiciously keep an eye on him as the film progresses though there is a very gradual change in the sheriff he begins to see the hardships tibbs faces and he sees the foolishness of his own neighbors what i really enjoyed about steiger's character was that he did not completely abandon his friends or connect with tibbs at the end of the film he still could not refer to tibbs as mister tibbs or officer tibbs but rather settled for virgil instead it was apparent that he was eventually going to see the world differently in the future most movies would have a character reversing all of his beliefs and influences in a matter of minutes this action would not have been realistic at all since it is nearly impossible for someone to believe something one day and believe something else the next day jewison's determination to make this film as realistic as possible is very obvious here and also very appropriate in the heat of the night shows the difference between the north and the south or a major city and a small town in the united states during the it displays this perfectly however the actual investigation although it is not the main focus of the film lacks interest it seemed rushed especially towards the end as if jewison had given his message about racism and did not feel like giving a credible explanation involving the murder victim there were way too many characters added during the last fifteen minutes and some of the scenes during this time period were inane police officer sam being a suspect was not needed also it is given that tibbs is a vigilant homicide detective who is the best at what he does but some of his discoveries came out of nowhere and how he found out some of the important case details towards the end were never answered the rushed ending was the only mistake of this otherwise memorable jewison classic a congratulations has to be given to actor scott wilson he managed to be in the two best movies of in the heat of the night and the even better in cold blood
positive	in wonder boys michael douglas plays an aged writer professor with such naturalism that i believe it may be his best performance ever since wall street douglas has spent the greater part of his career playing variations on the shark in a suit gordon gecko character he personified in the in those performances he tended to exaggerate the vehemence of cutthroat businessmen with much frothing at the mouth while projecting all his bad intentions to the world you'd think such a man would keep his evil wrapped tightly underneath a veneer but from gordon gecko to nicholas van orton douglas played the role straight and out in the open in wonder boys his performance isn't showy or a tour de force it's simple yet truthful he embodies grady a craggy old writer with a predilection for pot and pink bathrobes grady instructs a writers workshop while working tirelessly on a follow up to the novel that put him on the map when we first encounter this curmudgeon in the midst of his workshop we hear his sardonic narration on the soundtrack as students bombard one of their own with unfair criticisms grady points out in his narration that they only do so out of jealousy their target is the very writerly named james leer played by the always understated tobey maguire a student full of potential and one whom grady develops a mild affection for leer is the kind of youth who seems to mechanically block out emotions he speaks in an intellectualized monotone with just a hint of dry wit around the edges he's portentous and gloomy as if modeling himself after the great depressed writers though his act is a little too calculated he reminds me of the outcast film director jim jarmusch dead man ghost dog whenever i happen to catch jarmusch in an interview i see the man speaking in a toneless manner the monotonous drawl supposedly masking depth or contempt for his interviewer exclusively dressed in black and with his spiked hair dyed snow white leer is similar a guy who equates quirks with depth tobey maguire fits well in the role with his round face he resembles bud cort from harold and maude but unlike cort maguire is easier to warm up to he's a messed up kid reaching for artistic credibility katie holmes plays hannah a beautiful talented writing student just itching to get in grady's pants this is a plot line i had trouble with douglas in his old age is beginning to resemble jerry springer a man who has actually paid for sex on numerous documented occasions at first i found it extremely difficult to believe that someone as beautiful as hannah would desire grady maybe it's because i'm jealous and wish holmes was throwing herself at me after all i may just be a lowly internet critic but at least i still have all my teeth then i think of douglas's real life companion the breathtaking catherine zeta jones seeing those two together looks a lot like a kidnapping suddenly my mind has shifted from the task at hand that being reviewing this completely wonderful movie and i'm pontificating on why the hell jones would desire douglas there is a movie in there somewhere grady rather chivalrously if you ask me resists the charms of hannah for sara gaskell a droll frances mcdormand who is his age but also married to another professor okay maybe not so chivalrous there is a great line in the film spoken by douglas about sara where he says she was a junkie for the printed word lucky for me i manufactured her drug of choice robert downy j r plays a bisexual editor who makes his entrance with a towering transvestite on his arm downy has mastered the gleefully dry hyper articulate wit of many a hipster intellectual he's arrogant but completely likeable in his utter arrogance the actor is perfectly cast here and remains a joyous movie presence somewhere between a typical tom hanksian comic leading man and edgy character actor i wish wonder boys had more of him searching for a plot among the elements of wonder boys would be pointless for it meanders through its running time but that's part of its charm and maybe i'm a bit biased towards the film because it takes place in a haven of literary academia a place i'm greatly fond of and a place rarely explored in american cinema everyone has a be it war films westerns dance movies that they happen to be privy to i'm privy to films about literary types i e those individuals enthralled by the written word and if you are not so inclined it may be wise to knock my above grade down about half a notch the direction by curtis hanson is more akin to a european film with its leisurely pace and situations that grow from the characters rather than generic mapped out story points sometimes the dialogue is too clever but that's a problem i wish i found with films more often another minor quibble is that early on the film seems a bit too introverted like its characters but as the story progresses it begins to open up for me wonder boys works as subtle drama because of its insight into artistic types and as a comedy for its throwaway gags the gags are like those in the great robert altman m a s h the long goodbye movies where jokes exist as asides on the fringes like jokes in life often do the broader comedy such as the killing of a blind dog and incessant smoking of marijuana isn't ineffective but not nearly as memorable as the little things curtis hanson who before his last film la confidential toiled about with exploitation fare like losin' it an early tom cruise sex comedy and the hand the rocks the cradle has graduated to more meaningful films he directs wonder boys in an appropriately dour style the comedy coming from the false gloom his characters put up the morose crooning of leonard cohen would seem an odd song for the background of any party but in a wonder boys party it fits the film is like a piece of literature put up on the big screen it's the cinematic equivalent to a good read novelistic in its approach with themes rarely found in american movies many will find it slight but i found much to savor among its subtleties
positive	plot derek zoolander is a male model he is also very dumb and impressionable for that reason he is secretly hired and trained so secret that even he doesn't know about it by an underground fashion syndicate to assassinate the prime minister of malaysia who wants to abolish child labor in his country will zoolander fulfill the dirty deed will zoolander ever grace the world his new look is this a funny movie find out below critique there's a place in our world for stupid comedies films which don't pretend to take themselves seriously are based on idiotic premises and filled with dumb jokes there's also a time for them and many would argue that this difficult period of our history might be an ideal circumstance during which to relax by watching something so completely frivolous well if you're in the mood for some seriously mindless entertainment ben stiller and his cast of many have assembled one of the more original dumb comedies in some time of course comedies as such are usually very subjective and i could see how some will see this film simply as stupid and unfunny while others will grant them the stupid but consider it funny instead i personally enjoyed it for the most part cracked up loudly during a couple of specific sequences and loved the derek zoolander character and the unrestrained whipping they released upon the fashion industry snap it was also nice to see several models with small roles in the movie not taking themselves too seriously and if you're the type of person who likes celebrity cameos in films well don't look any further because dozens of famous faces show up here including vince vaughn billy zane winona ryder christian slater david duchovny natalie portman and many many others i especially liked andy dick's complete as the masseuse  but with all films of this type there is bound to be some stuff that simply doesn't work a few particulars which didn't strike my fancy included the bulimia and orgy sequence with christine taylor the fighting and i also never get why they use real countries in plots like this why not just make up a country instead of zeroing in on a certain people i also could have done with less of the taylor character in general since she wasn't all that interesting and seemed to slow things down every now and then more zoolander dude but those few missteps were nothing compared to some of the more memorable scenes which definitely did work for me i almost pissed myself during the gas station disaster absolutely adored the contest with david bowie as the judge no less and appreciated many of zoolander's moronic i was a merman a merman and i dare you to get his monkey photo shoot out of your head after seeing this movie you're a monkey derek a monkey i also really liked the soundtrack and the pace of the film both of which zipped and zagged and established a nice rhythm to it all again it's to note that this movie is dumb and not for everyone but my guess is that if you laughed at the trailer you will likely enjoy many of the quips in the actual picture as well if you thought the trailer was dumb skip this dodo bird and go rent austin powers again or something a film from which there is an obvious influence here blue steel baby yeah where's joblo coming from austin powers austin powers deuce bigalow dude where's my car freddy got fingered jay silent bob strike back joe dirt meet the parents say it isn't so
positive	unzipped is a cinematic portrait of isaac mizrahi an artist whose palette is fabric ostensibly the film is a documentary but use of that term requires stretching its meaning many scenes appear staged and a great deal of has been done in the editing room the cinema verite effect is a conceit genuine spontaneity is at a premium and everyone is aware of and playing to the camera especially actresses like cindy crawford director douglas keeve who was mizrahi's lover at the time freely admits that he couldn't care less about the truth but was more interested in capturing the spirit and love in isaac and in fashion despite violating nearly every rule of legitimate documentary film making however unzipped is a remarkably enjoyable piece of entertainment while it sheds only a little light on the world of the fashion industry it presents a fascinating if incomplete picture of designer mizrahi this man is the perfect subject for this kind of study he's funny energetic and eminently quotable he has unusual views on just about everything from fashion it's about women not wanting to look like cows to mary tyler moore between her and jackie kennedy they shaped this country to style it's almost impossible to have style nowadays without the right dogs unzipped also gives a glimpse into the creative process by which mizrahi turns an idea into a dress it's almost certainly different that anyone would imagine the designer draws on a variety of sources for his look including nanook of the north and old bette davis movies then enlists the aid of a ouija board to help form the collection in particular unzipped traces mizrahi's development of his fall line from its inception in the spring to the final fashion show which highlights a number of prominent models including cindy crawford naomi campbell kate bush and linda evangelista on the technical side a number of interesting choices were made in filming unzipped a variety of film stocks were used super mm and mm color there is a purpose to this beyond simple artiness the stock often serves as an emotional key to the movie and during the climactic fashion show color is used to show the audience's perspective while is for the scenes sequences nevertheless some viewers will be put off by this treatment while unzipped isn't an expose on the fashion industry per se keeve has enough clips of petulant models to make the viewer realize how tame robert altman was with ready to wear overall however this movie is far more about mizrahi than anything else and only when viewed from that perspective does unzipped succeed when the designer declares that everything is frustrating except designing clothes that's beautiful and liberating it fits perfectly with the image of him that unzipped has constructed
positive	dora fernanda montenegro sits behind a desk at major train station she in her colorful demeanor offers a service that is unheard of in the states she writes letters for the illiterate who pass through to try to find lost relatives find love or search after lost debts quirky elderly caring totally trustworthy right not a chance once home she never sends these letters saving money on postage and relishing in the drama contained therein with her neighbor irene mar lia p ra one of the letters is sent by a young mother with her old son looking for their father shortly thereafter she gets hit by a bus and the son is orphaned days go by and the boy named josu roams around the station hungry desperate and somewhat clueless to his predictament through a series of circumstances too precious to elaborate upon dora somehow takes a responsibility in trying to find josu father this means leaving the security of rio traveling to the outskirts of brazil where unpaved roads religious devotees and the become commonplace films like this remind me as to what i enjoy about some foreign films it is an opportunity for me to get a fresh breath in another part of the world so distant from my own it does so entertainingly and so and yet backdrop is merely that the focus is on the minute transformation of dora of how she learns to love this little kid without being cloying or sentimental the most interesting backdrop is the amount of religious dedication is in the film dora being an amoral could care less about the amount of bickering between the of the catholics versus the mentality of the evangelicals but neither side is trivialized she even begins to develop an affection for a evangelical who sees the problems with dora if not initially fernanda montenegro surprisingly got an oscar nomination for this very delicate performance but the true marvel is that of vinicius de oliveira who plays josu he like the discoveries of j r mie renier and giorgio cantarini is prove that the true acting discoveries may be outside of the united states he is a natural and never once grating send a memo to jonathan taylor thomas
positive	the event of events is upon us people have waited years for the prequel to star wars and fans have been camping out at theaters for months to get tickets to see it i don't think that america will ever actually recover from what this hurricane of a film has caused it is not a bit of an exaggeration to say that this is the most highly anticipated movie in history anyone who tells you it's just a movie is either lying or clueless it is clearly obvious that after the waiting and the hype actually seeing the movie will be anticlimactic the second coming of the lord could not live up to the kind of buzz which is far too weak a word that star wars epsode i the phantom menace so effortlessly generated but that does not mean that the film itself is bad in fact it is terrific i strongly suspect that many of the people who were dissappointed by it have simply surrendered to the media machine and the inevitable backlash it is set some decades before the events of the original star wars took place the film focuses on the fledgling republic of planets and the conflict that is raging the trade federation angry at some tax raise that was recently put in place has invaded the small peaceful planet of naboo the republic sent two jedi knights people that can actively communicate with what is affectionately known as the force jinn liam neeson and kenobi ewan mcgregor to negotiate unable to stop the tide of events that was about to occur the jedi and the queen of naboo natalie portman escape naboo and head for coruscant to try and get the republic senate to intervene on the way they get sidetracked to a planet called tatooine where they meet the movie's real focal point young anakin skywalker jake lloyd he is an innocent slave boy but the force is strong with him so gon is determined to take him with them to the jedi counsel and get him trained as a jedi as any star wars fan should know anakin will grow up to be darth vader and give birth to luke skywalker the beginning it is evident that this is not an actor's movie around of the characters if not more are computer generated in one form or another and though the effects are seamless the movie lacks soul i think that although the computer has played an incredibly instrumental part in moviemaking this decade cinema should still be a human art and the phantom menace nearly defies this this is the lightest installment in the star wars saga thus far with plenty of broad comic relief to go around much of it courtesy of an irritating knew character named binks he's essentially a sidekick who says things like exqueeze me and mesa go now okeday and although it is often amusing it is also inherently annoying the visual effects are astounding although director george lucas often chickens out by cutting away from them and the movie is a thrilling triumph if it lacks in plot and in acting it makes up for it through imagination and excitement the climactic lightsaber battle oh come on as if you didn't already know among other things is outrageously entertaining and defines the term popcorn movie what made me surrender and give this movie stars was the score by john williams even though it does seem like the man scores every single movie that comes out these days his work here is nothing short of brilliant his use of opera during the climax really does add a punch and his ingenious way of utilizing the imperial march as a sort of prophecy is chilling the phantom menace is probably most effective as pop nostalgia when you see a long time ago in a galaxy far far away when the familiar music plays when the words star wars appear on screen you'll feel a tingle even if you didn't see the movie when it first came out in it feels oddly exciting to be introduced to young anakin a boy whose innocence we know will be taken away and who will soon cross over to the dark side it is the perfect example of dramatic irony to see the jedi masters aspire to get him trained in the jedi arts we know that it will do more harm than good but they do not we not only feel more involved in the story but we feel like we're seeing the beginning of a saga that we have cherished for years the phantom menace although lacking in human aspects of the story is a very worthy installment in the star wars it works as an action flick visually and often paralyzingly exciting it also works as an elicitor of memories a piece of exquisite nostalgia eugene
positive	sometimes a movie comes along that falls somewhat askew of the rest some people call it original or artsy or abstract some people simply call it trash a life less ordinary is sure to bring about mixed feelings definitely a aimed movie a life less ordinary has everything from claymation to profane angels to a musical dream sequence whew anyone in their or above is probably not going to grasp what can be enjoyed about this film it's somewhat silly it's somewhat outrageous and it's definitely not your typical romance story but for the right audience it works a lot of hype has been surrounding this film due to the fact that it comes to us from the same team that brought us trainspotting well sorry folks but i haven't seen trainspotting so i can't really compare whether that works in this film's favor or not is beyond me but i do know this ewan mcgregor whom i had never had the pleasure of watching definitely charmed me he was great cameron diaz's character was uneven and a bit hard to grasp the audience may find it difficult to care about her thus discouraging the hopes of seeing her unite with mcgregor after we are immediately sucked into caring about and identifying with him misguided you bet loveable you bet a life less ordinary was a delight and even had a bonus for me when i realized it was filmed in my hometown of salt lake city utah this was just one more thing i didn't know about this movie when i sat down with a five dollar order of nachos and a three dollar coke maybe not knowing the premise behind this film made for a pleasant surprise but i think even if i had known i would have been just as happy a life less ordinary is quirky eccentric and downright charming not for everyone but a definite change of pace for your typical night at the movies
positive	that thing you do r tom hanks's screenwriting and directorial debut that thing you do has all the qualities you would associate with the most beloved screen actor of the moment fun lively and it is the latter quality however that becomes a hindrance for this nostalgia trifle is so nice and sweet that it teeters on becoming bland milquetoast that thing focuses on the wonders a teen rock band from erie pennsylvania that is suddenly thrust into the national spotlight in when they score a major dance hit called of course that thing you do the group's members are naturally a diverse group there's brooding lead singer and songwriter jimmy johnathon schaech lenny steve zahn the lead guitarist a goofy geeky type known only as the bass player ethan embry and the film's center guy tom everett scott the drummer who has aspirations in jazz along for the wonders' ride to success is jimmy's perpetually neglected galpal faye liv tyler hanks proves to be a capable deftly recreating the innocent spirit of which hanks calls the last innocent year the spirit is not only reflected in the period clothes and settings but also in the music which like the other recent period music film grace of my heart was expressly written for the film hanks himself had a hand in writing four of the not the infectious title cut by adam schlesinger which is guaranteed to stay in your head long after the end credits have rolled it's still playing in my mind as i write this it should come as no surprise that hanks the director works well with the actors eliciting charming likable work from the entire cast most notably hanks lookalike scott and tyler who is remarkable in delivering the film's biggest and best dramatic moment the work of the young ensemble is so natural that they truly convince as teens of the early they do not appear to be grungers playacting retro yet for all the light frothy charms of that thing you do it's nearly nice to a fault while this unbridled innocence in film is a refreshing change from all the sinful cinema around these days there is not enough conflict to keep things consistently interesting everyone is so happy basking in the glow of overnight success marvelling at it toward the end but even then the tone quickly reverts to sweetness ending on an appropriately note there isn't much of an edge throughout that only thing that is remotely edgy is hanks's turn as the wonders' thus becomes in danger of being so nice it's bland but a little niceness goes a long way these days and there's no denying the entertainment value of that thing you do it's just about impossible to hate it's an inoffensive enjoyable piece of nostalgia that is sure to leave audiences smiling and humming if not singing that thing you do possibly for days to paraphrase a passage from the song though i try and try to forget that song it is just so hard to do every time they play that thing you do
positive	he's back and it's about time was the motto for this television series pilot i call it a pilot i don't care what fox network says revival of the cult classic british tv show doctor who that spawned no series which means there are no smart network execs out there not exactly news to a lot of people i know the motto was well chosen the series was simple it was about this time lord scientist called the doctor with thirteen lives who traveled around in a type forty spaceship called a tardis outsmarting all kind of alien baddies including the evil daleks and the master who appears in this feature played very badly by eric roberts as good as this revival was there is something missing from it to make sure it was really doctor who is it the acting hell no paul mcgann is just as good as any of the other seven guys who've played the doctor including his predecessor and friend sylvester mccoy who appears once more for the regeneration scene he looks right for the role is a brilliant actor and slips effortlessly into the role the way my two favorites jon pertwee and tom baker would daphne ashbrook brings class to her role as dr grace holloway the doctor's first companion that he kisses on screen she is not your typical female companion who screams and spends her free time making coffee for the doctor she is a tough spunky american and ashbrook shows this well young yee jee tso shows promise as chang lee and i've seen him in other stuff in which he usually plays the punk kid who dies at the end this film included which imho wastes his talent the only problem with the acting is eric roberts one time he had to say to mcgann's doctor i always dress for the occasion but he broke it up and said it so slowly that it wounded up sounding like a song lyric i always dress for the occasion you need an actor less slow and less reliant on moving his hands to act and who's also british like mcgann is as the doctor executive producer phil segal said he was casted because fox insisted on having one american star in the role i dunno who thought of casting him but if they're reading this news flash eric roberts is not a star he rides on his sister's coattails and any hit movie he makes has nothing to do with him is this problem the kisses to the past they have references to the show so subtle that non fans would not notice them only whovians would and they're good is it the script or the movie as a whole the script is a classy piece of work featuring a master who can spit slime out of his mouth and nice dialogue and the movie as a whole is one fans will love and it is a good stand alone viewing for nonfans to enjoy the series so what is it simple no plot the master on his last legs sends for the doctor to rescue him after the daleks put him on trial on their planet skaro and exterminate him the doctor attempts to take his remains back to gallifrey but they accidentally land in san francisco december where the master with young street hood chang lee's help opens the eye of harmony which will suck the earth through it at midnight if the doctor with the help of female surgeon dr grace holloway doesn't close it by then virtually no plot i was told the movie would've featured the daleks on screen and started with more of a courtroom drama between the master and the daleks but a lot of rewriting went on on the set that shows how smart people are as it would have made the movie a hell of a lot more interesting and that would've gotten a four star rating out of me
positive	dreamworks pictures presents a cohen company production kevin spacey annette bening american beauty thora birch allison janney peter gallagher mena suvari wes bentley and chris cooper stan wlodkowski alan ball music by thomas newman costume designer julie weiss film editor tariq anway chris greenbury production designer naomi shohan director of photography conrad l hall a s c produced by bruce cohen dan jinks written by alan ball directed by sam mendes both my wife and daughter think i'm this gigantic loser and they're right i have lost something i didn't always feel this sedated with that piece of dialogue we are fully introduced to lester burnham kevin spacey a year old man trapped within his own life lester works for an advertising agency his growing dissatisfaction with his job is only one of the crisis he is suffering estranged from both his wife and his daughter lester starts to crack under the stress his life becomes nothing more than a series of mastubatory fantasies and sullen apathy carolyn burnham annette bening is the prototypical career homemaker she carefully tends her rose garden decorates her home with the best furnishings but inside she is desperate unsuccessful at her profession as a real estate agent she drives herself into states of denial and self loathing that only feed her growing resentment towards her family the third member of this is jane burnham thora birch lester and carolyn's daughter a young girl going through the typical stages of adolescence but having to also come to terms with her families growing dysfunction this funny and frightening slice of life is refreshingly simple not one character is given less than is needed to identify him or her some of the most telling characters are those that serve to highlight other characters most notably is barbara fitts allison janney the almost catatonic wife of retired marine colonel fitts she has almost no dialogue and seems to be either recovering from a stroke or suffering from one colonel fitts chris cooper is an angry and frightened man his rage directed almost singularly at his son ricky wes bentley who has just moved with his family to the same neighborhood as the burnham's in fact they are the next door neighbors anymore detail into the personalities of these marvelously diverse characters would deprive one of the many pleasures and surprises to be had in american beauty alan ball who was the producer of the hit tv series cybil and creator of the new sitcom oh grow up has fashioned one of the most insightful and expertly tuned screenplays to have hit the screen in the past ten years not one character in this film rings falsely and the depth of personality in each is achingly honest and insightful the plot detailing the last year in the life of a man as he tries to find his own self worth is so resoundingly cliched and at the same time original as to bring to mind such marvelous film work as the graduate or lolita kevin spacey turns in one of this years most pragmatic performances his lester burnham is an everyman caught up in the middle of a life that is spiraling into old age finally unable to deal with the lost soul that he has become lester tries to return to his youth he quits his job actually blackmailing his employer for one year's salary starts smoking pot fantasizes about his daughter's girlfriend angela mena suvari in a marvelous performance here starts working out and finally takes a job at the local fast food outlet mr spacey's performance is so remarkably subtle and ingenuous that we can be certain that come oscar time we can be assured to see him name among the five nominees annette bening also turns in what may be the best performance of her career carolyn burnham is a woman who has become so insecure as to be caught up in maintaining the facade of normalcy unable to cope with her growing disillusionment she forces herself to maintain her demeanor driving her further and further into desperation adultery and possibly murder ms bening makes the character of carolyn so compelling as to be identifiable to almost anyone the slow and methodical turn from happy home maker to charnel house martha stewart is too frightening to express in words thora birch holds her own against the talents cast with her jane burnham is both an innocent girl caught up in what is a dysfunctional family and a rebellious child ready to abandon them at any moment her growing distrust and isolation from her family is something that many parents should view as a warning she is the prototypical trophy child when carolyn praises her daughter after a performance by her cheerleading team i'm so proud of you honey you didn't screw up once the bitterness and resentment are palpable thora birch is a young actress to watch praise must also go to chris cooper who brings yet another angry father role to life with depth and resonance colonel finn is a man in complete denial his military upbringing masking a desire he is too repulsed to even comprehend wes bentley as ricky finn is fine as the enigma the boy next door who may be more foe than friend a deceitful and calculating young man whose voyeuristic proclivities mask a deeper and more profound understanding of life than any of the adults around him mr bentley's performance is the one troublesome note in the film that is simply because the character is such a grand and complete liar that one almost faults the performance for it director sam mendes handles all of the particulars of the cast and the settings with a sure and composed style that is neither intrusive nor subtle scenes of carolyn walking through the rain carry an ominous fission that calls attention to the emotions of the character the subtle cinematography by conrad hall is wonderful capturing the season in all of it's harsh beauty fall has never looked so inviting yet depressing every nuance of american beauty begs it's audience to think and examine it is a film that will be discussed and debated for years to come and well it should as it is simply one of this years best
positive	will hunting matt damon is a natural genius for a movie character that's usually a death sentence it's a trait associated with what my brother calls too good for this world movies like phenomenon or powder forgive me for spoiling the ending but will doesn't die this is no formula movie in fact it's quite fresh and original it's a character study more than anything and that's not surprising considering it was written by two actors damon and ben affleck will works whatever kind of job he can get first he's a janitor then he works construction he speed reads books on any academic subject that interests him he hangs out with his friends picking fights in robust fashion lambeau stellan skarsgard from breaking the waves a math professor learns that the janitor will is a genius with a special talent for advanced mathematics having confirmed he's not a fluke or a savant he does what he can to get will into the education system he is firmly rejected finally will lands in jail for one of his fights lambeau can get him probation instead of prison time as long as will agrees to therapy sessions and to discussing mathematics with him will barely decides to go for the therapy over prison lambeau treats will like a son he's proud of and amazed by will's accomplishments in mathematics he encourages will and tries to give him structure knowing that with a little discipline he could be bigger than einstein will isn't really interested in academia he knows he would be the best in his field and therefore spend all of his time in an office explaining math to people like lambeau he would rather work construction which breaks lambeau's heart meanwhile will attends his mandated therapy sessions it's not long before he shreds all the therapists on lambeau's a list will has read enough psychology to know the tricks of the trade and how to keep them from affecting him shrink after shrink refuses to return after will's mockery lambeau's last hope is his old college roommate now a psychology teacher at a community college knowing that will is going to try to shred him too sean robin williams agrees to take him on as a favor to lambeau and for the chance to meet this next einstein true to form will finds sean's emotional weakness and attacks but unlike the other shrinks sean knows what he is in for and continues the sessions like a foster mother with a fussy child sean knows that the attacks are defensive and is able to take them in stride like the foster mother sean knows that time and quiet patience is the only approach robin williams is excellent in this role he's not an actor with a great range but in the right roles he has great depth in this movie as in awakenings there comes a point when the quiet shy man accomplishes something of great personal importance and a smile of pure joy spreads up to his eyes williams is the only actor i can name who can make an audience cry just by smiling i have compared will to a foster child and that's not entirely fair emotionally he has a lot to learn but he is not a child he has thought about his life and made rational decisions about what he wants sean his girlfriend his pals and lambeau all help him grow but he didn't start out asking for or particularly needing help his exceptional gift singled him out and those who love him kept pushing him in the right direction if i had to say anything bad about good will hunting is that it walks the line between drama and melodrama it's too sentimental and uplifiting for a straight drama but the emotions are too subtle for melodrama it is emotionally engaging but it's not quite larger than life this isn't a problem per se but at times i didn't know quite how to take it but this is a relatively small complaint about a very good movie a good movie allows its characters to learn and grow it doesn't just happen it takes a good script good acting and good direction good will hunting has all three if you are at all inclined to see it by all means go
positive	if there's one thing in common about all of hollywood's major studios it's that their productions are moving toward mainstream more and more although twentieth century fox and new line cinema have spawned subsidiaries which specialize in independant or controversial motion pictures fox searchlight and fine line respectively it's obvious there's no significant movement underway to promote inventive ideas at the theater so when a movie like gary ross' pleasantville comes along wrapped in a blanket of innovative ideas and served up on a platter of fine production it's a welcome change of pace for all who frequent the cineplexes although the atmosphere and buzz about the movie are cheery and lighthearted pleasantville should not be mistaken for a movie quite the opposite is true in fact as director ross skillfully brings a narrative with intense and intelligent undertones to the screen the story both about the joys of living life to the fullest as well as the social ills of segregation captures the essence of in the cinema not in recent memory has a movie carried such weight of theme into widescale distribution and even if mass audiences fail to see the ingenuity of ross' work it is still a testament that his picture was considered worthy enough kudos to both he and his production staff for putting together this fine picture it stars tobey maguire and reese witherspoon as two nineties teenagers who through quite a bit of luck find themselves zapped into a fifties sitcom named pleasantville maguire as the reserved bud parker is perfect for the but the rebellious mary sue witherspoon is not at all made for the times it's not long before she sets the town of pleasantville on end and begins to teach the townspeople in a quite unlikely way what life is really like soon hues of color creep into the black and white world and while some embrace the change in the passion of realism others fear the strangeness at one end is a soda shop named mr johnson jeff daniels and at the other end is a mayor j t walsh and his chamber of commerce but the two sides are simply fronts for a clash of ideas that soon involves the entire town fine performances are turned in all around maguire and witherspoon are effective as the leads but the true complements go out to jeff daniels and j t walsh in his latest and final posthumous performance daniels brings an atmosphere of awe inspiration and hope to his character whereas walsh simply drips of sinister closemindedness almost to the point where you can sense gene hackman's envy for daniels it's his most commendable performance of the last three years or more and for walsh it's a complementary exclamation point on a fine career also of lesser note is the supporting role by joan allen and in viewing the entire cast works well together from start to finish there's not much to dislike about pleasantville and its dynamic nature makes it the perfect movie for those who want serious as well as those who don't
positive	what do you get when you slap together a movie based on a story by the legendary george lucas directed by virtuoso director steven spielberg and starring one of the biggest stars in the world harrison ford you get one good time that's what you get plot indiana jones sets out to find the mystical ark of the covenant before the nazis get their grubby fingers hands on it adventures snakes romance and mucho action ensues critique astounding movie packed with action stunts galore an interesting story line great a solid cast a catchy musical score and all the fun and adventure that you could squeeze into a thrill ride if you don't enjoy this film then you just don't like action movies period if you're young you'll enjoy its humor its cool action sequences and its factor at times if you're a little older you'll appreciate the interesting plot line the romance and yes the mountains of adventure watching this movie made me feel like a kid again dreaming and fantasizing about fighting the bad guys travelling to different countries making the impossible possible harrison ford is perfect as the with the brains of a scientist and the brawn of an outdoors adventurer and spielberg manages to achieve the ideal balance of action fun adventure and humor now if you really want to have a good time check into this movie on the same night as its two sequels rent a jug of iced coke truckloads of nachos and salsa an adventure hat and whip and prepare to gag yourself into a world of heaven little known facts about this film and its stars this picture was nominated for eight oscar nominations including best picture it lost that award to chariots of fire but did manage to win for best art direction best special effects best film editing and best sound actor tom selleck was originally cast as indiana jones but was committed to his hit tv show magnum p i in filming the well of souls sequence the producers scoured every pet shop in london and the south of england for every snake they could lay their hands on hence there are snakes that are identifiable from many different geographical areas however once all the snakes were on set it became clear that there were not nearly enough of them so spielberg had several hoses cut into lengths and these were used as well looking closely you can tell which are the real snakes and which are not an early draft of the script had indy travelling to shanghai to recover a piece of the staff of ra during his escape from the museum where it was housed he sheltered from machine gun fire behind a giant rolling gong also in the same script indy and marion flee the chaos caused by the opening of the ark in a wild chase sequence both of these scenes were cut from the script but ended up in indiana jones and the temple of doom this film begins with a shot of a peak in the jungle which is reminiscent of the paramount pictures logo the same type of opening is present in its sequels jock's airplane at the beginning of the film has the registration number this is a reference to and from george lucas' star wars also the hieroglyphics in the well of souls include engravings of and they can be seen on a post to the right of indy and sallah as they remove the ark the script originally included a long fight between a swordsman and indiana with his whip as legend has it actor harrison ford was suffering diarrhea at the time and asked if the scene could be shortened spielberg said the only way he could shorten it was if indy pulled out his gun and just shot the guy the entire crew laughed and that's how it was filmed when indy first falls in the well of souls and is face to face with the cobra you can see the snake's reflection on the glass dividing it and harrison ford also some fingerprints and stuff like that when indy is dragging along the ground hanging onto the nazi soldier's truck with the ark inside you can see the pad that he's being dragged on
positive	run tings tings don't run we advice from capone paul campbell to his squaddie or partner floyd winston bell jamaican film shot entirely on video featuring a standard cop movie plot mixed with a dash of john brotherhood morals and a little gunplay capone a tough as nails super cop gets a transfer back to his hometown of kingston after successfully taking down some gangsters that have broken into his home while he was with his lady and killed his partner in front of him when he arrives he discovers that the ghetto where he grew up has gotten worse thanks mainly to the crime boss wonie jamaican film veteran carl bradshaw so named because his left hand has been amputated and replaced by a grasping hook capone discovers that wonie has been smuggling guns inside shipments of charity supplies for the area churches and much to his disappointment also finds out his childhood friend ratty mark danvers has been helping him torn between doing his job and protecting his best friend capone must make some hard decisions in order to make things right again directed deftly by first time jamaican filmmaker chris browne assistant director for such american films as how stella got her groove back and instinct one hardly notices the film was shot on video after a while shots are handled so efficiently that they quickly take on the nuances of the aforementioned john woo films although the action isn't as hyperkinetic as most of woo's films are the action scenes are handled with a kind of flair though and eventually begin to take on a life of their own beyond the hong kong films that they are obviously patterned after the effects are particularly good in these scenes as well with flawless squib work on display from the effects team the cast is superb and listening to their dialogue spoken with thick jamaican accents half of which have to be subtitled because of their extensive use of slang just adds to the interest paul campbell as the cannon' capone essays his role perfectly displaying the right amount of menace and compassion at the right times mark danvers evokes sympathy as ratty the gun smuggler who is also trying to help the community by building football fields and organizing block parties to bring people together unfortunately carl bradshaw is given the least to do and his character as the crime boss seems ineffective largely because his underlings seem to run all over him but then again that could be the way his character was intended to be portrayed the music in the film is composed of all reggae songs and the soundtrack was produced by grammy award winning artists sly and robbie who have worked with the likes of the rolling stones maxi priest bob dylan james brown grace jones herbie hancock bootsy collins and carly simon among others the end credit song run tings' by the group red dragon is pretty decent and carries on the theme of the movie established early on by the quote that opens this review oddly enough desmond ballentine who plays the character deportee is well known as a pioneer in the realm of reggae as the performer ninjaman and he doesn't contribute a single song to the film that i could see which is virtually unheard of here in the us at the time of this writing third world cop has been put into limited theatrical release in the us coming off of a breaking run in jamaica where it holds the position as highest grossing film of all time bringing in million in jamaica which is roughly us palm pictures the company that released the offbeat but entertaining samurai is the company releasing the film and considering that their main focus is the dvd market i can imagine that a disc will be available once the film has left theaters chris blackwell founder of palm pictures was also involved in the production of another jamaican smash in entitled countryman so i'd say he has a pretty good track record overall third world cop is a pretty entertaining homage to the films of john woo ringo lam tsui hark and many other action films by directors from hong kong if action films are your thing and you don't mind intermittent subtitles then you can't go wrong with this film the performances and the story are solid if only a little cliched and the action is tight i'm not sure what the other jamaican films released in that country are like but apparently third world cop's honors are well deserved
positive	at first glance it appears that the home alone movies are brainless slapstick intended for those with minds of olds that's true of home alone and i'd bet money that it's true of home alone opening soon but home alone actually has a lot going for it and the cartoon slapstick doesn't get in the way the mcalisters all of them are going to france for the holidays four adults and eleven kids are spending the night together before heading to the airport en masse the littlest kid kevin is the victim of the older kids' cruelty kevin's patience runs out when he learns that his pizza has already been eaten and he's going to have to starve he attacks his big bully brother buzz who had been teasing him the fight disrupts the dinner spilling milk and soft drinks all over the table a few cousins and an uncle the reaction is for everyone to blame kevin nobody came to his rescue when he was being teased but they all point their fingers when he fights back the ultimate punishment comes from mom catherine o'hara who sends him up to the spare bedroom in the attic for the night on his way up the stairs he tells her that families suck and that he hopes never to see any of his family again that night the power goes out knocking out the alarm clocks so the mcalisters wake up in a big hurry to get to the airport in a surprisingly plausible setup kevin is mistakenly accounted for and the family heads off without him it's interesting that in a subtle way his parents never noticed him missing because of their deliberate desire to separate themselves from their children first they delegate the headcount to an older sibling and second they put all the kids in coach while they fly first class they're of the way across the atlantic before they realize they are missing a child meanwhile kevin believes that somehow his wish has come true he's finally rid of his family life is a dream come true he can jump on the beds watch movies eat gobs of ice cream and potato chips and dig through his big brother's secret box slowly the novelty wears off and he settles into the mundane he grooms himself he does the laundry he goes shopping i bought some milk eggs and fabric softener he also starts to miss his family not just for their company but for the security they bring the furnace in the basement is a scary monster the old man next door is a murderer and two crooks are trying to break into his house macaulay culkin is cute but he isn't much of an actor still we can see that kevin's character grows thanks to some good direction and editing for example acting has little to do with the emotional impact of the scene where kevin searches out a seasonal santa at night just as santa is getting in his car kevin asks the man to pass on his request he wants his family back to the real santa he learned how to deal with the furnace you turn on the lights and it's not so scary anymore he goes to a church one evening and there he sees the murderer who actually turns out to be a nice man they talk about their fears and kevin learns that age alone does not make you less afraid finally in the last minutes kevin confronts his last fear the bandits head on literally this last act is full of violent comedic slapstick and after the movie's genuine dramatic setup it is dessert it's a lot of fun and it doesn't overwhelm the rest of the movie on the whole home alone is a great holiday movie john williams' original score has the sound and feel of holiday music without the disadvantage of being overplayed at the malls and the christmas setting can put you in the mood for those family gatherings but it does have its flaws the smallest problem is that culkin doesn't act very well as i said before he is cute but repeated viewings reveal more about how columbus covered himself than about culkin's insight into his character the biggest problem is that during the cartoony coda the villains threaten kevin's life about five times instead of i'm gonna get that kid they say i'm gonna kill that kid some might argue that the tone is the same but i strongly disagree mixing comedy with specific and viable threats of murder is a sociopathic i'll probably never see home alone and i wish i had skipped home alone but i do enjoy home alone almost every year don't let your impressions of the others detract from the original which has much more to offer than cartoon slapstick
positive	comedy rated pg runs about starring john goodman kathy moriarty and a bunch of teenagers directed by joe dante and written by charles hass summary lawrence woolsley john goodman brings his new horror film mant to premiere in key west during the height of the cuban missile crisis he hopes to capitalize on the tense moment by providing an escape for the town we see most of the events through the stories of four teenagers and how life affects them quick and easy review i really enjoyed matinee the mixture of comedy and tension blended nicely unlike many comedies this film tries and succeeds in getting past the stage of doing anything for a laugh the makers of the film also cared about telling an intelligent story the performances of all the principals are right on the mark particularly john goodman as the schlock master so i would definitely recommend this film to anyone looking for a light hearted yet interesting way to spend a couple of hours longer more detailed review of the primary reason i enjoyed this film was that while being a comedy the film also had an intelligent story to tell too many comedies today subscribe to the the notion that a comedy need only make you laugh you watch the movie laugh a lot leave the theatre and take nothing with you matinee is not like that i left the picture thinking about what i would do faced with the cuban missile crisis i found myself wondering what would happen to the characters of the film but most importantly i found myself caring about what would happen to the characters the comedy of the film centers around goodman his character and the film he brings to key west i believe that goodman is one of the finest comedic actors in the business today he is highly expressive both physically and vocally i felt he at least deserved an oscar nomination for his work in barton fink the other characters are often lost in a scene with him due to his commanding nature however while the star goodman is actually not at the center of the film the movie is really the story of the four teenagers discovering who they are and what they want against a background where at any minute it could all end i thought the kids reaction were highly realistic they tried to block it out they tried to escape from the concerns of their world unfortunately it kept creeping back in particularly with the fear and the chaos of the time while the comedy centered on goodman and the drama on the teens there was a great deal of overlap several aspects of the panic are shown in a humorous light one example is a scene where people are fighting each other for the the last cans and boxes of food in a grocery store if you think about it the threat of nuclear annihilation seems hardly to be the backdrop for a comedy but it works here another reason i like this film is that i like science fiction movies one of my favorite films to go watch is plan from outer space note i did not say it was one of my favorite movies but one of my favorite to see while mant never got made many films like it were and mant serves mostly as dante's homage to the he loves so again i would like to recommend matinee to anybody looking for a good humorous story this isn't a gag film like many other comedies but an intelligent out film about real people with real problems told in an often hilarious way enjoy
positive	when came out some twenty years ago the image of traveling throughout the stars has become a commonplace image when the millenium falcon moves throughout the stars we see constellations meteor showers and cool when han solo goes light speed the stars change to bright lines going towards the viewer in lines that converge at an invisible point cool offers a much simpler of a single white dot traveling horizontally across the night sky was it really only forty years ago when sputnik was launched and that before then no satellites ever existed have we become so technologically advanced that we have forgotten that it was nearly two generations ago where people stood outside to breathlessly see a achievement even though it was from the russians it sounds hokey but when that scene occurs near the beginning of i found myself caught up with the enthusiasm of homer hickam played by jake gyllenhaal determined to make a dent in the space race he becomes transfixed with his desire to make a rocket that could fly like the best of them it is films like this that we know the ending as we buy the ticket when lovely teacher miss riley played by laura dern suggests that he enters his findings into the national science fair we know exactly who is going to win but the joy in a film like this is in the little details for example homer is clearly not the strongest student in his class if he has any strengths whatsoever it is an undeterring vision and a good organizer it means that he may have to lose his reputation by associating with the nerdiest kid in school who knows more about rocket science than he does it means that if his father forbids him to shoot rockets on company property that is the entire town he must walk eight miles one way just to set up the rockets which will fail fail fail and fail again dad is played by chris cooper a favorite actor of mine since here he plays the antithesis of the character he played in instead of organizing union rallies he is the head of the who is constantly wringing his hands against the unions this is will be one of the great unnoticed performances of the year note how his character is he is his last nemesis as one who most likely interferes with his dreams but he truly loves his son and wants to see him succeed the only way he knows how through because of his character we can see how far come the revolution of modern technology has allowed for us to see society advanced at a rate far faster than any generation before us we understand that there were the generations from the industrial revolution who knew of no other way to raise a family the paradigm was shifting under the feet and he knew of no other life so far from being merely a inspirational film offers much food for thought and this is the best type of inspirational film the one that you take something with you btw the final image of the film is just as simple is as strong a contrast as the aforementioned white dot against the background another commonplace image to be sure but it must have been breathtaking forty years ago
positive	warning contains what the matrix is rated r for violence starring keanu reeves laurence fishburne joe panteliano some may be disappointed with the matrix i'll tell you i was i sat there and sat there and sat there waiting for something to happen now wait wait i know most of you loved it and i'm not saying i didn't like it what i'm saying is the first half was extremely slow now seeing the trailer it makes you think the whole entire movie is one big special effects show don't be fooled this movie has a big story and big chunks of talky moments but i will admit the special effects and the acting were above par deserving the rating above ok now to the story well this may take a while ok first of all our world we live in now is not the real world actually we live inside a computer generated world known as the matrix a man played by keanu reeves is about to find that out when is kidnapped and almost coaxed to go into the real world he does so and finds out that he can do anything be anything he wants to be but he has to fight a skipping' bad guy who wants to send him back to his own world or destroy him laurence fishburne his guide of sorts plays his character well as does keanu reeves but i sat in the theatre for over and hour wondering where all the special effects were yeah there were some in the first half but not enough the trailer for this movie was really decieving making people think that this was a special effects laden movie now for the second half it is explosive and saves the movie some of the special effects and fighting were breathtaking the sound the music and all the effects were effective and the last hour kept us entertained but with a running time of hours and minutes this movie is at least minutes too long one would have wished for a better but i do have to say i did like it and i was entertained
positive	national lampoon's animal house made in and set in remains one of the no fuck that noise the funniest movie ever made and this isn't just my opinion either everybody knows this and that's why about a gazillion inferior have been made trying to duplicate its success pcu anyone and the first person to bring up glory daze gets decked animal house takes place at the fictional faber college circa where the omega frat calls the shots these guys are wholesome i e a bunch of assholes greg their leader is going out with mandy pepperidge but since the silly bastard doesn't believe in sex their relationship never goes further than a quick under the stars neidermeyer is the of the bunch walking around with his dick out kicking freshman ass and trying to impress the muff also hanging around these losers is babs future universal studios employee and serious bitch now let's just take a peak next door at the delta house over here anything goes you wanna throw shit out the window okay you wanna crush a bunch of beer cans on your forehead and pour all over your chest go right ahead the frat's leaders are otter and boon tim matheson and peter riegert otter is the ladies' man going out with another girl every night and boon is the comedian he's got a katy karen allen but she's sick of playing to a bottle of j d then there are the others pinto a wimp flounder a blimp d day a biker stork who may or may not have and last but not least bluto bluto played by the late great john belushi is the man he's the kind of guy who slugs back entire fifths of whiskey then proclaim i needed that the kind of guy who puts a snowball into his mouth puffs up his cheeks and spits it out and then says i'm a zit get it the story is as follows the omegas are getting the deltas kicked off campus the deltas knowing that fighting the omegas is stupid decide to go out with style throwing a wild toga party and ruining the homecoming parade this is the fucnniest movie int he history of the world do yourself a favor and go see it
positive	every year hollywood crowns a new it boy young actor pegged for major movie stardom inheriting the mantle from last year's winner matthew mcconaughey is matt damon and like mcconaughey he proves to be more than just a fresh young face as evidenced in two radically different projects currently in grisham's the rainmaker and good will hunting damon has his first major starring role a la mcconaughey in a john grisham this case francis ford coppola's take on the rainmaker damon plays attorney rudy baylor who immediately after passing the bar exam finds himself representing the mother mary kay place of a terminally ill young man john whitworth in a suit against a negligent insurance company while rudy's and the film's main concern is this case he also finds time to protect a young wife claire danes from her abusive husband melrose placer andrew shue in a mercifully brief role written for the screen and directed by coppola the rainmaker is the best grisham film yet mostly because it does not take itself too seriously coppola's most to the grisham formula is a sense of humor about itself which largely comes in the presence of danny devito as rudy's unlicensed and golden globe nominee jon voight as the insurance company's hotshot attorney the inclusion of the battered wife subplot feels rather superfluous but danes is as superb as always then of course there is damon who nicely juggles the weighty the insurance case the spousal abuse and the humorous rudy's often comical naivete requirements of his role without missing a beat as good as he is in the rainmaker damon showcases the depth of his talent in good will hunting directed by gus van sant and written by actor ben affleck and damon himself damon plays the title character will hunting a troubled young construction at mit who also happens to be a supergenius in an attempt to steer this brilliant young mind in the right direction an mit math professor stellan skarsgard taps his old college friend community college psychologist sean mcguire robin williams to counsel the abrasive standoffish will and try to help him come to terms with his turbulent life good will hunting is the enterprise its plot synopsis suggests but to simply dismiss it as that would be to discount the true emotional chords affleck and damon's intelligent script touches even though no one and if so few people can directly relate to will's burden of superhuman intelligence the insecurities he suffers are universal the material is brought to life by the terrific ensemble of actors williams delivers a nice dramatic turn affleck a hot actor himself chasing amy turns up in a warm and charming performance as will's best friend and the minnie driver shines as will's love interest the clear standout in the cast though is damon who bravely does not soften will's prickly nature but has such a natural ease with the audience that it is hard to care for him so many names come and go with the fluctuations of the hollywood hype machine but based on his impressive work in john grisham's the rainmaker and especially good will hunting it is a safe bet that matt damon is one name we will be hearing a lot more of in the years to come
positive	synopsis leonard shelby pearce is a former insurance investigator on the trail of the man who killed his wife leonard has only a few clues to the murderer's identity to make matters worse he suffers from a condition which inhibits the creation of memories meaning that leonard is always forgetting what happened just minutes earlier because of this leonard is forced to rely on notes he leaves for himself memento traces the investigation back in time from its apparent culmination review memento is the sort of movie i wish i'd written i can think of no higher praise than that i am envious that nolan has concocted such a brilliant involved original movie as this an instant film noir classic memento is virtually flawless the script is unlike any i have ever seen a notable achievement in these days of recycled hollywood homogeneity although the idea of starting at the conclusion of the plotline and then moving backward in time to the start is not entirely new never before have i witnessed it executed with such flair and coherence memento is endlessly exciting and inventive a rare story which keeps the viewers guessing during the film itself and mulling over its connotations long after leaving the theatre and it is not merely an exercise in cerebrality there is plenty of action and an unexpected dose of humour to keep the proceedings lively nolan's direction is equally effective never losing its crispness and clarity despite memento challenging gimmick and to top everything off all the performances rise to the occasion pierce is terrific as the troubled leonard moss shows great range as enigmatic natalie and pantoliano's teddy achieves a splendidly affable yet sinister quality memento may be the year's best screenplay and is certainly amongst the top theatrical attractions of
positive	earth is a harsh unconsoling drama about the time when india gained independence from britain and the ensuing turmoil that engulfed the subcontinent people who supposedly loved the same land and the same god found themselves in bitter conflict as the country divided into factions fighting in the streets indian and pakistani muslim hindu sikh parsee the story takes place in lahore which was indian before partition and pakistani afterward regardless of what its citizens might call themselves the action is seen through the eyes of lenny maaia sethna a young parsee girl but it is really about her nanny shanta shanta has a small circle of male admirers two of the men are suitors hasan rahul khanna a hindu and dil navaz aamir khan a muslim the hindu older some are married but all appreciate shanta who is played by the stirringly beautiful nandita das she also starred in deepa mehta's previous film fire the first part of a thematic trilogy which will conclude with water in an early scene the men are sitting in a park talking with shanta and lenny political tension in the country is growing as the day of independence nears one of the men remarks jokingly that their little group is probably one of the last places in the city where the different religions can still get along he is wrong the men make barbed little comments to each other spoken like jokes but with an undercurrent of fanaticism the tenor of these exchanges grows darker and more bitter as the movie progresses it is easy to perceive in these squabbles the trajectory which ends in mass violence and slaughter the group around shanta represents in a sense a united india and shanta herself the ideal which all love which inspires hindu muslim and sikh to live peacably together but the circle around shanta is sundered as is the state a sikh is persecuted hides then flees another man is murdered the group of friends will not meet again the movie is rife with images of breakage and destruction a plate shattered on the floor a stuffed toy torn apart by an upset child and most brutally when the tension escalates into violence a man is held down tied between two cars and ripped in half by the opposing movement of the vehicles it is a visceral and effective metaphor for a country which is being destroyed just as painfully the crux of earth's plot is the transformation undergone by dil navaz his sisters are killed in brutal fashion by hindus because they are muslim dil navaz seeks solace from shanta and asks in desperation that she marry him but she loves hasan and tenderly refuses dil navaz's offer the combination of familial anguish and romantic rejection twists inside him and it is easy to see how he is seduced by the growing mob mentality the muslim cause gives him a motive to vent his anger and hate despite the things he later does it is to the credit of earth that it does not simply denounce dil navaz and those like him but shows how circumstances can make decent enough men do monstrous things the consequence of dil navaz's rather abrupt the story earth tells does not end it just stops it is an appropriate finish giving us closure would have imparted at least on an aesthetic level a sense of resolution of satisfaction but there was no resolution for india and have been at war on a small or large scale for decades since the personal dramas in earth mirror the political struggles of a nation it is only right that those dramas should have no terminus there is no healing to be had no closure on any level despite the needless ending with narration from lenny as an adult framing the story earth is in some ways an unexceptional movie it does not reinvent the wheel following instead the standard pattern of historical dramas but deepa mehta's directon is assured and the issues she addresses run deep earth does for india what movies like zhang yimou's to live and tian zhuangzhuang's the blue kite did for china they show us the agonies endured by unremarkable people who had the bad luck to be caught up and smashed in the crucible of history such films strike me as inherently valuable even when flawed they may be biased or inaccurate but they bear the weight of human hardship and this confers on them a nobility and gravity which other more inventive films often lack it is notable that all three movies were banned in their native countries the events shown may have happened decades ago but they still touch a nerve the issues tackled in earth have a particular urgency in light of the nuclear test bombings that took place last year in the near future india and pakistan may launch nuclear missiles at each other at the time of the tests i had some understanding of the reasons why this might happen after seeing earth i have a much much better understanding
positive	up until about a year ago john travolta's career consisted of those look who's talking movies notice how they never called them look who's talented and the bomb shout which was bad enough to make most people scream but somewhere along the line travolta got the starring role in the tarantino masterpiece pulp fiction and his career soared once again weird how someone whose career was on par with the bee gees back in would experience fame and fortune once again while barry robin and maurice gibb could do no better than a album aptly named size isn't everything and of course they learned that sales are everything but now travolta's back on the hollywood scene once again and i think we all know why four words contract with the devil and this has nothing to do with newt gingrich's contract with america no satan is much more humane anyway yes travolta has sold his soul to the hairy host of the netherworld how do i know i own the document in question amazing what you can buy at those collector's shops for a few hundred dollars isn't it get shorty continues in the vein of pulp fiction with travolta as crime minion chili palmer he goes to collect some of the mafia's money from a director gene hackman and suddenly finds out he wants out of the mob game and into the movie game sure a ruthless criminal like him is far too honest to make it in hollywood but i guess that's beside the point palmer is determined to get hackman's next project made so he sets out to convince big star martin weir danny devito to star in the movie bringing along horror actress karen flores rene russo who has already had affairs with hackman and devito it doesn't take a las vegas to predict that she and travolta will soon be hitting the sheets as well after the customary sexual tension and denial which has been used in every comedy from who's the boss to speechless it works in this case unlike who's the boss although it's interesting to note that tony danza has signed a contract with the devil also complicating matters somewhat are the mobsters who have backed hackman's other films and want in on this one too along with travolta's mob boss trying to track him down for defecting get shorty is by no means on the same level as pulp fiction despite the obvious similarities this movie doesn't have near the amount of originality or depth as pulp fiction but it is definitely one of the most entertaining movies i've seen this year yes even better than halloween vi get shorty is my kind of movie one that mixes intelligent humor with action and violence i'm definitely going to have to check out the novel it was based on are you getting this shorty
positive	i was fortunate enough to attend an advance screening for the upcoming thriller conspiracy theory this was of course a big deal for me because reviewing movies is basically just a hobby for me and i never get a chance at something like this not only did i get to see an advance screening i was able to see an advance screening of a very good movie the very film stars mel gibson as jerry fletcher a witty comical taxi driver in new york city gibson's performance is terrific and his character is similar to that of martin riggs in the lethal weapon films gibson again teams up with richard donner as he did in the lethal weapon films and maverick and this time around the combination works even better the character of jerry fletcher is indeed unique try to imagine a version of travis bickle who this time around is a jittery guy with knowledge of government conspiracy if you can imagine that then you've basically got jerry fletcher in many ways i was surprised by this movie to begin with i was surprised at how good it was don't get me wrong it's not going to be accepting any gold trophies next spring but it was a very enjoyable movie secondly i was surprised at mel gibson's performance he provided a fantastic performance the previews of this film led me to believe it was an action flick which after viewing it was almost the opposite in a certain sense gibson's character has an almost uncountable number of hilarious situations and his character is one that the audience tends to side with throughout the film for instance jerry's apartment and especially his security is memorable and last i was surprised at how good the plot is writer brian helgeland has created a terrific story and when watching this film you are left to wonder if all of jerry fletcher's or so they seem at first conspiracy theories are helgeland's own opinions mel gibson isn't the only in the film julia roberts is very good in her performance as alice sutton the department of justice employee who can't seem to stay away from jerry fletcher who continually visits alice in hopes that she will do something about his theories he also seems obsessed and in love with her but whenever he approaches her with another one of his theories she shrugs him and his beliefs off continually noting that one day she is going to slap a restraining order on him jerry obviously determined to continually seek out the truth continues to research information for his next conspiracy theory which will be printed in his newsletter same title as the movie although he only has five subscribers he puts a large amount of time and effort into his work and publishes his next edition very soon after he does so he is abducted and tortured by a sinister man who refers to himself as dr jonas patrick stewart after barely escaping alive jerry is forced to turn to the only person he can trust alice sutton the remainder of the film is almost always and full of action and suspense with jerry's life being constantly put into jeopardy and more along the way the audience and alice learn more and more about jerry's life many things are explained throughout this film both to the characters and to the audience for instance the meaning of the book the catcher in the rye and its ties to assassins the reason lone gunmen have three names e g lee harvey oswald and james earl ray and the real truth behind the grateful dead make sure listen closely throughout the film as jerry is constantly throwing out interesting tidbits such as the above definitely when conspiracy theory hits theaters august make sure you are standing in line to see it i am nearly positive everyone should enjoy this film especially if you are into an with witty dialogue and numerous suspenseful situations and even if you aren't you should still like this film
positive	the disney studios has its formula for annual animated features down so pat that it's hard to remember which one you're watching at any given moment mulan their animated adventure is the latest case in point once again we have a tale focused around a strong central character female as usual disney is one of the few studios whose belle pocahontas and now equal screen time with their heroes in recent years add the requisite love interest and a sidekick or two pep up the soundtrack with a handful of strategically placed show tunes an introspective number by a pool or looking in a mirror a rousing anthem a cutesy crowd pleaser pose a few threats to our engaging lead and tie things all up neatly by the closing credits bob's your uncle better make that walt's your uncle kids will no doubt go over mulan or at least the fast food but familiarity can after a while leave reviewer for a little more maybe an animated feature horror songs for example or maybe a film in which a cheeky chihuahua called pepe longs to become a matador from trinidad how about simply ditching the sidekicks altogether it isn't gonna happen like disney's previous entries mulan is slow to make its mark the animation tends to suffer from some slackness in the early going and the humorous element a madcap dragon wannabe in the guise of a loquacious lizard with a case of dry mouth courtesy eddie murphy's animated vocal talents plays like an inappropriate if necessary afterthought however after about an hour everything comes together and the formula like it or not clicks highlights include a spectacular cavalry charge on a pass which due to the sophistication of today's imagery is hard to tell from the real thing a memorable musical interlude i'll make a man out of you penned by matthew wilder and david zippel and last but not least mulan herself voiced by wen mulan is disney's strongest female character to date when hordes of huns pour over china's great wall and threaten to overthrow the imperial palace the emperor decrees that every family in the land dispatch one man to serve in the imperial army since mulan's father is infirm but proud the mulan steals her father's armor and incognito signs up to face the mongolian menace attracted to but not distracted by her commanding officer shang b d wong mulan outmatches her fellow combatants in smarts wit and physical ability she's a woman of the a couple of millennia ahead of her time
positive	i had been expecting more of this movie than the less than thrilling twister twister was good but had no real plot and no one to simpithize with but twister had amazing effects and i was hoping so would volcano volcano starts with tommy lee jones at emo he worrys about a small earthquake enough to leave his daughter at home with a baby sitter there is one small quake then another quake then a geologist points out to tommy that its takes a geologic event to heat millions of gallons of water in hours a few hours later large amount of ash start to fall then it starts the volcanic eruption i liked this movie but it was not as great as i hoped i was still good none the less it had excellent special effects the best view the helecopters flying over the streets of volcanos also there were interesting side stories that made the plot more interesting so it was good
positive	disney's animated a retooling of the olympian legend crossed with well the superman is surprisingly soft at the center great wit great art and a great villain james woods as hades lord of the underworld and local lounge act can't quite stifle the yawns induced by a bland hero his colorfully monotonous sidekick danny devito as the satyrical trainer phil and a largely unremarkable soundtrack none of the alan zippel tunes are ly noteworthy some lack lyrical snap others need more memorable melodies boring ballads we expect but boring production numbers too so hercules is a bit of a long sit but you won't stay bored the highlights include a nifty round of animated action herc battling a cgi hydra a steady stream of anachronisms somebody call and pop references let's get ready to rumble a la aladdin and several jabs at the mouse's marketing and merchandising ments while not as as hunchback it's a still a new world of improvement over pocohontas directed by ron clements and john musker with voice credits including tate donovan susan egan bob goldthwait matt frewer samantha eggar paul shaffer and as lighting bolt zeus rip torn who's having a very good summer also appearing in trial and error and men in black
positive	the comedy shrek is designed to be enjoyed on different levels by different groups for children it offers imaginative visuals appealing new characters mixed with a host of familiar faces loads of action and a barrage of big laughs including numerous gags related to body functions and yucky substances apparently a requisite in contemporary family films for adults it's a fractured fairy tale packed with rude jokes that will sail over the heads of the kids all in all shrek is a snappy ride although there are a couple of points i found disturbing but first the basics based very loosely on a children's story shrek follows several momentous days in the life of the title character a rotund green ogre voiced by mike myers in that pleasant scottish accent he is so fond of using shrek is a grumpy fellow living a solitary life deep in the swamp until a local nobleman disturbs his peace petty tyrant lord farquaad take away the awk in the middle and you have the basis of a string of impolite owns the land on which shrek resides he proceeds to turn the ogre's yard into an ellis island for storybook characters when he banishes the fanciful beings from his castle as a result shrek finds himself surrounded by legends like the three blind mice pinocchio the big bad wolf the seven dwarfs and the three bears to name but a few an enraged shrek storms to the castle only to find farquaad john lithgow ready to bargain lord obnoxious wants to become king and the magic mirror from snow white has shown him the way all he has to do is rescue a damsel in distress and make her his wife the mirror unveils three choices in a presentation straight out of the dating game when snow white is shown the cheeky announcer purrs even though she lives with seven men she's not easy farquaad selects the lovely princess fiona cameron diaz and offers shrek a deal if the ogre snatches fiona from the lava castle in which she is held captive and brings her to the throne the lord will allow the fairy tale pests to move back on his grounds shrek reluctantly agrees and sets off on his quest accompanied by a donkey eddie murphy determined to make the green grump his best friend they finally hook up with the princess only to learn she is not the helpless maiden they expected to meet for the matter the dragon offers a few surprises as well the movie references a great many other flicks from babe that'll do donkey that'll do to the graduate but the lion's share of the jokes come at the expense of the wonderful world of disney the characters made into icons in various disney films take their hits pinocchio is referred to as a possessed toy and when shrek spies a sleeping snow white in his cabin he bellows get that dead broad off the table but the biggest slams come when shrek visits farquaad's royal domicile which closely resembles a certain magic kingdom from its souvenir stands and queue lines to a display of animatronic figures that sing the palace rules in a relentlessly peppy tune that sounds a lot like it's a small world which brings me to disturbing point number one i laughed at all the disney swipes but found the mentality behind them a bit sad the acrimony between dreamworks honcho jeff katzenberg and disney big wheel michael eisner is well known for years the two companies have tried to sabotage each other's film and video releases by issuing similar competing productions on the same day and now we have katzenberg using an entire movie to attack his former employer here's a suggestion for the two boys grow up put the past behind you there's room in the sandbox for both of you and if you farquaads can't play nice then go to your rooms the other area i found troubling came in the portrayal of lord farquaad beyond all the irreverence shrek actually has a message people should learn to look beyond physical appearances because true beauty lies within it's a lovely notion but the film betrays its own moral by incessantly taking cheap shots at farquaad's diminutive stature do we really need a family film reinforcing the idea that mocking short people is acceptable the pompous selfish behavior of farquaad is enough to make him a target for zingers adding short jokes is simply mean still shrek is a rollicking good time the computer animation is mostly impressive although several key characters look like animated rubber squeeze toys and the human movements are often jerky the voice work is strong particularly from eddie murphy the laughs come fast and furious and the moral tainted though it may be is a good one to trot out a clich shrek is fun for all ages parents though should remind their young ones during the ride home that taunting others because they are short tall skinny fat etc is a bad thing
positive	after watching the first ten minutes of this japanese film you will never eat a bowl of ramen the same way again there is a scene where an old man is teaching a young one how to eat the soupy bowl of noodles as a master would teach an eager apprentice you caress the noodles with the chopsticks he says then put the roast pork on the side of the bowl and apologize to it by saying you soon of course it's meant to be a parody but there is an earnestness underneath the silliness that makes you take it with a certain degree of sobriety you begin to appreciate the food as not merely something you eat not something you like not something you enjoy but rather something you experience experiencing it is a process which engages all of the senses fulfilling each one on its own terms and weaving them so that the total is a pleasure that is more than the sum of its parts trust me you really want to go find a noodle shop at this point juzo itami's tampopo brings the same sense of the serious parody of food to the forefront by making the story follow the pattern of an american western set in modern day japan a stranger goro tsutomu yamazaki comes into town and finds tampopo nobuko miyamoto the proprietor of a small noodle shop trying to fend off the insults of the local strongman pisken rikiya yasuoka goro to defend the honor of this woman and her noodles gets into a fight with the ringleader and his henchmen emerging bloodied but victorious goro finds that tampopo's ambition is to have a shop that people would flock to from far away just to eat a bowl of her ramen the problem is her fare is something less than popular and less than appetizing however goro agrees to help tampopo in her quest and in the process they seek the wisdom of an elderly noodle expert enlist the aid of a wealthy patron and make friends with the former enemy this film is filled with many little scenes which are absolute gems take for example when tampopo tries to buy the recipe for a delicious soup from another shop owner the price is too high but the owner of the store next door will secretly sell it to her for a more affordable sum tampopo meets him at his store late at night and he leads her to a back room she protests thinking that perhaps this man has ulterior motives but he insists just when she is about to bolt for the exit he shows her a small gap in the wall adjoining his store with the noodle shop next door she peers through and takes notes as she watches the cook make the soup for the next day her face filled with a joy that can be felt by the audience this scene while comical is very effective at filling the viewer with a sense of trepidation then of relief and discovery there's also an interesting scene where goro introduces tampopo and her son to a bunch of street people who despite their economic trappings are all gourmets and master sommeliers we even watch as one of them sneaks into the kitchen of a restaurant and expertly prepares a french omelet the scene is meant to bring a laugh but it also says that no matter whether people are rich or poor food is something which everyone has in common and the enjoyment of food is an experience shared by all there are also a number of unrelated vignettes appearing throughout the film which help to illustrate and accentuate the role of food in people's lives a particularly effective one involves a wife and mother being tended to in her home by a doctor surrounded by her children she is obviously in her last hours of life her husband comes home and seeing her worsened condition demands that she get up and make dinner the viewer knows the husband's intention is not to be mean he is desperate for the normalcy of which he and his family has obviously been deprived and the wife making dinner is an essential part of this in a near miracle the wife drags herself to the kitchen and prepares a quick meal then brings it to her awaiting family as the family eats she looks on them and smiles preparing food for her family is a joy and a comfort to her and for a brief moment she too enjoys the normalcy then she falls over dead for a moment the family is stunned but then the father yells at the children keep eating this is the last meal your mother ever made crying as they do so the family finishes the meal the scene is comical awkward moving and beautiful by including the vignettes itami ran the risk of creating a disjointed film but surprisingly they do not interrupt the pacing of the main storyline instead they even help contribute to the idea that tampopo's goal of being able to serve exceptional food is worthy and even noble because the film parodies a western the construction of the plot is fairly predictable but is still enjoyable as we watch the familiar way in which the good guys come together for the final showdown in this case the showdown is against the ramen if they eat tampopo's ramen soup and all tampopo knows she has succeeded it's pretty obvious what the outcome will be but when a film changes your whole perspective on something you consume every day of your life you can afford to cut it a little slack
positive	there's an old saying that states something about leaving the best for last george lucas certainly followed that adage when crafting the original star wars trilogy return of the jedi the final installment of the series is easily the most innovative and entertaining of the three films the dark eerie atmosphere that oozed from every frame of the empire strikes back is gone instead for return of the jedi we have good triumphing decisively over evil a resolution to a love triangle and walking teddy bears even darth vader doesn't seem very intimidating this time around with the arrival of the emperor an creature played by ian mcdiarmid vader has turned into somewhat of a henchman return of the jedi picks up at an unspecified time after the conclusion of the empire strikes back luke skywalker mark hamill princess leia carrie fisher lando calrissian billy dee williams chewbacca peter mayhew anthony daniels and kenny baker are on a rescue mission to luke's home planet of tatooine their goal to save han solo harrison ford from the clutches of the intergalactic gangster jabba the hutt it is at jabba's home a stone fortress guarded by beasts that most of the added special effects come into play from a hysterical scene involving a music group to the dreaded beast outside jabba's sand barge the effects are top notch as soon as han is freed from his and rescued from the clutches of the evil jabba the hutt it's back to outer space where the rebel alliance is about to face the empire's newest threat a second more powerful death star that if activated could spell doom for anyone who stands against the emperor so while the fleet prepares for the final battle luke and company travel to the forest moon of endor to knock out the shield that defends the death star against all attacks there they are befriended by the ewoks the teddy native race and luke fearing that his presence is endangering the group turns himself over to vader return of the jedi has some interesting elements the scenes which pitted luke against the emperor and vader are suitably tense and from a technical the space battles are amazing easily hindering anything depicted in the previous films not only are there many many more ships but their speed and range of movement have been dramatically improved on one level return of the jedi is almost worth watching for the special effects in the special edition even more ships are added making the final space battle incredibly fun to watch the acting in return of the jedi is stronger than in the previous films by now or then mark hamill harrison ford and carrie fisher have all matured in their personas the chemistry amongst the trio is terrific as in empire billy dee williams gives us another human hero to root for newcomer ian mcdiarmid plays the emperor as a suitably creepy cunning and evil creature although he's not as imposing as vader was in star wars although it was great fun watching star wars and the empire strikes back on the big screen return of the jedi generates a greater sense of enjoyment with the spectacular new special effects the adorable ewoks the sinister jabba the hutt the evil emperor the same old millenium falcon darth vader's incredible betrayal the destruction of the new death star and the always lovable yoda return of the jedi concludes one of the greatest trilogies ever made with a huge bang congratulations to george lucas whose innovative mind entertains us now and will continue to entertain generations to come 
positive	why do so many children's films treat their target audience with utter contempt too many of those who write or direct for children's movies assume that the kids just can't handle serious thoughtful discussions on meaningful issues the iron giant which was directed and by brad bird late of such animated series as the simpsons and king of the hill assumes that not only can children handle such discussions but that they can do so while being entertained at the same time the iron giant holds absolutely no contempt for the young people in the audience making it a film that's enjoyable for both children and adults alike hogarth hughes voice of eli marienthal is a spirited young lad who lives with his single mother annie jennifer aniston in a small town in maine after staying up late and watching scary movies on a night his mother is away hogarth treks out into the forest to investigate what has stolen his antenna and ruined his tv reception he comes across a giant robot vin diesel from space that eats metal for food after saving the robot nicknamed the iron giant from electric shock hogarth befriends the creature and takes him in as a pet of sorts because of damage he suffered upon landing the giant has forgotten what his original mission was so he just follows hogarth around like a lost puppy realizing he can't just keep the giant in a barn all the time and that the giant needs food he takes him to a junkyard owned by dean harry connick jr an eccentric artist who assembles sculptures out of scrap iron in his spare time it soon becomes apparent that dean and hogarth can't keep the giant a secret forever because a government spook named kent mansley christopher mcdonald has been brought in to investigate mysterious sightings in the surrounding forest area and considers the giant a threat to national security he suspects hogarth knows something about the giant and takes up residence in hogarth's house as a lodger meanwhile the giant begins to exhibit ominous behavior that suggests he was built to be a weapon of some kind the iron giant is exactly what family films ought to be because it doesn' t talk down to its audience the story is simple very simple about an alien being that drops out of the sky and befriends a young boy it's very similar to the spielberg classic e t and such comparisons are actually deserved in the case of the iron giant the film holds many of the better elements of spielberg's film such as the ability to be sentimental without turning sappy the film delivers several serious messages the most important of which is one's ability to choose one's own fate hogarth teaches the giant to go against his programming and become what he wants to be a hero the final sequence is touching and appropriate though i won't give it away i will say that very few will be disappointed the animation while not up to disney standards what could be after tarzan is good enough to make you forget you're watching a cartoon the giant is while the human characters are all the way the characters' faces are done quite well drawn realistically enough to make the personalities credible but the features are exaggerated so as to allow for the cartoonish expressions that provide for comic relief fine voice work is turned in by young eli marienthal as hogarth and jennifer aniston is surprisingly convincing as his waitress mother harry connick jr does a nice characterization as dean and i really enjoyed the voice work of john mahoney of tv's frasier as an army general called in by agent mansley unlike several cartoon features each character is actually a developed personality rather than a stereotype and is actually integral to the plot rather than being a superfluous sidekick a clich disney still hasn't ditched dean for example could have been a stereotypical beatnik his character profile seems to suggest that but he is presented as a character with real emotions thoughts and motivations even the heavy agent mansley is not a villain who does bad things simply because he wants to but out of his own fear and paranoia a lesser animated feature would have drawn up stereotypes and figure the kids won't mind but the iron giant has clearly put a little work into making the characters real and it pays off the film isn't only around to deliver messages though it's also very funny and the humor is of the kind that both children and adults will enjoy the scenes in which hogarth teaches the giant to do certain things such as dive into a pool are handled well and director brad bird clearly has a sense of comic timing having worked on the simpsons for many years a sequence where hogarth and mansley attempt to outlast one another by trying to stay awake is very nicely timed and also extremely clever the film even takes some jabs at america's nuclear paranoia during the early stages of the cold war satirizing the lame safety films shown to grade school students that tell them to duck and cover in the event of a nuclear attack the iron giant has much more of a satirical edge to it than most family films and the edgy humor is actually quite refreshing instead of seeing people get bonked on the head we get clever gags that seem to have required some imagination to come up with when you get right down to it the iron giant is no more than the story of a boy and his robot the story is so straightforward so quaint that it ultimately becomes charming though i enjoy the complex plotting of film noir as much as the next person when it comes to family entertainment simple is the way to go it's akin to one of those bedtime stories your father told that had you hanging on his every word but it's not the story that sets the film above others of its kind but rather the elements that go into the story namely real characters and thoughtful dialogue which the iron giant has in spades
positive	susan granger's review of the closet miramax films in this hilarious french farce a shy boring accountant daniel auteil named francois pignon discovers he's going to be fired from his job at a condom factory lonely and distraught he contemplates suicide but then he runs into belone michel aumont an elderly homosexual neighbor who suggests a sex discrimination lawsuit to intimidate management as evidence belone concocts provocative photographs of pignon locked in a embrace with another man and mails them anonymously to pignon's boss when the racy snapshots start circulating around the factory not only does pignon get his job back but he suddenly finds himself the focus of attention as an openly gay man his lusty supervisor michele laroque is so intrigued that she wonders if perhaps she could change his sexual preferences even his alexandra vandernoot and indifferent teenage son stanislas crevillen drop their disdain but not everyone is enchanted a mucho macho felix gerard depardieu a homophobe is stunned and repulsed when he's forced by the pr director thierry lhermite to grovel and court pignon's friendship or risk losing his own job francis verber artfully milks the farcical comedy as he dissects the hypocrisy of political correctness veering only occasionally into pedophilia daniel auteuil the widow of is delightful particularly with a condom perched on his head riding on a float in a gay pride parade and gerard depardieu delivers one of his most restrained and effective performances on the granger movie gauge of to the closet is a frankly sexual adult it's so clever in fact that hollywood is already planning to it in english like la cage aux folles
positive	roman emperor marcus aurelius richard harris chooses his trusted general maximus russell crowe as his successor however the emperor's evil son commodus joaquin phoenix murders his father before the announcement can be made and maximus as well as his family is sentenced to be executed maximus is able to escape his executioners but is later captured and sold as a slave to proximo oliver reed proximo is looking for gladiators to earn himself money he being a former gladiator himself and maximus reluctantly uses his skills to prove himself a powerful gladiator when emperor commodus announces that new games will be held in the colisseum proximo takes his gladiators there to do battle maximus sees this as his chance to exact revenge on commodus gladiator begins with a great battle sequence between the roman army and germania and actually is able to maintain interest during the now required minutes of exposition after a kick ass opening sequence style of moviemaking the only downfall of the opening sequence is the editing style used it's choppy which is unsettling and distracting it's similar to the opening sequence in saving private ryan but nowhere near as effective the actual gladiator battles are thrilling but also a bit disjointed many times it's unclear as to exactly what's going on all the audience can tell is that blood is being spilled we're not sure who's blood or by who's hand though there's an instance of this earlier in the film too that's disappointing it's comes when maximus escapes his executioners some flashes and a few quick cuts later and maximus is free but i still don't know exactly how he did it russell crowe should have become a major star after his gleefully over the top role as a computer generated serial killer in virtuosity for whatever reason his stardom never arrived but he should have it now from here on moviegoers should now be able to say let's go see the new russell crowe movie he gets the best scene in the film and one of the best moments of all recent movies when he reveals his identity to commodus in the colisseum it's both rousing and chilling joaquin phoenix does a very effective job of making commodus a person and not just a cartoon character which could have easily happened commodus is conniving sneaky and whiny but phoenix never lets the character get silly it's a very good and very creepy performance oliver reed died during the filming of gladiator and it's a huge loss to the acting world i've always been fascinated with reed he's one of those very talented performers who once had a fine career but ended up in direct to video junk during his twilight years it's ironic that this film probably would have gotten him back into real movies again as he gives a fun and sincere performance the film is dedicated to him and he will surely be missed reed's death presented the filmmakers with an obvious problem as he still had scenes to be completed rather than recast the role and end up reshooting a great deal of footage a digital version of oliver reed was created at a reported cost of million dollars ironically that was probably more money than reed ever earned for a single film anyway this digital effect is only used in one scene that i am aware of for about twenty seconds and if you aren't looking for it you won't even be able to tell some of the other digital effects are less convincing however and like i always say noticable digital effects take me out of a movie immediately it's sad that such a good film has these distractions movies like the fall of the roman empire and spartacus seemed to do okay without the use of computer effects keep in mind that gladiator is based on real people and real events but is entirely a work of fiction however it's a work of fiction that's great entertainment and another film to add to the list of damn fine flicks released in a d
positive	what a great film what a stunning touching miraculous film its opening moments is walks that fine line between serious tragedy and uplifting comedy a car with no brakes speeds through the town and guido roberto benigni motions people to move out of the way they mistake him to be the fascist president traveling to their town that day heil heil huh shortly thereafter the president drives through and people stare with blank faces this is standard but somehow fresh and postmodern stuff the clown who is also a jew triumphs over the society in which he lives granted great comes to almost masterpiece i think lib which benigni wrote and directed trumps gd in one essential point jewish barber gives a great speech at the climax but to do so he had to break completely from character benigni is given a similar situation he is mistaken as a fascist dignitary and must explain to a classroom filled with schoolchildren on how scientists have concluded that aryans are the superior race guido stays in character and delivers the speech keeping the subject matter intact while showing the absurdity of its concept it is one of the great satirical scenes in modern cinema there are many other scenes especially in the first half which are bright and loopy and funny and silly slapstick reigns and although the film is subtitled there was no doubt that a universal language was being conveyed and although focus is on the courtship of guido to dora played by nicoletta braschi real life wife a silent undercurrent creeps in this is clearly a racist society evidenced by the aforementioned scene and others and it will soon affect him and his family the second half of the film takes place five years later in an unnamed concentration camp where guido dora by her insistence and their old son giorgio cantarini are deported guido seeing the horrors is desperate to protect his wife and child for his wife who is separated from him he must find ways to communicate to her that he is all right for his son and this is the most controversial part of the film he convinces the youngster that this is all one big elaborate game rules include hiding being very quiet and learning to not ask for seconds which raises the big questions how do we deal with pain with persecution with injustice on the worst level said that tragedies bring out the best in people finding strengths they did not realize they had other times they deteriorate become overwhelmed with little strength or incentive to swim sometimes even people giggle in these moments as if there were a vacant emotion behind them yearning for some brightness to soothe their wounds guido realizes this he is the clown but he is not a fool he sees the slurs and the vandalism and while feeling the weight of the verbal attacks he still has the audacity to see if everyone around him perhaps even the antagonists laugh his liberty is stripped but not his dignity and certainly not the dignities of those around him obvious from the onset that here is someone who is very much against fascism and the preposterousness of an aryan nation but does so with a grinning joyful demeanor perhaps that is a form of denial perhaps his alternate reality is all that he could muster not unlike the very different or perhaps this is an example of great fortitude with no weapons but wit whatever his purposes is subject to debate but also a sure sign that this is one of the great characters stranded amidst a terrifyingly risky concept surprisingly it works it is an important footnote that this film was not intended to be an accurate reflection of the holocaust not that the atrocities are trivialized far from it they have to be broadcast and explicitly shown to muster the same is more i believe that benigni was cautious to preserve the tone and i like the theory that it is alternate reality that seeing however any criticism that this is rewriting history that the holocaust as bad as it seems is simply film has won audience awards at cannes at toronto and is a definite for best foreign language film hopefully for best picture as well he has been made an honorary jew by a jerusalem film society it swept the italian academy awards controversy notwithstanding it is one of the great films this year and as of this writing the one to beat for best film masterful miraculous a
positive	ingredients starving artist lusting after a beautiful woman from his childhood synopsis great expectations is a modernized version of a charles dickens novel in the original charles dickens classic an orphan boy named pip learns about life through his friendship with an escaped convict his relationship with a bitter old lady named miss havisham and his hopeless lifetime infatuation with havisham's snobbish adopted daughter estella the gist of the story is that an anonymous benefactor sends pip to london for pip to become an upper class gentleman pip leaves for london with great expectations to be groomed into a gentleman so that he can one day be classy enough to marry estella but life has a way of complicating things pip becomes an arrogant s o b until he learns just who his secret benefactor is in this new version of great expectations a poor florida lad named finn ethan hawke with a talent for drawing has an early memory of helping an escaped convict robert de niro but soon the focus of finn's life becomes romance as he develops a lifelong infatuation with estella gwyneth paltrow an upper crust girl with some psychological and emotional issues due to being raised in a dysfunctional environment estella was raised in wealth by ms dinsmoor anne bancroft an eccentric aged and embittered single aunt whose groom left her abandoned at the altar on the day of her marriage this causes estella to the daylight' of relationships but finn thinks it's just a case of snobbery when finn becomes a young man an anonymous benefactor sets finn up in new york with the connections and publicity to be groomed into a famous artist finn leaves florida with great expectations to be a successful artist so that some day he might become classy enough to marry the snobbish estella what will happen to all of finn's great expectations opinion if you're looking for a romance with a happy ending look no further you've found one here ethan hawke is romantic lead he romanced winona ryder in reality bites he romanced julie delpy in before sunrise he romanced uma thurman in gattaca now in great expectations he gets to chase gwyneth paltrow a blonde hawke plays a lovestruck earnest and unchanged finn throughout the film meanwhile paltrow portrays estella as alternating between infuriating tease and ice princess estella's whole purpose is to get men to fall in love and then hurt them rather than become intimate anne bancroft goes a little overboard as the deranged and pessimistic ms dinsmoor while robert de niro carries off the convict part suitably the difference between the classic dickens novel and this adaptation is that the dickens novel is ripe with deep and timeless themes about class struggle and love whereas great expectations is more artsy less complicated story about a artist dealing with a lifetime tease
positive	you've seen this moment before recently a particularly troubled character senses danger of the paranormal kind when the room temperature inexplicably plummets to below freezing the difference is that when it happens to lili taylor's nell in the haunting we don't care the hero of the sixth sense a young boy named cole is a rich creation and we wish nothing more than for the ghosts who haunt him to take a hike the seasons have changed since an shot jaded child psychologist malcolm crowe willis in the comfort of his own bedroom desperate to get his career back on track even at the expense of his crumbling marriage to williams of rushmore malcolm councils the deeply troubled cole osment the preteen displays all the quirks of malcolm's killer scars on his body antisocial behaviour and the reluctance to reveal a big secret only after cole is locked in a closet by some bullies and hospitalized as a result does he divulge to malcolm in a scene that he sees dead people walking among us all the time malcolm assumes and given his profession reasonably so that cole is schizophrenic not psychic but the sincerity in cole's anguished confession prevents the doctor from taking drastic measures he will instead pursue the supernatural angle becoming a kind of surrogate father to cole who lives with his single mother lynn collette in the process the sixth sense has more in common with ghost than poltergeist though shyamalan does somewhat unforgiveably crib the kitchen business from the latter it's far more heartwarming than frightening and the film would be none the worse for wear without its few pulp shocks cole attracts the dead for reasons unknown but they're not out to harm him just want to be heard even if it means scaring the bejesus out of the innocent gradeschooler perhaps the apparitions seem more ghastly to us at first than they really are because we're looking at the situation through the eyes of an that's right willis for the first time in years gives up the spotlight to his costar we appreciate malcolm's domestic dilemma but we identify with cole recalling our fears of the bogeyman or the closet monster or the thing under the bed both actors deliver immensely likable performances and their dynamic is manifest willis convinces us that he's a doctor something he was unable to do as a horndog shrink in the overheated color of night osment is phenomenal a true professional who resists mugging for the camera like some child stars with too much experience in television commercials do the sixth sense atmospherically shot by the silence of the lambs' cinematographer tak fujimoto is actually a spooky effective ad campaign is misleading only because i was expecting something different did i movie's running time which is just shy of two hours the story unfurls slowly but engrossingly its unexpected finish is definitely worth the wait i'm not sure said big twist ending is bulletproof but i admired its audacity
positive	hollywood has really done the whole dracula thing to death no pun intended honest it's a shame too because the good count was probably the most frightening out the old monsters i mean come on are people really going to get that scared over a big green guy named frankenstein that moves at a speed of five miles per hour hell no and not only was the idea of a vampire frightening as hell but it also carried with it a kind of sensual feeling as well not commonly associated with horror films and not only has the idea been done too many times but with the possible exception of from dusk dawn has not been done very well lately either this is precisely why it was so much fun for me watching the original nosferatu i got to go back to the times when making movies even horror movies was considered an art form and not just done to make cash like nowadays and that is exactly what this film is art i've been a horror fan since i was eight years old and to this day i have not seen any horror film cover the intellectual ground that this film covers let me backtrack a minute when i say intellectual ground i don't mean that nosferatu tackles philosophical questions or anything like that i just mean that in order for the film to work the way it was intended to a little bit of thinking is involved with most modern slasher movies like friday the and you can just simply sit back in your chair and be frightened by the gore that is shown those movies could have been made by a fifth grader with a good makeup kit movies like this require the viewer to actually pay attention and ponder what is happening on the screen you see this movie has barely any violence in it and even less blood or gore this is a thinking man's slasher flick the nosferatu of the title is orlock max shreck a strange count that as the film opens is looking for a new home to buy he employs the help of hutter gustav von wangenhein a real estate salesman or something to that effect who has a nice home and even a fiancee named ellen greta schroeder upon orders from his boss hutter treks to the transylvanian mountains to visit orlock's castle and speak to him about his new home which just happens to be right next door to hutter's the next morning he wakes up to find teeth marks on his neck not really a good sign he then discovers through some reading that the count is a nosferatu or vampire one of the undead that feeds off the blood of living humans but by the time he pieces this together he is too late orlock has already embarked to hutter's hometown via boat will hutter reach his destination in time to save his fiancee from the deadly clutches of count orlock the character of orlock is of course dracula the only only reason his name was changed was because this was an unauthorized account of bram strocker's novel just thought that was an interesting little side note probably the only way you will get to see this fine film is by purchasing a copy of arrow entertainment's digitally restored cut now available in stores however this version is quite different than maunau's original masterpiece the movie is now sporting a new soundtrack by band type and color tinting much like the version of lang's metropolis now i really appreciate what arrow entertainment is trying to do here bringing a classic like this to the attention of a wider audience that might have otherwise just skipped this one but alas i like watching movies the way they were originally intended to be seen but that's just my bag you may like the newer more modern version better either way i suggest investing your money in a copy if you like what they have done with it pop it in the vcr and enjoy if you're like me just do what i'll do during future viewings turn the color all the way down on your television hit mute turn on some bach or mozart or whatever dim the lights and prepare to view what is truly one of the greatest films ever made
positive	stendhal's syndrome a condition where in the presence of art a person becomes engulfed in a painting and hallucinates and may afterwards suffer symptoms such as depression suicidal behaviour and personality disorder grim stuff to be sure but the subject of a remarkable film from italy's master of the horror thriller dario argento boasting an unforgettable soundtrack from the grandfather of film music ennio morricone the stendhal syndrome is a quite magnificent return to form for argento it follows his disappointing american debut trauma the patchy opera and several mediocre films he produced for young italian director michele soavi in the late based on the novel by graziella magherini the film stars argento's daughter asia as young roman police inspector anna manni in pursuit of a brutal visiting florence to follow up several leads she is lured by the killer alfredo thomas kretschmann to an art gallery a favourite haunt where he hopes to identify exactly who is on his tail at the gallery anna is overwhelmed by a painting and faints posing as a bystander alfredo briefly comes to her aid and having now identified his pursuer a strange game of cat and mouse begins a gripping story evolves and a coherent one too which may surprise those familiar with argento's often lumpy narratives the stendhal syndrome is not a simple scenario it is a disturbing and often compelling study of the central character's psychological disintegration the script explores its themes with intelligence and candour perhaps too much so for more sensitive viewers but as dark as its themes are the stendhal syndrome emerges as one of the most artful and effective european thrillers of the last ten years argento is once again working in his native italy and he fully exploits the opportunities to use art and architecture for both symbolic statements and as departure points for several brilliant hallucinogenic sequences effects whiz sergio stivaletti serves his director well here and the cinematography by giuseppe rotunno is consistently excellent the film's opening minutes segues between hallucination flashback and with tremendous style proof that at his most inspired argento remains one of the world's most exhilarating filmmakers the cast is generally good though marred at times by dubbing into english that renders speech all but emotionless asia argento's performance is by turns risky awkward and fascinating it's a difficult role and given her relative inexperience on screen she deserves applause for her efforts thomas kretschmann is chillingly effective as alfredo and marco leonardi of cinema paradiso and possibly the most gorgeous looking man in italy does okay as anna's work colleague and increasingly confused love interest but perhaps the stendhal syndrome's single most striking element is ennio morricone's soundtrack active since the morricone has scored over films in his career and this must rate as one of his finest efforts it's mostly a variation on the one theme a slow circular melody for strings and wordless female vocal possessed with an extraordinary haunting beauty that lingers long afterwards it's been three decades since argento and morricone worked together this is a long welcome reunion if the film has a fault it is that the last half hour drags a little and the film doesn't quite reach a completely satisfying climax but by the closing scenes the stendhal syndrome has already offered us enough to qualify as one of the very best films of dario argento's career note see the uncut print from japanese laserdisc if you can dubs of this version are available from various video dealers on the world wide web
positive	close your eyes for a moment if you will and imagine the sound of stephen rea's gaelic brogue silky smooth and irish like a pint of guinness a lackadaisical naughty little schoolboy voice that flirts and gambols an acerbic metered voice that evokes the startling imagery and language of anthony burgess' a clockwork orange a voice that deliciously conjures scenes both porcine and puerile like those out of delicatessen or the tin drum imagine all of that and you'll get a good sense of what you can expect from the butcher boy imagine that and more neil jordan's latest film stars rea in more ways than one rea the accomplished irish actor most notable from his star turn in jordan's the crying game contributes a restrained and managed performance as da brady a small town drunk in an unnamed irish community in the but it's his narration as the butcher boy of the title da brady's son francis that makes rea's performance worth watching worth listening to and that's only half the fun playing the young francie brady is newcomer eamonn owens and he is without a doubt a revelation for as much as rea's voiceover permeates almost every scene of the butcher boy owens commands virtually every frame it's impossible to take your eyes off him with his crop of hair ruddy complexion and overall grubby appearance francie brady is an unlikely hero refusing to be done in by his alcoholic father his depressive suicidal mother or the neighboring bespectacled monster known as mrs nugent fiona shaw in fact everything was ok until the nugent came to town now she poses as much a threat to the safety and security of town bully francie and his best pal joe alan boyle as the looming commie menace the butcher boy is set at a time when the fear of nuclear obliteration is first and foremost in the minds of many pigs screams mrs nugent at the brady menagerie you're all pigs it's the start of many a related image after ma brady is shipped off to the garage for psychiatric observation and da brady downs one bottle of whiskey too many francie finally loses grip of his fantasy world of cowboys and indians the lone ranger and other comicbook characters squealing like a stuck pig francie does the likes o' that on the nugent's living room floor and is himself whisked away to a very catholic remand home for boney arsed bogmen where his ever fertile clever over director jordan's vivid treatment of pat mccabe's nightmare novel produces a sometimes disturbing dark comedy littered with surreal touches such as sin ad o'connor playing the virgin mary it's not as outlandish as the trailers make out instead this remarkable film focuses on the effects external influences have on the friendship between two boys schoolboy chums in real life allowing us to empathize with their plight in the presence of extraordinary behavior it's bleak and it's black but it's fundamentally very funny rea talks us through it beautifully and owens drags us though it admirably and in tandem with jordan's sure hand theirs are contributions to make the butcher boy a film worth savoring
positive	zero effect gets its title from the main character daryl zero bill pullman although we don't understand what it truly means until the very last line of dialogue in the film zero is a private investigator perhaps the best private investigator who ever lived at least he'd like to think so however he's a socially inept being and eccentric in every possible way this fact certainly makes his talents as a private eye even more bewildering than they already are zero's accomplice is steve arlo ben stiller a normal guy who does the business side of the job he's the one who actually speaks to clients and explains zero's greatness as an investigator the opening scene has steve explaining the many virtues of zero's talents to client gregory stark ryan o'neal it turns out that stark has lost a key to a safe deposit box and is now being blackmailed for something that he apparently knows nothing about zero takes the case and the plot thickens his path leads to a young pretty paramedic named gloria sullivan kim dickens despite her luminous and presence she turns out to be the one blackmailing stark through his investigations zero learns why but not without developing feelings for gloria feelings that because of his reclusive behavior are new and confusing to him i have no particular affinity towards the mystery genre of film i can idly enjoy movies about private investigators and every once in a while a film like chinatown comes a long that blows me away actually no private eye film has ever reached chinatown's greatness zero effect which is jake kasdan's first effort as is a film about a private investigator that succeeds in all attempts it's an original funny and completely involving motion picture with so many cliches available to this genre i find it amazing that kasdan avoided all of them but he didn't just successfully avoid flaws he has created a great film here one that had me interested and fascinated from the first shot to the final moment take for starters the great cast of characters pullman is terrific as zero showing a comic flair that i really haven't seen from him since spaceballs zero is the kind of guy who seems at ease switching personalities so frequently as he does here the fact that he's an almost exaggeratedly twisted emotionally unstable man outside of his profession is not at all difficult to believe pullman's performance is much more layered than it might seem at first glance and the occasional as he's going through the motions of his job are insightful and often hilarious ben stiller is also a very funny individual he's the kind of comedian who makes normal lines sound funny i'll shoot you he says to stark at one point i have a gun and everything his character is also with an interesting subplot involving his girlfriend angela featherstone who is not happy with the extensive amounts of time he must spend away from her due to the unpredictability of his job o'neal also gives his character a bit of depth and kim dickens last seen and underused in mercury rising gets a chance to show us her talent here giving gloria the realism this kind of character really needs i find zero effect to be an immensely funny and witty film kasdan's humor is of the best kind soft spoken and mostly though there are some great visual jokes it's the kind of humor that's funny even after you've seen it five or six times there's one scene in which zero talks about how detached he is an how that makes him such a great detective what we see during this narration are various shots of him sitting on a bed or standing motionlessly with his hair destroyed and an utterly blank look painted on his unshaven face his eyes pointing to something off camera but obviously to nothing in particular i can't convey to you how funny this is but what makes it great film making is that it has a point scenes like this are frequent and they provide solid characterization of zero as a side note i don't consider myself an average viewer when it comes to comedy not to sound elitist i find things funny that many do not and vice versa there was a clump of people near me in the theater laughing uproariously through this film and the rest of the theater was relatively silent through most of it i have a feeling the humor here won't appeal to everyone but there's certainly enough story and character development to keep anyone's interest jake kasdan son of lawrence kasdan is only years old i found this out after seeing the film and i can't remember ever being so impressed with a film maker his direction is stylish without being pretentious and his writing is mature full and developed zero effect is the kind of film that i'll buy for my collection smart original films like this are rare as it is but this one actually has a heart and a soul at the end of the film i was involved in the characters and i was satisfied with the outcome and with kasdan's undeniable talent at such a young age all i can do is hope to see a lot more from him in the future
positive	the long kiss goodnight r meryl streep tried it and failed even pamela anderson lee made an attempt but fell flat on her assets however geena davis could very well become the first bankable american female action star with the long kiss goodnight a preposterous but incredibly fun action thriller directed by her husband renny harlin davis plays samantha caine a mousy suburban school teacher and mother whose memories only go back eight years with the help of ethically questionable private detective mitch hennessey samuel l jackson she slowly past as charly baltimore cia operative needless to say with the reappearance of comes the appearance of an assortment of out to erase more than her memory shane black netted a cool mil for his script i'm not so sure if his prose is truly deserving of such a hefty price tag but for what it's worth it delivers the goods like black's previous work such as lethal weapon and the last boy scout the script juggles some impressive action scenes with funny quirky dialogue the humor especially works well in this case for the story is so preposterous that the laughs help to keep things from taking things too seriously but there's no argument that the more unbelievable sequences are original and entertaining as hell who can resist the sight of davis tossing her daughter from a hole in her house into the nearby treehouse or chasing after a car while ice skating jackson and davis make a good team jackson is funny as ever as ever in fact his spirited line deliveries especially when he first appears are more than reminiscent of his work as jules in pulp fiction as good as he is the one who should benefit the most from this project is davis who shows much promise as an action heroine what makes her so effective and why she should succeed where streep and lee failed is that she doesn't take herself too seriously she is obviously in on the joke slyly taking jabs at herself and at the situation this is not to say that she doesn't need she lays on the toughness a bit too thick and comes off too much as a caricature but should the public embrace the film and in turn the notion of a female davis could have found her special niche it seems as if davis and harlin's first collaboration the middling pirate epic cutthroat island was just a dress rehearsal albeit a very costly one for long kiss in which the team hit their action stride anyone simply looking for a fun escapist entertainment that requires thinking will find this film to be a kiss
positive	screen story by kevin yagher and andrew kevin walker screenplay by andrew kevin walker inspired by the short story the legend of sleepy hollow by washington irving directed by tim burton starring johnny depp christina ricci and casper van dien special appearances by christopher lee and christopher walken synopsis investigator ichabod crane journeys to sleepy hollow to investigate a series of murders involving decapitation townspeople believe the spirit of a dead german mercenary is threatening them cute blonde katrina and a listless orphan help crane solve the mystery comments tim burton has directed a number of entertaining and groundbreaking films over the years batman of course is perhaps his film and led to a string of less successful sequels he's done biographical work on the director ed wood children's movies nightmare before christmas and a homage to alien invasion movies mars attacks sleepy hollow his newest feature which fans have been anticipating for a while shares the similar dark and atmospheric style of his earlier work and counts among his better movies sleepy hollow quite obviously draws its inspiration from the old period horror films of the and especially hammer studios' reworkings of dracula and frankenstein and american international's series of movies based on the works of edgar allan poe christopher lee in fact star of many hammer productions over the years appears at the beginning of sleepy hollow as a judge who sends ichabod crane out to investigate the murders the movie also borrows from the universal monster movies of the one of the climatic scenes involves a windmill and obviously takes its cue from frankenstein i mention these allusions for a reason seasoned horror film fans including myself will smile at their inclusion in this film with the recent disappointments in theatrically released horror movies especially the blair witch project the most overblown turkey of the decade we needed a film like this not only does it have a sense of history but burton's skillful use of setting and mood make this an entertaining exercise in horror the film's eerie landscapes and foggy towns indeed overshadow the actors and the plot as the most noteworthy aspect of the movie johnny depp a veteran tim burton actor who has appeared both in ed wood and edward scissorhands plays ichabod crane who has apparently changed occupations from irving's original story and is now an investigator depp is adequate in his role no more no less equally adequate is christina ricci who plays the love interest in the film she's a good witch too how cute one of the few weak parts of sleepy hollow is the wooden and cliched dialogue between the main characters the two actors however carry the movie well enough but the supporting cast is what makes this movie shine veteran actors such as jeffrey jones and michael gough who played the butler alfred in all four recent batman flicks are terrific as the aging townsfolk involved in the conspiracy which depp uncovers while i do not wish to reveal crucial plot points i can say that the storyline becomes quite confusing you have to pay attention andrew kevin walker wrote the screenplay he's the one who also wrote mm and seven walker is quickly becoming one of the premiere suspense writers in hollywood and sleepy hollow certainly doesn't hurt his growing reputation as one might imagine from a gentleman like walker sleepy hollow is quite graphic there's a lot of blood and a lot of beheadings this is definately not a flick to take the young kids to a lady in front of us took her two young sons to see it and spent about minutes covering the youngest's eyes with her hand he was obviously upset by the movie's intense violence if you're looking for a good scare however sleepy hollow is definately recommended
positive	mpaa not rated though i feel it would likely be pg for violence with three movies already re released theatrically in america and at least three more on their way jackie chan is one of the newest hot properties in action adventure stardom and it's just about time for over years jackie's been starring in martial arts and action movies in hong kong thrilling audiences with both an incredible grasp of acrobatics and martial arts and a wonderful sense of comedy drunken master has the distinction of being the first jackie chan movie to make it big is the movie that supposedly set jackie up for big stardom in hong kong i'm not entirely sure why exactly in many ways drunken master is similar to most of jackie's other early films such as fearless hyena i and ii master with cracked fingers half a loaf of kung fu spiritual kung fu and others in fact looking at all these early films together one gets the impression that they were stamped out style at a rate of four to six per year all using the same casts and telling very similar stories to be honest i think that early jackie chan movies are something of an acquired taste they're quite different from action movies as we know them in america these films tend to be set in the chinese countryside in an indeterminate period sometime in the distant past with fairly slow plots that often meander far afield and sometimes seem to exist only for the intention of stringing comedy and fight scenes together drunken master though its plot is tighter than some is no exception as an aside drunken master was the first jackie chan movie i ever saw and i saw it the way it was meant to be seen in a movie theater in seattle as part of an asian film festival at the time i didn't really think it was anything special but after having seen more films like it it's kind of grown on me drunken master storyline is very similar to that of other early jackie chan movies such as fearless hyena i and ii and master with cracked fingers martial arts student is taught the martial arts by a master and has a big fight with an evil bad guy in the end a formula that has been adapted to put it kindly by american films such as karate kid more specifically jackie chan plays the part of wong aka naughty panther a kung fu student who is too good at kung fu for his own good but not good enough after embarrassing his instructor's assistant by beating him roundly then beating up a bully in a marketplace wong tries to hit on a pretty girl but discovers that she and her mother can hit back better than he can and is further chagrinned to discover that the two women are his cousin and aunt respectively his father wong is unhappy about this and is further annoyed when the father and brother of the bully show up to sue for damages soon institutes a harsh regimen of punishment which does not like at all while escaping from this punishment meets up with a drunken old man who proceeds to thrash him soundly then take him on as a student and thrash him some more this turns out to be su a legendary master of kung fu he assigns a series of bizarre tasks such as filling jugs with water while hanging upside down from a frame cracking walnuts with his hands and other such exercises that seem like more pointless cruelty but are actually strengthening him up then when he's ready he teaches him the seven styles of drunken kung fu unfortunately the lazy only practices six of them drunken master features some wonderful martial arts sequences with jackie winning some fights and losing others it's been said before but i'll say it fights don't just they're as carefully choreographed as any ballet performance and it shows in his fights jackie often makes use of objects found in his benches jugs cups bowls fruits and in new and surprising ways the fight scenes particularly those toward the end of the film are unparallelled in most american films whether jackie wins or loses it's really something to see and it's often as funny as anything too and funny is the other thing jackie chan is very very good at there's very little that's new in this winning fights jackie getting beaten badly by a master jackie going through punishment or training these schticks have all been seen before in any one of several dozen similar jackie movies from the seventies and early eighties but they're still hilarious as ever likewise jackie has a supporting cast many of whom were also in other early jackie films and they're often the source of plenty of hilarity on their own the really big thing about drunken master though that inspired several copycats including a couple starring jackie himself and a sequel fifteen years later was the kung fu i'm not certain whether or not this is actually a genuine style of kung fu but the principle behind it is to imitate the wobbly movements of a drunkard to lull the enemy into a false sense of security and it apparently helps if you're drunk while you're doing it genuine or not i have to admit there's just something incredibly fun about watching a fellow who looks utterly sloshed wading into a group of startled opponents and making mincemeat out of them before they even realize what's going on come to think of it perhaps this element is what accounts for this film's success over any of the other jackie films it's not just martial arts it's the kind of martial arts that makes you stop and go whoa on the negative side the cinematography in this film is nothing special the film stock is rather primitive the plot is often rather slow and the subtitles are sometimes extremely hard to read against the background gone with the wind this isn't still if you like martial arts films or like what you've seen so far of jackie chan and want to see more give it a shot it's much more real than chuck norris or van damme you might very well like it another interesting thing about drunken master has to do with its video availability in the us drunken master is the only early jackie chan movie that i know of that you can find in its original letterboxed hong kong subtitled form commercially available on vhs from magnum video in a gold box for about there are plenty of other early jackie films around but these are typically either in dubbed form or else import tapes priced for rental instead of purchase thankfully drunken master at least is available in the aspect ratio in which it was meant to be seen at a very affordable price if you like drunken master take a look at the numerous other early jackie chan films that are out there even the dubbed ones aren't really bad if nothing else you can enjoy the martial arts choreography while making fun of the dialogue i particularly recommend spiritual kung fu half a loaf of kung fu the fearless hyena movies and snake crane arts of shaolin also the sequel drunken master ii will hit theaters in american release sometime later this year though what its title will be is still uncertain and comes recommended by this reviewer also for a rather different interpretation of the character wong who is in fact a popular figure from chinese folklore i've been told to suggest the once upon a time in china series starring jet li though i haven't personally seen any of them yet if you choose to watch drunken master i really hope you enjoy it and i hope it starts to open your eyes to the wonderful world of asian cinema that's out there all in all i give this film an
positive	well i know that stallone is years old now but in daylight he doesn't look it daylight is a great disaster movie if you've seen cliffhanger you'll know stallone's character already a guy with a bad past but is in the right place at the wrong time a tunnel connecting new york and new jersey has both sides collapses when a group of robbers collide with a truck carrying very flammable toxic waste a dozen or so people survive the collapses and the incinerating fireball and what a fire ball it was stallone a former emergency medical service man is chauffeuring a rich couple around when they reach the outside of the tunnel before the explosion then minutes into the movie boom here on the plot takes a back seat and we are treated to some of the best camera work and action staged most all the action is plausible and will hold you at the edge of your seat there are a few melodramatic parts here but they tend to work out well there is no general antagonist in this film but the action and suspense makes you forget all about that daylight is a great film i saw a showing of it and i thought it was worth every penny the characterizations are mostly flat one dimesional but they have enough in them to get you to care for some of the characters rob cohen dragonheart does a great job with this film
positive	logical time travel movies are a considering that the skeptic's best argument against the possibility of time travel is the idea of altered realities writing a script that deals with this problem is an imposing task occasionally we get a film that does manage it terry gilliam's monkeys was one such film but more frequently we get films that don't much deal with it at all there is one question to ask in this case does the film have other virtues that override the existing logical inconsistencies the terminator films made up for them with exciting action back to the future did it with an entertaining story and the new film frequency pulls off the trick with a strong package of its own is frequency filled with plot holes yes does it matter not really the film opens in october of firefighter frank sullivan dennis quaid puts his life on the line every time he suits up for his job then goes home to his loving wife julia elizabeth mitchell and son johnny daniel henson the story flashes forward to where johnny now jim caviezel is all grown up and working as a police detective a strange occurrence the appearance of aurora borealis over new york city allows father and son to communicate through the same ham radio frank used in and that john has found in the present day though both are initially skeptical of the idea john eventually takes this opportunity to warn his father against his impending death in a warehouse fire and he succeeds in saving frank from certain doom now flooded with memories of a full life with his father alive john is initially overjoyed until he discovers that the changes to the timeline have been disastrous a serial killer that would have died has instead lived to kill seven more women frank and john now must work together to set things right with john using the information he has gathered in the future to instruct frank on what to do in the past the premise of frequency is unusual and requires getting over one very important mental hurdle to fully accept john and frank are the only ones conscious of how the timeline has been changed as a result of their actions this isn't explained you just have to go with it when frank doesn't die in a fire john is the only one who remembers it differently while everyone else remembers it the new way the concept also runs into problems concerning just how synchronous the two realities and are to each other sometimes frank's changing the past results in something happening right away in john's world and sometimes john gets the changes ahead of time now the filmmakers might have perfectly good explanations for this and i could probably come up with something fairly convoluted but nevertheless logical if i thought about it hard enough for example the reason john gets advance information of the serial killer's murders was because the change had already happened in frank's world and john is only witnessing the projection of that change but explanations aren't really the point when frequency gets cooking it's a riveting little thriller even if it is confusing what matters to a film like this is if the plot makes sense in the moment and frequency works as long as it keeps moving the film manages to be engaging despite the logical confusion director gregory hoblit and screenwriter toby emmerich structure frequency as good hollywood entertainment establishing decent likable characters making us care for them and setting up a goal to be reached and a conflict to be resolved i liked many of the creative touches the split screens allowing us to see how the universe is being affected in both realities and the greater framework of baseball to drive the action forward it actually uses the world series the one that featured the amazin' mets to great effect frank uses john's advance knowledge of the series outcome to convince his friends to believe him admittedly this device may only be of interest to a baseball fan like myself i even liked the final scene which features frank and john both fighting the same man simultaneously in different time periods some may find this scene blindingly confusing as the reality shifts start coming fast and furious but it does make sense if you think about it and give the script a lot of leeway and let's face it it's a darn cool way to end the film there are enough surprises and plot twists in frequency to keep you on your toes and as a result the movie avoids growing stagnant the other major thing to appreciate about frequency is the handling of the relationship quaid and caviezel carry off their parts easily it's a job from both actors the relationship is instantly credible because they find the human truth behind the high concept how would one react to being able to communicate with a dead relative or with a future descendant watching the exchanges between frank and john will give you a pretty good idea of how to answer that question the credibility of the human relationship is absolutely crucial to the rest of the film if we don't believe in the characters we don't care about the outcome of the thriller plot here we do care because we like the lead actors i also liked some of the supporting cast members elizabeth mitchell gets stuck with two thankless roles playing julia the doting wife and mother but still performs admirably andre braugher late of the television show homicide life on the street gives a nice supporting turn as frank's best friend and future colleague of john he has a lovely scene in a diner in which he tries to explain the situation to julia while frank's world series predictions come true before his very eyes braugher strikes the perfect facial expression here simultaneously dismayed and amused perhaps the only thing i didn't like about frequency is the overly sentimental coda during which the camera's focus goes a little too soft and the baseball theme gets carried overboard but that's only because the film had already earned a poignancy without resorting to cheap tactics i freely acknowledge that frequency may best work as a guy movie since it focuses on the very idea of relationships echoes of field of dreams can be easily heard but the underlying concept is universally applicable who wouldn't want to speak with a parent or see how their children turn out tell me about your life son excuse me while i mist up and don't call me a sissy
positive	blade is the movie that shows that wesley snipes really can live up to his potential as one of hollywood's premier leading men blade is based on the comic book character of the same name and has that comic book kind of feel to it it is a very stylish movie and for the most part that style works very well although at a few points i thought i was watching a music video as opposed to a movie the ideas behind blade are good as is the basic plot of the story but at times things seem to get a bit muddled and the writers appear to want to do too many things at once that really doesn't take away from the story too much but it does hurt it a little bit blade snipes is half man half vampire his mother was bitten by a vampire when she was pregnant with him and as a result he has many of the classic traits of a vampire including a thirst for human blood that must be kept under control by a special serum which quenches his blood lust blade has spent his life hunting down and killing vampires as a sort of revenge for the fact that one of their kind killed his mother but this isn't as easy as it seems because the vampires in blade's world are more sophisticated than the ones that you find in most films the government and other authorities know of the existence of vampires but they let them feast of the population at large because they are taking bribes from the vampires where do vampires get money well in blade they run multinational companies in order to finance their vampire organizations i personally thought that this whole secret corporate world run by vampires to be a very clever idea and a great addition to the movie blade runs up against the evil deacon frost stephen dorff a maverick in the vampire community he isn't content to live among humans and is convinced that the vampire race is the superior one and he means to insure its superiority he has managed to translate the ancient vampire scrolls that tell of the method of making him an vampire rendering him virtually unstoppable it's up to blade to see that this doesn't transpire admittedly blade is style over substance through and through the story is a relatively forgettable one but it is fun none the less the acting in blade is just about what you would expect from a movie of this type this isn't a film that is going to win accolades for its performances and the actors know this the movie is played for fun and nobody seems to think otherwise it's a popcorn movie and no one involved has any illusions otherwise blade's production values are as slick as any that you will find in your typical summer blockbuster the combat sequences between blade and his vampire targets are incredibly well done although the cuts did get on my nerves after a while during long sequences blade is a fun movie with an interesting take on the vampire genre this is not the movie for those of you who like your vampires in tuxedos and living in coffins in the basement of some gothic castle what blade excels at is bringing the classic lore of the vampire into the next century with a fresh outlook on life very cool
positive	the truman show paramount pictures running time hour minutes starring jim carrey and ed harris directed by peter weir after a long wait jim carrey's dramatic debut finally makes it to the big screen in case you've been asleep for the last few months the plot centres on truman burbank carrey who leads an seemingly idyllic life in the beautiful town of seahaven his life seems so perfect however because it's controlled by christoff harris creator of the truman show the program burbank is unwittingly the hero of that's right burbank's life is being broadcast live to the american public and seahaven and all it's inhabitants are inclosed in a massive sound stage the film takes the jerry springer format one step too far with an idea so different it would be easy for the director and screenwriter to dumb it down and appeal to the lowest common denominator luckily the film remains sensible enough to appeal to all ages yet never seems to be a dumb carrey movie talking of carrey he's perfect in this movie enjoying the best role in his career his character is a stanley ipkiss from the mask and is completely suited to carrey's persona he occasionally falls into ace ventura mode shrieking and being silly but generally the audience is watching subdued carrey he's not completely dramatic like the film promises however ed harris brings an extreme intensity to christoff the megalomaniac creator of the show quiet and well spoken he burns an image into the viewer unfortunately he's barely in the film and for the first hour dosen't appear at all also disappointing is natascha mcelhone's character sylvia she plays the role well but her character is sadly underwritten and is pushed to the sidelines just when the audience is used to her the supporting cast is excellent and the town of seahaven looks delightfully perfect so perfect it's creepy the philip glass soundtrack is also superb and is used to great effect during the film peter weir keeps the film going clearly having fun the film is far more upbeat than his previous films dead poets society and green card although it is slightly slow to begin with about half an hour into film the pace really picks up and when christoff is introduced fully the film is on a roll sadly though the film is practically over when the film is in full steam also concerning the ending it is slightly too ambiguous which was disappointing the screenwriter andrew niccol who bought us gattaca delivers an entertaining script and manages to keep the plot in trim while christoff's plans to keep truman in do get increasingly silly they never go over the line which would have been easy for niccol to do also there's some funny gags involving product placement and the people who watch the show overall the truman show is excellent entertainment certainly different from the usual crap hollywood produces it should be viewed by everyone it offers something to every member of the audience and you would almost certainly not come out disappointed overall review by david wilcock you know for kids norville barnes
positive	no film in recent has left me with such conflicted feelings as neil jordan's harrowing humorous horrifying adaptation of patrick mccabe's novel about young lad francie brady's eamonn owens descent into madness in ireland on one hand it was difficult for me to become invested in francie's story because he is such an unsavory character unjustifyably venting his rage at his nosy but otherwise harmless neighbor mrs nugent fiona shaw on another hand i found it difficult to laugh at some of francie's darkly comic shenanigans because he obviously is such a sick needy child having been raised by a drunken father stephen rea and a suicidal mother aisling o'sullivan on yet another hand i also found it difficult to completely sympathize with francie during his more emotional scenes because some of his for lack of a better word bad deeds are so incredibly shocking in their brutality and the malicious glee in which he performs them however the butcher boy's power is undeniable and the film as a whole is because it is so disturbing what makes it so unsettling is the francie's overall yet attitude about everything expressed in a cheeky voiceover narration delivered by the adult francie rea again think heavenly creatures played largely for laughs and you'll sort of understand anchoring the whole film is the astonishing debut performance of owens love francie or hate him you cannot take your eyes off of owens the butcher boy truly is a twisted unusual film that is bound to make just about anyone uncomfortable in the lobby after the screening i overheard one man raving about how great yet disturbing it was i also heard one particularly offended woman say with disgust that movie was so unfunny i didn't know what to expect it's like something you chase for so long but then you don't know how to react when you get it i still don't know how to react jordan on winning his first nba championship in or my thoughts after meeting him on november
positive	just how inseparable is the team of sgt martin riggs mel gibson and sgt roger murtaugh danny glover let's just say that when one partner asks the other partner to strip to his boxer shorts and then further asks him to run out into the middle of the road flapping his arms while feverishly cackling like a chicken just to create a distraction his partner actually does it the familiar lethal weapon family is back including rene russo who is now the expectant mother of riggs' child and joe pesci as the former accountant who has decided to become a private eye new to the team is chris rock also a up and coming detective trouble seems to follow the two veteran detectives where ever they go and in this film that is no exception even when they are just taking a leisurely boat ride they somehow manage to collide with a freighter ship we here some ominous music which clues us that a confrontation is about to happen gunfire ensues and when it's all over the detectives want to learn more about this freighter by questioning a chinatown crime lord although they don't know what they're looking for their inquisitiveness causes the bad guys to take some action and there's plenty of action here for two movies led by fighting sensation jet li whose martial arts skill is nothing less than impressive he does what he can to make sure that no one finds out what they are up to li is ruthless in his approach will kill anyone just to make a point and develops enormous disdain for the two detectives there are terrific car chases explosions and gunshot galore it's a summer action recipe followed to the letter and the result is nothing less than pure unadulterated summer fun but even too many explosions can get boring to counter that we are treated to several amazingly choreographed fight sequences with jet li luckily he'd rather fight instead of firing off guns meanwhile when the detectives aren't reloading their guns or running from fireballs they're engaged in sophomoric banter and silly conversations that provide a nice diversion from the hail of bullets everybody gets in on the shtick russo screams during her delivery the crime lord has a few funny bits when he's being interrogated while being given laughing gas and pesci and rock are very funny as they go at it discussing the drawbacks of having cellular phones gibson and glover are always in sync and the film moves at a brisk pace to get to the final and terrific mano a mano score one for the old guard
positive	since the dramatic picture has undergone a certain change of style now instead of emphasizing stories replete with characters of noble virtues the screenplays and direction point toward human struggle and sorrow this realist tendancy can be inspiring at times as schindler's list shows most of today's mainstream drama however creates an overabundance of emoting that can turn off members of the audience that's why pictures like october sky which are a throwback to the good ol' dramas of yesteryear are such a welcome relief in contemporary cinema the movie is based on the true story of homer hickam jake gyllenhaal a teenager in the company town of coalwood west virginia it's a fact that the only boys to make a name for themselves are the ones that get out of the town on football scholarships the rest grow up to work in the coal mine the mine which is run by homer's father chris cooper is not the place for homer however after watching the soviet satellite sputnik shoot across the october sky in homer feels a connection with the outside world as he puts it anyone in the world could look up and see the same thing i did drafting two of his best friends and the brainiac outcast homer begins to construct rockets with the help of their history teacher miss riley laura dern and several mine workers the four are soon bound for great things october sky is a skillfully crafted film and most of that credit must go to director joe johnston johnston whose career in the film industry includes everything from directing titles like jumanji and the rocketeer down to an uncredited role as a death star trooper in star wars certainly knows what he's doing here he molds characters which are true to life and also fun to watch into a plot that is straightforward and robust he does not push any barriers but instead adopts a conservative style of filmmaking which enhances the film's charm his finesse brings out elements which might otherwise be lost such as the relationships between homer and various mine workers or the silent struggle between homer's mother and father the cast is well chosen although the true bright spots are the supporting roles laura dern jurassic park lends a strong performance in the role of the history teacher giving the boys the support and guidance they need her role is instantly likeable chris cooper the horse whisperer as homer's father is less likeable even downright despicable at times but his turn here gives gravity to the movie he's definitely a driving force in homer's life and his more humane moments give the piece a certain dynamic that is commendable the script is generally cheerful projecting the boys' endeavors in a lighthearted manner there are moments when it becomes predictable such as the train tracks scene and there are moments when it sacrifices orginality for the need to come up with an emotional plot twist it highlights the essence of youth however and for its exceptional job at this it can be forgiven other missteps october sky should be a success with audiences although it doesn't have the appeal of current teen flicks like varsity blues or she's all that it certainly holds an undeniable quality that older crowds will lean towards it's a welcome change to the dramatic genre and one that everyone should see
positive	a big surprise to me the good trailer had hinted that they pulled the impossible off but making a blues brothers movie without jake blues john belushi is such a dumb idea i really had no hope they replaced him just fine not with john goodman he didn't do much of anything but with the brilliant actor joe morton who can really sing the fourth blues brother is j evan bonifant who's ten this was another of my fears for the film but he's a really good dancer and plays a mean harmonica although he may have been dubbed things that intellectually had bothered me before like no mission from god everyone being richer it not being filmed in chicago gave me no problems at all i'm quite pleased that there were less car because they meant less music and john landis seems to have lost interest in the whole thing there's a few early crashes and then one huge but after that it all stops it's just the music one of my problems with the first is that cab calloway's song is so good the actually blues brothers look dull after him but there's no problems with this the music is all as good as ever tons of great musicians showing up with the exception of johnny lang who can't sing all the musicians do a great job the only real problems i had was the special effects these were superfluous and a waste of money since the film isn't doing very well they could mean we have no possibility of another sequel which i want to see the bluegrass version of riders in the sky is even better than rawhide http geocities remove no spam to reply drive carefully but recklessly mama child's toy the only excercise i take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise peter o'toole
positive	after having heard so many critics describe return to me as an hollywood romance i kept asking myself going into this movie what exactly is an hollywood romance what made return to me and was it the tunes from sinatra etc legendary singers the senior citizens in the film constantly harp on was it the glamorous sophisticated feel the charisma of the two leads even now i can't say that i have gotten any closer to the real answer because i haven't see that many hollywood romances i don't think any of the romances i've seen have been classified as such which leaves me the option of vaguely agreeing with my fellow critics return to me was in the sense that it reminded me of the way the younger generation perceive venerated old hollywood magic the way i perceive cinnamon spice and apple cider it was traditional magical we knew it couldn't be too daring or have any surprising plot twists that many cynical modern romances are apt to throw in it was a romance told with such endearing simplicity tenderness and love from director bonnie hunt that it couldn't help but sparkle with charm despite its shortcomings the film owes a lot of what it has to bonnie hunt's direction from the very first bird's eye view of chicago zooming in slowly toward the insignificant bob rueland david duchovny accompanied by the return to me ballad by whom we can tell we're in for something sweet the scenes between the characters are endearing truthful with just a hint of fantasy real people don't act that way real people aren't that nice we know all this and yet we want to believe in these folks' existence the premise itself seems to have sprung out of a fairytale but hunt's rooting the fairytale in common chicago folk simultaneously lends credit to the scenario and tinges everyday urban life with a hint of the ethereal everything is this film the festive little family restaurant to grace minnie driver and bob's wardrobes from the eloquent to progress storyline to the dainty watercolors that grace paints from the animal stars to the way all the characters interact on screen the most beautiful part return to me has done an excellent job of assembling together a group of actors who blend in effortlessly as a family the audience has no trouble at all believing that this rambunctious family actually does exist we care for them laugh with them cry with them we're concerned that the little boy will pick up cursing from his father whatever hunt did she brought out the naturalism in all of the actors disappointingly david alan grier's charlie however much i like him was the most duchovny here does a laudable job of shaking off his fox mulder persona with the help of his fellow rarely do we see any hint of special agent fox mulder instead we have a normal guy who when he falls in love shows more delight than fox mulder will show over the span of an entire season of the duchovny who is excellent at understatement and as an actor showcases his considerable comedic talent on screen minnie driver is engaging as always as the sweet innocent grace with nothing but a good heart to offer though an unlikely pair duchovny and driver gradually warm up to each other as the movie progresses while return to me functions remarkably as a comedy a romantic scenic tour through chicago and a tearjerker the story is set up so the film ends up having nowhere to develop the entire climax of the film hinges on when and how grace is going to tell bob that she actually was the recipient of his wife's heart we already know that there's going to be a happy ending we feel like we spend the entire film however enjoyably in a straight line going towards that point as a result bob and grace click almost too i know she's supposed to have his heart and seems too effortless the main subject is a love story and the family scenes i love so much unfortunately are overused and distract from the turmoil of the two main characters whose story might not have that much meat after all however in the spirit of return to me it won't do to be too picky about how old hollywood tells its stories i loved knowing that this was a labor of love for bonnie hunt it shows the bottom line return to me is nothing remarkable and yet its sweetness sincerity and charm might touch your heart in ways that you hadn't imagined
positive	wild things is a suspenseful thriller starring matt dillon denise richards and neve campbell that deals with all the issues sex love murder and betrayal the setting of the film is a town named blue bay it consists of many swamps and slums and on the other hand rich estates owned by the town's different benefactors the film opens just before the beginning of a senior seminar at the town's ritzy expensive high school it is here that we meet all of the core characters there's guidance counselor sam lombardo police officers ray duquette and gloria perez dark mysterious senior suzie toller and the popular head cheerleader kelly van ryan we first see that all of the senior girls are smitten with the handsome guidance counselor but none more than kelly throughout the first portion of the film we see how far kelly will go to get sam until she accuses him of rape shortly after suzie too confesses that sam raped her as well this pushes kelly's sex craving mother sandra to stop at nothing until sam is convicted during the trial kelly gives a teary confession of how sam raped her however it is later revealed by suzie that sam never raped either of the girls it was all a vengeful plan against the guidance counselor after sam is cleared kelly's mother pays sam a very substantial amount of cash in order for him not to sue her it is then revealed that sam kelly and suzie were all in on it together it is here that the film starts to reveal just who is being honest with each other and who has their own hidden agenda matt dillon stars as sam lombardo sam is the kind of guy that every woman would like to sink their claws into and sam obviously knows it and uses it to his own advantage he isn't the obvious best of actors but dillon does give a convincing performance however his talents seem to be rendered useless near the end of the film making it look as though his character has lost all of his ethics and principles although he never had many to start out with in the first place neve campbell who most people relate to scream and scream plays blue bay outcast suzie toller suzie obviously has some serious issues to deal with which are obvious from her first scene in the film campbell is very successful with this character adding the slightest bit of charm to a seemingly repulsive character and making her fun to watch playing kelly van ryan is denise richards kelly is your typical rich sexy head cheerleader who thinks she can have any man she choses like her sexpot mother sandra one of the most interesting things about this film is how it compares and contrasts the relationship between kelly and her mother denise richards still hot off the press from starship troopers gives the most interesting performance in the entire film in the beginning kelly looks to be a paper thin character but richards adds a little more spice and ultimately makes the character not only sexy but dominating as well kevin bacon gives one of his fair performances as ray duquette this character looks to be one of the most boring predictable in the film however it is a relationship revealed between him and suzie that adds depth to his story still the film doesn't seem to gain much from bacon's performance only his name in the supporting cast theresa russell plays the much oversexed sandra van ryan daphne gives an unappealing performance as cop gloria perez and bill murray shines as sam's lawyer ken bowden hats off to murray for adding the perfect touch of comedy to the film although wild things was displayed by the press as being an erotic thriller the eroticism which is portrayed with good taste is kept to a minimum and focuses more on the plot and the relationships between the characters this is truly a very good film worth seeing if your looking for a movie with a thick plot filled with it's share of twists
positive	minor plot spoilers in review no major spoilers are in review the previous two alien films have each had their own unique styles to them the ridley scott's alien was very much a stylistic suspense film james cameron's aliens was much more of an action film and i liked each film separately for which it was now alien is out and it is it's own film in the same right that alien and aliens were unlike aliens alien requires that you have seen aliens this is very important as the story picks up exactly were aliens left off the survivors of the expedition to are returning home after battling and beating the aliens the climactic fight scene between ripley and the mother alien on the sulaco in aliens left behind one item an egg in the opening sequence we see the egg hatch find its quarry which leads to a fire aboard the sulaco when the facehugger is injured an leads the sulaco to jettison the hypersleep tubes in an escape vessel this vessel crash lands on fury everyone in the vessel is killed except ripley the facehugger is jettisoned with them and survives the crash fury is an security prison when closed down some of the lifer prisoners decided to stay and live out the remaining years on the planet all the prisoners are men who have not seen a woman in many years ripley's arrival sparks a problem with the inmates as for the new haircut that ripley and the prisoner's sport there is an infestation of lice on the planet being an means that there is no way off the planet and no weapons so the prisoners and ripley are off to face the alien on their own i will not go into detail but you can guess what happens here the alien is loose and no one believes ripley's outstanding story she finds comfort in the arms of the colony's doctor yes after years ripley has sex it is not gratuitous in fact we don't even see them kiss but it is just as well a sweaty sex scene would not have worked in the context of the film there is a lot more gore in alien in fact i would guess to say that there is more in alien than either of the earlier two it also sports a new alien with legs i won't say how but it leads us to believe a few new things about the alien and its cycle which i am sure will be explored in alien sigourney weaver is back as ripley and provides another excellent performance of this character her scene during the autopsy of newt is enough to garnish her another academy nomination the rest of the cast is also quite good notably charles dance as the doctor with whom ripley finds momentary escape from fury alien has a very distinct look this is due largely to its director david fincher mr fincher who until now has only directed music videos and commercials has done an incredible job here his direction is excellent and makes this film come to life in ways no alien film has before for mr fincher i see a long prosperous career ahead of him the music was also done by a newcomer to the film industry elliot goldenthal has created a deeply moving score which lends itself to the claustrophobic setting that the alien series been set in this time the score is not so much a rip off of star trek ii james horner's aliens this score has a choral back up at times and even lends itself to the old style of ennio morricone scoring this is a great score the ending to alien is quite good there were times i thought that hollywood would come in and screw it up but it played very nicely i will not ruin the ending for you go see the film i consider it to be a much more involved film than any of the other films released so far this season alien is a worthy successor to aliens and alien and when they make alien perhaps they will be able to find yet another new direction to take it in
positive	are you tired of all the hot new releases being gone by the time you get to the video store wafflemovies com is dedicated to finding those hidden gems that lie on the shelves everyweek wafflemovies com reviews independent film and big studio pictures that deserve a second chance on video here is a sample review welcome to sarajevo in light of america's recent intervention in kosovo welcome to sarajevo is a reminder of the horror america and the world ignored for years set in sarajevo and based on actual events this picture examines the human and societal casualties of war the picture opens with a family escorting their young bride to her wedding as they make their way down the street a sniper shoots the mother of the bride yet another reminder that daily life in war torn sarajevo can never escape the horror of war in this scene we meet joe flynn woody harrelson an american reporter who stops reporting to help a priest carry the mortally wounded mother into a church joe is cocky but also good at heart as he continues to carry out kind deeds for people he doesn't even know his fellow reporter is the british michael henderson stephen dillane michael is quickly growing tired of the horror that surrounds him and the world's lack of interest henderson is haunted by the memory of an altar boy who witnesses the mother's death as well as a young girl who he finds orphaned in a hospital after a mortar attack on citizens waiting in line for bread he decides to take action when a united nations' delegation descends upon the area to declare yugoslavia the fourteenth most dangerous place on earth henderson begins a series profiling an orphanage located on the front lines he finds children of all ages living in fear and taking care of each other with the help of one adult during his visits he befriends a girl emira emira nuseric who serves as surrogate mother to baby roadrunner he promises to get emira out of harm's way if he gets the chance after the un delegation leaves the country without rescuing any of the children henderson loses hope however his reporting has grabbed the attention of nina marisa tomei and her children's aid group that helps to find homes for the yugoslavian orphans unfortunately only babies are wanted for adoption so henderson pledges to take emira to england the group of children nina and henderson depart the front lines on a dangerous escape for italy can they complete this dangerous trek through the war torn countryside and avoid hostile troops gathering up muslims for concentration camps the movie was beautifully and sensitively made director michael winterbottom and screenwriter frank cottrell boyce vividly express the societal destruction that has occurred they show the destroyed lives families that have been split up and the desolation that everyone attempts to cope with this is best exemplified by the group of yugoslavians henderson his producer and flynn have befriended the group of reside in a bombed out bar without life's simplest pleasures and amenities one of them is an accomplished musician who spends his days playing the piano and promising to play a concert when sarajevo is declared the most dangerous place on earth like the rest of those deeply effected by the war this small group tries to survive instead of trying to live winterbottom brilliantly intersplices scenes with actual news footage to give the film the feel of a documentary and keeps the viewer aware that many of these horrors are being carried out thousands of miles away as you sit safely in your living room the picture is also bolstered by beautiful cinematography that captures the devastation of this city that hosted the olympics winterbottom and boyce also produce a realistic portrayal of the reporters covering the atrocities this portrayal is much more flattering to reporters than earlier wafflemovies com selection mad city we watch them struggle to cover the horror while trying to remain professionally detached however they are human and question the reason behind it all why no one cares and how they can get out stephen dillane is wonderful as henderson he portrays the character as an everyman caught in the middle of extraordinary events dillane avoids making the character overly heroic and preachy henderson realizes that he cannot save the world but he can help a few it is a wonderful opportunity for dillane after he had to suffer through the denis bullock disaster two if by sea woody harrelson continues to prove that he is one of the finest most versatile actors of his generation harrelson plays the cocky celebrity reporter with a heart of gold by allowing the character's caring nature and vulnerability shine through harrelson is equally adept at taking on roles as zany leading men cheers white men can't jump as well as excellent supporting roles such as this one this ability will serve him well and give him a long successful career america's involvement in this struggle comes seven years after the events of the movie take place for those who do not have a full understanding of the history of the conflict the entire movie most importantly the opening scenes provide a history lesson war is a foreign concept to most of us in america battles are fought thousands of miles away among people we have no attachment to televised images of the gulf war are all the experience most of us have with war this picture brings it right into your living room and makes you think outside of our own small world something we don't do enough of in america
positive	many people dislike french films for their lack of closure while possibly shallow i've often had a desire for a sense of epiphany or at least a resolution in the films which i view there is no revelation in un coeur en hiver in the traditional however the film is incredibly successful in its passionate dramatization of a protagonist stephane daniel auteuil stephane daniel auteuil is a master violin maker he is passionless about all that which surrounds him except his craft and the music which his craft is responsible for producing even the relationship between he and his boss maxime andre dussollier is a controlled and almost manipulated association highlighted by the fact that stephane permits maxime to win close squash matches in the beginning of the movie stephane is a closed solitary individual and the audience is carefully left to wonder about the depth of emotion behind this enigmatic man camille kessler emmanuelle beart is a master violinist and the new love of maximes maxime is so much in love with camille that he plans to and does leave his wife like stephane camille is outwardly very controlled and reserved sacrificing all thought and emotion to her violin and the music which emerges when stephane and camille meet there is a recognition of a bonding by both individuals however whereas camille submits to the wild interplay of emotions which she now feels for stephane stephane only admits that camille is attracted to him stephane ignores his feelings for camille which the audience cannot help but to see is present as the movie progresses the two characters become more and more polarized in their views and emotions for one another these two people with very similar approaches to life initially react to their new circumstance very differently stephane becomes even more rational and controlled while camille becomes more tempestuous until she almost borders on suffering a nervous breakdown due to the inability to consummate their relationship however their approach to each other is perhaps not surprising considering their vocation the audience is led to believe that stephane may have been a genius as a violinist as well due to his relationship with a master violin teacher however apparently he could not be a violinist due to his intolerance for flaws in his playing consequently stephane becomes a precision craftsmen with the instrument and no longer plays in contrast camille had almost given the violin years earlier however with the aid of her manager she has progressed to being almost one of the world's finest successfully submerging herself to her playing during the course of the movie we see both characters evolve as they struggle to meet the challenge of their new emotions stephane attempts to remain unchanged however we do see subtle hints of his transformation one of the most obvious is when he defeats maxime in squash the development of all of the characters many of which is not included in this synopsis is incredible american movies with rare exceptions have not and i would daresay cannot approach foreign films in character development in its essence this movie is about the development and growth of the characters camille and stephane the portrayal of all the other characters in the movie including a death is to further the development of camille's and stepahne's characters i am not sure why berardinelli says at times it becomes difficult to determine whether stephane should be pitied or vilified and it is to auteuil's credit that he manages to maintain this uncertainty this movie is not about judging stephane's actions as being right or wrong but about viewing their growth and accepting the characters as who they are i find the ending appropriate unfortunately i found the last ten minutes which led up to the final scene to be very unfulfilling this portion of the film is where the sense of closure could have been successfully accomplished unfortunately there is a hurried and almost a soap surge of emotions from all of the characters while ravel may not be quite as accomplished as schubert or mozart ravel has his day in this film the synergism of the tension of ravel's music and tension on the screen is the best i have ever seen the directing in this movie is wonderful the actors and actresses are excellent each playing their part with great sincerity and warmth emmanuelle beart's personality is beautiful and needless to say i must say that emmanuelle beart herself is beautiful besides the near ending the only other criticism of the movie which i have is that the movie is almost too cerebral i almost left with the sense little happened because almost all the changes which occur in the movie happen in deep in their psyches and little in their personalities or the situations which they end as part of the one question which i am left with is while they have accepted their lot has their attitude towards love changed i have several possibilities which i believe the movie hints at but i am unsure of which the director is espousing in summary this movie is solely about the character growth of two characters who almost develop a relationship in the process we see their attitude towards life and other people in itself i do not believe un coeur is a complicated movie where it does become complicated is when we juxtapose the scenes of the movie into the greater walk of life where we as americans have preconceived american notions of relationship love and people i do wonder how the movie translates when viewed within its native french culture however i bringing my american preconceptions enjoyed the film i would welcome any comments about this movie from any who have seen it
positive	the keen wisdom of an elderly bank robber the naive ambitions of a sexy hospital nurse and a partnership that blossoms between the two are the fine components that make up a modest little caper adventure entitled the money is the elderly bank robber is henry paul newman a famous criminal that was only recently caught he has pulled off dozens of successful heists and has probably stashed away a small fortune always the shrewd thinker he begins working on a plan to get out of jail this involves years of studying buddhism and when he is prepared to execute his plan he uses what he has learned to fake a stroke now a seemingly twitching vegetable he is temporarily transferred to a home carol linda fiorentino is the nurse that cares for him she's a very bright person with a good heart yet her life is a miserable waste of time the most exciting thing to do in town is to fix cars her days at the hospital facility are spent leading wheelchair calisthenics worse she's in a relationship with sweetheart wayne dylan mcdermott they became a couple because they were king and queen of the prom to her this made sense long ago but now it's a different story wayne seems equally bored with his life but is content enough to stay put wayne's greatest ambition is to become a night shift supervising foreman carol feels as lifeless as many of the other hospital patients but she's never been anywhere else and doesn't see many other opportunities in life however when henry falls under her care her outlook begins to change the medical reports may state that he suffered a massive stroke carol however begins to grow suspicious that henry may just be faking it after all maybe she can get through to him and maybe she can learn something about the money that he has stashed away the opening minutes are filled with hilarious attempts of carol trying to bring henry back to life and what are some of carol's resuscitation techniques perhaps an erotic lapdance might stir his senses if that fails maybe she'll try a little shock therapy by pushing him off a high pier into the cold lake below when he finally comes out of his state of the movie's direction changes though it remains equally if not more entertaining carol sees that henry is filled with charisma and she is invigorated by his commanding presence and refreshed by his vibrancy this of course puts wayne in an odd situation henry and carol's bond grows stronger when they enter into an agreement to rob an armored car henry needs this heist because he is unable to retrieve his original stash meanwhile this is carol's ticket to a better life wayne is uncomfortable with the situation but helps out nonetheless however his lack of commitment threatens their success the heist sequence is suspenseful well paced and casts the uneasy feeling that something will horribly go wrong the money is' does more to spotlight newman and fiorentino than it does to showcase a story about a nifty heist newman is the real joy of the film adroitly showing that at age he's still really hot stuff he possesses a sly smile displays a dominating attitude and a projects a demeanor that is undeniably attractive fiorentino is also a fun presence you root for her despite her sense of amorality sure she wants to commit robbery and has little compunction about pushing a man into a lake but we can see that to escape her world she needs to do something drastic with two charismatic characters such as these it's hard to ignore that the money is' is where the fun is
positive	robert benton has assembled a stellar mature cast for his latest feature twilight a film noir mystery set amid the fading stars of hollywood paul newman stars as retired detective harry ross harry has spent the last couple of years doing odd jobs for jack and catherine ames gene hackman and susan sarandon a pair of married actors who have fallen from the limelight when jack sends him on a routine delivery job however the old instincts kick in soon harry is wading through a mystery where friendships and lives are on the line and he no longer knows who to trust there are plenty of familiar faces throughout twilight in addition to newman hackman and sarandon james garner plays raymond hope a former cop and one of harry's best friends stockard channing plays verna harry's former partner and possibly a former love interest reese witherspoon is mel the distrustful daughter of the ames' and liev schrieber is her scuzzy boyfriend giancarlo esposito appears as harry's bumbling detective protigi and john spencer is a suspicious police captain with a cast like that it's almost worth watching twilight just to stargaze luckily there's more to the film than some sort of actor's recognition ceremony twilight has a solid film plot it may not have as many twists and turns as some of the classics but it has much more than a lot of what passes for film these days the major cast members all deliver strong performances as can be expected of their caliber however none of them have that little extra oomph which would make them memorable the supporting cast is enjoyable if a little underdrawn stockard channing's character in particular is a cipher there's more to her character than the film takes the time to describe it's a minor but irritating flaw with a solid cast and a good plot there's a lot to recommend about twilight it's biggest flaw is actually its short running time at a slim minutes there's a lot of stuff that's packed into an awfully small package still the chance to see newman sarandon and hackman working together is worth a cramp or two
positive	warning anyone offended by blatant leering machismo had better avoid this film or lots of blood guts men against men and stuff in other words it's a walter hill film with a john milius script i always picture these guys getting together and producing a movie between matches these films always contain male characters i have a very hard time identifying with probably due to the likelihood that any meeting between them and me would result in my arm being ripped off and then my subsequent death by beating with said limb and we got tough guys galore here banditos by the dozens all dirty and sweaty and pretty overall a secret task force of army commandos who are in the area to supposedly any connection between the government and the drug runners and lots of texas dirt farmers who'd as soon shoot you between the eyes as look at you in particular we got nick nolte as one texas ranger powers boothe as the drug kingpin michael ironsides as the leader of the secret army and rip torn as the local sheriff torn is the sympathetic figure of the group he smiles before shooting anyone as to women well i've never seen jane fonda or meryl streep in a walter hill film and at this rate i doubt i ever will women exist here to look good comfort the man and get argued over gosh just like the old days frankly this is a pretty good movie if you can accept the premise and can take the macho stuff the cinematography is excellent the cast of characters is broad and has texture the script is quite good and the film lets you keep up with what's happening yourself without spelling it out to you i appreciate a film that makes me have to think to keep up finally there's lots of sam peckinpah
positive	accepting his oscar as producer of this year's best picture winner saul zaentz remarked that his cup runneth over one could almost say the same about his film rarely is the screen so overflowing with potent imagery symbolism ideas and metaphors complex and literate storytelling all possessed of an intelligence that invites even demands constant scrutiny an acuity of perception and observation that must somehow yield the truth in short the antithesis of all things hollywood yet this surfeit of signals is made to serve a rather pale and thinly realized love story whose emotional impact is as dry as a desert wind ralph fiennes is the title character an amnesiac burn victim whose gradual return to memory and particularly the memory of love is the ostensible focus of the film but despite the use of numerous flashbacks to help put the pieces of this personal puzzle together we never learn enough about the man to feel much empathy for him his emotional life before the story begins is an essential clue that remains withheld the same can easily be said for every other character in the film of which there are too many juliette binoche's nurse comes as close as this film gets to an emotional heart at least we learn early on that she is scarred by the deaths of those close to her and so we understand why she is eager to escape the company of her comrades in order to seek refuge in the convalescence of a mysterious disfigured dying stranger even this information is imparted so quickly and in such cursory fashion however that it verges on the comical with so many characters enjoying so little screen time the film's minutes can be taxing yet there is something so captivating about the sensibility behind the camera that i couldn't help but feel that greatness was in the air hints of it were everywhere in a man who hates ownership but wants desperately to possess his lover in ancient cave paintings of swimmers copied casually by a swimmer in the sahara in the way the shifting sands of time obliterate everything more completely than a world war there is enough latent meaning to supply college film students with paper topics for years but ultimately the emotional truths anthony minghella was grasping for were never revealed in the end i was left with the impression that i had witnessed quite an oxymoron a haunting bore bore is perhaps too strong a word but after drinking in the rich production values the cup remains only slightly over
positive	a bleak look at how the boston underworld operates a film which was based on the by george v higgins it is seen through the weary eyes of a hood eddie fingers coyle mitchum he got the nickname when a mob boss in his underworld element shut the draw on his hand as a punishment his current dilemma is that he got caught running illegal booze by truck and faces a year stretch in new hampshire something he feels will be a life sentence for him since he doesn't think he could survive prison at his age he is also concerned that his wife and three kids will have to go on welfare he could have cut a deal and gotten off if he turned his boss over to the d a but he figured he would never live if he did that he is currently for a gang of very successful bank robbers led by scalise rocco the masked bank robbers operate by always first going to the bank manager's house and holding his family hostage and then they go to the bank and force the manager to open the vault for them or else his family gets it on one of the heists they kill a bank officer who pushes the alarm coyle's best friend is dillon boyle a hit man for the mob working as a bartender he is a permanent stoolie for the treasury agents as an aggressive young agent named foley jordan who likes to be called uncle gives dillon breathing room to operate some of his crime activities and to work the bar even though he has a prison record as long as he keeps getting valuable info from him on things happening with the gangs with the sentencing date closing in on him the already convicted coyle is out on bail and looking for an angle to cut his jail time he contacts agent foley and gives him a few inconsequential tips and then decides to do something that goes against his grain thinking he made an deal with foley to get his sentenced squashed in new hampshire he gives him the place where a sale of machine guns is going down knowing the young hustler keats selling the guns is a lot like he was as a youth and when arrested will be facing a life sentence but foley tells him after he arrests the that new hampshire wants more before they take away his jail sentence they want him to be a informer warning spoiler follows in next paragraph the bank robbers are setup and caught in the act and the mob boss is convinced coyle did it and gives dillon the contract to take care of his friend the contemptuous dillon befriends coyle and treats him to a steak dinner and takes him to a bruin hockey game while getting him boozed up coyle takes a look at the young bruin star bobby orr from his upper deck seat and says to be young like that and have his future he's the greatest hockey player in the world dillon then takes the drunken coyle for a long drive and executes him having a kid who works for him dump the body in some bad section of boston this is a great atmospheric film due to the realistic noir mood it sets of the hopeless situation the criminals are in and how they are forced to live with fear and the uncertainty of what horrible thing will happen next the city streets are ugly the gangsters are shown to be capable of any action to defend their own interests whether it is betrayal or murder there is a fatalistic feel about their lives something robert mitchum wears as easily as others put on a hat mitchum gives this film all the intensity and purpose it needs as it overcomes a thin plot it makes you see the characters for what they are without any false sympathy for them mitchum is a loser and that he lived so long is a tribute to his skills as a survivor but in the end he even loses the respect he had among his underworld friends as a standup guy as he wrestled with his code of honor and lost even that battle
positive	footloose has only one goal in mind to reel in an audience with cheesy sentiment and antics and i hate to admit it i fell for it the movie is about a teenager bacon who moves to a small town from the big city and discovers that dancing has been banned by the local reverend lithgow he ends up falling for the preacher's daughter singer and showing the whole town what the magic of dance can do as mentioned at the beginning of this review footloose is an extremely hokey and predictable teen drama there are virtually no surprises and the writing is so why did i enjoy it so much for one thing the cast is great kevin bacon oozes charisma in an early role we're rooting for him right from the start and unlike most films of this genre bacon doesn't play him as the rebel without a clue sort yes he does rebel but he's also polite when he needs to be and he never broods the rest of the cast is equally impressive john lithgow seen here playing a normal guy for a change is playing a man who would normally be a flat out villian but lithgow plays him as a concerned father who is trying to do what he feels is best for his daughter by the end of the film we feel a genuine sense of love and understanding between him and the lori singer character another nice touch is the music we see the parents of the kids complaining that the music they listen to is filled with sexual innuendos but that's not true at all the title track performed by kenny loggins is upbeat and fun during the final sequence i was overcome with the urge to get off the couch and start dancing of course i soon realized that would be a little pathetic anyway footloose is a charming little surprise don't let the premise prevent you from watching it it sucked me in and it'll do the same to you
positive	as i walked out of crouching tiger hidden dragon i thought to myself that i had had just seen a great film with the passage of a few hours i tempered my enthusiasm and started pondering the question of whether a masterpiece must implicitly be a great piece of work and viceversa attempting to make a distinction may be a matter of splitting hairs i avoided a commitment by appealing to etymology as the word implies a masterpiece is any work which embodies the skills of a master as such it should suffice to say that it is a product of exceptional quality crouching tiger hidden dragon fits comfortably in that category crouching tiger hidden dragon immerses the viewer in an idealized world of oriental folklore with the requisite blend of legend fantasy magic and mythology it is reminiscent of a wagnerian epic with characters which might as well be greater than life purer than life stronger than life physically invincible and able to accomplish superhuman feats but with a human soul that makes them ultimately vulnerable all the classic elements of the oriental mystique are thrown into the mix including the art of contemplation and the concept of martial dexterity as the physical equivalent of spiritual advancement the classic struggle between good and evil is the inevitable backdrop with advanced masters of each and a golden pupil which must choose between the two it is the gifted pupil who under the influence of the evil master steals the holy grail in the form of a magic sword which is the focus of the conflict at the heart of the legend the elements of romance at two different levels of enlightenment a pair of masters and a pair of youngsters are poignantly represented the paradox of oriental restraint existing side by side with all consuming passion in the same breast is projected effectively the fight scenes are stunning balletic not to be taken literally but clearly to be enjoyed as superb cinematic art as are the prodigious leaps and flights to from and between rooftops the martial combat at the top of swaying bamboo branches and the combatants skipping like pebbles along the surface of a lake there need be no question of suspended disbelief when one is in the presence of poetry as in a wagnerian opera there is a substantial story line which takes place at an ordinary human level yet the entire project is to be accepted as a work of art rooted in fantasy do not assume however that the art is for those who are put off by the art label this film can be confidently recommended as engrossing entertainment at the levels of adventure action and romance there are no weak performances in this movie michelle yeoh imbues her character with depth humanity and wisdom chow yon fat projects dignity and purity of heart zhang ziyi is a budding superstar she is radiantly beautiful and totally persuasive in a multifaceted role cheng pei pei as the evil master and chang cheng as the bandit prince acquit themselves admirably kudos to screenwriters james schamus wang hui ling and tsai kuo jing choreographer yuen photography director peter pau and music director tan dun each of which contribute quality components to this extraordinary film ang lee as the director and mastermind of the project gets the lion share of the credit this is destined to be one of those films that everybody likes including those who hate martial arts movies don't miss it
positive	suffers from the syndrome after a spate of flighty teen films the romantic drama addresses alcoholism and parental loss along with its love story but rather than applaud the production early reviews have dismissed it as an overblown afterschool special even worse in the wake of federal trade commission hearings that blasted the industry for marketing violent and sexual movies to young people the studio got a case of the and forced director john stockwell to scenes and cut footage to tone things down needless to say the filmmaker was frustrated we were trying to make a cautionary tale he told newsweek and we couldn't show the behavior we were trying to caution people away from regardless the film works thanks to exceptional performances from its lead players and a script determined to transcend stereotypes is quality fare good enough that i the summer movie crap police to walk into the press screening and confiscate the print for failure to incorporate explosions and poop jokes set in pacific palisades calif the story follows the burgeoning relationship between two teens every morning and evening carlos nunez jay hernandez takes a bus ride in order to attend pacific high school an honor student and star athlete carlos is responsible modest and focused as he works on securing a place in the naval academy all is well until he meets nicole oakley kirsten dunst the daughter of a rich congressman bruce davison nicole is a drunk apparently on carlos is smart enough to recognize the danger in getting involved with her but he is only human and she has the greatest smile plus as her father notes she has a real knack for drawing others into her downward spiral as with save the last dance god how i hate titles takes situations that look stale on paper and makes them seem fresh while noting the racial and social differences between the kids the screenplay dances around most of the clich s there are still several mtv moments though the filmmakers make a point to give characters that crucial extra bit of shading that turns them into individuals instead of stereotypes and the actors take it from there dunst forces the viewer to share the pain beneath nicole's behavior she is credible enough that when dad urges carlos to get away from her before she drags him down i hoped the boy would listen as carlos hernandez is a revelation hunky without looking like the product of a hollywood design team the young man can really act we will see a lot of this guy in the future aside from its title the biggest problem with is its ending which wraps everything up too fast and too tidy after carefully presenting credible characters and situations the conclusion feels rushed and lazy still this is the kind of film that deserves accolades from critics instead of cheap shots afterschool special my ass is the real deal
positive	everyone knows someone like giles de'ath stuffy arrogant set in his ways and at war with anything that could in any way be associated with progress giles is a writer but the product of his typewriter is the kind of scholarly stuff that is immediately put onto library stacks where it can gather dust until some graduate student needs another reference for his or her thesis his house looks like an immaculate museum with no television microwave word processor or other technological gadgets only the electric lights betray that he's living in the twentieth century not the nineteenth this is the kind of role that could easily be turned into a flat stereotype but john hurt in what is certainly his best performance in a decade and possibly the most impressive of his long and distinguished career turns erstwhile fogy giles into a human being despite his tunnel vision it's impossible not to like the man especially after his entire being is transformed by that singular affliction to which no one is immune love and as giles discovers during the course of this amusing motion picture it's possible to find the object of one's affection in the most unusual places giles who is a widower and a recluse does not frequent the cinema but when he learns that an e m forster film is playing at the local theater he screws up his courage and decides to go what he doesn't realize is that the movie house is showing two films the forster adaptation and a teen exploitation flick called hotpants college ii a nonplused giles ends up sitting in a darkened room watching buff male and female bodies in various states of undress just as giles is about to leave however he notices ronnie bostock jason priestley and suddenly it's love at first sight giles is enraptured and the moment hotpants college ii is over he beings to scour stores for bostock memorabilia including teen magazines and video tapes in order to watch those tapes giles must buy a vcr but he initially doesn't realize that he needs a tv to use the vcr eventually not satisfied with being the world's foremost authority on bostock giles boards a plane and travels to long island where his idol's home is located bostock is away when giles arrives but the wily englishman manages to befriend ronnie's supermodel girlfriend audrey fiona loewi eventually the actor arrives home and impressed with giles' demeanor and intelligence he begins to rely on the older man's advice but while giles' affection runs deep ronnie's feelings are less constant love and death on long island is a comedy and a very funny one at that in fact for its first half the film is it suffers a once giles reaches new york and the ending with its homosexual overtones is a little too overbearing for the lighthearted material that precedes it in his gently satirical approach to popular culture and movie stardom richard kwietniowski adapting from the novel by gilbert adair is target in the process he not only creates a truly likable and memorable character in giles but says a few things about the transforming power of love even if it is unrequited from start to finish this is clearly hurt's movie he's in almost every frame it's a role that the veteran actor must have relished because he makes giles an unforgettable motion picture figure and does so by means of dialogue delivery body language and facial expressions jason priestley cashing in on his beverly hills image is surprisingly effective as the shallow ronnie he is charismatic and it's not hard to understand why giles is attracted to ronnie meanwhile solid support is provided by the appealing fiona loewi and the maury chaykin love and death on long island is many things wrapped into one a social commentary it tackles the thorny issue of film as pure art versus film as mindless entertainment a buddy story ronnie and giles have one of the most interesting relationships found anywhere on a movie screen these days and a fish out of water tale victorian relic giles forced into the modern world yet despite the many laughs love and death offers it never takes cheap shots it has a vibrant beating heart and that makes the comedy all the more worthwhile
positive	for many people procrastination isn't a problem to overcome it's a high art we'll do just about anything to put off a task when the deadline for this column nears it's the only time during the week dishes get washed and the bed made and laundry done and plants watered and eventually hopefully sometimes there's a breakthrough and we actually get down to work amazingly it's almost always easier than we dreaded and after finishing that sense of oppressive apprehension melts away and then the next time we do it all again english professor grady tripp michael douglas is a master seven years ago his first book was a hit he's been working on his second a short piece since then fearful that he can't live up to the first he can't bring himself to finish it no writer's block he's nearing pages with no end in sight now he's having a particularly difficult day the college's annual writers conference is bringing in accomplished novelists reminding tripp that other people are finishing books during the first day his wife has left him his married girlfriend informs him she's pregnant and his agent is in town with a transvestite in tow by the evening our besieged writer is driving though the streets of pittsburgh with a suicidal student beside him a stolen jacket that marilyn monroe wore on her wedding day in the back seat and a murdered blind dog stuffed in the trunk this could be a pivotal point in his crisis and then there's the next morning there's a lot to like about this movie there are no huge explosions shattering glass or dinosaurs to distract from the very real human issues grady is caught up in the curse of people who accomplish great things early in their career in the world of what have you done for me lately he knows his second book has to be better than his first instead of finding out he drifts comfortable in the insular cocoon of academic peter panhood he doesn't have much of a life and neither does his star pupil james leer tobey maguire james may be suicidal and psychotic certainly everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie he makes up a past of working clash anguish because the truth of wealth and comfort just isn't interesting enough as the weekend progresses they are both forced to fully engage life that's the question they must face comfort or real experiences the film takes some interesting chances relationships are presented as gay interracial here they aren't judged merely choices the actors are all douglas triumphs playing against type as he spends most of his time disheveled unshaven and clad in a pink women's house robe maguire's disengaged alienation works perfectly here robert downey jr as grady's agent livens up his scenes director curtis hanson l a confidential makes a few missteps the women are underused frances mcdormand does a good job of her limited role of sara grady's married lover but we never understand much of who she is the chemistry between the two of them is which makes some of the ending unconvincing katie holmes is a student with a major crush on the professor but her character goes nowhere we never even see grady's exiting wife this is very much a guy's film the varied relationships between the men are much more convincing than any of the others grady's alternating mentoring and rejection of james is the centerpoint of the film not him and sara as the boomers age expect to see more crisis films to catch the attention of that demographic eventually it'll probably become cliche but right now we've got a winner i'll finish this in a second right now i have to grab some paint i noticed some trim in the other room that needs a little michael redman has written this column for so long that he's made crisis a career choice
positive	meet joe black reviewed on nov starring brad pitt anthony hopkins claire forlani in meet joe black brad pitt plays death that's all that really needs to be said but nevertheless i will provide the three of you that have seemingly been living in a cave with a plot description death decides to take a holiday what with all the rigors of and all and forces anthony hopkins into showing him what it's like to be human death assumes the body of brad pitt and from there much trouble ensues for one thing falls in love with hopkins daughter played by claire forlani obviously this enrages hopkins because really what can death offer besides eternal damnation of course there is also a about forlani's she dumps him for pitt trying to take over hopkins company meet joe black runs just under three hours i've always thought that such obscene running times should be limited to historical epics meet joe black is neither historical nor is it an epic though i get the feeling martin brest the director desperately wants it to be every single scene in the movie goes on about minutes too long and the ending takes about minutes longer than it really should a severe editing job could have made this movie excellent instead of just good which is what it is pitt an actor i normally loathe is actually quite engaging as death i believed his performance and i could see why forlani's character would fall in love with him i have to agree with roger ebert though who found it hard to believe that an entity that's been around for all time wouldn't know what peanut butter was that has nothing to do with pitt's performance of course but it is a little distracting hopkins gives his usual excellent performance he's able to portray the angst of a man who knows he has very little time left without making him an obnoxious whiner and in her first major studio role claire forlani is surprisingly good she has a sweet tenderness that allows the audience to instantly root for her so meet joe black is a good movie hampered by it's ridiculous running time had the film been cut by an hour or so i have no doubt that i would be calling it one of the best movies of the year in this review
positive	call it touched by a demon gregory hoblit's fallen is a serial killer movie with an unusual horrific twist if marketed properly this film could have crossover appeal for both those who appreciate supernatural tales like the prophesy and those who crave grim dark thrillers like silence of the lambs and seven in fact there's even a little twin peaks to be found here albeit with the lion's share of the weirdness distilled out remember bob the biggest failing of fallen is that although it's consistently interesting it's not always as edgy and suspenseful as one might hope a serial killer elias koteas has been on the loose in philadephia but detective john hobbes denzel washington the noblest man on the police force has brought him to justice now during his last hours on death row awaiting his inevitable date with the gas chamber the mass murderer cryptically tells hobbes what goes around really goes around shortly thereafter he begins to sing time is on my side as he's taken on his last walk minutes later the state of pennsylvania has carried out the execution and edgar reese is dead but for hobbes the nightmare is just beginning because reese wasn't a normal psychopath he was the host body for a mythical dark angel named azazel and with reese's death azazel is free to hop from body to body murdering and wreaking havoc at will only hobbes and a pretty female theology teacher embeth davidtz have an inkling of what they're up against the rest of the cops including hobbes' partner jonesy john goodman lou james gandolfini a newcomer to the department and lieutenant stanton donald sutherland don't have a clue and as a result they are in mortal danger as depicted by hoblit primal fear and cinematographer newton thomas sigel philadelphia is a dark dreary place a gothic city rather than a modern one no skyscrapers or other monoliths of current architecture or technology are shown the most famous landmark to appear isn't the liberty bell or independence hall it's geno's steaks shadows and night scenes abound the days are cloudy and unpromising this is the kind of setting where it's easy to believe that fallen angels walk among men fallen's plot is brimming with potential not all of which is realized somehow i would have expected a more frightening tale to emerge from something with this kind of premise but the level of terror like that of gore is kept in check nevertheless there are several creepily effective scenes as the spirit of azazel moves from body to body when people bump against each other on crowded city sidewalks the film also boasts a chase sequence of a kind that can best be described as unusual of the several dozen actors to play azazel the best is by far elias koteas exotica crash who despite only being on screen for about ten minutes gives a fantastically charged performance john goodman also seems to be enjoying himself although his role for most of the film is relegated to that of a burly sidekick sadly however these two are the only ones who excel everyone else including denzel washington is boring washington's flat performance is the most disappointing surprise of the film it's not that he's bad per se but he's not very interesting there's no real sense of vulnerability or desperation in the way he portrays his character and that keeps us distanced however slightly from hobbes as circumstances become progressively more dire for the cop and as his chess game with azazel approaches the point of checkmate i expected to be more on the edge of my seat than i was washington's subdued approach is part of the reason for this i never felt a sense of urgency however at least washington was believable which is more than can be said for embeth davidtz schindler's list and donald sutherland to be fair the flaws in their characters aren't all neither stanton nor gretta milano are that said however there's nothing inspired about either davidtz's or sutherland's work both appear to be sleepwalking their way through the parts as if they know that their contribution to the film is one of advancing the plot rather than developing a individual narratively fallen has a few glaring weaknesses although the plot proceeds with a convoluted structure it uses a denzel voiceover to overexplain matters at times this is actually helpful and it has a use beyond the obvious but there are occasions when ponderous lines like i like the night sometimes you come face to face with yourself become a little hard to swallow in addition fallen is saddled with the same kind of disgustingly bland generic theology embraced by numerous movies and tv shows like touched by an angel however despite the negatives i'm still recommending fallen on the strength of its complex plot and especially its ending which i loved the final scenes are startling audacious and unexpected it's not often that a plot development takes me by surprise the way this one did at a time when most movies fall apart in the last ten minutes fallen manages to buck the trend and redeem itself this is not a great motion picture but considering how bad most january releases are it's a reasonably entertaining way to spend two hours and whatever you do don't walk out on the film before the end credits have begun to roll
positive	james l brooks one of the developers of the simpsons and director of broadcast news returns to the big screen with this entertaining if slightly flawed comedy nicholson plays melvin udall probably the most horrible person ever on the screen he's racist homophobic and never has a good word to say to anyone so nobody talks to him except waitress carol conelly t v sitcom star hunt who was last seen in twister naturally udall conelly and gay neighbor simon bishop kinnear who nicholson hates all hit it off in the end like good will hunting and titanic even though the outcome is completely obvious as good as it gets is an enjoyable funny and warm comedy nicholson is hilarious as melvin churning out insults with superb relish only nicholson could get away with the lines that melvin delivers hunt is also good as waitress carol and easily rises to the challenge of nicholson there's also thankfully a bit of chemistry between them kinnear as the gay neighbor seems to have a slightly underwritten role he's more of a plot convience than a character although his performance is good his character just seems to exist to help melvin and carol come together in fact the scene stealer is simon's dog who is funnier than nicholson but then again pets are always cute on screen providing solid support is cuba gooding jnr jerry maguire and yeardly smith who is the voice of lisa simpsons in the simpsons although gooding isn't as good as is character in maguire he is still fun he overacts a little but not so much as to be annoying smith is also good although she has a fairly small role even director lawrence kasdan body heat makes an appearance as a doctor but this is primarily nicholsons film and every scene he's in he's steals it he's character is so hateful though it's amazing that anyone talks to him at all especially carol and this is the films main problem it's totally unbelievable that carol would ever consider liking melvin she doesn't fall in love with him naturally the film forces her to fall in love with him also melvins character seems to go too nice too quickly i would doubt anyone with a character like melvins would be able to turn back to a nice loving person it would take a helluva long time much longer than this film would like to make out brooks direction is good though if a bit average but he usually manages to get an emotion out of the audience he handles the comedy scenes better than the sentimental ones he tends to pile on to much schmaltz but generally he's good there's also a nice soundtrack by veteran composer hans zimmer but generally as good as it gets achieves what it sets out to do which is to make the audience feel good by the end of the movie the movie is a bit overlong but nicholson is such good fun that the running time passes by pretty quickly overall as good as it gets is a fun movie even though it may be unbelivable and certainly worth seeing if just for jack nicholsons performance not quite as good as it gets pardon the bad joke but still good fun
positive	after a stylistic detour with mrs parker and the vicious circle which despite its uncomfortable tone was close to being a conventional movie director alan rudolph has returned to his unique brand of film making with afterglow a romantic black comedy about love betrayal and while these may not be the most unusual themes to fashion into a motion picture rudolph's atypical approach to the characters and their situations makes for an intriguing if not always pleasant movie it is said that rudolph is a polarizing director meaning that most viewers either love his work or hate it until mrs parker i had not been overly impressed by his movies i found equinox his last mrs parker effort to be irritating and frustrating i was somewhat surprised therefore to discover that i liked afterglow there are several reasons for this but the paramount one is that rudolph seems to have muted some of the most strident mannered aspects of his approach the characters here are more like real people with genuine problems the story is absorbing and the acting is in short rudolph has created a world that it's worth spending two hours in afterglow introduces us to two unhappily married couples jeffrey byron jonny lee miller is a cold businessman who is sexually indifferent to his young wife marianne lara flynn boyle for her part marianne is so obsessed with having a baby that she never attempts to interact with her husband on a human level all she's interested in is seducing him during those few days when she's ovulating after he refuses to make love she decides to find someone else to play the role of sperm donor the other couple lucky nick nolte and phyllis mann julie christie are an older pair but they're no more content than jeffrey and marianne a mysterious fracture in their past relationship has driven them apart they remain married as a matter of convenience but since phyllis won't allow lucky to touch her they have an unspoken agreement whereby he can fool around as much as he wants provided that no lasting bond is established as a result of these affairs the landscape of emotional pain between them is palpable the four characters begin interacting when marianne hires lucky as a handyman to fix up the inside of the apartment she shares with jeffrey the two of them are immediately attracted to one another and it doesn't take long before they're lounging together naked in her pool meanwhile jeffrey who is captivated by older women runs into phyllis in a hotel bar is smitten and invites her to accompany him on a weekend retreat to the mountains the romantic couplings of the characters are interesting in that they illustrate the multiple faces of love sex means something different to everyone to jeffrey it's an unpleasant chore a loss of control to marianne it's a means to a maternal end to lucky it's an enjoyable distraction that blocks out his marital troubles and to phyllis it's a method of establishing or denying emotional closeness ultimately none of these characters appears to love anyone else as much as they love themselves the greatest strength of the film lies not in the script but in the performances jonny lee miller is perfect as the selfish callous businessman those who recall him as sickboy in trainspotting will find that he is almost unrecognizable here as the image of conformity lara flynn boyle who wasn't impressive in rudolph's equinox is greatly improved making marianne a jumble of sexiness and vulnerability nick nolte is delightful as the uninhibited lucky and he manages to deliver some of rudolph's most pregnant lines with practiced ease the clear standout however is julie christie who is nothing short of delicious as the phyllis her often wry occasionally cutting asides are the source of much of the film's humor and there's hardly ever a moment when she doesn't steal the spotlight from her i don't know if afterglow is the film to convert detractors but it seems that this movie is a little more accessible than some of the director's earlier productions enough of his trademark style remains however to reassure his supporters afterglow is basically a character study the plot is not especially compelling but the character interaction is and that's the real reason to see this motion picture rudolph has painted an able picture of the side of love the one that has more to do with tolerance and familiarity than with affection and attraction
positive	the fugitive is probably one of the greatest thrillers ever made it takes realistic believable characters and tells an exciting story that's totally believable throughout this isn't an action flick for the sake of action this is an intelligent adventure story with a real sense of mystery to it and it works perfectly harrison ford stars as dr richard kimble a man who is wrongly accused and convicted of murdering his wife the entire premise of the story revolves around this murder but is not told in a straightforward manner we constantly see flashbacks to the murder from kimble's perspective hints are dropped from various times of the night kimble's wife helen sela ward was murdered we don't get to see who the killer is until much further into the story in fact we might even have a little doubt about kimble's innocence ourselves the film doesn't spend much time on the details of kimble's trial and conviction as it is not the point of the story one of the greatest action scenes ensues as we get a botched escape attempt by his fellow inmates which leads to a fantastic train wreck but it does not at all seem gratuitous or formulated it is actually suspenseful to watch this movie is so incredible because it's able to take elements like these and make them wholly original and believable tommy lee jones almost steals the show as deputy sam gerard a u s marshall who is an expert in hunting fugitives from the moment he appears we know a huge game of cat and mouse is about to occur kimble and gerard are equally matched as there is no way to tell how one is going to outsmart the other most of the film deals with richard's complex investigation as he tries to find the man who killed his wife ford does not have a lot of lines here so it is stuart and twohy's script and davis's outstanding direction that make the film as great as it is just watching richard use his keen intelligence and wits disguising himself and doing his own detective work is very interesting we know just as little as he does as to why his wife was killed so as he learns more so do we meanwhile gerard and his staff are using all their skills to hunt him down at one point they run into each other and a great chase ensues but richard is just too smart for them he leaves clues for gerard to show his innocence and to help him solve the mystery one of the greatest charms to the film is its sense of humor there is a great sense of comradeship between gerard and his two closest deputies cosmo renfo pantoliano and biggs roebuck they are trying to catch what they believe to be a dangerous murderer yet they constantly start up small talk with each other making funny wisecracks and but not in any kind of distracting manner the final act concludes with another terrific chase richard figures out who the killer is and confronts him and although we get a typical fight scene the case is far from solved the man who ordered the murder has been under our nose all along and we don't realize this until the end when both richard and gerard put the pieces together maybe the finally scene is a bit much but it still has a believable atmosphere to it we're so relieved when justice is served it's not the plot is that makes the fugitive great it's all the motions the characters go through to make for an intriguing story watching a seemingly average man go through as much as this is what makes the movie so adventurous if only hollywood could produce more movies like this also nick of time
positive	i think that any competent member of the human race who's ever seen a probably predict just about every turn in the wedding singer even though i try very hard to not predict films as i'm watching them especially not romantic comedies the plot of this particular film just advanced before me seconds and sometimes minutes before i actually saw it happen on screen but i don't care not even a little my reasons for this are simple adam sandler is great drew barrymore is great the movie is so funny there are parts that left me gasping for air because i was laughing so hard i haven't laughed this hard in a movie since austin powers sandler plays robby hart a wedding singer who once had dreams of being in a rock band and writing his own music in the opening scenes he seems like a wedding singer at least partially enjoying his profession and doing a rather good job of talking down a really drunk individual steve buscemi who decides that his brother's wedding is a good place to tell the whole world that his life up to that point was utter pointlessness a week later at his own wedding he is left standing at the altar by his e linda angela featherstone with his life in complete disarray he meets julia barrymore a waitress she is engaged to glenn matthew glave and is to marry him in about three months julia and robby become good friends when she enlists him to help with the wedding plans soon and predictably it becomes pretty clear that glenn is a jerk and that robby and julia really love each other oh sure it's trite and if anyone making this film expected us to like feel suspense or something while watching the wedding singer then they truly underestimated their audience what makes the story bearable aside from the terrific costumes and music are the performances barrymore is simply adorable here i've never seen her look so close to the way she did in et not only is she pleasant to look at but her acting job here really is a good it doesn't hurt that the character is likable and adequately and the jerk played in by graves is just as despicable as any villain in any romantic comedy i've ever seen naturally the true star here is sandler i think the guy is hilarious he can say something that just isn't funny and his delivery makes me laugh his comedic performance here equals that of happy gilmore but in this film he goes much further and proves to me that he can indeed hold his own as a leading man in a romantic comedy whereas his roles in his previous films kind of had sandler playing sandler the wedding singer gives him a character that for the first time he actually has to fit into as far as i'm concerned he succeeded and this film is testimony that he does in fact have some range in his talents and the movie is just so funny perhaps the best moment is when he sings a song for julia that he claims is a little uneven because he began writing it while in a good mood and finished it after his fianc e abandoned him this is the part that literally had me groping for a breath of air and while the film like all romantic comedies takes a hiatus from laughs towards the end because the plot has to finish up there are more than enough truly hilarious moments in the first hour that make up for any slumps in progress during the second half my formal complaints for the wedding singer aren't very important the film is predicable but who cares the characters are extremely likable the movie is ridiculously funny and the experience is simply enjoyable in addition to this i can't imagine anyone seeing the preview and not wanting to see the film in that order i conclude that it is pointless for me to even have written this review i just want everyone to know that i laughed a lot
positive	based on the boris karloff's classic by the same name the mummy starts off with the of osiris imhotep who murders the pharoah for his mistress and is punished by being mummified in the most horrifying way possible bandaged up having his tongue removed and being covered in scarab beetles then entombed all while still alive recap a few thousand years later where a soldier named rick played by brandan fraser aids a young historian named evelyn played by rachel wiesz and her brother jonathan played by john hannah in finding the book of amon ra in the process inadvertently freeing the mummy problem is that the mummy wants to revive his mistress using evelyn as a sacrifice walking in with relatively low expectations i thought this movie was actually pretty good the visuals and cgi are astounding and obviously not cheaply done at all they pack a ton of detail into the images especially during scenes involving mummies rendered completely by cgi the computer special effects makes for some brilliant scenes such as unnerving moments involving scarab beetles and moments where the mummy goes after the people who freed him after all those who took his artifacts are cursed unfortunately the film attempts to be way too much in such a short span of time becoming a tug of war for control between genres on one hand it is a fast paced action film on the other it's a frightening horror film and on the side it's a hilarious comedy ideally for it to be successful the film would have to focus on one the more action oriented aspect with one character serving as the comic relief that would be johnson the problem with this film is that it has at least three characters serving as comic relief with rick occasionally delivering his witty if they were trying to make a it would have helped if it were established early on in the film but unfortunately with the backstory of imhotep's entombment that would be impossible and then there's the slapstick fight scene between a rick and an army of mummies while really well done it had the feel of slapstick comedy replace the sword with a chainsaw and you'd effectively have ash fighting zombies in army of darkness while entertaining and funny it feels really out of place but at least it's a break from the naive heroes that brendan fraser has been playing a lot of on the whole the movie is pure popcorn fare from beginning to end entertaining the audience but i must end my review with a plea to movie theatre owners turn the sound down while a lot of theatres have good sound systems my ears were almost ringing as i walked out of the theatre the sound is particularly irritating and will make you crap your pants if you're not careful when they were showing the trailer for the upcoming schwarzenegger film end of days it was so loud i couldn't make anything out
positive	on italian dario argento's much lauded murder mystery tenebrae i was struck more than anything else by how many sins he commits as a storyteller and manages to get away with in emphasising style over matters of plot argento is somewhat notorious in cult film circles but some aficionados still praise tenebrae as the greatest of his giallo murder mysteries while it's certainly not perfect repeated viewings reveal it to be nonetheless a densely plotted and terrifically stylish thriller the story follows a promotional visit to rome by famous american mystery novelist peter neal anthony franciosa where he discovers that a serial killer is on the loose inspired by his latest book tenebrae with the police on his back for leads he decides to take a personal interest in the case and he soon becomes drawn into a mystery where all is not as it seems the film benefits enormously from a fine central performance by franciosa he brings grace charm and a deceptive benigness to his character which provides an interesting foil to both the violence of the books he writes and the unfolding horror around him the film is awash with a fascinating psychosexual tension argento peels back the facade of showbiz and jetset lifestyles to reveal an amoral ambivalent shadowy world where desire in all its forms has become a dangerous business tenebrae is perhaps the most of argento's scripts to date and there is much bubbling underneath the surface here it may take at least two or three viewings to appreciate all the psychological themes at play in that respect it strongly recalls his previous giallo deep rosso the italian language version and fans will enjoy spotting the recurring themes needless to say for argento fans there is no denying the director's brilliance as a stylist many of the action and murder sequences are directed with his characteristic finesse and feature plenty of intriguing camerawork they are all the more impressive for the fact that in this film argento creates mood by filling his scenes with light rather than the dark shadows and deep rich colours of earlier works like deep red and suspiria instead tenebrae's set design and lighting paints a sleek clinical chilly vision of a vaguely futuristic urban world and the soundtrack's mix of electronic atmospheres and gothic rock by frequent argento collaborators goblin is the perfect accompaniment so tenebrae has much to recommend it no question still constantly nagging at the back of this viewers mind is several lumps in the narrative some critics argue that logic doesn't matter in argento films but damnit it matters in all films to the point where viewers don't deserve to feel cheated by the way if you don't want to know the solution to the mystery then skip the next three paragraphs about an hour into tenebrae the story takes an unexpected twist which properly handled could have proved ingenious we witness the murder of the serial killer himself by a man who we later discover is none other than the author peter neal he is insane apparently the murders then continue for the remainder of the film as neal decides it's time to settle some personal business involving his neurotic wife he is finally revealed to us as this second killer in the film's bloody climax but argento muffs the twist both technically and narratively you see we are supposed to be tricked into thinking that during this scene peter neal is actually an innocent witness who was crouching in the bushes nearby the whole time and spying on the killer's house but thanks to poor editing its had to believe neal could have murdered the killer anyway bad cutting puts the timing way out in other words he's almost in two places at once during this crucial scene we are also thrown a ridiculous red herring by the film's end you realise that for the sake of an alibi neal must have a nasty injury in this earlier scene to make it look like he was attacked by a fleeing assailant the injury he banged himself on the head with a bloody great rock thus the revelation of the hero as a killer and in the final scenes may still prove shocking but its all somewhat implausible by the time the end credits have rolled helpfully in the end we do learn that the bizarre flashbacks of personal humiliation and murder that have permeated the film belonged to neal all along but there too is a problem as the explanations offered for his motivations are psychologically fuzzy to say the least the story owes us a better understanding of franciosa's mind his concealed madness and his sudden murderous rampage tenebrae is also marred by annoying little inconsistencies for instance a teenage boy and girl leave a hotel room and minutes later we see the girl riding off on the back of a motorbike we would assume the rider is the same boy but it turns out to be some male character we aren't even introduced too that's careless filmmaking pure and simple why you may ask do i go on about the story's flaws because when it comes to visuals and set pieces argento is one of the most exciting filmmakers in the world take one of the extended scenes in tenebrae an upset girl wandering the streets at night needlessly taunts a guard dog to the point where almost unbelievably it jumps a high fence and chases her across town finally as she desperately seeks escape from this crazed canine she accidentally stumbles on the serial killer's lair it's an absolutely masterful sequence tense and exciting and communicating a wealth of information through visuals alone and that's exactly the kind of thing that makes the flaws so frustrating too often it seems argento's films as a whole are less than the sum of their impressive parts mind you if you love murder mysteries then tenebrae is still worth a look and if you're a fan of argento's unique style of giallo thriller then it's essential see the uncut widescreen version if you can and drink in some of the wonderful cinematography by luciano tovoli it's a stylish and quirky film despite the problem narrative a shame because it doesn't have to be that way take argento's more recent stendhal syndrome where with the aid of franco ferrini he fashioned a solid storyline without sacrificing any of his surreal weirdness or visual panache proof that he can do it if he tries
positive	as any sociologist will attest your childhood and the types of parents that you have will heavily influence your happiness as an adult parents that are supportive and environments that are nurturing will yield children who will embrace the values and norms that can allow them to live healthy and productive lives but if your upbringing is marred with violence hate and dysfunctionality then your journey towards a happy adulthood will be saddled with psychological obstacles almost too great to overcome explores how a man never truly escapes the grip of an unforgivingly nightmarish childhood the man in question is wade whitehouse nick nolte here is a man who is like any other citizen on the surface he is a productive member of the community and goes about his daily routine much like you and me but as you scratch beneath the surface something scary and evil begins to rear its ugly head we see that he is a person he has a hard time taking control of his emotions which usually gets the better of him he is quick to apologize for his actions and wants to be a gentle person but something is sparking a tendency towards violence he also has tremendous problems with relationships he is divorced and his only connection to love is his daughter but his bearish persona and stature alienates her he is visibly shaken by her rejection even though she says that she loves him his demeanor also puts his relationship with a local townsgirl sissy spacek at risk she tries to remain true to him and supportive but for women unlucky enough to attach themselves to this kind of person relationships will ultimately end like sentences ending with an exclamation point finally he is spiteful and vindictive as a rejected father he initiates a custody battle that seems hopeless as the town's only police officer he issues a speeding ticket to a man whose father has just died we can see that this is a man that is both afflicted and living with pain he is a prisoner and a slave to it he is moving towards a level of madness and insanity that defies comprehension what kind of force can move a man to the edge of his emotions and beyond the reach of people who genuinely care for him we learn that the answer is his father james coburn this is the kind of father that every son would be ashamed to have and that any woman would be afraid to meet he is an overbearingly misogynistic and frequent drunk who rules with an iron fist we see his tyrannical behavior through flashbacks to heighten the father's churlishness the flashbacks are shown as home video footage taken by a very frightened person very effective today wade's dad is quite elderly but still manages to instill fear into a grown man the influence that the father possesses is inescapable and its unsavory effect clamps down hard on the tortured wade the result is every son's nightmare becoming like the father that one has always dreaded to be this is a terrifically presented piece of psychological drama and nolte turns in a strong performance as a man whose pain seems to become a detriment as well as a necessity he's a hulking person who is still reduced to whimpers when in the presence of his father coburn displays heft as the bitter dad but it's most certainly not fare there's nothing light or fluffy about this film that may turn many moviegoers away but it's certainly worth noting that this is a drama showcasing nolte's and coburn's raw acting talents
positive	is evil dead ii a bad movie it's full of terrible acting pointless violence and plot holes yet it remains a cult classic nearly fifteen years after its release explaining why this movie stands out from others with similar plots including the original evil dead is extremely difficult what's it about people stranded in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere struggling to survive vicious attacks from a variety of ugly hairy wart covered monsters on i saw a movie just like that on monster vision last week why should i see it again evil dead ii is different it's funny funny to see people die are you sick or something maybe i am and maybe director sam raimi is as well to create such an enigma of a movie his unique execution is as sarcastic as subtle as disturbing as it is hilarious an example of raimi's odd approach a monster formerly protagonist ash's girlfriend of all people is cut in half by a chainsaw and a tidal wave of blood comes from the open wound sure it's but it is so that it is laugh out loud funny just try watching ash with a straight face as he unexpectedly is showered with ten gallons of blood staining his face and knocking him back a few feet the whole movie is like this watch ash get beat up watch ash defeat the monster watch ash get beat up again by another even zanier monster the more repetitive and unrealistic the movie gets the more amusing it becomes no matter how sick it may sound it is funny to watch bruce ampbell's ash get his butt kicked every five minutes and raimi takes advantage he has ash tormented by the head of his girlfriend by the body of an old lady even by his own right hand like the less superior idle hands we watch ash uncontrollably hit himself over and over again until he is forced to cut off his own body part but it doesn't end ash now has to fight his severed hand which now moves with the same celerity as thing from the addams family all of these events thrown at you from minute one with roller like camera movements at first become shocking then inexplicably funny raimi expects the audience to laugh and as the film progresses he seems to be enjoying himself even more by borrowing the classic mirror scene from the marx brothers' duck soup then bringing more characters into the picture to comically kill them off with a running time of less than an hour and a half raimi gets away with the impossible making a horror film with more gore than plot and intentionally more laughs than scares ending evil dead ii with an opening for the third film in the series raimi obviously had a lot of fun making this movie and couldn't wait to make it's sequel
positive	it's rather strange too have two computer animated talking ant movies come out in a single year but that is what disney and pixar animation s latest film represents while a bugs life isn't nearly as deep as it's predecessor dreamwork's antz it is just as funny a bug's life centers appropriately around the life of an ant named flik flik cutely voiced by newsradio's david foley hates sticking too tradition and attempts too find new ways of harvesting food and other task when one of his inventions causes the offering too be completely lost the leaders of the colony send him out on a mission too get him out of the way the offering is food that a vile group of grasshoppers force the ants too harvest for them the leader of the grasshoppers is hopper who is fiendishly voiced by oscar winner kevin spacey when the offering is lost hopper is very upset and he vows to return shortly too retrieve double the amount of food when the leaders of the ant colony send flik out on his mission they never dream he will be successful they just hope they can get him out of the way so they can harvest the extra food flik's mission is too hire some warrior bugs too fight off the grasshoppers when they return instead flik accidentally hires circus performing bugs who he mistakenly assumes are warriors when he returns with the the town is ecstatic until they find out the truth about their heroes a bug's life has animation that is simply stunning the sheer uniqueness of the day to day bug life is very imaginative together with the great voice acting this film is the perfect holiday family film its main weakness is that it couldn't beat antz to the theaters making it seem like stale material
positive	not since oliver stone's natural born killers has there been a movie this incendiary and not since david cronenberg has a mainstream director been this willing to repeatedly tiptoe the fine line between pointed social commentary and outright social irresponsibility while fincher's films have never suffered from a lack of shock value his major character killings in both alien and seven are fine examples fight club marks the distillation of his comedic sensibility see the game into something like a definitive statement jack norton acting as both narrator and protagonist is your typical cubicle clone whose disillusionment is amplified by a seemingly incurable insomnia on the offhand advice of a doctor he sits in on sessions for everything from blood parasites to testicular cancer here he meets bob marvin lee aday aka meat loaf a eunuch with profound gynecomastia strangely the release he finds while sobbing on bob's breasts allows him to sleep at night at least until a fellow tourist named marla singer carter comes along to ruin things for him forcing a grudging compromise that recalls monty python in its dark hilarity later he meets tyler durden pitt a soap salesman with a decidedly subversive outlook on life one night after his furnished condo explodes don't you'll just have to see the movie awright he is goaded by tyler into a fight and damned if it doesn't feel good it is pure raw existence a brief moment of clarity and purpose that makes his dreary workaday life pale in comparison he moves into tyler's squalid abandoned mansion and they form the titular organization an underground therapy group where men bond with savagery and very few rules the first two of which are don't talk about fight club armed with charisma and an attractive philosophy tyler assumes leadership of the burgeoning membership of slaves and mcemployees resentment creeps into jack's heart made worse by the fact that tyler is also regularly and noisily boffing the hated marla funded by a frivolous lawsuit tyler begins molding his devotees into an army dedicated to mischief and mayhem their initially juvenile pranks like pissing in food and putting spike belts on roads quickly evolve into something more like sedition and jack fears that things have gone sour it is after this point when you are plenty uncomfortable and wondering just how far fincher will go to say something original that the film uncorks a disappointing plot twist it is so and so conventional compared to what precedes that everything which follows including the ending becomes far less interesting it's a major though not fatal flaw and for a director as notoriously unpredictable as fincher it feels like a fight club is going to be misconstrued by a great many people in the early going it has a downright dangerous feel it seems to be saying that violence and civil disobedience are good for the soul and this is undoubtedly the message that a few moronic punks are going to take from it i'll be mightily surprised if imitation fight clubs don't spring up here and there and i'll be even more amazed if fincher isn't vilified for it by the same humorless that are currently after oliver stone they needn't bother because fight club is less a message movie than fincher's elaborate attempt at a joke tyler durden for all his dionysian allure is really nothing more than the logical and far less hypocritical extrapolation of all those gurus who constantly show up on oprah to preach their gospel of in this context the joke works but like the latest columbine joke some people will get it and enjoy a good laugh and others won't hopefully though their silly moral outrage won't spoil the joke for the rest of us
positive	plot a bunch of bad guys dressed up as elvis impersonators rob a vegas casino during a presley convention the boys eventually get together to split the money but as plans change occur dealing and wheeling goes down and the crew set up for the road who's on the up and up who's the real bad guy and who's gonna get to bang courteney cox are just a few of the questions which will be answered by the rest of this movie critique the funnest movie that i've seen so far this year it's got style it's got tough guys talkin' shite and it's got plenty of bullets to go around a definite burnin' adventure a guy's guy movie through and through and one that'll set your jollies to high if you dig on the rough stuff it's not very original it goes on for a little too long but costner and russell make it happen as two elvis lovers who don't stop till they more or less drop this movie's got some pretty intensive scenes one of the coolest robbery scenarios that i've ever witnessed featuring several elvises with guns a blazin' and the king's music playing in the background and a decent helping of sharp dialogue and funny moments in fact even though the cast is filled with many name actors as they might be for the most part most of them do their bit and succeed well in passing the torch onto the next victim but the true glue that holds this film together other than the spirit of elvis himself is costner and russell who play their badass characters to the t sure russell's been down this road before but costner surprised me with his nastiness i guess he's pissed at all the bombs that he's been in of late but he sure played a great unstable elvis impersonating robber here in the end the bottom line with this movie is having fun kickin' ass and making sure there's enough bubblegum around to chew afterwards and smoke if you got folks there is also this one really great scene between costner and a cop that'll have you crackin' up and lovin' it all at the same time the violent scenes in this movie are violent and the entire film is wrapped in a soundtrack that'll kick your arse from this end of the theatre to the next it should actually come to no surprise to anyone that the director of this movie comes from a music video background with plenty and i mean plenty of camera tricks cuts and edits but for this kind of flick it actually works the film is not perfect though it starts off with a pretty big bang but then pulls a way of the gun on us and slows the pace down somewhat in the middle while characters intermingle and disperse i was personally kept in the game despite some soft spots and enjoyed the overall ride for what it was as well and did i mention that courteney cox looked in the movie no okay well i just did i coulda done without her whole romance angle but to be honest it doesn't take up much of the film which is generally covered in blood explosions guts and elvis nods try to see how many inside connections to the king you can guess of course it's no secret that i am quite a big elvis fan myself so please take this whole review with that grain of salt in mind i also like these types of guy movies a lot and even though the film doesn't bring much originality to the table it does offer a pretty coherent story some nice twists and turns humor and a big ol' helping of coming straight from costner and russell's respective boots probably not a film for everyone but definitely for those who enjoy the guns the charismatic bad guys and a fun if entirely disposable adventure now see how many elvis songs i've used to pun my way through this phony review below the elvis songs also recommend this movie so whether you're lonesome tonight or any other night remember to pack the teddy bear with bullets leave your little sister at home bring your bossa nova baby and rock out of that jailhouse cause this movie ain't one to return to the sender i really beg of you whether you're stuck in the ghetto or crying in the chapel to slap this cinematic ring around your neck and love it tender and no suspicious minds either folks cause i got stung by this movie i mean it really shook me up and unless you're the devil in disguise himself i think you won't be able to help falling in love with this lucky charm either so don't be cruel don't turn away don't curl up with your latest flame tonite whether she be a woman or not and surrender to the hound dog of movies that is this film it's now or never folks trust me i did it my way and the heartbreak hotel of crappy movies that i'd seen so far this year is far behind me joblo has now officially left the sanity of his mind and this building thank you thank you very much where's joblo coming from get carter heat honeymoon in vegas payback reindeer games dogs way of the gun
positive	the commercials this looks like a neil simonesque tale with mary tyler moore baring her bra touted as the highlight instead it turns out to be a hilarious film running in high gear from beginning to end the concept is deceptively pedestrian an adult adopted son is looking for his biological parents and encounters eccentric characters along the way the movie demonstrates just how far a good script and actors can take a mundane idea the son and his wife take off on the search accompanied by a woman from the agency who located his parents following one dead end lead after another each funnier than the previous they eventually end up in new mexico with his real biological parents alan alda and lily tomlin it's difficult to condense the plot seemingly hundreds of scenes jump on top of each other without giving you a chance to recover from the last one without giving too much away one of the better episodes involves a gay federal alcohol tobacco and firearms agent attempting an arrest while tripping on lsd as his partner is upstairs licking the armpit of a woman while her husband is in the next room seducing their traveling companion and it's all done in a fairly clean almost well maybe not exactly family fare manner a grand cast tomlin alda moore ben stiller patricia arquette tea leoni george segal interacts in a seamless parade of laughs drawing from a more hyper woody allen style the film succeeds beyond expectations
positive	i'm not quite sure how best to go about writing this review i must admit that i was a little disappointed by barry levinson's political satire wag the dog but in retrospect this has less to do with the film itself than with false expectations i had going into it quite a few of the reviews i have read led me to believe that this film was absolutely hilarious and would make me laugh out loud the whole way through and it didn't do that they also led me to believe that it would deliver a vicious and attack on the way the american political media works and it didn't quite do that either a few of them even suggested that it would prove a worthy successor to stanley kubrick's dr strangelove in the tradition of political black comedy and it most definitely didn't do that that said wag the dog is actually a very clever satire on the shady manipulations of political figures and those who assist them the story revolves around the attempts of political spin doctor conread brean robert deniro to distract the american public from the accusations that the president who is up for in two weeks sexually harassed a young girl in the oval office the accusations the script suggests are probably untrue but as brean so pointedly puts it that isn't particularly relevant the scandal is likely to derail the president's campaign regardless of its truth or falsehood brean along with his assistant anne heche decide to contact hollywood producer stanley motss dustin hoffman to enlist his help in concocting enough propaganda and trickery to make it appear that the u s is going to war with albanian terrorists and thus propel the president to victory on a wave of patriotic fervor as i said wag the dog is not quite as hilarious as i had expected but there are some genuinely funny moments to be found here such as when in an echo of a familiar movie clich the camera pans out over an urban sunset to the strains of uplifting inspirational music then cuts to a studio to reveal that the singing is coming from a group of musicians whom motss has assembled to perform we have the right to fight for democracy another scene shows us how with modern editing equipment an actress running across a sound stage with a bag of potato chips can be turned into a frightened young girl and her kitten fleeing a terrorist attack on her village the most consistently effective gag revolves around the propaganda team's attempt to forge a fictional war hero out of sgt william old shoe schumann woody harrelson an officer who turns out to be a psycho of course not everything goes as planned the cia for example realizes what's going on and strikes a deal with the president's electoral opponent to report to the media that the fighting has ended forcing motss and brean to come up with a new angle on the supposed albanian crisis still even with the cia's involvement the film falls a little short in terms of making this scenario believable regardless of the official word from the president or the cia wouldn't the major media outlets have eastern european correspondents who could verify that there is in fact no fighting going on in albania the film never addresses this question nor does it show the reactions of the american public to the news of the apparent war except for a few scenes which border on the farcical such as when basketball fans litter the court with shoes in support of the aforementioned sgt schumann we are apparently meant to assume that everyone is buying it there was also an instance towards the end of the film in which one of motss's forced reinventions of the story seems to contradict what he and brean had been selling to the public thus far and could conceivably have given the game away with these plot holes wag the dog doesn't quite work as a satire of american politics but it does send up the mentality that might lead to these kinds of machinations in the first place brean and his advisors never seem concerned that what they are doing is unethical rather they worry about how convincing it will be and whether or not they have enough money to pull it off the film takes a decidely dark turn towards the end as we learn how far they are willing to go in order to keep the propaganda campaign a secret motss and his hollywood buddies meanwhile seem completely out of touch with the rest of the world and just see this undertaking as another creative project in fact one of the sources of conflict in the film is motss's increasing restlessness with the idea of not being able to take credit for producing the fake war in his mind it is the greatest work of art he has ever created i think it's fair to say that wag the dog underachieves a little bit more attention to the public reaction and tighter plotting might have made this into a film and a classic satire still the issue of an american president using war and patriotism to distract from scandals or domestic unpopularity is a very real one wag the dog takes the issue one step further and asks what if the war wasn't even real with this premise and the talented cast the film still delivers more consistently than most whatever its flaws
positive	the sheer horrific audacity of the nazi plan to exterminate the jews of europe is almost incomprehensible people may make documentaries about it for another hundred years and still not understand the organized methodical hatred five concentration camp survivors from the last days of world war ii tell their stories in the last days the first documentary from steven spielberg's survivors of the shoah visual history foundation the five interviewees are linked by their hungarian ancestry as the introduction explains even as germany started to lose the war the nazis stepped up their extermination of the jews in europe in hungary had the last big population of jews within germany's reach and they became the last target of hitler's final solution each of the five tells his or her story their stories are intercut chronologically starting from normal life in hungary they recall the nazi invasion of hungary being sent to work camps and their realization that they were actually in death camps they recall their horrible precarious lives in auschwitz and buchenwald the deaths of their family and friends their loss of hope each recalls his or her unfathomable eventual liberation and finally the last days shows their cathartic pained return to their old homes and the camps needless to say their stories are horrifying amazing and emotionally draining by themselves the stories would be forceful testaments but by cutting them in parallel their impact is multiplied by five the last days is a style documentary it's mostly pictures of people telling their stories intercut with period photographs and newsreel footage in this kind of movie it's almost impossible to get archival pictures from the same time and place being discussed but director james moll made a better effort than most at finding specific or at least relevant images to go with his subjects' narration the liner notes one of the many nice features of this dvd indicate that there is some historical footage in the last days it's not clear which scene it is it could be one of two that i hadn't seen before both powerful one is rare color footage shot by an american of piles of victims in cattle cars there is something jarring something unsettling about seeing the pictures in color when so much of the footage from world war ii is in black and white another segment shows walking skeletons survivors who are so starved that they hardly look human anymore there has been a glut of holocaust movies and i was skeptical that a new documentary would have anything new to say but by focusing on hungarian jews during the last days of the war moll told a specific part of the story in a new way in greater detail and i'm glad he did because his careful filmmaking stands up well compared to other movies on the same subject the transfer to dvd is rich and beautiful words for a holocaust documentary but some of the interviews take place in europe in late spring when skies are blue and trees are green also the movie was shot on film and not video so the richness and detail are impeccable the dvd's features are plentiful and there is a theatrical trailer for the movie which is a great introduction to the subject matter there are about fifty still photos both from the production crew and from the private collections of the survivors also the disc has two complete versions of the movie widescreen and full screen both on the same side one of the more interesting dvd features is an outtake segment for each of the survivors plus one for the crew you'd think outtakes would be inappropriate in a holocaust documentary but they're not bloopers instead they are solid moving segments that were probably cut from the film only for length one of them continues a confrontation that was only touched on lightly in the film renee firestone one of the five spoke on camera with dr hans m nch a german doctor who ran the medical clinic at auschwitz firestone was aggressive questioning the doctor about what his children thought the doctor was evasive and clearly uncomfortable another of the outtakes showed bill basch saying a prayer for his dead friends at auschwitz he ends his prayer by saying forgive me for surviving it's ambitious to shoot a documentary on film it's ambitious to make it on a subject that has saturated cable television and movies it's ambitious to make it years after the events it covers but the last days handles all these potential obstacles very well it's only fitting that the dvd with its wealth of interesting and relevant features would also be ambitious and successful
positive	it is easy to label something sentimental or tear jerking when one has not experienced the heartache of losing a child whether that may be in life or in death after having said that i will also say that this movie does all of the above very well one gets that choking sensation in the throat because of grief when one brother forgives another for a costly mistake or when a husband hugs his wife after a long estrangement there is no ocean no drownings and it does not conjure up memories of yet another ordinary people' in fact the only thing remotely connected to the ocean is probably tap water and the toilet flushing not that this literally happened in the movie so what are the lessons learnt don't take your children to class reunions don't leave them alone in the lobby not even for a second michelle pfeiffer once again plays the role of a wife and mother a trend that started with a thousand acres' and one fine day' my comment is that she is exceptionally fine strung in this movie so much so that when she has a nervous break down the veins on her temples bulge impressively whoopi golberg also puts in an understated performance playing a lesbian cop with a name that makes one want to reach for a lollipop lastly who are the ideal companions for this sort of movie my grandmother comes to mind
positive	i know that funnest isn't a word fun is a noun and therefore cannot be conjugated like an adjective but that's the word that came to me right after viewing chicken run no wonder this is the kind of movie that reduces you to childish expressions like that was the funnest movie i've ever seen so to hell with webster's chicken run is one of the funnest movies i've seen in a while i can't remember the last time i've seen anything funner the chickens at tweedy's farm are up to something living in a concentration atmosphere they are led by one plucky hen called ginger voice of julia sawalha who continually comes up with plans for escape and always gets caught subsequently spending day after day in the coal box one night a brash american rooster flies in over the fence calling himself rocky mel gibson famous flying rooster and circus performer rocky promises to teach the chickens how to fly and the situation grows more desperate as the nefarious mrs tweedy miranda richardson decides to abandon the farm's plan for a plan she orders a huge machine cackling chickens go in pies come out what sort of pies chicken pies of course nick park and his studio aardman animation produced three short films creature comforts the wrong trousers and a close shave the latter two were the second and third installments of a trilogy starring the delightful team wallace gromit a man and his dog famous for getting themselves into increasingly peculiar adventures part of what made the wallace films brilliantly entertaining was park's uncanny ability to make an old story seem new the wrong trousers for example pulled out a lot of old hitchcockian suspense tricks and a close shave owed a great deal of inspiration to classic detective stories but in the hands of park and his team the stories felt fresh and inspired and not the least bit contrived now teaming with peter lord park has created a similar creature in chicken run the plot is largely lifted from the great escape watch for a quick reference to the scene with some action sequences providing the excitement thing is the film doesn't feel like it's been lifted from somewhere else chicken run feels fresh alive like nothing else ever done part of it is the original idea who in the world came up with the idea to make a movie starring chickens park and lord milk the incongruity for all it's worth the characters treat their situation as if it were dead serious and to them it is but they're chickens so it's funny to us another thing that helps chicken run and most of park's films succeed is the animators' subtle way of giving nods to the very films they're cribbing there are references to the great escape obviously and stalag the chase sequence inside the chicken grinder parodies both raiders of the lost ark and indiana jones and the temple of doom there's even a nod to the blues brothers if you can believe it and the filmmakers even get in a little ribbing at the expense of their star voice actor taking a couple of very subtle jabs at mel gibson's nationality and film history the braveheart reference is a hoot if you catch it when you consider just how fine a line resides between a funny parody and a redundant one chicken run is downright brilliant in its execution consider this since july of last year i've seen dozens upon dozens of blair witch project parodies on television on the radio and online out of all those maybe one or two were amusing the rest tiresome why because once you got past the thought that they're parodying blair witch' movie most of the parodies had nothing to offer no insight no original idea no greater purpose they were only funny if you had seen the movie otherwise you got nothing conversely chicken run doesn't lean on its parodies the film references are never the sole focus of any scene if you've never seen indiana jones the chase sequence is still fun even if you have no idea who mel gibson is rocky remains an interesting character park lord and screenwriter karey kirkpatrick realize that an audience does not need a parody shoved in their faces before it's understood and as a result chicken run is filled with visual and verbal jabs that are never too obvious but not quite vague either enjoyment of this movie doesn't require knowledge of film history but if you've got it chicken run is that much richer the voice cast turns in uniformly lively performances and the characters they play are given so many subtle nuances that it's hard not to fall in love with every one of them ginger is perfect spunky and opinionated but with a soft heart that forbids her to leave her companions behind and julia sawalha known as the cute mousy girl on absolutely fabulous nails it she has warm human chemistry with gibson whose rocky hides his personal doubt under a brash veneer the characters' inevitable romance doesn't feel contrived but sweet poor mr tweedy tony haygarth suspects the chickens are organizing in some way but his limited intellect prevents him from figuring things out and his overbearing wife certainly isn't any help jane horrocks delivers a lovely voice characterization as tragically optimistic babs a hen that runs away with most of the best all while perpetually crocheting a sweater and two rats that seem to have walked straight out of a monty python sketch nearly steal the show during the lively central sequence they even come up with an inspired riff on something that's baffled scholars and theologians alike for decades the chicken vs egg dilemma one might have expected this inevitable joke to come off as wearisome but as with most of chicken run it comes as a delightful surprise the film manages to cross all barriers it should be accessible to both children and adults brits and yanks rats and chickens the animation is remember that this was all done the way with actual humans moving clay figurines around on a tiny set bit by painstaking bit and you see just how truly remarkable chicken run really is this movie possesses that same quality that makes pixar studios' animation great precise and unwavering attention to detail as in such family fare as a bug's life or toy story chicken run has something to offer in nearly every frame certainly a passive viewer can enjoy it as a straightforward story with a worthwhile moral and some surprisingly touching scenes but a active attentive viewers will enjoy it even more because they'll catch all the details anyway the movie's just a boatload of fun funnest damn movie i've seen all year
positive	capsule a short punchy action sequel to the two dinosaur films made by steven spielberg joe johnston directs a straightforward story of an excursion back to the island of the dinosaurs it lets us see some new dinosaurs is that an oxymoron and gives us a nice and generally reasonably written adventure the film is neither ambitious nor pretentious i had a good time low to here goes my credibility this is a film on which i expect to be in a minority i liked the third jurassic park film i even liked the second jurassic park film in a lot of ways jurassic park the lost world was a creative braiding together of michael crichton's novel the lost world arthur conan doyle's novel the lost world and the classic silent film version of the doyle was an adventure as doyle said for the boy who's half man or the man who's half boy that is what all the jurassic park films are expecting them to give the viewer insights into the human condition is like expecting your car to vacuum your house the classic adventure films like gunga din or king solomon's mines had characters also jurassic park iii is an all out adventure on an island inhabited by dinosaurs the characters are a little more complex than they at first appear to be and even that is a little more complex than i was expecting some of the characters who start out looking stupid and useless prove to be neither as the film proceeds that degree of complexity combined with those very realistic looking dinosaur effects is just about as much as i require i feel i got my money's worth the story opens with eric played by trevor morgan and friend parasailing near the forbidden island of isla sorna off costa rica this was the research island where the dinosaurs were created for the now defunct jurassic park they hope no doubt to get a look at the island's dinosaurs from a safe height the height is safe but driving the boat in the water is not the two soon find themselves in trouble and have to ditch their parasail onto the island where they do indeed get a better look at the dinosaurs than they had intended flash to the united states and someone is offering to fund paleontologist alan grant sam neill in his research if he will go and fly over isla sorna and act as a guide he has said that no force on earth or heaven could get him back near real dinosaurs but again money convinces him to drop what he is doing and go doing the convincing is a wealthy and eccentric couple william h macy and tea leoni who has been just about everywhere else in the world and wants the adventure of seeing real dinosaurs they too plan to see the island from a safe height grant is relieved to learn he will fly over this island at a safe altitude just this once right guess what happens next probably functions better as a sequel than first it has alan grant and ellie sattler laura dern back rather than the much less appealing ian malcolm sattler has a much smaller part in but is still present to tie this story to the first curiously each film seems to arrange to have a signature scene with characters holding on to some large metal object that is about to fall some great distance one thing that does not quite fit with the earlier films is just as grant discovers that raptors may be able to talk to each other suddenly they seem to be doing it all the time they did not appear to be conversing in the previous films of course these raptors look a little different also so perhaps they are a different related species not only are they more intelligent than in the past films they are also more sympathetic in this story they are not just killing machines they have reasonable motives for what they do beyond nutrition this time around they may be a little too anthropomorphized each new film in the series introduces us to some new dinosaurs of course in this film a major threat is from a spinosaurus not as common or as popularly known as a tyrannosaurus but larger and presumably more nasty it has a crocodile's head and the body that looks like a dimetrodon walking upright perhaps as an economy measure or just to create a mood the visual effects team frequently obscures our view of the dinosaurs sometimes they just move too fast to see occasionally darkness or fog obscures our vision a few times we get unconvincing matte shot particularly of the laboratory but there is less money on the screen in terms of dinosaur effects than in the two previous films the musical score by don davis borrows heavily from john williams's score for the first film joe johnston who directs already has to his credit two very good films i recommend the rocketeer and october sky a team including alexander payne and jim taylor known for election writes the screenplay the film they have made is a long way from great cinema but it still is fun if you get a thrill from seeing what look very much like live dinosaurs alive today the film is for you i rate it a on the to scale and a low on the to scale
positive	just look back two years ago at the coen brothers' comedic gem the big lebowski change the actors take away the bowling alley add a record store and you've got high fidelity or maybe the other way around since nick hornby's novel high fidelity came first either way it's been done before a trio of losers cracking jokes and complaining about their failed romances yet it remains consistently funny why is this maybe because you know your life is much better than this you know these guys are more pathetic than you are and you know its ok to laugh at them because they're fictional director stephen frears possibly not intentionally has created a movie that makes you feel good about yourself and even that ostensibly no good uncle who watches television twenty four hours a day when watching high fidelity expect to laugh at someone else's pain realize what you are laughing at and then laugh again i laughed at dick todd louiso the shy timorous steve buscemi character of lebowski who seems to know what he is talking about but either can't put it into words or is harshly rejected by his friends i laughed at the john goodman character barry jack black an exact replica of the comic bookstore owner on the simpsons pudgy egotistic and obnoxious at the same time and i laughed at rob john cusack the jeff bridges type whom the story revolves around rob is the character easiest to relate to but he is nothing like you at all he uncontrollably cheats and lies then is unable to realize why he can not hold onto a woman and like his other miserable friends pop music is where he inevitably goes for comfort he spends the afternoons at his job quizzing his coworkers with obscure trivia or listening to new music and either deriding it or praising it whatever human emotions the clash aretha franklin and bruce springsteen records hold rob and co grasp them and help fill voids in their social lives rob has built an extensive collection in his record store as well as his home and he organizes them depending on what mood he is in during this confused stage of his life in which the movie focuses on rob is trying to cope with numerous rejections over the years by visiting past girlfriends and eventually asking why they dumped him but these aren't any girlfriends these girls made the all time top five break ups in the history of rob rob's incessant use of lists show how pop music has played a major role in his life the plot in three words is women and music the approach director stephen frears takes by having the charismatic rob speak directly to the camera is very effective it gives high fidelity a quickly paced informal structure adjectives which perfectly parallel rob's own lifestyle it also helps open the viewer's eyes as to how annoying barry is jack black steals the show with a hilariously realistic performance as a total sleaze ball just listening to him speak for five minutes makes the audience immediately sympathetic for rob who must work with him every day of the week what frears does so well is that he makes us feel sorry for rob while laughing at his misfortunes john cusack plays his character convincingly but it is the strong supporting cast consisting of big stars and character actors that really defines rob now instead of rob just talking to the camera after he explains something the remaining cast members physically and humorously create what he is trying to say the only problem with high fidelity is that it doesn't end when it should have ended instead the movie goes on for a torturous twenty minutes that seem a lot longer than that also bruce springsteen is completely wasted in a brief cameo halfway through the movie high fidelity is a cheerful old fashioned comedy with a voluminous soundtrack and as many laughs i just hope hollywood keeps creating losers on the big screen they make everyone look and feel great
positive	plot a human space astronaut accidentally falls upon a planet ruled by apes he is taken prisoner along with some other humans and tries his best to escape his simian captors oh yeah and did i mention that the apes can talk kewl critique despite this film not looking like a tim burton movie or its lead human character showing any signs of being a human being himself i did find myself generally entertained throughout most of this film and do recommend it as fun summer fare although the thing that sets this movie apart from all others is definitely its incredible ape jobs and characterizations i mean i was completely convinced that every single one of these apes was for real i also have to give it up to all of the actors inside the costumes not only for waking up at three in the morning every day to get slobbered all over them for hours but for coming through their costumed exteriors and selling us their characters on the screen as well i especially enjoyed bonham carter's performance who i believed to be the most developed character in the entire film human or ape and tim roth's bad guy who chewed up scenery and oozed evil in every scene in which he took part i liked the beginning of the film the whole once wahlberg got into the village the escape and most of the fight scenes but once things got out into the deserted area and the final battle sequence i kinda lost a bit of my interest i was much more intrigued by the interactions between the characters and the whole idea of human beings as animals then i was about the end battle sequence which just seemed a bit too typical for this kind of film i also hated the kid character who just got on my nerves and didn't really care for the way that the battle sequence was resolved i won't ruin it here but c'mon guys you coulda thought of something a little more plausible than that no but the thing that held this movie back more than anything else was its lead character his cold demeanor and the zero chemistry that he shared with either one of his love interests this dude didn't seem to give a rat's ass about anyone but himself and i ultimately didn't really care about what happened to him either now i'm not sure if this was the fault of the actor or the script but the film suffered because of it visually the movie was also nice to look at especially the apes but i definitely expected greater coolness from tim burton the surprise ending that highlighted the original planet of the apes film back in felt a little tacked on here and despite being interesting didn't really make all that much sense to me unless you look at it from a sequel point of view so overall i loved the whole feel of the planet the apes that ruled it the manner in which they treated the humans screamed shouted and reverted the entire evolution chain but didn't appreciate the film's lack of human character development why was kris kristofferson even in this movie and the fact that its lead male and female humans were just plain boring but i would still recommend this film as a fun summer movie with laughs creepiness and a really cool premise ps for anyone who has seen the original i cannot believe that they didn't at least bring back the scene in which the lead human character in this case mark wahlberg goes nuts at the world in which he's suddenly been thrust this is a mad house type of thing the guy in this film barely seems to be put off by the fact that he's surrounded by apes who can speak english where's joblo coming from the arrival battlefield earth godzilla instinct mission to mars pitch black planet of the apes sleepy hollow
positive	disaster films have a tendency to be very formulated and very cliched to see a disaster film with actual originality or at least a decent plot twist would definitely be a welcome surprise unfortunately folks it's not likely dante's peak is cliched and at times corny but also pretty decent to be honest i wasn't very interested in seeing this film and word of mouth as well as several reviews didn't make it sound promising so i was pleasantly surprised that to find that this movie wasn't bad at all it's pretty run of the mill but it's not something i would say is merely ok to watch in case you don't know dante's peak is about a volcano and the city which lives in it's shadow dante's peak who would've guessed eh pierce brosnan plays the volcanologist sent to study the volcano and perhaps more by hunch than actual scientific proof is determined that the volcano will be arupting in the very near future due to the lack of more substantial evidence nobody warns the small town and when they finally do it's in the middle of the town meeting that the volcano finally blows brosnan all around good guy will of course save the day   or at least the mayor of dante's peak linda hamilton naturally the two will become infatuated with one another if you think i just ruined a plot development you haven't seen very many movies there's also the virtually neccessary kids and pet dog to tug at your heart strings and of course the kids or the dog at least one or the other will do something heroic   but hey i don't want to ruin all the surprises if there was a part of you that was hesitating seeing dante's peak merely because it was rumored to be a waste of time i urge you to watch it and decide for yourself it's not brain food but it succeeds at what it's meant to be   an enjoyable suspenseful movie about the fury mother nature can unleash
positive	in brief best bleak comedy film since heathers full of wonderful swipes at the fifteen minutes of fame mentality that feeds so much of modern american pop culture go see it so i prepared for this film by watching a moving interview on hard copy with pam smart the new hampshire media teacher who was convicted of engineering the death of her husband back in the hard copy diane diamond asked smart what she thought about nicole kidman's fictionalized portrayal of her in the new film to die for smart replied that she thought kidman's character came off as a dumb vicious tramp and she thought that the publicity the new movie generates might just hurt her chances in her latest court appeal smart was convicted and given a life sentence for her part in the murder of her husband smart's got a point it wouldn't be the first time that the public took the better scripted and movie version of an event as the absolute truth over the duller and far less artistic real life version however given a choice between the mass media of the real event and the fictionalized movie i would definitely opt for the later real murderers rarely have dialogue as witty as what buck henry has written for this movie and smart while pretty and alluring is no match for the cinematic charms of nicole kidman to die for begins in a town called little hope new hampshire the archetypal dry and intellectually barren american suburb the story concerns the ambitious suzanne stone and how she tackles the obstacles between her and her life long ambition of being tv of course one of those little obstacles turns out to be her dull and unambitious husband larry played by matt dillon but with a little imagination some charm and raw sex appeal and a rather novel approach to junior achievement our heroine manages to overcome the in her life at least temporarily kidman triumphs in the trashy role of suzanne i have never really been all that fond of this actress but she shows a wonderful flair for comedy in this picture her portrayal of the incredibly shallow and dumb femme fatale resonates kidman knows a role when she sees it and she plays the suzanne as the ultimate career driven from hell she is ably abetted by wonderfully demented comic dialogue which kidman delivers in a unselfconsciously funny way at one point suzanne is expounding on her knowledge of world events to her future husband and you know she knowingly exclaims gorbachev would still be the leader of russia or whatever if he had just had that ugly purplish thing removed from his head her husband beams at suzanne's profound knowledge of world politics and then proudly proclaims that this qualifies her to be the next barbara walters this is very close to pop culture bashing heaven folks the other standout performance in the film is delivered by joaquin phoenix he plays jimmy a burned out teenager who becomes addicted to suzanne's sexual favors kidman's character vapid though she is is a sort of suave beacon of success to jimmy and his lost friends russell and lydia winningly portrayed by casey affleck and alison folland phoenix looks like the very embodiment of slackerhood as envisioned by tabloid tv of course his jimmy has the dead eyes and demeanor of a kid who knows that he ain't going anywhere ever phoenix reacts to the sexy suzanne with a sort of obsessed amazement and he makes us believe that a loser character like jimmy really would be willing to kill for someone like suzanne someone who actually noticed him gus van sant drugstore cowboy my own private idaho direction is he keeps the pacing in this snapping along van sant rightly keeps the focus of this movie on the amoral suzanne and doesn't stop to proselytize the audience about the rightness or wrongness of her actions van sant trusts his material and trusts his audience to it' without stopping to explain what is funny about this story the screenplay by buck henry is absolutely great and includes some of the best bleakly comic lines i've heard since heathers henry's story is a blast against the shallowness of the american media and the mindlessness of fame yet the screenplay delivers this sharp message by focusing on just a few characters henry ably manages to avoid diluting his story by aiming at too many targets and the result is a crisp and funny danny elfman did the original music for this movie and he delivers another eccentric loopy score that strongly echoes his themes for edward scissorhands either film score would make wonderful background music for halloween parties a wonderful production well worth your seven bucks to die for a columbia pictures release directed by gus van sant written by buck henry score by danny elfman starring nicole kidman matt dillon joachin phoenix based on the book by joyce maynard rated r for language and mature themes respect the r not for under rating stars go see it
positive	i relish those rare opportunities when a talented screenwriter can make me feel like a fool i spent the first hour of forces of nature slowly stewing over its grim attitude towards marriage grousing to myself about its transparently planes trains and automobiles plot machinations and waiting for the inevitable hollywood denouement this was a mass market romantic comedy after all a genre which has been taken over by teenagers and even in its best days worked hard to perpetuate the romance infatuation paradigm then marc lawrence did something wonderful something which made the entire film click into place he showed me a comic love story about it certainly didn't look that way from the outset which introduces ben holmes ben affleck at his bachelor party surrounded by friends and family whooping over his last night of freedom ben loves his fiancee bridget maura tierney but the pronouncements of everyone around him have him questioning the meaning of this death do you part business then on an flight from new york to his wedding in savannah ben meets sarah lewis sandra bullock a woman with a string of failed careers and relationships behind her as transportation troubles thwart them at every turn ben and sarah begin a southward journey in which their connection grows ever stronger ben seeing in sarah the chances he's never taken and sarah seeing in ben the stability she's never had forces of nature gets off to a solid enough start setting up the characters and the situations with plenty of witty dialogue ben is an ideal role for affleck's charm and he plays the straight man without forced exasperation sandra bullock for her part is more loose and appealing than she has been in her last films combined avoiding her recent habit of playing any semblance of character depth as moping the two performances part of a great cast are effective and connected from the start yet the script's apparent sympathy with the marital horror stories ben hears makes it difficult to enjoy the romance completely lively and funny though it may be on a consistent basis forces of nature leaves a bitter taste that feels like the kicker is that those acidic anecdotes serve exactly the opposite purpose leading to a surprisingly emotional resolution forces of nature isn't about a man developing a fear of commitment it's about a man learning what commitment means learning that it's not what he thought it was lawrence's script feints and dodges before reaching its happy ending an ending which is happy because people make the choices that make the most sense earlier scenes that might have felt like throwaways take on more resonance and that bitter taste sweetens into something fresh and genuine though one too many plot contrivances keep ben and sarah together through the film and they do exchange the obligatory mutual character analysis of bickering screen couples forces of nature wraps up so perfectly that you'll end up remembering the humor and the simple wisdom that is provided you're not put off by the ridiculously busy direction of bronwen hughes for a brisk romantic comedy forces of nature comes loaded with some of the most scenes of the year teetering shots low or high angles sweeping pans occasionally the approach works with cinematographer elliot davis creating a world of fantasy romance far more often hughes refuses to let a scene be what it is covering it with flourishes so thick you almost can't find what's underneath a script this smart and mature deserved a more restrained director but even hughes' excesses can't spoil this unique concoction forces of nature may restore your faith in romantic comedy as something with the power to enchant something that can make you happy to be proved wrong when you expect a tale for and about adolescents
positive	warning this review contains some spoilers for the film if you haven't seen the film yet proceed with caution nutshell a relevant intelligent suspenseful drama still powerful today even after the end of the cold war usa drama minutes screenplay by walter bernstein based on the novel by eugene burdick and harvey wheeler produced by max e youngstein directed by sidney lumet review by jamahl epsicokhan the most ironic aspect of nuclear war is that it doesn't have a winning side and a losing side in a nuclear confrontation everybody loses and the aftereffects have devastating effects that impact the entire the world survives the perhaps the only real to avoid war at all costs this is the theme of sidney lumet's a fictional drama based on the novel by eugene burdick and harvey wheeler takes place during the heart of the cold war the actual film was released two years after the cuban missile crisis when the united states and the soviet union were in static discord over an issue that can be summarized in a single word communism the premise centers around a combination of accidents and operation flaws five u s bombers carrying nuclear warheads are ordered to set a routine course for moscow after an unidentified aircraft is spotted heading toward america the unidentified aircraft turns out to be a commercial airliner but a mechanical failure strikes the military base that commands the bombers suddenly out of contact and with standing orders to remain on course until receiving new directives the bomber pilots cannot be recalled and they proceed to moscow with the intention of destroying it with a nuclear strike a great deal of plot follows various characters as they attempt to devise ways of stopping the u s bombers from reaching russia's any cost the plot is compelling and the story creates urgency and dread by painting the grimmest of worst case scenarios the reality sets in quickly as one attempt to turn the bombers after another fails general bogan frank overton taking orders directly from the president of the united states himself henry fonda is fate of the world lies in the hands of an automated system that may not be stoppable simply because the creators of the war machines were too efficient in their task to make a situation winnable the events in are fascinating because they're anything but predictable but the real reason works is because it understands more about nuclear war than what exists within the confines of its plot a key ingredient to the film is its ability to create an ongoing polemic about nuclear war communism the cold war and the united states' role in all of it most of this is through the film's use of the character groeteschele walter matthau an arrogant civilian theorist of nuclear weapons use who incidentally is on the president's advising staff for analyzing the statistical plausibility of waging a nuclear war many of the film's most pointed messages arise from discussions where groeteschele is one of the key voices early in the film he hosts a dinner party where he explains the importance of strategy in a nuclear assault to minimize casualties what's the difference between million and million dead a guest asks impatiently forty million groeteschele responds wryly the problem with groeteschele's mindset is that he believes nuclear combat to be a viable method of war the only difference to him between nuclear armageddon and conventional warfare is the raw data and the casualty totals groeteschele realizes that these weapons can destroy the world several times over yet his answer to the arms race is not to slow down and try to cool the situation off as general black dan o'herlihy has often recommended on the to groeteschele that would lead to russia having more nuclear weapons than the u s which would clearly put america at a disadvantage such a stance was perhaps the central paradox and misguided practice of the arms race clearly sees it as one of the central issues of the cold war and likewise it becomes a central theme in the film why continue to build such machines of mass destruction while already possessing enough of them to destroy the world several times over is it wise is it even logical no not really although is more about the issue of nuclear weapons than it is about the political ramifications of communism there is a scene in the film that deals with communism in an intentionally superficial sort of way again this is achieved through groeteschele who is easily the film's most important character in terms of the significance in addition to providing the central war voice that the film warns against he also makes key remarks about communists that show just how much fear and resentment people of the period were prone to when it came to communism the context the film uses suggests that this hatred was often glib one of groeteschele's logical trains of thought ventures so far into fantasy theoretical prediction that it's merely absurd he labels the average marxist an unfeeling calculating machine that will do whatever it takes to preserve itself groeteschele takes it so far as to say that if the u s drops the warhead on moscow the soviets will instantly surrender for to retaliate would invite that would further destroy russia's home must be preserved at all costs groeteschele seems to forget these people are human beings with emotions general black quickly reminds him that the soviets would attack out of any normal person would the irony here is groeteschele's own mechanical theorizing he is so quick to judge the enemy that he doesn't even realize his own seemingly programmed thought patterns once the film makes it evident that turning the u s bombers will be impossible the question becomes what the consequences of destroying moscow will be just how will the soviet union's leader react and what can the president do to convey his best intentions just how does one pass off the deaths of millions of people as an mishap with the help of his translator buck larry hagman the president negotiates at length with the soviet leader in scenes that prove amazingly taut and powerful in their simplicity with lumet's long takes of fonda and hagman in the same frame exchanging the dialog between the president and the soviet leader without getting into too much detail i will say that the compromise they ultimately reach is very costly yet necessary and as sensible as possible under the circumstances that is as sensible as a nuclear incident can probably be it does accomplish what it must it avoids an war something that simply isn't possible because of its consequences dramatically the ending is quite powerful and the use of o'herlihy's character as the symbolic matador providing a bookend to the film by ending the story while tying into his dream sequence from the film's opening is particularly appropriate is a production of a major hollywood studio released by columbia pictures and it has the structure of a suspense thriller that one might expect from a hollywood film nevertheless under lumet's direction and walter bernstein's intelligent adaptation of burdick's and wheeler's novel the film continues to have a lasting effect even after the events on screen have unfolded the film often warns that the automation of war is something that may make nuclear holocaust an unintentional consequence of such mass arming but it was the conscious human choice to initialize this automatic arming that also finds dangerous in retrospect the arms race seems to be one of the most puzzling exercises in futility of the century it's just fortunate that both sides were finally able to come to their senses and slow down rather than continuing groeteschele's dangerous approach of speeding up and causing a possible meltdown
positive	andrew lloyd webber's musicals preferably his early work with lyricist tim rice present a musical which is totally unlike any musical before its time webber and rice do not subscribe to the gaity of such musicals as oklahoma or the slapstickness of shows like a funny thing happened on the way to the forum they instead tackle hot issues from our past and view them differently and pack them together with redundant catchy music as well as thoughtful lyrics like jesus christ superstar which examined the rise and fall of jesus in his last days from a fame perspective in the cool tune superstar a dead judas comes back from the dead to ask jesus why he didn't spread his message wider evita takes an inventive stance on its topic this time being the famed wife of argentinian dictator juan per n eva who slept her way to the top and became famous chiefly because she got attention much like the woman playing her madonna although i think madonna did rise to the top for her musical talent among other things evita deals with the rise and fall of eva per n a woman who captured the heart of the nation after marrying juan jonathan pryce then died at the young age of creating an international stir of mourning not unlike that of princess di the two do share a bit in common although it wasn't like di slept to the top webber and rice sure chose bizarre topics for their musicals but they always have a point for doing it here they wish to expose her for what she is but still show that despite all of her many drawbacks her lying and covering up for her fascist husband but show that she was still a good woman with fairly good intentions and her death was very sad it's also a musical with almost no words not unsung the film plays like a rock opera much like their jesus christ superstar with many giant musical sequences just like the old musicals even if they do possess very intelligent lyrics which create not only an intellectually enlightening experience but also a very entertaining one after all this is a musical and webber's musicals never undermine this they are a balance of energy and intellectual depth walking on a fine line between the both and never stumbling on either side this is why the beginning of evita is kind of a okay it is a i'm not saying the opening moments are bad because they're pretty good but what comes after is a lifeless and totally unrewarding sequence where she cons a singer jimmy nail into taking eva to buenos aires after a stand in the musical it's a fun energetic sequence culiminating in the show stopper buenos aires which is also lifeless then a punch is pulled as we see eva being screwed over by the singer instead of her leaving him where she ends up singing the sad tune another suitcase in another hall which was meant for a later character screwed over by eva the portrayal of eva in the beginning is too soft seeming like parker and oliver stone who adapted it for the screen are afraid to present her for what she is even while it's being narrated by a hater of eva's the omnipotent antonio banderas who presents her in a negative light for a while it looks like alan parker can't pull it off however the film pulls itself together in a flash and after that song is over and the giddily nihilistic song goodbye and thank you where we see eva go through a long line of lovers who help her ascend is magnificent darkly comical and just gleeful from this point on the film is hypnotic satisfying and satirical no more punches are thrown and the basic outline of the original musical are in tact we see eva woo and marry juan get him out of jail rise to stardom falter a bit come back and then gradually die of cancer i think it was because of cancer more importantly many of the themes from the musical carry on with this as well as some reconnassaince work juan who is pretty underwritten in the musical is given some extra scenes and exposed as what he was for eva an accessory a muted scene where he tries to visit her respective room but is shunned allows us to learn more about juan and understand his sadness more than we did before the goodbye and thank you number on the film shows eva trying to cover up for the horrible government by doing cheap and petty things which wooed a nation and saved a government even while it left the nation's people downtrodden but despite this the nation still loved eva and when she slipped into death the world mourned her because she was a star that's when our narrator ch comes out to show that she wasn't the great woman she really was and expose her fame describing this character is difficult mainly because he has no real realistic background he's said to be based on the revolutionary ch guevera but the two probably could have never met like they do in the film but he serves as a perspective on eva but even his perspective can't help us from feeling bad when eva dies a pathetic death alan parker no stranger to bizarre musicals he's done fame the committments bugsy malone and pink floyd the wall the latter which is absolutely brilliant nails the film exposing everything for what it is we cry for evita at the end because we feel we should by the way it is presented his direction is manipulative for a reason to show the mourning for what it is and there is energy throughout with lots of bright colors and scenes which are cinematically entertaning as well as enriching and deep such as the balcony scene where she sings don't cry for me argentina and her death sequence which is poignant becuase of how sad it is madonna's golden globe winning performance is much like the movie starts kinda downhill then goes up quickly remaning there for the rest of the film at the beginning she looks like she's too busy concentrating on her singing to act but she eventually gets it right though never really getting the presence of say patti lupone who did the role in its american premiere back in the late her death though is brilliant her singing could be better though i know she took lessons to improve her range and all but it still sounds like she's trying to hard she sounds way too soft in several places where she should be comanding like patti lupone i heard her sing on an old evita cd and you could just feel her stage presence without even seeing her but it's generally very good although not up to the brilliance the role really requires antonio banderas who is almost like a guilty pleasure these days i'm one of the few people who thinks he rocks is extremely comanding in his performance presenting a lovable narrator his singing is very good though nothing compared to the original mandy patinkin he does have a pretty good singing voice and a great range and jonathan pryce is pretty awesome although very brief at times in his role as juan seeming to put on a poker face for his melancholy facade although it gets off to a rocky start rocky polite for what it really is it soon picks up and becomes a wonderully poignant musical like the other musical released in woody allen's everyone says i love you it's a reminder that the hollywood musical may be dead but it can come back every now and then for a brief performance
positive	there's more to a quilt than fabric and patchwork design has its own unique story or stories to tell in how to make an american quilt the first hollywood release from australian director jocelyn moorhouse proof we come to understand how the tales of the seven makers imbue their creation with passion and vitality all the sorrows joys longings sufferings and loves of these women are sewn into their quilt and as their bittersweet memories are given expression one young woman applies these lessons of the past to her own uncertain future motion pictures are filled with male bonding rituals how to make an american quilt presents a distinctly feminine alternative the quilting bee consists of seven members sisters gladys ann bancroft and hy ellen burstyn sophia lois smith a woman known for frightening children emma jean simmons the timid wife of a perpetually unfaithful man constance kate nelligan who has been having an affair with emma's husband anna maya angelou the leader of the group and marianna alfre woodard anna's daughter the project they're busy with is the wedding quilt for hy's granddaughter finn winona ryder who has just become engaged she's spending the summer with hy and gladys and away from her fiance to decide whether a lifelong commitment is really what she wants and whether it's better to marry a friend or a lover one of the greatest pleasures of how to make an american quilt comes from watching an array of fine performances by an impressive ensemble cast from winona ryder ann bancroft ellen burstyn and maya angelou to minor players like rip torn claire danes and kate capshaw this film is overflowing with realized talent the performances are good enough in fact to cover up many of the script's weaknesses how to make an american quilt is basically an unremarkable if affecting tale of love across the sort of truncated american version of the joy luck club with a dash of fried green tomatoes added there are probably too many characters so instead of really getting to know a few of them we are presented with quick glimpses into a single defining event in each of their lives we learn about the root of the smoldering resentment between gladys and hy and are told the reasons why emma stays with her husband and sophia is so irascible there are other episodes as well the love of anna's life marianna's soul mate and a look at the reasons why constance entered into an affair with her friend's husband the sum total of these tales is meant to provide the framework for finn's story whether to go forward with her marriage or dally with a hunky stranger there is no emotional epiphany in how to make an american quilt the stories are all but it's difficult to really connect with the moments pass so quickly while we certainly feel something for each of the eight principals our emotional investment is tenuous there isn't enough depth to pull the viewer in all the way and many of the personalities and relationships feel formed like a quilt with patches missing to put it bluntly while i enjoyed watching this film it didn't do much for me on the whole how to make an american quilt is a drama that has a lot to say about love passion and monogamy in relationships finn's segment is by far the most compelling because she's the focal point her actions are shaped by everyone else's experiences the other patches of this american quilt are successful only to varying degrees if there's a disappointment here it's that the script doesn't have more resonance but the privilege of seeing such a fine cast in top form allows a viewer to enjoy this picture even if the story is somewhat conventional
positive	mimi leder is probably best known for her stunning work as a director of the hit er her mast famous episode love's labour lost dealt with the ordeal of doctor mark greene as he tried his best to save the life of a pregnant mother and her child the way she moved the camera and created tension throughout every scene was amazing there was more excitement and adrenaline rushed suspense than just about any of hollywood's big blockbuster movies so it's only natural that leder would get to direct her very own hollywood blockbuster and i have to say after a shaky beginning she does not disappoint peacemaker deals with the theft of nuclear weapons by terrorists which is obviously nothing new the first half hour goes into detail way too much detail about how the weapons are stolen despite a few good images including a train collision and a very impressive explosion none of this was very coherent it's long and drawn out and i would have settled with a more implausible beginning that would have moved the story along better once george clooney and nicole kidman enter the picture it begins to take off george clooney is an air force colonel with connections all over the world he has a nice sarcastic wit and the rough edges that you expect from most clooney characters nicole kidman is head of a white house team on weapons smuggling there is the usual flirtatious banter between the two but that is dispensed with quickly the story takes clooney and kidman across the globe trying to figure out who has the weapons and where they are going with them clooney goes through bouts of sarcasm frustration determination and revenge while kidman works against her own insecurity and this is when leder starts to show her true stuff she starts us off with a nifty little car chase as an appetizer then we get clooney doing heroics in and out of a helicopter then that leads us to the brilliant final showdown on new york city's crowded streets and a madman with a nuke walking among them mimi leder is a natural at creating suspense she reminds me of wolfgang petersen in her ability to make the most routine action sequences exciting and breathtaking nicole kidman is an intelligent female action hero you're not gonna find her falling down so clooney can come back to save her george clooney is a real movie star many of you may have hated him as batman but this guy is for real he has a natural screen presence and an ingratiating personality he'll be around for a while dreamworks is off to a satisfying start with peacemaker
positive	i have to say it tim burton's retelling of planet of the apes is more fun than a barrel of monkeys ok that's off my chest no more monkey puns i promise seriously though planet of the apes is one summer outing filled with thrills action adventure wit and bits of funny dare i say monkey business i know i know i promised and for those film buffs who are fond of the original burton's version includes a couple tips of the hat to that movie mark wahlberg stars as capt leo davidson a pilot whose ship gets drawn into a magnetic field and hurled into the future he crash lands on a planet where apes are the dominant species and humans are hunted captured and sold into slavery despite being darker than the original burton's film is not as heavy handed nor as sanctimonious some of the movie's flashes of humor are surreal as well as typically burton an ape with a midget or an elderly ape taking off a wig and removing false teeth as he prepares for bed then there are the parents who buy a little girl as a pet for there young daughter the seller advises the parents to get rid of the girl before she reaches puberty one thing you don't want in your house is a human he says you don't have to be an ape to realize the truth in that statement touches such as these are what stamps this movie with burton's brand lines that hearken back to the original movie are sprinkled throughout the first words spoken by an ape to davidson as the astronaut is regaining consciousness and grabs the simian's foot to try righting himself are take your stinking hand off of me you damned dirty human anyone familiar with the first version of the film will of course recognize the irony in that piece of dialogue another of burton's is to have charlton heston star of the original play the chimpanzee father of tim roth's gen thade the young chimp goes to visit his dying father both have one thing in common a hatred of humans with his dying breath the elder spews out his vile damn them damn them all to hell he says before expiring that is the famous line heston's taylor shouted at the conclusion of the original after discovering the planet's terrible secret the performances throughout are wahlberg plays davidson not as some hero but as a confused and somewhat frightened explorer who only wants to return home he is reluctant to lead the human rebellion his only objective being to find a way off this planet this hesitation is what makes his character believable and vulnerable roth is ferocious cunning cruel and savage as the fascist chimp who wants to rid his planet of all vestiges of humanity he leaps and bounds as if he had springs on his feet it is a masterful turn helena bonham carter is ari the chimp who believes that apes and humans can live in peace and as equals hers is a smart compassionate characterization michael clarke duncan is big and brutal as attar the gorilla aid to thade who blindly follows his leader until his faith is shaken a fine comic outing is given by paul giamatti as limbo the ape slave trader making a living off the misery of the humans he captures as the battle between apes and humans looms the cowardly limbo pleads can't we all just get along echoing the words of rodney king much of the success of planet of the apes goes to burton's technical crew especially production designer rick heinrichs and the legendary rick baker who created the ape makeup burton's musical collaborator danny elfman provides another fine score though it is not as memorable as his work on batman or sleepy hollow the movie's only letdown comes at the very end where burton tries to outshock the finale from the original he comes close but falls short otherwise planet of the apes is what a summer movie should be an amusement park ride filled with lots of action stunts and a few laughs this is one feature in which the expectations lived up to the hype
positive	urban legend surprised me based on the last few films the genre has produced including but not exclusive to the likes of i know what you did last summer disturbing behavior and the disappointing halloween i was positive that i was in store for another mildly entertaining but silly and ultimately boring rehash of the scream phenomena thankfully legend rose above it's soggy premise to become not only a hip scary and stylish entertainment but also what will probably become one of the best films of the year you're all familiar with the plot a bunch of overly horny teenagers get systematically slaughtered by a masked maniac who's identity is not revealed until the closing moments of the film when it turns out to be you guessed it everybody's favorite veteran of the whodunit flicks the only person you didn't suspect however just because legend doesn't really break any new ground as far as literary or even technical achievements go does not mean that it can't qualify as entertainment it was believe it or not one of the funnest times i've had at the movies all year the thing is i'm not really sure what made this particular stab pardon the pun at the genre seem so fresh and alive maybe it was the performances by the movie's two leads jared leto and cybil actress alicia witt or it could have been the target direction by jamie blanks more likely though it was because of the inspired premise i don't think i need to tell you that a killer hacking people up ala urban folklore is much more frightening than a killer fisherman urban legend begins with a sequence that reminded me of the classic scream opener not so much in plotting as in attention to detail that makes for an absolutely chilling teaser for the rest of the film a pretty young coed is driving down a deserted road when gasp a gas problem forces her to stop at an equally deserted gas station for a refill one problem though would you want to stop at a station run by brad dourif i thought not predictably the attendant ends up coaxing her into the main building to sort out a problem with the credit card company it's odd though when you pick up a phone to realize that nobody's on the other line naturally the potential victim escapes into her car and drives off and the when we least expect it whack a decapitation it turns out that the creepy looking attendant was just trying to warn her about the maniac in the back seat of the car so who is it this time the obvious candidate is the slightly professor at the college the girl went to none other than freddy kruger himself robert englund who teaches a class on urban legends  or could it be the local journalist leto looking for a meaty story to put on his resume like all movies of this nature one of the chief pleasures is trying to guess whodunit and it turns out to be of course the one you didn't suspect i'm not going to pretend urban legend is anything more than it is but i must give credit where credit is due and this flick definitely deserves credit for being what not many other recent horror films have been fun complimentary movie ticket courtesy of valley cinemas in lodi ca
positive	capsule the verma family is having a wedding and all the relatives will come for the festivities mira nair's film is pleasant enough with a little human drama a few family secrets some sadness and some happiness you have seen it all before but perhaps not from india the photography is colorful and the music is very agreeable low to mira nair previously directed salaam bombay and mississippi masala her newest film written by sabrina dhawan is very similar to previous films like betsy's wedding but it is set in new delhi a wealthy family is having a wedding an indian wedding is a affair as much a family reunion as a nuptial even more than in the us it is an excuse for a lavish and extravagant family the film shows us what the family does together and at the same time follows several family members' individual story lines aditi verma is marrying hemant an indian engineer working in the us she had previously had a relationship with vikram her supervisor latit her father played by naseeruddin shah is juggling many problems not the least of which is worrying about the caterer has hired pk dubey dubey is a rather eccentric man with a taste for eating the marigolds he uses for decoration even dubey will soon be romantically entangled when he becomes interested in alice one of the family servants several family members arrive giving rise to several plotlines involving sex family secrets or both there are heartbreaks and there are people falling in love some of the subjects covered are probably near taboo for indian films western audiences will appreciate a look at unfamiliar indian customs like women painting their hands with henna on the other hand it was not clear to me at least if scenes like the family singing together are typical of indian culture or if they are a convention of indian musical films this seems a particularly westernized family with the father wearing american designer sweaters and the family speaking mostly english the latter will however help with an international release sabrina dhawan's screenplay is vibrant with witty dialog we have seen films with plotting very much like this but the indian setting makes a great deal of difference director mira nair calls the film an affirmation of life i rate it a on the to scale and a low on the to scale
positive	the love for family is one of the strongest driving forces in any man's life especially for those who have fostered their family under precarious circumstances thematically in cinema love for family has been used frequently and emphatically to highlight more abstract aspects of characters it is rare however for it to develop as outstandingly as it does in roberto benigni's drama life is beautiful through a central cast of father mother and son benigni demonstrates the wonderful undying love that a family shares in the best of times and the worst of times life is beautiful for guido orefice roberto benigni directing himself here for the sixth time in his career an italian jew master con man and aspiring waiter extraordinaire living in italy he lives a carefree life of good fortune it is made even better when he happens upon a pretty schoolteacher named dora nicoletta braschi although dora is already engaged guido manages to sweep her off her feet and persuades her to marry him instead the two have a child named joshua giorgio cantarini unfortunately for the happy family the third reich and its nazi minions occupy italy and imprison all jews in work camps it is after the movie takes this dramatic turn that the movie's theme of family love becomes the strongest although prior to this turning point benigni plays guido with a sort of goofy charm he relaxes the role to ensure his son's happiness now instead of awkwardly seducing the sweet dora he constantly reassures his son that everything will be all right benigni's performance is truly a one and certainly one of the more fluid turns all year the supports are all strong as well but the movie truly excels in its script life is beautiful is a fable one which tells its story in grand fashion in certain parts it manages to sink to the level of a saturday night live spinoff a number of humorous skits connected by a token plot but in the movie's second half the script's circular nature becomes admirably obvious characters make reprise appearances in fine form and certain events which are intially curious become critically linked to the plot's outcome in all fans of foreign film will see this as a memorable motion picture and novice may take this opportunity to see their first artsy film life is beautiful is an artsy movie by convention but easily accessible to everyone and above all is a fine thematic picture
positive	while watching wes anderson's rushmore it may be surprising to think that the role of max fischer the film's was not written with jason schwartzman in mind the young actor making his film debut as a year old student at the exclusive rushmore academy is so perfect in the role that it comes as a shock that anderson auditioned some two thousand other prospective stars before discovering schwarztman schwartzman plays max a student who is more interested in his activities such as writing edgy plays like serpico and being president of the rushmore beekeepers but sees his grades suffer as a result on the brink of being thrown out he lands himself in even more hot water when he falls for first grade teacher rosemary cross olivia williams and enlists the help of millionaire acquaintance herman blume the great bill murray to build an aquarium on rushmore's baseball field in her honour unfortunately for everyone involved blume finds that he has feelings for miss cross as well which gets in the way of max's plans to woo her max is one of the characters we've yet seen in the and schwartzman plays him to perfection in one of the finest comedy performances ever given by someone of his age as everyone else has probably already pointed out he is reminiscent of a young dustin hoffman although i was reminded more of paul from the wonder years from a visual standpoint at least hopefully if he avoids typecasting as weird quirky he should earn himself a good career bill murray is his equal as blume displaying a depth we haven't yet seen from him while this isn't his best performance that honour goes to groundhog day he is still terrific here williams isn't given much to do except react to schwartzman and murray but still does fine work rushmore seems to go just a little too long but while it isn't a perfect film it is a definate for anyone who wants to see that rarity an american film that actually works well without an excessive amount of sentimentality anderson has created a modern classic with a star who should with any luck rise to even greater success
positive	no i did not read the novel by thomas hardy jude the obscure his final novel final because this film created such an outrage that he never wrote again see i did do some research on it about a man who is plagued with bad luck throughout his entire life but after watching the movie i can imagine how incredibly depressing it is jude is a satirical film from start to finish about society's way of spitting out and chewing up those unwanted in its system but what's remarkable is how timeless this film is the film takes place in the late century or early wasn't really sure but its story could even be retold today in modern form although it'd be kinda different a given it tells the story of jude christopher eccleston the psychotic accountant from shallow grave a simple young man with big dreams in its bleak foreboding opening shot in grainy black and white he gets a lesson from phillotson liam cunningham his teacher as they stand upon a mountain looking upon a city in the distance he says all you have to do is work hard and you can have anything in the world after marrying and divorcing an immature woman named arabella rachel griffiths because they frolicked in the hay literally but did not ultimately share anything in common he moves away to a town with a giant university with a chance to learn more and get ahead in life taking a welding job he works hard while studying constantly for his college bars reciting latin over and over again and training himself but when he sends his application for the school in he is bluntly told to just remain a worker another reason for going to this town was because someone in his family lives there sue kate winslet his cousin and a very intelligent but kinda mischevious young woman who wants to be a school teacher she and jude click eventually and become very endearing friends so much that when she spends the night at his flat after running from her apprentice teacher job for none other than phillotson at the local school there are rumors that she and jude did some nasty business nudge nudge several twists turn in the storyline and eventually jude and sue do do some nasty business an interesting scene to say the least and are soon born into a controversial as she eventually gives birth to their baby and jude inherits his son from arabella who turns up again after awhile because they aren't married and because they're cousins they run into problems with every place they go to carrying around two children everywhere and only staying in lodges for a very brief period of time then moving on if you didn't think this was harsh enough wait till you see what happens later on the sad truth is that jude is one of the miserable people who can never get any luck in this world he will never gain any true happiness and any happiness that happens to him will be fleeting and will probably bring more horrible instances to his life part of it is his fault he's too optimistic and too gullible but society has a way of taking these people and hurting them until their death the ending of jude is bleak because it has to be although i hear the ending of the novel is even worse guess i'll have to read it now jude offers a satirical view on society's cruelties but shows no way of curing this and thank heavens it doesn't there's no way to relinquish the selfishness of society and any solution would be too small to cure such a mass problem satire has always been one of the few ways of changing certain people's minds and that's what jude is sure it's one hell of a downer but it needs to be the film also posesses two fantastic performances from its two leads and some good supporting work along with it christopher eccleston slightly resembling richard edson with his new look and dumb expression plays jude wonderfully sometimes bringing a big dumb smile to his face and making him kind of at other times kate winslet in a titanic performance is brilliant nailing every psyche of her character and creating someone who's troubled but very seductive with her personality kate may be the best actress in her age group if you don't believe me see titanic branagh's hamlet sense and sensibility and heavenly creatures the latter one being my favorite performance of hers in the supporting roles liam cunningham is a wonderfully flawed teacher exposing all his bad parts but ultimately being a pretty good person and rachel griffiths is wonderfully immature as jude's wife whom he never divorces jude moves at a very slow pace and keeps taunting its viewers with chances of happiness for its protagonists which would drive some people nuts but those who appreciate good social commentary with their films no matter how slow or downright depressing they are this one is both will appreciate jude though i doubt anyone truly enjoys it
positive	quaid stars as a man who has taken up the proffesion of dragonslayer after he feels he is betrayed by a dragon early in the movie he runs into the last dragon in existence and there is a genuinely amusing battle between the two which results in a standoff where quaid is in the dragons mouth but has his sword pointed at the dragons brain eventually they decide to call a truce and they work out a deal since he is the last dragon he will pretend to die and quaid will be able to get paid for it their scam works at first until they come to a town without any money instead the town sacrifices a girl to the dragon but of course draco is a nice droagon so he won't eat her there is however a very amusing scene where draco is hitting on the young girl of course as you can probably tell by the plot this is a silly movie but it does know when to take itself seriously at the right times unlike eddie which was serious all the time you could probably call this a medieval comedy because there are more laughs here than in eddie and spy hard combined dennis quaid makes a fine hero pete posthlewaite provides some ghreat comedy as a monk who journeys with them dina meyer is appealing as the sacrificed girl but lets face it the movie is really about the dragon and what an amazing creation he is connery's voice and ilm team up to provide us with a truly magnificent dragon so if you are going to see this movie for a strong hard core medieval epic you are going to the wrong movie if you are going because of the dragon you will not be dissapointed and you will be provided with plenty of laughs that smooth out the boring parts in the script
positive	it has been years since a terrence malick film hit theaters his new film the thin red line is a strange beautiful enigmatic mess of a movie the first thing that jumps out to one when they see the advertisements for this film is the huge cast it is filled with stars the cast for the most part gives great performances john travolta whose role is nothing more than a cameo seems not to have attacked his performance with that much verve george clooney whose role became a cameo in editing gives a strange performance one wonders if he knew that his performance would become the object of ridicule through a character's narration the rest of the cast especially nick nolte and elias koteas are unambiguously fantastic these actors and they are with two exceptions men were lured by the name of malick terrence malick is a cinematic legend he has often been called the j d salinger of cinema his two previous films badlands and days of heaven are spectacularly beautiful and obscure motion pictures after he made them he disappeared for years this film marks his return what he's made with the thin red line is a film that seems less concerned with plot than with the emotion of the moment the narration which fills the film and perplexes many not only lets us hear the narrators the characters themselves pontificate but also lets us hear such thoughts as i'm scared the rather simple plot of the thin red line is used as a canvas on which many stories are painted the plot couldly simply be boiled down to an assault on a hill a plot synopsis for the thin red line is difficult because the story is fractured many stories are here from the clash between the lieutenant elias koteas and the savage colonel a voracious nick nolte to the private ben chaplin who uses his love for the woman he left behind to keep him going the fracturing of the story is ultimately a fault it is as if an artist spent an incredible amount of time artfully sculpting tiny statues and then threw them into a box shook the box and poured the results onto a table this basically creates a mess but the stories can be discerned and enjoyed i'm not declaring that the film has no structure while saving private ryan used warfare to bookend the plot malick uses reflection and glorious shots of nature to bookend about minutes of combat the battles in the thin red line are astonishing and display a mastery of filmmaking the astounding cinematography in this film must also be given notice this film uses color and light in such a fantastic way that it will be sad to see it degraded when it has to bee transferred to video ultimately malick has crafted a film that is a movie that enjoys looking through the treetops more than regarding the war that rages below them the film is filled with nature photography and the regarding of nature while some have said that the message and tubthumping was juvenile it was done with so much complexity and thought that it cannot ever honestly be called childish after seeing the thin red line i was haunted by it and am quite ready to see it again
positive	stuart little is one of the best family films to come out this year it's a cute funny and very film that has nothing for parents to squirm over except a few mild cusswords though i read the book a long time ago and i really do not remember what it was about i do know that this film does not disappoint finally a movie gets released that is as good as the trailer makes it to be with a few surprising twists some very funny moments and a few sentimental moments all mixed in to one great little movie stuart little is a mouse he has finally gotten a new home after being put up for adoption he now lives with the littles a nice little no pun intended family that lives in their apartment next to central park in new york city they have a little boy george played by the adorable jonathan lipnicki and now they have a new son at first stuart takes a while but he finally adjusts to being part of the family and even getting along with the pet cat george doesn't take too well to having a mouse for a brother at first but once the two play together they instantly bond stuart however is missing something and he wants to know who his real parents are the littles try and find his parents and one day they show up on the doorstep wanting stuart back hesitating the littles know what's best for stuart and so does snowball the pet cat he and his friends try to get stuart but in the end we find out the truth about stuart's past ending up to a sentimental and very ending one thing i noticed about the film instantly was the fantastic special effects just like in star wars episode phantom menace stuart little and his family are all computer generated and they look fantastically real from the detail of their fur to the detail of the way the walk the special effects team put a lot of time and effort on this million dollar film and it shows another movie that this has in common with is babe with it's talking animals and people understanding them it has a family friendly atmosphere and is never really scary or suspenseful enough to even scare the youngest of kids michael j fox does the voice of stuart himself and just like in the homeward bound movies does a fantastic job and brings more out of stuart than anyone else could he to me fits the character perfectly and ends up making stuart even more lovable another gem of the film is nathan lane as snowball when he was timon in the lion king i would have sworn he was a comedian and now in stuart little he brings the most out of snowball and makes him one of those characters we love to dislike for the human actors geena davis who never gives a bad performance does not disappoint here as well she fits nicely in her character and there is a good chemistry between her and hugh laurie who plays mr little both make us believe they are happily in love and married and jonathan lipnicki as their song is even more adorable than he was in jerry maguire even though stuart little is completely cgi the human characters and stuart have a nice chemistry together and even makes us believe they really do care for each other stuart little is ideal family entertainment for this holiday season and will not disappoint youngsters or adults for that matter we get entertainment laughs cries and more fun at the movies this season than probably any other movie its nice to see a pg rated movie out at christmas that everyone can see even though it has a million dollar budget i'm sure it will make over that or just below it respectively for all you parents out there trying to find a good family movie i have yet to see bicentennial man as i write this but as far as i know stuart little and toy story are by far the best family films this year a winner
positive	as with his other stateside releases jackie chan's latest chopsocky vehicle mr nice guy is contrived blockheaded and lacking in narrative logic but also like those other films it is a highly enjoyable ride once again chan's screenwriters here edward tang and fibe ma have taken the easy way out and named their star's character simply jackie with no last name this jackie is a chef who a popular cooking show on australian television of course jackie also happens to be a talented martial artist and these skills come in handy when he becomes involved in an ambitious reporter's gabrielle fitzpatrick expose of a drug dealing ring other plot details involving a videotape and a biker gang are irrelevant in fact as is the case with most chan films the plot itself is just about irrelevant the sole purpose of mr nice guy's existence are chan's comic fight scenes and those here do not disappoint director samo hung who has a cameo role a longtime collaborator of chan's does not waste any time putting chan in action diving into a wild after a brief cooking show prologue other impressive set pieces follow most notably a chase in a mall which directly leads to some frenzied if cliched can you say fruit cart business involving a runaway carriage and an extended sequence at a construction site in which a hilarious pursuit through a maze of blue doors culminates in some exciting fights involving boards cement mixers and a deadly buzzsaw none of the action sequences in mr nice guy are as spectacular as supercop's thrilling finale or rumble in the bronx's daring leap between two buildings nor is anything as inventive as the ladder fight or air tunnel climax in first strike and operation condor respectively but the action delivers even if the energy peters out before the film's end the finale as spectacular as it is is a letdown for fans of chan's athletic prowess filmed almost entirely in english even so the voices of some actors are laughably dubbed mr nice guy hints at jackie chan's latest transition to hollywood productions he made attempts with the big brawl and the protector next in the pipeline is rush hour a stateside production chris tucker hopefully that film will be a mere diversion in tinseltown and chan will continue with exuberant hong kong productions such as mr nice guy for his unique charm and reckless abandon are sure to be diluted by american hands much like they have been before
positive	the premise of wag the dog is so simple that it's adequately explained by the commercials with days to go until the election the president who we never see calls in political artist robert deniro to distract attention from a burgeoning sex scandal deniro enlists hollywood producer dustin hoffman to produce a pageant a phony war against albania fought on the blue screens of hollywood and the recording studios of nashville with woody harrelson as the reluctant psychotic hero and if there wasn't anything more to the movie than this it would be a heist comedy at best enlivened by great actors like sneakers goes to washington a heist comedy yup deniro and hoffman are stealing the election so to speak and the movie is more about how they do it and the fun they have doing it than anything else wag the dog succeeds because it's based one great truth the american people are stupid ok maybe it's not love thy neighbor as thyself or even two plus two makes four but a truth nonetheless any average person who thinks that they're really smart about the two things this movie satirizes moviemaking and the political process is invited nay challenged to spend a week either watching a movie actually being made or hours straight watching when the house is in session and because we're so utterly predictably stupid hollywood knows that a certain percentage of us will go see hard rain or magoo washington knows that we won't notice a few million dollars spent here and there on porno art grants and cigar subsidies and deniro's character knows that american geography skills are so weak that we won't be able to locate albania on the map the beauty of wag the dog is that it isn't a light meaningless comedy about politics like speechless the michael keaton geena davis picture or from the level of politcal satire to nor is it a cynical look at the manner in which a ethically challenged connives his sleazy way into the white house like primary colors and yes i am a little disappointed in the way the last two elections turned out thanks for asking instead david mamet's script strikes that delicate balance between comedy and cynicism needed for satire it does this by keeping us in a fantasy world where most of the schemers' schemes come off beautifully and fail only in entertaining and humorous fashion deniro is playing a variation on his al capone character from the untouchables without any of the violent rages it's all what do i love what is it that brings me joy baseball minus the savage bloody beating with the bat he threatens a lot of people mind you but he's doing it in a very nice polite way it's a very mellow restrained performance which fits in with the air of gamesmanship in the script hoffman on the other hand is giddy exuberant and joyous this kind of thing is what his character lives for and he's so excited that he can't even shut up even on the edge of disaster he's behind oddly tinted sunglasses and positive insiders note that he's basing his character on some producer which may or may not be true but hoffman still exudes the kind of electricity that you figure a producer needs to have the best part and the most frustrating part of wag the dog is in the supporting cast the characters are so well drawn and so well acted that we want to see more of them listen to them talk in that mamet dialogue get to know them better which we don't anne heche is in her portrayal of a political press aide cool and composed on the outside panicked and frenzied on the outside denis leary one of my favorite actors see the ref is the fad king who handles the profitable tie ins and shoe contracts and other creative innovative ways to separate a fool from his money they could make a whole movie just about the fad king and i'd go see it willie nelson and merle haggard handle the musical end of things fabulously from the upbeat gospel chorus theme song to the weepy country waltz to the hilarious ballad of the green berets parody woody harrelson has a brief but memorable part as the overmedicated hero of the albanian conflict craig t nelson as the opposition candidate and the william h macy as a wacky cia agent are given surprisingly short shrift one of my small gripes is that we never see what the spin doctors on the other side are doing wag the dog is a funny movie about serious problems the trivialization of american politics the role of the press in dumbing down the issues the impact of hollywood in creating campaign commercials the reduction of all things political to soundbites and sidebars the list goes on we can solve most of these problems by taking a greater role in our national life and educating ourselves as voters and citizens wag the dog reminds us of what can happen if we don't
positive	as the film opens up expectant unwed mother sally played by drew barrymore encounters her baby's father in a fast food window after he gets his milkshake he drives off only to be pursued by a military helicopter from this moment forward you know that this isn't going to be your romantic comedy home fries tells the tale of the relationship between sally and dorian played by luke wilson a helicopter pilot who has a different kind of connection with sally more than he would care to admit hint it has something to do with the father of sally's unborn child after taking a personal and professional interest in her he finds work at the local fast food restaurant at which she works and the fun goes on from there this movie is a lot of fun it is comedic on two levels as a romantic comedy and a dark comedy the romantic moments are sweet yet not sappy one of the more poignant moments is when dorian accompanies sally to lamaze classes however the dark comedic moments are more memorable this is also a tale of revenge and a funny one at that the father of sally's unborn child also happened to be a married man whose wife is played by catherine o'hara she does a wonderful portrayal of a jealous wife who is targeting the person who had an affair and is not above getting other people to do her dirty work my apologies if this sounds cryptic but there is too much of the plot to give away rounding out the cast are jake busey as angus dorian's overzealous brother and daryl mitchell as roy dorian's trainer at the fast food restaurant the dialogue is sharp and not filled with sappy overtones even with the romantic nature of the plot if there are any complaints it is over drew barrymore's performance while she does light up the screen there are moments when she doesn't seem all that convincing the movie was filmed in texas and most of the characters have southern texan accents drew barrymore's accent tends to come and go luke wilson doesn't seem to have this problem as well she seems awfully agile for a woman that is eight months pregnant still this movie is one that will please many viewers with plot twists galore and hilarious dark moments this is sure to entertain
positive	the second film to come out in the other starring bruce willis was simply entitled the jackal this one stars aidan quinn and donald sutherland and is directed by a man who hailed from joblo's own alma matter concordia university in montreal canada the story is based on the exploits of the real terrorist known as the jackal but does not pretend to be factual plot naval officer ramirez quinn gets called upon by the cia to impersonate the international terrorist known as the jackal in order to put an end to the actual militant's radical activities he is chosen for this role because he physically resembles the real terrorist to a tee ramirez reluctantly agrees to take part in this assignment and soon finds himself wrapped up in a true web of international terrorism intrigue and syndrome which does not sit well with his uninformed wife and kids back in the states critique great premise is executed with enough style and thrills to keep the piece interesting throughout its close to runtime admittedly i wasn't a huge fan of any of the main actors in this film and didn't expect much from this movie beforehand but surprisingly it did have its thrilling moments as well as a mostly plausible and absorbing story line the first hour is mostly just a of things to come and does offer a great characterization of the jackal but the second hour is the one that really cranks in the cool scenes and a sweet ending quinn was adequate in both roles as naval officer ramirez and the real jackal but didn't offer anything extraordinary in my opinion sutherland and kingsley seem to be playing the same role that they've played in both of their respective careers of late but nonetheless appeared to relish the of their chosen characters i didn't like performance put forth from quinn's wife in this flick but then again she doesn't show up in most of the film so that wasn't so bad i did however enjoy director duguay's interesting style and cinematic vision this thriller could easily have been boring during many sequences but duguay always seemed to find something interesting to show the viewer i thought that was neat having said that i didn't think the first hour needed to be as long as it was and the film did have me tinkering on the bridge of believability when the fake jackal met with the real jackal's girlfriend without much retrospection on her part but all in all not too many complaints in a movie that could easily be enjoyed by all those who take pleasure in the spy and terrorist thriller genre little known facts ben kingsley's real name is krishna banji he stands was born in scarborough england and won the best actor honor in academy awards presentation for the title role he portrayed in ghandi many scenes from this film were actually shot in montreal canada joblo's haven of restfulness donald sutherland has fathered actor kiefer sutherland is canadian and apparently still owns a place in the north of montreal
positive	one of the last entries in the carry on series carry on behind is very similar to carry on camping in that it involves a group of holidaymakers descending on a site professors anna vrooshka elke sommer and roland crump kenneth williams and a group of archaeology students stay in the caravan site owned by major leep kenneth connor so that they can explore the nearby roman settlement remains anna has a little trouble understanding english and sometimes people get the wrong end of the stick for instance when anna is asking for for dirty caravan' she means that she wants a scrubbing brush to clean the caravan arthur upmore bernard bresslaw and his wife linda patsy rowlands take her mother daphne barnes joan sims and her minah bird on holiday with them jokes prevail furthermore the trouble that joe and norma baxter ian lavender and adrienne posta have with their large irish greyhound allows for some comical moments between the two families fred ramsden windsor davies and ernie bragg jack douglas leave their wives liz fraser and patricia franklin behind for a fishing holiday however they have more in mind than fishing when they catch sight of two young girls sandra carol hawkins and carol sherrie hewson the story involves the disruption caused by the archaeological professors of the running of the camp the search for the minah bid and greyhound the major fred and ernie's desperate need of a woman a misunderstanding leading to a striptease at the caravan park's pub and a shock in store for daphne the partnership between sommer and williams is very effective and amusing this is what binds the movie together joan sims stands out as the demanding bernard bresslaw and patsy rowlands work well together as husband and wife and carol hawkins and sherrie hewson are a welcome addition to the cast on the other hand there are performances from kenneth connor and peter butterworth as barnes the handyman and there are very poor performances by windsor davies and jack douglas who spend far too much time on the screen even though there is no real plot to speak of and the jokes are getting bluer due to the new scriptwriter dave freeman there are enough truly comical moments and bright and breezy performances to lift this carry on above many of its predecessors although the regular cast is depleted the ones that remain show that they can still make a good carry on film a relative flop at the cinema this movie deserves a lot more recognition
positive	the cryptic teaser trailer has been unspooling in moviehouses for quite sometime now it be found so what exactly is the fifth element after seeing luc besson's ambitious science fiction fantasy i could not help but be let down by the actual answer which is not nearly as exciting nor clever as one would think but what is far from a letdown is the film as a whole a wildly imaginative feast for the senses that does what all the best science fiction films a universe unlike any other presented on the silver screen the biggest irony of the fifth element is that the one thing that has been kept under such tight actual the most conventional dismayingly so element pun intended of the film speaking in the vaguest possible terms the basics of the plot are as follows in the year a great force of evil threatens to consume the earth and only the four wind fire and with a fifth element can stop it figuring into all of this are new york cabbie korben dallas bruce willis a shady entrepreneur by the name of zorg the hilariously hammy gary oldman picking up where he left off in besson's the professional a priest ian holm and a mysterious creature named leeloo milla jovovich all of the pieces come together in a tidy and somewhat but there is no denying that this basic story holds some intrinsic interest what remains interesting and exciting however after brief glimpses is the fascinating world besson has created with production designer dan weil director of photography thierry arbogast visual effects supervisor mark stetson and the crew at digital domain the look is absolutely mesmerizing right from the opening moments to the last the frenzied cityscape of new york with its vibrant colors tall buildings penetrating high into the clouds and the swarm of cars cabs and other vehicles flying through labyrinthian skyways is absolutely breathtaking to behold especially in a wild car chase sequence early on in the film but it would not have been a completely captivating vision if the people inhabiting the settings weren't equally as interesting and are they ever in addition to the exotic menagerie of alien creatures that populate this world from bulky robots to mangalores the humans are outfitted in costumes by eccentric designer gaulthier best known for creating madonna's pointy bustier in her blonde ambition tour gaulthier's outlandish creations such as a number worn by leeloo made entirely out of white straps feel more at home in besson's futuristic vision than on any fashion runway in the world they add to the sense of otherworldliness about the film while besson's bold vision is the biggest virtue of the film it also could be its biggest obstacle to reaching a mass audience for all its imagination certain things about the film may be a bit too quirky and bizarre i really do not know what middle america will make of the most outrageous character of the film ruby rhod chris tucker a flamboyant disc jockey who makes dennis rodman look makes a raucous entrance dressed in an animal print dress sporting a blonde hairdo in the shape of a hair dryer speaking in high pitches at rapid fire speed at first this character's hyper energy is funny but the act wears out its welcome very quickly not irritating but just as strange is a musical number by alien chanteuse diva maiwenn lebesco who aria that is an unlikely blend of classical opera and techno the tune as with the entirety of longtime besson collaborator eric serra's innovative score is haunting but it is also completely jarring then there are the campy touches of humor besson and robert mark kamen sprinkle throughout which too often are silly and forced a comic sexual encounter between ruby rhod and a flight attendant is highly distracting and not very funny to boot the story's weakness shines through in the climax and conclusion of the fifth element while still visually and aurally spectacular the events detailed are not as exciting nor powerful as they should be the big serious dramatic climax was met with more than a few snickers and it ambitiously strives for a profundity which the film had not even begun to work toward as such at the end there is a sense that there was something bigger at work here that there was still more left to be said about this story and these characters this suspicion was confirmed by besson himself who told me in the lobby following the screening imagine that the filmmaker watching the film with the enemy critics that what had made it to the screen was really just the first half of the lengthy original fifth element screenplay and that the second titled mr still waiting to be made still despite the story problems the fifth element is an artistic triumph for luc besson rarely does a filmmaker's original vision come to the screen in all its audacious undiluted glory it is a fascinating example of how of one artist's fervid imagination can transport an audience into an intoxicating fantasy world generally seen only in dreams
positive	very bad things is the most delightfully morbid film of the year a movie that goes so far over the deep end with its outrageousness and violence that i couldn't help but be won over by the material the film starts off with five friends leaving their homes in los angeles for a bachelor party in las vegas the is kyle fisher jon favreau who is about to be married to the controlling laura cameron diaz the other friends are real estate agent robert boyd christian slater quiet charles leland orser and brothers michael jeremy piven and family man adam daniel stern after a wild night of gambling boozing and drugs a stripper carla scott who was paid for by robert comes into their hotel room but after a freak accident to everyone's terror she is killed as robert puts it there are two options go to the police and go to prison or bury her out in the desert where no one will ever find her after a security guard enters into the hotel room unexpectantly and sees the body robert is forced to kill him as well okay there is only one option now you can forget about calling the police he says by the time the five friends return home and as the wedding draws nearer most of them are overcome with guilt which sets off an even more elaborate series of event that includes much much more murder and the inevitable wedding from hell very bad things which is actor peter berg's feature film directing debut is the shockingly perverse and wicked comedy that there's something about mary wanted to be it pulls out all the stops to create something fresh original and hilarious even if that requires surprisingly graphic violence gore and a slew of truly hateful characters that all get what they deserve by the end the screenplay also written by berg is to put it mildly very funny and courageous during the second act of the film some of the fun was beginning to slightly dwindle due to so much death which was beginning to undermine the humor but it eventually recouped itself with a climax that has to be seen to be believed the dialogue is edgy and inventive and this film proves that a movie doesn't necessarily require likable character to be extremely enjoyable there's more fun i think in showing ignorable people getting their just desserts cameron diaz gives her best performance to date here and has a lot of fun in playing the hateful laura who eventually turns out to be more crazy than any of the five male friends diaz puts so much overblown energy to her character that i really do think she deserves a supporting actress oscar nomination come next january by the time she is beating someone to death with a coat hanger and reciting lines like stuff him in the crapper and get your ass upstairs i couldn't help but crack up at how this film had become jeanne tripplehorn creates another character original as daniel stern's wife who late in the picture we discover is a tough that should not be messed around with it is at this level that very bad things was so entertaining and surprising just when you thought you could predict what was going to happen there would be a little twist involving the characters that would be absolutely wacky the last sequence was perfect and managed to go even further although i enjoyed the film immensely let me make this clear very bad things is not a movie for everyone it is more tasteless than anything i have ever seen it is more violent and bloody than a film usually is and it is offensive luckily these are elements that i would prefer in a comedy since it clearly shows the filmmakers were set on making a politically incorrect comedy the fact that this film slipped through the cracks of the usually mainstream and safe coming out lately still gives me hope for the hollywood film industry
positive	it is hard to imagine that a movie which includes abortion and incest as prominent plot devices could be so sensitive so delicate so insightful and yes even so enjoyable somehow the cider house rules manages to keep an even keel in the face of the harsh subject matter and allows a substantial amount of heart to shine through set in the the film tells the story of a unique young man named homer wells tobey maguire ride with the devil an orphan twice rejected as an infant by possible adoptive parents he grows up in the care and under the tutelage of dr wilbur larch michael caine little voice father figure to the orphans of st cloud obstetrician or abortionist to the unhappily pregnant women who come there seeking his help figuring that as long as homer was going to stay at the orphanage he might as well be of use dr larch begins teaching him all he knows about obstetrics soon homer is delivering babies like a professional he refuses to perform abortions instead wondering why the couples just didn't behave more responsibly larch too old and experienced to have such youthful ideals marvels that homer continues to have such high expectations of people such is the result of an insulated upbringing though skilled in certain medical procedures homer remains woefully naive and ignorant about most everything else he finally figures that in order to find his place in the world he must go out into it befriending a young couple who had come to see dr larch he hitches a ride with them and parlays that into landing a job as an apple picker with a group of black migrant workers at the orchard where they lived thus homer begins his worldly instruction with new friend candy kendall charlize theron the astronaut's wife a willing tutor tobey maguire is well cast yet again as an inherently good man who is seeking answers to life's questions many of which he was unaware needed to be asked he demonstrates a quiet strength and thoughtful curiosity that is both warm and appealing michael caine is in a word brilliant as the caring caretaker of these orphans many of whom he helped to bring into the world calling them princes of maine kings of new england in his ritualistic goodnight mr caine manages to communicate the love and commitment larch has towards these children without becoming maudlin or saccharine delroy lindo a life less ordinary has many powerful moments as mr rose the strong and charismatic leader of the apple pickers whom homer joins director lasse hallstrom what's eating gilbert grape and john irving the world according to garp who adapted his own work for this movie deserve much of the credit for the balanced approach to the sensitive subject matter regardless of one's personal stand on the divisive matter of abortion it is hard to imagine anyone becoming offended by the evenhanded treatment used by these filmmakers the title is a reference to a list of rules posted in the quarters of the illiterate apple pickers figuring the rules didn't apply to them since they didn't have a hand in writing them they decide to ignore the list and make up their own rules as they go along dr larch in his own way acts similarly there is a danger in that line of reasoning god has also given us a set of rules unlike the list posted in the cider house god's rules if followed promise us benefits beyond our imagination and yet many continue to ignore his rules preferring to make up their own as they go through life trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding proverbs just as a builder follows a designer's blueprint or a conductor follows a composer's score why shouldn't we follow the rules of life given to us by life's architect for our own blessing
positive	known as the most successful romantic comedy in history director garry marshall apparently struck gold with pretty woman which opened quietly during the summer of but thanks to positive was able to reach upwards of in theaters alone the question of why it worked so well lies directly with the film's two charismatic stars richard gere and julia roberts since the story itself is none too original or even believable the other winning element that makes pretty woman so entertaining is its genuine sweetness and innocence which is rarely as palpable in today's films as it is here edward lewis richard gere is a suave extremely wealthy business mogul who at the start of the picture breaks up with his girlfriend over the phone after a nasty argument and abruptly takes his friend's car and gets lost on hollywood boulevard while trying to find his hotel stopping the car along the street he asks a woman obviously a prostitute for directions agreeing to get in his car and show him for ten bucks edward ultimately accepts they strike up a conversation and before long she has been asked up to his penthouse room on the top floor this meeting does not lead to sex however as edward confides that he'd rather just have someone to talk to and offers her to spend the night just as well since the hooker named vivian is a beautiful generally upbeat young woman who is the type of person that can lend an understanding ear the meeting between these two completely opposite people does not end the next morning as planned when edward finally offers to pay vivian dollars if she will stay with him for six days and nights while he is in the area keeping him company and acting as his companion to business dinners and since vivian firmly tells edward at the beginning that she will do anything with him except kiss him on the lips which always leads to unwanted intimacy when dealing with her customers the obligatory rule of the genre says that by the third act edward and vivian will finally truly kiss allegedly planned as a grim downbeat drama until garry marshall came on board as director pretty woman has been transformed in all senses of the word into a classic fairy tale a la cinderella the premise is hardly believable and its portrait of prostitutes hanging out on the streets of hollywood boulevard is just about the most idealized portrayal that there could have possibly been you honestly don't need a or any iq for that matter to guess how the film will end and the story is as old as my great great grandma bertha the supporting characters are almost all sketchily written and and the screenplay is no award winner and yet amidst all of these qualms and flaws pretty woman is an astoundingly charming motion picture and it is definately easy to see why it became such an overnight sensation with moviegoers you'd actually be amazed how far bemusement can go and there are a few select moments not even whole scenes mind you that are as romantic as anything i've seen on film in the additionally the film belongs and its success can be attributed to two people and two people only and they are richard gere and julia roberts playing sex symbols throughout the with such pictures as american gigolo and an officer and a gentleman gere branches out here to play a more quiet almost shy but still alluring character that believably could sweep julia roberts off her feet and vice versa julia roberts in her breakthrough role after mistic pizza and steel magnolia for which she was nominated for an academy award is radiant and funny as the wordly vivian who surprisingly could be a role model for impressionistic viewers not for her line of work but more for her sheer intelligence it would have probably been easy to have written vivian as merely a flake but screenwriter j f lawton clearly cared too much about his central characters to do such a thing after pretty woman roberts along with meg ryan became the reigning queen of romantic comedies with her latest being the runaway bride which repairs gere and roberts together once again and no wonder roberts has continually proven to not only be a strong actress with a flare for comedy but also one who can efficiently do drama and in almost every film she appears in it is difficult not to fall in love with her along with her male an especially strong scene that gere and roberts do together takes place after edward foolishly tells one of his that vivian is actually a prostitute and he then approaches her making sexual advances no only does this make vivian feel cheap especially since she had previously been posing as a more professional eloquent young lady but it also maddens her that edward would demean and betray her in such a way and ultimately causes her to question where exactly her life is leading and if she likes this particular path on the more dreamy side the film is filled with romantic scenes that are simply effervescent to behold especially one in which edward enters into the hotel's lounge to see vivian turn around and not only reveal her marvelous cocktail dress but also her inner and outer glowing beauty another subtle moment has vivian lovingly blowing a kiss to edward who is asleep and placing it on his lips since she still is unsure if she should be getting attached to this man who may very well be out of her life forever in a short couple of days pretty woman does not blatantly step wrong until the very last scene which is a happy ending as you'd expect and wouldn't have it any other way that somehow does not work perhaps because of its undeniable contrivances this one misstep does not put a damper on the rest of the film though because there is just far too much magic at work here to disaffirm such a petty problem helped along by a warm memorable supporting performance from laura san giacomo as vivian's best friend and roommate and a fabulously catchy soundtrack in which all of the songs prominently aid in the movie's overall fulfillment pretty woman is a sparkler of a motion picture and has what it takes to act as a blueprint on how to make the quintessential romantic comedy
positive	the dramatic comedy cousins has all the necessary ingredients a witty and whimsical script inspired performances a great sense of humor a large and wonderful cast and the beautiful scenery of vancouver it's a movie of weddings marriage family infidelity like men and a baby cousins is an americanized version of a french film cousin cousine the plot is complicated but it goes something like this larry and tom are cousins each of whom is tom starts an affair with larry's wife tish and to get even larry and tom's wife maria pretend to have an affair of their own soon the pretending turns to love and cousins is off and running cousins is populated by a wide assortment of interesting characters and caricatures the acting is first rate down to even the smallest supporting role and virtually every performance deserves mention ted danson in his first starring film role finally gets to play a character with some depth and sensitivity while larry may be confident and charming like sam malone on cheers he is also complex and vulnerable with more between his ears than empty space as maria isabella rossellini is a joy to watch she is shy sensuous and immensely alluring sean young is perfectly cast as larry's picture perfect wife tish a superficial and trendy consultant keith coogan from adventures in babysitting is wonderfully weird and eccentric as larry's rebellious son mitch and finally lloyd bridges in a tour de force performance is mitch's rambunctious grandfather he provides some of cousins' best lines and laughs like moonstruck cousins is a mix of drama and comedy the film is larger than life and has a keen sense of the absurd it understands human nature extremely well and milks it for every possible laugh and how often do you see a movie where you believe that two characters truly and sincerely care for and love each other as friends and as lovers well to its credit cousins is just such a movie let's hope the french continue to provide us with the inspiration to make films like cousins
positive	this remake of la cage aux folles features a gay couple pretending to be straight in order to pull the wool over the eyes of their son's future the couple robin williams and nathan lane are about as archetypal or as the less kind might put it stereotypical gays possible williams owns a nightclub featuring drag queens where his partner performs as the featured star they live above the club in what could not possibly be mistaken as a heterosexual abode williams is excellent as should be no surprise gene hackman as potential is refreshing in one of his few comedic roles the real star is lane his attempted transformation from one of the most obviously gay men in the world to the uncle is hilarious perhaps it is a personal failing on my part but the crying and screaming drag queen faux high drama just grates on my nerves and the first few minutes of this film are filled with it luckily for me at least it doesn't last long and the rest of the story focuses on the relationship between the men their son and the deception the question of stereotypes is a touchy one these guys personify the homophobic gay image you can almost hear the swishing if you think that they are supposed to be representative of every gay man in the world you'll be outraged but if you can accept the view is that this is a movie about gay individuals you'll love it your choice
positive	seen may at p m at the crossgates cinema guilderland n y theater with my brother john for rating excellent seats sound and critic's note this review is the longest i've ever written and still only scratches the surface i'd recommend this be read only by those who have seen the film as a form of critical analysis as my friend and fellow film critic ted prigge said in his review of phantom menace' how do i even write this review never mind the fact that i've been waiting for a new wars' movie since i was seven years old never mind the fact everyone on the internet had already dissected and discussed the movie before it was even released never mind that there's so much going on in this movie in terms of plot action special effects and story that to analyze every aspect would take a lot of time and energy and still wouldn't cover everything and also like ted does in all of his reviews i'll try to review this in a way different from my usual reviews and instead write as casually as possible as if i was talking directly to you the reader before we can begin analyzing the specific aspects of the film many of the most general and most significant factors must be considered to get the specifics of the film skip this and the next four paragraphs as has been made obvious for the last several years another trilogy of films will be produced to account for the initial three installments of the wars' series the first of the films was actually episode four not one george lucas the creator of the series has probably just assumed most people know the trilogy wars empire strikes back' and of the jedi' is actually the second trilogy chronologically in media interviews in the past he has explained why the movies were made out of order but i can't recall his reasons with this new film he as writer and director has also assumed viewers are at least vaguely familiar with the storylines and significant plot points of the first trilogy err second trilogy well you know what i mean and in order for this review to be thorough many of those significant points must be mentioned which unfortunately may serve as spoilers so proceed with caution note it is one my personal policy not to intentionally analyze spoilers because i would like my reviews to be able to make sense to the reader both before and after viewing the film reviewed but it would be nearly impossible to do the film justice here without breaking the rule critic's note reviewing this film also breaks the universal critics' law of reviewing movies which as roger ebert coined not what a movie is about but how it is about it because so many outside factors come into play in the film's plot and significance as part of a trilogy and just considering modern society it again would be difficult if not impossible to simply review the film as a completely autonomous story first of all we have to catalog what we know about the film before even going into it we know that young anakin skywalker will grow up to become the evil ruler darth vader who is also the father of luke skywalker who will lead a successful revolution against him and his empire we know kenobi was the trainer of anakin in the ways of force' in attempts to become a jedi knight but would fail and thus anakin would fall to the side we also know something about force' itself that it is some kind of universal force which determines fate and can be manipulated by those whose minds are expanded enough to believe in it and feel it the jedi what we don't know for sure is the history of the ruling of the galaxy which is most likely much longer and more complex than any government we have had here on earth to me this was one of the most fascinating aspects of the first three films because there seemed to be a subtle definite order to all the complexity also it seems that we're supposed to be familiar with a few other details about the story which have come out of the thousands of comic books and paperbacks published in the years since the movies ended most notably details regarding the emperor from and and that he was once a senator and his last name is palpatine for those who haven't kept up with all the wars' paraphernalia over the years there is still a way to know these details simply by recognizing an actor or his voice at least with phantom menace' being the first chapter of a long saga one would assume the basic groundwork would be laid including the history behind all the major factors of the series especially force' and the jedi knights unfortunately this film does more of the opposite as it simply builds on top of what must be a history so long and detailed it could never be explained i didn't liked that aspect to this film and is one of the reasons it falls just short of greatness if you're going to tell a story from the beginning tell it from the beginning is it possible that after this trilogy is complete there could be another trilogy of episodes through to clarify the back story even further but i digress i've said so much and yet i haven't even touched on the specifics of the film itself all these necessary elements should go to show just how vast the story of the wars' series is and this individual film itself what we get here is a movie not unlike any of the other three we've come to know and love since the late its similarity to the other films helps to keep the spirit of the series familiar but at the same time seems to be a flaw in the filmmaking process itself since it sometimes rings of unoriginality the basic story is rather sorted complex and even confusing at times we're told that an army known as trade federation' has set up a blockade around an seemingly insignificant planet called naboo we're not given too many details to clarify the back story of what the federation is and what their purpose is instead the film opts to get its story moving quickly we're introduced to two jedi the master jinn neeson and his apprentice kenobi mcgregor the two are acting as ambassadors of some sort in hopes of ending the obvious hostility between the federation and the planet's queen amidala portman the leader of the federation an alien called viceroy is following the orders of a strange mythical character an older human man whose face and body are covered and shadowed by the black robe and hood he wears he is referred to as lord sidious but considering his appearance and especially that creepy evil voice of his he is a obviously one of the most significant characters in the series sidious communicates to viceroy only through digital transmissions and never in person clearly his actual whereabouts are something he wants to keep secret because that would also reveal his identity which is never openly revealed in the film but should be clear to most viewers i have a feeling we'll delve into his background in the next two films but it doesn't take the film long to spring into action and within minutes our hero jedi are fighting for their lives and the film's story begins to move along the film doesn't have one specific plot and works in the same manner as the other films in the series where as what we get is one and adventure on top of another there are so many of these in this film i would not describe them all because it is what gives the movie its hook the other films have relied on this type of storytelling but because of the limits of the technology at the time the films' screenplays were also limiting the sense of limitlessness here is what gives phantom menace' its unique traits as we already know the film takes place at least a generation or two before the original wars' trilogy which means a lot of the background which was unclear unexplained may be cleared up here as it is the beginning of the vast epic story and here the most significant storyline is that involving the discovery of anakin skywalker lloyd by jinn and his introduction to the jedi council to briefly summarize the story jinn stumbles upon skywalker in an attempt to buy parts for queen amidala's spaceship which was damaged in efforts to free her from the federation their meeting on tatooine is mostly chance but of course jinn chalks it up to the will of the force jinn can feel that skywalker has a great natural power in the force and through another involving a bet on skywalker in a fantastic race he will enter more and more details of his significance begin to reveal themselves this also provides for a new elaboration and explanation of the force which has never been mentioned before in fact it seems to be something so important it is upsetting it has never been mentioned before the element seriously undermines the mystical aspect of the force and transforms it into something more physical and scientific which is completely unnecessary by the film's third act all the major significant elements become tied together in a rather familiar execution of the plot it's funny how the reality of the wars' world seems so embedded in mythology new philosophy and religion and yet the solution to all the major conflicts in the series has been violence not that this technique hasn't been used in movies and in situations countless times throughout history and at least it's all in the spirit of the ultimate powers of good versus evil in a fun and exciting matter it does border of the cartoonish sometimes but that's just the film appealing to our inner child which is the basic reason the entire saga exists and has become such a big part of our modern society phantom menace' delivers exactly what you'd expect from a wars' film which is why it succeeds as well as it does but is always why it never truly achieves greatness so many things in the film we've seen before and done with more heart because the filmmakers concentrated just a bit more on story and character because they were limited but this film is far from bad because it at least embraces the spirit of sheer fun at the movies
positive	the story of us a rob reiner film is the second movie this fall that touches the viewer in a way they are rarely touched by a film as they can see their everyday lives in the usually once in a year films well has two of them the other being the instant classic about a very dysfunctional family american beauty the story of us a film about the highs and lows of marriage and family is a well written heartbreaking and insightful film that made the majority of the audience including myself cry the story of us tells the story of ben bruce willis and katie michelle pfeiffer jordan and asks the question can a marriage survive years of marriage the film is about two individuals who have come together spent a good chunk of their lives together and shows when our main characters are him and her during the bad times and when they are us during the good times the story of us is about their entire years of marriage that is collapsing day by day ben and katie now only see and live with each other because they don't want to devastate their children with the fact that their parents no longer or at least say they don't love each other anymore ben a cartoonist and katie a crossword puzzle writer have grown apart during their fifteen years of marriage as they have grown to follow different views on life family and marriage katie is the more organized sophisticated type who wants to plan everything out while ben is a spontaneous adventurous individual who doesn't mind doing things differently than they were planned the story of us plays out nicely as the film opens with ben sharing his story with a therapist told to the viewer through flashbacks as the film progresses it switches between ben and katie talking to their therapist with their stories being told with flashbacks of their marriage this method is highly effective as we see the characters changing from year to year slowly growing apart through the flashbacks we get to see the story of them through both of the character's eyes and this gives us a strong sense of what their characters are really like as the story of us has three dimensional believable main characters the screenplay written by jessie nelson stepmom and alan zweibel dragnet is a touching down to earth work that hits a chord within the viewer much like another one of nelson's films stepmom the script has an open honesty and outlook on life one that is so realistic you feel uncomfortable at many times because so many situations the characters are in are undeniably familiar as most families these days most go through the hard times as ben and katie must if it wasn't for the first minutes that the writers wrote which are rugged and certainly flawed the story of us would have been this year's best picture bruce willis a usual star has certainly turned himself around in the past he went from being a man who was being typecast to the same role in action movies to a distinguished sophisticated actor as in last summer's the sixth sense and now in the story of us willis shows the world what he can really do if he is fed a good script although i wouldn't pick willis as the choice actor for ben jordan willis handles himself nicely and shines in a few of the film's most powerful scenes enough that make his performance a definite contender comes awards season where to start about michelle pfeiffer pfeiffer's performance is spellbinding and ultimately strong as she brings her character to life with such charisma and emotion you wonder how how it is possible for someone to portray a real person with such realism pfeiffer's performance is one that if not recognized by the academy next spring will be in the heart's of any viewer that has watched this moving film the story of us is one of most real yet funny films as the razor sharp script evens out the laughs and the tears to keep the viewer hooked superb acting direction writing story and soundtrack that always sets the mood for the film which is beautifully composed by eric clapton and marc shaiman make the story of us a touching unforgettable motion picture that will touch the hearts of viewers across the and will certainly become one of the most talked about movies of the fall the film's major high points are the fights between ben and katie as the two constantly accuse of each other of whose fault it is that their marriage has collapsed and although they also say things like it's over or i hate you you can tell the two still share a deep connection and that inside somewhere they are still an us the bottom line a wonderful enchanting and heartbreaking film one of the most realistic heartbreaking films in recent years
positive	warren beatty returns to the screens in the funniest craziest and hard hitting movie in his career based on a story concocted by himself and also written by beatty bulworth gives a good insight of what beatty thinks of the american government system beatty stars as senator jay bulworth who's going through a nervous breakdown after hiring someone to kill him he completely changes his campaign strategy and tells the honest truth about what's happening in american politics much to the annoyance of assistant dennis murphy platt instead of everyone hating him the american public love him however inside his party more people want to kill him than just the hired assassin and he also strikes a relationship with black girl nina berry it's remarkable that this film was released at all much more open than the rather subdued primary colours bulworth barely gives the american politic system a good name the outrageous remarks bulworth makes to his potential voters are very funny and also somewhat true it's great that beatty isn't afraid to let loose on a subject talking of beatty he's excellent in the role of the demented senator clearing having fun and seeing warren beatty have fun is a rare sight indeed even in dick tracy he was the most straighten face actor then again he was the only characters face we could completely see the film gives an opportunity for the year old beatty to indulge in some rapping which he does with gusto and also quite well and seeing beatty as a has to be seen to be believed it's nice to see that beatty can laugh at himself second best is oliver platt as the flustered coke snorting assistant who goes over the top when he finally snaps halle berry is fine and sexy as the intellectual nina who comes to like the senator also popping up in the supporting cast is paul sorvino wit h a strange accent laurie metcalf as the exact same characters she's also played and christine baranski of cybill fame as bullworths wife who all contribute to the fun and this being a political film the ubiquitous larry king makes an appearance as shock himself the writing and directing both by beatty are above par the direction is very nearly sitcom like but suits the film perfectly and both the politics are gangland parts are handled well the script is funny and the raps are actually well produced and humorous and quite clever they're not cringe inducing at least the script makes many points about society in america today and isn't afraid to make any bold statements about what is a flawed system best of all the film is thought provoking but directed and written in such a way that the film feels as light as a feather and is very entertaining there's also a great rap soundtrack with some well chosen tunes bulworth is a film with many advantages and few flaws perhaps it could be somewhat embarrassing to see a year old man rapping but beatty does it so well it's irrelevant in fact there's very little against bulworth except for the language which is very heavy but then again it should be expected bulworth then is well worth watching a david wilcock review you know for kids norville barnes
positive	the long and illustrious career of robin williams which has included both forgettable turns like mrs doubtfire and flubber was punctuated with the actor's first academy award in for his role in good will hunting it was his first truly dramatic role since dead poets society and critical remarks were unanimously positive his next role that of a deceased pediatrician in what dreams may come was unfortunately lackluster and so after a stint as a comedic actor the proof on whether or not williams can cut it in the dramatic league has come down to patch adams williams is the title character hunter patch adams sporting scruffy facial hair that falls between the of dreams and the grotesque hairiness of will hunting we're introduced to patch as he commits himself to a mental institution because of his suicidal tendancies it's at the institution however that he discovers a latent talent for relating to people he removes himself from the institution and enrolls at the university of virginia's medical college where he finds that medical doctrine is a calculating impersonal trade his attempts to inject humanity into the profession result in several bouts with expulsion and the movie climaxes with patch's appearance before the state medical board the characters are in an sense although the script does not perform well as a narrative there's little story to be told outside of patch's experiences the script does go a long way toward building the relationships of characters at medical school patch meets up with truman schiff daniel london an outsider like himself who relishes patch's zest for humanity the two instantly become the best of friends and it's easy to see why monica potter plays patch's love interest a young woman who personifies the things that patch hates about medical school for some reason he's attracted to her and although it never gets said the audience understands from an intrinsic point of view the script based on hunter adams' own story works well this way the rest of the cast bob gunton as the villain professor in particular is solid director tom shadyac liar liar leads us in and out of patch's life in a sound intentional manner combined with williams' presence on screen the movie rarely becomes boring patch adams' lack of purpose is its major shortcoming and for the first ninety minutes out of two hours there's little feeling of continuity or the passage of time nevertheless it's an emotionally moving picture and patch adams looks to be one of the more memorable of the holiday season it succeeds at everything it tries and only fails at the stuff it doesn't try in the first place by and large there may be another oscar nomination herein for williams but more importantly it's entertainment for the entire family
positive	in recent years harrison ford has been such a grave screen presence scowling through the likes of tom clancy's jack ryan series and last year's smash that one wonders if the rogue charm that made him such a superstar had been completely drained from his system apparently it was just lying dormant with ivan reitman's enjoyable romantic the lovable scoundrel is back giving audiences a fresh reminder of why ford is one of the most enduring and popular modern screen icons ford plays quinn harris a carefree and slightly slobby endearingly so pilot in the tropics whose plane crashes in a storm stranding him and his charter new york magazine editor robin monroe anne heche on a deserted island of course the sophisticated robin and the quinn are at odds long before the plane goes down and all manner of hostile repartee is exchanged between the two from their first meeting while some of the lines fall flat the formulaic motions work because of the unexpectedly electric chemistry between ford and heche both actors who have largely done serious works as of late seem liberated by the lack of dramatic weight on their shoulders and they deliver their zingers as weak as they sometimes are with beguiling abandon naturally there's nothing like a crisis to bring two people together and quinn and robin's warmup to each other is sped up even further by the arrival of some bloodthirsty pirates granted some conflict needed to be introduced on the island but this development from writer michael browning is a bit too obviously thrown in for the purpose of adding gratuitous action scenes but the point is to get the two together and their newfound affection causes complications for both but mostly robin who came to the islands on a vacation with her fiance frank david schwimmer who frantically awaits her return on the home island reitman and old reliable hand at breezy comedies keeps the pace brisk and capably handles the more sequences his big accomplishment however is bringing the old smiling ford back as appealing and charismatic as he always is ford hasn't been quite this charming and affable in years he's obviously having a blast and the audience cannot help but have one along with him holding her own is heche whose scrappy character never becomes the screaming ninny she initially promises to be as the plane goes down she frantically pops stress pills she can take her lumps physical and otherwise just as well as quinn making her a formidable foil and ideal match formulaic and light as a feather could be cited as a classic example of the summer popcorn movie season's lack of substance it's certainly fluff but it's unpretentious undemanding fluff that goes down as easily as a frothy pina colada on a balmy tropical beach pass the popcorn
positive	near the end of analysts remarked that the year would be the last in which disney would stand alone as the animation king the following year saw the first sleeper entry into the genre from a studio other than the magic kingdom twentieth century fox gave baronial russia to the masses in the form of anastasia at best that's all it was a sleeper hit designed to surprise but not shake the industry in however things have been decidedly different there have been a number of pushes on disney's death grip on the market and weeks into a new champion has emerged dreamworks' the prince of egypt succeeds where all of the other conventionally animated products have failed the other two contenders warner brothers' quest for camelot and disney's own annual entry mulan lacked inspiration and drive respectively although camelot was and can't really be considered a shot at the title mulan had the makings of winner unfortunately it was saturated with traditional animation and lost points against the face of the competition in making the prince of egypt dreamworks has strayed from all of these hallmarks and created a genuinely unique product the animation is flawless and aside from a bug's life is the movie to date the animators have nimbly mixed both flat and spatial effects and the combination is something that artists from disney and fox have heretofore struggled with the key to success however was that the visuals were used not just because they looked cool but also as a method of advancing the plot namely some of the most important action sequences like the parting of the red sea were done almost entirely in dreamworks is the first studio to prove that they've got the stuff of success and that they're capable of challenging disney the story is also and the characters voiced with talent for the most part the plot follows its source material the book of exodus although only in the most general sense the writers took a few creative liberties and most do not damage the story in any way in fact the shakespearean relationship between moses val kilmer and the pharaoh rameses ralph fiennes makes the story more interesting if anything moses a hebrew is saved from the slaughter of the firstborn sons by his mother when she sets him in a basket on the nile he floats into the pharaoh seti patrick stewart palace and is taken in by the royal family moses grows up but learns of his heritage and flees into the desert where he discovers the burning bush and is commissioned by god to return to egypt and free the slaves by this time rameses is now pharaoh and the two brothers now on opposite sides of the line face off in a battle of wills and divine intervention the cast of voices is most impressive and also includes such noteables as sandra bullock jeff goldblum danny glover and steve martin the script does not have a lot of in it and god is reduced to a voice that might well be mistaken for the same one that spoke to kevin costner in field of dreams but overall the story is exciting and interesting it's decidedly for an older crowd and the tykes who haven't had a few years of religion class will be hopelessly lost but for those who make the bid the prince of egypt can be a great watch
positive	capsule a rock and roll fable indeed like a hubert selby jr novel filtered through equal parts damon runyan and bruce springsteen and a ton of fun streets of fire bills itself as a rock and roll fable and the description is perfect this is a stylish and breezily enjoyable movie that feels like a hubert selby jr novel with a damon runyan rewrite irected by bruce springsteen noir is one of the few truly american movie genres aside from the hollywood musical and the western this is brooklyn noir for lack of a better label with a generous injection of rock roll and an confrontational attitude it all works the plot is simplicity itself rocker ellen aim diane lane is kidnapped by a vicious street gang led by a bloodthirsty fellow named raven willem dafoe very nasty her old soldier flame played by michael pare comes back into town to save her but doesn't count on a whole bunch of things going askew that's about the entire plot save for the spats with ellen's manager a hilarious rick moranis an encounter with a group that winds up becoming ellen's supporting act and a whole gang of other fun little touches but in movies like this when is the plot important the movie is all style all visuals and attitudes quotable lines and posturing and it delivers all those things consistently and with great brio and pacing no surprise that it was directed by walter hill hrs who understands this kind of macho romanticism perfectly and has put together a movie that's a mixture of times and sensibilities but perfectly unified in tone when was the last time you could say something like that about a movie especially a movie where it seems like someone gets decked on the jaw and passes out every minutes on cue streets of fire isn't the greatest movie ever made but it occupies a totally unique little niche and enjoys the position it has anyone with a weakness for neon motorcycles rainy streets the el studebakers gang pictures lonely heroes and a gal giving the microphone both lungs will eat this movie up i did
positive	jack nicholson has a funny way of playing characters with very few redeeming qualities but whom you end up liking anyway in as good as it gets the character in question is melvin udall a successful novelist with disorder who seems bent on having as little contact with people around him as possible except when he feels like being a royal pain in the he's mean i mean really mean the opening scene shows him shoving a little dog down the trash chute of his manhattan condominium every day melvin eats at the same cafe sits at the same table and gets served by the same waitress you can tell that this is his favorite place to be a vicious nuisance when his waitress carol helen hunt tells him he can just go sit in another section and all the other waitresses just cringe one day melvin makes a comment that goes to far and carol genuinely hurt comes down on him like a ton of bricks at that point we find that she is not only the only person who can put up with him as a matter of course but is also the only person who can get to him too another person who often crosses melvin's sights is simon greg kinnear an artist who lives on melvin's floor aside from the fact that he lives near the terror of the city simon has the added benefit of being gay making him a prime target simon's friend frank cuba gooding jr also gay does not fare much better when simon walks in on a pair of men robbing his apartment he is brutally beaten and sent to the hospital and frank who has grown tired of seeing his friend take the verbal abuse dished out by his neighbor intimidates melvin into watching after simon's dog while he convalesces this is the same dog melvin had earlier shoved down the garbage an interesting thing happens when melvin takes this dog in melvin gets to like the dog and the two develop an attachment which is the catalyst to melvin's softening up to the world around him it doesn't happen overnight but throughout the film he bites his tongue here cares a little there and most miraculously falls in love one of the best elements of this film is watching melvin try to express feelings which are not the usual negative ones he so often shares with others he's traveling terra incognita here and it shows good performances are turned in by all principal players in this film especially by nicholson and hunt they play well off of each other and have a genuine chemistry which makes it a pleasure to watch them on screen greg kinnear who is becoming known for his supporting film roles is also very good at playing the vulnerable simon he gives a short monologue about what it means for him to be an artist and delivers it with such inspiration and conviction that you actually get to feel some of what he feels cuba gooding jr performs with a level of energy which contrasts nicely with that of kinnear and comes through with a near constant comic performance the screenplay by mark andrus and james l brooks is clever touching and funny the best part about it however is that it is filled with characters we care about because they are actually interesting melvin is a man we can't quite figure out but whose mannerisms and quirky qualities capture our attention carol is a working woman living with her mother trying to take care of a child with a debilitating respiratory problem simon is a man who is a success in his circle of peers but who is still not accepted by much of society combined with the talent of the actors these characters make the film the one noticeable area where the film is lacking however is the absence of cuba gooding jr through the second half his character makes an exit which is supposed to be temporary but the film ends before his return leaving his relationship with simon and melvin unresolved i would have liked to have seen more of his character in general in addition to a part in the film's conclusion there's one actor who will probably not be recognized by any awards but who contributes greatly to many of the movie's best scenes and who deserves mention this is that little dog he plays such a pivotal role to melvin's character development actually serves to forward the plot and has some absolutely moments that it is hard to believe he is simply an animal award or no however when even the dog puts in a good performance you know you've got an outstanding movie
positive	i've been told by several people old fashioned you want to do everything by hand topiary gardener george mendonca complains defending his continued resort to hand shears in trimming his intricately animal creations this is the only way you can do it and do it right snip snip some people believe that we are gonna replace ourselves by building these machines and that may be muses mit robot scientist rodney brooks who builds robots that run on instinct there may not be a place for humans in the future if we're really successful you feel that there's a and looking directly into errol morris's camera i know you are you know i am in some ways the slickest film yet from nonfiction auteur morris the thin blue line a brief history of time fast cheap out of control is reportage of the highest order journalism students should dream of making connections like these among interviews and filmed segments morris traces the lives of four disparate professionals who seem to share nothing but an immersion in their work and then threads them around one another in an intricate quadruple helix the fun is settling into your theater seat and wondering just what the hell one story can possibly have to do with the other what morris manages is something akin to an intellectual magic trick an interrogative sleight of hand one of the things that feels different about an errol morris documentary besides the visuals is the interview style where subjects seem to look directly at the viewer weary of pressing his cheek against the camera lens to get this effect during conversations morris developed an elaborate gadget he calls the interrotron through a rig that uses a pair of teleprompters to project video images of the interviewer for the subject and vice versa these folks talk startlingly right to the camera to the video image of morris and by extension to the audience the gardener wonders whether after his death anyone will be interested in maintaining the garden that he's devoted half his life to tending the robot scientist is more than a little pleased to note that his creations may be primal examples of what an insect or even an animal is a complicated set of sensory receptors the mole rat specialist is delighted to catalog the ways in which these vermin animals behave like insects and notes that they may be more suited to survival than people and the circus trainer pines for a ideal that was exemplified by trainer and showman clyde beatty who starred in such serials as zombies of the stratosphere excerpted at some length here with affection starting to detect the patterns fast cheap out of control contains a multitude of parallels and tiny intersections culminating in what feels like an elegy the film is dedicated to morris's late mother and stepfather the film is balanced on that airy precipice dividing the already musty past from the alternately exhilarating and terrifying space that is the future the title is taken from brooks' wish that nasa would send a payload of hundreds of expendable robots to scurry about the martian surface creating a sort of road map for the terrain fast cheap and out of control with able assists from editors karen schmeer and shondra merrill and cinematographer robert richardson oliver stone's longtime collaborator this becomes a cinematic contraption that's a wonder of narrative divergence and coherence further enhancing the picture's wacky intellectual mood is the playful score by alloy orchestra founder caleb sampson different story threads inform and comment on one another with the serene inscrutability of a kieslowski film or a surrealist dream by cobbling together out of these motley musings a thesis on the nature of craftsmanship invention and existence itself morris reveals the presence of cosmic themes creation evolution death in earthbound lives at the same time and just as significantly he pays tribute to a consuming passion for one's work this breakdown of the dichotomy between the everyday and the extraordinary is likely as profound as anything you'll encounter in pop culture this year and the visuals cry out for the big screen don't miss it directed by errol morris edited by karen schmeer and shondra merrill cinematography by robert richardson music by caleb sampson u s
positive	the deer hunter directed by michael cimino is truly one of the greatest movies ever made a captivating drama about the lives of a group of friends from a small pennsylvania community the deer hunter promises to be one of those movies that you will never forget in this academy award winner for best picture of outstanding performances are turned in by all actors and cimino's brilliant directing provides the perfect vision into the character's lives the first act of the film provides us with an inside look into the lives of a group of men from a small community who work and hang out together michael portrayed perfectly by robert de niro is shown early on as the natural leader of the group after a days work the men leave their jobs at a factory to head down to the local bar where john george dzundza works three of the men michael steven john savage and nick christopher walken will be leaving shortly for vietnam but not before steven gets married after the marriage the group including axel chuck aspegren spend one last day on a hunting trip one of their favorite this sequence of events enables us to view the lifestyle of a normal group of men who will be suddenly and permanently affected by the ravages and separations of war the wedding scenes although criticized by many as being quite long actually enhance even more the purpose of the first act the outstanding performances by de niro walken streep savage and cazale who died very shortly after the filming of the movie was completed really begin to shine through and promise not to halt in the near future the second act of the movie begins with the trio of men on the front lines in vietnam stationed in a south vietnamese village being attacked by the viet cong the men are eventually captured and held in a floating prison on a river this prison run by the v c initiates the horrifying scenes in the movie where the prisoners are forced to play russian roulette against each other steven who is emotionally marred by this turn of events is secluded in a tiger cage with water up to his face when he refuses to participate michael shows his leadership again by convincing nick that the only way that steven will survive is if the two friends play against each other and moreover they must play with bullets in the gun personally i felt that de niro's absolutely gripping portrayal really was displayed in a brilliant way in these and the following scenes the men are eventually able to escape but are separated michael is able to get steven who ends up losing his legs to medical care while nick finds his way to saigon and a u s army hospital michael returns home and does not feel at all like a hero he wants to avoid the celebrations and recognition that his friends would like to bestow upon him he assumes that nick is still lost in vietnam the third act concentrates more on walken's character who eventually stumbles upon a small gambling operation where the game is again russian roulette only in this game you play for money michael has learned that nick is possibly still alive and returns to saigon to attempt to find him the two narrowly find each other at the russian roulette games but do not link up until michael discovers nick participating in the games and tries to bring him home a very emotional and for many a very disturbing movie the deer hunter is a truly magnificent movie that should not be missed the greatest performances possible are turned in by all actors and cimino's directing which is considered to be at his best in this film is equally dazzling do not miss this film it will captivate and astound you
positive	with storytelling this compelling who needs books based on the book by author james ellroy l a confidential is probably one of the best piece of work produced by hollywood in recent years together with director curtis hanson the hand that rocks the cradle the river wild whom ellroy corroborated closely throughout the shooting of the film resulted in a movie with a plot and and script so tight an atom would have to squeeze itself through set in the the story revolves around policemen of vivid personalities jack vincennes spacey is the cop who is more concerned on busting with fame and stardom ala hollywood style concentrating heavily on work which will attract him media attention there is also the young rookie ed exley pearce fresh out of the academy and to carve a name for himself in the footsteps of his legendary cop father the tough and unnerving bud white crowe a cop who believes in justice the swift and violent way policemen distinct in their characters and paths but all of them working in a place where there is no real distinction between good and evil when his partner is murdered on the day of his resignation bud sets out to find the people responsible but unwittingly delved himself into something more than just a simple robbery murder even after exley receives a promotion for his work on the murder case happenings began to link itself to the murder the eventually reach a point of convergence when what actually began as a personal investigation turns out to be an uncovering of a complex web of in hollywood the last time i remember a film so clever and compelling was when i watched the usual suspects in l a confidential you do not get the shock and cleverness as the former but it has a lot more of going for it there is not a single moment in the film in which i felt was slow at all surprisingly though spacey did a very convincing job as the vincennes the movie was carried mostly by the two rather pearce and crowe pearce's exley is cool and calculative in his actions and there is a slight hint of val kilmer in his appearance crowe's bud white is the most impressive of all and temperamental he should obtain some sort of recognition for his work here superb acting wonderful storytelling and one of the best climaxing gunfights ever easily the best hollywood piece for
positive	synopsis committed to an asylum the marquis de sade rush continues to publish pornographic literature aided by young maid madeleine winslet abbe coulmier phoenix who runs the hospital disapproves of the stories but humours him in the hope of achieving a cure de sade's craft and life are threatened when the emperor dispatches dr michael caine to stop the marquis' work permanently review quills is an exploration of the marquis de sade his madness his cruelty and his perversion his obsession with sex in any form no matter how obscene but quills also details the marquis' determination to write in spite of the obstacles put in his path and to propagate his words to the masses the extent to which de sade is willing to go to practise his trade is amongst the movie's most intriguing elements as when de sade scribes a story in his own blood or narrates a tale via of a chain of fellow inmates cell to cell to provide a contrast with the marquis wright involves him with two very different characters one is the abbe a handsome charming and kindly man whose desires are stymied by his oath to god the abbe lusts for madeleine but it is the wizened marquis who is able to have her and then there is a hypocrite who in truth is as sadistic as any of the marquis' motley creations rush is splendid as de sade utterly inhabiting the character kaufman's direction is fine and he is able to bring a sense of bizarre humour to the grim proceedings the plot itself is rather mundane and plays out unsurprisingly but this is virtually unimportant for two hours quills acquaints us with the marquis de sade and more frightening still allows us brief insight into his scatological soul
positive	with more and more television shows having gay characters and even the infamous ellen sitcom being centered on the life of a lesbian the movie industry too seems to be gaining more and more homosexual based plot lines the birdcage was critically acclaimed as was this years chasing amy then along came in out and all three of these films are on my top ten list for the years in which they were released it's also noticeable that this alternative lifestyle becomes less and less taboo as the years go by and it seems that using comedy as a medium is proving a worthwhile effort while it's a very serious issue to many it is the comedies that people are flocking to see and that are gaining notoriety but the way we're using comedy to present homosexuality is also changing quite dramatically while the gay community was once very stereotyped and used to laugh at it is more and more becoming something we laugh with and when a movie like in out comes along it is something that both heterosexuals and homosexuals should be able to thoroughly enjoy it doesn't poke fun at the lifestyle it simply uses it to all it's comedic capacity just as love sex marriage birth death and anything else has been the idea for in out was born the day tom hanks won his oscar for portraying an gay man in philadelphia if you remember during his acceptance speech hanks gave a highly emotional tribute to the gay community and even sighted a former gay teacher of his as a major inspiration in his life it's a serious and touchy subject but producer scott rudin viewed it as the setting for a potentially hilarious comedy and pitched it to screenwriter paul rudnick it's true that if this same film had been written by a heterosexual it may have been more controversial but because it was written by an openly gay writer the prerogative was set kevin kline who only seems to become more and more acclaimed stars as howard brackett a high school english teacher in the small picturesque town of greenleaf indiana after a engagement to fellow teacher emily montgomery joan cusack a wedding date has been set and the hubbub surrounding it is almost as big as that surrounding another huge story greenleaf high graduate cameron drake matt dillon is up for a best actor oscar the small town eagerly awaits both events and both seem quite astronomical but little does anyone know how much one will affect the other when cameron drake is announced the winner the excitement is heightened as he pays tribute to his high school english teacher mr brackett everyone is cheering back in greenleaf that is until cameron tacks on those three calamitous words and he's gay the town becomes silent as the entire population joins in a simultaneous jaw drop the thing is nobody including howard can understand how cameron came to that conclusion and such wild and unexpected news can only wreak havoc in such a conservative american haven such as greenleaf naturally the questions pour from howard's fiancee parents debbie reynolds wilford brimley students and the high school's principal tom halliwell bob newhart and the evidence starts to become more and more obvious howard is clean neat honest sincere a romantic and perhaps the most incriminating fact he loves barbara streisand the frenzy isn't helped any when camera crews from every conceivable news magazine and entertainment tonight wannabe show up at greenleaf high the very next morning one particular reporter is peter malloy tom selleck of inside entertainment who unlike the collage of other reporters wants to spend a whole week in the life of howard brackett including coverage of his wedding the intrusion is all but welcome by howard who is going more and more out of his mind with each passing minute it seems that no matter where he turns a camera is being shoved in his face and questions regarding homosexuality are being tossed to him like frisbees the dominoes begin to tumble as howard's closest friends begin acting different and principal halliwell hints at a possible termination of employment should howard indeed be gay it all sounds very devastating and it would be if it weren't presented with by one of this year's most delightful ensemble casts kline seems only to improve with age and he is downright perfect here the great thing about this film is that every single character has a moment to shine and they use it wonderfully every single actor turns in one of their best performances ever dillon has never been so likeable cusack has never seemed so perfect for a role and brimley reynolds and newhart all provide huge laughs when they're up to bat rudnick's script is heavily laced with wit and humor and you'll likely find yourself laughing out loud for a solid ninety minutes while in out doesn't carry enough to give it four stars it remains one of the best done films of the year the script is exuberant the actors are absolutely notch and we're allowed just the perfect blend of so as not to bog down the laughs it remains a solid comedy throughout its entirety yet we're still allowed a sappily touching ending despite it's subject matter and one scene that comes almost too close for comfort on explaining gay sex this is a movie that everyone could and should enjoy frank oz best known as a voice talent for muppets directs this film quite delightfully using all the potential rudnick's script has to offer which turns out to be quite a bit check this one out you'll have a gay old time
positive	with his last two films shine and snow falling on cedars australian director scott hicks has proven his cinematic flashbacks to be some of the best out there and his latest hearts in atlantis is no different its structure beginning and ending in present day with one long flashback in the middle is similar to the green mile which is a bit ironic considering both were based on stephen king books the parallels don't end there either atlantis was adapted by william goldman who had previously penned the version of misery and is in the process of working on the script for king's dreamcatcher even the film's content is a bit reminiscent of mile in fact it's the perfect blend of the nostalgia of stand by me also by king and mystical power hokum of mile king's atlantis is a book comprised of five related short stories but the main focus here is on the first and longest tale called low men in yellow coats the film's title comes from the second chapter it's set in harwich connecticut where bobby garfield anton yelchin lives in a boarding house run by his cold mother elizabeth hope davis joe gould's secret who seems to care more about her wardrobe than her son bobby spends his time with his two closest friends john sullivan will rothhaar and tomboy carol gerber mika boorem who become something like the kevin paul and winnie of harwich when a new tenant moves into the vacant room the fatherless bobby finds a male role model in ted brautigan anthony hopkins hannibal a mysterious stranger who is vague enough about his past to make bobby's mom suspicious enough to at least momentarily turn her head away from the mirror ted teaches his young neighbor about the wonders of literature after his cheapskate mother gives him a library card for his birthday dispenses prophetic words of wisdom and even pays bobby one dollar a week to read him the local newspaper and keep his eyes peeled for the low men a group of people chasing ted to exploit his special powers i won't go into what these powers are but they're considerably toned down from the book and don't involve black stuff flying out of ted's mouth a la mile atlantis' setting which bookends the film is based on the novel's final chapter titled heavenly shades of night are falling and features david morse in yet another connection to the green mile as a married bobby who learns of the death of both of his childhood friends and returns to the dilapidated boarding house in which he spent his formative years atlantis is nowhere near as flashy as hicks' cedars which is disappointing but understandable considering the switch from the completely amazing robert richardson to the occasionally amazing piotr sobocinski the cinematographer behind krzysztof kieslowski's red the acting is solid from everyone including hopkins who never once makes you think of dr lecter most impressive are youngsters yelchin and boorem who both had tiny parts in along came a spider while i didn't really have much of a problem with goldman's screenplay i do need to point out at least one inconsistency goldman for those of you who don't read premiere writes what seems like an annual criticism of everybody else's films carefully explaining why they all suck make no sense and insult their audiences while somehow failing to mention the crap that he's penned like the general's daughter it's but fun to read mostly on account of nobody else in hollywood having the balls to say anything remotely negative about anybody else in the business including michael jackson o j and robert blake in atlantis which is supposed to be told through the eyes of young bobby one would assume he would have to be in each scene in order to have the memory to which to flash back well he's not and it doesn't make sense for violence and thematic elements
positive	corey yuen's latest film hero is notable on two fronts first this is the film to bring back the shaw brothers studio back to the forefront of film production secondly the film is the of yuen biao the film opens around the end of the qin dynasty when many immigrants were making their way to shanghai poverty and crime rule most of china a young man ma wing jing and his brother enter the fabled city and become laborers at the pier tam see is the most powerful gangster in town having control of the center of the city and having an alliance with the british army wing jing and see become friends during a confrontation their friendship grows as both men start to realize their dreams wing jing's to be a powerful and wealthy man and see to settle down with a woman he can truly love wing jing meets the singer at the club jessica hester and falls in love with her not realizing that she is the star attraction after stealing her picture from a display wing jing and his brother plot to impress her first they rob two foreigner's of their money and cloths and set up a midnight rendezvous unfortunately wing jing has run afoul of a rival gangster yeung seung who has bribed the police in an effort to gain control of see's night club the two bothers are arrested and held until they manage to escape just before dawn jessica having waited outside in the cold with her manager all night gives up and returns home see decides to retire he gives the night club to wing jing as repayment for saving his life during an attempted murder see arranges the trade and ask his lover valerie chow to take care of wing jing unfortunately she has sided with yeung seung the performances in the film are all top notch with fine turns by takeshi kaneshiro as ma wing jing and jessica hester and valerie chow the comic turn by yuen wah previously known as the mad vietnamese in samo hung's eastern condors is a marvelous surprise his gift for comedy is marvelously understated and hilarious the is by yuen biao who returns to the screen after a string of disappointments with a stellar performance his tam see is a triad boss who knows that his time is coming to an end but still has the cunning and craft to uphold his pride his gangster is almost in that he only retaliates never instigates violence but when the time comes to fight yuen biao has never looked better corey yuen directs the film with a maturity and a sense of pacing that has been lacking in hong kong movies as of late the lighting cinematography and staging of the film are beautiful to watch the action scenes do not disappoint either this is the most aggressive and inventive martial art choreography i've seen in some time actually surpassing jackie chan's work in both in the bronx' and strike' the special effects team deserves praise for a fantastic job of making the impossible look possible an early fight between takeshi kaneshiro and yuen biao on the back of a horse is to be seen to be believed also noteworthy is the score for the film done in a marvelously lush orchestral style not representative of most hong kong fare i would dare to say it ranks as high as the scores for both titanic and rosewood as best of the year all in all hero marks a grand return to filmmaking for shaw brothers this is the film that gives us faith that hong kong cinema is alive and flourishing
positive	synopsis in this cultural exploration a chinese american computer engineer named fang peter wang decides to take a vacation to visit his sister mrs chao shen guanglan her husband mr chao hy xiaoguang and their teenage daughter lili li qinqin in beijing after years of separation fang brings his asian american wife grace sharon iwai and his son paul kelvin han yee along both of whom don't speak chinese the encounter between the two families allows the audience to compare the eastern and western cultures as well as the ambitions of individual characters opinion sometimes a film is plot driven sometimes it's a character sketch a great wall can be called a culture sketch as opposed to a character sketch because it gently compares a chinese american family to a beijing family fang's family is thoroughly americanized fang is an upper middle class professional who enjoys jogging and argues with his boss his wife can't cook chinese his son has a white girlfriend and complains of racism when fang encourages him to befriend an asian girl meanwhile fang's beijing sister advocates absolute loyalty to the unit her husband is a retired official who has heard rumors of american depravity homosexuals running the streets and her daughter lili longs for american freedoms in a youth culture where studying for college entrance exams is the most important thing in life the two families spend a month slowly learning about each other there is no ultimate or final comprehensive understanding after the vacation the film is neither here nor there it's a neutral meandering gentle portrait of life on both sides
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned on december amidst all the oscar bait releases from the major studios miramax's genre label dimension films quietly released a sly little ensemble slasher flick titled scream although the teen horror market had been given up for in recent years the film shocked industry observers by scoring consistently high box office returns eventually topping million domestic and becoming one of the most successful films of its type in history while delighting audiences by finally presenting a set of knowing slasher flick protagonists who were aware of the all the standard cliches associated with the genre the sleeper success of scream sent shockwaves through the industry suddenly everybody was looking for hip inexpensive fright films that might be able to reap similar fortunes the strategy of casting young tv stars to draw the youth demographic was given a boost scream director wes craven previously best known as the creator of new line's a nightmare on elm street film series was thrust back into the limelight and scream's rookie scribe kevin williamson burst onto the film scene in stunning fashion it's hard to understate this last point mr williamson has based upon his produced screenplays as of this writing scream i know what you did last summer from october and now scream enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame quickly become the most screenwriter amongst the entertainment box office youth culture since well since that quentin tarantino guy whom it is said has also achieved some renown as a director indeed in a singularly freakish oddity it is the screenwriter mr williamson and not the director that has been receiving the lion's share of acclaim for the success of scream and the print advertisements for scream theatrical release are similarly indicative of his increasing prominence while the traditional a film by wes craven drapes the film's title in the ads right below it in equal sized font yet reads written by kevin williamson an affirmation of the screenwriter's contribution to the project which may be unprecedented i can envision the board of wga licking their chops at this coup and counting the days until their goal of a film by is attained and much like mr tarantino's screenwriting mr williamson's work is vaguely unconventional incorporating both contemporary pop culture references and allusions to other films into the dialogue of his characters in scream they satirically discussed other horror films here in the sequel the characters discuss the relative merits of film sequels scream was written in during the infamous bob dole rampage against hollywood and mr williamson's rejection of this tirade clearly influenced the writing in both that film and this sequel while the sequel was planned from the outset a treatment of scream was included when mr williamson sold the screenplay for scream the basic premise for the film and the reunion of the surviving characters nevertheless seems extremely artificially contrived and it's only at about the film's midway point when it becomes engaging like its predecessor scream opens with a splashy prologue which only vaguely ties into the film's principal narrative this time around we're following the exploits of a young couple jada pinkett and omar epps attending a riotously gleeful sneak preview screening of stab a running gag where the true life events behind the first film has been turned into a movie however although it tries hard and has some good ideas the nightmarishly enthusiastic audience in the film vaguely reminded me of the one i was sharing the theatre with and i was certainly thinking about gutting the person a few seats away myself after about fifteen minutes the prologue is a pale imitation of the bravura opening sequence in the original with drew barrymore where her performance not only convinced me that she could act but was so good that it would rank among the best performances in a horror film that i've ever seen there are too many knowing hip references crammed into the scream sequence and the setup isn't nearly as cleverly frightening as scream's while the first film's preface dizzyingly built up to a final shot that was exhilaratingly terrifying the payoff here is almost campily theatrical flash to the campus of a smalltown ohio college where returning characters sidney neve campbell and randy jamie kennedy have relocated for their studies and to escape the notoriety from the events in the first film the murders which open this film result in reuniting the survivors tabloid tv reporter gale weathers courteney cox roars into town to cover the breaking story while former deputy dewey riley david arquette flies in to protectively guard over sidney they're joined by cotton weary liev schreiber who was falsely accused of homicide in a cameo appearance during the first film his role here is significantly expanded the film incidentally provides surprisingly little backstory although i suppose a good case can be made that it really isn't necessary not because so many people have seen the first installment but because this is after all a sequel to a slasher film what do you think happened to these characters in the prior movie there's a lot of new faces on the scene too sidney's new boyfriend derek jerry o'connell and her new roommate hallie elise neal randy's fellow film student mickey timothy olyphant gale's nervous cameraman joel duane martin omnipresent local journalist debbie salt laurie metcalf cici cooper ms buffy herself sarah michelle gellar and a pair of simpering sorority sisters rebecca gayheart and sirens' portia di rossi any of these characters could be the killer or for that matter could be the next victim as is seemingly becoming a regular staple of a kevin williamson screenplay the narrative is once again framed around the premise of a whodunit one problem that scream didn't have was keeping you interested in the identity of the killer here and to some extent in i know what you did last summer mr williamson's screenplay seems slightly hampered by trying to turn the identity of the killer into a mystery the film occasionally becomes so bogged down with misdirection that you can sense it straining at the seams to try and drop red herrings left and right at the expense of its thriller elements it doesn't help matters any that the killer's is fairly obvious from the indeed the finale plays as camp when the villain is finally unmasked frothing at the mouth with glazed eyes this is one of those cases where the villain goes on such an endless diatribe about their machinations scheming and motivation that you actually get bored listening and just want them all to get on with it while the basic setup and premise for the film is fairly contrived the aspect where it's above its predecessor is in its suspense sequences they're staged much more imaginatively here save for the first murder which is handled in such a mediocre conventional fashion that it seems to be culled directly from the predictable slasher flicks that the first film satirized and are much more fun to watch it's hard to hold back a smile during a giddy scene where sidney and her companion have to climb over the incapacitated killer in order to escape from a car wreck and a chase involving gale and dewey in a campus sound lab is very nicely staged although its ultimate resolution is hilariously overblown in terms of its characters the strong part of the film is the interesting relationship between gale and dewey who ambles onto the screen accompanied by his very own theme music their verbal sparring at the outset provides much humour an exchange where dewey defensively rebukes charges of a perceived aura of incompetency is and there's a curiously endearing aspect about their relationship amidst all the mayhem and bloodshed on the other hand sidney is pretty dull here she doesn't have any compelling presence and there's nothing particularly interesting about her this time around to make us care about her other than that she's the returning heroine given this and the fact that there's no strong second banana character for sidney elise neal's role isn't nearly substantive enough to adequately fill rose mcgowan's shoes it's no wonder why the roles for gale and dewey have been significantly augmented for this installment of the film what surprises me the most about scream is its zealousness in decimating its cast the film's mounting body count bears out the fact that no character is safe well almost while in principal i applaud this bold policy at some point you've got to be wondering about just how many characters will make it to the next sequel i was particularly surprised with the untimely demise of one in particular whose casting for the next installment of the series would've seemed obvious but hey as rose mcgowan's character said in the first film no please don't kill me mr ghostface i want to be in the sequel look what that got her
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned it's startling to consider that it was only a few years ago that film distributors would worriedly rearrange their summer release schedules in order to give the annual disney animated feature juggernaut a wide berth the lion king had just cracked million domestic in gross to become one of the most profitable ventures in film history continuing to build on a sturdy base left by prior flicks aladdin and beauty and the beast since then though disney's animated features have shown an unbroken string of diminishing returns with pocahontas the hunchback of notre dame and this year's hercules successively proving less and less potent with the once disney stranglehold on the market share suddenly looking mighty vulnerable and faced with their first serious competition in the animated film market from fox's anastasia disney has brought xmas home early by dusting off the feature which sparked the modern revival of feature animation the little mermaid while the animation for the film is as is typically the case for disney films unquestionably the magic in the little mermaid is not its animation but the wonderful innocence of its story and its rousingly superb music the film's storyline is fairly straightforward young teen falls for handsome man father disapproves and assigns hapless chaperone to his daughter teen disobeys father and goes to desperate lengths to win her man except in this case the chaperone is a crab the teen is a young mermaid and the object of her desire is a human prince what makes the little mermaid so affecting and so emotionally resonant is the richness and charm of its characters and the sheer clarity and honest simplicity of their emotions from the moment mermaid ariel lays her eyes on prince eric she's resolutely smitten and she's such a pure and endearing character that one can't help but invest their heart with her this simple but touching love story coupled with a healthy dose of smart humour makes the little mermaid a remarkably captivating picture one of the interesting things about the little mermaid is something which now curiously dates it the voices cast for its motley crew of characters this film was produced just before the distracting concept of using celebrity voices became in vogue which started to a certain degree with beauty and the beast and was irrevocably exacerbated by robin williams' turn in aladdin by the release of the lion king and henceforth the majority of characters in the animated films were voiced by celebrities while it's understandable that animated features lacking the or drawing power of disney say balto's use of kevin bacon and bridget fonda or even anastasia's showcasing of meg ryan and john cusack would be forced to turn to this strategy in order to hype their products it's unfortunate that even disney has embraced this policy do we really need to hear say demi moore as esmerelda in the hunchback of notre dame is the film's entertainment value really augmented by hearing a recognizable voice rather than a voice which best suits the role i'm not exactly on the edge of my seat for eddie murphy in the upcoming mulan fortunately the performers who voice the characters in the little mermaid although perhaps more obscure are impeccably cast chief among them is jodi benson a tony nominee for her stage work in crazy for you who voices the film's heroine ariel to perfection with a wonderfully expressive speaking voice full of youthful vigor and gorgeous singing voice ms benson provides a most engaging anchor for the film she's the only reason i'd even consider catching flubber similarly samuel e wright is terrific in the showy role of sebastian the weary guardian crab he easily milks his lovable character's comic moments for all they're worth and his rendering of two of the little mermaid's big tunes under the sea and kiss the girl have become the stuff of legend pat carrol is deliciously villainous and vampy as the evil ursula while kenneth mars' booming voice conveys the stern yet affectionate authority of ariel's father king triton in large roles and small edie mcclurg as dotting busybody carlotta is ideal and rene auberjonois has great fun with his exuberant french chef the little mermaid is impeccably cast of course the little mermaid will probably be best remembered for its remarkable collection of songs composed by the songwriting team of alan menken music and howard ashman lyrics who had created little shop of horrors and would go on to compose beauty and the beast and aladdin for disney before mr ashman's untimely death not only are mr menken's tunes unbearably catchy but mr ashman's charming lyrics are fully integrated into the film's storyline so that the songs are a virtual extension of the character's dialogue and consequently work wonderfully within the context of the film mr menken's score for the film is equally the sequence where eric voiced by christopher daniel barnes and ariel tour his kingdom in a carriage becomes magical and wondrous with mr menken's fine score it appears that most people prefer the delightfully colourful production number for the under the sea as joyfully crooned by mr wright which won the academy award and golden globe awards for best song indeed one of the many little joys in screening the film during its was listening to children scattered throughout the audience singing along with the tune but my favourite is ms benson's heartfelt rendition of the ballad part of your world an achingly beautiful tune of yearning and hope wonderfully lyricized by mr ashman which accompanied by the film's most dazzlingly polished animation sequence packs an emotional wallop which literally brought tears to my eyes during the song's reprise which builds to a crescendo with ariel arching on a rock as a wave crashes in the cumulative effect is nothing short of breathtaking and one becomes acutely aware that this single instance is one of the finest in animation history as of this writing november has come to an end as has disney's limited of the little mermaid there's no question that the primary motivation for if not the film's reissue itself at least its timing was to reinforce disney's dominance in the animation market and provide direct competition to fox's costly new upstart animation division and their first major venture anastasia in every respect the of the little mermaid appears to be a success the film's grosses have pushed its cumulative domestic gross over the magic million mark the little mermaid proved to have remarkably strong drawing power for a film initially released only eight years ago and in many homes on video pulling in close to million in its opening weekend and although nobody could possibly expect the little mermaid to possibly defeat the anastasia in competition it siphoned enough from the fox film's opening weekend totals to keep anastasia from the coveted weekend leader spot allowing for disney's odious flubber to sweep in on the subsequent week and wrestle the family demographic market share away but although disney's motives in the reissue of the little mermaid were and protectionist the real winner is the public any reason to put this film back into theatres is a good one and it's a true joy to see this heartwarming gem back on the silver screen the little mermaid is the best film to come out of the disney's modern animation renaissance and one of the greatest animated films ever made
positive	this christmas little ralphie parker peter billingsley wants nothing more than a red ryder bb gun under the tree although cautioned by many that he will shoot his eye out' ralphie remains optimistic conjuring up a detailed scheme to get on the good side of his parents and teachers it could be possible that no one has ever wanted anything with more passion than ralphie wants this bb gun and the story of his eternal struggle is a charming one christmas story' is a favorite among many during the holiday season and boy it is certainly easy to see why ralphie's endless desire for the bb gun may transport you back to your childhood when you were craving a certain gift for christmas and the anxiety was almost indescribable evoking pleasant childhood memories is only one of the many things christmas story' does so well here are a few features that make this film such a charming little package for everybody during the holiday season period detail this film is based on the memoirs of late humorist jean shepard who shares his experiences as a young boy living in the with loving detail shepard narrates from a first person divulging his various adventures one snowy december in which visions of taking aim with his new bb gun replaced that of sugarplums dancing in his head shepard's commentary of several situations is not only downright hilarious but also witty and warm with various metaphorical meanings that ring perfectly with the essence of comic timing on top of that young billingsley's stupefied reactions to each predicament is absolutely perfect in contrast with the narration director bob clark captures the look and feel of the era with wonderful technicality i can hardly imagine a more accurate depiction of what christmas for young ralphie must have been like mom and dad both melinda dillon as mom and darren mcgavin as the old man' are perfect in their roles it's hard to fathom a more agreeable pair for the requirements of a story like this one with each possessing at least one memorable trait that instantly separates them from the wooden caricatures that could have been featured for instance he is a bloodthirsty turkey hound and she is forgiving and understanding when it comes to some serious issues in portraying the writer as a persistent but young lad peter billingsley has struck quite the chord his performance is richly textured making all of the humorous situations he stumbles into radiate with flavor and enjoyment which brings us to the comic situations there are plenty of memorable moments in christmas story' moments that undoubtedly will improve in comic potency upon each new viewing with so much more to explore and to cherish i am particularly partial of the scene' in which ralphie blurts out the shocking obscenity while helping the old man in the yard again shepard's method of handling this amusing scenario is nothing short of comic wizardry the numerous sequences that stick in one's mind include of course the famous department store santa scene in which billingsley has some problems in telling old saint nick what he wants under the tree i could go on but i'll finish on this note christmas story' is a standout among holiday movies because it captures so much in a meager minutes not only is it funny it's often genuinely hilarious not to mention warm fluffy and touching in all the appropriate places i plan on making christmas story' a christmas tradition why don't you
positive	in intolerance d w griffith told four different historical stories at the same time cutting from one to the other each of the stories builds to a climax in magnolia paul thomas anderson tells several stories each just tangentially connected to the others yet the stories and where they are going are all independent what is strange about these stories is that they are all synchronized each story builds to a tense moment or what appears to be intended to be a tense moment but then lets the tension dissolve while the tension dissipates one character starts singing a song and in each plotline the major characters sing along even though they are not in the same scene then toward the end the stories each build to a tense moment again it is almost as if the characters are somehow psychically linked this creates some strange effects the stories are about empty desperate people with dysfunctional relationships the strands have varying degrees of bizarre content we have the story of a dying man earl partridge jason robards wanting to get in touch with his son and make amends phil parma philip seymour hoffman is his nurse who is frantic to help partridge achieve his final goal partridge's young wife linda julianne moore is getting more and more anxious as partridge dies but for an unsuspected reason frank mackey tom cruise runs the kinds of seminar that businesses like so much but he aims his at teaching disaffected men how to be real in dealing with women in an angry backlash to women's lib officer jim kurring john c reilly is a patrolman who has a need to feel he is making the world a better place jimmy gator philip baker hall hosts a popular children's tv quiz show that really exploits and destroys children as we see from the stories of current quiz kid stanley spector jeremy blackman and former quiz kid donnie smith william h macy the film juggles all these stories for over three hours but even after all this time not one story is resolved satisfactorily each story moves toward a single bizarre common climax but it is not one that seems to do much but derail each story the common climax itself is ambiguous in many ways and it fails to really tie up any of the stories the film seems to be built around strange events and weird history but it really has little to do with the content of the stories though they all are connected in part by one weird event magnolia will probably bring some much deserved attention to paul thomas anderson though in my opinion his two previous films hard eight and boogie nights were better told stories it is interesting that one starts to look forward to actors from anderson's company john c reilly seems to be a standard fixture particularly notable is philip baker hall who gave a mesmerizing performance from the first scene of hard eight here he several of the characters are mesmerizing but that characteristic is not really used as studies of characters these stories are each worth following as stories with a beginning middle and end they leave something to be desired but the film is willing to do the unexpected and that helps make the film worth sitting through i rate it a on the to scale and a low on the to scale heavy spoiler heavy spoiler heavy spoiler heavy spoiler during the strange climactic event of the film we get multiple messages from the filmmaker that the event we are seeing really does happen and in actual fact it does since biblical times rains of frogs have been interpreted as signs of displeasure of the gods it is however a perfectly natural if somewhat unnerving phenomenon the cause is associated with whirlwinds we know that tornadoes over land can rip up land and even objects of some size from the ground and hurl them into the air holding them aloft the reader may remember the unfortunate cow in twister smaller objects can be hurled high into the atmosphere and then be kept aloft by the updrafts for surprisingly long periods of time much as hail and chunks of ice are when the whirlwind is over water animals near the surface frequently fish and frogs may suffer the same fate essentially they are vacuumed up by the whirlwind held aloft by updrafts and finally dropped elsewhere so while the rain is possible some doubts do creep in the rain of frogs depicted in this film may be of greater scale than i had pictured for a rain of frogs it seems unlikely the frogs would still be alive when dropped it is not clear that geographic conditions are right for los angeles to have this sort of phenomenon frankly i have no idea on these points otherwise the event was quite believable what we see in this film is much more credible than the phenomena we saw in volcano in the film it is left ambiguous if the rain is a sign from god since there are many references to exodus and the frogs shall come up both on thee and upon thy people and upon all thy servants however a rain of frogs though it feels biblical is most definitely not a biblical portent note that the previous verse says and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly which shall go up so the bible is referring not to a rain but to an infestation from the river the only other reference to frogs in the bible is as a symbol for uncleanness in revelation
positive	contact is the movie i've seen the most five times to be exact four of those times were on the big screen but even on a tv it's a very impressive film the same can't be said for films like independance day but that's because contact is a rare example in filmmaking where the story is treated more importantly than the special effects and all of us know looking back that didn't offer much outside of some delightful eye candy contact's wonderfully presented story deals with ellie arroway jodie foster a radio astronomer whose preference of study involves the outdated technique of merely listening to sounds out in space her interest in the field of astronomy developed at a very young age encouraged by her loving father ted david morse who let ellie use a small ham radio to pick up on frequencies and communicate with people as far away as pensacola fl that was of course before the days of internet chat rooms while everyone else uses modern technologies to aid them in the search for intelligence of which the program seti is an acronym for ellie prefers to pop on a pair of headphones and see what she can pick up on keeping the youthful magic and intrigue strongly alive ellie's strong scientific basis essentially makes her an atheist a belief likely influenced by the death of her father while she was still quite young in puerto rico she meets palmer joss matthew mcconaughey a writer examining the effects of technology on the world's overall happiness a time seminary student who describes himself as a man of the cloth without the cloth despite the vast differences in opinion regarding a supreme being ellie and palmer hit it off and even take the time to sleep together it's a weak and hurried relationship but director zemeckis needs it to add to the plot later on meanwhile dr david drumlin tom skerritt who has authority over seti but finds the program a frivolous waste of time and money is ready to pull the plug on any and all seti funding this leaves the passionate ellie searching for new sponsors eventually finding a setup in new mexico and leaving palmer with no explanation and only a one night stand to remember it is in this nm city where several months later ellie finally picks up on a strong signal from outer space perhaps the most profound discovery in the history of science when the signal is closely examined many new developments spring up and before long drumlin is stepping in to take over the operation he once scoffed at eventually it is concluded that information in the signal may be blueprints for a transportation device used to teleport an earthling to vega where the signal seems to have originated the media swarms fanatics go further off the deep end scientists clamor for new information politicians huddle in discussion of appropriate actions to take and presidents are morphed into a celluloid reality remember when zemeckis couldn't get enough of this in forrest gump as if that weren't enough ellie's discovery leads her to the nation's capital where she again runs into palmer contact is based on the novel by carl sagan and deals heavily with the subject of science vs religion the impressive thing is how well both aspects are presented with no signs of bias arguments for both sides are intelligent solid and when palmer joins a selection committee to choose an ambassador to vega of which ellie is a leading candidate personal convictions play a more important role than love interests the question is can a person who doesn't believe in god truly be the best representative of earth when of the planet does believe in a higher power even when the film wraps up it's uncertain whether it's meant to play as an advocate for religion science both or even neither and in our modern day society where right and wrong is only opinion at least speaking politically correctly the ambiguity is an incentive don't get me wrong as much as it sounds like it contact isn't merely a theology class rolled into a reel of film it's a highly enjoyable two and a half hours despite its seemingly heavy issues it's not a tedious undertaking to watch this film the special effects are outstanding though warning highly depreciated on the small screen even so some of the subtle visual effects that will likely go unnoticed by many are even more impressive than ones more recognizable as the storytelling is rich and complete and although there are moments in the film that feel quite pretentious and at times even hokey it's easily one of the best films and one of the best films i've ever seen this is zemeckis' best since back to the future and for those of us who actually know that forrest gump was astronomically overrated zemeckis now has real reason to boast
positive	roberto benigni is a clown in the tradition of chaplin and keaton this italian film star best known in the united states for the poorly received son of the pink panther has done the near impossible by creating a comic fable about the holocaust but benigni's life is beautiful la vita e bella is not so much a story of the holocaust as it uses that monstrous outrage against humanity as a backdrop to tell a story of familial love devotion and sacrifice the movie starts out as a typical slapstick farce with benigni's guido arriving in the small tuscan town of arezzo in to fulfill his dream of owning a bookstore like many of the slapstick clowns who preceded him most notably the harry langdon benigni's guido has a childlike innocence he ignores the growing of the fascist government instead guido ardently falls in love and persues dora a local school teacher who already is engaged to a local fascist official in benigni's tightly wound script this is the same fascist official with whom guido had an earlier unfortunate yet slapstick encounter guido wins dora they marry fast forward about five years guido dora and their son giosue giorgio cantarini are a happy family guido has finally fulfilled his dream of opening a bookstore but racial and tensions are on the rise in italy and guido has determined to do his best to shield his son from these harsh realities the task becomes even the more difficult when the family is deported to a concentration camp here guido must use all his skill and imagination not only to shield his son but to keep him from being exterminated it is at this juncture in life is beautiful may tend to offend those whom the holocaust has touched for the scenes in the concentration camp lack the horror the pain the unimaginable suffering of a schindler's list true many italian jews were not deported until the war was nearly over and most were not sent to the death camps but to work camps where they were used as slave labor unlike steven spielberg benigni is not out to tell the story of the holocaust his story is about family and the lengths a parent will go to protect a child for guido to save his son transforms the entire experience into an elaborate game giosue must follow the rules without question to amass points the winner takes home a tank therefore guido tells him he must remain hidden in the barracks he cannot make a sound nor allow the guards to see him guido explains this during a hilarious sequence when a german guard barks the camp instructions to the newly arrived inmates guido lying that he understands german and can translate for his fellow prisoners instead lays down the rules for his son to allow him a chance to survive throughout their imprisonment guido's quick thinking continually keeps his son from harm's way ultimately the allies rescue the camp in a poignant scene giosue comes out of hiding just as an american tank rolls into the compound the boy goes with wonderment and delight thinking he has won the game the price for his victory is most high benigni has succeeded in using the blackest moment in human history to prove that even in hell a ray of hope and salvation can penetrate the darkness life is beautiful is a fantasy a fable it is not to be taken as a record of the holocaust those who object to it are missing its point and that is simply where there is hope where there is life and where there is love the spark of humanity will never be extinguished committed to lifelong learning through effective communication
positive	larry flynt is a self proclaimed smut pedlar and the of the dollar hustler publications company the people vs larry flynt is the story of larry flynt's fight for the freedom to circulate and sell his pornographic magazine hustler based on a true story the film is almost a documentary in that it's a very vivid and detailed look at larry flynt's life woody harrelson gives an excellent performance he conveys flynt's peculiarities and his character with depth and focus by the end of the film the audience actually finds themselves somewhat grudgingly liking larry flynt this is some feat given flynt's apparent lack of any morals or ethics and his extremely smutty and childish behaviour in court however flynt has a number of things going for him he's rich he's funny and most importantly he says exactly what he means larry flynt's wife althea leasure is played by courtney love larry meets althea at one of his clubs and they fall in love a very sexual and open love both of them indulge in a world of too much sex and eventually too much drugs flynt had been taking an excessive amount of pain killers after being paralysed from the waist down which was especially upsetting for him by an assassin althea had joined him in taking the drugs following an operation flynt decides to stop taking drugs althea does not have any such plans nor the determination to follow them as the film progresses we see her become increasingly frail and sick courtney love obviously has a great understanding for althea's situation as she is brilliant in portraying althea in every respect it's extremely sad to watch althea literally wither away edward norton plays flynt's lawyer alan isaacman again this is a solid performance the audience finds it easy to sympathise with isaacman who somehow puts up with flynt's courtroom antics flynt is not only childish in the courtroom but downright rude to the judges and lands himself in a lot of trouble and even in a mental institution because of it isaacman is very easy to like and great at proving in quite clever ways his points to the court milos forman has done a great job in directing the people vs larry flynt it is not really an exciting or thrilling film but instead a highly interesting portrayal of a true story due to larry's character it is also at times a very funny film however it is much more than that it is about the fight for freedom of speech and the right to be able choose for oneself what to see and buy an excellent look at flynt his life and his story keep a look out for the real larry flynt who makes a cameo as judge morrissey
positive	virtual reality is a topic that has almost defined its own genre since city' films about alternative universes and parallel worlds have been coming one after another the most popular and original of them all has been the matrix all the films released after it have been less successful david cronenberg's existenz released only a couple of months after the matrix was accepted and even appreciated by some but the hype was gone and when thirteenth floor' aired this fall it was completely overseen and ignored i admit that this issue has become something between tiring and annoying feeling like eating the same meal over and over again it was therefore i was less than excited when i went out to see to thirteenth floor' however i was positively surprised by josef rusnak's latest picture matrix was an entertaining thrill ride through dreams and reality combining the best of hollywood's action and effects with an intelligent story existenz was a violent gory and unsettling journey through reality and virtual reality ending in blood and madness thirteenth floor' is somewhere in between instead of going after the crowds the action audience like the matrix or aiming at the horror fans like existenz thirteenth floor' presents a more intelligent plot witch will provide a less entertaining and more serious experience that the true science fiction lovers will find rewarding in a near future on the thirteenth floor of a classified building a genius scientist hannon fuller has created a simulated world his personal dreamworld where every inhabitant is a complex selflearning program that only believes it is real right after the first testing of this world fuller is found murdered douglas hall his closest friend and business partner immediately becomes the prime suspect and must enter through the thirteenth floor in search of the truth a beautiful woman gretchen mol who suddenly appears on the scene may hold the key to the mystery which might unravel the horrifying truth about his own existence the first download into simulation is impressive it is the creator's first visit to his world his creation in order to enter this virtual universe you have to take over someone's identity become another person this is called conciseness transfer and this is part of the tragedy in the film people wake up in unknown places and strange things start happen they start to doubt in their own sanity these innocent people pay for the mistakes of their users and creators with their sanity and their lives it is a frightening reality the fact that all the people in the simulation the program links are living out their lives oblivious not knowing that they are puppets in someone's fantasy with an appealing blade runner type of detective story this film presents the beauty and possibilities of virtual reality and the lurking danger that is always present our modern world is metal and glass cold unfriendly impersonal the thirties are different colorful beautiful elegant virile this contrast demonstrates a wish for change virtual reality is here portrayed as a magical enchanting power that seduces you into its endless possibilities to some it is just a journey to their personal paradise to some a personal playground a life without any consequences for others a way to start over and correct their mistakes by living in an illusion of their past virtual reality is a wizard that transforms your hopes dreams and fantasies to life at least that's how it is all beginning but when you're waking up from your dream the real world seems worthless and unreal and all you can think off is returning to your personal paradise this almost narcotic effect soon turns into confusion and ultimately madness some important and interesting philosophical questions are raised what is real what is thought who are we if these were answered this film would be the greatest science fiction ever made they are off course not answered but posed in an intelligent manner the visual aspect of the film is one of the key elements since it portrays the contrast between these universes kirk m petrucelli has done a marvelous job with the recreation of the thirties with its glamour grace and color and setting this world in opposition to our own an almost caricatured recreation of the nineties there are some honest and decent performances by an almost unknown cast and harald klose's moody musical score that is at in right place at the right time a rather unusual thing about'the thirteenth floor' is the almost complete lack of special effects there are no cgi animated creatures no bullets in slow motion this is a more philosophical approach reminding about the european way of filmmaking this is off course a major disappointment to the audience that is used to endless gunfights and mutated amphibians but the more serious science fiction buffs and will be pleased this film is interesting and inspiring it has everything existenz doesn't but it lacks the immediacy and intensity of the matrix and then there is a happy end which like in city' completely alienates it from the rest of the story and context the plot itself is not as original as the filmmakers want us to think since they have virtually sucked out all information from the best science fiction classics including blade runner and city' with this in mind thirteenth floor' doesn't make an oscar candidate or a film that will be remembered a year from now yet this is a beautiful elegant and intelligent take on virtual reality
positive	i don't know what movie the critics saw but it wasn't this one the popular consensus among newspaper critics was that this movie is unfunny and dreadfully boring in my personal opinion they couldn't be more wrong if you were expecting airplane laughs and agatha mystery then yes this movie would be a disappointment however if you're just looking for an enjoyable movie and a good time this is one to see honest it is this story is about a network wbn taking to america's airwaves in penny henderson mary stuart masterson the station owner's secretary must deal with her overbearing boss an unimpressed sponsor and writers ready to quite on a moment's notice partly due to the fact that they haven't been paid in weeks among the mayhem she must also deal with her roger brian benben who desperately wants her back unfortunately her problems only get worse as the night goes on and the body count rises without explanation while trying to woo penny back roger must deal with the police and try to find the killer that lurks at wbn mary stuart masterson does well in her role as penny i'm trying to be unbiased so i won't tell you how amazing she looked although brian benben gets most of the screen time along with the two leads are several recognizable faces including corbin bernsen l a law michael mckean laverne shirley and bobcat goldthwait the special effects are amazing and fooled me which some may argue isn't very difficult to do in many scenes although the movie sometimes goes overboard with the physical comedy it more than makes up for those mistakes throughout the movie overall i gave it or an depending on what system you use some comments collected from friends
positive	it was with great trepidation that i approached the farrelly latest film i knew the film would be trailer alone had me laugh harder than the actual comedy i went to see but i also knew the film would be an offender attacking the sensibilities of the politically correct with reckless abandon i figured the film would be raunchy maybe another lucky escapee from hell i may laugh but would i feel better in the morning i have worried is the sweetest warmest this side of surprisingly the farrelly brothers have walked that very tight line of making a touching romantic comedy on the side and filling the details with five or six outrageous howlers they make laughter the toughest job for a filmmaker to do look easy the plot is typical thirteen years ago geeky ted ben stiller lucked out in having dazzling mary cameron diaz go with him to the senior prom as luck would have it on that very day he was hospitalized why i shall not tell but i assure you it pretty he hires a private investigator to find her pat healy matt dillon he becomes one of the great comic villains upon finding her he too is lovestruck and so pursues her lying about his occupation and getting his teeth capped it is only a matter of time before ted finds out that he had been and goes to get her for himself would the geek get the girl  the ending is pure hollywood no surprises there but the absolute joy in this film is how this simple premise allows for humor in zippers hair gel the mentally disabled the physically handicapped interracial marriages homosexuals skin conditions serial killers tanning and dogs the dog on speed sequence alone is worth the price of admission and belongs in the film comedy hall of fame and yet for all the targets that are hit the film maintains its sweet tone mary playing the straight role is as sweet and caring as she is beautiful she is totally devoted to caring for her mentally handicapped brother warren w earl away from the cameraman in sunniness carries the film compliments the gags that come at you cameron diaz makes her totally charming and the audience respects her even though women in general do not usually undress before an open window ben stiller also fares very well totally changing his image from his and with straight men to being a how to say it a complete loser braces greasy long hair not too bright and very very funny dillon is exceptionally creepy especially with his capped teeth and rounding out the cast is friend dom chris elliot tanning addict magda lin shaye modern chorus ron lichman and sweet mom markie post where has she been not everything works chris role skin blemishes and all becomes merely tasteless and boring lousy dialogue about vs seven minute exercise tapes and there are long stretches without much going on but the wait is worth it when those extraordinary sequences hit the entire theater erupted with howls tears that in some sequences carried over to the following scene the farrelly brothers have finally done it yes there are some raunchy bits but when it is all over not nearly as bad as it could have been while tasteless it cross any lines at least not with me while raunchy it nearly as bad as or and it is sweet enough to be considered a date flick after the funny but sour left a negative aftertaste in my palate comes the funniest sex farce since fish called approach this with an open mind and you will reap the benefits hugely
positive	a standoff a man holds a woman a diplomat's daughter hostage in his embrace a gun pressed to her head a cop impaired by drink due to his wife's philandering trains his gun on the man's nether regions threatening to shoot another cop holds his gun to his partner's temple forcing him to disarm the scene unfolds like a foursome bidding in the ante signaling tacitly going for game the second cop retrieves the first cop's weapon the suspect lowers his and the woman caught in the middle slow safety it is then that the intoxicated officer makes his move grabbing for the assailant's gun the room turns upside down a shot rings out a cop is down shot in the back and paralyzed for life the young man who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time is sent to prison for six years for a crime he didn't commit storytelling has always been one of pedro almod var's greatest gifts and in live flesh he gives us a twisting turning compelling tale peppered with colorful characters characters who find themselves more often than not in scenes like these characters played by actors we might not know but who look strikingly familiar nevertheless take the ruggedly handsome victor plaza liberto rabal for instance before he gets out of prison he could easily be mistaken for that almod var favorite antonio banderas when we first meet elena francesca neri the woman in the middle of the nervous shakedown she looks like spice girl barbie with her frizzy shock of orange hair but later tones down her look sufficiently to pass for juliette lewis elena's husband david javier bardem is the cop crippled in the shooting and he wears david schwimmer's bemused expression throughout playing the inebriated cop and his cheating wife are jos sancho and angela lookalikes spring to mind but they round out the excellent cast it's a credit to almod var's craft that these five individuals cross paths and intertwine with such credulity live flesh begins and ends with a live birth and the film's contradictions come almost as often as the contractions between the two childbearings coincidence irony and a hefty dollop of sex form the key elements of this thoroughly entertaining film although based on a ruth rendell story live flesh is brimming with the acclaimed spanish director's flourishes women are at times alluring and repulsive their extravagant hairdos and animal print coats providing colorful highlights to the drama an eye bruised by an abusive husband here a mouth bloodied by an impromptu delivery there while in prison victor learns bulgarian from an inmate and learns to love the bible quoting from deuteronomy thereafter not unlike the way by which david and sancho refer to themselves as guardians of a sick flock victor's inheritance is a shambles in a slum resembling sarajevo dear son i got cancer his mother writes to him in jail she dies before he is released and it's at the cemetery that victor is reacquainted with ultimately substituting for revenge
positive	with stars like sigourney weaver alien trilogy and academy award winner holly hunter the piano raising arizona etc together in a single hollywood production one would immediately identify the film as a potential academy award hot shot sadly for copycat though tightly scripted and nicely plot is still at heart a typical hollywood thriller helen weaver after a traumatic near death encounter with a serial killer darryl harry connick jr has developed a phobia for being outdoors so to speak incidentally helen is also an expert on the subject of serial killers which make her a juicy target for serial killer wannabes a year has passed and strange deaths begin to terrorise the city of san francisco detective monahan hunter and getz mulroney baffled by the unorthodox methods of killing used by the killer seeks the professional help of helen who as expected was reluctant at first copycat borrows a lot from silence of the lambs and in most cases it did work but copycat tries to be a little bit more by immersing the audience into the lives of its main characters to give them more believability this was rather unnecessary as the scenes seem to disrupt the mood of the entire film and also much of the time wasted could've been used to build up the suspense and injected with drama even so weaver and hunter act very well in their own departments weaver being the vulnerable yet character as in aliens and hunter being the short tough texan speaking cop as in raising arizona harry connick jr a very good jazz singer shines as the imprisoned serial killer a la hannibal lecter which comes to the moment of judgement drum roll please copycat is a good thriller although the plot is highly predictable and one can actually predict the rest of the movie after about minutes into the show copycat survives from the moments of anticipation where the audience are held on to their seats in anticipation of the killers next immediate move this worked pretty well and will offer audiences a couple of unexpected jolts nice movie to bring your girlfriend to
positive	no it is not a bad film in fact it is so good in achieving its purpose i actually wished for the film to end itself quickly event horizon is not your film i'm sure many who have watched this will agree with me it is not even original in that sense and it does borrow heavily from films like alien hellraiser and even blade runner the magic of this film lies in its unorthodox setting and methodical that makes it wonderfully horrifying the story brings us to the year where space travel have since enormously progressed the event horizon is actually a ship built for a secret experimental purpose it has the ability to fold time and space thus making it possible for travelling distances not reachable in a man's lifetime the ship disappeared as soon as it went into operation but after years it reappeared again within the orbit of neptune a search and rescue team led by miller fishburne is given the task to check for survivors of the event horizon the designer of the ship dr weir neill follows along to satisfy his curiosity on what actually happened to his otherwise technologically impressive ship event horizon is a horror film much truer to the word than say alien would ever be while in alien the crew has to cope with a ferocious creature while encased within tight spaces in event horizon the forces which goes against the crew is undefined but yet so powerful and horrifying the story unfolds itself slowly and the suspense buildup is superb up till the point where i really felt like saying out loud i can't stand this anymore there are more than enough jolts to send your adrenalin pumping overtime the story in itself is not exactly something very exciting and also the acting is only at most average by most commercial standards even so the essence of horror is carried out very well in this film thanks to its storytelling disturbing set designs and some really gory sequences which incidentally has been quite generously removed by our censorship board director paul anderson who did mortal kombat and his team of creators have done well in keeping event horizon within the bounds of the term this picture did not do very well in the us most probably for the impact it has on most audiences people will not see it again and not many would recommend their friend to watch this although on the face of it event horizon is mostly molded for many thrills spills and suspense to keep audiences in focus however the offbeat horror element which it ultimately convey audiences is very disturbing my friend and i could not say a word to each other for quite a while after going through the of event horizon i guess it was just the immense feeling of dread which the film had cast upon us be forewarned this film is not for the nor for pure entertainment be prepared to be disturbed if you should decide to watch this film event horizon is highly recommended but at your own risk it has been a long time since embraced the big screen and event horizon is one
positive	capsule earthy experimental difficult shockingly frank even for and ultimately refreshing story of a black man on the run from the cops the first few minutes of sweet sweetback's baad asssss song yes i checked that's the correct number of ss are without dialogue just eerie montages of sounds a young boy obviously malnourished is taken in and fed up by several loving figures then one of them takes the boy to bed for a sexual initation underneath the title credits that's far more confrontatory and shocking than any ten basic instincts probably because it has the directness and clumsiness of real life something we're not used to seeing on screen this is one tough movie to swallow no matter who you are but that probably reflects more on how pallid and unchallenging movies have gotten lately i suspect the sex scenes in movies like el topo and salo would probably melt the synapses of most modern audiences the plot is simple but not simpleminded sweetback hassled by two white cops who are apparently just looking for an excuse to beat up on a black man breaks his bonds and runs like hell along the way he moves through a good many of the kinds of environments that we are only just now being seen in a more serious light in the movies or at all for that matter the slums the missions the ghetto in other lesser movies sweetback would be everything in sight and the end credits would roll over a pile of bodies in this one we get taken on a kind of a tour of the depressing and anarchic world that sweetback takes for granted ssbas first appeared in and was promptly rated x by an jury as director melvin van peebles crowed in his legendary ad campaigns and it's hardly surprising why there's a good deal of sex in the movie but it's handled in a way that's unsettlingly frank a frankness that spills over into the rest of the movie in one scene sweetback visits a friend's house in the hope of getting sanctuary there and the other man chats him up while on the toilet we're not used to coming this close to people in real life let alone in the movies especially not people who are not made out to be glamorous the movie is also full of experimental stylistics that are relatively unused today but probably because of that seem curiously fresh and new in van peebles' hands one scene in which a man is interrogated by the cops is loaded full of menacing energy as they fire off a gun inches from his ears and suggest his deafness through a cleverly edited soundtrack another note ssbas is not so much that would be too easy as and as the movie goes on to demonstrate authority exists in many forms governments churches and even the paranoid inside of one's own mind ssbas is ultimately about thirsting for freedom and it looks like we could use a little more of that in our movie diet god knows
positive	a fully loaded entertainment review website coming in july i didn't really expect very much when i rented stuart saves his family the movie bombed at the box office and i had never really liked the saturday night live sketch on which the movie was based my real concern though was the general reputation of movies translating to the big screen with results anyone i was surprised to discover a truly entertaining often hilarious yet also touching little film it is an al franken production who not only created the title character but also wrote and starred in the picture for those of you who don't know al franken plays a guy named stuart smalley who has a really annoying show on a station about increasing your etc although not a licensed therapist stuart smalley is as the program proudly boasts a graduate of several programs stuart is doing well enough with his tv show but he keeps getting distracted by family troubles stuart's relatives are a mess his dad and brother harris yulin and vincent d'onofrio respectively are alcoholics his sister is overweight and getting over another divorce and his mom is in constant and solves all perceived problems by baking then disaster strikes stuart accidentally insults the manager of the station and gets his show revoked he is forced to move back in with his family after he can no longer support himself and there the comedy truly picks up franken wrote all of the characters not just as cliches or stereotypes but as real people although smalley's dad has always imbibed too much stuart can still recall times when his father seemed like an okay guy also after an accident towards the end of the movie both stuart and the audience learn that there is more to his mother than previously thought although filled with small very funny scenes stuart saves his family also has its share of dramatic moments especially towards the conclusion for a lightweight comedy it handles these scenes especially well often better than many serious dramas of today all the more amazing is that such a movie comes from a saturday night live sketch that is essentially a bit if you feel like renting a comedy and you haven't seen this film i definitely recommend you try this one out you'll laugh you'll cry it's all there
positive	oh my god i sounded just like a mother mrs pascal played with devilish wickedness by genevieve bujold tells her son didn't i sound just like a mother you are a mother her son marty tells her disgustedly i know but i still can't believe it i look at you people and wonder how did you ever fit in my womb marty you see is a twin although his sister who thinks she is is certifiably insane marty fits right in with the rest of this highly dysfunctional family in the witty black comedy the house of yes mother and daughter played in a brilliant performance by parker posey are both varying degrees of wacko most dysfunctional families in the movies are more angry and than diabolically abnormal as this one is the daughter's fantasy of being is probably the most sane part of her being mrs pascal is the sort that will not let keep a hairbrush downstairs since food is kept on that level she explains to marty's new fiancee lesly tori spelling soon after their first meeting that was holding marty's private part when she came out of the womb the dialog by wendy macleod based on the play by mark waters is so sharp and biting that it seems in danger of cutting through the celluloid at any moment the script reminiscent of a david mamet play flows smoothly with its fast paced intelligence and mesmerizing set of bizarre characters the exaggerated setup has lesly and marty arriving at the family's out of the way mansion during a thanksgiving day hurricane in this storm are two sane individuals the fiancee is a giddy type embarrassed by everything a complete contrast to her rival bitter as the two twins' younger brother anthony freddie prinze jr plays the boy type whose only foible is his explicit obsession of bedding his brother's fiancee that night we all have our secrets tells her potential and boy does she have a few this is a house filled with them when lesly calls it the family's home to mrs pascal they've never had a visitor before lesly mrs pascal becomes discombobulated until she realizes that lesly is talking about their house in a film that gives new meaning to the phrase made for each other the twin's biggest but not their only secret is that they've had a incestuous relationship they don't like to discuss it although they are not particularly ashamed of it perfect for viewers who can appreciate perverse comedy this story never pulls its punches tries in many ways few subtle to show that she is a better match for marty than that ditzy fiancee of his in one scene marty and lesly are playing chop sticks together on the piano when pushes her aside and starts playing a challenging classical piece for four hands marty joins her as his fiancee looks on with envy the chemistry between parker posey and josh hamilton is nothing short of amazing they put down their little brother and most of the other sane people in the world their ripostes are engaging filmmaking at its best director mark waters keeps the show's energy level high and lets the leads sling zingers at each other at a furious pace his crisp direction ensures the movie has nary an ounce of fat on it is temperamentally incapable of being nice and being jealous she cuts lesly down mercilessly were you poor asks her when she finds that lesly committed the crime of growing up impoverished did you eat pies chicken pot pies pancakes actually lots of pancakes lesly replies with her usual sincerity a donut king so is she like the queen cattily inquires of marty when she learns that lesly works at a donut king are we entertaining royalty with rolfe kent's whimsically sinister music it never seems clear where the story is headed will it end in a big emotional explosion a murder people slowly cutting each other up with words a familial catharsis a weather disaster or what the emotionally charged play is clearly going somewhere and the engaging characters captivate the audience with their spell i'll not say more except that the ending is perfect and a bit of a surprise the house of yes runs a blazing fast it is rated r for sexual situations and conversations mature themes violent overtones and some profanity the movie would be fine for older and mature teenagers i e treat the movie as it were rated
positive	i don't know how many other people have had the idea cross their mind that their life could be an ongoing television show watched by another world of people but it's something i used to wonder about when i was younger i can't decide if i first thought it because i watched a lot of tv or because my brother hit me in the head with a baseball bat but i'm pretty sure andrew niccol screenwriter for the truman show has had the same curious thought the truman show is about a man jim carrey whose entire life has been engineered by a corporation and marketed to the public since birth he's been living in the fictional island town of seahaven fla which actually exists as a giant domed set just beyond the hollywood sign all the people in truman burbank's life are actors and the anonymous townfolk paid extras people watch truman's life hours a day live with no commercial interruptions revenue comes instead from product placement a staple of contemporary hollywood with truman's friends and relatives describing their consumer items in cheerful and optimistic tones the sun rises and sets on cue and everyone likes everyone else even if you haven't seen the truman show you've probably learned most of the crucial details from the commercials the trailer and other promotion blitzes if anything i've written so far is a surprise to you then i pity you for making me a primary source for your entertainment news either way you should probably know the premise of the truman show going into it because otherwise you'll probably think it sucks it begins with jim carrey looking into a mirror reciting the crucial eat me scene from alive wishing his neighbors a good day afternoon and evening and living in domestic bliss with his wife laura linney but weird things start happening a stage light comes falling out of the sky truman hears people tracking his movements on the radio and he swears he sees his dead father we learn through a flashback that his father drowned when truman was a child sailing through a rainstorm the death was staged by director christof ed harris who wanted to put a fear of water into truman to keep him from leaving the island similar cruel manipulations keep him from stumbling upon the truth not the least of them truman's best friend marlon noah emmerich who assures him he's not in on any conspiracy because the last thing he'd ever do is hurt him as truman's trusting eyes tear over christof fades up emotional synthesizer music for a worldwide audience of people who apparently never watch anything else there's even a daily update from harry shearer that captures the highlights of truman's existence the key to a movie like this is in finding the right balance between humor and drama because a premise like this has its obvious implications in both directions and it all hinges on carrey who has to balance comic naivet with a real sense of longing and drive to find out what the hell is going on he's come a long way from talking butt cheeks in ace ventura most fundamentally it's just plain interesting to follow along as director peter weir shows us just how they can capture a person's life without the person realizing it how they coordinate extras hide cameras and feed automatic lines to actors the most interesting thing about the truman show is that most of us can probably imagine some ambitious director pitching a show like this sure the most interesting tv genre of the has been reality programming and jerry springer's popularity is through the roof but those people deserve to be humiliated for turning their intimate details over to the airwaves and when news shows use hidden cameras it's done in the name of the greater good not entertainment but merge the two and you've got the truman show right now it's implausible i mean the fcc won't let you say the on the air do you think they'd let you broadcast every detail of a man's life to the entire world without his consent one day though it could happen and even though it would mean the end of privacy people would eat it up you know they would
positive	no filmmaker deconstructs a story as well as atom egoyan i'm referring specifically to the narrative form in the sweet hereafter egoyan tells his story in a similar framework to his exotica or the adjuster said story of a fatal school bus accident in the small town of sam dent british columbia that shatters the morale of the locals is told in a most unstraightforward manner when the film opens the accident has already happened and stephens the wonderful holm a polite has arrived with the promise of a lawsuit that will eek out the truth of what really occurred that fateful morning throughout we get to meet the parents of the dead broken souls who follow stephens like the pied piper passages of which are read during the film but there is one living passenger the paralyzed nicole polley whose dark secrets of a life before the accident may affect her decision to testify we finally do see the accident about three quarters into the film which is a stunning visual effect a horrific long take that shows the bus sliding then stopping then collapsing into a frozen lake is the best digital trickery in any movie this year and perhaps ever in a motion picture the fractured narrative also intercuts a preoccupied stephens on an airplane traveling to meet his runaway daughter as well as glimpses of the artificially happy lives these people led i have a problem not with the story or story structure but with egoyan's handedness behind the camera for the first hour or so i can quite honestly say i was on the verge of tears these are miserable miserable people but that's just the problem so anguished are these folk that sympathy wanes after a while when a lot of sadness becomes too much also a subplot involving incest rings untrue perhaps it wouldn't feel so contrived if it weren't shot in such a tasteful manner there are two characters who are father and daughter when they first appeared i thought they were lovers i was nevertheless it's the delightful critic geoff pevere recently wrote that american films are about action canadian films are about consequences hence a recent wave of films about the effects of shock and death from toronto directors including crash and kissed the sweet hereafter is much better than either of these two films simply because it's not boring or in the case of kissed afraid of its own material necrophilia egoyan is a fine fine postmodern storyteller whose work is entertaining edgy and smart if a bit too intellectual at times though i harped on the weightiness of the material i was always absorbed engrossed and surprised by the sweet hereafter
positive	i know what i would do with million if i found it in a previously undiscovered airplane crash site especially if i were with jacob and lou huh well in any event that is the situation hank paxton finds himself in he and his brother jacob thorton and tubby friend lou brent briscoe come upon a large bag of cash inside a plane wreck against his better judgement hank decides to go along with the idea of keeping it rather than going to the authorities the rest of the film is a question of who is going to die to keep this a secret and is it worth it a simple wish lies along the lines of very bad things clay pigeons and even fargo and is kind of wrapped all into one little dark bundle oh and its much better than any of those sam raimi took a departure from his normal films and made this stylish and intriguing picture he really lets the audience sit back and watch the events unfold rather than force them down our throats as many directors prefer to do i think raimi knew he had a winner on his hands and decided to direct the picture on a natural flowing course one of the film's components can be linked to a recurring theme in terrence malick's the thin red line in malick's three hour he makes an interesting attempt to link mother earth to his war story it seemed nothing more than an occasional pretty cut to a field of flowing grass a small bird or a flowing body of water sure there were obvious metaphorical connections but there was no subtlty to his efforts raimi does a fine job of tying in a fox in a chicken coop and birds of prey to signify the future of the characters i think most viewers may miss the comparison but it is a very intriguing ingredient in the film and then there's billy bob thorton who is proof that the independent film industry is vital to the life blood of hollywood if it can continute to produce people like thorton hollywood will be ok he gives a fantastic and devastatingly deep performance here it is not as engrossing as his carl childers character in slingblade but is is just as complex if not more so jacob is slow and simple and yet we so often see him deep in thought i wondered if he was thinking about things that he would never say or didn't know how to say or if he was just taking a long time to think about the thing he just said here he really proves his worth as one of the best character actors in the industry though the plot is somewhat unoriginal it has a very appealing new twist in its characters paxton gives one of the better performances of his career as the straight and serious leader of the group a far cry from chet in wierd science perhaps bridget fonda is miscast as his wife but she certainly doesn't do anything ruin the picture a simple plan can be included in the group of recent small hollywood films that is just dark and pretty but at least this one has an important message unlike so many of its counterparts
positive	i saw simon birch in a basically sold out theater on a sunday afternoon when the movie was over and the audience was exiting i didn't hear one negative comment and i didn't have any to offer simon birch is primarily about the friendship of two twelve year old boys simon ian michael smith and joe joseph mazzello and what destiny holds for both of them simon is a dwarf who was not supposed to last through the night after birth due to a weak heart surprisingly he does and now constantly reminds everyone that he is a living miracle simon thinks god has a plan for him a purpose for his life and his condition he just doesn't know what joe is an illegitimate child referred to both comically and dramatically throughout the film as a bastard who's mom ashley judd won't tell him who his father is simon has more than just dwarfism as a problem the people in the town don't really like him because he isn't natural even his own parents don't care about him and are disappointed they didn't have a normal son he is also harassed in church by the local pastor rev russell david strathairn and simon's chain smoking sunday school teacher played by jan hooks the only person other than joe that really cares for simon is joe's mom who he also looks up to as a mother it would be just simon's luck that he would accidentally kills joe's mom something you are told at the beginning of the movie joe now motherless as well as fatherless feels the need to find out who his real father is with the help of ben oliver platt the local drama teacher and joe's mom's current boyfriend before her death he will attempt to locate his dad and get in a little trouble on the way most of this trouble is laugh out loud funny although not all of it is simon will also look for god's plan for him although he loses a little faith along the way starring in the first and last five minutes of the film is hollywood's newest dramatic actor jim carrey jim plays the adult version of joe and does a impressive job starting the film off and then tying it up just right this is the first character jim has played that is not over the top in anyway and he does a commendable job simon birch is written and directed by mark steven johnson this is his first film as director but he has written several films including the grumpy old men series he does an outstanding writing and directing job here the film's structure is flawless and its flows together perfectly the dialog goes from extremely funny to morose without missing a beat the cast is excellent joseph mazzello gives the stand out performance joseph is outstanding for someone of any age not alone someone who just turned ian michael smith in his film debut has such a strong physical presence that you believe he is simon without any hesitation other great performances are turned in by the rest of the supporting cast i loved this movie it is far and away one of the best films i have seen all year take your whole family to see simon birch it is a magnificent an american masterpiece
positive	the saint was actually a little better than i expected it to be in some ways in this theatrical remake of the television series the saint and its series sequel the return of the saint val kilmer plays simon templar an elusive thief who makes a living by stealing things from others for others this movie closely resembles a james bond flick it has the classic bond symbols a man who can do just about anything and get away with it a woman whom the man persues a villain out to achieve something for himself who kills anyone to reach this goal kilmer actually provides a rather good role in this movie although at times you are left to ponder how he actually gets out of the many tight situations the movie begins in his childhood in a strict school run by catholic priests as a young boy kilmer's character enjoyed magic and would often journey away from his schoolwork that is until his school teacher finds him reading a book and demands that the young boy proclaim his name that of a catholic saint he refuses to do so and instead announces who he wishes to be this leads to a devestating mistake which is something that will stay in his mind throughout his life kilmer's first mission that we are shown is to steal a microchip from ivan tretiak played by rade serbedzija during a press conference he must make his way into a heavily guarded vault area avoiding guards cameras and many other potential obstacles once his mission is completed and he is safely home the fee is paid when he logs into his bank account and finds that he is only a few million dollars short of million he decides to carry out only one more mission then retire dr emma russell portrayed by elisabeth shue has discovered a way to produce energy by way of cold fusion this new advancement would change the world and save thousands of lives in the areas of russia where millions are without heat and are freezing to death the only problem is tretiak would like to have this for himself and use it to gain power amongst the people this presents the option for kilmer to achieve his goal tretiak hires him to steal the equations small pieces of paper from shue one of the enjoyable features in the film is the disguises that kilmer dawns to complete his missions they are very convincing not only to the characters in the movie but to us kilmer utilizes one such disguise to lure shue's character into getting to know him even more which would provide him a means of stealing the energy formula when the two meet and end up having a sensual experience kilmer's character is seemingly falling in love with emma russell as she is falling in love with kilmer's a traveling artist yet he must reach his goal of million which requires him to steal the energy formula putting his feelings aside shue's character is eventually able to track down simon templar by putting the pieces the names of the catholic saints together something no one else is able to do when she finds him they are left to team up and reclaim the energy formulas from tretiak the saint is very with few slow points the sound was very well done and added to the many intense moments along the course of the movie there are even a few although brief moments of comedy these moments are almost always thanks to kilmer's extraneous very convincing disguises and personalities all in all a rather enjoyable movie with nearly action
positive	the thirteenth floor the third in what i would call the reality check movie series is very similar to the other reality check movies released this year the matrix and existenz all three made you think made you wonder what is real what isn't and if our world is just a huge game the thirteenth floor doesn't reach the level of originality creativity and curiosity sparked by the matrix and existenz but it certainly gives a great shot at it in the matrix we were told that the humans are simply a virus in existenz we learned that our life could be just a game in the thirteenth floor we learn that we are just electronic devices living under another world of electronic devices there is just one world on top of another and everything in them are fake and electronically generated the thirteenth floor took a huge risky turn that i didn't expect it to take and i'm not very sure it was such a great turn to make rather than focusing just on the reality parts of the film the thirteenth floor becomes a murder mystery that ends up tying in with the different worlds after the mysterious murder of computer program designer hammond fuller played by armin douglas hall played by craig bierko a man that worked under fuller for many years must travel through an electronic computer device that fuller was using to the year which consists of computer generated characters only the simulation of is just like it was back in the olden days all of the people involved are just characters or are they douglas strongly believes that a character traveled through the transport from their world to ours and killed fuller along the way douglas interacts with many different potential suspects and a woman who claims to be the daughter of fuller jane fuller played wonderfully by a talented young actress gretchen mol the thirteenth floor is a plot driven movie from the time the film gets going and doesn't use spectacular special effects and big sound to keep the viewer's interests i was worried that this film would be too much like the matrix and existenz and i wouldn't enjoy it but there were enough twists and turns to keep me thinking and attentive to the film unfortunately many potential would have been great scenes were thrown away with predictable content letting the viewer know the outcome of the scene long before it happened the scenes that aren't original or interesting seem to go absolutely nowhere leaving you wondering what is the point of this sometimes it was hard to believe that this story with terrible dialogue some bad acting especially from craig bierko and scenes that go absolutely nowhere are actually true i know this isn't a true story or anything but a film should be able to make you think that it is on the plus side of acting we get to see the missing from main character action since the film masterpiece shine in actor armin in the thirteenth floor he is back and is still giving believable and amazing performances another plus is gretchen mol's realistic performance creating her character with depth not just staying in the phase don't expect the intensity of the matrix or existenz to come out of the thirteenth floor just expect another film that messes with your mind for awhile and shuts you down like any other movie would thrills chills and spills aren't what you will get in this film but you will just get another trip to send your mind on scrambling it until you've had enough the bottom let's hope this is the last of the reality check based movies for awhile
positive	i tried hard not like this movie without succeeding it contains parts of bringing up baby any film part of the plot of war games cary grant and rosalind russell in his girl friday elevator shaft action train action and murder it is cute funny suspenseful a little bit sexy a little bit one of the bad guys was a surprise the pace is fast enough there are some action scenes i think that this is a reasonable family summer movie for families with older kids who have already seen maverick julia roberts and nick nolte are fine separately and together i really identified with the julia roberts character wishful thinking i know but i do have better hair her hair a very dull dark brown has no color she could use some highlights they both do fine with their roles he's a bored columnist with the chicago chronicle and she's a hotshot cub reporter with the chicago globe they have great fun trying to out scoop each other to solve one case throughout this movie i like the one story focus other actors include charles martin smith as roberts' boss olympia dukakis as nolte's coworker nora dunn also with the chronicle and marsha mason as a congresswoman basically this movie is reasonably fun there is a serious mystery to solve and i enjoyed following a fun couple solving the mystery it is a pleasant change of pace from movies that take themselves seriously i do give successful comedy high marks
positive	plot jet li is a chinese cop asked to help some french policemen nab a bad guy but one thing leads to another and the next thing you know li's being chased by the same french cops with whom he was supposed to be working a lot of gun fights and okay a little more ensues critique very cool now here's a movie that gives you exactly what you're looking for if what you're looking for is kickass action a palpable good cop story line some hardcore stunts and jet li everyone in sight the film also moves fast a mere minutes develops a certain cute chemistry between fonda and li has nice surroundings paris baby and gives us one of the best bad guys that i've seen all year tcheky karyo is the devil incarnate in this film he is pure evil they should have called this movie bad lieutenant as keitel has nothing on this man what a great great monster my favorite line of tcheky's was when li was explaining the whole kiss of the dragon thing to him and he cut him off by saying kiss my ass pure action movie poetry anyway other than him jet li also handled his acting pretty well in this film with very little real dialogue to say but enough to make us believe his character actually just looking into the man's eyes generally tells you a lot fonda was also pretty good despite playing one of the most trashy and abused women that i have seen in quite some time but i still felt kinda bad for her so i guess she did her job okay but in the end nobody goes to see this kind of movie for oscar performances we go to see jet li movies because we want to see jet li kicking a lot of ass from side to side and this film delivers gangbusters on that front and yes they have no in this movie i say again no no bullshit stunts with li floating around in for over a minute it's all straight action fist to fist boot to face and all around cool stunts if that's what you're looking for i don't see how you will be disappointed with this film yes it's not very original in plot just take luc besson's own la femme nikita and mix in plenty of his own the professional et voila does have an annoying soundtrack that just got on my nerves after a while i also would have gotten rid of the whole acupuncture thang and will have anyone not willing to restrain their disbelief rolling their eyes all over the place but was i entertained thoroughly does the film feature more gunplay martial arts and kills that most recent action flicks yes again does this sound interesting to you well the answer to that question is entirely up to you one thing that i would definitely recommend is as jet li pointed out himself on his website that you leave the kids at home for this one in fact you might even wanna leave yourself if you can't handle the more violent of sequences all in all a rippin' roarin' fun time where's joblo coming from black mask blade la femme nikita lethal weapon the matrix the professional romeo must die rush hour shanghai noon
positive	i've never been a member of the robin williams fan club a little bit of his improvisationaly schtick goes a long way and i sometimes feel as though i'm watching a class clown in his films williams has often tried to balance his mania with emotion leading to wildly uneven performances mrs doubtfire seemed for the same problems but instead it proves to be williams' best comic screen project yet while it still contains some characteristic mrs doubtfire is nonetheless an engaging comedy served up with high energy williams stars as daniel hillard a cartoon voiceover artist with a penchant for irresponsible behavior one such incident proves one too many for wife miranda sally field and she files for a divorce unemployed living in a disastrously unkempt apartment and faced with limited time with his three beloved children daniel decides to respond to miranda's ad for an afternoon housekeeper he turns to his brother frank harvey fierstein a theatrical makeup artist and emerges as euphegenia doubtfire a matronly englishwoman daniel uses his access to the house to keep an eye on miranda's flirtation with a wealthy client pierce brosnan to spend time with the children and to learn something about responsible parenting all the while trying to keep his identity hidden from the people who know him best mrs doubtfire has to overcome a mountain of implausibilities to work and basically it does so the most crucial is that no one in the family recognizes daniel and thanks to the fantastic special makeup that's instantly believable it may be one of the most convincing transformations ever committed to film making dustin hoffman's dorothy michaels look like milton berle more problematic was a series of calls daniel makes to miranda posing as nannies from hell it's a bit hard to swallow that she doesn't recognize any of the voices as her husband's perhaps the biggest contrivance we're asked to swallow is that daniel could make a quick change into mrs doubtfire in a few minutes there's more to realistic makeup than slapping on a latex mask fortunately these are inconsistencies which only attract attention as the credits roll during the film i was generally too busy laughing after getting off to a slow start involving too much of williams' riffing mrs doubtfire kicks into high gear once the wig and pads are in place daniel's frantic attempt to fool a court officer is wonderful as is the climactic restaurant sequence even though i saw the resolutions coming a mile away clearly most of the credit for doubtfire's success goes to robin williams it took putting him in drag but for once he plays a comic character that isn't just robin williams with a different name he thoroughly inhabits euphegenia doubtfire and seems to relish the scenes in which he gets to play her as blunt and wisely he never aims for saintly his responses to the intrusion of new suitor stu are often petty but the kind of thing most of us might do with the benefit of anonymity it's one of mrs doubtfire's charms that neither daniel nor miranda is perfect just people trying to be better as miranda sally field is solid in a background role and pierce brosnan is nicely understated as stu the children are also good although mara wilson is almost oppressively cute as the youngest the supporting players merely step aside and allow williams to do his thing it's easy to see mrs doubtfire as little more than tootsie warmed over and it's true that there are both broad themes and specific details in common but mrs doubtfire manages to carve out its own space particularly through the surprisingly honest moments involving a judge's decision and the ultimate status of daniel and miranda's relationship there's nothing dazzlingly new in mrs doubtfire but there are plenty of laughs and good comedies are always in short supply and it's nice to see robin williams just act for a change
positive	weir is in hollywood for turning scripts with difficult into deceptively simple powerful films the mosquito coast utopia and fearless stress disorder among them in the truman show weir essentially breathes life into the concept of by tackling the material from the it certainly helps that he has an underrated performer in playing the title character truman burbank by now you must be aware of the premise unbeknownst to him truman carrey is the star of his own tv series a in which he is surrounded by actors and placed in loosely scripted situations people around the world tune in for the voyeuristic thrill of his genuine reactions to fictitious stimulants his hometown and the show itself are the brainchild of christof harris who presides over his creation in the base of a fake moon directing over cameras and hundreds of actors and extras for years truman suspects accept the reality we're given poses a desire to break free of the sunny town and visit a long lost love in mcelhone who was actually an actress fired by christof for trying to break the confidentiality agreement overwhelms him thus christof and his team suddenly find themselves working twice as hard to keep the veneer of seahaven intact lest truman discover the world outside and put an end to the program in a few broad strokes weir creates a convincing and he has the good sense not to bring christof into the picture until almost through this allows us to comprehend and accept truman's world before we contextualize it for all his madness christof has shown the world a place without violence and hardship and demonstrated that a human being can function well within it truman is an inspiration to his audience because he grew up to be well so darn nice like a sibling or perhaps more appropriately a caged animal in an interactive zoo they want to see him succeed the surrealistic soap opera is completely plausible thanks to a tight screenplay and a sympathetic really is an everyman here abandoning his facial contortions in favour of a credible bewilderment cinematically the truman show is impeccable stylishly photographed by peter biziou and littered with symbolic images as well it employs wojciech kilar's piece zycie za zycie' masterfully and beautifully if the film has any flaws one may find them in laura linney's characterization as meryl truman's wife i doubt that betty crocker impersonation would fool anyone and in a subplot involving truman's which feels curiously incomplete there are a few stupendous sequences and the film pulls off a wonderful trick we become truman's audience as much as the loyal viewers in the film they wear buttons asking will it end i couldn't wait to know myself though i didn't exactly want it to end for this inspired movie is possibly the most picture in years
positive	synopsis it's in a small italian american neighborhood in new york disco music is popular and the sexual revolution is on but the people of new york are not happy in fact they're terrified as in spike lee's do the right thing a heat wave has the city in its grip and peoples' tempers are flaring the cool of night offers no respite the neighborhood is being terrorized by a nocturnal psychotic killer who calls himself the son of sam no one knows who the son of sam is and no one is safe all around new york people are different aside from cultural groupings and ethnic neighborhoods there are differences between individuals in the italian american section of town a philandering husband named vinny john leguizamo tries to hide his trysts and sexual behavior from his long suffering newlywed wife dionna mira sorvino vinny's friend ritchie adrien brody hates disco works at a gay strip club and doesn't want any of the neighborhood folks to know ritchie's girl ruby jennifer esposito is trying to escape a reputation as a slut everyone's different but nobody in the film wants to be framed as alien to the community unfortunately the killings help create a climate of suspicion pits neighbor against neighbor opinion director spike lee's summer of sam is not about a psycho killer nor is it about cops trying to apprehend him it's about differences and how given the right conditions even close neighbors can fan the hostile flames of irrational suspicion one thing i found interesting in summer of sam was the use of sex in other movies sex is glamorized for example james bond gets a sexual reward for winning or boring suspense movies are spiked with gratuitous lingerie scenes just to keep the audience awake and every movie or soap opera character in these flicks seems to have expert sexual prowess not so with summer of sam in a very gutsy move director spike lee shows sex without fantasy sex is there but it isn't gratuitous or titillating in fact some of the main characters are downright lousy in bed sex is in the film because sexual deviance is part of the film's major theme of difference breeding hostility in my opinion this kind of movie sex is cutting edge for as rare and in american cinema as showing a spanking
positive	part one of the strangest movies ever made series at www mediajunkies com by scott watson spoilers nothing you shouldn't existenz has been called a gooey matrix and while this is a correct description in some ways in others it is completely off the only thing the two films have in common is the idea of a virtual reality that is indistinguishable from normal real reality a major difference is that the matrix has a base reality that is obviously the true reality while existenz does the impossible and makes us accept the most bizarre reality ever as true and oh what a reality it is david cronenberg has shown us before that he knows how to create strange movies naked lunch crash but this one is one of the strangest maybe it's because of how the mundane is mixed with the bizarre technology is organic but only some of it cars are normal gas stations are the same cell phones are glowing bug like appendages you jack into a virtual reality game using a quivering pink gooey animal like apparatus referred to simply as a pod high technology has been replaced with organic creatures and it provides a truly surreal setting for the characters a famous game designer allegra geller a fine looking jennifer jason leigh flees a demonstration of her latest game existenz after an assassination attempt she is on the run from who i'm still not sure and has to save her pod by playing her game with someone friendly that someone friendly is her dubious companion and security guard ted pikul jude law unfortunately he is lacking a fundamental requirement for playing a bioport sort of a hole in your spine ok exactly like a hole in your spine a bioport allows you to plug the vaguely wires from the pod into you allowing you to play the game luckily a bioport can be installed easily they install them in malls so off they go to get one after a crazy series of events at the local country gas station they are able to plug in and play existenz the plot itself is a surreal melding of conspiracies reality distortion chinese restaurants and multi appendaged amphibian things it's a sign of the times but the plot while cohesive in it's own creepy way is secondary to just trying to figure out what the hell is going on in this universe cronenberg just slaps this weird world into the viewers lap and it's up to you to figure out how all these things work and that's the true joy of this film entering the vaguely nightmarish world in which existenz takes place you learn a little bit piece by piece oh they make pods out of those and it's just enough to get you to accept the world that is presented to you there are all kinds of twists and turns as the characters wander around including a fantastic scene in a chinese restaurant that will leave you trying to assemble something out of your moo goo gai pan for months afterwards also the bioports are occasionally used for things other than porting into existenz the specifics of which i will leave for you to discover there's lots of little things that set off the like the little tiny pods that you can buy in the video game store the two headed amphibian creature and why that guy at the gas station's name appears to be gas it all adds up to a supremely far out trip and given the choice i think i would rather live in the matrix's virtual world oh wait i already do
positive	good films are hard to find these days great films are beyond rare proof of life russell crowe's punch of a deft kidnap and rescue thriller is one of those rare gems a taut drama laced with strong and subtle acting an intelligent script and masterful directing together it delivers something virtually unheard of in the film industry these days genuine motivation in a story that rings true consider the strange coincidence of russell crowe's character in proof of life making the moves on a distraught wife played by meg ryan's character in the film all while the real russell crowe was hitching up with married woman meg ryan in the outside world i haven't seen this much chemistry between actors since mcqueen and mcgraw teamed up in peckinpah's masterpiece the getaway but enough with the gossip let's get to the review the film revolves around the kidnapping of peter bowman david morse an american engineer working in south america who is kidnapped during a mass ambush of civilians by soldiers upon discovering his identity the rebel soldiers decide to ransom him for million the only problem is that the company peter bowman works for is being auctioned off and no one will step forward with the money with no choice available to her bowman's wife alice ryan hires terry thorne crowe a highly skilled negotiator and rescue operative to arrange the return of her husband but when things go wrong as they always do in these situations terry and his team which includes the most surprising casting choice of the year david caruso take matters into their own hands the film is notable in that it takes this very simple story line and creates a complex and intelligent vehicle filled with dialogue shades of motivation and convincing acting by all the actors the script is based on both a book the long march to freedom and a magazine article pertaining to situations and the story has been sharply pieced together by tony gilroy screenwriter of the devil's advocate and dolores claiborne the biggest surprise for me was not the chemistry between crowe and ryan but that between crowe and david caruso dug out from hell caruso pulls off a gutsy performance as crowe's right hand gun while providing most of the film's humor ryan cries a lot and smokes too many cigarettes david morse ends up getting everyone at the guerilla camp to hate him and crowe provides another memorable acting turn as the stoic gunslinger character of terry thorne the most memorable pieces of the film lie in its action scenes the bulk of those scenes which bookend the movie work extremely well as establishment and closure devices for all of the story's characters the scenes are skillfully crafted and executed with amazing accuracy and poise director taylor hackford mixes both his style of filmmaking with the dizziness of a lars von trier film proof of life is a thinking man's action movie it is a film about the choices men and women make in the face of love and war and the sacrifices one makes for those choices the sacrifices that help you sleep at night
positive	i must admit i'm going to be a bit biased in my review of the new romantic comedy serendipity because that also defines how i met my current girlfriend the magic and mystery of our fated encounter is also embodied in the quirkiness and freshness of the very funny and very romantic serendipity i am not a big fan of the romantic comedy genre but something drew me to this film maybe it was the casting of the underrated jeremy piven in a supporting role and the hilarious eugene levy maybe it was my hope that john cusack would get the redemption he justly deserves after such crap as high fidelity con air and pushing tin but maybe it was because i feel as giddy as a school kid right now with this whole romantic thing currently in my life the story of serendipity is simple two people john trager john cusack and sara thomas kate beckinsale looking ever so hot have a chance encounter over a pair of gloves with buck henry smack dab in the middle charmed beyond repair these two knuckleheads grab a sundae together at a caf called serendipity talk about that irresponsible thing called fate and the avenues it leads people down and spend a few hours at the local ice skating rink but with each of them already involved with other parties sara has john write his name and number on a bill and she writes her name and number on a copy of love in the time of cholera sara declares that if this thing let's just call it love is destined to happen fate will bring them together in the future years later and on opposite coasts of america john and sara both engaged but still unsure whether they have found their soul mates decide to seek each other out to rest their doubts what happens then is an enjoyable and often hilarious game with the fates involving such items as mistaken identity a graduate homage john corbett as a freaky new age musician and eugene levy as an irate and crazed salesman to find out if that thing was right after all fortunately screenwriter marc klein has sketched strong characters to propel a predictable and corny narrative coupled with deft directing by michael chelsom director of the very unfunny town and country and the very funny funny bones and the use of camera work to illustrate the passage of years the film comes off with genuine believability and sincerity both piven and molly shannon make nice sidekick characters on the flipside films such as you've got mail made in heaven and even high fidelity are the quiet inspirations for the film's main journey at hand but it's what happens to the unexpecting characters left behind in the romantic wake after john and sara find happiness this is the most unsettling part of the picture
positive	in some regards making a movie is like trying to stretch a rubber band as far as you can without breaking it try too hard and it snaps but too much reservation means someone else will come along and pull it farther in simon birch director mark steven johnson shows us just how to master the technique he takes advantage of caution and poise but also risks his movie with a few bold steps in the end he's not only holding an unbroken band but he makes the audience appreciate the lengths he went to direct such a fine feature there's no doubt about it the film that johnson has crafted is rich he chooses for his setting the quaint town of gravestown maine leaves turn bright orange in the fall the grass is a lush green pure white snow falls in the winter and the sky goes on forever the characters continue that turn our two leads are simon birch ian michael smith and joe wenteworth joseph mazzello simon is the smallest baby ever born within the records of the local hospital and by age twelve he's only two feet tall joe is the bastard son of rebecca ashley judd and by age twelve he's ready to know who is father is naturally the two outcasts become good friends and share many adventures together from disrupting sunday school to doing community service to playing little league baseball in a wonderfully executed performance by ian michael smith simon birch is convinced that he's god's instrument and there must be a reason he's so small joe doesn't quite buy it but he sticks by simon the two tough it out through the worst of times and are each other's only true friends early on the two meet up with ben goodrich oliver platt rebecca's new boyfriend and although the bond isn't immediate ben and the two boys develop a liking for each other both platt and judd give solid performances that lend their characters a deep likeability the audience cares about them as much as they do about joe and simon a testament to the acting jobs of both finally jim carrey gives a cameo as the adult joe in the present day and his few minutes here are relatively more impressive than his entire performance in the truman show mark steven johnson's sense of drama and writing is fantastic the script is loosely based on john irving's novel a prayer for owen meany but it's so far off the source material that irving actually requested the credits be changed from on' to by along those same lines it's almost unfitting to compare the two johnson uses tension humor atmosphere and suspense to create an original drama of forrest gumpian proportions by no means has he developed a project of similar popularity gump made over million dollars while birch ought to pass out of sight in a few weeks but the winning idea remains the same simon birch is a different look at a different life and one that will most likely be studied in film school classes in decades to come in the present however it's an enjoyable little picture that everyone ought to take a look at
positive	on the basis of this film alone i never would have predicted that in two years quentin tarantino would become the country's biggest hotshot director reservoir dogs has hints of the tarantino brilliance that emerged in pulp fiction but is a much less substantive more conventional crime story than the big pf here's what the two movies do have in common of intelligent amusing dialogue with no relevance to the plot story that jumps back and forth in time rather than going in a logical chronological sequence yet necessary violence engaging crime story liberally spiced with swear words and slurs of the same actors harvey keitel tim roth and steve buscemi mexican standoff ending although this one is considerably less optimistic than pf reservoir dogs is an entire hour shorter than pulp fiction because it's only got one story to tell rather than three crime lord joe cabot veteran actor lawrence tierney has assembled five criminals who have never even met each other to pull a diamond store heist the five are instructed not to reveal their real names or personal details or anything the cops could use if one of them was captured and interrogated instead they are all given code names off the color chart mr white keitel mr pink buscemi mr orange roth mr blonde michael madsen mr brown tarantino and mr peach tarantino's chin most of the movie's running time is spent with mr white and pink waiting at a warehouse for the others to arrive mr orange meanwhile is on the floor dying from a gunshot wound the police had arrived at the scene of the crime way too soon leading white to believe one of the five was an informant the story's background unfolds through a series of flashbacks of the crime itself and the meetings between joe and the criminals prior to the crime eventually blonde arrives with a police officer hostage and what follows is a truly brutal uncomfortable torture scene let's just say picasso would be inspired by what blonde does to the cop's ear a lot of the time reservoir dogs seems like your typical gangster movie but there are a few sequences that are uniquely tarantino the opening scene in the coffee shop starts the movie off on a high note the rest of it doesn't live up to as the criminals plus joe have a conversation on among other things tipping philosophies and their interpretations of madonna's like a virgin another scene involves roth's lengthy manufactured story about running into a group of cops and a police dog in a bus station bathroom while carrying a giant bag of marijuana neither of these have much plot relevance but are given ample time to develop like the captain koons gold watch speech in pulp fiction only here these sequences are more enjoyable than the rest of the movie reservoir dogs is good but it's no pulp fiction
positive	it's a fact that a good thriller or action movie doesn't need violence to be good or worth watching all it takes is potential violence to make the audience bite their nails and what kind of violence could be more efficient than a global war and potential violence is the premiss wargames is built upon a computer david is usually contended with hacking into the school computer to change his grades but after having read an advertisment for an upcoming computer game he wants to be the first to play it instead of getting into the computer at protovision software he accidentally comes to the frontgate of norad with the help of jennifer a girl in his biology class he starts to play a nice game of nuclear war with wopr war operation plan response a computer at the time but now hardly faster than my own computer i remember being and watching this at the cinema it was very efficent at giving you a scare in those days and that hasn't changed of course a nuclear war seemed to be much more of something that could actually happen back in i wouldn't be surprised if this gave people nightmares i hope it still does since you still hear about school kids hacking into the computers at pentagon broderick and sheedy are just fine as the young teenagers although her interest in david remains a mystery but the rest of the actors are by no fault of their own restricted by the script to play grownups david's parents are the same kind of parents that populate all these college comedies from the movies like secret admirer porky's or zapped and the norad general beringer is straight out of dr strangelove if for no other reason you should see this movie to enjoy how far the computer technology has gone since those days david uses the same telephone for calling friends as calling other computers the modem is some kind of device that he puts the headset on far from any modem my guess is that it's some kind of bps modem the kind of technology you now find at your local technical museum the big computer at norad has a lot of flashing lights just like those you see on star trek or any old but it's hardly impressing compared with what you can get today what are the lessons we can learn from wargames  make sure there are no secret backdoors into military computers thank you whoever it was for giving us a graphical user interface when we use our computers
positive	there exists a litany of differences between a successful action movie and a successful suspense movie action movies are typically devoid of plot other than a simple byline which can string together several explosive sequences while suspense movies hinge on plot and subtlety and the ability to bring everything for fans of both genres however realism is key action fans want to know that the weapons and methods their heroes are using are authentic and suspense fans want everything to fall into an explainable framework by the movie's end on this advice director john frankenheimer the island of dr moreau strives for realism in an interestingly dynamic balance of suspense and action for his latest thriller ronin the depth of intrigue in ronin is quite amazing considering the fare that's fallen into the same category over the last few years the script written by j d zeik in his debut approaches levels of complexity that had people spinning away from mission impossible two years ago a certain number of people will be lost by this but afficianados will appreciate it all the more and return multiple times frankenheimer masters the script with poise and tells us a dark but stoically realistic tale of a group of war mercenaries working to earn their paycheck his ability to convey feeling and character while promoting explosiveness and tense atmosphere works well here and ronin becomes a better movie because of it robert de niro headlines this cast of noteworthies in a performance that is the most outstanding of his in quite some time he takes command and offers much gravity as the sam a man who's called to france to help a shady operations controller named dierdre natascha mcelhone recover a package the package becomes the central motivator for the entire cast especially once the requisite begins and its role is skillfully penned by zeik at times however zeik's tale becomes almost too reminiscent of mission impossible de niro might easily become tom cruise the package might become cruise's computer disk fortunately the focus here is almost entirely on the package whereas in mission the script was more concerned with the and why it happened the action content is impressive and it lives up to the hints given in previews the only fans who will be disappointed are those who expect combat scenes and instead are forced to suffer through moments of slowness ronin does take a degree of intelligence to follow all of the nuance from start to finish but even the uninitiated will be able to keep a grasp on most characters mand subplots the suspense tapers off considerably by the end a bit of a drawback because of its height at the movie's open considering these factors it's good to see that ronin was a project that turned out well and it's another good bet this month since quality is usually sparse during the early fall months it's definitely worth the visit
positive	jay and silent bob strike back kevin smith's swan song to his two most famous characters is the best received comedy that i've seen since there's something about mary which is a tea party in comparison to the humor in jay and silent bob strike back the audience didn't just laugh they went wild with boisterous laughter and heavy applause throughout in short if you like really raunchy humor you may find it as i did to be the funniest movie of the year on the other hand if you are one of those who walked out in disgust with smith's dogma then jay and silent bob strike back is not the movie for you in one of the fastest paced movies of the year the story has jay and silent bob jason mewes and kevin smith a pair of card carrying drug dealers traveling from their new jersey convenience store home to hollywood so that they can stop a movie it seems their comic book alter egos bluntman and chronic are being used in a movie without jay and silent bob's consent jason biggs and james van der beek are slated to star in it jay and silent bob strike back has more and better used cameos than just about any movie that i've ever seen among others they include carrie fisher as a nun mark hamill as a comic book version of his famous alter ego and gus van sant as a director too busy counting his money to yell action best of all are ben affleck and matt damon who mock themselves and their movies the film stops several times to make fun of itself and of the audience who was stupid enough to buy tickets to this movie actually purchasing tickets to this film is extremely smart given that it delivers more laughter per dollar than anything in recent memory the film even skewers people who write about movies on the internet guilty although it's filled with inside jokes you'll still be laughing even if you only get some of them it's easy to understand enough so that they are still funny jay is a motor mouth who hasn't met a subject that he couldn't vulgarize his favorite topic is oral sex but being an equal opportunity profaner he's willing to make crude jokes about absolutely anything but it is his buddy the aptly named silent bob who is responsible for most of the movie's success his reaction shots with his wildly exaggerated eye movements are comedic gems the story's main subplot concerns four animal rights activists justice shannon elizabeth and her three sexy buddies sissy eliza dushku missy jennifer schwalbach smith and chrissy ali larter these charlie's angels types give a ride to our heroes on their trek to lalaland to stop the picture jay tries to put the moves on justice but he doesn't stay in command of the situation for long one of the funnier sight gags has the women using a pink birth control case that contains high tech gadgetry granted it's not the movie for everyone but if you like kevin smith's brand of humor you'll find that this is his best and as i said earlier it's the funniest movie of the year thus far no wait forget far it's bound to be the funniest movie of the year in a time when almost every movie feels obligated to come in at so that they can rake in the maximum cash it's great to see a filmmaker with the guts to target only a mature audience jay and silent bob strike back runs a lightening fast it is rated r and contains pervasive crude humor and language and sexual situations it would be acceptable for high school seniors and older the film opens nationwide in the united states on wednesday august in the silicon valley it will be showing at the amc and the century theaters
positive	damn those trailers had it not been for the advertising of this film which reveals far too much about its contents i would have been glued to the sand' as it is the film retains some value thanks to an excellent performance by charlotte rampling and a more mature francois ozon in the director's chair marie charlotte rampling and her husband jean bruno cremer lounge on the beach she takes a nap while he goes for a swim when marie wakes up jean is nowhere to be found she contacts authorities but they can't find him either did he disappear to start a new life was he killed by accident did he commit suicide marie still asks herself these questions a year later and in order to move on with her life she must find some answers it's a fine premise and this little movie uses it to the limit the film moves at a leisurely pace a bit slow but relaxing it's a very visual story and you can pretty much just sit back without reading the subtitles this is mostly thanks to the excellent camera work by antoine heberle and jeanne lapoirie who shot the film in a dreamy haze and the lead performance by rampling rampling is so expressive in her portrayal of marie you connect with her character instantly despite that she's delusional the scenes where she interacts with her husband who she still believes is alive are heartbreaking she can't quite get over him they've been married for years the other actors particularly jacques nolot are excellent too the sex in the film is rather unneeded but compared to ozon's lovers' it's the disney channel likely to cause some discussion afterwards the sand' is a fine movie going experience while it's hard to recommend as entertainment it's a fine adult alternative about how we deal with loss ozon seems to ask what you would do and that's certainly a hard question to answer
positive	bob the happy bastard's quickie review rush hour so what's the problem with hours clones these days they always try for the same thing that eddie murphy and nick nolte had that was the problem that plagued these clones not to mention the actual sequel another hours a complete waste of film but at last someone has a different take on the matter and it's director brett rainer rush hour features jackie chan in his first u s action movie playing a chinese detective who's being flown to the us to investigate the kidnapping of the chinese consulate's daughter of course the fbi is upset that he'll be interfering in their investigation and stick him with an lapd office with a big of course that's chris tucker what makes rush hour work so damn well is the chemistry between the energetic chan and the absolutely hilarious tucker tucker mouths off to chan at every given opportunity i'm michael jackson you tito and chan delivers a few zingers of his own as well as some terrific fight scenes the story's pretty much your average fare but with a decent twist involving the main villain a highly clouded figure named jun tao at least it's entertaining and the concept is excellently realized a particular fight scene in a chinese office where chan and tucker duke it out with the bad guys is funny and energetic at the same time and the finale's a real treat as well chan delivers yet another fantastic stunt for the fans with a drop rush hour is just the sort of film you'll get a kick out of on any night of the week just make sure you don't look for anything culturally different and you'll be drunken master ii this ain't
positive	this sunday afternoon i had the priviledge of attending a private screening at the sony astor cinema in new york city of james cameron's most heralded film titanic postponed from last summer with an escalated budget that makes it the most expensive movie in history this was one film i was eager to preview so is this movie going to sink or swim this holiday my best guess it will sink though with many awards attatched to its hull no doubt titanic is the most elaborate disaster movie ever made it boasts the most amazing effects that i have ever seen done to date to see a ship fall apart with actual people running across the ship flying across the deck and falling to the water is just amazing to look at the effects are so stunningly realistic you would swear you were looking at actual footage but titanic is more than a disaster movie and that's where the problem lies there is a love story attatched that nearly ruins the entire premise i'll give a capsule summary of the story without spoiling anything for you the film begins with a modern day excavation of sorts of the sunken titanic we see actual footage of the sunken ship as cammeron had set up special cameras to film the wreckage on the ocean floor bill paxton leads the expedition in search of sunken treasure what he finds instead leads him to a mysterious old woman who recounts her tale of the titanic voyage we meet rose kate winslet a young woman who comes from an family rose is to be wed to a man she does not love we meet jack leonardo dicaprio a young man who comes from a poor financial background and wins a ticket aboard the titanic in a poker game the two meet under interesting circumstances and the love story begins add in a jealous fiance and a law officer played by david warner and you have a story that well gets a bit overplayed and oversappy i must add at this point that the most likeable character in the movie is played by kathy bates as a woman with new money who is a lot less uptight than the other rich folk on the ship she is a pleasure to see on screen when the ship does hit the iceberg at exactly into the film and eventually sinks you never really feel for any of these characters the film is just loaded with unlikeable rich snobs and other folk you never really get a grasp on the effects are tremendous from the roars of gears and pumps in the engine room to a doomed ship cracking at the seams this is an effects picture that looks and sounds like no other we saw titanic in dolby digital surround and by far it is the best sounding movie i have ever seen my friend commented it was the best sound mix he has ever heard when people are in the water at film's end you are surrounded by the voices of lost soles titanic runs far too long the movie is hours and minutes in length and while most of the first hours runs very fast and the final minutes almost comes to a sudden stop and you realize that this sappy love story has to finish itself out before the movie finally ends don't get me wrong about titanic it's not a bad as i am making it out to be it really is an exceptionaly film the costumes and sets are incredible and true to the time period the ship is painstakingly created exactly true to form as we see actual pictures of the wreckage transformed into the movie depiction this film will certainly win on effects costume set design and sound cameron has certainly made his best film to date unfortunately titanic is not a best picture candidate it just doesn't have a strong supporting story it's an exceptional disaster film with sappy filler inside it just doesn't have the emotional impact that i suspect mr cameron was shooting for i predict that titanic will open to likeable reviews it is a film worth seeing i predict that it will only do moderately well at the box office with its extreme running time and lack of enough robust to get substantial i expect that it will do even better on home video this will certainly be the definitive movie for all you home theater enthusiasts titanic opens december and is released by paramount pictures and twentieth i give titanic stars that's not bad ron epstein riginally posted in home theater forum
positive	a common complaint amongst film critics is why aren't there more literate scripts available quiz show gives signs of hope that the art of writing isn't dead in hollywood and that we need not only look to independent films for thoughtful content paul attanasio's script takes what could have been a tepid thriller the quiz show scandals of the late and delivers a telling parable about the emptiness of the post war american dream and the golden bubble that surrounds and protects tv networks and their sponsors the film is riddled with telling symbols e g a chrysler a radio announcement of sputnik but is never heavy handed deft direction by robert redford and keen performances by ralph fiennes john turturro and rob morrow dovetail perfectly with the carefully honed script redford departs from the usually overlight cable tv quality sets and camera work so common in recent century period pieces quiz show perfectly captures the colors and textures of the eisenhower years although i was only years old when the twenty one scandal broke enough of the icons survived throughout my childhood for me to recognize the authenticity of redford's almost tangible palette from plastic covered furniture to carefully coifed contestants the images ring true from that era of rampant consumerism of a generation that had gone through years of depression and world war without disposable income before the manifestation of its american dream the film deftly weaves several themes together from assimilation and exclusion of jews from the good life to the lengths that a scion of a literary family will go to to match his father's fame though the audience that is rocked by this scandal may initially seem naive to us they should appear all too familiar with our current national passion for the rise and fall of icons like michael jackson or tonya harding charles van doren and herbie stemple were the overnight mega celebrities of their day the tv audience is almost a fourth main character always at the center of the decisions being made on their behalf at the film's end the credits roll past slow motion footage of that same tv audience mindlessly laughing at some piece of fluff like the distorted mirror that captured a blurred swastika at the end of cabaret this mirror may reflect an image we're not all that comfortable with
positive	whew this film oozes energy the kind of breakneck filmmaking that is seldom seen on screen these days like the marginal motley bunch of youths director danny boyle tries to depict trainspotting veers on the edge of utter mayhem but ultimately retains its footing and control the result a movie that is a delightful example of how the medium is the message the message a bunch of losers with loser names mark renton ewan mcgregor spud ewan bremner sick boy jonny lee miller tommy kevin mckidd and begbie robert carlyle bored aimless and restless their routine consists of getting drunk at the local pub grooving to techno or at the local disco and getting shots up the arm at the local den and procuring cash through a variety of methods some ingenious others plainly dumb and desperate not part of the daily dose if obtained sex is a bonus you can find these characters as they are dirty pathetic ugly perhaps but definitely interesting in irvin welsh's cult novel of the same name what makes the film a completely different experience is how director boyle uses every tool at his disposal to make the filmic medium synchronous with the message one of the first things you'll notice is how the camera seems to dart around restlessly it'll truck into a character's pimple just as soon as it will dolly out to an establishing shot distracted and curious it'll maintain a character's or drop right to the ground to show the you'll even find characters peering into the camera their faces smeared across the lens this film camera is just another one of the guys tiptoeing that indistinguishable line between fantasy and reality boyle employs a healthy dose of surrealism to get the message across bored kids daydream and bored kids deprived of a heroin fix have nightmares i don't want to give too much away but if you cross chuckie from child's play with some of the wacky fantasies in heavenly creatures you might have an idea just how fun or scary the alternate state of consciouness can be that said this film has a good share of drugs consumed vomitted defecated pissed off exchanged bought sold injected smuggled enjoyed and regretted if that isn't your cup of tea nobody forced you to see the film stay at home and rent up close and personal and what's a buzz without tunes from pulp to iggy pop yes he's still alive the aural landscape is as engaging as the visual energy permeating the film good and bad vibrations tangle like the conflicting desires and values of the message every once in a while a film comes along with the kind of energetic filmmaking that matches the intensity of its characters it hopes to depict trainspotting is that shooting star that burns across a sky littered with static constellations dom is a filmmaker who graduated from northwestern university's programme not too long ago he has laboured on various music videos and short films in and around campus and chicago nowhere town a short film that he shot and recently scooped up the grand jury prize at the charleston international film festival for best student production he is currently finishing a couple of small projects with his minute amounts of leisure time dom does nell impersonations
positive	steven spielberg's amistad which is based on the true story of a group of africans who revolted on board a slave ship then were captured and taken to america where a legal dispute ensued over who owned them is concerned with several different aspects of this story first the film addresses the issue of the inherent evils of slavery second it deals with the historical involvement of several american politicians in the case including president martin van buren and former president john quincy adams anthony hopkins last and most importantly it examines the cultural confusion experienced by the africans who were forced into slavery and the damage done to their native culture in africa by the slave trade amistad succeeds at least partly with all three of these elements i have to admit that i was a little skeptical as to how much i could really get out of another movie having seen several other movies and documentaries about slavery i doubted that there was much i didn't already know about it fortunately i turned out to be wrong for one thing spielberg's camera never once gets near a southern plantation and instead sticks to the slave ships and the slave traders' operations in africa so amistad was dealing with a different part of the history of slavery from the very beginning and some of the images here are in fact much more harrowing than what we usually see in movies about slavery one scene in the middle in which the crew of a slave ship dispose of some of their excess slaves by throwing them overboard to drown has to be one of the most disturbing film images of the year spielberg digs farther into the evils of slavery than i was expecting he would and in fact he probably goes about as far as a movie director can without getting an rating the stark suffering of the africans is contrasted sharply with the shallow luxury of the politicians such as president van buren and queen isabella of spain whose naval officers were involved in the legal dispute and who was only a small child at the time exposing politicians as opportunistic hypocrites is fairly standard stuff of course but spielberg and writer david franzoni do it well enough that it still comes off as something more than just a simple exercise in audience manipulation the film also examines the contentious nature of the slavery issue at the time such that john quincy adams and probably other politicians like him who clearly disapproved of the practice was reluctant to get involved in the case until it was appealed all the way to the supreme court the biggest success of amistad is probably the characterization of cinque djimon hounsou who emerges as the de facto leader of the kidnapped africans and struggles to communicate with baldwin matthew mcconaughey the lawyer who represents them in court through cinque we are given a window into the native culture as he and the displaced africans try to explain to the prison guards what they need for a proper burial of a dead tribe member or find an illustrated version of the bible and try to understand the story of jesus christ cinque sees the dispute with a clarity and simplicity that again contrasts with the technicalities and mechanics of the legal process and of the political squabbles what kind of country is this where laws work he asks baldwin in bewilderment when he learns that the case must be before the supreme court spielberg's direction tends a little bit towards the manipulative side at times such as when he adds a heavy orchestral swell to cinque's angry outburst in the court room still there isn't enough of this for it to be a serious problem the main flaw in this film which prevents it from earning four stars is that it seems like spielberg and franzoni can't quite handle all of these issues at the same time so instead they settle for addressing each one separately and simply editing the results into the same movie this summer's contact for example dealt with several issues at once but each of them was somehow present in almost every scene and most importantly all of them were resolved at once amistad tries to pull it all together in the end with a speech from adams but it somehow feels a little forced and in any case the speech itself which lasts almost fifteen minutes wears out its welcome about halfway through perhaps the best way to describe it is this amistad is three four star films edited into one almost every individual scene works but the final product is lacking the necessary focus and coherence and thus is less than the sum of its parts however i can't honestly say how it could have been done differently and in any case the story comes through with enough raw emotional power that it is still a very good film and thus i recommend it to anyone who can handle the disturbing imagery
positive	he has spent his entire life in an awful little apartment raised and cared for and imprisoned by his domineering mother she inspires his love and his fear and instills in him a similar love and fear of jesus he has a rudimentary grasp of language mouthing monosyllables and repetitions of his mother's phrases he is taught that the world outside is fatally poisonous his mother dons a gasmask whenever she goes out the door he is in body but a child in mind and spirit he is the premise for bad boy bubby a defiantly original australian movie about a man called bubby nicholas hope who has spent his entire life in an awful little apartment etc etc then one day his father ralph cotterill appears his father is a shabby priest who appears to have permanently misplaced his religion unsurprisingly he is not thrilled with the way his boy has turned out he is however rather pleased at renewing his acquaintance with the mother claire benito and more to the point her ample breasts soon they are copulating on the dingy couch while bubby crouches confused in the next room acutely aware that the mother who had devoted all her attention to him has a new interest bubby's relationship to the world may be warped but it is at least stable the father's arrival disturbs his precarious balance causing an oedipal conflict which would be violence and as a result freedom bubby intuits from his father's arrival that the air outside is breathable he leaves the apartment his past his world behind so far so good the first thirty minutes or so of bad boy bubby which bring us to this point are quite brilliant the movie is at its best when its stays within the constraints of bubby's hermetic universe it follows through unrelentingly on the implications of its premise bubby is used by his mother for sex he unwittingly suffocates the pet cat with cellophane he is terrifed by the notion that jesus will beat him senseless if he sins it is grim and savage and appalling but also strangely heer having imagined a life as bizarre as bubby's does not exaggerate for comic or grotesqe purposes but simply empathizes he observes what it might be like the intensity of these opening scenes with their minimalist immerses us in a claustrophobic environment which seems to be a decayed stratum of our own world and owes much to david lynch's eraserhead not least the ambient industrial white noise of the soundtrack for thirty minutes the movie maintains the feel and mood of a reality that does not seem far removed from our own then de heer lets bubby out brings him into contact with our world and the film never quite recovers our unlikely hero finds himself in port adelaide where he wanders the streets and meets people where he suffers and learns and survives he is seduced by a young woman from a salvation army band how an with no sense of hygiene manages to get laid mere hours after his escape is not the sort of question the film encourages wisely he is given free pizza by a sympathetic waitress he insults a traffic cop and is punched in the stomach he shares a few beers in the back of a truck with a rock group he is imprisoned and raped he becomes a translator for mentally handicapped people whose speech is impaired beyond comprehension he is loved by a motherly nurse carmel johnson   it goes on by turns inventive silly tasteless endearing and sometimes all of these things at once de heer never seems to be sure how bubby should interface with the real world the tone shifts uneasily from fable to realism to satire and back again the scenes which try to touch base with a believable version of reality are the weakest the film is best understood as a kind of parable and indeed the religious implications of bubby's experiences are foregrounded icons of jesus on the cross hang from the mother's walls bubby dons a priest's collar stolen from his father a church atheist lectures him on the necessity of unbelief the woman who redeems him is named angel the manifold stresses of our world do not shatter bubby's mind do not fragment him into psychosis rather the world accomodates him and heals him although de heer's touch is at times overbearing bubby's salvation is touching what seemd at first a harsh lesson in the damaging effects of the social construction of reality becomes a na ve humanist tale of improbable hope a hapless rock group write a song about bubby and sing it for him and so give him the gift of community he returns the favour when he steps on stage one night and becomes their frontman turning the fragmented impressions of his experiences into performance art and turning the band into a popular draw innocence triumphs bubby becomes a holy fool an idiot savant and graces us with wisdom it's a strange turn of events but by now we shouldn't be surprised because bad boy bubby ain't like other movies
positive	being that it is a foreign language film with no known names with a select number theaters showing it shall we dance won't be seen by that many people and that's a shame this is a funny enchanting and goofy movie full of laughs surprises and wonderful dance sequences the surprising thing about shall we dance is the universal appeal of the story a us version is in the works and it's no wonder it's not really all that culture specific although there is a narrated that adds some extra resonance to the proceedings about the view the japanese culture has about ballroom dancing the movie is so rich in character and appeal that this added layer isn't at all necessary to understand or enjoy the film the only important unexplained reference that may leave some a bit puzzled is that yen is roughly when you see the film and you should see this film you'll know why a middle aged company man realizes that achieving all the goals he set for himself in life a house a child and good marriage still doesn't translate into a fulfilled life after glimpsing a melancholy beauty looking out from a dance studio window while on the train home from work sugiyana koji yakusho decides after some trepidation to take up ballroom dance lessons in order to meet the woman who has stirred something in himself after finding the weekly fees for private lessons from the elegant and beautiful mai tamiyo kusakari too rich for his blood sugiyama opts for groups lessons simply to be near her we then meet the players in this gem of a movie who all have their own reasons for joining the class later on we meet aoki at the dance studio naoto takenaka a and all out weirdo and one of the laugh riot highlights of the film the story laughs and touching scenes evolve as the movie goes along it's a pleasure to watch such a wonderful film that is propelled almost solely by the characters and performances it's difficult to explain the charms of the film without revealing too much the movie abounds with little revelations that subtly shape the characters and in the end each one is that much fuller and more understood by the time you leave the theater it's one of those movies that only the french seem to make anymore no big plot no special effects no gunplay no tragic consequences no forced examinations of the nature of love and no insights into the nature of evil just a warm funny endearing film that will charm the pants off of you when was the last time you left a theater feeling all warm and fuzzy inside shall we dance will do that to you without any treacly aftertaste
positive	when i first heard of contact the hype was building it up as a blockbuster now with that in mind coupled with the knowledge of jodie foster's involvement in the project i thought what in the world is foster doing in a blockbuster as it turned out my expectations were completely nullified and turned robert zemeckis back from the euphoria created by his last film forrest gump once again proves his mastery in fusing tales of adventure with along the endearing lines of human spirit don't get me wrong contact is but with a definite difference based on the late carl sagan novel of the same name the story delves itself in questions on science and god fact and faith allie foster is a radio astronomer she spends her time listening to the stars via communication dishes in search of intelligent life beyond the solar system her passion for communication' is the result of her younger days being spent avidly in front of a system a hobbyist radio communication device which her bought for her a scene which particularly strengthens the audiences' view of the passion is when she asked her father whether she could contact her through the system in which her father replied not even the most powerful radio in the world can do that now allie's research is based on the seti project search for extra terrestrial intelligence in which she listens to radio emissions from other galaxies in the hope of finding one which would suggest intelligent manipulation her work has never been off the scrutiny of the us government which considers it a waste of taxpayer's money and politically unviable her supervisor tom skerritt pulls the plug on seti undaunted allie managed to gather a loyal group of and eventually found funding from a large private corporation the following months were treacherous to their hopes and research as they are contantly pressured by the government but all that changed when one day she caught an emission of a seemingly intelligent repeating the news of her find attracted hordes of alien believers cultist the media and of course the government the situation became intense upon her discovery of pictorial plans on building a form of transport which were embedded within the repeating sound emission as the world join forces to build this transport allie is desperate to be the one to go she enrols herself among a few hopefuls to represent the world when the transport is ready for operation her eligibility for the spot failed when she is questioned on her beliefs in the existence of god by the president's spiritual advisor mcconaughey allie being an atheist a result of her belief in fact and science refuses to budge upon questioning at this point the movie plot thickens considerably as she is romantically involved with the president's spiritual advisor a strong point which propelled the movie is the depth of its main characters played by foster and mcconaughey from the very first meeting scene it is obvious that the two of them was sort of kindred spirits but they were worlds apart in almost all aspects foster being a person drawn to science and facts and mcconaughey being one who believes in faith hope and the power of the unseen the meeting of their worlds added with the situation which they are put into makes the entire storytelling process near flawless many people who read the synopsis of this film would find it a tad too ridiculous but by actually immersing yourself in it gives you an entirely different perspective one which is free from bias and zemeckis and his team of screen writers have done a remarkable job in telling this tale through film contact works by not delving in controversy but rather touches the thinking audience urging them to ponder upon the questions raised in the film concerning fact and faith whether one can actually find compromise within i consider contact as one of the for this year
positive	you've got to love disney no matter what they serve up it is a guaranteed success as long as it's animated kids have to go see the movie then they have to get the toys oh the video came out got to buy it or risk little billy's temper tantrums for the next month all of this culminates in the childhood equivalent of a pilgrimage to mecca a visit to the magic kingdom stay at the disneyland hotel buy a disney eat an ice cream mickey mouse on a stick it's both a vertical and horizontal monopoly when you think about it dale carnegie should have had it so good what's most amazing is that all this success is in spite of a severe lack of originality you see disney animated features these days have two components theme and plot the theme changes with each new movie the plot does not the plot is a mold into which the characters of some ancient fable are dropped and try as they might to rise above the characters of previous features they are nearly always destined to do no more than the same however while the success of a disney animated feature is generally a given as far as receipts merchandising dollars and glimmers in the eyes of little children critically they are as varied as anything else that hollywood has to offer luckily disney's latest animated offering mulan manages to be engaging and refreshing even while rife with formula the film starts with the invasion of ancient china by the huns led by the imposing miguel ferrer soon china's emperor pat morita mobilizes his armies and decrees that one male from each family in the country shall serve to fight in china's defense when the fa family is served notice it is the elderly father fa zhou oh who must answer the call as there are no other males in the household fearing her father will surely be killed in battle fa mulan wen disguises herself as a man and sneaks off with the royal orders to join the chinese army mulan based on a chinese epic poem is a classic tale of the triumph of the ugly duckling mulan herself is a disgrace to her loving family as she has a difficult time fitting into the traditional woman's role and in a very amusing scene where a matchmaker attempts to assess her value to a potential husband we see that grace is not one of her strong points very early on we are presented with the high importance of bringing honor to one's family and by botching her chance at gaining the favor of the matchmaker mulan fails at that task by leaving home to fight in her father's place she may not only spare his life but bring honor too as is the case with most disney musicals the songs are first rate and pervasive throughout the film i'm not sure if they will get much airplay but at least one of the songs will no doubt receive recognition come oscar time both lea salonga who provides the singing voice for mulan and donny osmond who sings for shang the captain of mulan's army unit and obligatory love interest are more than competent although salonga's voice translates much better to animation you have to hear it to understand interestingly the musical numbers which are so often done with big flourishes are surprisingly muted in mulan there is no significantly big number which is customary as the second or third song in a disney film but this does not detract significantly from the rest of the movie it is however an expectation which has been built by disney's own formulaic history and some viewers may feel as if something is missing artistically the animators have chosen to adopt the more subdued pastels of chinese artwork and although this may not live up to the vibrance so associated with many of the other disney works it helps to contribute a more authentic and therefore more credible nature to what otherwise may be seen as a typically disneyfied ethnic tale there are also a couple of visually standout scenes one involving the charge of hun army which utilizes the same imagery disney animators have employed since the chandelier in beauty and the beast the other scene worth mentioning is so quick you might miss it when mulan resolves to take her father's place she dons her father's old battle armor and unsheathes a sword as she does so you can see her reflection in the polished metal it just left me thinking that was really cool a wonderful range of performances delight the audience throughout the film varying from the straight such as oh as fa zhou to the comical such as harvey fierstein as yao a gruff pugilistic member of shang's conscripted army even more outrageous is eddie murphy as mushu the diminutive guardian dragon sent to look after mulan although an obvious attempt to relive the chemistry brought forth by robin williams in aladdin murphy nevertheless distinguishes himself with his own winning performance i found the choice of b d wong as shang a little strange you may remember him as martin short's wedding planner assistant in the father of the bride but they used robbie benson for the voice of the beast in beauty and the beast so i guess anything's possible in any event wong performs admirably as well one character which provides a significant amount of humor is grandmother fa she deserves recognition not only because of the levity she brings to the movie but also because she is voiced by two very remarkable people june foray who supplies grandmother fa's speaking voice is a venerable voice actress who may be best known for her work as rocky the squirrel and natasha fatale as in boris and natasha marni nixon who provides grandmother fa's singing voice is the same vocalist who dubbed the voices for anna in the king and i maria in west side story and eliza in my fair lady with this in mind hearing grandmother fa is like listening to a little piece of history mulan is the latest disney animated feature to get away from some of the eurocentrism which for so long dominated disney films in an effort to be culturally sensitive and to avoid a miss saigon debacle disney has also wisely chosen to employ many actors for both lead and supporting roles in addition to the actors already mentioned the cast includes such ubiquitous talents as james hong gedde watanabe james shigeta and george takei i guess clyde kusatsu wasn't available at a running time of slightly under an hour and a half mulan moves quickly and provides solid entertainment for both children and happily adults this is the kind of disney feature that makes you wonder what they will do next rather than hope that the next one is better
positive	with three to children and an aging to care and cleaning and laundry at little league practice and from ballet hall's life is rife with complications and with her naval officer husband stationed somewhere in the north atlantic virtually impossible to reach by telephone margaret leads the crazed life of a single parent but margaret's hectic world is about to get a lot more complicated her teenage son beau a talented trumpet player with strong prospects of being accepted into wesleyan university's music program has fallen in with the wrong crowd his mother drives from their idyllic lakeside community of tahoe city california to the sprawling urban metropolis of reno nevada with its imposing concrete superstructures and seedy nightclubs to confront the man who has befriended beau stay away from my son margaret warns darby reese her words however appear to fall on deaf ears as reese turns up drunk at the family homestead later that evening urging beau to join him in the boathouse there are words and advances and some pushing and shoving and beau runs back into the house passed his startled mother as the crack of a wooden railing giving way breaks the cold blue silence and an intoxicated reese tumbles out of sight the next day on her morning walk margaret discovers reese's lifeless body lying crumpled on the shoreline a boat anchor impaled in his chest with her maternal instincts working overtime margaret quickly ferries the body out into the lake weighs it down and dumps it overboard but margaret's life is about to get a lot more complicated soon after the body is discovered snagged on a local fisherman's line margaret is paid a visit by an blackmailer in a red nova alek spera threatens to hand over compromising videotape of beau to the police unless margaret comes up with by o'clock the next day but margaret's life is about to get a lot more complicated for alek turns out to be something she never expected based on elisabeth sanxay holding's novel the blank wall the deep end is a thriller written and directed by scott mcgehee and david siegel suture it makes the most of a talented but not particularly visnjic plays alek with a suave likeability jonathan tucker shines as the conflicted beau peter donat is amusing as grandfather hall and josh lucas has an equally small but effective role as the hapless darby reese the film is also lovingly photographed by giles nuttgens and features an evocative score courtesy peter nashel but it owes everything to british actress tilda swinton swinton whose ethereal beauty has graced many of derek jarman's films caravaggio edward ii the last of england plays margaret hall in the deep end and like charlotte rampling in this year's under the sand turns in a commanding and accomplished performance margaret is a devoted mother who is willing to risk everything to protect the ones she loves and swinton captures every frustration every fear every subtle examination and every fervent realization and every nervous oscillation of her being the role calls for an extremely wide range of emotions none the least of which is simply playing a mother beset with a multitude of domestic responsibilities many can relate to that of course it's the murder and the blackmail and the fear of losing one's son that swinton so gracefully so graciously makes resonate with the truest of colors the end is deep all right and there isn't a single shallow moment in tilda swinton's canon
positive	i hate to burst your bubble but after all the star power mega bucks screenwriters directors and cool trailers men in black is not the best movie of the summer it's pretty good in it's own right yes but i would probably split the best movie honors among spawn con air and maybe event horizon it's main problem is that it's quickly forgettable and i can't remember one truly good scene from it from con air it was the scene out in the desert when they were digging the plane out from the dirt in spawn it was the living room hell conclusion at the end in event horizon it was the video of the event horizon crew being taken over by hell's forces and all of was pretty dang good but as for men in black the only scene i still recall is when will smith is squishing all those giant roaches i remember it not for it's humor but because i am hate roaches with a passion and was pretty disgusted and yes i did see mimic which is something i'll touch on in a later review back to men in black is it just me or does that sound funny i remember first hearing about men in black back when i was a comic geek in the grade and read magazines like wizard etc for those of you who aren't wizard is basically to comics what car and driver is to cars what the new yorker is to high society what boy's life is to boy scots okay that one was pretty pathetic few people know this but men in black is based on a very obscure comic book that was while not very hard to find this was after the release of the batman forever and it said that tommy lee jones and chris o'donnell were being considered for the roles in the comic book there were no black men in black kind of weird huh all i can say is thank god they didn't cast chris o'donnell i know i can't be the only person on the planet who thinks he's an annoying preppie little snot sorry my apologies to o'donnell fans i actually had a grade teacher who was a big comic collector and was set to buy some of the comics from him anticipating rather craftily that if the movie was a big hit it would drive up the price of the comics rather nicely he decided not to sell them to me because they were innappropriate hmm so now you're probably wondering why i've wasted about paragraphs with lame anecdotes from my junior high years good question i'll move on to the movie now as you probably already know will smith and tommy lee jones agents k and j respectively belong to a top secret agency known as divison or it's nickname mib men in black men in black is a reference to the black suits and sunglasses the agents wear and they're mission is to investigate reports of alien landings and keep the aliens under control while they're here on earth not to get too technical or spoil the plot for the people in the world who haven't seen this movie but a lands in a redneck farmer's yard inhabits his body and attempts to destroy the entire universe not bad eh i have no idea why i just typed that i'm not even really paying attention anymore the special effects are good yet dissapointing in men in black i found their main headquarters to be boring as were the cool weapons they had the noisy cricket just plain sucked no matter what anyone said and the movie definitely surprised me in tone although it probably shoudln't have it's director barry sonnenfield is known for black humor directing both addams family movies this movie was basically a black comedy not an like i expected from the trailers don't get me wrong on what i think of this movie it's not bad i gave it it was mostly entertaining throughout it's run and had a very good ending although i think i was the only person in the theater not amazed by it my diagnosis for this picture a good weekend rental but not worth a movie ticket of course the movie is now long gone from theaters but that's beside the point i think
positive	susan granger's review of osmosis jones warner bros if the farrelly brothers taught anatomy physiology in school no one would cut ever class this hip live story begins as a monkey snatches a egg from frank a zookeeper bill murray who grabs it back drops it then gobbles up the contaminated morsel explaining if it hits and ground and you pick it up within seconds you can eat it like fantastic voyage the animation then takes over when his body's immune system contacts traffic control as an ingested virus hits the digestive system be on the alert for illegal organisms eager to right a stomach evacuation mistake he once made a cocky clever courageous white blood cell chris rock declares this is a crime scene and teams up with a conscientious phi beta capsule cold remedy called drixenol david hyde pierce to chase down and destroy the deadly red death virus laurence fishburne that's determined to take frank down in hours beating ebola and e coli to a medical record watch out for mucus mudslides chaos in cerebellum hall and the detritus from booger dam runny nose along with comic turns from molly shannon and chris elliot plus the voices of william shatner and brandy norwood peter and bobby farrelly along with writer mark hyman and animation directors piet kroon and tom sito have turned their penchant for comedy encompassing flatulence festering sores and popping a pimple without a permit into a funny family film on the granger movie gauge of to osmosis jones is a wildly imaginative original explosive and perhaps as they're laughing kids will learn where to find their uvula along with nuggets about nutrition and hygiene
positive	i must say from the outset that i have never been much of a kurt russell fan i've seen some of his films silkwood backdraft unlawful entry and while he gave adequate performances i have never been impressed with his work breakdown then is something of a surprise russell gives a fine performance as do most of the cast one that is not upstaged by the action orchestrated in the second half of the film to say that he holds the film together would not be completely true but he does it no harm russell plays jeff one half of a married couple travelling with his wife amy kathleen quinlan cross country to san diego to start a new job and a new life while journeying through the desert their car breaks down and left helpless and stranded jeff waves down a passing truck driver j t walsh who offers to take them to a nearby diner to call for a tow truck because of a nasty incident earlier with a couple of ruffians jeff decides to stay with the car while amy gets help that it seems is the last time jeff or anyone else sees her breakdown has been compared to several movies george sluizer's the vanishing the original hopefully not his appalling hollywood remake steven spielberg's duel and any number of hitchcock films as with these breakdown does not for the most part stray down the conventional path of the american jeff does not become a vigilante on the hunt for his wife but instead becomes a scared confused everyman who has no idea what the hell is going on when we do find out what has happened to amy it does come as a slight disappointment if only because it's too early in the film i for one could have done with an extra twenty minutes or so of mystery and bewilderment but this affects the film little russell as mentioned earlier is very good in his role and kathleen quinlan is nowhere near as annoying as she was in apollo j t walsh as the possibly evil truck driver is terrific he is one of the best of the fine batch of character actors hollywood doesn't seem to know what to do with but director jonathan mostow is on the right track here the reason he makes such a great villain is that he actually looks like a real person one anyone would be able to trust which makes the plot that much more believable breakdown is what hollywood doesn't make enough of a great thriller with believable characters and scenes that do indeed have viewers on the edge of their seats one of the most genuinely exciting films i've seen in a long time
positive	with the success of the surprise hit alien directed by ridley scott a sequel was inevitable in fact after watching the first film a sequel was wanted particularly by this reviewer handing over the director's chair to recent box office gem james cameron who had only made two films previous to this one pirahna ii a surprisingly dull film and terminator making cameron a household name the alien series got a of immense proportions instead of being a fiction film cameron alters the series and changing it into an action picture what results is one of the most terrifying films ever created a film like aliens comes along only once in a while and when it does audiences are usually unprepared for it i never saw this movie in theaters but i wish i could have the terror and fright must have been unimaginable most likely with audiences members literally shrieking in fear aliens is an action film unlike any i have ever seen with a science fiction plot cameron gives aliens added testosterone pumping up the action and fire power from the original film in fact aliens is one of those few sequels which tops the original perhaps what makes the alien series so impressive is the heroine as the case may be never have we had a more sympathetic hero in an action film and never have i seen such an impressive acting job done by the main character sigourney weaver is possibly the only actress who could play this character and make her realistic enough for us to care about placing a woman in these situations would sometimes seem unusual but because of weaver's presence a woman is the only suitable hero aliens begins years after alien ended lieutenant ellen ripley weaver is discovered in hypersleep on the nostromo and is awakened she explains how she is the only survivor of her past encounter with the aliens but the company is doubtful they explain that a colony of families is flourishing on the same planet from which she just left despite stern warnings from ripley the company remains rigid and won't call the families back however when the company loses contact with the colony ripley's story seems much more feasible one of the company's directors carter burke paul reiser wants to gather a team to travel to the planet this team includes a buff private vasquez jenette goldstein a questionable corporal hicks michael biehn and a loyal android bishop lance henriksen burke tags along with ripley as they fly to the planet in order to locate the members of the colony arriving on the planet the team finds most of the human life extinguished in a environment the only survivor is year old rebecca newt jorden carrie henn ripley finds this a chance to be the mother she never had the opportunity to become and she becomes newt's surrogate mother ripley and newt are the only ones who knows what has happened and soon all hell breaks loose aliens not only multiplies the thrills and suspense from scott's version it also multiplies the number of aliens in general alien focused on one alien in particular which systematically killed each crew member except ripley who managed to jettison the alien out of the nostromo aliens focuses on an entire race of these aliens and as a result the chills are incredibly heightened then again this is james cameron the guy who has given us true lies and terminator judgment day he is the best action director out there topping renny harlin who directed cliffhanger and only he could create something as terrifying as this film it seems that every alien film seems to have some memorable scene or scenes and aliens has the motherload with perhaps one of the most astonishing endings ever created for an action film aliens climax never seems to hit until the viewer is nearly pushed to extreme exhaustion i can't recall another film ever to sustain this level of intensity throughout never dropping for a moment just when you think the movie is over something else will occur and it starts right back up again with a seemingly endless conclusion aliens ends with one of the greatest moments in film history this scene is usually the one remembered most from the film as lieutenant ripley steps into one of the lifting machines to fight the alien queen using flawless special effects the climax is exhausting leaving any audience member drained from extreme anxiety of course for a film of this genre to work properly the technical aspects must be realistic enough for us to believe what we see aliens is completely realistic even a decade after its initial release the special effects are wonderfully seamless with a terrifying alien to go with them one of the most overlooked aspects of this film is the music composed by james horner horner has created a terrific score receiving an oscar nomination for his work not only that horner has also created one of the best scores for any action film or science fiction film ever and that includes a space odyssey which was mainly a compilation of composers in fact the climax music is also some of the most recognized of film music the production design is incredible which also happened to snag a nomination from the academy dark corridors lit by red lights are very impressive but more impressive is the amount of terror which arises from locations normally a film will be very dark in order to scare a viewer aliens uses lights to scare the viewer then of course is the cinematography which uses point of view shots along with video feeds in order to build suspense some of the scariest scenes involve the perspective of ripley surprisingly the acting is not only above average for this genre but some of the best sigourney weaver received an oscar nomination for her portrayal of ripley incorporating the right amount of sympathy into her persona weaver soars above the rest in this film but she is supposed to carrie henn gives an above average performance for a child developing a character from her quiet attitude lance henriksen is terrific as bishop showing that androids don't always have to be flat characters jenette goldstein shows a fair amount of enthusiasm with her role and steals several scenes of her own though her personality becomes slightly annoying when she isn't fighting michael biehn gives a very nice performance in the most obligatory role of the film however biehn does a good job making it seem original again paul reiser may seem like an odd choice to play the sleazy corporate director but reiser manages to pull it off quite well however i still see him as paul on tv's mad about you a very good cast which also includes bill paxton and william hope highlights this action film making it stand out from others aliens is rightfully rated r for violence gore language and terror aliens is sort of the redefining moment of the science fiction genre as alien was more of a film aliens pumps up the stakes and cameron directs it with professional quality cameron certainly knows how to make a good action film but here he proves how he can create some truly horrific moments on screen technically astonishing aliens' only flaw is small characters who are only there to get killed aside from this you probably won't experience anything like aliens for quite a while
positive	ingredients neophyte lawyer legal situations corrupt insurance company synopsis rudy baylor matt damon is an ethical kid fresh out of law school who must juggle three legal situations at the same time rudy's girlfriend is attacked by her violent husband rudy's elderly landlady wants to arrange her will so that her children are excluded and the family of rudy's friend with leukemia is suing the corrupt insurance company that wouldn't pay for a bone marrow transplant rudy is new to being a lawyer and is thoroughly outgunned but luckily he is aided by a sleazy ambulance chaser danny devito who has failed the bar exam six times as well as by the kindly presiding judge danny glover jon voight plays leo f drummond the intimidating and arrogant leader of the insurance company's team of lawyers who will do anything to oppose justice will rudy defeat leo will he enjoy being a lawyer opinion the good news is that this movie has a happy ending and it features a guy trying to do the right thing director francis ford coppola does this film a little differently than the stereotypical law movie in the typical lawyer movie there's one big case and the movie focuses on solving it and somewhere along the line surprise witnesses and motives turn up before the good guy wins after lots of gripping courtroom drama however coppola's movie is deliberately more low key rainmaker' plays out like a personality sketch of young rudy as he gets emotionally involved with and tries to save various little quirky side characters in the background rudy's voice narrates his feelings and makes jokes about the legal profession in general two factors combine to make this movie less heavy than it can be first rudy's time is split juggling three cases rather than concentrating on a single case also rudy's use of voice narration in place of acting makes the film lose some of its dramatic edge the end result is an entertaining low key law movie where the good guys win and rudy narrates his way into coming of age
positive	in one of my many videos i have attained from the local library casablanca was my third classic in some weeks the others being citizen kane and vertigo yes i am trying to see as many of afi's greatest movies ever made as i can but casablanca stood out from the rest for me it was actually watchable what most hail as the greatest american film ever casablanca isn't so much a love story as a political frenzy with a love triangle thrown in it seems that star humphry bogart spend about percent of the movie with various leaders of the nation instead of with ingred bergman that annoyed me as did the ending why didn't the plan turn around surprisingly i enjoyed the film i liked bogart's character and his acting not over the top as most actors in his era i once read about if you had a choice to be in a movie which one would it be and a women said casablanca at first i was thinking to myself why then as i watched the film again i understood why the movie is very well done and the script although i doubt i understood more than half of the political mumbo jumbo casablanca is in my mind no classic like solaris but it is a good film and stylishly shot hey hollywood how about this a remake with harrison ford and anne heche now that would be a classic
positive	capsule suprisingly more of a comedy than a straight action flick which isn't necessarily a bad thing not exactly oscar caliber but one helluva good time extended review you know i remember when hitmen were evil murderous scum alas the times are in a recent string of movies hitmen are suddenly cracking this brings us to hong kong director kirk wong's first american feature the big hit oddly enough about the same time last year a similar film grosse point blank was released advertised as a quirky comedy with hints of action it turned out to have a suprising dosage of it the big hit is quite the opposite it was hyped as the new film from producer john woo so one would it expect lots of stylized killing and action however there's a sore lack of it which is about the only thing wrong with the big hit the film starts out with mel smiley and his cohorts doing a job on a white slaver mel played by mark wahlberg in a dopey milquetoast role is a killing machine he flips spins even breakdances whilst popping caps sadly he doesn't get a chance to do much of it except for the beginning set piece and the last twenty minutes or so the film is in comedy mode the action at least what there is of it is prime cut stuff wong after numerous hong kong features makes quite a nice u s debut however his pacing is a bit off with the action sequences only bookending the movie and not lasting long enough they start off electrifying and fresh but just kinda stop normally this would hamper a movie to the point of being unenjoyable luckily we have ben ramsey's screenplay a bitingly funny piece of work the only problem is there might be too much humor one joke makes you laugh so hard you miss the next few some of best gags include an oriental film maker down on his luck and one of mel's hitmen pals that has just discovered onanism the only problem is how some of the minor characters are handled some being there only for a laugh which sometimes works sometimes doesn't overall the big hit may have it's flaws but it makes up for them in a stylishly directed funny joyride definately one of the better ways to spend two hours
positive	when will the devil take me he asks rhetorically in lulling voice over the spoiled title character of pronounced is waiting on death to relieve him after a lifetime of rapacious behaviour martha fiennes' debut feature is quite literally filmed poetry it's based on an epic russian poem by alexander pushkin a profound study of regret of how we confuse shame with guilt when we first meet eugene onegin ralph acting for his sister another brother magnus composed the score a philandering aristocrat from st petersburg he has just inherited his uncle's estate with plans to sell it onegin pays a summer visit to the manor which is located in an underpopulated russian countryside and not long into the trip he meets a neighbouring family of blue bloods smitten with olga larina headey he befriends olga's fianc vladimir lensky stephens while olga's sister tatyana tyler romanticizing his flippant attitude he's a nineteenth bad boy falls for onegin in one sweaty inky torrent of passion tatyana writes him a love letter he is at least intrigued by the note but rejects her affections it is implied because he can soon after tragedy strikes and onegin makes himself scarce when we catch up with him six years later he has just returned to st petersburg where at a grand ball he discovers that an old friend donovan has married a more womanly and wordly tatyana this time onegin finds her irresistable what is most amazing about ralph fiennes' performance is his subtle physical transformation from dashing snob to miserly grouch overwhelmed by a top hat the onegin who pines for tatyana seems smaller in stature than the one who brushed her off an ebeneezer scrooge trapped in christmas past the actor has been constricted playing heroes for too long room to breathe in a role that's made up of shades of gray like onegin petula clark sang of a universal phenomenon in parking lot you don't know what you've got til it's gone onegin's on tatyana speaks for those of us read most of us who need confirmation that someone or something is wanted by others before we want it as well what the character feels is not jealousy but remorse embarrassment even at having let her go out of identification we feel empathy for onegin a callous bastard tatyana's emotions echo a thousand ditties but that makes them no less vital she changes too from a girl in crush to a woman with divided loyalties tyler acquits herself surprisingly well among her uk filling in sketchy gaps by expressing base sentiments in a series of wanton stares they both have faces mr fiennes and ms tyler capable of conveying archetypal russian misery could have added up to little more than a distinguished episode of masterpiece theater even with its current cast of thoroughbreds intact were martha fiennes not at the helm an mtv background she cut her teeth directing rock videos for xtc and others has positively influenced her sense of pace though thankfully not her shot spasmodic cutting here at just over minutes clicks along like a brisk walk through valleys of despair the film has an atypical period look as well absent are the sumptuous tableware and antique furnishings that stand in for plot and character in those drippy merchant ivory productions the sets are almost expressionistically bare echoing the loneliness of the protagonists cinematographer remi adafarasin often allows space to engulf them i'm reminded the climax which unfolds in a sea of white martha fiennes has a clear command of cinema and her spare often painfully human visual presentation of yevgeny onegin is arguably the most lucid translation of pushkin's difficult text yet ms fiennes may be the most exciting female presence behind a camera since jane campion
positive	bruce barth's mellow piano plays in the background as conflict erupts in a little country town of florida ulee's gold feels like another fonda on golden pond it has a soft calm surface with a tempest brewing underneath the cinematography creates a place of gold yellow and olive colors the music is stirring and tranquil both deal with the hardships of family life peter fonda gives his undoubtedly best performance in victor nu ez's new film and patricia richardson home improvement star shows she is worthy of big screen attention nu ez is probably independent film's greatest asset along with john sayles and he proves his talent with a slow pace and undulating heavy tension peter fonda's performance borrows from his father henry fonda's in on golden there is a great vulnerability that he gives the character ulee jackson and just like his father peter fonda is quiet emotional and weary in this exceptional role ulee jackson the film's protagonist is struggling pressure is mounting at the wrong time he is a beekeeper and this is his busy season he has to deal with his two granddaughters' needs and erupting hormones he is forced to pick up his in orlando who is strung out on drugs and take care of her and he is faced with a challenging task unsettled business his son who is now in prison has left behind he finds his helen with the two men his son robbed a bank with she has apparently told these two men that the money that resulted from the robbery is with her husband that is why he got the police found him with the money now the two men are demanding they get the cash or they will come after ulee's two granddaughters ulee promises he will bring it to them and takes a deranged helen back to his serene little home where her two children that she abandoned scrutinize her with contempt ulee is a man who lost his pals in he was the only man in his platoon to survive he refuses help from anybody and does not respond to affectionate gestures he is a bitter man whose only passion is his beekeeping his granddaughters and his dead wife connie his next door neighbor finally gets through to him with friendly favors she is a nurse and helps helen get through her turmoil with drugs ulee's gold is the story of a man who believes he is fine as he until the truth is revealed painfully to him he is cold and unfeeling of course in the end ulee softens up but his journey is absorbing and we have fallen in love with his tiredness and weariness what is admirable about the movie is peter fonda's winning turn as ulee and the story that feels like nobody's fool but in the end ends up in a class of its own
positive	susan granger's review of big eden jour de fete it's utopia this tiny town tucked away in the timberland of northwestern montana where old codgers lounge on the porch of the general store to pass the time away and the local matchmakers nan martin louise fletcher eagerly pair off the young people regardless of sexual preference there's nary a homophobe or bigot around much to the surprise of henry hart arye gross a successful but lonely manhattan artist who returns home to care for sam george coe the ailing grandfather who raised him and with the simultaneous of his from and object of his unrequited love tim dekay now divorced with two young sons the fact of his homosexuality must be faced to complete the triangle there's the tall taciturn native american eric schweig who owns the general store and lovingly yet secretly prepares gourmet meals for henry and sam this fable about home and family is a major debut for thomas bezucha a former designer for coach and lauren who is meticulous about minding details using ballads like welcome to my world and achin' breakin' heart to set up the concept of our universal longing to find a place in which we can love and be loved in the paradise of big eden what you are doesn't matter as much as generosity of spirit respect and kindness sure the plot's implausible but it's a fantasy so allowances should be made and rob sweeney's photography of glacier national park is spectacular on the granger movie gauge of to big eden is a charming quirky it's a romantic comedy about a gay man who doesn't die of aids or wind up alone at the end
positive	when you go to the movies as much as i do you unfortunately end up seeing certain movie trailers one too many times such was the case with frequency every time i went to a screening there was the frequency preview it looked awful it looked cheesy sappy and ridiculous it looked like a flop well whoever put that trailer together should be fired because in terms of pure entertainment frequency is one of the best of the year thus far frequency boasts a compelling story line an occurrence of freakish solar activity allows police detective john sullivan james caviezel to speak to his fireman father frank sullivan dennis quaid through a ham radio despite the fact that frank has been dead for years john is able to give his father information that prevents his death in a warehouse fire but by doing so causes other changes somehow a serial killer's reign of terror which in the original timeline had been stopped at three murders extends to ten victims including john's mother this is director gregory hoblit's third film the other two being primal fear and fallen with all three he's managed to attach himself to great scripts this one by toby emmerich whose only previous movie experience was as a music supervisor on numerous new line films and add equally great direction also he apparently likes to have his films wrap up with a ending frequency is no exception the ending is unpredictable and incredibly satisfying hoblit is three for three and i hope he can keep it up now everyone can argue logic this and logic that all you want with the elements of frequency but the fact of the matter is that time travel has never been achieved who's to say how something works and how it doesn't when it's never happened is it because we've become accustomed to time travel laws from other places like star trek and the back to the future trilogy and quantum leap yes if you sit down and think about it certain plot elements in this film probably won't make any sense most films are like that don't let that dissuade you from seeing this fantastically entertaining film however when frequency was over it made me wish i had seen it with my father so i could have given him a hug okay okay shut up when you break it down past all its elements and serial killer antics frequency is simply a movie about a father and his son and the bond that they share it's touching it's sincere and it's what ultimately makes this movie work 
positive	it must be tough to be a mob boss just ask paul vitti robert deniro a man who finds his job as mafia head to be rather stress inducing i can believe it too one can't even begin to fathom the turmoil he must go through when he's forced to choose between an ice pick baseball bat or sledgehammer to torture victims with suffering from reoccurring panic attacks paul decides he needs to consult some professional help and who better than billy crystal after appearing in flops father's day and my giant crystal finally finds a reliable costar and some very promising material here playing vitti's private shrink the two very different stars strike an unorthodox but interesting relationship that carries this enjoyable comedy on a steady wave of laughs from start to finish casting robert deniro as paul vitti is something of an i think placed in this mobster's shoes deniro gets to spoof characters he himself played in films like the godfather part ii and casino it's obvious he's having a lot of fun doing so the man behind the camera is harold ramis whose credits include ghostbusters as writer and star and his best directing effort the bill murray vehicle groundhog day ramis has a knack for drawing laughs because he simply knows what's funny and here he manages to accentuate the strengths of nearly all the actors the only character who weakens the payoff is crystal's lisa kudrow playing the same role as she does in friends kudrow is amusing but doesn't fit into this comedy mold as well as the director may have hoped the supporting cast sparkles joe viterelli is hilarious as jelly vitti's pea brained man and chazz palminteri is a show stopper playing a fellow mobster who's in desperate need of the definition of the movie manages to maintain consistent chuckles throughout putting the emphasis on or really big laughs that will have audiences grasping their sides the situation is just too cute to resist it's unfortunate that the language gets somewhat out of hand but hey if you're in the mafia using obscenities probably comes naturally and near the end seeing billy crystal attempt to walk and talk like a mob boss is truly a special treat
positive	the caveman's valentine starring samuel l jackson ann magnuson aunjanue ellis tamara tunie screenplay by george dawes green based on his novel directed by kasi lemmons for more film dvd and books about movie reviews plus annual coverage of the toronto international film festival visit freak http net now with search engine a strange mixture of and grant morrison dave mckean's graphic novel arkham asylum caveman's is a feverish tale of a homeless who on the morning of february discovers a valentine just outside his new york cave one of ella fitzgerald's strange fruit stuck in the crotch of a young male model murdered and frozen to a branch believing at first that his imagined nemesis stuyvesant shooting evil rays into his mind from atop the chrysler building is responsible for the murder romulus samuel l jackson is put on the trail of an photographer in the mapplethorpe mould david leppenraub colm feore his minor sleuthing interrupted by the occasional delusional fit and bouts with an ecstasy of creation romulus was a brilliant pianist prior to his psychosis romulus uncovers clues and harasses suspects on his way to convincing his daughter aunjanue ellis that even though he's a nut that doesn't mean that he can't solve a society murder every moment an exhausting workshop of ideas and every character the same caveman's is a concept so high concept that it suddenly became clear to me that the film fits into the comic book genre of entertainment with romulus's caveman a slightly more mundane version of todd mcfarlane's urban noir hero spawn with a wife tamara tunie acting as a spiritual guide the occasional social caste commentary the secret base in a cave a divergent genius personality with a network of informants and supporters and a wickedly colourful the film piles on the lurid comic book details and dizzying slapdash colours to such a lavish extent that i was vaguely surprised that the blue police cars weren't inscribed with gotham pd that being said caveman's can only really succeed as a heroic fantasy a frank miller graphic novel that has the audacity to portray the blood staining a field of virgin snow expanding to form the shape of a heart the difficulties with the film spring from the misunderstanding that it somehow adheres to the conventions of a thriller or a police procedural when in fact caveman's is a superhero fable that takes on the cause of the homeless again like mcfarlane's spawn while attacking the entrenched ruling classes in government and the arts it is no small detail that our hero romulus is not only named for a member of the ruling class who lived his life in legend without knowledge of his royal birth but also that our romulus has turned his back on the comforts of the literati in favour of a mystical existence living in a cave in a park in the romulus mythology signs of romulus' royal blood is brought by twelve vultures while in the film the call to action for our hero comes in the form of not the carrion birds but of the carrion itself whether or not romulus of caveman's will found a nation or in the case of novelist george dawes green upon whose novel his own screenplay is based a franchise the fact remains that caveman's is easily the most misunderstood film of thus far it along with m night shyamalan's is a mature cinematic extrapolation of the graphic novel format which has since miller's seminal the dark knight returns redefined the comic medium as one suitable for mature ruminations on psychologically sticky topics readers of sam keith's brilliant the maxx comic series or of mtv's animated adaptation of the same are already familiar with the idea of a homeless man placed in the position of knight errant and king of his own twisted demesne the failure of both the maxx tv show and of caveman's not forgetting the initial backlash against suggests that the public may not be ready for america's surprising contributions to dark fantasy luxuriantly lit brashly saturated and framed with a virtuoso grace by cinematographer amy vincent in venice while inhabiting robin standefer's mesmerizing sets caveman's is an unremittingly gorgeous film kasi lemmons following up her brilliant debut which played on similar themes of manufactured realities and mysticism fulfills much of her immense promise with a tale of seraphs and lost boys artists and suffering caveman's is an elegant and piquant expression of hope for justice in a tilted landscape clearly not for every taste when approached with the correct paradigm it is one of the most stunning and intensely fascinating films of the year a redefinition of the hero archetype for a audience with wool trench coats in place of blue tights and red capes caveman's is a fine and a courageous film crazy enough to suggest that the delirious yammering of an idiot savant is the best and truest paladin of order in the chaos of eliot's rat's alley wasteland
positive	expand the final fifteen minutes of home alone into a film and you've got baby's day agreeably amusing children's comedy about a bumbling band of kid kidnappers who are unwittingly outwitted by an innocent infant the plot tracks a trio of mantegna pantoliano haley who steal bennington august cottwell iv aka baby bink from his home but the plan goes awry when baby crawls out an open window and into the streets of downtown chicago following the path of his favorite story called baby's day out baby rides a bus and visits the zoo and winds up at a skyscraper construction site while baby stays unscathed the crooks fare worse for the wear the stooges get hit by boards and dropped from roofs and of course suffer multiple crotch injuries john wayne bobbitt should probably steer clear of this one like he did in planes trains and automobiles john hughes again demonstrates his mastery of the simple and extended execution here he's aided and abetted by a director patrick read johnson whose choreography could rival a coen brother best bit baby crawling across a busy city street baby's day out has only two and the actors play them accordingly forget the cartoon concern of lara flynn boyle or cynthia nixon disposable as mom and nanny respectively the ones to watch are the ones who are wincing joe mantegna is a great head stooge barking lines like that little machine is my retirement money brian haley has a great scene with a gorilla while joe pantolianto plays curly to mantegna's moe he is funny needless to say twins adam and jacob warton are adorable beyond belief
positive	waiting at the train station near the beginning of fury joe says all we're human in the context of events to transpire joe's line is prophetic foreshadowing the internal conflict of the protagonist in the latter half of the film does being human necessarily imply humane behavior through the baseness of human character exemplified in the formation of a mob fritz lang prompts the viewer to consider whether our inclination towards impulsiveness supersedes our civility expressing his abhorrence towards the rise of nazism in his homeland lang takes great care in creating a sense of discomfort during the scenes of mob hysteria in the scene prefacing the lynching the mob achieves critical mass at the bar deputy meyers is brought in as an exalted informant but when he is unable to augment the mob's myth of joe he is quickly renounced from his position as town gossip we see in a shot where two bar patrons are arguing that the deputy looks around nervously at the growing monster and then carefully slips out of the bar what is quietly horrifying is the realization by both the audience and the deputy that the crowd no longer exists within the confines of reason and has succumbed to what the barber referred to as impulse what once was excitement to the deputy has turned into fear with the realization that he is now powerless to the audience the deputy's quiet exit concurs with their own sinking feeling of uneasiness as the mob's delirium crescendos lang educes this discomfort not through movement of the camera but rather its stillness the shot's composition places the audience equidistant and directly across from the pair of arguing patrons and the deputy effectively becomes a mirror to our own apprehensions as the intensity of the mob closes around deputy meyers it does so around the viewer as well the stationary camera in this shot heightens our fears because when the deputy escapes we are deserted by our reflection and the viewer becomes the sole proprietor of sensibility amongst a swarm of irrationality because the camera does not track the deputy's movement we are left with an amplified perception of desertion and vulnerability as the bar scene progresses the camera pans degrees to reveal the fury of the mob this shot is unique because it is a shot where the audience not a character in the film is the subject while a long or dolly shot may objectively reveal the size of the mob panning from the mob's belly distorts the audience's spatial reference and exaggerates the claustrophobia of the scene we feel we are at the epicenter of something infinitely large we see close shots of people's faces contorted by their rage with the pivot of the pan being in the center of the mob and angry members within a short radius of the pan lang offers the viewer a sense of what it feels like to be the subject of a lynching in this shot the audience is at the mercy of the mob lang's camera makes us feel vulnerable and powerless as joe must have felt in the jail in some greater sense it must have been what lang felt when he saw his countrymen overcome with unjustifiable hatred towards their own humankind lang's observations of his fellow man succumbing to mob behavior left him with an indelible image of malevolent human behavior as joe faces his peril trapped in his burning cell his dog rainbow rushes to be by his side lang makes rainbow a martyr to contrast his humanity against the recklessness of his human counterparts using his camera to create shots that elicit disturbing images of mob mentality lang depicts man's volatility and towards inconceivable cruelty reprising joe' s line at the train station we are induced to question why our primeval impulses so easily transcend our humanity
positive	because the press screening of planet of the apes was one day past last issue's deadline i was afforded the opportunity to see the film a second time listen to audience reactions and read a heap of reviews before writing this piece the chief complaints of those who disliked the futuristic adventure appear to be that the movie focused on visuals instead of substance that the story was thin that mark wahlberg's character was colorless and that the surprise ending sucked to those people i would like to say what the hell did you expect this is a tim burton movie boys and girls tim burton movies have great art direction and thin clunky stories for the blissfully nasty disjointed and underrated mars attacks jonathan rosenbaum of the chicago reader and i were two of the only critics in america to praise the movie burton reportedly tossed vintage mars attacks trading cards onto the floor and based his story on the ones that landed face up burton's of the story of an astronaut that lands on a planet where apes rule men looks great the apes courtesy of magician rick baker are dazzling and ape city is a wonder to behold like astronaut leo davidson wahlberg the film hits the ground running whisking viewers through a series of solid and engaging vignettes and establishing a sense of thrust that carries us through the more traditional fight scenes that come later as for wahlberg consider what burton does with his character from his start as a filmmaker burton has shown his fascination with colorful misfits herman the joker ed wood the martians etc and lack of interest in standard issue heroes so leo davidson spends most of the movie getting the living shit kicked out of him before the biggest guilt trip in history is dropped on his shoulders as for lack of color remember leo only launches into space to get his monkey back he doesn't want to lead humanity and he isn't looking for romance from a pretty but dull human estella warren or a dynamic ape helena bonham carter terrific as an activist as a man who just wants out wahlberg is focused subtle and sly the surprise ending provides the requisite shock and some more dandy visuals particularly of the approaching authority figures but admittedly isn't nearly as satisfying as the one in the original for the original ending to work we only had to make one simple connection for this one we have to write a whole new screenplay the apes boasted a handful of great scenes cool looking monkeys a deliciously hammy performance by charlton heston who appears uncredited here as an aged chimp on his deathbed a classic line and a killer ending but viewers had to suffer through numerous dull stretches punctuated by social and political messages delivered with the grace of a wrecking ball the planet of the apes offers a different set of great scenes much cooler looking monkeys fine acting from wahlberg bonham carter paul giamatti and tim roth and a not so good ending it also gives us another chance to experience the skewed vision of tim burton and that's nothing to complain about
positive	in something never though possible happened the film star wars was released with extraordinary never seen before techniques of special effects the film set a new standard for special effects in film not only did it set a standard for the special effects it set a standard for film itself the plot is one of the most creative i heard ever the legend of star wars starts long ago with the jedi the jedi were warriors who were wiped out by the dark side darth vader is the leader of the dark side ben kenobi played by sir alec guinness was one of those jedi who is still alive today darth vader was once a jedi until he turned to the dark side years after the killing of the jedi darth vader is still around causing trouble and are both what we call driods or robots that are of assistance to humans while an attack on the ship that princess leia played by carrie fisher is aboard she inserts a message to who is also on the ship to kenobi pleading for help the princess is captured by vader but and get away on an escape pod that eventually lands them on the remote planet of tatooine the jawas or small creatures who sell droids pick and up to sell they are bought by luke skywalker's mark hamill family while luke is cleaning the droids the message from princess leia is found luke finds this kenobi and learns that was a friend of luke's father who is now dead luke also learns his family was a jedi after luke's family is killed by tropps from the dark side ben decides to put luke through training to stop the dark side and destroy them once and for all ben wants to create a new jedi first the two must find princess leia and serve her han solo played by harrison ford and his sidekick chewbacca played by peter mayhew are consulted about providing a ship to complete the tasks necessary after meeting up with leia the film really picks up luke continues his training as a pilot and to become a jedi ben kenobi confronts darth vader and many other interesting events occur star wars is an amazing epic the plot is so original and amazing i cannot believe it the special effects especially for its time are wonderful and realistic the space scenes in particular are the most fun to watch the ships flown by all are very unique and creative the costumes are also out of this world the scenery is so different from anything i have ever seen before there are a variety of different very memorable set pieces that will stay with me forever the entire premise of star wars is amazing the creatures and droids that we see throughout the film are one of a kind even the human characters are different every character is extremely likable and different from characters from other sci fi films the acting on everyone's part is great especially that of sir alec guinness's even though the concept is not realistic at all it is pulled off very nicely the acting setting effects costumes and sound make it work if any of these were messed up star wars would have come off as one huge joke the ending works very well and left it very open to the sequels that came afterward in early a special edition of star wars was released the film was so it looked better than it did in a few creatures were added here and there and even an entire deleted scene with han solo and jabba the hutt seen in return of the jedi was added to the film think that's enough on may star wars episode i the phantom menace will be released followed by two more films that will reveal what went on before a new hope with this star wars is bound to become the greatest tale told in our time
positive	if you want some hearty laughs then rat race is the movie for you this unpretentious little comedy which sneaks into theaters today with very little hype will have you bouncing in your theater seat and while the film fits neatly into the slapstick school of comedy one refreshing aspect is its lack of the plot follows a group of people chosen at random by an eccentric las vegas casino owner john cleese who must race from vegas to a bus station locker miles away in silver city n m inside the locker is a duffel bag containing million the first one to open the locker gets the bag and the money what the group of participants doesn't know is that cleese's donald sinclair i can do anything i want i'm eccentric is staging the race as a betting game for a group of high rollers at the hotel the participants include vera whoopi goldberg and merrill lanai chapman a newly reunited mother and daughter disgraced pro football referee owen templeton cuba gooding jr italian tourist mr pollini rowan atkinson randy pear jon lovitz and his family the bumbling con men duane and blaine cody seth green and vince vieluf and cynical young lawyer nick shaffer breckin meyer various amusing encounters and mishaps befall the participants en route to silver city screenwriter andy breckman adds a nice touch by not having the racers try to sabotage one another the most situations involve vera and merrill's encounter with the squirrel lady a nice nutsy cameo by kathy bates owen's commandeering a charter bus full of lucille ball on their way to a lucy convention the cody brothers misadventures with a balloon a flying cow and a monster truck and the pear family's stopover at a barbie museum which turns out not to be what they think it is the pear family situation is a fine example of the way breckman's script builds the laughs without going into detail this bit segues from the museum to hitler's touring car to eva braun's dark lipstick to lovitz burning his tongue culminating at a ceremony honoring world war ii veterans rat race's cast is first rate cleese is wonderfully devilish and madcap lovitz is at first a bit whiny but his character grows on you gooding is having a fine romp and dave thomas almost steals the show as cleese's deadpan assistant a man born without a personality the film is directed by jerry zucker who knows something about comedy along with his brother david and friend jim abrahams he was responsible for such hits as airplane and ruthless people a throwaway subplot which is good for some laughs features cleese and his buddies betting on a series of outlandish situations including one dealing with a hooker and this is a fun little feature the only letdown comes at the finale which is too and sweet almost negating what came before it rat race is a summer sleeper but it will keep you awake as will the laughter of those watching around you
positive	i had a chance to see a sneak preview of city slickers ii on campus last night i went in with the expectation of a film with the similar flavor which made the original such a success personal growth and insightful humor about life i came away somewhat disappointed in this regard getting some of the latter and not much of the former the basic plot revolves around billy crystal who plays mitch robbins turning forty he's now become the station manager of the radio station in which he worked in the original he's given a job at the radio station to his best friend played by daniel stern out of sympathy while stern's character works through his divorce his loser younger brother john lovitz comes to mitch's house to bum a money and place to live all while mitch and his wife try to celebrate his birthday during the celebration mitch discovers what appears to be a treasure map in curly's the cattle drive leader in the original played by jack palance old hat after a business trip to las vegas crystal stern and lovitz stay a few extra days to go off in search of the treasure on the way they run into curly's twin brother duke played by you know who jack palance first of all the cinematography was beautifully done especially the outdoor scenes in the desert the scenes are such that i would like to see some of those sights filmed myself there is some character development during the film the actors remain true to their characters and play them well without overplaying the jokes the movie is a good basic adventure with enough plot twists to provide for an ending that is difficult to predict the movie is paced well but with a couple slow spots in the middle and towards the end the film has a good number of jokes which maintained my interest throughout the film there are memorable moments like when stern is bitten by a snake but there are fewer jokes to laugh at in the sequel surprise surprise for a sequel right however the slight bitter aftertaste i have with this film has to do mainly with the film's manipulation of the audience the film tries to pull your too much regarding how close the characters are to each other like when mitch had decided to suck the snake marrow out of his best friend's butt this is done again when the gang meets up with some members of the cattle drive group from the original there were also some parts which appeared unrealistic like whether the stampede would start in the way it did or why they didn't worry more about water while tromping around the desert some strenuous stretches of the imagination are required here since the objective of the gang is to find gold and get rich unlike finding themselves in middle age like in the original i also found it harder to empathize with the characters during their journey overall i'd say that the film is an entertaining and humorous adventure with some deficiencies making it less worthy than the original it may be worth the full price of admission but a matinee would be a better bargain
positive	the submarine genre of movies seems to be one of the most intriguing and compelling types of storytelling there is think about it these films are completely based in reality yet only a handful of people have ever been on one making them fascinating to the general public they aren't like movies that take place on a plane or a train as anybody can get on one of those and they aren't like movies that happen in outer space either because no one's done any of that stuff yet when a new one comes out you don't hear anyone say ugh another submarine movie like people tend to say ugh another boxing movie look at modern movies that involve submarines das boot the abyss the hunt for red october crimson tide all are well regarded as entertainment gladly joining that bunch is which stars matthew mcconaughey as the executive officer of a u s naval submarine during world war ii we learn he has been denied a recommendation for his own command by his superior bill paxton mcconaughey's crew then receives orders that they will be boarding a disabled german submarine to steal the enigma a german communications encoding device that has stumped allied intelligence the mission goes horribly wrong however and as a result mcconaughey and only a handful of his crew as well as a captured german become trapped aboard the in enemy waters the first great thing about is the film's opening sequence the german crew of are under attack which sets the events of the rest of the film into motion it's tense exciting and fascinating and i applaud the filmmakers for not copping out and instead keeping the entire sequence in german with english subtitles most movies with a scene this long would have panicked and had the german crew speaking english right away once the plot gets moving gives us action sequence after action sequence making the audience wonder ok now how do they get out of this the stakes keep raising much like in executive decision an excellent and even though the audience knows how the film will end it's a lot of fun getting there i only have two minor complaints about the entire film the first comes from the scenes which follow the opening sequence while their purpose is to introduce us to the characters and to get the story going which they do i feel as though it could have been done much quicker and less conventionally i mean did we really have to see the ship's crew at a wedding because of that you now know exactly what's going to happen to the groom my other gripe would be during the film's finale there's an explosion which ends the film that is one of the weakest looking cgi effects since the president's plane crashed into the ocean at the end of air force one i cannot stress this enough until a cgi effect can be made to look like a model effect stick with using models yes is historically incorrect and there are surely some specifics in the plot that people who have been onboard a submarine will tell you that couldn't happen but the overall point of this film is entertainment it succeeds fantastically 
positive	we share the descent into darkness of a talented boy pianist years later we see his subsequent resurfacing in the mid a damaged man walks out of a rainstorm and back into the world the movie charts the causes of his mental breakdown based on the life story of david helfgott this australian film is a rich exploration of the pressures drilling in upon a compounded by the looming shadow of a domineering father in the helfgott emerged as a child prodigy the film traces his relationship with his father whose encouragement comes at the cost of demanding david have no life beyond that of the black and white keys david is offered places in the usa but his father refuses to let him leave australia the effect this has upon helfgott is cleverly told via a single reverse tracked shot david is sobbing on the front doorway of his music teacher's house he is well lit via the external house lights his teacher isn't home we pull back and see that the dark front room's window has it's curtains open there in a pool of blackness is a grand piano david's fall over the dark cliff has begun instead of being told in a linear mode shine jumps around in time ala pulp fiction this narrative device works well we see david as a boy teenager in london and in various snippets the film then neatly loops back for its uplifting conclusion return to the light is told in linear fashion the lead role is played by different actors with the taylor and rush standing out whilst rush is known for his tv work in australia i think this is his first major cinema work his david whilst clearly damaged he keeps quoting his daddy in a babbling word torrent cuddles strangers and grabs women on the breasts is both touching and funny taylor's is the more sympathy producing role we are mute witness to his gradual breakdown as the pressures just keep on building his father wants him to play the very demanding rachmaninov's whilst his teacher wants to start him with a simple mozart technically this is a beautiful film and a lot of thought has gone in to the production i particularly like the use of slow motion and sound effects one scene has happily babbling in a car in the rain the sound of the windshield wipers fades up over his voice with a clever subtlety the wiper sound appears to morph into a rhythmic thumping but of the same beat the image dissolves and we realise the thumping is the slow motion applause of a crowd but it's us being clapped we are walking up to the stage for our first public show the music as you would expect from a film of this subject matter is critical and it works very well the of the actors piano playing is faultless apparently rush didn't mime he really did play helfgott's life is certainly not without it's sympathetic people indeed his return to the world is accelerated by his chance meetings with two very special women his ultimately uplifting story is a magic piece of theatre craft it shows that with the of god' we can all find our way back home
positive	today war became a reality to me after seeing a screening of saving priivate ryan steve spielberg goes beyond reality with his latest production the audience is tossed about the theatre witnessing the horror of war please keep the kids home as the r rating is for reality tom hanks is stunning as capt john miller set out in france during ww ii to rescue and return home a soldier private ryan matt damon who lost three brothers in the war spielberg at time takes us inside the heads of these individuals as they face death during the horrific battle scenes private ryan is not for everyone but i felt the time was right for a movie like this to be made the movie reminds us of the sacrifices made by our ww ii fighting men and women we must not ever forget them as many gave the ultimate sacrifice their lives so that we may live in freedom today for this i thank them and for steve spielberg for making a movie that i will never forget the academy will not forget tom hanks come april as another well deserved oscar with be in tom's posession
positive	well i'll admit when i first heard about this film which was before dante's peak i could just smell what had started so now it seems that we're in a full fledged return to the disaster film era with peak' and soon and james cameron's extremly expensive i'll say first off i enjoyed much more than i did peak' part of that is just being biased as i usually enjoy anything that tommy lee jones appears in i've been reading a lot about the movie being or and really didn't see or think that once during the entire film i get bored easily and this film didn't bore me for a minute another thing and boy am i bitching today that bothers me is when critics and such go on about well thats not really possible you know what i couldn't give a bloody damn if it's possible or not really i couldn't it's a freaking movie and i don't want reality thrown in my face i want to be able to see the impossible the all might what if to many reviewers have seen one to many movies the special effects are the second star to this feature they are so amazing that i found it hard sometimes to believe they were indeed fx and la was was not burning to the ground they did an incredible job and come oscar time if they remember some notice better be thrown there way
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned during the three years since the release of the groundbreaking success pulp fiction the cinematic output from its creator quentin tarantino has been surprisingly low oh he's been busy doing the talk show circuit taking small roles in various films overseeing the production of his screenplay from dusk till dawn making cameo appearances on television shows providing a vignette for the anthology four rooms everything it seems except direct another film it's been the long intermission between projects as well as the dizzying peak which pulp fiction reached which has made mr tarantino's new feature film jackie brown one of the most anticipated films of the year and his third feature film cements his reputation as the single most important new american filmmaker to emerge from the things aren't going well for jackie brown pam grier she's years old stuck at a job a year plus retirement benefits that aren't worth a damn as a flight attendant for the worst airline in north america and she's just been caught at the airport by atf agent ray nicolette portrayed with terrific childlike enthusiasm by michael keaton and police officer mark dargus michael bowen smuggling from mexico for ordell robbie samuel l jackson who has her bailed out by unassuming bail bondsman max cherry robert forster the loquacious ordell based out of a hermosa beach house where his horny surfer girl melanie bridget fonda and agreeable crony louis gara robert de niro hang out operates under the policy that the best rat is a dead rat and he's soon out to silence jackie brown meanwhile the authorities' target is ordell and they want jackie to help them by arranging a sting to the tune of a dollars only through a series of clever twists turns and will jackie be able to gain the upper hand on both of her nemeses although jackie brown marks mr tarantino's first produced screenplay adaptation based on the elmore leonard novel rum punch there's no mistaking his distinctive fingerprints all over this film while he's adhered closely to the source material in a narrative sense the setting has been relocated to los angeles and the lead character's now black in terms of ambiance the film harkens back to the from the funk and soul music drowning the soundtrack to the nondescript look of the sets even the opening title credit sequence has the echo of vintage productions the opening sequence featuring ms grier wordlessly striding through the lax funky music blaring away on the speakers is emblematic of films of that era the timeframe for the film is in fact but the atmosphere of jackie brown is decidedly retro of course nothing in the film screams more than the casting of pam grier and robert forster as the two leads and although the caper intrigue is fun to watch as the plot twists backstabbing and deceptions deliciously unfold the strength of jackie brown is the quiet understated relationship developed between jackie and max when they kiss it's perhaps the most tender scene of the year tenderness in a quentin tarantino film sure there've been moments of sweetness in his prior films the affectionate exchanges between the bruce willis and maria de madeiros characters in pulp fiction and the unflagging dedication shared by the characters of tim roth and amanda plummer or even in reservoir dogs where a deep unspoken bond develops between the harvey keitel and tim roth characters but for the most part mr tarantino's films are typified by manic energy unexpected outbursts of violence and clever often wordy banter these staples of his work are all present in jackie brown but what's new here is a different facet of his storytelling a willingness to imbue the film with a poignant emotional undercurrent and a patience to draw out several scenes with great deliberation this effective demonstration of range prohibits the pigeonholing of mr tarantino as simply a helmer of slick hip crime dramas with lowlifes and heralds him as a bonafide multifaceted talent he's the real deal this new aspect of mr tarantino's storytelling is probably best embodied in a single character that of the sensitive and max cherry whose unspoken attraction to jackie is touching mr forster's nuanced understated performance is the best in the film he creates an amiable character of such poignancy that when he gazes at jackie we smile along with him much press has been given about the casting of icon pam grier in the lead with the wags buzzing that mr tarantino may do for her what his pulp fiction did to bolster john travolta's career as it turns out ms grier is solid in the film's title role although nothing here forces her to test her range i do have to take exception to the claim that this film marks her career resurrection though she's been working steadily over the years often in action flicks but also in such recent theatrical releases as tim burton's mars attacks and larry cohen's original gangstas where she first teamed up with mr forster of course it's true that her role here was a godsend a meaty a part as this is rarity for any actress let alone one of her age and current status in the industry while jackie brown may disappoint those looking for another pulp fiction clone it marks tremendous growth of mr tarantino as a director whose horizons are rapidly expanding and whose characterizations have never been better and while the film's narrative doesn't really warrant a running time of minutes it's filled with such sumptuous riches ranging from the brashness of the vivid soundtrack to entertaining inconsequential conversations between the characters that there wasn't an unengaging moment with an impressive trio of feature films under his belt it'll be interesting to see what he tries next
positive	last night could have an aka tagged on the end of it that says it's the end of the world and we feel fine last night is about just that the last night of planet earth's existence the world is going to end at precisely midnight january how scientists were so accurately able to predict when this catastrophic event would occur is never explained nor is the event itself throughout the entire movie no explanation is given as to why this is happening in doing this mckellar who also wrote and directed the film seems to be trying to transcend the genre he's attempted to make a film about people and how each of them deals with their last night of life the film contains no science fiction elements which allows the viewer to concentrate on the feelings and actions of the characters mckellar is largely successful in his attempt to rise above his material the film is set in toronto and follows several people in their various escapades on the last night of existence there's mckellar who plays a man who just wants to be alone when the moment occurs but keeps getting interrupted by a woman sandra oh in search of her husband her husband played by david cronenberg is spending the day working at the gas company informing people that they will attempt to keep providing gas right up until the end finally there's mckellar's friend played by callum keith rennie a man who has spent his final months trying out every sexual perversion you can think of mckellar has crafted a gang of the some of the most interesting characters i've seen in a film in months these people all felt real to me especially the character played by sandra oh we can see her desperation her utter need to be with her husband in the final hours rennie is good too as the man who wants to literally try everything before he dies he exudes such charm and likeablity it's not surprising that we're rooting for him to get what he wants but for me the biggest surprise in the movie is mckellar i knew that he was a talented director but i had no idea he could act as well his insistence to be alone much to the dismay of his parents is something that most people would find difficult to understand but as played by mckellar we can understand his reasons he doesn't buy into the whole notion that just because everyone's going to die he should immediately find some companionship he realizes the relationship would be forced and they would only be together for the sake of being together mckellar gives a brilliant performance and i hope he alternates between directing and acting my only quibble with the film is that we never find out why the world is ending i really wanted to know and my need to know was hanging over the film at all times i appreciate the fact that mckellar didn't want the material to rule the film and that he wanted the movie to be more of a study in human behavious however in not telling the audience what the cause of earth's destruction is he's left a big question that is in their minds throughout the film another problem is we never see anybody panicking i would imagine if the world was ending and there was nothing to be done about it a large segment of the population would be going out of their minds instead we are treated to shots of a giant crowd partying like it's new year's eve i just didn't buy the fact that everyone had completely accepted their fate no one had the urge to rage against the dying of the light despite these small problems last night is one of the best movies of the year as opposed to the moronic armageddon last night treats the subject at hand with maturity and believabilty and bruce willis never shows up to save the day
positive	a bug's life may not be toy story but it's more close than antz was i really liked antz basically because yes it is clever and witty and intelligent and it has the temerity to take a chance and put woody allen in the lead perhaps the year's most inspired casting but there was in fact something missing from it and i'm the first to admit that maybe it's that it never totally lets go and takes off into real innocent fun it's too obsessed with its orwellian message to become totally engaging and if it weren't for woody allen it would have been just a really clever flick a bug's life has a similar premise and it also has disney to insure that it's and not totally over kids' heads like antz was not a bad thing believe me but what it also has is a tone that's completely innocent even when it's also remaining perpetually clever antz is still the more witty film and i love it for it and a bug's life is more for general consumption but it's also more entertaining it broadens its horizons and when it really moves from the ant colony it really shows us a whole new world we've never seen before and it's take on the evolution of bugs is a lot better than the one in antz it's also light and clever the visuals are instead of earth tones bright worldly colors and still gives the amazing visual technology of antz at least a worthy contender the characters are also nicely realized though for broad consumption they still carry more wit than the contemporary disney animated films the lead character flik voiced by dave foley is nothing more than a neurotic z from antz but foley makes him nearly as engaging as allen made z instead of gene hackman playing the villain we get the much more menacing kevin spacey as the lead grasshopper the hopper and for the romantic lead we don't get spacey sharon stone but intelligent and dreyfuss who doesn't even come around until the very final frames not that the plot's really any better than the one in antz it's basically yet another redux of the seven samurai with an ant colony under the control of giant grasshoppers forcing them to produce a product for them or else when flik a bone fide inventor creates a apparatus that accidentally destroys the season's donation he puts them all in risk and is sent away so that he won't screw anything up with the pretense that he is searching for help to fight the grasshoppers he runs into a group of warrirors who are unbeknownst to him a group of carnival bugs and they agree to help under similar false pretenses these bugs are an equally wonderful assortment to anything in toy story foppish walking stick slim david german caterpillar heimlich joe ranft and insecure male ladybug francis denis leary pretentious praying mantis manny jonathan harris his assistant butterfly hypsy madeliene kahn spider rosie bonnie hunt and two fleas tuck and roll michael mcshane who speak in undiscernable jibberish the writers lightly touch on each bug's place in bug society and the malleability thereof while making a wisecracks at everything they can and blowing the audience away with wild visual treats grasshoppers jumping in unison seems like a menacing earthquake a small bird becomes an ominous mortal threat whose usual squeal is a scream of death the bug city is a metropolis complete with fireflies temping as traffic lights and a fly sitting on the curb holding out a cup with a sign lying next to him that says kid tore off wings and a rainstorm is like a giant flood with each drop acting like a small bomb dropped at millions of miles per hour around this the pixar animators stage several large set pieces like a resuce mission halfway through that is as wild and entertaining as anything this year and a wonderfully exciting action piece at the end a chase scene at night through the labyrinthine branches of a small thicket meanwhile each character gets the spotlight to be completely idisyncratic and interesting something antz couldn't do and by the end over the end credits a bug's life pulls it's final punch out antz with a series of incessantly hilarious that come just at the right time when those who leave immeadiately after the final frame of a film have left and you can brag that you were one of the elite who stayed and got the full money's worth of entertainment still it's no toy story that film maybe above any animated film i've ever seen encompassed almost true perfection in story character and wit it proved that it didn't need to brag about it's cutting edge technology to really soar it's the least visually striking of the three computer animated films thus far but is still the most satisfying and created a perfect world of idiosyncratic delights and innocent fun yet a bug's life as well as antz are still amazing films and prove without doubt that if you're gonna make a computer animated film send it to the guys who created these three flicks evne if they're not working under the same roof
positive	when i saw the trailer for the sixth sense i didn't expect much from it my snap judgment was that it was a version of the shining or possibly a in the glut of shows of a couple years ago but all the buzz motivated me to give it a shot it turned out to be one of the most satisfying movie experiences of the year bruce willis plays child psychologist malcolm crowe at the beginning of the movie he is admiring an award the city has given him for his work but he is soon confronted by vincent a patient malcolm failed years earlier donnie new an impressive cameo a year passes and malcolm is treating another child with the same symptoms vincent displayed cole sear haley joel osment is a withdrawn kid who is called freak by the other boys in the neighborhood weird things seem to happen around mother olivia williams leaves the kitchen for a moment and returns to find every cabinet and drawer open even though cole hasn't cole seems to know things that a kid his age example that there was once a gallows in his school he steals religious icons from churches to build a chapel in a pup tent in his bedroom the trailer gave away the movie's first major plot twist if it hadn't the first hour of the movie would be more engrossing because we wouldn't know what's wrong with cole if you're lucky enough to have not seen the trailer stop reading this review right now and go see the sixth sense anyway since the trailer gave it away i figure it's fair game to discuss here once malcolm gains cole's trust cole reveals his secret he sees ghosts everywhere dead people wander around not knowing that they're dead invisible to everyone except cole malcolm gradually begins to realize that cole is telling the truth the box office success of the sixth sense has generated a lot of press about how horror movies rule the box office this year and lots of theories about why that's so i hate to burst anybody's bubble but the sixth sense isn't really a horror film at its core the sixth sense is a touching story of how a troubled kid and an adult help each other to move past their problems some scenes with the ghosts are wonderfully creepy though one that really got to me the ghost of a boy says to cole i'll show you where my dad keeps his gun when the ghost turns we see the bullet wound in the back of his head osment gives the best performance i've ever seen from a child actor it's hard enough to find a in hollywood who can give a subtle realistic portrayal although willis gets top billing cole is really the protagonist of the story and osment truly brings the complex kid to life if only willis' work were as impressive accustomed to delivering catchphrases rather than dialogue willis is stiff and awkward as malcolm his most challenging role to date this is a bad omen for his next movie the story of us which chronicles the ups and downs of a marriage m night shyamalan has a light poetic touch that goes to the heart of the viewer without seeming sappy or trite he's also a skillful storyteller as the movie's ending demonstrates only when the final secret is revealed do you realize that shyamalan has been hinting at it throughout the movie look for a cameo by the director as a doctor who treats cole bottom line osment should get an oscar nomination and you should go see this movie
positive	near the end of frank capra's holiday classic its a wonderful life george bailey jimmy stewart is feeling down he has devoted his life to others and never fulfilled his dream of leaving his small supburb town bedford falls standing upon a bridge above stormy waters he looks down contemplating suicide he has potential he hasn't fulfilled yet he has done so much for others as a young chap his ambition was to leave his hometown of bedford falls but times and ambitions change things happen and he's stuck his guardian angel is there and shows him that it's a wonderful life in a whirlwind tour of the town george sees what life would be like without him he learns the moral lesson that to live is a gift his earthly problems are solved the climatic scene is a marvel frank capra's film is a centenial classic watched and by every generation wonderful life is one of the few pictures of times gone by that seems as fresh maybe fresher then it did when it was first released many films of the thirties through seventies have aged poorly but this one is a near flawless example of how well a perfect script and timing can mesh with acting wit and suspense glorious music and terrific set peices the only even slightly dated scenes are those at the begining in which god has a long chat with clarence george's guardian angel they aren't all that bad but they remain corny and a little out of place nevertheless this is one film that deserves its place in time cinema history and our hearts it can be equally appreciated by anyone of any age here is one genuine masterpeice a classic that reaches heights and ambitions near perfection this crackling good mixture results in a film which is at once funny exciting moving and uplifting the film itself is almost a reversal of the life of george bailey there isn't too much to it but capra and the gang various screenwriters composers actors plumet the material to its fullest potential the result is a film though not at first intended to be as a holiday film that will always be remembered celebrated and loved
positive	jerry springer has got nothing on wild things john mcnaughton's new thriller tackles more tawdry themes in less than two hours than springer's notoriously sleazy talk show broadcasts in two weeks bisexuality threesomes poolside catfights slutty rich bimbos even redneck they're all part of the movie's raucous complex storyline but even trash tv topicality can't drag wild things down this crazy campfest plays like something you'd find on the usa network only infinitely more palatable and with a solid ensemble cast despite a smattering of needless scenes most of them sexual in nature there's wicked fun to be had here wild things would be a guilty pleasure only there's no guilty feeling involved in having a good time with it high school guidance counselor sam lombardo matt dillon is in the town of blue bay especially by pretty popular kelly van ryan denise richards whose family name is among the florida yachting enclave's most financially prominent hoping to take her crush to a physical level kelly seductively slinks into lombardo's house after washing his jeep for a fundraiser but the very next day tearfully admits to her trollop mother theresa russell that she was raped before long blue bay detectives ray duquette kevin bacon and gloria perez daphne are listening to similar allegations from kelly's rebel classmate suzie toller neve campbell lombardo who maintains his innocence hires neck opportunistic lawyer ken bowden bill murray to defend him in court the previews give away the following revelations so if you haven't seen any of the movie's spots on the television or in the theater you might want to skip to the next paragraph while suzie on the witness stand bowden gets her to break down and admit that the alleged rapes never took place that kelly had concocted this entire scheme because she was angry that lombardo was sleeping with her mother and not with her to pay lombardo for the damages kelly's mother breaks her daughter's trust fund and gives him million but lombardo kelly and suzie are actually all working together and plan to take the money and run as fast as they can duquette and perez however begin to suspect that there's more afoot to the case than just false accusations if there's a major drawback to wild things it's that it's oversexed to a fault the hotel room between dillon campbell and richards is a it's also cut short sorry guys and should have been cut shorter the movie grinds to a halt for pure titillation once too often what we don't see is far more effective than what we do another example of this is kevin bacon needlessly going the full monty in a shower scene er no thanks also bacon's duquette feels simultaneously underdeveloped and overwritten daphne from broadway's rent tries to compensate for a superfluous character theresa russell is just plain wooden and when in the end all is out in the open ask yourself if certain scenes involving these three were really necessary but what keeps the movie from being throwaway junk is an engaging chain of surprises some predictable some not that never seems to end wild things has more twists than a crate full of corkscrews and most are so gleefully nasty that you can't help but be charmed by their absurd showmanship a great deal of amusement also comes from watching bill murray in a supporting part that appears to have been written for his sly comedic talent murray's a stitch especially when pulling up beside the van ryan limo after winning lombardo's case and flipping them off and don't leave when the closing credits hit the screen or you'll miss the film's best part four bonus flashbacks that smooth over plot holes while offering a few more tiny turns plus a final scene that caps everything off with a great stunner of a bombshell speaking of bombshells denise richards who plays almost every scene in a blue bikini top does the teen tease thing with a malicious allure that she was never allowed to flaunt in starship troopers matt dillon flexes his sex appeal and pulls off personality changes with chameleonic precision neve campbell lovely as ever except when sporting a blond wig gives suzie a vengeful vulnerability that makes her the most interesting member of the conspiring trio and toned down a bit the dynamics between these three actors could have carried the film to greater lengths but what we're given works well enough wild things is highly entertaining and indeed very wild
positive	the happy bastard's review big daddy happy gilmore as a father of course that's the latest scenario presented by adam sandler in the new movie big daddy a movie that's passable but isn't really considered some of sandler's best work he doesn't actually play happy gilmore in the movie but a variation of him he's sonny coufax a man who's living off a settlement he got for a cab running over his foot and his gig as a tollbooth man tollbooth willie his girlfriend kristy swanson is fed up with his lifestyle and demands a change before she leaves him enter a old kid who's mysteriously dropped at his doorstep and intended for his preppy roommate jon stewart who's off in china on a business trip from there coufax basically acts as the kid's father teaching him different things like peeing on the side of a building and tripping up skateboarders with sticks he even manages to use the kid in a sort of con game to get the attention of a beautiful law office worker joey lauren adams but somehow he also garners the attention of social services who aren't particularly pleased with coufax's actions as he pretends to be his roommate to keep the kid the reason i say it's not really sandler's best work is because it gets really sappy towards the end of a movie showing some odd feelings that somehow didn't really belong in a sandler vehicle i mean it fits the movie's tone and everything and sandler handles it well but it's just oddly placed that's all fortunately it doesn't destroy the goofy glee path it's been following and it still makes you feel good sandler does a good job here as he does in most of his movies rob schneider however is irritating as his friend an immigrant delivery boy who can't read stewart in his minor time on screen is great and adams remains a joy to watch look for steve buscemi as well as a homeless bum he's a hoot directed by dennis dugan director of happy gilmore the movie remains a good couple of hours to pass the time with again there are faults but hey everyone needs to get emotional sometimes
positive	six days seven nights is a summer movie that gets the summer movie experience deliciously right a commendable achievement considering the season thus far has been littered with some pretty uneven fare here's a genuinely fun fluff piece that knows it's fluff recognizes it's fluff and is admittedly proud to be fluff of course the casting of harrison ford in the broadly comedic lead role plays a sizeable part in the movie's success ford is such a concentrated dramatic actor that it's easy to forget what a funny guy he can be as his female counterpart anne heche also deserves a big pat on the back for her sweet goofily charismatic performance the age difference ford's heche's matters not these two click in a charged way that's hard to come by the story is a ford stars as gruff but loveable island aviator quinn harris while heche is but loveable new york magazine editor robin monroe robin on a tropical vacation with fianc frank david schwimmer gets assigned to supervise an emergency photo shoot in nearby tahiti so she reluctantly hires quinn to fly her there the plane crashes during a terrible storm and they immediately find themselves stuck in a deserted paradise with few ideas on getting back to civilization a series of unpleasant often hilarious catastrophes leaves little choice but for both members of this unlikely odd couple to fall for each other meanwhile back at the resort frank is tempted himself by quinn's shapely female tagalong jacqueline obradors that subplot obviously exists to get us rooting for the pairing and while it makes for a few good laughs early on it eventually becomes a contrived distraction from the far more engrossing misadventures of quinn and robin and since the film spends most of its time with the castaways this flaw is only a minor inconvenience director ivan reitman keeps the pace brisk at a slim minutes six days seven nights never wears out its welcome where a lesser film could have felt like it was as long as its title michael browning's clever screenplay allows for plenty of notable my favorite taken in context is you mean pirates and though it essentially boils down to one mishap after another they're all quite engaging even the movie's more serious moments are played with a wink heche has been under undeserved fire over whether or not her private life with ellen degeneres would affect the believability of six days seven nights heterosexual pairing so she's a lesbian so what deal with it of course it doesn't and here her naysayers are proved wrong in a big way in fact her chemistry with ford is what really makes the film click these opposites attract with the utmost endearing electricity at one point when the two are discussing the likelihood of romantic interest heche asks ford how old he is after several wrong guesses he whispers his age to her you still look good heche stammers i still good ford replies she's good too and together they make six days seven nights one memorable ride
positive	the release of dolores claiborne into wide release this weekend adds another entry into the long list of film adaptations of stephen king's work this character study provides some outstanding acting performances by the principals but suffers from a tepid conclusion inconsistent direction and may not have wide commercial appeal when the maid dolores claiborne is found brandishing a rolling pin standing over the bloody and dead body of her employer it seems like an murder case upon hearing of the death via a mysterious fax dolores' estranged and bitter daughter esquire magazine writer selena st george returns from new york back to her tiny island village childhood home as the two clash horns the story behind the mysterious death of dolores' abusive husband two decades ago ruled an accident despite the protests of detective john mackey is revealed did dolores kill her husband and did she kill her employer dolores claiborne is certainly more of a character study than a suspense thriller consequently it is fortunate that their cast includes some of hollywood's finest character actors such as bates leigh and strathairn kathy bates plays the film's title character and gives a sensational lead performance dolores claiborne is essentially a showcase for the talent of bates as her character has a huge amount of screen time she dominates the screen producing a character that is compelling and arresting as we watch the character go through two decades of history via flashbacks kathy bates' performance is stuff the rest of the cast is also very good jennifer jason leigh plays the perpetually sour bitter helena st george well and christopher plummer seems to be enjoying himself as dolores' nemesis the determined detective john mackey david strathairn is particularly interesting and suitably smarmy and despicable as dolores' husband joe st george judy parfitt is fine as dolores' tyrannic socialite employer vera would have been interesting to see say meg foster in this role child actor ellen muth is also worth noting as the young selena during the flashback sequences she is very impressive the direction of dolores claiborne by taylor hackford wildly varies throughout the film ranging from some parts which are quite clever in their own right to parts which are embarrassingly hokey the segues between flashbacks and the present are very in terms of effectiveness the pacing of the film tends to be numbingly slow which tends to undermine any suspense which might be built up however the cinematography by gabriel beristain is particularly like the chilling hue permeating the scenes contrasting well with the many nova scotia ocean danny elfman provides a surprisingly understated score for the film it would seem that the commercial potential of dolores claiborne is limited none of the performers in the film could be classified as a big draw and its pacing may be a to those expecting a gripping suspense film filled with twists and turns and car crashes and psychopaths although being essentially the only film in its genre in release now it may also be hurt by the negative perception of king works even with the recent critical success of the shawshank redemption and the stand dolores claiborne suffers from a very unsatisfying conclusion and moves very slowly however the performances are uniformly excellent particularly kathy bates and the film has its moments on my scale i give dolores claiborne three stars
positive	seen september at p m at rotterdam square mall cinema theater with chris wessell for free using my critic's pass rating good seats average sound picture rounders is exactly the kind of movie parents don't want their kids to see it's not that it's a drunken orgy of sex and violence but because it's a film that says you can make a career out of gambling and to take make things worse it proves this through its original fascinating story there have been countless crime films both past and present that evoke the noir mood that is the dark shady atmosphere where the vices of the world become more fascinating on screen than they would in real life this film starts off in the tradiational noir style introducing us to the underworld of modern gambling where the stakes are high and so is the price for losing matt damon stars as mike mcdermott a law student in new york city who tells us how the game of poker is really played damon narrates throughout the film but the entire opening scene is so perfectly to completely and totally define the setting mike's about to go up against teddy kgb malkovich a russian gangster who looks like a serial killer but then again he practically is one and the film does everything to convey that sense the look in his eyes his slow movements his intricate mannerisms all combined with the classic noir cinematography of isolated brightness within the darkness of the underworld literally damon in the flesh might seem a little out of place with his expensive clothes and features but his narration is what brings it all together he never sounds like he's reading from a script nor that he's trying to embellish anything it just comes natural to him the screenwriters use the right words and phrases to describe the mood from the smell of the air to the logic involved in reading the other guys' faces and cards and all without sounding remotely trite immediately we get the sense that poker isn't for gamblers but for geniuses with nerves of steel the game is a quiet war with strategies just as complex and the same sense of honor among the soldiers the gangsters mike plays against are the same ones that might kill someone for scratching their car but when it comes to the game of poker all respect is due to the winner because he is truly the better man the film does an excellent job in establishing its atmosphere during the first act it concentrates so much in this aspect that the background and the progression of the story stumble a bit we learn only a little about mike both past and present presently we know he has a girlfriend named jo gretchen mol who he constantly argues with over his gambling they go through a few cycles until mike's childhood pal and fellow rounder worm norton is released from prison it's not at all surprising worm owes thousand of dollars to the mob but what is surprising is how the film is able to take such a predictable element and execute it the way it does technically the plot isn't unlike many children's sitcoms in which the good kid's bad friend gets the good kid in trouble and yet the good kid remains friends with the bad kid what this film does is use a different medium to tell that story mike and worm have been in over their heads their entire lives but both share a passion for the other player who is trying to do the same to them where as worm prefers to go the sleazy route of cheating hence his jail time mike always takes the cards he's dealt and works with them sometimes they pay off i e his ability to pay his way through law school on his gambling money but other times they don't i e the fact he takes himself out of the game and works a steady job after dropping on a single hand once things start happening the film is able to expand and develop its plot into an intricate web of detail and mood mike and worm bob and weave through all kinds of games at all kinds of places from socialites' mansions to taking the tourists at atlantic city to outwitting the gangsters that control it all everything they come into contact with is a big poker game in that everything's a battle against the cards destiny deals one scene demonstrates this perfectly in which mike is told by a judge martin landou in a perfectly cast and performed role that destiny is everything and yet nothing at the same time matt's good at gambling but he's also got potential to be a great lawyer he could go professional as either but with one he could lose everything or win big but with the other there's stability but not much risk involved can someone who's gambled his entire life really cash in his chips and leave if the film had been just a subtle lesson in then the ending is our test everything is told from mike's perspective but we're finally able to recognize some things on our own this makes the final odds showdown seem like just that it works just like the game it revolves around showing us some of the cards but still evokes the element of the unknown and the consequences thereof what separates rounders from most other films about games is the fact the challenge and the skills are more important than winning in the end
positive	there was a lot riding on this movie everyone even moderately interested in the scream series was dying to know how it would end what would be the final act this is the end of an era for them a movie which has kept them up nights searching for clues on the internet talking and tossing around rumors with their equally enthused buddies and for kids under those elaborate plots consisting of buying a ticket to one movie and hopping into scream while narrowly escaping those menacing ushers who are only a year or two older than themselves no need to worry scream is endlessly inventive and entertaining a fine epilogue to the series that made kevin williamson a household name reinvented the horror genre and continued in the tradition of quentin and co so how does the story go as opposed to what some fanatical internet sites would have you believe sidney prescott neve campbell now and constantly dealing with her pass in the constantly tormented sector of her psyche is not living in hollywood fulfilling her dream to become an actress but rather in upstate california living understandably alone in the confines of fences and vast security systems she works at home as a crisis center affiliate over the phone but that s not where the movie starts off instead in a tactic that reminded me of the somewhat similar and conceptually horrifying sequence in eye for an eye cotton weary liev schreiber now a big star drives home to his girlfriend in traffic when the killer calls demands the location of sidney s home and when he doesn t get it threatens the life of cotton s girlfriend christine and cotton can t do anything to stop him the rest of the sequence is particularly clever setting up a constant throughout the picture the killer has a electronic that tops that of the first two not only does he sound unmistakably like talented artist roger jackson ha ha he can now easily duplicate the voices of the lead characters including sidney and the returned gale weathers courtney cox arquette and dewey riley david arquette at the same time stab the third based around the characters and events of woodsboro and windsor college has taken a less authentic approach this time around in return to woodsboro whereas the account of the first two films was true the franchise within scream has now become totally fictional nevertheless we learn cotton made an appearance in the movie which is now in production as himself to be killed off in the first scene so it seems that the real killer is offing our heroes in the order in which they bite it in the movie the actor portraying them or the real thing sometimes both clever indeed but who goes next no one knows three different scripts were penned we re told to keep the true finale off the internet a nod to the scream fiasco a few years back and no one knows for sure which one the killer read still all the while sidney stays concealed in her home only visiting dad for the first of the film while also having horrifying visions of her mother which takes us back a bit to sidney s fear of becoming what her mother was at least what her mother was secretly when sidney finally ventures out to hollywood as the murders become more prevalent she s chased onto the set of stab wandering through woodsboro written and directed as an odd surreal nightmare indeed this is one of scream s finest moments okay over the years i ll admit that i ve become quite the scream fan no i don t have the ghostface costume or the director s cut laserdisc but i often find myself compelled to pop in the dvd of either member of the preceding duo and can get quite caught up in the dramatic element of these films yes i said dramatic element sometimes debating with family and friends the possibilities and endless theories that have become quintessentially affiliated with scream throughout the film though i noticed a much more subtle approach than the other two films granted that there s going on throughout but there s considerably less blood less gore honestly i like this approach it s more classical more rebellious constantly demonstrating the capable direction of wes craven he knows when to hold back and at the same time makes the movie ooze with energy illustrating the delicate poise flowing from his years of experience some critics have noted that scream seems to take itself more seriously this time maybe so or maybe screenwriter ehren kruger arlington road who took over after williamson had scheduling conflicts saw an opportunity for true irony even a little bit of satire the film worked in a few more clich s what puts a damper on this otherwise exceptional and creative film i m afraid is the ending or rather the identity of the killer it does the job i guess accomplishes what it should bringing the three films full circle but upon my first viewing it seemed rather dissatisfying because it appears a little too contrived too arbitrary after a second viewing which i endeavored upon due to this recurring disapprobation the killer s identity still seems a little too random but his motivation came across more sound this time around and the eventual conclusion was ultimately more satisfying all in all scream does not fall victim to the most lamented principle of a trilogy it is not the worst of the films as a trilogy scream was a lot of fun refreshing humorous offbeat almost sad to see it go but then it does seem best to quit while you re ahead and scream does a fine job of providing closure to its characters for now scream holds the title as the finest series of horror films to be committed to celluloid not too shabby
positive	ingredients pouring rain small flooded town damn about to burst bad guys going after millions of dollars synopsis at one point in the story townsperson karen asks hero tom what happened to her church he replies something like the church is flooded but at least the floodwaters put out the big fire well the fire wasn't that bad since while the church was burning looters apparently thought it was safe enough to break through all the priceless stained glass windows in hard rain a small town is nearly deserted due to flooding everyone has had to evacuate because it's raining and now floodwaters are rising so high that buildings are being submerged and the nearby dam is about to break enter a working class new armored car driver named tom christian slater suddenly his security truck carrying over three million dollars gets stuck on the flooded street and is waylaid by armed looters tom has no choice but to grab the bag full of money hide it and swim for his life this makes for an action movie full of jet skis speedboat chases and gun battles as tom tries to evade and outsmart corrupt cops and armed looters until the national guard can answer his distress call he is befriended and aided by a spunky churchgoing young woman from town named karen minnie driver but unknown to tom and karen the national guard never heard tom's initial distress call will tom and karen survive the natural and manmade disasters opinion don't expect issues or dramatics there's not much more to this movie than hiding running swimming shooting and saving handcuffed heroes from drowning but that's what makes it escapist and fun relax take your shoes off and break out the popcorn
positive	although many people have compared this new gangster comedy to the hit hbo drama sopranos analyze this is witty and entertaining enough to be a good movie in it's own right billy crystal plays wiseguy shrink ben sobol who new happens to be gangster boss paul vitti de niro ben wants nothing to do with vitti as he's about to get married to laura macnamara kudrow and having a gangster as a patient wouldn't really help but ben is soon drawn into vitti worlds and reluctantly helps vitti to sort his life out all done in a comic fashion of course although never brilliant analyze this is also never rubbish which makes for a fun ride billy crystal who hasn't had a good role since city slickers way back in the early is given a role that lets him fully exploit his wiseguy act he's pretty funny while he does it and although his character is a little close to his character in city slickers he's pretty funny robert de niro is hilarious as vitti playing it dead straight but coming off as really funny he's a serious gangster unaware that he is a comic gold mine lisa kudrow barely seen as crystals' estranged wife to be basically reprises her phoebe role from t v series friends which is getting rather tiresome and doesn't come off well on the screen the supporting cast is apparently made up of the entire cast of casino and goodfellas and are all funny caricatures especially vitti's bodyguard jelly joe viterelli the film genuinely plays like a proper gangster movie but with laughs instead of hard ass talking it sometimes gets a little bloody for a light hearted film but it strangely fits in spoofs are made of famous gangster movies including a nice parody of the godfather the italian tunes playing throughout the soundtrack contribute to the fun there's also some odd plot points fbi guys appear and suddenly disappear for no apparent reason it is true that analyze this has had a somewhat chequered production history and perhaps the plot points were expanded in a earlier version of the script unfortunately this is hollywood so we will never know harold ramis best known as egon from ghostbusters has a deft touch with directing comedy as shown in the immortal groundhog day and the less immortal caddyshack all the comic potential in a scene is dug out and presented to the audience the script written by ramis along with peter tolan and ken lonergan starts off funny remains funny for the most of the film but sadly peters out somewhat during the last twenty minutes where it wrongly enters more serious territory the film is short however and just before audience interest is waning the film suddenly goes into a rather rushed and unsatisfying ending and the credits roll analyze this is a good comedy and is certainly worth watching robert de niro sobbing is reason enough to watch it even though it does seem forced or like a parody although i think this was intentional crystal is his most likeable in years kudrow is given as little screen time as possible which is a good thing and de niro is just awesome it's no goodfellas and it probably won't be remembered as much as groundhog day but analyze this is a well done comedy that won't leave you feel cheated
positive	being john malkovich is the type of film we need to see more today's films are either blockbusters that entertain us with tiresome formulas or those that have similar themes malkovich falls under none of these categories and it's quite refreshing to see that occur this strangely provoking story is actually somewhat understandable john cusack plays a puppeteer trying to make it to the big time his wife cameron diaz supports the both of them by working at a petstore which explains the obscure pets they keep in their apartment when cusack finally realizes he needs to get a job he finds an ad for a filing clerk when he reaches the building he arrives at a floor it's there that he discovers a secret portal that leads to being john malkovich for minutes at a time meanwhile cusack meets a business partner catherine keener in which he falls madly in love with her the only problem is she has no interest in him what so ever the whole portal thing isn't just a toy in fact it becomes cusack's dream being inside malkovich's mind gave him the opportunity to basically control mlakovich like a puppet and to fulfill his fantasies i don't want to give away too much but cusack becomes too attached with his discovery in my opinion this idea is absolutely brilliant it's really quite scary to think that someone could become you control you be you it makes you wonder why we act like we do and why sometimes we blurt out things or act out something out of the blue even if the script is super sharp i can't help but find the ending displeasing it could have lead up to something more or at least an amusing conclusion it tried to explain a mythology about the portals that made it seem rushed other than that i had a very enjoyable time the acting was quite delightful as well john cusack has finally been given a chance to prove his ability and he does it well he's by far the most underrated actor due to a lack of popularity but i'm hoping that will change cameron diaz was her usual charming self although i felt that part was wrong for her but she pulled it off john malkovich himself continues to creep out people with his eerie facial expressions and tone of voice who else's mind would be better to explore the director spike jonze who appeared in last month's three kings really catches my attention with this project i knew he was bizzare but not to this extreme he too is likely too receive media attention being john malkovich isn't an excellent film but it is definitly entertaining and will eaisly become a cult favorite what's even better is the film's puzzling message am i nick lyons
positive	as formulaic as it may be in its own way shall we dance also demonstrates a kind of charming restraint you don't often find in american films this japanese import tells the story of a accountant named sugiyama koji yakusho whose mundane life is shaken up one night when he spots beautiful mai kishikawa tamiyo kusakari in the window of a dance school intrigued by her melancholy demeanor and slightly infatuated with her sugiyama signs up for weekly classes at the school and much to his amazement ends up as attracted to dancing itself as to his young sensei meanwhile sugiyama's wife hideko hara becomes suspicious of his late wednesday nights and sets a private detective on her husband's trail in a hollywood film you can bet that would be turned into a stream of slapstick comedy and crazy misunderstandings in shall we dance masayuki suo dispenses with it in a matter of minutes using it to set up later character interactions rather than letting it overwhelm the story with pratfalls neither does he make the climactic moment of victory a competition between the hero and some token rival suo gives his comedy the graceful movements of his subject matter allowing the humor to flow from the characters rather than forcing it upon them an opening prologue in shall we dance goes to some effort to place the film in a sociological perspective explaining how contrary ballroom dancing is to the japanese sense of propriety it's a forced message in a story which doesn't need such a angle the dance school in shall we dance plays the role of a singles' mixer with everyone vaguely embarrassed to be there yet taking the opportunity to try on new personalities most amusing among these new personalities is the one adopted by sugiyama's mr aoki naoto takenaka a balding systems analyst who becomes a fiery latin lover when he dons a frizzy wig and begins to rumba sugiyama's awakening is less overt but koji yakusho does a wonderful job showing a transformation of small steps it's a delicate performance with a huge heart shall we dance is a fairly lightweight experience which makes its final half hour rather a long sit suo crams a lot of exposition into very little time including an unnecessarily detailed for mai resulting in a sluggish march towards the resolution it is here that shall we dance feels most attempting to the audience with a truckload of emotional catharsis suo might have been better advised to conclude with the small gem of a scene in which sugiyama and his wife take their first tentative dance steps together that's the real joy of dance shall we dance conveys its ability to create an intoxicating mood of romance which can soften the stiffest shirt
positive	the tailor of panama is a different kind of spy movie despite the presence of pierce brosnan there is nary a hint of james bond flash here instead of big action scenes leering super villains and femme fatales we get interesting characters and an intriguing situation based on the novel by john le carr who also the screenplay the film offers viewers something rarely seen in theaters this time of year a solid story brosnan plays andy osnard a british operative walking on thin ice his british superiors ship him off to panama making sure he understands that he had better not screw up the placement osnard arrives in the tropics virtually oozing contempt for his new and his new home base when shown the bridge of the americas by a person marveling over the fact that since the creation of the panama canal the structure is the sole connection between north and south america he barely keeps from yawning brosnan clearly relishes the chance to be the antithesis of investing the suave spy with a distinct reptilian quality coupled with an air of indifference that irks his fellows to no end searching for a way to get information on the government osnard sets his sights on harry pendel geoffrey rush an unctuous tailor serving the panamanian elite harry claims to be a transplant from britain's renowned saville row but osnard knows his secret the tailor is an who served five years in prison after torching his uncle's shop in an insurance scam he also knows that harry is up to his ears in debt having spent a fortune on an unsuccessful farm osnard offers harry a way out he will pay for information harry has gathered from his upscale clientele eager to comply harry offers what he knows then starts concocting tidbits to keep the money flowing before long he is forced to spy on his loving wife louisa jamie lee curtis an aide to the canal director harry's little lies build eventually taking on a life of their own osnard turns in reports about the silent opposition a group threatening to upset the balance of control over the canal the bogus revelation proves explosive leading to meetings in washington d c over how to best protect the vital waterway meanwhile osnard wallows in his newfound status enjoying the best the city has to offer and wooing an attractive and harry grows ever more fretful fearing the consequences if his clients not to mention his wife learn about his lies geoffrey rush is wonderful as harry fawning over his customers by day and savoring his rich family life in the evenings all while playing secret agent in the off hours with his new benefactor rush makes harry a credible figure presenting the various levels of the character so effectively that he remains sympathetic despite his duplicity after gaining fame playing larger than life characters rush flips everything around for this role using his energy to depict the quiet desperation of a man slowly realizing that the solution to his troubles may be worse than the original problems although she gets far too little screen time jamie lee curtis imbues louisa with a depth greater than the screenplay provides her of the central characters she is the only one that exhibits maturity and genuine curtis is one of my favorite female actors whiplash smart sultry and charismatic she deserves more than supporting roles speaking of supporting characters there are some great ones here harold pinter is amusing as harry's uncle benny who pops up throughout the story in a number of creative ways also shoring up the proceedings is jon polito as a corrupt banker and dylan baker who is a riot as a united states general straight out of the dr strangelove school of armed patriotism but the most important secondary performers are leonor varela and brendan gleeson both outstanding as two wounded activists their presence adds weight to the story reminding us that beyond the charades of the leading men there are real people that have suffered greatly over the politics connected to the canal director john boorman adds additional verisimilitude by shooting the film on location instead of using panama city merely as a colorful backdrop he adroitly weaves in footage of all aspects of life there the metropolis described by one character as casablanca without heroes pulsates with life underling the folly of the two foreigners playing dangerous games that could have a disastrous impact on a great many people the tailor of panama succeeds because the principals behind it were bright enough to make it more than a simple entertainment
positive	perhaps it's time for me to say a little about my reading habits i really do like to read and i've enjoyed many books in my lifetime my problem is that i'm a slow reader and not very dedicated i'll enjoy portions of a book and then set it down for months at a time it's taken me the last six weeks to get through the first one hundred pages of anna karenina even though i'm loving the book in addition to this i typically don't read anything created after the century the only reason i bother with this bit of information is because i feel bad admitting time after time that i haven't read any of the books on which these films are based the only exception i believe is great expectations however i don't think it should be necessary to read the book beforehand in order to judge the quality of the film needless to say i haven't read the elmore leonard novel out of sight on which steven soderbergh's new film is based i can't say how faithful of an adaptation it is or if it lives up to leonard's vision i can say that it's a terrific film with sharp acting great dialogue and pumping full of energy and style injected by soderbergh it's certainly a nice distraction from lineup of brainless blockbusters all hopelessly wishing that size mattered out of sight proves that it doesn't i had originally written george clooney off as a actor incapable of depth but occasionally showing a little flair after seeing his latest performance in this film i've changed my mind this guy can act but he also has that forceful presence that most certainly will make him one of those million superstars here he plays jack foley a middle aged guy who robs banks for a living he does it because it's fun i think but the film opens with him getting caught because his car won't start he goes to jail which is interesting only to break out five cinematic minutes later with the help of his friend buddy ving rhames we're then introduced to karen sisco jennifer lopez a u s marshall who conveniently is waiting with a shotgun as jack escapes fortunately they take her hostage and she and jack spend some quality time in the trunk together as buddy drives them to safety the central conflict arises when both jack and karen become obsessed with one another though their respective jobs make them superficially incompatible we soon learn that the film is not told in sequence and since this is a gritty crime comedy flashbacks of pulp fiction should arise at first i kind of felt that it was a gimmick but i guess it was a gimmick in pulp fiction too it's a fun gimmick though and soderbergh treats the material with enough humor that everything comes off naturally i've only seen a few of soderbergh's films i was impressed both with kafka and sex lies and videotape but i think he's excellent at what he does he's an artist without making it obvious and without being pretentious which is always admirable he uses tricks yes lots of stuff here but it all adds to the smooth and quirky currents in the film as i said clooney is terrific and he's matched by lopez lopez is of course beautiful but she can act too i can sense that she's honing in on her skills for she comes off more natural here than she has in any of her previous ventures not that stone gave her much help in the loathsome the two actors have arresting chemistry with one another the best scene in the film by far is the seduction scene the brilliance of this scene is also due in part to soderbergh for he cuts back and forth from their quiet discussion in a bar to the physical act which takes place a few minutes later the scene is a series of soft nuances and glances layered upon light dialogue and the result is one of the better love scenes in recent cinema meaningful and engrossing the supporting cast is strong led by the ving rhames dennis farina who plays karen's father is good as is don cheadle as the profoundly stupid villain steve zahn who plays jack's dead accomplice glenn steals all of his scenes and that's in a film where every scene is already at a high level all of the actors are helped by the dialogue and the script by scott frank out of sight is certainly a light film although there are a few heavy moments that will linger in the memory overall i can recommend it simply as great entertainment not every film has to change your life and it's nice to see a movie that uses the art to tell a great story and simply to entertain its viewers as for the book this film is good enough to make me believe that there might be something in the text worth looking at
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned among my fanatical ticker friends there's one who happens to share the same philosophy espoused by the central character in darren aronofsky's darkly original pi the entire stock market can be reduced to nothing but a series of patterns which through analysis will produce information to accurately forecast future behaviour an example of the mentality involved if the stock price goes up like this and then down like that and then sharply up this way it then will go this way while i freely admit that i know less than nothing about the market knowledge check prices up good prices down bad most of the time at least and hence really couldn't comment with any authority it's always nonetheless struck me as an incredibly naive oversimplification of an astonishingly complex system and besides if it were that simple no doubt somebody would've already figured it all out the difference in this case is that while my colleague an otherwise assuredly realistic individual truly believes in this in and of itself as a valid forecaster pi uses this ideology as a device with which to investigate its character's psychosis it's also vastly more convincing with its argument mathematics is the language of the universe insists genius protagonist maximillian cohen sean gullette in a cool which repeats throughout the picture since nature can be expressed in numbers and there are patterns everywhere in nature he reasons with eminent logic that finding the patterns will allow him to predict anything the ups and downs of the stock market how many games the yankees will win this year the flavour of jam i'm going to put on my toast tomorrow morning obsessed with finding the proverbial key to the universe max lives in paranoid solitude in a seedy nyc chinatown apartment toiling away with his monstrous homemade computer system sullenly withdrawn and plauged by debilitating migraines the elusive pursuit of a mysterious number his machine spits out one day is driving him into madness the story then is basically an eccentricity but it's a clever astute eccentricity perceptively zeroing in on the modern mistrust of mathematical reductionism in an age where a dominant societal phobia is one's individualism being replaced by a series of numeric identifiers max's penchent for numbers at once creates a lingering unsettling mood it helps matters that he's not a particularly likable protagonist all attempts of friendliness from neighbours are curtly rebuffed by max a spindly individual who hasn't the time to indulge in pleasantries for a film which puts its lead character front and center mr gullette appears in virtually every scene pi takes a refreshing and effective approach in avoiding conventional aesthetics because of our ambivalence with max we're not so much avidly rooting for him to triumph with a moment of epiphany as we're following him through this plot with a sense of mixed dread and morbid fascination it's more disturbing journey than quest still we do care about max's fate teetering on the edge of dementia he winds up being pursued by two different groups which want to pick his brain both fronted by deliciously perky resolutely cheerful representatives with inevitably duplictious intentions as we know in films where paranoia is a dominant element see the truman show's laura linney character or for that matter in real life it's always the ones who never stop smiling at you and are overly friendly that are the ones of which to be wary pi a film that addresses patterns itself intentionally adheres to an identifiable pattern cycle headache scene important revelation or bit of plot development montage hallucinatory nightmare with decidedly undertones few other directors are as equally adept in bridging unsettling concepts and horror nosebleeding reality the repetitiveness far from being tedious is effectively maddening more than anything the picture aims to get under our skins and take in events from max's claustrophobic perspective in this regard it wildly succeeds due to mr aronofsky's striking direction it's a rarity that a film so completely immerses itself into a protagonist's warped perspective of his surrounding and high contrast cinematography combined with constant usage of extreme lend a heightened sense of paranoia to the proceedings in some scenes the stark composition in conjunction with the lumbering approach by mr gullette make his character curiously resemble a max schreck from nosferatu using savage jittery lensing and rapid cuts to create a sense of disorientation the picture is often dizzying to behold and max's effective isolationism is emphasized by shots from the snorri cam which keep him in plain focus while the environment races by in blurred bursts pi's raw aggressive visuals are reminiscent of david lynch's early work in particular eraserhead the film's sinister tone splashes onto the screen immediately with a dazzling opening credit sequence ably backed by a sly electronic score by clint mansell and gradually increases in intensity still amidst all its kafkaesque qualities and overall dispassionate mood pi does occasionally display a sense of humour at one point marcy dawson pamela hart great fun entices max with the offer of an invaluable treasure a computer chip isn't it beautiful she coos a showcase for mr aronofsky's technical virtuosity made for it's since gone on to capture acclaim at the sundance film festival pi is an intriguingly cerebral story which ironically is perhaps the most purely visceral film of the year
positive	upon arriving at the theater during the opening credits i took my seat and prepared myself for what appeared to be hellraiser meets the crow but as soon as kiefer sutherland began speaking the narrative monologue describing the strangers and their reasons for contacting human beings i was hooked there was something especially compelling about the nature of his voice i knew from the start that i was going to witness the actions of his character rather than the actor attempting the character sutherland played the role as a true veteran upon the completion of his monologue the camera arrives on sutherland in such a fashion that you can only wonder how long alex proyas spent on cinematography i would imagine for a film of this caliber that maximum hours of work were spent where they were needed the most the film flowed beautifully as i was being taken through the intricate regions of the dark city a clever plot began to unravel to the point where the last time i had seen such clever plot twists were in the usual suspects not to mention a series of special effects that would make james cameron literally turn green with envy but if you're not exactly the biggest fan caveat emptor get ready for the atmostpheric darkness of monkeys or the crow without the boredom or depression the concept of the plot is as mindstretching as monkeys was however so be prepared and be sophisticated and imagine a picture that finally does justice to the fad that hollywood has recently become abusive of dark city simply puts spawn to shame in fact during the climax of the film i couldn't help but feel the strong presence of an akira explosion throughout the general feeling of the movie so my initial predictions were wrong this film is anything but the meloncholy of hellraiser parts one through five i'm never one to base a film entirly on special effects so know that when i give dark city it's actually because the film contained all of the neccessary ingredients to keep me entertained and awake from storyline to plot twists to camerawork to even tsk tsk special effects not since contact have i recieved such deep insight into the way the human mind operates and never this year have i been so blown away the best film i've seen all year and easily one of the best i've ever seen
positive	kadosh means sacred in hebrew amos gitai's fictional work after spending most of his career doing documentaries is a grim story about a failed hasidic marriage even though the marriage is a loving one the marriage will symbolize the clash of cultures in modern israel between the native israeli's modern viewpoint toward religion and the political savvy hasidic's intolerable one as both groups are vying for control of the secular government gitai yom is a labor party leftist who believes that if the rigid hasidic ever got control of the government it would sound the death knell of israel the emphasis of the film is on how the jews of that sect live by the letter of the torah in everything they do and how they subjugate the women to accept their vision of god's law from only the male's view that if they ever got control of the country their intolerant attitude would subjugate the country the same way the women are the story takes place in jerusalem's jewish quarters called mea shearim where we are taken down sinewy back streets with placards pasted on the walls and into the crowded apartments and prayer rooms where the protagonists live out their idea of the proper jewish life which is much different than the way most jews live in israel this is a controversial film in that the women are unhappy and the male attitudes are to such an extreme patriarchal ones that the film is bound to anger most viewers no matter their belief it is a meticulous film that grabs hold of you by the collar and never lets go the force of what is seen though filmed in an objective manner never taking a cheap shot at the hasidim is nevertheless bound to leave questions about the nature of such a practice of strict observance the film is meant to be critical of such a rigid people as it implies how they kill the spirit of everything they touch and with their extreme phobic attitudes it makes it impossible for them to unite the country when they can't at present live in harmony with their own people and it would be even more impossible to imagine them living with their arab neighbors in peace the film opens as meir rises at dawn and goes through his prayer ritual where every prayer is made to the virtues of god he even thanks god that he didn't make him a woman his wife rivka accepts the fate she was born into and looks at him from the next bed where she sleeps separately according to hasidic custom she looks at him with glistening eyes not questioning the laws or rebelling against her secondary role and how her religion keeps her from studying the talmud and having all the modern conveniences of life and from seeing movies and tv meir is a talmudic scholar his father abu warda is a rabbi at the yeshiva he has been married for ten years and his wife has not been able to give him a child since the hasidim look upon a woman's role in life being only to conceive children and cook and clean house for the man while the man's role is to spend his time in prayer therefore there is an insurmountable problem in this otherwise loving marriage she receives an anonymous letter that states a woman without a child is no better than dead meir's response is that it is written like that in the talmud meir's father tells him that the marriage contract must be broken a man who dies without progeny rips a page from the torah all the blame is placed on rivka who is thought of as unpure as the reason for her being barren she will go through countless ritual baths to cleanse herself as her rigid mother koenig dunks her in the holy water and says a ritual prayer for the times she is dunked as an homage to the tribes of israel their religion doesn't permit them to be examined extensively by a doctor rivka goes on the sly and finds out that it is her husband who is sterile but she cannot tell him that because of their religion so when meir's father chooses a younger woman for his son she is exiled to live alone in a cold apartment in the same jewish quarters rivka's spirited younger sister malka does not want to get married but wants to live a more liberated life she has a long time romantic relationship with a fellow hasidic yaakov but because of the way they were both raised she is still a virgin when yaakov joined the israeli army to fight in lebanon something his sect is not allowed to do he is thereby banished from the sect even though he is still a believer he now works as a singer in a nightclub malka's mother is worried that her daughter won't get married so she arranges with the rabbi for her to marry yossef someone whom she doesn't love yossef is a very stern follower of the order he is also a political activist who drives around the city in a with a urging jews to stick together and fight their godless enemies the two sisters are close and languidly discuss their options with rivka telling her sister to accept the marriage it will make her happy but while malka is reluctantly forced into accepting it she has other plans to ruin this bogus marriage the harshest scene in the film is on malka's wedding night yossef prays to god for a child and then robotically gets malka to spread her legs and without the least bit of affection only a nervousness shown on his part for the function he supplies as he goes inside her and rams her hard thrusting away until the act is completed and then retiring without a word or gesture of love the sisters have choices like everyone else in life does but the choices are obliterated by one's beliefs circumstances and inward nature and how difficult it is to carry out those choices if it goes completely against the way one is brought up for the sisters the choices are life or death ones gitai by closing in on the daily rituals tight living quarters and community has shown how difficult these choices are for those who have never seen another world and have been kept in the dark all their life the film ends with the forlorn malka walking atop of jerusalem and looking down upon it as an outsider would and everything seems strange to her all the things she once thought of as being set in stone are now harsh memories as she has made her choice and the price of that choice is very heavy indeed
positive	the film magnolia can be compared to a simple flower as its title and movie poster suggests the dozens of characters introduced and developed are like the petals on the flower they all come from the same stem and as the flower begins to develop they grow farther and farther apart the numerous characters in the film are all closely connected no matter how different they are from one another socially from a humiliated but kind cop to an aging game show host each one of these characters is suffering the same kind of pain they are each seriously lonely and seek the perfect companion to end this loneliness whether this companion is a distant family member or a spouse each character begs for one and spends the whole film searching for the perfect one magnolia is a clever well thought out film from prodigy paul thomas anderson of boogie nights fame the detailed character analyses and the powerful script make magnolia memorable however what really is impressive is that even though there are tons of characters in several unrelated stories the film is never confusing anderson's control over transitioning from one story to another story is masterful he also knows exactly when to cut to another subplot since not one of magnolia's scenes drag on too long any three hour film that does not deliver even one uninteresting scene is definitely worth recommending from the fascinating beginning to the risky yet surprisingly satisfying ending the film just doesn't get boring it is obvious that anderson put a lot of time into connecting each subplot this is the ultimate game of six degrees of separation every character is connected to every other character by at the most two degrees for example cop john c reilly is connected to game show host phillip baker hall through hall's daughter melora walters who once went on a date with reilly the fact that each character is so different from the others yet so similar shows that there are universal pains that all classes races and genders suffer anderson's explanation to prove this point is both accurate and convincing the only mistake anderson made in trying to connect his characters was by making his actors all sing an aimee mann song simultaneously this was foolish not only because it was unbelievable and hilariously erroneous but also because it had a broadway musical feel to it and this movie is about as far apart from your typical broadway musical than you can get the performances in magnolia are perfection this is a classic example of flawless casting and flawless ensemble acting anderson allows many of hollywood's best supporting actors to blossom at what they do best character acting all of the main characters in each story are perfect because they are able to reveal more emotions and attitudes in their brief time on the screen then most movie stars can do in a feature length film worth noting is tom cruise who stepped out of his usual superficial starring role and into a funny but depressing tour de force performance he was probably noticed more than the other actors in the film by award givers because his role here is so much different and impressive than those in the past however any actor in this film could be nominated for best supporting actor without any complaints the only problem i had with the acting was that a few of the characters felt seriously edited down such as melinda dillon's character as phillip baker hall's wife she seemed to be thrown in towards the end and i felt very little sympathy for her because i had not seen her enough earlier in the film magnolia uses several effective metaphors to describe its characters anderson has the talent to make the audience sympathetic towards numerous people in only a few hours to see that anderson is able to perfectly portray this many different types of people shows that he has a keen sense of diversity diversity is what makes a director successful for a long period of time i predict a lot of diversity and success from anderson in the future
positive	no humans were harmed tested or tasted in the making of this film all recipes are fictions twentieth century fox does not condone cannibalism a psychological thriller that will scare you to the depth of your soul antonia bird shows us that the most terrifying horror is not provided by giant beasts but instead by monsters lurking in ourselves they were a party of settlers in covered wagon times and they had to resent to cannibalism in order to stay alive this true story briefly mentioned in the shining has no turned into a minutes long motion picture in the united states was a land of pioneers of americans making their way west it was a period of manifest destiny the inevitability of the country extending its boundaries stretching out its arms and consuming all the land it could capt john boyd guy pearce has become both a hero and a victim during this period of relentless consumption in ways he could never have imagined boyd's journey to hell begins when he is awarded for an act of cowardice during a horrific war battle earns him banishment to a desolate military outpost a waystation for western travelers in the barren and icy sierra nevada mountains in california upon his arrival he is greeted by a small motley group of soldiers including his commanding officer hart jeffrey jones a previously intelligent and sophisticated man who has lost his aristocratic origin in the heat of battle and has pretty much given up on life toffler jeremy davies the fort's personal emissary to the lord knox stephen spinella the veterinarian that plays doctor who never met a bottle of whiskey he didn't like reich neal mcdonough the soldier of the group and the seriously cleaves david arquette a cook whose meals are inspired more by peyote than culinary ambitions into this cold bleak and bizarre world staggers a stranger colqhoun robert carlyle a scot who had been traveling with a group of settlers until they became snowbound seeking refuge in a cave they soon ran out of food and were forced to consume one another colqhoun barely escaped becoming an hors d'oeuvre himself our heroes then decide to journey through the mountains to find the survivors and colqhoun tags along to help out soon it becomes clear that colqhoun's tale has ramifications beyond cannibalism and the will to survive it involves an old indian myth called weendigo which states that a man who eats the flesh of another steals that person's strength spirit and very essence his hunger becomes an insatiable craving the more he eats the more he wants and the stronger he becomes there can never be enough and death is the only escape it's all fairly sickening and you have to have a healthy stomach to see the whole movie through as professionally made as the movie is you have to wonder who they thought would come piling into the theater to see this horror fans won't care because none of the soldiers look remotely like neve campell older folks might show up when they hear that the movie is actually a satire about the pioneer spirit but they'll be disappointed once all the raw meat starts getting waved in their faces but jokes aside this is a film that is well worth watching it has wonderful and mature characters that few horror film s can boast of and a strangely effective story that continues to electrify you till the end the two main characters are also the most interesting boyd is a simple honest man tiered of war killing and fear his sacred wish is to live a normal quite life away from gunpowder and blood colqhoun is different he proves that a man on the brink of death would do anything to stay alive including sacrificing his own soul he believes so much in this indian myth that he starts to change physically it is the power of the human mind and conviction that make miracles happen the atmosphere in ravenous is macabre and bizarre scary and surreal completely isolated from the rest of the world stands fort spencer here time stands still and nothing changes the inhabitants are soldiers driven by war and pillage they are all somehow losers of society that have been banished men that are used to killing and have not done anything else in their entire life men that are nothing and has nothing to loose the result is some sort of cabin fever cannibalism is more like a sick game for them since they find no pleasure in living they find some excitement in killing and dying it's like who's going to die first the unchangeable icy landscape where birds do not sing and even wind doesn't move the leaves on the trees resembles kubrick's the shining it's hard to not get mad here one of the scary aspects of the film is a strange connection that the viewer establishes with the characters and starts to understand them although they have turned into half crazed killers music is another factor that strengthens the atmosphere a strange musical score composed by michael nyman the piano and damon albarn that often seems out of place and in complete contrast to the image somehow reflects the characters' twisted reactions on the world and their situation the director herself stated that it was ok to laugh during the picture and i must admit that it is often very funny in a strange way such as the wonderful quote it's lonely being a cannibal you don't get that many friends or when colqhoun is quoting ben franklin saying eat to live don't live to eat but mostly it is frightening and shocking as it goes deeper into the minds of these strange men and we witness their psychological change every actor does a great job especially robert carlyle as the sinister and intelligent cannibal and guy pearce as the moral and honest soldier nagged by his undeserved honor this strange couple resemble lestat and lois in neil jordan's with the vampire' actually there are many amusing parallels and connections to vampire movies since the topics are so alike ravenous starts wonderfully and continues to shock and scare until it gets to the finale where it looses focus and gets too primitive and rather boring however these little failures don't diminish the impression this is a bizarre dark comedy about the human mind and its change in different situations it is a scary fable about the monster that lurks in everyone's soul a dark side which we're all trying to hide but it's there always it is one of the most frightening and successful horror films since the shining i said no food i didn't say there was nothing to eat colqhoun ravenous
positive	good will hunting is two movies in one an independent take on the struggle of four boston pals and a traditional hollywood prodigy child film complete with upbeats downfalls sporadically moving situations and plenty plenty of shtick unusually directed by gus van sant good will hunting overcomes the banalities of its story by affirming the emergence of fresh new talent the film stars matt damon as will hunting as a mathematical rebellious whiz kid inadvertly discovered by a college professor stellan skarsgard who places him under psychological supervision with robin williams in a nutshell that's it the core of the good will hunting is damon who infuses the script written by chasing amy's ben affleck with just the right amount of warmth sensitivity and humanity to accentuate his position as a refreshing talented performer but it's the acting that hits the mark and damon hits all the right notes flying over robin williams' role awakenings was written all over this as a devastated shrink who has closed all contact with society due to his wife's tragic death damon effortlessly blends the carelesness of a gregarious confused thug with the absorbing ingeniousness of someone like einstein his rich complex character is the pulp of good will hunting everything else pales in comparison good will hunting exposes the lack of profoundness of deliberately schmaltzy storytelling but unlike little man tate or phenomenon it doesn't set up its story in a black and white point a to point b be manner but as the saga of an extraordinary individual whose feasibility for success doesn't automatically signify he must make easy familiar choices like the protagonists in the aforementioned
positive	curdled is a deliciously dark and witty black comedy but its humour won't appeal to everyone to be specific let me give you an example do you know in pulp fiction where jules and vincent go on brain detail after marvin and his head accidentally get separated if you thought that was completely tasteless and unfunny don't see curdled on the other hand if you found that sequence to be pretty funny you have the sense of humour that curdled is aimed at our film's heroine gabriela played by angela jones is a woman obssessively curious about murder and serial killers she even keeps a scrapbook of news articles luckily for her miami is being plagued by a serial killer rampage her scrapbook is getting pretty big the killer's nickname in the press is the blue blood killer because he preys on older rich socialite women and he's played by william baldwin this is not a spoiler one particularly striking m o on the blue blood killer is his propensity to decapitate his victims gabriela is watching television one day when she spots an advertisement for a firm whose line of work is perfectly attuned to her interests she immediately quits her job and signs on with pfcs which stands for cleaning service no points for guessing what they do her workmates are confused by gabriela's fascination with murder to them it's just a day job there's a hilarious locker room scene where they debate whether decapitated heads can talk and what they would say gabriela's partner elena played by mel gorham is particularly perturbed by gabriela's fascination and becomes really upset when gabriela volunteers them to clean up the blue blood killer's latest scene they're the messiest you see unbeknownst to them the last victim left something on the scene which would id the blue blood killer so he's also heading over there the comparison to pulp fiction earlier on was not accidental quentin tarantino this film which began life as a short film he saw at a film festival apparently tarantino was so impressed that he helped braddock convert this into a film there are other parallels the star of curdled is angela jones the top billing goes to william baldwin but really jones is the central character who's probably best known for her role as esmerelda villalobos the taxi driver in pulp fiction that role was written specifically for jones based upon her similar character in the aforementioned short film curdled jr jones is great in curdled she's wonderfully funny and maintains an amusing naive curiousity about murder without compromising her character's innocence or likeability she can express so much with one lift of her eyebrow it's a great performance reb braddock's direction is extremely sharp and clever toeing the line between black humour and bad taste the best scene in the film is an outrageously funny sequence involves jones and dancing any more than that would be a spoiler the opening credit sequence is also inventive and amusing of course it's impossible to really take this stuff seriously but then again you're not really supposed to braddock knows the audience is in on the joke and makes it a fun little romp as a result the one drawback of curdled is that it was based on a short film and it feels like it the material is just stretched too thin in order to fulfill a feature length running time and some parts just seem to drag while its running time is already a short minutes it could really stand to lose twenty minutes or so to give it better pacing curdled seems destined to be a nice cult film for miramax it'll be interesting to see if it will appeal to mainstream audiences as well
positive	it is often said by his fans that hal hartley movies are an acquired taste indeed while perhaps less dangerous than tequila shooters or they require no less amount of physical stamina and concentration i felt rewarded at the end of henry fool this movie creeps up on a slow minutes i mean despite the final shot's ambiguity i left completely satisfied henry fool used to have an e' arrives at garbageman simon grim's house claims the vacant basement apartment and almost instantly inspires simon urbaniak to take up martin donovan ryan is an a author who has been exiled and marginalized by the publishing community because of his criminal activity simon's poetry turns him into a local sensation as it causes mute women to sing girls to swoon and councilmen to rile against its pornographic content meanwhile henry seduces both simon's dependent mother porter and immature sister sundance queen posey with philosophical babble which is by turns brilliant and inane and breathy animal lust these story elements result in climaxes both inevitable and unpredictable the relationship formed between henry and simon eventually reverses itself henry fool is sprinkled with flourishes simon drinks milk from udderley's the big teen is called world of donuts simon wears his garbageman's uniform throughout the editing style is decidedly elliptical which is key to the conclusion's said ambiguity the performances by the three leads are abrasive at first quirky the introductory scenes are a chore these people do grow on you because they convey genuine passion a belief in themselves and because they have goals henry and simon may drink a lot of budweiser and hang out on the streetcorner but they aren't pop slackers the story is rather classical the tutor is a better talker than a doer raised on books the timid tutee has innate talent his master only dreams of shades of film school the finished film is epic in its proportions for a story so small and the final third does test one's patience yet henry fool is tight hardly excessive in its length how refreshing to see a movie this long in devoted entirely to character and unless i nodded off not a single building exploded this hartley's seventh feature is contemplative about the artist fortunately we never get a sampling of simon's work and it's a testament to the actors and the screenplay that by the end we can surmise what sort of thoughts would pour from these writers' pens
positive	most people fit into two different categories you either love woody allen or you hate his guts my family for the most part hates him and his movies i think he's very funny but his shtick has gotten forced and contrived over the years so maybe taking his body away was the best decision any producer could have thought of unrestrained by physical boundaries allen's humor comes shining through those who had problems with his physical appearance will be able to join the rest of us in laughing at allen's intelligent observations of life those who had problems with his verbal comedy may want to skip this one in a film was introduced to audiences which sparked their imaginations and showed them something they'd never seen before toy story used computer technology and presented a world of toys who would come alive when no humans were present many critics will call that a better film but i believe they only say that because it was a completely original motion picture antz however has upped the ante considerably disney's a bug's life isn't due out for another two months and dreamworks seems to have received the better end of the deal by beating disney out they have satisfied the audience's thirst for films but don't let that fool you disney is definitely not scared in the past two years competitions have broken out between studios in it was the volcano duel in my opinion dante's peak came out way ahead of its predecessor both in time and in quality volcano had an original premise but destroyed that with some very ridiculous situations in there are twice as many competing films first was the comet competition and armageddon blew away it's cheesily dramatic competitor deep impact but now it's even more interesting as one beloved studio disney goes up against the newcomer dreamworks who will prevail time will tell but i'm sure that mr mouse has nothing to fear this may sound like i didn't like antz on the contrary i'd put it up there with toy story but due to it's pg rating many parents may be put off by some of the dialogue which shouldn't appear in disney's version some of the dialogue in antz pushes the envelope for a film sexual innuendoes and profanity pop up occasionally which makes dreamworks' animated feature geared more for an adult crowd the humor is also written especially for adults though many kids were laughing in the theater i attended this is the type of film that should be made for families more often entertaining for kids and entertaining for parents antz begins with a hilarious monologue which seems a meld between woody allen's shtick and franz kafka's metamorphosis the short story of a man who wakes up to discover himself as a bug z allen is a troubled ant believing he was not made to be a worker when you're the middle child in a family of five million he comments about his neglected childhood one night z is sitting in a bar with his friend weaver sylvester stallone discussing his pathetic place in life in walks princess bala sharon stone whom no one recognizes without a crown bala asks z is he would like to dance and they engage in a pulp dance while everyone else is following the leader after discovering that she is the princess z falls in love but there's a problem bala is getting married to general mandible gene hackman a ruthless leader who merely wants to control a better and stronger colony in order to do that he must eliminate not only the queen anne bancroft but the weakest of the colony namely the worker ants but to get rid of the queen he needs to get rid of the loyal army ants who would be willing to die for her he and colonel cutter christopher walkin come up with a plan to send the loyal ants off to battle where they will surely be killed the queen is reluctant at first but decides it is best for the colony meanwhile z wants to meet bala again and he asks weaver an army ant to switch places with him so z gets sent off to battle but he manages to survive the slaughter by the termites the battle sequence is absolutely stunning though you may have flashbacks to starship troopers which contained a very similar sequence however antz and that film were both in production around the same time so the similarities are merely coincidence the second half of the film revolves around z's kidnapping of bala and their search for a mythical place called insectopia there an ant can be his own boss and have all the food he wants the adventures z and bala get into are surprisingly high in tension especially one involving a magnifying glass looming over the targets like the spaceships from independence day in fact i'm just going to assume that the producers referenced intentionally the ants look up in awe and then a beam of fire blasts into the ground visually it's an exciting rush of adrenaline but don't be fooled little kids shouldn't see this as they may just try and copy it after seeing antz i vowed never to intentionally step on an ant again hopefully children will learn that killing ants is rather cruel as an animated film antz is probably the best you will find to date visually it's as stunning as what dreams may come the best aspect of animation is the fact that the characters aren't limited by gravity they can take ridiculous situations and make them seem plausible one great moment involves a mass of worker ants bunching up to form a wrecking ball the animation is so perfect that you can virtually see every single ant on the ball however the most exhilarating scene involves bala getting stuck to the bottom of a young boy's shoe it's truly a great example of film making at its finest with computer technology the animators have carefully made the ants' faces look similar to the actors providing the voices the best example would have to be barbatus danny glover at one point you can even see the pores on his face although i doubt ants have pores do they barbatus also has a touching but rather gruesome scene as he has his final words with z without a body young kids may be disturbed by the site of a dismembered head but a good deal of humor is derived more appropriate for adults of course disney's a bug's life looks good but i don't know if they will be able to best dreamworks' newest animated feature in terms of animation if not then dreamworks will have done something no other studio could do go head to head with the big mouse and knock him down yes anastasia was good but not nearly as good as even the worst of disney vocal talent is always essential to an animated feature and antz has one of the best seen since toy story in fact it far exceeds that one woody allen has always been funny but here he transcends most of what he's done in the past few years without a body his comic timing is the most noticeable thing in fact i'm pretty sure that the writers let him improvise a lot of his lines sharon stone as bala shows off some of her comic ability though for the most part stone works best as a dramatic actress sylvester stallone teamed up with stone once again is beginning to solidify his statement that he wants to be an actor not a typecast action star after a snub at the oscars last year stallone is proving himself as the serious or comedic as illustrated here actor that he is gene hackman is superb as the general almost doing another take on his crimson tide persona christopher walkin is probably more noticed by his voice and so many people will remember him from such hits as batman returns anne bancroft has a minimal role but she's effective nonetheless danny glover has a small role but he does a very very good job dan aykroyd and jane curtin also lend their voices as two lovesick are very unrecognizable especially aykroyd jennifer lopez plays a worker ant who falls in love with weaver although most people won't recognize her voice either many people will recognize grant shaud's voice as the foreman he played miles on the tv show murphy brown this is definitely a huge cast with some names and it will definitely help it's grosses of course you can probably tell where a lot of the million budget went to also directors eric darnell and lawrence guterman are relative newcomers though guterman did direct a feature headless but both show an incredible talent for this type of a picture tense at times and very funny throughout the two hold this film together like professionals the screenplay by todd alcott and chris weitz is quite simple in plot but it contains a lot of subtlety that makes the film more suitable for adults kids will delight in the animation while parents can laugh heartily at the humor most of it will go over young children's heads does that mean you shouldn't take kids to see it not at all they will have a lot of fun watching this one what is great is the themes that are given to us part social commentary part romance story and part moral drama antz gives everyone something to talk about whether it be the animation or the discussions of individualism and community thankfully it's not subtle in either aspects antz is rated pg for mild language and some intense action sometimes the language can be pushing the limits for a family movie but the violence is what should keep kids at home the battle scene has ants melting in acid and bugs being speared to death and the magnifying scene shows an ant disintegrate in the beam of sunlight but other than that and some sexual innuendos it's a perfect choice for some wholesome fun at the theaters i doubt many children will understand the sexual innuendos unless they are old enough but it's still advisable to leave really young children at home have i confused you enough if you do take your kids i recommend seeing the film with them because more than likely you'll enjoy it the most
positive	that's the question i asked myself when venturing nervously into the wedding singer the latest film to star the saturday night live alumnus does he draw laughs from his sad puppy dog expression and observations or do fans giggle when he screams at the top of his lungs at people or is it just the fact that he sings songs with silly lyrics that bowl audiences over well there's a little bit of all of that in the wedding singer and while i exited the theater still not one hundred percent sure of mr sandler's thing i did have a surprisingly good time that's because in a nutshell the wedding singer is one of the sweetest movies you're ever likely to come across that's right sweet the humor in the film runs the gamut from dumb to mildly amusing to hysterical but the tone well it's just lovely i have to admit i was farting armpit humor gratuitous nudity superfluous cloying subplots and some nasty unnecessary violence instead well i've said it before sweet the year is and sandler plays robbie hart the eponymous wedding singer a job aspiring rock stars often settle for when robbie's fianc e dumps him at his own altar robbie gets depressed and turns to a plucky waitress called julia drew barrymore who has some problems of her own she's marrying a hunky junk bonds dealer who unbeknownst to her isn't that big on monogamy it isn't giving anything away to say that robbie and julia fall in love aww sandler and barrymore are a good match and they're assisted by some terrific cameo appearances including steve buscemi and jon lovitz whose individual scenes are perhaps the funniest in the film writer tim herlihy with uncredited assistance from carrie fisher keeps the story bubbling along to its predictable conclusion it doesn't all work but it's handled with such that robbie and julia coming together generates more smiles than groans herlihy and director frank coraci have done a great job of recreating the sights sounds and affectations of the the force in the packed with hits of the period new wave upon new wave of songs from billy idol's white wedding to the smiths' how soon is now to culture club's do you really want to hurt me the mix of music and fashion would make the wedding singer a great double feature with boogie nights if you grew up listening to the cure and a flock of seagulls and the psychedelic furs then the wedding singer is bound to put a nostalgic hop in your stride if you're a fan of the lovable laughable adam sandler well let's just say that the wedding singer might well be the only film in recent memory to make me want to rent happy gilmore
positive	jarvis cocker of pulp once said that he wrote common people after noticing mike leigh on the video shelves he had a feeling that economic deprivation was becoming a tourist experience for the maybe it's a classic case of displacement it's easier to see jarvis' own lyrics obsessed with acrylic and wood chip on the wall as a fetishization of lowlife rather than leigh's films but it's worth being reminded that drab interiors and a couple of characters don't make for a guarantee of let alone a good film it's the triumph of secrets lies then that it goes beyond gestures of sympathy for the common people into a probing of just what it means to seek and honesty in everyday lives following her adopted mother's funeral hortense a young black optometrist sets out to find her birth mother and is disturbed to find out that she is white it is cynthia a factory worker who lives in a shabby house with her perpetually moody daughter roxanne cynthia's younger brother maurice is a successful photographer who has not seen his sister for ages largely because of his wife's animosity towards her hortense calls up cynthia who initially breaks down in tears and refuses to see her but their mutually suspicious meeting gives way to a warm friendship eventually cynthia invites hortense to come along to a party which maurice is hosting secrets lies has a simple enough theme at its heart as one character puts it best to tell the truth isn't it that way nobody gets hurt but if the film delivers much more than a trite message it's because we are also shown how hard it can be to face up to ugly truths even while the evasions and unspoken grievances slowly choke us hence cynthia's difficulty with acknowledging first to herself then to others that hortense is her daughter one of her first reactions to seeing hortense is a sincere denial that she has ever been with a black man before a memory seizes her at the party cynthia's pretense that hortense is her factory leads her to ever more convoluted lies as agonizing as they are funny little lies seep into every corner like maurice pretending that he's just dropping by when he visits cynthia after much deliberation maurice's job as a photographer gives the film opportunities for side comments on the main theme a bride that maurice coaxes to smile a couple who pose awkwardly with a prominent wedding ring and argue about his spectacles one of the most startling images is of a beautiful woman with large scars on her face she says she needs the photo to look as bad as possible to collect insurance money yet the short scene leaves you wondering about what untold story lies behind the scars there are occasionally hilarious moments as when cynthia attempts to give her daughter some unwelcome advice on contraception i've got a dutch cap floating about somewhere upstairs or when cynthia stares at her own rather pedestrian legs and tells roxanne if you've got it flaunt it is what i say as played by brenda blethyn cynthia comes close to being a caricature with her nervous somewhat disconnected way of talking but she's really just right for the role of someone who inspires sympathy and yet strains the tolerance of those around her precisely because she's so needy of love perhaps indeed the whole cast gives warmly rounded detailed performances the script was developed partly through improvisations and the fusion of cast script and director shows best in the party scene seemingly everyone is talking at the same time and yet many subtle observations are being made throughout in a very different way but also using a long single shot the scene of hortense and cynthia's first meeting in a lonely achieves a touching intensity all the more for their reticence and unspoken feelings the film's climax with all the secrets and lies finally spilled out in revelations and everybody hugging each other is the one thing that seems false about this film however it's a film that truly earns its happy ending after the misery and repression of the character's lives when cynthia says near the end this is the life innit you get the sense that following the cynicism of his last film naked leigh has rediscovered that life can be sweet after all without comforting illusions the flying inkpot's rating system wait for the video a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
positive	richard linklater's slacker made in for a budget of only immerses itself in the twentysomething culture of austin texas most of these characters are either unemployed or work jobs that are apparently too menial to be worth mentioning their lifestyle is a sort of passive resistance to the idea that people should go out and actively pursue a career after graduation they seem content to sit around spouting off about the inadequacy of american democracy the pervasiveness of slave morality the subtle messages in pop culture and such ask them what they've been doing lately and they'll more likely than not reply oh you know just hanging out linklater uses an interesting technique to examine these characters the camera follows one person for a few minutes then someone else walks by and the camera follows that person who walks into a diner just as another person is walking out the door    it's certainly a lot of fun listening to these characters talk some of them are clearly very intelligent and have some genuinely insightful ideas some of them are just plain weird and some of them think their ideas are a lot more profound than they really are the opening monologue delivered by linklater himself to a taxi driver tosses around ideas about alternate realities that nicely set up the meandering structure of the film other characters along the way offer observations about everything from dating relationships to the history of anarchist philosophy while groups of kick around ideas about the nobility of sitting around and doing nothing or the subtle morality in for the most part however the best moments are the ones involving the slightly unhinged types near the beginning a paranoid man follows a pedestrian for several blocks warning him about government conspiracies involving everything from global warming to secret colonization of mars another man seems to be collecting televisions keeping at least fifteen sets running at the same time and playing tapes of a graduate student who recorded himself having a nervous breakdown and destroying the camera and in a scene that drew a big laugh from everyone present when i saw the film a man tries to achieve closure after a failed relationship by reciting poetry on a bridge and then throwing a typewriter into the creek below the only problem with slacker is that it starts to run out of steam towards the end since linklater only spends a few minutes with each character the introduction of the new characters gets repetitive after a while there are only so many times you can hear hey what's going on not much what are you up to nothing really just hanging around before it gets on your nerves the film might well have benefited from a slightly slower pace and a little bit more characterization and the dialogue in the second half of the film is by and large not quite as interesting as that in the first half a jfk buff for example seems like a pale imitation of the previous conspiracy theorist and many of the characters just generally aren't as weird or unique instead of depicting a city populated by mostly normal people and then showing us the strangeness that we might not have noticed at first linklater shows us the oddballs first then stops and reminds us that ordinary people live there too slacker is a good film and a wonderfully offbeat and entertaining comedy whatever its flaws and its status as a cult classic is i just can't help but think it might have been even better if linklater had slowed down a little bit and filmed these scenes in reverse order
positive	a breed apart casts rutger hauer as a crazy recluse who picks his feathered friends over kathleen turner a bit hard to swallow that's only the first of many improbabilities in this film hauer stars as a man obsessed with keeping the birds on his island safe while boothe plays a guy hired to steal a couple of rare eagle eggs by a rich egg collector turner is the woman caught between the two men a breed apart isn't a bad movie exactly indeed i found myself rooting for both the hauer and boothe characters even though their goals couldn't be more different the problem with the film is that there are just too many inconsistencies for example early on in the film hauer physically assaults two drunken rednecks shooting at his birds later on the rednecks come back for revenge with four other people and hauer kills a few of them i have a tough time believing that the police wouldn't get involved at that point another problem is the silly that develops i didn't care one way or the other who ended up with turner i was more interested in finding out which of the two men would be victorious in their respective missions however despite this uninteresting turner did manage to give a great performance as the woman who reminds the two men that sometimes there's more to life than money and birds as for hauer he's an actor i've always admired he has a penchant for picking strange and unusual characters and this one is no exception he's frequently seen riding around his island on a white horse wearing pirate's clothing and holstering a despite all his eccentric mannerisms though hauer always manages to let the human side of his character shine through for example there's a scene in which he barks at turner and her son because they came onto his island a day early he comes off as crazy loner in that scene but a few minutes later he is apologizing to turner and we believe his intentions soon after we find out he's a vietnam vet and his actions become fairly clear to us a breed apart isn't a great movie by any means but it does contain good performances by all three leads and it's worth seeing for that reason alone
positive	titanic is so close to being the perfect movie it's upsetting that it isn't the film which cost to make and could of put century fox into a lot of finicial trouble if it pun intended is a labour of love for cameron who wrote and directed the film we all know that big budget dosen't mean great film see waterworld but titanic is far superior to kevin costners waterlogged epic but sadly titanic just misses the mark of masterpiece although it is one of cameron's best films the film starts with present day explorers searching the runied titanic they find a safe and inside a picture of a woman the woman in the picture an old winslet tells the explorers that the picture is of her the explorers invite her over and she then tells her story of titanic in the flashback dicaprio plays poor boy jack dawson who after winning a poker game wins two tickets to board the grand ship titanic leaving liverpool to go to america also boarding the ship is rich woman rose dewitt bukater winslet who is being forced into a marriage with a man she dosen't love at all cal hockley zane so her family can remain rich she nearly commits suicide on the ship but jack comes to the rescue saves rose they fall in love and cal gets jealous and eventually tries to kill them oh yeah and the ship sinks and that is the main problem with the film and which stops it from being a work of genius the story and script both by cameron are both weak the story is full of cliched characters the creepy man who the nice girl has to marry the poor boy with heart the mother and poor dialogue the script consists of lots of of how the boat won't sink and most of the dialogue is pretty basic it's a shame really as the audience does have to sit through hours of this film without good dialogue a film could become a very long very boring film like camerons own terminator but luckily there are some redeeming features that make the story and dialogue problems just disappear firstly there's cameron's direction there are some great sweeping shots of the titanic and some clever fades between the flashback titanic and the ruined titanic but the scenes cameron directs especially well are the disaster scenes at the end there is a lot of mayhem and panic all done very well by cameron it's a scary sight watching bodies fall from great heights into the watery depths below thanks to cameron's direction then the audiences attention is held for the full hours minutes to support the directing are the excellent cast working very well with their underwritten characters dicaprio is good although he only looks years old his performance of a over excitiable yet also well mannered boy is excellent and he also has some funny lines winslet is great also and her transistion from a well mannered rich girl to a rebelous young adult is pretty smooth zane is deliciously evil as cal saying every line with a sneer and a flicker of the eye lash the audience really does come to hate him he may be playing the same character he plays in every film he's in like dead calm but he does it really really well also worthy of note is kathy bates edward scissorhands as a loud mouthed american finally the icing on the things' cake are the special effects cameron is a whiz with effects just watch aliens terminator and true lies and they are used very well throughout the sweeps of the ships are awesome although digital domain who did the effects cannot animate human movement too well the humans seem to move to there's just something odd about them you can tell that they have been animated on a computer of course the ship sinking scenes are awesome with bodies flying all over the place and the scene where the ship splits in half has to be seen to be believed titanic is one of the only films where effects have reinforced the film titanic then is a wonder of directing acting and cgi but not writing and story again like most of camerons films the editing is loose cameron edits himself and the film could of come in under three hours with a few more cuts titanic then although not the godfather of movies it could of been is a wonderful attempt at creating a work of genius enjoyable scary and even sad titanic is a film cinema was invented for filling the screen with incredible images and assaulting the ears with awesome sound a superb film but sadly not perfect overall
positive	on seeing the outrageous previews for bulworth one wonders what plot could possibly allow beatty get away with making those statements in case you missed it warren beatty plays a politician on the campaign trail he says to a black congregation if you can't cut down on malt liquor and chicken wings and get behind someone other than a running back who stabs his wife you're never gonna get rid of me well there is such a plot and it works very well in this comedy beatty plays jay billington bulworth a democratic senator from california the movie opens on a painfully repetitious montage of bulworth's latest commercials condemning affirmative action the montage is ironically intercut with pictures of martin luther king and bulworth in his youth working with jack kennedy when we finally lay eyes on bulworth he is morosely weeping in front of his tv having gone without food or sleep for days his campaign is entering the final weekend before the primaries but his depression has sunk in too far for him to care first he calls a lobbyist from the insurance industry to get a bribe a million life insurance policy in his daughter's name then he calls an associate to arrange for his own assassination his assistant murphy oliver platt is oblivious to bulworth's suicidal state and drags him to his speaking engagements bulworth halfheartedly reads his speech at an church then takes questions from the audience he is hit hard with questions about his voting record he had promised money to help rebuild the community after the riots and it hasn't shown up since he's a dead man anyway he figures he'll answer truthfully he and bill clinton and newt gingrich came to l a for the photo opportunity they made some promises that improved their public image for a while and then counted on the media and the public to eventually forget about the promises they made the shock and outrage from the congregation grows the questions keep coming and he keeps shooting back honest if ugly answers before i go further i'd like to make a distinction that the denver post failed to make and that is that characterizing as drinking o j fans is not part of bulworth's truth that line is in the trailers but it should not be praised like the other political confessions he makes in the movie when the critics praise beatty for speaking the truth about politics this line is not what they're talking about the experience is liberating with nothing left to lose bulworth is no longer restricted to burping generic platitudes out of both sides of his mouth he can say whatever he wants because he's going to be dead anyway why not tell the people the truth about being a sleazy politician that he is bought and paid for by lobbyists and that racism among the populace protects politicians from being the target of charges of classism bulworth's candor wins him three volunteers from the church one of whom nikki halle barry he gets a crush on he feels so good afterwards that he actually eats something chicken wings appropriately enough bulworth shows up late for his meeting with some movie studio executives when one of them asks where he stands on government regulation of movie and tv ratings bulworth drifts to the topic of the quality of filmed entertainment with so much money and so many talented people working so hard he wonders why can't hollywood make a quality product you go warren when they become indignant and ask why he's talking to them if he has such a low opinion of their product he callously admits that it's because they are rich jews that night he drops the three volunteers at their nightclub and he decides to go in with them he stays up all night drinking smoking pot dancing falling in love with nikki and learning to scratch turntables and rap the next day he shuns his prepared speech and instead raps to the fundraisers from then on at all of his political appearances he raps his political truth his rap is not bad for a white guy he's not very good but it is his first try and at least he's not embarrassingly bad his lobbyists are not amused but the rest of his constituency seems to like the new bulworth eventually the movie's plot remember he hired a hit man overtakes the politics which is too bad screen time is spent with bulworth trying to cancel the request for his assassination while the hit man seems to be closing in on him there are even a few gratuitous chase scenes bulworth fleeing his killer these scenes may have been necessary to keep the events of the film moving along but it distracted and detracted from bulworth's political ranting which was much more interesting than the assassin still most of the movie is original and very enjoyable and beatty deserves most of credit for bringing it to the screen as the story and screen writer he came up first with a good structure then with good dialogue to back it up jeremy pikser the screenplay as an actor he was able to convincingly portray bulworth's depression then liberation and rebirth as a producer there were four others he was able to keep the movie free from hollywood's indulgent formulas except for those inexcusable chase scenes someone else probably could have directed but since he was there anyway what the heck it's too bad that there aren't more movies like this around movies that tackle political corruption in a way that challenges viewers to pay more attention to real politics after all much of the inspiration for bulworth is straight out of the news just a little perception and insight and you could write your own bulworth rants just don't expect to be popular with the insurance companies
positive	american pie acknowledges a cold hard fact that most movies don't it is very difficult to get laid its four virgin heroes are jim biggs a chronic masturbator kev nicholas who desperately wants to deflower his girlfriend reid oz klein a lacrosse player whose approach requires some fine tuning and finch eddie kaye thomas a germphobe his crass nickname is hilarious but i won't spoil it here who pays a classmate to spread rumours about the size of his member jim kev oz and finch attend a high school in suburban michigan full of so many impossibly beautiful women it's no wonder they're horny all the time after a party at their studly friend stifler's seann william scott in the film's sharpest performance house leaves them sexually unsatisfied the quartet make a pact to lose it by prom night which is only a few weeks away american pie is in the tradition of bachelor party or revenge of the nerds almost every conversation these characters have revolves around makin' whoopee all women are there to be ogled alyson hannigan's perky music student is the only memorable female of the bunch situations abound that defy logic only to arouse amuse its core audience adolescent boys to arouse nadia's shannon elizabeth internet unexpectedly raucous and guiltily pleasurable sequence to amuse jim's lusty encounter with a hot apple pie what differentiates american pie from those dirty eighties comedies aside from a very nineties obsession with bodily fluids is a cast that's light years more appealing than that of say just one of the guys two more standouts klein and sctv eugene levy klein plays a athlete for the second time in a row after alexander payne's underappreciated election i hope to see more of this warm actor with the disarmingly honest face very soon levy's is the most performance and indeed it's nice to see him back on the big screen in a role that makes wonderful use of that expressive brow american pie also wants to emulate the teen flicks your parents let you watch growing up it skillfully employs a broad mix of pop tunes much like john hughes' movies did and even pays homage to the breakfast club a couple of times most evidently when the prom band covers simple minds' don't you forget about me the picture ultimately has a healthy if obligatory attitude towards safe at their most libidinous american pie's protagonists first whip out a condom the filmmakers prove that socially responsible raunch is possible for its familiarity and for its charming leads i recommend american pie but the buzz on this film had me expecting something fresher as far as the new teen cinema goes it's at the top of the heap don't say i didn't warn you about the party scene
positive	the summer movie season is still in its infancy but after diasappointing films such as godzilla and fear and loathing in las vegas it would be nice to see a really good film but i doubt you could have expected this the truman show is one of the most unique films i have ever seen and it deserves a spot on the decade's best list there is no way to isolate any single component of this picture and proclaim yes that's what makes this film great the blend of peter weir's masterful and in many ways brilliant direction peter biziou's stunning photography and jim carrey's performance is what makes this film work so fantastically there is something strangely beautiful about every shot in the truman show it may be the use of color or the placement of characters in the frame but everything about this film looks intentional and perfect carrey has made a very wise choice by playing truman burbank he allows himself enough room to be comical and therefore not alienating his true fans while still showing a vulnerable and human side that is a side which has been missing from nearly every major character he has played in his numerous commercial successes truman burbank was born to an audience of millions he was chosen before birth to be the focus of a hour television show everything in his environment is controlled by a team of technicians led by the show's director christof played by ed harris everyone in truman's life is an actor or an extra they are all being watched by millions of people around the globe people who can tune in at any time of the day to see what is happening in truman's life but he is the only person that is not aware of it the classification of the truman show may be tricky the audience reacted to many of truman's revelations with laughter i did not laugh much during the film because i was so emotionally wrapped up with the character the things that made the audience laugh gave me glassy eyes because what was happening to him indeed what had been done to him his whole life was wrong so is this going to end up labeled as a comedy a drama it really depends on the audience but to me the truman show was a touching sad tale about the extents to which a corporation will go to exploit human life for the entertainment of others but above all else the truman show was a stunningly beautiful picture with humor heart and scary realism oscar predictions in june are pointless but if the truman show had been released on schedule in late fall or winter of as originally planned james cameron would be
positive	one way of telling if a film is good or not is by the length if a film is only minutes but feels like minutes then it's crap but if a film last hours and feels like minutes then it's excellent boogie nights falls into the latter catagory the director anderson delivers a funny hip yet sometimes violent film which flies along mark whalberg a k a marky mark plays eddie adams a seventeen year old with a certain in the midriff area jack horner reynolds is a adult film director who decides that eddie would be great in the adult movie business after running away from home eddie joins jack changes his name to dirk diggler and starts making erotic movies in the movie business dirk meets a whole load of characters which the film introduces very quickly and slickly such as scotty phillip seymour hoffman rollergirl graham amber moore and floyd phillip baker hall and little bill william h macy all the characters are well written well played and the audience gets to know them pretty well thanks to the excellent script we learn about ambers grief about not being able to see her child due to a divorce rollergirls hard time at school and little bills wife who sleeps with everyone except her husband but the best thing about the excellent boogie nights is paul andersons direction and writing the direction is fast thrilling and never holds up there are some great shots some lovely steadiocam and handheld camera sequences and lots of other neat directional touches the writing is fabulous with some intelligent dialogue some funny dialogue but none of the dialogue is crap like most hollywood films such as the lost world jurassic park or tommorow never dies boogie nights really is a spectacular feat of direction and writing on par and sometimes betters quentin tarantino's films resevoir dogs and pulp fiction the soundtrack is also excellent like american graffiti the film features some great old songs on the soundtrack which heightens the atmosphere and gives the film an extra lift also the costumes are great the clothes really do look like what people wore in the seventies and eighties the film although excellent does have some flaws firstly wahlberg although excellent cannot do highly scenes which require him to be angry in both scenes where he has to act angry his acting is so the scenes tension and anger is lost but the rest of the cast are excellent burt reynolds is brilliant julianne moore shows real emotion and william h macy is great aswell but he always is another flaw with the film though is that the ending seems a bit tacked on it seems anderson saw the film was going on a bit and needed to wrap up quickly it's a shame really as the rest of the film is perfectly paced but they're small niggles really boogie nights is an excellent film superb directing writing acting and music all combine to make one spectacular film whatever you do do not miss out on boogie nights
positive	it's ironic that the best films in cinema history are invariably the original director's cut of the film films such as aliens the abyss the wild bunch blade runner and terminator are all prime examples of a filmmaker's integrity later chopped up or mucked with by the studio the advent of the dvd format has provided a more accessible way to get these original cuts to the public and provide to film freaks like myself the ability to become further enraptured by the extension of such classic films the dvd release of the original international version of luc besson's masterpiece the professional which is known as l on around the world is a prime example of how a good film can become an instant classic as a director's cut for years i have heard of an international version available only in laserdisc format which has eluded me for years i even bought a laserdisc player from my uncle don for bucks just to watch certain directors' cuts including l on but after countless searches in laserdisc stores i could never find it until now the film follows the story of l on played by jean reno a professional hit man for an italian mob crew run by danny aiello he lives next door to a ferociously independent girl named mathilda played by then newcomer natalie portman whose father is involved in drugs and crooked cops one day a crew of the cops lead by gary oldman in an performance kills her entire family while mathilda is out buying groceries taking pity on her l on hides her in his apartment when she returns to save her life mathilda learns of l on's hit man profession and decides to follow in l on's footsteps as a cleaner she then falls in love with him and manages to reawaken emotions within l on he has kept locked away as part of his profession at this point the differences in the american version and the international version really kick in the international version contains an additional minutes of footage that pertains directly to the relationship of l on and mathilda footage that american censors deemed too explicit i assume that american censors feel that defining character development is too much for american audiences to handle the best part of this extra footage is that gives better understanding of both mathilda's and l on's motivations pertaining to later actions involving oldman and his crew of bad cops there's even a previously unseen cameo by the great french actor anglade star of queen margot besson's la femme nikita and killing zoe with these additional scenes replaced l on and matilda's relationship brings you emotionally closer to the film and draws stronger bonds between the characters that were murky in the american version the most ironic thing about the international version of the film is that with the inclusion of the missing scenes the film becomes primarily a heavy emotional drama punctuated with big action scenes at the beginning and the end of the film the film betters reflects the serious drama of french cinema but is laced with pieces reflecting the brutality of american cinema my advice to everyone out there is to throw away your copy of the professional throw down twenty bucks and pick up this newly restored cinematic masterpiece luc besson producer luc besson claude besson starring jean reno natalie portman gary oldman danny aiello
positive	while it was part of former yugoslavia my country croatia used to be almost completely ignored by western films in general words croatia and croatians were unheard even in movies whose plots actually took place on croatian locations the rare exception was the dogs of war adaptation of frederick forsyth's bestselling novel yet that rare occasion only added insult to the injury by mentioning croatians in most unflattering context in a single line they are referred as a bunch of mean people probably terrorists who happen to remove parts of arm dealers' stomachs when they are unsatisfied with the quality of merchandise same line also illustrates the milieu where the movie takes place dark and violent world of shady international deals with the blurred boundaries between business politics and crime the movie protagonist shannon christopher walken is a mercenary who spent the best years of his life fighting numerous little wars all over the globe his latest job is a intelligence mission for powerful mining corporation that demands information about political climate in west african nation of zangaro shannon arrives in that country only to find oppressive regime of president kimba bloodthirsty madman whose brutality crushed any opposition and scared almost any westerners away after being arrested and tortured by kimba's secret police shannon leaves country with a help of british journalist north colin blakely upon return he is approached by mining company again but this time they want him to plan and execute the coup d'etat against kimba shannon reluctantly agrees and assembles small group of his surviving mercenary friends who begin meticulous preparation for another small war thing that separates the dogs of war from conventional action movies especially those made in is its authenticity almost close to documentary it shouldn't surprise anyone because the author of the novel frederick forsyth made reputation by blending fiction with real life thus creating interesting exciting yet very believable plots for his books those plots were also responsible for few very successful thrillers and one of them zinnemman's the day of the jackal is now considered a classic in that genre this one deals with soldiers of fortune ancient tradition that was resurrected in great turmoil of and and filled the void left by vanishing colonial empires unlike wild geese that used it as a pretext for conventional action adventure script by george malko and gary de vore author whose death last year became real life mystery is serious and instead of action puts emphasis on characters and prosaic details of their work the movie doesn't try to romanticise the mercenary profession nor glorify mercenaries as some kind of superheroes they are simply shown as deadly yet expendable tool of powerful forces with questionable agenda christopher walken played in many movies yet very rarely we can see him in a leading role his performance in this film perhaps isn't breathtaking yet adequate his notoriously expressionless face is perfect illustration of the disillusioned weary man whose alienation from the normal way of life becomes complete and only remaining ideal is loyalty to the shrinking circle of friends although the movie doesn't lack capable actors their roles are miniature compared with walken's and only colin blakely as cynical reporter has opportunity to portray his character however those who look familiar faces would find them plenty in the dogs of war tom berenger paul freeman jo beth williams victoria tennant in brief cameo and biggest surprise is ed o'neill of married with children fame as shannon's reluctant colleague this was the first major production for john irvin and it shows why he earned the reputation of capable yet second class director with the good script he can make very good movie with the bad script he can make real mess luckily the dogs of war had a good script irvin's direction was very ascetic and it gave the movie almost documentary feel the only distraction is dramatic music of geoffrey burgon used on the wrong places in the final battle scene where we can see mercenaries at work irvin shows us that modern warfare means superior firepower and tactics unlike ramboesque fantasies that rely on macho superheroes unfortunately by making battle realistic irvin made it somewhat less attractive and his sloppy editing also didn't help but despite those shortcomings this movie remains interesting and rare combination of action thriller and gritty realistic political drama
positive	the happy bastard's quick movie review analyze this how does one do a comedy focused on the mob well a few years ago there was a sly little comedy called the freshman which had marlon brando doing a romp of a of his famous don corleone character and recently the utterly stupid in a bad way movie mafia failed to really get the joke this time around however warner bros may have gotten it right with analyze this a movie that hits its targets more than it misses and for plenty of reasons the story goes like this a mobster robert deniro finds himself receiving several panic attacks as of late fueled by the stress of an upcoming mobster meeting and a following a shooting it's these attacks that prompt him to hire a psychiatrist billy crystal who's mostly reluctant to take the mobster's case for two reasons first of course he's a mobster but secondly he's trying to get married and enjoy a quiet honeymoon with his wife lisa kudrow and kid and of course he can't rest worth for a moment because the mobster's goons are always needing the shrink for something be it a quick consultation or dream analyzation fortunately the movie is played out for plenty of laughs director harold ramis who also helmed the comedy multiplicity which wasn't half bad keeps the tone peppy and light even if it's sometimes sprinkled by slight dramatic moments shootings can't always be taken for laughs you know deniro does some of his finest comic work since the king of comedy giving off a somewhat similar performance to his role in goodfellas but with a bit of a lighter heart a scene where he tries to display his anger over the phone and fails miserably is hilarious crystal plays an excellent straight man to deniro's character uplifting him from such bombs as father's day and my giant kudrow is also a hoot as crystal's who's on the verge of a breakdown thanks to deniro's presence is the movie perfect not really thanks to a simplistic ending and some slightly wasted moments with a character portrayed by chazz palminteri he's a comic actor too come on give him some more but it is an enjoyable romp that lets deniro do something different but same for a change taking his dramatic act to a new field of comedy kudos to crystal and kudrow for not just making it his show either line of the movie crystal when you said you needed family therapy this is not the family i had in mind
positive	this is a film about secrets some that are innocent like those of a cute little farm girl frances boyd ashley others that are between a married couple that is impacting their relationship like the problems of infertility affecting this upwardly mobile couple geoffrey gaines stephen ramsey the medical researcher working for a big corporation called fex and striving to get a patent for his experiment and become recognized in his field and his artist wife lillian miriam who reluctantly stands behind her husband suppressing her natural artistic tendencies in order to make the marriage work and still other secrets that have a greater implication for the world and are deadly in a political sense of science carried out by the big corporations like it was a business run for the bottom line receiving a summer grant to study therapy geoffrey and his wife are hoping that a summer spent away from the intensity of the big city will bring back the romance that is dwindling from their marriage and that the casualness of the country atmosphere will give them more time together as their marriage has become shaky because he is more interested in his work than he is in her he has slyly managed to keep his work as secretive as possible by locking himself in the lab which is off limits to her as he secretly goes about conducting experiments on rats and mice convincing her that what he is doing is to benefit humanity with possible new treatments and cures to illnesses his main argument is that this is what the public wants they don't want to hear about how some animals had to die because of these experiments they just want the benefits of science that he is depicted as a monster creating another monster much like frankenstein was created is the argument skewed by the director against his bad science science as a business as opposed to the good science science that cares about the small farmer which is represented by the handsome and almost perfect gentleman alex vine david a young ecologist who chooses to work in the field trying to get the farmers to go back to organic farming he is hired by the university to monitor the dangers of pesticides and all the chemicals the farmer is almost forced to use to survive financially as it is doing irreparable harm to him and the consumer because of all the health risks attached to this new way of farming methods that have just come about in the last years and are being pushed by the big companies to enhance their profit margins the third view in all this is the artist's represented by lillian who points out that the artist's work is shown in public and scrutinized constantly why shouldn't the same be true of the scientist she argues that the artist is the watchdog for the public questioning what is good or evil in society something that bad science has completely ignored geoffrey impatient to get ahead with his research feels bogged down by the bureaucrats in his firm who fail to provide him with the three chimps he needs to experiment on as he contacts one of the company's higher ups to argue his case but decides he can't wait any longer for their help so he sets an animal trap in the countryside and catches chester the gorgeous pet dog of frances a dog that means so much to her and her family because he saved her life while out in the field with the bloodied trapped dog already in the back seat of his car he is spotted by alex and one of his and nervously invites them to dinner with his wife afraid that alex will spot what he is doing as he rushes away from the area in the dinner scene that was unfortunately flatly done but was nevertheless the heart of the film as all the main characters get a chance to speak out from the point of view they represent as they eat meat a means of getting protein that the radical scientists have eschewed since they became so politically correct about everything the scientists engage in a rational argument highlighting their different points of view while lillian reacts in an emotional way siding mostly with david's view but coming at it from a much different angle it was as if the actors were puppets on strings that the director controlled and they just spewed out their generalized philosophies that the director's point of view is absolutely right is beside the point the point is that the characters lost their humanity and became characters geoffrey was likened to a hideous monster alex vine was likened to his last name the one who holds fast to the ground ensuring that the plant has stability while lillian was likened to the muse of poetry and art the inspiration for goodness and beauty alex has been spending a lot of time together with lillian as these two seem to share the same views and are physically attracted to each other but when the time is ripe for an affair to take place between them lillian changes her mind and decides not to go up to alex's apartment geoffrey is already suspicious of alex and considers him an enemy and the marriage seems to be coming apart and all his cunning tricks to possess her are no longer working as it is now impossible to see any good in him and there becomes no reason why she would remain with him the relationship has disintegrated way beyond the point of her just feeling lonely the dog is discovered by alex and her in a deplorable state after geoffrey is seen by them electrically shocking it and mercifully the dog dies the only thing left for her to do is walk out of the marriage but she also fails to respond to david's loving gesture for her to stay with him instead opting to head back to the city the farmer whose dog was tortured to death comes into the scientist's lab and knocks him cold while he was in the middle of a phone conversation with one of the who told him all the animals he needs are on the way what is progress what can one expect out of life is the small farmer about to become extinct the answers to these questions can best be answered by either good science or art which are both closely related to the american natives vision of a world entrusted to mankind so that he can respect it and take care of it and enrich it with his creations to benefit mankind in a peaceful way that this work fails to be subtle and polarizes opinions leaving no room for deeper arguments is the shame of this decent and smart film that tried so hard to say what it felt it had to say but said it so loudly without trusting its audience to catch on to its message by not making everything seem so black and white no telling said a lot about the harmful trends it sees science going in it probably said too much and would have been better off if its vision was more poetical and less didactic there is something about listening to a lecture that turns off the rebel in me as i don't like being hit in the head with the truth but prefer to have it presented in the form that leads to inspiration or told metaphorically that is not to say that i found the film without considerable merit that inspite of its shortcomings it was worth seeing because of its visual statements though they were also not too subtle they were at least effective in setting up the intense mood that the film needed to show that there is a mental war going on currently of those who believe one way is right and others who differ with them and that anyone who is neutral must be considered an enemy because of their indifference the stakes in this ecological struggle are that high perhaps the most powerful visual statement in the film was the dead cow from pesticides shown in the opening scene it was the image that lillian spent her time painting all summer and had the same affect for her as did the animal faces in picasso's guernica had for him both artists envisioned the horrors that man could do against the world and represented this unspoken pain on the faces of the animals so that anyone who cares to really see what is going on will not mistake which side of the fence he or she should be on the pain that lillian feels as she forgets about her desires to raise a family and she stares at her painting of the cow and the song make the world go away blares out from the background after she has learned that frances' beautiful and loving dog has been brutalized by her monster of a husband all in the name of science had a raw power to it that personalizes the dangers of bad science perhaps the most pertinent question the film asks requires an answer that must be resolved by the farmers and the consumers who are most caught in the changing world and its new way of doing business as the question becomes can science be happily married with art
positive	this british import follows the adventures of a group of heroin crazed scottish youths there is marc renton who narrates spud the one sick boy the sean connery obsessive and begbee the violence obsessive powered by a top rate but not top name soundtrack iggy pop sleeper elastica lou reed the film follows renton who gets clean gets back into heroin and gets clean again some of the wit in this movie is sharp and pulp and some is just dumb dumber gross the bed sheets and stupid the bb gun although the film starts out on a comic note it takes a sharp term in the middle and becomes almost depressing the film is based on an irving welsh novel bearing the same title i can honestly say that this is one of the best movies i have ever seen it is an obscure gem that has been over shadowed in the us by such movies as mission impossible and the film is hard to follow with the heavy accents of the actors this is a very original film as far as films go today it definetly deserves multiple viewings partly because of the slang and accents jeremy dennison mr net
positive	you may not have heard of lucas or if you have you might not think much of it probably because it stars corey haim or maybe because it's about a little geek who collects insects or maybe because it doesn't feature slick or the chart topping soundtrack albums that were almost a requirement for teen films in the however you have been missing out on a true masterpeice the best film of and the best film about adolescent life ever made corey haim stars as lucas bligh a tiny year old with scruffy hair thick glasses and an interest in insects and other outdoor life one day he stops by the tennis courts and sees what must be an angel to him her name is maggie a year old who certainly is a beauty with lovely red hair and a sweet innocent complexion maggie seems to be a little disturbed by this little kid watching her but somehow he interests her and soon they are talking and getting to know one another they gradually become good friends and spend the summer together doing various things such as studying insects namely locusts who come out of hiding once every years playing tennis and listening to a symphony orchestra through a manhole cover lucas is obviously in love with maggie and while she is charmed by him it's clear that she would never consider him anything more than a very good friend this is not clear to lucas however he still beleives that maggie is his soulmate and he dreads the impending start of school because he knows what's about to happen we soon find out why in a painful scene where lucas is humiliated by the jocks during a pep rally they throw him on stage right in front of his beloved maggie surprisingly he turns the tables on the jocks with some clowning around but he takes it too far and is embarassed in front of the entire school the next scene is brilliant maggie follows lucas outside of the pep rally she tries to talk to him as if nothing happened he rails back against her in a cruel unfair fashion in lesser movies this would've turned into a confrontation between the two characters but maggie is written smarter than that she understands what lucas is feeling and knows exactly what to say to console him next we are introduced to another great character named cappie charlie sheen he is a jock with a typical cheerleader girlfriend what's interesting about him is that he sticks up for lucas and protects him from the other jocks of course anyone with a brain can tell what's gonna happen next cappie will cause conflict in maggie and lucas' relationship this begins in classic scene in the school laundry room when cappie and maggie are alone she's been assigned to show him how to operate the so he can clean his shirt maggie is charmed by cappie's tender undertsanding demeanor not to mention his shirtless body this scene is so delicate and sweet but cappie still has a girlfriend preventing either one from acting on their desires desperately trying to puncture the tension cappie begins to kick basketballs around the room it's not long before cappie does break up with his girlfriend in the films only subpar scene lucas finally figures out what's going on when he tries to pick maggie up for the dance this causes him to take severe actions to prove himself to maggie and himself such as try out for the football team the last third of the film revolves around this attempt while the idea seems cliched the way it is executed is not there are many surprises during the last half hour which lead to an ending so emotionally involving it should make the most heartless of cynics get choked up dave grusin's memorable score played at the perfect moments certainly helps lucas is filled with great performances forget everything you know about corey haim back in he had talent and that is proven here as he delivers a perfect fully performance filled with anger humor and pain kerri green is very appealing as maggie showing us why she cares about lucas so much and why he is so attracted to her sheen's cappie is almost too good to be true but sheen makes him beleivable especially when he explains the reason why he protects lucas there are other wonderful minor characters such as ciro popitti's ben a friend of lucas whose diminutive stature does not mean he will take crap from the jocks also turning up in a few key scenes is winona ryder as rina the girl who admires lucas from afar when people talk about the great teen angst films of the you hear john hughes this and john hughes that lucas seems to be lost among the crowd of his classics but hopefully like with heathers and say anything lucas can begin to find it's own loyal following and help people realize there were more to the than anthony michael hall and molly ringwald it deserves more than that but i don't want to be greedy
positive	in arguably the most anticipated movie this century george lucas has achieved a very mixed reaction to a sure blockbuster despite the fact the script and plot is a bit of a let down the entire movie on the whole can be considered a milestone in technical excellence in the sound and special effects department in terms of characters by far the most outstanding and interesting is queen amidala natalie portman whose mature performance far exceeds her tender years of age she is one hot' babe who defines true woman leadership' she not only has a presence but knows how to take command of the situation and save her planet from ruination no thanks to the jedi knights who although led by the force lack leadership qualities in terms of thinking up a plan to do anything the young kenobi ewan mcgregor who has a bad hair day in every scene gets to kill a bad guy in the end but lacks a love interest to make him a desirable sort of hero in fact all the jedi knight are a bit asexual there must be something about the force which makes them all hermits and loners i mean it would be interesting to see yoda's girlfriend for a change if he has one not much better is jinn liam neeson who mostly broods and has a better hair do than but only to find the young anakin skywalker and make the biggest mistake of his life also fascinating is george lucas metoclorian' theory which claims that live within our cells and tie us to the fabric of the universe and it is the high concentrations of these organisms in an individual which make them particularly powerful in the force more humerous are the claims to the immaculate conception of darth vader no doubt a concept stolen from the christian faith except there will be no christmas to celebrate the birth of this dark emissary of the force overall an experience which is not to be missed because of the very fact that it's predecessor almost command a viewing of this inferior successor by all means not the pinnacle of the star wars phenomena but an adequate addition to the clan watch out for the next one it should be one steamy encounter between queen amidala and anakin skywalker who i believe should be portrayed by leonardo di caprio
positive	felix sami bouajila the siege lives a contented life with his boyfriend daniel rajot in the little town of dieppe in northern france when he is laid off from his job after discovering the address of the father who abandoned him before he was born he decides to journey to marseilles in the south to find the man he never met in the adventures of felix olivier ducastel and jacques martineau made their debut with the musical comedy jeanne and the perfect guy embracing that typically american genre their second effort the adventures of felix once again borrows from america with a tale of a young man who hits the road to find himself felix is happy with his life in dieppe but when the ferry company he works for falls prey to the economics of the chunnel he is out of a job and at loose ends when he goes through his late mother's papers he learns that the father he never knew is living in marseilles hundreds of miles away felix makes the snap decision to journey to the south puts together a supply of cocktails for his hiv virus kisses daniel goodbye and heads off on foot he refuses to use trains and wants to avoid big cities as he hitchhikes across france to find his destiny along the way a series of chance encounters with various strangers teaches felix that family is not always made up of blood relations on the road he witnesses a mugging that turns into murder and frightened for his own safety runs away without telling the police following this harrowing experience he has his first chance meeting that begins the unconscious construction of his ideal family his journey brings him to rouen and the film's first title section my little brother where he meets jules a young art student who becomes smitten with felix they steal a car and develop a chaste brotherly affection before felix must move on he next meets elderly mathilde patachou in the chapter titled my grandmother and soon learns that she too has a fondness for the same tv soap opera that felix has grown addicted to she wants him to stay with her but he must continue on his way to find his father in the weakest chapter of felix's road trip titled my cousin he meets a railroad worker philippe garziano and has a brief sexual encounter before heading off once again toward marseilles he next helps a stranded lady motorist isabelle ariane ascaride and shags a ride with her and her three kids each with a different daddy in the sequence titled my sister he is torn by the inner turmoil of not going to the police about the murder he witnessed and isabelle comforts him just as a sister would on the final leg of the journey titled my father he meets an older man a fisherman maurice benichou who enlightens him about the real facts of life and family while they fly felix's kite just like a father and son the adventures of felix has a number of things going for it as we follow felix on his journey of discovery first and foremost is the charming performance by sami bouajila as felix he is a likable guy fighting his hiv with his doses of cocktails and lights up the screen as he makes the long walk often with dance and song to find his father and himself as he encounters each member of his new family promising each that he will send a postcard when he arrives at his final destination he grows a little bit more spiritually and emotionally bouajila does a terrific job holding center stage on the screen the cast of characters making up felix's family are nearly as charming as the star each in their own way patachou especially is wonderful as the grandma character and a kindred spirit to felix ariane ascaride along with her kids gives a perf that really makes you think of her as the sister that the young man never had only the cousin chapter lacks the emotional depth of the rest and feels like a perfunctory addition to felix's family the adventures of felix does not reinvent the road movie but it does provide a charismatic telling of a young man's journey to find himself and to his surprise his discovery is dramatically different than he expected at the beginning it helps that cinematographer matthieu crisp lensing compliments the story perfectly as felix moves across the french countryside i give it a
positive	i know that funnest isn't a word fun is a noun and therefore cannot be conjugated like an adjective but that's the word that came to me right after viewing chicken run no wonder this is the kind of movie that reduces you to childish expressions like that was the funnest movie i've ever seen so to hell with webster's chicken run is one of the funnest movies i've seen in a while i can't remember the last time i've seen anything funner the chickens at tweedy's farm are up to something living in a concentration atmosphere they are led by one plucky hen called ginger voice of julia sawalha who continually comes up with plans for escape and always gets caught subsequently spending day after day in the coal box one night a brash american rooster flies in over the fence calling himself rocky mel gibson famous flying rooster and circus performer rocky promises to teach the chickens how to fly and the situation grows more desperate as the nefarious mrs tweedy miranda richardson decides to abandon the farm's plan for a plan she orders a huge machine cackling chickens go in pies come out what sort of pies chicken pies of course nick park and his studio aardman animation produced three short films creature comforts the wrong trousers and a close shave the latter two were the second and third installments of a trilogy starring the delightful team wallace gromit a man and his dog famous for getting themselves into increasingly peculiar adventures part of what made the wallace films brilliantly entertaining was park's uncanny ability to make an old story seem new the wrong trousers for example pulled out a lot of old hitchcockian suspense tricks and a close shave owed a great deal of inspiration to classic detective stories but in the hands of park and his team the stories felt fresh and inspired and not the least bit contrived now teaming with peter lord park has created a similar creature in chicken run the plot is largely lifted from the great escape watch for a quick reference to the scene with some action sequences providing the excitement thing is the film doesn't feel like it's been lifted from somewhere else chicken run feels fresh alive like nothing else ever done part of it is the original idea who in the world came up with the idea to make a movie starring chickens park and lord milk the incongruity for all it's worth the characters treat their situation as if it were dead serious and to them it is but they're chickens so it's funny to us another thing that helps chicken run and most of park's films succeed is the animators' subtle way of giving nods to the very films they're cribbing there are references to the great escape obviously and stalag the chase sequence inside the chicken grinder parodies both raiders of the lost ark and indiana jones and the temple of doom there's even a nod to the blues brothers if you can believe it and the filmmakers even get in a little ribbing at the expense of their star voice actor taking a couple of very subtle jabs at mel gibson's nationality and film history the braveheart reference is a hoot if you catch it when you consider just how fine a line resides between a funny parody and a redundant one chicken run is downright brilliant in its execution consider this since july of last year i've seen dozens upon dozens of blair witch project parodies on television on the radio and online out of all those maybe one or two were amusing the rest tiresome why because once you got past the thought that they're parodying that witch' movie most of the parodies had nothing to offer no insight no original idea no greater purpose they were only funny if you had seen the movie otherwise you got nothing conversely chicken run doesn't lean on its parodies the film references are never the sole focus of any scene if you've never seen indiana jones the chase sequence is still fun even if you have no idea who mel gibson is rocky remains an interesting character park lord and screenwriter karey kirkpatrick realize that an audience does not need a parody shoved in their faces before it's understood and as a result chicken run is filled with visual and verbal jabs that are never too obvious but not quite vague either enjoyment of this movie doesn't require knowledge of film history but if you've got it chicken run is that much richer the voice cast turns in uniformly lively performances and the characters they play are given so many subtle nuances that it's hard not to fall in love with every one of them ginger is perfect spunky and opinionated but with a soft heart that forbids her to leave her companions behind and julia sawalha known as the cute mousy girl on absolutely fabulous nails it she has warm human chemistry with gibson whose rocky hides his personal doubt under a brash veneer the characters' inevitable romance doesn't feel contrived but sweet poor mr tweedy tony haygarth suspects the chickens are organizing in some way but his limited intellect prevents him from figuring things out and his overbearing wife certainly isn't any help jane horrocks delivers a lovely voice characterization as tragically optimistic babs a hen that runs away with most of the best all while perpetually crocheting a sweater and two rats that seem to have walked straight out of a monty python sketch nearly steal the show during the lively central sequence they even come up with an inspired riff on something that's baffled scholars and theologians alike for decades the chicken vs egg dilemma one might have expected this inevitable joke to come off as wearisome but as with most of chicken run it comes as a delightful surprise the film manages to cross all barriers it should be accessible to both children and adults brits and yanks rats and chickens the animation is remember that this was all done the way with actual humans moving clay figurines around on a tiny set bit by painstaking bit and you see just how truly remarkable chicken run really is this movie possesses that same quality that makes pixar studios' animation great precise and unwavering attention to detail as in such family fare as a bug's life or toy story chicken run has something to offer in nearly every frame certainly a passive viewer can enjoy it as a straightforward story with a worthwhile moral and some surprisingly touching scenes but a active attentive viewers will enjoy it even more because they'll catch all the details anyway the movie's just a boatload of fun funnest damn movie i've seen all year
positive	after the press screening of moulin rouge i stood in the lobby of the theater listening to the reactions of my friends and colleagues everyone seemed a bit numb understandable after sitting through a barrage of sounds and images a pal of mine simply said that he loved the film and could hardly wait to take his wife to see it another enthusiast immediately began to analyze the production while a woman who hated the movie gave him the skunk eye when one fellow quietly stated i've never really been a fan of musicals the statement surprised me because even though the story is told almost completely through song i didn't think of it as a musical there is so much going on in moulin rouge that musical seems too small a term to cover it moulin rouge is the kind of creation that sends critics scurrying off to the big tub o' adjectives in search of proper words to describe the experience australian director baz luhrmann the man behind strictly ballroom and romeo juliet fills the heads of viewers with unique camerawork opulent imagery and songs ranging from the sound of music to smells like teen spirit sumptuous and beautiful vulgar and overdone moulin rogue travels through the looking glass while an ethereal stereo loaded with years worth of catchy tunes operates on the random setting oh and it has a story as well it was the summer of love christian ewan mcgregor is a penniless young writer newly arrived in paris to write about truth beauty freedom and love where he encounters a group of bohemians led by henri de john leguizamo christian meets satine nicole kidman a courtesan from the legendary moulin rogue and his world transforms from black and white to technicolor at once fragile and vivacious the dazzling woman sweeps him off his feet without even trying christian instantly falls in love with her and satine finds herself smitten with him as well which is quite a hindrance for someone in her profession working with the bohemians and moulin rogue impresario harold zidler jim broadbent christian writes an opus modestly named spectacular spectacular zidler quickly finds a backer the wealthy duke of monroth richard roxburgh but there's a catch the duke also wants the hand of the fair satine as if all that isn't enough satine has a cough and while a cough in the real world probably indicates a cold it rarely turns out to be anything that simple in movie land like a moulin rogue moves up and down between the ridiculous and the sublime one of the loveliest moments comes as christine and satine commune outdoors at night becoming part of a defiantly unrealistic parisian cityscape straight from a book of fairy tales together they dance while serenaded by the man in the moon alessandro safina provides the vocals apparently transported from the classic georges m li s silent film to guard the nocturnal sky other scenes merely traffic in overload the cavorting of and his comrades gets strained at times and some of their overt comedy accompanied by cartoon sound effects is overly reminiscent of the frenzied farce that sitcoms like bewitched beat into the ground of course sensory overload was exactly what baz luhrmann had in mind we never heard from baz to turn it down one of the actors told the los angeles times it was always more the director even sent a note to his cast reading i dare you to make me say you've gone too far the musical numbers reflect his attitude one knockout piece the elephant love medley incorporates the beatles' all you need is love in the name of love dolly parton's i will always love you and elton john and bernie taupin's your song need more how about diamonds are a girl's best friend spiced with portions of material girl luhrmann's cast offers a wide variety of approaches that together add up to something messy but often wonderful ewan mcgregor is extremely likable as christian emphasizing the sincerity of the poet mcgregor's singing voice is robust and adds vigor at just the right moments once labeled the ice queen nicole kidman melts that characterization with a sizzling yet tender performance she handles the songs adroitly although her voice sounds a bit thin in the upper range veteran character actor jim broadbent is suitably larger than life as ringmaster zidler wait until you see him perform like a virgin as the buffoonish duke richard roxburgh proves to be the film's weakest link although i'm sure he was simply following instructions i suspect moulin rogue will be one of those films while i didn't completely love it i most certainly liked it a lot over the course of a year i see well over movies and most of them look like xeroxes of each other moulin rogue is an original and an original even a flawed one is a thing to be cherished
positive	living out loud is the type of motion picture we don't often see it is a film about mature intelligent adults instead of the usual american film in which children basically dress up in clothing and parade around acting like immature judith holly hunter a fortysomething living in new york city has been having a difficult time with life lately she is extremely depressed about her recent divorce to her husband martin donovan who had been cheating on her she cannot sleep haunted by terrible memories often imagines things to try and make the world seem like a better place and the only place she can really go to feel happy is to hear one of her favorite singers liz bailey queen latifah perform at a local club judith's life does start to brighten a little when one night when she gets home to her apartment late strikes up a conversation with the elevator operator pat danny devito a lonely man in his fifties whom has lost his daughter recently both of them create a sort of emotional connection with each other seeking comfort with the other person but while pat starts to form a deep love for her judith only wants to remain friends living out loud which was written by richard lagravenese the bridges of madison county who is also making his directing debut here is a wonderful film from beginning to end one that is honest genuinely funny and poignant the three central characters that of judith pat and liz are all written to be complex human beings and are all likable but flawed people who are constantly interesting as is the film itself one highly original element of the film is that judith occasionally imagines things occuring in her mind in the way she wishes they would happen sometimes it results in comedy and sometimes it turns out to be subtle and truly touching one sequence that stands out is when judith is at a restaurant by herself reading a novel an older woman comes over to her mentions that that is a great book she is reading and then goes over to join her own friends as the woman sits down she looks over to see judith by herself and motions for her to come join them instantly we realize this was simply in judith's mind as we see the same woman just sit down at the table and begin talking to her friends holly hunter and danny devito both give the performances of their careers here hunter of course was brilliant in the piano for which she won an academy award but in this film she is even better i think she finds the right note for each scene and holds it and devito has never had such a humanistic role before which i was surprised about usually he is used as the butt of a joke or as a caricature but in this film has a sympathetic person to play topping it all off is latifah also a singer who is quickly turning into a respectable actress herself and has a juicy natural supporting role as in some ways judith's role model another joy of the film is that it does not somehow form a contrived happy ending but in staying with its realistic tone manages to be upbeat but truthful the last shot is an especially powerful image nothing is said but just the image of someone walking down a sidewalk says it all the relationship that results between judith and pat is and sincere as we watch these two people talk and get to know each other all that we wish for them both is to be happy even if that does not include for them to become romantically involved and as living out loud which is one of the best films of the year proves sometimes a friendship is the strongest bond anyone could possibly ask for
positive	behave felicity shagwell is one shagadellic babe do i make your horny female fembots with breasts that require gun controlling anything that resembles bananas and two balls of icecream the finale between mini me and austin all that body hair is a real turn on it's a pity more leading men don't wear it on screen anything that vaguely resembles sausages and eggs fat bastard the love scene between felicity and fat bastard that redefines sex the wrongly implied love scene in the tent that redefines anal sex the love scene between austin and ivana humpalot that redefines chess and oral sex the love scene between dr evil and frau farbissina that redefines weird sex the love affair between austin and felicity that does not happen because his mojo goes missing the relationship between dr evil himself and mini me which redefines a solo love affair the unique relationship between dr evil and his son scott www com zip that says a lot about our relationship with our children nowadays weanies johnny richard dick etc this movie is every bit as silly and crazy as the first there are moments that will make your sick which are probably best forgotten but overall mike myers has redefined what it means to be an international spy and leading man
positive	written by john grisham and robert altman as al hayes directed by robert altman some time ago a young director was given the opportunity to direct the screen version of a popular novel the novel was a summer smash topping lists across the country and already drawing speculation as to which popular actors of the day might play the leads the only problem the novel wasn't very good it was far more pulp than pulitzer but the director realized that no matter how pedestrian the prose this book really grabbed people that the author while not a great writer was a fantastic storyteller so he took on the project convinced he could make something happen on screen the director francis ford coppola the book of course was mario puzo's the godfather the rest as they say in showbiz was history by bringing up the godfather i don't mean to suggest that robert altman's the gingerbread man is destined for that level of greatness but the parallel does suggest that it is possible to create great cinema from questionable source material can you get any more questionable than john grisham depends on whom you ask but there's no question that grisham's work grabs people like puzo grisham is a better storyteller than a writer unlike fellow hack michael crichton who is a good idea man but who can't tell a story from a can of spam so something in grisham's unpublished story of a cocky savannah lawyer who gets involved in a deadly family squabble drew the attention of robert altman who at years old remains one of america's greatest living filmmakers the result is a gripping thriller that while falling short of classic cinema deserves its place in the altman canon its opening shot to the closing credits the gingerbread man is permeated with a sense of dread with a fear of the natural destructive forces of the universe this terrific sense of mood is a classic altman touch witness said opening shot we see an aerial view of coastal georgia with its writhing undulating landscape while the soundtrack grumbles ominously in our ear we roll over the hills into the town of savannah then zoom in close on a red sports car speeding over a bridge while its driver chatters oblivious on his cell phone right away we know that the driver of that car is in for a few surprises pay attention boys and girls this shot was not conceived by john grisham but by altman this is what a great director can do for questionable source material the sports car belongs to rick magruder kenneth branagh the aforementioned hotshot attorney who specializes in police brutality cases magruder has just won a high profile case and celebrates that night with a catered party at his office outside after the party he meets one of the waitresses mallory doss embeth davidzt just as she realizes her car has been stolen driven by southern chivalry a driving rainstorm and his unspoken attraction to the fragile waitress magruder offers her a ride home there he learns more about mallory's life than he bargained for her car was stolen by her schizophrenic father dixon robert duvall a ted whacko who has been stalking and terrorizing his own daughter magruder perhaps influenced by mallory's decision to strip off her wet clothes in front of him is sympathetic to her plight and offers to help her get her father committed right after he sleeps with her of course this simple offer of help leads magruder down a dangerous path with a black end he succeeds in having dixon incarcerated in a mental hospital and for a moment all appears well but then dixon's crack team of homeless commandos bust him out of the lockup and suddenly magruder finds himself mallory and his own children in danger the cops won't lift a finger to help a liberal attorney his only allies are his faithful assistant lois daryl hannah and his bumbling sidekick clyde robert downey jr if this predicament wasn't bad enough hurricane geraldo is bearing down on savannah and throwing the world into chaos altman may provide the atmosphere but branagh's performance holds the gingerbread man together an accomplished actor when he isn't directing himself in vanity productions branagh does a fine job of making rick a sympathetic hero while casting doubt upon his motives is his offer of help to mallory an act of kindness or of egotism magruder is so sure of his place in the world that he never considers that he has bitten off more than he can chew until he has to swallow it and by then it's too late as the plot unfolds magruder learns that none of us are as secure as we think we are and life is never so bad that it can't get worse if you're familiar with altman's work you'll recognize several of his signature techniques characters are not introduced in establishing shots but rather are allowed to wander in the background of scenes until their importance becomes apparent crucial scenes are shot from the outside through windows making the audience unwitting voyeurs of the action dialog overlaps and the actors seem to slip naturally into an improvisational style and of course there's my favorite altman technique the obligatory nude actress shot thanks to altman here are some of the actresses i've had the pleasure of seeing naked sally kellerman julianne moore madeline stowe even frances mcdormand and now i can add embeth davidtz who looks quite healthy in the altogether the naked actress shot has become as ubiquitous to the altman film as the director cameo was to the hitchcock film is it sexism or a clever you be the judge but back to the picture at hand in the hands of a mere mortal the gingerbread man would have been a routine thriller no better or worse than the countless others we've all endured in the hands of a master like altman it becomes an exercise in existential doom in its own way far more successful than scorsese's cape fear remake which tried for the same result what may prevent it from enduring with altman's greatest work is a weak third act in fact there really is no third act in grisham's story so it appears that altman had to throw in the hurricane just to jazz things up but there are true moments of riveting suspense and great performances by branagh davidzt and downey jr more than enough to see you through that polygram so hated this picture that they tried to steal final cut from altman and then buried the marketing campaign when he won it back should tell you how utterly clueless of quality most studios are they probably wanted it to look more like a time to kill and that my friends should make you very afraid
positive	october sky is a rare oddity in cinema a uplifting film that is actually uplifting based on the autobiographical book by homer hickam rocket boys october sky tells the struggle of four boys reaching for their dream it's and for the boys of coalwood west virginia there's not much hope of a rosy future coalwood is a coal mining town and except for the few lucky ones who manage to escape on a football scholarship most of coalwood's boys are destined to work in the mine but in october an event happens that sparks one boy to dream the launch of the soviet satellite sputnik sets homer hickam jake gyllenhaal to dream a future of rocketry and space travel of course homer's parents chris cooper and natalie canderday aren't quite sure what to make of their son's unusual interests homer gets his strongest encouragement from miss riley laura dern a teacher in his school who also informs him about the scholarships offered to the winners of a national science fair and so with stars in his eyes and thoughts of scholarships in his head homer enlists the help of three other boys william lee scott chad lindberg and chris owen and begins to build a rocket but do these four backwoods boys even have the slightest hope of escaping their destiny there is a lot that could have gone wrong with october sky nearly every sequence flirts with becoming syrupy and cliched however miraculously october sky avoids nearly all of these pitfalls making the exact right moves at the exact right times a film emerges which manages to be powerful and moving without slipping into the gauzy haze of nostalgia or sliding down the sugarry slope of sappiness jake gyllenhaal is outstanding as the kid at the center of this film the outset of the film he is immediately likable and never seems too corny or brainy as to alienate the audience unfortunately while october sky focuses on homer the other three kids get the short end of the stick they remain little more than placeholders reading insert friend here of the adults in the film chris cooper is the most fully realized character the film never paints him as merely the villainous parent standing in the way of his child's dreams but instead shows the multihued portrait of a man who wants the best for his family and town but is too stubborn to realize what that is director joe johnson deserves much credit for successfully navigating the many obstacles that october sky manages to dodge however there are still a few occasions when he allows things to proceed just a step too far scenes which were natural and inspiring start to become contrived and artificial however these lapses are minimal and johnson quickly steers the movie back on course the problem with many uplifting films is that they attempt to force their mediciney goodness down your throat october sky never resorts to that level and yet manages to become a truly uplifting film purely on its own merits
positive	this three hour movie opens up with a view of frank zappa rehearsing with his fellow band members all the rest displays a compilation of footage mostly from the concert at the palladium in new york city halloween other footage shows backstage foolishness and amazing clay animation by bruce bickford the performance of titties and beer played in this movie is very entertaining with drummer terry bozzio supplying the voice of the devil frank's guitar solos outdo any van halen or hendrix i've ever heard bruce bickford's outlandish clay animation is that beyond belief with zooms morphings etc and actually it doesn't even look like clay it looks like meat
positive	while watching boiler room i was constantly reminded of last year's masterpiece fight club both films consist of a predominately male cast both films follow young men as they illicitly fight the traditional system for their own desires and both films are seen through the eyes of one narrator who eventually realizes that these men have to be stopped while boiler room ben younger does not get his point across as well as david fincher does for fight club he does contribute another impressive work to a series of films aiming to represent the new generation a generation which has seen the internet prosper and where everyone wants to be a millionaire paying homage to oliver stone's classic wall street younger is almost modernizing the tale by using younger hipper actors to play the greedy villains as opposed to the older more experienced types as is true in real life younger minds are becoming richer and richer from their knowledge of more standard technology boiler room dismisses the notion of ingenuity and shows that greed and desire for power come in all ages another similarity with fight club is that both films are not action flicks some people are convinced that an cast automatically means there must be gory violence here is proof that this is not true if you want to see an action movie starring ben affleck go see reindeer games this weekend if you want to see a smart insightful film with excellent acting and a clever script see boiler room giovanni ribisi gives an outstanding performance as the film's narrator seth after dropping out of college and running a lucrative gambling center for college students in his apartment seth is offered a high paying job by a wealthy man nicky katt he agrees to take the job in which you are guaranteed to become a millionaire within three years of selling stock to americans from the over the telephone and begins to fit in quite well with his learning tricky techniques to deceive innocent people into buying shares of a good in production seth figures this is too good to be true after stumbling into a room at the wrong time he knows there is something no good about this company at this point seth is left with the ultimate choice continue with the american dream and make millions or tell the authorities that something fishy is going on ribisi is believable as seth especially when he shares scenes with ron rifkin playing seth's dad the two have perfect chemistry as a troubled father and son trying to impress each other and simultaneously impress themselves the transitions from anger to sympathy that these scenes contain are the standout segments of the entire film the supporting cast of greedy is also flawless ben affleck shines in a short but sweet performance as a recruiter for the company nicky katt is fabulous as the ostensibly friendly boss who eventually becomes extremely jealous of seth and vin diesel gives his best performance of his career as the foil character of nicky katt the energy of the cast as a whole makes boiler room well paced and never boring the only major error in the film is that nothing major happens there is no big plot twist or climatic point to make the film more memorable due to the lack of a major event boiler room never finds a suitable genre to fit into the movie is not intense enough to be a thriller the romantic segments involving seth and abby nia long are not properly finalized and the dialogue isn't funny enough to make it a comedy in having trouble to characterize the movie as a whole boiler room is slightly confused at times it doesn't seem to know which category to fit itself into one satisfying concluding scene could have changed the whole film for the better otherwise the movie is fun to watch thanks to its lively cast of young actors
positive	ok let's get one thing straight right away maximum risk is no battleship potemkin although it does have some russians in it but it's not too bad really it's the new film from ringo lam the latest hong kong filmmaker to defect to hollywood and stars that minor league schwartzeneggar from belgium van damme who you will recall also starred in john woo's maiden hollywood effort hard target in lam's film van damme plays alain moreau a french cop at least his accent makes more sense here than it did in hard target who discovers that he was separated shortly after birth from a twin brother who was adopted by russians these russians defected to the united states and moved into a black neighbourhood in new york where i suppose they thought they wouldn't be noticed this brother mikhail suverov played in his few scenes by well you know becomes deeply involved in the russian mafia and the fbi almost the same thing i guess and is killed in france in the movie things happen so fast that you don't have too much time to think about how weird this all is moreau does what any good surviving twin brother would do and goes to new york to find out why mikhail was killed and why everyone in france who knows anything about him is also being killed we wonder the same thing i still do in little odessa he meets mikhail's girlfriend alex natasha henstridge last seen in species who helps him solve the mystery and adds immeasurably to the she has very nice breasts and we get to seen them briefly in this movie it was rated r in the us but is pg here so they must have seen more of her breasts than we do this film lacks the gloss and high production values of such other action movies as broken arrow the fugitive hard target or anything starring arnold but that works to its benefit i think after all one thing that's been missing from woo's hollywood films is that certain hong kong funkiness that we all know and love well some of us do movies like this shouldn't be too pretentious and that is part of the problem with some of these other films they try to be too big in terms of special effects and sheer spectacle maximum risk has its share of car chases and explosions but they don't overwhelm the movie or detract our attention from the narrative not too much anyway the emphasis throughout is on the characters and their interactions even if at times they don't make a hell of a lot of sense in fact one of the more interesting aspects of the film is a minor character a rather overeager new york cabbie frank van keeken from tv's kids in the hall who begins as something of a joke but becomes an important part of the story unfortunately by the time we have come to really get interested in him he well you'll see the movie also features some set pieces of the type that we have come to expect from lam and his hong kong compatriots one is a fight in a russian sauna with lots of sweaty muscular male flesh this one will appeal to certain parts of the audience more than others bullets in heads and vodka another my personal favorite is a fight in a meat packing house featuring pig carcasses and a chainsaw and even the predictable car chases are more hong kong than hollywood as they trash those quaint french cafes vegetable carts and well french people that we all know in our hearts deserve trashing just for being so damn quaint of course the movie does have its share of silliness for example while beating the crap out of an obnoxious russian thug who obviously deserves what he's getting alain stops long enough to look at his own reflection in the cracked mirror with which he has been whacking the guy on the head in an unnecessarily dramatic moment he apparently is shocked at what he sees at what he has become but what has he become a tough cop who beats the hell out of a guy who tried to kill him doesn't sound too unreasonable to me considering the genre but let's face it any time van damme tries to be dramatic he looks silly so maximum risk is a little different from most other action films while watching it i was surprised and a little disappointed in the relative lack of pyrotechnics but watching some of these other action films is sort of like experiencing a sugar rush after the initial excitement there's not much left although it's short on spectacle lam's film leaves a better and more lasting impression i think i'm more impressed by it now than i was while watching it and to me that's a good sign go see maximum risk but don't expect a typical hollywood action movie expect a sort of funky hong action movie the flying inkpot rating system wait for the broadcast a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice dr t white teaches film at the english language and literature department of the national university of singapore but we don't hold this against him
positive	trailing the success of brit humour in the movie industry with the likes of the the commitments and the nearly slapstick a fish called wanda the full monty is one film which delivered the depth of the former and the humour magnitude of the latter the film opens with a narrated documentary reel showing the improving economic and living standards of sheffield in the then cut to the harsh reality of the present sheffield has become some sort of a with the only visible increase in anything was the amount of layoffs from a once flourishing industry gaz carlyle spends most of his time in the worker's club a sort of place where jobless people sit around to wait for job offers he and his friend dave addy as well as their former foreman gerald wilkinson have been sitting around the club for months without any for duty' what seemingly was just a passing hard time for gaz suddenly transformed itself into desperation when he cannot afford the pounds of money to his suddenly finding himself facing the possiblity of losing custody of his son he goes on to concoct an enterprising to get the money he desperately requires dave and gerald too have problems of their own on top of his lack of employment dave is also faced with the paranoia of his wife leaving him because of his current financial state as well as appearance while gerald have been cheating on his wife by not telling her of his layoff for as long as months leaving home for when he was actually a member of the worker's club there we have it people with real problems and a solution for them gaz manages to get the support from them and sure enough they managed to get a few other poor jobless blokes to join in their gag to perform a at the local pub in gaz's own words while looking at an add for a featuring hunky men women are willing to pay for this they sure as well will pay for the full monty is very simple in nature and not a trace ambitious at all it is a small film which delves in the of unemployment and the desperation it drives people to it also is a very light movie to watch despite the theme it delves in because it has a lot of going for it never for once was it trying to be manipulative at all the full monty was true to itself all the way while the hilarity level of this film soared unexpectedly high audience will find that they are in no way being cheated of a laugh something lacking in many comedy films wannabes from hollywood other than carlyle who acted as the psychotic begbie in trainspotting the rest of the actors were definitely very new to me however the acting presented in this film is more than satisfying carlyle's work here is a stark contrast to his character in trainspotting implying real acting skill and flexibility kudos to the people involved in this film especially to director peter cattaneo for being able to put together an excellent film which is has so much potential in ending up as your already a critical and financial success for such a small film the full monty is a humble film which deserves applause throughout while titanic managed to feast the eyes and soul in an epic way the full monty gives one the same satisfaction in half the time
positive	you'll go ape over tarzan because it's more fun than a barrel of monkeys okay there's the quote in case disney wants to put something in their ads for the movie disney's latest animated feature throws us right into the action from the very beginning skipping the usual main title sequence and putting us on pitching waves as a small family attempts to escape from a sinking ship father mother and infant somehow make it to shore amidst a rousing song by phil collins and have soon built a treehouse which would impress the swiss family robinson it's amazing the kinds of things you can do when you work to a soundtrack before you know it an unfortunate set of circumstances put the baby in the hands of kala glenn close a mother ape who recently lost her own baby to a predatory leopard against the wishes of her mate and family leader kerchak lance henricksen she takes on the infant boy as her own tarzan is not so much a story about a human boy surviving in the african jungles as it is about one who does not really fit in either humanity or the wild much of tarzan's young life is spent trying to become one of the apes in the eyes of his peers and his father which occasionally gets him into trouble no matter how his attempts all he's looking for is acceptance perhaps a goal easily identifiable by young viewers but one which will ring true with a lot of adults when you really think about it this story fits right into the disney formula of the outcast that triumphs in the end look back on past disney animated features and you'll see the trend growing up tarzan voiced by alex d linz as a child and by tony goldwyn as an adult has a couple of friends one is an ape named terk rosie o'donnell and the other is a paranoid hypochondriac of an elephant named tantor wayne knight both provide the requisite comic relief timon and poombah from the lion king immediately come to mind and perform the usual hijinks as prescribed by the disney mold i'm beginning to think anyone can write the screenplay for one of these films just fill in the blanks can you see it now we have to have a couple of zany friends for out hero who might get him into mischief but cover for him or come to his rescue when he needs it we've already had a fish and a crab and we've had a candle and a teapot a genie and a dog a few stone statues have we had an ape and an elephant yet well there we go of course there's gotta be romance somewhere along the line so jane minnie driver gets introduced about halfway through together with her father dr porter nigel hawthorne and the big game hunter clayton brian blessed jane is on an expedition to find and study the wild gorillas of africa she discovers the man raised by apes and is enchanted almost immediately and soon shares an amusing version of the compulsory you tarzan me jane scene thankfully those aren't the exact words however i found it distracting that tarzan is going ohh ohh ee ee one second and then tells jane his name in this manly voice with perfect diction how does he tell his name to another ape ohh ohh ee tarzan ee ee ohh well regardless of my picky nature the romance actually works as only disney romance can purely contrived but for some reason rather believable but hey tarzan's a young adult do you think he dated a few of the female apes before meeting jane isn't that illegal in most countries oh well i don't think disney will be using my quote anymore tarzan departs from the usual disney feature in that this one is not a musical there's lots of music to be sure but not a single character song in the whole hour and a half of running time we instead get more of a phil collins concert as no less than five of his original songs are used as interlude material this isn't really a bad thing as the songs are very and catchy i found myself singing one to myself for most of the following day it's just different do yourself a favor and see this film in a theater with a good sound system because the music will come through astonishingly well and really enhance the movie with each new feature disney animation gets even better not necessarily by leaps and bounds but since they put out a new film each year a steady rate of improvement is apparent and this definitely shows in tarzan there are a couple of scenes where the animation achieves a near effect and a number of scenes which feature tarzan moving through the trees are absolutely dizzying the way he slides down tree limbs and trunks is very reminiscent of skateboarding and rollerblading maneuvers and had me thinking this isn't just tarzan it's extreme tarzan however tarzan does not seem to have what i call its chandelier scene which is the one scene to which the animators have chosen to devote an inordinate amount of effort utilizing a process that makes the animation absolutely breathtaking lasting but a few seconds at most it's been the signature of nearly every disney animated feature since beauty and the beast in which the castle ballroom chandelier was rendered in stunning detail as usual the voice talent is up to snuff convincingly make you believe in the convictions of animated characters the one poor choice in casting however was rosie o'donnell going into the film i didn't know she was even a part of it but when terk started talking i recognized her voice immediately her performance was fine but through the rest of the film i kept thinking that's no boy ape that rosie o'donnell distracting to say the least i'll admit i've never read the edgar rice burroughs story tarzan of the apes so i couldn't tell you how true this film stays to the book but unless you're a purist you should have few objections to this film with solid performances action adventure a bit of romance and great music and animation tarzan should appeal to the kids and to the kid in all of us note when i wrote my review of mulan a year ago i went off on the promotional and merchandising prevalent with the release of a disney animated feature this time i'll just say that i went to mcdonald's yesterday to treat myself to a mcflurry and tarzan was on the cup said
positive	you've got mail is a timely romance for this impersonal decade two people who've never met confide in each other via without revealing their true identities nora ephron's contemporary update of the shop around the corner retains the basic plot two people who despise each other unwittingly become enamored with each other through their anonymous correspondence ephron who the film with her sister delia as well as directed it knew what she was doing by reteaming tom hanks and meg ryan as the couple ryan is kathleen kelly owner of a small children's bookstore while hanks is joe fox who heads up a chain of mega bookstores think barnes noble their charm and chemistry are the glue that binds this film even through some of the script's rough spots for the ephrons invested so much effort in their protagonists that they give short shrift to the talented supporting cast including parker posey greg kinnear jean stapleton and steve zahn yet no one is really going to complain because the ephrons know their audience and what the paying public wants is hanks and ryan and the two are kept busy one the other or both are in nearly every scene hanks has his decent guy routine down pat yet each time he does it it seems effortless spontaneous and fresh ryan smoothly moves between spunky and vulnerable with a sexy touch of winsomeness added to the brew their scenes together sparkle even though they lack the nostalgic romanticism of sleepless in seattle and the shadow of that earlier hit hangs over you've got mail like mistletoe the sparks created by the earlier movie are by necessity not evident here true these are two people seeking true love but you've got mail is more comic and less poignant than its predecessor the ephrons' script is witty and sharp however as a director nora ephron is a bit uneven some scenes drag while others especially when hanks and ryan are revealing their souls via are crisp and tidy also the script gets sloppy toward the end with characters merely disappearing from the story a nice romantic soundtrack adds to this special overall you've got mail is a lush and cute outing taking advantage of the star appeal of its two leads it's a nice holiday movie one for holding hands and snuggling committed to lifelong learning through effective communication
positive	according to hollywood movies made in last few decades life in small town is one of the worst things that could happen to a human being even worse fate awaits those who were unfortunate to grow up in those dark places and later forced to live forever traumatised by the experience on the other hand it seems that something more than atlantic ocean divides europe from america because one of the most popular and beloved european films takes exactly the opposite view this film is amarcord comedy by famous italian director federico fellini which later gave inspiration to numerous imitations and homages and even led few american screen artists to adopt its heretical views about benefits of small town life the film is based on the screenplay by fellini and tonino guerra and it lacks the plot in usual sense instead we follow one year in italian summer resort town of rimini through the series of short vignettes that depict various local events and customs as well as series of local often very colourful characters although many of those characters occasionally take the role of narrator movie concentrates on its nominal protagonist old boy titta played by bruno zanin and chronicles his sexual frustrations obsession with local beauty queen named gradisca played by magali noel problems in his lovingly dysfunctional family as well as troubles his father played by armando brancia have with mussolini's fascist regime amarcord was often noted as the ultimate nostalgia film and it probably explains why it is very popular even among those people who actually don't like federico fellini's work very much every member of its potential audience would find part of himself or herself in this film because fellini in this film clearly illustrates natural human desire to paint past in the best way possible distortion between actual past and its subjective interpretation could be found even in the title of the film word amarcord is nothing more than badly pronounced phrase i remember in local italian dialect in the same way the word is distorted so is the past in memories of those who remember it after the premiere fellini rejected any claims about autobiographical character of this film but it doesn't matter whether rimini of amarcord actually resembles rimini of fellini's childhood or not any place and any time could resemble characters and situations of this film fellini's views on nostalgia are clearly illustrated with a way he mixes reality and fantasy in this film even the most naturalistic scenes are laced with dark humour and grotesque images characters look like caricatures actors playing them often deliberately overact and women especially those who fuel titta's sexual fantasies often have certain body parts with gargantuan proportions every now and then scenes that depict reality gradually slide into fantasies of movie's characters and rimini becomes almost indistinguishable from the magical place in characters' visions because of that almost everything in this film looks different and in most cases better than it would have looked in the real life even the fascism gets fellinian fellini views mussolini's totalitarian regime as nothing more than visual spectacle explaining why similar regimes enjoyed such popular support throughout history and opportunity for comedy when fascists finally show their true colours and begin torturing their opponents even this becomes opportunity for scenes of macabre humour unlike many of his italian colleagues in who had used period setting to explicitly condemn fascism and serve fashionable political agenda fellini doesn't care that much about politics lack of moral perspective is compensated with fellini's humanistic approach to his characters each of them regardless of age gender social class or physical appearance is given opportunity to express his or her views dreams and fears fellini treats all those characters with warmth and affection even when he paints them as grotesque caricatures of real people because of this warmth and democratic spirit amarcord could be viewed as one of the most humane films of century and it keeps its general feel good atmosphere despite depicting having many uncomfortable melancholic and even tragic moments fellini couldn't produce such effects without using his own directorial talent that gave a very personal touch to this movie vignettes aren't memorable because of the characters only fellini uses camera painting film in bright colours especially in the scenes that depict character's fantasies fellini also knows how to use locations whether such location happens to be luxurious hotel beach or rural countryside even the streets of rimini where everyone knows everyone gets magical dimension during the snowfall on the other hand lack of credible special effects somewhat diminished the same effect during the ocean liner scene this atmosphere is also provided by incredible talent of composer and fellini's associate nino rota his amarcord theme is probably one of the most recognisable most popular and most relaxing and uplifting pieces of film music ever produced that music alone should be the reason to view amarcord as one of the indisputable classics of seventh art
positive	written by mark rosenthal and lawrence konner starring charlize theron bill paxton david paymer as reviewed by james brundage i'm beginning to get fed up over my four years as a critic the thing which has kept me going is the moderate balance of films the good balances the bad i try to see both in equal proportions but disney's mighty joe young remake marks the fourth week in which i haven't seen a truly terrible movie it's a backwards machismo i suppose the urge to see the things which you so loathe but i need to see a bad film every once in a while and you know what mighty joe young doesn't qualify far from being bad mighty joe young is actually a family fun movie it's enjoyable appropriate cute cuddly and all of those other things that i've been seeing in every movie since a bug's life mighty joe young tracks a pound gorilla in the wilds of africa that is taken to a reserve in california  for okay a little unrealistic but who ever said a kid's movie had to have the slightest hint of realism the first half of the movie is a gorillas in the hatred of poachers motif the second half is a straight up parody of king kong awestruck onlookers and all mark one down i'm feeling relaxed it is as a point of fact an extremely movie but as a vetern i can say quite honestly that creativity doesn't count for as much as it should so that saves mighty joe from my wrath although my colleagues and cohorts and surely bashing this film at this very moment this is not the film to take a girl on a date to it's not the film for you it's the film for you and your family when you're right alongside your kid all of the normal rights and wrongs slip away the same thing happens when you watch a horror movie or an action flick it becomes fun all you have to do to enjoy mighty joe young is shut up and watch
positive	notting hill's trailer is awful a laughless schmaltzy montage the movie was desperately marketed to the menace crowd the same lovelorn females who ignored the love letter and it apparently worked perhaps the presence of julia allure beyond those perfect teeth still escapes a lot to do with notting hill's opening weekend success but the film's staying power is based on word of mouth allow me to spread some more good buzz for notting hill grant stars as william thacker a owner who works and resides in a tiny english district called notting hill into his shop one day wanders famous actress anna scott roberts a common thief some spilled orange juice and some stilted conversation leads to their first highly impetuous or is that improbable kiss days later william sneaks into her hotel suite under the guise of a magazine journalist and so begins a passionate albeit surreptitious affair aside notting hill's portrayal of press junkets is deadly accurate only anna's william's lack to drive a wedge between them richard curtis has tapped into fantasy we all have considered and for at least its first the picture's beauty and the beast scenario is romantic escapism of the highest order as with groundhog day or pleasantville while watching the comedy notting hill one constantly imagines in the lead it's william's ordinaryness that entices the spoiled and bored anna curtis who previously penned four weddings and a funeral is also smart enough to know that the unlikely couple's situation is not enough to fuel two hours' worth of entertainment so some of notting hill's finest moments revolve around william's eccentric friends and family by now dear reader you've probably heard a lot about rhys ifans' performance as william's imbecilic welsh flatmate yes he's a crowd pleaser a walking sight gag but his character is not nearly as involving as the and appropriately named bella mckee the anguished waitress of naked or max tom mcinnerny her lousy chef of a husband in the movie's best sequence william anna and company sit around bloated from max's latest concoction and hold a contest the last brownie on the table goes to the diner with the saddest life the scene ends only as a british writer would end it if anything fantastic bits like these dull the main plot's dramatic impact roberts and grant especially are appealing but their relationship is convolutedly interrupted too many times four weddings' suffered similar flaws and william and anna ultimately only have one thing in common they're lonely worth noting in roberts' and grant's favour the ubiquitous i'm just a girl standing across from a boy asking him to love her episode is not nearly so syrupy as it appears in clips and it features some of the best emoting either actor has ever done notting hill is nonetheless enjoyable on the visual side of things i especially appreciated michell's playful number if only and this is a surprisinly minor gripe he had lopped off the egregious epilogue for a story that thrives on what we bring to it the filmmakers work too hard to tidy things up leaving our imaginations in the lurch
positive	that followups are directed to rec arts movies and rec arts movies startrek current only not to rec arts sf movies  star trek first contact a film review by michael dequina copyright michael dequina star trek first contact anyone familiar with the series of star trek movies knows of the pattern installments of the series are good while the ones are well the pattern continues with the new star trek first contact an energetic adventure that coincidentally is the eighth entry in the hugely popular series in this first trek feature to feature only cast members from the late star trek the next generation television series captain picard patrick stewart and the rest of the crew of the starship will riker jonathan frakes who also directed android lt cmdr data brent spiner lt cmdr geordi laforge levar burton lt cmdr worf michael dorn dr beverly crusher gates mcfadden and counselor deanna troi marina sirtis back to earth while doing battle with the borg a race of cybernetic beings that share a collective mind with the borg queen alice krige the borg intend to alter history and assimilate all of humankind into their with the crew of the enterprise and a century stowaway alfre woodard this is an interesting plotline that is sure to mesmerize trekkers everywhere and engage everyone else but unfortunately it only makes up the star trek half of the script by brannon braga and ronald d moore the other half of the to a subplot that takes place on earth where riker troi and laforge meet legendary scientist zephram cochran james cromwell who is about to embark on the first warp speed flight in human history which directly leads to the first contact with extraterrestrials while this story does tie into the main plot and pays off interestingly in the end it is nowhere near as involving or exciting as the borg battles on the enterprise not helping matters is the tiresome cochran character an eccentric whose drunken schtick starts out funny but becomes too after a while in the end though the first contact subplot doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the film as a whole the story is typical fantasy but the conviction of the notably the you believe and care frakes making his feature directorial debut keeps the action swiftly rolling along and delivers the action goods even upping the violence a notch this is the first trek film to bear a rating to greater effect st fc has a bigger budget than the last trek outing the middling star trek generations and it definitely shows on production design and especially visual and makeup effects are outstanding in particular those involving the borg queen braga and moore's mostly sharp script will please both trek devotees and the rest the references to the borg storyline in the tv series the continuity with the previous film e g the ongoing saga of data's emotion chip and a fleeting star trek voyager crossover will make trekkers squeal with delight but such points are made easily accessible to those less familiar to the trek mythos paramount was reportedly worried about the staying power of its trek franchise with the next generation cast now carrying the helm based on the entertaining success that is star trek first contact i'd say the studio has nothing to worry about at least not until this cast retires and the crew of the wan star trek deep space nine takes over
positive	slavery is bad after hundreds of years we've finally figured that one out this almost universal belief is the both the strength and weakness of director steven spielberg's latest serious film during the late a portuguese slave ship carries a cargo of black men and women kidnapped from their home on africa's west coast to cuba to be sold into slavery of them are stuffed into the la amistad from a spanish word for friendship by their new spanish owners freeing himself from his chains senge pieh djimon hounsou renamed cinque by his masters leads a bloody revolt after killing most of the crew the africans force the remaining sailors to return them to their home or so they think instead the ship heads up the coast to the united states the amistad is boarded by an american naval ship and the revolutionaries are put on trial in connecticut for murder and piracy the legal question becomes are they free men fighting justly for their freedom or are they property if they are property who do they belong to their masters the spanish government salvage rights of the officers who captured the ship the us government the defendants are pawns in several games abolitionists theodore joadson morgan freeman and lewis tappan stellan skarsgard want to free them but tappan sees them primarily as a means to further the cause their lawyer roger baldwin matthew mcconaughey views the case as a simple one of property rights and a chance to make his share of legal fees south carolina senator john c calhoun arliss howard pursues the case for the political advancement of the southern states president martin van buren nigel hawthorne is willing to force the result towards his own political ends when the verdict looks to free the africans van buren replaces the judge with one more sympathetic to his wishes even that doesn't work and the new judge frees the kidnap victims at the urging of calhoun the president then appeals the case to the supreme court populated by a majority of this try finding it in any history text book incident from america's past would have gone down a darker path were it not for former president john quincy adams anthony hopkins who is persuaded to argue the case before the supreme court the slavery issue is easy pickin's for spielberg much like his shindler's list which followed jurassic park as this follows lost world the moral sides are not difficult ones to choose nazis and slave traders both treat groups of others as less than human it's not hard to see who the bad guys are without that question to ponder the director's job is more difficult he has to make the story interesting spielberg succeeds for the most part the visual aspect of the film is beyond reproach where the movie falls down is a bit more subtle there are very few in the tale in fact cinque is the only character who is fleshed out tappan and joadson are abolitionists symbols but not humans van buren is a weak politician but nothing else the rest of the slaves barely exist other than dressing for the set like many other films about people of color almost all the major players are white the film's salvation lies in the acting strength of everyone involved and the powerful presence of hounsou the former model's first major role is a winner without speaking more than five words of english he conveys more emotion than most actors with a thousand lines of dialog the other is hopkins who seems to be making a career out of portraying american presidents he also played the title role in nixon the impassioned speech by the doddering old man who phases in and out of rationality is among the best drama ever on the screen there are some other great moments especially impressive are the african's struggle to understand what is going on in the strange land their interpretation of the bible based solely on the pictures and their own experiences is poignant as grand as the epic is it would have more impact had it focused more on the experience from the point of view of the africans more humanity in the fight for humanity would have made it a film michael redman has written this column for a real long time and is just now getting around to seeing some films
positive	reflecting on bedazzled a lively comedy about the devil who seeks to possess the soul of a pathetic loser one sinful thought remains in my mind if hell means having to spend an eternity with elizabeth hurley who portrays the fiery demon then use that pitchfork and point me the way with her pouty lips irresistible british accent and wild display of haute couture hurley crackles with naughtiness and fills your mind with temptation it's practically impossible to turn this down her next target is elliot brendan fraser a tech support geek who is clumsy awkward and just too eager to please to aptly picture him you would have to remember a saturday night live skit featuring steve the copy guy who effortlessly irritated his with his unpolished social skills eugene thus is loathed and feared by his who do their best to stay out of his way yet beyond his annoying mannerisms he's a lovable oaf he wishes that he could get closer to allison frances o'connor a with whom he is infatuated but who has never taken notice of him however the odds of him getting together with her are about the same as a snowball's chance in hell dear god he prays i would give anything to have that girl in my life guess who then shows up she makes an offer that is too hard to refuse seven utterly fabulous wishes for one piddling little soul there's even an escape clause if elliot's wish doesn't go exactly the way he likes he need only her one guess as to what the number is and he gets to start over the remainder of the film consists of elliot's various fantasies that incorporate his personal desire to have enormous amounts of wealth power fame and allison's love but when he makes sweeping statements such as i want to be very very powerful and very very rich and married to allison he'll soon learn that the devil is in the details for example and we've seen this several times in the trailers he is granted his wish but finds out that he's a columbian drug lord and that allison while married to him has her eyes on someone else apparently the devil is just as eager to skew his fantasies as she is to possess his soul his other wishes also end up with some strange but funny twist that his new life soon elliot wishes that he had never made that deal given the mischievous nature of the devil bedazzled has many amusing moments a lot of the credit goes to fraser who turns in a great comic performance he ably assumes various personas his funniest segment is when he wishes that he could be the most sensitive man in the world allison becomes so frustrated with him that she practically urges him to take advantage of her hurley also heightens the humor quotient especially in the transitional scenes when fraser waits to start his next wish after bailing out of the previous one it's clear that she's having a good time with it all yet while the filmmakers work hard at creating funny scenes they conspicuously avoid developing the allegorical underpinnings between good and evil that could have added more heft to this story but that would be playing with fire what they've got works so you can easily accept it for the pleasant little comedy that it is
positive	the muppet movie is the first and the best movie among the list of muppet movies the muppet movie tells the story of how our hero kermit the frog came to be a star a delightful movie for all ages the muppet movie is bursting with cameo appearances by countless hollywood stars of the and today the muppet movie begins in a movie theater where all of the muppet stars are anxiously awaiting the first showing once everyone is settled down the movie inside of the movie begins it starts out with kermit in a swamp playing his banjo and singing this shot required jim henson to spend hours underwater kermit is discovered by bernie a hollywood agent who happens upon kermit by accident bernie believes that kermit holds much potential to become a big star in hollywood kermit ponders the idea of becoming a big movie star where he could make millions of people happy kermit decides to leave his swamp and make the trip out to hollywood along the way kermit befriends his now famous muppet companions beginning with fozzie bear who had been spending his days doing comedy at the el sleezo cafe owned by james coburn the two decide to and continue on their way to hollywood but doc hopper charles durning the owner of a chain of french fried frog leg restaurants has a different idea he wants kermit to be his spokesman but kermit is humiliated at the idea and spends the movie avoiding him and his assistants the trip continues with kermit and fozzie meeting miss piggy rowlf gonzo the electric mayhem band and more muppets who all share the same wish to make it to hollywood oh and even more celebrities continue to appear kermit and miss piggy continue to get to know each other a little better including a rather funny scene at a restaurant with steve martin as the waiter eventually kermit and the group make it to hollywood that is after kermit is finally able to elude doc hopper and proclaim his freedom lord lew a hollywood producer portrayed by orson welles gives kermit his shot at stardom and gives him the to produce a movie the muppet movie is definitely a movie that is fun for all ages it is also a as one parents can watch and enjoy along with their kids
positive	all great things come to an end and the era embodies that perfectly beneath a mound of bankruptcy paperwork lies the remains of a former darling the company kozmo com an online convenience store stocked with ice cream porn videos and other basic necessities of a urban dweller all by couriers within an hour designed in by two college roommates joseph parks a year old goldman sachs banker and yong kang kozmo flamed out in three short years raising more than million in venture capital funding and from partnerships with such bigwigs as starbucks and amazon com by december the company boasted employees in cities its barking ceo park attracting all kinds of media attention the company was set for an ipo in may until april the day the stock market took its first big dive ending the internet era by april kozmo was out of money and ceased operations unlike the earlier similar documentary startup com which chronicled the rise and fall of another govworks focuses both on its original founders especially park and on the common folks that ran the operations the contrast is amazing showing how a cult persona can convince anyone that any idea is the next big thing the film's director wonsuk chin too tired to die expertly juxtaposes upper management company meetings with interviews with the bike messengers general managers and floor staff that kept kozmo humming the film's images give a backbone to the company and provide an emotional edge to its ultimate demise the most satisfying part of the film comes in understanding to a degree the expectations of numerous ceos commanding these businesses in the film's final interviews with park we learn what happens when the money dries up and backers don't return phone calls in the end the name of the game was profit and if you couldn't make money even the dreamers got the axe screened at the annual mill valley film festival
positive	since their film debut in with the tightly wrought texas thriller blood simple joel and ethan coen have been one of the most eclectic original and downright fascinating creative teams in modern hollywood their films are highly stylized deeply embedded in a particular time and place and their characters are more often than not everyday people who get caught up in highly unusual circumstances in the big lebowski their first cinematic offering since the multiple academy fargo the action takes place in los angeles during the gulf war and the hero of the story is jeff lebowski aka the dude the dude is played by jeff bridges one of hollywood's most underrated actors in the best stoned performance since sean penn stumbled through the halls of ridgemont high the dude is a simple man who has never quite made it out of the sixties he has shaggy hair a grizzled goatee badly in need of a trim and he wears mostly stained long shorts and gellies without socks he smokes a lot of pot drinks a lot of white russians and is more than content to spend the majority of his time bowling with his two buddies a slightly psychotic vietnam vet named walter sobchak john goodman and donny steve buscemi one of those guys who always wants to be part of the conversation but never quite makes it in one day the dude is confused with another jeff lebowski david huddleston this one being a millionaire philanthropist whose trophy wife bunny tara reid owes a lot of people a lot of money the main plot and all its accompanying and coenesque diatribes are far too complicated to get into here suffice to say that the dude becomes deeply involved with the big lebowski when bunny is kidnaped and the dude is asked to be a courier for the ransom money by the time all is said and done walter has become deeply involved as has the big lebowski's daughter maude julianne moore a feminist performance artist a pornographer named jackie treehorn ben gazzara and a group of german nihilists led by peter stormare who was so great as the silent but deadly kidnaper in fargo the big lebowski plays like an amalgam of all the coen brothers' earlier efforts it shares their previous films' strong sense of time and place as well as their of movie genres and political and cultural ideologies lebowski has the same kind of crazed caricatures that made raising arizona such a hoot it has surrealistic dream sequences one of which involves a busby dance number that characterized the ending of barton fink and it has the same kind of cartoonish look and feel that pervaded the hudsucker proxy the film was shot by veteran cinematographer roger deakins who has worked with the coens on three other films barton fink the hudsucker proxy and fargo deakins always gives the coens' films a distinctive visual style and here he does a brilliant job of capturing the bright colors of seedy los angeles in the early nineties whether that by the obnoxious blue bowling suit worn by the dude's main competitor jesus quintana john turturro or the strikingly manic dream sequences one of which involves the dizzy spectacle of watching a strike from a bowling ball's point of view if fargo was the coen brothers' most restrained effort in years the big lebowski marks their return to filmmaking it is overflowing with style and attitude which helps make up for the scattered plot fragments that never quite come together in the end the coens fill the screen with lighting set design music and hilarious performances from all the leads especially bridges and the always reliable john goodman who shows real comic timing in his untimely outbursts and his intense dedication to his adopted judaism with joel directing ethan producing and both writing the coen brothers seem limitless in their capacity to turn our world inside out their talent lies not in their ability to reflect the norms of reality but in their potential to dig out the darkest corners of life and bring them to light the coens rejoice in the oddballs of the world and they put them to show that it's not just guys like the dude who are nuts but the entire planet
positive	lean mean escapist thrillers are a tough product to come by most are unnecessarily complicated and others have no sense of expediency the effect gets lost in the cumbersome plot perhaps the ultimate escapist thriller was the fugitive which featured none of the effects of today's market but rather a textbook example of what a clever script and good direction is all about the latest tony scott movie enemy of the state doesn't make it to that level it's a true nineties product that runs like greased lightning through a maze of cell phones and laptop computers without looking back although director scott has made missteps in the past such as the lame thriller the fan he's generated a good deal of energy in pictures like crimson tide and top gun that vibrant spirit is present here shown in and carefully planned chase scenes that give the movie an aura of sheer speed enemy of the state also features an unprecedented use of amazing cinematography director of photography daniel mindel throws a staggering amount of different views angles lenses and film stocks at the audience that goes a long way toward involving the audience in the movie enemy is truly a visual experience and that's only one of the reasons it's such a fun watch the movie lights up with an aging senator visited by nsa deputy chief thomas reynolds jon voight reynolds wants a new communications act passed to allow the government free reign in the use of surveilance equipment but the senator plans to bury the bill in committee reynolds has the senator offed but not before the murder is caught on a naturalist's camera by an extremist chain of events the tape ends up in labor lawyer robert dean will smith posession and it's not long before he's running from reynolds' cronies it's only with the help of an named brill gene hackman that dean is able to get to the bottom of things the acting is top notch and the three principles smith hackman and voight are generally more mature and excellent all around smith puts aside the wisecracking act and becomes a normal human being voight tones down the amount of sneer he puts into his character for greater ominpotence and hackman is simply over the top in the mysterioso role smith's regular joe comes off particularly well as he runs from authorties for reasons that he knows not the supports are also in fine form lending credibility to the main roles and advancing the plot in key areas this is for the holiday crowd the hot ticket as well as anyone looking for a serving of genuine action in a market that is otherwise lacking
positive	this film is based on the campy tv show from the under the same appellation mind you most people including yours truly who will see this movie will not have seen any episodes from the original series the movie is really a stand alone in that regard the family robinson lost in space plot set in the year the family robinson is chosen to sail out into space in search of other planets that might contain the natural resources earth needs in order to survive its future a colonization process if you will they are joined by able pilot west leblanc and evil uninvited stowaway oldman who does not want to see the trip conclude on a successful tip eventually their trek goes awry and all are lost in space how do get back to earth is the question that infests the rest of this epic critique this film reminded me a lot of the fifth element from the summer of it's a film with a lot of flash but very little actual substance admittedly there isn't an annoying character like chris tucker from the other film but this film does run a little too long and did lose me in regards to its complex story line having said that the special effects in this movie were amazing and the overall look and feel were also way above average you really felt like you were in the future and riding through space with these poor souls unfortunately for this chosen family their old son is the smartest one in the group and the father is too wrapped up in his work to notice the rest of his family ever heard that one before yawn the acting is ok and i was especially surprised at the solid performance by tv friend's matt leblanc who shows us all that he's definitely more than just a pretty face on the down side the family that cuts through most of the picture is lame and even though we gotta give them credit for trying to develop characters in a pic the story line is hard to follow the evil character in the movie actually tells people that he's evil and the movie goes on for about minutes too long on the slick side many of the special effects are really cool the sequence in which the family is paralyzed during the is awesome and the animated monkey that joins the family halfway through the flic is mucho cool the credit presentation at the end of the film is slamming and the adventures that they fall into are somewhat thrilling i will also admit that somehow they got me to up near the conclusion of this picture very odd overall if you're a big fan check this movie out for the special effects and challenging narrative and if you're not i would still suggest seeing this movie but then you could probably wait until it comes out on video so that you forward past some of the boring parts little known facts this film will always be remembered as the movie that knocked titanic out of the top spot at the after straight weeks at number one garry oldman is british and was once married to uma thurman for about six months mimi rogers was tom cruise's first wife
positive	marked not only the death by suicide of its popular protagonist ellen ripley sigourney weaver but in many ways the alien franchise office receipts were anemic thanks to poor audience word of mouth and the critics who rallied around the first two installments alien and aliens savaged david fincher's slog of a sendoff myself included hence weaver director jeunet and the others behind alien resurrection faced a only somehow resurrect ripley but also rescue this series from the scrap heap despite the odds they have succeeded even if the entertaining new installment does not measure up to the excellent first two writer joss whedon devises a quick easy and painless answer to the dead ripley her which is what shady military scientists do using some blood left behind on fiorina the prison planet of the third film that done the challenge presents do with her alien introduced ripley as smart and resourceful aliens simultaneously toughened her up and made her more vulnerable exploring her maternal side saw her undergoing the seven stages of death what could be next whedon comes up with a clever spin since the original ripley died while impregnated with an alien queen the blood used for the clone is also infected with alien dna so the new ripley is indeed hybrid blessed with heightened instincts and strength a psychic bond with the deadly species and a more predatory attitude unfortunately that is where alien resurrection's clever streak in writing stops the alien series is known for having stronger stories than most creature features but the story in resurrection is more of an afterthought the movie begins with a plot involving some military types attempting to train aliens to do their bidding but once the creatures break free it is once again ripley and a ragtag crew this time a bunch of interstellar smugglers including tough waif call played by a game winona ryder trying to exterminate them and the alien ripley scenario is ultimately not exploited to its full potential i would have liked deeper exploration into the quandary of becoming one of the species she has spent her entire life trying to destroy while the settling into formula is a little disconcerting the formula is for a reason and jeunet tackles the proceedings with giddy abandon the alien after all these years is still terrifying and a new breed that is introduced is no less so the violence is appropriately grisly and extreme and the action set pieces are suspenseful and exciting most notably an extended underwater sequence the film is absolutely mesmerizing visually thanks to the solid work done by production designer nigel phelps and cinematographer darius khondji as technically adept as jeunet's direction is perhaps his and for that matter whedon's greatest contribution is the infusion of humor into this notably downbeat and serious series a sense of humor may seem to go against everything this horror show stands for but the of the excess just adds to the fun no alien resurrection is not the great film that ridley scott's alien or the even greater film that james cameron's aliens was but after the dauntingly slow gloom and doom of fincher's jeunet's resurrection is a welcome return to its roots as a wild reckless thrill ride that is what made the alien series so popular in the first place and that is what will keep the series popular in any future installments
positive	most sequels don't do what they're supposed to do like toy story does far too many of them end up the original and adding very little is it any wonder that most sequels fail to live up to their predecessors thankfully toy story is a wonderful exception i can't remember the last time i saw a sequel as consistently fun and inventive as this one it's yet another sign that pixar the acclaimed animation studio behind toy story and a bug's life is still at the top of its game woody and buzz are back in the sequel to the hit toy story and things have changed a bit since the last one ended woody voiced by tom hanks is preparing to leave with his owner andy for cowboy camp in his absence he has assigned buzz lightyear tim allen now comfortable in his role as a toy to take charge unfortunately woody's trip is ruined when he is accidentally put into the family garage sale and is stolen by an toy collector wayne knight off to save him are buzz and members of the old toy gang including mr potato head don rickles rex the nervous dinosaur wallace shawn hamm the piggy bank john ratzenberger and slinky dog jim varney while in captivity woody makes a startling discovery he is actually part of a collection of toys based on a children's show entitled woody's roundup he meets the show's other characters which include jesse joan cusack his cowgirl sidekick the wise old prospector kelsey grammer and bullseye his trusty horse they have all been anxiously awaiting woody's arrival as once their set is completed they will be sold to a japanese toy museum and finally escape storage forever this means woody now faces a difficult choice with his friends coming to rescue him does he go with them and spend a few more years with andy or does he go to japan and be immortalized forever as in the original film toy story contains animation and pixar studios has done a remarkable job improving on the impressive work they did there reportedly the film was originally slated for a release but after seeing the improvements that had been made disney rightly decided to release it into theaters the film is well worth seeing on the big screen the colors are bright the textures sharp and even the human characters look more human the animation is consistently seamless with the action fast and furious and the facial expressions believable there are so many impressive sequences that i'd find it impossible to list them here but i was particularly wowed by a scene where buzz and his cohorts must get across a busy intersection to get to al' s toy barn the store owned by woody's captor pixar's rendition of the family dog is also nicely done with fur so realistic you almost feel you could reach out and touch it the voice work is also perfectly complementary and as with the first movie does much to help further character development tom hanks and tim allen again disappear into their roles as woody and buzz making you forget who is doing the voice it was woody and buzz up there not tom and tim all the cast members from the original reprise their roles and each is excellent several new voices have been added with joan cusack kelsey grammer and wayne knight doing fine work toy story is strong in characterization and is able to expand on what we saw in the first movie woody faces difficult choices while buzz is confronted with a new buzz who hasn't yet realized his status as a toy forcing him to see what he used to be like the new characters are also developed quite well especially jesse who narrates a sarah flashback illustrating how she was loved then forgotten by her owner it may be and it may have sappy music but it's downright touching the script despite having a story and screenplay each credited to four different writers is endlessly clever and inventive especially considering that it's a sequel the reason toy story works where other movie sequels fail is that it refuses to just capitalize on the original's success by the same story and using the same characters not this one we get character change new characters and new issues brought up toy story is also remarkable for the way in which it keeps reinventing itself there is always another clever idea waiting just around the corner here the humor is sharp and witty with something to amuse both kids and adults there are funny asides to films such as star wars and jurassic park among others new takes on classic toys like barbie and rock sock robots and appearances from other pixar efforts a bug's life and the short geri game geri himself makes an appearance as a toy repairman who fixes woody's broken arm the action is fast and furious and the chases in the street in a toy store in an elevator on a baggage carousel and in an airplane keep getting bigger and better toy story never grows stagnant because there is always something new to hold your interest the more you pay attention to it the more rewarding it is it's rare to see a film like toy story come along because it's the kind of film that's almost impossible to dislike it's created purely to entertain and though i enjoy a drama as much as the next person it's nice to see that films are still trying to do exactly what movies first tried to do send us out with a smile it's a fair bet that the whole family will have smiles on their collective faces after seeing toy story it's the rare sequel that manages to expand on and live up to the original
positive	expectation rating a bit worse than expected mainly because i found the middle part to be a bit dull roger ebert gave it a four star review and while he is a critic that uses the full scale and i often agree such as dark city being the best film of he must have seen a better film i read the book about five years ago and hugely enjoyed it the opening of a simple plan reminded me a bit of the sweet hereafter the landscape is snowy and cold and is filmed what i feel is in a rather crisp manner which also reminds me of fargo which i loathed one can almost sense the cold but the movie far from the eye popping delights of the quick and the dead instead raimi has made a more constrained film which probably is for the better this is probably not a movie that would have been improved by lots of odd shots the movie also reminded me of affliction as the lead characters all seem to be hoping for and seeing a possibility to lead a better life than their father and they see a chance for such a dream to come true this chance is uncovered in a snow covered field where an airplane has crash landed in the plane three men find the american dream in a gym bag affliction too was set in a snowy landscape it really seems very simple just hold on to the money until spring and if no one claims it they'll be safe to spend it and their hope of experiencing the american dream can come true but the snow melts and so might several of the character's hopes as in return to paradise some of the characters are presented with a chance to do the right thing but doing the right thing might not result in a better result than something more selfish the movie's biggest strength is that it fact makes sense i have seen many movies based on books that just seem like selected scenes from the book visualized eschewing anything remotely resembling a coherent story for example clear and present danger the biggest problem seems to with the story the writer perhaps feels that he doesn't have to present scenes that are clear to him but the lack of which only baffles an audience which has not read the book this is definitely not the problem with a simple plan even though the screenplay is by the book's author the movie is always clear on where it's going and always makes sense i'm sue a lot was cut but really i can't remember what even a minor scene involving a man complaining that he has paid for too much grains is included the man only comes in on mondays but he claims that he has been charged for one purchase too many turns out well see the movie one should be warned against seeing the trailer it reveals several scenes from the ending moments which yes like in the book it is a downer several plot developments and much of the beginning but much of this is not spelled directly out during the trailer so if you're lucky you'll have forgotten about all of this when you see the movie
positive	it is simply amazing how the green mile developed in its three hour running time based on the stephen king series of the same title the film starts out painfully slow with underdeveloped characters and idiotic dialogue however as the plot begins to progress the film turns into pure perfection with outstanding performances and wonderful direction frank darabont who masterfully followed a prisoner's story in the shawshank redemption this time follows the perspective of a prison guard paul edgecomb tom hanks through edgecomb's experiences on a cell block known as the green mile where death row prisoners wait and repent the audience sees good and evil on both sides of the law from an evil prison guard to an evil prisoner the green mile is successful in creating sympathy for hard working guards and hard thinking prisoners the plot follows edgecomb and four other guards as they meet a variety of prisoners and after having strong relationships with each eventually are forced to execute them the performances by veterans and new comers to back up these original characters are superb the ensemble acting in the film is perfect hanks david morse and barry pepper as guards are wonderful and are fitting for their roles they are the characters we most relate to because of their calm less extreme roles they are given the positions to make rational decisions at difficult times and they are the ones who fulfill the demands of the audience the more unique characters perfectly create friction on the green mile and make the story interesting and exciting some particularly note worthy roles of the unique characters include doug hutchinson sam rockwell and michael duncan hutchinson playing percy wetmore a cowardly guard who hides his true feelings by tormenting others gives the greatest performance of the movie every time he appears on the screen the attitude of others is very uncomfortable and the creepy expressions he is able to create are effectively terrifying it would come as no surprise if hutchinson was nominated for an academy award as best supporting actor not only because he did a wonderful job as wetmore but also because he stole every scene he was in away from veteran oscar winner tom hanks rockwell an independent film veteran plays his role as wild bill wharton to perfection as a prisoner who taunts and harasses the guards at all hours he really gets under your skin and irritates you for having to watch him torture others this irritation he creates makes his performance so believable the last noteworthy performance belongs to duncan as the enormous convicted killer john coffey who happens to hold the power of curing the ill duncan does a wonderful job playing a frightened behemoth very similar to lennie small in of mice and men his desire for love and the extinction of hate evokes the most compassion because it is very obvious that he is suffering for no just cause his pain creates pain for the viewer however it takes over an hour for duncan to be introduced completely in the film the film opens with a ridiculous present day setting which contains a scene that jabs at the jerry springer show the scene containing one old man complaining about how all guests on the show are inbred and rednecks not only is this observation entirely pointless and out of place but it is also hackneyed beyond all belief as the film flashes back to graham greene is quickly executed without any introduction his death seems very rushed and without any knowledge of who he is the scene is neither sad nor convincing greene is not even given a final word like some of the other characters and we don't even see him walk the infamous green mile however as the film begins to specifically introduce more characters such as coffey and eduard delacroix michael jeter as well as the five prison guards the film becomes more interesting the speed in the green mile is perfect if time was a matter of concern and the film was edited to the two hour mark it would have been unsatisfactory because we would not be able to know the characters as they are or as they treat others the three hour running is perfect for plot development and by the end of the film a great amount of love or hate is attached to each character the green mile is so good following the rough beginning that when the pivotal moment at the very end finally comes it is almost impossible not to feel some sort of sadness for every person in this scene fighting back tears was a difficult task that i barely succeeded in doing if you survive the first third of the green mile sit back and enjoy the remainder for some priceless entertainment
positive	the jekyll and hyde story told from his maid's point of view is in a word dark you wouldn't expect something bright and cheery based on robert louis stevenson's novel but the film is surprisingly dreary and dismal john malkovich is terminally depressed and desperate mary reilly julia roberts is a victim of monstrous child abuse and the sentiment of the times director stephen fears' version of the london slums makes us marvel that anyone survived them the lighting level is exceedingly low throughout the movie it almost appears to be filmed in black and white the direction and cinematography are brilliant and liquid scenes flow into the next scene like honey oozing off a strawberry except there's no red of course the look is so moody and melodramatic that you'll be shocked when you leave the theater i saw it at a matinee and took quite a while to adjust to the sunny skies afterward often the jekyll and hyde archetypes are viewed as splitting a whole person into components of good and evil or perhaps cerebral and emotional parts here the doctor is intellectual and perhaps good but certainly powerless his alter ego is forceful and totally without conscience two parts that make up a whole neither are capable of functioning without the other and once separated disaster is inevitable the differences between the two characters would be more effective if it were accomplished by demeanor and attitude when we finally see the transformation the special effects thrust the story into the realm of science fiction not the psychological horror that the tale demands roberts and malkovich are skillful in their roles both are suitably melancholy fitting in with the rest of the film the only flash of life and color comes from glenn close and her lips as the madam of a whorehouse where hyde lives and surprisingly jekyll apparently frequents life and color maybe but this is not close's best role she seems little more than a cardboard cutout character a beautiful film in its own dreary way you'll appreciate the filmmaking craft but don't expect to leave in an upbeat mood
positive	aggressive bleak and unrelenting film about an interracial couple steve and sam damon jones and elexa williams respectively who are viciously attacked in a parking garage one night by a gang of skinheads the skinheads beat steve then force him to watch as they brutally rape his girlfriend over and over again when sam kills herself later that evening steve decides that the skinheads must be taught a lesson waiting seven months for the thuggish skinheads to forget about the incident entirely steve shaves his head dresses in combat boots and suspenders tattoos his flesh with nazi symbols and tries to infiltrate the gang as he gets closer and closer to the people who committed the horrible crime against his girlfriend he begins to learn just how vicious these people really are and starts to question his own motives for violence randolph kret's script based on two real life incidents that affected not only his life but the life of the film's producer shaun hill is an affront on violence and intolerance the film causes its audience to be subjected to such brutality and ignorance that one can't help but be disgusted by the events presented within i've seen it said that this is the film fight club should have been but david fincher's film was trying to define a generation kret's film is a wake up call to a generation and his message is a powerful one if fincher is the kubrick of our generation then kret is our d w griffith thematically speaking there is not a single likable character in the film the skinheads are obviously the most repulsive characters in the film not only because of their beliefs but because they are in a constant state of fury not just against other races but within their own circles the characters in the film are constantly shown as sexually assaulting drug abusers who are always on a joyride looking for someone to accost even gay men get in on the act locating the skinheads' lair and beating them severely with lead pipes and other blunt objects the main character steve is also unlikable because of the person he becomes just to seek out revenge what all of this comes down to is the simple message that violence begets violence and the constant clashes between factions will do nothing but continue the endless cycle of violence inherent in our society the cast of this film is absolutely remarkable damon jones shows a raw energy that many actors can't seem to summon these days and his performance seems nothing less than powerful his initial reaction to hearing about his girlfriend's suicide is one of the most affecting scenes i have ever seen in a film david lee wilson who plays appropriately enough david lee is accurately evil as the second in command skinhead who also makes extra money performing oral sex on other men an irony that seems lost on the other skinheads wilson's character is pure hatred and he brings out this hate perfectly sadly actor dave ward who portrays the character of crew will not be able to follow up his excellent performance as he was the victim of a vicious act of violence himself at the hands of a fellow actor during an incident of road rage ward showed immense promise and he will be greatly missed note it is a shame that the filmmakers had to add a disclaimer to the end of the film stating that neither they nor the musicians contributing music for the film condone racism the message about hatred couldn't be spelled out any more clearly than it is here but there are those who would probably find this film much more akin to a training video than a condemnation there are no winners at the end of this film either no character gets his or her comeuppance and the ending leaves us almost right where we began where american history x had redemption for most of its characters no such victories are in store for pariah's band of twisted souls it is this bleak ending that carries the film's most powerful message the message that despite what you may be able to momentarily do to put your own mind to rest evil will still be with us and in many forms and there is very little than can be done to eradicate it entirely
positive	gothic yarns are not a new conceit in fact they've been around in books and on film for many many years without the proper handling they come off as bland and outdated the gift directed by sam raimi is a effort that surprises very little and includes everything from a wide array of suspects and red herrings to mansions in the deep south with moss trees out front to the eventual discovery of a waterlogged corpse found in a nearby pond it's fairly obvious who the killer is in fact i predicted who it would be before the movie began and was correct in my preliminary suspicions the film ultimately shouldn't work but it does thanks to a sparkling cast that fills each character with so many memorable nuances the most fun to be had is in simply watching the people interact with each other annie wilson cate blanchett is a recently widowed mother of three sons who makes her living giving psychic readings to the residents of her backwater southern hometown some of her mainstay clients include valerie barksdale hilary swank who is severely abused by her husband donnie keanu reeves and buddy cole giovanni ribisi an unstable mechanic who is confused by the nightmares he's been having about a mysterious blue diamond that is somehow linked to his father for annie she does not give the readings merely for money but uses it as a way of seeking solace in finding the good in everyone's future her late grandmother rosemary harris told her as a child that it was a gift she was given and she should always remember that when annie's eldest son is involved in a fight at school she meets the school principal wayne collins greg kinnear whom she finds herself attracted to but wayne is engaged to the wealthy jessica king katie holmes whom annie immediately gets a negative vibe about at a party with her best friend linda kim dickens annie stumbles upon jessica in a compromising position with lawyer david duncan gary cole soon after jessica has disappeared leaving everyone in a frenzy over what could have possibly happened to her and annie starts to have nightmares and apparitions linking jessica with the vicious redneck donnie barksdale and the pond behind his home the gift may be cliched on a sheer storytelling level but the performances and tight direction from raimi who has redeemed himself for his embarrassing last film for love of the game lift the picture up several notches slowly enveloping the viewer into the many intriguing characters and their individual plights the disappearance of jessica at the mark divulges the movie's true intentions and transforms the proceedings into a taut at times frightening at the center of the film is the exceptional cate blanchett the talented mr ripley who turns annie wilson from what could have been little more than a protagonist into a very exact realistic person with valid troubles and a caring attitude towards those around her blanchett takes the unextraordinary material and runs with it giving the entire film a truly classy aura that it otherwise might not have had we follow her at every turn because she is so mesmerizing both as a character and an actress blanchett isn't the only bright performer as she is ably supported by one of the best casts of the year in her first role following her oscar win for boys don't cry hilary swank is excellent as the confused valerie who seeks guidance from annie but is too scared to take her biggest advice of all to leave the grossly abusive donnie as donnie keanu reeves the watcher makes an utterly convincing backwoods meanie so much so that it is difficult to believe he is an actor at all for the reeves whose acting abilities have never been the best this is the biggest compliment he could possibly get and it is also one of the better performances he has given giovanni ribisi the boiler room is heartbreaking as a mentally slow young man who sees annie as his only friend and wants her to do nothing but help him understand why he is being plagued by bad dreams about his dad in the small but pivotal role of the sleazy jessica king katie holmes wonder boys has turned in yet another stunning supporting turn her promiscuous role of jessica is one she has never played before and she is radiant in her few scenes finally kim dickens hollow man makes her usual strong impression as annie's spicy best friend linda the other notable aspect of the gift is its moody atmosphere that lays such a thickly foreboding air over every scene it's almost suffocating thanks to cleverly construed editing by arthur coburn and bob murawski and the successful use of different eerie sounds effects and a very good music score by christopher young the movie not only achieves a scary undercurrent but one that is filled with dread helped along by a strong screenplay by billy bob thornton and tom epperson which makes the most of its setting and delightful cast the gift is that rarest of thrillers that actually thrills and offers up a fair share of chills too it may not be groundbreakingly original but it sure is an entertaining ride for the duration of its running time
positive	one of the best things about my job is that every so often a film still catches me by surprise spy kids certainly did an adventure story aimed primarily at children the movie is smart zippy fun the production neither panders nor talks down to its audience the brother and sister at the center of the tale are believable likable kids and their parents are get ready for this intelligent capable and loving bathroom humor is kept to a minimum and the numerous action scenes avoid excessive violence what a relief it is to be able to review an film on its artistic merits and not its ethics consider the other pg rated family friendly movie in theaters now see spot run has a mother going out of town leaving her son with an idiot neighbor body function humor abounds including a slapstick bit that has the adult male lead repeatedly falling in dog poop what really disturbs me are the jokes that bookend the film the story begins with a police dog capturing a mobster and biting off one of his testicles in the process at the hospital the doctors explain that they replaced the testicle with a metal ball and joke that the victim is lucky the dog didn't bit off the other one because two metal replacement balls would clack together of course the movie ends with the dog biting off the remaining testicle and shows prisoners laughing at the criminal as he clacks past their cells somebody clue me in when did genital mutilation become funny spy kids is a welcome antidote to the repellent see spot run using imagination instead of cruelty and crudeness carmen alexa vega and her younger brother juni daryl sabara live in a beautiful seaside home with their parents gregorio antonio banderas and ingrid cortez carla gugino mom and dad are a sultry couple devoted to their children what the kids don't know is that they are also former spies once agents from different countries assigned to erase each other they instead fell in love married and retired to raise a family needless to say they get drawn back to the business shortly into their first joint mission they are captured and end up in the headquarters of fegan floop alan cumming a foppish hybrid of willy wonka and pee wee herman who hosts juni's favorite tv show but there is evil behind the scenes as inventors prepare an army of robots disguised as children papa gregorio has the device necessary to radically increase the efficiency of the creatures and the bad guys will stop at nothing to get it from him back at home uncle felix cheech marin shows up to reveal mom and dad's secret to the kids after a brief respite at a safe house filled with enough cool gadgets for a dozen sharper image stores carmen and juni set off to find their parents and save the world zooming through the sea in a submarine pod that looks like a goldfish while a slew of wicked people including teri hatcher chase them during the course of their adventures they get to use jet packs electroshock bubblegum and sunglasses they watch as secret agents are transformed into bizarre creatures with silly putty faces and used as background characters on floop's tv show they deal with guards that have huge thumbs where their arms legs and heads would normally be why are the guards so ineffective because they're all thumbs they move from one colorful locale to another including a nifty virtual reality room reminiscent of the holodeck from star trek the storyline is silly and convoluted but even at its most dense it is easier to follow than either mission impossible movie director robert rodriguez from dusk to dawn maintains a frenetic pace with the whole film clocking in at a mere minutes a bit less action and a little more character development would have been nice but he does provide enough quiet moments for viewers to become fully invested in the family alexa vega and daryl sabara make an agreeable brother and sister team squabbling the way kids do but coming together when it counts antonio banderas and carla gugino are even better as the parents they quickly establish and maintain a great lusty chemistry while keeping their tongues properly in cheek during the action scenes even the usually irritating alan cumming has some nice moments a virtual chat between his character and juni is one of the best segments in the film had rodriguez added a few more scenes like that i would have enjoyed the film more and i definitely could have lived without the glaring product placement for a certain company regardless spy kids is a hoot offering fun for adults and children alike and just think they managed to do it without sacrificing a single testicle
positive	of all the films i've come to see this year i think only chasing amy had as many moments i'm not saying that i was hysterically rolling on the floor while watching waiting for guffman but my mouth burst open with at least a delighted guffaw at least every couple of minutes and i think i'm the kind of person that laughs least at movies even when i find them funny usually all you can get out of me is a warm smile so to get me laughing out loud and so frequently is a really good sign waiting for guffman is the story of blaine missouri a town celebrating it's anniversary and the musical that is being put on for the big event the play is being directed by corky st clair christopher guest who also wrote and directed this mockumentary as well as several original musical numbers the effeminate broadway hopeful determined to make this production a smashing success teaming up with st clair are a handful of blaine residents allan pearl eugene levy a jewish dentist who spent his youth not as the class clown but sitting right next to him and studying him ron and sheila albertson fred willard and catherine o'hara respectively a married couple setting their sights on hollywood libby mae brown parker posey the dense but fun queen of the dairy queen and a few others everybody in this movie is brilliant absolutely so but levy particularly stands out these characters are portrayed with such saddening realism that you can't help but love them as pathetic as they really are although levy stands out guest willard o'hara and posey are all wonderful and definitely should be commended for their performances if there was an oscar for an ensemble performance this is the group that should sweep it some humor was a tad uneven from the rest of the film and even after starting very humorously they nearly lost me with the intros as delightful as it was it began to get monotonous thankfully just as your about to say ok maybe i should run to the bathroom they finally get past the intros and onto the rehearsal scenes like a play this film gives a very feel the intros funny but almost too long the rehearsals even funnier and finally the actual performance of the play excellent like i said each character really shines even when done with a subtle approach you can't really watch these people and not think they're real people even they way they talk with awkward pauses and stumbles that don't feel staged at all you feel like you're watching a real albeit funny documentary and even with silly lyrics the original songs when the play is finally put on are absolutely wonderful as a word of note despite it's r rating waiting for guffman is really quite clean this rating came from a brief very brief use of the of all swear words even if that really bothers you let me say that it's not presented in a vulgar way it's actually quite humorous and tastefully done it might be hard knowing what to expect with waiting for guffman it's silly humor but it's also so dry subtle and intelligently done that you're not insulted by it it's always really nice to see a comedy that isn't all slapstick and vulgarity and this film is one of the better ones of the better ones i'd recommend seeing it
positive	in essence good will hunting is an ordinary story told well taken as a whole there's little that's special about this tale it follows a traditional narrative path leaves the audience with a warm fuzzy feeling and never really challenges or surprises us but it's intelligently written with dialogue that is occasionally brilliant strongly directed and nicely acted so while good will hunting is far from a masterpiece it's a worthwhile sample of entertainment like scent of a woman which was released around this time of the season five years ago good will hunting is about the unlikely friendship that develops between a veteran and a cocky young man the formula for the two films is similar both of the principals learn from each other as they slowly break down their barriers on the way to a better understanding of life and their place in it but the characters are different al pacino's slade was a individual robin williams' sean mcguire is much more subtle and matt damon's will hunting uses pugnaciousness to supplant the blandness of chris o'donnell's charlie will is a troubled individual as a child he was the frequent victim of abuse an orphan he was in and out of foster homes on a regular basis now not yet years old he has accumulated an impressive rap sheet he has a short temper and any little incident can set him off like a spark in a tinder box but he's a mathematical genius with a photographic memory and the ability to conceive simple solutions to complex problems while working as a janitor at mit he delights in anonymously proving theorems on the math building's hall blackboards then one evening his anonymity is shattered when professor lambeau stellan skarsgard catches him at work will flees but lambeau tracks him down unfortunately by the time the professor finds him will is in jail for assaulting a police offer the judge agrees to release will under two conditions that he spend one day a week meeting with lambeau and that he spend one day a week meeting with a therapist eventually once several psychologists have rejected the belligerent young man sean mcguire a teacher at bunker hill community college agrees to take the case after a rocky start the two form a rapport and will begins to explore issues and emotions he had walled up behind impregnable armor and as will advances his in sessions with sean he also learns about friendship from his buddy chuckie ben affleck and love from a harvard named skylar minnie driver the script by matt damon and ben affleck is not a groundbreaking piece of literature and occasionally resorts to shameless manipulation the characters are however and there are times when the dialogue positively sparkles at one point will comments that a session with sean is turning into a taster's choice moment later will gives a brilliant breathless diatribe against the nsa that has the rhythm of something written by kevin smith note since smith produced good will hunting it's not out of the question that he had some input into this scene director gus van sant drugstore cowboy to die for culls genuine emotion from his actors and this results in several affecting and powerful scenes there's an edginess to some of the therapy sessions and the offscreen chemistry between matt damon and minnie driver who became romantically linked while making this film translates effectively to the movie the relationship is electric likewise the companionability of damon and affleck is apparent in the easygoing nature of will and chuckie's friendship many of the individual scenes are strong enough to earn good will hunting a recommendation even if the overall story is somewhat generic matt damon who recently starred as the idealistic young lawyer in the rainmaker is solid although not spectacular as will minnie driver last seen in grosse pointe blank adds another strong performance to a growing resume and it's refreshing that she was allowed to keep her british accent rather than having to attempt an american one the outstanding performance of the film belongs to robin williams whose sean is sad and wise funny and somber arguably the best dramatic work in the actor's career alongside what he did in the fisher king williams' portrayal could earn him a best supporting actor oscar nomination adequate support is provided by ben affleck chasing amy and stellan skarsgard breaking the waves like most of what comes before it the ending of good will hunting is completely predictable but meeting expectations and following a familiar path aren't always bad things in a movie provided the film accomplishes those goals with a modicum of style and an attention to detail good will hunting does both and as a result earns a rating commensurate with the good in the title
positive	clue is an unfairly ignored comedy very similar to murder by death this big screen version of the classic board game what's next chutes and ladders the motion picture is filled with slapstick antics and silly dialogue the plot for what it's worth has all the characters from the game in this case the names from the game are used as aliases meeting in an isolated mansion to confront mr boddy lee ving the man who's been blackmailing them all when he turns up dead everyone including the audience must figure out whodunnit and in what room and with what object while not as witty as neil simon's murder by death clue definitely has it moments it has so many moments in fact that i use a lot of the lines from the film when i'm joking around with my friends to this day whenever someone says the phrase well to make a long story short i have the follow up phrase too late ready to go the cast all very good comedic talents play well off one another while the late madeline kahn as the dark and sultry mrs white sometimes steals the film away from the rest and colleen camp as the french maid yvette displays some of her natural talents as well clue is available on dvd from paramount home video it includes the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of and is enhanced for televisions and features the original theatrical trailer a french language audio track is also available the trailer holds up well considering most previews from that time do not and it even includes a scene not in the film itself a scene that should have been in the film as it's a good joke also the trailer is scored to the music from airplane which was an interesting choice when clue played in theaters it ran with the gimmick of three different endings if you wanted to see all three you had to go to the movies three separate times so when the film was released on home video rather than releasing three separate videos all three endings were included on one tape the first two endings being what if endings and the third ending being the actual ending now for the dvd release you get two choices you can watch the film as it was presented on home video or you can select to watch it with one of the three endings randomly chosen for you note there's an easter egg hidden in the disc pertaining to this after watching the film with a randomly selected ending when you return to the menu screen you will be able to highlight the large magnifying glass and select it when you do a secret menu opens allowing you to watch any of the three endings by themselves now while i applaud the effort of paramount here as they clearly tried to do something special with the disc it just doesn't work well first why not give the viewer the choice of what ending we want to watch maybe someone like myself who's seen the movie hundreds of times would like to sit down and show it to someone with the second ending only i'm no technical dvd expert but i can't imagine that being too hard to accomplish secondly the delay between when the film itself ends and one of the endings begins is too long and too obvious thereby becoming a distraction right when you definitely don't need a distraction finally the back of the dvd case states and now with this special dvd version you can see all surprise endings i have no idea why they would word it that way since that's not a special feature in the slightest the video has been out for fifteen years now good lord has it been that long and it's played on television with all three endings all the time these are merely minor complaints however seeing that i've watched the home video version hundreds of times and have no problem watching the film as such on the dvd the picture and sound are wonderfully improved over my worn out vhs copy and i'm thrilled that paramount agrees with me that clue is a film worthy of being preserved on this great digital format 
positive	the dream team is a thoroughly entertaining comedy featuring four loveable characters who just happen to be slightly insane billy played by michael keaton is an extremely temperamental mental ward patient whose short fuse and violent tantrums tend to get him in trouble christopher lloyd portrays henry an who requires that everything be neat orderly on schedule and by the books he thinks he's a doctor so he walks around wearing a suit and carrying a clipboard on which he constantly scribbles notes and files reports jack played by peter boyle thinks he's jesus and finally there's stephen furst as albert a chubby catatonic who speaks only in baseball and television phrases the dream team follows the misadventures that beset the when their psychiatrist dr weitzman takes them out of the hospital for a field trip to yankee stadium during a pit stop they get separated from weitzman and are left to fend for themselves in manhattan the movie's charm derives mostly from the camaraderie and chemistry between its delightful cast the four leads in the film play off each other quite effectively they never miss an opportunity to argue bicker or insult one another henry and jack for example fight over who's going to get to ride in the front passenger seat on the way to the game the actors in the dream team have a lot of fun with their characters and with each other michael keaton is well cast as billy he gives his cynical character considerable complexity as the divinely jack peter boyle succeeds in keeping his character funny and fresh although stephen furst's catatonic character is cliched the actor makes him sympathetic and endearing while keaton boyle and furst are good it's christopher lloyd who really makes the movie special lloyd gives yet another outstanding comic performance his body language for example the way he walks and his facial expressions are perfectly suited to his compulsive character lloyd's brilliant performance yields a pathetic moving and memorable character the dream team is a solid comedy with more depth and drama than you might expect from its simple premise the characters are so appealing that you can excuse the film for its often outlandish and unbelievable plot
positive	people who enjoy science fiction are often faced with unpleasant surprises due to the improper labelling of novels stories comic books or movies often science fiction aficionados find material previously labelled as science fiction to be pure fantasy or supernatural horror or rather simple in such cases mistakes are understandable genre boundaries are never clearly marked but i believe there are really few cases when a movie labelled as science fiction actually happens to be straight historical epic such thing occurred in former yugoslavia some fifteen years ago when national distributors gave such treatment to the right stuff film directed by philip kaufman the mistake of the distributors could be explained with the fact that the official poster of the film features men in space suits but the right stuff film isn't even fiction it was based on the book by tom wolfe covering the early years of american space program the plot of the film begins in when few people heard of edwards air force base major test site for experimental planes the major aim of test flights is to determine ability of manned aircraft to reach mach speed and thus break the sound barrier many pilots tried to achieve that goal and many paid with their lives for such bravado but one quiet pilot chuck eager played by sam shaped succeeds and thus gives example for whole new generation of test pilots determined to enter history books by breaking new speed records ten years later soviets have launched sputnik marking the beginning of the space age in order to regain national prestige us government decides to be the first to send man into space best air force navy and marine pilots are recruited into program but not yeager because he lacks college education and desired image in one of critics' polls the right stuff was named as one among top films made in such high position could be explained with the fact that kaufman's film looks quite atypical for its time with more than three hours of length and epic scope it looked more suitable for and age when hollywood used to make films larger than life but the real reason lies in the fact that it was made by truly remarkable and talented filmmaker philip kaufman created reputation in by using all the opportunities of that golden age in order to create original memorable movies the right stuff was the last of them swan song of an era when producers allowed directors to spend big bucks on unusual artsy projects the right stuff is unusual because it lacks many standard elements of hollywood film the plot is almost and not very coherent the story featuring many interesting incidents and anecdotes shifts focus from the old generation of test pilots embodied in yeager to new generation of the astronauts the film also lacks conventional protagonist yeager who also appears in small cameo remains the true hero of the film but equal time and exposure is also given to other astronauts and their wives making this movie into ensemble piece that gave opportunity for kaufman to use multitude of great acting talents until that specialised only for bit or character roles sam shepard is great as yeager war hero whose greatest achievement breech of the sound barrier remained obscured in history books probably due to his own modesty on the surface he lacks personality compared with his hyped and more fortunate astronaut colleagues but shepard gives texture to this character with subtle gestures and phrases shepard's performance is followed with great acting by ed harris as marine and future politician john glenn young dennis quaid is more than fine as arrogant fighter jock gordo cooper and this arrogance is mirrored in his friend and most tragic figure of virgil grissom superbly played by fred ward always reliable character actor scott glenn provides some comic relief as navy aviator and arguably first american man in space alan shepard kaufman left room for female talents to excel too barbara hershey pamela reed veronica cartwright and mary jo deschanel are great as pilots' wives royal dano is also impressive as menacing figure of preacher but the most memorable performances belong to donald moffat as lyndon b johnson and jane dornacker as nurse murch great acting talent assembled for this film was mirrored with kaufman's superb direction most notable of all is the methods kaufman uses in order to suggest the passage of time the beginning of the film shows test pilots living in the middle of desert as virtual unknowns far away from strict rules and discipline everything seems natural can indulge himself in horse riding just few yards away from the fastest and most precious aircraft in the world in that setting it's quite normal for important technical problems to be solved with simple chainsaw and for the test pilots not to report their ribs being broken before most important flights but the times are changing alliance with ussr is replaced with cold war and natural pilots like yeager must be replaced with more disciplined conventional pilots their entire lives become focus of media frenzy and their job is subjected to strict rules meticulous plans and they must fight the bureaucrats politicians and uncaring scientists like former nazi rocket expert werner von braun played by scott beach only to preserve their most basic human dignity this contrast is underlined with the beautifully edited sequence while yeager conducts his final and most spectacular test flight in absolute obscurity mercury astronauts receive fame and fortune although some of them even before going in the space those contrasts and similar effects are achieved with kaufman's superb use of poetic movie language editing is great and photography by caleb deschanel provides many memorable scenes like the funeral in the desert or astronauts in their suits walking in slow motion the same image would be copied in many latter films although kaufman enjoyed support of nasa and american military which provided authentic locations and period equipment he still had to use special effects in order to simulate space flights those effects are excellent and they can still fool the audience accustomed to cgi and real footage of earth from outer space another fine contribution of this film is oscar musical score by bill conti i still tremble from excitement every time i hear it it is accompanied with the use of holst and debussy some of the songs used in the background also provide authentic atmosphere of the historical period this film is great and its cult status is well deserved but there are some minor flaws some of the mercury astronauts aren't fleshed out enough although being played by fine actors like lance henriksen film also lacks proper closure on the other hand most logical conclusion of the film landing on the moon would require this film to be more than six hours long also some critics were prone to attack this film as too amerocentric and hard on russians who were portrayed as evil monsters just in line with most virulent cold war rhetoric of reagan's america in some of contemporary interviews kaufman defended that approach by claiming that he wanted to make film as authentic as possible and in order to do that he portrayed russians not as they were in real life but as they were perceived by americans in early time has passed now we don't see astronauts as heroes in this age of widespread satellite communications and routine space missions those men and women in space suits are seen as mere maintenance workers few young boys want to be astronauts when they grow up but this film sentimental reminder of the times when future began perhaps could encourage at least some of them to follow mercury astronauts' footsteps seek new frontiers in the sky and even if they decide to stay on earth they could still appreciate the right stuff as an extraordinary piece of cinema
positive	i find most of television so intensely boring that i simply never turn on my set unless i'm watching a movie i don't even have cable so i went to radio shack to buy an antenna specifically for the purpose of watching the every sunday night it's the only show that's worth an hour of my time each week though since i don't watch reruns i'm glad that i have six months of the year to avoid television altogether i am an avid fan of the show and have been for about three years now and i love gillian anderson the is the film that continues the story where the season finale left off the film is like a episode except that there are a lot more special effects the plot is thicker and the resolution is more satisfying this is a terrific film both for fans of the series and for those who have never seen it i imagine that viewers unfamiliar with the show will find the film to be solid and riveting entertainment i expected to like it more than any episode i've seen and my expectations were met actually the film takes a few risks in its story and plot devices but thankfully the makers managed to do it right when the finale ended the fbi branch known as the had been destroyed and our heroes mulder david duchovny and scully gillian anderson were left stripped of five years of hard work the film picks up soon after and mulder and scully have been reduced to field agents investigating a bomb threat in a federal building but wait i'm getting ahead of myself the film actually opens in the ice age about years prior during which a couple of prehistoric guys get attacked by a vicious alien the alien's blood infects them fans of the show will certainly remember the black cancer and the story jumps into modern times during which a young boy is also infected with the cancer it turns out that the bomb was planted to kill the boy and mulder and scully uncover the despite the fact that scully has resigned from her position in the fbi soon they find out that the whole thing has to do with aliens as i've written before it's not easy to write plot summaries for films like this because everything needs to be a surprise fans of the show will know what to expect and i seriously doubt any of them being disappointed with the film director rob bowman has done a great job expanding the eerie feeling of the show to the big screen making small adjustments and minor changes to utilize the possibilities that film allows over television there are some truly suspenseful and scenes here late in the film when they're in the alien spacecraft you'll see one of the better action sequences in recent cinema the special effects are very good and the production design by christopher nowak is fantastic what i find interesting is that the is actually a great way for series neophytes to get into the story our heroes are given subtle introductions we're not expected to know them on the outset and the film explains enough of the story that prior knowledge of the series isn't required to understand the film there are of course little elements that the makers have included as payoff to the fans but i'll keep those as surprises it takes a lot of thought and understanding of the series to create a film using roots as complicated as the ones that the series provides and then create a coherent film that anyone can understand clearly the series is strong for a lot of reasons it's original though it has many ties to the twilight zone and owes some homage to hitchcock and impressively eerie for a television show what really makes the series shine however are the actors duchovny has so much presence and is just a fun guy to watch he has that confidence that will someday make him into a bankable leading man anderson is equally good and paralyzingly beautiful she's also a strong actress both performers have acted in little more than their series however though i think they'll both get their chances to prove themselves very soon i enthusiastically recommend the both for fans and is a summer filled with disappointing blockbusters and this film should satisfy where most of the others leave you completely dry it's an intelligent film and takes you places that you might not have been or at least might not have seen so many times that they feel familiar the is impressive in concept as well fans of the series are likely to be highly critical and to take the premise beyond the series is a risky move it's nice to see a risk pay off for a change actually it's nice to see a risk at all
positive	the celebration is one of an elite kind of films that is completely absorbant you know where you sit down to watch it and no matter what you've heard about it before you just can't help but be totally drawn into its story and shocked by every single turn that occurs i prefer films like these because these are what the best kind of films are like i don't really feel there are to be any real rules for cinema a film can do anything as long as it makes it work but i do ask that all films have one thing in common they create experiences when i watch a film no matter what kind of film it is i want to be able to take certain memories along with me the celebration is great because it's chock full of those it creates a world so completely realistic that everything that occurs is as memorable as the little instances of life that catch your attention and stay with you for the rest of your life and then it makes things just a tad bit farscial just to make sure you're paying attention which you are because what transpires is just so goddam interesting that if you were to ever feel bored then you're of your attention span needs a bit of a the story takes place at the extravagant home of an aging patriarch henning mortizen who has just turned and is having a party thrown for him all his friends and family turn up and for the first half hour we get introduced to everyone simplistically and realistically no aggravatingly condescending posing for the camera deals here the eldest son christian ulrich thomsen looking a bit like a young malcolm mcdowell is the first to be seen in the film walking to his father's home his brother michael thomas bo larsen drives by pulls over greets him then kicks his family out of the car forcing them to walk to the estate just so christian can be comfortable we then meet helene paprika steen their sister a woman who always seems to be who invites the driver of her car gbatokai dakinah an american to to come join her at the party she's going to once they're all there and settled in the party begins and as custom the eldest son has to make a speech to his dad so christian stands up at the head of the table and reveals the film's punchline his father raped all his children at a young age but since this is a affair his confession becomes more detested than the supposed truth and is simply brushed off despite his efforts and what transpires is sorta like jerry springer crossed with jean renoir and it's all terribly interesting to watch twists occur and soon the film has taken on a nature but still seems realistic because the people involved really feel like they could reach such ends the most notorious thing about this film which has been getting the most notice though is that the director thomas vinterberg has shot it in a completely awkward fashion as a member of the danish filmmakers clan dogme a group that has vowed to oppose the auteur concept illusions and dramaturgical predictability so that they may purge film so that once again the inner lives of the characters justify the plot i have not seen breaking the waves the other notable film by a member of this group lars von trier to be exact but the celebration works exquisitely in this department it feels like reality like you're actually watching real people and not actors and as a major pointer has been shot on video as a result it looks more like the home movies you never dare shot of your family than an actual film but always wanted to we see key moments in people's lives that they wouldn't dare show to the world and it captures the farscial comedy of life so accurately and acutely that this style as as it really is works perfectly for the nature of the film the key though to this film and the reason it's not just a cool danish import is because this film is not about revealing the truth as much as it is about the way people react to such an explosive truth throughout the film we see a completely realized debate over the truth and the effects it has on the lives of those who have learned to live with lies a debate so that it could easily blow oliver stone and his reasoning out of the water of course it was not right for the father to rape his children and of course they couldn't have fought back then and of course this has created scarring suppression inside them and yes it's thearapeutic for one to release the truth years later when they know it could easily destroy the one who emotionally destroyed them earlier but then again the father after all is not a totally bad guy and we can see the emotional complications that arise thanks to a performance by mortizen which is just so great and touching that while we do believe that he could have raped his children years earlier we also see a man who has also learned to live with what he's done and deep down feels true guilt that is only now beginning to surface the final scene involving mortizen and everyone else is utterly devastating thanks to him and thomsen whose performance is utterly flawless and equally emotionally complex everyone else is flawless as well the actors never seem to be stepping into the shoes of their characters as much as they do walking comfortably in them the actors or writers have not made the mistake to judge these characters in the slightest there are no whites or blacks but instead all grays exactly like life as such the celebration may be the one truly bizarro film of the year a work of art so eerily close to reality that it's utterly disturbing and utterly fascinating
positive	synopsis shrek myers is an ogre living in contented solitude deep in the heart of a forest until his home is invaded by fairy tale creatures fleeing the rule of the evil lord farquaad john lithgow farquaad agrees to relocate the pests on the condition that shrek rescues princess fiona diaz whom farquaad desires to wed from a castle grudgingly shrek sets out joined in his quest by an unwanted companion donkey murphy review one memorable aspect of disney's aladdin was that it finally gave robin williams a character the genie to best take advantage of his comic talents shrek does the same for eddie murphy ironically though murphy's ideal vessel turns out to be an ass all the same shrek does represent murphy's best comic outing in years and as donkey he steals all the best lines for instance after getting belted with pixie dust while trying to conceal his nature as a magical creature donkey soars into the air and scoffs now i'm a flying talking donkey and despite its many contributors the script for shrek is full of such comic gems myers is delightful in more of a straight man role and lithgow also gets some great moments watch for a hilarious repartee with the gingerbread man shrek takes great pleasure in lampooning fairy tales and nursery rhymes of all sorts and reserves a few delightful knocks at disney in the bargain things do go somewhat astray during the film's middle segment which concentrates too much on the main characters at the expense of some of the terrific fairy tale satire which is the movie's greatest strength but even then one can always sit back and enjoy the beautiful computer animation whose remarkable use here represents yet another dazzling leap forward for the technology
positive	matthew broderick and high school comedy the two terms have been practically inseparable since ferris buehler took the day off in now it is years later and broderick has another high school comedy election to show the world ferris buehler's day off showed an educational setting that was similar to a pile of marshmallows it was light fluffy tasty and sparkling clean but election is far different this production is a dark and frighteningly realistic one that does so much more than entertain for the minutes it occupies it shocks as well jim mcallister matthew broderick is the type of teacher that makes american high schools proud he is a kind caring younger man who has built his life around carver high school in turn carver high school has provided a home for him jim has won teacher of the year no less than three times in his year span and is a well respected social studies teacher among the student body tracy flick reese witherspoon is an intelligent outgoing and to quote the film super nice young girl she is involved in numerous extracurricular activities always has her hand up first in class and is extremely popular among most of the student body so it is a natural progression when she decides to run for school president the metzler family is an extremely wealthy one the father dick holmes osborne owns a cement company the mother jo jeanine jackson is an ideal housewife and the two children paul chris klein and tammy jessica campbell are both students at carver high school paul was the quarterback of the football team before he injured himself and is definitely a candidate for most popular person in school tammy is a lesbian who to say the least is going through a period of self discovery for reasons of revenge hatred and sexual envy jim convinces paul to run against tracy for school president he claims that in a democracy you need choices and having tracy run unopposed creates a dictatorship of sorts so paul agrees and the race is on but then in an effort to spite the two candidates tammy announces that she is running as well her campaign is straightforward people only run to put it on their college applications then they do nothing well i don't even want to go to college she says in election there are no good guys almost everyone has their own agenda no matter how deeply hidden the production digs it up and exploits it for the audience tracy is the type of person that you remember from high school she is the girl that would be labeled most likely to achieve anything she wants in the yearbook and everyone secretly envied her because of that jim is a teacher that takes the trust that students give him as a privilege and uses it to his own amoral advantage everyone including the principal a former teacher all the candidates and even paul's girlfriend are two sided characters that is much of this film's beauty it doesn't have the typical good guys that hollywood likes instead it is a realistic portrayal of the real world specializing in revealing the type of sexual perversions that people usually keep to themselves matthew broderick couldn't have been any more perfect for this role his character is often similar bill murray's award winning role in the film rushmore of the two acting jobs broderick's is far superior but even he is overshadowed by the young reese witherspoon the hatred that she causes the audience to develop towards her is simply indescribable broderick and witherspoon are simply at their best when they are playing off each other in various scenes one such moment occurs when she approaches him in his car as he is leaving school one day you can see her self pride in her eyes as she presents him a list of signatures making her an eligible candidate and his subtle disgust with her is apparent although he tries to mask it between the lines and attempts to put on a happy face the supporting cast is one with little hollywood experience but that is far from apparent as everyone takes control of their part however the real treat is jessica campbell in her confused role as a young homosexual girl this is never more apparent than the scene where she delivers her speech announcing her platform for presidency she is just marvelous as her hatred towards what she thinks to be an unjust system is expressed if ferris buehler made you feel good about american high schools and gave you an innocent laugh or two then the movie achieved its goal but don't you dare think that election's goals are similar it is just as real in its portrayal of high school as its characters are in the real world there certainly is no pile of marshmallows here
positive	the rocky horror picture show edition' starring tim curry and susan sarandon cult films are never mainstream the casual viewer of a cult film will look at it and be repulsed and confused yelling out the hell is that fans of these sorts of movies will be laughing at every other second at all the jokes' they missed the first time around while normal movie watchers will look at them like they're insane the rocky horror picture show recently in a edition' to video is the mother of all cult films period like some other cult films most notably little shop of horrors the rocky horror picture show is a musical with a twisted edge to it this movie begins out innocently a couple get engaged at a friend's wedding and get a flat tire in the middle of the night while it's raining they go to a castle to try to use the phone little do they know that the castle is owned by dr frank n furter a mad transexual transvestite scientist who has recently created a creature he will use for personal reasons the acting is pretty good overall tim curry home alone legend is as frank n furter it's interesting to see that this movie was one of future oscar winner susan sarandon's dead man walking first she plays janet the girlfriend of brad majors even the singer meatloaf is in it the songs are all very good yet twisted in their own way a sampling of titles range from damn it janet to touch me all the actors sing their songs with no dubbing from other kind of a bad thing barry bostwick brad majors tries to sing as does susan sarandon but tim curry is clearly the most professional having extensive stage experience meatloaf sings like meatloaf the new special edition contains two original movie trailers of the film as well as two songs deleted from the original version sadly the songs are tacked after the kind of defeats the purpose if you want to see a different film watch this one
positive	confession time i have never ever seen gone with the wind i don't know why really haven't wanted to check it out on video haven't been at home the nights it was on network tv and it was too far to drive the last time it was on the so right up front i'll admit that i don't know what the heck i'm talking about but here goes is titanic the gone with the wind of the maybe that's going a little bit too far as good a job as leonardo dicaprio and kate winslet do in this movie they're no clark gable and vivien leigh but the parallels are there gwtw was the first movie to take real advantage of the most revolutionary technology available technicolor titanic takes revolutionary steps forward in seamlessly integrating computer graphic design with actors gwtw places america's greatest tragedy in the background of a classic love story titanic does the same with the atlantic's most legendary tragedy they both have redheaded heroines they both exploit the class differences between the aristocracy and the bums they were both incredibly expensive and popular ok maybe that's not enough parallels so titanic's not in gwtw's league no matter titanic is a great movie in its own right complete with spills thrills and especially chills much has been made of the humongous cost of the production and all of the care than went into making the huge luxury liner come alive again the money was obviously the costumes look great the sets look great the cgi graphics look great i especially liked the expensive little touches like spending tons of money on authentic titanic china only to break it all on the floor as the ship sinks but james cameron's real challenge in producing titanic wasn't just costuming and set design and special effects cameron's major headache was keeping the audience interested in a tale where everybody knows the ending going in he succeeds masterfully cameron does two things that work incredibly well first he shows us salvage operations on titanic that's just titanic not the titanic mind you the first glimpse we get of titanic is the ship in its present state corroding slowly away under the hammering pressure of the north atlantic from the window of a minisub piloted by treasure hunter brock lovett bill paxton television coverage of the exploration of titanic intrigues rose calvert gloria stuart who survived the wreck in stuart does a phenomenal job in a brief role narrating the story of her experience to a stunned paxton and his roughneck crew secondly cameron keeps the storyline focused almost exclusively on the rose character and the romantic triangle between rose winslet her bastard millionaire fiancee cal hockley billy zane and the irrepressible young artist jack daswon dicaprio the way that disaster movies usually go wrong is to have an cast so we see the impact of the disaster on a wide group of people cameron wisely chooses to stick with rose and jack while paying scant heed to the celebrities on board the supporting cast is professional but mostly anonymous other than kathy bates as the unsinkable molly brown there's no moment when you stop and say oh yeah i know him what's he been in although i would like to have seen colm meaney in a white star uniform or even as the engineer the love story itself is rather conventional i think some reviewers found it weak and that may be a fair criticism the performances are the key here zane has the meatiest part in the movie and he plays the arrogant condescending steel millionaire to the hilt he's smooth he looks great in a tuxedo and he's a convincing enough jerk that the relationship looks plausible at the moment when he sees a little girl too frightened to get aboard a lifeboat you can hear the wheels in his mind turning saying not can i save this little girl but can she help me get on a lifeboat dicaprio is a revelation i hadn't seen him before in anything and didn't know what the heck to expect really honestly i expected a bad irish accent but cameron evidently decided that was a bad idea so dicaprio plays a poor american artist who wins a ticket in a poker game dicaprio exhibits an infectious joy at being alive and being on the titanic that it's hard not to like him from the moment that the ship leaves port until it hits the iceberg dicaprio has to carry the movie and keep our interest and he never falters winslet's character grows up a lot during the movie and so does her performance at first she's not required to do anything but wear period clothing and look gorgeous we know from the narration that she's monstrously unhappy with her arranged marriage to zane but there isn't any expression of these feelings until she encounters dicaprio winslet and dicaprio develop a chemistry that manages to propel the movie along until the ship hits the iceberg it's at that moment where winslet's character really comes alive faced with real danger she drops her mannerisms and does a splendid job as rose and jack race around the doomed ship looking for shelter from the freezing water and cal's fiery temper winslet turns in a superb acting performance mixing courage and compassion and anger with sheer shrieking terror of course the most interesting character is the ship itself cameron has clearly fallen in love with titanic and shows her in every mood as a deserted wreck down in the boiler room up on the bridge down in the hold at the captain's table down in steerage and manages to bring the great ship back from the dead cameron's greatest gift is that he allows us to fall in love with titanic as well
positive	if he watch out mel gibson is in danger of being known as someone other than mad max of course there are still a few big guns in this film but some accomplished acting too although gibson continues to shed his rough and gritty skin as his career progresses here he explores a new genre the businessman as action hero in ron latest film gibson plays tom mullen a gazillionaire airline owner whose son is snatched from the junior science fair by kidnappers mullen at first agrees to pay the ransom but when things fall apart he rethinks the situation a veteran of numerous business negotiations the tycoon realizes that in order to get his son back alive he has to play his hand differently the casting is what puts this film over the top the trio of gibson the kidnappers' mastermind gary sinise and fbi team leader delroy lindo play off of each other wonderfully sinise is perfect as the driven scheming sleezebag is right on the mark his speech to mullen over a walkie talkie about h g morlocks and eloi reveal his vision society mullen and the other glitteratti frolic up on high while sinise and the other lowlifes dwell below feeding off the unsuspecting character is an hero with a few flaws his tactics tend to work but they are also what got him into this situation to begin with in a round about way if he known as a man who s willing to buy his way out of trouble his son have been kidnapped as sinise says a payer you did it once and now going to do it again one of the nicest elements of this film is that most of the characters actually have personalities lindo calls home to talk to his kids obviously shaken at working this case even the kidnappers are real people arguing about the ultimate fate of sean mullen and feeding him candy bars on the balcony of their penthouse apartment is especially effective one of the best filmed representations of a world falling apart that seen not all perfect the shoot upending while emotionally satisfying seems tacked on to be just that rather than to provide a powerful resolution as well crafted as the scene is seen it before wife rene russo has several good moments but occasionally just seems to be there while adequate brawley nolte sean provide much to the film other than occupying space to build the story around but ignore these problems as each minute of the movie builds on the previous one forget about the large coke you want to leave for that five minute break an hour later
positive	john cusack is the kind of actor who seems to effortlessly slide into his respective film roles so effortlessly that people tend to forget he's there much in the way people rarely recall many of the great character actors anyone who can put the name james rebhorn with that actor's face is invited to treat themselves to a product from one of my sponsors example the other day my mother asked me the expert of course if there were any movies out worth seeing never mind that our tastes couldn't be more i'll never forget the day she recommended that i go see a night at the roxbury for god sakes and to be fair she was mightily pissed at me for telling her that go was a lot of fun which it is so i didn't see this as anything more than a futile attempt at conversation i muttered with a little trepidation that she might enjoy high fidelity she responded with her usual query whose in that one this is a question whose answer that seems to immediately conjure up the kind of movie you went to see if the reply is julia roberts you probably assume it was something wispy and light a sylvester stallone movie and you picture a bloodbath with few words and much involuntary bicep flexing and a woody allen movie means hyper articulate white people usually of the jewish faith fretting about in some upper east side palace anyway when i answered john cusack she replied with a rather stunned who as if it was unreasonable for her to know whom i was referring to now i know for a fact that my mother has seen several cusack movies most recently being john malkovich and pushing tin but i suppose it's understandable that she would not recognize the name after all for most names are tougher than faces i showed her a picture of cusack's mug in the paper hoping for an oh him yes he's quite good instead i got a no i don't know him at this point i was way beyond frustration into a realm of nose hair yanking anger yes filmic ignorance is all it takes to get me into the nose hair pulling zone till i realized something i doubt that much of america would recognize cusack's relatively bland visage or even the name which is rather bland compared to the coolness of a brad pitt or tom cruise names that glide off the tongue with the velocity of a speeding car no not quite as cool i'm sure that twenty years from now cusack will forever be referred to as the guy from add in the cusack film of your choice he's not a brand name and his movies usually aren't big moneymakers but in his own unassuming way he's kind of a genius with his pleasant common man looks and charming blatherings he has become one of the most likeable romantic leading men of the from the sure thing to say anything cusack has merged the talents of early tom hanks and early jack lemmon despite the fact that nearly every character he plays is a variation of the character before it the schlumpy every man he's a constantly enjoyable screen persona like albert brooks or woody allen and he knows how to chose scripts while the stephan baldwin's and val kilmer's seem to put them selves in everything the former actually had the insight to follow up oscar winner usual suspects with a pauly shore vehicle and judging from his latest projects it looks like he still has yet to fire his agent cusack generally picks rewarding projects save for the unwatchable hot pursuit a film also featuring a young ben stiller high fidelity is his second collaboration with hit or miss english director stephan fears the grifters the country and it's a hit it was also by cusack and some of his collaborators on the terrific comedy grosse point blank it's not quite as entertaining or as funny as that film but as it progresses in its meandering fashion the movie cast something of a spell over me high fidelity begins as a hipster ode to the rob a vinyl record store owner who opens the film by breaking down the fourth wall with much abandon and educating us in his top break ups list this is something cusack does the entire film a la ferris bueller's day off at first the had me vaguely annoyed mostly because it reminded me so much of the film body shots which used a similar conceit but it began to grow on me due almost entirely to cusack's witty delivery he's the kind of guy we don't mind talking directly to us gradually the film settles into a character study of a guy who must confront himself and his personal failures in order to figure out the true person he is yes it's all very existential though that is mostly enjoyable the thing i liked the most about the film is how much pleasure it offers in introducing us to minor characters all of whom now this is really something are terrific enough to warrant their own films the best of which is jack black of the very funny show tenacious d a program that sadly went the way of bruce willis' hair unfortunately that annoying smirk remains an ardent record store employee who bullies customers into buying exactly what he wants them to buy he's the kind of guy i'm sure we've all met before a blowhard who thinks he's always right and will do anything in his power be it yell argue insult to hoist his opinion onto others but i like this guy because of how black plays him the actor is portly with a round baby face and crazy eyes but despite his size he leaps to and fro like a manic speed freak which might be a bit of a redundant description seeing as how all the speed freaks i know are manic he's the kind of supporting character who would be impossibly annoying comic relief in most other films look at what that hack jan de bont did to poor phillip seymour hoffman in twister but fears and black never let that happen the character for all his shucking and jiving is steeped in reality he's over the top but in a way we can all probably relate to catherine in her brief role gives a vivid portrayal of a women completely enamored with her own charm tim robbins registers in an even tinier part as a new a character played entirely for cartoon yuks but still manages to work its desired comic effect the one exception in the acting department is a bit of a doozy the main love interest played by danish actress iben hjejle mifune who completely obliterates any trace of a danish accent replacing it with a stilted american phonation i give her kudos for attempting such a contradictory role but instead of being likeable she comes across as rather robotic and as such it's hard to see why cusack's character would be so obsessed with her especially when he has a beautiful intelligent writer natasha gregson wagner potentially waiting in the wings this reminded me of say anything where the charming cusack was paired with the charmless ione skye and in midnight in the garden of good and evil where the poor bastard had to put up with alison eastwood whose unbelievably more wooden then father clint for those special people whose wheels turn a little slower in fact cusack is rarely paired up with a personality that matches his though i'd bet that if laura and natasha switched roles the result would be more effective high fidelity works almost entirely on the strength of its characters and performances fears' direction is somewhat stilted and the script is sometimes a little too and this is a word i'm beginning to hate to use but alas i must quirky for its own good i think i'll blame that on scott rosenberg who judging from what he did with beautiful girls con air and things to do in denver while your dead has his fingerprints all over the most irritating bits of this movie but cusack really does deserve an award for being so damn cusackian i'm afraid that his talents are so understated that he may have to wait till his hip needs replacing to be offered such an award worthy of his considerable talent his character rob whose sort of like an older more bitter lloyd from say anything is funny and tragic without being pathetic and that cusack can do all this and still not imprint himself onto the minds of most audiences is something of an achievement
positive	only a year after the initial release of scream the horror from veteran horror director wes craven and screenwriter kevin williamson that seemed to breathe new life into the slasher genre the inevitable sequel scream has arrived in our theaters while the parodic element is still noticeable in this film it's really a sideshow to a broader commentary on violence and the media and a more conventional horror story the first film while often violent and gruesome was mostly lacking in genuine scares because almost every scene was played for camp value and the discussion of the quirks and cliches of horror movies was nearly constant the premise of scream is that a series of copycat killings begin when a movie called stab based on a book written by opportunistic reporter gail weathers courtney cox about the events in scream is released and two audience members are killed during the opening screening i had heard about this scene before i went to see the film and was surprised to find this sequence largely lacking in camp comedy its conclusion in which a bleeding wounded woman stumbles in front of the screen and dies in front of an audience that cheers on because they think it's a publicity stunt is more surreal and disturbing than anything else the satire in scream thus takes on a broad focus and gradually evolves into an exploration of media perceptions in general although resident horror film geek randy jamie kennedy is back with fresh dialogue about sequels and interestingly enough how they are usually inferior to their predecessors the characters in this movie are drawing from other entries in the pop culture encyclopedia as well everything from friends and saved by the bell to showgirls and terminator is referenced here horror is only one of many genres available for lampooning and there aren't any wes carpenter jokes this time more importantly this film portrays characters willing to go to disturbing lengths for media attention as well as characters whose perceptions have clearly been warped by what they have seen on tv and film the killings are clearly an imitation of the previous murders from scream in fact the culprit even plans to use the influence of horror movies as a courtroom defense weathers exploits the situation for her own notoriety and one man seems willing to save the heroine's life only if it will earn him an interview on the today show understandably scream does not go so far as to actually blame the movies but rather shows that those who do imitate horror movies are already sick and twisted couple that with the fact that several of the characters most notably the lead character sidney prescott neve campbell are fairly and that there are some genuine moments of suspense and what we have is a pretty darned good horror movie in its own right we don't just get the horror of scary masks and graphic gore we also get the horror of sympathetic characters who seem helpless as their friends are slaughtered and in one case a significant character who was an audience favorite even bites the dust and whose lives have been reduced to constant fear of a crazed murderer lurking around the corner while i have not seen any of his other work it's easy to see why craven is generally touted as the most sophisticated slasher film director as he clearly cares about something more than just the actual acts of slashing unfortunately scream occasionally reverts to the horror tradition of throwing logic out the window for example several characters seem quite clearly dead and inexplicably turn up alive later there has been a running gag in both movies about the villain being able to pull off this particular trick but it also happens with other characters and in an even less believable fashion there are also a few scenes in which the killer suddenly appears behind the next victim in a situation such that s he clearly would have been seen moving in that direction as for the question of whether or not scream is yet another sequel not as good as its predecessor   well it's hard to say i gave the first scream stars as well because it worked pretty consistently as a scream bounces all over the place stylistically but it does a better job delivering the genuine scares and asking the questions about media violence that were only hinted at in the first installment i'm not sure which is the better movie but i did leave the theater convinced of one thing sequels however much randy might argue do not necessarily suck
positive	the full monty is a whole lot of fun its wacky witty and original it's written and directed by relatively unknowns simon beaufoy and peter cattaneo who both turned up oscar nominations how did this movie with a budget under million gross over million worldwide its been rumored that this film may be the second most profitable movie of the year and to think its about male exotic dancers and not sinking ships six steel workers who have been recently been laid off and are all looking for jobs inspired by the success of a chippendale's production gaz robert carlyle decides they should all put on a strip show to make some money quickly as the six team up to put on the show of their lives they run into a few problems for instance dave mark addy is worried about his weight horse paul barber thinks he may be inadequate and gerald tom wilkinson is worried about his reputation and timing so when the night of the show comes will the men be able to do the full monty as i said before this is a fun movie and not just that its really artistically good the writing and direction are great the acting is appealing all the performances have a human quality to them so you can relate to at least one of the characters the full monty received four oscar nominations including best picture which left me wondering one thing why didn't trainspotting get a best picture nomination last year while the full monty is a great lighthearted comedy it doesn't carry the social impact of the brilliant trainspotting still the full monty is a great film a must see
positive	with the release of gattaca i began to wonder why all science fiction films deal with destructive aliens or aliens in general hollywood has given audiences plenty of thrills with those alien films but what was usually lacking was a good story and good characters and good acting etc contact being the exception and for some reason hollywood has never taken a look at the aliens here on earth the closest that i have seen anyway was a space odyssey which made mankind an alien race themselves being dwarfed by the technology which they created now comes gattaca another film about technology reigning supreme except here on our planet the difference between and this one is simple gattaca is more frightening most of the concepts of this movie are based on recent discoveries in genetic engineering using this premise andrew niccol creates some genuine suspense and thrills unfortunately due to a lack of advertising i fear gattaca may fair horribly at the box office since seeing the film i have been asking people if they have seen gattaca lately however i have been asking them if they have even heard of gattaca most people don't even realize that it is a film despite this fact i surely hope that the audience members who have seen this film will tell their friends about it niccol's film deserves more than what independence day made because it is smarter better produced and more realistic gattaca begins in the century procreating is now done in a petri dish and genetic engineering is the normal way of doing it natural child birth is considered we are introduced to jerome morrow ethan hawke an employee of the gattaca space program one of the directors of the program has been murdered and the main suspect is one vincent freeman the only problem is that jerome morrow is vincent freeman vincent was born the natural way when his parents decided on bringing their first child into the world through love however after his birth and through several genetic tests doctors tell his parents that he will have a chance of a weak heart as well as poor eye sight and a short life span as a result both parents decide to bring their next baby into the world via genetics anton loren dean is produced without flaws and the competition between brothers spawns vincent has a dream to fly a around the titan the moon of saturn but because of his condition gattaca and society in general forces him to do menial labor around the company labeled an vincent's dream seems impossible until he meets a dna specialist german tony shalhoub german introduces him to a valid who has been paralized from the waste down due to an automobile accident jerome morrow jude law agrees to give vincent all the proper identification tools urine blood skin and hair samples etc that he will need to get past gattaca's tight security in exchange vincent will provide jerome with the rent money and friendship after the murder however his dreams are put at risk due to one of vincent's eyelashes left at the scene of the crime irene cassini uma thurman is a genetically flawed valid working for gattaca and she begins to fall in love with gattaca is one of the best science fiction films i have seen in a long time only two other intelligent science fiction films have come out in the past two years contact and the arrival and gattaca will rank among them unfortunately whenever one intelligent film comes out against special films it normally gets buried the second best thing about gattaca is the production design by jan roelfs the orange glow of gattaca's scenes are impressive but the sets deserve most of the credit the sets are very well done creating a futuristic sense but not too futuristic as to alienate viewers as we look at the designs we realize that these buildings aren't too far into the future this brings the plot even more credibility as genetic engineering becomes more possible by every passing day the best thing however is the plot the story is more than your average at its heart it develops a theme which is never overpowering but is always present perhaps niccol is warning our race about the changes genetic tampering could bring would our society become a bunch of soulless zombies maybe human nature is a result of mankind's flaws if we get rid of flaws do we get rid of dreams as well niccol's intelligent script handles all these questions extremely well and the result is an incredibly smart thriller set against a dramatic story or vice versa the power of the actors brings a lot of credibility to flat characters while flat may sound like a poor job on niccol's part it actually enhances the meaning behind the story ethan hawke has developed into a handsome adult actor giving his best performance of his lifetime so far his curiosity and motivation pushes his character past all the discouraging remarks from his parents and valid peers uma thurman is well uma thurman her character is slightly underdeveloped but the story isn't about her however thurman gives a lot of depth to the flat character jude law gives the most complex performance of the film with the most disturbingly realistic character he provides several nice touches and his final scene is a very touching and heartwrenching one loren dean gives a nice performance in his character dean is also responsible for some of the most suspenseful scenes in the movie alan arkin portrays one of the detectives with a little less more excitement than with his psychiatrist in grosse pointe blank still he does a good job gore vidal and xander berkeley both provide some very good supporting roles and berkeley also gives a heartfelt discussion towards the end of the film gattaca is rated for brief violent images language some sexuality and nudity despite the somber and desolate mood of the entire film i wasn't exactly prepared for the ending which left me feeling empty it turned me off slightly but then i realized that everything turned out the way it should have if this had been a typical hollywood film it would have ended much differently however with all the mindless science fiction films out there it is nice to have a film which doesn't talk down to its audience i especially like the ironic title and how it consists of the four letters which make up the genetic coding g t c and a instead it provides some much needed entertainment which gives us science fiction fanatics just what we want a science fiction film with morals behind it whatever happened to giving the audience a lesson while entertaining hopefully more writers and directors will learn from gattaca and hopefully audiences will too p s personal note to p j gladnick how dare you call this film the worst film of the year i can't even begin to image what film you do like that frightens me beyond anything
positive	it must be some sort of warped critical nightmare the best movie of the year would be a summer vehicle a jim carrey vehicle at that and so it is truman is the most perplexing crazed paranoid and morality play i've seen since don't credit carrey it starts with andrew niccol gattaca who created the script ten years ago the story replete with sublte religious and philisophical undertones is about a man who discovers that every day of his existence has been televised for a mass audience ironically it was within these past ten years that television have become a predominant fixture into our culture who knew niccol it was when unlikely peter weir took the helm that things fell into place weir had the nearly impossible task to create the unimitible tone deftly mixing capra with kafka throwing george bailey in a universe inhabited by rod serling it was weir's first stroke of genius to create seahaven a suburban that would make spielberg cower in shame for example would walk around the block incessantly with flowers along with the latest issue of the nicest touch are the plethora of subtle hints for truman to leave the island credit weir for his second stroke the casting of carrey carrey seems to be the type of character actor who would always turn on and act goofy whenever the camera is near not here his performance is so subverted you sometimes wonder if he is ever aware the camera is on and although carrey does not deserve an academy award nomination just as well the academy rarely honors goofy comedians excepting robin williams he stretches enough to alter his image considerably playing one who has the cameras constantly invading his most intimate moments turns to be quite the role of jim carrey's life no pun intended better in a smaller more pivotal role is ed harris as christof who mixes the right amount of his apollo work the problem people character with dustin hoffman's megaglomaniac producer in the and then only slightly svengalian it is clear that he is torn between the nielson ratings and truman's well being yes in his own misguided way he loves truman as a father to a son and has provided the best universe he could provide he thinks rounding out the cast is natascha mcelhone mrs dalloway as carrey's true forbidden love sylvia very effective in another pivotal small role laura linney congo and noah emmerich copland have the unfortunate task of playing truman's wife and best friend their dialogue allow little room for any authentic character development the exception is at the very beginning where they speak into the camera wholeheartedly believing that their participation is truly good for truman and for society in general there are other little problems with the script are we to assume that toddler truman had no recollection of hearing the construction of such a gigantic dome during his formative years was there any reason as to why in one scene it rained solely on truman even though it never had to how is it they hire hundreds of extras and none of them could drive a boat and yet truman fearful of water is helming a sailboat effortlessly and couldn't christof have turned off the wind to strand truman at sea these little contrivances however do not hold a candle to the overall effect of the work the audience gets the feeling that it is watching the actual show and we are drawn to truman's mundane existence for no other reason than it is there the final result effortlessly combines the emotional happy ending of a mainstream picture with a gnawing discomfort that hits you square in the gut upon leaving the theater i was looking up in the sky wondering if it was nothing more than a gigantic dome just checking
positive	now lets first look into the history of shark films there was the unforgettable jaws the exciting jaws the rather flaky jaws and sometime in the late another film of the same genre that i can't seem to recall about the son of jaws returning to wreak revenge or something like that now with the magic of cgi one shark is simply not enough in deep blue sea there are big mean and really smart ones russell frankiln jackson visits aquatica a research center where a research is being conducted on the extraction of a hormone substance found uniquely within the shark brain that can cure and reverse the effects of alzheimer's disease the substance is small in quantity and because of this lead researcher dr susan macalaester genetically alters the shark dna and grows them twice the size with brains as big as humans naturally producing more of the much treasured hormones as sure as the sun sets in the west a shark breaks lose and wreaks havoc within the facility during a hormone extraction procedure with the flexibility offered by cgi the sharks get more screen time as their predecessors did in those rubber suit days gone are the days of people getting pulled under the water with the water turning red right after this time we get to see the entire gobbling action with floating limbs and all acting expected in most of your average action film jackson fresh from his jedi master role in the phantom menace takes on the force of a different kind and fits well with his lines ll cool j's cook role as preacher does for this film what steven seagal's cook could only dream to achieve in his two under siege films deep blue sea does not offer any of the psychological thrills that jaws has to offer it does however prove to be a refreshing within the genre full of visual thrills suspense and believe it or not humour its like jurassic park under water nothing too stressful pure entertainment renny harlin you are forgiven for making cutthroat island
positive	this is the best british gangster film since the long good friday jon bennet played by andrew howard is an extremely good assassin as such he is probably an evil man but it does not worry him he has become an unquestioning weapon he is in the employ of a kingpin david calder far more evil than he is but even assassins have innocent pasts he runs into an old from school days and he is married to a mutual girl friend from school complicating matters is that they live near where he had a recent job and their young daughter may have seen him at the crime a big piece of what makes this film work is the depiction of the kingpin calder is a familiar actor in britain though not frequently seen in the us he was seen in the world is not enough here he creates one of the best screen villains in recent years he is at once seductive and repellent like a beautiful venomous snake his lair is underground apparently in a sewer where he lives like the king of sewer rats it is the kingpin who pulls the strings that will control bennet's life paul sarossy who directs spent most of his career as a cinematographer and like the kingpin's lair he has molded images of class and style out of the darkness by using and letting the colors of deep blue and black dominate every scene he makes the film visually as ominous as anything in this nether world this is a world that is cold and unfriendly sorossy creates a world of violence much more by what we hear than what we see this is a film with a great deal of physical violence occurring just out of reach we see very little but we hear a great deal more and we imagine more than that the screenplay is by peter waddington based on the novel by neil cross but it is sarossy's film all the way it creates indelible images of evil i rate it an on the to scale and a low on the to scale i do hope they do not use the tagline don't mess with mr
positive	produced by robert lantos stephen j roth directed by douglas williams mpaa not rated though from language violence and sexual content i'd put it at pg though made in canada overdrawn at the memory bank traces its roots to the bbc school of film production using for the most part cheap computer and video special effects chyron text wildlife documentary footage and sets that are sometimes obviously faked up it nonetheless manages to tell a good enough science fiction story that by the time you're twenty minutes into it you should be hooked raul julia plays aram fingal a drone data processing worker for novicorp whose active imagination and predilection for hacking gets him into trouble with authority caught watching casablanca on his desk monitor fingal is sentenced to doppling is to spend hours in the body of a baboon how exactly this is supposed to rehabilitate him is anybody's guess as it happens thanks to a visiting schoolboy's prank his body is temporarily misplaced and his mind has to be shunted into the central computer to keep him alive until they can find it as time ticks away before his memory cube the frantic search for his body is on while fingal first creates a virtual reality fantasy world then finds there's no better way to hack the system than from the inside during the chaos computer technician apollonia james linda griffiths maintains contact with fingal through a datalink manifesting several different times to offer advice or warnings over the course of their interactions interest on both their parts grows into a budding romance given that casablanca is fingal's favorite film and the basis for his fantasy world a great deal of the movie is homage to casablanca in fact the humphrey bogart and peter lorre characters make appearances played by julia in a dual role and louis negin respectively in a bar called the place julia's portrayal of bogart is passable and avoids becoming the schweethaat parody seen in cartoons negin's peter lorre is quite credible and easily the best peter lorre i've ever seen who wasn't the real thing the two of them as characters created by fingal's imagination serve as aspects of his personality driving him on in his quest to hack the computer system those aren't the only casablanca characters to put in appearances the sydney greenstreet character also happens to be around as the fat man the alternate aspect of the film's main villain the novicorp chairman donald c moore while fingal's body is lost the fat man tries to stop him from hacking the system with less than salutory results it's interesting to note the futuristic slang words that are thrown about left and right during the film in the best science fiction tradition words like dopple psychist computech cinema and reconst are apparently in common use and while people of today may well laugh at fourteen years past's idea of futuristic data processing clerks some aspects of this film are surprisingly perfectly in keeping with the way we think of virtual reality today as cyberpunk films go this may not be a staple of the genre but it's definitely recommended viewing the special effects are very primitive placing this production in the realm of television the music is completely which fits the low budget but isn't really out of keeping with the genre however the writing quite makes up for it there are some very funny moments and quite a few little that one needs to have seen casablanca to appreciate properly all in all i give overdrawn at the memory bank a
positive	i remember hearing about this film when it first appeared at cannes over a year ago picking up the grand jury prize at the festival comedy receives standing ovation' the headlines read intrigued by this statement i looked up information on the film and found that sure enough life is beautiful is in fact a comedy about the greatest atrocity of the last thousand years even though the movie was extremely by critics and public alike i couldn't help but be disgusted at this notion human tragedy is not something i feel should be celebrated only now do i see the error of my ways after finally viewing the film for myself after avoiding it for some time it became clear that it is not as the headlines proclaimed a holocaust comedy on the contrary life is beautiful does not even really depict the graphic events that took place in nazi deathcamps rather it focuses on the relationship between a father and his son who he is trying desperately to shield from the horrors of their situation roberto benigni who also wrote and directed the movie stars as guido orefice a clown and all round jolly guy who as the film opens is vying for the affections of an attractive school teacher nicoletta braschi benigni real life spouse through the course of the first hour or so we see guido striving to get the attention of this beautiful princess as he calls her employing the magic of laughter the italian comedian wins her heart and together they raise a young boy named giosue child actor giorgio cantarini life treats them well until hitler's minions rise to power and the family is whisked away to a german camp where guido becomes convinced that he must upholds his son's innocence no matter what the sacrifice granted it contains some uproariously funny moments both in and out of the concentration camp but it does not pull a hogan's heros and make light of the slaughtering of some six million innocent jews somehow it achieves hilarity without disrespecting it's gravely serious subject so we've established that life is beautiful is not a holocaust comedy but there is another complete misrepresentation of this material that really disturbs me the film despite critic's declarations of it being a triumph of the human spirit is no such thing not in my eyes anyway some have called the story an affirmation of the beauty of life but i say it is a very dark and bleak statement about man's capability of denial masquerading as an endearing comedy the film's ending has been recognized as the most entirely uplifting moment of any film released recently but i found it to be truly discerning and upsetting essentially life is beautiful is quite possibly the greatest hoax in the history of film however i am not denying the movie's greatness believe me it's fantastic i'm just saying that i think benigni did something different than what most people are interpreting it as but perhaps i'm reading more into the movie than is really there maybe the film's brilliance relies on the idea that the viewer can interpret the meaning of it in any way they see fit in fact maybe roberto benigni has made a film that is the sole argument for the old saying that you get out of a movie exactly what you put into it
positive	most movies seem to release a third movie just so it can be called a trilogy rocky iii seems to kind of fit in that category but manages to be slightly unique the rocky formula of rocky loses wins fight is carried out to the letter also the of showing the last five minutes or so from the past rocky film is used as well this movie begins with a series of clips showing how famous rocky sylvester stallone has become even showing a brief appearance on sesame street then it moves on with rocky being in a fixed fight with thunderlips hulk hogan a mysterious known as clubber lang mr t to rocky about his stupid decision to retire from boxing and that he pities the fool for not coming out and fighting him outright rocky's trainer burgess meredith tells rocky not to fight but the italian stallion doesn't listen naturally he gets his ass kicked somewhere along the line after this several things happen rocky's longtime trainer dies causing rocky to train with his former opponent apollo creed rocky's wife complains to her husband that he should fight the final fight ensues between clubber and rocky guess who wins the winner's name rhymes with the movie is entertaning mainly because of clubber lang's over the top performance the dramatic aspect has been toned down considerably since rocky ii and now action seems to be the strong point of the film which is good if you like fighting scenes the last match is quite decent actually if you liked the previous films rent this one it's well worth seeing if you are a fan of the series but if you can't stand rocky shouting adrianne one more time see something else
positive	review a dog of flanders is the story of an adorable little boy named nello and his trials and tribulations in century flanders living with his grandfather jehan jack warden in poverty nello finds happiness in his life in spite of difficult times they are renting a spare cottage and the greedy malevolent landlord who owns it threatens to throw them of the house' if they don't pay the rent nello also has a rather creative talent for drawing some of the most beautiful pictures that i have ever seen in either a movie or in real life his hero is peter paul rubens the great flemish painter of the century not that these are the only things that make nello's life happy however he has a dog of flanders whom he names patrasche who is a heroic of the century whom he rescues from his cruel unkind master in addition he even has a best friend and future sweetheart in the lovely wealthy aloise whose father strongly disapproves of her hanging out with nello he thinks he's not good enough for her and he would hate the idea of the two kids marrying but then he was a poor guy himself before he married as mentioned later on in the film one day nello encounters a mysterious yet kindhearted artist named michel la grande played wonderfully by jon voight who tells the boy to keep drawing from his heart and that perhaps one day he might land a career in being an artist and every christmas there is a contest on which is the most beautiful painting of the year the winner getting a lot of money eager to save his home and his aging dying grandfather nello willingly decides to become an artist asking aloise to pose for him one night the two travel to a circus where they have their fortune told one of the film's most delightful scenes that great happiness is destined for them she gives the kids a ring whom nello places on aloise's hand afterwards the two kids have a rollickingly good time dancing around in front of circus performers unfortunately things are not all in this tale aloise's father finally becomes so angry with nello that he forbids him to ever see aloise again bad enough that they can't see each other although we know nello and aloise don't we but that's only the start of nello's troubles aloise's farm is burned down and nello is wrongfully accused by the landord of his cottage for starting the fire in order to take revenge on being forbidden to see aloise this decreases nello's reputation around the town save aloise and her parents and a kindly miller william who is very sweet to nello every time he drops by matters get much worse for nello when his grandfather dies and he has to pay for his funeral but then things really get nasty when the landlord exiles nello from his own home for not paying his rental permanetly this means that nello and patrasche have to starve and walk out in the cold freezing wind worst of all the painting that he has desperately been working on during all this time portrait of the princess' fails to win the prize at the festival now nello and patrasche are really depressed and close to freezing to death will nello be able to find any happiness in his life will patrasche save the day will nello make the fateful trip to join his mother and grandfather in paradise a dog of flanders is a delightful heartwarming family film that is sure to entertain kids of all ages even older ones who consider themselves too for kiddie fare will be surprised to hear that this film is for too there have been other movies of this ilk boy and dog and while this one falls into that category it is mostly a story about overcoming difficulties and finding a good home for yourself move over or rather roll over old yeller this dog of flanders is a heartwarming delight the cinematography courtesy of walther van den ende is beautiful and really adds to the powerful drama of the film it also gives a feel of being in flanders the whole film was respectably shot in flanders the music from richard friedman is also remarkable an evocative poignant score that recaptures music from the century the opening song over the credits is very beautiful i hope the soundtrack is available and there's a brief excerpt of up charlie' from willy wonka and the chocolate factory sung by aloise to nello in another delightful scene the cast is jesse james and jeremy james kissner who play nello are some of the most endearing adorable young stars i have ever seen in my whole life so are the girls who play aloise madyline sweeten as the younger and farren monet as the older not that they are the only good stars however jack warden is ideal as jehan eliciting just the right amount of humor and compassion required for the character the scenes involving him and nello are heartwarming touching ones also bruce mcgill is charming as the kindly miller william he's another one of my favorite characters in the film but jon voight as i mentioned before is the perfect choice for michel he brings a mysterious yet gentle performance that makes us all feel good again when he reassures insecure nello that he can win the contest but what makes this film fun to watch is how the characters are and the pace of the story best of all it has a happy ending though i will not give it away sorry is strong and powerful enough for us to identify with the characters for the first time since the beginning of there comes a film which doesn't rely on popular formula stuff such as special effects commercial rock soundtracks or any of that stuff this one relies on telling a fully story with just the right amount of heart humor and drama that to me is what makes a dog of flanders all the more delightful eleanor o'sullivan of home news tribune' noticed this and was kind and generous enough to welcome it want of a better word a glow surrounds a dog of flanders its heart is in the right place and it engages you you can guess where the film is going because this is territory but with pros like voight and appealing young performers like kissner an story is well worth a revisit in addition there were a couple of other enthusiasts such as times and the washington post you should read their reviews they're really positive other critics however were not so kind stephen holden of new york times' had more than a share of beatings to lay upon a dog of flanders via pen writing he found the film to be a of sugary bromides' and condemned mr voight's character as wooden adopts an accent even more indeterminate than the one he came up with for anaconda in addition weekly' the film condemning it as worst family film of the year there have been so many other bad reviews like this too my suggestion disregard the critics they just have a big problem with touching family films and one should never pay attention to them this dog of flanders may only be a little movie it probably won't be a big hit in the style of titanic but then again no other film has been since then but that is not a bad thing in and of itself this is a story that is sure to warm your heart and that is what really matters about a dog of flanders it is also one of the better family films around this year none of the other films i have seen this year though they were good have been so and touching if you're looking for entertainment look no further than this charming yarn go see it while you still can for as i mentioned it might not be a big at the box office for a long time see it while you can there is really no need to compare a dollar blockbuster such as star wars episode i the phantom menace or tarzan or even the iron giant with a tender sweet little family movie
positive	do film critics have morals are there any unwritten laws an ethical movie critic would or should follow naturally we don't want to go into a film with any preconceived notions which is pretty tough but something we all have to accomplish secondly and along the same line we can't prejudge a film because of it's stars director etc the difference well in the first one we'd go into a film thinking it's going to be dumb or it's going to be good and that would affect our viewing that movie sounds and looks dumb so i'm not expecting much on the second hand we're simply assuming it will be bad or good because of a personal grudge against the film company it's made by disney oh it's just a merchandising ploy then the actors jim carrey's in it it's gonna stink or the director who can't be that good this is more of a biased viewpoint as opposed to a first impression viewpoint make sense ok but what about comparing isn't that kind of along the same lines when we compare a certain actor or director or even composer's credibility in one film to another they were involved in is that really fair sure in sequels you can expect and accept comparisons a lot more but what about jackie brown for example is it fair for me to take the review and turn it into a comparison of pulp fiction just because quentin tarantino directed and wrote the screenplay for both i think it is and i'll tell you why a good critic should be able to view the film from the average joe or jane viewpoint while still taking into account the artistic integrity behind the film sometimes that can be tough the acting was superb but i was bored or i loved it it was sooooo cheezy might be used to describe a film these are contradictions and a critic has to weigh both sides and come to a suitable balanced critique but which is more important and which is better an extremely well shot and acted film that is boring or a really amateurish film that you wanna go back to again and again getting back to the point my philosophy on comparing films being fair works because we're reflecting what the public wants to know anyway every average person out there who's interested in this film is likely to ask how does it compare to pulp fiction and so as a critic i'm already responsible to ask that same question jackie brown stars pam grier the blaxploitation heroine from the who is likely to make a big comeback thanks to her role as the title character tarantino's pulp fiction is in big part responsible for john travolta's sudden revival in the movie industry and with talks of an oscar nomination the same is likely to happen for grier we've made it thru comparison jackie is a airline stewardess who brings in extra cash and probably her main revenue by smuggling large sums of money into the united states for ordell robbie pulp fiction's samuel l jackson and comparison ordell is in the illegal firearms business and has enlisted the aid of louis gara robert de niro a bank robber who just got out of prison after serving four years to help him accomplish a scheme worth a million dollars trouble arises when jackie is stopped by atf agent ray nicolet michael keaton and taken into custody for possession of narcotics as well as having more money than is allowed in an airport without being claimed naturally this proves an obstacle to ordell's plans and not as friendly intended as we'd hope he posts jackie's bail after she is put behind bars the thing is ordell is in this for no one more than himself and as we learn from his previous actions he's willing to kill anyone who stands in the way jackie finds herself in a tight squeeze ordell won't think twice about taking her out if she fails to help him as she's always done yet at the same time a compromise with the authorities would be in order if evidence against ordell was provided it comes down to a simple question would jackie rather face ordell or prison what ensues is a rich and intriguing example of storytelling as we question who jackie is really out to help the law ordell or maybe just herself coming into play is another veteran robert forster as jackie's bail bondsmen max cherry max's obvious fondness for jackie will become a major benefactor in her fight to beat both sides of the system and forster plays him with subtle charm that adds depth to unbrewed romance also involved is ordell's surfer girl girlfriend melanie bridget fonda a ditzy bleached babe who spends her time watching tv with a bong in hand fonda does the best she can with an essentially thin role but there's nothing more to her and therefore she becomes a tossable addition to an otherwise flourishing bouquet of characters de niro is also wasted in his role as a quiet nobody crook out to score a few bucks for himself de niro is a brilliant actor but a character who hardly ever speaks doesn't need a de niro to play him compared to pulp fiction comparison the characters in jackie brown and very thin and replaceable in pulp fiction even the small seemingly irrelevant characters were wonderful complete and lifelike whereas jackie brown has such common figures that it wouldn't have suffered much with a lesser talented cast the exception being grier tarantino wrote this script with grier specifically in mind so to say that she is made for this role is a reversed truth sadly grier too could have received a bit more attention especially when the story is all about her perception of life jackson teams up with tarantino again but the chemical reaction isn't as awesome as the first time jules was the rambling hitman in pulp fiction and jackson is the only person who could have pulled it off and although jackson is really really good in jackie brown i don't think he's quite as irreplaceable in fact maybe a new face would have been better jackson could've remained tarantino's jules and a new guy could have become ordell forever to remain so in our memories sadly these characters are too much the same except ordell just isn't as impressive and putting this in the hands of jackson once again is only going to deter from our fond recollections of jules another problem is that ordell is way too focused on in the beginning this is grier's film so why spend so long getting to know a man who will become more of a supporting character as the film progresses it not only makes the movie feel a little too slanted but it makes for a slow beginning because we have to take longer getting to the meat of the story it is likely that those pouring into the theater to see this film are going to be those anxious to partake of tarantino's quirky dialogue and eccentric directing style and not so much those interested in seeing a silver screen adaption of elmore leonard's novel rum punch for those don't expect another pulp fiction and you'll be satisfied for the script oozes with the familiar brash qualities that has made tarantino an icon of making the directing has toned down a bit however yet we're still reminded that this is tarantino's movie thanks to odd devices and scenes being replayed multiple times from different viewpoints so getting back to the question that i began with this isn't pulp fiction at all it's good but it isn't anything that made pulp fiction such a revolutionary effort in the first place this is a more conservative tarantino but not one that won't satiate true fans if you can realize that this isn't going to knock your socks off then you'll be happy to at least let it massage your feet after all we all know how much tarantino loves that particular part of the human anatomy
positive	synopsis retiring detective jerry black nicholson becomes involved in the case of a murdered girl and promises her parents that he will find the killer he purchases a gas station on a route he believes the killer takes and there befriends lori wright penn and her young daughter as jerry and lori fall in love can he do what must be done to fulfill his pledge review at first the pledge appears to be just another standard if crime drama it is anything but in its final hour it turns the corner and becomes a riveting terrifying study of its lead character jerry black penn pays attention to all the trappings of the serial killer genre but they are just window dressing his interest here unequivocally is jerry a man so haunted by his pledge that it consumes the entirety of the his existence at first we see this only in small hints some of his habits change for instance and he suddenly takes up smoking in a big way but then when jerry buys the gas station and befriends lori the true extent of his mania draws horrifyingly into focus nicholson is fantastic portraying black with rare subtlety and animus jerry's gradual descent into obsession is like a car wreck a thing horrible to look at but impossible to turn away from penn coaxes good supporting performances from much of the rest of his cast too only eckhart disappoints as jerry's replacement stan he never seems entirely convincing too much a tool of the plot penn's direction is astounding each frame looking as though it is parched of water perhaps or of sanity it all builds up to a shattering devastating climax which lingers uncomfortably in the mind long after the house lights have come up
positive	one never quite knows what one is going to get with a mamet film his american buffalo is a piece that has very little plot sometimes he will tell a story that really moves heist is mamet doing his most entertaining work unlike his the spanish prisoner there are no lapses in credibility heist is probably the best mamet thriller since house of games it is the kind of plot with which you are never sure who will whom and frequently it is mamet the viewer watching the film's team getting around security the viewer is frequently asking himself either what the heck are they doing or why didn't anybody think of that before appropriately enough heist opens with a very clever jewelry store job it is so clever that one wonders if mamet really thinks up all these ideas himself or if he has help from professional magician and con expert ricky jay now a regular actor in mamet films this is a robbery that works like a machine there is just one problem and it is enough to get joe moore played by gene hackman filmed on a security camera now joe has to get out of the business it was coming time anyway joe's team including bobby blane delroy lindo fran moor rebecca pidgeon and pinky pincus ricky jay is going to split up and go separate ways but crime boss bergman danny devito is pulling the strings and he says that joe and his people have to manage one more robbery and he has to take along a young kid the fused jimmy silk sam rockwell immediately it is obvious that there is more going on than meets the eye much of what distinguishes heist is mamet's dialog remarkably it serves a double purpose the robbery team sounds at once very professional and at the same time it has mamet's special feel for dialog hackman has lines like everybody needs money that's why they call it money mamet's timing is perfect in the direction but terrible in the production the plot is coincidentally a lot like the plot of the recent the score which is in fact a very similar story both are good films perhaps for some of the same reasons but at least on a high level they are much the same story the other problem with the timing of heist is that it involves airport security and clever ways to get around them i saw the film at the toronto international film festival on september that made the subject matter just a little too timely my understanding is that the release will be delayed my biggest problem with the film is that rebecca pidgeon's acting at times seems very poor it is some kind of mamet trademark i do not understand to have women talk without inflection as if they are just reading the words for the first time it is an irritation and distracts us from what is otherwise a very good thriller it is one i rate an on the to scale and a high on the to scale
positive	shows why jodie foster is one of our best actresses see contact with your family it is a movie for all ages review by stuart cracraft contact starring jodie foster matthew mcconaughey john hurt director robert zemeckis star after a predictable mit phillip morrison start which can be surprising to those not familiar with prof morrison's work contact picks up steam gradually building an irresistable juggernaut and a very good movie that does not as is so often the case fall in terms of too much pandering to the technological geek side by the end the audience is left with what good science fiction is supposed to do evoke a sense of wonder about the universe and evoke questions in your mind about what's out there this movie does not let technology overshadow characterization and in this sense it is unusual amongst movies however except for jodie foster elie arroway and john hurt s r hadden who are both actors of exceptional caliber the supporting cast are not especially impressive hurt certainly has had better roles stephen ward in scandal this one as the hadden does not do his acting skills justice this is clearly a foster movie by one of the great hollywood lights of our generation foster's radiance has never been more strong than in the scene where she finally meets the vegans on their terms early scenes take a long long time to build up to this the movie's pacing is very good and subtle the panoramas of the radio dishes at arecibo and ceti in new mexico and puerto rico are beautiful the politics of foster's character attempting to obtain funding for research at these places are trite and predictable however one of the most entertaining but very short scenes is when foster is confronted by rob lowe during a presidential meeting to discuss the alien invitation there were real sparks in this scene between foster and lowe and it would behoove them to consider other vehicles in which this dynamism could be explored it is the only scene in the movie in which there were tremendous dynamics between two characters everything else was very e g foster lowe can stand up to foster and it showed in that scene at the cabinet table the core scene of the movie is set on a surrealistic beach on a world in the starsystem of vega it feels a lot like science fiction writer john varley's scenes in his book steel beach where the female protagonists encounters an immensely superior intelligence in one case a computer manufactured by mankind itself and in foster's case an illusion drawn from her memory in another sense this immensely moving scene evokes gene roddenberry's star trek pilot the cage later the menagerie when jeffrey hunter and susan oliver have their memories manipulated to create new worlds in which they live and encounter aliens the concept is not new by any sense in the world of science fiction but the beach scene which is the centerpiece of the film as is the whole film is driven by foster freed from her needs to direct by director zemecki foster is able to let it all hang out in the characterization and the lead she provides to her supporting cast as the movie gains speed foster's acting intensifies and the audience really does experience it with her it is certainly acting unquestionably the supporting cast does well and zemeckis throws in some humor with some president clinton cameos cleverly manipulated george to seem very forrest gump in fact zemeckis et al got in trouble for the usage of some of the footage seen in the movie vis a vis clinton but the audience i attended this movie with just had some good chuckles at clinton's the tension between science and religion in this movie is not particularly insightful to those who have already gone through this course though it is helpful to those in the audience who have not also the scene in a senate judiciary hearing room is disappointing contact is a fitting memorial to the memory of carl sagan science popularizer and sometime pedantic gadfly of the halls of academe perhaps now sagan can be said to be with his dragons of eden
positive	like the wonderful drama awakenings starring robin williams and robert de niro at first sight directed by irwin winkler is inspired by a true story documented by physicfirst sight directed by irwin winkler is inspired by a true story documented by physician oliver sacks since awakenings was so very good and made my top ten list the year it was released at first sight is not quite as strong since it is not directed with as sure a hand as penny marshall but is still an intelligent and drama the film begins as amy mira sorvino a new york architect decides to take some time off and travel upstate to the country at the hotel she is staying at she makes a massage appointment and after a long soothing session which ends with her crying as a release of emotions she strikes up a conversation with the handsome masseur virgil val kilmer only to find out later that he is actually blind amy doesn't really care if he has a handicap or not and begins to spend time with him more and more until they finally start to fall in love once she has returned to new york amy begins to research on virgil's certain type of retinal blindness which he has had since three years of age and out of a stroke of luck comes into contact with a doctor bruce davison who believes he can repair virgil's sight even though there have only been thirty similar cases in history at first reluctant virgil finally travels with amy to nyc and agrees to the surgery much to the hesitance of his overbearing but loving older sister kelly mcgillis ultimately the surgery is a success but problems arise since virgil cannot relate to what he sees since he has never visually seen anything before only touched objects he moves into amy's apartment and she is eager to stand by him but virgil's maladjustment begins to put a strain on their relationship on the basis of the overall story at first sight is indeed a film that has been done many times before and owes a great deal to its predecessor awakenings what will happen throughout the film can also be easily telegraphed in advance however what helps at first sight rise above this predictability is in the mature and intelligent relationship that develops between virgil and amy usually romantic pictures are of the shameless sort the recent tom you've got mail immediately pops to mind but with this film i grew to care more about the characters and their plight the film starts off noticably well as amy travels up north and first meets virgil the massaging sequences were strangely erotic maybe even more so than the later actual love scenes and as their romantic involvement quickly developed the film was both entertaining and sweet and there was clearly a lot of chemistry between the two these joyous moments early on balanced out well with the later scenes in which their relationship is seriously tested due to a contrast in the life styles that they have always known with virgil completely used to being blind and having a comforting peaceful life in the country to amy's eventful life in the big city the other major compliment that must be given to the film are the nearly flawless performances across the board val kilmer usually cast in the macho type of role was always believable as a blind person and playing his character was probably a little more tricky than it appears it was up to kilmer to not come off as someone to pity but to sympathize with and he pulled it off mira sorvino who made a spectacular debuting splash in hilarious woody allen comedy mighty aphrodite for which she won a oscar as a but ditzy hooker is a standout here although she has made some mediocre film choices since then mimic the replacement killers she always has managed to come out unscathed and it is with at first sight that she finally has another juicy role to play in a truthful climactic scene set in amy's apartment between she and virgil sorvino proves to be one of the most gifted young actresses around today and has a flare for both comedic and dramatic pieces kelly mcgillis who could have easily come off as the bad sister instead is also given an unexpectedly multifaceted character to play as a woman who may be overly protective but simply cares for her brother finally nathan lane who is usually a little too is appropriately restrained as a vision therapist the one misstep of at first sight is in its treatment of the medical procedure done on virgil very little is ever said or discussed concerning it and when the surgery occurs it is so briefly glimpsed at that it is impossible to see what is being done to his eyes perhaps the reason this aspect of the film was not more was that the makers were afraid it would gross out audiences but i would personally take realism even if it is graphic any day over simply giving the explanation of the surgery the cold shoulder in awakenings the patients and illness were far more satisfyingly portrayed because of how strong the screenplay written by steve levitt is in the way it deals with the main relationship and because of the fabulous performances from kilmer and sorvino the film's few problems can be swept over to the side the adult way that the romance is depicted by director irwin winkler is no doubt in respect to the couple that the film was inspired by who are still together after many years even though the setting of the film was changed to new york since january is usually the time of year that is known as the dumping ground from bad movies at first sight comes as a refreshing and sophisticated change of pace
positive	in the company of men made a splash at the sundance film festival because in a year plagued by brothers earnestly shallow angst pictures it seemed to be actually about something it angered people started arguments outside the theater riled things up it ignited a spark of excitement in what otherwise has been a disappointing year for independent film having endured my share of the hype i waited calmly for men to reach the hinterlands wherein i reside and then checked in to see what all the fuss was about does men live up to its press well yes it does and it may make you think twice before you consider dating anyone your office for the uninitiated newcomers aaron eckhart and matt malloy play chad and howard two corporate drones who are dispatched by their nameless company to a remote branch office for a six week assignment chad and howard are archetypes examples of which you can no doubt find in your own place of business chad is the blond golden boy genetically engineered for success the natural charmer who seems to glide effortlessly up the corporate ladder howard is chad's boss but he is weaker of will the clumsy practitioner of office politics who has achieved his position through dogged persistence rather than raw talent we first meet them awaiting their flight in a drab airport lounge there chad suggests a scheme worthy of a shakespearean villain he and howard will find a vulnerable single woman at the branch office woo her simultaneously win her love and then dump her the reason both men have recently been dumped themselves and chad sees an easy route to revenge against the fairer sex it'll restore a little dignity to our lives he says howard helpless against the force of chad's will agrees to the plan they quickly spot their prey in the form of christine stacy edwards a fragile deaf woman working as a temp chad moves in for the kill flashing his golden boy smile plying christine with lunch then flowers then dinner howard follows suit though his efforts are in contrast and desperate flattered to have the attention of two eligible men christine dates them both you can guess which one she falls for soon a tragic lovers' triangle develops christine loves chad chad loves himself and howard loves christine on the grounds that since she's handicapped and shy she just might be wretched and lonely enough to settle for him adult social interaction never really progresses beyond the level of junior high does it in chad labute and actor eckhart have created one of the most chilling monsters ever committed to lector may eat human flesh but chad is an eater of souls his evil is as subtle as a viper's and as easy as his smile we watch in stunned disbelief as he coworkers humiliates his subordinates and works his deadly venom into christine's heart his character would be a joke if he wasn't so chillingly all of us have worked with a chad and some of us may be him he's the guy who takes your job and then laughs at you for your weakness if one of his should happen to go postal and walk into the office with a bag full of handguns he had best have his escape route clearly in mind politics is his game and the modern office is his playground men wears the guise of a black comedy but it functions best as allegory the most controversial moment in the film happens when chad humiliates a black temp by asking him how badly he wants to succeed in the company then forces him to prove it in a manner i won't describe the scene is charged with racism and fraught with peril could it happen in the real world probably not taken as allegory however it is representative of the treatment of the meek by the powerful in all facets of society maybe it's just the english major in me but chad in his motiveless cruelty towards christine and his careful manipulation of howard can be seen as a symbol of unbridled capitalism of greed without conscience the entire film is a metaphor for social only the strong will survive the marvel of labute's script is that it can disturb each member of its audience in an entirely different way but does the film work as entertainment its darned funny in spots particularly in the men's room scenes which demonstrate the lengths to which guys will go to hold a conversation while engaged in the most basic of bodily functions it works less well as drama since by necessity the characters in an allegory tend to be flat ciphers stacy edwards gives a measured dignity to christine and succeeds in making us care for her but by the end of the film we still know nothing about her likewise chad and howard are simply the sum of their actions by the end of the film you'll feel as if you've met a genuine monster in chad perhaps we can also classify men as a horror film certainly those expecting a conventional hollywood resolution to the story will walk away disappointed but the picture is often mesmerizing and the script is a work of fine craftsmanship which makes it well worth your time like all good films it offers a myriad of parallels to the outside world while watching chad in his moment of triumph i couldn't help but think that bill gates must have felt the same sort of cold merciless satisfaction when he finally stuck it to steve jobs there may be a little bit of chad in all of us but some of us have taken to the level of art
positive	the booming introduction music finishes and the camera sweeps over red mountains we see two figures looking over a barren and very red landscape they kiss then walk on one of the characters schwarzenegger slips and falls the glass on his mask cracks his face scruches up and his eye's begin to pop then doug quaid played by schwarzenegger wakes up it's all been a dream he wakes up next to his beautiful wife played by stone and the film begins total recall is a typical film wrapped around an intresting if far fetched plot quaid who has never been to mars keeps on having dreams of the planet which has now been colanised one day while riding on a train he's see's a ad for a company called which implants memories of a holiday instead of you actually going there yourself quaid chooses the agent on mars' memory and then the s really hits the fan the implant goes wrong and quaid really thinks he is an agent on mars for about two minutes until he goes back to normal and can't remember a thing however everyone he knows his workmates his wife turn against him saying how about mars' and his cover on the mission' a strange man called richter played by ironside wants to kill him quaid now hopelessly confused follows the advice given to him by a he get's his ass to mars mars is ruled by cohagen played by cox who charges people for air against him are the rebels who are mainly mutants the rebel's need quaid to defeat cohagen because quaid knows but can't remember yet about a reactor that produces air eventually quaid kills cohagen turns on the reactor saves the planet and goes away with a beautiful girl just like the guy at rekall promised him throughout this plot there is huge explosions thousands of deaths and i mean a lot of death swearing sex and everything else that make's a good verhoeven director of basic instinct and starship troopers movie naturally there's some pretty imaginative deaths with arms getting ripped off someone getting drilled and heads exploding as you can tell it's violent stuff but it's done so stylishly and of course arnie tones it down with a one liner that's it excusable the acting is variable arnie of course is useless but he goes has some good lines and in the first twenty minutes he even act's like a normal bloke not like some action hero stone of course is useless making a pretty poor wife and a pretty poor action hero but she does sex scenes alright ticoton most recently seen in con air again is ok doing some good action but getting her emotions all wrong one minute she hates quaid the next she loves him and she never gets this tranisition right so the good guys are awful but the bad guy's are excellent cox is basically reprising robocop but he's still great in this and he delivers the best line in the whole film near the end ironside is superbly evil with an utterly emotionless face the supporting cast are fine and not even the comedy sidekick this time in the form of a taxi driver is annoying one disappointing aspect though are the special effects ilm and dreamquest do some good work such as a subway station scene but the model work is not so good some of the model heads look appaling fake and quatto is a major disappointment another irritating thing is the product placement there are a lot of plugs and a good mars today gag however the sets look great and the special effects at the end of the film aren't too bad either there's also a good soundtrack running through by jerry goldsmith the omen poltergeist star trek the motion picture overall then total recall is a hugely violent yet hugely enjoyable action fest with a reasonable plot thrown in there too some great bad guys and some imaganitive death for a schwarzenegger movie this is not bad at all in fact it's very good
positive	jonathan demme's based on the book toni morrison is a study in skillful literary adaptation on the one hand the film manages to recreate key moments from the novel evoking morrison's pragmatic narrative style without using her authorial voice on the other hand beloved omits the some of the finer details of the book favoring an ambiguously defined back story upon which to build the story's main events this choice is a smartly made one for it creates an open space in which the story's wide range of emotions can gestate and grow indeed the impact of the film is so protracted that much of it cannot be felt until long after the end credits have rolled takes place in the second half of the century during the reconstruction era after the civil war for slaves it is a time of confusion and turmoil oprah winfrey is sethe a slave who escaped a kentucky plantation and took her children to an ohio farmhouse where she hoped the terror would end what she did not know was that it would follow her there and remain with her long after the physical threat had vanished ultimately tells the story of sethe's search for forgiveness one by an unforgettable sin the film starts off on a dreary day ten years after sethe's escape as a violent unseen energy rocks her dilapidated farmhouse invisible hands terrorize her family flinging objects across rooms shaking tables rattling floorboards sethe's sons run away perhaps for good leaving sethe and her daughter denver to fend for themselves demme's handling of this supernatural element is just one of intriguing aspects all of the characters take for granted that ghosts are real when paul d danny glover a former slave who escaped kentucky along with sethe arrives at the house eight years later and is confronted with the ghost's hellish visions he doesn't run in terror instead he asks who the ghost is as in morrison's novel demme quickly establishes that the horror of the story will not come from the fact of the ghost itself but from the terrifying past in which the ghost was created sethe is the one being haunted but the ghost in the house is the least of her fears in fact the ghost is one of the reasons she chooses to stay the story takes an bizarre turn with the appearance of beloved thandie newton a young woman who appears on sethe's front lawn leaned against a tree stump sethe and denver immediately take to the rasping woman and try to nurse her to health they know not who she is but that doesn't matter only paul d is suspicious of the stranger little does the family know that beloved will bring about many changes and force sethe to release a guilt she has held onto so urgently for eighteen years winfrey is arguably beloved's greatest asset she inhabits the role of sethe so convincingly it is hard to believe this is the same woman who shines brightly on a tv talk show lisa gay hamilton does an impressive job in the emotionally demanding role as the younger sethe whose appalling actions make her the disturbed woman we see eighteen years later danny glover is affable as the sympathetic paul d as is kimberly elise as denver sethe's wanderlusting daughter as sethe's old baby suggs beah richards authoritatively commands every scene in which she appears the film's least palatable choice of casting is unfortunately that of the role of beloved herself thandie newton plays the girl with a demented fervor which is endearing at first but which becomes and unintentionally laughable by the end departing from the honed aesthetic he used in such films as silence of the and director demme has used a bit of dramatic overstatement to get across the vivid descriptions in morrison's novel totemic camera shots and scenery are decidedly uncommon in demme's films but the few he uses here work to the film's benefit most memorable scenes are those of baby suggs' gatherings in a forest clearing where the bright of nature entrance the viewer as much as suggs' words do for the most part though demme maintains his trademark directorial neutrality this combined with morrison's equally frugal method of storytelling may make somewhat of a challenge to watch even to those familiar with the book though the film compliments the book extraordinarily well it falls short in allowing the sort of accessibility one usually expects from a film nothing is to the viewer morrison's novel is just as enigmatic but unlike a movie a book can be put down to allow the various undercurrents and themes to churn and absorb the movie begins like and ends like color with shades of scarlet and somewhere in the middle taken as a whole beloved is a disquieting experience one to be viewed with guards down and spirits in abeyance
positive	scream isn't quite as clever as its predecessor but it fills the gap with a cutting wit death even gruesome bloody death can be funny if handled the right way some will be offended by this statement but you need look no further than pulp fiction for an example and while there's plenty of horror to go around in scream the latest slasher flick incarnation there are also a few laughs to be had scream is a movie for those who don't take their horror too seriously the success of the original scream took everyone in the industry by surprise the unexpected blockbuster whose gross soared over the million mark during its six month release window opened just about a year ago and turned into one of the most profitable horror films of all time a sequel was inevitable fortunately nearly the entire creative team has returned for scream including director wes craven screenwriter kevin williamson and actors neve campbell courtney cox david arquette jamie kennedy and liev schreiber as stipulated by one of the rules of sequels uttered by a obsessed character in the film the body count in scream is higher than that in the original paradoxically there's a lot less gore there is blood of course but nothing excessive by standards and there are no depictions of spilled entrails craven has remembered that scares are more important that graphic displays of human insides and bodily fluids a second strength of scream is that it features a gallery of legitimate characters rather than a group of cardboard stereotypes lined up for slaughter after all we've known some of these people for two movies it's almost impossible not to care about them at least a little scream opens approximately two years after the original as in the first picture there's a slick prologue this time the victims are jada pinkett and omar epps whose characters are visiting a local theater for a preview screening of the movie stab which is based on the true life events of scream some of the smartest dialogue comes during this sequence as pinkett bemoans the lack of african american participation in horror films it's surely no coincidence that in addition to pinkett and epps scream features two black characters shortly thereafter she and her boyfriend have been gutted signaling the beginning of a series of copycat murders craven lets loose a burst of creativity for the movie within a movie sequences they give him an opportunity to openly parody scream an act that he accomplishes with great panache stab features heather graham in the casey becker role played in the original by drew barrymore and tori spelling as sidney prescott neve campbell sadly we only see a couple of scenes from stab it would have been a little more fun i think had craven used joe dante's approach from matinee and shown lengthy excerpts from his satirical production following the prologue we are to sidney prescott who has left her sleepy hometown to go to windsor college her friend randy jamie kennedy is a student there as well and he's just as knowledgeable about horror films as ever once the double murder at stab becomes big news the media converges on windsor looking to interview the original victim at the head of the flock of vultures is gale weathers courtney cox who has a little surprise for sidney she has brought cotton weary liev schreiber the man sidney falsely accused of murder with her also arriving at the college is deputy dewey david arquette who is there to act as a big brother to sidney during this latest round of tribulations in addition to the survivors from the original scream the field of potential victims is there's a blond named cece sarah michelle gellar who has now appeared in two of williamson's movies this one and i know what you did last summer sidney's requisite boyfriend derek jerry o'connell a local newswoman laurie metcalf gale's new cameraman duane martin a british drama teacher david warner and several sorority sisters and sorority sisters portia de rossi rebecca gayheart elise neal marisol nichols ultimately there are lots of attractive corpses from the stab scenes to lines like brothers don't last long in situations like this craven and williamson are clearly having a lot of fun with scream and the movie is enjoyable if a little overlong the livelier first hour is better than the second their resolution to the obligatory whodunit is less of a letdown than it could be and knowingly offers a wink and nod at past unmasking scenes nice twist quips the killer didn't see it coming didya one senses however that by the end of this picture the overall concept of a hip slasher film has been played out supposedly there's going to be a scream but if the film makers don't come up with something radical we could end up with a classic case of sequel overkill
positive	when year old beau hall jonathan tucker the virgin suicides gets in a car accident after drinking with his year old companion club owner darby reese josh lucas session his mom margaret tilda swinton the war zone pays reese a visit to convince him to leave her son alone instead reese travels out to their lake tahoe home and lures beau out to the boat house where beau learns that his mother was right about reese the next morning margaret discovers darby's dead body on their beach and suspecting the worst weights it down in a distant part of the lake but her troubles are just beginning as she soon learns with the arrival of blackmailer alek spera goran visnjic practical magic in the deep end the incredibly pale scottish actress swinton immerses herself into the role of the reserved american whose life revolves around serving the needs of her three children and jack peter donat the game she shows great strength while allowing other emotions to glimmer through discomfort at challenging reese in his gay disco named the deep end near panic at having to dive down to his body to retrieve car keys or even wry humor when an attempt to get help from jack becomes hopelessly miscommunicated gradually her loneliness becomes apparent her husband's a naval officer usually away at sea when her attempts to email him her concerns about beau are deleted and later when a most unusual yet chaste romance turns tragic it's a terrific performance the stendahl script adapted from elisabeth sanxay holding's noir novel blank wall' by directors scott mcgehee and david siegel would be unbelievable if not for swinton and her costar visnjic alek spera is a wrong side of the tracks loser who arrives after reese's body has been discovered he shows margaret a videotape of beau having sex with reese and demands or he'll turn the tape over to the reno police subsequent visits will turn his mind set upside down and backwards though as he comes to admire and even love the woman he set out to blackmail there's yet another problem though his partner nagle raymond barry dead man walking is a harder cored criminal who won't let up until his share of the money is delivered visnjic's dark brooding turn has an interior shading to it that makes us believe he's a victim of circumstance and environment his turnaround is palpable as he witnesses margaret's inherent decency and her workaday surroundings also outstanding is tucker as beau who has a terrific character arc and pas de deux with his mother initially beau's the typical sullen teen blowing this out of proportion he says of her concerns about reese not comprehending that his mom has enough insight to have divined the true nature of the relationship as his mom gets in deeper and deeper trying to cover up a crime he didn't commit beau becomes suspicious of her actions and apparent new companion turning tables his early black eye becomes her later split lip while the two can never be completely honest with each other their love for each other comes through strongly the directors suture have a firm grip on their material and cast the story builds perfectly with bold strokes amidst a myriad of subtler underpinnings water imagery is constant an early shot of weirdly rushing green is revealed to be a young boy cleaning out an aquarium giles nuttgens fire cinematography which won the sundance festival award is crisp and startlingly clear the tahoe locations and production design by kelly mcgehee and christopher tandon provide a dual personality for the film contrasting the calm well off existence of the lake against the gambling city of reno the deep end is a complex story of domino deeds and shifting relationships take the plunge
positive	leonardo decaprio what's eating gilbert grape and claire danes tv's my so called life star in director baz luhrmann's modernized version of william shakespeare's classic romeo juliet surrounded by a superb supporting cast paul sorvino goodfellas brian dennehy tommy boy pete poslethwaite the usual and john leguizamo executive decision decaprio and danes shine throughout the film the story starts off at a gas station where the montague boys meet the capulet boys and square off with one another symbolizing the swords of shakespeare's day were their weapons like the or the shotgun instead of killing each other right away they shoot around just like in sword fights of old another great thing about the film was the performance of harold perrineau as romeo's best friend mercutio who in shakespeare's novel was quite a stud was portrayed as an whose violent was a definite plus miriam margoyles a virtually unknown actress was astounding as juliet's nurse even though she was never given a name she was the only one who could keep juliet out of her fantasy world verona was the home of the rival families in shakespeare's version only slightly changed in luhrmann's now known as verona beach the capulet's led by sorvino and montague's led by dennehy are now rival corporate dynasties and their small family skirmishes were now huge gang wars one slight problem with the film was the difficulty to comprehend the dialogue since it was spoken in old english could have helped in the beginning of the movie but toward the end it became easier to understand this excellent movie poses another what genre is it romeo juliet contains so much drama yet enough comedy and action to be placed in either of those categories with the same formula that was used by quentin tarantino in reservoir dogs and pulp fiction romeo juliet is a sure fire modern masterpiece 
positive	voices trey parker matt stone george clooney minnie driver south park bigger longer and uncut is undoubtedly crude offensive movie that comes off as a politcally correct movie too if your canadian a strong christian fat gay or anything else you will be offended but when you watch this movie there is no doubt that you will laugh based on the wildly popular comedy central tv show south park stars cartman an overweight kid with attitude and a sweet side kenny a poor kid who gets killed in every episode and talks with his coat hood covering his head stan a regular sometimes boring kid who has problems with women and kyle a lonely jew who talks to his poop the movie opens with a funny but messageable song that all of the people of south park sing cartman stan kenny and kyle are very excited to see the new terrance and phillip beavis and butthead types movie asses of fire but when the kids get up to the movie to get the tickets they learn the movie is rated r which of course means that anyone under the age of cannot get in without a parent or legal guardian the kids do not understand this and they pay a homeless man to buy their tickets while in the movie laughing at the movie terrance and phillip cuss repeatedly entertaining the kids they kids then go out and cuss themselves getting in trouble and causing kyle's mom to go against the mpaa while doing this kenny learns a thing or to by proving to cartman he can light his fart on fire kenny does so dies and goes to hell to find out that satan and saddam huiessan homosexual lovers are about to take over the world if terrance and phillip die here on nothing more should be said to keep the rest a surprise but believe me this isn't your regular south park tv show and should not be seen by anyone under or more this film contains extreme profanity over f words and a collection of others but beyond being bad in a tasteless type way south park bigger longer and uncut has many messages that are embedded inside it but i bet you will not leave the movie for at least laughing one time or more and enjoying yourself take it from me south park b l and u isn't as good as you'd hope but it is good for some laughs
positive	why do people hate the spice girls what exactly have they done wrong other than perhaps offend the fashion police so what if they are not great ain't singing opera folks its pop music who exactly is a great singer judging by that opening paragraph it is obvious that i like the spice girls they do what they some catchy they do it pretty well they are able to carry that into their first film spice world spice world certainly isn't a great filmgoing experience   what it is what the spice girls are all about fun songs and a lot of girl power drawing from a number of different films like the beatles' hard day's night spice world chronicles the week heading up to the girls' first concert at london's albert hall they get to tool around london in a big ol' bus driven by meat loaf and generally have fun in order to through a semblence of plot into the film there is an evil tabloid publisher played by barry humphries better known to americans for about minutes as dame edna remember her he wants to sabotage the girls' concert so he can sell papers of course the point in a movie like spice world isn't plot the center of the film is the spice girls themselves ginger the recently departed geri haliwell posh victoria adams sporty melanie chisolm scary melanie brown and baby emma bunton each one has their own personality and perhaps the best part of the film look like they are having some fun something that can't be said for a lot of people in films today along for the ride are richard e grant as their manager clifford and various other characters making quick cameo appearances including teriffic british actors like richard briers and stephen fry and every once and a while roger moore pops up as the chief to spout odd koans added bonus he gets to in the words of craig kilborn dance dance dance watching this film was fun for the most part there are a few slow segments but overly director bob spiers keeps things moving at a quick pace with plenty of hummable spice girls songs in the background his camerawork is fairly pedestrian though the final concert number is done quite well with effective use of editing  the look of the film promotes the high fun with the design of the spicebus being quite original and add in spice girls music and this film is lovable romp if you don't like the spice girls you won't change your mind with this film but if you find them at least tolerable get ready to sit back and chill because the spice girls are here to entertain you   and do it quite well  spice world directed by bob spiers written by kim fuller music by the spice girls with geri halliwell victoria adams melanie chisolm melanie brown emma bunton richard e grant claire rushbrook roger moore distributed by columbia pictures running time minutes rated pg available on home video june
positive	more than forty years ago the sword and sandals genre of historical epic ruled the box office during the hollywood sought to give audiences a reason to turn off their televisions and go out to the movies by offering the grand spectacle of the roman empire in cinemascope  cleopatra the robe sparticus the fall of the roman empire quo vadis sometimes brilliant sometimes campy the roman epic was the technicolor funeral pyre of classic hollywood since then epics have appeared infrequently the last emperor braveheart and some of the best have been affairs produced in the roots shogun yet the phrase we who are about to die salute you has been absent until now gladiator begins in germania in a d roman general maximus russell crowe has conquered yet another group of barbarians for his emperor marcus aurelius richard harris and he is eager to retire to his plantation in spain where his wife and son are waiting however the emperor is worried that his decadent weakling son commodus joaquin phoenix will prove a poor successor so he wants to make maximus his heir as a transition toward rome becoming a republic again when commodus hears the plan he strangles his father and orders maximus and his family murdered maximus escapes from the executioners but he arrives home too late to save his wife and son a caravan of slavers pick up the wounded hero and carry him off to north africa why the caravan happened to be cruising by maximus' place is never explained an african named juba djimon hounsou treats maximus' wounds proximo oliver reed a gladiator who won his freedom purchases maximus and juba as fodder for the arena of course maximus proves as able a gladiator as he was a soldier and his fame spreads when commodus reopens the coliseum proximo brings his troupe of warriors to rome to compete our hero wins the hearts and minds of the cheering crowds and finds that he has an ally in commodus' sister lucilla connie nielsen the similarities to braveheart are obvious an evil king a determined warrior seeking revenge for his murdered family the aid of a lovestruck princess also like mel gibson's epic gladiator has a primarily visceral appeal and is driven forward by the hero's anger it's a simple tale of good versus evil maximus has all the manly virtues nobility of purpose courage in battle loyalty to king and country physical stamina and devotion to family commodus is his opposite in every way a sniveling selfish coward who is intended to disgust the audience the opening night crowd in my theater was about male and that seems appropriate gladiator is a guy movie would the opposite of a chick flick be a dick flick there's much pumping of testosterone and chopping off of body parts in gruesome battle sequences those easily offended by gore should stay away lucilla is the only female character and what sparks there are between her and maximus are dampened by his devotion to his dead wife joaquin phoenix gives an astounding performance in the scene where commodus kills his father phoenix shows the pain of a son who has never had his father's love or pride throughout the picture phoenix manages to give depth to a character who's scripted as a caricature of evil i've been a russell crowe fan since romper stomper this role doesn't offer him the complexities of his parts in l a confidential and the insider essentially his job is to grunt heroically but his voice which has a richard burton resonance textured by a clint eastwood rasp is perfect for the genre the late oliver reed gave us the best work of his career in his last role i hope it will be rewarded with an oscar my only major quibble with gladiator is its stylized look several scenes are tinted we've seen a lot of the tinted look lately particularly in payback and the matrix i don't get the appeal of the style which makes feature films look like tv ads in payback it was merely annoying but in gladiator it bleaches the color out of the grand spectacles that are the raison d'etre of the roman epic perhaps it's meant to gloss over the imperfections of the shots also the battle scenes are filmed in a strange herky jerky style that seems to be slo mo and fast forward simultaneously it reminds me of the way the flash runs in the comic books leaving a trail of images of himself behind with a more realistic look gladiator could be even more satisfying than braveheart because it has a tighter script and a more fulfilling conclusion bottom line a rousing action film enriched by fine performances but tarnished by stylistic choices
positive	the andromeda strain is the greatest science fiction film ever made i know that is very sweeping statement so i'll qualify it by adding that the andromeda strain is one of the few films made that genuinely deserve the label of science fiction stories in which speculative science is at the core of the plot a space odyssey is probably a better film but it really only qualifies as science fiction if you consider metaphysics to be a science most all other films we normally classify as science fiction or sf are really just fantasy action or horror stories set in a futuristic setting the andromeda strain starts out with two soldiers in a for van looking for a crashed satellite in a tiny new mexico town something bad happens to them pictures from a reconnaissance plane show a shocking sight apparently everyone in the town is dead the authorities call a wildfire alert summoning four scientists all but one of them somewhat reluctant to a underground germ warfare laboratory in nevada two of scientists stone and hall fly directly to the town in space suits and find a town where almost every single resident literally dropped in their tracks their blood turned to powder in their veins some went insane before they died and two of them a baby and an old wino are miraculously still alive they take the survivors and the satellite back to the lab where stone pressures the white house to call up a directive an executive order to cauterize the area around the town with a nuclear bomb what they find on the satellite when they get back to the lab is andromeda an organism that defies all the normal rules of life and mutates as it grows their only hope to cure it is to find out what a perfectly healthy baby boy has in common with an old derelict what they find out is that organism feeds directly on energy and that detonating the over the town would only spread it across the entire planet they barely call off the bombing in time but then the organism mutates into something that threatens to eat through the labs defenses and break out this triggers the lab's defense mechanism an atomic bomb to those raised on the brainless action fare that pollutes movie theaters these days the andromeda strain will probably seem interminably slow much of the film is a lot of people standing around looking at video screens and computer readouts but what the characters see on those screens ratchets up the tension with every turn of the screw the performances are universally fine with the actors keeping things and restrained just like scientists to me the real appeal of this film is the fact that it shows scientists acting like scientists and makes it seem exciting we follow the logic of their deduction step by methodical step puzzling like they do every time andromeda behaves in a way we don't expect this film is only available on wide screen on dvd and that is the way to see it it was originally rated g when first released but it now carries the pg rating mostly for very mild nudity and one scene in which a body's wrist is slashed spilling its powdered blood
positive	it's not good to know too much about someone charlie charles warns his niece charlie margaret welsh with a devilish grin charlie is infatuated with her namesake uncle her soul mate as she calls him since her mother gave her his name there's a lot to know about charles not the least of which is that he strangled widows back east mark harmon who looks like anything but a killer but specializes in playing them plays charles the merry widow murderer in the hallmark hall of fame remake of the hitchcock film shadow of a doubt and to avoid any questions about his guilt we see charles in action in the opening scene with his last victim the story takes place in the early in the small town of petaluma california where charles heads to avoid the police john gay's script uses most of the original screenplay by sally benson alma reville and thornton wilder karen arthur's direction is certainly no match for the great master but on an absolute scale the movie maintains a high level of suspense when supercilious and deceitful charles comes to pay a visit of indeterminate length with his sister and her family in petaluma they don't know about his nefarious activities he showers them with elaborate gifts to buy the love they had already given him anyway two mysterious and exceedingly writers for a magazine show up to take pictures of the family for a spread on the average american family but their interest is focused on uncle charles especially on taking his picture and learning about his background charlie who first welcomed her uncle's visit begins to feel more and more uncomfortable with him and suspicious of the disingenuous magazine reporters the picture advances with a delicate power using small details such as the newspaper article that the uncle tries secretly to remove and that charlie discovers the beauty of the story is the pas de deux between uncle and niece as they try to out psych each other she wants him to leave and he doesn't want to go what with a local rich widow as a prospective victim will charles kill charlie first or will she get him out of town harmon is wonderfully creepy and smug and welsh is tough but trapped with a deft touch the director sets up each scene several with thunderstorms and tom neuwirth's cinematography makes the movie feel as if it were filmed in the my only quibble is the director's awkward staging of the final scene on the train is hitchcock's version better of course is this one worth watching as well actually yes shadow of a doubt runs it is not rated but would be pg for adult themes and would be fine for kids around nine and up
positive	do you want to know the truth about cats and dogs do you well as this movie shows us they make good companions but pale in comparison to the joy and fulfillment romantic relationships can bring unfortunately there's a giant roadblock set up in our culture that only certain people can get through while the rest of us mill around outside feeling sorry for ourselves a checkpoint beautiful kind of thing and janeane garafolo's character abby relates to it well like a certain oversized teenage movie critic she is intelligent and has a great sense of humor but strikes out with the opposite sex because she sees herself as physically unattractive and the men seem to be backing her up on that meanwhile her gorgeous neighbor nora uma thurman uma being the only woman's name worse than nora attracts men like flies as abby tells her you burp and they think it's cute you barf and they line up to hold your hair back but nora's down on herself for being too shallow and superficial we all have our prwhen a man calls in to veterinarian abby's talk radio show wanting to know how to get the roller skates off his basset hound oh come on any idiot knows how to handle that problem he likes her personality and professional demeanor and asks to meet her in person abby though knows her body doesn't match her personality and that she probably won't have a chance with him once he sees her so she gives him nora's body description and stands him up nora happens to be in the studio the next day when the dog man comes by and abby asks her for a big favor she goes along with the masquerade and the three of them head out for a night of fun abby assuming the role of a goat cheese farmer named donna the dog man finds out even though this girl is beautiful she's not quite as intellectual or confident about herself in person but he doesn't suspect anything realizing he's not living in a three's company episode the charade continues with abby furthering the relationship over the phone including a decidedly unnecessary phone sequence and nora furthering it in person while eventually finding herself attracted to the dog man like sleepless in seattle this is predictable all the way through but we care enough about the characters that we root them on and will the romance to blossom the truth about cats and dogs isn't quite as entertaining as i was expecting it to be but it handles well a theme i could identify with the thing is i find janeane garafolo rather attractive she's no uma but i'm sure in real life she'd have no problems attracting men i on the other hand couldn't attract a man to save my life and am rather proud of that fact
positive	alien is the only alien film i have seen in theaters i saw it when i was years old and i must admit that i didn't like it of course i was expecting aliens again and i believe this was my fault in order to appreciate alien you need to see aliens but you also have to wipe away all the expectations from its predecessor james cameron's aliens was an action film and many people consider it the best in the series i am among that group but alien is an extremely entertaining film which critics have bashed for its originality many thought the final chase scene went on for too long and many others thought that the film was too much dialogue and not enough action both are untrue because the film has quite a bit of action and the dialogue was essential and as for the chase sequence it was long but not overly long creating quite a bit of suspense from confusion perhaps watching alien on video helped on the big screen i was overwhelmed by something i normally didn't see it was a very dark film and the language was extremely harsh i had always figured the alien series to rely on smart dialogue instead of moronic profanities don't get me not saying films should eliminate swearing but when a film substitutes dialogue with these profane remarks it gets rather distracting however since seeing it again i realize that the swearing is mainly just an aspect of the restrained hatred in the characters as a result alien only flaw albeit a major one is the underdeveloped characters we never really care about any of them and i get the feeling that many scenes were cut in order to shorten the length of the movie there were only two characters i liked and of course one was lt ripley sigourney weaver although we have gotten to know her through two other films the other character was dr clemens charles dance but because we like him the inevitable occurs alien begins exactly where aliens left off the prologue of alien is a pure cinematic achievement by director david fincher who had only directed music videos before his chance with this alien entry without using a single line of dialogue unless you count computer warnings fincher sets up the entire film an impressive aspect of this is that fincher only shows a few seconds of film before cutting to a title card we see lt ripley and the little girl in their cryogenic compartments title a shot of an alien egg title alien legs stretch up into the air title and so on and so on during these first ten minutes i learned everything i had to in order for alien to proceed it's quite a remarkable opening and one which will remain in my mind for a long time because of this which has been hatched aboard the vessel from aliens the hypersleep containers are sent into an escape pod and sent down to the nearest planet fiorina an ore refinery which has been turned into a maximum security prison however the managed to attach itself to one of the and is sent down with the escape pod unfortunately during the landing all but one of the survivors from aliens is killed ripley is discovered by some of the inmates and taken back to the refinery of course you need a carrier for this and it attachs itself to the dog which came with the team of inmates ripley is revived and asks to see the ship after seeing a mysterious section ripley asks to see the dead bodies and then have them cremated this cremation scene is one of the most powerful and impressive of all the alien films featuring a monologue from dillon charles s dutton a prisoner who has found god the movie cuts back and forth from the ceremony to the dog's demise it's one of the most memorable moments as the speech reflects exactly what is going on with the dog and this is where alien succeeds fincher normally injects a lot of symbolism into his films and i can easily see him becoming the next stanley kubrick or alfred hitchcock in fact he is the mixture of both fincher knows exactly what to film and how to film it and i figure that he will be one of the few directors with complete control over his films alien is riddled with symbolic speeches and metaphorical images by doing so fincher creates some of the best scenes in the entire alien franchise many people have criticized fincher's filming of the death scene of ripley i reveal nothing by saying this as looking too fake but i enjoy and relish in the portrayal showing ripley fall in slow motion is a nice touch but by actually not showing her hit the vat of iron a great deal of symbolism is derived i feel that it would have spoiled the mood of the entire film if they had actually shown her splash into the molten iron however most people seem to want to witness ripley die which creates a paradox as she is the character i didn't want to see die why she is killed is one of the surprises of the film and i don't plan on spoiling that in this review every alien film comes several memorable moments which seem to stick with you forever in alien it was of course the moment the alien burst out of kane's stomach in aliens it was the showdown between alien and ripley in a machine alien has several but most memorable is the terrific shot involving the alien and ripley ripley is pushed up against a wall and the alien stands inches away from her why it doesn't kill her is a shocker which later leads to a surprise ending fincher apparently loves to use of actors' faces michael douglas and the clown in the game in the same style and by shaving off the actors' hair the only thing we have to look at is their faces many critics didn't like all the actors being bald but it makes complete sense when taken in context of the plot most of alien works when you take it in context of the story but when you try to compare it to its predecessors fincher's turn seems a bit gloomy and dark though that's not always a bad thing the plot is pretty much a rehash of the first two films with some major twists again we are setup with several different characters and one by one they are picked off however while the first two had tons of arsenal especially cameron's film alien takes place on a planet devoid of human life except for this prison as a result no weapons are to be found this creates a lot of tension although i must admit that fincher could have added a lot more suspense as an alien film alien is the worst of the series but by itself it is an extremely motion picture with a lot more merits than not the unfortunate thing surrounding this second sequel is the characters i never was really emotionally involved on screen because most of the characters are hardcore criminals whom i really could care less about despite this ripley was the central figure and that's what is important we care for her even though she began to act just like one of the guys again the technical side of this film is remarkable and better than the two previous versions while cameron's version was a pumped up action film with massive artillary fincher uses brilliant camera angles terrific lighting and moody sets the cinematography by alex thomson is very well done with a terrific chase sequence towards the end of the movie the confusion of the ending draws the viewer in as we are just as confused as the actors who are being chased around the yellows reds and oranges of the lights create a dark mood and by themselves create a lot of suspense shadows dance on the walls and yet those shadows could easily be the alien the alien is different from its predecessors this time around and the swiftness of this alien is quite intense the camera likes to take up the perspective of the alien racing after the characters the sets are quite incredible which are reminiscient of the nostromo from alien the narrow corridors and labrynthine hallways is well constructed the sets appear to be in the future but not too far in the future one of the set pieces even aids in the destruction of the alien nothing surprising there sigourney weaver turns out yet another good performance equaling her portrayal of ripley in aliens she was snubbed at the oscars for this one mainly because the film was a critical bomb her reactions are far more realistic in this film with her crying over the loss of the little child she risked her life saving in her previous encounter it's quite touching really charles s dutton is very strong in his performance as one of the inmates and i was on the brink of actually caring for him charles dance turns in a nice performance and as a result i cared for him immediately lance henriksen makes a brief appearance as bishop ii but he was more entertaining in aliens the rest of the cast is pretty stale though pete postlethwaite sticks out due to his recent turns in the usual suspects and the lost world alien is rated r for strong violence and language and sex although it has its flaws alien is highly entertaining with rich symbolism this film reminds you how much fun it is to spot metaphorical images throughout a movie while kubrick may have a moral message throughout his films fincher relies on cinematic devices to bring his meanings out it's a film like fincher's which reminds us that it is okay for a film to sacrifice quality for quantity the final scene in fact it tells us that we as a society have become too critical of things which may happen to look a little fake whenever something looks fake on screen we immediately point it out as a mistake but perhaps it isn't a mistake
positive	ultra low budget but extremely inventive horror film about a group of friends vacationing in a cabin who accidentally awaken an evil force in the woods via the necronomicon the book of the dead bruce campbell stars as ash who eventually becomes the sole survivor and has to battle both the demons from the woods and his friends who have become demons including his own girlfriend the results shown on screen are amazing considering the film's tiny budget constant location changes and a filming schedule that was sporadic over two years followed by two sequels evil dead ii and army of darkness the dvd release of this film from elite entertainment contains the film in it's original aspect ratio of the disc contains two versions of the film's audio a stereo track and a newly remastered dolby digital included are two separate running commentary tracks the first features sam raimi and producer rob tapert and the second track features the film's star bruce campbell campbell's commentary is informative and extremely witty as he has a story to tell for virtually every scene in the film such informative tidbits include the original title of the film was going to be book of the dead and in fact when the film premiered in that was it's title and when they were asked to change the title to the evil dead everyone thought it was the worst title they had ever heard also there's a scene early on in the film where the group sits around and listens to a tape recorder which they've found that's explaining about the demonic forces in the woods for that scene it was written for the characters to be smoking marijuana so being the wacky kids that they were at the time they decided to actually smoke marijuana for the scene almost all of that footage became unusable because many of the actor's had never smoked before and as a result they became confused and were unable to perform the scene i wish the entertainment factor was as high for the sam tapert audio track the two people you'd think would be more enthusiastic in talking about this film instead barely have much to say at all don't get me wrong here when they do speak it's entertaining to hear but there are many instances where both are silent for long periods of time sometimes after one of those long silences rob will ask have anything to say sam to me that's not a good sign also it seems like sam raimi doesn't remember much about the film and it's production well compared to rob and bruce anyway also included on the disc is a photo gallery which includes pictures from the film's gala premiere and about twenty minutes of raw footage from the film this raw footage really shows you how much a film can be improved upon using simple audio techniques overall the evil dead is a good low budget horror film superior to many films in it's genre and the collector's edition dvd release is well worth your time if you're either a fan of the film or just a fan of the filmmaking process all special edition dvds should be this thorough and entertaining
positive	elmore leonard has quickly become one of hollywood's favorite authors out of four film adaptations in as many years the witty and inventive out of sight gives get shorty a run for its money as the best leonard adaptation around george clooney stars as jack foley a nice bank robber you know the type he uses his charm and his wits rather than a gun but even charming guys end up unlucky and jack ends up in jail but not for long he plots an escape with the help of his best friend and fellow robber buddy bragg ving rhames and their pothead associate glenn michaels steve zahn but jack didn't count on u s marshal karen sisco jennifer lopez appearing at the right place at the wrong time karen gets involved in foley's escape attempt and the subsequent manhunt to bring him in however karen develops a rapport with jack foley and finds that she begrudgingly likes the guy but can love prosper on opposite sides of the law or can karen straighten out jack before he goes too far in pursuit of just one last crime clooney who has had a string of solid but never stellar film roles delivers his best performance to date he blends into his role here perfectly as the risk taking jack foley who's willing to gamble everything on the chance that karen sisco might be his true love jennifer lopez does an excellent job as well she actually has a trickier role than clooney as a woman who has to balance her emotions with her sense of duty she and clooney develop good chemistry together the film boasts a superb ensemble steve zahn gives a hilarious performance and steals nearly every scene he's in don cheadle is appropriately sinister as a violent who may or may not be teaming up with foley albert brooks is enjoyable as a white collar criminal who talks too much for his own good out of the cast only dennis farina seems underused as karen's father steven soderbergh gives the film sharp and stylistic direction with an affectation for freeze frames he delivers a unique take on the film's action and love scenes that places out of sight a notch above routine crime films a recurring series of flashbacks makes the film seem more complex than it actually is devoid of its bells and whistles out of sight is actually a fairly straightforward crime story however there are only a few spots in the film that seem bare and they pass quickly with smart dialogue good characters and an excellent cast out of sight easily smoothes over the rough spots in the plot and delivers on both the action and romantic fronts
positive	bob the happy bastard's quickie review the matrix what's worse than how about a fully digital future where nothing is real that's what computer programmer neo keanu reeves slowly learns as he enters the dangerous world that is the matrix a movie directed by the wachowski brothers the guys behind the hip thriller bound before you groan at the presence of reeves in the lead role hold on there's actually a story with depth here it seems that a group of hackers is out to stop the system that is the matrix led by the bald but brilliant laurence fishburne and assisted by carrie ann moss who looks quite cool in leather i must say neo reeves is pretty much a key player in this fight although he really doesn't look it at first could this amateur be the one as fisburne thinks he is credit the wachowskis for putting together a great story that allows suspense to build something that few special films seem to do these days there's plenty of effects to go around of course but at least there's a backbone to build them on as well reeves is surprisingly good in his role as neo particularly in a fight scene with fishburne that comes across as goofy yet great i wish the villains weren't quite so generic leftover from looking for a sweet actioner with plenty of swooping camera angles and of course a motherlode of a helicopter explosion now the wachowskis are headed into horror films with their next project bring it on
positive	martin scorsese's kundun which chronicles roughly the first twenty years of the life of the currently exiled dalai lama has been criticized for its lack of narrative structure personally i don't think it needs one it works perfectly well as a study of tibetan buddhist culture and how communist china scorsese views the dalai lama the way many tibetans probably do as a symbol of buddhist spirituality and political leadership the only glimpses into his head come from several interesting yet oblique dream sequences but his portrayal is appropriate for a film that concentrates on the political and spiritual rather than the personal the set design and cinematography are outstanding and while scorsese occasionally seems to get carried away with the spectacle it helps to augment the cultural contrast when the dalai lama travels to china to meet chairman mao political art sometimes succumbs to the temptation to start shouting slogans kundun does not it succeeds in delivering its message in an artistically interesting way and without being overly manipulative
positive	synopsis upper middle class suburban family man lester kevin spacey realizes that he is just going through the motions he is unable to feel passion he is soulless cynical and no longer able to feel the edge between success and failure everyone else around him has similar symptoms lester's unassertive daughter jane thora birch is too lethargic to change her world yet all too ready to whine and complain his wife carolyn annette bening is reduced to keeping up appearances and reciting commercialist slogans and these are people with a big house and a decent standard of living the only person who seems able to appreciate beauty and freedom and life is the person most deprived of it a teen from across the street who is practically imprisoned by a domineering bullying father when lester embarks on a mad scramble to feel the edge again the fact that he has quit his job to feel what it's like and his newfound interest in exercise to impress a teenage girl ruffle a lot of feathers in the family will lester regain his ability to appreciate life opinion people say it all the time you never appreciate good health until it's gone likewise people raised in fabulously pampered prosperity can become unhappy and spiteful over the dumbest most inconsequential problems simply because they have no clue how good they have it sometimes it takes a near fall accidentally or through deliberate fasting to move out of apathy and reclaim your ability to challenge the world the cycle is a major theme of american beauty american beauty is a intelligent and articulate movie that offers fantastic performances by everyone in the cast especially kevin spacey who is simply gosh darn amazing this movie the thing i like about american beauty is that there is no sentimental music no hospital scene nor any overly dramatic hokum the movie entertains and offers brilliant performances just as is if you are in the mood for a thoughtful flick i highly recommend american beauty
positive	though it is a fine piece of filmmaking there's something about elizabeth that left me a bit cold and i think it is something that bugs me quite often in films particularly these days i just didn't care about the characters to me the first and foremost job of a filmmaker is to create characters be they imagined or historical as the case may be that the audience gives a hoot about and though elizabeth works well on many levels it falls short of excellence because of that very reason elizabeth takes place in england in as queen mary half sister of elizabeth and a monarch on the side of catholicism is dying before she dies though she cannot bear to sign a document which would condemn her half sister to death because of her heretical protestant beliefs as a result amidst much anger within the council elizabeth becomes the queen of england the film chronicles her rise to power as she fights for a unified church of england and tries to bring order to her personal and political life much of the film deals with elizabeth's love for lord robert a mysterious man who thrusts his lordship onto many a woman as he continues to proclaim his love for the queen there is much ado about her lack of a husband and political pressures from spain and france enter into the equation the problem with the film lies with this as its centerpiece as love interests are such a character driven element i didn't much care about the characters perhaps aside for elizabeth who is played quite well by blanchett and so i didn't have much interest in who would join her in her nuptials the cast is rounded out well with the marvelous rush who plays the queen's most loyal advisor sir francis and attenborough as a but lead council why then you must be asking do i recommend elizabeth simply because it is the result of a perfect pairing of director and cinematographer kapur and his cinematographer remi adefarasin neither of whom i have heard create a beautifully realized piece of filmmkaing from the technical side the light streams through each frame as in any painting from the period and beautifully captures the realistic light sources that would have been found in churches cellars and castles in century europe each frame is rich with color contrasted with blackness or white light from windows the costumes by alexandra byrne deserve a mention as they are such an inportant aspect of each shot indeed elizabeth is one of the most visually beautiful films of the decade ranking with kundun and braveheart watch also for the incredibly mass murder scene it made me think in retrospect of the similarities between the two films
positive	carolco pictures and dutch director paul verhoeven robocop came together to create the mega hit that is total recall the film is a masterpiece of sets action and special effects action and science fiction just don't get any better than this the story involves a construction worker named douglas quaid arnold schwarzenegger who lives on earth with his beautiful wife lori sharon stone quaid is obsessed with mars and decides to go with the second best choice a brain implant fake memory of a two week vacation on mars while being implanted a memory cap is triggered and the doctors realize that quaid's memory has previously been erased now the people who did it are after him quaid must find out who he really is and why these people want him dead the plot unfolds at a rapid pace explaining itself through great action special effects and twist after twist it grabs you and never lets go this film is a winner from beginning to end the plot is superb combining the best elements of science fiction and psychological mystery to create a saga schwarzenegger gives his best performance ever and the supporting cast is good too the action and stunts are terrific the sets are huge and elaborate with a lot of attention payed to detail the music and sound effects are perfect for the film and really add a certain level of impact to the action the effects by rob bottin the howling the thing and robocop are top notch not to mention extremely outlandish the visual effects by dream quest the abyss and industrial light and magic star wars trilogy jurassic park and terminator are phenomenal the visuals had such a state of the art slickness that they won an oscar of course the film isn't always realistic it's more fiction than science for example it is true that a body won't explode in the vacuum of space but in total recall they do who cares it's a movie movies are supposed to entertain and in my opinion this film achieves an entertainment level in film that is so terrific it may be impossible to beat
positive	with the abundance of trite recycled movies in the late there is a tremendous demand by movie lovers never mind movie critics for movies that present the wide film audience with something truly original perhaps audaciously perhaps purely thematically for the former you need look no further than director tom tykwer's incredible german thriller run lola run a movie that may make some viewers need a cooling off period afterwards lola a contemporary with blazing red hair receives a desperate phone call from her boyfriend manni one day it seems that because she was late delivering something he lost a bag containing a hundred thousand marks and if he doesn't deliver a hundred thousand marks within the next twenty minutes he will be killed this gives lola twenty minutes to come up with marks or her boyfriend dies so she runs not just jogs sprints in hopes that somehow someway she'll be able to obtain the money and save a life there as critic steve rhodes described it run lola run plays a bit like sliding doors on steroids with a techno soundtrack wierd camerawork all kinds of insane zooms and a truly breakneck pace anyone that is bored with run lola run has to be smoking something indeed the movie is often outrageously exciting as well as bitterly ironic and subtly serious very much like titanic run lola run is an achievement with filmmaking much more than it is an achievement in film the way the movie is made for pure visual style tykwer's movie is breathtaking literally sometimes thematically it does leave something to be desired it toys around with some intriguing ideas but does occasionally seem as if there is little substance behind all of the flash while you are watching this will not matter running a breezy minutes this is one movie i wished was longer because it was so damn good while it lasted it is the equivalent of a in the amount of thrills and fun that it offers eugene
positive	i was anxious to see this for a long time a friend of mine recommended this to me because he has a crush on neve campbell and he wanted to prove that she's as hot as he thinks he is he proved it for me all right but the reasons i enjoy this film go way beyond that scream treads on familar ground horror movie with as star neve campbell puts it some stupid killer stalking some big breasted girl who can't act who's always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door it's very familar your typical horror film so why you may ask after watching it does it seem so new and original because it treats itself as if it hasn't been done before and thus the viewer is disilusioned into believing that it is not old familar tired stuff this raises another question how does it do this simple the characters they're not your typical stupid horror film victims who don't know what the hell to do when being chased by a guy in a ski mask and a machette they are horror fans they know how stuff happens in a horror movie they know what to do and what not to do and that makes it scary and even funny at certain times you can tell this just by watching the opening scene where casey becker drew barrymore is making popcorn getting ready to watch a video and some guy who sounds like a killer calls her up to play a game with her that involves horror movie triva that if she gets it wrong will get her and her boyfriend killed she knows what to answer when he asks her horror film questions she just can't answer his final question what door am i at and that gets her killed that scene works because in a normal horror film half the things that happen in that scene would never happen the plot is typical horror stuff sidney prescott an impressive neve campbell an attractive young high school student who's mother was killed a year ago tommorrow is being stalked by a killer who's previously murdered one of her classmates casey naturally and everybody in this small california town is a suspect including sidney's boyfriend billy loomis but as i said before these people know how horror movies work and that's what makes it so appealing that and the references to horror movies like when casey says the first nightmare on elm street was scary but the rest sucked which is obviously director wes craven who does a good job of poking fun of the genre that made him a legend patting himself on the back as he directed the first nightmare movie and none of the others and when tatum sidney's friend mentions the director wes carpenter which is obviously an homage by writer kevin williamson to not only craven but also director john carpenter the cast is well chosen neve campbell pulls off a good heroine and unlike most horror film heroines she can act drew barrymore does a good janet leigh impression for what little time she has in the film and david arquette is impressive also good and funny in his role is henry winkler the fonz as the school principal i took half a point off for the unnecessary albeit limited appearance by friends' courteney cox as reporter gail edwards sidney's rival because she covered her mother's disappearance i hate that show i hate those actors they're untalented overexposed and overpaid imho and i would think wes craven is smart enough to know those actors are overexposed enough but i suppose he isn't
positive	to paraphrase a song title from an earlier disney movie mulan is a whole new world the mouse factory's latest feature is a treasure featuring magnificent animation a strong story and finely drawn characters mulan is the story of a fiesty young woman who unlike other disney heroines isn't seeking her prince charming mulan's motivations are simple to save her father serve her country and find a place for herself in a world in which females have no say the story of mulan takes place in ancient china at a time when the huns have invaded the nation the emperor has called for a conscription one man from each family to join the army and defend the nation mulan's crippled father is called but mulan sneaks off steals his armor and takes his place mulan is a saga of courage and yet despite the grim backdrop of war it is a lively tale of and that even the smallest child can appreciate and enjoy the movie utilizes a strong corps of talent as the voices for the main characters including the wonderful wen the joy luck club as mulan b d wong as shang mulan's commanding officer and later love interest pat morita as the emperor and the veteran oh as mulan's proud but loving father also adding to the proceedings is eddie murphy as mushu the dragon sent by mulan's ancestors to watch over and help the young woman his fast mushu may seem out of place but it's a crowd pleasing performance especially for the youngsters the movie features only a couple of songs fewer than most previous disney animated flicks but mulan's are winners the music by matthew wilder and lyrics by david zippel fit nicely into the plot the overall score by jerry goldsmith also is a plus mulan is a treat more powerful than hercules with more heart than the hunchback of notre dame at about minutes mulan moves rapidly and will hold the attention of youngsters from beginning to the end mulan will set a new standard by which future animated efforts by disney and other studios will have to work hard to attain also it is hoped that the success of mulan and there is no doubt that it will prove to be a popular vehicle will spur an interest for more movies with oriential or themes so as to provide more substantial roles for the talented performers who gave their voices for this production it would be nice to see them on screen as well as hear them committed to lifelong learning through effective communication
positive	as a revolutionary war hero in the patriot mel gibson provides another macho man performance for hollywood audiences you know the type his shirt is always shredded his face always scarred he has a soft spot for his loved ones and a to kill list for his enemies producer roland emmerich did not intend to but he made the stereotypical action hero for the century as gibson delivers lines like before this war is over i am going to kill you schwarzenegger in commando or stallone in cobra immediately come to mind oddly enough the patriot is as much an epic like gladiator as it is a guilty pleasure at times absorbing at others enjoyably insipid this is good bloody summer fun i probably would have despised this film had it not been released over the july weekend some of the images are so zealously americanized the flag is used as a lifesaving weapon for example that independence day seems the only appropriate time of year to wholeheartedly accept it like emmerich's this is obvious propaganda where the americans are the hapless underdogs motivated by freedom for all sure it's predictable and melodramatic but for a moment after leaving the theater i was dumbfounded with patriotism and isn't that the point of the patriot gibson plays benjamin martin the lionized french and indian war veteran who at the beginning of the film is emotionally suffering after his loving wife passed away he is left to father seven children at his south carolina estate along with black servants not slaves as the revolutionary war rumbles miles away martin swears to keep his family close and away from the battlefields but when the oldest son enlists anyway and another is murdered by a wicked redcoat colonel jason isaacs martin quickly decides to save the day or save the fate of america as presented by emmerich forming a band of aggressive farmers and using guerilla tactics considered unfair in the art of war martin becomes the number one target of the british army the best parts of the patriot are the scenes in which martin and his rugged militia men outsmart the british armies left and right every time the farmers attacked the unsuspecting enemy to see the disbelief on british general cornwallis' tom wilkinson face was priceless entertainment and as the tension gradually formulates with the running time a final battle is inevitable as for the numerous battle scenes they are expertly done clearer and more realistic than those of gladiator the gruesome images are what give this film an r rating you really get a sense of how warfare was performed during that time period everything is performed in an orderly but still quite gory fashion one side shoots then the other side then the remaining soldiers charge it's organized strategic and according to martin ineffective there is a very interesting contrast between the traditional battle style and martin's method what drives martin to these supposedly unfair actions are the originally brutal tactics of colonel tavington played wonderfully by jason isaacs tavington is the type who loves to glare down from his horse at civilians who nervously avoid eye contact this character is viciously evil he kills women and children and then laughs about it on the way home even his eyes are evil his portrayal has sparked some controversy in britain some claim that he falsely represents his countrymen as cowardly and sadistic i disagree with this accusation tavington does not represent his country his unnecessary executions shock his own colleagues and even anger his general besides tavington the redcoats remain stick figures that are neither glorified nor patronized and stick figures make the easiest enemies in these kinds of movies why give the audience a reason to love the bad guys heck why not spend the entire film glossing up the good guys the patriot is three hours of fictional fireworks with an action hero seeking revenge and a comic book villain ready to take him down it's a lethal weapon for the colonial times god bless america and god bless the patriot
positive	if there's a beast in men it meets its match in women too starring sarah patterson angela lansbury tusse silberg david warner directed by neil jordan written by jordan and angela carter from a story by carter cinematography by bryan loftus in recent years there has been a trend in the field of fantasy writers have been revisiting the fertile world of myth and fairy tale and reclaiming that world investing it with new life and energy in modern times fairy tales have become disneyfied and debased they have become trite adventures involving leering witches friendly dwarves and cuddly talking animals but in their original forms fairy tales have a dark wicked edge crows tear out the eyes of cinderella's sisters a gorier fate then they receive in the animated version hansel and gretel relish cooking the witch in her own oven writers have become fascinated by the bloodier morally ambivalent aspects of fairy tales and are now modernizing the old stories while simultaneously going back to their roots before this trend was in vogue angela stories always have a dark wicked subversive been reinventing fairy tales for years in the company of wolves she and neil jordan retell the story of red riding hood enlivening it with werewolves rolls royces and a visit from satan the story is structured as a dream occurring in the mind of rosaleen sarah patterson an adolescent girl about whose life we learn very little within the dream there are a number of inset stories most told by grandmother angela lansbury and these tales gloss the central story in intriguing suggestive ways the result is a surprisingly successful example of a sinister contemporary fairy tale i say surprisingly because there are so many ways this film could have gone wrong and there are ways in which it does the performances are mediocre except for finds the right note for the prim granny the wise and stern teller of cautionary tales the soundtrack reminded me of bad horror movies as did the special effects in the shapechanging scenes probably at the time they are now laughable but jordan succeeds at what i consider the trickiest aspect of the film he transcends the poor and conveys a sense of the fantastic of otherness one of the problems in adapting fantasies is that fantasy is often best left to the imagination of the reader rather than being subjected to the of the screen part of me would love to see an adaptation of lord of the rings but on the other hand i know that any filmmaker's recreation of ents hobbits and balrogs is inevitably going to be really lame compared to what i picture in my mind this makes jordan's accomplishment here seem mighty impressive to me he imbues the company of wolves with a genuine sense of magic and mystery the somewhat ruritanian dreamworld becomes a kind of the sunshine is exceptionally warm and abundant the nights are quiet and misty and eerie and ghostly the peasant village is rustic and cozy the woods old and hoary this archetypal realm is the setting for a smart subtle literate script a script which is as good as you'd expect from jordan himself an accomplished fiction writer and carter for carter the cauldron of story is a witches' brew bubbling over with primal ingredients forests ancient graveyards virginal girls and wise women wolves with glowing eyes she adeptly blends them all together there is a symbolic richness to the film everything is permeated with a sense of significance the point of it all i think is to represent a girl's on an unconscious primordial level a through the forest from the village to the grandmother's home is the crux of the company of wolves don't stray from the path rosaleen is told again and again and the path is both literal and figurative the path through the forest and the path of life staying on the path is the conventional approach suggested by rosaleen's elders carter and jordan never conventional explore what goes on when you leave the path those who stray will supposedly meet with a dark fate this fate is literalized in the dream as werewolves but the werewolves connote many things death sex knowledge if straying from the path leads to death then it's not a good if that's what you have to risk to get sex and knowledge and therefore power then maybe it's worth the risk when you leave the path the world becomes a dangerous ambiguous place but it's full of potential and it's certainly more interesting than the disney version
positive	contrary to the title the boxer is not another rocky story only this time spliced with some cold hard politics it's actually three movies in one a political film a boxing film and a love story all of these work in their own respects and have some pretty decent balancing betwixt the three elements of the story but somehow it seems kind of cliched and unoriginal we've seen it all before and we're just not blown away with it like we should be oh well it's still an excellent irish story the boxer of the title is danny flynn jim sheridan staple daniel an member who gets out of a belfast prison after years and finds out that his troubles are far from over first off the ira is having a small civil war between its leader joe hamill brian cox and one of its harry gerard mcsorley both having opposing views on getting many of their members out of jail while this is going on danny and his old drunkard buddie ike ken stott who played the chief inspector in danny boyle's shallow grave an old gym which allows the two opposing religios sects protestant and catholics to work together danny not only begins teaching kids how to box but has stayed in great shape whilst in prison and is ready to start boxing real people again and danny runs into his maggie breaking the waves emily watson who hasn't seen him since he went in they don't easily start up their romance again because she's the wife of a prisoner whom she married during danny's tenure in prison and also has a son liam ciaran fitzgerald from him whom liam is hoping will get out soon but the two are slowly to eachother again and this begins to complicate things the political story is nothing really special but works in itself we've seen it many a time before but it's at least interesting sometimes emotional and even riveting at times there's a big riot towards the middle of the film which is frightening in its brutality and honesty the boxing story is very minor to the story but does represent people coming together to fight eachother fairly and even with good sportsmanship there are only a few boxing scenes but they're never like raging bull brilliant they're more realistic and instead of bone crunching we hear the sound of the gloves hitting eachother which is slightly unerving at times and i didn't know daniel was in such good shape but the backbone of the story is the love one because these characters are given such horrible circumstances and since the two leads have such great chemistry together we really feel for their plight as the film goes on and circumstances get worse and worse the characters have to make real human decisions and we can sympathize with them as humans not characters this is how you write a love story take note hollywood these elements are pretty much equally balanced with each of the parts of the stories working with eachother i loved how each of the different parts of the plot mattered and sometimes spilled over into the next it made sure that we didn't just care for one of them i'm not saying they're all equally great because the love story really carries the film but at least they all work out respectively the acting is amazing with and watson giving excellent performances and showing great chemistry i'm not sure if they're bound but they're very good in the supporting roles billy cox is greatly sympathetic as the ira leader losing control of his daughter and his workers but the film is stolen acting wise by ken stott as ike who is just a great scene stealer the direction and by jim sheridan with the other credit going to terry george is excellent rounding out the characters well but not pacing everything greatly i noticed that the first half was very leisurely yet fascinating but the second half whirls by at a quick pace and ends much too quickly more time could have been spent thinking up the ending since it does seem quite sloppy though the boxer is a good film it never achieves the greatness that it should sure it's a masterpiece compared to most of the hollywood drivel we usually get but on it's own it just could have been better but it still works out gives us a great love story combined with a political and boxing drama and features great acting even if it could have been better this'll do
positive	you don't want to be like mike mike has been doing badly embarrassingly bad he broke up a relationship six months ago to move from n y to l a and he's still not over her as a result his jokes fall flat when he tries to impress and he's a comedian well an unemployed comedian one of hollywood's little fish and it has gotten so bad he's asked for an application at starbuck's actually the starbuck's thing gets even worse and worse you won't fail to like mike however played endearingly by jon favreau swingers revolves around mike's and awkward efforts to get back in the social swing of things to this end he is enthusiastically assisted by his equally underachieving twentysomething actor friends such as trent vince vaughn with the film's most animated performance who has the gift of gab bordering on the disturbing side of motivational speaking sue patrick van horn and rob ron livingston who once played hamlet but now longs to work as goofy in disneyland but doesn't succeed because of his lack of theme park experience together they talk about women how to make eye contact which involves avoiding it and when to call so as never to appear desperate two days being industry standard after talking the talk they walk the walk strutting like the cool swingers they aspire to be always to laughable effect to get mike out of his funk his friends persistently convince him to get outside whether it be to a quickie night trip to a seedy vegas casino or a cutthroat hollywood party with the beautiful people or a swing lounge everywhere they encourage mike to look for a replacement honey and then keep vigil over his progress or lack of it like dotty doting parents mike never leaves their company without being the recipient of their confidence cheerleading you're money mike and the honeys know it or equipped with their eccentric dating philosophies such as an analogy of flirting with the bear and the bunny with the unwavering support of friends like these maybe mike's not doing too badly after all favreau also doubled as the film's screenwriter and he proves he has the gift for creating engaging characters and witty banter that goes beyond today's bon mot there is a reassuring honesty to the friendships even when it hits its low points and the friends commiserate when mike gets the gumption to look for love you will join his cheerleading section as well swingers is light unassuming fare sweet candy you will want to bust your gut with laughing again and again
positive	america has finally gotten what it's needed for years a compassionate sincere president with impressive ethics and charisma regretfully it's only a movie president james marshall harrison ford is fed up with terrorist activities teaming up with the russian government he orders a strike force capture of alexander radek a reactionary general ready to the soviet union under his fascist reign during a celebration dinner marshall announces to the world that he will send troops to fight oppression wherever it exists it's your turn to be afraid he declares returning home on air force one he gets the chance to demonstrate his words personally militants loyal to radek and lead by ivan korshunov gary oldman hijack the plane threatening to kill a hostage every half hour until the general is released marshall has a chance to escape in a jettisoned capsule which clinton says doesn't exist in real life but refuses preferring to stay and fight director wolfgang peterson das boot in the line of fire outbreak takes the die hard theme and gives us something new in a film that combines brilliant acting with intensity if you can take your eyes off the screen steal a look at the audience everyone is totally engrossed the two actors do what they do best and they are probably the best there are at it oldman has become typecast as a psychotic sadist and no wonder he does it so well when he engages the teenage first daughter in sensitive conversation about his family and the next minute threatens to blow a hole in her forehead you know that he's over the edge in the manner that people with a cause can become you are convinced that young alice could end up terminated at any time when korshonov executes passengers there is a frightening reality to it the guns in this film are deadly weapons not cartoons harrison ford has done one role for several years his mastery of the man in the suit propelled into desperate action is in top form here marshall is a medal of honor recipient who now has a desk job realistically he's a man afraid but not afraid to act ford is one of the few actors that could make us believe that the president of the united states could be an action hero indiana jones in the oval office he and oldman's archetypes match up perfectly the other roles also go to accomplished actors glenn close as the determined but unsure is the picture of an executive forced into a position that she's not quite ready for dean stockwell as defense secretary eager for the authority i'm in charge here is her political nemesis and turns in a good alexander haig performance of course the politics are all wrong a cowboy president even down to his name with big guns shoots his way through problems much like the american collective memory of jfk's camelot the image is wondrous if you don't look too deep the pulls on the patriotic heartstrings would be too much in any other film but they work here no matter what political spin you put on the story the movie is an outstanding one i left the theater feeling that there is hope for the country's future not a common belief nowadays now if we only can get ford to run for president just because one actor didn't work out as chief executive doesn't mean that a different one couldn't michael redman has lost count of how many years he's been writing this column years years while watching the sunflowers outside his window swaying in the cool breezes
positive	susan granger's review of songcatcher in the midst of this summer's fare of dinos revisited and romantic fiascoes there are a few thoughtful movies and this appalachian period drama is one oscar nominee janet mcteer tumbleweeds stars as dr lily penleric an accomplished musicologist who back in that era was refused a full professorship at her university determined to prove her worth she ventures deep into the rugged mountains of north carolina where her younger sister elna jane adams runs a school there in bear creek she discovers a of traditional and english folk ballads given a unique interpretation by the insular locals excited she sends for recording equipment and persuades vinie butler pat carroll and other mountain folk to share their musical heritage on her edison phonograph cylinders their music as she puts it is as much a part of life here as the air you breathe that's the main thrust of maggie greenwald's occasionally uneven story which is loosely based on olive dame campbell's foray through the blue ridge mountains in but there's also some melodramatic romantic spice ornery bearded aidan quinn falls for the statuesque passionate songcatcher while elna secretly engages in a lesbian relationship with a colleague e katherine kerr i'm ready to buy the soulful soundtrack with vocalists like emmylou harris iris dement taj mahal and young opera star emmy rossum who plays a pivotal role as mcteer's prot g rated there's an intense scene of primitive childbirth on the granger movie gauge of to songcatcher is an intelligent extraordinary transported by the transcendent power of song
positive	elizabeth is a potent historical drama set in england in the it is a time when stately royal ceremonies are as commonplace as public burnings internally the catholics wage war against the protestants meanwhile spain scotland and france strategize their next moves in the struggle for power little does england know that a young woman named elizabeth cate blanchett will be their greatest hope for survival the film charts elizabeth's tumultuous struggle to gain true power over her kingdom as a protestant she is the last person any of the catholic royalty would want to be queen but her queen mary kathy burke deathly ill and unable to conceive a child pleas with elizabeth to take over the throne mary gives her her blessing on only one condition that elizabeth renounce her faith and uphold the teachings of catholicism across the land once declared queen elizabeth immediately finds herself under assault both by her own subjects including the duke of norfolk played with grace by christopher eccleston and by forces abroad slowly but surely the neophyte ruler takes england by its reigns and forges a new path for her kingdom elizabeth is surrounded by a keenly drawn cadre of subjects and advisers her closest ally is the mysterious sir francis walsingham geoffrey rush in a perfectly subtle performance also on her side is sir william cecil sir richard attenborough her but misguided chief adviser with few people she can trust elizabeth must prove her any way she can even if it means being the ruler she secretly despises blanchett deserves an oscar for her performance as elizabeth she portrays the young queen with just the right balance of gawky and shrewd charisma though not a classical beauty blanchett is able to entrance the viewer with just a coy smile or an impish smirk she is at home with her character's playful tendencies particularly in one scene where elizabeth dances unabashedly with childhood friend and lover lord robert dudley joseph fiennes whether fending off unctuous suitors or playing the houses in court blanchett's elizabeth radiates a confidence which impossible to dislike almost as interesting as the character of elizabeth are shekhar kapur's visual delights he and cinematographer remi adefarasin have crafted a film with a rich color palette that is a feast for the eyes rolling green hills extravagant ceremonial galas dark and foreboding corridors all are depicted with a real sense of artistic appreciation the castles and cathedrals of europe have rarely been doted on so lovingly as they are here though writer michael hirst's script gets a little murky at times and his injections of humor get a little overplayed elizabeth pulses with the right amount of dramatic and cinematic verve to make it just deserving of a theatrical viewing as a whole the story survives because elizabeth's struggle is one which deserves attention by the time she makes her shocking but very sensible final declaration we're ready to bow to elizabeth as our own queen
positive	making his directorial debut actor jon favreau brings along his swingers vince vaughn for this tale of two mugs on a career trajectory to nowheresville favreau who also wrote the script is bobby vaughn is ricky by day they are construction workers they also are contenders but neither has had much success their last bout pitted them against each other and was a draw leaving bobby's record at these two l a guys also work for max peter falk a mobster who is patient and understanding with bobby but who hates ricky's guts max has an easy job for bobby fly to new york and make a simple delivery to a gangster named ruiz a smooth and silky sean combs bobby because of his lifelong friendship with ricky pleads with max to give his pal another chance and let him tag along to the big apple against his better judgment max agrees of course ricky a motormouth who inserts both feet everytime he speaks nearly screws up everything while bobby tries to stay calm and professional ricky begins swaggering and throwing money around as if he was john gotti or tony soprano the constrast in styles and the chemistry between favreau and vaughn is what makes made so enjoyable to watch favreau with his face and personality could be a oliver hardy only much wiser vaughn is like someone vaccinated with a phonograph needle he just keeps yakking and yakking unaware of the havoc he creates yet despite bobby's constant aggravation and agitation with his partner a bond of affection and loyalty binds them the contrast between the two friends is interesting to watch bobby is always waiting for the next shoe of ricky to drop ricky is mostly oblivious to the problems he creates and is genuinely surprised when he comes under attack for his faux paus in new york the two lackeys are like fish out of water stumbling from one situation to another trying to keep alive combs is elegant cool and menacing as the gangsta they are sent to meet falk is amusing in his small role while famke janssen nearly breaks your heart as bobby's lowlife girlfriend more than anything made is a movie with heart it is loud obnoxious and very talkative but the cameraderie between bobby and ricky holds the key to its interest favreau does a commendable job in his directorial debut he is a player to be watched as he can only improve with experience
positive	set in the wild west this carry on centres around the arrival of the rumpo kid sidney james and his cronies in stodge city his dodgy dealings and summary shootings aggravate judge burke kenneth williams so much that he asks sheriff albert earp jon pertwee to drive rumpo out of town instead the rumpo kid shoots the sheriff dead therefore judge burke sends for a law marshall to come in and clean up the city due to a misunderstanding an english sanitary engineer called marshall p knutt jim dale is assigned without knowing it as the law marshall for stodge city he arrives at the same time as annie oakley angela douglas who is seeking revenge for her father the sheriff's murder when marshall arrives at stodge city he soon becomes aware of the misunderstanding and due to his rather limited intellect he is manipulated by the rumpo kid and always ends up getting things wrong in the end there is a between rumpo and marshall with the rumpo's past experience it would seem that marshall is out of his depth but using his sanitary skills and learning the ways of the west from annie oakley he at least stands some chance sid james with an american accent is perfect as the rumpo kid a part which suits him down to the ground jim dale provides one of his best carry on performances as the stupid sanitary engineer and angela douglas is very effective in her role as the revengeful daughter other regulars that appear in this movie include charles hawtrey and bernard bresslaw in his debut as big heap and little heap respectively big heap is the local indian leader and the crazy casting of hawtrey for this part is very amusing as is his performance he steals every scene he is in even though he does not enter the film until thirty minutes past joan sims provides useful and amusing support as belle the local bar owner who takes a fancy to the rumpo kid however the part of doc played by peter butterworth and sheriff albert earp played by jon pertwee are not really necessary and pertwee's performance is rather poor kenneth williams uses a new voice but struggles with the weak part of the even so this carry on was sid james and kenneth williams' favourite a very different carry on film in that it is played more seriously by the actors and possesses more realism than any other carry on the death count is the highest of any carry on film sets costumes and action sequences are all very commendable the songs that are included in the movie the title song and annie's song are very impressive a strange but therefore very interesting carry on film not the best of its kind but it is certainly the most distinctive film of the series
positive	for example in happy gilmore sandler plays a rookie golfer trying to beat a jerk of a pro if the star were any other comic that would be enough motivation to drive the movie but with sandler the rookie also wants to win the prize money to help his grandma keep her house that extra motive doesn't make happy gilmore a funnier movie it doesn't really add any genuine emotional depth either in fact the motive is almost totally irrelevant to the movie but sandler's philosophy seems to be if it's a token gesture why not make it a nice gesture that is endlessly refreshing in the wedding singer sandler is right on track the fact that he's a wedding singer is only superficially relevant to the story what kind of a wedding singer he is is even less important david spade could have filled the role with cynicism and sarcasm he could make fun of the fat ugly or embarrassing people he meets at weddings and the story would be intact but sandler instead brings a mature goodness to the character he seems to really enjoy the people at weddings and treats them as though they were his own family robbie hart sandler doesn't just sing at weddings he also gets the loners to join in and have fun and he smooths it over when someone does something embarrassing he is exactly the man you would want at your wedding the day comes when robbie has his own wedding and he is stood up by his bride the movie is set in robbie takes it hard he doesn't sleep he doesn't eat and he gets punched out at work when he sings love stinks at a wedding julia drew barrymore who waitresses all the weddings in town gives him a shoulder to cry on and an ear to talk to eventually robbie starts rebounding toward julia he really likes her but she's engaged her fianc is a jerk do i see a trend nope just a formula who doesn't deserve her but robbie is too depressed to fight for her hand julia seems to like robbie too but she can't leave her seemingly safe and stable fianc for the that robbie might be serious about her you know the story you've seen it a million times before there's always a new way to tell it with new lovers new chemistry and new details but it's the same story and sometimes it works the wedding singer works first of all the chemistry between sandler and barrymore is effective actually it's not so much the chemistry between the two as it is each one's own romantic tension sandler captures the forlorn sleepwalking look of a jilted man struck with an unattainable love barrymore is charming as the girl next door looking for someone serious to settle down with sparks don't fly when they kiss but they both seem right for each other second their love is mature they are not driven by passionate sexual attraction they're a cute couple but neither sandler nor barrymore is centerfold material instead they are both looking for someone meaningful someone to settle down with someone to grow old with at a wedding robbie comforts a kid throwing up in a dumpster while julia sits by the repulsing situation is taken in stride as if the two were already parents caring for their sick child the soundtrack and references play a big part in this movie other critics liked this movie in part because of the soundtrack i liked it in spite of the soundtrack often the music and references felt forced for example robbie tells his to get out of my van halen before you jinx the band and they break up ha ha ha get it david lee roth did leave van halen or how about when sammy allen covert robbie's chauffeur friend shows up at a party wearing a michael jackson jacket and get this a single silver glove that's exactly what mj used to wear all the time unfortunately making fun of generalizations about a past era is too easy to be rewarding that's not to say the movie isn't funny screenwriter tim herlihy has written for sandler before billy madison and happy gilmore and the two make a good combination herlihy knows what sort of jokes sandler is good at and has tailored the script to his style let's hope herlihy and sandler stick together for a few more projects because this movie really won me over with barrymore's charm and sandler's heart it was hard to go wrong
positive	when it's cold molecules aren't moving everything is clean these are the essential words of mikey carver elijah wood a young teenage boy living in new canaan connecticut in the ice storm when mikey delivers these words to a bored science class it is unlikely that anyone realizes how much they parallel mikey's life and the lives that surround him his father jim jamey sheridan is rarely seen and his mother janey sigourney weaver is having an affair with married neighbor ben hood kevin kline ben's wife elena joan allen suspects the affair but doesn't say anything meanwhile ben's daughter wendy christina ricci continuously lures mikey and his younger brother sandy adam into sexual explorations tobey maguire plays paul hood the narrator of the story who also happens to be the least prevalent character we start the film with an interesting outlook on family from paul he compares family to the fantastic four comic book and even goes so far as to say that family is everybody's own something everybody will return to eventually and the farther you go the deeper you'll return the ice storm is a character piece that explores a dismal time both in america and in the individual lives portrayed in the movie everything parallels everything else the young teenagers trying to discover who they are thru drugs sex and alcohol is really almost identical to the parents trying to figure out the purpose in their own lives using the same methods when it's cold outside the molecules aren't moving everything is clean everything is clean because nobody will admit what's going on even the president is on tv denying his how can you expect anything more out of a couple of suburban families riding the coattails of sexual revolution all the sex and drugs is so obviously empty and i think that's the point of the film at first viewing the entire movie might seem empty but then why shouldn't it parallel itself you don't get to know the characters very deeply but i think that's because nobody in the movie knows each other either we sadly watch two families go about their lives nearly oblivious to one another at first glance you might think emotion is lost in the ending scenes because you haven't gotten to know the characters well enough to sympathize then you realize that just might be the point and then you do feel the pain the acting by all is quite good but i particularly liked elijah wood he doesn't seem to be receiving as much recognition as the others but i still found him to possess quite a real sense of being christina ricci is being acclaimed for her part as the misguided teenage temptress who looks for something more to her life in the pants of every available boy still i say hats off remain to wood joan allen's subtle but believable performance as a lonely unappreciated wife and the always excellent kevin kline tobey maguire did a fine job but his character which perhaps was the most intact sensible person in the story seemed a little lost he was needed but perhaps he should've been used more the ice storm is being hailed by many as one of the best films of the year i hate to say that i don't agree but i don't in fact i can think of many other films that i would rank higher than this one even so it is a very good film it takes a lot of retrospect to fully appreciate it's art but when you finally start seeing things in it that you didn't before you start to grow even fonder of the characters and the story perhaps this is one to see ponder and then watch again with different eyes
positive	the end of the affair is a dark and moody romantic period piece that neil jordan exquisitely writes and directs although it's slow and sometimes confusing to follow it still manages to give audiences a moving experience based on graham greene's novel of the same name the film mainly follows characters there's maurice bendrix ralph fiennes who has an affair with henry mile's stephen rea wife sarah julianne moore sarah finds henry to be a bore because well he's just a normal guy it's all work and no play with him while maurice on the other hand falls madly in love with sarah and would do anything for her unfortunately the two break up this is all witnessed in a serious of flashbacks so that leads us to the present it's a few years later and they both still think of each other so maurice hires a private detective ian hart to see what sarah is up too while this may sound straight forward it's not it's a deep dark tale of the jealousy that lies in the two men unhappiness and the ever lasting love all this may sound like a drag but it really captures your interest with great performances by ralph fiennes doing another english patient type of film only this movie is better and julianna moore who definitely deserves an oscar because out of all films she did in i believe this was the role she had the most passion for and you can see why the story was also well written thanks to neil jordan even though i didn't read the book there's no doubt in mind that it was just as moving and descriptive what's so moving about it you ask the tragedy of it all it's not the typical romance in which a guy finds a girl they fall in love and all is well this is more complicated and depressing it really shows the complexity of a relationship because nothing is ever perfect everyone feels a different way and that is what tears us to pieces back to neil jordan's script it wasn't only red roses there were times when i felt it too be a little slow but most romances are it also tended to be a bit confusing especially at the start it keep jumping around from past to present so it obviously took awhile to get a grasp of things also a notable was the superb direction by neil jordan i'd have to say this is his finest achievement to date because quite frankly i've never really found his work to be up to par it just never did anything for me until now when it ends it leaves viewers a little saddened but provoked nonetheless this is definitely one of the best films of and had some of the best acting most notably by moore not for all movie goers but for those who are film buffs and want something of value
positive	titanic is without a doubt the best movie i've seen all year and believe me i'm not an easy critic to impress the english patient was too long men in black was and several of the big summer releases were dead in the water thank god this film got delayed until december it's my christmas present titanic is in the tradition of the old hollywood epics of and it is truly a stunning film while watching this picture you are completely mesmerized never taking your eyes off the screen nor checking your watch to see how much longer it's gonna last despite its hour plus running time as a friend of mine who's a true said if someone doesn't like this film it's because they didn't want to truer words are hard to come by of course it doesn't hurt that this film comes from one of my favorite directors james cameron who is unarguably the greatest action director of all time if you wish to argue that point with me look at his list of credits the terminator aliens the abyss terminator true lies etc still care to disagree not only has cameron helmed the directorial duties of this film he also wrote produced and edited it and to show his true faith for the project he renenged all directing fees and percentage points to ease the budget costs it's obvious he truly loves titanic the film opens with footage both real and fake of an underwater excursion by special submarines to the bottom of the atlantic where a team of explorers lead by bill paxton are searcing for a diamond called the heart of the ocean which according to bill paxton's character would be worth more than the hope diamond today their search turns up dissapointly no diamond but instead a drawing of a young woman wearing the diamond this picture is broadcast on cnn and is seen by a year old woman named rose who claims to be the girl in the picture she is flown out to sea to meet bill paxton and to tell them about the diamond almost all of the rest of the movie is her narration of the past rose's narration shows us how she was an unhappy young girl engaged to a rich man named cal hockley billy zane that she didn't want to marry her mother is pushy and obnoxious and cal hockley is arrogant they are boarding the titanic which is sailing to america and this is where she is to marry cal meanwhile a young man named jack dawson leonardo dicaprio and his italian friend danny nucci win two class tickets aboard the titanic in a poker game they are overjoyed and rush aboard just as the boat is leaving for them this is their ticket to america to a better life for rose she is sailing to her doom the first hour and a half or so of titanic tells the story of how rose dewitt kate winslet and jack dawson fall in love it's the classic story and does sometimes resort to a few cliches but as i said above the love portion isn't sappy and doesn't weigh the film down as some critics have said it's sweet and it didn't make me restless at all despite the fact that i usually hate love stories of course it might help that cameron introduces some pretty interesting characters to help keep our eyes glued to the screen most of these people actually were passengers on the titanic back in including the enigmatic molly brown played by the talented kathy bates the captain of titanic bernard hill and so on all of these characters add an extra depth to the film and make it that easier to watch of course things really start to get going after the hour and a half mark where the titanic strikes the iceberg and begins a slow sink to the bottom the sinking is depicted realisticly and the effects are truly amazing it is not told in a heroic fashion sense either as people are portrayed as panicking pushing others aside to get on the limited lifeboats and drowning and dying horrible deaths the best part of the movie in my opinion comes at the very end when we flash back to the future the crew who at first had been skeptical of rose's story now are totally aborbed by her rose goes out onto the ship's ledge and we then learn a secret about her that catches us off guard we then see a dream of rose's in which she returns to the titanic and is dancing with jack dawson most people i talked with after the movie saw this as only a dream however i think it symbolized more i think it meant that rose had died and is going to a sort of heaven which would be the happiest part of her life her and her one true love jack if anyone has seen the movie and would like to voice an opinion about this me at com
positive	sometimes you just have to tip your hat to a film sometimes you just have to jump on the bandwagon and enjoy the ride i saw the truman show with an audience full of teenagers most of whom were no doubt drawn by ace ventura himself and hoping to see his latest take on fart jokes surprised they may have been when they realized that this picture actually had something to say but by the attentiveness of the crowd i'd say they were won over as was i i can't tell yet if truman really is that good or if it only seems that good in comparison to the awful mountain of crap spewed forth from the bowls of hollywood so far this year time alone will make that call but by the end of the film we were all on truman burbank's side we were concerned for his and wanted him to win that we felt as we did is a tribute both to the film and to jim carrey who has achieved legitimacy at last the truman show is a film best viewed cold with as little foreknowledge as possible about the plot unless you're under a media blackout however you probably know the basics carrey stars as truman burbank a everyman insurance agent living with his beautiful wife meryl laura linney in the south florida island town of seahaven which looks like michael eisner's idea of the perfect american small town truman would seem to live the perfect middle class lifestyle complete with a working wife a best bud friendly neighbors and interesting there is tragedy in his past his father drowned in a horrible boating accident leaving truman with a dreadful fear of water and of travel in general but overall life is good but then one day as truman leaves his house for work a klieg light falls magically from the sky this curious event may lead truman to discover what the rest of the world already knows that he is a prisoner on the world's biggest soundstage that his wife friends and relatives are all actors paid to interact with him and that his life has for over days been broadcast as the world's most popular television program what makes the first hour of truman so enjoyable to watch is the magical verisimilitude painstakingly constructed by niccol and weir the soundstage we're told is only the second structure visible from space truman's movements are tracked ceaselessly by cameras scattered throughout the town button cams dashboard cams mirror cams wife cams big cams and small cams weir cuts the film so we're never quite sure if we're watching truman through the camera of director weir or through the camera of the show's omnipotent creator christof ed harris who oversees the show from a control room built into the moon in seahaven's sky the second act offers a plethora of clues for truman as to the truth of his existence his best friend marlon noah emmerich always has a six pack of beer with him his wife seems to exist in an eternal commercial in which she is always endorsing the latest hot household product he sees the same people walking in the same set patterns all over town one wonders why he didn't pick up on any of this earlier but christof has an answer for this people tend to accept the reality with which they're presented nevertheless truman begins to grow restless and dreams of escape to fiji where an old college sweetheart natasha mcelhone supposedly lives this convincing reality of television as progenitor of reality is a magical and provocative concept the best thing jim carrey does is stay out of its way by underplaying truman he allows the subtle manipulations of the film to take over there is a particularly poignant scene in which truman confides his fears to marlon and marlon answers with sincerity i'd gladly step in front of a bus for you but that line was fed to marlon through an earpiece by christof the abject cruelty to which truman is subjected to hits home and from that moment we're on his side the truman show derives much of its success from playing to our own secret paranoid fantasies haven't we all at least once doubted our place in the world doubted the sincerity of those closest to us ultimately however the picture rises above its own artifice to raise some real questions about the relationship of humankind and our creator what does god really think of us does he resent our abandonment of paradise who exactly is watching us up there in the sky if you enjoy the picture as much as i did credit weir for allowing the magic of the screenplay to work as for carrey well truman burbank is the kind of role that jimmy stewart was born to play carrey is no jimmy stewart to his credit he doesn't try to be he just tries to feel the way you or i would if we suddenly found out that the whole world was watching us
positive	i didn't realize how apt the name of this movie was until i called the mpaa the motion picture association of america the folks who decide what's g nc pg r or x to ask why the preview was rated r so that we can make some sense of their response let me tell you about the movie itself the celluloid closet is a documentary about how homosexuality has been portrayed in the movies over the past several decades it's brilliant funny naughty and extremely poignant it tore at my heart to watch a gifted lesbian screenwriter explain that as a rule gay audiences hunger for any hint of homosexuality on screen regardless of how veiled or how sordid the presence of a gay or lesbian person allows others to lessen their sense of isolation and makes them feel as if they're not quite so invisible as america seems to want them to be the movie itself is rated r and for good reason it contains scenes of bloody violent gay bashing and graphic uninhibited sex as with any movie i appreciate knowing about these things ahead of time so i can decide for myself whether to see the movie with a friend a date my year old niece alone or not at all but that's the movie now back to the preview prior to this film being theatrically released it was originally filmed as a documentary for hbo i had seen the coming attractions trailer for it at least six times there was no nudity no violence no bad language nothing that i could see that would be offensive or inappropriate for a general audience okay whoopi goldberg did refer to someone boning someone but the last i knew that wasn't one of the seven words you can't say on tv except for a scene of two fully clothed men kissing hmmmmm when i inquired about the rating on the trailer a very nice woman at the mpaa quoted from the handbook that a trailer approved for all audiences could contain no homosexuality or lesbianism and no going down on someone hello i was in the office and it was the middle of the day bravely i pursued i've seen that trailer oh probably half a dozen times i gulped and i don't remember that scene well she chirped it's there our little eyes are trained to see that no really in the words of dave barry i am not making this up they are trained to see that when someone who was shocked at the rating the first time and made a note to watch it carefully the following five times or so managed to let it slip past her gosh i certainly don't mean to question the mpaa or the handbook i would however like to suggest that it's they who are in the closet on this one and the light ain't good in there but having seen the celluloid closet and being one of a handful of straight people involved in a primarily gay and lesbian weekly bible study email me and i'll give you the details none of this was any big surprise the point of the movie was that homosexuality even in the politically correct is ridiculously perceived as a threat to a mostly heterosexual society a point well made in this candid and honest film now i could go off on the mpaa's ruling that a trailer must contain no homosexuality or lesbianism and ask how that is defined particularly in light of some of the things both sexual and that i've watched straight people do in trailers i just don't feel the need to go there because it seems so obvious i'll instead suggest that the mpaa their evaluation criteria let the ratings reflect not subject content like sex and violence let them reflect attitude content in the future i'd be interested in knowing whether the movie is rated d for disrespectful or s for stereotyped then i'd truly be able to make an informed decision about how i spent my time
positive	minutes not rated though i suspect it would be rated pg for adult themes and language mamoru oshii is a name that probably isn't very to most american audiences but perhaps it should be oshii was the director of last year's japanese animated film import in the and is known among fans of japanese animation or anime for making films with a deep philosophical bent one of these films was the first theatrical venture for the patlabor animated series in its many novels manga two different runs of episodes original animation videos or oavs for short and a television series running to nearly fifty has proven to be one of the most popular series ever in japan set in the very near future though it was a somewhat farther away near future when the series was first conceived this atypical giant robot anime features the characters rather than the machinery as the primary focus as a whole patlabor is the story of an exciting time for japan as the prologue to each episode of the television series explains giant industrial robots known as labors an interesting play on words considering that robot is derived from the czech word for labor have come into widespread use in japan toward the close of the twentieth century with the rise of labors however has come a new crime this led to the creation of the two special vehicle divisions using patrol labors to fight labor crime the patlabor story centers around the second special vehicle division who through no fault of their own have acquired a bad reputation for destructiveness sometimes utterly hilarious sometimes almost deadly serious the patlabor series explores the interpersonal relationships of the special vehicle crewmembers and also looks at the effects of technology on modern life those who are unfamiliar with the patlabor story and characters may find themselves slightly confused coming into the movie although there is ample background exposition provided for new viewers the story as has much of patlabor before centers around the controversial babylon project a gigantic seawall that will on its completion allow the reclamation of thousands of square miles of land from tokyo bay this project has been an almost constant target of environmentalist terrorists most notably the house of sea organization however the threat in this case comes not from any terrorist but from someone who is already dead shinohara heavy industries the premier labor manufacturer in japan if not the whole world has just come out with a new operating system that increases labors' movement speed and efficiency by this hyper operating system hos for short has very quickly been installed into well over of the nation's labors including the patrol labors of since that installation dozens of labors including a military model have begun to go on berzerk rampages for no apparent reason and the only factor they all had in common was that they were all running under the new hos some wags have compared this to windows it's up to asuma shinohara labor command officer with and the son of the president of shinohara heavy industries to find the source of these problems before more victim to them and before hos drags his father's company down with it as was the case with in the if you just want a actionfest this might not be the movie for you the is more of a psychological thriller a technological suspense drama it is closer perhaps to a chrichton novel than to an action movie crichton novels that have been made action movies notwithstanding there are long thoughtful montages of dialogueless footage as two investigators make their way through slums and derelict housing in old quarters of tokyo similar to sequences from in the this movie is fraught with fact a large part of it is based on christian symbolism patlabor's setting is aside from the giant robots tromping around very similar to our own present day the film uses this setting to make its central point is progress moving too fast for humans to keep up are history and culture falling by the wayside like the old buildings that are being torn down and replaced with new this is a question just as applicable to today as it is to patlabor's setting as far as the technical aspects of the film go referring to the subtitled version as that's the only one i've seen the film transfer is clear almost phenomenally so the animation quality is incredible though the character design is different from what most patlabor fans will be used to the oavs and tv series were more cheerful to humor the movie however makes everyone look a great deal less cute and emphasizes that this is going to be for the most part a deadly serious storyline as far as cinematography goes there are many interesting moments in the i don't think i can recall ever seeing a perspective used in any other animated film save for in the another oshii film or indeed in many other movies at all the cinematography is to the storyline emphasizing what it needs to though a couple of scenes where characters' features are exaggerated in anger may seem slightly strange to western audiences the audio track of the is in glorious stereo and should be used to demonstrate home theater that good even without headphones sounds from either side of the screen can be clearly heard to from that side giant robot footsteps are deep and booming the score is crisp and clear and always right on the mark enhancing the moods created by the animated scenery as far as the subtitles go i have to say that they're among the most subtitles i've ever seen for large enough that they don't strain the eyes but small enough not to conceal too much of the screen although it does have several action sequences in it most notably the climactic conclusion is foremost not an action movie although it is a film it relies in large part upon prior familiarity with some of the characters to carry the story and that could detract from some people's enjoyment my
positive	okay let me first say this is a beavis and butthead movie if you do not like beavis and butthead do not go to see this movie however if you do like them i recommened you get out right now and go see it the movie starts off with the boys wondering what happened to their tv they notice that it has been stolen and they vow to find it this wind their way through america searching for dallas she is a woman they look for her because as they are searching for the tv they find a drunk who wants them to do his wife well of course they think he wants them to score with her when actually he wants them to kill her and the fun starts their this movie is a mix of funny gags that anly beavis and butthead could pull off it is quality entertainment that only fan of beavis and butthead would enjoy i enjoyed this movie alot because mike judge knew how to keep pace even when they were crawling through the desert and i thought the movie started to lag he manages to keep the laughs coming if you expecting changes from the show keep looking the same character the same voices the same everything from the show and that's what makes it good you might think with a movie from a tv show you can change a few things often times this spells disaster for films because the film makers veer away from what made the show popular in the first place
positive	taking a few tips from the pulp fiction school of filmmaking go is the new feature from the director of the cult hit swingers the story centres around a group of people who include brit simon askew and checkout girls claire holmes and ronna polley and the misadventures that they get into split into three chapters everything from sex to drugs to violence is covered in a film with a much blacker edge in comedy than swingers although qt's touch is evident in nearly every frame go is entertaining enough to forget about the similarities and just enjoy the rollercoaster ride liman who also photographed the film has a deft touch with the camera and the film looks good the film also seems to have benefited from a budget with the scenes in particular looking pretty good there's a twisted sense of humour running throughout which ensures that even the darkest scenes get a smirk the young cast are talented and help bring the story to life holmes one of the dawson's creek cast a show i'm not particularly fond of displays much talent here and despite her largely limited screen time manages to make a three dimensional character and never becomes a caricature askew is slightly successful being rather obnoxious no doubt the filmmakers intended this to make the audience cheer when what happens to him but instead of annoying' he's just annoying he drags down slightly one of the funniest chapters but the talent around him in that particular tale more than makes up for it the real standout is sarah polley as the drug dealing checkout girl her refreshing and deeply enjoyable performance makes the heavy going stories she is involved in much more entertaining also entertaining timothy olyphant as the rather sinister drug dealer who gives an nice evil performance the script written john august is sharp and witty with good dialogue and some funny jokes it starts off rather slow however but in about twenty minutes the script has found it's footing and just keeps getting better the stories are largely satisfying although occasionally there's too much attention on one detail but not on another also some of the endings seem a little forced and lucky still the cast have a meaty script to get into and obviously enjoy it it could of tried a little harder in some parts however and these parts lag because this is a movie the obligatory rave soundtrack must accompany and go's one is pretty decent unlike other movies go never allows the music to substitute for plot or dialogue which is a plus go is a very easy movie to absorb into and the audience really starts feeling for these characters thankfully they never become two dimensional characters who are bent and twisted throughout the movie to fit into the stories mechanics like the heroine in things i hate about you they are who they are and they stay that way go is great fun and a worthy follow up from the director of swingers ignore the fact that it steals from pulp fiction and very bad things and just sit back and enjoy the rollercoaster ride erm go to go i guess
positive	garry shandling makes his long overdue starring film debut as an alien from a planet populated only by genetically created men who are looking to take over the earth by propagating their own species there shandling is chosen for the mission is given the name harold anderson and is set up as a banker in seattle after a few disastrous mating attempts he figures his best bet will be susan annette bening a former alcoholic who eventually tells harold that she won't have sex again until she gets married the leader of harold's planet ben kingsley tells him to marry her and harold is soon exposed to all the joys of married life despite its title and premise which seem to imply that this is some jerry lewis vehicle from the late what planet are you from is a very funny movie the plot which the film wisely doesn't linger on the specifics of for too long is of course nothing more than framework for the jokes most of which work very well the material may be considered crude and tasteless by many and i might have thought so as well had shandling not been the lead but he brings a sort of pathetic charm to the role and it's his performance that makes the film truly funny instead of just offensive plus if you think about it what planet are you from could have very easily gone the route considering that shandling's character is given a detachable penis that vibrates and hums when he gets excited we never see anything though it's all implied which gives the film a touch of class amidst its crudeness i'm glad to see that someone in hollywood still understands the concept of less is more the talented supporting cast certainly adds to one's enjoyment of this film annette bening oddly playing a merged version of her real estate salesman character from american beauty and her ditzy spiritualist character from mars attacks does a fine job keeping up with shandling and makes a good catalyst for his brand of humor she even manages to pull off a potentially disastrous scene where she has to perform a rather goofy rendition of high hopes for a lengthy period of time ben kingsley john goodman and greg kinnear all fare well in their performances as well and linda fiorentino good lord there should be some sort of law stating that no woman can be that sexy everything about her character in this film oozes raw sexuality what planet are you from is available on dvd from columbia tristar home video the disc gives you the choice of either watching the film full frame or in its original theatrical aspect ratio of and enhanced for televisions also included on the disc as extras a decent featurette an isolated score track talent files for the cast and crew and the film's original theatrical trailer as well as trailers for wolf men in black bugsy and as good as it gets when i first saw that the disc featured an isolated score track i actually laughed how great could the music for a silly little comedy be for it to get it's own isolated track well as it turns out it's a mighty fine score from carter burwell fargo the hudsucker proxy that i enjoyed listening to again while i typed up this review kudos to columbia tristar for adding that feature to the disc what planet are your from was unjustly ignored in theaters and i hope it finds its deserved audience on home video this fine dvd is certainly a great way to see it 
positive	there's a moment in schindler's list when a number of jews are trudging through snow clean and crisp dark edges and frost on the ground one girl waltzes through wearing a red dress that stings the eyes it is probably the finest moment through out the film when i first saw it i began to cry though i could not say why this landscape is the setting of many small moments that add up to one big whole when one man is shot in the head we see blood oozing out onto the ground so black and murky its almost pomegranate red at another time we follow a young boy as he runs searching for a hiding spot before finally squeezing into a toilet which is already occupied like so citizen kane fargo the godfather the godfather part ii greed many of the greatest american films schindler's list plays with the concepts of money power and soul but this is a movie about a man who does the right thing starkly emotional and brutally powerful schindler's list strips away everything on the outset and leaves us ony feelings the following that it has gained is not suprising this is probably thus far the best film of the decade steven spielberg has always been a skilfull filmmaker his assured hand churned out both jurassic parks jaws the indiana jones films and e t but it wasn't until that we saw what a brilliant man he can be the product of his genuis is really something to see it can bring tears to your eyes just as it uplifts you throughout we sense the deep control which he so masterfully spreads we watch oskar schindler liam neeson grow from an arrogant self important man who hires jews only to save money into a moving figure with a deep sense of pride and accomplishment the film requires much work and can be a harrowing experience go expecting a quick entertainment and you'll be bitterly dissapointed it does reward the patient viewer this is a mature spielberg and his deft hands shape an absoloute masterpiece this eqsuisite beautiful film is a rare gem it does a good job of summarizing why i love movies it leaves one breathless uplifted and with much to think about afterwards you can reflect on individual images visions and people laconic removed schindler strides through the film a detached prescence who watches all does much and leaves feeling as if he could should have done more then he did and was able to the change seems natural in the hands of a lesser filmmaker it would be crude and would cheat the audience instead we are told a tale told a story the film is punishing to watch yes but anyone who allows themselves to get involved will experience a miracle and a genuine masterpiece of a movie
positive	i recall the trials and tribulations of my high school years it was a period that would mercilessly force me to exit boyhood and thrust me into the unwelcome arms of adulthood but of all the experiences that i collected throughout those tender years i can honestly say that the toughest and the scariest thing that i had to cope with was my raging hormones and my crazed curiosity about girls and sex yes more scarier than my seventh grade english teacher and even scarier than the bullies that constantly hounded me trying to deal with my personal wonderment about sex was like trying to fight an invisible monster for all teenagers it's almost like a rite of passage and what we did was sometimes downright nasty sometimes funny and sometimes shocking and all of that is terrifically and shamelessly brought to light in what might be the funniest movie this summer pie' is a comedy about four sexually frustrated seniors that enter into a pact to lose their virginity by the end of the school year just how great are their hormones raging one of them notes after watching disney's the little mermaid that ariel is soooo hot the four schoolmates are kevin oz finch and jim kevin is the only one with a steady girlfriend but doesn't want to have sex until the time is just right but what is the perfect time there is just no way to know and that frightens him oz is the big jock who decides that the way to score with the girls is to listen to them and to be more sensitive he joins up with a jazz choir and discovers that getting in touch with his feminine side has some tremendous advantages finch is the phobic hermit who doesn't stand a chance with any girl so he pays someone to start spreading rumors about his prowess suddenly girls are lining up to go out with him but among these friends it is jim that is the most curious and the most fearful when he has a chance to romp with a pretty exchange student his inexperience comes shining through he has much to learn and will do anything to seek out this kind of knowledge this may include watching scrambled porn channels or experimenting with mom's apple pie in a scene that is completely shocking raunchy yet unbelievably funny the one thing that i want to say about this film is that it well deserves its rating there is stuff in here that is completely gross in the same manner that something about mary' was gloriously ribald in fact at first this film received a sinful rating before a couple of more cuts finally brought it down to a rating but i guess after seeing the coarseness of south park this seems tame by comparison teens and anyone who can still remember their acne years are the ones that will laugh hardest but unlike many teen sex comedies there is a genuine intelligence at work here these are four normal boys who have a natural curiosity about sex their plans of action are thoughtful and they think about the consequences they know what they want yet temper it with responsibility but almost always it's impossible to know how to fight the invisible monster and it's these episodes that make pie' such a carnal delight to watch
positive	full metal jacket very much like every other film about the vietnam war is an shocking emotional depiction of the war that effected almost everyone in america this film is more like platoon than any other in the way that it chronicles the struggles of a young man private joker played by matthew modine during his tour in the vietnam war however full metal jacket gives the audience an insight into combat life very rarely seen before boot camp these sequences are considered to be the best part in this three act film even though i found the later portions to be equally stunning as in platoon full metal jacket gets off to a quick start the opening sequence is the initiation for the recruits which is getting their heads shaved from there they find themselves standing at attention and receiving their orders from the extremely hard and punishing sergeant hartman played extremely well by the former drill instructor r lee ermey apparently the solution was found for the perfect man to play a drill instructor in the movies because ermey depicts his character extremely well and will make you thank whomever that you were never subjected to such horrible situations private joker gets off on the wrong foot with the sergeant as does the large bodied private leonard lawrence vincent d'onofrio whom is dubbed pyle' by sgt hartman the film is continually narrated by private joker in which he explains his visions on what is going on the entire corps although repeatedly hammered by sgt hartman continues on private pyle however seems to be the rag doll for the drill instructor he continually absorbs the worst punishment and humiliation and it basically does not stop that is until sgt hartman comes up with a new plan he will punish the rest of the for pyle's even after joker was assigned to help him out in the best way he can pyle then receives punishment from his fellow recruits and things take a turn for the worst pyle proves that not everyone is emotionally physically and mentally cut out for the life of a marine after graduation joker is sent over to the height of the action in order to document the war which is his service he is not a member of the infantry and it is unclear if he will ever actually find himself in combat when he sets out on a documenting mission this question becomes very clear from the start joker joins up with a platoon along with his hometown friend cowboy arliss howard and follows their everyday actions interviewing and filmming them along the way he also soon finds himself in a position in which he must fight or die again as in the tradition of vietnam war films full metal jacket can be debated as to whether it is an film or not a few of the more powerful scenes toward the end will leave you to decide full metal jacket succeeds extremely well in documenting the life of a young man in vietnam as have others in the past this film in different ways also can be viewed as more powerful than others that again is up for debate and depends on your opinion one thing is for sure however no one ever wants to experience the absolute hell that these soldiers are subjected to unfortunately many did
positive	oliver stone's latest feature is the last one standing in the long line of biographies of american presidents it's a long saga about the life of one of the most hated and misunderstood leaders of the century stone doesn't hold back anything as he digs deep inside politics and legal maneuvers of the white house the director holds nixon responsible for everything he has done at the same time he creates a very human character a brilliant and tortured man that is caught in the dirty game of politics which is here pictured as a wild animal he is simply trying to tame it but the occasional switch to the raging sky and the clouds swiftly fleeing over the white house as events run ahead of the president's ability to control them stone doesn't in any way apologize for nixon he blames not only nixon's own character flaws but also the imperial presidency itself the system that once set in motion behaves with a mindlessness of its own nixon is a modern shakespeare story a saga about a ruler destroyed by his fatal flaws there's something almost majestic about the process as nixon goes down in this film there is no gloating but a watery sigh as of a great ship sinking sir anthony hopkins is staggering and plays nixon with incredible honesty and understanding creating a very emotional picture of the american president joan allen's magnificent and captivating performance is certainly worth an oscar statuette she is strong and loyal as mrs nixon the rest of the cast is equally magnificent including james woods j t walsh paul sorvino ed harris and bob hoskins everyone does a serious and demanding job no one are disappointing stone never loses focus and his direction is steddy honest and determined he is displaying the historical facts and at the same time concentrating at the human element at times he is showing to black and white showing flashbacks from nixon's youth and childhood the flashy editing by brian berdan and frank corwin robert richardson's rich cinematography and john williams' musical score create a hectic and bizarre atmosphere the film's only fault is that it's a bit tiering and overloaded with too much political material and legal maneuvers still it's an honest and captivating a solid piece of movie making
positive	in tim burton's hollow' there is a mysterious headless horseman who decapitates residents of the small town of the same name he rides a beautiful black steed and carries an imposing sword that cauterizes the wound of his victims with an immediate swipe burton's update on washington irving's classic tale of legend of sleepy hollow' offers us the mystery of the horseman when the screenplay should have merely settled on the aspect of the horror writer andrew kevin walker throws in perhaps too healthy a dosage of sherlock holmes but the visual treatment of the film is absolutely entrancing as burton offers foggy locales and detailed costumes that are gorgeous and stirring to examine as hollow' opens we're greeted with a juicy cameo from martin landau who won an oscar in burton's wood' landau plays a prominent citizen of sleepy hollow who on a fateful carriage ride through the forest is decapitated by an unseen horseback rider after two more murders haunt the residents of the quaint little town constable ichabod crane johnny depp is sent in to investigate landlord baltus von tassel michael gambon explains to crane that the heads have been severed from the carcass and mysteriously taken in each separate case and that they believe the murderer is a dead hessian trooper played briefly by a wonderfully jarring christopher walken who has risen from the grave after being decapitated in the western woods crane is not a man of great superstition and is determined to root out the human culprit with his assortment of gizmos and gadgets things i was not surprised to find in a tim burton movie first and foremost hollow' is a fun horror film as with virtually all burton movies we are treated to a wonderful score by composer danny elfman who has once again poured excitement and imagination into an atmospheric soundtrack that accentuates the gothic mood perfectly the horseman are stylish and impressive particularly in perfectly blended battle sequences involving actual actors but why did i enjoy hollow' as much as i did although enjoyable it was not the numerous beheadings and the plentiful gore that spurted left and right it was the light comic touch that burton applied the film has the sweetness of a candy apple usually channeled through depp's wonderful performance as the lovable geek ichabod crane who is no longer a school teacher but still attains his cowardly qualities this is certainly not the only alteration that's been made as the film progresses it becomes apparent that walker is more concerned with the mystery of the murders than the murders themselves the momentum is slowed considerably once crane begins piecing the mystery together because for the audience it's not an issue we particularly wish to be solved it's more effective for the headless horseman to be an elusive demon than an elusive demon with an ulterior motive still we are still captivated by the breathtaking technical detail and burton's keen eye to capture our attention the costuming is exceptional and the dialogue is crisp and effective throughout it's recognizable that the script was refined by playwright tom stoppard the supporting cast exhibits more color and playfulness than many a blonde christina ricci is in fine form as von tassel's daughter katrina and an unlikely romance between she and ichabod is surprisingly consistent walken michael gough who appeared in burton's films and miranda richardson are all enjoyable in tackling their separate roles i suppose the strengths behind hollow' lie within the central trio director burton constable depp and the headless horseman who hunts him down with ruthless accuracy all of this is not to be taken seriously of course hollow' is a lavish frightening and altogether amusing reworking of a classic tale that many people cherished as children if you've got a decent head on your shoulders you'll have the good sense to gallop off to the theater and enjoy it one last time
positive	ok i admit i had a bad attitude about this film from the start a romantic comedy about the trials and tribulations of single working parents with a couple of incredibly cute kids thrown in for good measure yuck but it's not really too bad it has a lot working against it for me at least in addition to the above it is typical of a lot of recent movies in that it is really just a glorified movie but longer and with bigger stars and you have to pay to see it it does win you over though even if it is painfully predictable just think about it two single parents with their cute kids are thrown together due to a missed field trip through a day of near disasters they cont inually meet get in one another's way cause trouble for one another and generally insult one another at every opportunity in fact they hate each other so much that we know that they are or soon will be in love the only people who hate each other more than lovers are married couples so this film is predictable just as the screwball comedies of the classical hollywood cinema were predictable and the screwball genre is obviously hoffman's model for this film will they get fired from their yuppie jobs will they make the big soccer game that is so important to their kids will pfeiffer realize what a jerk her a drummer for bruce springsteen really is aren't they all will they finally kiss well what do you expect but there is a certain amount of satisfaction in having our expectations fulfilled especially when it is done with as much humour along with a lack of sticky sentimentality as it is in this film pfeiffer and clooney have a certain chemistry together that is surprisingly charming and the kids are neither shoved into the background nor allowed to steal the show one word of caution though this film is being billed in some places as a family movie don't let that stop you however i think most kids especially boys would be pretty bored by this move after all nobody gets killed and there are no explosions all in all a good date movie the flying inkpot rating system wait for the broadcast a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
positive	bowfinger is a good movie about the making of a very bad one the screenplay written by steve martin skewers everything in hollywood from cheesy movies to fight sequences and all in a crafty and accomplished manner anyone who knows of or has had any association with should thoroughly enjoy this clever comedy for it's entire duration the central premise behind the film is an inspired and promising one bobby bowfinger martin a cheapskate and hollywood producer has always dreamed of making a successful motion picture but has never attained the proper tools to do so a new script an alien invasion story entitled chubby rain has caught bowfinger's eye after confronting a producer named jerry renfro robert downey jr in a restaurant an agreement is made to finance the movie but first bowfinger must get renowned action star kit ramsey eddie murphy to sign in on the project kit turns the offer down immediately but bowfinger still has the intent to shoot the film after emptying out his life savings the hapless producer tells the remaining cast and crew that ramsey is involved and then prepares to film the movie without the star's knowledge the actors confront ramsey on the street saying their lines as hidden cameras peek through bushes to capture the footage the unknowing star who is terrified of aliens and being abducted is brought to believe there is actually pod people after him when the conditions become even more treacherous bowfinger is forced to hire a kit ramsey named jiff also murphy a dork who runs for coffee shooting vital scenes these include attempting a suicide run across an freeway and one of the scenes involving supporting actress daisy heather graham removing her blouse bowfinger takes it's sweet time getting started but when the plot switches into high gear great things happen certain scenes are so precisely executed perfectly framing moments that are absolutely funny no hilarious standouts include the chase through a parking garage in which ramsey who's supposed to be being followed keeps checking behind him to investigate a strange tapping noise it's actually bowfinger's dog in high heels and just try not to laugh in the climactic sequence featuring jiff in an excerpt from another bowfinger classic entitled fake purse ninjas while the entire of bowfinger isn't always on target individual scenes may have you rolling in the aisles masterful comedy director frank oz dirty rotten scoundrels in and out who has never made a bad movie ensures a quality final product and is aided immensely by martin's script however the real star is eddie murphy this is the actor's finest work since his breakthrough into the hollywood market in the early murphy excels at every corner not only succeeding with presenting believable paranoia in the eyes of kit ramsey but in creating a likable buffoon in jiff as well these three talented comic minds have squeezed every morsel of potential out of this premise and the reward is a virtually guaranteed helping of hearty laughs steve martin generates the power behind bowfinger but murphy fuels it this is a comedy that unlike something such as american pie and south park doesn't break any rules but it's still just as uproarious or perhaps even more than anything we've seen this season the supporting cast including christine baranski as a actress and jamie kennedy as the cameraman all perform well within their limits the only presence that demands real attention when placed next to martin or murphy is the beautiful heather graham as the young film star who has plans to sleep her way to the top graham attempting to further her stardom after appearing as the new powers' girl in displays a cheerful but naive persona that nicely corresponds with the wackiness of the screenplay i wouldn't be caught dead buying a ticket for chubby rain but watching how it all came about is certainly entertaining enough
positive	pulp fiction quentin tarantino's anxiously awaited and superb to reservoir dogs is absolutely and without a doubt progressing as one of the most talked about loved and hated films of in all fairness it should be noted that those who love this film greatly outnumber those who hate it as if reservoir dogs wasn't perfect tarantino went ahead and improved on perfection by creating pulp fiction a hard talking roller coaster ride of a movie that combines violence and extraordinary dialogue in a seemingly perfect way every major character in this film is represented by a terrific acting performance by the actor to begin with the two hit men vincent vega john travolta and jules winnfield samuel l jackson these two characters work together perfectly and the performances by each actor are nearly perfect travolta in fact is still trying to get out of the vincent vega role if these two characters were not enough there's the struggling boxer butch coolidge bruce willis the two criminals pumpkin tim roth and honey bunny amanda plummer the big man in charge marsellus wallace ving rhames and his attractive young wife mia uma thurman and the problem solver himself the wolf harvey keitel these are just the major characters smaller roles but equally terrific are handed to jimmie quentin tarantino a young married man who gets caught up in some serious gangster business lance eric stoltz the drug dealer as well as maynard duane whitaker and zed peter greene two hillbillies who are the men behind no pun intended for those of you who have seen this a very disturbing scene towards the end of the film the film interweaves three stories that at first seem to be nothing alike but later prove to be very critical to each other the film begins with pumpkin and honey bunny in a small coffee shop discussing their recent robberies and the two quickly decide to hold up the coffee shop unknowing of what lies ahead after this the film focuses for some time on vincent and jules and their hit man lifestyle utilizing the films unforgettable dialogue the two men discuss such things as hamburgers and foot massages before they bust into an apartment to terrorize the occupants the two men were sent to the apartment to recover a mysterious briefcase for their boss marsellus wallace after basically toying with the men especially the unfortunate brett frank whaley vincent and jules complete their mission and recover the briefcase this is not before a man jumps out from a bathroom with a hand cannon shooting at the two gangsters he somehow completely misses them leading jules to cite divine intervention this is also the basis for more of the tarantino dialogue the film then shifts to focus on boxer butch coolidge and his boxing escapades butch was ordered to take a fall in his latest fight but when he does not marsellus vows to find him wherever he is and make sure that butch is not able to enjoy his new fortune vincent meanwhile has the honor of taking marsellus' wife mia out on a date while the big man is out of town vincent obviously is rather nervous about this especially after hearing the tale about a man who was thrown out of a window for supposedly giving mia a foot massage after their date which seems to rather smoothly things take a turn for the worst at the hands of vincent's heroin dubbed a monster by lance each story continually progresses and new and amazing events occur eventually the stories all meet each other in the end with pumpkin and honey bunny holding up the restaurant which happens to contain both vincent and jules pulp fiction is definitely one of the best films of the decade and possibly of along with its superb dialogue action writing directing and acting this film will not only latch onto you but it proves that it does not want to release you until it has sunk its claws completely into you and with most fans of this movie this is proved to be a rather easy task although at times the graphic images violence and language may seem a bit overpowering surely quentin tarantino's fame was greatly escalated by this film and he proves not to be one who will fade from existence very soon
positive	i think the first thing this reviewer should mention is wether or not i am a fan of the first let me assure you that no prior experience with the series is required to fully enjoy this movie the producers are not stupid making a movie just for fans of the series is not profitable you have to reach for a larger audience therefore the movie is quite altough will only fail to understand certain emotions behind the looks many characters exchange but fear not duchovny and another man later on provide more than adequate background info on what is going on you will never feel as if you just walked in on the third act of some great opera in any case the answer is no i am not a fan of the i only watch it when nothing else is on and i prefer millennium however since the fox network as been so kind as to air several key episodes for several weeks before the movie's opening weekend i took that opportunity to test the movie i taped all of these episodes and watched them only after seing the movie i am glad to report that i learned nothing new everything you need to know is explained to the viewer by duchovny and others i know i am going maybe a bit too far to make my point but everybody should get the chance to experience this movie warning major spoilers follow please do not read to fully enjoy this movie you must not be able know what is coming what exactly is over that hill and what that weird hummm sound is all about you have been warned the is what a summer should be exciting scary great special effects unlike other summer movies the effects do not take over the movie and are only there when it is really necessary and good performances this is coming from a guy who thinks david duchovny is the human equivalent of a wooden plank from start to finish this movie does not let go of you when i compare it with last summer's movies the best way to describe it would be take the excitement and great score from and the deadly use of sound from event horizon this flick is scary not in a b movie kind of way where you always know where and when the critter will jump at our heroes in fact the first time the critter in this movie makes an apperance it is totally out of the blue you might as well bring ear plugs because this thing is louuuudd the last time a monster scared me that much was when i first saw aliens as a six year old kid you know when you are affraid to put you feet on the floor because the creature might be under the chair or when you keep trying to cover your throat with your shirt so yeah the is scary and guess what you never even have to see the monster but your imagination works overtime and it sure beats having to watch a flawed computer generated babyzilla it looks like you could walk right through it not even scarier than your grandma in undies type of monster do not think that the is a monster movie in fact the creature is there for maybe three minutes total no the is definately a mulder episode of the series scully is at his side of course but gillian anderson gets maybe half the screen time she has a couple of good scenes with duchovny but she gets kidnapped during the last half hour of the movie so she does not get to do much no this is mulder's time in the spotlight by now you have heard of the scene where mulder showers independence day if you have not then i will not spoil it for you let's just say that due to recent events mulder should be showering godzilla instead to those of you wondering if mulder discovers that the truth is indeed out there who cares if he did find it the series would over anyway so what are you complaining about the dialogue in interesting and the director is marvelous the camera is almost always looking over the shoulder of our heroes so we feel as if we are right there with them when they open a door or climb a hill the script is spotless every thing that happens happens for a purpose if you are confused by something do not worry because it will all become clear later on but and i cannot stress this enough pay attention unlike most summer movies the dialogue is twice as important as the effects miss one vital piece of information and like most people who talk during movies you will go home and tell all your friends how this movie made no sense also to those people who need to go to the bathroom during movies don't the person who watched the movie with me had to go twice and twice she missed an important conversation there is no time to take a breather between scenes because again unlike most summer movies godzilla anybody the does not need to fill scenes between the suspense and the action with useless subplots every scene is crucial and serves a purpose who needs to see the blond chiouaoua have a big emotional scene between godzilla attacks so far this summer i have seen only one movie who ranks higher on my list of movies i'd recommend and that is the truman show but it only wins by a nose but the truman show is not what i would call a summer movie the is what more do you ask from a summer movie other than the chance to be excited cool effects it's good some pulse pounding hell yes strangely enough i think that fans of the series will hate this movie while will have a good time it does not provide answers to the show's many questions the status quo remains nearly the same and no mulder and scully do not get together rating four and a half out of five stars for the best movie yet this summer several jump right out of your seat thrills many whoah i never saw that one coming moments four holy shit where the hell did that come from and one heck of an ending you may wonder where this movie lost half a star well i swore never to give a movie the full five stars so i had to find something about the in his ice truck the tracks it leaves in the snow behind him go on for several miles but then they just stop it's pretty obvious the film's makers drove the truck for several miles to give the appearance that mulder had been driving for a long time but in the end it looks like mulder just dropped from the sky and started driving
positive	i know it already opened in december but i finally got around to seeing rushmore last weekend and it was one of those rare oppritunites that i got to leave the theatre feeling proud about paying the expensive ticket price as the final scene closed out in happy fashion i felt happy to have been priveleged enough to watch such a good display of filmmaking jason schwartzman his face oddly intriguing behind those large braces and glasses steals the show as max fischer the most well known rushmore academy student who gets terrible grades but compensates for it by organizing most of the school's clubs and organizations i e the fencing team and writing and producing school plays and often pulling outrageous stunts one that eventually earns him an expulsion this stunt building an aquarium on the school's baseball diamond is a plot to steal the heart of widowed elementary teacher rosemary cross olivia williams he funds this aquarium with the help of millionare herman blume a very oscarworthy bill murray who eventually finds himself falling in love with miss cross rosemary and herman begin the fun begins herman and max go at it head to head in a battle for miss cross herman manages to destroy max's bike while max cuts herman's brakes and it goes on like this but eventually max realizes he is too young for miss cross and he can't stand in the way of two people in love the academy of arts sciences really messed up this year they completely overlooked rushmore and if you ask me it wasn't an accident it maybe wasn't best picture material but it certainly deserved a screenplay nod instead of elizabeth and bill murray's absense from the ballot is a complete snub the entire mood of the film is one reason it is so good at one point it's fun and the next scene can turn serious and dramatic the cinematography gives the movie an important feeling as well i hope rushmore can overcome its' oscar snubs and be enjoyed by intelligent film goers
positive	capsule this is a film that avoids easy answers wilhelm furtwangler then the world's greatest orchestra conductor stayed in germany and cooperated with the nazis what were his views was he a war criminal or a secret resistance fighter how much did he know about crimes against humanity the us government investigated him after the war and this film is a dramatization of that investigation high to in my opinion one of the best films of the last few years is istvan szabo's sunshine a film that covers the fortunes of a jewish hungarian family under the reigns of three different regimes hungarian aristocrats nazis and communists szabo's film a german production is much more limited in scope it is about the investigation of who criminally supported the nazis and who opposed them ronald harwood's screenplay ambiguously looks at the investigation of a great classical music conductor who stayed on in germany when the nazis took power and became the most popular conductor of the third reich maj steve arnold played by harvey keitel has been assigned by his superiors to investigate wilhelm furtwangler stellan skarsgard perhaps europe's greatest classical music conductor when other artists fled germany furtwangler remained behind and conducted for the hitler and his henchmen after the war is over arnold assigned to interview furtwangler and members of his orchestra and if appropriate to prosecute him for war crimes he secretly is told by his commanding officer to find furtwangler guilty from there we follow him and learn a little about arnold and something about furtwangler and his orchestra as he interviews members of the wartime orchestra arnold starts noticing odd peculiarities that may or may not point to a conspiracy against his investigation there is a certain sameness to the responses that he is getting perhaps any cooperation he is getting has been in some ways managed if so perhaps he can never come to the truth in large part the film is about mind games that arnold uses to manipulate his interviewees and especially furtwangler where the script has problems is that in the end it is so ambiguous it has no obvious resolution and not much of a final act when it is over whether anything has been established is open to interpretation perhaps that is better than so many films that make it all to obvious what the audience should believe but it is like watching a murder mystery and never finding out who the killer is we are given clues to something but they are never tied up in the end we just know more about both arnold and furtwangler the film is basically a stage play the visual is not very important corners are cut visually including touches like filling windows with photographs to avoid having to shoot on location as with a stage play what this film centers on the dialog and that is intriguing i rate the film an on the to scale and a high on the to scale is one piece of sloppiness few people but me would notice at one point we clearly see arnold's desk calendar say jan tues a quick mental calculation told me that combination could occur in and then not again until the events had to take place in or a possible date could be obtained from any world almanac
positive	gattaca represents a solid breakthrough in the recent onslaught of films it's a genre picture that doesn't rely on alien creatures or loud explosions to tell its story the movie takes place in a futuristic world where babies are created through genetic tampering and not sexual reproduction this allows parents to predetermine what kind of eye color intelligence and life span they'd like for their child and also eliminates most pesky chances of health defects those made the way are labeled as and confined to the lower rung of society vincent freeman ethan hawke is one such person born not too long before the genetic process was perfected and forced to grow up in a home with his petrie younger brother anton fed up with being and enchanted by dreams of one day traveling through space vincent leaves home and takes a janitorial position at the gattaca aerospace corporation everyday he watches as superior folk make his fantasy a reality determined to do the same vincent meets a dna broker tony shalhoub in a funny cameo who sells fake identities to his counterpart for this scam is jerome morrow jude law an left paralyzed in an accident and confined to a wheelchair for life for a price and the promise of a caretaker jerome supplies vincent with his identity as well as blood skin and urine samples for all of those pesky tests and physical examinations this future is one where employees clock in by pricking their fingers instead of punching a time card because of his drastically improved status vincent is quickly propelled to a high position in gattaca and catches the eye of comely irene uma thurman on the way obsessed with her own minor heart defect she's enamored by his flawless persona she doesn't know is a lie but on the figurative eve of his upcoming planetary departure the mission director is murdered two ardent detectives alan arkin and billy bathgate's loren dean determine the killer is on the inside of gattaca and the sole clue they find at the crime scene one of vincent's eyelashes threatens to blow vincent's cover and derail his goal even if gattaca were dramatically empty it would still boast a sublime set of production credentials the film's look is dazzling without ever being flashy andrew niccol he also wrote the screenplay for the upcoming jim carrey drama the truman show demonstrates a keen eye for the stylish his collaboration with cinematographer slawomir idziak production designer jan roelfs and costume designer colleen atwood result in a sophisticated composition that emanates classy retro ambiance an opening credits sequence where skin nail and hair fragments fall in through a colored camera lens displays these combined talents uncannily niccol even utilizes narration a device almost always in an effective way when it comes to acting the movie is also flawless ethan hawke does magnificent work proving his ability to carry a film and reaffirming his enormously high charisma level his chemistry with thurman is a bit on the icy side but needfully so adding to the setting's clinical chill as the bitter jerome jude law has a presence and it's his scenes with hawke that give the movie its fine emotional core in gattaca series of final shots the fates of vincent and jerome are superimposed over each other and the effect is sad lyrical and beautiful things get a little strange as the movie nears its climax when vincent's relationship with his brother comes back into view the big dramatic culmination is a swim race which is somewhat silly albeit beautifully photographed still the single most surprising aspect of gattaca is its use of backdrop it's successful without showy special effects it's a crisp thriller with thrills it's a futuristic fable without blood and guts even its murder mystery is relegated to a secondary subplot ensuring that a smart story about smart people and smart science takes center stage although it's portrayal of the upcoming century is grim gattaca serves up one of the most societal forecasts ever depicted on film
positive	there was a huge crowd so many over people could not be admitted at a premiere screening of the nephew first screening with a major general audience admittance this was a movie premiere at the santa barbara international film festival pierce brosnan produced his first movie with beau st clair it was a constantly and personal movie with lovely scenes of ireland chad hill harper beloved is a cute year old mixed race african american and irish nephew who's irish mother died he comes back to ireland living with the curmudgeon uncle tony egan donal mccann he meets pierce brosnan's character mr o'brady or just brady because he falls in love with the beautiful daughter there are many scenes ah character scenes to laugh at others pull some tears the three mentioned above were at the premiere in the flesh with the director eugene brady after the movie they took questions the movie was very good it not fantastic the nephew has not been picked up in north america but has been in the rest of the world the nephew is generation secrecy of a titanic proportion let's hope the rest of america will be able to see the nephew contact given in the program guide print source irish dream source inc tel
positive	available in an all new video edition from arrow entertainment with an introduction by david carradine written produced by wayne j keeley f w murnau's career ended sadly and prematurely the german director of such classics as sunrise and the last laugh died in a car accident shortly after signing a deal to make american pictures at paramount murnau was reportedly a giant man well over six feet a towering figure probably incapable of anything but a grand entrance which brings us to nosferatu a symphony of horror surely he felt a kinship with his title character the looming vampire embodied by intimidating max schreck in one of the most indelible images in film history silent or otherwise schreck rises from his grave gnarled hands outstretched and he's so big that part of his head is cropped by the top of the frame the plot of nosferatu is bram stoker's dracula the british hutter is an eager real estate man assigned to visit and discuss future living arrangements with count orlock of transylvania he leaves behind girlfriend emily only to discover orlock's a struggle to return to england before the nosferatu reaches his lady love in addition to schreck's performance the cinematography and effects are outstanding arrow video's digitally remastered version of the classic is something of a the cover art features a hairy goateed vampire staring straight at you his fanged mouth agape while the bodies of two sexy writhing women entice you below trouble is murnau's monster is bald and and there isn't a single sexy writhing woman to be found in his movie this sort of misleading packaging makes little sense when one recalls the countless number of ghouslish scenes in the film from which cool cover art could have been extracted additionally notifying the viewer that this is in fact murnau's film seems like afterthought since his name and the genuine title are written in small print below our goateed vampire that said a good mastering job has been performed on the film itself the original elements are not in the best silents were unlucky in their so we're still dealing with a slightly washed out scratched jittering image but at least the day and night scenes are tinted sepia and blue respectively especially helpful to an audience who may question nosferatu's waltzing around during what seems like sunlight it took a lot of light to expose stock in the twenties the title cards have been redone and they are legible accurate and digitally altered to very nice touch even the opening copyright warning flickers the score has been replaced by music from type o negative a group arguably gothic and their songs underscore the film certainly the coolest video a band can ask for when our hero hutter first steps onto the doomed carriage to count orlock's castle we hear a now you're dead from lead singer peter steele david carradine makes an appropriately vampiric host he fiddles with a blade and cane while introducing the film after the feature which runs about minutes is included a new music video from type o negative the black no of course nosferatu a symphony of horror is the main attraction and while my latest viewing raised questions why is the woman called emily in the title cards but mina bram stoker called hutter's letters for instance it made me realize how much this movie has inspired and been stolen from coppola's bram stoker's dracula owes a great stylistic debt to murnau's masterpiece but the one thing it couldn't thieve was the original's abstract charms this latest incarnation from arrow will the rescored metropolis a few years a silent film into more palpable entertainment for the latest generation of film freaks
positive	when i left the theater after seeing david lynch's lost highway i remarked to a fellow i feel like someone just sucked my brains out through my nose and put them back in through my ears in his first feature film in five years lynch delivers a film second only to his debut picture eraserhead on the weirdness scale you won't know what happened when it's over though there are certainly enough clues with which to make some reasonable guesses it is difficult to describe the plot of this film because it depends partly on how you interpret it i can however describe what we see on the screen l a jazz saxophonist fred madison bill pullman and his wife renee patricia arquette whom he clearly suspects of infidelity receive a series of videotapes apparently filmed inside their house while they were asleep they are naturally enough more than a little frightened and confused and it doesn't help matters any when mystery man robert blake approaches fred at a party and proceeds to call himself on the telephone at the madisons' house in a scene that is at once hilarious and unnerving the next morning fred finds another videotape which to his and our surprise shows him brutally murdering renee in their bedroom he is convicted of her murder and sent to death row where he inexplicably disappears one night and is replaced by a young mechanic named pete dayton balthazar getty the perplexed prison officials release dayton whose life begins to intersect with fred in a number of ways most notably his affair with alice wakefield arquette again a blonde who is otherwise renee's spitting image and another encounter with the mystery man i would be giving away a little too much to reveal any more but suffice it to say that lynch doesn't offer any neat wrap ups nor does he put a lid on the metaphysical confusion the cinematic demons of lost highway are out in full force from beginning to end this description might make lost highway sound like a giddy exercise in haywire surrealism but in fact while there are traces of lynch's weird sense of humor this film is anything but giddy most of the time on the contrary lost highway is a dark and perplexing mystery that takes lynch's previous excursions into murder and intrigue one step farther the film does not revolve around a character investigating a mystery rather the character is the mystery there are recurring and at times deeply disturbing images of suspicion distrust and infidelity thoughout the film that seem to indicate a deluded fractured psyche at the root of all the bizarre here we the audience are left to puzzle out whose psyche it is that is driving this probably fred's in my opinion and what in that case the other characters and events are meant to represent all of this proceeds appropriately in lynch's typically idiosyncratic style as is often the case lynch relies on sound imagery and mood more than on dialogue and action to tell his story and in lost highway it works perfectly there are scenes when the camera lingers on fred's blank expression as he drifts uncomfortably down a hallway or on his pained face in his prison cell while the haunting strains of this mortal coil's song to the siren can be heard faintly in the background nothing is technically happening in these scenes yet they present a vivid picture of a man losing his grip just as effective as if not more so than the hysterical screaming found in most movie presentations of insanity lynch's direction and director of photography pete deming's darkly lit cinematography serve to create a nearly suffocating atmosphere of tension and fear that are exactly what is needed for this story well most of the time anyway i have to admit that i was a bit bored at times during the section of the film with pete dayton as the protgaonist which is less inherently interesting and mostly keeps the viewer's attention because of its to the original mystery the main characters in this reality dayton a but none too intelligent a sleazy gangster who for some reason has two names but otherwise is pretty much a stock character and his girlfriend the blond arquette are nothing you couldn't find in any of the two dozen pulp fiction wannabes fortunately the reappearance of the mystery man as well as some other typically lynchian elements such as the strained awkward conversations between pete and his parents help to preserve the film's spooky unnerving tone during this stretch lynch's typically graphic and disturbing portrayals of fringe sexuality while relevant to the themes of jealousy and adultery are also somewhat overdone here it's not exactly exploitative like almost everything else in this film the sex is thoroughly weird and creepy and is unlikely to provide any cheap lurid thrills as much as it is unnecessary and frankly kind of dumb by the seventh or eighth time arquette takes her clothes off that said these minor flaws don't prevent lost highway from attaining its place as one of the darkest most unsettling films to hit the screens in recent years it is a ride down the lost highway of a disturbed mind and as such it is gripping intense and brilliantly effective
positive	melvin udall is a heartless man he spends his days inside of his spacious manhattan apartment writing romance novels it also seems that melvin will never change one day he dines ar his favorite restaurant and is a little too mean to his normal waitress the only waittress that will serve him carol played to perfection by a lovely and sexy helen hunt she threatens not to serve him if he doesn't shut up about her asthmatic son he does shut up to make matters considerably worse melvin has obsessive compulsive disorder one day his gay artist neighbor simon greg kinear of talk soup fame in an role dog threatens to dismiss himself at melvon's door the dog meets the garbage chute soon simon is sadly beaten by thieveing burglars and ray cuba gooding jr simon's agent takes the dog verdell to melvin so that melvin can dogsit him and through the dog and a rather heartwrenching car trip that involves simon carol and himself melvin learns to emerge from his cantakerous shell jack nicholson gives yet another performance as the film's cynical lead and is back at work not playing a goofy u s president or a comic book villian but instead playing jack nicjolson and playing him full force all of this adds up to this year's funniest comedy a creative witty and scathing film from james l brooks and brooks gets performances from the entire cast a winner in every aspect and a truly delicious slice of cyncial life
positive	i'm not really sure what to think about crash on the surface it's a cold boring unerotic porn with name starts a name director and some cool camerawork i mean it left me completely bored unsatisfied and generally kinda weirded out but then again not every film's supposed to leave you entertained crash is structured to play like a porn flick but with significantly more plot and dialogue while we see several extremely taboo scenes of weirdo sex we also have a skimpy little plot going on mostly towards the beginning and maybe just a hair of characterization not to mention the acting is generally pretty good and we don't really see a lot of the actors completely exposed but what makes it supremely different from a porn is the fact that this is not an erotic experience this film does not posess the erotic hypnotism of henry and june or the just plain horniness of say deep throat not that i've seen it if one was to be made completely hot by this film it would probably mean they were also into the whole auto eroticism thing the film leaves you cold erotically and maybe in many other ways but what it does is present a group of people who live on the edge the film opens up on a woman catherine deborah kara ungar of the game pressing her bare breast up against a car in a public air hangar suddenly a man enters the frame and begins to take her from behind the film doesnt' show all this though even if it is the next scene has a film director james james spader having sex with a camera woman alice poon in an office on the set of his movie the next scene has the two coming together revealing to us that they're husband and wife and them sharing in one another's escapades while the two are arguably freaky people we at least know they love to live on the edge soon afterwards james is driving down the road at night reclessly of course he's reading something when he drifts into the other lane and then hits another car face on james is not killed but the passenger in the other car flies into his seat obviously dying leaving the driver helen remington holly hunter in a porn also alive the two go through therapy together and when getting out they run into eachother again when james gives her a ride home they almost get into another accident and immeadiately afterwards they go to an unbusy parking lot and have a little quickie as they were aroused by the accident you wouldn't think there would be many people who shared this same kind of fetish but they run into a freaky guy named vaughan elias kosteas and his girlfriend gabrielle rosanna arquette who are also into it vaughan is into living on the edge as they are but he takes it to another level he loves to recreate famous car crashes in one scene he and a friend colin seagrave peter macneill recreate james dean's car crash without any padding or safety belts and suffer some concussions but nevertheless get a rush and the attention of the police soon these five are all having sex with one another be it straight gay or lesbian sex while this is admittingly all a bit comical the film is almost like a black comedy the film does do a pretty awesome portrayal of people who's main fetish is living on the edge i'm sure somewhere there are people who get aroused by car accidents but i personally don't see a connection between car crashes and sex the main connection cronenberg shows us that both give a definite rush his car crash scenes are quick and exciting we're at first not sure if they'll take place but everytime it looks like it may occur we gasp then when it happens we hold our breath the same thing happens with sex although not in the same fashion these people are merely taking it to another level the only problem with the film is that it's a tad redundant a normal porn lasts from an hour to an hour and a half this goes on for about minutes and it just seems a little too long the sex and car crashes are far between one another and the time between them are a tad on the boring side there's no characterization although it could definitely be argued that hey it's a porn and we're not here to sympathize but still they coulda cut it down a bit but the film is saved with its presentation as well as some other elements the atmosphere is very dark and forboding creating a kind of cool weird feeling and there are several scenes are just amazing one scene has catherine and james having sex while she softly asks him questions about being with a man which sounds almost erotic the way she says it a sequence involving one character's death is filled with all the edgy disjointment that the film needs and the final shot is shot perfectly creating an image of a car crash and a couple having sex in front of it despite the fact that she's wounded the acting is also pretty good especially for what is almost a porn ousting linda lovelace as best actress in a porn while james spader is pretty boring he's usually pretty intense deborah kara ungar is amazing she speaks all her words in almost hushes and when she's having sex she has a blank look on her face not showing the viewer whether she's enjoying it or not in one scene she actually looks dead while someone is having sex with her holly hunter who gets extra credit just for appearing in something like this is pretty good and so is rosanna arquette who adds a kinda cool kinkiness to her role but the film is stolen by elias kosteas who plays his character so intensely that he almost upstages everyone he often speaks as he is out of breath showing a definite affinity for his way of life he has a great deal of energy in several scenes especially one scene where he's taking photographs of a picture and a later scene where he's getting a freaky tatoo he and spader share sexual chemistry in several scenes foreshadowing a later scene kosteas is a little known actor his biggest role was casey jones in teenage mutant ninja turtles but here he shows a presence hinting that he's capable of bigger roles while i hardly enjoyed crash it's still a pretty intriguing portrayal of a group of people who if the exist are some of the strangest and most bizarre people in the world these people are able to share a rush between two completely different entities and the film which doesn't exactly pain them in a negative light is sucessful in bringing them to light even if it leaves the viewer unnerved and generally freaked out despite the hardcore nature of the film and the subsequent rating there's also an version but i wouldn't even go near that thing anyone looking for a quick should just rent a regular porno
positive	the first thing you notice about this movie is that it's cold placed in minnesota and north dakota during the winter many of the scenes take place outside with long scenes of ground against a background of white just what we need as bloomington struggles out of the endless long cold night as with most coen brothers films this features outlandish characters in nefarious schemes each of which works out in the oddest way possible a car salesman hires a couple of hoods to kidnap his wife so that he can collect the ransom from her father along the way everything that can possibly go wrong does in brief scenes of vicious violence people get shot through the head in the back face chest and various other areas of the anatomy there is also one of the most unpleasant body disposal scenes yet seen on the screen remarkably enough most of the movie is played for laughs even more remarkably it works the only likable person in the film is the very pregnant sheriff frances mcdormand who hunts down the killers while eating at every possible opportunity with every good film the audience gains new knowledge here you learn things everyone in minnesota speaks in an annoying whining accent that would drive you crazy and don't do violent illegal business with amoral degenerate losers oh yeah if you get shot in the face using a brightly decorated napkin to stop the bleeding just makes you look goofy
positive	plot odin is a great high school basketball player he's dating a hot girl and the coach loves his ass in fact the coach even admits to having fatherly feelings towards him unfortunately the coach's real son hugo isn't too pleased to hear that in fact he doesn't like hearing about any of odin's triumphs as they generally supersede his own so what does he set out to do well let's just say that he starts to mess with people's heads and one thing leads to another thing which leads to well you'll see critique a very powerful thoroughly depressing movie starring a bunch of teens credit director tim blake nelson for creating a modern day version of this shakespearian classic set in a realistic high school environment with the basketball championships as the backdrop and an impending sense of doom as it core you also have to give it up to all of the actors in this film who turn over some very convincing performances taking you through all of their characters' ups and downs hartnett especially should be applauded for taking on such a despicable character a dude who you just want to grab by the throat and beat the shit out of sign of a good actor if you ask me phifer also comes to play in this movie with a nice blend of charisma fear love and anger spread over his character i was always on this guy's side and definitely felt sorry for him as things moved along julia stiles was also good but her character wasn't much different from others that she's played recently i was however very surprised with martin sheen's showing since i hadn't taken him too seriously as an actor over the past few years his character is definitely in this film but i appreciated his fervor his rage his ultimate and blind desire to win above all a great example of a workaholic man who cannot see the trees from the forest i did have a few reservations about the movie though first of all what was with all of the gangsta music used in pretty much every other scene transition it was cute at first but became a little too obvious and annoying after a few times the film was also edited pretty choppily like some scenes were cut out and no one cleaned it up afterwards i also didn't like the fact that hartnett's character the man behind much of the nastiness that goes down in this film was infallible in other words pretty much everything he says or asks of someone happens automatically and without any goofups i mean i know the guy is smart and all but i would have appreciated a little more realism under some of the circumstances but overall the movie will devastate you it's not a fun date movie it's not a movie about the high school basketball team and how its black star falls for the white girl from the other side of the tracks it's about jealousy love envy fury passion revenge and pretty much any other negative thought that's ever passed through your head is it worth seeing oh most definitely pun intended it's a moving picture with great performances no shakespearian speak thank you god and an outstanding directorial job by nelson the final scene alone is enough to send a massive chill down your spine and i was especially impressed with the director's choice of music near the end in fact the whole sequence was quite reminiscent of the final showdown scene from taxi driver and i guess that's saying something right there where's joblo coming from things i hate about you election hamlet love's labor's lost natural born killers save the last dance shakespeare in love
positive	defending your life is an imaginative vision of the afterlife from the twisted mind of albert brooks who also stars in the comedy after dying in a car crash on his birthday of all days brooks wakes up in judgement city a satirical rendition of purgatory where higher beings evaluate the lives of newly deceased earthlings brooks has five days to convince two judges that he's worthy of passing on to higher plains of existence enter rip torn as the slick lawyer who defends brooks in court against prosecutor lee grant during his trial brooks must view episodes of his life on a movie screen and these scenes are both hysterically funny and painfully poignant it's impossible to resist chuckling and cringing at brooks as he and torn try to explain away his cowardly behavior on earth torn in particular is in vintage comic form and he walks away with the picture the movie also features meryl streep appealing as the and shirley maclaine who pops up in a hilarious cameo while the film is uneven many of its gags are price less take for example the food in judgement city it's always the most delicious you've ever tasted and it's also chow down
positive	jake kasdan son of one of the best screenwriters around breaks into filmmaking by writing and directing this detective story part mystery part comedy part character study and part romance for the most part kasdan manages to combine the genres successfully and create a captivating film daryl zero bill pullman is a modern day sherlock holmes the parallel is present down to his love of music though zero plays the guitar rather than the violin and his addiction to drugs amphetamines rather than morphine he even titles his cases with such sherlockian epigrams as the case of the mismatched shoelaces the case about the man who lied about his age or the case of the hired gun who made way way too many mistakes however zero's observance of the fine art of detachment though it makes him a brilliant private investigator makes him somewhat of a outcast in society he could do nothing without the legwork of his trusty assistant dr watson i mean steve arlo ben stiller arlo is not happy with his job he is thrilled to be around zero's brilliance but his bizarre behavior and strange requests are frustrating to the former lawyer and they're even more so to his girlfriend jess angela featherstone who is fed up that her boyfriend's boss means more to arlo than her this is the situation when a new case comes knocking gregory stark ryan o'neill hires zero to find his lost keys it seems that he kept a safety deposit box key on the ring and the box apparently contains some incriminating evidence now stark is being blackmailed and needs to reclaim his key before the nightmare can end to solve this case zero reluctantly crawls out of his shell however this is when he is vulnerable and this time he falls for charms of a wily paramedic gloria sullivan kim dickens who may be involved in the blackmail scheme for the first time zero has to question his own objectivity as he finds his client less and less sympathetic zero effect is weakest in its obviously wacky scenes depicting daryl zero's odd behavior such scenes might be appropriate in an satire making zero an ace character however there's a much meatier movie in here it just takes a while to get out that's not to say that there's not a place for humor in this film in fact some of the best scenes are ben stiller's wonderfully underplayed comic moments of absolute disgust and frustration with his employer however the scenes never quite gel with the rest of the film and they aren't funny enough to stand on their own once the investigation is underway however zero's brilliance really begins to shine his lightning quick inferences are as fascinating as many of sherlock's own as the mystery begins to unfold zero's deductions lead the plot in interesting directions but never lose the viewer zero effect works well during its romantic scenes as well zero's relationship with gloria is but it hits all the right notes however we are always kept distant from gloria's character she's given plenty of development but we never understand what she is thinking perhaps that may be intentional to place the audience in zero's zone of detachment but on the whole it is frustrating bill pullman when he's not spacing out creates a vibrant character in daryl zero there's one moment when zero briefly connects to the world which he has managed to detach from for many years and it is shockingly moving expressing a seriousness that heretofore was unassociated with the character but one which fits in well and although it is sometimes hard to take a detective called zero seriously it is at this moment that the viewer understands the meaning behind the name although zero effect is a bit awkward in places it is a strong debut for kasdan and shows great promise
positive	well i'll be damned what a most excellent surprise not to be confused with the campy and far inferior remake starring star traci lords this more recent attempt at remaking the schlockfest not of this earth is a real gem and was quite possibly the best flick of once again king roger corman is behind this effort he directed the original but this time he appears only in the role of executive producer the rest of the crew and cast are relative unknowns it seems criminal that the film was released direct to video in most countries because it's an absolute for fans and a treat for anyone who enjoys decently acted and written thrillers with a kooky bent the plot in brief paul johnson michael york is an alien posing as an eccentric millionaire who though needing to kill people to live is visiting earth for far from selfish reasons his race is dying of a mysterious blood disease and he desperately is trying to find a cure the key of which lies in the blood of humans he visits and soon puts under his spell the respected blood physician dr rochelle whom he hypnotises into doing secret research on his behalf he also has the doctor convince smart and sexy nurse amanda elizabeth barondes to move in with johnson as his private nurse so as to give him the blood transfusions which he constantly requires but before long amanda and johnson's sleazy chauffeur release that johnson is a lot more than just eccentric i must admit my first glimpse of the video cover for not of this earth was not encouraging british actor michael york has appeared in some real stinkers in past few decades a far cry from the quality fare of his younger days such as caberat but his performance here as an alien in human disguise is nothing short of outstanding the weird twitches and bizarre modes of speech the dapper clothes and cool spectacles the unexpected pathos which he invests in his character york is by turns hilarious menacing and tragic this is a and quite simply the best performance i've seen from him and while obviously made on a modest budget the film boasts enormous strengths the casting is spot on the acting is terrific and the script is intelligent witty and consistently engaging cleverly updating the original the balance of horror and humour is just about perfect a marked contrast to the earlier remake from the film doesn't drag for a second of its minute running time thanks to tight editing and the sure hand of director terrance h winkless and it doesn't matter one bit that the special effects are cheesy this is schlock after all even if it is high class schlock in fact my only criticism of the film is that things get a tad weak towards the end tighter direction could have given the climax more urgency and a few of the characters act rather illogically given their situation but these are minor complaints just see it not of this earth is one of the biggest surprises in years and michael york in one cool swoop you've made yourself a legend dude
positive	in director brett ratner and his stars jackie chan and chris tucker breathed new life into the film genre with the rush hour to the tune of about million you don't mess with success so the team is back again and better in rush hour the combo of the terrific physical talents of chan and the motor mouth of tucker made for an ethnically unusual duet in rush hour that played well to audiences around the world the formula worked so well in fact that the sequel was inevitable i'm never thrilled with the idea of a to a successful original since they rarely meet the previously set expectations surprisingly rush hour wastes no time getting down to business and turns out to be better than the flick that spawned it the script by jeff nathanson utilizing the characters developed by ross lamanna in the first film wastes no time getting to the point right from the start terrorists have bombed the us embassy in hong kong killing two american translators and chief inspector lee jackie chan is handed the job of solving the crime concurrently his friend james carter chris tucker arrives on the island for some much needed and expects his friend to spend some time and show him the sights instead lee drags carter into the case and the duo get involved in stopping a conspiracy to counterfeit hundreds of million of us dollars the makers of rush hour are working at a distinct advantage over the original we the viewer are familiar with the two lead characters and the chemistry that chan and tucker developed so well the first time around that chemistry was a high point and probably the saving point before and now the pair wears their friendship like a comfortable suit little time is wasted in getting to know the key players so the screenplay capitalizes on those things we liked best in rush hour first and foremost to me in is the immense pleasure in watching jackie chan's artistry in fight choreography the old martial arts master has a renowned reputation for doing all of his own stunt work and here he does not disappoint chan's use of props when battling bad guys continues as he pulverizes his opponents with whatever item comes to hand such as a trash bucket his moves look every bit as good as they ever did as he fights four or five nemesis at once on bamboo scaffolding on the tail end of a yacht in a hong kong massage parlor and for the finale in a las vegas casino like harold lloyd or buster keaton chan takes pride in putting his physical self on the line in pursuit of his artistry and is a joy to watch chris tucker reprises his role as the motor mouthed la cop carter who teams again with lee to put down the bad guys when he is unceremoniously pulled from his vacation to help his colleague and friend with the big case he still looks to have some fun when lee goes into a karaoke bar the lair of chief bad guy ricky tan john lone and his hoods carter takes the spotlight on stage with a credible michael jackson riff the comedian made the move from the improv stage to the big screen and with jackie chan has a franchise to hang his coat on to pay the bills the combo of chan's flying feet and fists with tucker's fast mouth make a duet more endearing than riggs and murtaugh in the lethal weapon films the supporting cast is here to move things along efficiently john lone as ricky tan is a suave villain who is the real power behind the throne of american bigwig steven reign alan king in a walk through performance lone doesn't chew scenery or make pronouncements to get lee and carter but gives the chief bad guy elegance zhang crouching tiger hidden dragon continues to display her martial arts skills as ricky's taciturn henchlady hu li who carries on an ongoing battle with carter carter has a problem through most of the film with hitting a woman but this falls aside with their eventual melee at the conclusion roselyn sanchez is knockdown gorgeous and resembles sandra bullock as undercover agent isabella molina she doesn't add much to the equation but is terrific to watch director ratner and the original rush hour production team have assembled a crew of skilled craftsmen to work behind the camera cinematographer matthew f leonetti has had a long career of shooting action flicks and gives the fluid camera movement the genre film needs production design by terrence marsh spans continents and gives the right look whether it is in a hong kong karaoke bar or a high stakes las vegas casino the rest of the techs are of the same high quality i'm surprised to even say that rush hour is the most entertaining of the summer blockbuster movies it takes the best of the first film and kicks jurassic dino butt in its fun frolic and fast pace and is the best mainstream thing out so far this summer i give it a b
positive	shakespeare you hardly understood it in high school why would you want more of it now that your english grade doesn't count on it if this is your attitude then i'll say right off the bat that kenneth branagh's hamlet is probably not for you and you might as well stop reading right now if however you are a lover of the bard or at the very least are about a challenging script read on for there is something rotten in the state of denmark namely the king has died and his widow the queen has wed the king's brother claudius but prince hamlet suspects foul play his suspicions are confirmed when the ghost of his father appears and relates the story of his murder at his own brother's hands hamlet enlisting the help of his friend horatio conspires to capture the conscience of the new king to expose his treachery and the game is afoot the first things you notice about this production are the sets and costumes with external scenes filmed at blemheim palace in england also the one of the sites for the recent the avengers the grandiose quality of the setting is immediately established interior scenes are similarly graced with intricate and flamboyant rooms and chambers the hamlet castle's grand throne room is an impressive piece of work incorporating high ceilings doors and bridges which connect opposite sides of a loft costuming is equally grand drawing upon both history and imagination not quite the denmark of the the characters' attire is something of a cross between that era and turn of the century russia very effectively giving the film more of a timeless feel it is not surprising that tim harvey and alexandra byrne were nominated for best art direction and best costume design oscars respectively in addition to directing kenneth branagh also plays the title character as the royal heir branagh provides a riveting performance of emotional highs and lows from the anticipation of seeing his father's ghost to the melancholy of finding the burial site of his childhood jester to his eventual wrath branagh delivers in spades every scene truly revolves around hamlet as much a tribute to branagh's acting and directing as to shakespeare's manuscript hamlet seems to be a who's who of actors so watching them perform the craft for which they have much love is a delight in itself julie christie as hamlet's mother gertrude and derek jacobi as his murderous uncle claudius both fill the classic roles superbly as do many of the supporting players kate winslet as hamlet's lover ophelia does an outstanding job demonstrating the character's plummet to the depths of dispair and madness richard briers as ophelia's father polonius and michael moloney as her brother laertes are equally convincing nicholas farrell as hamlet's trusted friend horatio and timothy spall and reece dinsdale as the rosencrantz and guildenstern round out the excellent core cast hamlet also seems to be a film in which someone tried to stuff as many well known actors as possible in some cases this made for interesting scenes billy crystal is surprisingly good as the gravedigger who unearths the skull of yorick whom hamlet knew quite well crystal proves himself able to deliver the lines with both the timing of a classic actor and the verbal countenance of a comedian and the result is a very funny scene however charleton heston whom many might think would butcher shakespeare is the biggest surprise of all as the player king the leader of a troupe of traveling actors he is absolutely breathtaking when narrating the story of priam and hecuba part of his monologue is overlaid with a visual enactment of the story with sir john gielgud and judi dench but this is most unfortunate for it robs heston of some of the attention which he deserves at this time his speaking while gripping sort of downplays the scene to a narration done by any other actor i wish branagh had chosen to allow us to envision in our own minds the scene which heston lays out and let the venerable actor have the attention unfortunately there were some casting choices which led to poor distractions jack lemmon an excellent actor just can't do shakespeare as marcellus the guard who sees the elder hamlet's ghost lemmon sadly underperforms and is shown up left and right by those around him gerard depardieu another talented actor is wasted when given little more than the utterances of yes my lord and no my lord in the role of reynaldo richard attenborough has a literally role showing up at the eleventh hour as the english ambassador i think he had two lines then there is rufus sewell as fortinbras of norway when i went to see dangerous beauty earlier this year two ladies behind me kept commenting about how handsome he was if bulging eyes are your idea of handsome well i guess comic actor marty feldman was some kind of sex symbol to you hamlet is a complicated tale of treachery and revenge in which triumph and defeat become one branagh attempts to help us out with some of the intricacies by visually representing some of the more elusive stretches of dialogue by presenting them as images this only works about half the time and i wonder if it would have been just as well to do without them you don't have to be some kind of genius to appreciate shakespeare but it is quite difficult to understand unless you have the time to read or hear it carefully and repeatedly the alternate method of comprehension is that with which most of us are familiar the high school english course in it you are hopefully fortunate enough to have an educator willing to help you with the plot points and nuances essential to understanding a play written in the rigmarole known as the king's english or i suppose you could just read the cliff notes
positive	the year is and the military is conducting nuclear testings involved in these tests is hank marshall jones an army colonel who is critical of the tests that are being done he urges tests which no one will consider at the time until it is learned that the soviets have conducted underground tests of their own marshall is also troubled by a turbulent marriage to carly lange who is topless on the base's beach in full view of the entire personnel hank's reaction is one of amusement he's been here before and he deals with it in the only way he knows how the problem is carly is a and when she isn't flirting with any man who happens to be near her she's fantasizing about a fictious world where she'd rather be typical of the mental illness she also is promiscuous and the mood swings are quick and violent and the torment she puts her husband and their two daughters is considerable from hank's reports which state his opposition to the army's methods of testing he is transferred from hawaii to alabama carly patterns herself after movie stars and tries to become marilyn monroe and all the new home in alabama is pretty and depressing and sets carly off on a violent tantrum after meeting his new commanding officer booth hank sees an all too familiar pattern begin to repeat carly openly flirts with the co hank tries to deal with the situation but his only resort is to carry her off and throw her into a nearby pool arguments ensue the family becomes even more alienated the co is very interested in pursuing an encounter with carly and sends hank off to observe an underground test which causes the irradiation of two local ranchers much to the vocal objections of hank who spots them but is unable to cancel the detonation of the bomb back at home the two girls try to hold things together but they wonder why their father can't deal with their mother's problems one daughter says he's blind and she's crazy the other answers they're perfect for each other it reaches the breaking point when the older girl locane and a boy the co's son o'donnell see her mother and the co making love in an abandoned shed she forces her mother to tell hank and get it all out into the open hank returns home and finds his wife in the middle of a musical put on by the military wives including the co's wife snodgress he confronts the c o but not about carly he is upset over the coverup surrounding the accident during the testing a fight breaks out between the two when the co accuses hank of not being able to satisfy his wife hank is arrested what follows is manipulation and revenge on the part of the co he convinces carly to commit hank to a hospital for observation instead they fill him with so many drugs that he can barely cope he foams at the mouth and cannot even finish sewing a leather wallet as presents for his daughters carly is determined to free her husband from the clutches of the army and succeeds in doing so only by being the strong one in the family for the first time the film has an upbeat ending with hope that the family has found a way to deal with its problems the performances are solid throughout jones is sympathetic and loving and is most effective in those quiet moments when he tries to deal with his wife's rage he comforts her and offers protection lange gives a strong and spirited portrayal of a woman on the edge who draws up the courage to try and put things right for her family amy locane is very good as she fights to keep her family together while struggling with her own doubts as to whether she even should blue sky is based on the story of the stagner family the screenplay was written by rama laurie stagner with arlene sarner and jerry leichtling the film marks the final work of tony richardson who died shortly after its completion in he had made such classics as look back in anger and tom jones orion pictures underwent bankruptcy and caused the film to sit on a shelf for three years the film joins an alread promising fall of films and is well worth catching for the performances alone
positive	the happy bastard's review american pie the summer of raunch continues to spread into theatres with this latest yuk fest filled with sick jokes and teen dialogue aplenty if you go expecting dawson's creek you're in for a problem if your expectations are lower and better i might add you will enjoy the hell out of american pie the movie casts several unknowns with the only real recognizable one being sctv's own eugene levy as a dad the story revolves around four high school seniors who have one goal before the school year gets get laid that's pretty much it throughout the movie little sick comic bits are sprinkled throughout including a memorable scene involving an apple pie i won't give it away but you probably know what it is and an internet broadcast gone horribly awry of course the movie has some slightly sentimental bits but they don't drag the movie's humor content down that bad most of the actors get their job done but it's levy who's a hoot a father who tries to talk sex with his son with the help of some curious visual aids i couldn't stop laughing during this movie and if you can stand all the raunch and the sex references then american pie is for you if you're one of those conservative types well i'll bet you're having fun at home while this south park and austin powers ii plays in theatres now aren't you
positive	brief this film needs no introduction if you haven't heard of it then you must have been up in space on a sabbatical and if you haven't seen it well i suspect you're in a small minority first thing's first is it all it's hyped up to be well yes and no it's a good film and there's a lot to like about it but it's not without its problems when i saw the first trailer for titanic it was when i went to see bean last summer i think my intial reaction was ain't that downright sick to make a disaster movie out of such a dreadful tragedy i mean what's happened to hollywood's have they run entirely out of new ideas gads whatever next i asked myself how about an action film based on hiroshima starring jean claude van damme i was not entirely filled with anticipation but then i wasn't alone in that respect it's when it came out in the cinema to rave reviews well mostly and anyone who'd been to see it seemed disturbingly obsessed by it that i started to take notice i didn't see the film until several months after its release by which time my sister had seen it about four times so i went with a slightly more open mind but i still didn't think i'd enjoy it much did i yes and no mainly yes i'm happy to say the first hour or so was beautifully done not so much because of the scripting i'll talk about that later but because the ship and sets were stunning to look at as was cameron's directing and the performances of the principal cast were so strong that the human aspect of the story the romance between rose kate winslet and jack leonardo dicaprio was enchanting the film is told via flashback with gloria stuart playing the elderly rose in the modern day you knew that a' course  well it's an often effective device to use in storytelling though sometimes it can fall flat does it work here in script form it doesn't add all that much to the story what does add a lot to the story is gloria stuart whose stunning performance is the strongest most moving of the film her presence brings a much deeper level of passion and depth to the story and though her appearances are relatively brief the film would have suffered without her also impressive are dicaprio and winslet who wholly succeed in rising above the often poor dialogue and the bond they form is both heartfelt and moving it's an old story you know forbidden love ala romeo and juliet but it works and jack's rescuing rose in both literal and figurative senses and teaching her to live life for what counts was pointed and touching in fact i enjoyed the first half of the film a lot largely because winslet and dicaprio bring such and charm energy to the romance it's engaging touching and very enjoyable there's more than a tinge of poignancy to it as well simply because you know it's not going to be a happy ending which leads us to the second half of the film we all knew it was coming i'm sure director cameron was looking forward with eager anticipation to it because as he's stated in interviews the real thrust of the story for him was the sinking and the romance was a merely a manipulative plot device to get you emotionally into the film i think that understates the importance of the romance as i found it far more enjoyable than an hour of watching people die the iceberg arrives and the captain announces that titanic will have sunk in about an hour and it is an hour my goodness we don't miss a second of that hour gratuitous well perhaps not by today's standards i'm sure there's been far worse produced under the banner of entertainment in other films but i certainly wasn't prepared for how shocking and graphic the last hour or so would be not that i'd expect the word understatement to be part of cameron's vocabulary he who brought us such umm vivid films as terminator and aliens is it overdone i thought so understatement can sometimes work wonders in conveying tragedy no no one expected a happy ending but i didn't quite expect the horrendously shocking and powerful scenes we were bombarded throughout the film's second half still whether it was overdone and or not if it was the cameron was after it worked because i was shocked and moved in fact i spent most of the last hour in tears you really couldn't help but get emotionally involved whether it was wishing someone would knock that dreadfully psychotic fiance of rose's overboard or desperately hoping that rose would rescue jack or that jack would rescue rose or that they would both survive perhaps the most harrowing scene was when the ship has sunk and those that sunk along with the ship freeze to death on the water surface the bit where rose lets go of jack's hand while promising she'll never let go in her heart was particularly and the sight of rescue boats sailing amid the ocean of corpses was a pretty powerful image to put no fine a point on it i loved the ending however which was both moving and slightly uplifting following the horror of the past hour and a half so we've established that the film is powerful and moving if the last hour was rather excessive haven't mentioned the script it's ok though the relationship was beautifully developed but i've a feeling that's to the actors credit if anything as for the dialogue well titanic is set in it's a period drama but i saw very little indication of period in so far as the dialogue is concerned did they really use phrases like goddamn it back in the turn of the century i doubt it would someone talk like this do ya love the guy or what i doubt it is such dialogue as i saw the iceberg and i see it in your eyes now not just a bit clumsy yes it is a little more attention to dialogue would not have gone astray and cameron himself is to blame he wrote the script stick with directing dude but its more than redeemed by the acting with dicaprio and winslet on fine form ably supported by a strong cast star of the show was gloria stuart though why didn't she win that oscar after all they were throwing oscars at titanic left right and centre but gloria was perhaps the most deserving nominee cameron does a spectacular job like i said his vision was a bit excessive but at least he directed it well i haven't even mentioned james horner's beautiful score utterly heavenly though when your dad and sister play the soundtrack a lot you do start to get a bit bored with it  i've finished my rant which lasted a lot longer than i thought it would just leaves a couple of questions was it worth all those oscars hell don't talk to me about oscars bloomin' farce it was deserving in a number of departments though last question is it as some suggest one of the best films of nope i don't think so it's certainly one of the most powerful and memorable films i've ever seen but i don't think it quite ranks as one of my favourites and as for the fact they're reportedly making a titanic well i guess that's typical hollywood for you
positive	in some respects rush hour is the ultimate exercise in cliched filmmaking the hero is the renegade cop that prefers to work alone the cop in question cannot solve the case until he gets in trouble all chinese people are somehow involved in the criminal element the duo must always be completely mismatched the hero has to say some comment before and after shooting someone however that doesn't necessarily make for a bad film rush hour is jackie chan's first major hollywood film since the dismal the protector proving once again that hollywood can learn many things from foreign film markets ie hong kong jackie chan is given much more free reign than before still some jackie chan fans may be disappointed as even chan himself has voiced displeasure over the length of the fight scenes which he views as too short according to one interview this film takes a familiar theme of east meets west jackie chan is lee the straight laced inspector who is imported to help deal with a kidnapping case while chris tucker is carter the loudmouthed destructive cop that is to the fbi to help him or at least so he thinks also another classic notion in action films the fbi must always get in the way of our heroes despite the necessary conventions of action films rush hour is some of the most fun you'll spend and hour and forty minutes watching jackie chan continues to be one of the most exciting martial artists on the big screen continuing to perform his own stunts and dazzling audiences with his flashy kicks and punches chris tucker familiar from his whiny annoying role in the fifth element is more palatable complementing jackie chan's character however jackie chan still maintains his edge as expected of him and his films perfectly downplaying the routine through his character's attempts at mixing into american culture he makes up for the down time his character experiences when he is in action however you'll be amused and dazzled still being inventive in the use of objects to beat people up in this case a steering wheel a serving tray and a barstool jackie chan proves to be the pioneer of slapstick kung fu chris tucker's character may come across as irritating yet is also humorous since he's not a physical actor to the level of jackie chan he uses his main weapon his mouth hence the tagline hands in the east meets the fastest mouth in the west' while dialogue is not necessarily shakespeare it is appropriate for the film and still very funny while not necessarily poignant attempts at character development and growth between characters come off surprisingly well lee's of american pop culture the beach boys when contrasted against carter's lack of knowledge of chinese culture makes for an interesting scene where lee teaches carter the kung fu disarming trick while carter teaches lee dance moves while rush hour is not at the same level as police story and known in north america as supercop and jackie chan's first strike respectively it more than makes up for the poorly received films operation condor and mr nice guy with its appropriate mixture of high kicks and lots of laughs it makes for a fun film as well it is a true departure from jackie chan films as it is missing one common element a whiny female
positive	my fellow americans is a movie that at first glance looks to have little substance or a movie that we've all seen a million times two lifetime rivals thrown together and then the fun begins this is exactly what happened in this movie but fortunately they managed to do it in an interesting and funny way the movie starts with a quick and i do mean quick glance of two presidents russell kramer jack lemmon and matt douglas james garner william haney dan aykroyd and ted matthews john heard are the new president and vice president there is a scandal that arises involving a kickback from a contractor and haney is positive that he buried that years ago he finds a scapegoat in kramer and now everyone wants kramer and douglas dead this movie was exceptional for many reasons one being that they found people lemmon and garner that have good chemisty together they worked very well as a unit and they mirrored each other perfectly one being a ladies man and one being the old man i'll let you fiqure which is which also they found people that know their parts as govenment officials well it seemed to me that garner played almost exactly the same role that he played in the distinquished gentleman except then he was a congressman experience counts for a lot
positive	in the muse albert brooks plays steven phillips a hollywood screenwriter who after winning a humanitarian award for his work is dumped by his studio they claim that he's lost his edge and his agent is quick to agree with them he knows that he needs to write something fresh and original and quick or else his career will be over so he turns to his best friend jack jeff bridges another screenwriter who's enjoyed success after success on the way over to jack's house steven sees jack helping an attractive woman sharon stone into a cab and begins to think is he having an affair when confronted jack relunctently tells him that this mystery woman is in fact a muse a mythological figure who is believed to have inspired all creativity and has helped him garner his success she doesn't do any actual writing he is told but inspires you steven is excited by what he's hearing and asks jack to call her up to see if she'll take steven on as a new client jack arranges a meeting between the two and suggests that steven bring her a present preferably something from tiffany's after the meeting the muse sarah decides to take on steven but at a price she wants a suite at the four seasons and wants steven to perform odd tasks for her like bringing her salads in the middle of the night steven's wife andy macdowell sees him at a food store and questions him about why he has tampons in his wagon steven confesses everything and although at first suspicious she later allows sarah to move into their guest room and eventually into their life the only question for steven is if the muse is worth all the trouble he's going through for her and that's a question only time will tell the muse is albert brooks' sixth film as he with monica johnson and although it's a good movie it's not up to the level of his best works defending your life and mother the problem lies in the script and for a movie that relies on its dialogue for its humor there aren't nearly as many laughs as they are chuckles despite a few good it has a great premise but doesn't deliver up to it's full potential but i like albert brooks in this film and i think that we can all identify with steven phillips a little bit he may whine and complain but he just wants to support his family and be happy and i like sharon stone in this movie too it's a nice change of pace for her and i also enjoyed the cameos featuring the likes of rob reiner james cameron and martin scorsese and although the muse doesn't have as much to say about hollywood as robert altman's the player i still left the theater feeling good and that's something i wish i got out of more movies
positive	plot good ol' texan kid suddenly gets to play quarterback on his high school team's football team in a town where football is considered religion the coach is just about the biggest you'd ever want to meet who will do practically anything to win the good ol' texan boy does not approve of said man's methods critique a fun football movie this film was obviously geared towards the teen market with mtv behind its production a big tv star actor in the lead role rockin' hip music galore and plenty of having said that i enjoyed the look and feel of the movie thought james van der beek gave a solid performance loved the slick sounds and yup loved that i actually thought this was a comedy going in but overall it plays more towards the dramatic than a comedy i also enjoyed jon voight's performance as the stubborn dick coach as well as many of the other character players on the team this is not a classic film by any stretch of the imagination but it might teach some kids the hard lessons behind the fun game of football or just allow them to have a good time for about an hour and minutes in the movie theatre or in the comfort of their own home depending on where you watch this stuff all in all i would definitely watch this movie if you like football play football or want your kid to succeed in high school football you could also watch it if you like teen flicks with a lot of cute guys and girls running around doing their stuff and did i mention the  little known facts about this film and its stars james van der beek actually started acting after a concussion stopped him from playing football in real life he is the oldest of three children and his father is a cellular phone salesman while his mom runs a gymnastics studio he's born in connecticut and received for his role in this film actor scott caan who plays football player tweeder in this film is the son of famed actor james caan in real life that's right he's sonny's son actress amy smart who plays van der beek's girlfriend in this movie also played the main star's girl in the film outside providence screenwriter w peter iliff also had a part in writing the screenplays for the harrison ford film patriot games and the keanu reeves surfing flick point break director brian robbins might be best remembered as the cool dude from the tv series head of the class his name was eric mandrian and he generally wore a long black trench coat on the show the book mox james van der beek is reading on the sidelines in this movie hidden inside the team's playbook is by kurt vonnegut jr the high school fight song played at the pep rally is the texas war hymn
positive	the film starts out with a creepy opening sequence to which has the now classic and creepy score by john carpenter who in my mind is a brilliant director he really is he wrote this film he directed this film he produced this film and he made the excessively creepy score to this film i think he is and always will be famous for this classic which after years has not lost it's popularity or it's ability to scare the wits out of people i think i have seen over times and each time i find something new and brilliant and each time i am scared even though i know what is going to happen i own three different versions of the film a vhs regular version that came with a limited edition anniversary a boxed edition vhs in a hardcover case digitally with the original theatrical widescreen presentation in a nifty plastic picture decorated box with a numbered in other words i am completely and utterly obsessed with the film it has changed horror movies forever and spawned six sequels with only and being truly good it also spawned several cheap imitations of the film that were offensive in some ways to a true halloween fan since i heard about halloween being released on dvd in a limited edition of copies i knew i had to buy one no matter what i did and man to me it's the best dvd ever manufactured with the brilliance of the film no words can describe the dvd in michael myers is a evil person whom killed his sister in cold blood years ago in now in grown up and in a mental hospital michael myers escapes to go back to his hometown of haddonfield illinois followed by his past doctor sam loomis the person michael is targeting is laurie strode who is played by jamie lee curtis in her film debut why is he stalking her check out halloween ii it explains it all on this unholy night on october laurie strode and her two friends are going to have the time of their lives which is trying to stay alive the whole film is filled with terrifying moments most coming from just seeing michael myers walk nick castle who played the shape in the first movie did an incredible job and no other person in any other halloween flick can do what he did what john carpenter did in is made a new film with scares wit and style the movie is flawless if not perfect no other movie or sequel has lived up to this one and in my opinion never will will be like and still be extremely popular even almost years later i just hope someday will be released in a new dolby soundtrack with the extra scenes on the dvd edition isn't just another horror flick it's an intelligent horrifying and best film experience ever made see and be scared then watch it again reviewed by brandon herring october
positive	i have to admit that i disliked this film initially it certianly isn't for every taste and it's sheer torture to sit through if you're in a restless mood that said if you are in the right mood it's absolutely incredible this was my second favorite movie of and would have been a for first in almost any other year perhaps the big for many was this film's unconventionality i'd be to compare it to any other film that i've seen it is very very artsy incredibly slow and amazingly it works beautifully on my second viewing i realized that the film follows the three act structure i didn't think it had any sort of structure at all when i first saw it the first act serves to set up the characters sort of it exists even moreso to set a mood of tension and restlesness and perhaps even feelings of boredom and then it is shattered by the intense violence of the second which encompasses most of the movie the majority of the film is one extended battle scene intercut with brief flashbacks and the artsier elements do not detract from the action but add to it they succeed in briefly letting the viewer peek into the minds of the soldiers only to be suddenly yanked back into reality when the battle resumes the battle scenes are amazing second only to saving private ryan in my opinion they're brutal horrifying and at times beautiful due to the amazing cinematography the second act is as immersive brilliant and haunting as any film that i have ever seen the only problems come during the first and third acts malick takes a little too long to get the film started although the initial scenes which consist of two soldiers' experiencing a paradise while going awol and the preperations for battle are effective and necessary hints of pretentiousness sink in the film is just a tad too artsy near the beginning and a lot of people that disliked the movie probably gave up on it because of this the final act is effective at winding the film down but the problems from the first persist it's a bit too long and comes over as pretentious at times that said there are two sequences one where a soldier gets a devastating note from his wife and another where one of the main characters is killed that are nothing short of incredible the performances are phenominal all around the two standouts are nick nolte and newcomer jim caviezel both of whom should have been nominated for oscars nolte is riveting and intense as the colonel in charge of the operation his character is hard mean and somewhat reckless with the lives of his men and yet nolte somehow manages to evoke sympathy for him caviezel is forever questioning the nature of war his place in it and if there's any deeper meaning to the hell that he's going through he is absolutely perfect genuine sympathetic sincere and yet strong when he needs to be although restricted to a relatively small role sean penn is also very good as the company's pessimistic seargent as to how it stacks up to saving private ryan it was my second favorite movie of ryan was my first it's really hard to compare the two they are so so different so i won't beyond saying that spielberg's film had more of an impact on me however the two are comparable from the standpoint of quality i can easily see why someone would the thin red line above ryan i highly recommend both of them and consider them to be the two best war movies ever made all in all the thin red line is filmmaking of an incredibly high order it's slight faults are easily offset by the sheer brilliance of what is done right it's a real shame that it tanked at the box office films this unconventional powerful and don't come along very often
positive	it was a rainy friday afternoon in columbus when i persuaded a friend to see a matinee performance of tm he had never seen any episodes of the show and i have watched a scant few due to its unsocial airtime on comedy central and the uneven nature of many of the episodes for those of you not familiar with the premise dr clayton forrester beaulieu wishes to take over the world by finding the worst film ever made and unleashing it upon an unsuspecting public to achieve this he in the words of the tv series' theme which is missing in the movie bumped nelson nelson on the noggin and then shot him into space and is monitoring nelson's reactions to the movies he is forced to endure rather than succumb to the sheer awfulness of many of the movies nelson spends his time making wisecracks with the help of his two robot companions tom servo and crow t robot the format of the show consists of nelson servo and crow making their comments while silhouetted against the movie being watched and breaks every minutes or so for segments set on the satellite of love the ship on which our heroes are marooned only two things are different in the movie the absence of forrester's sidekick tv's frank and the slower pace of the jokes this latter change is presumably deliberate to avoid the viewing audience missing some of the best lines while laughing from the previous joke for their big screen outing the producers have chosen this island earth a classic and one of the first sf films to have a special effects budget larger than the average grocery bill unfortunately for that film but making it ideal fodder acting and dialogue appear to have taken a back seat to the effects which by today's standards are less than impressive nelson co make jokes about everything from japan's dominance in the world market to star trek to the state of disrepair of seattle's kingdome and most of them work unfortunately the segments set outside the satellite's movie theater seem out of place and aren't particularly funny but at least they're fairly short the big question about this movie though is why i presume it was an attempt to gain a larger following to keep support behind the series rumours of its impending demise circulated for some time before the plug was eventually pulled a few months ago but the format gains nothing from its transition to the big screen there are no special effects to dazzle you no action sequences to keep you on the edge of your seat and no use of digital surround sound so it seems pointless to spend per person to see this movie when in a few months it will be out on video and you can watch it for and not have to sit in a room full of popcorn addicts nevertheless tm provides more opportunities than any film you're going to see this year and i thoroughly recommend it to anyone with a pulse given its uniqueness i hesitate to grade it against other films but it fulfils its claims and so in the class of unsubtle comedy films whose laughs come at the expense of bad it does well
positive	the uncompromising nudity bared throughout petrice chereau's intimacy has already garnered much notoriety but it's in the naked faces of fearless actors mark rylance angels insects and kerry fox welcome to sarajevo that the tender ache of emotional resonance is discovered with sharp intelligent eyes that reflect experience and maturity rylance and fox are refreshingly detached from the false glamour of hollywood idols their sex scenes together are bracing in their raw honesty in the acceptance of flesh and messiness less apparent but no less remarkable are the astute observations of behavior revealed through those carnal beats of haste and hesitance often without a single line of dialogue not aiming for the spiritual poetry of in the realm of the senses or the philosophical transgressions of crash chereau keeps his sexual odyssey firmly grounded in terms of straightforward character development that may be the very reason why intimacy seems unerringly impressive but never particularly significant on more than a tactile sensory level the themes of human isolation are barren and obvious a science project devoid of any especially groundbreaking hypothesis intimacy does manage to stand out from lesser portraits of human interconnectedness and rummages through psychological dirty drawers okay kill me shallow though it might sound it's amazing how much is filled in through an inspired cast perceptive camerawork and imaginative ways of treating the love scene those ingredients are too assured and confident to merely dismiss as icing on the cake especially since they are the substance of the cake itself adapted from a pair of short stories by british novelist hanif kureishi intimacy weaves desperate lovemaking between two strangers in london every wednesday jay rylance and claire fox meet in his cluttered dank apartment for an hour or two of sexual release from their uninspired lives he's been head bartender at a posh restaurant for over six years she's a mystery to him but her glum workaday appearance reveals a similar dissatisfaction they're both married but his relationship has curdled into an embittered separation as the weeks draw on jay obsessively takes it upon himself to uncover claire's personal routines in his attempt to gain a fuller semblance of who she is he opens wounds that hadn't existed before by corrupting the fantasy if it weren't for a few unnecessary subplots involving jay's brother and his bevy of disgruntled this minimalist premise might be described as a modern fable on the perils of wish fulfillment chareau's restless camera once again wielded by superb and cinematographer eric gautier is less appropriate here than in his family those who love me can take the train the scenes that linger are the still ones where rylance and fox separately pensively attempt to carry on with their makeshift household routines these are often captured in lingering unblinking wide shots that view them stranded amidst their drab workplaces and homes separation proves haunting in a melancholy series of intercut shots as rylance and fox undress on opposite sides of the room crawling across the floor to meet in the center despite being as restless as a fly during the hyperactive restaurant scenes all the better to blend in with a hustling crowd of gabby trendsetters you'd be hard pressed to find a single uninteresting image intimacy takes an interest in its sordid world of the class with lonely pubs and busy shopping streets it also understands the people who inhabit those spaces viewing them with sympathy scraped raw an evaluation would be incomplete without highlighting the great timothy spall the robust of many a mike leigh collaboration as claire's cuckolded husband this jocular heavyweight plays out his handful of bitter pill scenes with the unforced menace and embarrassment of his imposing bulk bangs in his eyes his mouth forming into quizzical pouts and dry smirks he may seem the fool in his barroom encounters opposite a sarcastic gleaming mark rylance whose jay has arrived on the scene looking to stir up some trouble but spall is no one to trifle with his overreaching best pal demeanor suggests a mind abuzz with secret passageways of guile his pointed questions only na ve if you choose not to read into their crafty insinuations in his unassuming way spall's carefully etched interpretation of hostility buried under a mountain of surface propriety may become one of the most criminally underappreciated performances of the year but maybe also one of the best he's that good
positive	george little jonathan lipnicki wants a little brother after mr and mrs little hugh laurie and geena davis visit the orphange they decide to adopt stuart a talking mouse voiced by michael j fox george isn't so fond of his new brother when stuart arrives at the little house and neither is snowbell the family cat voiced by nathan lane george and stuart eventually bond while preparing for a remote control boat race but snowbell wants stuart out of the house he's unable to live with the taunts of other neighborhood felines saying it's ridiculous that a mouse has a pet cat stuart little is a mix of live action and computer generated imagery cgi the character of stuart while obviously a computer generated image grows on you as the film progresses and you'll soon see him as much more than a mere special effect there is also a great deal of animal training involved with this film as many of the supporting cast are actual cats with computer animated mouths so they can speak it's fascinating to watch these cats give performances without an actual mouse to interact with stuart little is a charming family film there are some great laughs in the movie with a script by the sixth sense's m night shyamalan no less some moments that can only be described as too cute the boat race sequence is what won me over and even the majority of the common nowadays in children's films or films featuring nathan lane are tolerable kids and parents will love this one stuart little is available on dvd from columbia tristar home video there are two different dvds on sale one contains the film in full frame and the other presents the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of both versions feature choices of either dolby surround or dolby digital audio both versions also contain the following extras and hang in there with me here there's a lot of them a full length audio commentary track by director rob minkoff and animation supervisor henry anderson a full length audio commentary track by the visual effects supervisors an isolated score track an interactive trivia game an interactive featurette that goes step by step through eight of the effects in the film a making of documentary that originally aried on hbo and a stuart little story which you can read yourself or have stuart read for you there are also three music videos and six theatrical trailers called thecatrical trailers get it it's funny for stuart little and five other columbia tristar releases the adventures of elmo in grouchland madeline the nuttiest nutcracker muppets from space and baby geniuses the only bad thing about this entire dvd i did not want to be reminded of the awfulness that is baby geniuses features are also on the disc including web links and a demo of the stuart little game but wait there's still more there's a section called basement treasures where you will find the auditions of the film's animators six deleted scenes which you can select to view with or without commentary from the director a visual effects gag reel a production gag reel and an incredible eight minute storyboard sequence detailing the original concept for the boat race scene with commentary from the director the first commentary track features director rob minkoff and animation supervisor henry anderson they give insightful and detailed thoughts about the film's production minkoff likes to point out scenes where other screenwriters came in and polished up the script namely writers like scott alexander and larry karaszewski who wrote the people vs larry flynt and ed wood and lowell ganz and babaloo mandel who wrote splash and multiplicity among others anderson is very appreciative of the animators who worked with him and often points out which animator worked on each scene as they occur the second commentary track features visual effects supervisors john dykstra and jerome chen who discuss more specific details of the effects in the film movie fans will enjoy the informative first commentary track serious animation buffs will love the second one now i know this is slightly off topic but it is related specifically to this dvd so i must voice this now one of the music videos on the disc is for a song called i need to know by a group called r angels this video features four girls the singers obviously having a slumber party the girls ask a ouija board i need to know who to do who to do who to do as the song begins they then sneak out of their house and along the way they strike a pose and their slumber party pajamas are magically transformed into middle class streetwalker outfits then they head to a party and dance suggestively with the guys while singing lyrics like i'll be your pleasure all the time just say the words that you'll be mine um what the hell what does this have to do with stuart little how is this in any way a song suitable for a kids movie let alone a video suitable for a kids movie on dvd when the video concludes the words to be continued appear oh i can't wait to see who they've slept with when the toy story dvd comes out kids won't care about most of the special features on this dvd but those of us who can sometimes be turned into a kid at heart thanks to a winning family film sure appreciate them this is the way to do dvd a good movie loaded with great features at a reasonable cost the people could learn a lot from columbia tristar
positive	countries and legal systems that take the rule of law principle seriously had forbidden judges and juries to make judgements in all matters that could involve them personally luckily movie reviewers aren't burdened with such legislation otherwise small pool of very special movies would be forever ignored by this reviewer in case of star wars science fiction epic by george lucas the consequences would be even more severe because that film is very special for tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of fans in any case objectivity is something seldom seen in star wars reviews because undisputed majority of reviewers rate it as one of the best if not the best film of all times those who don't usually have some difficulties in hiding their artistic snobbery the author of this review must also concede his inability to use cold objective standards in reviewing this film like so many previous reviewers i must note that i watched star wars for the first time twenty years ago and that i remained enchanted by the experience ever since perhaps it was childlike fascination with until then unimaginable wonders that happened long time ago in a galaxy far away or perhaps it was the rush i felt minutes before the opening shots with my expectations already pumped up by serialised comic books and novelisation i had read before anyway watching of star wars was one of the most important movie going experiences of my life and it was also unmatched for many years to come because very few movies managed to have such a strong impact on me like george lucas' epic star wars wasn't just important movie for me or the millions of fans who probably share the same sentiment it was the defining moment in the history of modern cinema until than american motion picture industry was in a limbo social turmoil in practically destroyed the old hollywood and new authors filled the void mostly by using hollywood's financial and technical resources to create serious personal or artsy movies as a result audience traumatised of dark reality of vietnam and watergate didn't want to see the same dark and serious content on the silver screen george lucas with its science fiction epic was among the first to come into rescue the audience responded with unprecedented enthusiasm and huge financial success of the movie later backed by supplement industry of toys books comics role playing games and other merchandise slowly began to change the face of hollywood serious adult movies with artistic ambitions faded into oblivion and were replaced by industrial products of blockbuster philosophy one of the biggest casualties of that trend was the science fiction movie genre until science fiction movies were mostly in domain in late bigger budgets for science fiction didn't look so strange anymore thanks to the great success of a space odyssey but the same success coincided with the surge of pesimism and hollywood science fiction was as bleak as the rest of its production mostly dark dystopic movies however in star wars showed once and for all that this genre can be inspiration for popular movies even among the audience that usually doesn't like it as a result seriousness in cinematic science fiction began fading away although some good dark and cult quality sf and continued to be filmed until early after that science fiction continued to be considered a synonym for family entertainment ironically the man responsible for star wars was in its time considered to be member of new hollywood generation of young movie authors who made artsy and personal films in early george lucas established himself with the dystopic sf movie thx and nostalgic drama american graffiti both movies were considered personal in its time despite latter one becoming very popular in a sense star wars is an also very personal film and the thorny way to the final production shows that commercial considerations were against it not for it but unlike many personal movies of the era its personality was in line with the wishes of the general audience the plot set a long time ago in a galaxy far away begins in a time of civil war the evil empire is threatened by rebels who want to restore the old republic in order to quash any opposition the empire had built death star superweapon powerful enough to destroy whole planets the information about death star acquired by rebel intelligence is being transported by princess leia organa carrie fisher when her ship gets intercepted by imperial cruiser princess is arrested by imperial warlord darth vader played by david prowse and voice by james earl jones but the information is being sent to nearby desert planet of tatooine via two humanoid robots anthony daniels and kenny baker those two robots are sold to the family of luke skywalker mark hamill young restless man who wants to leave his farm and become space pilot his adventure begins when escapes because the information must reach mysterious local hermit obi wan kenobi alec guiness old man is actually the last surviving jedi knight member of the ancient order that defended republic through the use of mystical force after some hesitation luke agrees to join obi wan in his mission to save the princess while the old man would teach him the ways of the force their small band comes to the colourful spaceport of moss eisely where they hire the spaceship owned by rogue pilot han solo harrison ford and his furry sidekick chewbacca peter mayhew critics who don't like the movie especially those who can't forgive lucas for his contribution to the quashing of new hollywood are prone to point the lack of originality on the surface they might be right lucas himself admits that he found a lot of inspiration in the lore of old hollywood westerns wwii aviation movies old sf cliffhanger serials of the and yet the most obvious element would be akira kurosawa's samurai classic the hidden fortress on the other hand those who had spent last two decades studying the movie to death would say that the inspiration for star wars went even further into collective subconscious of western civilisation hinted by some mild tolkien references the others would find the author's element within the story star wars could be seen as an establishment film young easy going heroes are fighting against old uptight and oppressive forces who use supertechnology in most demonic purposes even out of its historical or social context star wars is an impressive as a strictly technical piece of the seven art george lucas' direction is very good with the clever editing and a segments between action and dramatic buildup characters are and deliver all the necessary ingredients both for the space opera and hollywood blockbuster we have a hero somewhat toned down due to the popular feminist trends of the time reluctant helper benevolent mentor diabolical villain and finally comic relief in form of two characters some of the actors are very good alec guiness in his most famous role to date james earl jones whose voice is enough to cause unease peter cushing as an incarnation of pure evil in human form unfortunately the same can't be said for the main leads among the main trio of mark hamill carrie fisher and harrison ford only the last one had the character enough to launch his further acting career the thing that looked like the most important segment of star wars phenomena during its initial release was the new level of special effects technology often comparisons with space odyssey another sf film were citing the sheer number of effects as a proof of the lucas' superiority over kubrick however the special effects by john dykstra and john stears are indeed impressive even after two decades although special edition did improve them significantly yet they aren't the most remembered trademark of the movie that honour should definitely go to the oscar soundtrack by john williams whose work on star wars is probably the brightest gem in his brilliant career newer generations of viewers might be somewhat deprived of the enchantment that still holds those lucky enough to witness star wars original release yet even if they are immune to the george lucas' magic they should watch this film nevertheless perhaps only to become familiar with something that is essential part of contemporary culture
positive	frequency n the number of times a specified phenomenon occurs within a specified interval as the number of repetitions of a complete sequence of values of a periodic function per unit variation of an independent variable etc don't worry when watching the thriller frequency you won't have to know what the heck frequency means the premise although it may sound complex is very basic on the big screen a new york cop john jim caviezel finds a radio in his house which allows him to communicate with his new york firefighter father frank dennis quaid who died thirty years ago immediately john warns his father that he will die trying to stop a fire in an abandoned warehouse when frank takes his advice and survives the accident he wasn't supposed to the two eventually realize that by changing that one moment in the past they have created a whole new future in which a serial killer murders john's mother and nine other women it is now up to john and frank to use their special connection and save thirty years ago to make present time a better place i told you that wasn't confusing overall i was very pleased with frequency it's occasional sappy moments perfectly synchronized with its suspenseful serial killer scenes i usually don't buy those cheesy i love you dad segments in movies but this one surprisingly satisfied me maybe because the plot is so creative and universal that i believed that this is how most people would act when talking to a dead relative frequency's creepy premise left me thinking once the film ended what if what would i do would i help my own family or save a historical figure from being assasinated or stop some kids from shooting other kids or buy stock from yahoo a character in the film does the latter with humorous consequences frequency also reminded me of the fantastic back to the future both share that change the past slightly and you'll change the future heavily warning the changes between the present and the past such as different newspaper headlines or people disappearing and reappearing in photographs are very similar both are also wonderful family films that can attract to a number of generations the only difference worth noting is that frequency's final scene doesn't set up a possibility for a lucrative sequel already in the making there are some problems with the film though first there is a major flaw in the story towards the end that is somewhat distracting email me if you have seen the movie and want to know what i think it is the plot must have confused even the filmmakers who frequently no pun intended switch from to while telling the story another problem is that the supporting cast including noah emmerich and andre braugher are underused while in the film which is not enough the aforementioned actors steal every scene they are in frequency was a pleasant surprise for me and the audience i saw it with who cheered at the end even if you know what is going to happen or if you think the preview ruined the movie for you like it almost did for me check this movie out you may be surprised as well
positive	psycho meets the exorcist with no holds barred a blurb like that sounds like desperate publicity for some low budget third rate but no this tacky plug comes from the poster for suspiria perhaps italian horror director dario argento's most consistently successful film what impresses most in this surrealistic supernatural thriller is that argento's directorial flair and stylish visuals are matched by a coherent narrative screenplays have always been his achilles heel confusing subplots gaping holes totally illogical incidents and reactions no question argento has always been a better director than a writer fortunately he gets the plotting pretty well right with suspiria taking his cue from a book by thomas de quincey called suspiria de profundis the film's storyline suffers from no major lapses in logic provided one can accept the premise of a ballet school being a front for a coven of witches jessica harper plays an american who travels to germany to further her studies in dance arriving at the school late at night in driving rain she sees a girl leave and run into the storm in a clearly distressed state what happens next and i don't make the comparison lightly is a murder sequence that for intensity shock value and sheer directorial flair ranks alongside alfred hitchcock's infamous shower scene in psycho it's quite possibly a homage to hitchcock but with its baroque sets graphic gore and brilliantly chaotic musical accompaniment by the gothic rock group goblin this stunning sequence remains very much argento's own though nothing else quite equals the intensity of suspiria's opening minutes the film continues to be never anything less than engrossing as harper begins her own investigations and slowly comes to realise this is no ordinary ballet school we meet an assortment of slightly sinister characters most notably the head ballet teacher played by alida valli in another one of those delicious roles she does so well several more violent murders ensue including a startling scene in a deserted square where a blind man is well i wouldn't want to spoil things now would i and the film's climax staged amid secret corridors and hidden rooms has a gothic ghoulishness that's most impressive the english language versions of most argento movies usually suffer trimming and not just for the violence deep red and phenomena for example have been appallingly hacked about fortunately the cuts to suspiria about minutes in this version have not adversely affected the film the dubbing of the italian actors into english is quite competently done too excepting one appalling and unintentionally hilarious effort with a conversation between harper and a professor about the history of witchcraft in the region and the soundtrack it is interesting to imagine what power the film would have lost if it had been scored by someone else as it stands the use of goblin's music in suspiria is outstanding apparently argento played the soundtrack on location while filming so the actors could hear the music as they acted out their parts a stereo video player adds greatly to the viewer's overall experience even better see suspiria in a cinema where you'll get the added bonus of widescreen and the colours deep reds eerie blues a superb use of shadow and contrast the cinematography of luciano tovoli whose more recent credits include reversal of fortune and single white female is uniformly superb a nod also must go to production designer giuseppe bassan for his wonderful baroque interiors these kinds of settings are crucial to the atmosphere of argento's more surreal excursions the other most notable example being inferno on which bassan also worked suspiria is the film that broke dario argento into the major league of european directors and it is fully deserving of its cult status the gore is at times a little excessive and overstated that's always been one of argento's shortcomings but overall this is a fascinating compelling example of italian horror
positive	jackie brown entered theaters with little fanfare and a lot of expectation even though advance publicity on this one was fairly limited the audiences waited for the showings with heightened anticipation this is after all the first movie quentin tarantino has directed since the highly touted pulp fiction to say he has been inactive in between would be to tell a falsehood since he has been involved in such projects as destiny turns on the radio desperado four rooms and from dusk dawn he was also called in at the last minute to help punch up the screenplay for crimson tide i'm willing to wager the debate over which silver surfer is the only true silver surfer was penned by him tarantino contributed on and off screen to these films but never took the director's helm nearly four years since gaining notoriety on the hollywood scene and making john travolta a star once more tarantino returns with a film he can call his own the film opens up with an homage to the graduate with jackie brown pam grier on one of those airport people movers as the credits are displayed in front of her jackie is a flight attendant for air cabo which flies back and fourth between los angeles and cabo san lucas this makes jackie a convenient cash courier for gun dealer ordell robbi samuel l jackson who is currently keeping his money stashed in mexico however while bringing fifty thousand dollars back into the u s for ordell jackie is apprehended by fbi agent mark dargus michael bowen and atf agent ray nicolet michael keaton who catch her not only with the money but with a bonus of a couple of ounces of illicit drugs jackie didn't know they were in the package with the cash but that's of no consequence to the authorities who threaten jackie with a couple of years hard time if convicted of course dargus and nicolet are just using the sentence to get jackie to turn over the big fish ordell ordell uses honest bail bondsman max cherry robert forster to get jackie out of jail but while max is immediately attracted to her jackie is more concerned about her immediate safety since ordell killed the last one of his operatives who got picked up by the police sure enough ordell shows up at jackie's apartment that evening and tries to silence jackie for good but she borrows max's pistol and manages to turn the tables on ordell instead of closing the irony circle and relocating a bullet from the pistol's chamber to ordell's head jackie proposes a deal since ordell wants to get his money out of mexico jackie will get back up to her old tricks and be a courier for him once more but this time for a more substantial fee fifteen percent of ordell's half million dollars with a gun in his face how can ordell not agree by itself this premise might have been interesting enough to carry the film however we are also introduced to a number of double crosses which make us pay attention and think jackie claims to be bringing the money in for ordell but she's also making a deal with the feds as well as with max the film throws us off every once in a while by leading us to believe the deal we thought was authentic is actually a sham but it is in no way done to the extent that we feel jerked around instead it's actually a nice departure from the predictability which is prevalent in so many of today's movies at least this film has a little imagination most of the performances in jackie brown are above par pam grier of whom i had never taken notice before plays jackie with a mix of confidence and vulnerability which makes her character believable samuel l jackson has a kind of mesmerizing quality about him as he handles himself in situations where you know he is in total control robert forster is thoroughly likable because he comes across as such an honest guy trying to do his best never mind that he belongs to a profession where sneaking into a guy's apartment to zap him with a stun gun is simply a matter of course he's just so the nature of his job really doesn't occur to us even when we're shown him bringing a handcuffed woman to prison or when we see the tools of his trade in supporting roles are robert de niro as louis gara a recently paroled friend of ordell's and bridget fonda as melanie one of the girls ordell keeps around town unfortunately de niro is basically wasted as his lines are few and far between and then they are mostly clipped sentences in this film he's not really de niro but stereotypical de niro uttering things like little bit and pretty much fonda on the other hand plays the slightly melanie with satisfactory relish and cuteness such that even when she is annoying louis we are taking her side as is characteristic of any film in which tarantino has had a hand the dialog is quick and snappy it grabs our attention and is actually interesting and in many respects this makes jackie brown a film which needs few visuals the lines are a form of art in and amongst themselves don't count tarantino out when it comes to using the camera however there's a scene where max is unwittingly watching a dry run of a money exchange and he's not really sure what's happening but by composing the scene just so his realization of what's going on is felt simultaneously by the audience we look at the screen and think gee that's clever and then think the same thing about how the film induced us into that wonderful feeling of catching on although tarantino isn't afraid to drag out a shot for dramatic effect it unfortunately works to varying degrees in this film there are shots where a character is simply driving and we watch this person and somehow get an idea of what is going on in his or her head this is a tribute to both direction and acting however there is at least one other scene where we follow jackie through a mall and she is looking for something desperately looking for something we get the idea of the frantic nature of her search but we follow her for so long that we end up not really caring about what she's looking for but instead hoping she'll just stop overall viewing jackie brown is time spent well some flap has already been made about the language used in the film but it's really not much worse than many of the other movies out there today in fact one might even be able to say that the way in which these offensive words are employed almost cause them to parody themselves and therefore transcend their own offensiveness go see the film and see what i mean
positive	directed by pixote hunt hendel butoy eric goldberg james algar francis glebas gaetan paul brizzi conducted by james levine composed by ludwig van beethoven ottorino respighi george gershwin dmitri shostakovich camille paul dukas sir edward elgar igor stravinsky rated g scripture references samuel ephesians chronicles in walt disney released a filmed experiment fantasia was a blend of two art forms classical music and animation while it was not immediately popular with the audiences of its day it has since become recognized as something of a classic according to the program notes it was mr disney's intention to have fantasia be a continual work in progress sixty years later thanks to the ongoing efforts of walt's nephew a new fantasia is being released it was not only worth the waiting it is evidence to just how far animation has come during the past with seven new sequences and one old favorite fantasia exhibits an imagination and respect for its art form that is absent from most other feature films like the original fantasia will more than likely bore the very young although there is more narrative appeal in this newer version and the segments appear to be substantially shorter perhaps a nod to the shorter attention span of the studio's primary audience ranging from the silly to the sublime each segment is preceded by a short humorous introduction or interstitial by a guest celebrity host steve martin bowfinger being the first and most effective these are quickly forgotten as conductor james levine leads the chicago symphony orchestra through the musical program which along with the images drawn by the disney team of animators is thoughtfully and beautifully brought to a stunning synthesis fantasia is being released exclusively in the imax theaters making for a unique viewing experience there is enough variety in the program to provide something enjoyable for everyone and surely people will exit the theaters with their own personal favorites for me that would have to be the jazz age story of four unconnected and discontented people living in nyc who unknowingly help each other realize their dreams drawn in the style of caricaturist al hirschfeld and inspired by george gershwin's rhapsody in blue the music and images are blended perfectly resulting in a product greater than the sum of its two parts children will like the short piece set to carnival of the animals by camille here a goofy looking flamingo irritates the rest of the flock with his playing antics they will also giggle as donald duck playing noah's assistant tries to load the animals into the ark to the familiar strains of pomp and circumstance by sir edward elgar while the depiction is not biblically accurate it is entertaining and might be excuse enough to familiarize ourselves with the true record by reading what is written in genesis a positive note is that the studio has avoided any segment which is as perversely dark as nihgt on bald mountain upon which the original film ended there are some images based upon fantasy such as the flying whales in respighi's pines of rome or images which have their roots in mythology such as the ethereal creatures which tell the story of nature's cycle of life death and rebirth in igor stravinsky's firebird suite but the stories they tell are uplifting containing nothing too frightening for our younger children the darkest segment spiritually speaking actually belongs to the only holdover from the original fantasia mickey mouse in the sorcerer's apprentice by paul dukas but overall the emotions evoked from fantasia are positive ones being full of hope and promise music has an impact which can be undeniably felt capable of leading the listener to emotional peaks and inspirational highs simply not attainable through other mediums it is no wonder that the levites as the priestly tribe of the old testament were also the appointed musicians if fantasia is able to introduce a new audience to music which inspires and exalts it will have done an incredible service
positive	ingredients little orphan boy rural grandparents mountains native american lore synopsis in this loving film portrayal of an idyllic and pivotal time that a young boy spends with grandpa and grandma the self recollections of an unseen narrator focus on his world view as a tennessee orphan boy learning of his heritage through his grandparents the setting is after the first world war during the great depression years a orphan named little tree joseph ashton is taken in and taught the wondrous ways of the woods by his caucasian moonshiner grandpa james cromwell and his native american grandma tantoo cardinal in the wilderness of the mountains of tennessee here little tree learns an almost magical appreciation for nature and farm life and experiences beautiful and wondrous things such as the sunrise everything is miraculous to a child but it all comes crashing down for the boy when the u s government forcibly takes custody away from grandpa and grandma and forces little tree to attend the notched gap boarding school a kind of internment camp where multiracial cherokee kids are indoctrinated to dress pray speak and think like white people or face solitary confinement and corporeal punishment through his childhood experiences little tree learns lessons about love race life death people nature and folk wisdom opinion this excellent excellent family movie it is one of those priceless screen gems that nobody knows about because it's not highly advertised you won't find any formula schlock cutesy characters canned spirituality sequel teasers or commercial tie ins but you will find the education of little tree to be a refreshing impeccably acted original wonderful and touching film take the whole family and bring a box of tissues for the tearjerkers this one's as good as old yeller
positive	disney cements their place in the forefront of feature animation with the release of their latest animated adventure mulan while it adheres a bit too close to the disney formula to be perfect it is nonetheless an entertaining film for both kids and adults fa mulan wen singing lea salonga wants nothing more than to be a dutiful daughter and honor her family it's just that she doesn't quite fit in with the chafing customs of her time while most girls her age are trying to quietly and demurely seek the approval of the local matchmaker miriam margoyles mulan would prefer speaking her mind but there is trouble on the horizon the evil huns led by miguel ferrer are invading china the emperor pat morita has decreed that each family must donate one man to serve in the army the only male in mulan's family is her father fa zhou oh who old and with a bad leg honorably accepts his fate mulan on the other hand decides to save her father's life by secretly masquerading as a man and taking his place on the battlefield mulan under the assumed name of ping appears at camp where she along with the other bumbling recruits yao harvey fierstein jerry tondo and ling gedde watanabe are trained in the art of war by captain shang b d wong singing donny osmond but she's not alone in her tasks in typical disney fashion she has three animal companions her horse khan a lucky cricket crickey and a guardian dragon called mushu eddie murphy much like the gargoyles in the hunchback of notre dame the humor in mulan is lukewarm and doesn't flow well with the rest of the more serious story sure some occasional comic relief is welcome particularly in a film geared for the younger set but mulan overdoes it the overdose of humor turns what could have been a powerfully great film into a good but schizophrenic experience but that commentary aside this is a very well made film which makes the formulaic additions all the more regrettable the animation is on par with some of disney's best the story itself is interesting and the action scenes are the musical score to the film is enjoyable though as has been the case with disney's recent work the songs are mostly forgettable at least we're only subjected to four of them this time around mulan boasts the highest death toll of any disney cartoon to date most of the killing is and it's all highly depersonalized there's nothing to compare with the death of mufasa or bambi's mom there's nothing graphic and the film resides snugly inside a g rating children will probably have more questions about the restrictive ancient customs than of the slaughter of armies it's ironic that a film concerned with bucking tradition is hampered because of its strict adherence to disney tradition if the filmmakers had the guts to lessen the humor ax the compulsory songs and remove the obligatory and somewhat unrealistic romance they could have had a classic on their hands instead they merely deliver a very good time at the movies
positive	capsule the world will come to an end at midnight everyone knows it and must make a final peace with the last hours of their lives this is an intelligent science fiction film with no special effects just personalities and ideas high to it is the last night of the planet and several different people are reacting each in their own way to the end the film covers pm to midnight the main character is patrick played by david mckellan who also wrote and directed reminiscent of on the beach but much more so of a story richard matheson wrote the last day p s on rereading the matheson this film is almost a loose adaptation of that story the similarities may be mere coincidence but they are numerous and they are very striking us release may be problematical the title is lackluster and though very appropriate when you know about the film also provincial americans may not care about the end of the world coming to toronto they probably would feel it would not affect them perhaps a pbs release would be possible patrick's family has declared it christmas and are hurt that the adult children will not spend the whole evening with them grocery stores mostly looted it seems though that one of everything is left some people continue business as usual some want sex some react with religion some riot some people are in total denial much comedy much drama very canadian cast it does not get dark it is just always daytime radio playing last night i didn't get to sleep at all how appropriate david cronenberg as a kind of bland functionary manager at the gas company genvieve bujold as french teacher visiting former student science fiction film with no special effects cost about two million dollars the person you have been thrown together with by chance becomes the most important person to you for the rest of your life why would it be so precisely at midnight what about other time zones what is the nature of what is destroying the world
positive	the rich man's wife is one of those movies like final analysis or body double where the story and characters are so and contrived that you know you shouldn't be enjoying yourself but somehow the movie just tries so hard that you begin to forgive it and get into the swing of things not that it's bad it's just that it's been done before and better in my opinion i realize that this is going to sound pretty bizarre but it's probably the best analogy that i can come up with right now you know how when you see a spider or something in your toilet striving helplessly to get out and instead of just flushing him you end up kind of rooting for the little guy that's basically how i felt about this movie i mean it's not very good but it's not completely bad either the wife of the title is josie potenza played nicely by halle berry she is married to tony christopher mcdonald you know the guy who looks like joe piscapo a really businessman who drinks way to much and doesn't give josie the attention she deserves cough cough thus she is driven into the arms of another man jake golden clive owen near the beginning of the film josie decides to try and work things out with tony by dumping jake and going on a vacation to a remote cabin in the woods once there however tony has to leave almost immediately due to business details i'm still not quite sure what line of work he's in making the best of her situation josie stays there and begins making the rounds at the local bars one night she meets a stranger named cole peter greene finally getting a meaty role they have dinner together and eventually both josie and the audience start to realize that cole is homicidal after learning that she is not happily married cole offers to take care of the problem managing to escape from the psychotic maniac josie returns home and starts a reconciliation with her estranged and very wealthy husband but then one night cole shows up and here is where the fun begins from this point on it's going to be a barred ripping off every movie from strangers on a train to the usual suspects this is why most critics panned this movie when it first came out and for the most part they're right the rich man's wife has nary one original bone in it's body but who cares if you're looking for good ol' dumb suspense movie you can't do much better than this and if you suspense buffs aren't already sold it has a killer of an ending too
positive	with a team of graphic artists and animators working on this first film production from game developer squaresoft's square pictures final fantasy inspired by the game franchise is visually and groundbreaking no doubt you have never seen anything like this film and the hyperbolic fanfare surrounding its release is absolutely deserved but why does such a tremendous feat of eye candy have to be weighted down with a problematic story wooden dialogue and generally uncharismatic voice acting obviously the primary goal of the film is to stun and amaze audiences with extremely sophisticated cgi everything you see in the film is rendered in great detail individual threads in the fabric individual strands of hair swaying wrinkles and pimples on skin incredible water effects overall the expressions and lip movements fairly accurately match the emotions and dialogue and the times when they don't sync perfectly really stand out since the animation is usually so dazzling but you won't spend much time dwelling on those gaffes as soon as you catch one the next stellar monster or effect will have you muttering wow like the series of games final fantasy's plot and characters have little to do with its predecessors outside of being born from the same japanese mastermind hironobu sakaguchi it's the year and humans are prisoners in caged cities of their own making that guard them from an outside world now overrun with deadly alien phantoms whenever a human comes in contact with the ghostly visitors the beings pass through the body and wrench out its soul for some unexplainable reason while many humans agree with a plan by monomaniacal general hein james woods to blast the aliens with a zeus cannon dr aki ross and dr sid donald sutherland plan to build a wave using eight collected spirits to counteract the phantoms and kill them off while the images serve the aspect of the film well the storytelling doesn't it's unfortunate because the plot seems so intricately thought out perhaps it was far too complex and enormous to be entirely incorporated into the script some could blame this weakness on the fact that it was a japanese concept translated to english except two americans wrote the screenplay nevertheless the end result is an elaborate story complicated by confusing holes why do these aliens feed on souls if they can pass through bodies and ships how can humans hurt them with guns what is so special about the spirits that they would create a force strong enough to destroy the aliens worse yet the dialogue is scripted to be either like a star trek episode an installment of die hard or a sappy love story depending on who's doing the talking for the most part it's bearable considering the genre but tedious speeches and cheesy lines don't do anything to help the actors and can get annoying in the longer scenes the only exception is steve buscemi as pilot neil fleming who always has great cracks during tense moments but when the lights come up and the credits roll you're more likely to be remarking on how fantastic the film looked there's no question that the roughly million people who have bought at least one final fantasy game will be eager to see this movie and so should anyone who enjoys being floored by the best cg animation ever put to film you'd be living in a fantasy world of your own if you expected much more
positive	ladies and gentlemen independence day is here it's title starship troopers and surprisingly it is more entertaining than i realize that i gave last year's hit a star rating but i was under the spell of the powerful first hour after subsequent viewings i feel that independence day really wasn't as great as it i still give it a positive review starship troopers on the other hand has a mocking sense of humor knowing perfectly well how ridiculous it may seem as a result starship troopers is a more exciting energetic and lively science fiction film in fact i probably could never get tired of watching this film starship troopers is very reminiscient of star wars another space opera which reinvented the drama altogether while starship troopers is no star wars it comes quite close and the easiest assessment would be to call this film the wars' of the am i being to generous to this film perhaps but when a science fiction film comes along that can mix humor and romance effectively into the warring races in essence this is the science fiction equivolence of pulp fiction the easiest way to write a review of this film would be to compare it to other science fiction films and i may have to starship troopers is not quite an original film persay but director paul verhoeven gives the film a style had this same style except it was forced most likely the cause of will smith having a major role this new star wars has a very simple basic plot mankind vs an alien species the alien species in question here is the bugs a seemingly advanced civilization of insects however the underlying morals of starship troopers are fleshed out with deadly accuracy sometimes the morals are buried by the bloody violence and intense action scenes but during quiet moments we realize that starship troopers has something to tell us about our civilization more than likely these morals will be overpowered and quickly forgotten by the time the movie ends and they should be i doubt verhoeven intended this film to be a film this is an event film but surprisingly above average it is extremely refreshing to watch a war film and actually root for the human side something independence day never achieved starship troopers begins with a satirical portrayal of those strange join the army ads mixing a interface these summations of events are refreshingly original stating would you like to know more these short news bulletins give the film an immediate sense of humor and we know we should not take it seriously however we also witness the murder of several troopers in battle in a gory yet funny way after witnessing the slaughter the film jumps back one year to setup what we just saw we are introduced to johnny rico casper van dien and carmen ibanez denise richards rico flirts with carmen by sending her messages over computer terminals in school classrooms however carmen isn't as interested in rico as she is in becoming a pilot however another classmate dizzy flores dina meyer has her eye on rico unfortunately rico isn't interested in dizzy this setup is rather cliched as is the result of the setup but it still is fun to watch carmen signs up to become a starship trooper and as a result rico signs up and as a result dizzy signs up everyone is assigned a certain position in the academy carmen gets the pilot position she wanted carl jenkins neil patrick harris a psychic gets a position in the training program and rico is left in the lowest class of the starship troopers the mobile infantry the main story follows rico through his trials and relationships in reality i found myself watching a space version of melrose place but with better special effects an hour into the film the war begins a sense of tension grew in the audience i watched this film with the first hour may have been a funny sometimes unintentionally setup but we grew to care for the flat characters because no matter how hard i tried not to like the characters their gorgeous looks won me over call me superficial if you must following the training sessions which had many dramas in themselves too many to mention here the troopers are sent to war the bugs live on the planet klendathu a planet which consists of dirt and rock and pretty much nothing else many dramas occur during the war until finally the troopers realize that their is something behind the bugs' attacks a sort of intelligence which masterminds the defense the troopers are ordered to locate the brain and capture it i hopefully left the plot as vague as possible because starship troopers is not about plot it's about special effects and gory violence director verhoeven most known for his nudie film showgirls and basic instinct returns to his days which gave us good films like total recall verhoeven likes to push the envelope of the mpaa but despite all the violence the comic book feel gives the film a sense of falsehood starship troopers is extremely violent with more gore than this year's event horizon the r rating is well deserved and hopefully parents will not allow their year old children to see it my guess is that verhoeven's target audience is the to male group the film has a testosterone level off the charts with chiseled men and beautiful women despite these superficial elements starship troopers also creates a world which made star wars so successful while watching the film we never second guess the character's decisions because they seem perfectly clear thankfully no hero is punching aliens in the face which gives the flat characters some depth for which we can identify with the cast of starship troopers is quite annoying to begin with but they soon grow on you casper van dien has the chiseled facial features and tan skin which will make most girls swoon to most guys he will come across as artificial fortunately van dien is the worst of the cast despite how hard he tries to come off as a real character dina meyer does a much better job of fleshing out her character her dizzy is extremely likeable denise richards also does a good job and her scenes are very well done jake busey gary busey's son gives a wonderfully funny performance and provides one of the biggest laughs of the film neil patrick harris remember he was doogie howser is a little wooden and slightly out of place with the rest of the cast however he does give a good performance michael ironside gives the best performance of the film as the teacher with one arm his performance rises above the rest perhaps it is because his character is the most developed but i think it is just ironside's presence on screen unfortunately no particular cast member gives a performance which is too bad because the material here could have made many of the cast members stars director verhoeven is the main star of the film his direction is fast and unrelentless he never slows down his pace which makes for a wild ride writer edward neumeier adapted the screenplay from the book by robert heinlein the writing is usually very funny and sometimes very corny the dialogue is smart but not too smart we aren't required to know everything but some plot holes are left unanswered thankfully we are not intended to notice and we really don't except for one which lingered in my mind for quite a while amazingly with all the wars and romance going on the screenplay manages to include some surprising governmental issues in fact these governmental changes seem fairly plausible and this adds another layer to the story the moral debate of the characters is quite surprising to find in a film of this genre but what is even more surprising is the amount of humor included into all the carnage i haven't laughed this loud even in some comedies oh and the special effects are first rate starship troopers is rated r for graphic violence and gore and for some language and nudity believe me when i say this don't take young kids to see this film it is extremely violent in fact it is probably the most violent film out this year however if you are old enough over to see it starship troopers is guaranteed to entertain it's been a long time since i have cheered for the heros while also cheering for the bad guys and still it is my dream to see a film in which the alien race destroys mankind and take over the world now that would be entertaining
positive	billed as a feminist sex fantasy this spirited imaginative and thoroughly engaging film by the canadian director cynthia roberts is destined for extreme reactions camille paglia enthusiasts will no doubt champion this tale of the title character bubbles galore nina hartley a who faces an uphill battle in her quest for sexual and economic independence however those in the andrea dworkin camp will no doubt loathe the film's decidedly stance political considerations aside however this is a delightful lesbian love story as the film takes us on a whirlwind tour of bubbles' romantic entanglements with a naive and virginal young porn starlet dory drawers shauny sexton in the backdrop however is bubbles' loyal assistant vivian klitorsky tracy wright who pines longingly for the affections of her bubbly boss this triangle is what provides the film with considerable humanity and sensuality in addition to the romantic aspects of the story bubbles is being stalked and terrorized by her godfrey montana daniel macivor a slimy porn mogul who wishes to make her life as miserable as he can possibly make it when his plans to sabotage her latest film fall through he snaps and psychotically decides to kill her these proceedings are presided over by a most heavenly presence god herself yes in the world of this film god is most definitely a her and a chorus of undulating angels have their most watchful and lustful eyes on the events as they unfold adding a lovely fantasy element to this frothy concoction this bright colourful and deliriously sexy film is of great performances making her dramatic debut after appearing in over triple x adult films porn star nina hartley takes command of her role with considerable assurance and a screen presence which puts many other contemporary actresses to shame hartley has overwhelming star power and one wonders why other producers haven't used her bountiful talents it is also interesting to note that hartley appears in the recent release of boogie nights a film which takes a far more traditional approach to the porn industry making a cameo appearance in the role of god former porn actress annie sprinkle a true artist in her own right gives the entire film an earthy sensual glow and certainly solidifies and by her very appearance downright justifies the themes of the movie the other performances are equally solid daniel macivor appropriately chews up the scenery as the villainous godfrey and tracy wright lends able support with her complex role shauny sexton an erotic dancer and model makes an impressive screen debut overall bubbles galore is a film which wears its politics on its sleeve and very proudly indeed at one point the title character declares that instead of trying to save women from the sex trade we should be working to ensure that the sex trade is a safe place for women to work the direction by cynthia roberts is daring and subversive roberts is not afraid to plunge the otherwise and simple narrative into extended and extremely montage sequences the love scenes between the women are especially beautiful the musical score by nicholas stirling blends cool jazz and lounge stylings while the skilful cinematography by harald bachmann terrifically captures a blend of garish porn and psychedelia amazingly this film appears to have received a good deal of its funding from a variety of canadian government cultural agencies this speaks volumes towards the importance of state funding for culture as one cannot imagine such an entertaining original and vital film being made in a traditional setting where conformity and formula rule the day bubbles galore seems to be making the film festival rounds and does not at present appear to have any traditional distribution in place so keep your eye on the alternative film listings for this one it's funny sexy and subversive and it shouldn't be missed
positive	seen at the portland international film festival film title supermarket woman director juzo itami country japan cinematography yonezo maeda music toshiyuki honda cast nobuko miyamoto masahitko tsugawa shiro ito yuji miyake akiko matsumoto super features typical itami film funny and pointed in its own way if you don't care how and what the food you buy goes through in your local supermarket then this film is not for you maybe it is better to ignore it as this strong and biting satire as only juzo itami can deliver will give you an insight as to what some foods go through having in the past made films that pulled every punch imaginable from the family traditions the funeral to taxes a taxing woman a taxing woman returns to the diabolical gangsters minbo to hospitals the seriously ill juzo itami this time takes on the supermarkets' own war to get the consumers and while this film has its funny side in the crazy situations that it creates it also shows another side which is very much the attitude of a corporate structure that is more concerned with its profits than it is with any customer goro has a supermarket and a competitor comes into the neighborhood trying to take him out of business by providing less expensive prices for everything that is sold in the supermarket bargains galore its name has in mind the closure of goro's humbler venue so that in the end it can mark up its prices in any way it can goro hires hanako a housewife whose talents seem to be better suited to management than they are in anything else hanako as she gets familiar with the operation discovers many of the tricks of the trade done by many of the elders in charge of each section of the market and the procedures are not always fresh food but a new packaging and a new date to try and convince the customers that quality is on the shelves hanako's ideas take hold starting with a few of the women that work in the supermarket being that they do not even shop there at all and hanako discovers along the way that a few giveaways here and there make a bit of a difference if not cause some serious problems in the running of the store a price error forces them to give away eggs for very low prices and causes the store a few hassles but it brought the people in and everyone knows that these customers will buy a few other things as the operation gets stronger the competition also has trickery up its sleeve and it has been undermining much of the operation by paybacks to one of the store managers as well as the meat and fish elder supervisors eventually these people are found out and hanako has to tread slowly and carefully until in the end they all have a showdown and here the truth and honesty win out and even one of the elders decides to stay rather than go to work for the corrupt opponent in the process they also find that freshness with some very funny jokes on this word as well becomes a much more important tool than they imagined with some very nice performances in this hectic and fast paced film this film gives us a sitting of two hours that is satisfying in many ways although a failed love story between goro and hanako does not come off much even though towards the end it is suggested but this would take away from the satire and its strengths with food gags all over the place the film lets you have it and what fun it is worth seeing editorial the director of this film juzo itami died shortly after the film was finished and he left behind a legacy of comedy and satire that is rare and uncompromising we would wish that he had been able to make one about film making of which he must have had a few stories to tell but we will have to do with much of the japanese society and its many errant ways not to say that these things do not happen anywhere else america is no less guilty of any of these subjects at all should anyone have the guts to tackle it we could learn something along the way too worth seeing specially is a taxing woman and its follow up a taxing woman returns the funeral is also good although not as funny as the later films tampopo is also very enjoyable all four of these films are available in video which means your best local site for foreign film may have them ask for it
positive	i can sum up first strike in one word awesome never in my life have i seen an actor as insanely dedicated as jackie chan for the simple reason that he has performed his own stunts in his every movie he's ever appeared in he should be awarded greatly the same tom and jerry formula that was used to make chan's rumble in the bronx and supercop so entertaining can be found here as well however first strike was probably the most exciting out of the three for the simple reason that practice makes perfect his last two movies were almost like practice and this one was great like rumble this film is about the mafia the former kgb now chan must do battle in the freezing arctic temperatures of the ukraine against a group of very large bad men the trailer for the film sums it up quite well first strike is but the fight scenes are so fast and furious they almost have a witty humor to them jackie chan is a regular comedian well he's no eddie murphy but he can really crack you up for example he is hanging off a roof and he humorously taunts his foes to come and get him as he claims to be the korean that's secret agent james bond even the plot to this film improved above the others as a twisted smuggling deal is botched and jackie takes the blame but never fear as the chinese mafia aids him in uncovering the truth behind the incident with some of the most stunts and comedy first strike is a hit that's guaranteed to draw some major attention 
positive	as a devout atheist and an avowed believer in aliens i have some idea of how ellie aroway jodie foster feels but because my reasons for not partaking in religion are different than hers i can't say that i do exactly her reason is that she needs solid proof there is no proof that god existed so therefor she does not believe ellie also believes in aliens and has spent most of her life trying to prove they exist how can she say she doesn't believe in god because of the lack of proof and then say she believes in aliens which are gereally less believed in than god without sounding like a hypocrite that's the when aliens from the star vega fax her some plans for a device to transport someone to them okay well they didn't really fax them ellie wants to be the one to go but because of her atheism she is denied the position how dumb is that she discovers the transmitions then she isn't allowed to go well because of a bomb and a psychopath jake busey she does end up going but not in the way that we would've thought contact is based on a novel by carl sagan who died during the filmmaking it is the best alien movie since close encounters of the kind and will end up being the best film of the year its views of science and religion will no doubt aggrivate some but will stimulate more i'm glad at least one movie of the can portray aliens in a psitive light rather than a bunch of slimey beasts who will eat your insides and then put on your body
positive	by now i figured i'd seen every alfred hitchcock film at least a times not that i'm complaining to call him the master of suspense is an understatement the paradine case admittedly one of hitchcock's lesser movies turned out to be one i'd missed this one like all hitchcock films is well worth savoring the story opens with the rich mrs maddalena anna paradine being arrested in her home for poisoning her blind husband as mrs paradine alida valli plays an aloof but alluring woman of the world to franz waxman's stark and moody music we see the prison guards divesting her of her luxurious garments and jewels stripped of her fine raiment she becomes a commoner again which as it turns out was what she was before she met her husband a brief skirmish and you'll be lunching at the savoy again anthony keane her ultraconfident attorney tells her in their first meeting predicting a fast and easy trial gregory peck plays the successful and debonair barrister she's no murderess he argues simplistically smitten by her beauty she's too fine a woman his attitude upsets his beautiful and increasing jealous wife gay ann todd unlike most hitchcock movies which are centered on the thriller and the mystery this one is more a romantic melodrama typical is the scene in which gay flings her head back and shakes her hair while bathed in light she deflects her husband's affections as she fears that he is beginning to fall in love with his client the dramatic music then comes up high as the camera dwells on mrs paradine's portrait nearby in the relatively unsatisfying first half little happens other than domestic squabbles and overtones of intense adulterous desires to the sound of sweeping violins gay tells anthony that he must get mrs paradine acquitted because if mrs paradine dies his heart will go with her if she is freed he will be able to forget her as part of the soap opera a mysterious louis jordan plays mr paradine's valet who has had some not to be discussed relationships charles coburn plays anthony's legal partner sir simon flaquer and charles laughton who looks like coburn is judge lord horfield this being proper british society they will all dine together at the judge's house not long before the case begins court tv junkies will probably pick up the many differences some subtle and others not between the american and the british judicial systems one for example of which i was not aware is that the barrister cannot speak to his own client during the recess if she is the process of testifying one sometimes wonders what the academy is thinking when they make their oscar nominations as the judge's wife lady sophie horfield ethel barrymore got a nomination for best supporting actress the film's only nomination for an inconsequential part with which she did little of merit so the big question is when does hitchcock make his obligatory at minutes into the film he leaves a train station carrying a large musical instrument case don't miss it in the second half the story finally comes alive when it gets into the courtroom the great master shows his hand there as the tensions build as rapidly in the second part as they lay fallow in the first watch how the camera angles are sometimes from the back and other times from way on high to set the exact tone for the trial's action as anthony explains it the simple case has only possibilities mr paradine poisoned himself mrs paradine did it or the valet did it the end includes many devastating revelations and some nice twists so it is too bad the first half is so languid the paradine case runs the picture is in black and white it is not rated but would be pg for mature themes and would be fine for kids around nine and up if they are interested
positive	it's wednesday march and a murder investigation is underway in charlotte south carolina the crime a young prostitute elizabeth renee zellweger has been brutally slain one half of her severed body was found in a bag at the train station the other half was discovered in a trunk at the harbor authority miles away the police duo of braxton chris penn and kennesaw michael rooker are strapped for leads at the moment they have only one possible suspect wayland tim roth a wealthy unemployed genius who graduated summa cum laude from princeton and appears to be the least likely character to commit such a heinous act that's the premise for deceiver a new thriller from the pate brothers jonas and josh who made their mark on the film world two years ago at sundance with the movie the grave deceiver plays out like a mind game between the intellectually superior wayland and the two cops captions early in the proceedings let us know that wayland's iq is by contrast kennesaw's is and braxton's is the setting is a police interrogation room where a lie detector test is about to be administered over three days as wayland returns to answer more questions the drama and tension among these three characters gradually escalates until inevitably it boils over other plot elements are thrown in for good measure wayland suffers from a peculiar kind of epilepsy that can in stressful situations render him virtually catatonic or extremely violent braxton a compulsive gambler is deep in debt to a local syndicate and kennesaw is haunted by a dark abusive side that delights in terrorizing women especially his wife rosanna arquette whom he suspects of being unfaithful the foibles and failings of these three are brought into the open as the mystery around elizabeth's death deepens and it becomes unclear who has the upper hand the suspect or his questioners deceiver which mostly transpires in a room and involves a lot of smart dialogue has the feel of a david mamet play edgy claustrophobic and tense the atmosphere is explosive and some of pivotal moments of confrontation are riveting deceiver has the power to grab an audience unfortunately in the end it succumbs to the need to throw in one last unexpected twist and this is its undoing for while this surprise will certainly shock most viewers it also stretches our credulity too much and raises more questions than it answers it's only an effective if you don't think too carefully about its full implications of course the film as a whole plays fast and loose with reality and logic police procedure is totally ignored and it's almost impossible to accept that any criminal investigation would or could proceed in this manner but the real focus in deceiver is on character interaction not plot details deceiver only occasionally gets out of the police station and those instances occur primarily during flashbacks featuring the prostitute the pates employ a number of interesting techniques to present vignettes from elizabeth's final days and hours the most intriguing of these is to use an unreliable narrator while underlining the discrepancies in his by visually showing what really happened moments like this are too effective to be dismissed as gimmicks the movie obviously fashioned in the manner of classic film noir drips atmosphere there are some fascinating stylistic touches for example although the setting is contemporary all of the telephones are rotary models cinematographer bill butler is given an opportunity to use unconventional camera work to liven up deceiver's look some of the things he tries mostly those that involve the contrast between light and shadow work exceptionally well while others like any of several lazy susan shots seem more like unnecessary visual tricks as wayland tim roth gives the film's top performance despite occasionally treading the tightrope between acting and overacting roth makes us believe that wayland is both as brilliant and as troubled as he's supposed to be the other two leads chris penn and michael rooker aren't as effective both play their characters like familiar types penn's performance is uninspired rooker's lacks subtlety some of the best work is turned in by the supporting actors renee zellweger in a role that's miles away from her turn in jerry maguire brings a note of vulnerability and humanity to a part that could easily have become a caricature rosanna arquette is solid as kennesaw's wife and michael parks delivers several wonderful scenes as a psychiatrist who's entrusted with evaluating wayland's condition one of the best things about deceiver is that it never talks down to the audience plot points aren't hammered home and although the ending has its weaknesses everything isn't spelled out in bold letters the pates give audience members credit for having brains which is an increasingly rare characteristic for film makers occasionally gripping and never uninteresting deceiver is a fine noir effort
positive	on april the most astonishing shipwreck in the history of the world occurred on that fateful night the titanic sunk now more than years later a film has been made and what a film that is james cameron's newest movie is a landmark in storytelling emotion and special effects it starts in the present where bill paxton and his band of scientists explore the depths of the ship's wreckage exploring an old chest paxton comes across a nude drawing of a young woman the drawing is televised and the woman gloria stuart whose portrait the painting is of comes forward and slowly but surely the ship's story is told leonardo dicaprio stars as jack dawson a young man with a sketch book a heart of gold an intelligent mind and not much else he wins his ticket aboard titanic in a poker game and is the perfect match for rose dewitt bukater kate winslett she grows to love jack but seems unable to escape the slimy clutches of her arranged fiance' cal hockley billy zane the film takes its time and by doing so makes us care about its characters and shows us the full aspects of human emotion the leads shine there is no bad performance in fact these do not seems like performances at all but genuine people trapped on the doomed vessel facing certain death watching this film i was amazed at how vivid and real these situations feel the time rose and jack spend together at a the naivety that jack feels when he skecthes rose nude the terror felt by all onboard as certain doom turns people into both cowards and heroes this the most expensive movie ever made million is destined to make its profit back and then some it also has more emotion and warmth than any other film this year even this decade it is also yet another first the first million dollar romance and every critic in this country will agree that it was indeed money extremely very well spent
positive	that thing you do from film director tom hanks is an enjoyable tale about a fictional band the wonders that goes from a garage band to the band with the fastest selling album in the country but the question arrises will the seduction of fame and fortune corrupt the band and lead them to become just another wonder or will they stick together and become the next teen sensations the oneders as they are originally known have their first gig at a very contest jimmy the lead singer has written a catchy song and intends to play it at the contest but a short time before the contest begins the current drummer becomes injured and a replacement is needed enter guy patterson skilled musician who currently works at his father's appliance store and is looking to break free from the restricting clutches that bind him he seems to fit in well until the group takes the stage when they begin to play guy's beat is much too fast and the pace is way off for the intended song it looks as though the group is doomed to failure but the new song is a hit this leads to another gig and soon enough the group has an agent he doesn't do too much for them but they do get their song played on the radio eventually mr white of playtone records approaches the group and he informs them that they want to release a record before you can say billboard the band is now renamed the wonders and the members are speeding their way to fame the gigs are getting better their fame is increasing and they have the fastest selling album in playtone records history the band is invited to appear in a feature film and they then fly out to hollywood to appear on television after the appearance on television things start to fall apart two of the members of the band pretty much disappear and things are not working out well between jimmy and guy will the band work it out or will they split up and go on their own separate journeys towards success that thing you do complete with a nifty original song that actually sounded authentic is a fun and enjoyable movie that although it doesn't become clear if it wants to be a comedy drama or romance is a look into the world of music tom hanks' directorial debut was a good one and should lead to more work for him
positive	synopsis an attractive mute makeup artist working on an slasher movie in moscow witnesses the production of a brutal snuff film and is subsequently chased by really bad russians meanwhile the artist's sister and boyfriend clumsily try to save her comments mute witness came as a surprise to me the first time i watched it drawn by the clever artwork on the video box i rented the film expecting a complete turkey mute witness however was original offbeat and it's one of those cool little finds that no one seems to know about i've subsequently found it at most video rental places i visit and it may be seen on occasion on the independent film channel the first hour of mute witness is extremely tense as billy the quite believable mute heroine sees members of the russian mob brutally kill a prostitute while filming an illegal snuff film the rest of the film takes good advantage of billy's vulnerable position as a mute foreigner in moscow being pursued by powerful criminal figures to throw a curveball into the fray billy's sister karen and her filmmaking beau become bizarre figures of comic relief to offset several violent sequences in what are some genuinely funny scenes a disappointingly trite ending and occasional comic blunders are the only two things which mar this otherwise suspenseful film look for alec guinness kenobi from the first star wars trilogy in a small role as the evil reaper definately check this movie out although as a word of warning it does contain several scenes of rather grisly violence which certainly aren't for the squeamish
positive	the grandfather of italian horror the late mario bava has credits in nearly films and tv movies produced in italy between and his death in the early more practiced as a cinematographer than a director bava nonetheless sat in the director's chair for beyond the door ii the project which turned out to be his last feature film alongside the appalling zombie schlock of hacks like lucio fulci beyond the door ii is simply a revelation in his day bava was considered by most to be no great filmmaker yet here he fashioned one of the finest italian horror movies of the note that the film has no connection with the off behind the door but for some unexplained reason was given this related title for release in the usa and australia this story focuses on dora a women set upon by a malevolent spirit that channels itself through her young son marco the film opens with dora her son and second husband bruno returning to a house by the sea that was the scene of her first husband's suicide and her subsequent trauma years earlier they hope to put the past behind them but as small accidents start to befall dora usually while bruno is away on business she starts to suspect that marco played with uncanny ability by year old david colin jr is somehow involved in the strange goings on to reveal any more of the story would be unfair suffice to say that this artfully paced study of a woman suffering a nervous breakdown offers an intriguing plot loads of atmosphere and solid acting though the dialogue is somewhat weakened by the dubbing into english bava coaches a surprisingly good performance from the usually wooden daria nicolodi wife of famed italian horror director dario argento her character is invested with sufficient depth to allow the audience real empathy with dora's troubled soul the music by italian ensemble libra is also effective mixing rock with classic gothic piano sequences and there is at least one moment brilliantly engineered by bava that is guaranteed to lift you ten feet out of your chair yet for italian horror the bloodletting here is surprisingly minimal lamberto bava and francesco barbieri's script is more concerned with deeper psychological terrors with themes of guilt and suffering with the notion that what we sow will shall somewhere somehow eventually reap scholars of the genre take note beyond the door ii is stylish chilling and essential
positive	based on the relatively unknown in comparison to marvel comic book blade tells the story of played by wesley snipes who was born of a vampire's latest meal now swearing vengeance against all vampires blade hunts them all his latest challenge is his biggest though he must stop the vampire deacon frost played by stephen dorff from summoning the blood god and turning the rest of the world into vampires admitedly comic books are one of the least appreciated mediums often viewed as juvenile by most standards even seen as illiterate by some judging by a series of poorly recieved financial and critical comic book based films such as batman and robin steel barb wire the crow city of angels and the list goes on one would come to the conclusion that comic books are the worst medium to translate into film to some degree i agree with this sentiment having read comic books since the age of nine i'm right now i can count the number of good comic book based movies not including japanese manga one hand the crow batman superman the mask and now blade men in black is not on this list because it is an extreme deviation from the original comic book why is this for the most part it is because the filmmakers understand the comic book medium and come up with an appropriate atmosphere to match the crow and batman comics call for a dark gothic atmosphere which the director provided the mask features a wacky superhero with off the wall antics which the casting and cg effects reflect superman is not over the top with colour and flash and the film reflects this blade uses common notions of vampires and incorporates them into the film creating an appropriate atmosphere this is in stark contrast to joel schumacher's contrived vision in batman and robin reflecting the dated atmosphere in the television show batman and robin proved that the director failed to realize one fundamental fact comics have grown up and so has the audience i'm working on a scathing review of batman and robin and will post it up when i'm ready which brings me back to blade although he may be a familiar character to some due to his appearances in the animated show on fox one will find no single trace of the vampire hunter as depicted in the cartoon the film depicts a vicious vampire killer that uses every single means at his disposal to reach his ends the end results are not pretty by any means the story elements work very well for a comic book story screenwriter david goyer who also wrote the crow incorporates interesting elements of vampire lore using science to explain many of the ideas often dismissed in vampire films this is presented through karen a hematologist portrayed by n'bushe wright this leads to inventive use of standard medical treatments to kill vampires add this to the neat little gadgets that blade uses including a titanium sword complete with an device and one has an interesting premise however the film works best as an action film actor wesley snipes has an extensive background in martial arts most of which comes from capoeira a brazillian form incorporating flashy kicks choreographing every single move proving that quick flash cutting edits are no substitute for choreographed fight sequences see batman and robin for a good example of that wesley snipes dazzles the audience with some incredible fight scenes regardless this film is far from perfect the film suffers from at least one major plot hole regarding the summoning of the blood god the ritual requires that a number of pure blood vampires are standing on marked squares yet one of them is viciously murdered allowing the ritual to pass and the murdered vampire is later shown standing on the square obvious continuity errors also surface especially during a scene where deacon frost takes a drag on his cigarette and is not exhaling it in the next frame there is no trace of smoke either much of the special effects are not that spectacular either while vampire disintegration scenes are intriguing to watch other cgi computer generated imagery effects are almost slapped together which is surprising when given the amount of time the film was given to be released the film's release date was pushed back multiple times scenes with computer generated blood look extremely fake knocking the believability factor down a few notches but then i'm really hard to impress the film's r rating comes from gory violence but the lack of realism made me wonder why it got such a rating for realistic violence watch saving private ryan the overuse of cgi in films has made me yearn for the days of director george romero and makeup wizard rob bottin both pioneers in the art of gore without extensive use of cgi still scenes involving special effects do surface and look much more impressive such as one particularly gruesome scene where a vampire tries to use blade's sword without deactivating the device wesley snipes is the saving grace behind what would have otherwise been a muddled mess while not talking much he is a grand physical presence leaving other comic book superheroes in the dust a decent by comic book film standards storyline also helps
positive	quentin tarantino seems to have a knack for giving his stars big careers after his pulp fiction many actors began receiving many offers for jobs john travolta made his and is now one of today's most bankable stars bruce willis proved his acting chops and is now considered an actual actor jackie brown on the other hand boasts quite a well known cast except for the main lead pam grier most likely you have heard of her and seen her in films but she's never really had a breakthrough performance her first film was in the roger beyond the valley of the dolls that is until now jackie brown is a highly anticipated feature film from quentin tarantino whose last film was the huge hit pulp fiction after mediocre acting jobs tarantino returns to what made his name a household one directing and writing jackie brown is the result and it is fantastic entertainment despite excellent direction from tarantino the cast steals the film giving one good performance after another pam grier gives a stunning performance as jackie brown and she is supported by an incredible mix of l jackson bridget fonda michael keaton robert de niro and robert forster more than likely you will see a few of these names in the oscar pool come oscar nominations describing a quentin tarantino film is very difficult as you really can't say much or you spoil it for everyone else i will tread lightly jackie brown opens with an impressive shot of jackie brown grier in a blue outfit walking through the airport the camera tracks along with her and ends up revealing her occupation we are also introduced to ordell robbie jackson who sells illegal guns to interested buyers for a hefty price ms brown carries the money from buyer to ordell in order to keep the cops away however an fbi agent keaton and a local l a cop michael bowen are out to find ordell and catch him while taking the money they try to reach him through beaumont livingston chris tucker one of ordell's buyers but he mysteriously ends up dead they try again through brown but she is hesitant to admit to any but after unknowingly carrying some drugs for one of ordell's friends fonda she is caught and sent to jail ordell pays her bail through a bail bond agent max cherry forster and then wants to find out what she told the cops after she claims to have said nothing she reveals the fact that she will tell them about ordell in order to stay out of prison ordell doesn't like this but they both come up with a scheme to throw the feds and cops off their track this scheme seems to be going as planned but unexpected occurances may or may not foul up their goal revealing more would spoil the fun of jackie brown and that's the biggest reason to go see a tarantino film tarantino seems to have a fascination with hitmen and unusual predicaments and slang terms but they are always done very well and believably his hitmen are normally cruel but pleasant in that nasty sort of way they talk like normal people except for when doing business and they are rude to their girlfriends of course this is a tarantino film and you know you can expect some awkward situations to arise and perhaps the biggest flaw with jackie brown is the slow middle section in which the pace begins to drop of course tarantino fixes this by moving onto the climax of the film adding a lot of his reservoir storytelling to it things are told from one person's perspective and then from another and then from another each time learning more and more this all leads up to a very interesting conclusion which decides who is on whose side on the technical side of jackie brown quentin tarantino directs it with the same style as he did with his film however this time around it isn't as nearly as impressive or original the writing on the other hand is quite good although i do find tarantino's use of slang terms offensive the story jumps back and forth in time as in pulp fiction but it's much more easy to understand his previous film needed a second viewing in order to understand the time differentiation but jackie brown is very simply to follow especially considering that the time is given during the leaps in time perhaps this is a result of the screenplay being written from the novel rum punch by elmore leonard the dialogue is pretty much intelligent and all the characters are fully realized the cinematography is very well done by guillermo navarro who has worked with tarantino on previous films and the editing is very good and as with pulp fiction the music is a highlight bringing back memorable songs from the and the acting side of jackie brown is unforgettable the performances are incredibly rich with hidden meaning behind every characters' actions nothing is quite as it seems and you can't really tell which side one person is on the real treat of course is pam grier who gives an astonishing performance as jackie brown her poor living conditions are superceded by her superior wits which play an important role in the film watching grieg i could tell what was going through her mind even if i didn't know what she was thinking her face portrays a lot of emotion that you can tell when she is sad happy or in deep thought bridget fonda gives a very good performance as a druggie couch potato i didn't even realize it was fonda until i saw her name in the final credits her performance actually reminded me of heather graham's in boogie nights michael keaton comes across very well as does michael bowen chris tucker has a small but effective performance samuel l jackson is very good but it seems to me that he was replaying his jules winnfield character from pulp fiction although much less cynical but no matter jackson is very strong in his role robert de niro is actually a little annoying at times but overall he does a good job as one of ordell's perspective clients and friends robert forster gives one of the best performances in the film as he has one of the most developed characters he is present throughout most of the film and he holds his own against jackson and grier jackie brown is rated r for language sex violence drug use and some offensive remarks as a film by itself jackie brown is a terrific piece of entertainment with a complex plot to draw viewers in however one can not help but compare it to tarantino's pulp fiction and expect great results when compared it comes up short but not that short it's a worthy effort with terrific acting and some impressive writing from elmore leonard and tarantino perhaps the best thing about jackie brown is the discovery of pam grier as a major hollywood actress i can't remember seeing her in anything except for a small role in mars attacks but hopefully she will get many more roles from this one expect to see her name floating around the oscar nominations and hopefully she will even be able to nab one
positive	the makers of jurassic park the director of speed conjure up a storm reviewed at eng wah's new jubilee cineplex at ang mo kio unlike earthquakes their fury is precise unlike hurricanes their reach is unlimited unlike fires there is no way to combat them unlike floods their terror is sudden excerpt from twister production notes i'm sure many of us living in this part of the world have never seen tornadoes or twisters before i for one have only seen the devastating effects and footage of tornadoes from news reports on tv and personally i feel destruction comes no where near the destruction caused by hurricanes and earthquakes that is until i saw twister the destruction caused by twisters may be precise not widespread but it moves very fast and its path of destruction is unpredictable it will suck in cars houses livestock etc basically anything in its path that is not firmly rooted to the ground and in twister you'll get to see all this close up twister tells a tale about a group of storm chasers these people are basically and for the sake of obtaining data on they risk their lives by literally chasing tornadoes trying to get as close as they can that is if the tornado does not suddenly decide to change its path towards them jo helen hunt is the leader of this pack of kamikazes while they are gearing up for the as predicted by satellite recon bill bill paxton a former leader of the team returns to settle some divorce papers with jo apparently bill has left his days for greener and more practical pastures as a television weatherman he catches up with his and follows the pack like the good ole days bringing his melissa jamie gertz along a woman toting around with a handphone jo has finally implemented bills initial idea of a device called dorothy which measurement's of a twister may lead to a better understanding on how tornadoes are formed so that a more reliable system can be implemented the problem is the device has to be placed very near the twister and in its path which is practically unpredictable of destruction in order for it to function to add to their current challenge there is another group of storm chasers that is led by jonas cary elwes and they too have a similar device thus begins the race jo's cheap government equipment with vehicles against jonas's computers and satellite with their sleek black vans plot wise there are not really anything to shout about twister is as predictable as any summer hit can get there is the danger of the twister the competition with more team and of course the settling of differences between jo and bill this part gives the film its human substance helen hunt bill paxton and the rest of the give only average performances and all of them take back seat to the main thespian in this movie the twister itself thanks to the impressive digital effects by ilm lucasfilm's industrial light and magic we get to see the terror and destruction caused by tornadoes up close from stripping barns and houses to lifting up livestock jan de bont once again proves his visual abiility thanks to his years of experience as a director of photography for action films for action sequences like his previous film speed the tornado sequences which are essentially the action sequences are well visualised and edited audiences will be holding tight to their chairs everytime a tornado comes on screen the surround sound effects sure does help a lot in stressing the terror of a twister the cinema must at the very least support digital sound to fully appreciate this twister is definitely an movie now that fever has begun to reside and people are getting bored of watching will smith whoop et's ass for the umpteenth time twister is your sure bet of bucks well spent watch it in a good theatre please the flying inkpot's rating system wait for the video a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
positive	there are times when the success of a particular film depends entirely on one actor's effort often a single performance can turn what might have been a rather mediocre movie into something worthwhile when one of these comes along i usually try to think about how many other people put work into the movie that there is no way one person could possible carry the entire project on his shoulders but sometimes there is simply no other explanation and such is the case with the hurricane this biopic about falsely convicted boxer rubin hurricane carter would normally be called norman jewison's hurricane as per the tradition of referring to a film belonging to a director but though he does decent work jewison cannot claim ownership of the hurricane because there is one reason this film works at all and his name is denzel washington washington plays carter a boxer who in was convicted of a shooting in a bar jailed for years he maintained that he had never committed the crimes but remained in jail after a second trial and countless appeals the situation changed when a group of canadians moved to washington and worked on freeing carter through the efforts of that group and carter's lawyers he was eventually freed when their case was heard in federal court and the judge ruled that rubin carter had been unfairly convicted the film details carter's childhood which had him in and out of jail because of the efforts of a racist cop dan hedaya when he finally got out of prison for good carter became a rising star as a middleweight pro boxer seemingly having his career on track until the police framed him for multiple homicide despite the efforts of political activists and celebrities he remained imprisoned flash forward to when lesra vicellous reon shannon a young boy living with a group of canadian tutors reads the book carter wrote while in prison the book entitled the sixteenth round opens young lesra's eyes to the injustice that was carter's life and he vows to help free the incarcerated boxer lesra convinces his canadian friends deborah unger liev schreiber john hannah to work with him towards his goal the hurricane leans on denzel washington he must carry virtually every scene by sheer force of will and he does so brilliantly it's probably accurate to say that washington does not embody rubin carter because he plays a character far stronger and nobler than any real person could hope to be it would perhaps be more accurate to say that washington embodies the character of rubin fictional personality invented solely for the film the actor's work is masterful washington throws himself into every moment refusing to keep the audience at arm's length we feel everything he feels the humiliation of having to return to prison after fighting so hard to make something of his life the pain of having to order his wife to give up the fight and the utter despair he feels when coming to the conclusion that all hope is lost washington's is a performance of weight and emotional depth he doesn't merely play angry happy or sad he feels it at the deepest level his work is masterful and for half of this film i realized that the scene i was watching would not have been nearly as affecting as it was if it had been in the hands of another actor norman jewison directs the film doing a reasonably good job of pacing and shot selection the hurricane moves quickly with no scene drawn out much further than necessary and the narrative galloping along nicely jewison handles his multiple flashbacks well the audience is always aware of just what the time and place of each scene is and nothing is terribly confusing his boxing scenes constructed with clear inspiration from raging bull get inside the action very well and they are believable as real sports footage jewison puts together a particularly nice scene by utilizing a pretty cool trick carter is sent to solitary confinement for days when he refuses to wear a prison uniform and jewison assisted by some wonderful acting from a game washington shows how carter gradually starts to lose his mind during the constant solitude and eventually we get three rubin carters arguing with each other in one cell jewison's best achievement in the hurricane is succeeding at showing how carter becomes an embittered man during his life and how he is able to break out of that bitterness and learn to trust people again sadly though the film's chief failures lie with the screenplay as with most of the efforts to round the pike this winter there is much to interest a viewer in the hurricane but it seems that every time the film gets a chance to take the most clich d route possible it does take a look at the supporting characters for example who are drawn up as either entirely good or entirely evil carter and lesra played nicely by shannon who deserves credit are the only real people here everyone else is a stereotype the canadians are good the cops are bad the canadians spend most of their time dolefully grinning at each other in their commune and it is a commune despite the film's failure to make that clear while every racist cop especially dan hedaya's melts in out of the shadows and glowers at every black person that enters the room much of the dialogue comes off as rather hokey hate put me in prison love's gonna bust me out and the big courtroom climax during which everyone gets to make an impassioned speech could have been lifted from a lifetime special it's too bad the cast is game the director does his job and the subject matter is interesting but the script takes the safer slightly more boring route far too often i wanted a real reason for the cop to hold a grudge against carter other than he's a racist pig i wanted more evidence that these canadians are real people with faults and virtues instead of a bunch of saintly crusaders looking for justice in short i wanted to see the film through a less distorted lens criticism has been levied against the liberties the hurricane takes with the truth of what really happened to carter and much of it is deserved for example the film gives us a boxing scene showing carter pummeling defending champ joey giardello only to be screwed by the judges who ruled giardello the winner most accounts of the fight however have carter losing fairly furthermore much of carter's criminal past is conveniently left out of the film and just why he was convicted again in his second trial is never really explained of course the hurricane works mainly as a fable so digressions from the truth can be excused at least partially but even dismissing such issues don't remove one fact the hurricane is a highly flawed film only one actor could have made a schmaltzy predictable picture like this work as well as it does and it's a good thing the hurricane has that actor carter has been quoted as saying denzel washington is making me look good but he's not the only one washington makes this film look good denzel washington's the hurricane sounds pretty good to me
positive	contact is a nobly intentioned but ultimately unsatisfying adaptation of carl sagan's only novel it details the circumstances surrounding the first clear sign of intelligent life in outer space and their effects on the life of a young and idealistic radio astronomer named ellie arroway jodie foster we first meet ellie at a giant radio telescope in puerto rico where she is part of the seti search for extraterrestrial intelligence project her research is quickly killed however by her highly political david drumlin tom skerrit who disdains pure research in favor of science with commercial applications she goes in search of private funding and is turned down at every step until she pitches her project to a corporation run by the mysterious s r hadden john hurt then with that money just about to finally dry up ellie is sitting out in the desert near the very large array in new mexico when she hears over her headphones a very powerful pulsing radio signal in the movie's most exciting and believable sequence ellie and her coworkers determine that the signal has to be coming from the star vega at first the signal appears to be just sequences of prime numbers then it turns out to be a tv signal of the berlin olympics bounced back to earth from years before further decoding with hadden's help reveals another layer to message containing detailed plans for a massive and complex machine it appears that the machine is a transport that will allow one person to travel to the aliens' home world of course the big question becomes who gets to ride it right after who's gonna pay for this thing to boil it down ellie gets denied the seat in the machine because she bluntly acknowledges her atheism while drumlin gets to go because he rather insincerely professes his deep religious faith drumlin is killed and the machine destroyed when religious fanatics bomb the launch platform apparently to keep godless science from talking to god or something like that then hadden reappears with startling news he has secretly constructed a second machine off the coast of japan and has reserved the ride for ellie in whom he has taken a rather paternal interest ellie boards the machine and is transported through some kind of wormhole to a place that looks a lot like waikiki beach before they built the hotels where she meets the aliens who take the form of her late father david morse when she returns home no one believes her she was not even gone for one second they say even though she remembers being gone for hours her story is officially discredited although believed by a large segment of the public who don't even have to know that her computer records of the trip contain nothing but static   eighteen hours worth of static there is a lot to like about contact so i will highlight those points first ellie arroway is a character portrayed by one of the best actresses currently working neither the character nor the performance has the same depth as clarice starling in silence of the lambs but that's a tough standard to meet ellie is interesting in that she is woman defined by a strange array of father figures her real father is an idealized movie dad who does nothing in the film but love his daughter unconditionally drumlin comes across as a distant stepfather to whom ellie is like an irritating teenager who wants to use his toys to get into trouble hadden obviously has affection for ellie but in the end he seems to see her as his creation nothing more than his favorite piece on the chess board even palmer joss matthew mcconaughey ellie's love interest takes a paternalistic interest in ellie seeing her as a misguided person who needs protection from her own impulses the film is technically impressive especially in the scenes where the message is first received and during the destruction of the first machine the part of the film dealing with the message has the best presentation of real science in a film since the andromeda strain the film falls apart when dealing with its central theme the dichotomy between science and religion this is a very real debate but contact boils it down to a simplistic level that never really touches on the actual issues involved the film presents science pretty well until the end so the real problem stems from it presentation of religious faith religious people are presented as shallow caricatures rob lowe plays a ralph reed clone named richard rank very subtle guys the voice of the religious right another religious figure is the fanatic who blows up the first machine jake busey the only really religious person palmer joss is supposed to be a minister of some sort but his actual faith is left pretty vague i can't even say for certain that he was supposed to be a christian all we know is that he dropped out of the seminary and obviously has no qualms about sex the film drops the science ball at the very end when ellie appears to assert that there are some things even scientists must take on faith in a day and age when the theory of evolution is denounced by the religion right as an atheist religious doctrine this is exactly the wrong message to send in a movie dealing with issues of science and faith the last thing you want your scientist character to do is abandon the principle of scientific skepticism what ellie should have said was you shouldn't believe me not without evidence and i don't have the evidence i know what happened but you shouldn't take my word alone that is the voice of science speaking the character of david drumlin is another problem with this film his attitudes toward pure research project seem out of place for a person in his position also his profession of faith before the selection committee is so nakedly and transparently insincere that only a pack of idiots should have fallen for it the last big problem is with the use of real personalities in various roles the media figures such as bernard shaw and jay leno aren't so bad in as much as their participation was voluntary the use of bill clinton however should give anyone pause first of all lifting the image of a sitting head of state and inserting him into a fictional story line thus using his words outside of the context in which they were spoken is just plain creepy also using the real president places this film between and forever dating it people watching this film in the future will say hey this never took place during clinton's term this bit of unreality will jar people out of their suspension of disbelief also the level of technology portrayed in the film is too advanced to take place before the first decade of the next century better to have had a fictitious president played by an actor or no president at all the film does raise an interesting question although it never develops it in a satisfying way if we were picking an emissary to send to an alien culture would an atheist be automatically disqualified just because ninety percent of the population of the world professes a belief in god or at least some form of supernatural creator personally i would hope not since religion is basically an opinion a form of ideology i would not want any form of ideological test for such an import task
positive	david cronenberg presents us with another strange tale crawling out of his impressively twisted head it is one of many science fiction films released during the last year of this millenium that tackles issues that will play an important role in our future the story unfolds in a near future where the line between reality and virtual reality blurs the world of the future is an unfriendly place where the scared inhabitants are hiding in virtual reality fantasy games to escape the uncertainty of the real world allegra geller jennifer jason leigh the leading game designer in the world is testing her new virtual reality game existenz with a focus group as they begin she is attacked by a fanatic assassin employing a bizarre organic gun she flees with a young marketing trainee ted pikul jude law who is suddenly assigned as her bodyguard unfortunately her pod an organic gaming device that contains the only copy of the existenz game program is damaged to inspect it she talks ted into accepting a gameport in his own body so he can play the game with her the events leading up to this and the resulting game lead the pair on a strange adventure in a world where individuality doesn't exist as the players are forced to perform as characters in an unknown plot here the reality and their actions are impossible to determine from either their own or the game's perspective i don't intend to reveal more of the film's premise which is structured as a computer game with tasks that the characters must complete to win the game released after the matrix and dark city existenz has some similarities and parallels that connect it to these films however existenz is moving in a different direction with a premise of its own a combination of dazzling special effects brilliantly coordinated action sequences and an intelligent and sophisticated plot made the matrix a rare and entertaining science fiction experience with some dark and frightening ideas hidden under its sparkling facade existenz has a completely different atmosphere resembling dark city which is darker more serious and less entertaining existenz has the opportunities and potential but the enormous possibilities are never quite explored after the engaging beginning it starts to falter while i was watching the film many left the theatre during the first hour and indeed existenz seemed as a complete failure the actors seemed unreal the plot and dialogue silly unfinished relationships and unexplained events followed one after another but the last fifteen minutes lifted the film on a complete different level explaining all past events the silly dialogue and the unreal performances within a few scenes and jet the film fails on several issues probably the best written character in the story is a game designer who would rather spend the rest of her life in a virtual world than face real life this is a great possibility to create a magnificent character and jennifer jason leigh stretches cronenberg's script to the limits but fails because the advantages of virtual reality in comparison to the real world are never shown existenz is not a world of which you might dream about in your fantasies it is not a world worth sacrificing your life for it's a cold dark place where the players are forced to interrelate with unreal characters eat mutated creatures and even murder against their own will it doesn't look like a place worth even thinking about david cronenberg has been the creator of the fly videodrome and the dead zone so it's not so hard to guess that existenz is a violent and gory film besides the regular murders of innocent people the audiences can enjoy an autopsy of a mutated amfibium scenes like that have become a trademark for cronenberg and it seems that he can't make a film without flowing blood and foul creatures the way i see it this is the film's crucial failure it is impossible for cronenbergto create a beautiful world where time space and problems of our everyday life do not exist a place of blooming blossoms green forests and clear waters a place really worth sacrificing your life for because of its lack of three dimensionality the film looses most of its possibilities but stays afloat because of some interesting scenes amusing performances especially by willem dafoe and one interesting and important thought depicted in many different ways throughout the movie during the film the audience is as confused as the characters detached from their everyday existence and no longer able to see the difference between the real world and the alternative reality that they have created the matrix despite of its many dark and disturbing thoughts ends with a light at the end of the tunnel existenz does not it is a one time experience ending in blood gore and madness a rather frightening forecast for tomorrow
positive	seven is one of the best mystery movies i've ever seen it's extremely intriguing and suspenseful but it's also quite fun it's a serial killer mystery but you don't care so much about making the killer pay as much as hope they just catch the killer the story is a mystery someone is murdering people who are offenders of the seven deadly sins a fat man gluttony was forced to eat himself to death a lawyer greed is slaughtered by his own rich possessions i could go on but revealing any more would give away entirely too much what makes this film so unique is the characterization of the good guys which makes the unseen villain seem so vile brad pitt stars is quite excellent as detective david mills the cocky rookie however morgan freeman is even better as detective william sommerset the wise veteran on the verge of retirement and he doesn't get killed by the end there is a great sense of camaraderie here which often provides for a breath of comic relief this is impressive because the mood is so tense and the fact that it can be as well as it is here let alone at all is quite an accomplishment the setting takes place in present day new york city but the art direction is able to give the city a feeling of the evil scary place many believe it to be the production design is superb in the spirit of batman and the crow this film embodies the gothic mood the way the words fade in and out along with the freaky nine inch nails music really add a lot to the story on a subconscious level even the credits are scary the killer's victims have no connections at all and thus mills and sommerset don't have much to go on to solve the case they can only wait for the next murder to occur which makes for tremendous suspense we become just as tense and worried as the detectives because of this thick atmosphere of the unknown not that many films have such an interesting and intriguing screenplay as this the only problem i had with the film is the way in which mills and sommerset are lead to a suspect let's just say it seems a little too mystery movie or too convenient in other words when they are led to a suspect by the name of john doe a terrific chase scene ensues this is a typical thrilling element but it works perfectly here because of the process of the story if anything this film is the epitome of twist endings i don't have to tell you mills and sommerset finally catch the criminal but the way in which this happens is surprising there is a scene of intriguing philosophy between the killer and the detectives and even though he's obviously insane his charisma makes for some good points what's even more surprising is the last few scenes themselves as the suspense comes to a terrific climax as the film's resolution comes down to a question of what justice really is seven is not just a film about crime but about the evil within man john doe felt he was doing society a favor by ridding it of scum but as justified as he makes himself seem we must never be tempted by such twisted ideals of justice
positive	after hearing reviews for woody allen's upteenth movie in history celebrity range from terribly boring to just my heart lept when the opening images of the film closely resembled that of manhattan my personal favorite from my personal favorite director of all time woody allen's films almost never rely on visual flair over textual flair so when one of his films closely resembles the one time that these two entities fit manhattan really is one of the films i've ever seen beautiful black and white photography of the city's best areas etc a fan can't help but feel visibly moved the film opens up with the usual credits with plain white font over black backgrounds and an old ironic standard playing on the soundtrack but then the screen fills with a gorgeous dull gray sky with the word help being spelled with an airplane beethoven's blasts on the soundtrack the city seems to stop to take notice of this moment and it's all rather lovely to look at and then we cut to a film crew shooting this as the film's hilariously banal key moment in the film where the lead actress in the film melanie griffith looking as buxom and beautiful as ever has to realize something's wrong with her life or whatever it's a terribly stale scene for a woody allen film with the great opening shots or without and my heart sank and i soon got used to the fact that once again a new film of his was not going to be as great as his past works though for the record last year's deconstructing harry came awfully close what the hell has happened to him the man who once could be relied on for neurotic freshness in cinema has not become less funny but his films have become less insightful and more like he tossed them together out of unfinished ideas bullets over broadway though wonderful relies on irony to pull a farce that just never totally takes off mighty aphrodite is more full of great moments and lines than a really great story everyone says i love you was more of a great idea than a great film even deconstructing harry is admittingly cheap in a way even if it does top as one of his most truly hilarious films if anything the reception of celebrity by everyone should tip allen off to the fact that this time it's not the audience and critics who are wrong about how wonderful his film is it's him celebrity is yes a good film but it's only marginally satisfying as a woody allen film instead of creating the great woody allen world he's created a world out of a subject he knows only a bit about and he's fashioned a film that is based almost entirely on his uninformed philosophy of celebrities so that it plays like a series of skits with minor connections it's like la dolce vita without the accuracy the right amount of wit and the correct personal crisis woody becoming more insecure in his old age choses to drop the woody allen character in on the world of celebrities and then hang him and all his flaws up for scrutiny and does this by casting not himself but brit actor kenneth branagh in the lead much has been said about his performance dead on but irritating makes one yearn for the real thing blah blah blah but to anyone who actually knows the woody allen character knows that branagh's performance though featuring some of the same mannerisms stuttering whining lots o' hand gestures is hardly a impersonation branagh brings along with him little of the woody allen charm which actually allows for his character's flaws to be more apparent woody's a flawed guy and we know it but we love him anyway because he's really funny and really witty and really intelligent branagh's allen is a bit more bad but with the same charm so that yes we like him but we're still not sure if he's really a good person or not his character lee simon is first seen on the set of the aforementioned movie hits on extra actress winona ryder then goes off to interview griffith who takes him to her childhood home where he makes a pass at her and she denies him sorta we then learn through flashbacks that lee has been sucked into trying to be a celebrity thanks to a crisis and an appearance at his high school reunion he has since quit his job as a travel journalist and become a gossip journalist of sorts covering movie sets and places where celebrities congregate so that he can meet them and maybe sell his script a bank robbery movie but with a deep personal crisis as such he has divorced his wife of several years allen regular judy davis and continues on a quest for sexual happiness boucing from girlfriend to girlfriend and fling to fling over the course of the film after griffith comes his escapades with a model charlize theron who is polymorphously perverse glad to see allen is using new jokes ha ha who takes him for a wild ride not different from that of the anita ekberg segment of la dolce vita following are his safe relationship with smart working woman famke janssen a relationship that almost assures him success and his continued escapades with ryder whom he fancies most of all his story is juxtaposed with that of davis who flips out but stumbles onto happiness when she runs into a handsome friendly tv exec joe mantegna who lands her a job that furthers her career to national status while lee is fumbling about selfishly trying to ensure his own happiness davis becomes happy i've become the kind of woman i've always hated and i'm loving it without doing a thing the result is a film of highs and mediums the mediums are what take up most of the film with sitations and scenes which don't exactly work but you can't help but pat allen on the back for trying but other places are really great scenes the opening the sequence with theron which is so good that i wished it hadn't ended a banana scene with bebe neuwirth droll as ever and perhaps the best sequence a romp with teen idol brandon darrow played by none other than leo dicaprio who is so that if any of this fans could sit through this film they'd never look at him the same way he ignites the screen with intensity and spares nothing in showing his character as narcissistically tyrannical and totally heartbreaking for lee who comes to him to talk about his script that he has read and finds himself on a wild ride with him they go to atlantic city to watch a fight they gamble and they wind up in his hotel room where darrow gets it on with his flame gretchen mol and he lends him one of the leftover groupies allen's writing in these scenes are so good that just for them i'd almost recommend the film almost but what i really liked about this film is despite the fact that it's a mess despite the fact that what this film really needs is a good old fashioned rewrite by allen himself it's still a smart and insightful film though some of the jokes are either stale or misplaced some seem too cartoonish even for this environment allen still manages to get across that this film is not exactly about celebrities as it may seem to be if it were it'd be extremely but about those who want to be celebrities and how they equate with happiness we never get close enough to the actual celebrities to see if they're really happy they may appear to be on the surface but we do get close enough to lee and davis' character lee is obsessed with the phenomenon while davis takes is at arm's length and never gets too involved in what it is and soon becomes one herself besides it's witty and it does have the one thing that no other film has but allen's that great woody allen feel it may be not exactly fresh and lively or totally brilliant in its depiction of its subject and yes as a part of woody allen's oeuvre it's merely a blip no annie hall but it's no shadows and fog either but it goes to prove that no one can make a film like him and only he and maybe godard could possibly take a totally horrible metaphor like the one in the beginning and make it work not once but twice
positive	an astonishingly difficult movie to watch the last temptation of christ may be scorsese's most important film and yet his most impossibly abstract as well scorsese presents the life of jesus christ through nikos kazantzakis' novel which details the life of christ from approximately until the day of crucifixtion jesus of nazareth dafoe is a carpenter who opens the film making crosses so that he can escape the fate he is subjected to his destiny on earth yet he soon learns his evil ways for aiding in the deaths of others and subjects himself to a desert in exile in hopes that he can reach god before leaving he asks for forgiveness from mary magdelene barbara hershey a prostitute who is also a childhood friend of jesus  after going to the desert christ learns his true purpose in life and what he must do aided by judas keitel he sets off on teaching the world his message along the way he meets john the baptist the rest of the prophets and tries to teach the world his message christ is also confronted by internal demons and as he tries to find his true purpose throughout the entire film during the story judas is the closese ally of jesus his betrayal argues the film was not out of hate but out of love in order to allow christ to die  he is eventually captured and crucified as per the bibile however as he is about to die on the cross he is saved by a girl who brings him to his marriage with mary magdelene the girl is a guardian angel who is from god and who has saved him from his death jesus goes on to live a life as a man as a carpenter and does not die on the cross on his deathbed in the final moments of his life he is visited by the prophets and by judas who denounces his master for not keeping his end of the bargain judas reveals the angel to truly be the devil and the life jesus had lived to be the ultimate selfish act jesus escapes from his deathbed and asks his father for forgiveness for succumbing to his last temptation visually and aurally the film is absolutely breathtaking no other director has even come close to realizing jerusalem during the time of christ's life to the screen peter gabriel contributes a score than is simply astonishing with pulsing rhythms that capture the viewer the performances are simply exquisite with dafoe leading the way with a mesmerizing turn as jesus keitel although his accent is a problem is passionately brilliant fighting through language to bring the character to life the visuals are also amazing scorsese frames his movie in a harsh tone leaving the impression that jesus truly is a man who is having human frailties the film though has many trouble spots paul schrader's script is one schrader uses new york english to tell the story along with new york words new york mannerisms and new york slang speech the film also does not focus on the godly aspects of christ there is no underlying message behind the man's words the film fails to capture the glory and splendor of christ had it faithfully explored that aspect than the dichotomy of jesus' soul his frailties and doubt mixed with his unmistakable glory would have been simply spectacular the message of christ is confused between love and violence and the film merely tells us jesus is great instead of showing us his greatness the film is also overlong it just drags in the middle with nothing truly happening christ is a confused figure in the sense that the audience doesn't know who he really is schrader forgets to give jesus a message to show that he truly is the messiah to give him the divinity without that he is a rambling prophet who the audience themselves do not believe there are several moments of accidental hilarity and most of them occur when jesus is attempting to preach there are moments of brief awe and power followed by moments of confused hilarity that said the controversial temptation sequence is something to behold it is a step in an unexpected direction one that leaves the audience puzzled until the arrival of the disciples it is a simply breathtaking scene with jesus about to die as a mortal it is truly one of scorsese's finest moments it is unfortunate that scorsese couldn't make a film about christ as powerful as that one scene 
positive	call me crazy but i don't see saving private ryan as the film of the summer a good movie yes with chillingly realistic battle scenes and emotion to spare an utterly riviting movie on par with steven spielberg's best work no personally if i was spielberg i wouldn't go back to the world war ii era one more time after schindler's list and the indiana jones movies i'm guessing steve has a thing for nazis i really wouldn't be surprised if a velociraptor ate one of the dudes in the next jurassic park movie all lofty pretenses aside saving private ryan is the goriest movie this side of a slasher flick the difference is it's easy during friday the to laugh off a spear sticking out of kevin bacon's chest while blood spurts like crazy but it's damn hard to sit and eat reese's pieces while soldiers suffer machine gun bullets to the head and have their intestines spilled out onto the battlefield and believe me there's plenty of it a sequence at the beginning of the movie has an army captain tom hanks and his soldiers landing at omaha beach to join countless other americans who are already under fire lives are lost in seconds as the purposefully confusing and jarring scene goes on and on and all the young men in the audience find themselves never ever wanting to be drafted cut to some bureaucratic defense office where a hundred women pound out sympathy form letters to the families of the casualties one woman happens upon an interesting detail three brothers in different platoons were killed in combat and their mother is getting the telegram today i guess it's an interesting conversation piece to everyone but the mother so the army chief harve presnell sends hanks on what is essentially a public relations mission to find the fourth ryan brother and send him home that way the army saves the postage on yet another telegram to mrs ryan one good thing about saving private ryan is that the soldiers who are headed to rescue ryan know it's a mission designed to make the army look good they question the worth of risking eight soldiers' lives to save one and hanks' character admits he doesn't give a damn about ryan he's just following orders if this was a john wayne movie things would be different there'd be a phony let's go get that boy gosh darn it attitude that would sugarcoat the reality of war by doing things this way spielberg admits the instincts of preservation and complacency that every normal person has it makes saving private ryan a lot more powerful than an stallone movie mission the movie's pattern is to have long battle scenes followed by quiet scenes of conversation among the soldiers hanks is painted first as a army man careful to hide his true self from the other men it's not that way for long edward burns the guy you get for your movie when ben affleck isn't available is the impulsive one jeremy davies plays the translator who is seeing combat for the first time and so on none of the characters are fascinating or natural born heroes but was spielberg's obvious intention i wondered when i heard saving private ryan was three hours long how were they going to fill three hours' time searching for one person and still make it interesting there are a few false starts hanks finds one private ryan in ted danson's company apparently danson joined the army after ink was canceled and breaks the bad news before learning it's the wrong ryan and of course the movie's far from over when hanks does locate ryan matt damon the other guy you get when affleck isn't available that's when the movie turns into more of a conventional war flick although body parts and limbs still fly like never before saving private ryan is worth your time but it's definitely no schindler's list the battle scenes are intense and realistic but some of the attempts at sincere emotion aren't the movie's bookends are particularly cheesy and out of place when an old private ryan goes to the cemetary with his family and bawls his eyes out whining tell me i've led a good life tell me i'm a good man spielberg was apparently following the james cameron line of thought that any movie about the past should be framed by a prologue and epilogue that takes place in the present much more effective are subtler scenes like the one where several of hanks' men are rifling thrugh a bag of dogtags from dead soldiers and they make light of what they're doing by pretending they're playing poker this while an airborne division marches by their eyes full of that mound of dogtags by not explicitly pointing out that it symbolizes the random poker game that life and death can be in war the audience gets the message and even if it's not a classic saving private ryan is definitely one of the better war movies out there
positive	seen august at p m at rotterdam square cinemas rotterdam ny theater by myself for free using my critic's pass rating good seats sound and war is a topic that can't help but be glorified any way it is portrayed by the media movies documentaries and even history books have a way of making the darker side of humanity exciting since the most general aspects are focused on such as strategy politics and victory it's easy to forget war in its most basic form is a battle of armies out to slaughter each other forgotten more easily is the fact that each soldier no matter what his rank or importance is a real person and not just a number saving private ryan is one of the few films that dares play up this aspect especially in its unapologetic realistic delivery it proves there's a huge difference between battling and killing the film opens with one of the most graphic disturbing scenes in recent memory it's world war ii to be exact and the u s military is invading omaha beach where the nazis are more than ready for them spielberg uses many techniques to create for a total sense of reality instead of positioned cameras the footage here seems to have been shot by camera operators running alongside soldiers as if they were just as scared there is no sense of stability but of constant anxious and confusing motion giving us the feeling of being in the middle of the battle and just a vulnerable as the poor troops poor is a proper word to describe how pathetic and yet innocent the men fighting are there is little to no dialogue throughout the loud battle and no prologue to define any characters we don't get the feeling these are handsome actors playing heroic roles but that these are men about to kill and be killed for reasons beyond their understanding the nazis are not portrayed as enemies to be hated but as people that must be destroyed because they're there in the movies the good guys can run through a firestorm of bullets and bombs and not get a scratch but in reality that wouldn't happen the men have nothing to shield or protect them besides some metal flanks and dead bodies they are sitting ducks and we realize this through the perspective of the germans who can actually see who what and where they're shooting unlike the americans who must fire in a general direction to avoid getting their heads blown off perhaps the film is flawed by not providing any backstory on the war itself and who the men really are but that seems to be part of the theme the film seems to rely on the audience's sense of patriotism that the american military is right and good and that the nazis are inherently evil the battle scene eventually focuses on a group of men who have miraculously survived and made their way close to the enemy stronghold a whole progression and begin to inflict some damage i have to admit that once the first glimpse of victory over the nazis sprang up i couldn't help but feel some sense of joy and relief to triumph against all odds is a cliche to be sure but there's nothing cliche about the graphic detailed atmosphere here because it really happened one of the most surprising aspects of the film is how little story construction there is and yet the events that take place make sense and are interesting the plot is practically irrelevant since the film is more concerned with the reality of the war and the soldiers we meet tom hanks stars as captain miller a relatively average man who happens to be the leader of a platoon he's never obsessive or any such generic cartoonish characteristic that might dominate a character like this he doesn't want to be there any more than his men but when he is given a mission he intends to carry it out the mission the film is concerned with is as the title states saving private ryan through a series of command started by an ordinary clerical worker it is brought to a general's attention that three brothers from iowa have been killed in action and their mother will receive notices of each's death simultaneously when they learn a fourth brother is stationed somewhere in europe they make it a top priority to have him returned safely to his mother it's easy to sympathize with this situation after all no one should have to lose all their children at once but finding one man in this war is as miller puts it like trying to find a needle in a stack of needles the saving of private ryan isn't just a dramatic device but a thematic one his salvation represents the sense of innocence the country the world even was trying to convince itself it still had when miller's company hears of the mission they scoff at the idea assuming he is dead but miller isn't so quick to shrug it off he knows the only thing that can really save soldiers from death is hope and now he has the opportunity to make someone's sense of hope a reality the mission to find ryan gives miller's group a destination but not direction along the way many things happen to them both good and bad a few battles are fought not to be major accomplishments for the war but because they encounter german soldiers and have no other choice the act of killing itself becomes one of the film's major philosophical metaphors the soldiers don't mind killing other soldiers in blind battle but when they come across a lone survivor who begs them to let him go they can barely stop themselves from killing him in cold blood as some kind of vengeance for their losses unfortunately death is a fact of war and most films try to avoid it when it comes to the main characters but here spielberg doesn't want us to think these men are invincible in fact only a small amount of color and personality is sketched into each man and the performances are good enough to make this method work although the characters are somewhat typical the actors maintain control over the material at all time whether they're arguing with each other telling stories of back home or fighting the germans they never go overboard and always seem believable sure there's a zinger here and there but war doesn't change the fact boys will be boys if and when one dies we too can feel the loss even though we hardly knew them the final act brings the story full circle with another tremendous violent battle sequence private ryan has been found but facing four to one odds can the americans defeat the germans and keep ryan alive that's not a premise for thrills it's symbolic of everything the film has worked for it would be wrong to say the film has either a happy or sad ending it ends the way it must end i remember reading a calvin hobbes comic strip where calvin asked his dad something like dad how do armies of men killing each other solve problems saving private ryan is the adult version of that question
positive	placid' is definately not your typical creature attacking people movie ok so maybe it is but this one is enjoyable and clever actually it comes off more of a comedy than a horror film well the ending is kinda scary but in most they are i will admit that placid' isn't an oscar worthy film but it does come off as an inventive movie that is original and funny bridget fonda plays a palentologist who after finding out her boyfriend is cheating is forced to go to lake placid and investigate a tooth after a man is bit in half she gets there but really doesn't understand why she is there bill pullman plays a man also investigating what happened along with the sherriff and a rich croc obsessed man they go out and find what is going on what they find though isn't great a huge and i mean huge crocodile is living in lake placid over years old he has migrated here for who knows why they have to fight against the croc and try to trap him so they can study him and see where he came from betty white plays a woman who lives on the shores of lake placid and well you'll have to see the movie to find out her character is very funny and which is surprising to hear betty spew words and phrases that are pretty bad but funny to me the movie came off as a spoof of jaws with the opening sequence and some others it is not original and is when you watch this movie you definately notice the smartness and cleverness of it david e kelly who is the mastermind of the practice and ally mcbeal writes this movie with ease and surprisingly does a great job the characters have smartmouths two foul and some great but believe me don't take placid' too seriously or you won't like it but it is a movie that can be enjoyed as a fun type movie but i guess it rates above the rating sit back watch the movie laugh scream and whatever you want even though the movie is r and i put violence and gore there's really not that much gore but what there is might seem kinda gross to some placid' is a smart clever funny and scary movie that i enjoyed and i think you will too
positive	a lot of times a film will be my favorite they're usually the kind of movie i can watch most often too they're usually not too deep allowing for relaxation and at the same time not too dumb men in black is a film hope you could follow that one men in black doesn't wait to get to the fun just minutes into the film we are introduced to agent kay tommy lee jones introduced to an alien and introduced to the the awesome tool that all mib agents use after all you can't have alien witnesses running around with that kind of knowledge can you men in black is of course the organization which moniters all activity on earth nypd officer james edwards will smith is on a routine foot chase when suddenly the punk he's chasing starts leaping up buildings and blinking more than one pair of eyes the alien delivers the simple message that the world is going to end and with that dives off of a roof naturally nobody believes his story   nobody that is except for the top secret organization that not even the government is aware of edwards then meets agent kay the man who never seems to crack a smile and is introduced to the mib edwards winds up joining the team and is stripped of anything that can point back to him birth certificate drivers license and even the literal removal of his fingerprints james edwards no longer exists meet agent jay agent kay takes the rookie jay under his wing as they go about regular duties eventually a far more treacherous event comes into play a bug has landed on earth and is going to wipe out mankind if these two don't or can't stop it the plot isn't exactly clear but we know it has to do with a galaxy as big as a jewel or marble being sought after on earth and that is crucial that the mib find it before the bug does barry sonnenfeld who also did the addams family films directs this nicely it's fun it's funny it's a nice summer blockbuster as it rightfully turned out to be this is one of those movies that is just fun and can't really be summed up any nicer or clearer will smith and tommy lee jones both do great jobs and both are a blast to watch definitely one of the best films of the the summer of men in black comes highly recommeded from me
positive	what if one of our cities became the target for terror what can we do what can america really do about the increasing threat of terrorism what basic human rights are we willing to sacrifice to prevent another oklahoma city disaster so far america has been the leading nation opposing the fundamentalist terrorists around the world it is the land of opportunities it is the land of freedom but what if it became the new target this dark fantasy has unfortunately a very strong grounding in reality when a special branch of the united states military under the command of general william devereaux bruce willis takes prisoner suspected terrorist mastermind sheik ahmed bin talal islamic fundamentalists across the world take notice the only warning the fbi receives is a single cryptic message release him then all hell breaks loose in new york a bus is destroyed killing civilians a broadway theater is bombed hostages are taken at a school as the wave of terrorist activity crests the president must consider if the only way to save the city and break the grip of fear is to declare martial law devereaux argues against that eventuality but is nevertheless ready to lead men into action on american soil another person not in favor of martial law is anthony hubbard denzel washington the fbi agent in charge of investigating the terrorist activities his staff is comprised of smart energetic intelligent men and women very much unlike the usual group o f moronic feds we're used to seeing in movies hubbard develops an uneasy alliance with cia agent elise kraft annette bening whose department knows more about the situation than they're willing to reveal but the attacks escalate the fbi are helpless chasing an invisible enemy the land is under siege they have lost control a terror is coming from within what's great about this film is that it is made as if holding up a mirror to life it reflects reality and that's why it makes such an impact edward zwick has created a clever well written and terrifying thriller that may very well be one of the best films of the season the director manages to tell several stories simultaneously and so his film plays on several levels never loosing focus on its main objective he is exploring the abuse of power the distrustful relationships that exist between various segments of the u s government the army the fbi and the cia he takes a look at the complexities inherent when so many secrets and lies are involved the palestinian community in new york is treated exactly as japanese americans were during world war ii there are concentration camps and unlawful interments all in the name of the greater good in the latter part of the film the land of opportunities looses its heart and soul freedom was that what the terror ists really wanted this film has evoked protests and objections from the population in the u s and n y especially but to me these protests seem unnecessary zwick is careful to not step over the line and make the palestinians typical hollywood bad guys the script is therefore wonderfully balanced agent hubbard's best friend and loyal colleague frank haddad tony shalhoub is and it is quite often you hear lines such as my first boyfriend was palestinian they seduce you with their suffering or they love this country as much as we do but no matter how you twist this matter you won't get away from the fact that when it comes to world wide terrorism it is population who are in the great majority more to the point the siege demonstrates the injustice of blanket condemnation of any ethnic group by depicting the unfair treatment of all by the u s military and thus this film does not serve as a source for discrimination in any way denzel washington is dashing as always in this role he is much more determined and stronger than usual anette bening is enjoyable and believable as a shadowy cia operative who prefers espionage a network of snitches and seduction to gather information bruce willis is terrifying as the sadist hungry for power that never looses his connection with the audience since his point of view is not too hard to understand the film is elegantly shaped the scenes are easily floating into each other and the film never seems overlong zwick knows exactly how to provoke tension horror and emotions and does it with a rarely observed professionalism he tightens the intensity as the events progress and when a plot twist comes it actually is surprising it is not a film drained in patriotism like the work of roland emerich nor is it a film that portrays explosions purely for entertainment values it is a daring picture that has courage enough to undertake such a risky story and difficult journey it has courage enough to get involved in politics it questions our foreign policies mentality and defense i must admit that it ends rather disappointing as the director turns the patriotism way up and innovation down but despite of that it is certainly an intelligent and thrilling film that provokes emotions and thoughts a virtue that few summer films can boast of this is the u s army it's a broadsword not a scalpel believe me you do not want us in an american city gen william devereaux the siege
positive	desperate measures was something i was excited about seeing back when it was originally scheduled to be released summer for some reason it was delayed until hollywood's traditional dumping ground january now that it's out i see no real reason for that delay as it's a simple yet highly entertaining film michael keaton stars as a maniacial murderer who's bone marrow can save the life of the dying son of a san francisco police detective garcia keaton agrees to the transplant only so he can attempt escape he succeeds in a plan that of course could only work in the movies the police force is now trying to kill keaton while garcia is working against them trying to keep keaton alive in order to save his son the film definately has it's flaws the plot is strictly tv movie of the week fare but the acting and direction certainly boost it far above that status also after keaton's escape garcia's captain barks at him how many men have to die to save your kid's life which the film treats as such an evil and insignificant remark the thing is it's a vaild point how many people have to be needlessly crippled burned and killed just to save this one child what's the greater good here many lives or one life if movies really had guts nowadays i would have loved to have seen this movie come down to a final choice for garcia's character place him in a situation where he knows that he has to kill keaton because keaton is about to kill someone else alas movies these days generally have no such ambition to pull the audience's strings in ways which might make the uncomfortable despite a few silly moments and one or two really stupid ones the good things about desperate measures outnumber the bad the main highlight would be keaton's performance the character could have easily been an overacting scene chewing freak but keaton underplays it nicely he's not as menacing as he was in pacific heights or even as menacing as he was in batman yes kids batman used to be a dark character but you certainly get the idea that he's evil even the final scene of the film which normally i would just hate seems strangely appropriate for this film so much so that i didn't mind it in the slightest and another bonus the film takes place in san francisco which usually means a car chase on those hills that you've seen a billion times before and for a moment it looked as though it was about to happen but it doesn't and that's creative 
positive	what is a scary movie anyhow is it a movie where a person gets ripped to shreds is it where a person is being chased by some damned teenager who wants revenge possibly its some guy with a hook who wants to know what you did last summer what ever happened to horror movies where the horror was in the atmosphere and in the characters movies like halloween and psycho which revolutionized horror genre forever but wait in came a movie based on the bestselling book by william peter blatty entitled the exorcist the movie opened to rave reviews and scared audiences to death now in the year the exorcist comes back to the big screen in a version you've never seen complete with six channel digital surround sound and fifteen minutes of new footage never before seen as long as a new ending chris mcniell is an actress living in georgetown washington with her twelve year old daughter regan while working on a new film chris still stays close to regan but starts to wonder why her bed shakes at night and why regan starts to have convulsions all of a sudden when chris finds out that regan is possessed by a demon she shuns at the fact of it but considers getting a priest to help her daughter father karras jason miller is the man they bring in his mother has just died and still in mourning he decides to help this little girl christ father karras and their nanny sharon kitty winn have to sit and wait until a man shows up that man is the exorcist and that man will help this little girl excrutiatingly scary the exorcist is a classic horror film which twenty seven years later still scares audiences half to death now we get to the experience the exorcist the way it was meant to be seen in a director's cut which incorpates fifteen minutes of new footage cut by friedkin at the time of the release for content and time a new ending has been added as well and adds more of a lighter feeling to the movie which i prefer the original darker ending more the movie has also been remastered in a wonderful six channel digital sound mix and is amazing the voices are all clear the music pours out on you and engulfs you in richness as a director friedkin has been well known for other films but his standout film is the exorcist nominated for several academy awards it one a few but was somehow doubted best picture best actress ellen burstyn and best supporting actress linda blair who at the age of i believe thirteen does a wonderful job of being a little girl alone possessed and unable to stop what is going on ellen burstyn i think gives her best performance to date and can be seen currently in requiem for a dream to which she is getting rave reviews for jason miller jason patrik's dad is amazing as father karras and his performance will be forever embedded in my mind to me he is the character who makes the entire film float along i was saddened when i saw this film with an audience of mostly younger people to see them laughing at this movie i in no way think that this movie is comical yes some of the stuff regan says is funny but they were laughing at her head spinning and the green pea soup come on people this is some creepy stuff anyway the of the film has managed to make million dollars and is still going hopefully one day they it again in twenty years for more generations to come to enjoy
positive	a wonderful little movie that is really interested in its characters and in its theme the scene of second best is laid in wales james chris cleary miles is a boy who must live in a home because his father keith allen is in prison and his mother committed suicide james is a mentally unbalanced child he can't forget what happened in the past and he dreams of living a happy life with his beloved father in the home he feels sadly and lonely one day a social worker alan cumming tells him of a person who wants to adopt him this person is graham holt william hurt graham manages a post office and shop in a village he is a single and hasn't any real friends his mother is dead and his father is ill and will die graham feels that he has been a disappointment to his parents there has never been real love between his parents and him graham's monotonous life would get a new sense if he could adopt james but graham has not only to convince the institutions but must also win the love of james james and graham have to open theirselves they must get to know each other and learn to understand and trust the other person james and graham aid each other to cope with their problems but will their relationship really have a future second best is based on a novel by david cook who also wrote the screenplay the film was directed by chris menges who had made his directing debut with the very good drama a world apart and maybe second best is even a greater picture this precise richly detailed sensitively and convincingly directed study about a special adoption treats its theme with great seriousness the breathtakingly intense film shows the necessity of human contact and communication william hurt delivers an outstanding performance as graham holt and chris cleary miles is remarkably convincing in the role of the boy the supporting cast is also fine especially jane horrocks as debbie a social worker who is charged to examine graham's living circumstances second best is an underestimated masterpiece it's a pity that films like this one are made so seldom i eagerly await menges' next directorial work the lost son which will star daniel auteuil
positive	this is a good year if you want plenty of on your multiplex the comedies mars attacks and men in black to luc besson's powerful the fifth element and to this that is event horizon more is on the way with contact and alien ressurection being released later this year the story is thus in an explorer ship called the event horizon tests out a newly invented gravity drive a device that enables a craft to travel anywhere in the universe instantaneously this is achieved by creating a gateway infact a black hole between the craft and it's required destination in this case from near neptune to proxima prime however when the event horizon attempts this it dissappears without trace leaving two searches for it fruitless seven years later it reappears transmitting a distress signal and this is where the film starts a search and rescue ship is sent out to investigate the team is led by laurence fishburne and joining them is sam neill who plays the scientist that invented the gravity drive as the team search the event horizon they find no trace of the crew but plenty of blood lying around not a good sign to make matters worse as they search the ship they find themselves being subjected to a series of illusions based on their own individual inner secrets and worse some very bloody events start to occur as they slowly piece together the events that transpired on the ship seven years ago it soon becomes apparent that wherever the ship went it bought something back with it something very very evil the first thing you'll notice in this film is it's incredible visual effects they really are eye popping with some great models to boot the acting is quite good with some occasional witty moments sam neill does a good job as the scientist that increasingly becomes more and more disturbed as the search continues but a tip of the hat goes to laurence fishburne who leads the team in a cool calm take no nonense manner it is his acting skills that help hold this film together the idea behind event horizon is certainly a good one it starts off incredibly well but the middle section becomes quite confused and sometimes muddled leaving the viewer unsure on just what the reasons are behind some of the bloody and bizarre events that occur however the closing minutes of the film more than make up for this producing one the most nail biting or in my case straw of my drink biting climaxes i've recently witnessed overall event horizon is a smart film indeed it's very enjoyable and has some amazing visuals but be warned the horror scenes despite being very brief are very very gory not for the squemish
positive	scarface a remake of the film of the same name is a very gripping and as far as i know a story of how power and violence lead to corruption al pacino as tony montana for whom the movie is named also provides a brilliant performance as a cuban refugee who comes to america with less than nothing and becomes one of the most highly respected and feared drug lords in miami oliver stone also penned the screenplay in one of his earlier writing roles the film begins by disclosing the story of now fidel castro ordered thousands of cubans to set sail and head for the coasts of the united states many of these cubans had criminal records such as tony montana a cocky man who has the look of crime nearly right after his arrival in miami tony is thrust into the gangster life when he participates in a cocaine buy that goes awry along with his friend and partner manolo steven bauer tony rises in the gangster ranks when he forms a friendship with frank lopez robert loggia a in the organized crime field tony also begins to fall in love with elvira michelle pfeiffer who at the time was frank's lover of course sooner or later in this industry betrayal and corruption amount into a force greater than anything else and tony is one of the ones who fall victim to this force this is not before he becomes one of the most respected and often feared men in miami tony gets to the point where he cannot trust anyone and everyone he knows basically feels the same way towards him no one can trust him and basically no one does scarface although incredibly violent is one of the best crime films of its time and stands out as another great performance for al pacino although he did not receive any recognition from the academy for his performance it truly is a very good one in fact his accent and facial movements alone are enough in my mind to win at least a nomination although he did get a golden globe nomination another element that stands out when someone mentions this film is the profanity a figure tagged to the film boasts that the word fuck and it's uses are uttered times throughout the film which is apparently a record the thing is the vulgarity fits rather well with the movie as odd as it sounds it's true in the end scarface is a very powerful film that hits home hard
positive	trekkies roger nygard's energetic and hilarious documentary brings viewers into the world of the star trek conventions the beauty of the film is that it is good old fashion fun for trekkies and alike the film generally writes off the trekkies vs trekker polemic as not worth arguing about the movie trekkies easily forces even the most cynical viewer into fits of uncontrollable loud giggles yet the picture treats its subject matter with respect and a certain awe denise crosby who played tasha yar on star trek the next generation serves as the host in the opening credits the movie reminds us that trekkies are the only fan group listed in the oxford english dictionary oed the oed cites a february caption in the new yorker as the first recorded usage of the word unless you've been to the conventions i posit that you have no idea of the dedication of some of the fans one pointed out apologetically that the stripe on his new uniform was slightly inaccurate others talked about how many star trek conventions they had attended several dozen being typical and hundreds not unheard of my personal favorite fan is sir speedy photocopying worker barbara adams arguably the most famous of all the trekkies she wears her uniform every waking hour as many fans do her claim to fame is that as a juror on the whitewater trial she wore it in court as well every day i would walk past the reporters with a stoicism she says describing her way of dealing with the crowd of reporters who became obsessed with her obsession she doesn't quite understand all of the uproar i'm an officer of the federation hours a day she reminds us her fealty to her hobby approaches that of a religious faith along with the laugher the show evokes there is an equal measure of sincere appreciation for people with such loyalty and their infectious joy provokes a certain envy of their enjoyment few other avocations could give this much satisfaction these people are having the time of their lives for the record i'm not a star trek fan although i have seen some of the movies the film interviews the various star trek series's stars as well as its fans the stars had thought the convention idea was a lark and would soon fade but over twenty years later the conventions are still going strong filled with anecdotes the show talks about the happenings at the various conventions at one the actor who plays q was so sick that he thought he would have to cancel after appearing briefly he drank some water and left they decided to auction off his glass joking that it had the q virus the guy who won the bidding immediately drank the water and screamed to the crowd that he now had the q virus too with dedication comes a certain amount of stupidity not just flitting among people the documentary takes the time to let you get to know the trekkies one guy is a trekkie another dresses her cat and then there is the dentist the dentist has his entire office made up to look like a star trek set he his oral hygienists his receptionist his wife and his kids wear the outfits all of the time it appears that his workers are permitted to take them off when they go home but not his family for variety he and his family do change characters from time to time he says his patients like it well there was this one complainer but he had a problem with his bill anyway there are summer schools for klingon with ph d linguists to teach the language hamlet is now available in klingon albeit perhaps not at your local bookstore and they are working on translating the bible they even sell united federation passports that are real enough that trekkies have used them to fool customs even u s customs the movie bogs down only briefly when it tries to argue the series's larger meaning about diversity and humanitarian concerns sandwiched the levity the switch in tone doesn't work the incessantly film ends with a singing elvis impersonator he fits right in trekkies runs a breezy it is not rated but would be pg for brief sexual references and would be fine for all ages
positive	if you're the type of person who goes on the submarine ride every time you visit disneyland you're going to love the hunt for red october you'll also love the film if you enjoy cat and mouse military tactics or if you're a sean connery or alec baldwin fan or if you admired director john mctiernan's earlier films die hard and predator in fact the only people likely to be disappointed with the hunt for red october are those who have read the book since films almost never live up to the novels which inspired them the hunt for red october is an epic thriller adapted from tom clancy's best selling novel set in an era before glasnost the movie revolves around a soviet submarine called the red october the nuclear sub has a revolutionary propulsion system which makes the vessel silent and allows it to escape sonar detection the red october embarks on its maiden voyage under the command of captain marko ramius played by sean connery ramius has strict orders just to test the submarine but he has other ideas he takes the sub and its crew and disappears into the atlantic ocean is he planning to start world war iii cia analyst jack ryan doesn't think so he's convinced that ramius plans to defect to the u s ryan played by alec baldwin is given three days to prove his theory and find the missing sub the characters in the hunt for red october are paper thin but the performances thankfully are rock solid baldwin and connery anchor the film with their customary vigor sam neil gives a sturdy performance as connery's somber first officer it's ironic to see neil and connery playing russians since they are both best known for their roles as british agents connery as james bond and neil as reilly ace of spies the large cast also includes scott glenn james earl jones tim curry and joss ackland plus richard jordan as the smooth u s national security adviser the special effects are remarkable but more than anything the hunt for red october is distinguished by its plot screenwriters larry ferguson and donald stewart have gracefully navigated red october through a story line full of twists and turns they keep us involved in the action by unveiling plot strands at just the right moment the movie doesn't get as sweaty or breathless as die hard because it would rather tell a good story than hit you over the head with action the finale is rousing and suspenseful but essentially the hunt for red october is a superior potboiler
positive	i was pleasantly surprised by this film with a budget topping million i was quite skeptical about whether throwing all that money toward one of the twentieth century's greatest tragedies would make a film exciting enough to see how much could you dress up the sets how many models and computer effects could you use how much more action could you pack into a ship that sinks oh if i've just given away part of the plot for you go back to school after having viewed titanic however i found it to be a and overall movie there have been many films made about the maiden and final voyage of the ocean liner titanic but this latest offering from director james cameron is the best i've seen titanic tells its story in two time periods it starts out in the present when ocean explorer brock lovett bill paxton and his team are exploring the wreckage of the titanic on the floor of the atlantic searching for a priceless diamond necklace which supposedly went down with the ship what they find instead is a drawing of a woman wearing the necklace which is broadcast on the news the woman in the picture recognizes herself and phones lovett who has her flown out to his exploration vessel on the high seas there she tells her story to lovett and his team in rose dewitt bukater kate winslett a young lady belonging to society's upper class boards the titanic for the ship's first atlantic crossing from southampton england to new york she is engaged to cal hockley billy zane an heir to old money and a snob in every sense of the word on board rose feels the stifling trappings of expectations and resolves to escape from it all by throwing herself off the titanic's stern but is saved from her fate by jack dawson leonardo dicaprio a passenger in steerage as it's referred to who talks her out of jumping although for rose the attraction is not immediate a love affair soon develops between the two which endangers rose's social standing as well as her engagement to the jealous cal the story sounds very simple and perhaps even unexciting but through solid performances by the leads and good direction by cameron a good movie comes through dicaprio is marvelous as the young but jack playing the role with the confidence usually found in older actors his is a character that is immediately likable as he knows what he wants out of life and is charmingly able to handle a variety of situations girls are going to swoon over him winslet also proves herself a good actress delivering her lines convincingly and the quality of performances between winslet and dicaprio makes the relationship believable the only problem with winslet is that she does not carry herself in accordance with her character's upbringing simply by judgment of her gait i was distracted from the fact that she was supposed to be an debutante rather than demonstrate the poise one would expect her character to possess she sometimes looks positively clumsy and it unfortunately detracts from her otherwise great acting billy zane is cast well as the aristocratic snob cal since he has a certain look that immediately makes you want to hate him his features are such that even when he smiles there's something mistrustful about him and when he scowls he is evil incarnate he's something like a porcelain version of peter gallagher but a cheaper model like dicaprio and winslet zane slips comfortably into his role and plays it well backing up zane is david warner as lovejoy cal's personal assistant or man as they said at the turn of the century no matter who else is in the cast you can always count on a good performance by warner who seems to be made to play the distinguished gentleman with a gaze of steel and will to match additionally there are a number of smaller fictional and roles thrown in for color such as kathy bates as the unsinkable molly brown danny nucci as jack's friend fabrizio de rossi eric braeden as john jacob astor and even bernard fox as colonel archibald gracie nice to see dr bombay getting work also scattered about are some of the other steerage passengers who are basically in the movie so you can feel sorry for them when they die this by itself may have been largely compulsory in a film about the titanic but it transcends this status by putting these characters in direct conflict with the ship's crewmembers who strive to maintain order and assure that the passengers are placed aboard the lifeboats before anyone else in this way titanic possesses a depth not usually found in action pictures you don't just get a love story with a tragedy as a backdrop but a very real account of class struggle as well as i mentioned before the budget for this film was tremendous and it certainly showed in the set dressing and special effects the interiors of the titanic are nearly breathtaking with their elaborate trimmings and intricate detail and one has very little doubt that the layouts are authentic with regard to the exteriors i would dare anyone to point out a film in which a vessel has been recreated with such meticulousness or on such a scale cameron actually built a scale model of the titanic in a water tank but only had room for and therefore had to the remaining feet could've fooled me and everyone else in the theater as the splicing is seamless also of note in this film is the way the audience is presented with the anatomy of the disaster right at the beginning we are told of where the iceberg struck the ship how the flooding occurred the way the ship sank and why it did so in that manner these technical details serve as a guide for later on when the action starts happening and allow us to view the sinking with informed analytic detraction in addition to the more conventional placement in the midst of mayhem and confusion in all james cameron's titanic is a good blend of love story history and action the fact that the film runs longer than most at about three hours is almost unnoticed as the viewer's attention is held alternately by those three main elements from the movie's intriguing beginning to it's satisfactory ending in box office receipts titanic the movie will undoubtedly live up to the unsinkable expectations of titanic the ship
positive	it was easy to fear the worst begin with a classic television series add a big budget and an star in the lead role and stir script you ask who needs one kid we've got ourselves a formula that was my fear a bloated monster without any sense of direction then much to my amazement everything that could possibly go wrong didn't the fugitive is as lean taut and tense as anything the action genre has produced in the last several years under the direction of andrew davis under siege the fugitive grips you by the throat from the outset and never lets go expect box office to go through the roof deservedly and expect an academy award nomination for tommy lee jones the premise is a simple one dr richard kimble harrison ford is wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife after struggling with the real killer a man with an artificial arm after an escape attempt by some other prisoners during a transfer goes awry kimble finds himself on the run his one goal to find the man andreas katsulas before u s marshall sam gerard tommy lee jones finds him where the fugitive surprises the most is the script by jeb stuart and david twohy in a genre where one is almost always asked to allow leaps of logic the script repeatedly astonished me with its intelligence its attention to detail and its respect for the audience in an early sequence kimble sneaks into a hospital to shave of his beard slick back his hair and change into a lab coat on his way out a police officer jokingly tells the man he doesn't know is kimble to zip up his pants it's a small moment but it punches home the urgency of kimble's situation and exactly what a man concerned about not being recognized might easily forget later while trying to lose himself in a parade kimble thinks to drop his overcoat the most likely way he'd be recognized from behind it's these details which convince us that when a colleague of kimble's tells gerard that he's too smart to be caught he may just be right credit must also be given to the special effects and stunt coordinators the bus crash which allows kimble's escape is a spectacular sequence as is a leap from a dam into the water below the action is crisp and brutal and never romanticized special kudos go to director davis for maintaining a relentless pace which underscores the of the two leads and what a pair of performances those leads are tommy lee jones is nothing short of brilliant as gerard because he manages an incredibly challenging feat for the first third of the film there is really no villain per se kimble is on the run and gerard is out to find him it would have been very easy to turn gerard into a malevolent vindictive inspector javert but that never happens instead jones plays him as a sharp committed man who's just doing his job so that when he responds to kimble's comment i didn't kill my wife with a i don't care we know exactly what he means it's not his job to determine guilt or innocence it's his job to bring in a fugitive this is a written character played with relish by an actor at the top of his form the only unfortunate thing about jones' stunning turn is that it's likely to overshadow harrison ford and that's a shame for his entire career ford has been underappreciated as an actor due to his pigeonholing as an action hero however he does a fine job with the less flashy part of kimble always keeping at the forefront the advantage this man has because of his intelligence the fugitive could only work to its fullest if the two protagonists always seemed to be on equal footing and ford is up to the task this summer has been loaded with films and most of them have been doing brisk business however it's time for clint sean and various dinosaurs to step aside the chase is on my advice is to catch it
positive	pollock starring ed harris marcia gay harden tom bower jennifer connelly screenplay by barbara turner and susan j emshwiller based on the book jackson pollock an american saga by steven naifeh and gregory white smith directed by ed harris for more film dvd and books about movie reviews plus annual coverage of the toronto international film festival visit freak http net now with search engine how do you know when you're finished making love pollock to a life magazine reporter on recognizing when you've completed a painting jackson pollock's making love quote is famous but in practically the same breath he said a more constructive thing it's like looking at a bed of your hair out over what it means it took him sixteen words to do as whole dissertations have tried and failed equate god and abstract art and offer a kind of backhanded comfort to those confused to the point of resentment by the concept the biopic actor ed harris' directorial debut reflects the second soundbite in how it accepts pollock's creations as part of the order of things and should similarly disarm haters of fine art arguably more than any other living actor harris who also plays embodies the archetypal working stiff and his demystification of pollock's art both as performer and director makes for unpretentious cinema from what i know of harris he like pollock was not born gifted or lucky instead a strong work ethic is the seed of his success granted it's possible that will alienate those same viewers perplexed by the imponderable purpose of pollock's splatter series the common thread between them is a lack of editorializing the movie is all purposeful gazes and silent exchanges dotted by tantrums but the motivations are left to our own perceptions and it is a sympathetic yet not altogether forgiving film as illustrated by a disheartening conclusion encapsulates the period in which he fought a losing battle against personal demons alcoholism depression and the general attendant miseries of an artist while finding a place of subconscious expression a brief introduction to pollock's raging drunk side segues into his getting accosted by a fellow new york artist lee krasner marcia gay harden awarded a best supporting actress oscar for this brilliant portrayal who works from the every stroke of her brush in a scene after they have moved in together and established adjoining studios she asks what he hopes to achieve on his latest canvas grilling him about the interplay of cubism and surrealism until he says you paint the fucking thing and leaves in a huff by the time they wed she has become his de facto manager it is form marrying function and chaos marrying discipline a most harmonious collision krasner denies him a baby indicating that it would upset the balance such a union is destined to implode and i hope i'm not ruining the experience by saying that it does while it is never depicted as a very romantic matrimony to and wife channel their passions symbiosis leaves each other picked dry after several years and it comes down to krasner suffering one of pollock's conniptions too many you are killing me you are killing me you are killing me aside harris' own wife amy madigan is unrecognizable and exceptional as gallery diva peggy guggenheim pollock himself moves on to dalliances with younger women like ruth klingman the scorching jennifer connelly hoping one supposes to catch the revitalizing whiff of youth i love jackson pollock's stuff and i am enamoured of harris' as well it's scrappy and observant no coincidence that its minor failings are the occasional invasive flourish such as jeff beal's hummable but no less lamentable can't imagine that pollock or anyone would paint to this music which puts filling soundtrack voids ahead of complementing the images one of my favourite sequences is an eerily quiet of hans namuth shooting that famous pollock footage in east hampton long island the mounting tension is almost comic as namuth keeps interrupting pollock's process to reload his camera or take a dinner break a more seasoned director might've been too arrogant to admit that not all artists or mediums are created equal
positive	it's been a long time since walt disney has delivered us a classic along the lines of the little mermaid or beauty and the beast sure there have been delightful outings like last years hercules but nothing entirely groundbreaking with the release of the studio's newest feature length film a remake of edgar rice burrough's creation tarzan disney has plunged into new waters with both maturity and animation techniques it's no classic but this new tarzan represents exactly what a family film should be the plot is loyal to the original storyline as tarzan's parents are forced to abandon their ship which has caught fire and find shelter in the jungles of africa but they are killed offscreen by the snarling cheetah sabor leaving baby tarzan alone and unharmed in his crib found by kala voiced with effective gentleness by glenn close a kindhearted mother and member of a gorilla pack tarzan is taken into the primate group and raised as one of their own we follow the young boy through the years as he partakes in various adventures with his loud mouth gorilla friend terk a very brash but funny rosie o'donnell and clumsy elephant tantor wayne knight of course in any disney film we are given some kind of goofy sidekick or humorous chum for the hero in tarzan these characters fill that space rather inconspicuously gags that were magnified in other family films are kept quite minor here most of the characters are amusing without being forced as tarzan grows to manhood the suspected antagonist stumbles into the picture here the notorious bad guy is the big game hunter clayton brian blessed who's accompanying a hapless professor nigel hawthorne on an expedition through the jungle of course there's the professor's daughter jane nicely vocalized by a cheerful minnie driver who will help supply the romantic quotient of the movie the thing that blew my socks off about this version of tarzan is the stunning animation directors chris buck and kevin lima have applied a breathtaking element to the movement of the athletic title character and the editing is absolutely a marvel as tarzan carries jane through the treetops narrowly escaping a pack of nasty baboons he slips and slides like a daredevil snow boarder or star surfer riding the big wave your eyes can barely keep up it's a fantastic accomplishment the subject matter here is also a notch or two above animation average there are important questions raised about tarzan's place in the world and all are handled exceptionally well by the screenwriters there is no shred of doubt left to ponder afterward which is a surprising plus that i wasn't expecting to find here suffice to say this film will have both adults and children thoroughly entertained the tarzan is voiced by tony goldwyn who made a name for himself as the mean jerk' from ghost goldwyn is effective playing someone who's not aware of his world's dangers glenn close is also memorable as his gorilla mother and lance henriksen from tv's millennium is terrific as the silverback father unsure of how to accept the presence of a human child as the movie's villain there is nothing particularly special or catching about the character of clayton it helps that brian blessed supplies his voice with game enthusiasm but he is nothing compared to james woods' hilarious hades from hercules a burley guy with a big gun who just wants to capture the gorillas does not quite constitute for an noticeable screen presence still this is one great that disney has constructed i never expected rice burrough's work to be transformed so successfully from live action to animation nor with so much emotional depth parents along with all the kiddies are going to find much to like in tarzan
positive	warning if you actually wish to see the film stop reading this and see it while i don't blow any plot details the more you know about a movie the more disappointing and built up it becomes waiting a month to see titanic did the same thing but in a nutshell it's a good film star wars episode i the phantom menace reviewed by vince yim never having been the biggest star wars fanatic in the world i was more into star trek the next generation it is difficult to relate to the mass fandom surrounding the latest installment the phantom menace however it can't be ignored endless toys lining the shelves endless news reports and a dollar advertising campaign makes it all the more difficult with the level of this hype one would recall an overhyped disaster from godzilla which definitely failed to live up to expectations thankfully the phantom menace does much much better while the first star wars trilogy told the story of jedi knight luke skywalker the prequels backpedal to tell the of obi wan kenobi and a young jedi named anakin skywalker who would become the father of luke and eventually become darth vader without blowing too much of the story the phantom menace evolves around a peaceful planet naboo which is being held hostage by a greedy trade federation and it's up to two jedi knights ji played by liam neeson and kenobi played by ewan mcgreggor to free it the phantom menace has taken a literal beating from various film critics leaving me to lower my expectations somewhat common complaints range from lack of characterization weak narrative poor direction of actors the dated style and too much focus over special effects still film critics often apply much historical theory in regards to film criticism much of which the average film buff does not care for hence this film is a lot of fun and definitely an improvement over the previous films even with the improvements in the special editions there are many memorable sequences throughout the film ranging from the fast and furious pod race sequence which is a take on the chariot races in ben hur and the many fight scenes involving legions of battle droids utilizing technology that is light years beyond anything made before special effects and computers are used to create everything from monsters to robots to amazing cityscapes with incredible detail no matter how many times you watch this film you will catch something new the level of humour is a bit higher than the previous films as well mostly conveyed through the reluctant hero jar jar binks who belongs to a race known as the gungans best described as an mr bean from the planet naboo he steals the show unfortunately being that he is a character tells a bit about the direction of the actors although natalie portman as the queen is pretty effective as is jake lloyd as the young anakin skywalker with star wars mania at an all time high there is the risk that the film will disappoint i myself had my doubts which this film does have a tendency to do at times there are a few logic problems with the plot several things are left unchecked and at times seems to be made only for diehard star wars fans although the appearance of the tusken raiders makes for more than a few laughs that and young anakin skywalker is a really annoying character coming off as a smarmy arrogant brat with such an attitude it's no wonder why he turns to the dark side still it seems that many people especially critics are missing the point the film is some of the most fun and a half hours that you'll blow in your life which is something i wouldn't mind doing again while it may not have the psychological impact of an academy award contender who really cares the film is pure fun from beginning to end and isn't that what really matters
positive	it shows that america remains ambivalent over the nature of its political system no major surprise when j s mill in his victorian classic on liberty could not make up his mind over liberal democracy either the americans are wrought by the archetypal paradox under which they exist the supreme contradiction between the right of the one and the right of the majority small wonder that hollywood's most compelling movies have oft been on the struggle of the against some larger collective oppressive witness braveheart born on the fourth of july rocky first blood clear and present danger jfk the list goes on there's little of that in singapore we are barred access to playboy and penthouse both on and off line though the government's been long worried about the younger people getting americanised and advocating individual rights and parliamentary opposition the people vs larry flynt locates the political debate within the greatest social taboo in america sex does pornography have a right to exist and circulate larry flynt the publisher of hustler magazine thinks so and obviously so too the u s congress which last month threw out a bill to curb pornography on the net but even with such actions americans remain undecided the oscars apparently shunned the movie because it was an embarrassing and sensitive livewire what they have ignored is actually a great picture woody harrelson as the lead character reprises his role as a and that we last saw in natural born killers and he is outrageous and convincing as a nihilistic atheist who nonetheless loves his wife dearly the latter is played with abandon conviction and sensitivity all at once by courtney love who is the real star of the show and really snubbed of an academy award best actress nomination if not of the award itself edward norton plays their jerky lawyer the relationship between harrelson and love brings out another great paradox superficially they are immoral outcasts who've had it coming woody gets shot and becomes paralysed from the waist down and courtney dies of aids god's damnation but in the powerful love they have for each other each standing by the other in turn the two leads highlight the question how much is the nihilist still a moralist and in the american context a christian if they can love and care and feel just like anyone else on a personal level friedrich nietzsche once talked about how the atheist must uncover for himself the full consequences of atheism by ridding himself of all influences to go beyond good and evil this is a great picture no doubt and i love it personally because it is moving funny ends with open american optimism blah blah but i like it and admire it because it comes from a fine american tradition that dares to raise difficult questions and call into doubt ideas and doctrines that otherwise are used as catchphrases there are times when movies go beyond the story they tell and reflect something of hidden realities this movie is not so much about larry flynt but about americans and american society
positive	the ring is probably one of the creepiest movies i've seen in years but then again i've always had this phobia of asian born horror films i remember when i was a kid i was scared as hell with those green faced floating ghosts donning their white the ring really brings back those memories and its grips me long after the movie has ended unlike the horror films coming from the west i'm pretty much used to the gore and visual effects so much so they become rather bland nowadays there's really no scary movie from the west for a long time if you have something in mind please tell me this japanese flick is supposed to be based upon stories written by stephen king of japan' which is also i heard televised over the air in japan the film revolves around a mysterious videotape which will bring death for sure to the person who watches it one week prior to viewing a journalist and her husband stupid enough tests the so call legend' and ends up having a week before she meets her doom she and her husband then goes on a search for the origin of the videocassette to get to the root of the whole curse with the hopes of freeing themselves the ring plays on the senses like no other horror film today visual subtlety minimal music and an intriguing plot puts the audience within an aura of suspense throughout the entire film very well done indeed especially for a film that does not have a single trace of violence and gore now something budding horror wannabes should consider looking into just an idea of how visually powerful the film is it is in japanese and subtitled in chinese both of which i can't understand at all ok i had a friend who gave me a gist prior to watching but he revealed very little the twists in the plot leading to an unforgettable climax will definitely leave an impression on the audience will have you at the edge of your seat
positive	deep rising is one of those movies the kind of movie which serves no purpose except to entertain us it does not ask us to think about important questions like life on other planets or the possibility that there is no god screw that it says boldly let's see some computer generated monsters rip into decapitate and generally cause irreparable booboos to a bunch of little known actors heh them wacky monsters gotta love of course since we can rent about a thousand b movies with the same kind of story hollywood must give that little extra oumph to get people in theaters that is where deep rising fails which is a good thing confused let me explain despite all them flashy effects and big explosions deep rising is still at heart a good b movie luckily it's a very good b movie the worst cliches in movie history are a b movie's bread and butter therefore things that would destroy a serious movie actually help us have a good time while watching a movie of lower calibre of course we know there's a big slimy creature behind that door that one person will wander off to be picked off by said monster and we always know which persons or person will make it out alive we just don't know when or how horrible it will be i went to see deep rising with my expections low and my tolerance for bad dialogue high imagine my surprise when i discover that deep rising is actually well pretty darn funny at times a funny b movie well that's new these flicks are not supposed to make us laugh except for a few unintended laughs once a while and before you know it treat williams wes studi and famke jansen appear on the big screen hey i know them guys and gal from a couple of other movies cool familiar faces so far so good our man treat is the hero he'll live wes is a staple of b movies he is the token victim we know he'll buy the farm but he will take a few creeps with him on the way out famke is the babe said there is also a guy with glasses the guy with glasses always dies a black person b movie buffs know that the black guy always dies never fails and a very funny nerdy guy ah comic relief how can we possibly explain having to kill him let him live after the first fifteen minutes i felt right at home i know who to root for and who i need to boo too and a gum to chew please kill me suffice it to say that for the next hour and a half i jumped out of my seat a few times went ewwww about a dozen times and nearly had an orgasm over all the explosions and firepower our heroes were packing i'm a man we nottice these things all in all i'd recommend deep rising if you are looking for a good time and care to leave your brain at the door but bring your sense of humor and excitement in with you the acting is decent the effects top rate how to best describe it put together the jet ski scene from hard rain the bug attacks from starship troopers a couple of james bond like stunts and all those scenes from friday the thirteenth and freddy where you keep screaming don't go there he's behind you and you end up with deep rising for creepy crawly goodness tight major firepower and the need to go to the bathroom every fifteen minutes from seing all that water
positive	vampire films as well as other horror films are usually dumb and predictable meant to scare us by cliches and simple shocks it is therefore interesting to watch neil jordans recent film that is not only visually stunning but has also a plot worth making movies about based on anne rice's novel interview with a vampire is a long dark trip to hell the film opens with gothic quire and dark streets of san francisco the camera slowly find particular window a shape of a young man is visible in the darkness so you want me to tell you the story of my life the mysterious man is louis brad pitt a old vampire telling his story to a fascinated interviewer christian slater his tale opens in louisiana just south of new orleans where louis falls victim to the vampire lestat tom cruise given a choice between death and eternal life as one of the undead louis chooses the latter a decision he will forever regret everlasting life and eternal youth promised to him by lestat turn instead into never ending suffering damned to eternal hunger for blood and longing for peace louis cannot kill with the impunity of lestat but to sate his hunger he must feed and the blood of animals is not enough eventually he pierces the neck of a young girl named claudia kirsten dunst whom lestat then curses with his unholy form of resurrection so that she can be a surrogate daughter to both himself and louis for a while they are one big happy family but all things end and claudia's growing resentment of lestat fuels a bloody confrontation when luis and claudia break loose from lestat they travel to paris where the santiago stephen rea and armand antonio banderas who introduced them to a bigger world of the damned director neil jordan the crying game together with the talented director of cinematography philippe rousselot and composer elliot goldenthal has created an incredible atmosphere as the film begins there is an incredible palette of colors beautiful sunrises lush golden fields green forests clouds and blending sun when luis is born to darkness everything suddenly changes to dark velvet lit only by the silver moonlight the beautiful production design by dante ferretti wonderful costumes and art direction by malcolm middleton the multiple historical periods in the film from the renaissance new orleans and the beautiful rococo paris of the century to our present days the casting is likewise good involving some of the most famous and beautiful stars of hollywood ireland and spain the controversial casting of tom cruise as lestat is incredibly effective cruise is energetic sinister charismatic wild and bloodthirsty cruise's lestat likes to seduce young women before exacting his dark red sustenance with alarming swiftness the victims switch from sexual excitement to outright horror as his murderous purpose becomes clear kill them mercifully but do it you are what you are for do not doubt you are a killer that is how lestat is teaching luis but behind that furious facade is anger and loneliness that he carries through the centuries and tries to smother with nightly rampages brad pitt is equally convincing as the vampire with a human soul antonio banderas and stephen rea are effective but since they play more or less secondary characters their performances are almost invisible the greatest performance in the film comes suprisingly from the young kristen dunst who manages to create an incredibly emotional and believable character the world is changing around the little child but she does not she remains unchangeable a child for all eternity only her wise dark eyes reveal her age ironically the film's only miss is the script anne rice's novel is a very interesting read and her script is rich colorful and emotional but it is also tiering and too melancholic at times resembling a soap opera claudia is that what i should do let you go my father my luis who made me who will look after me my dark angel when you are gone luis everything will be alright claudia do you really believe that and then they hug emotionally moments like those displayed above and luis' is a bit tiresome however rice's script is otherwise strong and well structured bringing up humor and comic episodes that were more or less hidden in the book when lestat finds claudia's dead dressmaker whom she has killed he cries out who will make you that dress now be a little practical never in the house moments like that are both entertaining and appealing neil jordan's direction is beautiful and sensual as he plays with interesting issues like eternity homosexuality love and loneliness his gothic saga is not meant to scare but to display these issues differently wrapped up in mystery his new original picture brings to a new height
positive	this has some major spoilers for the film so be forwarned the won't appear till later in the article so you're safe for now eyes wide shot running time hours minutes theatrical aspect starring tom cruise dr bill hardford nicole kidman alice hardford sidney pollack leelee sobieski todd field nick nightingale directed produced by stanley kubrick inspired by traumnovelle by arthur schnitzer this is an interesting film i must first off state that you musn't believe any of the rumors of the film cruise is not a cross dresser kidman doesn't shoot heroin and there's not any scene between the two that would suggest that they were aided by a sex therapist the look of the film is to suggest that it follows the translation of the inspired book from the film was written the translation dream novel makes you thing that the film should have been titled dream film there is a noticable amount of graininess to the film rather than complain about it as some may and already have see it as a style of shooting i would gather that kubrick got on another lighting kick shooting this and shot with as much natural light as he could this and the film looks like it was pushed another two stops to add more grain and brighten it slightly as an auteur and stickler for details kubrick seemed to be a bit lax on this one the film looks great but there are a good deal of that occur you see lots of boom shots in reflection and you see the camera at least twice months for this wow reflection is the biggest killer for this film their apartment and almost everything in the film casts reflections and the crew can be seen in these some quite glaringly one more topic of heated discussion i saw the austin powers version and to be perfectly frank unless you know where the overlays are supposed to be you'll probably not see them two girls standing next to each other look a little suspicious but i can wait for the unrated version on video to see it the way it's supposed to be spoilers below the film itself starts with cruise bill and kidman alice getting ready for a little soiree they go to a quite elegant party in what seems to be a storagehouse for lighting equipment which is actually an apartment owned by pollack bill runs into an old friend from medical school who is now the party's entertainment soon after bill and alice are flirting with others at the party thinking that the other has not noticed bill is called to help with a partygoer who has had a bit too much of a good time the next day bill and alice casually smoking marijunana in their bedroom discuss the previous nights flirtations they both discover that they both knew about the flirting bill starts talking about what women can provide in a relationship and gets alice extremely angry in her hazy state she tells of an opportunity she almost acted on to cheat on bill not caring about the possible aftereffects bill gets called away when one of his patients dies and goes to console his daughter when his patient's engaged daughter makes a plea for his love and affection he is struck with images of an affair that never occured between his wife alice and a naval officer he sees opportunity as a betrayal to his wife and before they can continue they are interrupted as he strolls home he encounters a hooker seeing another opportunity arise he follows the hooker home they toy around but before the act ensues alice calls his cell phone he breaks the date with the hooker and heads back out into the night he passes a lounge and notices that his old medical school buddy is playing so he heads in when he meets the friend the friend reveals that for extra scratch he plays these strange parties while blindfolded bill is intrigued and wants to go to one nick reluctantly sets him up with directions and a password what follows this is a short meeting where bill obtains a costume for this party and meets a young girl leelee sobieski and her father the young girl has drawn his eye but her young age and the prescence of her father deter this from happening he gets to the party which is to say the least a strange affair after partaking in some strange religious right women and men pair off for the orgy to end all orgies a woman warns bill in disguise that he should leave before he is exposed as a fraud at the party he is detained after a second warning where he is outed for not being in the group after getting home he hides the evidence of his evenings events unable to carry on in his day he tries piece the events of the previous night together in the process he finds that nick has disappeared his life is possibly in danger and the woman that warned him has died i'm trying to save a bit of the film here it's worth sitting through to get to this point this is only about minutes at this point this is a strange film because despite the events that occur the film has a strong family message behind it it will be hard to pidgeonhole this film as a certain kind of a film it's got sex in it it has nudity drugs and many more immoralistic values but they all serve to show why they are bad in one's life i recommend this film highly on many merits cruise and kidman are rarely together for longer than minutes after the opening scene and the secrecy that shrouded the film should hopefully be apparent as to why it was kept once you see it for yourself
positive	one fun activity for parents during the holidays is to suggest an old film and see if they can interest their kids although films are frequently viewed as suspect ones in color are greeted with more of an open mind and if you can find a colorful action film even if it is from six decades ago then there is a real possibility of a take home hit so it was in our family when we wandered over to the classic section of our local video store the other day and picked up a copy of the adventures of robin hood a high spirited version of the walter scott story nominated for the academy award for best picture and winner of three oscars for erich wolfgang korngold's melodramatic music ralph dawson's fast paced editing and carl jules weyl's lush sets the film is probably best remembered for errol flynn's charismatic acting as sir robin of locksley a k a robin hood flynn with his handsome figure and toothy smile charms the audience while clearly having a high old time himself let me cut to the chase and say that the tape was indeed popular in the rhodes household the littlest rhodes jeffrey age liked it so much that he viewed it at least three times and maybe more i'll let him discuss his fascination with the picture in his usual section at the end of the review simply stated the film derives its success from being one of the best of its genre the swashbuckler robin with a smile from fights off a hundred men without a scratch although the picture can be considered as little more than a james bond the production values and the acting raise it above that level robin hood is a classic story of rich and poor robin steals from the rich and gives to the poor as every schoolchild knows in this movie however he seems much less interested in income redistribution than in fighting for his king and country robin with his courage and athletic skills serves as a role model for kids and with the lovely olivia de havilland playing the lady marian fitzswalter the story has heavy romantic overtones filmed in the typical richly oversaturated colors produced by early technicolor the flesh tones are overly pink and there few color subtleties which match perfectly the wonderfully exaggerated acting of the players in scene after scene the picture charms the audience who wouldn't fall for robin as he shows up incognito to win the archery contest even if the outcome is so clearly preordained and of course he doesn't just win he does so by splitting the other man's arrow watching the picture today does provide some jarring moments sherlock holmes as the villain sir guy of gisbourne for example just doesn't seem right even if basil rathbone did have a identity outside of his most famous role and then there are those wigs from the makeup department so bad they look like rejects from a mel brooks comedy as was popular in the cinema of that era people die with the most gentle prick of the sword and without any nasty bloody holes to spoil the wardrobe or the looks bad guys are banished rather than killed and lovers go off doing nothing more explicitly sexual than kissing the result is a wonderful fairy tale of a movie with delightful cartoonish figures hollywood rarely makes such high quality family films like this anymore so try to savor the old ones when you can the adventures of robin hood runs it is not rated but containing absolutely nothing offensive it would get a g rating and is fine for all ages jeffrey thinks the film is great and gives it he recommends the movie particularly for people who do not likely bloody pictures he hates the sight of blood in movies his favorite parts are the battles and the ending and his favorite characters are robin and king richard ian hunter
positive	swashbuckling adventure that can be enjoyed by both children and adults steven spielberg may not have directed he only executive produced but his touch certainly is evident in this movie and he knows a money making winner when he sees one the mask of zorro has the hallmarks of a blockbuster big action funny comedy and the pacing of a rollercoaster hopkins plays don diego de la vega otherwise known as zorro a fighter for the people he is eventually captured by don rafael montero stuart wilson who also unintentionally kills his wife the film cuts to twenty years later where vega still wants to montero dead however he's far too old now and trains up thief alejandro murrieta banderas to become the new zorro banderas motive to avenge the death of his brother who was killed at the hands of captain love matthew letscher who rather tastefully keeps the head in a jar in one of the more graphic scenes in this family movie with the scene set the movie goes on full blast with sword fights and witty one liners banderas and hopkins have a marvellous chemistry as the two zorro's playing each other off with ease hopkins seems to come off a little better but banderas does some excellent work as the bad guys wilson and letscher seem one dimensional but they go through the bad guy shtick in an above average way the audience does hate them which can't be bad catherine also pops up as hopkins daughter and although she provides little more than the usual female lead she delivers a charming but one note performance the chemistry is excellent between banderas and jones there's a delightful little scene where banderas and jones have a sword fight and every swipe an item of clothing gets slashed until jones clothes fall off all together the director fresh from the enjoyable goldeneye handles the film perfectly the action is well done and fast paced the comedy put across well the cast help a lot but the direction is still outstanding although the film is very long the plot keeps chugging along and there's barely a dull moment however the film is a little over indulgent and it could have been trimmed it manages to hold the attention thankfully and the adventure and charm holds right up to the last reel screenwriters john eskow ted elliot and terry rosio have unfortunately written an cliched and one dimensional script although they've bought zorro up to date with big explosions and wild action the plot itself is barely existent there's lots of little sub plots hanging around but there's nothing substantial to bring them all together the main story seems to be the fact that rafael wants to california using gold stolen from the guy he's buying the land off this sets up for a temple of doom type plot where we see peasants slave driven into getting the gold from little mines however this doesn't seem to appear until nearly over a hour into the film so the film is never quite sure where it's going in the end however zorro provides action and comedy in spades it suitable for everyone so put the guilt behind and put some more money into spielbergs bank account you won't regret it
positive	rebel without a cause is such an important film in american history because it is a true analysis of youth in america that everyone of all ages can relate to everyone feels that they are different in some way that they don't belong in some places and rebel without a cause successfully shows on screen these universal emotions no matter what generation you belong to these feelings are present this is why james dean is admired by america because in this film he represents us all and his actions are actions that we would also execute in our minds we just try to do the right thing just like dean's jim stark does not only does rebel without a cause display these universal emotions for all to relate to but it also shows that america has suffered a uniqe pattern in its social structure each generation looks at its past generation without a strong connection this is because times change and in response people change no matter how popular you were once as your generation grows older newer breeds look at you in a different light this is why stark and his friends never could form a strong relationship with their parents even if their parents insisted that they were also rebellious and troublesome in the past the teens could not believe this in one humorous scene stark his girlfriend judy natalie wood and his pal plato sal mineo pretend they are adults they use upper class british accents and in their conversations they make it out to appear that kids are no good and should be ignored this scene shows that what was once cool in a past generation is the complete opposite in another speaking on behalf of my generation i feel that dean has lost a lot of his coolness from our perspective as the years have grown by the only ones who seem to still lionize him are those members of his generation same goes for brando redford even deniro i can only imagine how vaguely matt damon ben affleck and brad pitt will be viewed at the mid point of the twenty first century will dean even be remembered when these newcomers are forgotten any film that sparks this kind of thought is certainly a milestone in american film even if rebel without a cause has some ridiculous scenes the game of chicken did people really act this way an unbelievable conclusion how did everyone end up at the abandoned mansion at the end and a silly romance wood declares her love for dean after talking to him for a couple hours it still is a fabulous film the acting is so believable that it is no wonder that dean was considered the epitome of cool now however the coolness is fading
positive	david mamet has long been my favorite screenwriter and director with his distinctive more often than not ingenious dialogue and his laid back style of direction nearly all of his movies are absolutely irresistible some of them tend to be thickly layered deceptive productions that require the audience to look at the film in a less superficial manner than the plot seems to require in order to discern its concealed message or sometimes even a concealed storyline and although the real plot in his new project the winslow boy is slightly more conspicuous than in some of his other endeavors it is still a brilliantly complex consistently riveting motion picture about honor about sacrifice and about the difference between what is commonly known as justice and what is right oh and it's rated g incidentally this is the first time that mamet has decided to adapt someone else's work namely a play by terrence rattigan set in the century he casts nigel hawthorne in the lead role as arthur winslow a rich aging man who finds out that his year old son ronnie has been kicked out of the naval academy for allegedly stealing a shilling postal note did you do it he asks his boy no father i didn't ronnie answers that's enough for arthur who with his oldest daughter rebecca pidgeon immediately starts a crusade to bring his son's case to court they enlist the help of sir robert morton a notorious attorney to help them achieve that formidably daunting task it all seems fairly frivolous and no matter how you look at it the winslow case is not the trial of the century but arthur is determined to keep his family's word clean and he is willing to go quite far to make sure of that soon enough sir robert morton along with the rest of the country becomes equally wrapped up in the proceedings so do we all david mamet does for the script is tighten and hone the dialogue but his style is still fairly apparent the characters still talk in his trademark staccatto lines and there is still tension present in conversations that no ordinary writer would be able to make tense but this is not mamet's norm and it's refreshing to see mamet deviate from his world of crooks gangsters as con men wonderful as those films were nigel hawthorne's performance is nearly flawless his delivery is that of a dignified yet not pompous man who seems to be getting beaten at his own game we pity the man but we also like him rebecca pidgeon david mamet's wife who gave a fairly awful performance in the spanish prisoner is at the top of her game here as arthur's oldest daughter a flailing feminist who gives her all to the winslow case as a way for making up for her lack of success in the women's suffrage movement the winslow boy is a wonderful movie that avoids cliches such as a seemingly inevitable courtroom scene and shoots higher it wants to make a real impact rather than a phony one be honest did you feel anything profound at or after the courtroom scenes in films like a time to kill if you wanted to but didn't this is a movie for you it is the epitome of subtlety it's powerful without being too emotional sad without even trying to be depressing david mamet can churn out some great scripts but in this movie he proves to those who ever doubted it once and for all that he is a hell of a director too he is almost a national treasure his films deserve their own genre eugene
positive	catherine deane jennifer lopez is a psychologist who has been hired to participate in a project where she can enter the minds of comatose victims and try to interact with their subconscious in an attempt to wake them up she has been experiencing moderate success with a young boy in a coma but the boy's parents aren't happy with the apparent lack of progress and the toll of her job is having adverse affects on her regular life as if trying to assure the boy's parents wasn't hard enough on her a new development arises that furthers the strain on deane's mental faculties a vicious serial killer named carl stargher vincent d'onofrio has been kidnapping women locking them in an automated cell that drowns them slowly in a matter of days then soaking the corpses in bleach to turn them into dolls just after kidnapping his latest victim and locking her in the cell stargher has a traumatic experience that triggers a schizophrenic virus in his brain and causes him to sink in an eternal catatonia the police led by fbi agent peter novak vince vaughn are able to locate stargher by some clues he left while dumping his previous victim's body but they feel all hope is lost for his current victim due to his vegetative state in a last ditch attempt they ask deane and the scientists that created the project to undergo the frightening task of entering stargher's mind to try and find the location of the victim locked in the deadly cell a cell which will completely fill with water in the next hours initial reports about this film described it as a cross between the silence of the lambs and the matrix while it does share some characteristics with both films particularly the first forty minutes which seem almost like a condensed version of lambs the cell also seems to contain elements of dreamscape and brainstorm the buzz around this project is that feature film director tarsem singh who won many awards for his video of r e m losing my religion wanted a script that he could fashion images out of instead of a cohesive story and a good portion of this film supports that theory despite the borrowed elements from the aforementioned films and a script that contains several logically questionable moments the cell does feature some remarkable imagery all of the sequences where we delve into someone's mind are incredibly beautiful including the dank mind of stargher whose thoughts are reminiscent of an h r giger painting come to life mixed with a tool music video proving that singh is as adept at filming strange and wonderful images as his acclaim would lead us to believe the first sequence that takes place in stargher's mind is by far the best featuring one of the most ingenious traps i've ever seen in a film involving a horse which no one seeing this film will probably forget a display of stargher's victims which are animated like marionettes and stargher himself in a giant purple cape that spans the walls of his mental throne room if the film had continued within this dirty monstrous world i would have deemed the film brilliant but alas the sequences only become more silly as they go along despite a painful nipple ring removal later in the film the cast is basically just an excuse for there to be some moderate plot semblance during the parade of images but at least vincent d'onofrio turns in his usual bizarre and psychotic performance magnified by ten thanks to the environment in which the film has been placed in my opinion d'onofrio was one of the best creepy actors i have ever seen in a film but his film choices as of late have been so completely awful i e the newton boys feeling minnesota the thirteenth floor and the velocity of gary that i have begun to rethink my initial assessment of him the character of stargher is an excellent role for him though and will probably lead to a bit of typecasting for him detractors of violence and disturbing images will want to stay far away from this film as it contains heavy doses of both besides the nipple ring removal i mention above there is also stargher's penchant for hanging suspended off of the floor by the rings that pierce his back and legs prior to his catatonia and capture which will have audiences recoiling a sequence where catherine enters stargher's mind and finds him recreating the disemboweling of his first victim is also pretty disquieting one moment also features a character having his intestines slowly removed from his body by an old fashioned hand cranked device as a narrative film the cell is sorely lacking as a collection of images though the cell is extremely well done although the latter sequences in the film contain fewer disturbing imagery than the first half singh has done what he supposedly set out to do make a film solely for the purpose of stringing some remarkable images together unfortunately a script should have been considered too because without it the cell just seems like any other music video we could see on mtv provided of course that mtv allowed for the use of graphic violence and language in music videos
positive	when casting the key part of the voice of moses most people's first candidate would probably not be the controversial actor val kilmer the saint and the island of dr moreau but he was dreamworks's choice in their first traditionally animated movie the prince of egypt the selection of kilmer proved to be a wise one but the biggest risk dreamworks took wasn't in the casting department the radical departure was that they decided to use the medium of animation to make a biblical epic a la cecil b demille to move our hearts and minds rather than to tickle our funny bones in the press kit producer penney cox says that they wanted to make a film for adults based on sophisticated themes but one that did not exclude children animated movies for adults that are appropriate for kids and that are not comedies now that is something fresh let me admit that i was quite skeptical as to whether dreamworks could pull it off dreamworks's antz seemed to be a movie not quite appropriate for any age group the prince of egypt may be harder to market than antz but it is much more satisfying like antz and unlike the more modest casting of pixar's a bug's life the prince of egpyt has half of hollywood doing the voices danny glover is the voice of jethro jeff goldblum of aaron steve martin of hotep helen mirren of the queen michelle pfeiffer of tzipporah martin short of huy and patrick stewart of seti you can figure out for yourself who does the voice of god the movie which is weakest in the story department is a cliff's notes version of demille's the ten commandments the script by kelly asbury and lorna cook has an obsession with touching briefly on every classic event in moses's life demille took over three and a half hours in order to do it justice at less than half of that the prince of egypt rushes through so much material that it doesn't establish sufficient depth for us to bond with the characters we meet moses when the queen finds him floating in his little basket we watch him grow up and become best bud and a chariot racing partner to ramses ralph fiennes the future pharaoh moses is a free spirit and a practical joker until he finds out his true identity as a jew all i've ever known to be true is a lie moses complains after finding out his real identity he sees for the first time the oppression of the jewish slaves that are all around him after leaving egypt moses comes back to ask ramses to let moses's people go this leads to the classic scene of the parting of the red sea which is one of many places where computers were used to enhance the traditionally animation of the most of the production it is the absolutely stunning visuals that make the movie so compelling drawn with a rich palette of luxurious roses blues and golds the picture looks sumptuous from its first frame to its last the construction of the temple is shown in blowing dust and other scenes are shot with the glow of a rising sun the most original visual sequence in the film occurs during a dream moses has done with an explicit look the colorful images painted on the temple walls come to life to tell their own animated story even though it has its weaknesses the prince of egypt is a noble attempt to carve out a new genre serious animated movies for adults that are acceptable for the entire family this movie deserves to be seen the prince of egypt runs about it is rated pg for thematic elements and would be fine for the whole family how old a kid would need to be to be interested depends on the child but those over will probably like it
positive	it's certainly more than just a monster story kenneth branagh of mary shelley's frankenstein kenneth branagh's new motion picture had to compete with all the previous made throughout the years in almost every part of the world including the most controversial version of them all directed by james whale the dark and stormy nights the lightning bolts the charnel houses of spare body parts the laboratory where victor frankenstein stirs his steaming cauldron of life are effectful but the center of the film quieter and more thoughtful contains the real story will probably be disappointed by the total lack of horror branagh has instead concentrated on serious issues morality philosophy and human elements of the story and not on old fashioned horror cliches his version is much closer to the book than all the previous adaptions of the classic novel the film begins and ends somewhere in the arctic ocean the year is a bold captain is steering his ship through the unknown waters his gole is to reach the north pole at all costs as the ice closes around his ship a figure appears on the horizon it's a man exhausted and on the brink of death he approaches the frightening crew his name is victor frankenstein kenneth branagh and his story is so terrifying that it will scare everyone from venturing into the unknown the myserious stranger begins his tale or more precisely his confession in geneva he is remembering his childhood and youth laughter banquets and parties a happy life without troubles or concerns here victor lived with his father ian holm mother cherie lunghi his surrogate sister helena boham carter and his servants in happiness and harmony this idyllic lifestyle is suddenly changed like thunder from a quite sky his mother dies giving birth to his youngest brother shocked baffled and then gradually changed by grief and despair victor already interested in science becomes obsessed with death standing on his mother's grave he says oh mother you did not have to die no one should ever die i will stop this i promiss after proposing marridge to his surrogate sister and promising to return as soon as his studies are finished victor travels to ingolstadt in presuite of a medical career after a while his obsession totally overtakes him as he is working day and night creating life from death composing dead bodies frankenstein wanted to create the perfect man both physically and mentally with strong electrical impulses he managed to breeth life into his creation the result was ugliness realizing what he has done frankenstein tried to undo his work but it was to late the creature has escaped because of the epidemic frankenstein hoped that his creation has died and returned to his home making plans for the wedding for a while everything is as it was before his mother's death but then one by one his loved once are dying mysteriously whale's picture although powerful never managed to capture the total depth of the novel brannagh has more or less done that another thing is characters and actors branagh has developed every character and assembled a magnificent cast the greatest performances comes from de niro the monster that has been played by among others charles ogle karloff lon chaney bela lugosi glenn strange christopher lee fred gwynne as herman munster and now robert de niro alone hated and feared he is completely aware of his ugliness at first he is like a helpless abandoned child desperately reaching out for love later when he reads frankenstein's journal and learns that he is composed of dead bodies his love turns into rage as he is seeking revenge he is capable of killing without regret i took him by the throughout and lifted him off the ground and then i slowly crushed his neck and as i killed him i saw your face that is how he reveals his savage nature to his creator and yet he is never quite evil in our eyes and his vaulerbility and his loneliness are palpable for the sympathy of one living being i would make peace with all rarely has a cinematic interpretation of the daemon approached the level of and humanity with which it is portrayed in the novel another vital thing is the character of victor frankenstein in most of the previous adaptions he was simply a mad scientist that trolls the graveyards for corpses and then creates a monster god knows why with the power of an electrical storm almost no time was granted on his charecter who is the most important and vital charecter in the novel here branagh introduces the character of victor frankenstein establishes his obsession with the very nature of life and death sets up the intellectual and ideological conflict between victor and the academic establishment and somehow manages to build up to a rousing and horrifying creation scene branagh plays frankenstein with a remarkable understanding of his character on the outside he is strong ambitious and talented scientist but deep down he is unsecure fragile and vaulerble constantly haunted by the ghosts from his past helen boham carter is equally wonderful as frankenstein's surrogate sister who at the end becomes his wife for a little while before death drives them apart the rest of the cast playing secondary characters is solid and nothing less than convincing visually the film is stunning especially the makeup the spinning camera the constantly musical acore the art direction the production design the costumes are all magnificent from the arctic ocean to the swiss alps and dark forests to the streets of ingolstadt mary shelley's frankenstein is a wonder to behold kenneth branagh directs his film as if the script was written by shakespeare all i once loved lies in a shallow grave by my hand and the film ends exacly as hamlet when the creature sets both his and his creator's body on fire the film ends with frankenstein and his creation burning in the almost hellish fire in the darkness and a terrifying last on the creature's smiling face can a man create life then abandon his creation because its appearance horrifies him to whom are its actions then attributable the creature or the being who brought about its existence shelley did not answer these questions but she certainly posed them following her example branagh does the same his film is a tragic saga about playing god victor frankenstein is not an evil man he wanted to change the world to the better in this he represents everything science stands for acting without doubts never considering the consequences of his actions produced by francis ford coppola frankenstein resembles in some respects coppolas previous film dracula in comparison i can say that dracula has visuals that even frankenstein can not live up to but when it comes to story characters and casting frankenstein is stronger but stronger than both of them on every aspect is neil jordan's interview with the vampire although the film is not perfect the camera that simply refuses to stay still and the occasionally pushy score are at times more tiering than effective these minor faults are easily forgivable as the picture is otherwise captivating and stimulating branagh has probably created one of the best if not the best adaptions of shelly's classic novel
positive	love is the devil is a challenging film munundating its audience with wild imagery and a plot structure that disallows a plot perhaps in an attempt to get us to know the artist's psyche rather than the artist's lifeline watching it i was enthralled with the look of the film the way the director shot everything like it was looking through a bizarre personalized filter everything looks like it is not how life looks like but how painter francis bacon the film's subject looked at it personally but while i was engrossed i stumbled upon my thoughts halfway through the film awakened from my trance by some inner distraction and began to try and follow what's going on exactly what was i looking at watching this film i wasn't sure if it was the most insightful film i had ever seen or the most vacuous directed and written by john maybury love is the devil is stylish masterpiece for the senses everything looks originally bizarre and perplexing the camera angles are ferociously askew and the are uncomfortably too close the editing is deft occasionally cutting away to something bizarre every couple seconds but other times holding on a shot for so long that you wonder if the audience is not supposed to be voyeurs or rather intruders to bacon's world and psyche as such there is no real story i've not heard much about francis bacon that i didn't read prior to the film but what i learned was this he was a painter in england who reached his peak during the and drawing hideously bizarre drawings of carnage and the like he was one of the first to really come out of the closet and in interviews he was notoriously drunk yet incredibly witty as played by great shakesperean actor derek jacobi he's like a foppish and cross between oscar wilde and nero he lives life the way he wants to live it to the disatisfaction of those who have the privelege of being really close to him it's as if he were taking delight in the destruction of others and maybe himself champagne for my real friends and pain for my sham friends he says one night at the bar he frequents love is the devil chronicles the latter part of his life bacon in his awakens one night when he hears a man tumble through his ceiling window and land on the floor he walks in unafraid of what he finds and discovers a thief george dyer daniel craig bacon gives him an offer if he spends the night with him he can take anything he wants in the morning george agrees to this and off to bed he goes but ends up staying with him for whatever reason the film shows their lives together at least in reference to one another while creating bacon's world of friends like high art this film minors in showing a certain group of people who radiate a connection that is not shown but is understood the film shows the relationship of bacon and george as it remains rather stagnant bacon is haughty and bizarre george is simple and doesn't understand bacon in the least especially not his paintings while watching this that's basically all i thought was there the film has a hypnotic feel free of any restraints of form and is shot so uniquely that i felt my attention was almost entirely on the way this film was made rather than what it is about once the film is over it's easier to piece it together i kept on thinking about this film wondering what the point to all of it was someone doesn't merely make a film of all style and no substance at all and if they do they do it by accident but still allow some substance to creep in thinking about it i remembered how the two fed off of eachother i thought about how bacon was a masochist in love with cruelty in one scene he watches a boxing match with a orgiastic delight and lets out a squeal of pleasure when blood from the one boxer's head splashes across his face in another scene he masturbates to the odessa steps sequence of eisenstein's battleship potemkin and perhaps he drove george too far in his delight for pain he drove him over the edge and for him that was love even if it wasn't for george i guess that explains the title a bit that's great and all but i almost wish the film was devoid of any meaning i wish it hadn't reduced itself to making some point about humanity about how love is the most selfish thing in the world and it is if you look at it a certain way or maybe if it had avoided any meaning about humanity and merely drove itself into being the one film that was truly inside one man's twisted pysche it's almost always best to obtain insights from looking at one man's uniqueness than it is forcing universality down an audience's throat that way you don't reduce your film to something it's just not i can't say i totally enjoyed love is the devil though despite all of the things i respect about this movie it's still rather uncomfortable to sit through even at a normally trite length of ninety minutes the film still seems like an arduous task to sit through especially after an exhausting first hour though hypnotic it still almost seems gimmicky and even redundant at times as if it were taking advantage of one man's truly bizarre nature but not doing anything deeper with it as such i respect the way the film looks it's beautiful and painstakingly crafted so that along with what dreams may come and dark city it's the year's most visually stunning film in fact if a better script had been forged i'd almost compare it in visual power to a peter greenaway film complete with similar haunting images that stick in the mind forever and with a dymanite performance by derek jacobi it has the comic and distanced tone that it needs i just wish it had been more than mostly style and just a hair bit of substance then i would have had something to hold me over even now
positive	a costume drama set in the england elizabeth is a lush romantic political masterpiece about the upset over the crossing of a protestant queen from a respected catholic one when the court and country are a whole after the passing of the queens the royal family so to speak are upset that a protestant should be crowened and not another catholic plus the new queen elizabeth i cate blanchette was the bastard baby of the previous queen mary's father the persecution over catholics and protestants isn't the only majority in elizabeth elizabeth i must face the decision to give up personal pleasures and her lover joseph fiennes of shakespeare in love in order to rule successfully the country which she did for more years both elizabeth and shakespeare in love are set in the elizabethian era and both feature a queen elizabeth i judi dench plays her in love or course yet i found elizabeth more stimulating and involving than love not just because elizabeth features a great deal more of elizabeth i but because i found blanchette a more powerful hypnotic sense for the role elizabeth also featuring geoffrey rush and richard attenborough is my pick for the best picture of award it's a dynamic important breathtaking film of loyalty power greed and trust shakespeare would die for the book rights
positive	jay and silent bob strike back can rightfully be subtitled kevin smith's greatest hits for the film is comprised of numerous references and characters from smith's earlier works including clerks mall rats chasing amy and dogma so be advised bone up on that cinematic quartet in order to achieve the maximum enjoyment from smith's latest outing kevin smith must be a very likable person because several good sports took a ton of kidding in this feature most notably miramax the studio whose subsidiary dimension films is jay and silent bob's distributor others deserving accolades include ben affleck matt damon directors gus van zant and wes craven and the mighty george lucas this is a road film with jay jason mewes and silent bob smith hitching to hollywood to sabotage miramax's production of bluntman and chronic comic book characters based on the two jersey slackers jay's convoluted reasoning is that if the film is shut down people on the internet will stop insulting him and bob even though it is not him and bob the people are dissing but rather their comic book counterparts no matter the duo begin their long trek hitching rides across the country but first they get some tips from a veteran hitchhiker played by george carlin who tells them to follow the book the rules of the road of course jay's interpretation immediately gets the duo in trouble with a friendly nun carrie fisher who offers them a ride jay and silent bob contains enough laughs that the movie's weaker aspects which include a lame subplot about a girl gang of diamond thieves as well as a buffoonish federal park ranger played by will ferrell can be easily tolerated really how can you not laugh at a film in which our heroes are picked up by the mystery van and jay has a hallucination concerning velma and daphne the movie's highlight though is near the finale in hollywood jay and silent bob sneak onto the miramax lot where they crash the set and are mistaken for extras of the latest picture good will hunting hunting season here we are privy to a hilarious conversation between affleck and damon in which the two put down each other's careers and film choices and the laughs continue to grow next up is jason american pie biggs and james dawson's creek van der beek the actors chosen to portray bluntman and chronic the pair mistake jay and silent bob for their stunt doubles finally comes a star wars homage featuring one of the stars of that legendary feature this bit will leave you howling smith's obvious affection for pop culture icons is evident in the way he shoots these scenes and handles his performers he allows them to play it all their fun comes through the screen to the audience it is too bad that this is jay and silent bob's swan song the characters have grown since their supporting role debuts in clerks but smith realizes that times have changed and he doesn't want his creations to overstay their welcome so smith has provided them with just the right kind of exit saving the best for last goodbye jay and silent bob at least you're going out with a blast
positive	a sci starring jack nicholson pierce brosnan annette benning glenn close martin short and other stars a warner bros picture the martians have landed in this hillarous tim burton movie before entering the cinema i was initially a little bit nervous about what this film would be like many people were saying that this film was silly rubbish and there was no point to it all how wrong they were i left this film feeling much happier than i was before i entered the cinema the story is about martians attacking earth using ray guns hooray they generally cause havoc around the u s and other countries nicholson plays the president who must try to stop invasion and also taking advice from his loopy officials but basically its a load of set pieces showing the martians destroying earth the way people are killed by the ray guns is great they is a hillarous and mildly disturbing scene involving a martian lady a mad general who just wants to nuke the aliens away and ends up getting squashed by an aliens foot and a gory finale involving lots of alien heads exploding but most of all this film is fun the martians are full of character the performances are spot on and the all star cast help make the film more enjoyable the film is a million times better then the dire independance day and is a real tribute to the tacky invasion movies they are is a great score by danny elfman and lots of laughs this has to be the best invasion i've seen for a long time
positive	let's face it the smash that was goldeneye was not a good film by any means and as a bond movie was only marginally better than say a view to a kill or either of the timothy dalton pictures by virtue of nice pacing but it did revive the series and granted the producers some new directions in which to take the it ie the new m is a woman tomorrow never dies is the picture goldeneye should have been it's also the most entertaining bond outing since the spy who loved me the new picture opens with china considering war with britain after a standard military operation is misconstrued as a hostile threat from an english submarine as an attack occurs the headline is already being prepared courtesy of carver media carver pryce the man is a deluded magnate a sort of hybrid of ted turner bill gates and peter sellars' german scientist from dr strangelove physically pryce even recalls sellars in his kubrick days it's up to james bond to take him down with assistance of course from a wealth of gadgets including a cell phone and beautiful women enter michelle yeoh fresh from supercop as a chinese secret agent with her own agenda with effortless grace she cat burgles dispatches baddies seemingly with the ease of preparing pasta and refuses the advances of our philandering hero they make a great team tomorrow never dies is a surprisingly entertaining and efficient film given that at the helm is none other than the director of turner hooch spottiswoode has crafted some breathtaking set pieces each much more intricate and impressive than for instance the tank scene in goldeneye moreover brosnan has at last settled into the role some feel he was born to play last time out the fate of the franchise rested on his shoulders and there was noticeable discomfort in his body language returned in brosnan's eyes has some of the playfulness he demonstrated for so many years on tv's remington steele as has his deadpan wit and though carver's motives are muddy when carver explains that genius is insanity with some success screenwriter fierstein is taking a lazy shortcut pryce makes an agreeable memorable villain in the future they should pursue actors as talented and experienced as pryce to breathe life into these cardboard figures there a few too many explosions in tomorrow never dies perhaps so many they qualify as dialogue and it could have used a sharper script though i was amused by the double entendres none of which i will reveal here as it stands the plot suffers many holes i'm not taking about implausibilities and the dialogue tends towards the hackneyed now that the elements are in place modern special effects and stunt work cool pierce brosnan kickass female allies it's time to put them to use in something truly special there's no mistaking however that tomorrow never dies is ideal holiday escapism and for the first time in perhaps years you'll walk out wanting more bond movies december
positive	rated r for strong language sexual dialogue drug use crude humor violence and brief nudity starring ben affleck matt damon linda fiorentino salma hayek alan rickman chris rock kevin smith jason mewes jason lee george carlin alanis morissette running time minutes being a huge fan of kevin smith i was expecting a lot out of his newest project it might just be kevin's best work to date it's very funny with smart and dialogue while unexpectedly it has a serious undertone to it and besides going against god and jesus christ it actually tries to tell people that there is such a thing rather than that there isn't in a little movie premiered at sundance this little film was called and this little film went on to become a huge video sensation you really can't meet a person on this green earth who has not seen it was hailed by critics as one of the best movies of the year and soon a sequel is coming in kevin made another movie that flopped horribly thought it was not the best movie ever made it was a pretty good little flick it was panned by critics but hailed by audiences and in amy' came out and was kevin's biggest success to date now in we get a great little movie by the name of wow what a cast ok here is the plot in this movie linda fiorentino plays a regular woman who works at an abortion clinic one day at her house metatron the voice of god appears at her house much to her surprise and tells her that she must stop two fallen angels matt damon and ben affleck from getting back into heaven by ways of a church ok now get this she is told to find two prophets one who talks a lot and one who doesn't however she gets jay and silent bob instead who give us great performances now on her way to new jersey with jay and silent bob to try and stop the two angels the apostle falls out of the sky chris rock and helps guide her to find these angels salma hayek plays serendipity who also helps her out along her way azrael jason lee who is a demon is trying to help the two angels out so that they can win bethany linda fiorentino has to now use the help of all these people to try and stop the angels before they cheat their way back to heaven leading to a violent and bloody end that will make you think twice about your faith what a movie it is everything rolled into one an offensive offbeat smart and sassy comedy that surprisingly has a great message at the end and ends up being a movie who would have known kevin had such a soft side on him that could make us know that he is a faithful person himself now for those of you who get offended with this movie really should not take it to heart yes it may target the catholic community and bash them a lot but it also seems to rather than go against god and heaven it actually goes with god and kevin gives a message that there is a god this review may sound confusing at first but really the only way to understand it is to see this excellent movie kevin goes to new lengths in this hilarious comedy and gives us some great characters with not too much background or study and rather we start to know the characters as we watch the movie of course the best and funniest of them all is the only duo in history that have made me fall out of my chair laughing and that my friends are jay and silent bob probably the best characters in movies that i like the cast is amazing and has some other cameos by george carlin jeanne garafolo and so may more that we start to lose track after a while the script was written by kevin smith with many f'words in there of course and a strong emphasis on sexual talk but he also seems to concentrate on what is important rather that what isn't and makes us laugh at the same time as we think chris rock gives a hilarious performance and gets into his character very well with some classic lines linda fiorentino is just perfect for her role and makes us believe that she really is who she is of course jason mewes and kevin smith do a great job as jay and silent bob with some priceless lines from jay as well as silent bob alan rickman jason lee salma hayek round out the cast with matt damon and ben affleck in the starring roles being oscar winners for the classic will hunting' they give great performances here again but matt damon seems just a little held back and to me did not give it all he could ben however was all out and got very much into his character as well as the story the movie's only big flaw is that it has a few unfunny lines and some slow parts to go along with it however the direction by kevin and the script by kevin as well as the priceless performance by many of the cast members stands as a new classic and i think i can safely compare it to while being funny at times in the end it becomes a serious movie with an important message that some may not agree with but can't deny it will offend people especially deeply religious people but for those of you who are open minded and want to see some very funny material then this is the movie for you all kevin smith fans must see
positive	one of the most popular subplots in the entire science fiction genre is time travel that concept although many purists doubt its scientific credentials spawned many interesting novels comic books and films in the last century however the big of time travels h g wells' novel the time machine wasn't written with the intention to speculate about that concept or its consequences the author h g wells merely used it as a convenient way to express his socialist views and condemn the great social gap between the rich idle capitalist class and impoverished labour whatever intentions wells had the future generations of readers were less impressed by his political messages instead they were fascinated by the idea that the strange new worlds could be explored without traveling trough space the novel became one of great classics of science fiction genre and it natural for filmmakers to use it as inspiration first of them was george pal who in directed film which would through the years become genre classic of its own the plot revolves about george rod taylor victorian scientist who discovered the way to travel through the fourth dimension time at the eve of the new century george gathers his friends in order to present them his invention machine that would enable him to travel through time they are skeptical but that doesn't prevent george from carrying out his plan and traveling into the future at first he travels slowly seeing london as it changes through the years and three world wars finally after witnessing world war three he travels far into the future hoping that he would cease to witness wars and senseless destructions when he finally reaches year ad at first glance new world looks like utopia humanity consists of young beautiful but idle eloi people who are fed clothed and taken care of by unseen machines but weena yvette mimieux eloi woman tells george about another side of the coin in the night her people is preyed upon by morlocs humanoid creatures from the underworld the time machine became the cinematic classic for the very same reason the novel became the classic in science fiction literature the fantastic concept was a brilliant way for the authors to talk about burning issues and fears of their respective times for h g wells it was frightening threat of class struggle for george pal and his screenwriter david duncan who produced the film in the worst days of the cold war it was the constant and more imminent threat of nuclear holocaust underlined with the negative references to war throughout the movie even the modern audience which would be tempted to discard the film as could find some values in its universal messages fit for each era compared with the genre films of today the time machine is even better and could serve as a good example how to make intelligent films of course since this is hollywood product after all the time machine delivers such concepts in the form of classic adventure sometimes sacrificing plausibility for the sake of attractiveness for example it is hard to imagine that someone would be able to understand perfect english million years in future same is with morlocs degenerating into mutant monsters while eloi remain undistinguished from the people of today some of the final scenes that turn victorian scientist into an action superhero are also rather unconvincing but on the other hand the film is very well directed cleverly paced and the special effects although definitely are more than adequate for this kind of picture the acting is good with rod taylor in one of his most remembered roles while in the same time alan young brings rather memorable performance as george's trusted friend filby yvette mimieux who plays weena on the other hand would be remembered more by her looks than by the complexity of her role however despite all those flaws the time machine is a very good piece of cinema something that connoisseurs of quality films sorely miss these days
positive	if this keeps up jane austen sense and sensibility pride and prejudice may have to apply for posthumous membership to the screen writers guild yet another novel of hers has made the transition to the silver screen mansfield park is a turn of the century century going on story about love among the classes as well as an examination into proper society and family ties ten year old fanny price hannah jakob the liar taken from her mother and father and the poverty in which they dwell is sent to live with her aunt and the privileged class at mansfield park under the stern patriarchal hand of her uncle sir thomas bertram harold pinter mojo spending her days reminded of her lower status she also invents and writes fanciful stories during her private times fanny eventually grows to become a beautiful intelligent and engaging heroine quite unlike the original character which ms austen originally penned in her novel patricia rozema when night is falling is responsible for the textual changes from a purely dramatic perspective the revision makes perfect sense and improves the film's audience appeal what ms rozema has done is to infuse the main character with much of ms austen's own personality by including excerpts from the author's journals giving that dialogue to fanny the result is a central character that is immediately appealing as the grown fanny australian actress frances o'connor all about adam does wonderfully textured work at times ms rozema has fanny address the camera directly to communicate many of the novel's more introspective observations this is a difficult device to work seamlessly into a period film and it is to ms o'connor's credit that it works as well as it does the central theme which gives the story its legs in an old one whether it is better to marry for love or for social standing fanny has fallen in love with her cousin edmund jonny lee miller plunkett macleane who appears fond of her as well his attentions are soon divided as the stylish and socially acceptable mary crawford embeth davidtz bicentennial man enters the picture along with her equally acceptable brother henry alessandro nivola inventing the abbotts who eventually sets his romantic sights upon fanny while mary and henry are evidently less than sincere in their affections their presence does provide the movie and the main characters with the necessary conflict that keeps our interest until the film's appropriately ending other thematic devices include a awkwardly inserted reference to the source of the wealth of mansfield park the slave trade there is also a hint of both lesbianism and incest but neither is carried very far and is soon forgotten the motivation for marriage remains the primary thematic thrust fanny's cousin maria bertram victoria hamilton persuasion is an example of one making a poor match marrying a fool who is able to make her comfortable but never happy fanny's own mother trapped in her chosen life of squalor warns fanny by admitting that her situation is due to the fact that she married for love fanny given those two terrible examples and faced with the same choice is understandably indecisive as to which way to lean the spiritual answer of course lies in the middle of those two extremes marriage is not a cold calculating decision based upon neither is it a senseless decision made in the warm afterglow of a passionate embrace in the purest sense marriage forms an insoluble union whereby two people agree to function as one and said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh matthew love and logic can be combined god's word contains both so does a marriage based upon his truth
positive	saving private ryan dreamworks running time hours minutes starring tom hanks edward burns tom sizemore and matt damon directed by steven spielberg already being hailed as the war movie ever made saving private ryan is an harrowing saddening and riveting movie it may not be the greatest war movie in my opinion but it's certainly one of the best war movies made and one of the best of tom hanks stars as a captain who's troop has to find private ryan damon who has a ticket home because his three brothers have been killed in action action drama and even some humour occur as the troop journeys through wartime france to find him after the disappointing amistad spielberg has returned to form with this excellent movie i'm not the war movie genre biggest fan but i found this film to be gripping and very scary thanks to the excellent cast direction and terrifying battle scenes tom hanks is superb straying away from his usually soppy dramatic roles such as in forrest gump this time he plays the role with gritty realism and is much better for it occasionally he overacts the sentimentally but he generally delivers a fine performance edward burns looking a lot like armageddon's ben affleck also delivers a top notch performance moving away from his roles in films such as she's the one tom sizemore makes less of an impact but is still watchable and matt damon reinforcing his position as one of the finest young actors working today spielberg directs very well putting the audience right in the heart of the action of the battle scenes and what battle scenes they are they're truly terrifying yet the audience cannot drag their eyes away from the screen the battle scenes are filmed with a jerky camera and the panic and confusion felt by the soldiers is emphasized by this technique the gore and violence isn't spared either which body parts flying and blood spurting this film is certainly not for kids and sensitive adults other factors help saving private ryan be a masterpiece of film making the cinematography is excellent and the music score by john william's is also superb it is never intrusive and adds to the drama but while they are thousands of good things great about private ryan there's one major flaw that detracts the genius of the film the writing it is unusually flat with many of the speeches strangely weak the film never really makes any profound statements this is not a major gripe as private ryan is a film of action not words still the script could of been a lot better thankfully the actors help partly to rectify the situation with their great delivery of their lines saving private ryan in the end is an excellent film but not the war movie' due to it's weak acting this film should be viewed by everyone who has the stomach for it as it's rewarding and extremely worthwhile it really shouldn't be missed and dreamworks skg has finally found it's first hit movie
positive	vs earth' idea revamped if you have been following the movie news over the net you could not have escaped the hype over it promises to be the summer film of the year and it has all the elements necessary opened in the us on of july and up till now only after a week of release it has nearly touched the million mark a phenomenon last observed when jurassic park was released back in the premise of the movie is disgustingly simple earth defends itself against the aliens a typical and highly popular hollywood theme which manifested itself in many films produced in that era the movie opens via star wars however unoriginal it may be it worked the aliens have sent a large mother ship supposedly to be size of the moon to attack earth by deploying attack ships miles in radius to all the major cities on earth the us president pullman does not know of the aliens' intention but soon finds out when david goldblum a scientist discovers that the aliens are counting down to a synchronised attack on all the major cities capt hiller smith a pilot are one of the hundreds assigned to take out the hovering alien attack ship over washington dc his squadron came under heavy alien fire after discovering that their weapons were useless against the invaders he crash lands after a spectacular chase over the grand canyon one of the many highlights of the movie features many characters and we are shown the impact on them as the story progresses acting on the whole was ok although i thought that bill pullman was a bit unsuitable for the president role but he did make a very rousing speech before sending his troops into battle do we smell a bit of braveheart here no prizes for guessing how ends its just plain obvious borrows heavily from star wars return of the jedi alien and in some parts of the movie i could even sense a bit of on screen if i were to critically review this movie is full of plot holes corny dialogue and ridiculously dumb aliens however below that plot and flaws scored well in playing with the appealing idea of the entire world giving up their petty differences to unite themselves as one force against the alien invasion an idea which will have the audience strongly rooting for the united front throughout the movie thus maintaining a interaction that virtually render any holes in the movie acceptable no matter how ridiculous was produced under a modest budget of million a film of such magnitude would have easily been another waterworld but director roland emmerich universal soldier stargate and producer dean devlin assembled a team which did their own special effects rather than commissioning it to ilm or any other special effects company some of the effects are not too good but most of it are very believable especially the epic standoff between and alien saucers reminiscence of the classic space battle featured in return of the jedi is a movie for all though there are many explosions and implied deaths there are no gory scenes of human destruction thus young kids should be able to take it sit back and don't be too critical chances are you will be absorbed into the movie just as i was if you are not planning to watch any movies this year please at least make time for this one this film is best watched on the
positive	the trailers and the beginning of the move sum up this plot very easily three filmmakers venture into the woods of maryland to track down the legend of the blair witch for a documentary they are making they disappear and their footage is discovered a year later buried underneath the foundation of a one hundred year old house from there things become a little more complicated i can say with absolute assurance that no film has ever had quite the impact that this little movie has had on me although i know it was all a staged mockumentary there's no denying the psychological impact this film will leave on you i didn't feel much upon initially watching it i just thought it was an interesting film with some pretty creepy parts i never even dreamed that thirty minutes after the film had ended i would be frightened out of my mind just discussing it with a friend i've gotten chills every time i've brought it up since then this is not a movie that hits you right away instead this is a movie that sits at the base of your spine waits until you think everything is okay then it slowly starts to creep it's way up into your mind this is truly the most frightening movie i have ever had the pleasure to watch the film is comprised of home video and camera footage that the documentarians supposedly shot for their blair witch film so don't expect any shots or fancy camera work this is as real as it gets folks i don't recommend sitting too close to the theater screen though because i guarantee you will get motion sickness from the constant movement of the camera the performances of the three lead actors in the film are so real you may find yourself questioning whether all of this has really happened or not this is definitely a movie that warrants home video viewing especially due to the fact that the bulk of the movie was shot with a standard home video camera the reality of the images will strike frighteningly close to home when viewed as actual video instead of the transfer done for the big screen word has it that a special edition dvd with boatloads of extras hours of deleted scenes alternate endings commentary the channel special and others is being planned for release i urge artisan entertainment to forge ahead with this plan and give us what could be the dvd to rival all dvd's i know i'll be first in line to buy one 
positive	apocalypse now based on the novel hearts of darkness is an extremely striking gripping and horrifying depiction of the vietnam war from another angle a long debate has surrounded this movie as if it is actually an film in many ways this debate could go either way apocalypse now is probably one of the most memorable vietnam war films ever made in addition now film has gone to the extremes that this film does a disturbing look at the corruption and terrifying effects of the most devastating war of recent years apocalypse now follows the mission captain benjamin l willard played by martin sheen to seek out and eliminate colonel walter e kurtz a green beret who is thought to have gone insane and set up his own militant base in cambodia captain willard is ordered to assassinate kurtz with extreme prejudice because he has been deemed a murderer willard accepts his mission but not while pondering the accusation accusing someone of murder in this situation is like handing out speeding tickets at the indy as he puts it it doesn't make too much sense escorting him on his mission are a group of men who operate a riverboat the men are chef frederic forrest chief albert hall lance johnson sam bottoms and mr clean a fifteen laurence fishburne willard is ordered not to let them know exactly what his mission is but they all know it is something big the men encounter many exciting dangerous and bizarre situations but no situation is more bizarre than the infamous napalm scene with a very eccentric robert duvall as lieutenant colonel kilgore kilgore decides to attack and overtake a certain beach area so that his men can surf surf this is all inspired when kilgore is able to meet the famed california surfer lance johnson duvall's portrayal as lieutenant colonel kilgore is terrific and he provides a number of memorable quotes eventually captain willard encounters colonel kurtz's frightening community full of strange things everywhere you look especially his followers one of his main followers is a freelance photographer dennis hopper who attempts to convey the situations to willard but willard cannot understand the madness that encompasses the colony kurtz is actually well aware of willard's mission and refers to him as an errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill yet willard is intent on completing his mission no matter what shocking things kurtz does apocalypse now possibly one of the greatest films ever made is a stunning vision into the madness that corresponds to the vietnam war a movie that will hypnotize you with it's brilliant cinematography apocalypse now is an outstanding epic drama about the controversial and horrifying ravages of war definitely on the do not miss list be prepared for a very memorable film
positive	sometimes i find century british costume dramas a little hard to relate to it's not the time or the distance it's the rules and conventions of a social class that deserves resentment rather than sympathy yet somehow the movies are all well made and i always get caught up in the story the wings of the dove fits the pattern kate helena bonham carter and merton linus roache are in love merton a newspaper writer would like to marry kate but kate's job if you will is to be a member of the british upper class her father lost all of her family's money but a wealthy aunt agreed to take care of her until she married a nice rich man naturally a newspaper writer's wages don't count as rich kate leads him on but she always ends up giving him the cold shoulder ultimately because he's not marriageable kate's american friend millie alison elliot stops in for a visit on her way to venice at a party millie catches a glimpse of merton and likes what she sees kate realizes that if merton were introduced to millie he might forget about her it appears that she is trying to spare him from the heartbreak of their inevitable breakup merton sees what kate is doing and resents her for it he is still in love with kate and will accept no substitute the three of them along with a fourth friend elizabeth mcgovern end up on holiday in venice together where their interactions are quite complicated let's sum up millie has fallen for merton merton has no feelings for millie because he is still in love with kate kate loves him but can't marry him so on the one hand she's trying to match him up with someone who will make him happy but on the other hand she's jealous of them as a couple a clear solution presents itself to kate when she realizes that millie is very sick dying in fact at this point she decides that merton should marry millie until she dies millie will leave her money to merton who will then be rich enough to marry kate she lets merton know of her schemes and since it will help him win kate he reluctantly agrees kate leaves venice so that the two m's can be alone together merton finds that pretending to love millie is a lot like actually loving her he's not sure he can separate the two kate finds that she's not so sure she really wants her merton falling in love with and marrying anyone else the brilliant scheme proves to be painful to all involved without revealing the details suffice it to say that the situation ends badly the title refers to the object of merton's vain hope that something might lift him from his predicament one is left with feelings of regret and despair what started as such a promising relationship was damaged by greed anger and jealousy an interesting thought struck me after the movie was over and that is that the wings of the dove almost fits the story line of a film noir a couple conspires to cheat someone out of their money so they can live happily ever after their involvement in the deception makes each less attractive to the other and after a few things go wrong the whole idea seems like an awful mistake i wouldn't call the wings of the dove a film noir but the comparison is interesting as i have acknowledged before i am not a wonderful judge of acting but i liked the performances from roache and elliot roache successfully conveyed his character's ambivalence toward millie near the end he hugs her at first staring into space as if he's thinking about his plan with kate then giving that up to fully embrace millie millie's part didn't require as much range but elliot gave her the necessary bubbly personality that made her irresistible i will probably file away the wings of the dove in the same corner of my mind as sense and sensibility and persuasion their settings are far removed from my personal experience geographically historically and socially still the movies are well made and the stories inevitably win me over
positive	earlier this year the movie holy man opened to a meager box office receipt and to indifference from audiences and critics a real charmer of a movie it's possible that the subject matter was too hip or trendy to attract any real audience now at the end of comes waking ned devine a comedy which inspires the same vein of easygoing laughter there's no substantial difference between the two other than a more refined atmosphere they strike all the same chords but still ned devine is a movie worth seeing the plot is interesting and robust the latest lottery winner is ned devine jimmy keogh of tullymore ireland ned's prize is over six million pounds but the shock of winning killed the poor old man and the check remains unclaimed enter jackie o'shea ian bannen and michael o'sullivan david kelly the only two residents who are aware the winner is in their village the two men eventually find the ticket and decide that if michael can convince the lotto authorities that he's actually ned the entire town can reap the benefits their only adversary is an ancient old woman eileen dromey who sees more profit in reporting the fraud ian bannen and david kelly truly shine as jackie and michael jackie stocky and large is the brains behind the operation michael scrawny and short is the method man the two contrast each other delightfully and at the same time remain sympathetic to the audience every viewer is sure to like both of them there are other minor subplots included as well such as an unlikely romance between a local girl and the town pig farmer this appears quite inconsequential until the end and even with a startling revelation it's a tad bit unnecessary overall waking ned devine has a predictable outcome and plot twists are never really taken seriously the ending a very hilarious and very ironic twist of fate somehow fits with the twisted sense of humor the movie exhibits throughout the kirk jones script is indeed in a way waking ned devine is exactly like the class of people it presents warm friendly outgoing and jovial it's the perfect kind of comedy a real gem of a tale that sets up a trivial plot outline by which to introduce a sympathetic cast of characters and a string of jokes there's nothing remotely serious or grounded for more than a moment or two because the spirit of ned devine is a lighthearted one indeed it's one of the year's best movies minutes of unrestrained joy that no one should miss
positive	susan granger's review of the perfect storm warner bros more people die on fishing boats per capita than working in any other job in the u s every journey a fishing boat makes can be an risk it is life at its most exhilarating and its most terrifying says director wolfgang petersen das boot and that's just what he captures in this true story of struggle and humanity aboard a swordfishing boat the andrea gail sailing out of gloucester massachusetts in late october early in bill wittliff's screenplay based on sebastian junger's we meet the crew of six the veteran captain george clooney is frustrated because he can't find fish on the grand banks yet a rival skipper mary elizabeth mastrantonio brings in huge hauls his man mark walhberg needs money to build a new life with his diane lane there's a devoted dad john c reilly with an estranged wife and son a jamaican allen payne a lonely guy john hawkes and a replacement with a bad attitude william fichtner the skipper's convinced he can change his bad luck streak in remote flemish cap and he does but then trouble begins there's a rogue wave a man overboard and the ice machine breaks with lb of fish that could spoil but that's minor compared with a deadly monster storm approaching which a boston meteorologist describes as a disaster of epic proportions that also threatens the lives of a coast guard helicopter rescue team trying to save three people stranded on a sailboat on the high seas it's formulaic and there are cliches but the walls of water created by fluid dynamics simulating phenomena are awesome on the granger movie gauge of to the perfect storm is a terrifying suspenseful hang on for the thrill ride of the summer
positive	just in time for halloween and christmas the reissue of the nightmare before christmas couldn't be more appropriate with all of the attention thrown to family films in recent years namely those starring pocket monsters and nickelodeon characters it's high time we raised the intellectual level of children's fare as well as the animation achievements of the movie studios with that in mind it was refreshing to revisit an animation classic on the big screen that still retains the originality and freshness it had seven years ago nightmare is the story of one man's quest to discover his true purpose in life to look beyond the accolades of his peers the achievements of his years and the praise of his ego jack skellington the pumpkin king of halloweentown is the main dude behind the halloween holiday for kids everywhere but during his reign as pumpkin king jack has somehow lost his understanding of his place in the world and the magic he creates with his halloween holiday after the completion of one particular halloween season jack walks with a heavy heart and ends up discovering in the woods outside halloweentown a grove of trees with doors to all of the other holidays in the world imagine his surprise to discover christmastown a far more impressive and uplifting holiday than halloween surrounded by happy elves making toys and with good cheer all around upon his return to halloweentown jack decides to combine halloween and christmas together by kidnapping sandy claws employing all the residents of halloweentown to build toys for children he then aims to take over the role as primary and to the children of the world in the hopes of rediscovering the zest for life he once had alas the of halloween and christmas creates disastrous results involving shrunken heads psychotic wooden ducks a sleigh pulled by a phantom dog with a lighted nose and a large sinister singing bag named oogie boogie tim burton the man behind such great films as ed wood beetlejuice big adventure and edward scissorhands is the creative force behind nightmare originally burton authored a poem that became the basis of the storyline and he was jointly involved in the production design of the film though many mistakenly assume he directed the picture the stamp of burton is clearly everywhere in the film with bold colors imaginative character design and it's simple yet compelling story the direction of harry selick who also directed james and the giant peach is strong offering intimate views of the strange collection of characters also memorable are the songs in the film written by former oingo boingo lead singer danny elfman the next john williams of film composing the nightmare before christmas is intended for both the kid and adult in everyone it's not just child's play for the holidays it's a movie about how to be truly happy in a tough world saying that all you need to do is just be exactly who you are without compromise what better message is there for christmas
positive	every once in a while a movie comes along that completely redefines the genre with dramas it was citizen kane with arthouse it was pulp fiction and with comedy it was well that jim carrey guy okay so he's not a movie but he did have a huge influence on the genre not to mention an expensive one sometimes a movie even combines them all into a big sprawling motion picture event as did forrest gump four years ago with action films it was aliens whic was released to much hype seven years after it's parent alien directed and written by james cameron judgement day the abyss true lies the authority on action films it was a masterful encore to his thriller the terminator while the original alien film was a dark enclosed horror film that featured one alien slowly massacering a horrified crew james cameron took the action film with aliens which featured multiple aliens doing basically the same thing although on a scale and boy did he take that route i'd say at about mph or so the film opens years after the original with lt ripley weaver being found in her ship in a cryogenic state by a salvage vessel if you'll recall at the end of alien ripley the only surviving member cryogenically hibernated herself after expelling the rogue alien from her ship unfortunately she thought she'd only be out for a couple of weeks once she's returned to earth ripley is quickly interrogated by the company who quickly dismiss her and her stories as lunacy in truth they believe her as they soon approach ripley with an offer to travel with some marines to a new colony planet as an alien advisor it seems that the colony planet was a ground for the nasty aliens and now all communication with the planet has been lost it doesn't exactly take a genius to guess what happens next ripley agrees and before you can say big mistake she and the half dozen marines plus the slimy corporate guy reiser who has more than it looks like up under his sleeve are off to the colony when they arrive they find the planet in ruins only one survivor is found a little girl newt who confirms that yes the aliens were here and that she only managed to survive by hidding in the ventilation system and soon enough the marines come under attack from the aliens what happens for the next hour and a half or so is what completely sets this movie apart from any other standard alien movie the action scenes cameron directs them so skillfully and so suspensefully that you're literally ringing your hands by the time the finale rolls around which features in my opinion the best fight scene ever recorded on film as ripley straps herself into a huge robot and battles the nasty queen alien to the death many people will tell you that this film while being a great action film has no real drama and is all cliches well they would be wrong my friends if this film had no drama then why was sigourney weaver nominated for best actress at the academy awards that's right best actress you know that any action film that has an oscar nomination attached to it for something other than technical stuff like editing and has got to be good in short aliens combines all the right elements great action and drama a good plot good dialogue and great villains into what could arguably be called the best action film of all time then again maybe not movies rise and fall from glory and sad to say aliens was wrestled from it's throne of best action movie by another cameron film judgement day in so who will be the next king well let's wait until december and see yet another james cameron highest budgeted film of all to make that decision i can't wait
positive	in brian singer and christopher mcquarrie dreamed up a simple concept the audience isn't stupid from that they went on and created the most intricately pieced movie in the last years the result the usual suspects one hell of a movie that redefines the word plot twist the story is convoluted and is really confusing to read although easy to follow on screen special investigator kujan chazz palminteri grills verbal kint kevin spacey a crippled who is the lone survivor of an la boat explosion that claimed more than victims kujan wants to confirm that his nemesis the rogue cop keaton gabriel byrne is actually dead kint relates the majority of the film in flashback beginning with the fateful day when five shifty guys meet in a lineup in new york city along with dour keaton kint encounters cheerfully sociopathic mcmanus stephen baldwin mordantly sarcastic hockney kevin pollak and fenster benicio del toro whose speech is virtually incomprehensible together they plot to steal a small fortune in gems from new york's finest taxi service cops who provide escort service for visiting drug kingpins what follows is a of violence and betrayal all hinging on the identity of a mysterious villain called keyser soze the film is brilliantly compact its the shortest minutes you'll ever spend in a movie theater the cast is exceptional palminteri shines he is brutally honest a true cop one who is going after the whole story because its there byrne is terrific his brooding character his seriousness is needed to supplement the hysteria of benicio del toro who is a riot as fenster del toro is brilliant his lines are a jumbled mess you can't understand a word the man says but it sure is damn funny baldwin is also very good he is careful methodical and cold a chilling character with a nasty streak of sarcasm pollak is also terrific as usual a very good character actor however this will be forever known as the film that launched kevin spacey spacey is simply breathtaking he is a force on screen giving a magnetic performance that jars the senses at the end of this twisting maze spacey's performance will be remembered for years for it is the best of his career it may be the best supporting actor performance in the last years verbal kint is a clever storyteller weak oppressed and gleefully evil to the bone yet pitiful one who draws sympathy the film is a good one a decent film until the last minutes what this film boils down to is the greatest ending in cinematic history for me at least the revelation of keyser soze the closing gunfights it is something wondrous you have to see this movie about times to believe what they do kudos to mcquarrie and singer for giving the audience a delightful furiously movie with quirky characters phenomenal acting and some hilarious moments stuck in the middle mcquarrie refuses to believe the audience is dumb without furnishing too many details he concocts his story and lets it run hoping the audience gets it at the end we do this might just be the finest cinematic puzzle ever created kudos also to singer and john ottman who created the score they both create what is a true setting carefully setting up this intricate puzzle until the final jarring ending there are flaws more questions raised than answers lack of character development and no strong female characters save one however the plot and that stunning ending make up for all the flaws and more if you haven't seen the movie rent it watch it then rewind the tape and watch it again trust me you'll be amazed
positive	it has happened again a movie that is well scripted well acted and well directed it is involving suspenseful it even has an unexpected twist at the end that packs a punch like a blow to the solar plexus but in order to accept its premise one must also accept a spiritual lie the sixth sense is that movie starring bruce willis armageddon as a child psychologist and haley joel osment forrest gump as a troubled youngster the sixth sense is more spooky than scary though it does contain disturbing images designed to startle cole sear osment sees dead people not just in dreams and not just as lifeless bodies he sees them walking around like regular people and he sees them all the time dr malcolm crowe willis is trying to help him he recognizes in cole many of the same attributes as one of his earlier patients whom crowe failed resulting in that patient shooting crowe before turning the gun on himself if crowe could manage to find a way to help cole he believes he just might be able to put his own demons to rest but first he needs to gain cole's trust the boy is so frightened by what he sees he has closed himself off emotionally being unwilling to tell anyone not crowe not even his own mother toni collette clockwatchers about his secrets crowe begins to spend more and more time with him even as his own marriage starts to dissolve around him his wife anna olivia williams rushmore becoming cold and distant because of his neglect of her and his preoccupation with the boy bruce willis underplays his role allowing the excellent script to do most of the work of building character development crowe moves from treating a troubled boy who won't communicate to treating a troubled boy who is having hallucinations to wondering if perhaps there isn't some truth behind what the boy sees mr willis does a serviceable job letting the focus remain on the story instead of on his familiar action hero screen persona haley joel osment manages to impress us with his performance he demonstrates an amazing amount of as well as an ability to play nuances in a complex character as if he were a seasoned pro it is fine work for one of such a tender age keep your eye on this young man the supporting cast is also quite effective toni collette as the confused frightened and frustrated mother who can't understand what is happening to her child olivia williams as crowe's once loving wife who is shutting down emotionally due to the lack of attention from her husband and donnie wahlberg ransom as crowe's now grown who illustrates his doctor's failure to help him in the most vivid terms imaginable year old m night shyamalan wide awake directed his own script maintaining a proper tension throughout the film and crafting the storytelling so expertly that the film's full impact is not reached until its final moments when a surprising revelation forces a reevaluation of all that preceded it it is a rare movie which manages to pull that off and mr shyamalan as the one responsible is certainly to be commended in giving the sixth sense a favorable three star review for its craftsmanship and artistic merit i must also point out that spiritually speaking the film is highly misleading there is no scriptural foundation upon which to base a belief in ghosts or the living dead the concept of death being a doorway to another plane of existence is a devilish lie that has been around as long as man himself the first lie recorded in the bible was devised by the serpent who assured eve thou shall not surely die a direct contradiction of god's admonition that same lie has been perpetuated ad infinitum throughout the ages scriptures do speak of a time when the dead shall rise but that wonderful demonstration of victory over death will not commence until after the second coming of christ an event which has not yet occurred therefore the dead remain in a state of oblivion having no consciousness until that time when the final trump shall sound and then you'll need six senses to register all the joy and rejoicing that will resound throughout the heavens
positive	in the grand scheme of mel gibson movies payback was better than conspiracy theory but not as good as braveheart or lethal weapon in other words it's a decent couple of hours of entertainment but years from now if a they compile a list of mel gibson's greatest hits payback probably won't be on it gibson plays a crook who gets double crossed by his partner after they heist a payroll mel's partner needed the money to pay off a mob debt so he puts a couple of bullets in mel leaving him for dead and goes on to pay off his creditors but mel isn't dead it would be a real short movie if he was and he certainly isn't happy to make matters worse he wants his money back and is willing to go to any lengths to accomplish this feat his ex partner has already used it to pay off the mobsters so mel goes after the mob to get it back payback is often a very violent film to its credit there are a few scenes that could have been very graphic but the director i'm not sure which one more about that in a second made the choice to let the audience use their imagination instead of subjecting us to the usual gratuitous gore found in many films the film appears a bit disjointed in places which is understandable considering producer star gibson wasn't thrilled with how the film turned out and wanted parts of it when the director refused another one was brought in to do the so as a result while the final product is apparently better than the original although personally i would love to see the original version for comparisons sake it does get a bit of a choppy feel to it towards the end it's always tough to make a film where the main character is a villain unless that person has some redeeming qualities in this case gibson's character has few redeeming qualities but hey its mel so even when he is killing people in cold blood we are still rooting for him my guess is that if that you put some other johnny bananas actor in this role the audience would not be quite as responsive gibson is gibson whether he is playing a suicidal cop or a stone cold killer he does a good job he almost guarantees that no matter what else happens in the rest of the movie at least the audience is going to get one good performance this time out mel is surrounded by a good supporting cast including maria bello as his love interest william devane and kris kristofferson as mod bosses the man who steals the show and unfortunately doesn't have a real big part is james coburn as yet another mobster if i had one big disappointment in this film it would be that coburn didn't have a bigger role in the end payback is a fairly solid action thriller just not in quite the same league as some of mel gibson's other work
positive	the question of tradition over morals is the subject directly at the core of leila a powerfully articulated and subtle drama from famous iranian director dariush mehrjui that is his first motion picture in a prosperous career to gain u s distribution thanks to first run features although unfamiliar with mehrjui's previous directing efforts perhaps the reason for this is that while the predicament at hand is no doubt exclusive to its own country the heartbreaking and solely truthful emotions of the characters can easily be understood by all viewers set in iran leila begins on the birthday of the title character leila hatami after a brief prologue in which we are shown the first encounter between leila and her future husband reza ali mosaffa as leila and reza set off to visit his parents and then hers where a birthday celebration has been planned things seem rosy for the couple on the outside but for leila life isn't quite as sweet earlier on that very same day leila had gone to see her physician and has ultimately discovered that she holds very little chance of ever conceiving a child when all of the conditions are ruled out and leila passes up the possibility of adoption reza firmly and lovingly tells her that he married her and doesn't care at all about having children nonetheless leila is ashamed that she will never be able to give him a baby which is the societal norm and her is not helped at all by her domineering jamileh sheikhi whose hopes to carry on the sacred family name vanishes once hearing the news reza is her only son bluntly explaining to leila that reza has always wished for children and in a country where polygamy is an accepted tradition she suggests that he take a second wife to bear a child with leila hesitantly agrees and while she and reza are able to shallowly laugh afterwards about the hopeful womens' inadequacies reza finally does meet a woman whom he claims to like even though he refuses to go through with the marriage if leila doesn't give her full blessing there are no easy answers to be found within leila a film that thoughtfully examines the central character's unfortunate plight as well as the inner workings of leila herself told through narration almost completely taken over by her own shame she has no option but to agree to her forceful requests even though she is unsure of how she will react if reza really does end up marrying another woman maybe because leila is from iran the film will unquestionably be shocking for american audiences since the concept of polygamy is looked upon by the characters as a more or less everyday occurrence leila however is unable to come to terms with the idea quite as easily but feels it is her duty to make her husband happy no matter what the circumstances one of the strongest aspects of the film is in its portrayal of the relationship between leila and reza who married only three months after their first meeting but obviously love each other very deeply it is this relationship that is the key ingredient to making what follows the opening scenes all the more powerful and director mehrjui has succeeded just about as well as possible although seemingly unimportant at first glance an early sequence where leila and reza are eating dinner and both are laughing nearly uncontrollably actually is one of the most vital moments in the first half as it unmistakably sets the boundary for their unrequisite love for one another ditto for another scene in which reza gives leila a large stuffed animal for her birthday and then reveals a beautiful necklace he has also gotten her these small moments are the perfect contrast for the solemn outraging sequences in the latter half in which reza drops leila off at the side of a busy road and then zooms off to go on a date with another woman left there to ponder her quickly diminishing marriage foolishly unbeknownst to reza leila prays each time that the date will not go well so she will be able to keep her husband to herself for a little while longer refusing to stay over at her parent's house the film inevitably leads up to the second wedding night between reza and another woman and in a sequence of extraordinary sorrow and potency leila finds her whole being emotionally torn apart as she is closed up in an upstairs bedroom as the marriage proceedings are going on down below despite her initial agreement to such a thing leila realizes how much she has been betrayed by reza whom she believed cared for her as much as she did of him sure the whole second marriage was his mother's idea but if he really did believe what he initially had told her about not wanting any children then he could have still easily backed out couldn't he in the pivotal role of leila who appears in every scene leila hatami is nothing short of remarkable injecting her character with an equal measure of startling strength unavoidable vulnerability and utter despair unlike most american films in which everything always has to be spelled out for audiences hatami says much more with just an elusive expression on her face than could possibly have been conveyed by words every bit a perfect match for hatami is ali mosaffa as reza a man who i believe does hold an unbreakable bond with his wife but is too naive to realize what he will be doing to leila if he marries someone else for all of its strong aspects leila isn't a perfect film on a technical level i found many blatant punctiation and spelling mistakes within the subtitles that need to be fixed and concerning the plot developments the final five minutes ring false when compared with everything that has come before mehrjui's decision to use an extremely stylized approach to the ending was the wrong choice particularly in his almost comedic way of wrapping up the character of the spiteful played memorably by jamileh sheikhi despite these minor missteps leila is an important motion picture that should definately be sought out upon its limited may release at new york's cinema village and then on may in la the questions that the film deals with is balanced evenly with its uneasy morales and when the climax arrives leila's is startlingly stripped away to reveal a victim led into complete devastation to which there is no return it's difficult to not consider how leila's culminating interior demise could have been so simply avoided had the other characters taken a second out of their own selfish lives to consider what leila the major pawn in the unforgivable scheme was going through
positive	barely scrapping by playing at a nyc piano bar timothy hutton returns to his massachusetts hometown for a couple of weeks on the surface he's coming home for a high school reunion but since this is a movie you know that he's really looking for some major life decisions a fairly small film this sports an impressive ensemble cast including uma thurman rosie o'donnell and a bunch of actors that you've seen before but can't quite place commendable jobs all around they seem like real people hutton arrives at his past and is greeted by his father terminally goony brother and old high school chums all of his old buddies are engaged in the snow removal business and most are in the midst of a relationship crisis the perfect stuff for a comedy about people in the twenties angst he meets and falls for the new next door neighbor a beautiful intelligent lively girl who is obviously taken with him the problem is that she is only unconsummated no it's not type of movie their relationship builds and neither knows what to do with it lovers with no where to go so hutton is gaga over a one of his buddies is his girlfriend with a married old flame another's girlfriend is sleeping with a meat cutter and she's a vegetarian things are a mess enter uma thurman the beautiful stranger in town for a few days is both a delight in the film and one of its minor downfalls her character is fun to watch even more entertaining is observing the guys falling over themselves trying to impress her like the lone ranger before she leaves she solves most of the problems and sets everyone onward with their lives the ending is a bit too pat everything is tied up with a neat little bow rosie o'donnell is a in her limited screen time with her brash personality and tell it like it is pronouncements structured somewhat like a diner a few years later this story is a good time but ends a little too nice
positive	it's an interesting premise our reality is only real to us because it is what we perceive to be real in truth our entire existences are lived out in our minds as we are fed information through electronic inputs directly to our brains what we see what we do everything around us is nothing more than a construct interlinked with the minds of others through a vastly powerful artificial intelligence our bodies severely atrophied are kept alive for the sole purpose of generating heat and electrical energy for a dominating order of machines which control the planet the realm has been waiting a little while for something new to come along the matrix isn't it the idea of a war between man and a sentient computer network a sham world the ability to plug one's brain into a computer has all been gleaned from such sources as the terminator dark city and a few star trek episodes both classic and next generation what is new is the ability to weave all of these various elements together and succeed in producing a film that is both entertaining as well as keanu reeves plays a computer whiz nicknamed neo who is plucked out of the artificial world known as the matrix by a group of renegade humans who are clandestinely fighting to expose the fallacy of the existence and free humankind from the oppression of the machines the group's leader morpheus laurence fishburne has chosen neo because he believes neo is the one who is destined to lead the attack against the artificial intelligence the beginning of the film we are kept on our toes trying to figure things out this in a lesser movie would be annoying but the matrix presents itself in an intelligent manner which makes the puzzle rather interesting and even fun what is reality what is a sham the film turns our very perception of life on its side more than once we are also presented with the question of whether we would rather know the harsh truth of reality or live a life of relative bliss oblivious to the true nature of our surroundings as viewers this is intriguing enough so imagine what it would be like for neo and who to better play a bewildered person than keanu reeves reeves whom i've never really cared for as an actor is competent in roles which require a lot of straightforwardness and little subtlety he was good in speed for example but laughably poor in a walk in the clouds neo is actually one of those roles which reeves slips into rather nicely so much of my expectation was happily for naught in a couple of places the script even capitalizes upon his wooden nature and this is a heavy credit to andy and larry wachowski i mean since bill and ted's excellent adventure what movie could you say really utilized keanu reeves more interesting than reeves is fishburne who's morpheus nearly runs the gamut of emotions and convincingly so very surprising for a movie fishburne also maintains a certain demeanor about himself throughout as if he always knows what to expect this helps to further the aura of his character's proficiency and extensive knowledge hugo weaving as agent smith one of the artificial intelligence's programs is also good playing his deadpan kick ass role which requires him to show emotion at the appropriate time unfortunately when weaving speaks for more than a few sentences in a row the nature of his character's speech pattern becomes a little more laughable than impressive moss plays trinity morpheus's number one assistant who becomes somewhat of a love interest for neo although her character is somewhat inconsistent moss nevertheless delivers an above par performance when fishburne isn't in the picture there were few expenses spared when it comes to the special effects many methods of imagery are employed from modeling to bluescreen to computer graphics of special note is the use of the freeze and turn effect where the entire scene is frozen turned then continued from a new angle this is accomplished by using a large number of still cameras employed in a with motion picture cameras placed at the two ends the motion cameras film the action and at the appropriate moment all the still cameras fire at once place each still image in a film sequence and you get a nearly seamless transition from the first motion camera to the second pretty slick the matrix drips with style from the clothing to the music to the action we're watching an exaggerated version of what we're used to much of it seems like the combination of two genres of the hong kong action film there's a lot of kung fu there's a lot of gunplay when a character is letting go with an automatic weapon much is made of the empty cartridges falling to the floor in slow motion there's also the element of the japanese action cartoon called anime by aficionados especially in the way the sequences are filmed in sweeping pans and emphasized actions through special effects combined it's really like no film i have ever seen the film is not without its faults some of the scenes and ideas are borrowed a little too liberally from other films and one component of the ending is decidedly disappointing some of the lines are also pretty bad in one instance a supporting character incorrectly delivers a famous saying and it wasn't meant to be a joke however these shortcomings detract little from what is an overall solid action film that for once does more than merely entertain
positive	one of kyle mclachlan's earlier cinematic features this movie has had an obvious influence on such films as the terminator species and the more recent fallen with denzel washington plot a picture set in modern times this thriller follows the exploits of an entity from outer space who likes to inhabit human bodies use them up until they are completely worn out and then switch over to the next available receptacle fbi agent mclachlan and local top cop nouri are charged with the capture of this thing before it's too late critique this urban equivalent of the thing checks in on all cylinders for god knows how many people died in this movie action and an overall rock roll attitude then again how can you go wrong with an alien that likes the ferraris guns heavy metal music and sexy girls granted the plot isn't the most elaborate of tales alien bad find alien kill alien but i can honestly say that i was never once bored during the viewing of this entire picture i wouldn't recommend it to those who don't like car chases murders and bland acting but for all the rest of you out there those who enjoy putting away their brains every now and again sitting back slamming back some salsa'd nachos and relishing in the cheeze some call film have a blast two scenes to watch for are both within the first ten minutes of this the opening sequence is one of the most rockin' scenes to open any action movie and the subsequent transformation is another even the late special effects were okay followed by the hidden ii in little known facts this film was kyle maclachlan's first lynch foray into the world of feature films his first two movie appearances were in lynch's wretched dune and the sensational blue velvet
positive	i want to correct what i wrote in a former retrospective of david lean's war picture i still think that it doesn't deserve being the number in the american film institute's list of the greatest american movies and i think that lumet's angry men wilder's witness for the prosecution and kubrick's paths of glory would have been better choices for the best picture oscar in but i can't deny the importance of the bridge on the river kwai cinematically and in its contents the film is set in burma in a bataillon of british soldiers in japanese war captivity is forced by the japanese to build a strategically momentous railway bridge over the river kwai but the british commanding officer colonel nicholson alec guinness insists corresponding to the geneva conventions that his officers needn't work as simple workmen struggling toughly col nicholson forces the japanese commandant col saito sessue hayakawa to give way in this respect afterwards col nicholson assiduously commits himself for the building of the bridge he considers it an opportunity to raise his men's morale and he wants to prove superior british capabilities to the japanese but the british high command sends a few soldiers who shall destroy the bridge among them the american shears william holden an escapee from the japanese prison camp and the british major warden jack hawkins a flaw of the picture is the clich d characterization of the japanese people they are presented as if they were intellectually inferior to the british as if the japanese were incapable of building a bridge and the film doesn't consistently question the military spirit as kubrick does in paths of glory lean seems rather fascinated by the military hierarchies this is also perceptible in the conversations between col nicholson and col saito in this regard it is symptomatic that shears who doubts the military logic is a somehow unpleasant person in the film the audience is supposed to applaud col nicholson's perseverance concerning the question if his officers shall work on the bridge or not the spectators are supposed to neglect the risks col nicholson takes for his men the plot these risks that means the picture isn't perfect but it has a lot of virtues as well it shows the madness of war and what war can produce in people's minds it shows how col nicholson becomes possessed by the idea of being a hero and that others like shears get cynics and the bridge on the river kwai is an interesting study of characters with clashing interests these points and the sometimes ironic dialogue make this film an film despite the inconsistencies in the treatment of this theme david lean's effective and atmospherically perfect direction creates a high suspense especially in the dramatic though not wholly plausible showdown alec guinness does a magnificent job of bringing col nicholson to life and making him such an interesting character the other actors deliver very good performances as well jack hildyard's fine color cinematography and the apt score are also helpful i like this extraordinary film despite its weaknesses c karl rackwitz klein k ris germany
positive	of the major horror vampire movies are easily the most adaptable think about it frankenstein movies haven't changed all that much because they still need that setting if you made a frankenstein movie today you'd have to have the monster be a virus or something and outside of michael j fox there aren't any actors that could play a virus convincingly movies about mummies would still have to be set in egypt there's not much you can do with werewolves except take them to london or paris unless you want to have a teenage werewolf or something and there's that michael j fox thing again but you can have vampires do anything and you can place them in any genre you want just about you can have traditional vampire movies bram stoker's dracula or have the anne rice version interview with the vampire or play it for laughs vampire in brooklyn you can put vampires in locales from sunny southern california the lost boys to squalid mexican dives from dusk till dawn to your local high school buffy the vampire slayer were it not redundant you could have a movie about a law firm full of vampires any day now i expect we'll see a movie about a vampire third baseman who has to decide whether to play a day game in order to break the home run record or you can insert the vampire legend into a hong kong action movie and when you do that you get blade wesley snipes has the chow yun fat role in this movie the silent expressionless hit man who destroys everything in his path in this case the everything happens to be vampires that explode into cgi shards instead of dead bleeding corpses snipes has less to say here than as the fugitive in u s marshals but does a demonstrably better job here as a wreaking vengeance on the bloodsuckers blade is a silent brooding presence laying waste to vampires without a shred of remorse he is as cold as his sword as single minded as his bullets yet he's not without quirks blade drives a battered muscle car and has to glean rolex watches from his vampire victims in order to stay solvent like any good hong kong movie blade is heavy on the chopsocky action for some reason blade spends a lot more time using his kung fu artistry than using the traditional weapons of garlic and silver blade dismisses a arc lamp as being too heavy although it looks to be a more efficient tool to dispatch vampires unfortunately the guiding hand of john woo is absent from this film relegating blade to the status of the replacement killers which it most strongly resembles the replacement killers is the last movie i saw that i didn't review mostly because it made no impression on me and i couldn't remember anything other than noise violence and the intensity of fat's performance blade has a little more going for it and has the vampire myth to draw from but other than that it's the same kind of movie exciting with well choreographed action scenes but with no resonance with a stronger villain stephen dorff is pardon the pun curiously bloodless as the head vampire leaving us to wonder what denis leary might have done with the role a wittier script and a strong supporting cast blade might have been able to rise beyond the level of commonplace summer entertainment as it is blade is an average action movie that serves to do nothing but remind us that the summer movies just keep getting dumber and the vampire movies just keep multiplying
positive	when quentin tarantino made pulp fiction he was not only making the greatest film of the he was also making what i believe to be the most influential movie of all time but before you send me for not giving that title to citizen kane hear me out much like citizen kane pulp fiction has changed movie making forever but i think the latter has had a tad more impact pulp fiction has actually ushered in a new era of film making it has altered the way films will be viewed fiction has spawned so many imitations i've lost count sure some have been excellent bound and the usual suspects spring immediately to mind but any serious recognizes pulp fiction as the original of the in this review i hope to change all the people's minds who have criticized it for it's excessive profanity and violence which by the way isn't really that graphic the most brilliant aspect of tarantino's masterpiece is the screenplay it is filled with so much classic dialogue the quarter pounder with cheese speech will go down in history it should be required reading for any film student if it isn't already the story told in unorthodox format centers around three main episodes all of which eventually intertwine the first titled vincent vega and marcellus wallace's wife deals with a very loaded john travolta i forgot to mention the cool heroin sequence taking mia wallace a performance by uma thurman his bosses wife out on a date to a cool restaurant called jack rabbit slim's they talk for a while with the occasional uncomfortable silence mostly about a guy called tony rocky horror after giving marcellus' new bride a foot massage he was thrown off a building and into a greenhouse giving him a speech impediment they also partake in a cool dance contest and end up twisting to the chuck berry classic you never can tell i won't reveal the rest of the story but i'll definitely say that it turns out to be a real bummer of a night despite the cool trophy they win the second story the least of the three but still four stars stars bruce willis proving he can play someone other than john mcclain in the die hard flicks as boxer butch coolidge previously in the film like i said it's told in form he had made a deal with marcellus wallace that he would take a fall in a match as it turns out he not only doesn't take the fall but he ends up actually killing his opponent he takes a cab to his girlfriend's apartment and to make a long story short ends up going back to his own place to retrieve a gold watch sort of a family heirloom explained by christopher walken in a hilarious sequence on his way home he bumps into literally marcellus the two winde up prisoner to two hillbilly sex murderers which results in the infamous gimp scene which is very reminicent of the squeal like a pig scene from deliverance the last and best in my opinion of the episodes features john travolta again and samuel l jackson in the best performance of any supporting actor ever as two slightly hitmen trying to rid themselves of a bloody car they seek help with a friend of jackson's played by the himself desperately in need of a stress ball they end up calling a cleaner of sorts played by the god among men harvey keitel to help them out in the end the story brilliantly loops around itself actually ending where it began if you haven't already seen the film or even if you have for that matter i suggest you invest your money in a copy of the letterbox collectors edition it features two previously unreleased scenes and the original film restored how it was originally meant to be seen earlier today i bought this version and watched it a few hours ago what the did to this movie is inexcusable that version cut out like half the movie what i have missed in the past years of viewing this flick is amazing for instance when travolta and jackson are in the apartment near the end the widescreen version allows you to see that several things on the walls make crosses this might help explain the divine intervention that takes place just a theory one of the things that pisses people off so much about this movie is that tarantino borrowed alot of scenes from other movies i e psycho kiss me deadly deliverance etc but why shouldn't he it's not like he and blatantly stole give the guy a break in case you haven't already noticed i believe pulp fiction is a supremely excellent film and one of the best of all time up there with such greats as casablanca and the godfather trust me you will not see a better film come out of the and besides it's one hell of a ride note if anyone knows how i could get a bad motherfucker wallet please me any help would be greatly appreciated
positive	there's some movies i enjoy even though i know i probably shouldn't and have a difficult time trying to explain why i did lucky numbers is a perfect example of this because it's such a blatant of fargo and every movie based on an elmore leonard novel and yet it somehow still works for me i know i'm in the minority here but let me explain the film takes place in harrisburg pa in during an unseasonably warm winter john travolta plays the local tv weatherman who is idolized by the townsfolk as if he were john travolta himself and not the bumbling russ richards russ is married to crystal lisa kudrow a blonde bimbo if ever there was one in the history of cinema she's a selfish nasty bitch full of lust and desire but somehow she got the job of the lottery ball girl not exactly the most intellectually taxing job on the market crystal's cheating on russ with their collective boss dick ed o'neil the tv station manager she doesn't seem to genuinely like either of them but it's all she can do in this town much like fargo this movie tells the story of a man who's going broke and has to pull off a huge scam to get rich quick he enlists the help of his english friend gig tim roth the local stripclub owner who tells him how to fix the lottery along the way a subplot involving a thug named accurately dale the thug michael rappaport gets mixed up in the process there's also a bookie that somehow gets thrown in the mix once the deal goes down i'm not going to elaborate much further on the plot and story because it continues to unwind and take twists and turns you're not expecting this is a farce which is basically a straightforward comedy but doesn't go as far as a classic black comedy should where as fargo was sometimes shocking and disturbing while being funny lucky numbers is just funny because you can't take these characters in these outrageous situations seriously it's all a big cartoon basically but it's funny and i can respect that travolta is great in his role and even though he's not a really likable character he's trying to be a nice guy despite the fact he's a creep he's like a gangster with morals who genuinely feels sorry for the guys he has to kill crystal is just the opposite she's constantly arguing and using whatever brain cells she has left to look out for herself kudrow is perfect in this role since she's spent years on tv as the phoebe on friends here is character is basically a very evil incarnation of phoebe i have to admit i was honestly surprised and pleased by how the plot unraveled and the methods each of the main characters use to try to get their share of the money like jackie brown an elmore leonard adaption the story is about a circle of characters all after the lottery money that has been won illegally the screenplay does a fine job in balancing the characters and slowly revealing their motivations and hidden agendas while at the same time keep russ richards the main focus more and more characters are introduced and since the film has such an iconic cartoony atmosphere you can take on faith just what makes the minor characters do what they do the ending itself is great it's surprising and funny and makes you feel good you realize this film has packed in about different movies' worth of stories into two hours' time and didn't fall apart although many other critics might beg to differ i liked it and i could see it again isn't that what makes a movie good
positive	this summer one of the most racially charged novels in john grisham's series a time to kill was made into a major motion picture on january of this year director rob reiner basically the film under the title of ghosts of mississippi based on the true story of civil rights leader medgar evars' assassination ghosts of mississippi revolves around the legal battle faced by myrlie evars whoopi goldberg sister act and her quest to have her husband's obvious assassin and racist byron de la beckwith james woods casino jailed so she turns to assistant district attorney and prosecutor bobby delaughter alec baldwin heaven's prisoners to imprison the former kkk member ghosts sets its tone with an opening montage of images from history from miseries to life in the racist south of the but all too soon the white folks take over intoning lines like what's america got to do with anything this is mississippi as beckwith james woods with his head larded with latex most of the time as an old man teeters between portraying evil and its character meanwhile goldberg turns in a very serious and weepy performance as the wife who wouldn't let her husband's death rest until she got the conviction both deserve serious this brings us to the dull performance of baldwin let's face it trying to match matthew mcconaughey's wonderful acting in a time to kill is basically impossible and baldwin is living proof of this as no emotions could be felt it seemed as if he actually had to struggle to shed a single tear either poor acting or poor directing but something definitely went wrong another strange mishap was the fact that goldberg's facial features didn't change as she looked the same in the courtroom as she did holding her husband's dead body earlier yet woods' was plastered with enough make up to make him look like goldberg's father at least the was realistic with some emotional moments in the poorly written script ghosts of mississippi lacked in heart when its predecessor a time to kill brought tears to everyone's eyes don't get me wrong the movie wasn't all that bad but if you've seen grisham's masterpiece then don't expect this one to be an excellent film 
positive	towards the middle of the sweet hereafter a crowded school bus skids on an icy road surface as it rounds a bend careens through the steel guard rail and disappears out of sight then in long shot we see the vehicle slowly sliding across what looks like a field it pauses for a moment before the field cracks under the bus' weight and the bright yellow vehicle vanishes in an effortless moment a single smooth second of time compare that scene if you will to the last eighty minutes of titanic when the behemoth sinks slowly and spectacularly to its watery demise and you'll appreciate the futility of comparing greatness in films the scene in the sweet hereafter epitomizes all that's right with independent canadian director atom egoyan's film it's not sensational we don't see the inside of the bus with its payload of screaming terrified children being bloodied and battered about the bus doesn't explode or break into a thousand tiny pieces it simply leaves the road and silently slips beneath the surface of a frozen lake it's a horrifying sequence made all the more so by calm and distance using a approach to his narrative egoyan shifts back and forward in time connecting us with the inhabitants of the small british columbian town who have been severely affected by this tragedy fourteen children died in the accident leaving their parents and the town itself paralyzed with grief the catalyst at the center of the film is ambulance chaser mitchell stephens a wonderfully moving performance by ian holm who comes to sam dent to persuade the townsfolk to engage in a class action suit stephens who doesn't believe in accidents functions as a concerned involved observer scribbling details in his notebook and providing the parents with an opportunity to reach some kind of closure in the harrowing aftermath while stephens' initial drive may be financial one third of the total settlement if he wins his involvement provides him more with an outlet to come to grips with his own loss his daughter has been in and out of clinics halfway houses and detox units for years egoyan's attention to detail and ability to establish mood are so impeccable that even the sound of a kettle boiling resonates like a plaintive cry mychael danna who composed the shimmering music for the ice storm contributes another memorable score that shivers and tingles equally impressive is paul sarossy's cinematography capturing the imposing canadian mountainsides and fogs as splendidly as his shadowy one scene a bright wall calendar serves to illuminate portions of a room the sweet hereafter while undeniably grim urges the viewer to grab onto life with both hands and not let go it's a film of generous subtlety and emotion
positive	losing a job is not an all too uncommon thing reacting to such a personal setback by taking a group of small children hostage is a bit more rare while we all might feel the desire to blow someone's head off with a shotgun when they don't seem to grasp our point of view actually threatening them with one is usually something we avoid this isn't the case with sam baily john travolta's slightly askew persona in mad city i don't think people listen to guys like me sam laments during an exclusive interview from behind the walls of a museum just a few days ago sam was a guard at this same museum but when cutbacks led to the elimination of his security position sam's apprehension resulted in a brash decision in an effort to get his museum director mrs banks blythe danner to just listen he barges into the museum one day equipped with a fully loaded shotgun taking the uncooperative banks and a group of school children hostage sam's overall concern is valid enough if he loses his job his paycheck his benefits etc his wife and two children won't be provided for he's not a lunatic or a madman he's somewhat like a child panicky compulsive and running on emotion and his naive intentions aren't helped any by the fact that banks wasn't overly compassionate with the let go overall he's just like you and me except that he has the capacity to view the line we'd deem far enough as the starting mark of some crazy race meanwhile television reporter max brackett dustin hoffman is also on the scene covering a fluff story for the evening news concerning the museum cutbacks max suddenly finds himself in the middle of the news story he ever could've hoped for having been demoted from network newsman to smalltime affiliate reporting max is anxious to turn this into his and only his story max immediately bonds with sam max even coaches sam thru hostage negotiations and writes scripts for him to use with the police over the phone at first max's intentions don't stretch beyond high ratings and a good boost to the ole pride factor but as he gets to know sam more personally he begins to sympathize and even become somewhat of an advocate for him the media however is creating a frenzy that leaves the fickle public shifting gears as often as a diesel truck moving downhill the accidental shooting of worker cliff bill nunn a black security guard becomes one of the main factors in the controversy over sam's honest ambitions also involved in this film are robert prosky as lou potts head of the news department of the station max falls directly under and alan alda as the nationally famed reporter kevin hollander who uses his network power to try and outshine max alda and prosky both turn in fine performances that fit like gloves on their acting abilities then there is mia kirshner who plays the young tv station intern laurie she falls under max's wings only to become a student taught too well in the way of sensationalistic reporting kirshner's credits are relatively small for now including roles in films like exotica and the forgettable sequel to the crow still kirshner's character transformation shows that she has shining ability to play both good girl and roles i wouldn't mind seeing her in some more prevalent parts where perhaps her talent will be able to blossom more fully onscreen while the viewpoint of the media as a greedy monster has indeed been tackled before mad city provides a solid two hours of enjoyability hoffman and travolta are both excellent actors and seeing them together is a real treat they both do a great job at smoothly and naturally becoming their characters and they provide enough chemistry for us to genuinely care for both there is quite a bit of humor in this film and without it it could've fallen into a drab cliched social statement more likely to garner sleep from the audience than applause this isn't a flick that will grip at both your funny bone and your heart but it will lightly touch both making for a recommendable movie if for nothing more than the opportunity to watch both hoffman and travolta at the same time i urge you to check this one out
positive	as much as i wanted to like this film as i went into it the more pleased i was when i left first getting through all the usual lines of newspaper glitz if you liked scream you'll love wild things campbell gives a stunning performance this twisty plot will have you dazzled for days oh yeah the day a newspaper uses these is the day neve campbell falls in love with me now onto more serious stuff and with this film i mean that in nearly a sarcastic way wild things has broken down the rules surrounding the r rating from the mpaa i'm not saying that in a bad way but when you see this film you may be shocked by what you see however perhaps the mpaa was pleased by the film's charming cast and tricky plot that they let the film slide with an r rating being mormon i'm bound to hear an uproar from religious zealots warning me not to see the film trouble is i have already seen it and i like it wild things is a film noir of the filled with sensibilities and yet breaking the rules and taboos of culture the style in which it is filmed is rich in color the actors are all gorgeous people seemingly drawn from the same gene pool and placed into this film sure it's all too good to be true but ain't it fun to watch when movies like this come along sort of a better version of basic instinct there is bound to be people who either love it or hate it there will be people who don't want to admit liking what they see but i tell you most anyone who sees this will like it wild things begins at blue bay high school the one high school in the world that any teenager would love to get into it's almost as if students are put through entrance exams just for admittance totally based on looks alone of course there are those select few who may look slightly ugly but compared to the average person they are gorgeous immediately the film finds its tone and the audience settles in for an enjoyable time we can turn off our brains right wrong while you may be expecting one thing to happen it certainly doesn't turn out that way the film begins in a classroom with nearly all the main characters present there's sam lombardo matt dillon a counselor for the students he's heading the class discussion there's also kelly van ryan denise richards a snobby rich teen who has fallen in love with sam teaching the class however are two policemen ray duquette kevin bacon and gloria perez daphne who want to talk about cheers crimes boos what is a sex crime ray asks not gettin' any one student responds this pretty much sets the tone of the film we are about to watch however upon hearing this one student suzie toller neve campbell stands up and leaves the room commenting that they can both kiss part of her body and so wild things sets into motion quickly kelly begins hitting on sam but sam doesn't want anything to do with her advances kelly is stubborn and continues to pursue him she even pleads with him to let her wash his jeep surprisingly that's really all i can tell you about the plot any more would give away one of the many crucial plot twists and what's more these plot twists are actually unpredictable going along the way of scream wild things maintains that film's surprises and then adds even more to them there are more plot twists in this film than probably any i have ever seen and even though you think you may get tired of them the surprises are so genuine that it's rather pleasing going back over them in my mind nearly all of them work though some stretch the boundaries of belief thankfully the convoluted plot doesn't give us much time to think about each one pouncing yet another twist on us before the shock of the previous one has worn off as for the critics who complain that the film is it is this is pretty much just one trashy film however it is the kind of trashy that isn't hard to watch it's good trash in a sense one the screenplay knows that it's not to be taken seriously and it includes a lot of humor and satire into the story this varies everywhere from kelly's mother theresa russell who is more of a caricature of rich people all the way to an lawyer bill murray who wears a to cover an insurance scam he is running bill murray also provides the best character in the film and most of the genuine laughs and two the sex is more than gratuitous although not unwelcomed wild things is supposed to have sex in it what film with that title wouldn't and this movie breaks the boundaries instead of having heterosexual sex scenes it also includes lesbian scenes between denise richards and neve campbell don't worry it's not as graphic as you might think the heterosexual scenes are quite graphic but the surprise shocker is kevin bacon's nude scene it's very brief so if you blink you may miss ahem it and for as long as i can remember i don't think i have seen an film show an erect one before it's not completely but judging from the audiences' reaction it was more than they expected too also during one scene late in the film there seemed to be a relationship brewing between bacon and dillon's characters but nothing came of it makes you wonder if the director had to cut it in order for the r rating or if the actors refused to do it what first made me want to see wild things was its cast neve campbell of course has been one of my favorite actresses since the scream films were released here however she turns every typical role she has done on its head and plays a gothic pothead the closest role to this was her performance in the craft though even in that she was a nice girl campbell is probably the best in the film and shows her wide range of talent you can tell she will be around for a long time denise richards will also be around for a long time although she may be limited to the roles without much range here she gets to express more emotions than in her stiff yet effective performance in starship troopers hopefully one day she will land a very good role that can display her ability and then there is daphne a newcomer to the movies she gives a very good performance although her character is mostly left to the background for the first hour and a half towards the end she does get a bigger part on the male side matt dillon is probably the best giving a subtle performance that surprises with every twist kevin bacon has a slightly wooden character but he makes the most of it you must have admiration though for what he did on screen and judging from many of the women's reactions in the theater to that shot they have grown a deeper appreciation for bacon yeah right and then there is bill murray his performance is the comic relief and he nearly steals the film as a whole the entire cast works wondrously together and they seem at home even when doing the menage a troi director john mcnaughton who has previously done the critically acclaimed henry portrait of a serial killer has constructed a wonderfully twisty plot that works his direction is smooth and stylish the visuals are striking filled with rich colors and almost so realistic that we can actually breathe the humidity in the air however he seems more at home when the actors aren't talking his shots of the swampy areas are brilliant and his photography of denise richards' climbing out of the pool is a highlight the cinematography is gorgeous in its details its not often that you see a film like this and we should watch it just to see how the camera can take pictures then there is the music this was probably the most obvious thing to me as it set the perfect mood for the film it's hard to describe in words so just see the film and listen to it it's wonderfully composed and presented and be sure to stick around during the closing credits mcnaughton has finally put the ending credits to good use while most comedies use it for outtakes he has included some small scenes which help explain the preceding events some may say that these are lame attempts to explain the convoluted plot but it's an entertaining way to finish the film plus there are some shocking moments in these ending credits which just add to the fun wild things is appropriately rated r for strong sexuality nudity language and violence again the nudity is rather unnecessary but let's face want to see it so why not give it to them neve campbell admirably has a clause in her contract and the most you see of her is from behind as she takes her top off way to go neve the sex scenes are graphic especially the first one we see between the mother and one of her deck hands one almost wonders how they got away with the r rating the language is quite harsh too ranging from sexual innuendo to your average everyday profanity and i can't stress it enough don't allow kids under to see this film the target age for the movie is the range and that's who should see it it's definitely not for those under did i mention that this film is rated r however for those that do get a chance to watch it you will probably more likely be pleased and may even take friends to see it the next time
positive	the postman delivers but not first class the postman a film review by michael redman copyright by michael redman my opinion of this film is definitely in the minority of reviewers perhaps because it hits so many of my cinematic buttons stories hope in a desperate situation grassroots uprisings and kevin costner even worse i thought that waterworld was watchable read the following with those particular grains of salt it's the year and things have fallen apart due to a world war in the late nineties the resulting winter and a devastating plague life in the former united states has been reduced to isolated primitive fiefdoms although this is the future it looks like a western as the film opens kevin costner his character's name is never revealed is wandering the utah wastelands with only his mule bill for company giving extraordinarily bad shakespearean performances in exchange for food and lodging costner is an outsider in a land of outsiders running into even worse luck he is forcibly conscripted into the racially pure holnist army of general bethlehem will patton the cavalry is the descendent of militia groups and is even called the clan after a brutal boot camp he and you can see this coming a mile away escapes taking shelter in a wrecked postal truck he liberates the uniform and mail bag from the skeleton in the cab who no longer has a use for either once he reaches oregon land of beautiful women bright youngsters and rock and roll he pretends to be a representative from the restored congress of the united states of america this scam gets him inside the walled towns where the promise of mail delivery renews optimism in the hearts of the inhabitants food and other opportunities come his way in the form of spirited abby olivia williams who wants him to father a child because her husband is sterile shortly her husband is killed by bethlehem and she and the postman as costner is referred to for the rest of the film become a reluctant item although the postman knows he's running a fraud the concept of renewed communications sets the kids' imagination afire especially ford lincoln mercury larenz tate his and they form a new pony express dedicated to getting the mail through the revived postal service doubles as an army to fight the holnists' tyranny the postman has become a symbol for hope in a rube goldberg manner although the movie appeals to my sensibilities there are so many things wrong with it that they can hardly be counted it's derivitive of costner's own waterworld and clint eastwood westerns there's little here that we haven't seen dozens of times before the film is often corny a scene where the postman is on horseback and grabs a letter from the hands of a child is embarrassing in its banality the film's final few minutes should have been left on the cutting room floor despite the film's excessive three hour length several things are never explained what was the war about how did civilization change so rapidly everyone has horses where did all they come from the law of eights that bethlehem lives by seems to have its origins somewhere beyond the film but where are we to believe that the rest of the world is in the same shape and hasn't made their way west to help or conquer there is some jumbled symbolism here that doesn't appear to make sense the tale is obviously saying that communication can defeat evil in much the same way that the internet has the potential to topple governments but beyond that there are some oddities the evil army is called holnists which sounds coincidentally like the new age holism but why is it another coincidence that it takes place in just one year after many ancient prophesies including the ending of the mayan calendar predict a new world for mankind why is the general named bethlehem there seems to be some reason for that but what sometimes the movie feels like a joke an army of postal workers armed with guns considering the headlines of recent years it takes a tremendous leap of faith to cheer for these guys it's even more difficult to accept those the federal government as the heroes given the current climate of the country and the distrust of big government it's asking a lot for the audience to get behind the film's nationalism even with its numerous flaws the movie all comes together if only for those who have the same weaknesses that i have it's doubtful that the postman is going to find much of an audience but a few of us are going to have a good time besides we're all awaiting the fall of civilization caused by the year millennium computer bug michael redman has written this column for over years and would like to announce that the michael redman arrested near indianapolis last week for accepting an illicit package from federal express is to the best of his knowledge not him perhaps this person should have used kevin costner's postal service
positive	there are certain people in the world who have some talent that very few people have but they chose not to take advantage of this for some personal reason good will hunting is about one of those people the will hunting of the horrible title let's face it this film would be a bitch to title played by matt damon is a mathematical genius he can do almost any mathematical connundrum in about the time it takes to brew a cup of irish cream cappuccino and he works at mit as the janitor one day the professor of one of the most challenging courses proffessor lambeau breaking the waves stellan skarsg rd puts a big problem on the board for his students to attempt to complete the next day it's already done on the board but no one in his class claims to have done it so lambeau puts another problem on the board this time one that took he and his colleagues over two years to prove and duh it's done again of course they catch the guy who did it red handed will before lambeau can find will again he ran away when he caught him will has gotten into a fight with a bunch of punks on a basketball court and struck a police officer so lambeau gets him out on probation with two agreements a he work with him on math and b he get some therapy after going through some therapists whom he psyches out in one way or another for a hypnotist he fakes being under his spell then launches into an impromptu performance of the classic afternoon delight finally lambeau's old college roomate sean mcguire robin williams a psych professor agrees to treat him and the two begin a rocky relationship as sean tries to get will to open up turns out will had a rough childhood being abandoned and placed in foster homes and what not it also turns out that will does not want to do simple mathematics all his life he wants a challenge and that is to hang out with his buds including the other ben affleck and do honorable jobs like construction is it right to make this genius follow in the footsteps of einstein and kasinsky should this guy be forced to do something he doesn't want to do this appears to be one of the million questions in this film which is with greatness but does not have the totally brilliant whole it should i'm not saying good will hunting is a bad film at all it's a very enjoyable film with tons of great moments and lots of great things about it the acting is amazing with two performances from damon and williams who have amazing chemistry together we also get some great support from stellan skarsg rd great name ben affleck and from minnie driver who plays will's love interest skylar there are tons of individual moments that i adored i loved all the comedy in the film especially a scene where damon proves a schmuck out of a college student who is quoting a historian to impress some chicks his various attempts at therapy and of course my favorite scene in the entire film the one where he delivers a long exstensive rant to some nsa agents about the downside of working for them i liked the relationship between some of the people like will and skylar will and sean sean and lambeau and will and his friends there are scenes between them which are just amazing to watch and there are even moments in the film which are so honest in their portrayal that i felt rightfully uncomfortable like the scene between will and skylar will and sean's first meeting a bar scene between sean and lambeau and a scene where sean tells in detail how he doesn't regret meeting his first wife who would later suffer a slow painful death and leave him lonely and slightly bitter however the main flaw of the film is there's too much of everything and not enough of it either the film tries for deeper relations between the characters but they're sometimes either overwritten or underwritten take for example the relationship between sean and will the film gets an interesting as well as relationship going with out any problems but when it tries to show them as equals it falls on its face we hear how they went to the same town and there are even scenes where the film shows how hypocritical both of them are at times but this never takes off like the other parts of their relationship do also will's relationship with his best friend chuckie affleck has a nice climax but not enough rising action we see them joking around but when chuckie arrives at a decision between the two of them it seems more like a superficial reasoning than a more selected one their relationship never goes beyond just best friends and his decision just seems to be a generalization of any two best friends instead of something more human maybe it was just me and it also goes for a parallelism with the relationship between sean and lambeau but that again is underwritten and of course as in most films like this the relationship is pretty underwritten we never understand what they see in each other so when skylar confesses that she loves him it seems more like it's there for plot details that anything else minnie driver is interesting though and breathes life into her character the writing is a bit at fault here but what makes all this worthwhile is the little moments in the film where it acheives true awesomeness sure it feels overstuffed but it's extremely enjoyable the dialogue that affleck and damon have written is amazingly fresh and seems extremely human i think that they should get a nomination for their script chiefly because of the dialogue which is amazing while this is probably director gus van sant's most conservative film you'd hardly know it's the same director of to die for the only van sant film i've seen really it's still a pretty remarkable film albeit a tad overrated what's this best picture deal and if a film puts a smile on my face despite posessing a lot of flaws i have no problem with reccomending it to anyone
positive	i guess it's a credit to jackie chan and the general likeability of the franchise that rush hour could not be ruined even by the nauseating comedy of chris tucker i'm a fan of jackie chan in just about any medium and this movie lets him not only do his martial arts schtick but show off his comic timing as well it would have worked better if he was the only name above the title the plot is your basic martial arts flick clothesline for stunts and special effects this time around the evil smugglers are led by ricky tan john lone who makes his fortune by shipping counterfeit money into the united states i'm still not sure how you can make a fortune doing that is there a place where one can exchange fake bills for real ones the only way to tell the phony money from the genuine article is to set it on fire and see what color it burns of course it's up to hong kong detective lee chan and lapd detective james carter tucker to take the bad guys out and the authorities to the extent that they even exist stay out of their way rush hour turns the tables on the first film in that here it's carter who gets the two of them into trouble and lee who winds up having to get them out i guarantee that my rating would have been at least a half of a grade higher had anyone other than chris tucker been cast as the foil for jackie chan he refuses to shut up not only did his voice feel like a jackhammer on my head but his jokes just aren't funny a pathetic mixture of eddie murphy fasttalking blather and wannabe chris rock jokes that wind up being more offensive than funny i realize that in a movie like this some of the biggest laughs come from letting the actors ad lib beyond what the script dictates but didn't anyone realize how irritating tucker's incessant ranting and raving was if this is all the comedian has to offer then i don't care to see any more of his films fortunately chan makes for a marvelous straight man and he redeems the fledgling comedy completely it's not often that one actor can so completely save a movie but there is no other name for what he does whenever he's on screen rush hour comes to nearly breathtaking often hilarious life much of it hinges on the dubious value of how cute it is to watch chan try to be a player but who cares i can think of few high concepts that are funnier the movie ends with outtakes that as usual show that chan isn't perfect and that it does indeed take him a few tries to get some of his incredible stunts to look seamless chris tucker botches some lines as well and his mistakes are funnier than anything he says in the whole movie a lot of people have pointed out rush hour isn't very different from its predecessor in tone or style but i liked the original and i like the sequel though a certain sidekick seems to have done his best to ruin it director brett ratner the family man keeps it moving at an entertaining pace and manages to keep the laughs coming despite the fairly miserable hit to miss ratio of the jokes i guess sometimes the shotgun approach works it's not great jackie chan but it's jackie chan and that's enough up next jay and silent bob strike back
positive	some critics including siskel ebert are on the record stating that martin scorsese's raging bull the story of boxer jake la motta is the best film of the since there are still a number of films that i haven't seen i don't feel qualified to make such a judgment but i'll say this without hesitation raging bull is a great motion picture and i would be surprised if more than a handful of films released between january and december come close to its level often fall into one of two categories overblown worship or a dry dull textbook account it's rare that a movie with the moniker based on the life of comes across as anything more than sporadically energetic and marginally entertaining raging bull is the perfect counterexample and a brilliant argument for film makers to continue to work in this genre the picture takes the life of boxer jake la motta a middleweight icon from the and and develops one of the most compelling character studies ever to reach the big screen for all minutes director martin scorsese and actor robert de niro in the title role have us mesmerized by this individual who is by turns sympathetic sad and horrifying historically raging bull is said to be mostly accurately with the lion's share of the details culled from la motta's own autobiography which was with joseph carter and peter savage however although la motta is credited as the movie's consultant he was reportedly unhappy with the final result because it portrays him as nothing short of an uncouth insensitive lout the la motta of the movie is a man of extreme appetites who is driven by base bestial impulses paranoia jealousy and blind rage sex and violence are inextricably linked the title is apt la motta is a raging bull in the ring he is a terror not just beating his opponents but destroying them outside of it he is no less vicious or more easily controlled the two people who spar with him on life's canvas are his wife vicki cathy moriarty and his joey joe pesci these are the two who mean the most to jake and who as a result of his inability to trust himself or others he loses he beats vicki mercilessly because he suspects her of infidelity and when he inaccurately believes that his brother betrayed him his lets loose with an explosion of violence raging bull opens in when la motta an fighter is battling his way into the upper echelon of the middleweight class over the years he wins several key bouts including one against his sugar ray robinson johnny barnes but his unwillingness to capitulate with the local godfather keeps him from an opportunity to participate in a championship match meanwhile away from the ring la motta falls in love with old vicki who he marries after discarding his shrewish first wife vicki becomes jake's greatest prize a wife in his view is not a companion but a possession and the source of his most extreme pain his own insecurity is so great that he cannot accept that a woman as beautiful as vicki could be faithful to him hence he is constantly haunted by a belief that she is sleeping with someone else perhaps even his brother this leads to the famous line parodied in waiting for guffman and elsewhere are you f king my wife in the late la motta gets his first shot at a championship fight but with one huge condition he must take a fall he does it so badly that an investigation is launched and he is almost thrown out of boxing two years later he wins the championship only to lose it in a subsequent bout to sugar ray by the late and early when the film ends jake has become a pathetic figure a broke overweight loser who has spent time in jail for corrupting the morals of a minor has lost his wife and children and is trying to earn a few bucks by doing a cheap standup routine raging bull is the other side of rocky sylvester stallone's tale of boxing triumph was released to great critical acclaim in it won the best picture oscar and a sequel arrived in theaters before raging bull went into production but where rocky romanticizes boxing raging bull takes a cold unflinching look at the violence both inside and outside of the ring while scorsese's primary aim is to present a riveting deconstruction of la motta the man he never backs away from showing the seedy ugly underside of a sport where gambling greed and organized crime force fighters to throw matches to continue working rocky shows boxing at its noblest raging bull shows it at its most diseased there's little i can say here that hasn't already said about de niro's performance in a career that has included many fine roles this is his most outstanding the level of intensity de niro brings to la motta is unwavering and although there's a lot of travis bickle de niro's character in taxi driver in la motta scorsese and de niro go to great lengths to make sure that if we never fully sympathize with him at least we understand the forces that drive him this is a complete characterization and a perfect example of acting as the younger jake de niro is trim and fit as the fat older man de niro gained pounds and turned his body into a grotesque parody of its normal form how many actors would go that far the best oscar statue is only one testimony to the lasting power of the performance cathy moriarty and joe pesci both earned nominations for their supporting work although neither won their portrayals have the same raw energy that infuses de niro's pesci who has basically the same personality in two other scorsese films goodfellas and casino presents joey as a slightly more intelligent version of his brother the misogyny and violence are still there only better concealed but when joey snaps as he does in one scene where he pounds on a mobster frank vincent it's startling to behold moriarty on the other hand must play the temptress with virginal qualities the only kind of woman who would ensnare jake later she's called upon to portray the battered wife and mother whose love has turned into fear scorsese and cinematographer michael chapman elected to shoot the bulk of raging bull in a few home movie segments are in color the choice is perfect for the movie giving raging bull a unique look in an era when a approach is almost unheard of one important recent exception schindler's list eschewed color for some of the same reasons that raging bull did in especially considering scorsese's choice of shots and use of slow motion the violence is stark and disturbing there's no room for romanticism in the ring with inky black blood staining the canvas during fight sequences the director also uses a number of shots designed to show the world however briefly from la motta's perspective scorsese could have chosen to end the film with la motta's loss to sugar ray where he surrendered his middleweight crown after that his career was all downhill yet the director allows the film to run for thirty minutes after this pivotal moment stretching more than a decade into la motta's future the reason is obvious scorsese isn't as interested in boxing as he is in the character following his retirement la motta is still as violent and volatile as ever but he has lost the arena in which he can legally unleash those tendencies we see the results of this beast let loose on society and how the consequences of his actions reduce him to a parody of his former self who cannot feel a surge of pity for la motta as he quietly recites marlon brando's speech from on the waterfront i coulda been a contenda perhaps raging bull is indeed the best film of the and if not it's certainly perilously close to the zenith
positive	much ballyhoo has been made over this new version of lolita made in a time when one would think that a faithful adaptation of the infamous novel could be made over its use of pedophilia and as such it's important to address it before any other ideals such as goodness and themes can be discussed as this film has been in film limbo for a number of years lying around in vaults san a distributor and having critics waiting to either hail it a masterpiece or call it anticlimactic horseshit when seeing this film after all the hoopla keeping in mind that there are people namely me who are fans of the novel who have been eagerly awaiting this flick since its creation well you just have to wonder why no one really picked it up for distribution what's even worse is that seeing this lolita especially the first time and if you're familiar with anything lolita is admittingly very anticlimactic this is a real pity because when you really sit down to watch this film ignoring all the crap that has preceeded it it's really quite a film perhaps the best film by director adrian lyne although really look at its competition flashdance fatal attraction and indecent proposal at least besides jacob's ladder i've seen this lolita twice the first time i wasn't so blown away it seemed overly dramatic and surprisingly unaffecting the second time not really thinking about how i've waited for what seems like forever to see it and how i'm seeing it on a tv set on a premium cable channel and not a giant movie theatre it really affected me emotionally the story itself is a surprisingly heartbreaking one which is why it's such a good novel and why this is such a good film the story of a pedophile obsessed with a young old girl named dolores a k a lolita is great because it's not trash for the perverted but because it's about human obsession with things that are out of one's reach its protagonist the humbert humbert is not your average pedophile but a seriously wounded human being who embodies how we are all destroyed by our sick obsessions and idosyncrasies the character of lolita is almost a symbol of the forbidden apple in christian mythology something that will destroy us but that we can't live without these ideas are all worked into this film nicely but done in a way that is not at all but instead lyrical and emotionally devastating the focus of this film and the reason for making it it seems was to really penetrate the emotional depths of the novel and bring them to life on the screen in beautifully dramatic images and scenes which are blatantly the tone of the book is a comical one but it's also a tragic one and humbert telling the story from his perspective blows every single thing out of perspective humbert exists in a fantsy world of his obsessions and desires and this reflects the way the entire film has been designed we get a sense that perhaps it's by doing this that humbert has really trapped himself into a fate that will ultimately leave him haggard and destroyed he weeps uncontrollably and never lets himself get over his original love and allows himself to embody her as lolita he lets his feelings for her navigate all his decisions and by the end he has nothing but feelings for her the story recognizes the extreme of this almost out of a test seeing if the readers will really sympathize with someone who is socially deemed a pervert and one almost wonders while reading the book if the author vladimir nabokov wrote the book as a means to bring into focus his own sick obsessions and perhaps bring them to peace the weirdest thing about this film is that by the end when humbert has reached the finale of his obsessional journey we can easily sympathize and even identify with him the opening and final images of the film are the same and who hasn't done a similar action that is wandering about without any sense of reality or anything else but a deep sadness in us this is the second time the novel has been adapted for the screen the first time being filmed in shock by stanley kubrick who couldn't possibly have brought the novel to the screen with as much faithfulness as lyne has been able to do but did the next best thing he economized for everything and came up with a droll black comedy about obsession in general in that film he used the traps of society as benefits the studio demanded the final scene that of a heinous murder come first in the film so to portray humbert first as a murderer and second as a pedophile and when you see it it gives the film depth of a man trapped by obsession the censors wouldn't allow anymore than a couple glances and subtle dialogue to show the um relationship between humbert and lolita so kubrick decided to play it as comedy but still allow the tragedy to seep through looking at these two versions especially after reading the novel and we all know that when we've read a novel and see a film adaptation we are bound to be angered by any size differences it's really impossible to compare them they both go for different things and one has a lot more room to be as sexually frank as the novel was and although it's true that several scenes are similar and are thus up for comparison overall it's unfair to say which one is better and which one is worse i have never been one for saying the level of greatness of a film adaptation of a novel is deemed by how faithful it is and i won't say that here however this film is pretty amazing mostly because hey i loved the book and this film nearly reminded me of it it doesn't have nearly as much wit a couple comical scenes and even a lot of good chuckles but just not totally witty but it does have the same emotional toll that the novel had some of that is in the casting of the two leads jeremy irons with his deep soft british voice and gentle look is an amazing humbert he's droll in a very unique way and well no one can look distraught the way he does he brings a wonderful sympathy to the role that goes beyond pathos and really comes up as being easy to identify with the audience and when he looks at lolita with love and she looks at him with lust you know that he's her prisoner for as long as he lives and dominique swain who plays the title character is rather incredible she pulls off the tough role even better than sue lyon did in the original wonderfully balancing the qualities of seduction bratiness and that marks the character it's easy to see why she surrenders to humbert she loves the attention and knows that she can have her way with him at any time when he denies her something she blackmails him effortlessly a scene involving a rocking chair and a little foot action is damn near classic and when he stands up to her she weeps and runs away leaving humbert to follow her there are two other minor characters in the film one who's a road block in the beginning and the other who's a reappearing threat to the relationship the former is charlotte lolita's mother played by melanie griffith in the book charlotte is a monster of a woman overbearing constantly scolding her child and ultimately selfish and she's the one obstacle humbert has to overcome to obtain his goal at least in the beginning as played by shelly winters in the original she represented all these qualities as played by griffith here she's about half of them it's annoying to watch a film and play a game where you try to see who could have done the role way better than the one on screen without mentioning the actor who played them first and even though griffith is not really bad persay she's nothing more the other is clare quilty the writer who is also trying to seduce lolita and succeeds but at a price langella takes a totally different direction than the one peter sellars took in the original quilty was a comic character in the original a threat in the form of many forms popping in states of rambling german proning and eventually drunk langella takes the other route allowing all of the creepiness to be unearthed and the result is a character who exists in shadows and low shots and who meets a wonderfully ironic ending the exact opposite of what we thought of him as you can see most of these are not improvements or mistakes done on the part of lyne and his screenwriter stephen schiff but just parts of a whole new look at the novel at least this version is beautiful and perpetually saddening the camera movements are stylized and each shot is breathtakingly rich the acting is for the most part wonderful and when we watch it we really get a sense that for humbert who is telling the story the only two people on earth most of the time were humbert and lolita more importantly it takes us right up the brink of emotion then jumps right over it by the end with humbert sadly driving recklessly in his car following what he says is the only part of his life he doesn't regret we feel that we all lose to something we can never have
positive	capsule comedy that follows its own merciless logic almost through to the end but not without providing a good deal of genuine laughs most comedies these days have one flaw they're not funny they think they're funny but they are devoid of anything really penetrating or dastardly occasionally a good funny movie sneaks past the deadening hollywood preconceptions of humor and we get a real gem ruthless people for instance which established a microcosm of a setup and played it out to the bitter end liar liar is built the same way and is just about as funny this is one of the few movies i've seen where i was laughing consistently almost all the way through instead of a couple of that inspired a laugh think of the dismal fatal instinct the whole movie works like clockwork jim carrey playes a lawyer to whom lying is as natural as breathing there is one thing he takes seriously though his son and we can sense the affection that they have for each other right away but his wife is divorced and seeing another man and now it looks like they may move away together the son goes with them of course the movie sets up this early material with good timing and a remarkable balance of jim carrey's persona with reality then the plot springs into action after being snubbed not deliberately by his father at his birthday the kid makes a wish as he blows out the birthday candles that for just one day dad can't lie he gets the wish what happens next is sidesplitting everything turns into a confrontation when cornered by a bum for some change he shouts no i'm not giving you any money because i know you'll spend it on booze all i want to do is to get to the office without having to step over the debris of our decaying society he can't even get into an elevator without earning a black eye and what's worse he's now gotten himself into an expensive divorce settlement that requires him to twist the truth like abstract wire sculpture carrey who i used to find unfunny has gotten better at his schtick even if it's a limited one he uses it to great effect in this movie there is a scene where he tries to test his ability to lie and nearly demolishes his office in the process there's a grin breaking out across my face right now just remembering the scene he can't even write the lie his fingers twitch his body buckles like someone in the throes of cyanide poisoning and when he tries to talk it's like he's speaking in tongues equally funny is a scene where he beats himself to a pulp don't ask why tries to drink water to keep from having outbursts in the courtroom it fails with results and winds up biting the bullet when he gets called into the boardroom to have everyone ask what they think of them this scene alone may force people to stop the tape for minutes on end the movie sustains its laughs and also its flashes of insight until almost the end a shame too because the movie insists on having a big ridiculous climax that involves carrey's character flagging down a plane using a set of motorized stairs then breaking his leg etc a simple reconciliation would do the trick why is this stupid climax always obligatory it's not even part of the movie's real agenda thankfully liar liar survives it and so does carrey maybe they were being merciful on reflection if i'd laughed any more i might have needed an iron lung
positive	maybe the most important thing about this movie is that it's not handled like the hallmark hall of fame movie of the month because it very well could have been a manipulative tearjerker broadcasted on abc on a monday night starring kelly martin and yasmeen bleeth respectively because it's not handled like the greatest story ever told is precisely why it's so great underneath the cinematography the brilliant acting and incessantly wonderful direction is a film of modesty not sure whether or not this story is totally great but with the balls to run with it tell it in a certain original way it doesn't merely go from plot point to plot point it goes from character to character it obsesses itself with the depth and the style of it all and makes the story of a cellist who contracts ms and dies prematurely into the story of two sisters both musicians who have a totally unique relationship it's that their relationship is the center of the story that makes this film transcend any cornball shamelessly tired tearjerker qualities it could have had and makes this unlike patch adams effortlessly emotional and real in short this movie is just awesome it merely tells its story really well and that's something that just has to be commended these days when most stories are botched because they're not told by great storytellers director anand tucker tells this story well he overdramaticizes everything but still keeps it real the film tells the story of hilary and jacqueline du pr rachel griffiths and emily watson respectively two sisters who are first seen in childhood played by auriol evans and keely flanders respectively as the very best of friends they are also both musicians hilary a flutist and jackie a cellist and when it all begins both are considered child prodigies but hilary is seen as the better of the two jackie a bit jealous works and works at her playing skills and soon the tables are turned when they both hit adulthood hilary strives for a comeback while her sister is playing in famous halls around the world but instead of fame captures the heart of a hapless joyful conductor kiffer finzi david morissey in a turn they marry after a short courtship and move to a lovely country house making jackie incredibly jealous since her cello playing becomes a symbol of her current life when she plays she has the eyes of the world but when she stops she's alone she enters into a shallow relationship with an equally famous pianist daniel barenboim james frain in hopes that she may overcloud her sister but she eventually begins to lose it and runs away to hilary's country home where she hopes to gain admittance by hilary to sleep with her husband since no one she sleeps with gives her any pleasure it's all terribly melodramtic as you can see and by the time jackie has contracted ms in a brilliantly edited scene that surpasses the breakdown scene in the shine in technical and emotional devastation it would have been the time that i could easily call the sign for melodramatic overload if it hadn't been handled in such a way the key thing here is that it's not about her gradual death and slip into insanity but rather that it's about her tumultuous relationship with her sister which i might add is perfectly realized their relationship is the most complex entity of the year they love eachother more than anyone else in the entire world but they're also completely jealous of one another when a young jackie surpasses her playing abilities she tries in vain to make a comeback but can't and almost seems to marry to get back at jackie for her success when jackie lands on top and sees her sister marry a wonderful man she is jealous of her lifestyle to the most extensive brinks that i've ever seen in a film only two sisters who truly love eachother would dare share the same man and the whole time their love for eachother is never doubted or even tested another thing i really liked is emily watson's performance i usually make it a note to never overpraise an actor for playing either a drunkard or a lunatic or someone with a mortal disease or any combination of the three my reasoning for this is that it's a fucking easy job the worst case for this very year may be thandie newton in beloved sure she's good but what's so tough about playing a woman who stumbles around slurs her words together and acts like a three year old inside a old's body hell i could play that if i had a pair of breasts in that same exact movie though is a performance by kimberly elise where she has to be the rock that holds the family together as her mother slowly goes insane her brothers run off never to be seen again and her mother's lover is scared off she has to actually deal with real emotions something much harder than mere stumbling about but the academy of arts and sciences loves loves loves overpraising performances like newtons if you don't believe me look at jack nicholson's performance in as good as it gets great performance but easy job this isn't so for watson though because her insanity comes from real emotions not just a plot point and thanks to the opening sequence where we see her and hilary as kids we understand the motives behind all her actions and by the time she actually contracts ms and begins to loose her sanity and her life we've already understood that this is the last straw for a woman plagued with terrible neuroses rachel griffiths who would have otherwise been the understudy to watson's protagonist actually matches watson because as watson grows insane and demands unspeakable things from her griffiths holds her own and has to deal with what she is able to give her sister who needs emotional help from her griffiths an otherwise unknown actress and watson being famous from breaking the waves and the boxer is absolutely brilliant just as absolutely brilliant as watson is and if the academy and all the other critics groups who've already deemed watson's performance the best of the year glance over hers because she's the one who doesn't get to go insane read she gets the boring role then the scream of hysteria you hear will be from me after all griffiths has the thankless job of keeping things real the tom cruise role in rainman the one who should have gotten oscar consideration and not hoffman she does and if anyone deserves accolades from the academy this year it's griffiths together the two actresses work extremely well though and both have to go through deep emotional hell the likes of which haven't been seen this year if it hadn't been for an otherwise final section that deals way too much with jackie and not enough with hilary when the two had gotten equal treatment for the entirety i'd say this is one of the top ten best films of the year it's so close to perfection in its structure its treatment of its subject and its beautiful technical specifications cinematography nomination without a shred of doubt in my mind and maybe film editing that it's nearly a shame that it's not the flawless gem that it should be but hey as it is i can hardly complain
positive	as i write the review for the new romantic comedy you've got mail i am acutely aware that i am typing it on a computer and sending it a billion miles away on the internet i am also aware that i have just spent the last hours watching the world's biggest paid commercial for america online and i wonder is that so bad well the commercial part is as for the movie well as long as i can watch tom hanks and meg ryan i think i'll be okay to paraphrase james berardinelli whose reviews i admire very much tom hanks and meg ryan can act they are both wonderful but for all of hanks' glorious work in serious films such as his magnificent performance in saving private ryan and his glorious triumph in philadelphia i like him best when he's suitably obnoxious tom hanks is wonderful when he is obnoxious in a romantic comedy when he's going to get the girl the only question is how meg ryan america's high school sweetheart can act she's had a handful of memorable performances including the great scene in the diner in when harry met sally i must not mention what she does due to the well um you get the idea and if you don't get the fantastic but i like her best when she's well perky she is so adorably that together with hanks they are the most amazing onscreen duo in my short lifetime some people have them going back to really old classic romantic couples but i don't really know all i know is that i just like them both they have such wonderfully kinetic chemistry that's really hard to resist and i'm not going to even try they're just really really cute sweet and charming hanks and ryan collaborate once again with nora ephron who directed them in the megahit sleepless in seattle here the setup is a little different kathleen kelly ryan owns a small children's bookstore which her mother founded years ago and passed down to her she is successful beautiful and dates a columnist with very radical idea kinnear she is also having an affair of sorts you see kathleen with the handle shopgirl is secretly emailing they have a strictly relationship there are no specifics and they have no idea who each other is happens to be joe fox hanks a multimillionaire bookseller who is the heir to the fortune of the fox chain of run by his father coleman fox books has decided to open a store on the west side right across from a little children's bookseller named shop around the corner run by a perky girl named kathleen kelly every morning these two email each other silly and every day they fight to the death it's a charming premise and one that works nicely balancing the immense troubles kathleen is in with the romance she wants to have it also has the great sense of being a classic romance there is no let's have sex tonight mantra if you'll excuse my bluntness this is a solid romance built around that vague concept of love hmm well the movie goes through twists and turns having some sad moments and happy ones until at one moment tom hanks and meg ryan hook up to use modern terminology and kiss their way into happiness you know it's going to happen the question is now thankfully ephron has a wonderful supporting cast with posey kinnear chappelle and a host of others including a great scene involving brothers aunts and two sweet kids it's all cute and wonderful and for all of the idealism it makes me feel good hanks is as obnoxious as ever on the outside and as warm on the inside as he always is he is i believe america's greatest actor does he show it here nah but he's still tom hanks and she's still meg ryan which is what this movie boils down to it's pure confection all the bits about the godfather the jokes the superb script it's all really sweet there are some immense flaws like pacing the last third of the movie really doesn't work as well as i would have liked and for a romantic comedy it's slow once hanks knows the secret it gets really slow i even looked at my watch a couple times to make sure ephron was going to deliver the big onscreen kiss i was waiting for so that i could get home at a reasonable hour the other problem is that this movie is shaping up to be really dated  when my kids are my age i don't know what we'll be using but hanks can do more with one eyeroll than anybody and meg ryan just loves to dive into a pillow better than anyone in movie history they just work together and it's nice to see it gives you well a smile the script helps with some great lines that are absolutely hilarious and that always come at the exact right time to keep the audience awake i was arguing with my father on the drive back home on what the purpose of movies was i've always believed that movies are very powerful very powerful indeed you see mankind has three abilities he needs to survive the ability to think entertain and procreate movies can definitely do the first two and as for the third well i'd rather not think about that i always thought films that made you think enlightened you and made you see something from another viewpoint and that films that entertained you were good because you forgot about your troubles and thought about something nice for a night and i was thinking about how incredible a year tom hanks has had hanks was the driving force behind one of the year's best films in saving private ryan which is one of those thinking films that truly made someone wonder about the world he's also half of the glue behind the year's best example of pure entertainment tom hanks and meg ryan are magical as is this movie it's a sweet lovely affair with a technology twist it may be a long commercial but it gave me a pretty big smile on my face
positive	are we victims of fate in life or can we create our own destiny brad anderson seems to be saying yes to both questions in his witty film next stop wonderland the two main characters alan and erin spend the entire movie in each other's orbit catching glimpses of one another yet not quite connecting until the inevitable conclusion is it fate that keeps them near each other and ultimately puts them together does this predestination carry over to all aspects of life as the film starts erin castleton hope davis a melancholy year old late shift nurse is ending her relationship with her boyfriend hoffman rather he is ending it with her arriving home from work erin finds her boyfriend parked in front of their apartment car packed with his belongings in a fumbling amusing and self deluding ramble he instructs erin to watch a videotape he's made detailing why their relationship is doomed to fail and why he's leaving it's obvious he lacks the courage to confront her directly as he rails on about accomplishing something with his life and taking a stand all the while backpedaling his way out of their relationship he then flees the scene with the grace of an inept thief erin's mother holland taylor in a surprisingly effective small role fearing that her daughter will be without a man in her life takes out a personal ad for erin to erin's embarrassed horror the ad describes her as a frisky cultured carefree professional with a zest for life eventually erin responds to the tidal wave of responses which makes for some of the most humorous telling moments of the movie as she meets prospective suitors and poseurs alan a plumber and aspiring marine biologist first spots erin as he's cleaning the inside glass of a fish tank at the boston aquarium wearing a wet suit and goggles he follows erin from window to window separated by the glass as erin oblivious to his gaze enjoys the fish later we see him on a train as she sits on a platform outside mere feet away the movie spends it's entirety having their paths circle each other without crossing there are several subplots involving alan one concerns his attempts to get on the job track at the boston aquarium thereby escaping his apparent fate to carry on the family plumbing business another subplot involves his father's desperate attempts to force fate's hand by gambling away his life at the dog track a distracting focus is put on alan's debt to a loan shark and the manner in which he pays it off the movie tries too hard to make alan a likable guy thankfully his guy persona is counterbalanced by erin's distant yet fundamentally hopeful personality the film moves along at an unhurried pace albeit too much so in the latter third as we wait for the two to meet anderson and lyn vaus throw a couple of possible red herrings into the mix as the two find other possible relationships the films shifts into a much slower gear as we wait for these romances to blow over when alan and erin eventually do meet we see that perhaps they both were destined for each other as they share a lingering almost subliminally knowing gaze it's a sweet measured moment the disappointment comes in the fact that we've come to know the pair yet we don't get to view their impending romance the film's inherent belief in the subtle persistence of fate and the wonder it can bring to one's life makes next stop wonderland a quiet pleasure in a cinematic landscape littered with explosions shallow characters and overdone special effects
positive	i'm an avid fan of the alien saga so this review is obviously a tad biased at least i admitted it of course that doesn't mean that i'm gonna be giving this a review or something because alien resurrection the fourth film in the series is not an absolutely amazing film much like the first two were however it's a very good film which never fails to entertain and consists of yet another mutation in the style of the series in short i had a good time alien resurrection leaves off years after the last one where our heroine protagonist ellen ripley sigourney weaver the science fiction genre's answer to job had killed herself after discovering that an alien was inside her body waiting to pop out like it did to john hurt in the first one of course the last one wasn't very great or anything i liked it though not as much as the first two and more importantly it wasn't financially successful a tawdry million bucks so back we are with ripley back as a clone which means we get another little satirical look at cloning not that that's a bad thing but it's becoming a cliche so she's cloned aboard an even more ship called the auriga by some doctors including the necessary bad government guy dr wren played by j e freeman as well as the dr gediman played by none other than brad douriff mainly because they have a version of her with the alien still inside her once you get past the fact that you can't figure out where they got her blood although i think it might have been from the blood samples taken by charles dance in the third one the film's okay also on board are a band of mercenary pirates including michael wincott ron perlman kim flowers raymond cruz dominique pinon a jeunet sytable and winona ryder who plays analee call who turns out to have a bit of a secret i won't state it but unless you've been shacking up with salinger for the past two years you probably know all about it although it's nicely covered up there's a bit of a relationship between her and ripley but it's never really deepened enough oh well well as you might have guessed the alien and its spawn escape and run around the ship and it pretty much does away with most of the people on the ship including some shocks dan hedaya for instance who's death is comical yet sad since well he's dan hedaya and the remaining people about or are left to try and escape and stop the aliens from doing any major harm since the ship is heading quickly towards earth of course the plot is all balderdash and just an excuse for some good old alien fun the real focus of the series seems to be on style not really substance although there's always a bit of it most notably in aliens with the relationship between ripley and the little girl what's interesting about the series is that each film is stylistically different in its approach alien is a claustrophobic exercise in quiet frights aliens is a wild tense thriller alien is a bleak moody piece of alien is kind of like an french film filled with lots of humor and cool scares jeunet without his usual directing partner marc caro creates a ship filled with the kind of scares films like das boot has with echoes hinting at a possible threat the chills in the film are really cool especially with the music which is sometimes turned down completely for certain scenes there's the most tense surgery scene since towards the beginning and not every chill turns into a bloody mess or anything like that this all combined with some good old humor makes this as interesting visually and stylistically as the others there are even a couple scenes which just stick out afterwards as being brilliantly executed one is the aforementioned surgery scene another one takes place between call and ripley which is just awesome the underwater chase scene and the ladder scene afterwards is one of the most tense thrilling and scenes in the entire saga with a small allusion to jeunet's earlier film delicatessen and the way they do in the final alien is hysterically cool with a lovely allusion to goldfinger but the best scene in the entire film i'm sure i'm not the first to mention it takes place when ripley sees all the variations on her as they cloned her she has a an tatooed on her arm it might be the most emotionally stimulating scene in the entire saga the screenplay by joss whedon is not a great piece of work as it never really deapens a lot of the characters however it does make us care about most of them so that when there's very little of them and it looks like one or more of them may become alien chow we are pretty scared and yeah there are some very funny lines ripley who do i have to fuck to get off this boat johner well i can get you off but not this ship the acting is good all around with performances from ron perlman as the male chauvenist pig johner and leland orser the poor bastad in who performed the lust sin as an wannabe woody allen who has an alien inside him winona ryder is good but not amazing like she usually is although she meshes well with the film of course and as usual sigourney weaver steals the show playing a variation on the ripley character less emotional and more rude and bitter she pulls it off while still being utterly lovable she's not going to get an oscar nomination like she did for aliens but she's just awesome overall it's a thrilling entertaining film which doesn't really amaze like the first two but is much more amazing than the third installment the style is the best part of the film which isn't really a bad thing but it being the best part takes away from a lot of the depth the film occasionally tries to apply but it's entertaining as hell and it's definitely fit for the alien series
positive	it may seem weird to begin a film about glam rock with a sequence that includes a spaceship a green ovular pin and the birth of oscar wilde but if one really strains they can see that perhaps maybe these connections are not half off wilde's philosophy was that everyone should be true to their own human nature and the result of his following this philosophy was that he was imprisoned loosing his family and his career the glam rock movement in the early in england had a similar take and came to a similar demise the main difference was by placing makeup on their face and acting out on their deepest fantasies and inquiries about life mostly dealing with androgony and sexuality they became less and less like themselves and more and more like everyone else and that's why the movement seemed to end as soon as it began it's been said that todd haynes' velvet goldmine the film that chronicles what it was like to be a part of the movement not only from those who experienced it but by those who created it steals a lot from citizen kane and that's true in the film a british journalist in the arthur stuart christian bale is asked to go back and find out what happened to glam rock star brian slade a fictitious rock star who faked his own death on stage bringing the end not only to his career but to the entire glam rock movement this totally steals from kane not only from the he interviews three people and the story is a result of their flashbacks but in other things like the beginning death then newsreel and smaller details like the bitter in a wheelchair and the bitter as a lounge singer found in a bar after hours this is no kane and it really doesn't aspire to be it doesn't attempt to be the deep outlook of something gone like kane did and it doesn't really uncover anything poignant about humanity instead it uses the flashbacks as a form of contrast between the magic that was the glam rock era and the boredom that was life after glam rock for those who were participants the scenes are dry and deliriously melancholy equipped with a performance by bale that is perhaps appropriately dull and unengaging but the scenes are engaging though not to mention addictively campy they radiate with gorgeous cinematography that nicely accentuates all the vibrant colors of the era and a feel that's so eerily lighthearted that when combined with the they become not only a symbol of decadence but of times when everything seemed so simple instead of creating the world the way it was haynes paints their own world as if it were a narcotic fairy tale the glam rock movement was full of so much freedom and liberation that after you've experienced it everything else seems so mundane there's no outside world to speak of secluding these people inside a protective globe that will eventually crack haynes focuses his story on the tale of blade and the other fictitious rock hero curt wild and their relationship that created molded and then brought down the movement reducing everyone else who contributed to it as merely that contributors blade played with reserve by the pouty jonathan rhys meyers and wild played with anarchic wildness by ewan mcgregor are little more than thinly disguised recreations of david bowie and iggy pop respectively complete with the creation of a ziggy stardust persona named maxwell demon and the confirmation that the two rock stars may have very well not only have been partners in music but also partners in bed through discussions with slade's cecil michael feast mandy toni collette reinventing herself as an american blonde dish who fakes a british accent when with slade and finally wild journalist stuart begins to remember his own experiences in the era like his discovery of his rebelliousness cum conformity including the moment when he began questioning his own sexuality when he opens up his first slade record he finds a naked and green slade lying on a crimson blanket and finally running away from home to be part of the london scene finally resulting in leading a boring job in america haynes demonstrates that he's quite the visual auteur molding scenes that are like long heald breaths such as a seemingly long sequence juxtaposing a concert of them performing a brian eno cover baby's on fire with scenes from a decadent drug party and the film's most sequence the first concert scene of wild with his band the ratttz where mcgregor lets loose so much anarchic steam that his wild movements including stripping naked and screams that the film captures that perfect moment when one discovers a major talent and another slade discovers his idle even the brief music videos spoofs of bowie's have a rare visual flair that's pure camp and which would cause ken russell to drool the best sequence though may be the beginning following the prelude a sequence which acts as the middle ground for both the actual being of the movement and the era in it stuart and his mates are going to the infamous slade concert where he fakes his own death where he kills off his alter ego maxwell demon in what appears to be a real assasination which brought about the end of the era in one swift fake bullet with brian eno's famous needle in the camel's eye playing in the background the scene has a detached exhileration the song doesn't seem to be played in quite the same way the other songs are it has a distance that's hard to put a finger on and it seems to represent that all this is coming to a quick and sad ending and when one sees slade in the dressing room before the show docked in a silver frock with wings and blue hair depressingly staring into the mirror it comes off as a prophecy of the finale in the beginning of the film this movie's not so much about plot but more about the way it is presented making this one of those films which is classified as being style over substance a statement which prompts many critics to line up for attack however for the most part the engaging part of this film is not the story but rather the way in which haynes creates this world by using his sets costumes cinematography and especially the music to play as characters in his film the music is especially notable the soundtrack which is wall to wall consists of old school glam rock tunes by the likes of brian eno and roxy music as well as covers by slade's band with vocals by thom yorke and occasionally rhys meyers himself and even newer music by shudder to think that sounds uncannily the cast is rather impressive but no one really walks away with the film and no performances are extremely good although eddie izzard as slade's manager who challenges slade's first manager to an match to see who gets control of his career and michael feast as the first and tragic manager come off greatly and collette and mcgregor have their moments rhys meyers and bale are noticably neither putting a lot of effort into their respective roles some of it is at fault with the actual construction of the film by haynes rhys meyers' brian slade remains merely a metaphor for the glam rock era dying when he turned into a resorting to a life of and found in the to be lying around sniffing coke off the ass of a party girl in fact no one in this film is really seen as a person rather than just as a symbol or composite of a type who thrived during the era bale's character is an especially tough sell bitter and depressed by flashbacks to his young adulthood he's not an extremely personal character and his cliched experiences being hounded by the record store guys for buying a record put out by a poof never help us communicate with him nevertheless rhys meyers and mcgregor have the excuses that their characters are not really characters but rather the results of an era that has left them and others bitter part of which helps the film work since this is a major piece of eye candy at the prime of the movie they at least look the role of fashionable leaders slade with his androgonys persona and wild with his topless and unpredictable image which clash and fuse into an unstable union their story of how slade was so influenced by wild that he adapted it into a similar attitude crossed with camp is engaging without the personal background the story of stuart though is a tougher sell because he's the everyman and when you can't totally identify with the everyman your story's in slight trouble as a cultural rock piece velvet goldmine is rather good but it is merely good it never totally takes off although it has moments where it absolutely flies but then comes back down it's really nothing more than a bunch of really great moments surrounded by material that could really be much better the beginning is captivating but slow the middle is fantastic and the ending is not only shallow but worse than that it drags the final half hour not only does it not bring the story to any real conclusion it could probably stop at any point and did anyone really figure out what the mystery is that arthur unearths it almost seems like there was no point in the entire investigation other than to unearth the past which is commendable but not totally so still it does what the oliver stone pic the doors didn't do right becoming very insightful to what happened using the visual style to hit most of the right notes of contrast between what made the era so great to those who lived during it and why after living through such an era that everything else seems i suppose the message is live life but after you've lived it what else is the point when you'll be forced to live with regretful memories the really superb achievement of this film is that during its flashbacks it successfully creates for the audience what it must have felt like to be in that era but with the added perk of knowing the result of all that goes down
positive	when i first heard that romeo juliet had been updated i shuddered i thought that yet another of shakespeare's classics had been destroyed fortunately i was wrong baz luhrman has directed an in your face and visually stunning piece with this film it revolves around the two rival families who in this version each run dollar enterprises these rival are the capulet's and the montague's the younger generation of these two families have formed gangs who despise one another as the storylines goes romeo montague played by leonardo dicaprio and juliet capulet claire danes meet at a fancy dress party and it is love at first site i never believed love at first site was possible until i saw this film the scene in which romeo's eyes meet juliet's through the fish tank is one of the most memorable of course they cannot publicly reveal their love for their families are arch enemies so they marry in secret this is where things begin to go wrong the story as with all good shakespeare ends in tragedy the cinematography is spectacular to say the least and the soundtrack provides the perfect atmosphere in which to lay our scene as the film says there is very little to criticise the performances are convincing and several of the film's younger stars may find that it provides a launch for their careers the modernisation of the script is ingenious and clever despite the well known storyline this latest version still manages to cause tears among many members of the audience especially the younger generation and this is certainly a great credit to the film
positive	krippendorf's tribe is a formula comedy done poorly formulaic comedies might seem to signify the downfall of american cinema however every now and then one emerges like krippendorf's tribe that actually works professor james krippendorf richard dreyfuss the renowned anthropologist is in trouble his university gave him a hefty grant to discover a lost tribe in new guinea however he found nothing his wife has recently died and he has spent the remainder of the grant money in raising his three kids shelly natasha lyonne mickey gregory smith and edmund carl michael lidner tonight he is expected to lecture on his newfound tribe rather than break the news and face the consequences of misusing his funds he invents a tribe the shelmikedmu named after his kids however one lie begets another as he is not only required to deliver filmed proof of the shelmikedmu but his research becomes a popular phenomenon soon professor krippendorf is caught up in an elaborate ruse in which he films mockumentary footage starring his children as the shelmikedmu tribal members his efforts are hampered by the boasts of an colleague veronica micelli jenna elfman and the intense scrutiny of a rival anthropologist ruth allen lily tomlin krippendorf's tribe does seem to require a little suspension of disbelief no one seems to question the way his field documentaries seem to be shot with multiple cameras or that his newly discovered tribesmen have startlingly blue eyes luckily as the film builds momentum that suspension of disbelief is easy to come by though there's some mild humor in the krippendorf family trying to pass themselves off as a lost tribe the real humor of the film is in how james gets trapped in his ever increasing snowball of lies the double meanings to many of the shelmikedmu appearances are enjoyable and the comic timing required for some of the film's latter scenes is superb richard dreyfuss is terrific as the hapless professor who soon loses control of his own imaginary tribe jenna elfman's position as a romantic lead seems a bit forced at times but she plays the part with extreme affability even the kids who in films like this tend to be a bit on the precocious side are endearing and humorous yes the film does veer occasionally into some rather lowbrow humor but it has the best excuse of all it's funny it may not go down as an classic but it certainly delivers what you expect from a comedy plenty of laughs
positive	not since shine which starred geoffrey rush as pianist david helfgott has a movie so defiantly laid bare the lives of musicians in fact if one were to watch these films together it would almost certainly stand as a convincing argument that a life of music naturally leads to all varieties of social ills yet hilary and jackie the sophomore effort from director anand tucker has something more to say it softly but strongly explores the complex relationships of sibling rivalry and love in a very compelling tale emily watson and rachel griffiths are the leads in this tale playing the sisters du pr both musicians from childhood hilary griffiths is renowned flutist while jacqueline watson is easily as skilled on the cello the two comepete for and win many honors as children and as young women both together and seperate their careers as musicians surpass and then bow to one another's and although their lives take very different paths hilary settles down to marriage and a family while rachel skips across the globe on a world concert tour they are bound together by their deep family love the performances of watson and griffiths are excellent in style and substance they contrast each other wonderfully and while watson's portrayal of jackie du pr is at times eccentric and perhaps unsympathetic both characters are charged with emotion the frank cottrell boyce script which is based on the book by hilary and piers du pr brings a great deal of depth to these characters as well the script is also to be commended for its dual nature cottrell boyce adopts a style which one might expect to see in a mystery thriller which was in fact the case with david koepp and robert towne's script for mission impossible and skillfully molds it to the story of two rising musicians on different courses to fame the latter parts of his script are controversial to say the least and the rather depressing ending takes the wind out of an envigorating story some will leave this movie feeling disenfranchised nevertheless hilary and jackie is a movie that reaches an upper echelon of contemporary cinema through solid fundamentals and is a decent watch all around
positive	luckily some people got starship troopers some people knew it was supposed to be silly for those of you who didn't how could you miss it from the very beginning when we see an interactive promotional video for the armed forces of the future it should be obvious this film is to be taken lightly i guess without blatant and home alone style slapstick some people just don't recognize such goofy humor such a dry approach to such intentionally campy humor must have left some disillusioned first thing to do before seeing this movie lighten up meet the equivalent of beverly hills meets mighty morphin power rangers four close friends are now graduating high school and are ready to join the armed forces which in the future means fighting for the whole galaxy and not just your country johnny rico casper van dien is ready to join the infantry mostly because his girlfriend carmen ibanez denise richards has enlisted to be a pilot dizzy flores dina meyer has enlisted as a trooper and it's possible she's joining merely to follow rico whom she's always had eyes for if you saw these three on the street you'd automatically start searching for the fashion designers and photographers for never has a movie's cast looked so much like the cover of seventeen magazine the lone carl jenkins played by doogie howser himself neil patrick harris is the brainiac who gets into the military intelligence division the top secret department that pretty much leaves doogie er carl out of the picture good call now we can put all our drooling efforts into only the most deserving of characters right off the bat rico becomes the star of the show far surpassing all the other soldiers and becoming squadron leader in a short period of time but a horrific accident during a standard training exercise which follows all to closely to his breakup with carmen leaves rico ready to call it quits with his bags packed and his civilian clothes back on johnny is ready to walk off base and catch the next flight home well sorry rico suave but there's no place like home especially after gigantic alien insects have destroyed it that's right the planet is being attacked by a colony of alien beings that a can of raid just isn't going to destroy with a sudden change of heart and clothes rico is back in the game following his fellow starship troopers off to fight a mean group of daddy long legs what starship troopers really is is a spoof of all that it even remotely touches on the soap opera like love affairs of high school the love for and thirst for gore shared by this same age group etc nothing is taken seriously it's almost as much a satire on young adults as clueless but with its sly and futuristic approach it's not as recognizably so it's a spoof so subtle that many won't recognize the spoofery if you deem this as you're wrong it's with the comedy being on the level of such cult favorites as evil dead starship troopers just may be on the road to cult status as well gore is a factor heavily brought up in reviews of this film but the gore too is meant to be cheesy yes it's graphic but it's also brutally phony and that's what makes it such great fun to watch not since the old mr bill skits on saturday night live has torture and mutilation been such a joy to watch people were laughing out loud every time a body was severed in half or a head was viciously decapitated perhaps it brings back fond memories of the severities we inflicted upon our sisters' barbie dolls as young children with the actors resembling ken and barbie so closely it's a good chance this is the case whether we're fully aware of it or not starship troopers has it's slow parts but it's truly an alternative to your typical flick or lame juvenile comedy aside from the intentionally cheesy gore the special effects are quite astounding when the spaceship passes a meteor it's quite an awesome spectacle visually crisp and captivating if you're looking for brainless fun this is the epitome of your search a beautiful cast awesome special effects action campy acting and a whole lot of gore this is brainless heaven just remember not to think
positive	the happy bastard's review notting hill a cute romantic comedy from the writer of the hit comedy four weddings and a funeral notting hill stars julia roberts as anna scott a very popular actress with a million asking price for movies one day she wanders into a travel book store owned by a simple london resident played by hugh grant and sparks somehow begin to fly sure there are points of turmoil such as putting up with grant's slightly disgusting but very hilarious roommate spike anna's pesky alec baldwin in a humorous cameo and on top of all that those damn press it's a fresh sort of complexity to see in a romantic comedy very different from say a stubborn father or not the right time like as seen in usual flicks roberts is terrific as the astonishingly beautiful actress and grant is surprisingly good as the straightforward guy still trying to get a hold of what has actually happened with this girl in short a sweet romantic comedy that has a lot of good laughs particularly provided by spike one really says it all about him in an attempt to turn on a woman he shows the front of the shirt which says you are the most beautiful woman in the world on the back fancy a f k
positive	first i am not a big fan of the tv series i have nothing against it particularly i just don't happen to watch it having said that i can now say that i liked the pretty well for us there's nothing big going for it but there are a lot of little things the movie opens on an ice cave in north texas in b c two enter the cave and find a space alien cocooned inside the alien breaks free and kills one man in a struggle while the other is seemingly captured by the bloody ooze from the alien the movie jumps to the same cave today where a boy lucas black from sling blade is captured by the same black ooze we then cut to fbi agents scully and mulder gillian anderson and david duchovny who have been pulled off of their previous assignment investigations into the paranormal and put onto the bomb squad detail a caller has threatened a federal building in dallas texas on a hunch mulder checks out the building across the street and wouldn't you know it he turns out to be right the fbi finds the bomb in time to evacuate but not in time to defuse five people die in the blast and when mulder learns who the victims were a light bulb goes on over his head the two agents team up to investigate against fbi orders the links mulder has made their search leads them back to the north texas cave all across the country and even to antarctica as they get closer and closer to the truth the plot and the truth are uninspired i got the feeling that what i learned was supposed to shock and amaze me it didn't the possible existence of aliens on earth has been explored so many times before in movies that one could hardly count them but the point of the is not what the truth is but the extent to which it has been hidden it's a slightly more interesting angle but it still raises expectations about that truth too high if this were the whole film i would say the movie was mediocre perhaps even boring but there are other qualities that make me like this movie well enough to recommend it the pacing of the film was brisk enough to hold my interest before the audience can get tired of one location the agents follow a hot tip to another location and so on and so forth the locations are not all sets either there are some artificial settings but the desert night of nevada the edge of suburbia in texas and the endless fields of snow in antarctica actually somewhere in north america make this fantastic film feel more real ward russell's cinematography is very good the overall look is dark and ominous appropriate to the intended tone of the film's plot russell is able to make something as innocuous as a cornfield look foreboding when the movie is set in darkness the picture quality is still rich and detailed finally and specifically there is an incredible shot at night in which the camera crosses the tracks in front of a fast oncoming train i don't know if the shot is faked in any way but it looks dangerous and it looks great the movie's soundtrack is also used to convey the dark tone of the film skip to the next paragraph if you have yet to see the movie there is a spoiler in the following sentences during the opening prehistoric sequence a howling wind dogs the soundtrack never giving the characters or the audience an escape from the lonely terrible sound in one of the movie's most effective sequences metallic doors suddenly slam open to release a cloud of buzzing bees the visuals of the scene are good but what makes it so surprising and frightening is the sound there was no question as to who the movie's stars would be even so duchovny and anderson are an interesting pair of actors and a good combination both are easy on the eyes and together they have some good timing banter and energy there is a hint of chemistry between them but it never gets in the way of their professional relationship they are like a couple of kids out exploring the empty lot at the end of the street there might be some romantic interest but for now they're more interested in their environs than they are in each other no single element really makes this movie outstanding not even the sense of paranoia that makes the tv show so popular but enough things were done right that the is one of the more interesting summer adventures to come along
positive	many people will not find much to like in what dreams may come the new film by visionary director vincent ward most will come to see the computer animated landscapes and vibrant colors but little do they know as i so plainly found out that this has quite a complex story to tell walking out of the theater i could see the audience's disgust one member even had to be awakened after the film ended don't believe the previews that you see this is definitely not a film for everyone this is quite possibly one of the most films to come out in recent years kids will get bored with the slow plotting and the complex storyline the plot is just as fluid as the heaven that ward presents to us it goes back and forth in time as if it has no boundaries think of the film city of angels now add a more complex screenplay and a more unique vision both films deal with the afterlife but i doubt what dreams may come will do well at the box office costing around million to make the film would have to do extremely well in order to make it's money back but due to it's story i doubt it will for everyone who thought titanic's story was too simple and cliche here is proof that if james cameron had written a more complex screenplay it may not have done nearly as well but don't get me wrong i hope the film does do well it's a vision of pure visceral enjoyment that hardly ever gets put to the screen i doubt most of us could have thought of this place even in our own mind what dreams may come is the second best film of the year when it comes to visuals the only film that surpasses it is dark city full of rich shocking colors we get to see a heaven that most of us would probably die to get to but don't do that because you'll end up going to hell what dreams may come begins with two boats colliding on a lake chris christy nielsen robin williams is startled by the sudden jolt but is even more startled by the beauty of the woman in the other boat annie annabella sciorra spies chris as well and both eventually bond and get married annie is an artist whose paintings are colorful lush and surrealistic chris is a doctor and loves annie more than life itself they also have two children marie jessica brooks and ian josh paddock but one day the two children are killed in a car crash and it almost destroys annie she tries to commit suicide but fails and is then put in an institution chris copes with the problem by realizing they aren't around anymore and nothing will change that just as annie gets her life back in order chris is killed while trying to save the life of a car crash victim chris goes to heaven or his version of heaven rather guided by albert cuba gooding jr chris explores his new surroundings with pure delight and joy that is until he realizes how miserable he is without annie prior to heaven he would try to comfort annie but the more he was around the more pain she felt chris decides to leave her alone little does he realize what will happen next i'm not about to say because the plot point is crucial to the rest of the story many critics however give it away certainly chris dying is crucial to the plot but they tell you that he dies in the previews story is not necessarily important for this movie to work because it deals with the afterlife however strangely virtually nothing is heard of god or the devil a couple of comments here and there but the story maintains its focus on chris and his search for the love of his life we're soul mates chris exclaims heaven in movies is almost always depicted as a glowing city of white purity and love usually it also looks like it rests among the clouds but what dreams may come goes a different route it shows us a heaven that most of us have never seen before chris' heaven is his memories brought to life his thoughts can make anything real and he makes the paintings annie drew become his heaven i've never seen anyone use real paint before albert says equally good as the depictions of hell which cast away the normal stereotypes of fire and brimstone instead it's a state of being in one gloriously horrific scene chris and his tracker max von sydow arrive at a sea of faces thousands of heads are stuck above ground their bodies somewhere else mostly dead silent some quips are made almost as if to lighten the mood it's truly a frightening sequence production designer eugenio zanetti is definitely going to be up for an oscar nomination using state of the art computer technology worlds are created for exploration sometimes some scenes play out as if they are only there for the visual impact it's not necessary to be there but we appreciate seeing it costume designer yvonne blake who also appears in the film has done an incredible job providing some interesting and colorful costumes cinematographer eduardo serra whose work was last seen in the luscious wings of the dove has a difficult job as most cinematographers do working with special effects but serra's entire universe is a computer generated image and he does a masterful job writer ron bass adapting from the novel by richard matheson provides a very fluid screenplay with no real set plot the story is extremely vague in its details allowing viewers to think for themselves about the meaning and director vincent ward puts it all together into his final vision what dreams may come is a good example of german expressionism which may just turn off a good portion of the audience your average movie goer more than likely isn't used to expressionistic techniques the film will also definitely draw attention from religious people but they shouldn't take it too far it is after all just a movie robin williams has continuously impressed with his dramatic performances while his comedic roles have been suffering his comedy is perfection when he makes up his own stuff but when is confined by a screenplay he isn't quite as effective but drama is really his strong point and you can see that here it's doubtful he'll get another oscar nomination but i wouldn't really mind if he did the real surprise here is annabella sciorra who impressed last year with cop land this may be her breakout role and may garner her some much needed attention it's also quite possible that she could get an oscar nomination however the academy doesn't like to award performances for these types of films cuba gooding jr has been better but he's certainly not distracting max von sydow is underused as are jessica brooks and josh paddock a treat for some movie goers is to see werner herzog appear if they even recognize him as chris' father lost in the sea of faces it's not hard to see why herzog would be attracted to this film considering he thinks that audiences are starving for great images overall it's williams and sciorra's film what dreams may come is rated for thematic elements involving death some disturbing images language and some partial nudity the film is definitely aimed at a more adult audience some will find the plot distracting some will find the visuals absolutely glorious and some will find both the only real problem with the film that i could see was that it slows down considerably during the midsection just after we have been immersed in the visuals and before the search for annie begins by the way some controversy even surrounded the title which was mistaken for a sexual term what becomes wet and you should understand in actuality the title is from a soliloquy in hamlet just thought i should let you know
positive	when i was growing up in boys in my school used to divide into two groups based on their action movies preferences the first one myself included liked movies that featured spectacular car chases lots of machinegun fire and huge explosions the latter one preferred hong kong martial arts flicks probably because they could or to be more precise thought they could imitate its stunts in the real life decades later while refining my own cinematic taste i began to appreciate and actually like those movies probably because of overexposure to idiocy of ramboids yes most of the kung fu and other martial arts flicks were cheap they had predictable and formulaic plot and asked very little of production values aside from martial arts skills but in the same time those movies had their own rules and in the hands of capable director could become a terrific guilty pleasure and source of relaxation the best of those movies one that passed the test of time and managed to keep its own cult status after quarter of century was enter the dragon made in in a joint hong kong hollywood venture it was intended to bring bruce lee's skills and kung fu philosophy to the western audience it succeeded but it is still debatable whether by its own merit or by the unfortunate and mysterious death of bruce lee that immortalised the myth about that actor lee plays a quiet shaolin monk who is a martial arts expert he is approached by interpol official who asks him to join martial arts tournament that is held on a remote island owned and controlled by han renegade shaolin monk interpol suspects that the martial arts business is just cover for narcotics and prostitution operations and lee must find the evidence necessary for authorities to intervene lee accepts the mission because of personal reasons o'harra han's brutal bodyguard was responsible for the tragic death of lee's sister years ago the island is also destination of two colourful martial arts experts from us williams played by jim kelly is black activist running from the racist police and his friend roper wants to make money in order to pay gambling debts the plot of enter the dragon was in many ways influenced by james bond the franchise itself would return favour by using kung fu elements in the man with the golden gun two years later the main hero was faced against a megalomaniac on a remote island alone against whole army of bad guys on the other hand lee was more believable hero than bond deprived of guns and gadgets he had to rely only on his personal skills in order to survive in the same time the plot although extremely thin allowed him even some internal battles between the natural instinct to avenge his sister and his own philosophy the latter provided some opportunities to evaluate lee's acting skills and some new elements to his impressive screen presence although two other main actors john saxon being the obligatory good white guy and jim kelly being the obligatory black good guy were intended to share top spot with lee they served as nothing more than a comic relief it is a real shame to see kelly definitely the worse actor than saxon to steal the scenes from him only because his lines being the worst possible blaxploitation cliches sound so damn over the top other actors not including shih kien who turns han into typical although not very convincing bondian villain are nothing more than fist fodder for bruce lee among them is young jackie chan fighting scenes are still impressive today as they were years ago although they mostly lack gore associated with that genre in many way they are also more realistic they were personally staged by lee himself demanding only a blow or two to incapacitate or kill the opponent i'm not a martial arts expert nor the martial arts fan but comparing those scenes with typical scenes today i simply can't avoid to appreciate the difference from today's movie fights when masses of bloody pulp manage to get up from the floor and win in the end so despite all the obvious flaws that preclude this movie of being top of all times enter the dragon is a incredibly entertaining piece of cinema and the martial arts flick that can be enjoyed even by those who don't like that particular genre
positive	one of the sweetest tales to ever be made it's a wonderful life isn't perfect but its good natured charm and beautiful performances light up the screen with glorious results probably the greatest film of all time it's a wonderful life aims for the heart and strikes with a golden arrow on christmas eve george bailey stewart is being prayed for by many in the small town of bedford falls you see george is in trouble and he has always helped others who needed it this one time however god answers his prayers and sends down the lovable guardian angel clarence travers to try and save george clarence has got his own problems however clarence is an angel without his wings and each time the bell rings the wings pass him by the bailey case is a way for him to earn those magical wings and become a true angel but before clarence can save george he first has to go through a cliffs notes version of george bailey's life we see george sacrificing his hearing to save his brother's life sacrificing his college education to save the family business sacrificing his dream of living far away to support his brother and even sacrificing his life to make sure his brother is happy working somewhere else when the bank his family owns is in trouble george gives away his honeymoon money to make sure the bank isn't sold to the evil mr potter barrymore who wants nothing less than to get the baileys out of bedford falls one christmas potter gets his chance uncle billy bailey mitchell loses of the bank's money without the money the bank must close down george is stuck in a tremendous bind and contemplates suicide clarence the faithful servant is there just to pick him up and to show him what bedford would be like without george this is all a to the very famous last scene where george finally sees what true happiness is about it's a wonderful life does have its faults the movie is beginning to feel dated in the details especially in the treatment of women and men the sex roles in the film are weirdly out of place in the like something out of a revisionist look all the men drink too much and slap their wives too much during some portions of the film there are however endearing moments in all of this capra puts in just enough humor mocking the sex roles of the to make the movie remarkably enjoyable the story is hackneyed and the ending feels well a little too sugarish there's this uneasy feeling of sugar over everything especially the sequences where george is either in trouble or helping somebody it's a little too nice for my liking at times there is however enough humor enough wit and enough of jimmy stewart to get the movie through the middle part which would be the most difficult but watching it's a wonderful life is never boring or difficult it's always interesting right until the finale which for all its sugar makes delightful sense and is beautifully done capra does have his monumental cliches but the actors relish them and overplay everything to perfection donna reed is perfect as the loving obeidient wife and lionel barrymore is gloriously grump as mr potter everyone else is magnificent including bert and ernie ward bond and frank faylen there is a general sense of goodness as if everyone in the film knows that they are making a great film and they relish that stewart however is the king of all of this he is sometimes awkward especially when saying merry christmas to all objects animate or inanimate but he is james stewart and he's lovably delightful throughout the film have i complained i shouldn't have this is a really good movie no this is a great movie better yet this is a phenomenal movie there is a reason classics are invented to make sure that people will always have great movies to aid them in their quest for living life this is one of those films it is a movie something people complain a little too much about but capra's reworking of a christmas carol is the greatest christmas movie of all time there i've said it i have to admit the first time i saw this i saw it with my family including my year old kid sister they all loved it they loved george his wife his troubles and the beautiful ending is it a little too maybe no matter this is a film that should be watched time and time again with families around a coffee table and eggnog on the plate it is a film that just makes you feel good about life family and hope it is the perfect christmas film flaws and all it is frank capra's greatest acheivement and that really does say a lot for about out of minutes this movie is flawless the rest can be excused no film is perfectly flawless i can't get over how much i love this movie and how much you will after watching it digesting it and sitting with your family appreciating how special life really is
positive	of circumcision psychic wounds and the family sitcom the opening segment is something of a foretaste of this film there's a guy's voice telling us how he tries to imagine what his biological parents look like and on the screen we see images of a variety of oldish men and women as his imagination plays o n he and we picture these motley characters in a shuffle of unlikely marriages businesswomen with bums matrons with paint salesmen the images coming on in a faster and faster frenzy it's not just a witty funny summing up of the film themes you might not guess it yet but it sets the pattern for the way the story goes on what starts out as a step in a fairly sensible direction gets taken on a road trip put through a detour or two and finds itself freewheeling towards an immin ent crash that may not sound so different from the average family sitcom and the general idea of the film doesn't at first seem so wildly distant from hollywood comedy man who was adopted as a child ben still er sets out on a journey to meet his real parents along with his wife patricia arquette his baby and a pretty tea leoni in tow various shenanigans oddball characters and yup disasters follow but if you think you've been here before the dialogue and the direction by david o russell who made spanking the monkey take it into another dimension the dreaded seems an inevitable reference point what with a drug overdose scene and the casting of arquette from true romance but really the point is that the master hasn't got a monopoly on plot twists and fast funny irreverent lines or on the absurdities of ordinary speech whether it's about circumcision psychic wounds oral sex carjacking the beauties of the armpit area or ronald reagan the script never seems to run out of hilarious invention the best thing is how these words aren't just there for the punchlines but are great precisely because they're said in character like tea leoni's psychobabbler who's able to say under assault it's understandable if you find this threatening the cast is excellent throughout and rather than singling out anybody kudos are due to the fine ensemble acting with the sometimes frenetically overlapping dialogue and the sense of a dozen different reagents colliding to the point of fission there are some elements of a woody allen film in this not to mention the camera and loose improvisational feel of some scenes like allen russell's interests are in the volatile sexual politics of couples and the neurotic obsessions in both pare nts and children and everybody really still if you're expecting a privileged moment of revelation and emotional outpouring a la murphy brown frasier well it won't happen the film sets up expectations like these with the lead character's search f or his origins and his hopes of only to knock them down if the conventional sitcom structure is to put a slightly loopy family in catastrophic conditions only to rediscover their essential lovey flirting with disaster's charact ers embark on a journey to seek that essential state but find themselves only plunging into more weirdness and dysfunctional chaos the further they go and that the film suggests is the essential family state and you better learn to love it somehow this is perversely feelgood cinema right up to its manic end
positive	nosferatu the vampyre germany a film review by mike watson copyright mike watson this extraordinary of bram stoker's dracula by german filmmaker werner herzog deserves the most prominent of places in cinematic vampire lore inspired by f w murnau's silent film of the same name herzog's film is a work of exquisite bleakness an oddly touching tragedy with a beautiful and uniquely haunting quality that lingers long afterwards the original english and german language versions of nosferatu have at last received a video release by u s distributor anchor bay entertainment and in gorgeous widescreen prints until now only a shortened english language version of the film was available on video and only in europe both of these restore the film to its full length but viewers should still be wary of the english version due to its often stilted dialogue apparently the english dialogue coach herzog had on the set during filming was incompetent and some of the voices also seem to be dubbed the german version with english subtitles remains the definitive one everyone knows the story of dracula or do they his story has been so bastardised on film over the years that a brief reminder of the basic plot certainly won't hurt jonathan harker is a young lawyer sent to the gloomy castle dracula in transylvania to do business with a creepy count played by klaus kinski who wants to buy a house in harker's hometown upon seeing a photo of harker's wife the radiant isabelle adjani he instantly falls in love with her locking harker up in his castle he sets off on a long journey to meet this woman whose beauty so bewitches him upon divining his identity as a vampire adjani seduces the count and lures him to his death one morning as the sun rises that is a story familiar to millions but herzog has elevated stoker's tale into the realm of and i use this term a tad reluctantly cinematic art nosferatu is as much a meditation as it is a film shot through and white filters and peopled with characters who perform as if they were half hypnotised the film's surreal quality is utterly mesmerising there is much to enjoy but i'll limit my praise to a few key points holding the film together is kinski's remarkable performance as count dracula past screen portrayals including bela lugosi's famous turn have largely been one dimensional and tended towards camp but kinski oh boy this is something far more compelling aided by a startling job he portrays dracula's vampirism not simply as pure evil but as some sort of loathsome disease this man is dreadfully lonely he lives in utter solitude shunned by the locals for his hideous appearance and reputation for bloodlust kinski's portrayal of the count is both creepy and deeply affecting when he dies you almost feel as if this man's tortured soul has been freed at last then there's the unforgettable soundtrack largely composed by german group popul vuh it is so eerily beautiful and evocative that it's quite impossible to imagine the film without it popul vuh are longtime herzog collaborators and play an kind of spacemusic using piano chants and exotic instruments when i first saw this film some years ago i was so impressed i tracked down and bought a number of their albums the one i still listen to the most is tantric songs from which most of the music in nosferatu is taken it's a testament to the music's depth that it is as powerful without the pictures as it is with them the album is still available on the highly respected ambient and world music label celestial harmonies this is a timely by anchor bay after francis ford coppola's unscary and woefully overblown version of bram stoker's tale in it is a joy to go back to herzog's film and see the amazing things he has done with what is now a story to some aficionados nosferatu is quite simply the greatest vampire film ever made without a doubt it is an unmistakable classic of the genre don't miss it
positive	even if i did not know that director and james wong and jeffrey reddick of the creepy final destination helped create the hit television show the i would have inevitably made a connection the similarities are very apparent from the inexplicable like plot to the mysterious characters to the overall dark ominous settings it would have been perfectly fitting to see fbi agents mulder and scully investigate this case they witness stuff like this on a weekly basis in fact mulder and scully would have been a much more welcome change to the bland one dimensional fbi agents seen in this movie another more important similarity is that both succeed in entertaining and thrilling at the same time this is a great accomplishment for a teen horror movie especially when compared to some of the trash of the same genre released in the last couple of years urban legend and i still know what you did last summer are classic examples from the bunch what helps final destination is its unique premise unlike your average horror flick in which some invincible psycho with a knife chases blonde cheerleaders the villain presented is unusual it's the grim reaper this being already has predestined when and how you will die according to the brief history lesson given in this film everyone was meant to die at a certain time some people at others at whatever death chooses what is unique about death is that it's already dead so you can't really kill it the only way to defeat death is to cheat it the question is how do you do that this dilemma is what faces alex and a group of teenagers alex has been having some dreams that the airplane which will take his class on a trip to paris will crash leaving no survivors alex begins to realize that his dreams are a little too real and eventually gets himself and six others kicked off the plane right before it takes off shortly after the plane does indeed crash leaving some of the seven survivors confused and others feeling immortal however death isn't through with them yet it gradually kills off the seven one by one leaving those currently still alive frantically trying to trick death again the plot allows for some of the most creative original death scenes i have seen in a while some scenes build up the perfect amount of tension until an elaborate climax others are so unexpected they will leave your jaw wide open in shock creativity and originality are two adjectives lacking in most horror films nowadays but final destination is not like most horror films sure it has your traditional share of jerks and outsiders ali larter's character is particularly annoying but the shocks from the beginning to the end are extremely entertaining also director wong has the sense not to take the movie too seriously he knows its just another entertaining guilty pleasure that won't win any academy awards not even a golden globe the myriad of inside jokes and gags the characters are named after famous horror directors one character who plays a jerk is named carter like creator chris carter and a song by john denver who died in a plane crash plays whenever death is near show this movie is a bunch of guys having a good time making a movie and from this i had a great time watching the movie
positive	take a number fill out a form and wait your turn starring kati outinen kari v n nen sakari kuosmanen elina salo written directed by aki kaurism ki cinematography by timo salminen it might be possible to call drifting clouds a satire or a black comedy but that would imply a sense of anger of vitriol of energy drifting clouds is what you get when the rage and vitality are gone it is the sad slow story of lauri and ilona a married couple caught between the wheels of capitalism as it grinds inexorably onward he loses his job as a tram driver because everyone drives cars nowadays within a couple of months she loses her position as a head waiter when her restaurant is bought out by a chain and the entire staff replaced a conversation early in the film reveals a lot about their situation lauri has surprised ilona by buying her a tv which she greets with little enthusiasm she notes that they haven't finished paying for the bookshelves or the couch yet he says that in four years the payments will be done and then they can buy some books for the shelves it would pass as deadpan humour if it wasn't spoken with such resigned weariness this sets the tone for the rest of the movie there is humour and idiosyncracy at the periphery but at the centre there is frustration and futility and sorrow for the ways in which the logic of profit reduces people until their worth is equated solely with their earning capacity there is an element of political commentary in this critique of the mechanisms of capitalism and the stultifying social environment it creates but in drifting clouds the political is subsumed by the personal the movie is about two people and what happens to them and nothing else matters lauri and ilona live lives starved for friendship respect culture passion they go to the movies and walk out past old posters for l'atalante and l'argent but the movie they have just seen is a pointless violent unfunny comedy their house and workplaces are uniformly unpleasant painted and upholstered in lifeless colours ugly greens dull reds insipid blues full of inelegantly functional objects and appliances the art design is impeccable in its tawdriness and director aki kaurism ki often matches the colour of characters' clothes with the background colour lighting so that it seems as if they are almost physically fading into the environment there is no suggestion of sexuality in the relationship ilona and lauri sleep in separate beds and their gestures of affection lack the heat of desire their lives are now bound by something more complex and desperate than love their downward downsized downtrodden lives have a momentum that is almost comic as one setback succeeds another bottoming out when lauri stakes all their remaining money on the spin of a roulette wheel it must have been tempting to play the story for more laughs more farce more deadpan wit but the film's great strength is the sober empathic manner in which it observes lauri and ilona's misfortunes irony would be an injustice situations and settings are broad and is not they are not distorted the emotions are authentic if it is difficult to laugh at anything that happens despite the droll performances the laconic humour that's because kaurism ki brings such compassion and understanding to the manifold indignities that are suffered he shows us how humiliating it must be for a woman of who has worked long and hard to win a respectable position to be forced to accept a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant how humiliating it must be for a man nearing to confront his wife's former employer demanding the rest of her wages only to have the crap beaten out of him unable to land a single punch when the employer and his cronies refuse to give him the money all this is observed keenly with great economy every cut every line of dialogue is judicious if most films are novelistic in their telling this one brings the focus and concentration of a short story to bear but what is gained in nuance and acumen is rather undermined by the sense that the material barely accommodates the running length i have seen many movies far less profound less humane less necessary than drifting clouds but they filled me with an urge to watch them again and this one did not it does not need to be seen twice its every detail and implication can be absorbed in one viewing it is not a movie that will be seen by a large audience because it cannot be pitched to one there is no selling point it is all understatement restraint melancholy the characters are unremarkable their best years behind them their dreams dissipated it takes all the effort they can muster just to pay the bills this does not make them less fascinating merely less marketable which is a shame because this is a movie which should be seen precisely because it pays attention to people and emotions that most movies prefer to ignore it engages us and touches us and and something resembling a happy ending the only thing greater than the that governs the characters' lives is their refusal to give in to despair their persistence is rewarded with what might be called a ending elsewhere but not here because this ending differs in kind from most such endings this one has truly been earned
positive	ingredients london gal fate true love running joke about monty python's spanish inquisition synopsis american actress gwyneth paltrow with dark hair playing a londoner believe it sliding doors is a love if' story the gimmick is that it's really two stories the film follows the life of helen gwyneth paltrow down two directions in the beginning likeable gal gwyneth paltrow gets unexpectedly fired from her advertising job so she goes into the subway train station meaning to return home early to her apartment and her sleeping lover gerry john lynch helen doesn't know it but she is at a fateful junction in life if she enters through the sliding door of a london subway train her life takes one path with one future if she stays on the platform her life takes another path with a different future the film shows what happens in both paths switching back and forth between intertwined parallel stories in story one helen meets a charming and talkative monty python fan named james john hannah on the train arriving home early she discovers that her gerry john lynch is having sex with his former lover lydia jeanne tripplehorn this leads to a life where helen moves out helen's winsome new friend james helps her recover from a broken heart and encourages her to start her own business in story two helen experiences a different fate she misses the train never meets james and doesn't get home early enough to discover gerry's infidelity in this new life helen takes up odd menial jobs and faces the constant sneaking suspicion that all is not right with her relationship with gerry will the truth of the heart finally work its way through a number of problems and setbacks in both scenarios opinion rejoice all ye monty python fans gwyneth paltrow fans and watchers of quirky romance flicks at last here's proof that there's still creativity in filmmaking sliding doors is refreshingly different from anything this year not only is it a heartwarming film but it's also easily gwyneth paltrow's best recent performance when helen paltrow screams that her unfaithful boyfriend is a wanker a british phrase better left untranslated she sounds like she knows what she's talking about nor does sliding doors go overboard with formulaic true love or other stereotypes nobody scrambles around in danger screaming i will find you no matter what my darling when helen finds herself on a boat in the starlight with james she doesn't take the easy way out and leap into his arms since she's supposed to be recovering from heartache and handsome boyfriend gerry isn't the stereotypical screen hunk either a stud or a snob instead he's a nervous and indecisive almost helpless hunk another example when one of the protagonists lies wounded in a hospital sliding doors gives us neither the miracle' nor a maudlin tragedy but surprises us with a third variation in other words all of the characters seem human and local there are minor inconveniences since sliding doors switches back and forth between two possible fates it's occasionally difficult to distinguish between the two distinguishing between the two stories isn't a problem in the scenes containing paltrow who sports two different hairstyles but in scenes containing only lydia and gerry who look the same in both stories it's slightly confusing also quite a few snappy comebacks referring to american pop culture seinfeld woody allen etc are spoken by the british characters but these seem slightly forced given that the remaining dialogue is predominantly british slang possibly an attempt by the screenwriter to balance the british so that american audiences can feel more comfortable sliding doors is a charming quirky original happy romance with a little of fate' thrown in monty python and the meaning of fate anybody
positive	sick the life and death of bob flanagan supermasochist by fernando vallejo starring bob flanagan and sheree rose interviews by kathe burkhart kirby dick and rita valencia produced and directed by kirby dick running time mins this film is not rated the central themes of sick the life and death of bob flanagan supermasochist are pain and love and its subsequent effect on a person's life its protagonist bob flanagan who died at the age of suffered from cystic fibrosis a mortal disease which debilitates the lungs by saturating them with thick coats of mucus preventing him from normal breathing the movie is about much more than recouperating or attempting to from this disease an audacious fabulously triumphant docudrama sick chronicles the life of flanagan and his vicious unthinkable acts of sadomasochism conducted with his mistress of years sheree rose who amazingly provided much of the footage for the film flanagan's idelogy crosses the realms of rebelliousness and becomes transcendental similar to terry zwigoff's brilliant crumb which also explored the dysfunction of an artist by painting not a sympathetic portrait but a realistic one both crumb and flanagan revelled in their defects but flanagan was not only a man content on enduring the pain via lungs he inflicted acts of pain on himself at a very young age courageously defying god he was an irish catholic and turning his body into a work of art which he unraveled in museums and lectures behold these works of physical art among them is a metal ball inserted inside his anus and most disturbing scene of the nailing his penis to a board flanagan was a man of great intelligence wit and humor as well as adopting a sense of candidness scarcely seen in modern filmmaking not only did he approach his disease with humor peforming burlesque acts in front of an audience he was also revitalized by his approachment most with cystic fibrosis do not make it past their earlier twenties there's also a subplot involving a female devotee who knew death was awaiting her  but the most outstanding thing about sick is flanagan's relationship with sheree brimming with honesty sensual stimulation and unapologetically sad moments of pain their powerful bond lifts sick into a rare cinematic high where we forget we are in an auditorium and become a part of these people the last scene where we see the hero murmuring the last words to his wife in a hospital bed as he struggles for his last moments of life is raw tender hideous it goes a step beyond cinematic intimacy
positive	studio expectations must not have been high for great expectations the film's release date was pushed from late december to late january at what appeared to be the last minute therefore putting any academy awards chances it has off until this time in it's actually a smart move because while this updated take on the charles dickens tale isn't quite oscar fodder it is strong enough to be distinguished from the cinematic dumping ground that usually makes up the first five or six weeks of any given year great expectations also demonstrates how to modernize a classic story right especially after the excruciatingly wretched excesses of baz luhrmann's william shakespeare's romeo juliet great expectations opens somewhere in florida the original story is set in england as finn jeremy james kissner meets a trio of people who will have a profound effect on his life in the future there's icy estella raquel beaudene a of finn's ms dinsmoor anne bancroft estella's auntie who's quite over a past romance that never took off and a mysterious prisoner robert de niro whom finn saves the life of finn who lives with his sister's affable boyfriend lone star's chris cooper fancies himself an aspiring artist and proves his prowess by whipping up an unusual portrait of estella using only ms dinsmoor's lipstick eyebrow pencil and the wallpaper from her dilapidating mansion flash forward into the after a brief stop in the and finn now played by ethan hawke despondent over a strange relationship with the elusive estella gwyneth paltrow receives quite a bit of money from an unknown benefactor it's enough cash to send him to new york to focus on a career in art there finn seems to gain everything he could ever want wealth prestige and a high place in the glamorous art world when estella resurfaces albeit with an aloof fianc hank azaria finn also sees the chance to renew their mutual attraction but she's not the only ghost from finn's past that's going to be paying him a visit comparisons with the romeo juliet seem inevitable since these films are the only ones in recent memory to plop classic drama into a current setting great expectations is a much better venture though because it treats its source with respect where romeo was never quite sure whether to be a spoof a homage or both the movie is a visual banquet thanks to emmanuel lubezki's sexy cinematography notably he captures a revisited fountain kiss between the two leads with a luscious erotic charge that's steamier than the film's surprisingly muted love scenes the eclectic rock soundtrack compliments the action beautifully especially new songs by tori amos mono and duncan sheik acting credits are often hiding the screenplay's occasional hawke is sincere and solid as a leading man something we also learned from gattaca and his finn is quite a likeable guy paltrow's estella on the other hand is rather underdeveloped while the actress is at her icily seductive best we're not told very much about her character and as a result it's often hard to understand why finn would appreciate her beyond a physical level but oh what a physical level sometimes we root for finn although we don't quite understand why she's fueling his fire robert de niro is nice and sophisticated in the benevolent kind of role he rarely gets to play on the other end of the acting spectrum is bancroft a macabre throaty delight who mambos and sucks down cigarettes with an eerie enthusiasm that would make norma desmond jealous alfonso cuaron's visually elegant direction helps to distract from the dry moments that pop up more frequently around the movie's climax another problem is predictability you can guess your way through the plot even if you aren't familiar with the story despite its script flaws though great expectations is undeniably romantic without being corny or gloppy and frankly it's nice to see a film that embraces softened sensuality other than explicit sexuality perhaps that renovated release date awfully close to valentine's day will end up helping great expectations seemingly average box office chances after all
positive	seen december at p m at the crossgates mall cinema guilderland ny theater with matt perreault and my sister jena for free matt paid using passes if there's ever been an exception to the perils of excessive cliches and stop action the james bond films are it and if there's ever been a james bond film that not only proves this but does so by pushing it to the extreme tomorrow never dies is it opening sequences almost always make or break action films when done properly not only are they actually exciting but they foreshadow things to come this film starts off on the right foot by establishing the kind of atmosphere that could only be found in an action movie but with a sense of the enclosed universe where james bond movies take place in first there's a slightly complicated scene involving a british warship crossing into unfriendly chinese waters there's definite tension as there seems to be an unknown but certainly hostile third party involved who is manipulating both sides when the scene ends in tragedy it's clear there's some kind of powerful conspiracy going on and who else to call on for such a case but james bond the film uses good judgment in the way it introduces us to bond brosnon as the enemy was portrayed as evil and mysterious bond is clearly and obviously depicted as an hero he takes out a small army of terrorists and then must escape in the nick of time by flying away in a fighter jet while the tries to strangle him and a terrorist in another jet tries to shoot him down this might sound like the kind of cliches films like this are notorious for using but it works here because the film knows how to get our attention quickly it's not about the payoff because it's obvious bond will escape instead it's the way it processes the action sequences by going over the top and not apologizing for it all the while creating for witty hysterical comedy it seems less emphasis is placed on the villains in thrillers anymore because of political correctness and just plain on behalf of the filmmakers even the term villain sounds passe what the film deserves kudos for is its ability to create a villain as heinous as they come yet making him seem completely plausible jonathon pryce delivers a perfect performance as the arrogant cunning elliot carver a media mogul whose goal is to take over the world that is through his massive media empire not through nuclear weapons through some interesting detective work bond and the english ministry of defense believe carver is behind the trouble brewing in the southern asian seas as a way to create and accurately cover his own news not only is that an original idea for a conflict but one which could carry over into reality surprisingly this is about as detailed as the story allows the specific plot to become the film's hook is the action and of course those cool gadgets and we get plenty of that here as bond goes out to investigate carver and finds himself in a jam or two along the way the story works much like bond himself always on the run and concentrates more on the individual conflicts than any general plot somehow a chinese agent wai lin yeoh bumps into bond a few too many times and they find themselves working together the chemistry between brosnon and yeoh is rigid but also works because of this not in spite of it the two are constantly on the run from carver and his goons yet the film manages to balance the stunts and special effects with its clever story although tomorrow never dies is far from perfect it is quite an impressive film in terms of its ability to be so cliche and cartoony and not make plausibility an issue
positive	james jones one of the major novelists from the middle of the twentieth century has written a number of fictional works about the effects of war on the individual a veteran of world war ii and a witness to the pearl harbor bombings his novels are not only grounded in realism but poetic in nature they are reminiscent of stephen crane in their blunt eloquence a trait which lends itself to focus but perhaps none matches the scope of his autobiographical novel the thin red line now a cinematic masterpiece from director terrence malick the book's principal cast some thirty characters has been trimmed down for this rendition but it still retains its most endearing value each of the roles has an everyman quality emphasizing jones' examination of world war ii on the american soldier there's a definitive chain of command present and this also plays on the motivations of the cast but most importantly and perhaps intrinsic to the novel but not to the movie a dynamic and effective is used malick has several characters relating their thoughts giving the viewer a greater perspective of the issues at stake the issues at stake are many and one told from a limited perspective as opposed to a omniscient view the movie entails the struggle of an american infantry company to take a hill during the conflict at guadalcanal the south pacific island is seen by the top brass as the key position for american armed forces to hold if they want to win the war and want to win the war they do in an excellent performance nick nolte plays commanding officer lt col gordon tall he's an aging soldier who embodies the mentality if only to impress his superior john travolta in a questionable cameo this philosophy is opposite that of captain bugger staros elias koteas who dearly values the life of each and every one of the men under his command at the front are the privates and corporals adrien brody james caviezel ben chaplin et al lead by sgt welsh sean penn who must actually execute the suicide orders handed down to them the thin red line is filled with intense visual poetry but it's nearly three hours long although the interest level is high throughout the first two hours the climax comes minutes before the end of the movie it goes without saying that the movie drags on the back end the thin red line will doubtless be compared to other masterpiece of war saving private ryan a countless number of times but to do so is to belittle both films for although similarities abound so do differences director malick has a story to tell and for those interested in listening this can be a very outstanding movie
positive	an energetic visually stunning but intellectually hollow recreation of the mysterious life of jeanne d'arc in history jeanne d'arc is lost in an ocean of mystery and controversy which creates the perfect launching pad for talented and creative directors who can basically alter the story as they wish she came in a time where people desperately needed a saint a hero that could rescue them for misery and deliver peace and happiness luc besson portrays his version of the peasant girl who commanded the armies of france and was burned at the stake for witchcraft besson tries to recreate the person behind the legend he tries not to show her as a saint or a villain he shows her as a human being in a time where blood was almost pouring from the sky and the air smelled of rotten flesh it is hard to keep your sanity the only support and hope is in god at the age of jeanne milla jovovich watches her own sister murdered and raped by the english soldiers this terrible event makes a lasting impact on jeanne's mind god is no longer her support he has become her obsession she starts seeing visions and signs that command her to raise an army and free france from the siege of the english tyranny with the help of the wise yolande d'aragon faye dunaway and charles vii john malcovich whose grand royal ambitions and life are at stake jeanne raises an army and marches towards the english walls after this the film stays mostly on the battlefield where besson demonstrates his ability to direct amazing action sequences only occasionally resorting to a calmer tempo the movie is filled with dreamy symbolic images of pure artistic craftsmanship that create a surreal and occasionally paranoiac atmosphere the film is lost in time and space hysterically jumping back and forth in jeanne's thoughts imagination and conscience besson's visual style permits the audience to enter the medieval age feel the smell of fresh blood and the adrenaline pumping in your body in the heat of battle but the film is far from being flawless the script needs a lot of polishing except for jeanne there are no real characters and although a grand star cast is assembled their characters are nothing more than props not more alive than the costumes that they are wearing as for the maiden of lorraine herself she is portrayed as a simple girl too small for her divine task in the latter part of the film we see her as hysterical confused and on the brink of madness with her past purity and innocence for ever lost jovovich handles the part with more panache than one might expect but though her screen time is incredible excessive both malcovich john malcovich' and dunaway surpass her rather overacted and simply unprofessional performance and even hoffman manages to breathe some life into his dreadfully small part besides casting jovovich besson's only mistake is his extreme sense of patriotism that in the end ruins his so gloriously crafted painting there are some viscously evil englishmen that murder pillage and betray with a smile on their faces and some incredibly brave and noble frenchmen represented by the three musketeers of this story the brave gilles de rais vincent cassel the wise aulon desmond harrington and the strong la hire richard ridings though all those actor perform well their characters are nothing more than symbols banners that proclaim the glory of france and thus there is no sense of realism in this film messenger' has muscles instead of brains there is some relief in the end where besson lays down his armor and starts thinking dustin hoffman's appearance helps and the film ends elegantly and surprisingly effective with a climax worthy of praise jeanne's character is unlocked but whether god was in the picture or not is never quite explained was she a confused peasant girl driven by her own hunger for revenge or was she truly a messenger of god the film poses as many questions as answers and nothing is completely obvious bess o messenger' is nothing more than a fairly good film it is not much that you remember of it after you leave the theater maybe the sound the dreamy sequences but certainly not the dialogue it is an elegant and adrenaline pumping history lesson for the that although presents some interesting material works better when it's on the battlefield
positive	i'm not quite sure what to say about mars attacks which is obviously the work of a deranged genius when tim burton's twisted alien invasion comedy really works it's breathtaking and hilarious in equal measure and when it doesn't work it's just dull i'm not even sure it works more often than it doesn't but where it counts that is when this gleefully evil invading force from the red planet gets down to the business of blasting us to kingdom come mars attacks is brilliant mars attacks is based on a rather unsavory series of trading cards released by topps in the and it takes its cues from the same sources as this summer's independence day old alien invasion flicks disaster movies and special effects extravaganzas but unlike independence day which was a painfully appeal to the hearts minds and wallets of america mars attacks has a fully developed and very personal sense of wonder about it the big difference is that while independence day celebrated the resilience of human beings mars attacks portrays us as the greedy and hapless schmucks that we are the title sequence is just splendid an incredible swarm of flying saucers rises out of the canals of the red planet and then storms earthward through the solar system in formation the spinning metal saucers are dead ringers for the invading forces of movies past and their first appearance on the big screen in combination with danny elfman's thundering score is absolutely it's so overwhelming that i swear to you i had trouble breathing the movie lays low for the next minutes we get a glimpse of the alien leader resplendent in a cape when a television message is broadcast to the people of the world naturally the only way to communicate with earthlings is to preempt our regularly scheduled programming but mostly the first act is spent developing characters setting up mildly comic situations and drawing a quirky but dishearteningly drab picture of america according to tim burton it's a good thing that the most compelling personality in the movie belongs to the aliens because burton's just not interested in making more than caricatures out of his human stars anyone who comes to mars attacks expecting to see a lot of one favorite actor is bound to be disappointed with few exceptions these characters are dispatched as the film progresses jack nicholson is a lot of fun as the president of the united states but fizzles as a sleazy las vegas hotel developer rod steiger does an amusing enough take on dr strangelove's buck turgidson glenn close brings some star power to the role of the first lady and martin short is a presidential aide who meets the martians in the white house's kennedy room a secluded nook where he unwittingly tries to seduce an alien dressed up as a sexpot lisa marie the burton flame who played vampira in ed wood in an earlier scene it's made clear that the aliens studied human sexuality in the pages of an old issue of playboy sarah jessica parker hosts her own tv show and michael j fox is her newsman husband the octogenarian sylvia sidney has a funny part as the old woman who cackles they blew up congress and plays a decisive role in the defeat of the alien menace jim brown and tom jones are the film's heroes and director barbet schroeder reversal of fortune has a funny cameo as the unfortunate french president also on hand and underutilized are annette bening pierce brosnan pam grier lukas haas and natalie portman the latter two also show up in woody allen's everyone says i love you the real stars of course are the martians and they're fantastic with bare brains glistening atop their grinning round with red pupils darting this way and that these animated invaders are malevolence incarnate joe dante's gremlins are the closest equivalent in recent memory but burton's little monsters are more inventive the film's raison d'etre are the scenes of crimes against mankind the most famous monuments of the world crumble under the alien assault easter island is turned into a bowling alley and the nasty little buggers perform hideous medical experiments on captured humans the sheer level of mayhem is staggering especially when the aliens make their first attack blasting human beings into iridescent skeletons parents are urged to pay special attention to the rating it's earned the special effects vary from charming to astonishing to deliciously cheesy and at least a couple of shots of mass destruction seem to have been engineered specifically in response to independence day although mars attacks was in production long before that film's release cinematographer peter suschitzky who makes the most of wynn thomas's wildly imaginative production design thomas helped define the spike lee style actually took time off from his mars attacks regimen to shoot crash for david cronenberg cronenberg's movie will almost certainly be more somber it won't be released in the u s until early next year but mars attacks is surely a similarly elegant nightmare this is not a nice movie and which studio executive was duped into giving burton million to make it by setting the film's final scenes in the nearly empty america that independence day conveniently avoided burton's invasion epic suggests that the world we've got may not be worth saving until many of the people on it are dead the victims of his invasion are naive greedy or disastrously and a good thing too since the movie's wicked charm is dependent on our ability to take this invasion partly as a fantasy the surviving cast members are the innocents and the entertainers who triumph by determining that the alien invaders the ultimate elitists are actually susceptible to the kitschiest strains of american pop culture ultimately this messy masterpiece is the year's funniest comedy and a weird winking affirmation of the power of the people
positive	capsule trippy hyperspeed action machine from hong kong's accomplished tsui hark van damme and rodman have nice chemistry the stunts are eyepopping and stuff gets blowed up real good what more do you want i admit i was all set to loathe double team it reeked of cheapjack marketing stick dennis rodman in a movie quick while he's hot and do something about van damme's flagging career while we're at it surprise double team transcends its dumb roots and turns out to be a mess of fun bring some friends get some pretzels and have a blast van damme is jack quinn an who is brought back in for one last mission you'd think any spy worth his shoe phone would run like hell when he hears those words but van damme's character has a pregnant wife who's also a sculptor and some unpleasant pressure gets used to get him to come through on this mission he's been assigned to take down an old enemy a terrorist named stavros mickey rourke looking oddly subdued who may be back up to his old tricks in the first showdown between quinn and stavros the movie wears its ambitions proudly on its sleeve nonstop action an amusement park a hospital a private retired spy retreat most of rome various houses planes cars and other modes of transport and the coliseum all become arenas for some of the most and filmed they are better seen than described and are reason enough to see the film one scene has van damme taking on a man who uses a switchblade with his feet van damme is a good dextrous athlete and fighter but he is often upstaged there are other nice touches stavros and quinn both want the same thing to retire in peace with their families that ambition ties them together in various ways and also humanizes them a bit one of the things about hk action movies is that there's always some form of human element and that's carried over into this movie as well it gives weight to scenes that would otherwise be forgettable also good is dennis rodman playing a weapons dealer named yaz a character who sticks out like a fistful of broken fingers and who is funny just standing there rodman is natural on screen he's fun to watch especially when slinging bad guys like basketballs and deserves to get a movie of his own based on what's seen here a lightweight entertainment that showcases all of its pieces excellently
positive	the heartbreak kid reviewed on aug starring charles grodin cybill sheppard eddie albert in the heartbreak kid charles grodin plays one of the most unbelievably obnoxious characters i've seen on screen in a long time he's a guy who spends virtually the entire running time of the movie bullshitting his way from one situation to another i doubt he ever expressed any genuine feeling at all during the film as the film opens he has just gotten married and is on the way to miami beach for his honeymoon halfway there he begins to resent his bride by the time he arrives at his hotel and has met the cybill sheppard character he is ready to divorce his wife as played by grodin this character is the type of person that nothing will ever be good enough for him the phrase the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence was practically written with him in mind however if he finds something he really wants he will pursue it for as long as it takes the only problem is once he has it he immediately loses interest the end of the heartbreak kid is both hilarious and sad for that very reason charles grodin is at his smarmy best here and sheppard is quite appealing as the object of grodin's desire however the real scene stealer is jeannie berlin daughter of director elaine may as grodin's whiny bride she owns every scene that she's in and makes you almost want to root for what the grodin character is trying to do the heartbreak kid was written by neil simon and it shows simon loves to deconstruct and analyze human relationships and he's at the top of his game here as maddeningly obnoxious as the grodin character is he's the type of guy that everyone knows the character of george costanza on seinfeld seems to have been modelled after him the only problem with the film is that it's not that funny and it's billed as a comedy as much as i could see the realism in the characters it would have been nice to have a chuckle here and there the heartbreak kid is not a date movie it has an extremely negative view of relationships so seeing it with a could be hazardus to your health
positive	it's a curious thing i've found that when willis is not called on to carry the whole movie he's much better and so is the movie even though in the sixth sense he is the name he doesn't have the pivotal role that honour goes to haley osment who plays cole sear cute pun seer a year old boy who can see ghosts if osment was cute or precious the director going for the maudlin this would be nothing more than a thankfully osment is not only better than that but in some instances blows everyone else off the screen in a bravura performance we get to see his fears vulnerabilities strengths and intelligence which makes the sixth sense one of the best movies i've seen this year the whole cast matches him in quality with willis giving a fairly low key performance that matches the subject matter one thing about this movie its target this isn't a sfxfest like the haunting or a gorefest this is more what i'd call a supernatural drama more interested in characters than in dazzling you with makeup one caveat there's a lovely twist in the movie something like the usual suspects where you end up replaying the movie in your head rethinking what you have just seen i was extremely lucky to see it as a sneak preview in toronto before any hype or critical reviews were out so i went in with no biases if anyone want to talk to about the movie before you see it don't let them let the director explain on his own pace and you'll enjoy the movie vastly more
positive	i'll be the first to admit i didn't expect much from the emperor's new groove more celine numbers cuddly characters that become devices in mcdonald's happy meals and hollywood stars trying to gain credibility by adding a job to their resume i was dead wrong about all of those things the emperor's new groove is funny damn funny and the cute characters in the film are the dangerous ones the script is fast and furious with no singing and dancing the animation is clean and would give walt a warm feeling all over the humor is dry and aimed at both the cynicism and the goodness in all of us the story is ridiculously weird and comes off as a strange acid trip involving talking llamas and schizophrenia here's the plot try to follow along set in a mythical kingdom the film follows the adventures of kuzco david spade an arrogant and egocentric emperor when kuzco fires his advisor yzma eartha kitt she and her assistant kronk seinfeld's patrick warburton change him into a llama kuzco then gets stranded in the jungle and must rely on pacha john goodman a whose home was to be replaced by kuzco's water world theme park to save him then the fun starts for the next sixty minutes the audience is treated to something unheard of in disney films these days imagination yzma voiced by the talented singer eartha kitt looks like a cross between norma desmond joan crawford and a really old vegas showgirl the dialogue between her and her oblivious assistant kronk is quick sharp and feels like an episode of seinfeld which would make sense david spade and john goodman's character interactions make you feel like you're watching an old film spade is beyond dry with his humor and shoots below the belt on several occasions and i laughed out loud several times needless to say that is an extremely rare thing in disney screenings these days the best part about the emperor's new groove is how audacious the film is the sheer weirdness factor is very high schizophrenia duality of soul people being turned into every animal on noah's boat llama cpr homoerotic tendencies an emperor with his own theme song and singer michael jackson dance moves and a guy that can communicate with a squirrel are only a few of the oddities that make the film a true orginal simply put the emperor's new groove is one of the best children's films out for this holiday season kids will enjoy the adventures and parents will enjoy the story and dialogue that's a tough thing to pull off in a single package but this emperor manages to do it
positive	before even seeing a single frame of the film it would be easy to snicker at deep impact in which a comet on a collision course with earth threatens the existence of all life on the planet it is the latest entry in this decade's dubious revival of the disaster film and the first of two the sky is falling flicks to hit screens this year the other being this coming july's armageddon in which a meteor is the threat its tagline oceans rise cities fall hope survives is not as cornball as that of the utterly ridiculous collapsing tunnel thriller daylight they came in alone the only way out is together but it's every bit as treacly the opening moments of deep impact offer more to snicker at the cheesiness is not confined to the disaster movie conventions such as the usual opening roll call in which all the major characters and their personal problems are introduced the most prominent of the personal stories is that of ambitious tv news reporter jenny lerner tea leoni who is distraught that her father maximilian schell left her mother vanessa redgrave for a younger woman rya kihlstedt what is just as is how this between paramount and dreamworks skg aggressively pushes another corporate collaboration microsoft and nbc's cable news network msnbc which employs jenny who is the film's ostensible main character in the vision of america presented here msnbc is the television news source of choice in every home when in reality it only reaches a fraction of the country the initial signs point toward something along the lines of a volcano or dante's peak but there's one thing about deep impact i underestimated the skills of director mimi leder she won an emmy for her helming work on nbc's smash er which is essentially a weekly disaster movie each episode featuring a new set of guest stars with their own personal and medical crises the challenge presented by this format to the director is twofold to make the audience care for these guest characters regardless of how briefly seen or thinly written they are and powerfully tug at the emotions without being or overly melodramatic having passed the er challenge in numerous episodes and showed a flair for creating suspense in the peacemaker leder could not be a better fit to bring michael tolkin and bruce joel rubin's rather formulaic disaster screenplay to screen as the countdown to impact progresses the ominous feeling of doom is palpable leading the final act to take on a surprisingly convincing and affecting emotional dimension there's nothing here that will profoundly move anyone but the fact that anything manages to touch the heart is high achievement in a genre generally more concerned with effects situations that initially feel contrived such as jenny's familial crisis and the teenage romance between sarah hotchner leelee sobieski and comet discoverer leo biederman elijah wood achieve some poignance and even the more vaguely drawn characters including u s president tom beck morgan freeman astronaut spurgeon fish tanner robert duvall and his rather faceless crew ron eldard jon favreau mary mccormack blair underwood and alexander baluyev aboard the spacecraft messiah have their share of touching moments the latter fact owes a debt to the actors who all do a solid job and are with the possible exception of leoni she delivers a decent performance but her trademark unconventional speech rhythms and line delivery make her somewhat hard to buy as a star news broadcaster although its catastrophic theme and impressive special effects work the giant ocean waves are particularly spectacular place deep impact in the same category as the likes of twister it is the first of the disaster films to successfully marry the advanced film technology with emotions that ring film that makes a genuine impact even if it isn't as deep as hoped
positive	the heist of a flawless carat diamond fixed bare knuckle fights irish gypsies and a dog are just some of the goings on in director guy ritchies's sophomore feature snatch lock stock and two smoking barrels intro'd ritchie with a in your face underworld comedy that grabbed the viewer's attention from beginning to end his protagonists were innocents set adrift in a see of sharks to swim or be eaten alive with snatch the director doesn't remake his first work but he does delve more deeply into the criminal underbelly of london mining a rich collection of characters in the process the very beginning snatch tosses you into the action with the theft of the fabulous diamond the desire of new york gangster avi dennis farina en route from antwerp diamond thief and courier frankie four fingers benicio del toro stops in london to make a separate deal with avi's partner and cousin doug the head mike reid frankie's addiction to gambling tempts him into making a bet on an illegal boxing match for boris the blade rade sherbedgia a ruthless russian mobster the bet turns out to be a setup for a robbery by a trio of bumbling incompetents vinnie robbie gee sol lennie james and portly tyrone ade that goes miserably awry meanwhile a couple of young toughs turkish jason stratham and tommy stephen graham are trying to break in to the boxing game with the help of local villain brick top alan ford who also owns a pig farm when their first fighter is put out of action with one punch by a wild irish gypsy named mickey o'neil they figure to put the loose canon in as the contender in a fixed fight mickey proves less than reliable and goes against turkish and tommy's deal brick top impressed by mickey's performance decides to gives them another chance after calmly explaining that it takes pigs about eight minutes to completely devour a corpse when avi doesn't get his precious rock he jumps on a plane for london and hires a local legend bullet tooth tony vinnie jones to find frankie and the diamond things spiral out of control as all these forces head on a collision course of and and a dog that ate a squeaky toy guy ritchie mr madonna to some is an extraordinarily talented auteur who has a wonderful knack for pulling together his unique collection of cast and crew and feeding them funny and gritty dialog that spews out of the characters' mouths like machine gun fire the helmer marshals his large ensemble actors in a frantically paced caper comedy that makes you laugh and feel queasy at the same time the above description by brick top being just one example the assemblage of actors and in settings gives snatch an earthy feel in its depiction of london's criminal underworld the cast of characters is too large to credit here but two of the performances first among equals you might say are worth noting alan ford is brilliant as the ruthless evil brick top when he refuses sugar in his tea because i'm sweet enough it makes you shiver even as you laugh his is one of the best gangster characters i've seen in years the other outstanding perf is given by none other than brad pitt the name actor the movie's popularity may hang upon at least initially pitt as mickey o'neil is hard drinking hard fighting highly unreliable and nearly incomprehensible with a unique irish brogue and dialect of the pikers the irish travelers of europe this gypsy brigand would steal the fillings from your teeth especially if it would benefit his beloved mum sorcha cusack when brick top threaten the safety of mickey's family he makes an enemy that cannot be stopped pitt puts a credible spin on his character and does some incredible physical stuff too as a boxer the production team behind the camera includes ritchie alumni producer matthew vaughn and lenser tim and other talented technical artist that bring the hyperactive imagination of the author to visual life there is a patent feel to the look of snatch and lock stock and two smoking barrels that reeks of signature for ritchie but i'm not sure how this will translate in his future works there is so much talent in the filmmaker that i would like to see him branch out in other directions nonetheless snatch is terrific sophomore effort a darn good action comedy and a hoot to boot i give it a
positive	tbwp is probably the single most profitable film ever not surprising considering its tiny budget to date it has earned in excess of million that's a shocking times profit rumours have it that a smart internet ploy was so successful in gaining fanatics by word of mouth coupled with strings of excellent reviews the film just exploded in the raking in millions on its opening weekend shot in and video i the film chronicles the forays of students who go in search for the legendary blair witch audiences are put in the perspective in the entire often wobbly and blurry at times it takes a bit of getting used to in the beginning this is supposed to be the material they discovered in the woods where the disappeared edited and put onto the screen for the benefit of our audiences tbwp is simply smart filmed to look as if it was really a by a bunch of students in search of the blair witch as a school project one may suspect like yours truly that its simply a lazy but smart approach to simply amazing in that respect i must say talk about impact oh yes tbwp does have quite a bit in fact most audience will find it deeply disturbing i did especially the last bit but i'm not revealing more you have to see it for yourself i can't help but feel a tad cheated after knowing how commercially successful this film has become could it be that finally an has unwittingly found a formula for commercial appeal or was it all simply a ploy by the big players right from the beginning well i guess the fact stays tbwp is highly original clever and will most definitely leave most with something dreadful to talk and think about for weeks prior to watching this film no gore no special effects i just can't get over how terribly smart this film is
positive	i am starting to write this review before going to see strawberry and chocolate cuba's oscar nominee for best foreign film directed by tomas gutierrez alea who also directed the sometimes and in some circles critically acclaimed memorias del memories of underdevelopment i saw memorias as part of a cuban cinema class back in the late it merged the politics of the cuban revolution with mundane elements of the human condition i knew then that memorias was probably a political missive and now expect strawberry will follow suit fellow internetters primarily in the newsgroup dedicated to cuba soc culture cuba have mentioned that strawberry is a harsh criticism of the revolution and its current state of affairs i have jumped to the conclusion that strawberry is nothing more than a veiled attempt at espousing the party probably looks like political criticism but it ain't so having some first hand and extensive anecdotal knowledge of castro's repressiveness i can't conceive of his tolerating honest and adversarial criticism of the revolution and i can't imagine his letting anyone even suggest his failure as a leader of a failed movement as kids say these days duh the revolution's current state needs no criticism its physical and spiritual crumbling is self evident the proper questions to put relate to castro's legitimacy i bet the film takes castro's power for granted and that this or any other movie produced under cuba's state control cannot question his right to run cuba's political show ongoing now for more than years that's why i just can't believe strawberry is an honest criticism of the regime let's see what happens after the room goes dark and the screen lights up i saw the i was right castro remained intact strawberry negotiates the relationship between a young dialectic materialist as he describes himself and a homosexual photographer diego in cuba the young man david is the son of peasants a symbol of the revolution's reason for being grateful to the revolution for the opportunity to receive a university education he studies political science instead of literature his avocation because he perceives it is his duty therein lies a likely unintended irony since cuba has no need for political theoreticians cuba's government is castro diego's lifestyle is the antithesis of revolutionary life he enjoys the finer opera art he does not do voluntary work for the revolution his small apartment is a sensual oasis the moniker bourgeois figuratively hangs over his head during the early parts of the movie however he is a revolucionario in his own way the supporting roles are filled by an aging busybody with a heart of gold and a troubled psyche david's roommate who rally takes the communist party line to its expected extreme david's who dumped him for another guy yet wants to bed him before she leaves for italy with her husband german a gay sculptor whose work diego is attempting to exhibit and who strikes a faustian pact with the government gutierrez alea and juan carlos tabio do a fine job at almost showing that homosexuals can be revolutionaries too heck towards the end of the film you begin to think the guy deserves a medal for his patriotic fervor he really loves the revolution as supposedly does everybody else in cuba and wants to make it better by exposing and correcting some of its flaws real criticism is missing though this movie is political window dressing luis aguilar leon's op ed piece on fresa in the miami herald march at did not color my judgment it presaged my intuition aguilar leon expressed my sentiment about this film's political angle best like many artistic manifestations in cuba strawberry and chocolate sprang from a totally manipulated environment as art critic ivan de la nuez well states in the latest issue of the magazine postmodern notes the silenced artists are those who refuse to accept the charade in which artists can provoke up to a point while the institutions legitimize themselves by forbidding them to go beyond that point although terrible propaganda this is otherwise a fine film
positive	capsule this is a or style heist film set in the present robert deniro stars as a safecracker who wants to retire form crime but takes one last job at the request of a personal friend played by marlon brando edward norton plays a hotshot young sharpster who is also in on the crime the plot is mostly straightforward suspense with little nonsense to i am sure i must have seen almost the identical plot before this is a heist film made for an adult audience who probably wanted a crime film like they had seen in theaters when they were teens there are no superhuman acrobats taking nosedives off of buildings like in entrapment there is no rock score there are no like martial arts this is just a basic heist film with a decent and distinctly credible and script nick played by robert deniro is a safecracker who has managed to be successful by never taking risks if a job is not a safe bet pun intended he backs out sometimes even the safe bets turn out not to be so safe when one job very nearly goes wrong nick is unnerved enough to decide that it is nature telling him that it is time to get out of the game he returns to his home in montreal where he owns a jazz club and decides to manage it full time he proposes to his girl friend diane angela bassett she has one condition he must stay retired from crime but before the deal can be cemented max a montreal kingpin and personal friend has one last supposedly easy job for nick nick wants no part particularly because the heist will be right in his hometown of montreal more and more details seem to complicate the job nick's partner in the crime is to be a smart but uncontrollable young crook jack edward norton jack treats a locked front door like a welcome mat even at his associates' homes the young crook is a who seems good at everything he does but at avoiding rubbing people the wrong way together they plan to steal a priceless historic artifact from the montreal customs house the script by kario salem lem dobbs and scott marshall smith works like an episode of the old mission impossible television series we see pieces of the heist being put together last minute changes and things that go wrong much like a good episode of mission impossible this team might not be bad choices to write scripts for the tom cruise mission impossible films the complications are however no more and no fewer than are needed to make the story believable the telling is cold and noirish which is just what it is supposed to be director frank oz the voices of yoda and miss piggy proves surprisingly good at directing a serious crime film the score has a more than adequate cast with little flashy or acting edward norton probably has the flashiest role and even that is by today's standards he plays what is nearly a double role jack pretends to be a brain damage victim to be hired for a job in the customs house one nice character i have not mentioned is stephen jamie harrold stephen is a master hacker who lives in his mother's basement in a house with a lot of screaming in both directions he seems like the last person the risk adverse nick would want to depend upon the film itself remains up until the time of the climactic heist then the pace really picks up before that the plot even stops twice for jazz interludes though oz never lets the music steal time from the story the way woody allen does in sweet and lowdown on the subject of music the score of the score is by howard shore it adds tension to the suspense scenes but never seems to have much of a melody angela bassett is the one misused celebrity in a totally minor role that should have been played by a less famous actress who needed a break she has nothing to do in the film but demand that nick give up crime and to look like an attractive reward if he does speaking of being attractive the score seems to be attracting an older audience who learned to appreciate much the same sort of film in the and it does the job i rate it a on the to scale and a on the to scale
positive	don't let the following quirks of this review fool you into believing that this movie is anything short of an ultimate labour of love but one can see the humour of roberto benigni when you see that life is beautiful even though i'm a short ugly looking man with an obnoxious laugh life is beautiful even though i haven't amounted to much in life except working out the finer intricacies of waitering i'm a lucky sort of a guy especially when a beautiful woman strips away my venner of superficiality to find a new age sensitive guy with the biggest heart in the entire world underneath life is beautiful i'm a jew but life can still be beautiful the nazis put me in a concentration camp but life is still beautiful i love my son very much and that's what matters and that's what makes life beautiful my ability to entertain somehow convinces my son that living in a concentration camp is somewhat beautiful i get shot for my efforts and the woman i love but hey that's life and that's still a beautiful thing so by jove don't give me any crap about it by far the movie with the biggest heart this decade and well deserves every nomination and award that it has achieved well done there should be more film directors and actors like you roberto benigni
positive	getting it right is a far far cry from the teenage sex comedy you might expect from a summer movie about male virginity the film was directed by randal kleiser who brought us such classics as grease and the blue lagoon but thanks to kleiser's surprisingly good direction and an intelligent script getting it right is a pleasantly quiet moving and memorable geared strictly toward a sophisticated adult audience getting it right stars jesse birdsall emily lloyd's boyfriend in wish you were here as gavin a painfully shy hairdresser who lives at home with his parents and still a virgin gavin has no problem whatsoever making small talk with the elderly women who clamor for his services at the hair salon but expose him to a single beauty and he's a mess much to gavin's surprise the woman who finally brings him out of his shell and robs him of his virginity is joan lynn redgrave a rich married and lonely getting it right is the simple story of gavin's awkward and haphazard efforts to get it right that is to find the right woman to fulfill his life getting it right is one of those rare movies that devotes itself entirely to character development gavin's narration of his experiences firmly thrusts us into his psyche we observe his fascinating metamorphosis from shy and passive introversion to assertive and maturity birdsall's superb understated performance as gavin is the real backbone of the film he seems convincing and authentic throughout the charm of getting it right also lies in the wide array of people who inhabit or invade gavin's life despite her limited screen time redgrave makes quite a splash in the movie as gavin's seducer for a supporting character joan is unusually and impressively complex thanks in large part to redgrave's magnificent performance gavin is also pursued or perhaps plagued by minnie the totally neurotic daughter of a rich aristocrat after minnie and gavin meet at a party she takes great pleasure in disrupting his safe and simple life helena bonham carter is delightfully pathetic and kooky in the role and sir john gielgud with his tongue in his cheek embodies the height of arrogance as her father gavin's eventual is jenny the adorable single mother who assists him at the beauty salon london stage actress jane horrocks' fine performance yields a touchingly sweet character peter cook the great british satirist appears briefly in the film as gavin's uptight employer the scenes of gavin's home life with his parents are also a treat gavin's mother pat heywood whom even woody allen would find overbearing almost steals the movie her life seems limited to just two activities treating gavin like a and preparing exotic but inedible meals such as scalding hot curry and baked chicken with chocolate sauce gavin and his father's attempts to avoid eating her meals are extremely amusing getting it right for the most part is very except for two minor shortcomings first the movie is about minutes too long and consequently it loses momentum at times second the film includes an altogether extraneous subplot about the domestic problems between gavin's best friend harry and his unfaithful lover winthrop overall however getting it right is quite memorable for its humor depth sophistication and outstanding acting director kleiser and screenwriter elizabeth jane howard adapting her own highly acclaimed novel deserve praise for finding just the right tone for this tale of growth maturation and
positive	no matter what you suspect this isn't your usual action thriller the usual suspects is an intelligent crime mystery story from director bryan singer it's one of those movies that after everything is revealed at the end you immediately want to rewind and watch again because earlier scenes take on a new light plot twists are what you get here i gave up trying to figure out the mystery of keyser soze after awhile and just sat back and waited for them to reveal it to me keyser soze is a name you'll hear at least a hundred times if you watch the usual suspects and for good reason it's not only the name of the mysterious and possibly even mythical crime boss in the movie it also sums up the movie keyser soze in latin means an intelligent crime mystery story from director bryan singer or maybe i shouldn't have bought a dictionary from the same company that makes those encyclopedias sold in supermarkets at the movie's opening a group of known criminals are brought in for a police lineup including mcmanus stephen baldwin keaton gabriel byrne fenster benicio del toro buckney kevin pollack and verbal kevin spacey winner of the best supporting actor academy f times new roman s for his performance in the movie verbal is because he frequently rambles on about anything or nothing he also earns his name as the movie's narrator spouting memorable lines like the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist although obviously he does exist what else could explain kris kross having a comeback in while being interrogated by police detective chazz palminteri any actor with multiple z's in their name is okay in my book we see the story unfold as spacey retells it the five felons upon being released from the lineup get their revenge on the police by exposing a corrupt taxi service whereby elite criminals pay to be smuggled through town in cop cars and stealing all the money and drugs in the car it's a definite case of male bonding for the five criminals who later find out they were brought together by the unseen keyser soze who sends a minion to them with an offer they can't refuse namely they have to destroy soze's main competitors in organized crime by infiltrating a ship shooting a bunch of people burning all the drugs and stealing million cash spacey does a terrific job of bringing his seemingly unintelligent cripple character to life and baldwin byrne palminteri and the rest make for a good supporting cast the usual suspects is one of those movies that deftly mixes scenes of violence and explosions with an underlying sense of mystery and suspense keeping the viewer guessing until the very end and then still leaving a few details open for scrutiny and discussion i suppose all that would be cleared up if i really had rewound the movie and watched it again instead of changing the channel and wondering in disbelief what the hell kris kross was doing on mtv a different mystery i guess which may turn into a mystery if that video ever comes on again
positive	dangerous beauty is a really nothing more than a grandiose soap opera set in venice circa it is beautifully filmed wonderfully acted and certainly nothing short of entertaining but it lacks any true fundamental seriousness dealing with themes of forbidden love religious intolerance subordination of women sexual freedom and the roles of pleasure and sin in a society it still feels like brightly lit fluff the director marshall herskovitz doesn't want to follow the dark and dangerous trail this story could lead down so he opts for a more genial livelier and relatively shallow interpretation the film takes place during the renaissance a time when venice was the pleasure capital of europe at this time venice was its own republic and it thrived on being the central juncture of commerce the film is told almost entirely through the viewpoint of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie of venice so we rarely get to see how the rest of the society lived however there is an abundance of detail concerning the lives and livelihoods of the upper classes their hedonistic lifestyles and constant merriment the story centers on veronica franco catherine mccormack a lower class woman who falls in love with marco venier rufus sewell the son of wealthy aristocratic parents jeroen krabb and joanna cassidy unfortunately the culture of that time period did not view marriage as an act of love rather it was more like a business transaction where rich families married their sons and daughters to each other in order to secure power wealth and ensure that outsiders couldn't get in veronica despite her charm and good looks is certainly an outsider after a short love affair marco breaks her heart with the news that he cannot marry her however because she is beautiful and intelligent veronica has a chance to enter marco's world albeit not as his wife she decides to become a courtesan a class of women who were as as they were ravishing and sold their sexuality to wealthy men for the privilege of wining and dining with the elite a courtesan was not a mere prostitute they were afforded a special place in society and they were greatly revered respected and often envied at one point a character mentions that some rulers obtain more political advice from their courtesans than from their lieutenants veronica goes through the transformation with the help of her mother paola jacqueline bisset who was once a famed courtesan herself once she enters the lifestyle veronica finds that it suits her quite well she is allowed to read all the books she wants she is given the opportunity to publish her poetry and she has the richest and most powerful men in the republic throwing themselves at her feet including the awestruck marco their relationship develops into a playful bantering with veronica utilizing her newfound power by constantly rejecting marco's advances in many ways their relationship is sad because marco is married to a women he is unable to love and veronica is consumed by multiple relationships with men she is unwilling to love love the love not the man as her mother told her dangerous beauty which was based on a factual book by margaret rosenthal flows along as smoothly and serenely as the grand canal running through the heart of venice it has multiple plot lines including veronica's adversarial relationship with a court poet oliver platt her role in obtaining france's military assistance in venice's battle against the turks and even the dreaded shadow of the plague and the encroachment of the spanish inquisition yet it is never confusing or overbearing much of the film's success is due to the glowing performance by catherine mccormack in the lead role known chiefly for the small part she played as the lover whose murder raised mel gibson's ire in braveheart mccormack shows the true gifts and inarguable talent of a leading lady she has the kind of exquisite classical beauty that would be treasured in a courtesan her character is intelligent witty and both sensual and vulnerable all of which mccormack easily transmits with a single flash of her eyes the rest of the roles are also filled well including rufus sewell whose performance here and earlier this month in dark city have assured him a solid place in hollywood he has the same kind of unusual good looks and charm of ray liotta and he seems perfectly at home in period dramas oliver platt plays a variation of the comic relief role that he has come to inhabit like a second skin although the film deals his character a cheap blow at the end by having him improbably join the inquisition and turn into the bad guy platt is a good actor but he's just too hard to hate jacqueline bisset proves that she is every bit as stirring as she ever was and even fred ward turns up in a small but moving performance as marco's uncle dangerous beauty is marshall herskovitz's sophomore directorial effort after the overlooked film jack the bear partnered with edward zwick herskovitz has spent most of his time as a producer on television thirtysomething my life and in the movies legends of the fall his directing style can be best described as transparent it never gets in the way of the story yet it has no discernible flourish or particular distinctions he could have approached the film in any number of ways including overdosing on the sexual aspect which he wisely avoids dangerous beauty contains just enough bare flesh and ribald sex to make it appropriately erotic but not so much that it seems exploitative herskovitz is also aided by a strong supporting crew including the luscious photography by bojan bazelli whose previous efforts include the thriller kalifornia and abel ferrara's dark film body snatchers bazelli captures the film in strong bold colors and be brings venice to life in wide panoramic shots that are often enhanced with digital imagery however the real details are found in the production design by norman garwood brazil the princess bride and the costumes by gabriella pescucci the age of innocence the only problem with dangerous beauty is that it doesn't stick with you it's a good story with interesting characters but it's easy to shrug off once you've left the theater the only sequence that has the chance to be truly indelible is veronica being pulled in front of the hypocrisy of the inquisition and threatened with the death penalty for her transgressions but it never quite comes off because it's simply too melodramatic and conventional herskovitz tries with all his might to make it a nailbiter but somehow its outcome is a foregone conclusion and like the rest of the film it carries no real weight despite the potential severity of the subject matter
positive	imagine this scenario you and any of your family members are scudding through one of those long excruciating car trips far from the city and into the deserted rural routes so far the trip is idyllic when abruptly your car malfunctions and you are stranded in the middle of nowhere it is not an easy situation but a perfectly plausible one the panorama in which breakdown musters it's throbbing suspense and skillfully executed tautness it is not easy to cobble a distinct and gripping thriller nowadays but breakdown doesn't bungle into rudimentary plot holes or cliches and it derives a masterful titillating climax that by it's finale engrosses a viewer with total absorption the plot is somewhat reminiscent of the vanishing kurt russell and kathleen quinlan respectively play jeff and amy taylor a massachusetts couple en route to california for a brand new job when they stop for gas somewhere in the arid southwest jeff is confronted by a pugnacious driver who later will be an important player in the plot department minutes later after that their brand new strikingly red jeep grand cherokee unexpectedly stops jeff cannot detect the car's problem so he allows amy to take a ride with red j t walsh a heedful truck driver who will convey her to the nearest town where jeff will meet her at a local diner it is facile for the film to turn into a but instead it opts for maximum fervor jeff manages to the car himself but when he arrives at the diner she is nowhere in sight disconcerted the coffee shop's bartender informs jeff where to search for his wife a town about twenty miles from here there trouble arises and i shall not reveal anything else since that would be spoiling the fun of what's head there are many involving tight scenes in breakdown but the final climactic period which includes a magnificent chase with three cars and a huge truck will have you feeling as if your legs are made out of pure foam it is a pleasure to be part of a classic confrontation of good vs evil and rooting for the good guys in this case jeff kurt russell is one of the few hollywood actors which doesn't overblow his acting and gradually gains reliance on his role as it progresses so you can assume his alteration in breakdown is suffice it is to say he undergoes a transformation from a jolly man to a guy frantically pursuing a loved one not many actors can deliver these type of performances but russell is one of them as an everyday man he pulls it off extremely convincingly what also surprised me more was his rigorous physicality which he effectively practices almost all throughout the films minutes although the film is blotted with a couple of portentous action sequences very well done yet the tightness is generated by the subtle circumstances this man is presented with faced with an enigma about his wife's whereabouts the movie succeeds by conveying us in realistic territory with veritable characters including the cryptic villains who in essence make the movie what it is what's most impressive however is the feature debut by jonathan mostow mostow hitherto directed the showtime thriller flight of a black angle alleviates the contrivances and generics of the script by gingerly pursuing the trajectory of the plot efficiently letting the tone and the mood of the story generate that suspense sought for in a made affair contrary to most american thrillers he doesn't rely on visual flair but on aesthetics and substance after breakdown he should gain vast notoriety the villains in the movie aren't your routine idiosyncratic psychos that are harming for no particular objective the baddies in breakdown all well acted are normal seemingly inoffensive townspeople who beneath their trustworthy layer conduct an amoral business of corruption and murder the movie smartly portrays these men as loathsome rednecks and of all things in the world it is becoming rather easy to root for villains jon voight in anaconda in today's movies worth a special mentioning is j t walsh who previously worked with kurt russell in executive decision as the leader of the gang he renders a deliciously wicked performance temporarily stepping out of the minor roles he is known for alfred hitchcock used not only to stimulate but as a way of aiding his audience's fascination in his stories which were slowly realizing man's biggest fears breakdown yields exactly that it magnificently taps into the psyche of an ordinary man acting like an ordinary man looking like an ordinary and some sort of superhero despite one or two iffy moments even hitchcock i think would approve of breakdown 
positive	steve soderbergh's sex lies and videotape which won the grand prize at the cannes film festival in arguably began the resurgence of independent films made on a shoestring budget of million with then relatively unknown actors it is a provocative thoroughly original drama the film mostly focuses on the four central characters all in their late ann andie macdowell an unfulfilled housewife is married to john peter gallagher an insensitive lawyer who unbeknownst to her is having an affair with her younger sister cynthia laura san giacomo complicating matters even worse is graham james spader who won best actor at cannes john's old college buddy who comes to stay at their house ann is absolutely won over by him even though she clearly has stated that she has very little interest in sex that is the for the last hour of the picture and since the film is entitled sex lies and videotape it is best to keep the rest of the story developments at bay so that they will come as a genuine surprise director steven soderbergh has proven to be a wildly offbeat filmmaker ranging from the independent to the mainstream out of sight to the downright kafkaesque schizopolis he is the type of director who obviously takes a lot of chances and believes in the work that he does and sex lies and videotape is probably his most confident and maybe even best to date the performances are superb from all four leads but macdowell stands out in what is probably the main character she is always a very winning actress but this is probably her most role that she has had with a close second being altman's mosaic short cuts the other parts are perfectly cast as well from spader's ominous graham to gallagher's john to giacomo's outspoken cynthia the final act of the film especially comes right out of left field and turns out to be both shocking and oddly touching and it would be criminal to give away the film's secrets suffice to say that through one powerful sequence ann is able to somewhat come out of her shell and john learns a valuable lesson about honesty as well as deception the film has one fault however the characters are almost all emotionally cold and isolated from one another and often unlikable if there had been a few extra scenes with gallagher it probably would have helped since his relationship with macdowell isn't quite as explored as i would have liked sex lies and videotape although minorly flawed is still easily a brave and adult motion picture that is far more mature and honest about its subject matter than the usual film soderbergh clearly knew what he was doing while he was making it and the final product certainly proves this
positive	synopsis private detective tom welles is hired by a wealthy widow to uncover the origins of a snuff film owned by her late husband after uncovering the authenticity of the film welles descends into an underground world of perverse pornographers seeking vigilante revenge on the filmmakers comments mm is one of the more disturbing mainstream movies i have seen in a long time though it doesn't present a snuff film a movie which documents a person's murder for real usually during or after some form of sexual act as explicitly as the cult classic mute witness and violence as shockingly as say natural born killers mm stays in your head long after you see it it is not fun to watch see something else if you get upset by realistic sadistic violence this film's violence and perverse sexuality skirts closely into territory for those with strong stomachs however mm is an intelligent worthwhile thriller especially during its second hour nicolas cage after a couple movies returns to material which allows him to utilize his strong acting abilities as tom welles a private detective and caring family man to a wife and daughter cage skillfully and convincingly portrays a decent man whose unwavering energy slowly transforms into obssession and violence as he is pulled into a nightmarish world of underground pornographers and brutal sexual deviants serving as a guide to this world is joaquin phoenix who plays a struggling songwriter named max california california despite his name is a surprisingly intelligent and complex character and phoenix does a very good job at slowly pulling the audience to sympathy for the character the real star of the movie though must be peter stormare stormare played the really really evil guy in fargo and his character dino velvet in this movie seems about ten times more evil and unpredictable his performance is very chilling mm's success may hardly be surprising it was directed by joel schumacher who hopefully saw this film as an apology for the absolutely dreadful batman and robin before directing the last two batman duds however schumacher was responsible for several horror flicks lost boys flatliners and falling down mm certainly joins the rank of these minor classics and is perhaps most reminiscent of falling down in that both films present an average man who before the audience's eyes mm was written by andrew kevin walker who also penned the academy thriller seven a few years back like seven mm is full of dialogue which haunts you well after leaving the theater welles is searching for answers how could anyone possibly drug and then slowly methodically sadistically kill a teenaged girl to make a film when confronting one of the perpretrators at the end the murderer responds that there are no reasons he just enjoys it that walker seems to suggest is where the real terror lays not in the crime itself but in the fact that rational motives do not exist a couple minor faults led me to my rating five stars is the highest rating i give one i found it a little difficult early on to accept the fact that a hardened private detective would get physically disgusted when first seeing a snuff film yes snuff is a horrible thing but a detective of welles' caliber has probably encountered awful things before second some of the clues welles gathers are too convenient he discovers for example the victim's diary in her private bathroom despite the fact the the police the fbi and her own mother have all investigated the room before finally the closing scene seemed trite and improbable considering the rest of the film despite the above criticisms mm is an engrossing story one of the best scenes in the film occurs toward the end as a crazed welles who no longer seems like a hero brutally beats one of the pornographers responsible for the snuff film he pulls a gun on the man and for a relatively long amount of time struggles to decide whether or not to kill him he then leaves the building and calls the victim's mother in the middle of the night to basically see if she would support the action the entire scene is tense unpredictable and emotionally charged rarely anymore do horror films or thrillers provoke suspense in me as mm with scenes like this did mm is most certainly not for the faint of heart this is a graphic oftentimes unflinching look into the darkness which resides in both ordinary and extraordinary people if you're prepared for a film of this nature i give it an enthusiastic recommendation
positive	to me nicolas cage sounds like an ideal choice for the lead role in a martin scorsese film despite the rantings that sean penn so rudely expressed the actor remains a gifted and versatile screen presence ever since the big success of the in the hollywood road has been a rocky one for mr cage the perpetually awful assassination thriller eyes' was one of worst films was a disappointing lost cause but who better than scorsese to match cage's wit and intensity which he does in miraculous fashion with out the dead' cage delivers one of his finest performances as frank pierce a new york city emergency paramedic who is running on fumes from after five years of the job frank basically just staggers onward relying on heavy doses of caffeine and booze until his shift finally ends he also begins seeing the ghosts of past patients who died under his care namely a young girl named rose who stares back at him with pale features at every street corner in new york frank desperately wants to be fired but his boss needs him to scour the city and help those in need fire you tomorrow he promises frank is accompanied by a fresh face every night in the ambulance the first is larry john goodman who always has food on the brain the second is marcus ving rhames a deeply religious black man who incorporates the power of jesus into a regular rescue operation and finally tom tom sizemore is a deranged sociopath hungry for blood i found it unique how scorsese used each of these characters for a single shift with frank but they never figured into the actual plot each is merely a colorful presence to help develop frank's character because out the dead' is predominantly a study of his mind and detailed personality the one character alongside frank that truly comes into play is mary patricia arquette the daughter of a newly admitted patient who suffered from a severe heart attack arquette who recently received the wounds of christ in performs well around husband cage it's unfortunate that after such intriguing character trials and tribulations the relationship between frank and mary slips during a mishandled ineffective finale the movie belongs to the punch of cage and scorsese who were born to collaborate their efforts in an arrangement similar to out the dead' although it certainly lacks the grit and of something like scorsese manages to hit a nerve with his latest picture the incredible and photography represent stunning flashes of brilliance in an otherwise unspectacular conglomeration fans will be pleased to find the director has returned to his abrasive darkly humorous roots after somewhat of a departure with does out the dead' rival scorsese's finest work only occasionally some of the film feels surprisingly limp but there is enough energy in it's interesting material and breathtaking visual appearance to suffice those expecting a grisly risqu product may be somewhat disheartened at the fairly approach but it's still a solid admirable effort out the dead' was written by the acclaimed paul schrader who collaborated with scorsese on such classics as driver' and bull' schrader's script is full of moments wonderful sharply defined moments that are sorted throughout the remainder of his meandering screenplay the exceptional aspects of the film are it's astounding technical credits and the amazing cast goodman and sizemore are both electric well mainly sizemore but it's the phenomenal ving rhames who deserves a second look watch the actor's deeply inspired dedication as he resurrects a gothic band member and you'll understand why he won a golden globe out the dead' is raw and electrifying often enough to mask it's certain flaws scorsese and cage for that matter have done better but their intentions are certainly admirable
positive	at first glance daylight would seem like your typical disaster movie on second glance it looks that way too although as typical disaster movies go daylight isn't that bad admittedly it seems to rip off a great deal of its plot devices from disaster flicks of days gone by think poseidon adventure but the decent dialogue and surprisingly good acting make up for the haven't i seen this scene somewhere before feeling that creeps up all too often during the film sylvester stallone stars as the recently fired head of new york's emergency response team by sheer luck he is in the right place at the right time when disaster strikes the unaware inhabitants of this little film what disaster is that you ask as you inch ever closer to the edge of your seat glad you asked through a whole sequence of entirely probable events about as probable as hitting the lottery a large explosion takes place in the lincoln tunnel running under the hudson river in new york city the explosion results in the tunnel collapsing at both ends which causes not only massive loss of life but traps a dozen people inside the wreckage of the tunnel good old sly who is only feet away from entering the tunnel when it collapses offers his services to the rescuers who gladly accept it sly then enters the tunnel through a vent shaft think judge dredd which he can only go in and not out off and proceeds to try to rescue those trapped inside so begins the fun but the fun has to be quick because this tunnel has started to spring a leak the acting is about what you would expect of a stallone movie not superb by any means but far above some of his other films think judge dredd again daylight's acting is probably average or a little above in terms of this sort of genre starring this particular star amy brenneman is the only actor of any note and she does a pretty good job as stallone's reluctant helper oh yeah stallone's real life son sage is in this too sage nice name i guess it could be worse he could have been named nutmeg or parsley note to sage you are still young go to school and get a good education you don't have a future in acting the plot runs along the same lines as the acting interesting but predictable mostly due to the fact that it was pretty well recycled from a dozen other action flicks the biggest problem with a film of this nature is that they try to cram too many things into the movie as soon as the cast clears one seemingly impossible hurdle another one seems to pop right up even worse than the last one i realize that it wouldn't be much of a movie otherwise but it does make the movie a bit predictable adding to the predictability is the cast of characters which of course has to include at least one or two difficult people who want to do things their own way and think the qualified guy in this case stallone doesn't know what he is doing why is it in disaster movies we can never have everyone agree with each other and all work together would this be too much to ask can't we all just get along special effects weren't bad but i've certainly seen better some of the scenes while fun to watch were such blatant that you had to wonder if scripts from old movies were just copied verbatim especially all of the scenes that involved anything underwater the tunnel of course starts to flood i really expected gene hackman roddy mcdowell and ernest borgnine to appear at any minute i wasn't sure if i was watching daylight or the poseidon adventure i suppose if you have to rip off a movie for good ideas the poseidon adventure is a good one to use the underwater sequences aside from the deja vu were very well shot and worked fairly well they were the best part of the movie by a long shot better than average stallone flick i realize that's not saying much when the man has judge dredd on his resume but certainly not up to the standards of cliffhanger daylight is a fun movie and as long as you aren't expecting a whole lot you might even be pleasantly surprised
positive	after the simple looking little spacecraft lands in a automobile wrecking yard out steps a creature with aquamarine eyes and clad in a muscular suit spencer the boy who observes this having seen his fill of science fiction flicks figures this thing must be a robot from outer space with the exception of disney and a few others most studios view children's films as a way to ship a cheap and unimaginative product and thereby make a quick profit star kid stands out as that rare kids' film that is undoubtedly but is also highly imaginative remember the robot it wasn't one at all but rather a phase one assault cyborsuit the cyborsuit is actually a prototype combat enhancer developed by the trelkins and jettisoned for latter retrieval when they are under attack from the invading broodwarriors the significant twist in the story is that spencer gets to go inside the cyborsuit and the cyborsuit nicknamed cy has plenty of spunk cy keeps questioning the kid about everything including words like cool upon hearing that command cy starts rapidly decreasing the temperature in the cyborsuit until spencer screams for him to stop and when cy speaks we see spencer's view the backside of cy's lips and eyes as spencer joseph mazzello from the jurassic park film series gives a remarkably good performance as a wimpy and initially kid even when enclosed in his powerful new cyborsuit he has his fears but he learns to overcome them if you run away things don't get better whether it's bullies spiders or girls his science teacher advises him after he has difficulties dealing with all three turbo joey simmrin the school's chubby bully beats up on him spiders frighten him and most embarrassing of all he can't speak when in the presence of his girlfriend with his cyborsuit on he learns some bravery that transcends his time inside cy spencer lives with his dad and his older teenage sister stacey played by a ashlee levitch who looks like a younger sarah jessica parker stacey derides her brother whom she barely tolerates by referring to him only as the fungus this whole setup for spencer's downtrodden and delightfully funny life makes his acquisition of some superhuman powers a source of mirth and empowerment the beauty of mazzello's performance is that you can vicariously experience his fear and share in his enjoyment when he goes after the bully to teach him a lesson he'll not soon forget the ensuing mayhem has some of the home alone antics but the slapstick is kept tightly under control by writer and director manny coto so that one never feels embarrassed to be laughing the romantic angle is handled ever so delicately when cy wishes to know if spencer wants to mate with the object of his desire michelle lauren eckstrom his eyes open wide in revulsion mate with her spencer exclaims pllllleeeeease i just like her that's all the show has many funny twists in one cy sees a man in a costume and begins firing at him thinking he is an alien soon things get way out of hand and cy and spencer have to beat a hasty retreat as proof positive of the show's class it actually contains tasteful bathroom humor thought that was an oxymoron in a kids' picture didn't you cy cannot allow spencer to leave the cyborsuit and what happens when he needs to urinate becomes both sweet and hilarious the director's staging of this sequence is one of the film's more charming moments oh and eating is pretty funny too spencer whose idol is the comic book character midknight warrior gets to face the challenge of a lifetime when a broodwarrior comes to capture the cyborsuit spencer's valiant battle gives him a chance to find his mettle and the action sequences in the battle manage to be quite respectable for a kids' show full of inventiveness and lacking the usual repetition for a family movie mixing humor fantasy and action star kid delivers although it's probably not the sort of movie you'd want to see without kids with them you'll have a magical time with a relatively straightforward but well developed story you'll be rooting for and laughing with spencer and his buddy cy all the way through star kid runs it is rated pg for fantasy combat although the basically cartoonish broodwarrior might scare the littlest kids i saw none of this in evidence in our packed screening so i would say the show is fine for kids five and up and possibly the younger ones my son jeffrey age got really excited about the picture he called it an especially good movie and gave it when i asked him to tell me his favorite characters he mentioned almost everyone in it from the boy to the cyborsuit to the bully
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned like its own opening shot from out of the darkness boogie nights triumphantly explodes upon the film scene with stunning authority and clarity persuasively heralding its helmer paul thomas anderson as a bonafide major talent a sprawling epic set in the heart of the disco era and focused upon the ascension and decline of a troupe in the adult film industry boogie nights is an astonishingly ambitious feature film which is completely effective both as an utterly entertaining joyride and as a strikingly impressive piece of filmmaking the film follows a young man eddie adams mark wahlberg from torrance through his induction into the erotic picture business to stardom and later to a harrowingly precipitous drop as boogie nights opens he's toiling as a dishwasher in a trendy san fernando valley nightclub and living at home under the thumb of a tyrannical mother who denigrates him at every opportunity recruited by fatherly jack horner a rejuvenated burt reynolds a successful porn filmmaker eddie abandons his old life in favour of a new one as dirk diggler pornstar wholeheartedly embraced by jack's troupe including the maternal amber waves julianne moore reed rothchild john c reilly buck swope don cheadle rollergirl heather graham dirk and his one special thing are quickly propelled to the top of his field fulfilling his mantra of being a big bright shining star his lack of discipline however incites a chain of circumstances which sees dirk and his friends unravel as a new decade is ushered in the element of boogie nights which literally commands attention is the bravura direction by mr anderson whose fascination and prowess with the camera is obvious from the terrific tracking shot throughout a nightclub which opens the film and introduces the players through to the showy sequence in the camera follows a female partygoer diving into a pool mr anderson's accomplished command of the camera is without question while novice directors often demonstrate an unfortunate lack of restraint in terms of flamboyant camerawork which ultimately proves to be aggravating impertinent and case in point marc rocco's unforgettable helming of murder in the first in boogie nights every zoom or pan by mr anderson be it slow and deliberate or energetically sharp is purposeful and potent it's a rarity and a delight to discover such a confidently assured work so early in a filmmaker's career boogie nights is only his second feature film following up his debut feature from earlier this year hard eight and although it's somewhat derivative his storytelling style is reminiscent of robert altman while in terms of visuals he's clearly influenced by martin scorsese at least he's borrowing from some of the best and it's entirely effective within the context of this film while boogie nights is astonishingly polished from a technical perspective in terms of sheer entertainment value it's also rollicking good fun with a wickedly deadpan sense of humour the film perfectly captures the essence of the disco period in terms of music clothes hairstyles dance idioms and culture aided immeasurably by impeccable production design by bob ziembicki and costume design by mark bridges and boogie nights convincingly catapults the audience back to this recent period in american history where uninhibited lifestyles abounded while much of the film's humour pertains to the characters' obliviousness of aspects of their lives then prevalent in society a prime example is salesman buck swope's demo of a stereo system with an tape and inviting a prospective customer to get deaky' with the music it's elicited with an undercurrent not of ridicule but of wistful reminiscence and some the throwback elements in the film are strangely wondrous a giant ensemble disco dance production number in a nightclub is funny to be sure but oddly magical and the sequence which lovingly explores bedroom completely adorned with posters and elements of iconic figures farrah fawcett cheryl tiegs bruce lee is breathtaking ably supported by a collection of period music all of which purportedly came straight from mr anderson's personal collection there's a clear affection for the era in boogie nights it's the period aspect and the playfully comic nostaligism of boogie nights which has been played up in its marketing campaign in deference of the pornography element of the storyline the film's promotional trailer markedly avoids any explicit reference to the adult film industry which unites its characters after the debacle with milos forman film the people vs larry flynt another work which was knocked off the market prematurely due to controversy regarding its storyline the new line marketing team faced a unique challenge with boogie nights in terms of attempting to deemphasize the relatively risque erotic picture element of the story in order to increase salability to the general public however while boogie nights delves into the world of the adult film industry of two decades ago it's hardly a lurid or seamy film given the subject matter there's very little nudity and virtually none of it can be construed as gratuitous and boogie nights smartly depicts erotic filmmaking not as a hotbed of carnality but simply as a business the glimpses on the sets of jack horner's shoots reveal that while the films he makes are intended to titillate there's a candid in terms of sex his cast and crew are professionals who are merely doing a job and it's refreshing that the obvious cliches of depravity and sinful lechery often linked to dismissive portraits of adult filmmaking such as coercion or debauchery are avoided if anything boogie nights is more interested in the process of adult filmmaking than the adult films themselves jack horner's dream is an honourable one he genuinely aspires to make a great film and to some degree boogie nights is reminiscent of ed wood albeit lacking a certain wistful innocence in both films the world of quickie filmmaking is explored and both jack horner and the version of ed wood by tim burton scott alexander and larry karaszewski share similar mindsets jack's retort of there are shadows in light baby to his cinematographer's complaint about poor set lighting echoes back to ed wood's it's not about the little details it's about the big picture rant when it is pointed out that his graveyard set for plan from outer space appears patently false in boogie nights and ed wood the aspirations of the respective filmmakers' prove to be bemusing not in their intentions there's nothing inherently silly in the goal of making an erotic picture but in the degree that they miss the mark much like the humour lacing ed wood the laughs involving jack horner are after viewing a hilarious excerpt from one of his latest films which hybridizes the james bond and porn genres when jack breathes this is the best work i've ever done it's genuinely funny but given his utter sincerity also possesses a tinge of sadness mr anderson is at this point clearly a greater talent as a director than a screenwriter while boogie nights shows great inventiveness in staging there really isn't any clever dialogue in the film though a valid point certainly can be made that none of the film's characters particularly lend themselves to thoughtful verbal exchanges when one considers that the film's protagonist literally doesn't say a single insightful thing throughout the entire minute running time it's no wonder why the playfully inane how much can you bench banter between dirk and reed constitutes one of the film's finest exchanges and while mr anderson creates a rich collection of fascinating characters it's problematic that some of the the threads given to the film's characters are simply stale material julianne moore's child custody battle is fairly cliched stuff better suited for a less risque and uninspired version of her character's story and far less interesting than the thread dealing with her woefully hackneyed filmmaking ambitions still even if he doesn't always know what to do with his characters mr anderson most definitely captures their essences and his resolutely nonjudgemental affection for them is infectious misguided even aimless hopelessly naive insufferable i loved them just the same in any case it's hard to pick nits with a screenplay which contains one of the most audacious and inspired and ultimately scenes of the year a scene where dirk diggler and reed rothchild are dragged along by their compadre to the home of drug baron rahad jackson a mesmerizing alfred molina in an unforgettable performance even if it's a small one in a suicidal drug deal scam only to find that the millionaire is a crazed eccentric the part where he stops the deal to listen to the crescendo of night ranger's sister christian on his stereo system is sheer brilliance flanked by an armed bodyguard if this scene already wasn't tense enough with these elements mr anderson introduces a chinese boy that wanders through the scene who for no discernable reason is tossing firecrackers around the room pushing the scene to a new surreal level of delightful giddiness there are some other interesting touches in boogie nights mr anderson recycles the use of long methodical chimes on the soundtrack from hard eight here it accompanies the violent intercut sequences which depict the prostration of various characters to frightening effect similarly a painful scene where crew member scotty j philip seymour hoffman breaks down in tears in the driver's seat sobbing i'm so stupid after being rebuffed by dirk after an awkward but heartfelt advance is strikingly played out exactly as a later scene with dirk in the driver's seat after a particularly tumultuous and traumatic evening boogie nights is exceedingly well cast and each of the actors rise to the occasion the ensemble cast is uniformly good while most of the acting accolades will no doubt go to mr wahlberg fulfilling upon the sparks of promise he demonstrated in some of his earlier films and mr reynolds terrific as the father figure and stable anchor of the film ringing true in every respect a handful of other performances which might otherwise be overlooked deem mention mr reilly demonstrates here as he did for brief glimpses in ulu grosbard's georgia a genuine aptitude for comedy many of his scenes in boogie nights are among the very funniest in the film i'm not sure how much of his performance as reed was scripted and how much was done on the spot but he plays the quintessential second banana character to a tee mr reilly is the best part of the big disco dance production number and it's wickedly funny to watch his reed join in with dirk after the fact in threatening the new stud on the block during a macho altercation worth the price of admission alone is the glimpse of him getting down in the recording studio while the dirk character is laying down a numbingly bad and period it sure sounds like bad early to me demo track you got the touch in a vain attempt at a musical career mr reilly plays his vacant character with utter conviction which is convincing and effective ms graham with her long dirty blonde hair innocent demeanour and huge hazel eyes looks like a disney animated heroine come to life or in this case a disney animated heroine who came to life made a wrong turn and ended up on the new line lot in a film focused on the late early adult film industry consequently it's a bit incongruous to see this cheery starlet whizzing about the set on her roller skates but in a scene where she's lounging in a limousine prowling the streets garish red lipstick messily smeared on giving the camera a hilariously pouty look all one can do is gulp her role in the film sadly needs more fleshing out err in a figurative sense she's essentially a glorified extra but she does score impressively in her key scene which is unnerving in its sheer primal ferocity if only mr anderson had filmed the scene so that we could actually see the expression of rage and anguish on her face though and a cautionary tale for the strict and prudish as a teen ms graham's parents forbade her to take a part in the twisted cult classic heathers since then her most notable roles have been as a junkie gus van sant's drugstore cowboy and now a porn starlet draw your own conclusions perhaps the most quietly touching performance in boogie nights is that of mr cheadle who lends dignity to his role as a character in search of his identity and whose quest is comically manifested by a series of changes in his sense of fashion his relationship with his cheerfully supportive new wife jessie st vincent an interesting melora walters is wholly compelling has genuine sweetness and although his general longing for acceptance from others is perceptible it's no more so than in the bank scene where his loan application to open a stereo store is rejected due to his background in the porn industry while the scenario is familiar the wounded look in cheadle's eyes makes the scene unforgettable luis guzman's most famous work is possibly in brian de palma's carlito's way and here he plays a variation on the same character maurice t rodriguez is a hapless but nightclub owner who's a to jack's group ingratiating himself into the clique and constantly hounding jack with little disguise made of his desperation for a part in one of his erotic pictures jack's eventual acquiescence to maurice's request leads to one of boogie nights' biggest comic payoffs boogie nights is a stunning achievement due to the virtuoso direction by mr anderson who immediately asserts his presence in the film industry as a presence of note with this work striking a fine balance between humour and drama and exceptionally there's no doubt that boogie nights is among the very best films of the year
positive	bruce willis and sixth sense director m night shyamalan to tell the story of david dunne willis a stadium security guard who has been having some problems at home that are affecting his relationship with his wife and child on a return trip from new york where he was trying to get a job dunne is in a horrible train accident that he is the only survivor of to make things even stranger dunne has also escaped the accident completely unscathed a comic book art dealer named elijah price samuel l jackson who was born with a degenerative bone disease that causes his bones to be so brittle that they break constantly has been seeking out someone like dunne his entire life price felt that there had to be someone exactly the opposite of him someone whose bones would be so strong that they would never break price contacts dunne and convinces him to come down to his gallery for a talk where he suggests that dunne could quite possibly be something akin to a superhero from the comic books price used to read when he was a child dunne doesn't believe him at first but price assists him in discovering his powers and helps him hone his craft until he discovers what his true calling really is m night shyamalan had a tough act to follow with his sleeper hit the sixth sense how exactly does one follow up on one of the biggest and most popular thrillers in recent years for shyamalan the answer must have come as easy to him as nuclear physics does to kindergartners does this new film measure up to his breakthrough box office smash though the answer to that question is not a very easy one either as far as pacing goes the sixth sense seemed almost interminable it wasn't until the surprise ending was revealed that i realized the film was actually intentionally and perfectly paced in order to give the audience ample time to all of the information they had seen once the climax had been reached for unbreakable shyamalan gave the film a much more satisfying pace which in many ways blows away the film that had come before the story moves along at a steady pace and shyamalan's direction is excellent with the camera almost constantly moving there are tons of great shots in the film not least of which is a conversation that opens the film between willis' character and another train passenger the shot seems as though it were filmed like we were watching the two talk from between the train seats and the camera steadily glides back and forth between the two actors as they speak also very impressive is the film's score by james newton howard who also scored shyamalan's sixth sense and the similar film stir of echoes as well as this year's dinosaur several of the scenes are driven by a very catchy beat and help to increase the tempo of the film one of the best examples of this is a scene in which dunne goes into a train station to exercise his powers the music in combination with the stellar visuals really go a long way towards making this an incredible movie if there was any one soundtrack i would make a must purchase this year this one would be it the film also boasts some great performances including a precocious child actor trying to vie for the oscar throne left vacant by haley joel osment willis turns in a great performance as the sad sack dunne who just can't seem to figure out why he's been depressed for the last few years his character almost seems pathetic when we first meet him but he eventually grows into his own under elijah's tutelage jackson is one of the better actors of our time and here he turns in yet another great performance as the ever injured elijah though his hairstyle is absurd jackson seems to infuse such a great deal of pain into his role that the mortar board hairdo can easily be overlooked robin wright penn's role seems slightly underwritten but she still manages to get across the intense hurt of her character's need for love from her husband and her desire to make things work again spencer treat clark as the dunne's young son jeremy shows that shyamalan still has a knack for picking young actors and he turns in one of the most competent performances in the film out of all the characters jeremy's is perhaps the most emotional and clark does a great job with the role where the film does lose points though is during its surprise ending shyamalan has said in interviews that he was going to do an ending that blew away the one presented by the sixth sense but i found myself saying that was it when unbreakable revealed its own ending it's not that the ending is bad it's just that the ending doesn't quite have the emotional punch that the other film's did plus it almost seems like it sets itself up for sequels and i won't reveal the ending here but you'll understand what i mean when you see it essentially what all of this means is that shyamalan has made another good film with unbreakable the only real problem is that the ending doesn't quite fill the shadow left by its predecessor as long as it isn't held to the standard that sixth sense set which it ultimately will be it should be a remarkably well liked film one thing seems clear though shyamalan definitely has an affinity for comic books that he would like to share with the world and many comic book fans will also delight the vision he presents in this film
positive	there's good news and bad news about mulan the positive is that disney has found a happy medium between the of pocahontas and the hunchback of notre dame and the childishness of hercules on the other hand the studio is pulling out all the stops on plot cliches and cheap laughs several steps down from the days of the little mermaid and beauty and the beast but mulan is a step in the right direction and disney's best animated feature since the lion king after giving native americans a turn in pocahontas disney has decided to turn a movie over to the asians mulan is set in feudal china and features the heroine who marches to a different drum and wants to do more with her life than get married that's what we find out when young mulan voice of na wen screws up her appointment with the matchmaker by letting a rogue cricket splash coffee all over her cartoons meanwhile word comes from the emporer that one man from every family must join the army and help fight the huns since mulan's a girl that means her decrepit old father must go she pleads with the soldiers to have mercy on dear old dad but that kind of groveling and desperation brings shame on her family that's chinese culture for you so imagine how embarrassed the family is the next day when they find mulan has stolen her father's uniform and sword and run off to join the army in his place the movie in a nutshell is about the stuggles of being a woman in the army it should have been called g i chang mulan calls on her ancestors for help they decide to summon the large stone dragon in the backyard to protect her but a mini dragon named mushu screws it up voiced by eddie murphy mushu continues the tradition of cute talking animal sidekicks who do more slapstick harm than good for their human charges murphy's performance is a direct descendent of robin williams in aladdin lots of wisecracks and and even an introductory song about how much fun they're going to have you ain't never had a friend like mushu speaking of songs mulan doesn't have too many of them which is a plus with a story like this disney songs about war probably wouldn't go over too well heigh ho heigh ho it's off to war i go and the ones they do have aren't memorable the best of the bunch sad to say is be a man the requisite basic training montage song yes even in medieval china they had to run through that web of car tires before they were ready for battle sung by donnie osmond a bad sign if ever there was one be a man accompanies footage of mulan's platoon going from to heroes it makes me wonder has there ever been a musical montage in a movie that's ended badly i only wish problems could be solved in two minutes with a peppy montage for the curious mulan does pass for a man in the army despite looking like a girl all she does to transform herself is cut her hair to a sexy talk macho and slap guys on the butt as was male custom a thousand years ago in china the deception fools everyone but the audience who thinks she might be able to pass for a boy at best but she does manage to strike the biggest blows to the hun army led by a big monster as a villain the head of the huns is menacing evil and entirely forgettable i saw the movie yesterday and i don't remember the man's name otherwise mulan is a good movie the animation of the characters themselves isn't as rich as it could and should be but there are some amazing battlefield shots eddie murphy pulls off some good as do other star voices like harvey fierstein and pat morita the quintessential asian movie star hell george mr sulu takei does a voice in mulan you get the sense disney said to themselves alright let's get out there and find us some chinese americans in hollywood who can you think of well there's mr myagi good and mr sulu perfect we've got ourselves a movie now soon disney really be able to paint with all the colors of the wind
positive	harmless silly and fun comedy about wrestling fans gordie and sean david arquette and scott caan who idolize current world championship wrestling heavyweight champion jimmy king oliver platt when king is screwed out of his title by a corrupt promoter joe pantoliano gordie and sean take it upon themselves to find their fallen hero and restore his glory my biggest fear about ready to rumble was dispatched early on as the filmmakers are quick to show that wresting is indeed choreographed but not fake mind you the hook of the movie is that gordie and sean are just too stupid to realize that arquette and caan are suitably over the top with their performances which is exactly what a movie like this requires and oliver platt one of my favorite actors is a riot as the drunken many have scoffed at the idea that platt should be playing a heavyweight champion wrestler with an unbeaten record but for me it just added to the silly factor of the film thereby increasing my enjoyment of it one casting complaint however rose mcgowan as a sexy dancer please if rose mcgowan is sexy then i'm marilyn manson given the current state of the actual wcw if oliver platt were appearing as jimmy king right now on wcw programming he'd be the most popular guy they have on a similar note the plot line of the wresting portions of the film are more entertaining than anything the wcw writers have been able to come up with in the last two years although one does have to ask why would any wrestling promoter fire the head wrestler of a company who is both unbeaten and extremely popular with the fans director brian robbins you'll remember him as eric from tv's head of the class just knows how to make good dumb movies this movie fits in nicely with his previous efforts good burger and varsity blues and screenwriter steven brill the epic mighty ducks trilogy late last night manages to keep things both sophomoric and clever at the same time with almost all the jokes of the film getting a laugh out of me the only exceptions to that were a scene involving a van full of singing nuns and any scene involving the old woman wrestling fan those moments made me cringe groan as an added bonus though the audience is treated to outtakes from the film as the final credits roll 
positive	steven spielberg is now considered as one of the hollywood deities because of the rare capability to deliver both huge commercial hits like jurassic park and oscar critical triumphs like schindler's list however in the spielberg built his reputation by creating works of art that could slip in both categories one of them is close encounters of the third kind extremely popular and influential spectacle unfortunately it had a bad luck to be released in the same year as star wars although both films have a lot in common special effects brilliant score by john williams their future was different one became an unstoppable cult phenomenon and another almost forgotten and stuck forever in its shadow when spielberg began work on that project he was already established as a bright new hollywood star due to his previous commercial hit jaws together with other young directors of his new hollywood generation like kauffman carpenter hill and millius he exploited the great creative freedom of when even the mainstream producers dared to experiment ironically it was spielberg himself whose later commercial success would established new unwritten rules of blockubuster philosophy but in the mid many things were different spielberg was young and eager to use hollywood resources for his very personal and artistic movie although very personal spielberg's screenplay was partly based on the book ufo experience by dr j allen hynek and in many ways inspired by the popular urban mythology of extraterrestrial visitors to earth that began to grow in the world after spielberg was not only inspired by the mythology but his movie also gave the mythology itself a huge boost unmatched until the contemporary era of and the roswell anniversary that was partly because he made the movie very realistic using the authentic incidents as the element of the plot the story begins with one of such incidents team of international scientists come to the sonorra desert in mexico to find the u s navy planes of who went missing decades ago during the famous flight such events coincide with the ufo incident witnessed by roy neary richard dreyfuss power company worker from muncie indiana who later becomes obsessed with his experience because of his obsession he loses his job family and sanity but his loss is nothing compared to the experience of jillian guiler melinda dillon single mother whose son becomes the victim of alien abduction in the meantime the scientists decipher the strange signals from outer space and u s government in with the french led by lacombe francois truffaut begin with the preparation for project when the news of the poison gas leak in the middle of wyoming reach neary he finally sees some sense in all his visions and begins the perilous journey toward the centre of endangered area there he is joined by jillian who shared the similar visions two of them must break through military pickets and reach their destination to find whatever is there spielberg here shows great mastery by using the very same techniques of jaws to make completely different effects the slow gradual yet very disciplined series of dramatic incidents close encounters is set in order to bring the viewer to the great revelation in the finale but instead of the fear and horror we had to endure during the jaws we are now overwhelmed by the sense of boyish wonder throughout the movie the viewer knows that something big magnificent and wonderful is about to happen and great magician spielberg delivers his promise in the end the last sequence with its even in this age impressive special effects by the great virtuoso douglas trumbull would leave many mouths open one of the great virtues of this film is its optimism aliens who almost always get portrayed as the monsters in cinema are here benevolent and harmless creatures and the first contact between them and humanity is a beginning of something wonderful it is very ironic when we consider that the two classic sf movies that visually inspired spielberg actually told quite different story howard hawks' thing and byron haskin's war of the worlds presented extraterrestrials as the threat to the mankind spielberg's humane approach and faith in the future also lies in great contrast to the pessimistic mood of its era the only hint of the contemporary gloom is portrayal of government as conspiratorial towards the public but even such government is much more harmless compared to the murderous and men in black that became the stereotype thanks to and its more cynical and disturbing visions there lies the main and probably the only flaw of this great picture lack of conflict and consequently lack of drama the movie has few excitements or even action scenes especially the last that may be an interesting homage to hitchcock's north by northwest but generally almost everyone neary jillian government aliens are the good guys despite such shortcomings the actors were good and manage to bring multidimensionality to their simple roles richard dreyfuss is very convincing as a ordinary yet nice guy who sinks into insanity only to rediscover himself in a grand finale melinda dillon was on the other hand nominated for oscar as a struggling mother yet she was overshadowed by teri garr as neary's wife ronnie apart from visual wonders of this film spielberg's composer john williams again excels by his beautiful music this time using the simple melody both as the element of a plot and as the basis for his score the aliens who are the main subject of this film were visually very convincing too convincing one of my acquaintances in the circles said according to him the depiction of extraterrestrials as little people with big eyes was so accurate that it managed to freak out powerful government figures interested in suppressing the truth about ufos so they later approached spielberg and ordered him to make another movie with alien this time designed to be anything but the real life the result was e t for many years the biggest commercial hit of all times yet less inspirational for ufo enthusiasts anyway whether the viewer believes in existence of extraterrestrials or ufos close encounters of the third kind remains the great movie and one of the rare uplifting experiences in modern cinema
positive	with the exception of their surrealistic satire barton fink the films of joel and ethan coen fit into two broad categories quirky and sometimes darkly humorous takes on the film noir genre in which crime schemes go wrong and spin increasingly out of control fargo miller's crossing blood simple and comedies centered around an eccentric lead character raising arizona the hudsucker proxy their latest offering the big lebowski falls within the latter category though there are elements of the theme and even a touch of satire to be found in this film the main difference however is that while the protagonists of raising arizona and the hudsucker proxy had lofty aspirations and ideals but didn't quite have the brains to get it all together the main character of the big lebowski seems like a fairly intelligent guy who's wise to the world but he doesn't really want to do much of anything besides go bowling smoke pot and generally relax that main character is jeffrey the dude lebowski jeff bridges introduced by the film's rambling narrator sam elliott as quite possibly the laziest man in los angeles county the dude is unemployed needless to say and spends most of his time at the bowling alley with his two best friends walter john goodman a who's in the habit of pulling a gun when he thinks somebody's cheating in a bowling match has the whole world gone crazy he shouts at a suspected cheater and donny steve buscemi who's always a few steps behind the conversation and is constantly berated by walter for it donny you have no frame of reference here these three seem to more or less live for bowling tournaments and as the film begins they are anticipating an important match with rival bowler jesus quintana john turturro who when we first meet him is doing a dance in the bowling lane to accompany a spanish version of hotel california and if it's possible seems to be even more of a head case than walter if that doesn't give you a good idea of this film's absurdist tone then perhaps this will the entire scenario which drives the story is set in motion by two thugs mistakenly urinating on the dude's rug they've mistaken him for a millionaire of the same name who is also known as the big lebowski david huddleston and whose nymphomaniac wife bunny tara reid owes money to porn producer jackie treehorn ben gazzara the dude goes to the big lebowski seeking compensation for his ruined rug he doesn't have any luck but when bunny is apparently kidnapped the elder lebowski asks him to deliver the million ransom unfortunately walter gets involved and fouls up the and before they can try again to get the money to the supposed kidnappers the dude's car gets stolen along with the briefcase containing the money soon the dude is being harassed not only by the big lebowski himself but also by treehorn and by a group of german nihilists who demand the ransom money even though they may not have been involved in the kidnapping in the first place the dude and walter suspect that bunny may well have kidnapped herself in order to extort money from her husband to repay her debts to treehorn meanwhile the big lebowski's daughter maude julianne moore a feminist artist who likes to make grand entrances swinging through the air naked wants to recover the money for her family the plot however is really just a vehicle for all these bizarre characters to run wild and wreak their own unique forms of havoc the previews for the big lebowski feature creedence clearwater revival's run through the jungle and it fits the coens see los angeles as a veritable jungle of oddballs and nutcases with the sometimes bewildered dude left to run through it and try to avoid any more trouble usually unsuccessfully the film doesn't feature quite as many and sight gags as the coens' other comedies though there are a few hilarious moments of visual humor particularly in the dude's dream sequences and acid flashbacks but it more than makes up for it with the sheer fun of watching these strange characters interact the film sometimes seems a little disjointed as a result you get the feeling that the coens have not only set their characters loose in this jungle but are also themselves running crazy through the jungle of their own twisted imaginations but for the most part the characterizations are interesting enough to overcome the shaky plotting and what turns out to be a somewhat anticlimactic resolution there's also a noticeable but not too thread of social commentary in the big lebowski which incidentally takes place just as the gulf war is about to begin at the beginning we see george bush on television making his this aggression will not stand speech the coens take aim at just about every elite l a subculture in the book the egotistical wealthy businessman the bums will always lose shouts the big lebowski at one point the porn industry the overbearing malibu policeman who berates the dude for disturbing their peaceful beach community and so on by the end we really start to admire the dude who almost certainly harbors the least aggression of anyone in this story his passive resistance emphasis on passive albeit to the elite emerges as something more than just another quirky characterization in a film overflowing with quirky characters he also turns out to have a pretty brain in his head even if he doesn't like to use it very much his sarcasm towards treehorn and the malibu policeman shows that he knows when he's getting a run around and he does manage to unravel the kidnapping mystery by the end the coens certainly poke fun at the dude for his laziness but they don't just treat him as fodder for cheap shots either i think that more than anything is what makes the big lebowski a standout comedy it manages to approach characters like the dude and to some extent walter with genuine affection while still acknowledging that they are pretty audience members may find themselves surprised at how much they like the duo by the end of the movie given that they seemed like nothing more than the butts of an extended joke at first it's good knowin' he's out there the dude takin' it easy posits the narrator towards the end i dare say that truer words have seldom been spoken
positive	the endurance shackleton's legendary antarctic expedition in as the great war descended upon europe sir ernest shackleton began his third expedition to antarctica this time to be the first to cross the continent on foot men set sail on the brigantine endurance and they would not be heard from again for nearly two years director george butler using film footage and photographs from the historic journey tells their remarkable story in the endurance shackleton's legendary antarctic expedition the expedition started out as a merely incredibly difficult quest to traverse on foot the vast wasteland of antarctica as the intrepid ship and crew entered the weddell sea the entry to the cold cruel continent they did not plan on the dense pack ice bringing the voyage to an abrupt halt as the endurance became trapped within sight of land for months the ice thickened and compressed until the ship was crushed stranding the men on the flow propelling them away from their goal and eventually into their lifeboats for safety shackleton faced with a desolate situation made the decision to lead the three tiny boats to the relative safety of uninhabited elephant island once on this safe haven shackleton next turned his sights to saving his crew and returning them to civilization he and five of his men leave the island in an open boat to make the mile journey on the world's roughest sea to get help from the nearest inhabited island of south georgia miraculously the six land after days at sea on the uninhabited side of the target island and are forced to trek across treacherous snow covered mountains covering miles in just hours this ordeal is followed by several attempts by shackleton to get back to elephant island to rescue the remaining crewmen in the end he is successful and everyone made it back home alive only to be swallowed up by the ravages of the war the title of this fascinating documentary the endurance is more than just the name of ship that carried the crew of brave men to the edge of the world it is also the description of the stamina and ability of every one of the men who survived of the toughest most grueling conditions on the face of the earth the name of the film is a tribute to every member of the crew and to the ship that sheltered them for many month of frigid antarctic weather it also describes the focused mental state of shackleton who never gave up on himself or his men with astonishing foresight shackleton brought australian cinematographer and photographer frank hurley along on the journey the filmed footage and photos are remarkable as they capture the ordeal of the men day to day life the affection all felt for their loyal sled dogs the slow destruction of the endurance and the preparations to get off of the pack ice flow after the sinking of the ship the remaining film stock with the exception of a still camera and three rolls of film had to be discarded so the continuing chronicle of the incredible journey gets less photo documentation as the ordeal plods on considering hurley was using relatively primitive photo technology in one of the world's harshest environments and captured so much on film is a feat unto itself hurley created his own account of the shackleton expedition in his documentary south an interesting companion piece for the endurance if shackleton's original idea document his trek across the frigid southern continent had been successful it would have been considered a super human feat as you watch the story of the endurance unfold you realize that the disastrous obstacles the sir ernest and his men faced and overcame were even greater accomplishments than the first intent shackleton's amazing journey in an open boat is fodder for a rousing adventure story all by itself there are a couple of minor nitpicks with this fine work though actor liam neeson narrates the story but his voice is too soft spoken and lilting for the dramatic tale the nature of the ordeal also concentrates most of the visual material both film and photo in the documentary's first half as the crew's adventure takes more drastic paths hurley had less and less film stock available to chronicle the awesome events helmer butler and his team fill in the blanks but the treasure of the endurance its film footage is mostly relegated to the early months of the expedition i can't think of a adventure that shows better the triumph of man over seemingly insurmountable odds the endurance based on caroline alexander's book is an documentary that goes where few men have gone before and even more remarkably all survivors lived to tell about it i give it a
positive	every year at the festival i wait for that film to come along that one that just pulls me out of my seat sticks its face up next to my nose and roars into my bewildered visage it's almost always a surprise it sure as niflheim was this time amazing grace and chuck is being advertised as a modern fairy tale of a boy in montana who quits his little league team for a very unusual reason and in the hands of anyone less careful than the creative staff of this film it might very well be nothing more than a fairy tale where we roll our eyes occasionally smirk to ourselves and maybe get a forced tear out of the eyes and a boy i wish that could happen sigh out of the lips upon exiting the theater and tossing the empty pepsi cup into the trash another e t another short circuit this film floored me for the simple reason that while it has a fairy tale concept the rest of the film takes itself seriously enough and presents itself well enough to make it more of an american folk tale with characters who are both icons and real people at the same time america has always had its mythical heros its paul bunyans and john waynes this film presents us with more general but still universal ideals the honest innocent children who have their own inner wisdom the athletes who seem to be amalgamations of courage honor and love for their respective sport the venerable elected official who leads with kindness and understanding but has the grit to get things done when they need doin' does the latter sound familiar amazing grace and chuck is a showcase for these characters but it never leaves you with the feeling that it's artificial that it stands behind glass or that any sharp more importantly sharp shatter the wax facade of the panorama this is a very sturdy scenario the principals are always given dialogue and always give it just blows me away which made them seem real yet enforces their particular mythic role the david field seems to literally take all the yeah but in real life this would have happen thoughts you get in your head sticks them in the movie and uses them to bend the plot around to his original heading in a stronger way then before astounding he uses obstacles to the plot to enforce it i am truly impressed indeed envious with the skill in which he wrote the story and screenplay it's so very unusual especially in a hollywood film i don't want to give too much away but the basic premise is that chuck joshua zuehlke the little league pitcher decides to give up baseball because of nuclear weapons his decision begins an unlikely series of events that involve another athlete a boston basketball player alex english amazing grace smith and well i'm leaving it at that because i wouldn't spoil this film for you for the world let me just say this though i am not recommending this film because i think it has a great message or because of any political positions it might imply i don't give a rat's ass for the political this film expresses one way or another i'm recommending you go see this film because and only because it's an excellent story told with excellence no i don't believe what happens in this film could happen in real life while i tend to believe the arms control policy of this country is stilted i believe in careful negotiations mutual verification etc screw what i think the point is this film is able to suspend my disbelief and tell a story that is one of the most finely crafted pieces of american dream i have ever seen on the movie screen this is the natural and the mythic qualities without the pretentiousness or the forced feeling of the conclusion and a much better script to boot it carried me into the beliefs and ideals of my more importantly without any bumps or jolts that would snap me out of the trance with some hint of special kudos to both zuehlke a little league pitcher who was picked for the part and english a forward for the denver nuggets for their seamless personification of their characters jamie lee curtis who takes a surprisingly small role and makes it exceedingly memorable as amazing's manager and friend william l peterson in a big change from his role in to live and die in l a as a father who shows principles without having to stand up and wave a flag doing it and gregory peck as the guy we wish ronald reagan really was and who some numbskulls still probably think he is
positive	oh god how many john grisham lawyer films we have been munundated with in a perfect world a civil action would be a breath of fresh air it's cynical about lawyers in a way that grisham isn't it's romantic in the exact opposite way a grisham isn't and the capper it has no distinct ending and the law in hollywood films is that above all else you must have an ending even if it's based on a true story a true story which hasn't yet ended you must supply an ending a false one but an ending nevertheless hell a civil action is even more sly and more witty than any of the grisham works put together and that includes the firm the only novel of his that will ever be regarded as a classic yet it's also oddly and slightly unsatisfying weird this is in fact a steve zallian film not just the work of a hack and zallian is the director of the search for bobby fischer didn't see it and writer of none other than schindler's list in short i like this guy and am a sucker for the way he tells his stories after all apart from the obvious and isn't schindler's list just a damn brilliant film not so much a holocaust film as it is a wonderful character study a civil action is the same way it's narrative is split between being a lawyer film and being a character study and it's here that the film seems to go a bit wrong the main complaint of this film is that while yes it's an engrossing lawyerly tale it has no real ending and that's not necessarily the problem with the film it's that it's just kind of unsatisfying if this were a great film it would feel complete and still end basically the same way but this film just seems to end and i don't want to be stupid and suggest an alternate ending should be tacked on imagine if you will being one of those the film is about looking forward to this film and then discovered the truth has been through a surrealistic and unpleasant hollywood filter just so the many won't bitch about what is essentially genuine but the fact that it just ends is not in all actuality what is wrong with it it's rather that zallian has chosen in the last half hour to adandon the traditional lawyer story and chose the other part of his story the one about the lawyer one jan schlictman john travolta who's shown in the opening and throughout most of the movie as a heartless but brilliant lawyer brilliant because he's manipulative and he always wins it wishes to make it all about jan in the end but the truth is his change although nicely done is not full we see him suffering from a personal crisis and travolta does do a pretty good job in depicting his change of heart but in the end we don't fully believe it and i think that the problem is when he has made his decision the film choses an odd angle to go at a noble one but one that gives the film's conclusion that of incompleteness in the opening of the film we see him doing his old schtick manipulating courts winning cases effortlessly and then discussing on a heard radio interview how great he is at his job and how much he cares for his cases in short he's full of bullshit and we know it in the film he takes a case that is hardly desired a town where several of the children have died mysteriously of lukemia and the source of the illness seems to be from a local factory that may or may not have been dumping waste into the river point one it's not of the usual criteria jan points out wickedly that dead or wounded children aren't nearly as sympathetic as those struck down in the midst of their success point two it has been through several lawyers after turning them down jan changes his mind a muddled scene he stops his car on a bridge looks out is he feeling a sense of overachievement and he and his team of lawyers tony shalhoub zeljko ivanek and accountant william h macy head out to the town to do battle with the town's company they spend millions of dollars examining the land test the water what have you this is where stephen fry a possible oscar nominee for his brilliant performance in wilde pops up thanklessly and in the meantime question the parents of the dead children and then unsuccessfully the workers at the plant they also find themselves clashing with a brilliant lawyer for the company the eccentric jerome facher played by robert duvall more on him later on as we progress we get so involved in the way the story is being told which is engulfing everything around it including the individual and brief stories of some of the townspeople one of the best is a bit with james gandolfini as an employee of the plant living across the street from kathleen quinland who lost her child who begins to have a personal crisis things begin to go downhill for the lawyers in the second half as they are up against impossible odds the judge john lithgow is not only a strickler but a pal of facher the employees of the plant are either afraid or to loyal to testify no concrete evidence is being found depsite the money spent to find it and they are quickly running out of money as macy mortgages everything he can including their homes and their office he slowly loses his sanity his meatiest role since oh fargo and we the audience begin to feel a real loss of hope for our protagonist in fact the last half hour is such a change from the rest of the film and so unresolved that it has been widely panned as not being up to par owen gleiberman especially criticized the film for not being i suppose like a grisham novel this wouldn't be so if the change in jan had not been handled the way it is instead of having a change of heart and automatically being perceived as good he's seen as being still full of bullshit because he doesn't take stock in the cares of his partners and causes them all to lose their money and noteriaty in the lawyer field because he wants to help the people of the town he is instead seen as being of good nature but not sure how to bring that out the final half tries to redeem this as must have been the point of making this in zallian's mind but what follows is a series of scenes where we merely see him making personal stands for his beliefs and though he has changed considerably from the opening moments when he's seen speeding back and forth from the town that wishes to employ him and thusly receiving two speeding tickets we still feel that the big change in his life is that he's not rich and esteemed anymore the film's final title card is witty but in all actuality shallow the fault is not that there is no closure to the court case it's still going on you know but that its personal story feels like it needs either another chapter or another angle in the final one it has we need to feel like the character has really made a big change in his life and that the story is how a story of strife like the one of the town could inspire such a whopping change in his personal life it only feels like half of that maybe even less and it's not travolta who does a great job here though never to be a truly memorable performance of his but rather zallian whose final chapter needs a rewrite up to then though it's an engrossing drama one of the best of the year in fact and one of the best lawyer films period the reason is because it recognizes that a court trial is not about those being defended or prosecuted but rather it's about the lawyers the knights who battle eachother we learn that the company is almost positively to blame for the deaths in the town but the reason it can't be blamed is because it has the best prosecution you can find and duvall's facher is such a brilliant character and he does such a magnificent job at portraying that man that it's almost easy to overlook how subtley great he is facher is seen as an elderly man a goofy eccentric carrying a broken brown bag with stickers on it eating lunches out of paper bags and making a point to take time out of his day to listen to the radio and scold anyone who interupts him but look deeper and you see a master at work his evil and manipulative nature are hidden under the eccentricities that others don upon him and it's difficult as hell to clearly generalize him in any way that's why i liked this film it's hard to put a pointer on you can never see exactly where this film will land and even when the credits roll you still aren't sure what to make of it call it the zallian effect same thing happened with schindler's list not that i'm comparing oskar schindler to jan schlictman each film is so greatly crafted that you can't help but get involved in its broad storytelling interesting characters and most peculiarly the wit that comes along with it if only it felt totally complete like say schindler's list though at this point it may be unfair to make comparisons between the two it might have been one of the best films of the year and along with that a full breath of fresh air
positive	the seasoned capt dudley smith james cromwell questions his new protege ed exley guy pearce about his political views when it comes to police work would you plant evidence to get a conviction if you knew the person to be guilty would you shoot a man in the back if you knew that it was the only way to make sure he got what he deserved exley squeaky clean innocent and pent with the desire to perform his new duties with integrity and honesty quickly answers with a pointed stunned smith pleads then for the love of god don't be a detective la confidential is a dandy piece of filmmaking that brings us back to the classic times of hollywood in the organized crime was the biggest concern corruption existed everywhere and every cop had his own way of getting the job done there was hollywood jack vincennes kevin spacey who gets most of his information from the editor of a sleazy tabloid sid hudgeons danny devito sporting dark sunglasses and a white sports coat he isn't afraid to flash his tinseltown style detective bud white russell crowe has only a view of the law and he uses excessive force to exact his unique kind of interrogation and brutal justice and then there is golden boy exley and ambitious but extremely naive a horrible multiple murder begins to draw these three men together each of whom become inexorably connected in their search for truth action and personal vindication almost immediately an arrest is made but something doesn't seem quite right new developments become sinuous as the story begins to draw us deeper into the labyrinth of corruption and crime within the department suspicion and questions begin to mount odd alliances are created and as layers of the truth become revealed the story grows more complex and intriguing by the moment when the mystery expands we see other seemingly guilty characters enter the lives of these three cops including a hooker kim basinger and a shady millionaire david strathairn all of the characters' levels of involvement are not immediately clear we watch with riveted fascination to learn more about why they are there and their stake in the case we sense a of clues that brings us the audience closer to the truth we hope that the three detectives can throw away their spite for one another and can pull their resources together in order to untangle the intricately created web of mystery absorbing and affecting this movie has all the necessary ingredients to create a terrific gourmet serving of film noir it boasts mysterious figures in control hard information from sleazy sources dirty politicians corrupt cops haunting women and cops experiencing moral ambiguity the underlying mystery is compelling the look and feel of the movie is gorgeous the entire cast is crisp and wonderful to watch i wouldn't be surprised if cromwell received an oscar nomination for his performance and the dialogue is rich and memorable the best line of the movie is spoken when a key player dispenses advice to one of the detectives unsure of what to do don't start trying to do the right thing says he you haven't had the practice l a confidential'' triumphantly achieves the rare gift of complexity and coherence while satisfying our desire for a good movie
positive	aliens well that is what this movie is about computer generated aliens ok the movie is not just about computer generated aliens it's about computer generated aliens and a secret organization known as mib if one wasn't green and running around the other would not exist as it's known the computer graphics in this movie are spectacular they make you want to believe that aliens like the ones depicted exits since seeing this movie i have to agree concede that denis rodman is an alien he simply has to be well in all seriousness the aliens created here are not only of the monster variety but are also of the soft squishy and cuddly kind just adds something of a lighter note to the movie where it could have become very dark along with aliens comes the humor and in a pretty decent way j well soon to be j a smart ass cop played by will smith runs down what he thinks is a villain and gets some attention from the mib and k in particular k aims to recruit our poor j but that is not the whole point of this movie the main duty of the mib is to police the extra terrestrials on earth who have chosen it as a home or a refuge that's also the main point of this movie protect the earth from the scum of the galaxy some of the scum from space is awfully bad and just down right nasty color commentary abounds when forced to deal with alien scum and none other than will smith and tommy lee jones are there to deliver the punch the dialogue is witty to say the least this wittiness lets the movie flow well from scene to scene developing the characters to the extent needed for this movie tommy lee jones as k and will smith as j provide both the action and the comedy beautifully the characters they play don't seem to be wrong in any way nor does their performance as them i would have to say that k is more amusing than j but what's one without the other both roles complemented each other very well and the script seemed to be written for these two actors the story also goes deep enough to provide a proper background so the audience is not totally clueless altogether good performances were put in by all the cast and the director blended everything marvelously with the necessary special effects to create a good movie a movie well worth seeing if you are up for some lighthearted and witty humor as most movies have their good things they also have their bad things the character development in this movie was not all that grand because it didn't need to be but if there was more character development and if there was some development of the alien characters that might have added quite considerable to the movie especially the evil alien he did need some work though this could have been worked on the movie was what it proposed to be a rather shallow and witty comedy that was achieved rather well with some interesting commentary and observations a movie worth a view but keep in mind what the movie is and if you are not fond of will smith's form of humor then i wouldn't go originally written after original release totally rewritten december
positive	in the opening shot of midnight cowboy we see a of a blank movie screen at a we hear in the soundtrack human cries and the stomping of horses' hooves without an image projected onto the screen the audience unerringly identifies the familiar sound of cowboys chasing indians and can spontaneously fill in the blank screen with images of old westerns in our mind's eye even without having seen a cowboys and indians movie somehow the cliched images of them seem to have found their way into our mental schema but do cowboys really exist or are they merely hollywood images personified by john wayne and gary cooper exploring this theme director john schlesinger uses the idea of the cowboy as a metaphor for the american dream an equally cliched yet ambiguous concept is the ease at which salvation and success can be attained in america a hallmark of its experience or an urban legend midnight cowboy suggests that the american dream like image of the cowboy is merely a myth as joe buck migrates from place to place he finds neither redemption nor reward in his attempt to create a life for himself only further degeneration during the opening credits joe walks past an abandoned theater whose decrepit marquee reads wayne the alamo as joe is on the bus listening to a radio talk show a lady on the air describes her ideal man as cooper but he's dead a troubled expression comes across joe's face as he wonders where have all the cowboys gone having adopted the image of a cowboy since youth joe now finds himself deserted by the persona he tried to embody joe's persistence in playing the act of the cowboy serves as an analogue to his american dream he romanticizes about making it in the big city but his dreams will desert him as he is forced to compromise his ideals for sustenance by the end of midnight cowboy joe buck loses everything and gains nothing just as the audience can picture cowboys chasing indians on a blank screen we can also conjure up scenes from pretty woman as paradigms of american redemption and success but how realistic are these ideals joe had raped and been raped in texas the scars of his troubled past prompt him to migrate to new york but he does not know that his aspirations to be a cowboy hero will fail him there just as they had in texas alongside the dream of success is the dream of salvation the ability to pack up one's belongings and start anew seems to be an exclusive american convention schlesinger provides us with strong hints as to joe's abusive and abused past with flashbacks of improper relationships with crazy anne and granny we understand that joe adopts the fa ade of a cowboy a symbol of virility and gallantry as an attempt to neutralize his shame he runs from his past only to be sexually defiled this time by his homosexual experiences in new york in the scene at the diner which foreshadows joe's encounter with the gay student joe buck spills ketchup on himself standing up we see the ketchup has made a red stain running from the crotch of his pants down his thigh schlesinger visually depicts the degeneration of joe's virility by eliciting an image of bleeding genitals signifying emasculation beyond the symbol of castration the scene may also connote the bleeding of a virgin's first sexual encounter a reference to joe's first homosexual liaison the fact that the idea of a bleeding virgin is relegated only to females furthers the imagery of joe's emasculation it is ironic that joe has trouble prospecting for female clients but effortlessly attracts men joe believes his broncobuster getup is emblematic of his masculinity new yorkers see his ensemble as camp and stuff there are two predominant images of new york the first is that new york is the rich cosmopolitan city where hope and opportunity are symbolized by the tall skyscrapers and the statue of liberty the other new york is travis bickle's new york a seedy corruptive hell on earth joe envisions new york as the former but is presented with the latter mirroring the irony in which joe envisions his cowboy attire as masculine he mistakenly buys into the fable that new york is filled with lonely women neglected by gay men joe thinks he is performing a great service for new york but the city rapes him of his pride and possessions the people steal joe's money the landlord confiscates his luggage and the homosexuals rob him of his dignity what has become of joe's american dream schlesinger responds to this question with the scene at the party joe gets invited to a shindig of sorts and at the gathering is exposed to a dizzying array of food drugs and sex at the party all of joe and ratzo's desires are made flesh joe flirts successfully with women and ratzo loads up on free salami contrasting joe's daily struggles shots of warhol's crew display wanton indulgence there is an irreverence in the partygoers' attitude we see a shot of a woman kowtowing to nothing in particular orgies breaking out in the periphery and drugs passed around like party favors the party makes a mockery of joe' s ideals joe believed that hard work and persistence were the elements for success in america scenes of the party and his rendezvous with shirley suggest that it is the idle who profit from joe's toils the american dream schlesinger suggests is merely a proletarian fantasy for those who are content no longer dream but become indolent as joe heads to miami all that was significant of the cowboy image has left him his masculinity is compromised and his morality is relinquished for joe nothing is left of the cowboy hero and commensurately he surrenders the identity tossing his boots into the garbage he returns to the bus for the last leg of his journey to miami the final shot of midnight cowboy shows joe inside the bus more introspective taking only a few glances outside the window instead of the frequent pov shots of joe excitedly looking out of the bus on his way to new york schlesinger sets up this final shot from the exterior of the bus looking in through the window at joe reflections of the palm trees ratzo so raved about run across the bus' window with joe hardly taking notice the scenery of miami no longer exacts the same excitement from joe as before the world seems smaller to joe now the termination of his journey coincides with the termination of his american dream no longer does joe aspire to be the enterprising gigolo he resolves to return to a normal job and resign to basic means midnight cowboy presents two familiar incarnations of the american dream there is the frontier fantasy that if you are brave enough to repel a few indians you can set up a ranch out west and raise a beautiful family then there is the jay gatsby dream that a man of humble stock with perseverance can make a fortune in the big city joe's attempt to realize these dreams robs him of his innocence in texas and morality in new york during his search for an intangible paradise joe ends up raping a girl and killing a man an allegory of chasing the promise of the american dream joe buck's progressive moral atrophy is a warning against the pursuit of illusory icons
positive	metro i've seen san francisco in movies many times there was interview with the vampire and most recently the rock now yet again san francisco is the setting for this movie eddie murphy stars as inspector scott roper of the sfpd he is their top hostage negotiator and the very best at what he does when his best friend on the force is killed by joe michael wincott in a terrific performance a psychotic demented jewel thief roger makes it his mission to capture the guy before he strikes again meanwhile roper tries to rekindle a relationship with his british veronica while helping to rear a new up and comer from swat who's an expert sniper and marksman michael rappaport despite the obligatory cop movie scenes does every partner movie have to start the same way where the sgt assigns roper a partner roper confronts the sarge etc this film is still one heck of an explosive ride a scene involving a cable car has to be seen to be believed and boasts some amazing car stunts eddie murphy shines in this role and for once his character shows depth and concern when confronting joe in prison you can feel the anger drip from every word michael rappaport is basically throwaway he serves no purpose except to be buddy to murphy and get disabled in the final reel so that eddie can save the day typical action escapist fare michael wincott offers the best performance as the crazed killer and jewel thief joe never before have i seen such a villian written like this where i could actually believe that he was serious and take him seriously maybe i just thought that this role was different due to wincott's perfectly raspy voice i don't know what i do know though is that although metro is basically a typical action retread it manages to cover new ground and shed new light on tired old cliches' the film is a triumph and an entertaining one at that it doesn't meander or trail off from its main character an enjoyable two hours metro is enjoyable witty and fun and makes for a great action movie that's perfect for all of us that need an escape from reality
positive	susan granger's review of hearts in atlantis castle bros timing is everything and the timing just seems right for this poignant psychological drama that combines the nostalgia of stand by me with the mystical power of the green mile based on stephen king stories adapted by screenwriter william goldman and directed by scott hicks it's set in in harwich connecticut where fatherless bobby garfield anton yelchin lives in a boarding house with his resentful mother hope davis he's devoted to his neighborhood friends mika boorem will rothhaar but his pivotal relationship is with a strange new tenant ted brautigan anthony hopkins who opens the world of literature to him after his selfish mother refuses to buy him a birthday gift and hands him instead a library card knowing he's longing for a schwinn bike ted offers to pay him a week to read him the local newspaper and keep his eyes peeled for signs of the malevolent ominous low men who are chasing him to exploit his special powers the story structure consists of one long flashback framed by the present featuring the adult bobby david morse minimizing the supernatural elements while emphasizing the human drama hopkins' mysterious character is genteel sensitive and benignly seductive the only explanation is that he's a psychic who is wanted by the fbi to aid in their hunt for communists and even that seems appropriate given the inexplicable state of the world right now the production values and performances are solid particularly hopkins arguably the finest most versatile actor of our era and the children with whom he forges a firm bond on the granger movie gauge of to hearts in atlantis is a wistful enigmatic evolving with subtle power to an emotionally effective catharsis
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned floating life australia's submission to the academy of motion picture arts sciences for consideration in the best foreign language film category its dialogue is in cantonese english and german marks a special accomplishment by clara law a compelling at times poignant film it manages to maintain its truthfulness while teetering between comedy and melodrama floating life centers around a hong kong family's sense of dislocation and loss of identity after moving to australia in order to avoid the communist takeover of hong kong and is divided into clearly defined vignettes each chapter labelled with title cards pertaining to houses which serves to emphasize the film's theme of family the film opens with mr and mrs chan edwin pang cecilia fong sing lee and their two teen sons toby wong toby chan leaving the bustling claustrophobic metropolis of hong kong to join their second daughter bing annie yip in australia with their spacious new house and the vast abundance of neighbourhood greenery the chans initially find this serene new land a strange and wonderous one and with neurotic bing cooly remarking about the possible dangers of australian life killer dogs poisonous spiders dangerous ultraviolet rays a frightening one this sets up a wonderfully amusing scene early in the film where the four immigrants aimlessly ambling about their new suburban neighbourhood are sent scrambling by the yelps of a little white puppy the tone set up early in the film is broadly comic and one expects floating life to depict the clash of cultures as the chans struggle to acclimatize themselves to the new ways of australian life as they integrate themselves into australian society a scene where the two teen sons meet up with a sunbathing neighbourhood girl is left dangling but the film suddenly veers towards an introspective and melodramatic tone floating life shifts its focus away from the exploits of the new immigrants and towards bing's domineering of her family setting out a set of stringent and oppressive rules which create tremendous tension within the household and threaten to fracture the family meanwhile elder daughter yen annette shun wah happily settled in germany with her husband and young daughter begins to suffer an identity crisis manifesting itself with her claims to her patiently exasperated husband that their new home is cursed with bad feng shui and further exacerbated upon hearing of the familial conflict down under among the dramatic threads of floating life this is perhaps the most effective and engaging with an interesting set of characters and a storyline which generates a genuine emotional punch the one misguided vignette in floating life involves eldest son gar ming anthony wong left behind in hong kong to resolve various affairs on behalf of his family and to await his immigration papers before rejoining his parents and brothers in australia emotionally detatched and aimlessly drifting his is an uncompelling character and consequently subsequent attempts to draw out pathos are uninvolving and ineffective his desperate search for emotional fulfillment is depicted by philosopical droning on the exquisite peak of an orgasm which quickly becomes tedious ms law's film cheerfully embraces melodrama each of the major vignettes feature excessively emotional climaxes which i couldn't help but find reminiscent to wayne wang's acutely unsubtle the joy luck club but despite the director's rather clear attempts to tug at the heartstrings i couldn't help but be touched by a powerful and affecting soliloquy delivered masterfully by cecilia fong sing lee which truly packs an emotional wallop and in dramatic terms is certainly the highlight of floating life floating life at times spreads itself too thin given the myriad of characters involved it could either stand to delve into each vignette a little deeper or narrow its focus to a select group of key characters however it is a fine film with a thoughtful and insightful screenplay by clara law and husband eddie fong and some superb acting by a cast consisting almost exclusively of special note is to be made of cecilia fong sing lee annette shun wah and a short but dazzling performance by an actress who portrayed gar ming's girlfriend from vancouver floating life is ultimately about the ties that bond a family together which are able to withstand great distances and new environments
positive	plot a peculiar french girl grows up lonely with her father and doesn't quite know what she wants out of life one day she falls upon something and believes that her ticket to happiness may be in helping others she starts with the people around her but when she suddenly falls for her own guy she can't act strongly enough because of her shy and dreamy nature critique a clever quirky original french flick set in a picturesque paris featuring an endearing lead with a giant imagination much loneliness and a little bit of love for everyone this is a kind of movie a fairy tale for who are bummed out about life it doesn't pretend to be deep it doesn't weigh itself down with long expositions or intricate studies of its characters it's basically just a cute movie in the same vein as chocolat and pay it forward with some amazing visuals and incredibly nice intentions and if chocolat was somehow able to nab an oscar nomination for best picture last year a sham on so many different levels you might as well slap this film up for consideration also since it's quite a bit better and much more original than the former one thing that this film isn't though at least according to me is the best film of the year it was bestowed the honor of best in at least different film festivals so far this year it actually managed to stagnate a little bit about halfway through and it just went on for way too long it's a little over two hours but it felt even longer with much of the second half of the movie devoted to many different characters all of whom weren't as interesting as the lead and a lot of indecisiveness from ms amelie herself which got frustrating thankfully this film doesn't bog itself down with too much of that stuff and actually goes out of its way to invent new ways to shoot scenes to integrate moments of fantasy into its fabric and to transport the audience inside the imagination of this french girl on the whole it's a lot of fun and it carries a beautiful message of love and support for your fellow man the lead audrey tautou is perfect for the role and gives you enough moments of truth to develop her character into someone that you care about by the end of the film unfortunately the rest of the cast isn't as and even though most of them are pretty appealing a couple could've been left out to save time and at least one was left stranded by the film's end what happened to the guy in the caf who was spying on his the whole movie now i haven't seen too many recent french films i will admit but if this is the kind of scene that they're developing over in le pays du vin i wouldn't mind catching more of their flicks in the future crimson rivers was another french film that i saw earlier this year which i really ironically that film was directed by mathieu kassovitz who is the in this film granted the english subtitles got a little tough to keep up with at times i speak and understand french also but some of the local colloquialisms went over my head especially since the film's visuals were so intriguing that you just couldn't help but constantly gawk at them but the general idea the background music the nifty french neighborhoods the very creative way of enveloping the audience into the from the start were all very easy to appreciate and i for one was especially glad to have seen this movie during these trying times in the world in fact i'd recommend it to anyone looking for a jolly ol' time at the movie house with a particular emphasis on folks with a lot of imagination a little loneliness in their lives and many dreams in their hearts and this guy directed alien resurrection get outta here note i especially loved the way that the script detailed and showed the of everyone with exact mentions in the film it was very original very well shot and very nostalgic as many of us were able to relate to the behaviors described good stuff where's joblo coming from chocolat crimson rivers ghost world like water for chocolate o brother where art thou pay it forward rushmore woman on top
positive	eric rohmer's pauline at the beach is one of those small deliberately paced but charming foreign films in which not much happens plot wise but a lot happens to the characters emotionally the film takes place during a few weeks of august at the normandy coast and centers on six different characters primarily pauline amanda langlet a wise beyond her years who has come to stay for the summer with her older cousin marion arielle dombasle on the first day at the beach marion runs into an old high school flame fedoore atkine and although he wants to rekindle their relationship she is more interested in an older more seductive womanizer pascal greggory who is also secretly having an affair with a candy vendor rosette while pauline watches as an outsider at what is happening between all of the adults she forms a relationship of her own with a young teenage boy simon de la brosse pauline at the beach is not a film in which big dramatic things occur and there is not a tidy conclusion to the story instead it is a picture that simply observes its characters in every day life and the surprises come from little character details the film is quite talky and slow moving and so it is pretty safe to say it isn't for those who are only a fan of action movies but is a treat for those viewers who often like to venture outside of the genre and see a good art film this is the first film by acclaimed director eric rohmer my night at mauds and claire's knee that i have seen but his direction is assured and intelligent as is the screenplay which he also wrote pauline at the beach is a film worth seeing
positive	after a rather disappointing mary railly stephen frears is now officially back in business with a comeback worthy of praise this is one of the best surprises of this season a sweet small budget comedy with a big heart in fact it's not even a comedy it's a drama or even more precise a clever satire on human relationships and needs based on a critically acclaimed novel by british author nick hornby fidelity'' is a wry and likable story about a man's quest for fulfillment and happiness rob gordon was a dj it seems that he could make everything spin except his own life now he owns championship vinyl a little musical store somewhere in new york when he suddenly gets dumped by his girlfriend a gorgeous blond attorney life suddenly looses every purpose decimated humiliated and on the verge of a mental and emotional breakdown he starts meditating over his life and the way it could have been about what's right and what's important he starts categorizing life dividing it into top lists and the most important is the top list over the most painful breakups of his life starting with grade when he found his young girlfriend with another boy though you might think that people change grow more mature with age it just doesn't seem that way and all rob's relationships were different versions of that first where did he go wrong was it he that screwed up or maybe life just stinks while he is lost in his own he must think of the top list over his needs for the future find the right elements and mix his life together with clever parallels to the cult of celebrity music and with incredibly direct narration it addresses the average audience member in other words people like you and me although a lot of this honor should be addressed to the screenwriter and frears the director the acting is equally important as the written word and here john cusack should absolutely be mentioned he is simply superb it is as much his movie as it is frears' the film would not be the same without him cusack whose character is sadder wiser and brings intelligence and warmth to mod irony most of his dialogue is delivered directly to the camera not an easy task but cusack pulls it off his interpretation feels so emotionally right so incredibly realistic and precise that frears' message simply can't be ignored or overseen the other members of the cast do an equally remarkable job both and jack black are fabulous even catherine zeta jones appears in a role where she actually acts not just looks beautiful however the most unexpected pleasant surprises is provided by todd louiso who delivers a spectacular comic performance as rob's and friend dick this is such an impressive achievement that it's almost worth a he is simply a joy to behold otherwise everyone are in their place and at the right time all part of frears' colorful blend pretty much like edward norton's keeping the faith this film doesn't follow any formula or belong to any genre it's dramatic tragic sarcastic comic and even cynical but never bitter or angry it's a little bit of everything pretty much like life itself nothing seems unreal or staged it reflects reality as a mirror as you watch it you go through the same emotional problems as the main character you feel and think and reflect this effect has become a rarity nowadays although it's primarily about the perils of love fidelity'' is secondarily about pop music rob owns championship vinyl and his employees timid dick todd louiso and overbearing barry jack black are fellow music snobs music is the language in their lives the measure by which they define themselves and mark the significant events of their lives and so does the movie it is as much a musical film as anything else as rob's journey is wonderfully portrayed through carefully inserted musical fragments in the end you have gained something while watching it it's not the film of the century or even of the year it's not an special effects extravaganza it doesn't require big explosions or digital creatures to succeed it's a small movie about the big things and even though it does not contain heavy philosophy you feel as if you have experienced something of significance and you will experience that nice warm feeling for quite some time
positive	plot a group of asbestos cleaners get a job removing the gunk from an old insane asylum as each day passes the crew members begin to discover things about the place and themselves which set other things in motion saying anything else about the plot would be a crime have fun critique i feel like shooting myself in the head are the first words that came out of my mouth after seeing this movie a good indication as to what kind of film to expect here this ain't your average happy go lucky kind of picture this is a deliberately film drenched in atmosphere with a very creepy insane asylum in which most of the film takes place very few clues and lots to talk about afterwards will it bore some people to sleep you bet it will is it made for the scream audiences of the day absolutely not i guess you can describe this film as a horror movie for the cerebral crowd a film that patiently unwraps itself frame after frame giving away very little with each step and each sound unwinding itself until its final scenes offer up a world of revelations and plenty more to discuss later i've always loved movies that have me talking about them afterwards like the shining and lost highway and this film fits right into that group in fact i guess i can pussyfoot around the actual word all i want but the best way to describe this kind of movie is a mindfuck if you feel like watching a movie that moves very slowly gives you a handful of characters with divergent backgrounds tosses a few very ambiguous and supernatural cookies your way and is extremely disturbing once you put it all together well then this movie is definitely for you it's the kind of film that you actually have to see twice to fully appreciate damn i missed that whole peanut butter thing and one that will likely creep the shit out of you if watched alone in the dark brrrrrrrrr now what was that sound in the basement honey can you go check and one thing this film doesn't have unlike its counterparts like the haunting is special effects in fact that's one of the greater things about this movie it feels real because it looks like it's actually taped on video with very credible actors in very credible circumstances i did some research and it was in fact shot on digital video another great thing about it is that it's actually very gory and somewhat violent in theme and yet we rarely see anything of the sort on the big screen it's mostly implied kids and as clich d as it might be to say it's usually much scarier when stuff is left to our imagination or implied in movies as such other films that this one reminded me of include henry portrait of a serial killer and the blair witch project with that same real sense of dread brooding and terror the film does however move awfully slow and if you really don't get into it completely you really need to concentrate here you will lose the motion of the story and the tension might be released but overall this film is yet another great example of the horror genre making a very cool comeback this year with no tight tanktops in sight and with david caruso acting like the king hotshot like only he can how can you go wrong definitely not a film for everyone but a for anyone looking to throw themselves into the psyche of the disturbed count me in stanley kubrick would be proud oh yeah so where's that gun again where's joblo coming from the blair witch project blair witch the haunting the house on haunted hill lost highway the pledge the shining the sixth sense unbreakable
positive	hedwig and the angry inch john cameron mitchell miriam shor stephen trask michael pitt theodore liscinski michael aronov andrea martin maurice dean wint ben animation by emily hubley adapted from the stage play by john cameron mitchell and stephen trask music and lyrics by stephn trask written and directed by john cameron mitchell minutes rated r stars had hedwig and the angry inch came out in the right after david bowie's ziggy stardust it likely would now be regarded as one of the most popular rock musicals of all time released in the channel sensory overload world of however the big screen adaptation of the acclaimed musical must do battle with countless other productions clamoring for attention i almost missed it every august the major studios try to squeeze the last few dollars out of summer moviegoers by dumping all of their shakier offerings on the marketplace at once i was so busy trying to keep up with national releases like summer catch and bubble boy that i passed over any independent film that looked like it would only have a short local run but an from a reader asking why i hadn't reviewed the movie prompted me to make a late evening trip to the theater thank goodness for readers like him hedwig and the angry inch is a spectacular packed with great songs stylistically the tunes are reminiscent of bowie bat out of hell era meatloaf and the rocky horror show without ever seeming like imitations as with tommy hedwig tells a story of isolation pain and defiance but without the bloated feel of that beloved but overrated rock opera john cameron mitchell and stephen trask have cooked up a real winner mitchell stars as hedwig a singer from east berlin touring a chain of u s coffee shops with her band the angry inch while the patrons of the restaurants look on in shock and sometimes horror hedwig boldly tells the sad story of her life in song she was once a boy named hansel ben living with his mother alberta watson and listening to rock and roll on american armed forces radio life is an exercise in duality for hansel a wall splits his hometown into two parts mother describes love as the emotion that comes when you find your other half as hansel grows up the duality becomes more pronounced after initially mistaking him for a girl a gi from the states maurice dean wint falls in love with hansel and wants to marry him alas hansel will never pass the mandatory physical mother helpfully suggests a sex change but the operation goes bad hence the references to the angry inch yes i know this part is but stick with me it's worth it several years later mr right is long gone and hansel becomes hedwig decked out in a farrah wig and fronting a band made up of korean women hedwig finds a new love in tommy michael pitt a beatific lad with a unique take on christianity but tommy does hedwig wrong stealing her songs and becoming a superstar cut to the present tommy gnosis' stadium tour is thriving and hedwig is suing him despite warnings from her manager andrea martin that she could easily be labeled a stalker hegwig and her new band the angry inch continue their coffee shop tour shadowing the thief by playing whatever city he is in if this sounds like a bizarre premise for a rock musical take a few seconds and consider the plotlines of tommy and rocky horror as hedwig john cameron mitchell does a magnificent job taking a character that could have simply been a caricature or an icon and turning her into a compelling human being mitchell has style and vocal chords to match even though the backstory is unusually strong mitchell never forgets that the production is first and foremost a rock musical everything is propelled by one terrific song after another and trust me these are rock songs not the fluff that passes for rock in most musicals while mitchell remains in the center of the stage throughout the film there is much of interest on the sidelines miriam shor does fine work as yitzhak hedwig's lover and bandmate conveying a great deal through expressions alone decked out in a bandanna and a surprisingly convincing beard she makes a mighty attractive man as always sctv veteran andrea martin is a welcome presence onscreen and michael pitt is beguiling as tommy the little rat artist emily hubley adds to the magic with a string of dandy animated sequences that charm the eye while underlining the central themes of the musical hedwig and the angry inch surrounds a weird funny and touching story with a knockout series of songs performed by an exceptional cast true originals do not come along very often don't let this slip out of town without seeing it
positive	with many science fiction films great ideas are often wasted by bad scripts cheesy plot twists and terrible acting the fifth element the abyss and godzilla had great concepts squandered by bad acting writing or both at first glance the matrix larry andy wachowski's spectacular looks like a prime candidate to join the list of bad movies especially with dopey keanu reeves in the leading role but despite high levels of cheese and gaudy dialogue the matrix works it's an uncanny blend of action and surreal fantasy that borrows from dozens of other films most obviously the terminator films star wars and total recall but remains refreshingly original and interesting throughout reeves plays neo a computer hacker who stumbles into an initially bewildering set of encounters with trinity moss a rival hacker who has supernatural powers and stunning good looks a unseen omniscient cult figure known as morpheus lawrence fishburne and a trio of creepy men in dark suits who act like irs agents from hell neo quickly learns that the world he has known all his life is not what it seems moreover he discovers that the grim bleak world he is introduced to has been waiting for him to save it neo is reluctant to assume the role of messiah with grave doubts that he is actually the one prophesized to come and save the world reluctant or not what follows is a mix of hong shootouts surreal dream sequences high speed chases and comic book fights the film also raises interesting philosophical questions about reality how exactly do you know what is real and what is in your mind and if the real world were much harsher and grim than a fantasy one you were living in would you want to face the true world or continue to live in a more comfortable illusion unfortunately the matrix doesn't provide many answers to the questions it raises but at least it puts some ideas behind all the explosions and flying roundhouse kicks perhaps stealing the entire show in the matrix is australian actor hugo weaving who plays agent smith the leader of the creepy agents in sunglasses and suits who seem capable of being anywhere and doing anything to stop neo and friends from destabilizing the matrix weaving's stony appearance deadpan voice and chilling comments put a grim human face on the haunting evil technological force that controls the matrix like robert patrick as the shapeshifting terminator in terminator judgement day weaving is more frightening than any monstrous alien or homicidal robot because despite his power and seeming invincibility he looks ordinary even scrawny weaving embodies his role with a memorably chilling presence the film features some truly breathtaking special effects and stylish cinematography it seems to be deliberately kitchy with stylized fight sequences directed by hong kong stunt specialist wo ping that reportedly required months of martial arts training by the actors in a few scenes the posing and posturing is unintentionally funny just seeing keanu reeves engaging in serious kung fu is a bit jarring however with the style and tone of the film you can sustain willing disbelief long enough to enjoy the ride without losing patience the matrix isn't a classic its and confusing conclusion raises more questions than it answers it fails to resolve many of its own plot twists and philosophical questions it also relies on some conventional sentimentality to save the hero the kind of shmaltzy goo that most of the film avoids reportedly the producers have high hopes for the film being the first in a trilogy and have already begun work on the story for the sequel unfortunately audiences deserve a little more than a vague sense that the story will continue in the future the matrix is an fun enjoyable diversion like a big puff of cotton candy at a carnival just don't be surprised half an hour later when you still feel a little hungry
positive	the deep end uses a color palette of rich earth tones surrounded by a vast array of blues alluring attractive blues but also icy and foreboding after taking in their beauty the eye seeks out the reassuring browns and greens like a tired swimmer searching for the safety of land the production works that way as well it pulls you in initially as a crisp thriller with clipped exchanges between defiantly characters but the real draw of the film is the submerged humanity of two key players as the deep end gradually reveals the melodramatic core beneath its ironic candy coating spoiler alert the following reveals the basic storyline i believe the plot points are incidental because the real rewards come in exploring the mindset of the main characters but still you should proceed at your own risk with her husband tom a naval officer often away at sea margaret hall tilda swinton holds down the fort taking care of the children beau jonathan tucker paige tamara hope and dylan jordon dorrance while her jack peter donat hovers in the background always watching the story opens with margaret leaving the family home in lake tahoe to storm a male strip club in reno it seems that beau her eldest is having an affair with darby reese josh lucas a disreputable sort years his senior margaret demands that darby leave her son alone only to have the man smirk at her and announce he'll be glad to steer clear of beau for back at home she tries to talk about it all with her son but the kid won't even confirm that he's gay let alone discuss the issues she has with his boyfriend he does however get attentive when she reveals darby's offer even as he maintains his sullen demeanor late in the evening darby shows up outside tossing pebbles at beau's window like a schoolchild the two meet by the water at the boathouse where something important happens i won't reveal what suffice to say we become aware of a significant fact that margaret does not all of this happens in the first few minutes of the movie by the way within a day or so margaret's life becomes even more complicated when a suave man named alec goran visnjic turns up with an explicit videotape documenting the sex life of beau and darby he and his associate are willing to destroy the tape once margaret coughs up oh what's a mother to do end spoilers written directed and produced by scott mcgehee and david siegel suture the deep end is based on elisabeth sanxay holding's novel the blank wall which was also the source of the film the reckless moment i've neither read the book nor seen the movie but i understand that the filmmakers changed some details in holding's story the scandalous relationship is between an older man and margaret's daughter switching the gender makes the tale seem more contemporary and it also raises questions about margaret's motives many reviews of the deep end describe margaret as a mother ferociously protecting her son but i wonder consider this margaret lives in a meticulously kept upscale home her husband is absent most of the time and seems to be regarded as a figure her is constantly present almost as if he is monitoring for his son and when her husband does call margaret is careful not to tell him about anything disturbing that is going on with the family so is margaret a mother who accepts her son's sexual orientation and is simply trying to shield the young man from a lover she fears will take advantage of him or is she caretaker of a museum of upper middle class complacency desperate to maintain the status quo so that everything will be postcard perfect when the old man returns from the sea you sort it out regardless the resonance of the deep end comes from two actors goran visnjic best known from the tv drama er is striking as a blackmailer unlike any you've seen before he engages margaret in a mesmerizing dance of protocol chivalry and simmering eroticism but the star of this show without a doubt is the remarkable tilda swinton watch the shadings depth resource vitality and understated sexuality she gives margaret and try to imagine the film without her days after my second viewing of the deep end i can still vividly picture her negotiating with villains trying to connect with her son and diving into icy blue water the deep end is an exceptional film and tilda swinton is the best part of it
positive	warning may contain some mild spoilers and offensive material rated r for sexual content crude and sexual humor and some nudity a mild r rating starring rob schneider oded fehr eddie griffin arija bareikis amy poehler norm mcdonald running time minutes deuce bigalow male gigolo is simply a hilarious comedy that may offend some but underneath all it's crude humor and sexual content is a sweet little love story that is surprisingly involving it isn't any kind of cinematic classic but it's a very very funny comedy that keeps us entertained until the end credits which themselves are funny too it has all it needs to be a breezy entertaining comedy the acting is up to pace and some of the performances quite funny the screenplay is witty and smart and the whole story is sweet and cute deuce bigalow rob schneider is your typically average guy he cleans fish tanks for a living and gets an average of bucks for it though one might call him a loser deuce gets a job he would never thought he would get he gets to clean the tank for a male gigolo oded fehr and gets offered to watch over his place while he goes on a trip trying to be like him he hangs upside down from a pole and accidentally pushes off the fishtank and burns his cabinets the thing is now he has to try and find dollars in three weeks to make sure everything looks right again so he decides to go and to his luck gets the oddest people on earth an woman who decidedly wants to eat everything in site a woman with narcolepsy who sleeps all the time a woman who has sudden screaming outbursts and a woman he can't stop thinking about he charges but he is willing to negotiate from now on he is considered deuce bigalow male gigolo with laughs an a abundence of crude humor deuce bigalow male gigolo is sometimes like last years hit there's something about mary that is offensive but very funny the screenplay by harris goldberg and rob schneider himself is a smart clever and witty screenplay that seems to have been written with care to make is so hilariously funny the characters in the film are all actually likable especially jabba lady with her big body but soft heart there are actually times in the movie where i fell out of my chair laughing so hard that my stomach was killing me even though i thought toy story and being john malkovich were the funniest of the year deuce bigalow follows right behind them the directing by mike mitchell is fantastic and shows he took time on the film rob schneider gives a surprisingly endearing performance and when his romance develops with one of his customers kate arija bareikis it is a sweet romance that we get involved in and actually like being involved in it deuce bigalow is a film worth all the merit it can get its not a classic or a masterpiece it's just a comedy that we don't feel bad about watching sure it may come off as offensive and may come off as dumb sometimes but you cannot deny that it isn't funny deuce bigalow male gigolo is no disappointment its a fast paced entertaining sweet and hilarious comedy that may be destined to become a cult classic fans of schneider will not be disappointed and fans of crude but nice comedies will not either for some reason the film garnered an r rating but with no f words or extensive use of sexual content or explicit nudity i was really wondering why the film was r a mild r to put it to the least but even if your under or above at least this film is good enough for you to see don't try to be one of those people who make so much of a film that they do not like it just sit back laugh and enjoy the movie
positive	underrated movies are a common reoccurrence in show business today floats' was extremely underrated and was one of the best movies of the year we always get films that make big money at the but critics and audiences pan on them this year jeopardy' is one of those films critics are calling it predictable and worthless audiences are disappointed with it and think it was a disappointment but as i viewed jeopardy' i found that it was a great movie it has a surprising sense of humor and a big dose of heart along with suspense and twists and turns here and there it certainly is a really good movie the always wonderful ashley judd plays libby parsons a woman with a seemingly normal life a great loving husband a beautiful son and a great friend her husband nick parsons has made a surprise for her and is going to buy her the sailboat she has always wanted after a night of bliss libby wakes up in the middle of the night to find blood all over her and all over the sailboat her husband is missing and there is a bloody knife on deck of course being in shock she picks it up and a coast guard comes over and sees her however she isn't immediately ceased until they find out his life insurance was worth dollars and they start to wonder rather she killed him for the money she pleads but is found guilty and sent to prison for six years while making a phone call to her best friend who adopted her son for her and she hears him say hi to his dad which makes libby's heart stop right there she realizes she must get out and prove that he isn't dead one of her tells her that as long as she has been convicted of a crime she cannot be convicted of it again which means she can shoot him in the middle of mardi gras and they cannot do anything about it after she gets out she goes to a halfway house run by parole officer tommy lee jones he is a man who has had his share of bad things while out for the day she breaks into a school and tries to track down her kid and husband leading up to some twists that are both predictable and not whatever happens the film was excellent to me i found the writing as well as the acting was great ashley judd is such a talented and beautiful actress that she is a hero in a sort in this movie even if you know what is going to happen in the end you don't know how this is one of those movies that you really do know what is going to happen except you don't know how they are going to make it happen it could be one way or another it could be this way or that way the movie is highly stylized and extremely it gets most of it's power from the two leads ashley judd and tommy lee jones both give excellent performances the characters are and believable and we feel libby's pain when she cannot see her child for years even though a lot of critics didn't like the film i loved it the director took his time making the movie and put a lot of shadowing in the movie i found it not to be boring at all and it's only flaw comes from some predictability it moved at a fast pace has suspense humor heart and great acting it earns it's right to be a great movie and to me that's what it was
positive	as fairy tales go cinderella has to be one of the most famous almost everyone knows it well at least in north america so it is natural that someone will try to make a movie out of it it has been done before with varying results this version of the story is both similar to the original and different at the same time the basic story remains unchanged but one thing that seems to vanish with this version and that is all the fantastical elements of the story there is no fairy god mother or anything even remotely of that nature after the fantastical elements are stripped away what is left is a realistic believable rendition of the cinderella story and an interesting love story at the least  unlike in the fairy tale the prince plays a much larger part than just that of the masked ball at the end the prince' who happens to be the crown prince to the throne of france meets known as danielle on a few occasions most coincidentally and he becomes smitten with her although this seems to be a far cry from the traditional story it allows for the main plot to proceed with enough room for some imaginative story telling the story takes place in a renaissance setting in france with leonardo da vinci providing some comic relief on more than one occasion this addition of leonardo da vinci was quite successful in that it added some color to the movie since some of the roles are a bit stereotypical for example the role that was scripted for the prince leaves a few things to be desired for instance the character seems to be a bit too unstable and fickle a crown prince should not be anything remotely like that especially since he is portrayed to be in his mid twenties at the least and almost ready to take the throne the characters of danielle cinderella played by drew barrymore and that of the evil step mother played by anjelica huston are well developed and well played by the two women although the part of danielle is a bit stretched it is not too unlikely and not totally unbelievable the nuances of the character are brought out well by drew barrymore and from watching the movie it seems like she had fun making the movie as a contrast the part of the evil step mother is clearly seen from the very beginning and is almost clique but anjelica huston seems to add a certain flair to the role that makes it suit the movie nearly perfectly the actual story is fairly predictable since it is after all the basic story of cinderella but there are more than enough twists in how the story is told to make it interesting and enjoyable the acting is of high caliber and seems deserved of praise all in all this movie takes you back into history into a seemingly magical fairy land but don't get me wrong there is nothing but reality it is just refreshing to watch a movie that is not based in a familiar setting with everyday familiar things happening so although the story is basically familiar the world it is set in is not and that adds a dimension to the film which in this humble reviewers opinion makes it worth seeing
positive	it stands as a moment one will not soon forget a giant green ogre flips through the pages of a cliche fairy tale narrating it with every bit of dull inspiration that the story holds this leads one to believe that this serves as the prologue to shrek dreamworks' second computer animated feature but in a pricelessly hilarious bit of cinema a page of this tale serves as that ogre's toilet paper from this opening moment one can infer shrek's defying of all expectations regarding it as a standard fairy tale although rampant moments of hilarity dot shrek the true charm of the film lies in the bold elements of friendship courage and acceptance excelled by outstanding direction stunning actor voice work and most importantly a witty screenplay with more going on than meets the eye while shrek features an abundance of humor related directly toward adults positive friendship values aimed at younger children fulfill the storyline shrek the previously mentioned ogre holds a position of absolute nothingness within his community the jolly green giant meets a fellow outsider known only as the donkey his species who talks and although he remains reluctant to warm up to him for a good portion of time shrek eventually comes to a mutual understanding with him by acknowledging their common state as outcasts of the world the pair team up to retrieve princess fiona from a castle guarded by a dragon for the powerful lord farquaad learning quite a bit about each other and themselves along the way their friendship exhibits the core theme of the need for someone to lean on exemplifying to any child who may witness the film that acting as an honest companion can unquestionably affect someone shrek and donkey endure as supposed freaks of nature due only to their differences from others but cling to each other for support and guidance along their journey courage demonstrates itself within two major storylines along the journey to rescue fiona donkey's immeasurable cowardice reveals itself whether he encounters walking over a shaky bridge or living alone donkey withholds fears that he continuously puts aside without but the yapping donkey must face his phobias when presented with the giant dragon guarding fiona either he dies from terror or he triumphs with courage he wisely chooses courage by pretending as if no dangerous situation actually faces him allowing the donkey to overcome a horror that likely only continued due to his insistence of them secondly upon shrek's and donkey's redeeming of princess fiona the ogre finds the princess has plans for whomever saves her to satisfy her desire for a human knight in shining armor throughout this storyline shrek faces his deep perpetual misgivings of inhering as an ogre and struggles to determine how he will reveal his true identity to fiona an ongoing struggle occurs between himself and his reluctance of the truth but eventually shrek courageously conquers his fear by telling the forbidden secret to fiona children can realize from donkey and shrek that fear remains only as complicated as one makes it if one sets mind to overcoming something in particular endless possibilities exist after the friendships and courage prevail the three central characters at the heart of shrek must take one more stretch of development acceptance surprisingly fiona holds a dark secret of her own due to a spell cast upon her years ago she transforms into an ogre by night in this storyline fiona must learn to hold acceptance for herself and she must realize what beauty truly means to simply act as one's self upon fiona's learning of shrek's desire to pursue a relationship with her fiona knowing that acceptance of herself serves as the only platform for her love with shrek to work gives in to her inner demons of and hatred any child can pull from fiona's transformation the meaning of beauty and the meaning of on the technical side shrek triumphs directors adam adamson and vicky jenson pace shrek in a consistent and satisfying manner evenly distributing the lessons learned by the central characters these central characters spring to life thanks to brilliant voice work from mike myers shrek eddie murphy donkey and cameron diaz princess fiona myers creates his shrek as a lovable and troubled ogre whose green color not only serves as a skin color but perhaps his envy of other normal beings murphy succeeds with his donkey through recreating the persona that so many know the actor to have off screen cameron diaz exudes charisma and innocence as fiona giving the a sense of power that many female characters in animated films lack while the direction and voice work certainly elevate shrek the ultimate factor in the film succeeding lies in the screenplay written by ted elliott terry rossio joe stillman and roger s h schulman the script never underestimates the intelligence of the viewer combining the three previously spoken of elements with humor for adults and children alike capping it off with a constant feel that pokes fun at classic disney animated features the fresh and entertaining screenplay delivers with shrek dreamworks executive jeffrey katzenberg has certainly himself by creating an instant animated classic that will live on for ages to come the smaller children will laugh and cheer the adults will laugh even harder and leave understanding much that their children did not a film that breaks stereotypes and creates a definite standard of its own shrek can certainly endure as one for the ages
positive	for a movie about excess comes up surprisingly short on the sleazy happenings at the titular late and early manhattan dance club think of it as a sort of boogie nights where that and portrayal of the porn industry was loaded with salacious and skidded on a destructive midpoint tone shift leaves the kinkier details to your imagination it never needlessly revels in its seedy subject matter but it thankfully never resorts to preaching either in fact were it not for the rampant drug use and the intermittent dark moment would be about as feathery as the time period's popular female hairstyle studio was a haven for the rich famous and generally before it closed its doors forever in inside anything went and we are told everything did the film's fictional main character is shane o'shea ryan phillippe the jerky jock from i know what you did last summer a who dreams of venturing beyond the club's velvet rope and coming with the wild decadence he can only read about in magazines his wish comes true when studio owner steve rubell mike myers spots him amongst a crowd of gawkers one night in and permits him passage but not before he doffs his hideous shirt of course once inside shane becomes seduced by the club's dizzying vortex of sex and drugs he has such a good time that he doesn't want to leave so he seeks employment as a busboy he quickly becomes friends with greg breckin meyer and anita salma hayek a married couple who work along side of him greg's a fellow busboy with aspirations to make the big money as a studio bartender while anita checks coats but desires a recording contract to call her own after rubbing elbows among other things with a renowned socialite sela ward and gaining the personal interest of rubell shane begins to ascend to the upper echelons of but fame doesn't come without a price major shortcomings lie within its handling of the supporting players at a slim the film is too short to take on such a focus and more than a few balls are dropped in the resulting juggling act alleged edits and reshoots are more than likely to blame for the occasionally rushed development and ambiguous interaction since sometimes feels like it's missing a scene here or there nowhere is this more apparent than in shane's relationship with soap opera actress julie black neve campbell a frequent studio patron whom he's long admired from afar the romance is prodded along before it has a chance to transform into something special that works despite these limitations then is largely due to the competence and energy with which it's assembled sure it's shallow slick sanitized portrait of a bygone age and sure we've seen the story gazillions of times but debut director and screenwriter mark christopher keeps things moving with lively snapshots of the studio hustle and bustle and an even livelier cast to inhabit his bouncy vision the film boasts some fine comic creativity the pinnacle of which is disco dottie the wedding singer ellen dow an elderly dancing queen who plays the loving grandmother in public but slides up to shane behind closed doors and asks for a funky little treat the solid sexy cast smooths out if only while you're caught up in the film any rough spots belonging to their or the plot newcomer phillippe has the charisma and joisey accent down pat he and campbell as fetching as ever look so good together it's a shame their subplot goes nowhere meyer exhibits the congenial appeal that made him a delight to watch in clueless he was the stoner with the while hayek simply sizzles especially when leading a dance class with the mantra one two three attitude sherry stringfield unidentifiable under big hair takes on her first gig since she left er as rubell's accountant but she's criminally underused as the steve rubell myers is worth the price of admission alone when he's not playing the life of the party the saturday night live comedian strips away all of rubell's confidence and swagger to show a man desperately trying to fill his empty unhappy life with exorbitance it's a moment worthy of pity when while lounging on a bed of money and vomiting from a particularly heavy evening he attempts to seduce one of his employees and while his performance is largely serious myers mixes the empathy with a delicate austin powers wink thus keeping consistent with overall feel gaudy and satisfyingly ornamental not unlike a giant disco ball
positive	in an insider's look at a run for the democratic presidential nomination closely based on clinton's campaign was written anonymously former newsweek writer joe klein later claimed true authorship now the book primary colors has been made into a movie directed by mike nichols and in light of recent presidential scandals seems to be more relevant than ever but the film is more than a diatribe against or a paean in praise of the president it is a fascinating look at the political machinery and the ethical quagmire that surround modern politics jack stanton john travolta is the governor of a small southern state running for the democratic presidential nomination he is charismatic but has several flaws which threaten to doom his campaign and strains his relationship with his wife susan emma thompson the film is told from the point of view of henry burton adrian lester grandson of a civil rights leader who is swept away by stanton's ideals and helps to organize the campaign he joins political strategist richard jemmons billy bob thornton looking an awful lot like james carville and campaign advisor daisy green maura tierney governor stanton's past repeatedly pops up to haunt him a fact that his chief rival lawrence harris kevin cooney consistently uses to his advantage to help clean up the stanton campaign jack and susan bring in an old friend libby the dustbuster holden kathy bates the acting throughout primary colors is superb it would be worth seeing the movie for bates' wild performance alone she enlivens the atmosphere with energy in a truly boisterous performance travolta does a fair clinton impersonation as governor stanton although his accent does stray a little emma thompson delivers a strong performance as his suffering wife who can't let anything show that might hurt the presidential run the problem with political movies is that they tend to alienate over half of their audience by promoting one side or the other or else the movie is vague to the point of boredom primary colors treads lightly on this issue though stanton is clearly portrayed as a democrat and there are a few minor barbs thrown in the way of republicans the movie touches on few actual political issues in fact most of the bad guys are fellow democrats on the same road to the white house rather than issues the film is primarily concerned about scandals and spin control although the film strays into some obviously territory it is difficult to completely separate it from reality particularly when certain scenes seem to highlight the president's current troubles primary colors' chief problem is its length it runs about minutes too long there are some scenes which could have easily been cut for example midway through the film the candidate gives a speech to an assembly of laid off machinists the scene's only apparent purpose is to establish stanton's character which has already been done in similar scenes earlier in the film the extra length isn't long enough nor tiring enough to be annoying but it mars an otherwise excellent film republicans democrats and political agnostics should all be able to find something to like in primary colors it's a funny and at some times shocking look at the modern political process
positive	this movie was one of the first american films done by director paul verhoeven he has done films since then such as basic instict and starship troopers all of his movies have one main thing in they don't skimp on the violence in a verhoeven movie a guy doesn't get shot once in the he gets shot many times all over the body robocop takes place in detroit in the future things are pretty bleak the company ocp rules the city with an iron fist and is moving in on running the police force peter weller plays a cop who goes on a mission with his partner nancy allen peter weller goes in an empty room alone and gets killed meanwhile ocp has a failed demonstration of a model robot crime fighter someone comes up with the idea of having a cyborg robocop so they use any parts worth scalvaging from peter weller and make him into the robocop the movie is titled after the plot of this movie generally runs at a decent pace it drags a bit towards the end with robocop wanting to finish everybody off but plot twists keep it exciting the acting is bad from weller when he is human but very good when he is robocop nancy allen does a decent job this movie doesn't leave itself open for a sequel exactly but they made one anyway enter robocop starring peter weller and nancy allen directed by irvin kershner detroit is in a more bleak state than it was in the first film ocp is trying to develop an improved that will be more than a match for criminals most of the police force is on strike due to ocp taking it over leaving robocop to be the police force in the city this film is pretty bizaare it has a who curses as much as eddie murphy even more violence than the original and some more humor the plot of this movie is pretty large almost too much so there are three or four plot lines weaving around that don't really match up the effects are still decent though this sequel isn't more of the same really just a darker version robocop dealing more with drugs than with armed criminals if you liked the first one watch this but be dissapointed so later comes robocop starring nancy allen and robert john burke ocp is now owned by a large japanese company robocop joins a band of rebels to the evil empire i mean ocp the japanese send a to deal with robocop among other things this movie is easier to follow than the last one which means the plot isn't quite as crowded this movie isn't anything special though just more of robocop blasting things up in a more way really not reccomended
positive	eyes wide shut isn't the masterpiece many were hoping to see in stanley kubrick's final film but it is an impressive achievement a mesmerizing haunting adult psychodrama about marriage fidelity and sex it's a stanley kubrick film from beginning to end consistently exhibiting the auteur's trademark penchant for long continuous takes his unparalleled deftness behind the camera and his uncanny ability to extract gorgeous performances from his exhausted cast indeed eyes wide shut attained infamy even before its release for its notoriously laborious shoot kubrick a renowned perfectionist reportedly held his cast hostage on the set for nearly a year in an uncharacteristic maneuver kubrick cast two stars in the lead roles namely husband and wife tom cruise and nicole kidman they play bill and alice harford a volatile couple who during the course of a couple nights ponder the validity of the idea that a husband and a wife must be faithful to each other he is an m d she's unemployed and we are introduced to them as they are getting ready to go to a fancy party at the affair they are both propositioned and both nearly succumb to the temptation to play around with someone else when they return to their lavish new york apartment kidman after smoking a dash of weed inquires whether her husband had sex with two models who approached him during the night he truthfully says that he did not and asks what happened with that hungarian guy she was dancing with they proceed to argue until alice tells her spouse a lustful story evidently some time ago she had a thing for a young naval officer she admits that she was ready to give up her whole future with bill and their young daughter if this guy wanted her even for one night bill is jolted by alice's story and we anticipate his reaction but at that moment he gets a phone call and has to go show his face at the house of a patient this turns out to be the beginning of a long and eventful night on the town the daughter of the dead patient hits on him but he wisely turns her down he almost does the dirty deed with a kindly hooker who approaches him on the street then through a series of coincidences he winds up at a gothic mansion where a ritualistic and frankly creepy orgy takes place with costumed people performing various public sex acts on each other erotic dread mounts as cruise who's not supposed to be there wonders the spacious halls watching the action until he is discovered to be an outsider much hoopla has been raised over the fact that warner bros digitally edited the orgy scene with the help of a computer they put in cloaked figures to block some of the actual sex acts they can still be seen just not in all their glory in order to avoid the dreaded rating european viewers will see the film as kubrick envisioned it roger ebert calls the american version the austin powers version and many others have bashed the alterations i am of the potentially controversial opinion that the figures only supplement the scene's mystical atmosphere the first thing one notices about eyes wide shut is how it looks this is an artful distinctively gorgeous production shot in dark moody hues and featuring some elaborate beautiful scenery from the giant mansion used in the film's centerpiece to the decor at the christmas party to the harford's apartment this film is always a pleasure to look at to boot a great soundtrack makes it more atmospheric still at the core behind the graphic controversial content and unappealing mood this is a movie that emphasizes the importance of fidelity it looks at sex as almost perfunctory by portraying it as unnerving rather than erotic it's something superficial and yet something necessary to achieve a deeper relationship at the end it seems bill's eyes are wide open to the special kind of love he and his wife have for each other more meaningful than anything he could ever hope to find on the streets of new york kubrick elicits wonderful performances from both cruise and kidman tom is completely convincing as dr harford a man who seems guided solely by destiny with no control of the course his life will take nicole projects a quiet intensity as the jittery yet aggressive wife and her performance is stunningly effective she's headed for an oscar nod the movie has some help from a similarly strong supporting cast at the head of which is sidney pollock enigmatic and articulate as harford's mysterious friend eyes wide shut is not perfect the last hour could have used a slightly more editor and both cruise and kidman are too looking for me to believe that either would have a very strong temptation to philander still this is an important work from a great director and while it may not be on par with some of stanley kubrick's best it is a worthy final film a complex exploration of jealousy and faithfulness eugene
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned milos forman's first film since the valmont columbia's the people vs larry flynt is a vastly entertaining if not particularly enlightening biopic of hustler publisher and millionaire larry flynt who became an unlikely champion of freedom of speech rights in the united states in the late and early the film unweaves its tale in a chronological order we open with young and larry flynt and his brother jimmy peddling jars of water in true entrepreneurial spirit out in the rural outback of kentucky cut to forward in time where the two flynt brothers now young men are running the struggling hustler clubs in cincinnati the strip clubs are in a dire financial state and in a effort to salvage the operations flynt decides to go to a print shop and churn out a promotional newsletter this evolved into the adult periodical magazine creating larry flynt a vast financial empire and the rest is history what sets flynt apart from other publishers is his struggles against those who would have him cease publication of his adult material and who railed and preached against him flynt spent time in incarceration and was paralyzed by an assassination attempt and his driven insistence to buck the system and fight for his freedom of expression regardless of personal cost the people vs larry flynt also weaves in the bittersweet story of flynt's true love althea leasure whom he meets as a dancer in his club and later marries and who devotedly stands alongside him throughout his trials and tribulations considering the serious nature of the film's theme the importance of the united states' first amendment the people vs larry flynt is surprisingly and wonderfully and humourous much of the comedy is elicited from larry flynt's outlandish stunts at his courtroom appearances some of his chosen apparel is hilarious and for the most part these elements of the film work far better than some of the more dramatic points such as an uninspiring flynt monologue set at a free speech rally in front of an enormous american flag dealing with the subjectivity of obscenity the film's focus is on the flynt's many battles over first amendment rights and freedom of speech but the heart of the people vs larry flynt is the touching love story between flynt and althea larry flynt is shown as being occassionally gruff harsh and overtly aggressive with his friends and colleagues but with althea we see his loving affectionate side there's a scene where flynt tenderly takes his ill wife on a ride on his wheelchair that is heartbreaking ultimately the emotional power that the film hits at its conclusion comes not from his achievements from his battles against censors but from the strength of flynt and althea's love for each other woody harrelson is entirely engaging in what must be certainly a performance as the irrepressible larry flynt harrelson plays flynt with the right mixture of outrageousness and confident stubborness to make him endearing and entirely sympathetic to the audience and a very compelling protagonist for the film courtney love plays althea leasure in a startling turn completely raw and impulsive it's a very solid performance brash and naturalistic and love is extremely compelling it's difficult to take your eyes off her onscreen and her chemistry with harrelson is edward norton as flynt's straight lawyer is often upstaged by his flashier in the people vs larry flynt much as his counterpart lawyer alan isaacman was upstaged by flynt during many of the courtroom scenes but norton shines in his big scene where he addresses the supreme court in the climactic scene of the film one can sense the frustration that norton's character feels when harrelson's flynt sabotages trial after trial on him by openly speaking his mind and this results in a heightened emotional punch when norton's isaacman has the opportunity to sway the supreme court judges milos forman keeps the film moving although it runs over two hours it never drags and his direction of the film is very effective eliciting a great deal of empathy for a subject which could be construed by some as extremely sordid and unsympathetic there's also a great visual technique which forman uses to indicate the passing of time in one shot which is both clever and extremely entertaining two minor quibbles with the film it certainly seems like the people vs larry flynt is in a rush to get to its main theme with flynt battling against authorities and the system for his freedom of speech consequently the first thirty minutes of the film introducing and setting up the characters seem unduly rushed perhaps it is merely due to the fact that these characters are so interesting but i felt it would have worked better if this route was taken in a more leisurely fashion it also felt like there was a distinctive lack of insight into the inner workings of these characters the film clearly shows what flynt althea isaacman and rev jerry faldwell did and on a superficial level some of their motivations but it never seemed like one could really understand the characters on a deeper level for example why larry flynt was compelled by ruth carter stapleton president carter's sister to be is a mystery to me then again perhaps it was to him as well these two points don't detract greatly from the film the people vs larry flynt is certainly among the very best films of and works both as a ringing political statement about the importance of freedom of speech and the depths to which larry flynt would go to advance the cause of free expression and as a touching love story
positive	until i saw the night of the hunter it had been a long time since i had gasped while watching a movie forget the others and the deep end which veered toward strained dramatics the night of the hunter is by far the scariest movie i've seen so far this year even though the movie is nearly years old and there's a not drop of blood to be seen luckily the night of the hunter charles laughton's first and final directing gig has been restored by the ucla film and television archive and is being in october so there's still plenty of time to spill your popcorn all over the place robert mitchum stars as harry powell a reverend with a nasty habit of courting and then killing widows for their cash his newest target is young mother willa harper shelley winters whose murderer husband ben peter graves has hidden somewhere powell finds out about the stash and decides to court mrs harper after he's released and ben is hanged but finding the money isn't easy for powell who must contend with his stepchildren billy chapin and sally jane bruce who know where the money is but aren't telling the hard part about seeing a classic now is the pop culture monster has usually drawn and quartered and then flaunted all the memorable moments thus ruining the spontaneity and adventure when we finally watch it for the first time how many spoofs or salutes to the shower scene in psycho have we seen in other movies what about the brilliant baby stroller sequence from battleship potemkin no i'm not blaming brian de palma entirely for this sampling problem yes there are some visual elements that other directors seem to have borrowed from the night of the hunter powell's love and hate knuckle tattoos obviously influenced spike lee in do the right thing remember radio raheem and powell's black suit with black tie and white shirt could have shaped quentin tarantino's early visual style seeing the night of the hunter for the first time i was amazed at how much it crackled with wicked wit and fright and how much intensity was intact you can now sign me up as president of the robert mitchum fan club he plays the role with a controlled malice that induces unease every time he appears he's like the senior class president with an evil streak if i ever need to stay awake i'll just picture him crooning leaning leaning any actor who wants to play a character with a touch of evil should study his performance the way a rabbinical student studies the torah and credit must be handed out to laughton and cinematographer stanley cortez who create a series of haunting surreal shadowy images over the rural backdrop it's a testament to both men that they're able to invigorate what has become a hackneyed storyline kids harassed by evil guardians by sticking to the old maxim that we're more scared by what we don't see screenwriter and legendary film critic james agee does a beautiful job giving shape and substance to an array of supporting characters the drunk birdie james gleason who's haunted by his wife and the spoons evelyn varden and walt spoon whose marriage has become a verbal vaudeville act the only lapse is the movie's third act when pearl and john run away from home and find a home with the motherly mrs cooper lillian gish her showdown with powell is memorable a battle done with dueling hymns however the whole segment feels a little rushed and underdone but it's still a thrill seeing the queen of the silent film era handling a shotgun do yourself favor and don't miss this if it comes to a nearby theater note a series of revealing but overlong outtakes preceded the movie the highlights included the legendary laughton who sounds eerily like mr pitt from seinfeld running winters' lines with mitchum and the adorable tiny bruce having trouble descending a coal pile hours more of such footage exists as laughton liked to keep the cameras constantly rolling screened as part of the new york film festival retrospectives feature story coming soon
positive	jamaica is a hot vacation spot the exchange rate encourages delusions of wealth approximately jamaican dollars to one american the sea is a brilliant blue the air is warm but lacks humidity and as tourism is unfortunately jamaica's biggest trade foreigners enter and leave with a sense of relaxation life and debt takes a brassy look at life inside this impoverished country while normal documentaries take the sally struthers approach of underlying scenes of starving children with tearful music this film guides the viewer with a sarcastic voiceover that brings the troubles home without begging tears to the surface the voiceover is written by acclaimed author jamaica kincaid it guides the audience along a tourist's journey and the story of the native inhabitants instead of telling you what you are already seeing on screen it quips you don't see what happens after you flush the toilet this engages a viewer to see and think about devastation instead of merely being told it is there this strong sparse storytelling approach runs throughout the film stephanie black is also intelligent in how she chooses to disclose the problems faced by the locals this isn't just another talking head show of people moaning about their horrible lot in life people are interviewed from all sectors of occupation from field to factory as well as social theorists and the banking organizations that continue to invest in the country the variety of discussion perpetuates a compelling internal dialogue with any viewer whether they are seeing jamaica for the first time or not of course as can be expected the united states is slammed owing to its involvement with the international monetary fund and the world bank officials look moronic as they explain why their plans for jamaica's economy will help the country back on its feet but only if they are willing to follow the advice word for word the next moment we see why and how each of these initiatives has failed usually due to imports being cheaper than local labor or whether or not the soil is appropriate for the next agricultural trend the u s is forcing on the citizens admittedly some of the back and forth between the organizations and the failures they produce gets repetitive but it also drives home the impact ignorance can have on both sides of an international argument but jamaica isn't against the united states and this documentary does not accuse the u s of being the sole perpetrator of its grief if anything it begs for a better understanding of the nature of jamaican society before stepping in to change it based on foreign regulations
positive	denzel washington is among the many actors this holiday season to give very impressive milestone performances this perhaps may be washington's very best to date he joins matt damon and jim carrey in having the talent this season to become his character copying mannerisms and personal styles perfectly his very believable performance makes the long and uninteresting the hurricane a much better film than it actually is when his rubin hurricane carter feels pain and is tormented by racism he creates for the audience a great sense of sympathy disgust and maybe even some embarrassment from the fact that this is our very own country that is breaking laws to support silly prejudices the horrific true events carter suffered from all of his life are slightly more disturbing and terrifying because they only took place a few decades ago the powerful expressions of denzel washington alone as his tortured carter sum up the troubles of racism in america's history he is that amazing the problem with the hurricane is that when compared to washington all of the other actors are not nearly as memorable in their roles mainly because the script focuses so much on carter that it leaves little interest or room for the other actors this is without a doubt washington's movie but in order for any film to be completely satisfying it must utilize everyone in the cast to their highest potential not just the stars denzel washington is the only reason to see this film for his inspirational and very depressing tour de force performance as rubin carter we see a black man whose existence has been a punching bag for the white american court system the age of eleven to twenty one he was sent to a juvenile prison for a crime he did not commit then after a successful marriage and boxing career he was harshly imprisoned again for life after being framed for a triple murder carter's second term in prison seemed almost inevitable when faced off against jealous powerful white men who refused to let him succeed from these past experiences in jail carter realized that he must make his case heard for all of america after several court appeals an autobiography and many public marches for his freedom carter remained locked in prison it was not until a young black boy from brooklyn being educated in toronto read carter's book in the that a serious battle for freedom took place the young boy and his three canadian guardians decide to dedicate all of their time to the case until carter is released the greatest scenes in the film are when carter begins to lose his mind after spending three months in isolation washington really shows the breakdown of carter when after swearing he would never go to jail again he is unfairly framed at the height of his innocent career the devastation in washington's eyes show a man who has struggled to do the right thing his whole life only to be punished for it in the hole carter attempts to maintain emotional balance but he cannot his anger is heightened to a point of no control we see multiple carters a violent angry one a silent passive one and a mediator we see an emotional boxing match inside carter's head from this point in the hole to the end of the film this fight continues it is very apparent at times which side is winning the battle and in some scenes there is a direct switch from angry to caring or the opposite when carter sees that white canadians want to help him get out of prison the angry carter at first erupts white people have been trying to hurt him his whole life this reminder leads to anger in his head however as the film continues and the canadians continue to help carter we see the calm side him he realizes that society is changing that racism is decreasing and now carter wants to leave jail immediately and become a part of this world very rarely have i seen such determination to perfect his role as washington has done here if only the other actors had this same determination dan hedaya ridiculously plays the man who sends carter to prison twice by forcing witnesses to lie and switching evidence around it felt like his character was taken straight out of a scooby doo episode he would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those annoying little kids the kids in this film are the three canadians who are terribly underused making their relationship with carter underdeveloped and unbelievable the lawyers who help release carter also are underused as is clancy brown as a kind prison guard the complete opposite of his character in shawshank redemption there is a great amount of talent in this supporting cast but it just never appears hedaya was superb in clueless same for david paymer in get shorty harris yulin in ghostbusters and liev schreiber in the daytrippers it is a mystery how this many actors signed on to such shallow roles on the other hand it is absolutely no mystery why denzel washington agreed to play rubin hurricane carter this role is about as far off from shallow as you can get
positive	after claiming otherwise my appetite was indeed whetted by kenneth branagh's hamlet to search out other attempts to translate shakespeare to film in hopes of finding a better mousetrap as it happens it didn't take long is there a more romantic director than franco zeffirelli known mainly to american audiences as the man behind romeo and juliet required viewing for many high schoolers and as much as most ever learn of shakespeare he is also a favorite at the metropolitan opera where his achingly beautiful designs further the already lush emotion of many a puccini aria last year he gave us his beautifully realized version of jane eyre one of the twin peaks with wuthering heights of romantic literature it might seem peculiar then that zeffirelli ever had an interest in translating hamlet for the screen at first blush hamlet is far removed from romance the hero though a prince is depressed conflicted and confused the ostensible love interest gets little screen time and her scenes with her prince are usually as an object of mockery the plot is full of political intrigue and the players are as cursed as the house of atreus it is zeffirelli's genius however that he is able to expose the romantic core of hamlet and give the sometimes dry tale an emotional embrace in this italian master's hands romance is everywhere in a son's worship of his father in the bonds of deepest friendship in the private thoughts of young lovers even in the mystery of castles by the sea after all the story hinges on a ghost and what could be more romantic than that what seemed like a cheap way to sell tickets at the time turned out to be one of the most romantic gestures of all namely hiring hollywood hunk mel gibson to play the lead who could believe that the man who made his mark playing mad max and a lethal weapon in the series of the same name would have the skill to succeed in the most famous role in the english language franco zeffirelli that's who and it is apparent in every frame that his instinct was right on the money what gibson brings to the role is a naturalness and ease which makes the whole story meaningful not to mention comprehensible his line readings sound spontaneous rather than rehearsed his movements and gestures excepting his sometimes too active eyes are totally in keeping with the character this is a hamlet whose pain we feel whose struggle we empathize with and whose death we mourn as sincerely as horatio at film's end glenn close the other big name in the production also does well by the script and satisfies as hamlet's mother gertrude though i must confess i'm still trying to understand the character as written zeffirelli's incestuous interpretation of hamlet's relationship with his mother doesn't help alan bates makes a believably evil claudius without resorting to the mannerisms of a hollywood heavy by and large the rest of the cast performs admirably and comfortably of special note are the cinematography by david watkin and the score by ennio morricone both support the realistic mood marvelously as do the sets and costumes without any overstated effects that declare this is important this is shakespeare i particularly appreciate that the words are often spoken without any music at all the melody of a wonderfully wrought phrase is given its due perhaps it is difficult to call edited shakespeare definitive and there are certainly quite a few other filmed versions of hamlet that i have not seen but if you've ever felt the urge to overcome your fear of the bard this hamlet is an excellent place to start
positive	the happy bastard's quick movie review me tarzan you happy viewer for a minute there i thought i was going to be groaning over the release of disney's latest another adaptation of a legend from the past remember the pathetic pocahontas yikes but guess disney a company that's been on a roll lately with animated films strikes again with another wonderful tale that pleases the eyes as well as the inner kid in you the story is pretty tarzan is left orphaned and a female gorilla who's lost her young adopts him into her group as he matures into a much older man tarzan still wonders just why he's so much different from the clan and then arrives a hunter a professor and the professor's lovely daughter who meets tarzan rather quickly after getting in trouble with a group of feisty babboons from there tarzan faces tough should he stay with the ones that he grew up with or go join his own kind in england the voicework here is pretty tony goldwyn is very convincing as the ape man minnie driver adds a delectable touch to the jane nigel hawthorne makes for a pretty nasty hunter voice rosie o' donnell keeps the laughs rolling as tarzan's best ape friend terk and wayne newman knight has his moments as a panicky elephant the movie is superb throughout mixing a great script with incredible visuals when tarzan a twist that was added on top of the same ol' vine and a great one i might add the camera twists and turns allowing the trees all around to come to life vividly i couldn't believe my disney has come a long way since starting in a ballroom for beauty and the beast and the music's not half bad either fortunately there's no ridiculous singing characters here just a great set of songs by phil collins that perfectly fit the mood there's some great action sequences here as well including a wonderfully done chase between tarzan jane and the aforementioned babboons but of course it's not all there's a message here as well that has to do with family this is easily one of disney's best animated films of the decade and it's one i can't wait to put in my home library that is if my vcr still works in the year
positive	one of the funniest carry on movies and the third with a medical setting the main story is about dr james nookey jim dale who is disliked by his superiors frederick carver head of the hospital kenneth williams and dr ernest stoppidge charles hawtrey who seems to dislike everyone they attempt to cause him as much trouble in the hospital as possible and all the blame is laid on nookey carver learns of a possible job opportunity from wealthy ellen moore joan sims on a distant tropical island and gets nookey trannsferred there when nookey arrives at this island he meets gladstone screwer sid james who has lived on the island just about all his life screwer is in possession of a wonderful slimming drug made from natural ingredients dr nookey returns with the drug to england and sets up a new slimming business with ellen moore's financial backing however nookey and moore face opposition from screwer who goes to england to cash in on the drug and carver and stoppidge who want to know the ingredients to create a rival drug the performances are all very commendable sid james has a slightly ambiguous character to play this time and he excels in his role kenneth williams as usual plays the unpopular and cunning head of the hospital joan sims is entertaining as the wealthy benefactor and jim dale should really head the cast with his excellent portrayal of bumbling nookey charles hawtrey plays an role as dr stoppidge the nasty and evil practitioner who wants to knock nookey off his perch some critics have said that this combination of hawtrey and stoppidge does not work well but i think that it at least gives hawtrey a new part to play instead of the usual dimwit characters as a matter of fact hawtrey is suitably cunning in the part other regulars in the movie include hattie jacques as the matron yet again but this part is probably her most boring and barbara windsor as nookey's love interest and unofficial lib' campaigner goldie locks both jacques and windsor play their parts well patsy rowlands appears briefly as miss fosdick and there are very small cameos from wilfrid brambell from and son' fame and peter butterworth the jokes are mostly very funny the story is quite appealing and the regulars seem interested in what they're doing although it is another medical carry on movie and some of the jokes are borrowed from previous movies it still comes out on top it is the best medical carry on because of the above factors a carry on movie
positive	whenever robert altman works in a specific genre he has the tendency to rewrite it on his own terms he made the west dirty in mccabe and mrs miller he parodied detective stories in the long goodbye and he transformed a cartoon into flesh and blood with popeye the same holds true for his most recent film the gingerbread man which reinvents a genre that has developed at an exponential rate over the last five years the john grisham movie by the time the gingerbread man was completed there was very little evidence that it was ever based on a story by grisham there's no idealist young lawyer ala tom cruise matthew mcconaughey chris o'donnell or matt damon and it doesn't feature a great showdown in a courtroom instead of being a grand ode to the powers of the legal profession the gingerbread man is a southern gothic noir thriller with wildly eccentric characters a twisting plot line black humor a somewhat bleak ending and even altman's trademark female nudity the central character of the film is rick magruder who is unlike any of grisham's other lawyer heroes he is older experienced and rich he drives a mercedes that never gets dirty even in the incessantly pouring rain of savannah georgia where the story unfolds rick is in the midst of an ugly divorce with his wife leeanne famke janssen and he rarely gets to see his two children jeff jesse james and libby mae whitman a reason is never given for the divorce but it isn't hard to surmise that rick's womanizing had a large part in it whenever he's late to pick up the kids on his visitation days leeanne always assumes it's because he's been screwing around after an office party celebrating another of his court victories he hasn't lost in eight years rick becomes involved with mallory doss embeth davidtz one of the catering waitresses he drives her home because her car has been stolen and they end up in bed together rick finds out that mallory is being terrorized and stalked by her slightly psychotic father dixon doss robert duvall a grungy stringy old man who leads a commune of other greasy old codgers it was actually dixon who stole her car that night and when rick asks why mallory replies that he always does weird stuff like that as another character puts it dixon is a few beers short of rick ends up convincing mallory to have dixon brought to court and tried for competency he succeeds with information dug up by clyde pell a private investigator friend robert downey jr and testimony from mallory's begrudging pete randle tom berenger dixon is put in a mental hospital but his commune buddies succeed in breaking him out from there the story delves into kidnapping murder and even a hurricane that adds an ominous cloud of constant violence to the action altman's cinematographer changwei gu gives the film a dark soaked look if it isn't at least it's raining gu shoots the interiors which are almost all dark wood paneling with a minimum of light a great deal of the action takes place in the leafy georgia backwoods which altman uses to create an acute sense of dread and vulnerability in the city there is danger enough but when rick has to venture into the woods you can almost feel him leaving all hope of civilization behind as he literally enters another world altman has worked in just about every conceivable genre from westerns to epic dramas to comedies but no matter what the genre he is always sure to give it the altman stamp which usually consists of all kinds of idiosyncratic quirks and little details that are often missed without repeat viewings the gingerbread man is no different although his style is much more restrained here however without those little touches the film could have easily slumped into a routine a great deal of the credit for the film's success can be given to the actors especially branagh who rarely works outside of period pieces and his own direction here the british actor consistently maintains a serviceable southern drawl while making an essentially contemptible character interesting and sympathetic rick is an extremely flawed man but branaugh brings real humanity to his character without it the entire film would fall flat because so much of it is reliant on the audience feeling rick's pain and frustration the supporting actors also put in fine performances including embeth davidtz who is probably best known for her role as the jewish maid in schindler's list tom berenger provides some gruff comic relief and robert duvall spends most of his time just looking weird it doesn't seem like he does much because he has very little spoken dialogue but watch him closely during the film's one courtroom scene his entire performance is in his eyes and his body language and few actors could have pulled it off without being either silly or overbearing while the gingerbread man isn't in league with altman's greatest works like nashville or the player it is nonetheless a solid piece of genre filmmaking which may prove a successful vehicle to restart his somewhat lagging career some critics love to stamp films like this as commercial as if altman can only maintain artistic integrity if his films are aimed at a tiny audience and don't make money altman has done something much better he took what could have been a generic movie and by investing artistry and effort he made it into something more
positive	remember what the mpaa says horrific and deplorable violence is ok as long as you don't say any naughty words featuring the voice talents of matt stone trey parker mary kay bergman rated r filmmakers jump on controversies faster than austin powers on felicity shagwell the debate on whether cinema is to blame for teenagers turning into hoodlums has only begun to heat up and already someone's made a movie about it and it's not thank god a tragic account of a family ripped apart by the effect violence in films had on a teenage boy instead we get a sharp biting satire that takes no prisoners and leaves no conservative point of view unscathed based on a popular and controversial cable tv show south park bigger longer and uncut can finally break loose of the shackles placed on the show by television restrictions and take bad taste to brand new heights the movie is about a group of kids who sneak into a canadian movie and learn some naughty words when they exhibit their new knowledge to their moms they decide to blame canada wage war against the neighbor country and execute terrence and phillip the flatulent actors in the obscene film the kids form an alliance they name la resistance with the accent on the third syllable of resistance to save their favorite thespians in a hilarious spoof of tribute to les mis rables in a subplot one of the characters kenny who else dies and goes to hell where he meets satan satan and saddam hussein are lovers you see satan is a benevolent soul while our favorite eastern ruler can only think about sex apparently too if terrence and phillip are executed it will be the final sign of the apocalypse and satan can emerge from the deepest bowels of the underground kingdom to rule the earth aside from being a brilliant satire south park is also an musical with unforgettable numbers like shut your f ing face uncle f er and cartman's mom is a big fat bitch almost invariably it's funny stuff often juvenile but always funny the same can be said for the rest of the movie it's intelligent but delivered in a sophomoric manner i e toilet humor endless profanity etc not that there's anything wrong with that vulgarity when done right is my bag baby trey parker and matt stone the behind the film and the show paint a on the motion picture association of america and proceed to be the first to start trying to hit it cruelly mocking the fact that the mpaa's rating system will allegedly tolerate grotesque violence as long as obscenities aren't uttered the auteurs throw some nasty insults their way the association isn't the only target of this unsparing banter people who favor censoring movies over gun control are equally fair game with the blame canada plot being a shot at them the distinctively cardboard animation is oddly effective even more so than the state of the art deep canvas technique aptly demonstrated in the recent tarzan it's more pleasant to look at less intimidating up on the screen and most importantly it doesn't detract from the film's concept as much as disney's admirably work does the show's popularity has been waning as of late and perhaps this movie is just the thing to boost its ratings perhaps not having seen the show on numerous occasions i can say that it's not nearly as smart or as funny as this movie the series may be better off simply continuing on the big screen every couple years parker and stone have outdone themselves to the point where i am forced to ask must the show go on eugene
positive	for this review and more visit clear illusions www clearillusions com the majority of scary movies signal the fact that a character is about to meet their demise with cheesy music worn out dialogue such as i'll be right back or simply with the overall tone of the scene how about a classic john denver song as a death signal for a change that's the kind of bursting originality that allows final destination to invade the viewer's mind even days after seeing it making one pause before ever entering a dark room taking a shower or even going to sleep the unique and horrifying thriller is the best thing to happen to the slasher genre since scream final destination directed by james wong and penned by jeffrey riddick glen morgan and james wong the latter two being writers for the t v series the is a movie with wonderful ideas and executes them effortlessly it's rare a film of this nature can grab an audience's attention these days as the genre has seem to be completely worn out final destination has more in store for one than one can imagine unlike halloween michael myers or nightmare on elm street freddy kruger final destination killer is of the supernatural the dark one himself death the intriguing premise is as follows a portion of a senior class is set to travel by air to paris for their class trip after boarding the plane one of the students alex browning devon sawa dreams of their plane exploding into flames just after takeoff killing everyone on board once waking up alex gets himself and six others off of that plane all of who seem to be rather confused by the entire happening shortly after their departure the plane takes off and guess what it blows up in middair now alex and fellow survivors who consist of friend clear waters ali larter enemy carter kerr smith carter's girlfriend terry amanda detmer the goofy billy sean william scott and his brother tod chad donella and teacher ms valerie lewton kristen cloke are in extreme danger as it seems they have cheated death by getting off of that plane and now death wants them the number of survivors starts to peel back quite quickly as death goes around offing those who got off the plane who is next and how will death get them final destination is a film that is unbearably suspenseful always making the viewer frantic as death will strike in the most unlikely of times john denver's rocky mountain high being played pretty much warrants another death on that plane learned the hard way although it's usually given whose life will be taken next the intensity and unpredictability of the film never fades because you don't know when death is coming like the characters in the movie i was constantly nervous and shaky during final destination the slightest noise or movement nearby would send me a mile into the air and yes the film is that intense the cast is surprisingly effective and up to par the best ensemble in this genre since scream the characters have personalities for a change and for the most part you highly sympathize with them once death starts to come their way devon sawa and ali larter are the main focus of the film and both actors follow up their well written characters with even better performances that like the scream movies did for their cast will launch them into superstardom kerr smith and kristen cloke are also impressive although the two don't posses as much screen time as the leads final destination is one exhilarating exciting ride any age should be able to enjoy the complexity and eeriness of the film and should find an edge to it that most slasher films lack for the blood loving moviegoer destination contains buckets of blood guts and all that good stuff final destination is a film that is destined to become a cult classic among horror fans and a sleeper hit at the box office hands down to the first film in years that has actually scared me by scare i don't mean making me jump or making me wonder if i'm in danger but by scare i mean a film that stays locked in your mind absorbing you leaving one question that's constantly on your mind is death coming for me the bottom line make final destination your destination
positive	errol morris critically acclaimed director of the documentary fast cheap and out of control vaults to new heights with mr death this film an examination of the life and work of controversial execution equipment designer and revisionist historian fred a leuchter jr is sure to draw audiences out of their malaise stunning even the more jaded minds among us don't let the film's cheesy dissuade you following this sideshow of special effects we are plunged quickly into a exploration of the weirdness that is leuchter's life and mind morris follows the trail of leuchter's madness with appalling lucidity revealing in a surprising and frightening way what most of us could have guessed to begin with this leuchter guy is seriously messed up virtually raised within the american penal system by a father who worked within prison walls leuchter seems to have come somewhat naturally into his profession designing and maintaining execution equipment for state penitentiaries in spite of his lack of credentials after a moderately successful career making electric chairs and designing gas chambers and gallows leuchter came to the attention of and revisionist historian ernst zundel who was facing criminal charges in germany for publishing his that the holocaust never happened morris's interviews are surprisingly congenial drawing the subjects into a carefree banter that gives them more than enough rope with which to hang themselves zundel speaks to the camera as though it were his mensch leuchter seems completely at ease sometimes jovial part of this effect may be due to morris's new interviewing machine called the interrotron which is responsible for creating eye contact between the subject and the interviewer this was the first time morris had used the device and the results are startling combine the irony of these interviews with leuchter's reenactments and reels of creepy stock footage of his trip to auschwitz and birkenau not to mention a haunting clip of thomas edison electrocuting an elephant and you've got one compelling and disturbing documentary while this film isn't for the or it is a valuable addition to the cultural landscape aside from a few dragging minutes toward the end of the piece morris has given us a fresh look at a dismal subject and i for one feel bettered by the experience
positive	summary five liberal iowa graduate students share a house and carry on a tradition of a large sunday dinner for a year now they have been inviting a guest for dinner and discussion on this occasion one of the roommates pete ron eldard brings home a stranger who picked him up when his car broke down the stranger is zack bill paxton who appears like a decent enough good samaritan nothing could be further from the truth after some dinner conversation it appears that zack is among other things a racist you know my grandfather once said that if he knew you coloreds were going to be so much trouble we'd have picked the damn cotton ourselves and an an argument escalates at the dinner table and leads to violence after zack assaults marc jonathan penner and pete zack is killed the roommates are at odds with what to do marc pete and paulie annabeth gish immediately wish to call the police luke courtney b vance and jude cameron diaz suggest something different after more discussion they agree to dispose of the body and cover it up they do not want to be sent to jail for what they feel was a justifiable homicide when it is done the roommates realize that it was easier than they thought so easy in fact that they decide that every sunday their dinner guest would be someone who opposes of their views if they all agree that the guest deserves to die they will poison them and bury them in the back yard the back yard fills up rather quickly its' victims including among others a right to life extremist an and a homophobe by the time the roommates get to their tenth victim they begin to question their methods are they giving the guests a chance are they even giving them good food anymore this film is what i like to call a hidden treasure this film is such a pleasant surprise a well written devilish satire that is funny sexy and original this film should be a hit but i guess the fact that it apparently had no marketing wouldn't give it much of a chance i had never heard of it until i saw a copy at my video store stacy title does a wonderful job directing she somehow finds the time to give all of the characters enough screen time to develop a distinct personality the five members of the house to other key characters including sheriff stanley nora dunn the local law closing in on the truth and the dream dinner guest norman arbuthnot ron perlman a rush limbaugh clone who should be the roommates easiest kill perlman gives the films' best performance he finds the right note as the right wing big mouth who simultaneously offends and gains followers and may just inadvertently talk his way out of death the other actors are convincing as well as all of the roommates deal with their murderous ways some of the characters appear to be heading down the road towards insanity while others grieve their decisions when friends ask me to recommend a movie this is usually the first one i think of i am not saying that this is my favorite movie although it is in my top ten but because the film was such a wonderful surprise i have a fondness for it i also try to recommend films like this ones that have not been seen by many people but should
positive	i can already feel the hate letters pouring in on this one folks i loved the wedding singer but it gets worse if i so much as mention titanic in the same sentence   hell same paragraph as the wedding singer i'm bound to be lynched well lynch me then because i thought adam sandler and drew barrymore had the most convincing chemistry in recent memory with titanic as the only exception right away you're ready to discount my review aren't you you're thinking that i can't possibly know what i'm talking about after all this is adam sandler right well there's more   i actually got choked up and more than once yes the man who brought us billy madison and happy gilmore was able to bring sincere tears to my eyes but before you shrug me off as an imbecile i urge you to see the movie and see for yourself the wedding singer is the story of robby hart sandler a rock star wannabe whose soul achievement in life has been performing cover tunes at wedding receptions for the past five years or so but when his own wedding results in a for the bride angela featherstone as linda robby begins to his life and wonder why true love doesn't exist for people like him in the process of performing at these receptions robby meets a waitress named julia played with wholesome sweetness by drew barrymore whose reputation is anything but this character julia too is engaged and when robby finds himself without a wife his free time allows him to help her plan her own wedding seeing as how her fiance the miami vice loving glenn matthew glave doesn't seem all that interested as the time goes by we learn the reason glenn is do dispassionate about the wedding he's merely marrying julia to prevent a breakup something he wants to avoid even if he does sleep around with tons of other women it's obvious that robby is going to fall for julia and feel a strong need to rescue her but what is a lighthearted romantic comedy for this isn't sleepless in seattle but i'd actually compare it to that before i'd compare it to happy gilmore while the wedding singer maintains some of that cornball humor its sincerity and charm carry it a very very long way sandler is great in his role and yes if you allow it you can take him seriously barrymore seems perfect along side him and although the two more likely represent moronism and ditzism respectively the two go together like bread and butter as a couple one scene in particular where julia ponders the future in a mirror is so well done i was on the verge of tears unfortunately sandler is going to make a lot of people shrug this one off as a but it's got so much surprise substance packed inside that i'm encouraging everyone to go see it in fact the entire theater applauded when the film ended and laughs were so consistent some jokes were probably missed due to the uproar the setting was milked for everything it was worth and for those of us that are old enough to remember it it was a bodacious trip back and done very well sandler shows a new side to himself while maintaining all his original charm or is it while the wedding singer only deserves three stars due to artistic merit grading it on pure enjoyability would give this one four stars it's hilarious and it's touching it's got that great cheezy humor but it also takes sandler to a higher level than anyone expected this is one to see again and again is it possible the wedding singer could be one of the sweetest romantic comedies of my magic predicts it is certain
positive	hollywood is a pimp a fat chump wearing a fur hat and gold chains around its fat hairy chest all of its stars and starlets are an evil brood of vampires looking for the next percentage take the next summer blockbuster the next casting couch to audition on pumping out adaptations terrible sequels to mediocre films and remakes of foreign films to the nearest american movie multiplex mall theater equipped with thin walls and bad sound systems how much longer can the works of peckinpah fassbinder fuller castle preminger and lee be placed and forgotten in the wrong sections of the local blockbuster stores how many more silver and weinstein films can we enduring in this stinky decaying state of american cinema but now from john i don't give a shit what you think about my movies waters comes the siren call to all frustrated filmmakers and aficionados cecil b demented a warped and twisted tale of how far a filmmaker will go to create a personal vision of internal and social revolution stephen dorff in a role is cecil b demented a crazed director devoted to making the most radical underground film together with his film production cult the sprocket holes who wear tattoos of peckinpah lee fuller castle anger fassbinder preminger on various parts of their bodies as badges of honor they kidnap a hollywood movie starlet played with perfect ridiculousness by melaine griffith and force her to take the starring role in demented's film with no budget and no contracts for extras demented and his crew take to the streets for production of raving beauty a crass terrorist film about an angry owner of an independent theater and her brood out to destroy the mainstream film business using ultimate reality with real bullets real people and real terror demented and his crew of misfits attack a mall theater terrorize the maryland film commission and crash a movie studio shooting a certain sequel to a really annoying tom hanks film demented's crewmembers are maimed and killed popcorn machines are used for target practice and no one can have sex until the film is complete it's like bowfinger only you know good the film moves with zigs and zags like the magic bullet of kennedy's assassination the zeal of demented's cause catches quickly and conveys the urgent message of doing something anything for the accomplishment of artistic motivations the crewmembers all hold the quirkiness common in water's previous films pink flamingos hairspray polyester pecker and speak in the choppy jaded dialogue used frequently by waters it is as if water's script strips away the unnecessary dialogue common to most pretentious indie films and just delivers the goods cecil takes such warped avenues of expression that it seems like it might actually outdo itself you can see how a major studio might take this film it cut a deal with the remaining crew members who are still alive and make a few sequels a la the blair witch project but that's for the future overall the ride is fantastic it's one of water's best films to date and this year's fight club for filmmakers john waters starring stephen dorff melaine griffith alicia witt adrian grenier larry gilliard jr mink stole ricki lake kevin nealon producers john fielder mark tarlov anthony delorenzo joe caraccio jr
positive	back in dreamworks unveiled their first computer animated movie antz the film was critically acclaimed and went on to gross almost dollars at the domestic box office again in they released their traditional animated film the prince of egypt and it named an instant classic and became a huge hit as well on a winning streak they released the road to el dorado and it wasn't as big as they hoped but still did ok then they had the fantastic chicken run in the summer now in dreamworks has released what i can safely name one of the top five best animated films shrek mike myers is about a loving green ogre who lives in the woods of duloc by himself surrounded by fairy tale characters he hopes somehow he would escape from everyone the ruler of duloc is the short heartless lord farquaad john lithgow who is offering a reward to all the fairy tale creatures if they are captured and arrested of course many of the owners turn them in for gold and silver but one of those creatures is donkey eddie murphy a regular donkey except he talks and has a definite attitude after his owner tries to disown him he escapes into the woods and runs into shrek lord farquaad however has different plans and makes all the fairy tale creatures in the woods near shrek's house to get his property back and his life back shrek must rescue princess fiona cameron diaz so lord farquaad can be a king shrek wants his property back but he never thought he would fall in love with princess fiona shrek is such an amazing film that while watching it you can't help but just smile the entire time and wonder why that other production company can't make movies like this the animated graphics are so great that they look every bit of realistic i saw previews for this film all last year and i thought to myself wow what a great movie this will be i must say i was not disappointed at all and the film is the best of so far and will go down on my best of list at the end of the year the voice talents are brilliant as well with the comic genius mike myers in the past he has been a wayne an austin and a person married to an ax murderer now he is shrek not only does he do the voice talent but he is shrek with his irish accent and he lovable personality shrek becomes a friend to the audience and warms your heart eddie murphy who showed his voice talent in mulan does another bang up job here and he is the comic relief in the film the tones of his voice the lines he utters and the jokes he gives he even outdoes the comic genius of robin williams in aladdin the always beautiful cameron diaz gives the voice of princess fiona and she does a great job as well she is very funny and her character fits her to a t of course the best supporting voice is john lithgow who is personally one of my favorite actors he as the bad guy lord farquaad does a great job in being both sinister and funny at the same time at times i was so amazed by the computer graphics that you can't help but just start looking at backgrounds there is many hidden jokes in the film and even reflections of light on the screen like a camera shrek is a definite kid film but not just a kid film for it is a film for the entire family to enjoy there are many adult jokes in the film that the kids won't get but the parents will be laughing believe me though everyone will be laughing the entire way through in the end shrek gives a very important message to it's audience to enjoy and be who you are everybody out there is beautiful in their own way even though it may be inside there's not many words that can praise shrek enough but my words to you is to stop what you are doing and see this movie now
positive	say any of you know how to madison brad asshole majors barry bostwick shows just how unhip he is after watching the kooky transylvanians wrap up their ode to the time warp in the cult classic the rocky horror picture show the story behind the rocky horror picture show is one of legend in the early stage actor turned playwright richard o'brien decided he wanted to make a musical homage to the crazy he had grown up with as a child set to a bunch of catchy rock tunes of his own design the result was the stage play the rocky horror show which opened to fairly decent reviews in london in and was even hailed the best musical of by prominent drama critics in england the play was so successful that the film rights were immediately snapped up and production on the film began a mere year later in october of the film version now titled the rocky horror picture show was released in and immediately tanked at the box office whether it was because fox wasn't quite sure how to market it to audiences or that audiences didn't quite know what to make of it themselves has never really been determined but the one common bit of knowledge about the film was that it was a huge flop it seemed that the infectious spirit brought about by the stage version had not been infused into the film version and fox quickly had it pulled from theaters a year later something entirely strange and magical happened prints of the film started to be distributed to theaters in small amounts and were circulating at midnight shows across the country and it was then that a whole new audience found the film this new audience was prone to dressing up like the characters from the film acting out segments in front of the screen as the movie played yelling rude comments at the screen and just generally having a good time word quickly spread about this new phenomena of interactive film and the rocky horror picture show's life as the ultimate cult film was born for the virgins out there who are unaware the plot centers around a loving couple brad majors barry bostwick and janet weiss susan sarandon who come from a small town called denton brad and janet have just attended the wedding of two of their friends and decide that they also want to be wed they plan a trip to see the man who led to their meeting dr everett scott jonathan adams who played the narrator in the original stage version but their car gets a flat on the way to his home remembering a castle they had seen back a few miles down the road they decide to walk there and see if the residents have a phone they might be able to use to call for assistance the castle is actually the home of a race of aliens from the planet transsexual in the galaxy of transylvania who are lead by the eccentric wearing mad scientist dr tim curry has masterminded the secret to creating life and has done so in the form of rocky peter hinwood as rocky becomes accustomed to his new environment brad and janet find themselves at the mercy of mad schemes little do any of them know that the doctor's handyman original author richard o'brien and domestic magenta patricia quinn are actually transsexual planetary protectors who have been sent to stop frank from spreading his alien evil all over the earth going back and revisiting this film after ten years being the first time i had ever seen it it is amazing to me that this film ever got made or has had the staying power that it has if i had been a fox executive around the time of its release i don't think i would have known what to make of it either for all intents and purposes it is a bad movie though bad in a really good sort of way but sumptuous production design and a great deal of incredibly catchy songs really help to increase the likability of the film by the time the credits role it is fairly easy to have gotten wrapped up in the film and its characters and one really gets the feeling that richard o'brien definitely was a fan of the old cheesy his film is based on when i say that the songs are catchy what i really mean to say is that once you hear them they will be ingrained in your head for all of eternity it goes without saying that the time warp is the most popular song in the film even people who have never seen the movie know of that particular song what those who haven't seen the movie don't know though is that there are even more songs in the film that are just as worthy of acknowledgment my personal favorite is over at the frankenstein place but dammit janet is also maddeningly catchy tim curry's vocals on the rocking tune sweet transvestite need to be heard to be believed the finale of the film a big floor show staged by and featuring most of the cast in garters and fishnets including barry bostwick frightening features no less than four songs rose tint my world don't dream it wild and untamed thing and i'm going home all of which are immensely singable the film's true popularity and longevity resides in its audience participation though despite the catchiness of the songs this movie would have been long forgotten about if it hadn't have been for the multitude of folks who dress up every friday or saturday night to rush out and be a part of their own little floor show watching this film at home is nothing compared to actually experiencing this in a theater with hundreds of rabid fans unless you don't mind inviting friends over and letting them shoot water guns in your home or letting them throw rice and pieces of toast all over the place note director jim sharman brought back to the central characters of the film in the form of a sequel resulting in the very much forgotten film shock treatment which picks up with brad and janet this time played by cliff de young and jessica harper as contestants on a game show in their home town of denton the two are menaced by the evil tv station manager also played by de young who wishes to claim janet as his own o'brien returned as a on the project as did quinn campbell and gray in performance capacity only but the film had nowhere near the spirit of the original years later this film is still the pinnacle of cult filmdom and is continuously screened at midnight all over the world as a lasting testament to the longevity of the film and its legion of fans a brand new special edition dvd set has been released that is the most comprehensive compendium of rocky horror to date even out shining the laserdisc special edition that was released for its anniversary if you are one of those people who can't get enough of the film this disc should be more than enough to satisfy your appetites in an attempt to recreate the interactivity of the film fox home entertainment has released this wonderful dvd set loaded with so many extras that it'll take a good eight hours just to take in the majority of it all the film itself is located on the first disc and has been given a beautiful transfer that shows it in its original aspect ratio of enhanced for televisions the film is presented in two different versions the us theatrical version and the uk version which adds a musical number during the finale called superheroes for ambitious viewers the disc also includes a hidden version located on the main menu by clicking left from the scene selection menu choice and highlighting a pair of lips in the lower left corner which presents the film in the manner it was originally supposed to have been seen originally the film was to have been similar to the wizard of oz with the first half of the it seen in black and white and not changing to color until the transylvanians are first revealed to brad and janet during the time warp musical number most reports including a documentary on the disc say that the color was supposed to appear when first shows up in the elevator but it does seem to work better where it was placed on this version depicting the vast difference between the world brad and janet were used to compared with the one to which they are introduced the film contains a commentary track by show creator and faithful handyman richard o'brien and patricia quinn which is fairly enjoyable and quinn immediately starts off by refusing to speak about sarandon nearly contracting pneumonia while having to walk around wet and on freezing cold sets which she apparently complained about the entire film and in future interviews the two seem like old friends and have great stories to tell but they also point out cast members that are sadly no longer with us anymore and there are quite a few fox has also tried to recreate the feel of attending the film in a theater with several audience participation segments the first feature and the most simple is a subtitle prompter which lets you know when to open up on people with your water guns or when the right time to throw your toast is the second feature is an audience participation track which lets you in on what you might hear on a good night out at the show most of the comments are unintelligible because it is basically just a large group of people screaming their heads off but every once and a while a comment can be heard that will invoke a bit of laughter the final participation segment uses a technology very much like the technology used on the matrix dvd where a pair of lips will appear during certain scenes of the film mostly during the musical numbers that can be selected by pressing enter on your remote when selected you will be taken out of the film and into a live participation version of the scene put on during one of the many screenings that occur all over the world once the segment is over you are deposited right back into the film where you left off the first disc also contains a few goodies for those with that particular type of dvd player there is a timeline of the evolution from the stage play version to worldwide cult sensation a video jukebox a you don't know trivia game which is about as bare bones a you don't know jack parody as it can be and a bizarre styled word game known as story lab links to the rocky horror websites are also available from the portion of the disc the second disc features even more goodies for the person who loves extras former video channel turned music historians have allowed some of their outtake footage from the behind the music rocky horror special that they ran earlier in the year to be shown here as well as a video for the meat hot patootie the behind the music segments are all very interesting especially richard o'brien's jaunt through the castle which is now a hotel where the film was originally shot there are also extensions of the sarandon bostwick quinn o'brien and meat loaf interviews as far as extras for the film itself go there are two deleted musical numbers that are also included here one of which is just the superheroes number available in the uk version but there is also another rare musical number presented here called once in a while a series of alternate takes are also presented here but none of them are really much of a revelation except for the undressing scene in which we see that patricia quinn is having a hard time unbuttoning barry bostwick's pants for the completist who must have every little bit of rocky horror paraphernalia a misprinted end sequence and alternate credit sequence are also presented here rounding out the disc is a decent documentary called rocky horror double feature video show two theatrical trailers proclaiming that the film is a different sort of jaws a still gallery and two for toucha toucha touch me and sweet transvestite fox's special edition is the dvd set that rocky horror fans have been waiting for all their lives you're lucky i'm lucky he's lucky we're all lucky it's not just amazing enough that tons of classic italian films are finally getting their recognition in the u s but even long standing traditions are finally receiving their due on the wonderful dvd format as with their excellent dvds of the abyss fight club independence day and the sound of music fox shows that they have most certainly made the commitment to provide the things that dvd lovers want i raise a toast to them cue the throwing of the bread as i cut out the lights sit back and watch those disembodied lips begin to sing about tradition 
positive	in magic town jimmy stewart is in peak form playing a pollster who heads to a perfect town to gauge their reactions on the sorts of issues that only care about however as time progresses and he finds himself falling in love with the town and a woman he begins to see that what he's doing is wrong the plot is standard stuff but that's not important in a film like this it's the calibre of the actors that make or break it obviously since stewart stars that's practically a he's great in the film as usual there's just something about him that always manages to be endearing even when he's deceiving the town folk you're always on his side and you desperately want to see all of his goals come to fruitition the film was directed by a longtime frank capra and it shows this is the type of picture that capra is famous for by the time the end shows up on screen everything has been wrapped up very nicely there are no loose ends and virtually every character gets a happy ending those that deserve one anyway in this age of cynicism it's refreshing to see a movie so upbeat magic town is a delightfully entertaining motion picture if you believe all old movies are you'd be to check this one out
positive	kevin smith is like a big kid his humor is that of a sophisticated juvenile's he grew up idolizing star wars and loves comic books having also written a few he also has a cult following mostly composed of teenagers college students and smith's own fellow grownups smith is hilarious in person and in writing but when he tries to be earnest and moralize that is when he goes wrong kevin smith is a better writer than director and he'll be the first to tell you that that might also be part of the reason why his moralizing comes across as so great directors show us their theses instead of having the characters sermonize them this was true in the overrated chasing amy and it is true for dogma as well that is not to say smith's message is a bad one in dogma smith tells us that problems arise when people believe beyond any doubt that their insight into god and god's desires is superior to anyone else's basically dogmatism is bad changing the minds of the dogmatic is virtually impossible and since the dogmatic believe that they have special insight they also know what is best for you whether you like it or not this is not exactly a new message in movies see inherit the wind but i have no problems with recycling old ones particularly since dogma's protesters are proving smith's point smith's own problem with delivering this message is that he beats us over the head with it like we are reading a dogma for dummies book but this is smith's personality and his simplistic views neglect such adult issues as how does one interpret the bible or koran etc correctly or if there even is a correctly and how one settles disputes of heretofore dogmatic concerns the story concerns abortion clinic worker bethany linda fiorentino being chosen by voice of god metatron alan rickman to prevent the destruction of the universe by two fallen angels bartleby ben affleck and angel of death loki matt damon along the way forgotten thirteenth apostle rufus chris rock stripper muse serendipity salma hayek and slacker duo jay and silent bob jason mewes and kevin smith himself come to bethany's aid fallen muse azrael jason lee proves to be the manipulator for all the chicanery the logical but convoluted plot only exists as an excuse for the jokes and to make smith's points and in itself has little dramatic momentum among the supposedly outrageous claims made by the film is that god is a woman jesus was black and the bible was written by a bunch of racist misogynistic white men of course kevin smith does not necessarily subscribe to these ideas himself they are a metaphor for the fears and insecurities of the dogmatic smith says as much in his amusing disclaimer that precedes the movie when harvey weinstein asked smith to put it into the film before cannes smith thought it might give validation to protesters' claims that the film was sacrilegious but then he rethought it and turned the disclaimer into a joke the film's humor is uneven some parts are very funny as when bethany goes for a fire extinguisher when metatron makes a kind of entrance but many of the film's jokes just bomb as in virtually anything involving salma hayek's serendipity also some of the jokes can be seen coming from a mile away still smith keeps the zingers coming at a sufficiently rapid pace among the actors fiorentino and rickman stand out by far fiorentino virtually by herself gives the film emotional weight damon and affleck are fairly lackluster rock and hayek exist in the film pretty much only as comic relief as are mews and smith but the latter duo fare much better because jay and silent bob who recur in all of smith's movies are much more in line with smith's brand of humor bud cort george carlin janeane garofalo guinevere turner and alanis morissette all make cameo appearances
positive	review ghost dog the way of the samurai cast forest whitaker henry silva cliff gorman john tormey gene riffini victor argo tricia vessey isaach de bankole' camille winbush director jim jarmusch writer jim jarmusch rating good shot stars languid yet pointed and focused ghost dog the way of the samurai sublimely savages our cultural fascination with the mafia and the sleek cinematic image of the hitman juxtaposing the samurai's honor code of feudal japan against the tradition bound modus operandi of the mafia it ceaselessly chips away with a sculptor's precision at the archaic foundations of both as they lumber to function in the modern era director jarmusch gleefully plays the iconoclast ripping into mafioso precepts with splashes of acidic wit using a palate of bleached colors jarmusch lugubriously maintains a tone of desolation that belies the many sparks of laugh out loud humor punctuating the film he doesn't cater to audience expectations of stylized violence and gunplay where no one dies the action is presented in flat brutal codas bullets have permanence death has consequences the movie rises beyond standard conventions to become a meditation on the concepts of honor and loyalty it is an of sorts there are few photogenic empathetic characters for the audience to fall in love with this isn't a film that lovingly holds your hand there are dark contemplative moments and the film firmly holds you by the shoulder just so asserting itself for all to see the fulcrum for the movie's thematic balancing act is ghost dog a mafia hitman a twist on the stereotypical image of the mob enforcer ghost dog is a hilarious contradiction in terms unlike the sleek muscular killing machines one is accustomed to we are given an inner city black man who is overweight and slovenly replete with chapped dirty hands and rumpled clothing he wears a hooded sweatshirt which he often pulls over his head giving him a appearance there are no acrobatic back flips and shiny super guns in his arsenal he uses old worn weapons and simply goes about his tasks in economical efficient and pleasureless fashion ghost dog is a disciple of the old ways of the samurai distilling the essence of his life through the filter of a book which he reads daily hagakure the way of the samurai life consists of simple pleasures for him ice cream warm rooftop naps and good books ghost dog lives as it were by the basic tenet expressed by his book one should start each day considering oneself as dead living atop an abandoned building surrounded by his flock of pet carrier pigeons ghost dog exists in a netherworld lacking creature comforts and friends he craves nothing more as he puts it late in the film i've seen all i want to see he exists in a spiritual world of the mind gaining moral sustenance from his readings ghost dog wasn't always as he is presented in several flashbacks it's shown how ghost dog was assaulted by racist white males and beaten nearly to death until the timely intervention of a good samaritan that samaritan being a foot soldier in an aging crime family ghost dog pledges his life to the service of the man louie tormey as repayment after years of loyal service ghost dog is sent by louie to kill handsome frank a made man within louie's organization who has run away with the crime boss's daughter louise vessey ghost dog wordlessly executes his task witnessed by louise whom he spares as she sits watching a betty boop cartoon clutching a copy of the book roshomon in a bit of synchronicity louise loans the book to ghost dog upset that frank was taken out by someone not from the family the mob bosses in turn put out a hit on ghost dog in a perverse twist of loyalty to their assassinated comrade the rest of movie holds the dated value systems of both the mafia and ghost dog up to the light of a new millennium with many acerbic asides as the two come factions come into conflict the theme of old cartoons flares up time and again each time showing cartoon violence that is in sharp counterpoint to the reality of ghost dog's world each time a character is shown watching a cartoon it's from the same era betty boop felix the cat etc a reflection of days gone by near the end louise is watching a cartoon that's a departure from the previously shown ones it's a bit of audacity on jarmusch's part that is nicely effective despite it's surrealistic nature as ghost dog floats through his world his life is touched by two people one is a sage little girl winbush who connects with ghost dog through their love of reading she comes to symbolize a melding of the old ways and new sensibilities just as louise ultimately does by film's end the fact that jamusch is so effective at illustrating the tenuous bond between the two is a testament to his skill as a writer the other person in ghost dog's world is an ice cream de bankole' vendor who only speaks french yet intuitively shares a rapport with ghost dog the vendor is the literal stranger in a strange land jarmusch through rza underscores his film with rap and reggae music which at first blush seems dichotomous but its primal rhythms serve to strengthen the fundamental nature of the movie ghost dog seems to draw some type of strength from the rap music he listens to as he negotiates the streets in various stolen cars which in and of itself presents another paradox about ghost's dog's sense of honor the head mafioso is played by henry silva with a stone faced resignation of all the cartoonish mobsters he is the only one who appears self aware of his state in the world gorman plays sonny a lieutenant who respects the old ways yet has a quirky affinity for rap music a love comically shown in several impromptu displays ruffini seems the truest reflection of the mafia he is a husk of a man assisted by two hearing aids who barks out advice without truly hearing what he or others are saying whitaker carries the film by using what truly great actor's use his face ghost dog is reticent to speak often going for long periods without doing so the fact that whitaker can convey such a wide range of emotion through a gesture or look is a remarkable talent although the film has a deliberate pace some of the late night drives and walks taken by ghost dog dragged the momentum down truly tragic is how ghost dog misinterprets japanese honor in his final confrontation with the mob he reveals himself to be so desperate for spiritual guidance through the hagakure that he fails to truly adapt it to what is real and true in his world carried on the shoulders of a remarkable performance by whitaker ghost dog rises beyond being a characterization or icon into a figure that garners sympathy if not a bit of pity
positive	i rented brokedown palace last night blind having heard nothing about it beforehand and i enjoyed it immensely despite some flaws for anyone wishing to have the same experience i would suggest reserving judgement of the movie until viewing it in its entirety that is no easy task superficially it bears an unfortunate and not necessarily unintended resemblance to several other movies notably return to paradise and midnight express as a result nearly every review of brokedown palace i subsequently read became hopelessly entangled in making the obvious comparisons the consequence was nearly universal condemnation which is a shame as this is a fine film for those who have yet to view the movie let me say that it is not an attempt to portray the nightmarish reality of the third world criminal justice system as was midnight express nor completely the moral dilemma and examination of the meaning of friendship and humanity that was the heart of return to paradise in my view if this film is to be compared to any other source it would have to be joseph conrad's acclaimed novel lord jim problematically the basic storyline seems more than familiar two american teenage girls on vacation are sentenced to spend most of their lives in a thai prison for drug smuggling in an obvious involving a suave a shadowy criminal conspiracy and a corrupt third world justice system the girls are alice claire danes and darlene kate beckinsale they're buddies who planned a graduation trip to hawaii and then secretly changed their destination to the more exotic thailand without telling their parents once there they find a hotel and go which includes sneaking into a luxury hotel to sip expensive drinks poolside they get caught trying to charge the bill to the wrong room a minor transgression which will later come back to haunt them but they are saved from hotel security by a charming friendly australian nick daniel lapaine who takes care of the bill with a more polished execution of the girl's scam he then proceeds to separate the girls and make smooth moves first toward alice then toward darlene by now alarm bells are going off among viewers the nick is too slick and his stories don't add up to us girls of course are too naive to notice long before it happens we're anticipating the inevitable disappearance of the smuggler and the arrest of our teenaged at the airport en route to hong kong caught holding the bag literally containing heroin just as predictably the thai police and courts do their part in meting out injustice and our trusting tourists are for a long stretch left unanswered is the red herring issue of whether one or the other of the girls was a willing accomplice for those in need of a ready answer might i suggest closer scrutiny of the bell hop at the girl's fleabag hotel as one door after another to their comfortable former life is closed the girls and their families turn in desperation to the noiresque expatriate yankee hank bill pullam and his a recurring element of the movie is the tension between appearance and reality as expressed in one of the film's tag lines who do you trust and hank is no exception although seasoned goers and those familiar with pullman's oeuvre will find few surprises much of the remainder of the movie is a smorgasbord of intriguing themes incompletely explored in fashion lou diamond phillips for instance plays a delightfully sinister and callous dea agent who while appearing to be casually accommodating to hank withholds vital information at crucial moments is he part of a wider conspiracy with an inherently powerful if somewhat tired premise the film offers by parts a riveting courtroom drama a prison story and a potential character study of american teens their relationship and what constitutes friendship between them the result is reasonably engaging and suspenseful with the girls' interaction hank's investigation and the various trials and hearings offering hope for their release delivering does the foredoomed possibility of their escape if brokedown palace has a major flaw it is its creators' tendency like tourists to take frequent side trips down fascinating alleys only to reverse direction down and return to the story's main avenue and if that were all there was to brokedown palace it wouldn't be a very good movie but i believe the writers and director were after bigger game and in this they succeeded for the main theme of the movie like the proffered name of its location is all its permutations ultimately the other may be considered window dressing young and pretty alice danes is an old soul a wild streetwise teenager with a thirst for freedom and adventure presented as a perfect blend of yin and yang dark and light is her cautious best friend darlene beckinsale and straightforward alice is more complex than her friend she comes from a poorer background has a reputation for getting into trouble and has lost the trust of everyone including her own father whereas darlene's life is aimed at college marriage kids a career a suburban home middle age and fulfillment alice's is uncertain unfocused and yearning one poignant scene in the film shows darlene shouting across an open moat to and relatives from home whose lives continue while hers is in limbo tellingly alice is present but not included just as revealing of their different personalities when alice and dar first come to thailand the openness and delight on alice's face doesn't read as simple naivet the way she stands up and stretches as she and her friend ride along in a small boat reaching toward the sun she really is drinking in what she believes to be freedom while dar remains seated in the shade brokedown palace begins with an admission by alice of her guilt in a tape recording sent to hank however unintentional it's all alice's fault she's responsible for persuading her friend to lie to her parents to sneak away from the safety of hawaii to the perils of thailand to try the petty scam which places them in the clutches of the evil nick in case one misses this point in the inevitable confusion of a film's beginning darlene obligingly reminds alice of her culpability in prison dar of course is the willing dupe which in her view confers innocence never mind that it was her coercion of a reluctant alice to accompany her to hong kong which placed them in police custody in the first place or that her naive confession sealed their fate dar is innocent it doesn't matter alice is the subject of this movie she and her journey toward personal freedom along the way we are treated to an unsympathetic portrait of the shallow american culture which created these girls with their sensibilities and materialistic goals in the end that culture like its representatives yankee hank and dar's father a man who knows how to grease the wheels proves as impotent as its government in the face of the girl's tragedy thailand's culture contrary to most opinion comes off much better by comparison it amazes me that reviewers argued this point at both extremes i believe the filmmaker's view was that thai culture is vastly different from the american but not necessarily inferior the thai with the sole exceptions of a corrupt official and a spiteful prison spy were uniformly consistent in their behavior and true to their principles the girls were shown to be treated no better but certainly no worse than the their prison in stark contrast to the probable reality was no hellhole being relatively clean and sunlit the prison authorities demanded good hygiene provided medical care when needed and hard manual labor consisted of picking grass the thai guards were authoritarian what else but certainly not routinely sadistic as for the thai justice system the reasoning of the thai judges during both an appeal hearing and in the film's penultimate scene was devastating in its logic and morality has many faces and brokedown palace explores many of them in the extreme we have freedom of the body and freedom of the spirit some settle for the former alone while others remain imprisoned with an entire nation to roam without the latter but freedom seldom comes without a price which is why the movie's other tag lines are what is your dream and how far would you go i believe i could make a good case for the interpretation that the person who attains freedom incarcerated or not by film's end is alice she finds redemption and salvation through the acceptance of personal responsibility i think the light bathing only her figure among the assembled prisoners in the final scene visually signals that fact kate beckinsale's character might more properly be likened to the released temple bird referred to twice during the film trained to fly back to its cage as the thai magistrate observed in the film's climactic scene the issue was always one of character and the jamaican prisoner made it clear that freedom is achieved within oneself if one thinks back over the movie which character was transformed by their experiences increasingly the cinema landscape seems to have become littered with endless permutations of fu characters virtually indistinguishable from male action figures here at last is the story of a modern heroine in reading the many user's comments i was struck by what seems an unusual phenomenon whether or not a person liked the movie almost everyone praised the actors think about that when was the last time you came away from a motion picture possibly hating it but raving about all the performances in it do yourself a favor rent brokedown palace and watch it with a open mind there's more there than meets the eye
positive	everyone's heard about this movie and more specifically the scene everyone's heard the famous barnyard animal quote squealed no pun intended over and over and everyone's got to admit that they will never travel down a river again without thinking of deliverance good that's what you're supposed to do oh if you are one of the ones who hasn't seen this yet or you somehow haven't heard about what happens here's your spoiler warning deliverance was a real shocker for it's time major advances were being made in films and deliverance made its own advances when it introduced a new horror into the film industry when it was first released it literally shocked the audiences it was something that for the most part had really never been seen on the big screen before among films with an r rating but by today's film standards and in today's world such scenes as the one in deliverance can be reproduced in a way that isn't as shocking although they can be even more graphic e g pulp fiction pulp fiction did it in a way and expanded on it in a way that it could even be interpreted as funny but in deliverance was no laughing matter the story centers around a group of four atlanta men who decide to take a rafting trip down a backwoods river in georgia while the river is still there and in its glory the initial leader of the group is lewis burt reynolds in his prime a real outdoorsman and more of a daniel then any of the others joining him are ed jon voight bobby ned beatty and drew ronny cox the group's first objective is to find someone s to drive their cars down the river to the point where they will end their trip they make arrangements with a few mountain men who accept for the task drew also has the famous dueling banjos competition with a local who is let us say genetically challenged the men then set off down the river with lewis also the master at canoeing leading the way everything seems to be going fine until the two canoes split up leaving the unexperienced ed and bobby alone they encounter two hillbillies armed with a shotgun who captured them ed is tied to a tree while bobby is sodomized by one of the men ed nearly receives the same cruelty but lewis arrives just in time to fire an arrow through the rapist's back the other hillbilly gets away and the men have to decide what to do with the dead body disposing of dead bodies is done rather frequent throughout this film while attempting to make a quick paddle for it both canoes tip over drew who was without a life jacket was possibly shot and cannot be found lewis suffered a rather nasty compound fracture during the incident and is in serious condition this leaves ed and bobby ed decides to go out and look for the remaining hillbilly alone with the bow and arrow the question arises if he will be able to handle himself as he horribly botched a first shot attempt at a deer to which his comment i wonder how anyone could kill a living thing will have more meaning in the future deliverance is definitely a wild ride oops i'm doing it again it is extremely tense at some points and very dramatic it's definitely one of those must see movies and should be considered one of the classics of its decade
positive	in october of audiences were dazzled by the horror surprise hit i know what you did last summer the film went on to gross over million dollars in the u s and even developed a cult following much like the previous year's million dollar grossing scream when the trailer hit theaters in september attached to urban legend it looked like a wonderful did it live up to the first film the answer is no jennifer love hewitt returns as julie james a survivor of the serial killer that attempted to kill her and her friends a year before she has been so upset since the incident nightmares haunt her all over the place but she has to move on she know attends college and is best friends with a funny outgoing girl named karla brandy who is trying to hook julie up with will benson played by newcomer matthew settle karla's boyfriend is tyrell the funny outgoing type who is played by soul food's mekhi phifer freddie prinze jr also returns as ray julie's boyfriend from a year ago one morning julie and karla are called up by a local radio station who are offering four tickets to the bahamas if they can correctly identify the capital of brazil of course they answer it correctly and they are off to the bahamas julie wants ray to come but he declines the offer so karla secretly invites will instead to help boost her plan of hooking him up with julie after they arrive at their hotel it is just them and the staff on the island it starts off as the weekend of their dreams something just had to come to mess up the one weekend of julie's life though ben willis muse watson is back and he isn't letting anyone survive this time will ray come to the rescue before he can kill them off one by one jennifer love hewitt and brandy turn in respectable performances brandy in particular was impressive considering this is her first feature film you could see that the characters were horrified and they would do anything possible to survive matthew settle and freddie prinze jr are a completely different story let's start with settle matthew is completely fake in this film you could not believe a word coming out of his mouth you could tell he was acting and its reasons like him that this one isn't as good as the first one he does do a good job towards the end but that doesn't clear up the scars he already left on the film freddie prinze jr is almost as bad as matthew settle was he is almost completely unbelievable and the majority of his lines are completely meaningless and out of place we don't see him as much as settle otherwise he could have done just as much damage as settle did mekhi phifer is alright as tyrell but yet again the dialogue is out of place the plot of i still know turns out to be a pretty good one at the end of the movie i like where the filmmakers went with this second installment but maybe if it occurred in the same town as the first one it would have been a bit better the cinematography and setting of their island are simply wonderful there are a lot of very nice shots around their hotel the sound is pretty good but still not as creepy as the first film's jennifer love hewitt's song how do i deal is also played for about thirty seconds i still know what you did last summer is nothing compared to the first film the first film was very suspenseful and it contained some very memorable scenes the last fifteen minutes of i still know what you did last summer really picked up and almost reached the same level as the first film before this part in the film there are many unnecessary deaths and fake scares that is okay though because the film is still very much fun and there are a few suspenseful scenes i think the reason this film wasn't as scary as the original was because in the first one the killer terrorized the people involved in the incident he made them suffer for what they did in the second film ben willis just kills anyone he feels like he doesn't stick with ray and julie who were the ones he is actually after he had to go after karla will and tyrell if the characters he stalked were in some relation to the incident that went on when he was ran over by julie ray helen and barry it could have been much better and it would have made a lot more sense the bottom not a disappointment but a third in the series would be out of hand
positive	brian depalma needs a hit really badly since scoring big with the untouchables in depalma has seen casualties of war raising cain and particularly the disastrous bonfire of the vanities go down in flames consequently it would be easy enough to consider carlito's way a shrewd commercial choice for depalma reteaming with al pacino scarface and returning to the gangland ground which has yielded his two greatest box office successes it doesn't hurt any that he has latched on to a solid story and brought out dynamite performances from pacino and sean penn carlito's way while hampered by depalma's characteristic excesses and stylistic cannibalism is a truly tense and engrossing drama carlito brigante pacino is a criminal who finds himself unexpectedly given a second chance in carlito is released from prison after serving only five years of a thirty year sentence when his conviction is overturned on a technicality he declares himself reformed tired of life on the streets and determined to fulfill his simple dream of buying into a rental car business in the bahamas among those who find this conversion hard to believe are david kleinfeld penn carlito's crooked attorney and childhood friend and bodyguard pachanga luis guzman carlito rediscovers old flame gail penelope ann miller and seems ready to retire in peace old ways die hard though and old associates pull carlito step by step back into a life he can't seem to shake carlito's way will probably make the strongest impression with the two outstanding set pieces which bracket the film in the first carlito accompanies his young cousin on a drug buy which will have anyone with a pulse on the edge of their seat the film closes with an equally thrilling chase through the new york subway and grand central station both highlight depalma's gift for choreographed mayhem and these are not the only occasions when the stage blood flows freely yet for all the viscera i found the character study even more compelling carlito brigante has a lot of michael corleone in him an aging gangster trying unsuccessfully to go legit but where the culmination of the godfather saga played like opera there's more of an immediacy to carlito's way an sense of doom launched by the title sequence which sets the flashback story in motion you sense that there's no way after so many years that carlito can stay out of trouble indeed he observes that his attempt at the straight life is more a function of time than a change of heart you don't get reformed you just run out of wind pacino captures carlito's dilemma with surprising subtlety and the cautious observation borne of years of experience watching every corner for an enemy sean penn is even better turning in his best performance to date as kleinfeld a jew in the world of puerto rican and italian wiseguys kleinfeld is an outsider with a huge chip on his shoulder he could have been simply pathetic a heavy drinker and cocaine addict playing tough with guys way out of his league but penn invests kleinfeld with tremendous nervous energy and an overwhelming survival instinct he shows a man moving steadily towards the brink making the moment he goes over quite jolting as compelling as the narrative is viewers may experience a profound sense of deja vu depalma continues to steal shamelessly from other directors this time adding scorsese to his repertoire with a point of view tracking shot and a copacabana scene with more than passing resemblances to goodfellas he even recycles some of his own previous plagiarisms like a degree swing around a kiss vertigo via body double and the climactic shootout which will strike many as far too reminiscent of the train station sequence from the untouchables from a story standpoint there's an obligatory love story with a cliche'd girlfriend character penelope ann miller is a good but limited actor who doesn't do anything new with the role and eventually she becomes just a distraction never integrated fully enough into the story still it's easier to be forgiving of superficial flaws when the backbone is so solid the two principle characters held an iron grip on my attention one all the cinematic thievery in the world couldn't break carlito's way plays like a tragic novel deliberate confident and powerful those willing to grant depalma his tendencies towards the extreme should find themselves rewarded
positive	i've never been a huge fan of jeff bridges but i loved him in the big lebowski the part of jeff the dude lebowski was reportedly written specifically with bridges in mind and the fit is perfect the dude is an unemployed denizen of los angeles a hippie slob on a bowling team with a soft spot for white russians he's enjoying a leisurely soak in the tub when two thugs break into his apartment demanding to be paid for the money his wife owes after much pleading he convinces them they have the wrong guy but not before they urinate on his rug the dude assumes that these collection agents were after another jeff lebowski a famous millionaire who also lives in l a so he goes to meet his namesake to ask for enough money to replace his rug the millionaire refuses but calls him back when he discovers his wife has been kidnaped he wants the dude to act as for the kidnapers dude and his friend walter john goodman take on the task and get caught in an intricate web of kidnapers millionaires high schoolers nihilists artists pornographers thugs and league bowlers comedy is perhaps the most subjective of genres so take my recommendation as you will for me the big lebowski is very funny it is an incredibly successful comedy the ratio of laughs to intended jokes much higher than in most films not only are the two leads bridges and goodman funny separately and together but each supporting character is a refreshing comic figure all the characters end up as the butt of jokes but the jokes are always deserved and never contrived each person may be a comic caricature but there is always a respectful that lets us laugh at these people without condescension the characters are firmly established and they never change their behavior for a quick cheap laugh it's not what they do that's funny it's who they are which is why the acting is so important and so successful in this movie worth mentioning are john turturro as jesus that's not the greaser bowler who's in a lusty marriage with the game julianne moore as the artist whose work has been described as vaginal steve buscemi as the eager tagalong bowler who is constantly rebuked and ignored by teammates dude and walter and sam elliott as the rambling narrator aside from the performances what makes all the characters funny and interesting is the astute dialogue people lose trains of thought they interrupt they boast they repeat themselves they repeat their friends they sound natural taken with fargo the coen brothers' last film it is evidence that the brothers are observant listeners and gifted writers ethan coen is not just good at directing actors he's also good at technical directing he and cinematographr roger deakins created a beautiful world on film perhaps beautiful is the wrong word nihilists and thugs are not objects of beauty but the bowling photography and a series of fantasy dream sequences are lovingly photographed as though the dude himself were in charge of immortalizing them on film all around the big lebowski is great solid comedy outstanding acting writing direction and photography all combine to make this a great comic success
positive	synopsis captain picard and the crew of the starship enterprise disobey federation orders and defend a peaceful community of the ba'ku from the evil admiral dougherty and ru'afro the enterprise crew in the meantime experience the rejuvenating qualities of the ba'ku homeworld lt worf grows a pimple data sings opera pieces picard scores with a ba'ku chick riker shaves while sharing a bubblebath with troi and the enterprise women note their firmer breasts comments star trek the next generation was a hugely successful sequel tv series to star trek a science fiction series which developed a devoted fan following in the even though it still enjoyed high ratings star trek the next generation ended production after seven years so that the cast could replace the original star trek cast in paramount's film franchise centering on the voyages of the starship enterprise star trek insurrection is the ninth star trek movie and the third to focus on the star trek the next generation crew star trek insurrection qualifies as one of those movies star trek fans such as myself would rate somewhere between okay and good after star trek v the final frontier a nearly awful movie almost as bad as the repugnant star trek voyager tv series star trek fans could probably swallow anything paramount throws out in the trek film franchise i don't wish to spend this review comparing insurrection to the eight other trek movies most people reading this probably haven't followed star trek anyway so a comparison would seem tedious at best let me thus make my comparisons briefly so that it's out of my system star trek insurrection is not as good as the previous installment star trek first contact star trek insurrection's comic tone may be best compared to star trek iv the voyage home star trek ii the wrath of khan is still the best trek movie okay let's move to the movie itself star trek insurrection infuses a basic science fiction premise humanity's exploration and colonization of space with a lot of lowbrow humor and witty oneliners this combination works well more often than it fails but when it does fail the humor really seems cheesy much of this film appeals to trek fans' nostalgic fondness for the starship enterprise's crew audiences unfamiliar with trek lore may miss the significance of some plot points and may even become confused at times star trek insurrection begins with scenes of the tranquil life on the ba'ku homeworld forget the actors and special effects the beautiful setting of this movie with its snowy mountaintops and verdant valleys steals the show this tranquility however is broken by data an android who reveals to the ba'ku that they are being secretly monitored by the federation and their alien allies the son'a it seems that this world is a veritable fountain of youth sustaining its inhabitants indefinantly in a young healthy state the enterprise crew led by captain picard investigates data's actions and uncovers a conspiracy between the son'a and an enterprise admiral to relocate the ba'ku and plunder the planet's properties sound pretty heavy it is though this plot anything but unique and groundbreaking is undermined by the film's constant barrage of humor when going after data for instance picard sings an opera piece with him this is supposed to be cute and humorous in a much more funny sequence work grows a large pimple on the side of his nose as a result of his exposure to the ba'ku homeworld a pimple which his crewmates try as they might cannot avoid looking at the acting in star trek insurrection is for the most part pretty good since they've been playing these characters for years those portraying the enterprise crew reassume their roles effortlessly enough the terrific actor patrick stewart plays captain picard and delivers a moral speech picard's trademark with his usual aplomb brent spiner another fine actor plays the android data well enough again and provides the best moments of comic relief in the film though the old motif will tire some trek fans familiar with the routine from the tv series the supporting cast who appear in this movie alone are also pretty good despite many other critics' negative opinions f murray abraham the winner of an academy award for his performance in amadeus plays the major villain ru'afro well enough ru'afro reminds me somewhat of the baron harkonnen in the film version of dune like the baron ru'afro continuously has his skin looked after it is stretched and stapled by servants in one particularly memorable scene ru'afro becomes very agitated and his facial skin splits open and bleeds ru'afro is no khan from star trek best trek villain he is much better than the forgettable dr soran from star trek generations okay i promise no more comparisons donna murphy must also be noted as a ba'ku woman anij who picard falls in love with murphy is not a young woman with a supermodel body she is a mature woman with an attractive countenance this is the type of woman whom picard for those who know the character well would be enchanted with in fact the chemistry between murphy and stewart works very well here a particular plot point involving anij's ability to slow time down an ability which she shares with picard becomes one of the most intriguing parts of the movie for as good as the actors and setting were star trek insurrection's special effects were surprisingly disappointing they proved adequate sometimes barely for a mainstream science fiction film but they fell way short of the standard trek movie and paled in comparison to those seen in the trailer for star wars the phantom menace a trailer which reportedly preceded many showings of insurrection the space battles involving the enterprise and sona ships in particular seemed trite and unsuspenseful and the final confrontation between picard and ru'afro took place on a completely unconvincing interior of a satellite the new enterprise itself only seen in this film and its predecessor remains largely unexplored though its exterior doesn't look quite right for a reason i cannot explain despite star trek insurrection's frequent comic goofiness and occasional substandard special effects i enjoyed the film it maintains roddenberry's largely optimistic view of the future and rejects the gritty violence of its predecessors particularly star trek first contact though don't get me wrong the dark tones of trek films like first contact can work very successfully i'd recommend insurrection as a matinee film for a saturday afternoon especially for fans of trek or science fiction in general rated pg i can't see this film being objectionable to the viewing audience young or old
positive	us people are always shaking our heads and telling everyone that movies aren't thrill rides but i think that back to the future ii is one of the few exceptions if the original film had the spirit of the then this has the spirit of the full of fights chase scenes cliff hangers special effects some detective work and of course the vision of the future the film picks up exactly where the first film left off with doc lloyd marty fox and jennifer elizabeth shue travelling years into the future because something bad is going to happen to marty and jennifer's kids doc tells marty he must take his son's place at an incident that will cause a chain reaction if marty mcfly jr says yes to griff wilson in one of four different roles whoever said history tends to repeat itself wasn't joking especially when it comes to the movies essentially the same chase scene that marty endured in the takes place again in the year but it's not as authentically exciting this time because it is so obviously a parody of itself at the end of the situation marty has changed the course of history for the better and it seems like everything's copasetic right wrong since when do things go according to plan in the back to the future movies there are so many minor conflicts and details that effect the plot and the direction of the story i won't even bother to list them all basically we get to see marty as an old man his house his family etc we also go back to an alternate and then back again to with everything happening so fast the film never stops to catch a breath the films' best aspect is the fact that it actually goes back to the first movie and shows a lot of the action that occurred from another angle it's difficult to convey the sense of wild and zany fun without describing every little detail the only thing sacrificed in this film is the suspense instead of a grand finale we get lots of little victories by the end everything is back to normal but something happens that leads to yet another sequel but it doesn't seem gratuitous back to the future part ii is a really great adventure movie it certainly has more originality than other films but it lacks a certain charm that was dominate throughout its predecessor
positive	magnolia left me relling from the theatre staggering from the relentless assault of an adventurous director reveling in his craft at nearly three and a half hours magnolia will strike some as a brute of a film it not only demands your attention but challenges you to grasp the significance of seemingly unrelated storylines and hidden intentions it is delirious depressing heady pretentious surreal filmmaking it's also a movie that will polarize its viewers director paul thomas anderson takes a talented cast wraps them in a net of interrelated stories and sets them spinning in a symphony of despair whose song doesn't let up until an oddly exhilerating biblically influenced the character's make up a modern day gomorrah in the soulless way in which they live their lives there is frank mackey tom cruise a slithery snake charmer of men whose search and destroy seminars teach how to mentally rape a woman to get into her pants there is earl partridge jason robards a dying media tycoon yearning to make amends for a lfe of callousness by finding his estranged son there is game show host jimmy gator phillip baker hall a self absorbed tv icon who is hiding more than a few secrets from his public and there is police officer jim kurring john c reilly who cloaks himself in the codification of organized religion and the legal system perhaps masking a man who needs rules to fuel his decision making process given equal weight are stories involving a emotional cripple melora walters a former tv quiz show champion william h macy a materialistic adulterous wife julianne moore a child jeremy blackman victimized by a mentally abusive parent and a caring empathetic nurse philip seymour hoffman hovering over all these characters is a cloud of death lies and despair it is not a pleasant movie there is not one bad note in the acting it is affecting and layered and wonderful there is a moment where tom cruise wordlessly implodes that rivals work he has done in whole films then he tops himself with a mesmerizing deathbed scene walters plays her character with rawness and a fierce that is anxiety inducing robards convincingly portrays a fading whisper of a man who still hears a lion's roar when he speaks director anderson has apparently given the actors lattitude to emote the problem is that he stays on them too long julianne moore's character linda quickly escalates to a frenzied pitch of guilt tears screaming and remorse and never backs off from it after a few hours it turns from interesting to chinese water torture quite a few scenes such as the game show go on just a bit too long and will be for those used to a pat minute film where the main theme is reiterated several times just in case you missed it the first go around and just what is the theme alienation hopelessness anderson challenges you to draw your own conclusions and he doesn't make it easy the film starts by showing three strange and seemingly unrelated events it's a harbinger of the synchronicity to come at times different stories reach reach key moments at the same time other times stories seem to veer off into uncharted territory regardless of what else is happening anderson is audacious enough to even have a group sing in the middle of the film what's surprising is that it mostly works if you have doubts about anderson's intentions i'll ask you to pay attention to the final frame despite all the sturm und drang magnolia ultimately speaks to man's capacity for hope and attempts at redemption despite magnolia's needlessly long running time and its propensity for uneven editing as anderson plays the auteur showing off fro the masses i have to admire his guts this is truly adventurous filmmaking that spits in the face of conventional storytelling my rating a bulleye stars a side note helping anchor the film is a perfectly matched soundtrack featuring aimee mann her lyrics often add depth to a scene thematically while the actual music is both morose and beautiful when she sings save me at the end it enhances the yearning felt by the characters just as wise up mirrors the anguish felt by all as they contemplate their lives
positive	a group of high school kids mix up with a group of artists as a documentarian strives to discover why today's youth seem attracted to black culture the review if black white the new film from james toback is eventually remembered for only one thing it will be the revelation that brooke shields claudia schiffer marla maples and mike tyson can act however this partly improvised gem will be remembered for more than that black white is a fascinating film it makes a statement about america's youth and culture without getting overly serious featuring a cast of known commodities ben stiller robert downey jr and hot newcomers singers bijou phillips toback's is a complex film worth seeing black white has multiple storylines that are all related to each other a la robert altman there is dean the basketball player allan houston who is asked to rig games for money by mark clear stiller in exchange for fifty grand a game this eventually spills over into the life of dean's friend rich power a gangsta who controls city blocks of harlem rich has to deal with the imminent opening of a club on his turf meanwhile the young white girls who like to hang around with rich and his homies get talked into being in a documentary by sam donager shields and her gay husband terry downey jr others who make appearances are william lee scott as the young white punk will joe pantoliano as his district attorney father jared leto as a high school teacher marla maples as the mother of one of crazed teens claudia schiffer as dean's girlfriend and mike tyson as mike tyson the stories ebb and flow through the film losing and gaining prominence over time friendships are lost lovers are gained and there is an occasional burst of violence originally rated in the united states black white features a lot of sex between black gangstas and young white girls while the film was trimmed down to a tamer r rating viewers will wonder what could be more explicit than what they are seeing the sexual beginning of the film nicely warns viewers of what they are in for and several audience members got up and left at that point the frequent sex is one of the film's few flaws as the titillation is overdone and at times completely unrelated to anything else going on in the film to toback's credit the level of violence in black white is almost nil these gangstas and artists are given real problems and concerns and only become crazies when it benefits them to appear that way whenever a character finds himself on donager's handheld digital camera he starts spouting off righteous tirades on america and proclaims his independence but not everyone has fully bought into the idea charlie phillips is full of bluster about why she loves but admits that in ten years time i'll be way over this these youth know they are going through a phase and are simply enjoying it toback fills the spaces between these tirades with scenes that are lightweight and funny most of the humour comes from mike tyson who provides the film's comic relief without really trying he is given big words like vernacular to say and as rich tries to discuss a particular street problem with tyson he frequently has to ask him to use smaller words and explain himself better playing on tyson's image as a dimwit but tyson also gets the film's scariest moment as he is mercilessly hit upon by the very gay terry tyson is a marvel to watch as he fights to remain calm the scene is entirely improvised with downey jr being told to just keep at tyson until he gets a reaction the reaction he gets being slapped and then choked is astonishing as downey jr's face turns a frightening shade of purple black white is a film about culture and the film's omnipresent soundtrack strongly supports this but toback keeps things from becoming too serious by moving from story to story as quickly as he does toback keeps us from becoming attached to any one character's struggle thus black white's message about becomes secondary to the film itself toback just wants us to have fun and maybe learn a little about along the way and we do
positive	one year has passed since the last time we saw them and but wayne campbell and garth algar are back but they've moved out of their parents homes and now have their own pad in an abandoned warehouse wayne's still hopelessly infatuated with his girlfriend cassandra and of course garth is still having his own personal growing pains they guys are just finishing off one of their shows and head off to an aerosmith concert where they run across cassandra and her new manager a stereotypical industry slime not unlike the character rob lowe portrayed in the previous film again the promoter is not only after the money that cassandra's talent can bring in the storyline quickly degrades to a parallel of the original guy loses chick guy realizes mistake and guy gets chick back fortunately there is more to this movie than this somewhat sheer plot the wit and humor in this film are surprisingly intelligent and fresh with many inside jokes on the film and music industries as well as just a lot of hilarious scenes of wayne and garth showing their true color highlights of the movie include a spoof of jurassic park garth's seduction by a married woman a surprise appearance by charleton heston a batman setup in the guy's pad and some pretty groovy chats with jim morrison and some naked indian guy an unexpected of ymca you could see that one coming a mile away and of course a hilarious parody of those movies we love to laugh at and if you've ever wondered why there's always boxes of watermelons chickens and people walking plate glass in the middle of streets you'll find out here this movie also explores wayne and garth a little more garth has somewhat of a coming of age and wayne gets to learn a little about himself with a little help from our old friend jim morrison a few old jokes from the previous movie are explored here again but this time with a few twists to keep them fresh and luckily few if any of them are overused overall the movie has plenty of continuity flaws especially in the fight scent between garth and cassandra's dad but these are easily overlooked as this is after wayne's world the plot is flimsy but manageable there are a few special effects but they are fairly seamless and fill nicely into the plot the acting is good for this sort of movie but there are some very bright spots in the big picture this movie is just plain fun there is lots of intelligent humor that makes this film special during the whole one hour and minutes i didn't even think about looking at my watch a single time silly but riotous at times this is an excellent movie even better than the original
positive	john carpenter directed this stylish and gory vampire flick to which has it's good side and it's bad it's held up by some good performances and dazzling special effects leading up to an ending that's pretty satisfying james woods gives an outstanding performance that almost covers up the movie the good side some neat scenes of vampires and violence the bad no scares yes that's right even though being directed by one of horror's most cherished directors is the least bit scary if not at all james woods stars as jack a vampire hunter out to stop the plans of the vampire valek played by thomas ian griffith whom wants vampires to walk in the daylight daniel baldwin plays his sidekick montoya a guy who really isn't that funny in the opening scene jack along with montoya and the team of vampire hunters find an abandoned house to which vampire occupy of course we all know sunshine kills vampires and that is just how they kill these vampires hooking them to ropes and dragging them outside letting them burn to death after throwing a party for what happened the vampires that did not die come back to trash it they kill almost all of jack's team leaving only a few alive sheryl lee plays a prostitute katrina who was bitten by valek but not yet turned into a vampire she is rescued by jack and flees with them on their search for valek they have to fight they're way against vampires leading up to a finale that is with great special effects definately could have been done better the special effects and story are first rate but there is no scares or terror that the film could have had it to me had more humor than horror almost being compared to night' with the mix of violence and comedy john carpenter does a great job of directing this film he eases through some tough times and saves the flaws which are noticeable but forgettable the script is clever and funny with many lines that make us laugh out loud i much enjoyed with a few exceptions it's one of those films you see but don't take to heart you enjoy the time you spent and go on the recently released is the same way it's not as good as you'd hope but it is fun and entertaining is a good horror flick with no scares but plenty of other content to please the viewer
positive	in the wake of the smashing success of rumble in the bronx it's looking more and more likely that more jackie chan films will see american release rumor has it that one of these films will be drunken master ii the version i have is a copy from the laserdisc it's widescreen and as are most hong kong films these days availability over here in the united states is very limited these films must either be purchased via pirates or sought out from asian distributors such as tai seng the subtitling on the copy i have is slightly hard to read the letters are white and a bit small although the american release will almost certainly be dubbed this review is of the subtitled version so please keep that in mind if you're reading this review to help you decide whether to go out and see it to be fair i must admit that i've never been very fond of martial arts ones set in some nebulous china of the distant or not so distant past perhaps it's because most of those i've seen were filmed on inferior stock with either butchered dubbing or subtitling or perhaps it's because their plots all tend to be very similar to each other and in many cases all but nonexistant in fact many of them get so wrapped up in their subplots that they seem to forget their main plot entirely until only a few minutes before the end or for that matter it might be because the jackie chan films with more modern settings armour of god rumble in the bronx etc tend to have more spectacular stunts often involving large motor vehicles and large explosions whereas period pieces simply have the martial arts having said that i must now turn right around and say that drunken master ii is a remarkable exception to all or most of the above is one of the better martial arts films i've seen and i quite enjoyed it surprised well so was i drunken master ii is about a young man named wong played by jackie chan who is a master of the drunken boxing style of kung fu where he learned this style is uncertain as his father wong ti lung is steadfast in his opposition to practicing it rather than some more normal style of kung fu apparently is some sort of figure from chinese folklore rather like paul bunyan is for americans but i've heard very little about this and could quite well be wrong so i'll leave analysis of that to the people who know it better one of my friends points out that the character of wong is also featured in the once upon a time in china movies but i have not yet seen those the plot of drunken master ii is somewhat hazy as are the plots to many such films but if you're watching a jackie chan film odds are you aren't expecting something on the order of war and peace the story seems to revolve around those evil foreigners who are spiriting away ancient chinese relics and hence china's cultural heritage while overworking underpaying and beating up chinese workers in a nearby steel mill however this plot merely serves as a framework for the other main story of the perpetual struggle to win his girlfriend supplicate his father keep his pregnant mother played by anita mui from fighting and keep from getting beaten up by evil foreigner thugs the macguffin that drives the plot s is a precious antique jade imperial seal which is being taken away by the evil foreigners in the beginning accidentally steals it while trying to recover an box containing the medicinal ginseng his father was bringing back for a customer in the process he clashes with another thief who is himself trying for the seal but ends up instead with the ginseng after narrowly avoids getting caught with the seal by the evil foreigners' lackies thanks to some timely intervention by a general's son a cameo appearance by andy lau who would later take on the starring role in drunken master iii comedic chaos ensues back at the wong household when and his mother attempt to come up with a replacement for the missing ginseng and so it goes and the plot thickens later on such as when girlfriend maneuvers him into a kung fu match with a rival or when and the thief now revealed to be a loyalist manchu officer trying to recover the seal and stop the evil foreigners are attacked en masse another grand movie tradition but i think i've already spent more time on the plot than it really deserves let's move on to the real draw of jackie chan movies the action there's plenty of martial arts action to be found in this movie of course in a kung fu film that's to be expected however this isn't just another kung fu movie this one has jackie chan doing the fight and stunt choreography and jackie chan is a genius the primary martial arts style featured in the film is drunken boxing a form of kung fu which attempts to draw the adversary off his guard by making it seem like the fellow using it is drunk further for the purposes of this film at least drunken boxers fight better when they actually intoxicated but there's a fine line between just drunk enough and drunk into a stupor under normal circumstances the idea of someone staggering around looking sloshed but managing to fight effectively and even incredibly might seem rather stupid but jackie pulls it off with flair the kung fu sequences are so intricate in their staging and execution that it is pointless to try to describe it on paper so i'll just say that the the big climactic fight at the themselves make the movie worth watching another thing drunken master ii has going for it is the stunt work even without motor vehicles well not counting a train there are some remarkable stunts in this film among other things jackie dives off a balcony into a table and crawls across hot coals not once but at twice if you count the outtake shown during the credits quicktime movies of these stunts can be found through the www movie database unlike in american films these stunts are faked drunken master ii stars several veteran actors of the hong kong movie scene including jackie ti lung a better tomorrow and anita mui the heroic trio series rumble in the bronx the performances are especially when it comes to the comedy parts of the film the scene where and his mother conspire literally behind father's back to cover up for the missing ginseng root is hilarious as is the scene where mother having just revealed that she is pregnant is threatening to hurt herself in order to draw her husband's anger away from jackie has developed his knack for physical comedy into a sort of mastery over the years and he's in fine form all through drunken master ii as far as cinematography is concerned it certainly works for this film it's nothing spectacular but is at least a dozen times better than all those old kung fu movies of the the picture is crisp and clear one thing i find particularly worthy of mention is that at least in the copy i have the screen was wider than any film i've ever seen on videotape a whole of the screen was blocked out above and below watch this on a bigscreen tv or movie theater if you can it will be an utter shame if this film is eventually for american video release drunken master ii shows the full potential of period piece kung fu movies and it's good enough to overcome even my usual distaste for such movies the plot does meander a bit but that's to be expected in this type of film if you like this kind of movie you'll love this movie and if not well give it a chance anyway if nothing else the martial arts and stunt sequences are by themselves worth the price of admission or rental
positive	at first glance three kings looks to be just another war movie the version of all those favourite war movies with names i cannot remember the version it definitely is just another war movie not in your dreams imagine pulp fiction approach to saving private ryan three kings for you believe it or not it bears the cool of the former and the stark humane meaning of the latter the story brings us to the twilight of the gulf war with the allied troops victorious majpr archie gates clooney leads an enterprising bunch of grunts to a rather unorthodox looting spree the millions in gold bars secretly stowed away by saddam in a desolate village in the desert as the rest of the troops are celebrating their victory and getting ready to be shipped home this goes awol on an armed the vehicle of choice of the us army they soon find out that they have much resistance as they get tangled with the local rebellion against forces frequently switching their modes between looters and robin merry men they become consciously attacked by their own morals as the film begins to roll it seemed to have a rather mood to it effects such as when gates describes to his men how a bullet can kill simply paves the way for a funny action movie three kings is much smarter than that as the conflict becomes more and more complex the audience will be trapped in a limbo trying to stay focussed on that that the film seem to portray i personally found this analogous to the same feelings of the main characters involved in the film trapped between their initial plan paved by greed and their own sense of humanity this simply made the entire experience of watching three kings truly brilliant action sequences are not shot as your war films nor anything like steven war violence they are carefully built to generate tension with just the right tight and pauses right before the action starts not john woo for sure but more of sergio spaghetti western style tons of them starring clint eastwood great performances by clooney and wahlberg but the brilliance have to lie in the conception of this film the screenwriter and the director three kings ranks among the best films of the year well for me at least highly recommended
positive	mickey mouse had better watch his back there's a new critter in town and he's the nameless animal attraction of mouse hunt dreamworks skg's clever first foray into family fare although it runs out of steam towards its end this comedy still boasts enough energized slapstick and inventive set pieces to best disney's entire catalog but consider that list includes dismal tripe like air bud flubber and that darn cat and it's really not such a difficult feat to pull off still throw the two rodents in a boxing arena and i'll be hoping that the mouse from mouse hunt knocks some sense back into mickey nathan lane robin williams' significant other from the birdcage and lee evans last seen as a nervous bellhop in the fifth element play ernie and lars smuntz befuddled brothers who have just inherited two unwanted assets from their late father william hickey in his last role a dilapidated old string factory and a dilapidated old mansion although lars made a deathbed promise to upkeep the former he and ernie decide to sell the latter for big bucks after learning it was designed by a famed architect but there's a lone obstacle in their way a single mouse lives within the walls of the house and he's not about to give up his place of residence without a fight movies aimed at young audiences are rarely this visually exquisite the effects blending the talents of live mice one animatronic mouse and one mouse are pretty seamless the splendid production design seems to be straight out of tim burton's mind the smuntz's mansion is like something straight out of the nightmare before christmas and the vortex of bizarre machinery in their factory resembles some of vincent price's warped contraptions from edward scissorhands mouse hunt is a pretty dark movie even some of the humor can be grim but it's hardly ever the star of the show is neither the lane nor the titular mouse it's lanky british comedian evans whose hysterical bodily antics suggest a jim carrey without the obnoxious overkill note a but nonetheless outrageous impromptu striptease evans' banter with the lane is funny stuff too and holds its own against the movie's more flashy physical shtick vicki lewis beth from newsradio is solid in a supporting role as lars' wife and in a nifty bit of novelty casting christopher walken is a macabre delight as a spooky exterminator who takes his job a little too seriously popping a dropping into his mouth and noting to his tape recorder that the mouse has a calcium deficiency blech a basically idea a mouse outsmarts a couple of bumbling humans is given a rather engaging execution their sparring is imaginatively realized i don't think i'll ever forget the sight of that tiny little mouse making his getaway on a rolling wheel of gouda and although you really never fully root for either side that's okay a union between the two parties is practically promised from the first frame they share mouse hunt may take a while to get going the rather lengthy could test the patience of some of the younger children although i rather liked it much in part to lane and evans and the climactic sequence is allowed to play out for a bit too long but this appears to be one family movie that most members of the family will be able to find agreeable not unlike the original home alone
positive	a miracle of filmmaking some like it hot is a brilliant film and maybe the foremost example of slapstick comedy brought to screen with clever sight gags and plot twists it is the pinnacle of billy wilder's career a stunning feat considering the vast catalogue of films he had helped make jerry lemmon and joe curtis are two stage musicians who go from gig to gig trying to earn enough money to feed themselves one night as they're playing at a banned prohibition speakeasy the place is raided as it turns out the owner spats columbo george raft was ratted out by toothpick charlie george e stone several weeks later on valentine's day jerry and joe go to a garage to pick up a car and end up witnessing a gangland murder of charlie by columbo in a parking garage eager to escape the duo are forced to take a job in florida with all expenses paid the only catch its a girls band so josephine curtis and daphne lemmon make their way onto the train and go to florida on the way there they meet sugar kane monroe a bombshell singer who is looking for love jerry and joe immediately fall for the singer but there's two problems they're in drag and millionaire osgood fielding joe e brown falls madly in love with daphne what follows in pure hysteria still complicated further by the arrival of spats columbo to florida for the italian opera lovers festival tony curtis is hysterical as especially in his preposterous attempts to woo sugar marilyn monroe in a wonderfully comic performance is sugar providing incredible timing and sex appeal along with true sincerity the scenes however are all stolen by either brown or lemmon lemmon is hysterical as daphne cast as the less rational one lemmon's performance is ridiculously crazy it is disorder in the style all billy wilder's brown is particularly hilarious as osgood as we are treated to the finest kind of comedic irony he manages to use lemmon's ingenious performance as a springboard for an even loonier performance as a completely eccentric millionaire every is flawless as wilder brilliantly changes settings constantly and uses every comic trick in the book to make his picture wilder's script is stunning as he carefully combines gangsters romance sex music gender roles and social taboos in a riotous blend of wit and oddball craziness wilder manages to create scenes of utter hysteria so that the audience is dying of laughter with the last comic piece the final line of this absolutely incredible film wilder's is dead wrong when he says nobody's perfect billy wilder is especially when he makes something this disastrously funny nobody's perfect but billy wilder
positive	a welcome cinematic trend over the past couple of years has been to make the works of shakespeare more accessible to the younger audiences who are the vast majority of moviegoers by contemporizing the bard and altering the settings to familiar surroundings a prime example of this is things i hate about you which was basically the taming of the shrew in a high school less successful was last year's adaptation of hamlet with ethan hawke as the heir apparent of the denmark corp here the setting was the corporate world of new york now comes o a faithful retelling of one of the most tragic of shakespeare's tragedies like things i hate about you the stage is a high school a private prep school where odin james mekhi phifer is the general the basketball team's standout player julia stiles featured in things i hate about you as well as performing ophelia in hawke's hamlet plays desi brable odin's girlfriend whose father also happens to be dean of the institution josh hartnett pearl harbor is on hand for the villainy playing the scheming hugo who sets the tragic wheels in motion o was actually filmed a couple of years ago but was shelved because of the columbine high school tragedy the movie directed by tim blake nelson best known for his role in o brother where art thou and written by brad kaaya is very grim an air of tragedy weighs it down from the opening scene to the closing credits and that is how it should be of all of shakespeare's tragedies othello is the most harrowing not because of any body count but because of the psychological havoc wreaked by iago whose motivation in the sheer pleasure of his treachery kaaya's script after all these are high school kids does offer hugo a subtle motive of sorts the young man considers himself the basketball team's prime utility man who does a little bit of everything pass shoot rebound but is constantly in the shadow of odin plus his father the team's coach played with a ferocious intensity by martin sheen showers more love and concern on his star player than on his own flesh and blood the script follows the familiar lines of the classic hugo begins dropping hints to odin concerning desi's fidelity eroding the star's confidence in those he considers closest to him affecting both his relationships and his game it all ends in blood of course which is why the movie was originally shelved the performances in o vary phifer is at first cocky and emotions he handles with ease he also does quite well displaying odin's darker side his defensive sensitivity about being the only black at the institution his growing distrust of those he loved his rage and the erosion of his belief system hartnett is appropriately cool and machiavellian as he weaves his deadly web of lies and deceit turning friend against friend and lover against lover stiles seems a bit stilted but occasionally also rises to the occasion moving from adoration to confusion to fear of her young knight the film does contain a few missteps a subplot involving hugo's theft of the school mascot is left hanging also desi's actions concerning michael andrew keegan odin's former teammate and best friend who was kicked off the team because of one of hugo's machinations is puzzling why she would continually be seen with michael however innocent the circumstances when she knows her man suspects the two of cheating behind his back it is irrational but these are minor carpings overall o is a stylish and faithful adaptation if nothing else it may encourage some people to read the original text and that will counterbalance the severity of this feature
positive	there is a scene early in soul food george tillman's about a large family and the ordeals they go through during a crisis that caught me completely off guard during a wedding the groom is flirting with some tramp and in an attempt to to prevent a scene his mother in law played by irma p hall comes to the rescue the way in which she does this makes me think irma p hall is one of the greatest actresses around right now however this is just one magical moment in a movie filled with them vanessa williams vivica fox and nia long star as three sisters who have each gone their own way in life williams is teri a successful lawyer who is frustrated by her husband miles attempts at a music career fox is maxine the strongest of the sisters which can be confirmed by the stability of her marriage and the wisdom of her son ahmad who narrates the film long is bird a hairdresser who is the last of the three to get married her husband lem is an intense passionate individual whose temper gets the best of him sometime but never stops loving at the center of everything is irma p hall as big mama jo every sunday the family gathers together for dinner at mama jo's house there is lots of conversation lots of laughs and the occasional controversy mama jo presides over the family like all mothers should she is stern and disciplined but also caring and forgiving everything is going fine until a tragedy befalls mama jo all of a sudden a chain reaction of events begin to destroy the family it gets so bad sunday dinner is even cancelled without mama jo's guidance there is noone to keep the family together which frustrates ahmad miles and maxine's marriage begins to fall apart as he focuses on his music and flirts with the troublesome faith lem's temper gets the best of him when his convict past starts to catch up to him and teri tries to prevent maxine's efforts to sell mama jo's house the third act of the film deals with ahmad's attempts to patch things up he decides to take over where mama jo left off and tries to get the family back together for one more sunday dinner the acting by everyone in the ensemble is outstanding with special notices to irma p hall and brandon hammond hall gives a performance that deserves to be recognized by the academy her mama jo is one of the most memorable characters i have ever encountered in a movie brandon hammond is an actor with a bright future he is wise enough not to play cutesy and shows an admirable range and depth and speaks the final lines of the movie on the perfect note tillman obviously based this movie on his own memories of growing up every scene in the movie is purposeful and convincing except maybe an odd flashback sequence the dialogue is beleiveable and funny and then there's the food tillman gives us several close ups of the soul food and it indeed looks very tasty i can see why sunday dinners became such a tradition for this family soul food is one of the most purely entertaining movies of the year
positive	director david fincher has such an eye for detail which is very rare in hollywood these days terry gilliam comes to mind as another one film is one of the best art forms because not only can you tell a story but you can use the camera to capture the smallest detail and have it mean something but most directors seem to go for action with the slightest ounce of a story so whenever a director uses the camera to its fullest potential the film almost automatically deserves a good review and when they add a fascinating story to it you have nearly perfect entertainment fincher's the game is no exception to this the game is one of the most interesting and complex films to come out of hollywood in a long time fincher hasn't made a film since seven his box office and critical hit which defied expectations and became one of the best movies ever so it is about time he made another film and what a ride it is the game isn't quite as powerful as seven but in some ways it is better overall the game could have used a little more clarity or a little more uncertainty it walks a line of insanity and reality but it never goes either way until the very end the outcome is satisfying enough for the preceding events and it makes a lot of sense once everything is set straight unfortunately unlike the usual suspects we are never given enough information to figure out for ourselves what is happening whether it be true or false however this also gives the film a frightening aspect which the game uses to the fullest extent the game is told completely from its main character's point of view nicholas van orton michael douglas is a and isolated businessman he lives alone in his giant mansion divorced from his wife elizabeth and is celebrating his birthday the same age at which his father committed suicide at in the same mansion for his birthday conrad sean penn the rebel of the family gives nicholas a gift certificate to crs consumer recreation services it will make your life fun again his brother promises as skeptical as nicholas is he is somewhat intrigued and annoyed by the lack of this businessman hates seeing a billboard in an office he decides to visit the mysterious company jim feingold james rebhorn greets nicholas and guides him through the process which consists of physicals emotional responses and other mind games each game is suited to each person's emotional and psychological needs explains feingold one day nicholas gets a call from crs and they explain that he failed the tests even more intrigued and now somewhat angered at the time he spent signing up he starts asking around to see what people can tell him about the company what he doesn't realize is that the game has already begun the phone call is just the first of many strange events to be thrown nicholas' way how he finds out that he is involved has to be witnessed because it is amusing and fun and visually impressive the detail involved in fincher's shots is incredible and almost requires a second viewing just to appreciate the effort that went into them with seven fincher had almost every single shot mean something he also has the unique ability to make you look at exactly what he wants you to compared to seven though the game is light and comical because of this film's sense of humor and nothing can be taken quite seriously so don't try to make much sense of what goes on in the game because it doesn't want you to what does make sense is the final everything becomes apparent and clear if taken as it is the game's ending makes complete sense but if you try and critique every minute detail then you get yourself into plot holes and incredibility perhaps that is the reason i docked the film while trying to remain realistic and plausible the plot is too unbelievable to create any real tension on screen we don't really care if douglas' character lives or not because it isn't believable the ending requires you to have believed anything that has happened previously but if you suspend disbelief and take the film as it is you can accept the game as an emotionally and psycholically disturbing thriller michael douglas gives a terrific performance as nicholas douglas has played lonely businessmen before but here he adds another level to his performance his character who is normally and relies on facts is forced to trust nobody can he believe the waitress he bumped into what about his brother who got him involved in the game in the first place douglas portrays this aspect of his character extremely well and gives one of his best performances even better than his falling down persona the supporting cast is essential in this film and casting was critical sean penn is always good and he gives yet another credible performance as douglas' brother deborah kara unger from crash is the waitress he bumps into and her performance is extremely good in fact she almost steals the film from douglas james rebhorn portrays his character very well and adds some confusion and desparation to douglas' predicament another good performance comes from armin from shine as the book editor but considering that douglas is in every single scene of the game he not only commands this cast but makes this distant and lonely character come to colorful life the game is rated r for language violence some gore and some nudity and drugs what is essential for this film to work is the writing john brancato and michael ferris have woven a confusing and compelling screenplay with witty dialogue and some very funny moments this screenplay will probably get an oscar nomination for best original screenplay because it does almost exactly the same thing the usual suspects' did however the visuals of the game are enough to make the viewer enjoy the vexing plot and if you can get yourself to believe everything occuring on the screen you will be thoroughly entertained by one of this year's best films
positive	originally launched in this popular film was in to a whole new generation of moviegoers based on the mighty successful musical from broadway grease was followed in with the less stellar grease starring a young michelle pheiffer in one of her first feature film roles plot musical set in the showcasing the relationship between the cool danny zuko of the travolta and the innocent and pure sandy olsen from australia the film follows the couple and their vivacious friends during their last year at rydell high through song dance and humour critique energetic and innocent look back at times much simpler this movie effectively juggles a thin romantic story line and the overall experience of the with a superb soundtrack and some great dance numbers admittedly i am somewhat biased in this opinion since this film blasts me into my past as a rebellious youth grease was one of schmoe's first experiences and every other scene sends me reeling into the times of my elaborate grease card collection and the lesser responsibilities that i possessed at that time but apart from the nostalgic vibe i was still extremely impressed by this film as it continued to amuse me despite my previous dozen or so viewings this film took john travolta from a sweathog on tv's welcome back kotter and transformed him into a of spectacular proportions saturday night fever in confirmed that sudden popularity unfortunately for the rest of the cast his popularity was not terribly contagious despite their effective showings in this classic movie on the down side some of the absolute innocence in this film might bore or turn people off like when sandy sings about drinking lemonade and staying out until with danny in summer nights and the plot isn't exactly the most elaborate ever created but despite these small reservations this movie carries enough great music and high energy to keep anyone amused through its rapid minute running time and believe me i am not a fan of the musicals make sure to look for a young lorenzo lamas in the static role of the brainless football player as well as the national bandstand dance contest as one of the film's absolute highlights and don't forget to buy the popular soundtrack afterwards so that you could listen to its peppy tunes whenever you're feeling a little blue little known facts henry winkler of tv's happy days' fonzie fame turned down the part of danny zuko because he did not want to be typecast for the rest of his career both travolta and conaway were smitten by during the filming of this picture conaway eventually bowed out of the and married sister a year later divorced after five years
positive	set in the late at the height of yuppie excess and based on the book by bret easton ellis who explored the same themes in another book which was also made into a movie less than zero american psycho puts a new spin on the yuppie genre that ellis helped to create christian bale is perfectly cast as patrick bateman a high powered yuppie who hides a terrible secret from his fianc e and his colleagues it seems that bateman is a serial killer and unfortunately for his contemporaries his tenuous grasp on reality is starting to slip as he tries to balance his meticulous daily routines with slaughtering and prostitutes and hiding their bodies his mental fabric slowly begins to unravel i was first introduced to the novel when i was still in high school i read an associated press article in our local sunday newspaper detailing the problems ellis was having getting his novel published due to the controversial violence in it as usual when anything is controversial i try to seek it out but i soon forgot about the novel and didn't end up thinking about it again until i stumbled across it a couple of years later at a bookstore i picked it up and read it but was ultimately disappointed because it left more questions than answers the movie has a similar effect but at least it's less cryptic than ellis' novel for once a film has actually turned out to be better than the novel it was based on both the book and the film open with bateman describing his fastidious morning preparations down to exactly what facial scrubs and exfoliating creams he uses but the novel seems to concentrate more on these excesses throughout the movie continues to touch upon these things but makes more of a point to immerse us in bateman's impending madness than to detail things as painstakingly as the novel does as a result the film is immensely more entertaining lions gate seems to be the studio champion of controversial films having picked up kevin smith's dogma and here with american psycho there is no difference screenwriters mary harron and guinevere turner had the unenviable task of trying to take a novel about yuppies filled with graphic violence and sex and make a marketable film out of it some cuts had to be made to the finished film to keep from getting an mainly involving a sex scene comprising bateman and two women and initial reports said the film was unwatchable thankfully it is watchable and harron and turner have made one of the most scathingly satirical films this side of south park bigger longer uncut side note guinevere turner also makes an appearance in the film as an acquaintance of bateman's who after bateman suggests that she start making out with a female prostitute proclaims that she's not a lesbian nor has any interest in it the ironic humor of the scene stems from the fact that turner the of the film go fish and who also assisted kevin smith with parts of his script for chasing amy is a lesbian it's a subtle and it's one i found to be pretty humorous despite having a rather high profile supporting cast of young including reese witherspoon most of the roles are a waste and are the equivalent of extended billed cameos the real draw here is christian bale and his performance as patrick bateman whenever i read a novel i always try to imagine what it would be like as a movie and who would be perfect to cast as the characters i always had a hard time trying to decide who i would cast as bateman but i never thought bale would deliver a performance as perfect as his ends up being to say bale runs away with the character is a vast understatement and he proves that he's as adept at chewing scenery as al pacino or rod steiger one sequence in particular involving bateman describing his love for huey lewis and the news' song hip to be square right before burying an axe in a head features one of the most eccentric and kinetic performances i have ever seen on film side note despite the fact that huey lewis' hip to be square and a pair of phil collins songs appear in the film don't expect to see them on the soundtrack release huey lewis expressly requested that his song featured in a rather large set piece in the film much akin to the use of stuck in the middle with you in reservoir dogs not be included on any soundtrack release i'm assuming that collins requested the same on a similar note whitney houston's cover of the greatest love of all is also involved in a scene comparable to the other two and it is very obvious that it isn't the houston version at all but merely an instrumental version culled from an unknown source apparently houston wasn't as open about the use of her song as the others were a bigger controversy than the violence and sex has been brewing since the film's release that of whether or not patrick has actually committed the crimes we have viewed during the course of the film don't look to the book for any answers because it will only serve to confuse you more several web sites have been dedicated to the subject but i'm still undecided there is evidence both for and against but the most scathing evidence against comes from a scene near the end of the film where bateman goes on a killing spree taking out cops old ladies and cleaning staff with equal gusto the scene seemed very and as absurd as the action films it suddenly seems to be parodying as an example bateman blows up a police car very cinematically after firing several shots from a handgun in the general direction of the car i kept waiting for bateman to wake up and for the film to continue on from there but bateman never does wake up and the whole sequence though comic throws the film which i suppose was the intention other than the few flaws i have mentioned american psycho is an incredibly entertaining film although you may not leave the movie fully understanding whether or not what has just transpired actually occurred in bateman's reality i think this movie is destined for greatness as a cult film and deserves the spot it will take as such it may not change anyone's life but it will certainly have an effect i know i will certainly hear hip to be square in a different context the next time i hear it 
positive	ever wonder what happened to gabe kaplan you remember he was the title character in that sitcom welcome back kotter always trying to help out the sweathogs frequently trying to dodge mr woodman ever wary of his wife's tuna casserole so you ask where is he now mr kaplan actually spends much of his time these days playing professional poker that's right i'm not sure if it's his main source of income but from what i've heard the guy occasionally comes away with at a time and there you were thinking i was going to tell you he was doing theater you silly goose well gabe kaplan isn't in the movie rounders nor is the film about the actor come gambler's life but rounders is about poker and gabe plays poker and i thought that was kind of a neat connection sorry about the segue or lack thereof matt damon plays mike mcdermott a law student who also has a singular talent for the game of poker he's been playing for a while and more than being proficient he has caught the bug he goes to all the underground games in new york city knows the regulars and knows how to win in the beginning of the film he's built up a nice thirty grand nest egg which he takes to the gaming parlor where the big boys play mike is there to make his bid into the upper echelon by staking it all against teddy kgb john malkovich an cardshark with ties to the russian mafia mike has the potential to take a large pot and go to vegas and buy into the world series of poker but instead he loses it all in a single hand months later he's paying his way through law school by driving a delivery truck when mike's best friend and poker buddy worm edward norton finishes his jail term for hustling some students he wants to pick up right were they left off working as a team to part others with their betting cash although mike has stopped playing cards as a promise to his girlfriend and fellow law student jo gretchen mol worm connives mike into playing once more and mike bitten again by the bug slides down that slippery slope risking his relationship education and reputation as playing poker again becomes the focus of his life to make a film about gambling a filmmaker will usually have to play up the glamorous side to get the audience behind the characters this is because few moviegoers will care a whole lot about some guy in a leisure suit or terry cloth shirt sitting at a folding card table with a stogie in his mouth rounders however seems to go more for the latter than the former the card clubs mike and worm frequent aren't very glamorous at all there's a basement a lodge with elk heads on the wall a goulash joint these are the kinds of locales in which director john dahl sets his shots except for one brief instance when the two players visit atlantic city the film is bereft of the flashing lights of the casinos or the pleasant color of the green felt table the reason rounders still captures our attention is because it is less about the game of poker than it is about the personalities which enjoy and are slaves to it we're given a nice set of interesting characters with clear motivations and good actors to play them matt damon is very natural as mike who struggles between his desire to play the straight and narrow by finishing law school and answering what may be his true calling playing professional poker ed norton's worm is truly a worm always looking for the angle and playing everyone for what they're worth john turturro who amazes me with his acting range tones it down in this film by playing joey knish a virtual poker prodigy in his time who now plays the underground games to make rent and child support payments he's both a friend and mentor to mike and turturro's performance is totally convincing just as john malkovich's teddy kgb is imposing as an adversarial dragon mike must slay to prove himself martin landau is also thrown into the mix as one of mike's law professors abe petrovsky while landau slips well into the role his character spitting out personal anecdotes about staying true to one's self facilitates the channeling of the storyline toward a predictable ending perhaps the weak link in the otherwise formidable of acting talent however is gretchen mol who just didn't seem to have much presence on screen she's a genuine peach to look at kind of a cross between actress renee zellweger and singer jewel and i wouldn't be surprised if the three of them formed some kind of triumvirate and attempted to take over the world but her delivered lines seemed very flat and i found myself looking for matt damon's reactions instead a good thing about rounders is that it doesn't get bogged down in the character development and statement making so much that it can't find time for humor the film is peppered nicely with scenes that both make you laugh and keep the pacing going such as a sequence where mike and worm move rapidly around new york from one game to the next in widely different locales one game in a cigar club had me in stitches i love the sweetness of this dark maduro wrapper says one of the players clearly more interested in displaying his pretentiousness over the cigar in one hand than in the cards in his other i was hoping mike and worm would really take these guys with all the poker being played rounders had the potential to be very confusing you might think you know a lot about poker but think again luckily we're given a narration by damon during the more intricate moments to explain what's going on the narrations are more informative than intrusive and apprise us of what the stakes are and why certain players want to do the things they do it's nice that as the characters develop so does our comprehension of their world as a film about success and survival in the realm of underground poker rounders delivers in spades wait as a film about the culture of cards rounders is an ace hang on packed with great acting and great characters rounders is a full house okay i guess that's enough oh by the way if you ever want to get into a game with ol' gabe kaplan be sure to bring a note from epstein's mother
positive	did you ever wonder if dennis rodman was actually from this planet or if sylvester stallone was some kind of weird i used to think that about my grade english teacher ms carey but after seeing this movie they may have confirmed my suspicions as the story goes at any time there are over a thousand aliens living among us here on earth the men in black mib are the watchdogs that oversee the cosmic citizens guardians of our beloved planet from aliens and secret service to the stars based in new york city where weird is the norm the mib organization gives human form to our emigrants so that they may walk and live among us unnoticed but to enforce the laws of earth the mib carry weapons that are powerful enough to meet or exceed destruction quotas in one single blast they carry technology to erase people's memory when common folk see the mib in action and their best leads on cosmic are the supermarket tabloids little do we know that there are much stronger battles of good v evil going on in the depths of space one of the on this planet is an important diplomat that is carrying something very precious it holds the literally to universal peace a giant alien soon arrives on the planet and steals this in the wrong alien hands flippers mandibles tentacles it can be used as a weapon therefore it must be recovered and returned to it's rightful owners otherwise to ensure universal safety earth will be destroyed along with the now it's the mib who must prevent this catastrophe the mib agents on the case are k played by tommy lee jones he is crustier than burnt toast and even more serious than al gore the stars in the sky no longer spark wonder in his eyes he is accompanied by a flippant rookie j played by will smith but despite this premise this is nothing at all like a typical summer action movie and this isn't an independence day knockoff rather this is a stylishly offbeat comedy that pokes fun at what the government always denies that there are real aliens that live here and that the government does its darndest to cover them up but to give it some sense of excitement and to keep it within the parameters of the summer movie recipe there must be some kind of scenario yet this movie is very appealing the abundance of wierdness talking aliens atomizers a mortician who for her work and lots of yucky bugs and galore is played straight like as if this were normal of course we are in nyc it gives it a deadpan feel which makes it all the more funnier and odder jones plays the venerable agent with seriousness and maturity smith is likeable and makes a great comic partner to jones' straight man routine they click like dorothy's ruby red shoes the look and feel of the movie is made even better with direction from barry sonnenfeld the addam's family this guy has a knack for comedy and successfully transfers his macabre sense of humor onto the screen and an appropriate dose of special effects helps to bolster the oddness of their task without diverting attention from the human actors the story moves well and before you know it the end credits are already rolling the result is minutes worth of fun in the form of ewwwws and blechhhs aaaahhhs and wows let the men in black protect and color your world
positive	i feel no hesitation in saying that there's something about mary is the best film that i will see all year from the moment the credits started to roll at the end of the picture there was no doubt in my mind that i had seen a masterpiece that will remain unsurpassed in the remaining months of it is that good of a film when gene siskel said this about fargo only a few months into i dismissed the notion as ridiculous how could you possibly know that a film is so great that nothing you could possibly see in the future could beat it but after seeing the farrelly's hilarious and surprisingly heartfelt masterwork i now know what siskel was talking about once in a very great while a film comes along that is so daring so brilliant and simply so enjoyable that at the end you just want to stand up and cheer and you know at that instant that you have just experienced something very special now for the shocker mary is the grossest and most disgusting film i have ever viewed pink flamingos obviously notwithstanding the movie is so rude and i guess inappropriate in nature that i had a hard time sitting in a theater watching it with my parents luckily i had seen it before them so i could warn the about what they were in for forget blazing saddles animal house and even the former king of comedy monty python's meaning of life they were all only preludes to the farrelly's assault on the senses in fact this may even be the funniest film i've ever had the pleasure of seeing the only real contender is monty python and the holy grail and most certainly the most hilarious to come out all decade but as funny as it is something also has to be said about the overall sweetness of mary it has a huge heart you see the farrelly's are truly gifted filmmakers they don't just present you with a string of dick and fart jokes although there are plenty to go around they also very wisely add an unbelievable amount of charisma to the main characters and actually have them develop as the story progresses it's funny though if you just look at an outline of the story it seems kind of contrived and predictable but believe me it is anything but ben stiller plays ted a very shy and clumsy teenage geek who lusts after the school babe mary cameron diaz after he sticks up for her retarded brother warren w early brown the cameraman believe it or not from scream his dreams come true when she invites him to the prom in one of the film's funniest scenes something goes wrong i won't ruin it for those who know nothing about the film and ted is unable to face mary ever again jump to the present after years of ted finally hires private detective pat healy a suitably slimy matt dillon to track her down so he can have one last chance at winning the woman he has loved since high school healy finds that mary is still a hottie and decides to try and keep her for himself admittingly the basic story line leaves a little to be desired after all with a premise how can you sustain laughter for nearly two hours somehow the farrelly's pull it off the performances here are also right on target as ted stiller adds just the right amount of clumsy charm to make his character not irritating as he would normally be but very lovable and cameron diaz is perfect in her role for obvious reasons but the actor who really grabs your attention is w earl brown as mary's brother no other actor has even come close to playing a mentally retarded man with as much natural ease as brown displays here i know he won't be nominated but this is the guy who should not be counted out when it comes time to hand out the oscar nods in february as good as the actors are though it's the directors' movie all the way i guarantee that on almost every other top ten list at the end of the year you will see the number one space occupied by steven spielberg's wwii epic saving private ryan and yes that is a great film worthy of the recognition it has been getting but which is harder making a great war film or having your audience laugh so hard that they can't breath for minutes at a time i'll let you decide that one for yourself but this critic is sticking to his guns there is just something about mary
positive	i'd rather die today and go to heaven than live to be a hundred and go to hell earnestly proclaims the pentecostal preacher with that line coming from a fundamentalist christian minister hollywood has taught us how we should fill in the rest of the story he will be turn out to be a scoundrel who has less actual belief in god than the average american and all of his preaching will turn out to be a cynical ruse to extort money from his naive congregation from elmer gantry on we have learned what to expect when the movies go to church well think again for the apostle which robert duvall has wanted to make for over a decade does not take the usual tack of smearing the minister and by implication all the rest of organized religion instead it gives us a highly devout man who certainly has his foibles but with an absolute dedication to his ministry and his god and arguably just as surprising the film is no comedy even if it does have humorous moments instead of levity the picture takes a touchingly serious approach as it introduces us to a world not normally seen in motion pictures when in the privacy of his attic robert duvall as texas preacher euliss sonny dewey argues sternly with his lord the scene shares a kinship with emily watson's character crying out for her god in breaking the waves's most powerful scene the body of the story starts with sonny's coming upon an horrific auto accident which is another part of life generally ignored by modern screenwriters with his well worn bible in hand sonny leaps from his car so that he can go pray over and with the accident's dying victims the scowling police officer orders him to go away and after he has tried to work his miracles sonny leaves with a smile in the confidence that he has done the lord's work robert duvall not only gives a moving and realistic performance surely destined to receive an academy award nomination but is also the film's director writer executive producer and chief financier rarely has a movie been such a labor of love with a white suit shirt and tie and dark sunglasses sonny looks as much like a rock star as a preacher duvall has every movement down pat even when he is walking down the street the ever strutting sonny cannot contain his energy he dances and claps all the way sonny's churches having more black members than white means that he shares his preaching duties with many black orators but his rhetoric is always competitive i may be on the devil's but i'm on god's mailing list he shouts to the congregation in a revival tent and they lap it up people jump up scream praise the lord and mean it the intensity of their shared religious experience is palpable but sonny is no saint it turns out that he has a wandering eye which angers his wife jessie played in a remarkably controlled performance by farrah fawcett jessie gets her revenge by taking up with the church's youth minister and conniving to gain control over sonny's church leaving him unemployed sonny letting his temper get the best of him does something foolish which causes him to have to leave town and two beloved kids forever the bulk of the film occurs in a small predominately black church in louisiana which he builds up from a derelict building with no congregation into a remodeled church one way road to heaven holiness temple with an enthusiastic flock in this part he rebaptizes himself as the apostle e f the apostle is a hard worker willing to take on any odd job necessary to obtain the funds for his church he asks his members to tithe but he gives all of his money and his good deeds extend to secret donations of food for the local poor folks a man who can't stand to be still he tells one of his friends i quit school because i didn't like recess in his new town he meets toosie miranda richardson who like him has a family that she hasn't seen in a while his romance with the separated woman like the rest of the film doesn't follow the standard patterns we have grown to expect from our movies billy bob thornton shows up one day playing a local racist and general troublemaker his confrontation with the apostle is yet another of show's many surprising scenes again breaking many rules and conceptions about what approach deeply religious people might take although it probably couldn't have ended any other way the movie does wrap things up nicely and don't miss the sweet epilogue during the film's closing credits a tour de force acting performance by duvall and a surprising and unrelentingly dedicated script makes for an outstanding and moving film the apostle runs a little too long at it is rated for mild profanity and brief violence and would be fine for kids eleven and up
positive	one of the best movies i've ever seen i'd heard extremely good things about this movie and though the previews didn't really intrigue that much it was a movie i'd been anticipating for a few months now for some reason i'm not sure of this movie was not that big a sucess over in the u s it was a definite hit with the critics but didn't exactly set any box office records after viewing this incredibly well directed written and acted movie i can't help but wonder why the strength of this film is it's gritty realism the main characters are all human with individual flaws no hollywood heroes you may not agree with many of their actions in the movie or their approach to life but that is what makes it so real i had expected this movie to be more of a drama than a thriller but i was mistaken even the interrogation scenes moved at such a pace so that it felt just as thrilling as any car chase and the ending whoa i've never seen a movie in my life where everyone in it acts brilliantly the three male leads guy pearce kevin spacey and russell crowe are all just terrific the actor' oscar talk surrounding this film should have netted one of them a statue but there is one problem there how could they have chosen between these three actors there is no way i could look at this film and say one of them was better than the other two it's impossible kim bassinger's performance is also a revelation i'd never been a big fan of hers before and always thought she was well what's the word a twinky that impression has changed as she complemented crowe and pearce perfectly the depth to the story and characters is truly astounding no cardboard characters here the plot is full of twists and turns and some very clever sequences pearce's interogation of three seperate suspects is nothing short of brilliant i really can't fault this movie at all i was so glad to see fellow australian's pearce and crowe star in such a breathtaking movie i had been very familiar with russell crowe beforehand from his many australian films but had not seen much of guy pearce i intend to change this next time i visit the video store
positive	this reviewer is ignorant of what hands were responsible for delivering the original version of the abyss in whether it was the meddling of studio executives or the work of james cameron himself the original cut of this underwater thriller was entertaining enough but also quite seriously flawed the main problem was fairly simple the film's climax was unworthy of its someone at century fox and no doubt cameron himself must have agreed because in came the theatrical release of the abyss special edition now available on video it seems timely to what in its newly revamped state is now a despite its borrowings from films like odyssey two alien and close encounters of third kind the plot is thus we meet the crew of an experimental underwater mobile oil rig designed by the lindsay mastrantonio and captained by her husband bud ed harris the rig and its crew are diverted from their normal duties when the navy seeks their help in investigating the mysterious sinking of a u s nuclear submarine requiring a dive down a three mile deep trench three navy divers arrive to command the operation led by the edgy lieutenant coffey biehn but a series of strange sightings soon convinces at least one member of the civilian crew that whoever or whatever they're dealing with as she memorably puts it aren't speaking russian meanwhile on the surface a hurricane is brewing and even worse a series of incidents around cuba involving russians ships and an increasingly nervous u s navy sets off an international crisis of possible catastrophic proportions this crisis is mirrored in the confines of the now isolated underwater rig with the and increasingly paranoid lieutenant coffey at odds with the crew about how do deal with the mysterious around them the human drama is often riveting with the principal players performing with an intensity that recalls the fine ensemble acting in cameron's aliens the stunts hardware special effects and underwater cinematography are all outstanding and so they should be cameron's technical credentials are well established but what ultimately makes the film so gripping is three intersecting plot strands the tension between old sparring partners lindsay and bud the war of wills between the civilian crew and the navy divers as a series of escalating crisis' befall them and the slowly unfolding revelation of what lies at the bottom of the three mile deep abyss the abyss special edition is an improvement on the original film in two major respects one is that it further fleshes out the relationship between bud and lindsay a relationship at times touching at others incredibly intense and volatile the second improvement is the restoration of some absolutely crucial scenes towards the film's end when the aliens demonstrate their control over water with a terrifying and extraordinary display of power to a world on the brink of nuclear war with the inclusion of these startling scenes the story's climax is now given real weight why on earth were they left out of the original this reviewer finds it utterly incomprehensible so then we have minutes of additional footage that's turned a decent underwater thriller into something quite magnificent i say quite because some flaws do remain the most grating is several moments of corny hollywood schmaltz some new some old that may well have you reaching for the barf bag nonetheless the abyss special edition now stands this somewhat maligned film among james cameron's greatest achievements alongside aliens and terminator see it and be moved gripped and spellbound
positive	i have a soft spot in my heart for pure amoral sleaze i liked showgirls there i said it i typically enjoy myself when sitting through that eszterhaz cinematic trash wild things is the best sleazy film i've ever seen it's filled with great performances graphic sex sex rape charges plot twists genitalia of all genders graphic violence death witty humor and best of all denise richards criticizing this film for being disgusting raucous and just plain wrong is as fundamentally pointless as criticizing citizen kane for being disturbing or titanic for being lofty and epic wild things is a film that succeeds in its endeavors but i don't just admire it for admire it for being so entertaining and such a fun time at the movies i must admit however that i am directly in the center of the age group to which this film has been engineered to appeal i imagine that this shows it's hard to give a plot summary without giving away pieces that shouldn't be known i thought i had the whole thing worked out from the trailer but i was wrong there are a lot of turns here i'll just say that the film takes place in blue bay a rich little town in florida in blue bay lives sam lombardo matt dillon a teacher who is accused of rape by two of his students kelly van ryan denise richards and suzie toller neve campbell kelly's mother sandra theresa russell immediately presses charges all of this happens fairly early in the film and right up until this point i had the whole film predicted i was wrong though and every time i was proven wrong i was shocked wild things isn't even remotely plausible but it is so fun to see where the story takes us that the implausibility of every scene is meaningless and often invited just for kicks i remember first seeing the preview for wild things before the replacement killers i'd give the preview four stars it made me want to see the movie so much that i've been waiting for it anxiously ever since over the past few weeks though i started to realize that there was no way the film could live up to the preview see independence day thankfully i was proven wrong the preview for this film is one that needs to be studied by marketing analysts of every distribution company not only does it make us want to see the film but it doesn't give away any of the secrets but i'm not here to talk about the preview i'm here to talk about denise richards now i found her mildly interesting in starship troopers but in wild things she appeals to such a base instinct that every scene she's in demands attention in a way that almost no other performer can of course this might have something to do with her oceanic eyes and flawless body but i thought she did a great job acting too stop laughing no richards is truly a is talented and always convincing in this film this mixed in with her insane physical appeal makes her a vital asset to any film she may grace in the future the other actors are good too dillon is as suave as ever it's nice to see him bouncing back from albino alligator and in out bacon does a good job acting all determined and stuff as a sex crimes officer neve campbell gives the most layered performance of all of them though i won't pretend that any of these characters are deep and complex for a plot like this to work all of these people have to be insane and basically contrived that's okay because director john mcnaughton knows that he's making a wicked film each the sex observed with hilarity by mcnaughton and the result is a that's too smart to resist there isn't an inconsistent moment in wild things every bit of it is alluring garbage so trashy it's funny and so entertaining it's painful i loved it
positive	tarzan chad'z good g minutes hour starring the voices of tony goldwyn tarzan minnie driver jane porter lance henriksen kerchak brian blessed clayton written by tab murphy bob tzudiker noni white produced by bonnie arnold directed by chris buck kevin lima based on the story of the apes' and characters created by edgar rice burroughs seen july at p m at crossgates cinemas guilderland ny theater by myself for free using my hoyts season pass rating very good sound picture and title beautiful to look at easy to follow review disney continues its trend of producing animated summer blockbuster movies meant mostly for children but with enough wit and charm for adults to be interested and at least entertained by the story the basic premise is the same as every other story a boy is raised in the african jungle by gorillas and becomes one himself never really understanding or even noticing that he's human and is a lot different from the animals he befriends the first third of the film shows how tarzan comes to be adopted by kala voiced by glen close a female gorilla who lost her own child in a classic case of darwanism her mate kerchak henriksen is a mean conservative leader of the pack of gorillas who make up tarzan's extended family he refuses to acknowledge tarzan voiced by alex d linz during the childhood scenes as a son and often has to hold himself back from killing tarzan after he continually does dangerous wild things that are the result of his own childish instincts i have a feeling children will quickly be able to identify with tarzan since all he really is is just a kid who wants to have fun and it's funny how the adults fail to comprehend this later as the story transitions from tarzan as a child to a man voiced by goldwyn he is encounter by a party of three humans from england jane porter driver a beautiful woman who is something of a zoologist and an artist her father prof archimedes q porter voiced by nigel hawthorne who is also a scientist and their slick and cunning yet barbaric safari bodyguard clayton blessed it's easy to tell where the story is going at all times but the screenplay doesn't seem like it was written hastily nor dumbed down for children's enjoyment sure there's a lot of cliche stuff here like clayton's smugness and diabolical manipulation of tarzan and jane the goofy supporting characters voiced by rosie o'donnell full brooklyn accent and wayne knight newman there's also a lot of fun action such as tarzan's swinging through the jungle on vines and sliding down and around tree branches and trunks it's just like skateboarding really fast and doing all sorts of tricks those mcdonald's commercials really prove this point ultimately you get exactly out of what you expect and i mean that as a compliment so have high expectations pros animation and sound are a feast for the senses story is lighthearted breezy and not no stupid songs to get stuck in your head cons surprisingly violent should have been rated pg young children may not understand some of the more adult themes parents be ready to have some heavy questions thrown your way running time is a bit short would you recommend this to friends not to my friends but to the public i would score or with no rating
positive	i've always been told that there are two things in life that are unavoidable death and taxes oddly i've never given much thought to either of the two maybe if i did at least i'd stop getting collection notices from uncle sam yes let me make a resolution to devote myself to better record keeping hold on to all my receipts and to do what it takes to have the satisfaction that my returns are and will keep me from incurring penalties it seems that the issue of death may not be so different at least envisioned here in this film as this tender love story goes if you do good things and have a clear conscience when you die you ascend to a place of great peace and beauty the dreams wishes and fantasies that you had when you were alive come true for those who die with a burdened soul however they wind up in that other place chris and annie a winsome robin williams and a radiant annabella sciorra seem like the perfect couple that deserve all that heaven has to offer their love for each other is strong and their bond is undeniable but tragic events eventually tear apart the fabric of annie's happiness and when chris dies after a terrible car accident she commits suicide a tortured soul who blames herself despair is perhaps the greatest sin and she will wallow in her guilt throughout eternity chris on the other hand has made it to heaven and upon learning of annie's fate he journeys to hell to find her and to try to free her from her nightmare this film brims with imagination containing a lush imagery that shows the arcadia that is heaven and the bitterness and frightfulness that is hell it seems that heaven and hell could very well be a product of our fantasies or nightmares it's shape and look is as infinite as our imagination as chris explores his new fantastic world and discovers things both amazing and wondrous he also begins to learn more about himself certain questions baffle him at first why does his home in heaven ooze with paint what is the significance of the asian stewardess why does he have an guide cuba gooding jr to help him find annie but as he slowly begins to realize the answers it makes him stronger and gives him a greater chance to save annie dreams is both visually and tellingly beautiful alas i have one regret the movie did well to gather more and more emotional speed but the denouement was curiously unsatisfying it seemed as if it was racing to some kind of great finish but its intensity seemed to wane in its final moments however your eyes will still well up with tears and you'll find lots to savor the storytelling is purposeful and well constructed the journey is imaginative and i was surprised by how much i enjoyed this film
positive	it was a crazy time in france what with the french revolution right around the corner king louis xv would soon die and his son would become king louis xvi such is the setting for beaumarchais the scoundrel about the controversial playwright spy and playboy caron de beaumarchais beaumarchais was the author of the plays the barber of seville and the marriage of figaro today people think of them as quaint and harmless operas but back in when the movie takes place they were so scandalous that beaumarchais was thrown into prison more than once the movie beaumarchais the scoundrel takes a approach to its subject resulting in an inviting motion picture one of france's most expensive productions ever the movie was a huge hit when it opened there last year now in theatrical release in the united states it eschews the seriousness of most art house films with a romping good story the secret of the film's success other than the lavishness of sylvie de segonzac's costumes has to be the performance by fabrice luchini as beaumarchais with his glistening eyes and his infectious smile he mesmerizes the camera and the audience his wry little lips seem always to hint at some unspoken deviousness he is planning in a land where court intrigue determines one's destiny constant scheming was a way of life for the aristocracy as our story starts we learn that beaumarchais has bought himself a judgeship into his court comes a member of the nobility demanding an immediate sword fight beaumarchais who has been having an affair with the man's wife makes him wait until the current case on the docket is decided that over with the fight is on with luchini's charisma it is hard to root for anyone other than him audiences may remember him from the marvelous colonel chabert in which he played the attorney although he does not have half of the good looks of his assistant gudin played by manuel blanc he dazzles the women and the viewers with his grace and style michael epp's warm and intimate cinematography provides a nice accompaniment to kerdelhue's lush but realistic looking sets petit's music especially the hauntingly lovely flute solos make for an enchanting time at the movies director brisville who wrote the script along with edouard molinaro fleshed out a play by sacha guitry which according to the press notes was just a series of historic vignettes the disorganization of the play still comes through at some points in the movie but the actors smooth it over with their style typical of the scenes that come out of nowhere is the one in which a rotund benjamin franklin appears in a large pot of hot water taking his bath one episode has beaumarchais working with a renegade spy who may or may not be a man another has beaumarchais using his personal fortune to aid the american revolution all of this may sound like a dull historical drama but it is anything but the story plays more like theater of the absurd than a movie based on historical facts the radiantly lovely sandrine kiberlain plays the real love of beaumarchais's life but he is so likable that members of the audience may want to compete with her for him still with his beguiling smile one can never quite be sure if you should trust him the movie on the other hand can be trusted to deliver a high old time beaumarchais the scoundrel runs it is in french with english subtitles the film is not rated but would be an r for some nudity and sex and should be fine for most teenagers
positive	what surprises me most about the batman is that the movie centers not on the caped crusader but on the joker the dark knight actually has less screen time than his homicidal arch nemesis i can hear batfans everywhere protesting first they had the nerve to cast michael keaton as batman and now they think they can get away with making him second banana to the joker and indeed this situation would have been altogether inappropriate and intolerable were it not for the fact that someone at warner brothers had the savvy to cast jack nicholson in the role he was born to play nicholson deserves the top billing he is receiving in the posters and opening credits since his astounding performance as the joker is the highlight of batman nicholson shows no inhibition or shame as he pulls out all the stops to create a joker that makes cesar romero look like bozo the clown romero played the joker in the tv series on one hand nicholson's joker is extremely funny his murderous escapades and manic outbursts which include defacing paintings in an art museum and invading the television airwaves with hilarious pirate broadcasts bring humor and laughter into an otherwise dark film but on the other hand his outwardly jovial disposition is only a mask for his intense contempt for all of mankind the joker's cruelty and demented diabolical nature are truly frightening and sinister this guy is off his rocker and he not only knows it he flaunts it but enough about nicholson as the joker i'm sure most people are wondering about michael keaton as batman like many i was outraged when warner brothers announced that keaton had been cast as the caped crusader but batfans need not worry because holy unconventional casting keaton delivers he is convincing as the tormented millionaire bruce wayne and beneath his hard black body armor he is mysterious and formidable as the batman even though the screenplay only halfheartedly attempts to develop the character keaton manages to give hints of the inner turmoil and emotional rage that drive wayne to don his bat gear and battle the low life scum of gotham city visually batman is a knockout nothing short of a triumph for director tim burton and his production team the movie successfully captures the film noir look and bleak gloomy atmosphere of such batman comic books as the dark knight returns and the killing joke burton's film is a feast for the eyes the million budget is definitely on the screen the sets costumes and are stunning and worthy of oscar nominations nicholson isn't joking when he boasts wait they get a load of me his grimacing smile green hair and purple suits over orange shirts are colorful and outrageous keaton's wardrobe is equally appropriate batman's cape mask and body armor make him look threatening frightening and invincible bringing to mind not adam west's campy costume in the tv series but peter weir's outfit in robocop production designer anton furst's sets are a wonder gotham city is dark and foreboding almost as if it were an expressionist vision of new york the batcave is cold bare and desolate the world that burton and furst have created in batman is a melancholy nightmare of violence and corruption the movie's gritty look is a joy to behold the plot on the other hand is not as rousing the screenplay is not up to snuff in comparison to the stylized sets and superb acting it takes forever for what little story there is to finally kick into gear batman tries to walk a thin line between action and character psychology but it fails to give us enough of either one as i mentioned earlier the screenplay gives us plenty of the joker but it never fully establishes batman's psychological motives and underpinnings in terms of action batman is not as thrilling as you might expect burton seems more concerned with the visual and dramatic elements of the story more than anything batman is a mood film while batman may not completely absorb and excite you it will likely impress you with its success at bringing to life the style and spirit of the batman comic books thanks to its distinctive look the movie like a good comic book transports us to another world
positive	casting doogie howser star neil patrick harris as military intelligence is only one of the guilty pleasures of starship troopers a hugely entertaining yarn directed by paul verhoeven who's making quite a recovery from his epic showgirls sure starship troopers qualifies as cinematic junk food but that's forgivable when the junk food is this tasty everyone needs a from fall's onslaught of costume dramas and other assorted oscar bait and troopers does the job admirably despite its flaws for its first hour starship troopers plays like a cheeky futuristic hybrid of saved by the bell and g i jane in the distant years ahead high school grad johnny rico casper van dien signs up for federal service along with his girlfriend carmen denise richards he gets accepted into the mobile infantry but she wants to travel to the fleet academy to become a starship pilot so the couple is broken up but there's temptation awaiting both of them johnny's is in the form of an old friend dina meyer also in the infantry and still harboring a secret crush while carmen attracts the eye of her flirtatious instructor patrick muldoon personal rivalry and sexual jealousy carry over into the final minutes when an impending alien menace begins making good on its threatening presence and obliterates part of south america killing johnny's parents and destroying his home our weakening lovesick protagonist is given new reasons to stick around the mobile infantry and is dispatched with a group of fellow fighters to the aliens' home planet where he will head up a ground assault to end the threat for good but the enemy is far smarter more diabolical and numerous than the good guys give them credit for and after an initial walloping they must their strategy the exposition played like a futuristic soap opera is silly but aware of its own ridiculousness enough to merit more smiles than groans once we get past the campy character introductions and the numerous but never boring training sessions starship troopers really kicks into high gear its last half is all gruesomely violent action a fury of severed limbs decapitations disembowelments brain removal explosions and other that are really going to please the and boys lucky enough to dodge getting carded or caught on their way into this deservedly show the creature design and special effects are amazing as expected and their interaction with the human actors are a realistic imaginative high point it's nice to see intergalactic beasties that aren't too derivative of the titular menace from alien these monsters are appropriately terrifying sights especially the arachnids a combo that's all sharp talons and even sharper legs they attack in packs of hundreds and it's a funny scary sight to see these bugs take repeated hits and still crawl jerk and struggle towards their intended victims in a determined gooey mess it matters not that they actually have a laughable master plan in mind ask yourself if a species like this seems capable of carrying out such a plot these sequences of insect warfare are numerous bloody and immensely satisfying the occasional dramatic moments one cast member's death the final resolution to johnny's love triangle are botched a testament to how starship troopers fails to create any strong outstanding characters these bland archetypes serve the story adequately enough to keep any distractions at arm's length but restrain the film from achieving a higher ground a la star wars where even the slightest aliens had definite personality the acting is decent but never spectacular most of the performers hail from aaron spelling territory smallish roles on beverly hills melrose place and it occasionally shows van dien for example is limited but perfectly likeable in smaller parts are the neil patrick harris as johnny's best friend and jake busey gary's son as johnny's sidekick the latter excels at playing creeps see the frighteners or contact but seems as a second banana starship troopers is based on the novel by robert heinlein a writer who hasn't exactly seen any recent adaptation justice done to any of his books what with howler the puppet masters but the overall familiarity to the alien trilogy and the promise of great gobs of gore could act as a its own possible influence however might well work against it when the franchise continuation alien resurrection opens in a few weeks we will know then which film to crown as the best summer movie of the fall
positive	historical epic as a genre was almost banished from hollywood in early for many critics scholars and most importantly film producers it was a thing of the past something that could have attracted crowds only in the era of television and special effects but in same as in the case of dances with wolves five years ago there came the man who decided to use of all his energy and talents of actor producer and director in order to revitalise that particular genre and same as in the case of dances with wolves he was awarded for his effort with oscars the name of the film was braveheart and the name of its director and main actor was mel gibson the plot chronicles the life of scottish warlord and folk hero william wallace in his time english king edward i longshanks played by patrick mcgoohan has almost completely subdued entire british isles including scotland whose proud inhabitants are now subjected by ius primae noctis and various other forms of humiliation and oppression by english knights although english had killed his father many years ago young scottish commoner william wallace played by mel gibson doesn't care about politics and wants only to have peaceful life with his new bride murron played by catherine maccormack murron's death changes that and wallace takes arms and together with small but dedicated band of followers begins guerrilla campaign that would systematically destroy almost every english garrison in the country through time more and more people join his ranks and in wallace's army scores surprising victory against english knights in the battle of stirling bridge but the newly won freedom is endangered by the internal squabbles between scots themselves especially nobles under pretender robert the bruce played by angus macfadyen who wouldn't like to have a simple commoner as a national leader braveheart was only the second film in the directorial career by mel gibson so it wouldn't be fair to compare it to the better known genre classics directed by david lean or anthony mann however even when we apply such criteria braveheart is more than decent historical epic that takes new and refreshing approach to the genre the most noticeable element of this approach is naturalism while older hollywood films set in medieval europe used to give vision of picturesque castles splendid costumes and knights in shining armour gibson shows us the extremely unpleasant world of poverty and feudal injustice where might made right and life was hard short and brutish this general unpleasantness is especially underlined in the scenes of battle where combat is naturalistically displayed in all its gory details never seen since verhoeven's flesh blood compared with this naturalistic approach most of old hollywood epics look like stage plays braveheart also employs humour at the right places not only to make bloody realities of medieval british isles more bearable to sensitive audiences but also to underline its atmosphere so different from previous historical epics what makes braveheart larger than life is his protagonist mel gibson obviously invested plenty of his energy and talent in bringing the mythical figure of william wallace and as a result character of century poems is transformed into superhuman being that resembles late century comic book hero wallace is more than superior to his enemies both physically and mentally yet he is able to show his sensitive more vulnerable side naturally when the character is based on epic poems most of historical accuracy is going down the drain which was the case with almost every historical epic from hollywood in however even those who don't particularly care about history or are willing to give poetic license to scriptwriter randall wallace might think that he went over the top in idolising wallace especially in the second part of film when scottish superhero manages to seduce princess isabel played by sophie marceau and make her a child because of that the disbelief is hardly suspended and final scenes aren't as effective as they should be mel gibson as an actor is truly wonderful and he is also helped by small army of very good british and irish actors most memorable of them all is patrick mcgoohan whose cold calculated and evil medieval monarch is one of the most effective villains seen in contemporary cinema brendan gleeson who would later become famous for his role in boorman's general is also very good as wallace's trusted companion as well as ian bannen is effective as king john balliol david o'harra is very entertaining as wallace's irish ally and angus macfadyen brings a lot of anxiety into his character of robert the bruce women in this film have rather thankless roles especially marceau as french princess catherine mccormack as wallace's wife was more interesting but she was eliminated from the picture early on from the technical point of view the film is also very good photography by john toll brings a lot of scottish natural beauty to the screen on the other hand the musical score by james horner employs too much of instruments for period piece set in medieval times although mostly welcomed by critics and audiences alike braveheart was often criticised for homophobia and other forms of extreme conservatism the main reason for that was the fact that gibson among many historical facts chose to be faithful only to those related to sexual orientation of longshank son prince edward played by peter hanly he is not only presented as a villain but also as one of the less competent in villain's camp and portraying of homosexuals as villains or inferior to heterosexuals is almost unforgivable sin in politically correct hollywood to make things even more obvious good guys in this film are the total opposite of effeminate and incompetent edward rugged macho men of mountains who are more practical and efficient because they tend to employ conservatives' common sense instead of fashionable theories of ivory tower liberals however although the message of this film might look it owes more to leftist ideology of various national liberation movements in century according to that ideology oppressed classes workers peasants are better suited to fight for national freedom because their members has less to lose in that struggle and as such they are more radical less willing to make compromises and more efficient on the other hand privileged classes aristocracy bourgeoisie are more likely to betray the cause of freedom and be in cahoots with foreign oppressors in order to keep their privileges this marxist worldview is presented in braveheart without any subtlety in the end whether the audience is patient enough to discover hidden meanings or simply wants to enjoy entertaining historical epic braveheart is more than adequate choice for all fans of this recently resurrected genre
positive	if you had a chance to create a genetically perfect child would you do it gattaca is a film which presents a future where society has answered yes to this question but then ponders if this was actually the right decision gattaca came out only a couple months following the first genetically engineered creature the lovable dolly the sheep and with this in mind the film only becomes more frightening the way the realm of genetics is heading it may only take a couple decades until the future gattaca presents becomes true contrary to the misleading trailers gattaca is not a thriller in the way that there's lots of murder hitchcockian suspense and chase scenes this is a quiet sad film about intelligent theories in fact the film seems like it would have been written by george orwell or aldous huxley the latter who's novel brave new world featured genetically engineered children it's a film that may likely become a cult hit to people who are frightened by a promise of shallow utopia which is exactly what gattaca presents and the main reason i dug it so much the story revolves around the genetically insufficient vincent freeman ethan hawke a man with high hopes but a chance of heart problems and a prospected life span of around years as a child he was put down because of the threats of genetics while his younger genetically perfect brother anton loren dean was promised whatever his heart desired vincent yearns to be an astronaut but when he gets a job at a giant space company it's as a janitor ernest borgnine plays his boss but one day he finds out that it's probably possible that his desires can come true in the form of a business deal brought out by a black market geneticist or something german wings tony shalhoub who did like hundreds of cameos in films back in men in black a life less ordinary who's client is a genetically perfect man jerome morrow jude law who has unfortunately been crippled fortunately though there's no record of the accident and he's willing to give someone else his life since vincent looks a bit like him after a couple alterations some minor some really major he has donned the life of jerome and is doing his job there he meets a genetically imperfect woman irene uma thurman who's genetically perfect in real life anyway hee hee and the two begin a kind of relationship albeit a very shallow one since romance is deemed by how great a man's stats are however a murder of a worker at his office is killed and one of eyelashes is found by the anal retentive investigators headed by a inspector hugo alan arkin and none other than vincent's long lost brother anton who hasn't seen him since they were teenagers we know didn't do it but with his older picture being posted everywhere not only in trouble but also the real jerome who's as much in it as he is however there isn't many big suspense set pieces which is actually a blessing because if they were tossed in the film would lose it's message and descend into just being a thriller a la william gibson the suspense in the film comes from the idea that vincent and jerome can easily be captured just by dropping a hair or dead skin while there are several scenes which are pretty frightening there are no big distractions from the point of the film much to the dismay of commercial audiences what is actually portrayed is the lack of life in the utopian society that is created irene has no real spunk in her life and is rather amazed by the sheer beauty of a sunrise rather than genetically perfect people and the genetically flawless jerome is in actuality a bitter man claiming that his accident was really no accident what jerome has done is fool the system in giving a man who yearns for better things a chance at that and the ending is shocking as it's a definite work of dystopian propaganda but doesn't have the down ending of other works of this kind the production design of this film is probably the best i've seen this year it's stunning very pleasing to the eye but still very cold since genetics has ruled out any chance of improvement the world has cooled into a state of inhumanity and the sets echo a sense of shallow misery and the sequence of all the workers doing their jobs has a kind of feel to it showing the nightmare of slipping into a routine life the ability to perfect people has left humanity cold and generally unhappy the acting from everyone is great with thurman giving a wonderfully cold performance and hawke creating a character who has been beaten down by the system but has found a new sense of optimism by a bitter man who was willing to give it out anyway interesting pointless fact uma and ethan started dating after this film and currently she is pregnant with his child but the best performance belongs to jude law who steals every scene he's in and creates a character filled with the pessimism over having such a horrible burden placed on his burden i think that people are generally tempted by the fact that genetics can actually create perfection in a child but whether or not they would actually act on this temptation is something i'm not sure of gattaca warns us not to go any farther chiefly because we'll create a world of elitism where the elite are shallow and unhappy and as bitter and angry as the lesser people are and when i see a possible future featuring a piano player well folks that just creeps me out
positive	in one scene from the people vs larry flynt the hustler magazine publisher appears at a free speech rally as graphic photos flash on a huge screen behind him flynt strides confidently across the stage delivering a rousing speech over what really constitutes obscenity the spectacle was reminiscent of the scene in patton where the general spoke in front of a giant american flag both scenes were stirring larger than life richly entertaining and felt totally like contrived set pieces for big hollywood movies overall that sums up the people vs larry flynt the film is a wildly entertaining hoot which despite being based on fact feels like a big phony hollywood movie the son of a kentucky moonshiner flynt woody harrelson ran away from home and ended up operating strip clubs in cincinnati there he met althea leasure courtney love a bisexual stripper who became his fourth wife and the love of his life to bolster interest in his clubs he started a sexually explicit newsletter that grew into hustler magazine flynt along with the magazine's management team headed by his brother jimmy played nicely by woody's brother steak shake commercial veteran brett harrelson viewed playboy magazine with contempt they mocked its slick articles and airbrushed photos striving to keep hustler focused on what guys really want explicit photos that would make a gynecologist squirm and extremely crude humor the film's prime example of hustler's attitude is a cartoon depicting characters from the wizard of oz in an orgy giving the audience an opportunity to giggle at flynt's naughtiness director milos forman conveniently ignores the magazine's frequent attempts to derive humor from child molestation racism and endless scatological cartoons flynt's rag labored in obscurity until he published nude photos of jacqueline onassis which brought the magazine international attention big money and the attention of conservatives an obscenity bust followed the first in a long series of battles between flynt and the law lawyer alan isaacman edward norton enters the scene hired by flynt's wife norton an exceptional actor is wonderful as the beleaguered lawyer trying to navigate the legal system while dealing with flynt's increasingly childish and bizarre behavior in court we meet the sputtering conservatives headed by citizens for decency leader charles keating james cromwell as keating blathers about flynt's immorality the camera slowly moves in for a of his name tag inviting the audience to gloat at the notion of morality being trumpeted by keating who was later convicted in a billion fraud flynt's other prime foe is rev jerry falwell who sues over a hustler parody involving him and his mother having sex in an outhouse tragedy strikes as flynt is shot by a assassin leaving him paralyzed from the waist down a dark period follows as flynt and leasure hole up in an l a suite strung out on pain killers flynt eventually kicks drugs but leasure succumbs to addiction and later aids after watch falwell on tv describing aids as a punishment from god flynt directs his lawyer to take the falwell case to the supreme court leading to the film's climactic courtroom scene the people vs larry flynt is at its weakest when moralizing on free speech and lionizing flynt if they'll protect a scumbag like me then they'll protect all of you declared flynt he's right of course but the director forman cheats in portraying the opposition as little more than hypocritical buffoons he also cheats in casting woody harrelson as flynt harrelson is an attractive charismatic man and his strong performance paints flynt as a colorful folk hero even a cursory look at the real flynt who is making the talk show circuit and plays the judge in an early courtroom scene shows a bloated morose and bitter man an accurate portrayal of flynt would have made a more difficult film to watch but a richer one despite its flaws flynt is a fast moving rousing movie with some terrific acting especially by courtney love whose vibrant performance will likely garner an oscar nod the story may be but it's still delicious candy
positive	we all know the fate of child's play which is the same for almost any film these days that does marginally well financially sequel hell with the newest installment in the series currently out that would be bride of chucky and it grossed million in its opening weekend which i think is the sign of the apocalypse number five it's kinda fun to go back and see how it all began rougly ten years ago with the original a task which is a retread for some and for others namely myself a chance to see what all the fuss was about alas the original child's play actually isn't that bad even seeing it in the tiny claustrophobic and theatre at my college wasn't the horribly dull experience i thought it would be not just because of the nicely rowdy crowd which you almost need to watch a film like this and if you don't believe me try and watch this flick by yourself one day but because as a whole this isn't a bad movie it's not great but it does have two things that many horror films like this one don't have a rather nifty premise and a sense of humor both which save this from horror hell which is precisely where say i know what you did last summer has recently gone the premise of child's play is that a serial killer named charles lee ray brad douriff is shot and almost killed by a chicago detective chris surrandon see what happens to some oscar nominees and before he dies utters a voodoo chant that sends his soul directly into a kid's doll called chucky a doll which has got to be the kid's doll i've ever seen the next day a bum who's stolen it sells it to karen barclay catherine hicks who then gives it to her young son andy alex vincent for his birthday of course chucky begins talking to the kid and trying to find a way to get out of the doll but certain twists come up like the guy he learned voodoo from reveals to him that the only way to break the curse is to take over the body of the first person he told he was inside the doll that being andy and soon enough chucky is killing people either for revenge or for what seems like fun and people are discovering that chucky isn't just a kiddie doll one by one the idea is a neat one ripe for lots of comic terror and luckily it utlizes a lot of that it plays with an idea stolen from a classic looney toons short that when someone knows that chucky is alive they tell people about it but when he tries to prove themselves chucky does nothing and everyone thinks they're crazy it plays with this as well as the whole thought that dolls and toys come to life and even manages to cram in a couple really frightening moments even if there's an entire sequence devoted to cliches a woman alone in a house hears a noise goes to investigate it and finds nothing but wait for the kicker a second later there's also a harrowing car ride with chucky trying to knife the detective from the back seat and then trying to attack him when the car finally crashes leaving the viewer with at least rather visceral exprience the ending is rather fun as well albeit a tad too about four different endings maybe five and the characters are more intelligent than the average horror film making them easier to sympathize with if there's one horrible thing about many horror films it's that the protagonists are morons who you can't help but shout obscenities at and for the most part child's play steers away from that and most of all the chucky character is a good one not just because he provides instant comic relief look that doll's moving on its own but because he's a generally scary character if there's anything really wrong with child's play it's that it's too trite and has too less self esteem at almost minutes child's play features way too less to be a real classic of horror it throws itself into a simple three act that renders it quick and almost forgettable if it weren't for the fact that the film deals with a psychotic doll if the film had more confidence in what it was presenting it would really push the envelope and become even more than just a short bit of horror escapism which is precisely why this kind of film is only memorable as a cheap little horor film which isn't necessarily a bad thing as such child's play is content to be just the short typical horror film but saves itself via a sense of humor and a nice feel that makes it much more enjoyable than the average short typical horror film
positive	director penelope spheeris decline of western civilization ii the metal years dudes suburbia cast mike myers wayne campbell dana carvey garth algar rob lowe benjamin oliver tia carrere cassandra summary wayne and garth have a public access show called wayne's world the show is a underground hit until benjamin oliver comes onto the scene benjamin wants to turn the show into a big hit nationwide possibly destroying the essence of wayne's world in the process  long review i must admit being a bit reluctant going into this film i didn't believe that they mike myers and dana carvey could hold it up for an hour and a half i figured that perhaps the first would be great and the rest would be fluff however i was really surprised about how well they were able to keep the laughs going for the virtually the whole film with the exception of the ending which i won't discuss for obvious reasons but it's not that bad story the plot was quite thin but it really wasn't that noticeable because of the jokes that myers wrote in alot of the jokes are very similar to hot shots in being very parodyish okay bad term extremely witty throughout although as in hot shots it got a bit repetitive in the middle acting as in many comedies the acting isn't really that important however myers turns in a good performance as wayne playing the character perfectly although i still liked him better back on much music in a more canadian type of mode carvey is okay as garth but he lacks the spark myers puts into wayne tia carrere is mediocre as cassandra playing it very stilted lowe is fine as ben oliver but is nothing to write home about without a doubt this movie is mike myers all the way direction spheeris is a classic music movie director making dudes and decline of western civilization ii the metal years she also directed the boys next door which is different to say the least she is very capable knows how direct a comedy the correct camera movements it instill laughs etc one of the better jobs i can remember for a comedy overall i would suggest to anyone that likes snl's skits to go see this film in the theatres however my personal opinion as in most comedies is that they work just as well on video you definately have to be fan of music and all forms of media in general to enjoy this film without a doubt this is the best comedy so far this year it'll make tons dough for everyone involved let's just hope they make a thousand sequels i had to get the lame joke in forgive me
positive	natural born killers is really a very simple story that in essence has already been told in bonnie clyde with some major variations in emphasis mood and degree both films glamorize outlaws in one case bank robbers and killers and in the other mass murderers both relate the story of a couple liberated by love but where bonnie clyde was partial and subtle natural born killers is total and blatant where bonnie clyde was social natural born killers is psychological what bonnie clyde hinted at natural born killers confronts and explores what bonnie and clyde stole mickey and mallory kill to examine natural born killers as nothing more than a psychological odyssey of realization and exposure of the frauds surrounding them expressed metaphorically as killing subdues the mysterious power this film wields for the most part when mickey and mallory kill they kill all that frustrates them unnecessarily they kill what is trying to kill them they kill what dissembles and cowers from life they kill what needs to be killed this mythos is at least as old as the hindu trinity brahma created vishnu preserved and siva destroyed but he destroyed what needed to be destroyed to make way for the useful creations of brahma the following may be painfully mundane but metaphorically so accurate i'm forced to say it for clarity's sake a plumber must remove the old lead and copper pipes that is destroy the old plumbing system in order to replace it with the new one made of plastics your plumber bonnie and clyde mickey and mallory and siva are all productive destroyers i think you could say without much of a challenge that religion is responsible for more killing and death presently and historically than any other phenomena muslims kill christians hindus kill muslims christians kill pagans jews kill christians etc you could reverse subject and predicate in each instance and still not be challenged religion is an orgy of killing the institution of the state only misses first place for technical reasons like it hasn't been a major player for as long or the two are frequently indistinguishable the state is the divine idea upon earth hegel said meaning it is absolute ineffable unassailable infallible authoritarian and patriarchal just like jhvh allah god etc well what does all this have to do with natural born killers let me first say that religions of this nature in the ideal take the place of sex consider the catholic church which in its took religion as seriously as any other religion or institution ever god takes the place of sex as manifested in all those vows of celibacy taken by the pope cardinals bishops monks etc they forego the one in order to come closer to the other during the middle ages when this doctrine was unmitigated and unchallenged the most repressive regime the west has ever known in terms of scope and magnitude rose to power parenthetically witness plato as well in the republic he attempted to launch the first systematic absolutist regime not coincidentally he was something of a mystic himself regularly assailing the passions catholicism as policy attacks the passions as evil it sees intercourse only as a means to perpetuate the species not as a way to pleasure masturbation is considered a sin with the sacrament of penance necessary for absolution this is religion this is authoritarianism in its essence as further evidence the nazis had the same attitudes as the church on these matters our culture most of the cultures of the world have been steeped in this tradition for thousands of years we can't help but adopt even internalize some of these same authoritarian attitudes leading to a destructive split between the biological and social self mickey and mallory knox internalized them too then through spontaneous sexual awareness sparked in each one of them by the presence of the other discovered them and began expurgating them from themselves and from the world in the process unifying themselves it is a straightforward liberation through sex as some good patriarch once observed you can maintain control as long as everyone keeps their clothes on had a vision of what the world would be like without contradictions they saw what civilization and culture and everyday life would be like under such conditions the moment of realization is worth a thousand prayers as mickey says as a the most consistent and impassioned critic of western culture there is nietzsche applying his typical stridency to the matter let us look each other in the face we are know well enough how remote our place is neither by land nor by water will you find the road to the hyberboreans even pindar in his day knew that much about us beyond the north beyond ice beyond life our happiness we have discovered that happiness we know the way we got our knowledge of it from thousands of years in the labyrinth who else has found it man of today i don't know either the way out or the way in i am whatever doesn't know either the way out or the way in sighs the man of today this is the sort of modernity that made us sickened in lazy peace cowardly compromise the whole virtuous dirtiness of the modern yea and nay this tolerance and largeur of the heart that forgives everything because it understands everything is a sirocco to us rather live amid the ice than among modern virtues and other such as far as i can tell this is what the movie has to say its alleged critique of the media is only secondary tertiary quaternary subsidiary for sure for example wayne gayle's first report ends with some gen x dude saying if i were a mass murderer i'd be mickey and mallory in his most excellent bill and ted voice on one level you cd make the humdrum observation that because the media had glamorized these two psychopaths that the uncritical impressionable gen x dumb guy confused the matter and took them for heroes it seems more likely that he made an independent judgement at a subconscious level recognizing what were up to and confessing that if he had the balls to be so honest with himself he'd be just like them killing and destroying what deserves it let me exemplify what i've been saying by analyzing a scene from the film namely the scene where mallory fucks the gas station attendant kills him and then castigates him for giving her the worst fuckin' head i've ever had in my life now i never claimed that mickey and mallory had a perfect relationship because demonstrably they didn't and this scene and the ones leading up to it show us this sometimes they are the source of each others frustrations but unwilling to kill each other since they love each other so much and are responsible for each others liberation they must kill in place of their lever it's no secret that in this scene mallory fantasized that her victim was mickey as the attendant approached he took on mickey's character in the eyes of mallory she needed to kill him because of he kidnapped that girl in the hotel room and was having secret fantasies about her while making love to mallory upon discovery mallory views this as a betrayal judges him and commutes his sentence on someone else the style of the movie is a whole matter that i won't get into very deeply but surely it is partially responsible for its power let me just say that its editing has the opposite effect of a western with shots that linger forever on a salon entrance or the like suggesting the expansiveness barreness and boredom of the frontier lifestyle the rapid succession of all those images from various perspectives with a soundtrack sometimes in sync and sometimes out of sink instills a skittish frenetic mood also jungian archetypes abound these can't help but trigger deep psychological responses we can barely understand especially when they flash across the screen for barely a few frames some of the best scenes and lines that come to mind quotes are paraphrased only mickey to mallory one of these days i'm gonna be cummin' for you in prison while mallory jacks mickey off semen is a symbol for great potential and things to come at the time they haven't yet had sex nor have they killed anyone yet the two of course go hand in hand for an even more explicit semen scene see silence of the lambs mickey during his marriage to mallory as creator of my universe i pronounce us man and wife the way woody delivers this line is truly haunting but telling too it reveals are well on their way to expunging all their destructive tendencies and replacing them with positive ones this is what mickey means by creator of my universe he is giving himself or creating for himself healthy attitudes it is not necessarily a schizophrenic retreat into solipsism as it first appears scagnetti's first meeting with mallory is through her pubic hair he plucks from the gas station attendant's mouth the indian sage releasing mallory's father who was reincarnated as a snake old man go be a snake after telling his snake story that ends with bitch you knew i was a snake after mickey shoots this sage to death during a bewildering nightmare mallory says you killed life this is another telling quote because it implies they didn't see themselves as killers of life then what were they killing up to that time in some case just those zombies faking their way through life the living dead as it were in other cases all the forces the cops and their parents the butterfly just before the movie shifts into the prison it of course symbolizes rebirth dr emil reingold as portrayed by steven wright passing judgement on mickey and mallory know the difference between right and wrong they just don't give a damn this is reminiscent of nietzsche's whole philosophy and maybe a direct reference to his beyond good and evil mickey the rabbit says the moment of realization is worth prayers mickey again in his interview me and you we are not the same species notice when the escape is in progress we get some role reversals in terms of leadership and control mickey the prisoner becomes the leader of his little gang the wardens become prisoners and the civilians like wayne gayle and his producer follow the leader no matter who it is mickey how ya feelin' wayne fucking great mickey you got the feelin' wayne i'm alive i'm alive for the first fuckin' time what an incredible transformation this is he got the feeling and he couldn't contain himself what a feeling that feeling of metaphysical freedom that you can create your own universe mickey when almost caught in a dead end think think think think go figure it out dwight tommy lee jones in general because he may be the sickest fuck in the whole film his whole attitude can be summed up with destroy them
positive	the bond series is an island in the film world where else would we look forward to cliches and all of the other things that occur in most of these films where else would pure escapism a vulnerable hero the talking villains blatant product placement predictable action sequences and lots of promiscuity be hoped for instead of a significant change i don't understand it myself but that's what the bond series is based on for i think films we've mostly got the same thing over and over again with some variation and a bit of change most notably in the two dalton films but even i a king of cynicism can't bitch about it and tomorrow never dies the again i think eighteenth bond film and second brosnan bond film is no exception thank god the plot as in most of them is pure balderdash but seems to have a nice kind of edge to it instead of just plain billionaire psychotics we get a rupert media elliot carver jonathan pryce looking bitching with a cru cut and always talking like he's out of breath who has the admittingly ingenius idea of getting ratings by creating a war no this is not wag the dog he wants a real war between china and england and is stupid enough to put the coverage out before anyone else discovered it in comes bond james is sent all around the world trying to do research on carver fighting with his men and running into on more than one occasion a chinese secret agent like him wai lin michelle yeoh asian action star extraordinaire and of supercop nearly stealing the screen from jackie chan in that one the two eventually and predictably of course begin working together and yes there is some sexual tension between the two luckily their relationship is never strained and she never gives into his until the finale thank god again in every bond film james bags on average three women sometimes more sometimes less the latter being more potent towards the dalton and he doesn't spoil this one though we never see them of course i mean they need to stay around a rating there's always one at the beginning with some chick we never see again the big bond girl yeoh and this time we have an by teri hatcher as carver's wife paris who it seems was once one of the girls he bags at the beginning yes teri's very attractive but she seems kind of dull of course it's not really her fault her part is and she's only in a small part of it oh well and there are always the big henchmen the guys who do the dirty work for the polished big villains this time we get a tall not to mention robert shaw in from russia with love guy named stamper goetz otto who is pretty awesome although a bit stiff well mostly his posture really and for a bit of comedy we get a cameo from vincent shiavelli as a german or austrian assassin who is ordered to do in bond at one point the government people have small parts as usual with q desmond llewelyn looking near death sadly getting only one scene in a more grouchy mood than usual and m judi dench getting more than m usually gets i mean it is judi dench and for no reason whatsoever except he was so good in goldeneye joe don baker shows up again as wade admitting he has no reason for being there and is this time more annoying again oh well the action sequences are not a although sometimes go on too long they pop up every now and then mainly because they have to for the sake of the series and some significant ones are the opening one one in a garage with a bmw that runs on remote control and a motorcylce chase on a bmw cycle nonetheless through china streets or was it vietnam the plot's not really essential they're more and feature much more laughs which yeah i dig so what if they're distracting they're supposed to be the acting from most around is great yeoh is actually one of the better bond girls mainly because she's so unique the better bond girls are more independent and have a certain to them pussy galore with her homoerotic undertones and all is one of the best and diana rigg who married bond at the end of on her majesty's secret service only to be killed added some emotional depth yeoh is notable since she's so active and has great chemistry with brosnan pryce is an awesome villain being slimy and lovable at the same time and brosnan is once again the mack daddy the bond series is built on cliches mainly because they're so fun and add to the escapism if you can remember the dalton years and they're serious direction you remember how unsuccessful they were both financially and aesthetically the series would falter if bogged down with too much plot too many themes and too much characterization i don't really understand it myself yet i'm one of the bigger fans of the series in the northeast united states having seen all of them more than once yes i've seen this twice already you can tell i adore them while it's not one of the best like goldfinger or from russia with love tomorrow never dies is nonetheless a truly awesome installment even if not being as fully amazing as some of the better ones
positive	this and documentary charts the life and times of anne frank the young diarist and victim of adolph hitler jon blair has collected a staggering amount of historical material on both anne and the frank family we meet miep gies one of the family's protectors who is still alive she recounts how she found the diary in the days after the germans captured the franks we watch otto frank anne's father and surviving family member in interview footage filmed before his death blair successfully combines these clips footage and other historical records to recount exactly what happened during that terrible period of european history as narrated by kenneth branagh and with diary excepts read by glenn close anne frank remembered retells more than just anne's story we meet and learn about the many friends family members and acquaintances whose lives were touched by this young woman and her writings winner of the last year's academy award for best documentary
positive	john sayles' men with guns is about what happens to a society when brute force and constant threat of violence are the only means of gaining and maintaining power the film takes place in an unnamed central american country where the men with guns are the rulers most of the country is divided into tiny segments some are controlled by guerrillas with guns some are controlled by army soldiers with guns and all the spaces are controlled by thieves bandits and terrorists all people not fitting one of those descriptions are defined only by their powerlessness however like so many central american countries this one also features modernity there is an unnamed capital city that bears all the hallmarks of contemporary civilization skyscrapers hospitals televisions highways etc but it might as well be in another country because those who live in the comforts of the city have either decided to ignore the violence ravaging the rest of the land or else they are simply ignorant of it the film's main character dr fuentes federico luppi falls into the latter category one of his patients an army general describes him as the most educated man he has ever met and also the most naive fuentes is a true liberal a caring man who thinks he can cure the ills of his country by fighting bacteria and ignorance among the indigenous indians with government assistance he has trained a large group of eager young medical students and sent them into the rainforest to cure and educate this program was to be his legacy and he repeats over and over that it was a good idea however when he ventures into that same rainforest to visit his prot g s he finds that things have not turned out as he has envisioned as he travels deeper into the forest going from village to village the story is always the same the doctors were all killed by either the guerrillas or the army soldiers usually for helping the other when dr fuentes asks a village woman why the army killed one of the doctors she replies simply because they had guns and we didn't rational science and all its attempts to cure have been wiped out by the men with guns because others' sickness and ignorance helps them maintain power dr fuentes picks up several companions during his journey all of whom are characterized by their loss first there is a young boy named conejo dan rivera gonz lez who has neither a mother nor a father next fuentes crosses paths with a thief named domingo dami n delgado who deserted the army because he was tired of being jeered into committing murderous atrocities through his ordeal in the army domingo has lost most of his and defines himself only by his pistol along the way the group also picks up padre portillo dami n alc zar a priest who has lost his faith as domingo is running from the army so is portillo he has been labeled a guerrilla sympathizer and ran away from the village in which he was preaching last the group takes on a mute girl named graciela tania cruz who hasn't spoken since she was raped two years earlier her innocence and even her will to live forcefully taken from her sayles two major strengths as a director characters and setting are abundantly evident in men with guns like many of his films sayles might have tightened this one somewhat in the editing room but a running time is a sin almost always committed when the director is also the editor he creates fascinating complex characters especially dr fuentes and domingo their uneasy relationship is also somewhat humorous in context of the film's overarching theme of violence as power domingo's attempts to control fuentes with his revolver are constantly undermined by fuentes' belief that the revolver is unloaded at first it is but later is isn't the setting is also as thick with detail as the rainforest itself sayles knows how to bring a location to life whether it be an early coal mining town in matewan or a contemporary bordertown in lone star sayles is not a particularly inventive director he likes to let his actors do most of the work but he and cinematographer slavomir idziak gattaca successfully evoke both the beauty and the danger of the central american terrain sayles also maintains a strong sense of authenticity by filming everything on location in mexico using all latin american actors and having all the dialogue spoken in either spanish or native indian dialects the one exception is a couple of bumbling american tourists who work not only as comic relief but as evidence of just how clueless the united states is about what is going on a few hundred miles south of the texas border it would not be a stretch to say that men with guns is a depressing film in fact the two feelings it evokes most are hopelessness and failure in addition to loss the main characters are also failures at something whether that be dr fuentes failure to change anything through medicine or padre portillo's inability to stand up and be the martyr he always dreamed of being nevertheless it is bleak material sayles has chosen and he deals with it accordingly the last shot of the film does offer a hint of hope even in a world where as one character puts it nobody refuses the men with guns
positive	plot during a span in london in the fall of jack the ripper a man whose identity was never uncovered committed five ritualistic grisly murders of prostitutes this film is based on the graphic novel which assembled a theory behind the mystery critique awesome i love dark movies i love stylish movies i love good mysteries and i love johnny depp so yes i really dug this movie the hughes brothers are back with a vengeance out to show the world that they are directors to be taken seriously and this movie my friends is very serious in fact it's also very gruesome and bloody and morbid and creepy and black as hell it ain't for the kids i'll tell you that much and if any of those recent hack directors of slasher flicks want some advice on effective kill scenes do not look any further because each one committed to this film is a cinematic stunner especially when compared to their generic contrivances in fact most of this film's structure is very creative the actors all solid the atmosphere and feel of the picture remarkably real gotta love those unfortunates and the descent into darkness well honed by the filmmakers you can almost taste the seediness off the screen and quickly come to appreciate the politics of the time but it's also an impressive mystery film based on the tale of jack the ripper a man whose identity was never discovered the theory in this film is based on the graphic novel from hell written by alan moore and presents a compelling story which despite being a little oliver did manage to tie up all of its loose ends quite nicely and present us with an entertaining bowl of mayhem sexual depravity drug usage insanity murders and love yes the brothers even managed to slip a little love story in here and despite not truly being developed i guess it could've been much worse and taken up more time than was provided already that's right there's no real need to put any romance in a film about a mass murderer but that aside you gotta give up the props to actor extraordinaire johnny depp who once again possesses the strength in character and flawless acting abilities to center this movie all the way through sure he's just playing a less goofier version of his ichabod crane character from sleepy hollow but he does it so well and even added a michael caine accent to his mixed bag of tricks in this one i was also surprised at how little heather graham annoyed me in this film i was sure that her presence would ruin this movie but she was fine and how little the of depp's character had to do with the film's development from what i had seen in the trailer i thought the filmmakers were going to make this the crux of the story but thankfully it wasn't on the downside the film doesn't really explain the whole freemasons cult organization real well and lacks character development but then again a story about the most mysterious serial killer of is probably not the ideal spot for character refinement i mean the less i knew about each person the more suspicious i became of each one's motives reasons etc in fact i was actually quite surprised by who was presented as the killer in the end and that was in part due to the distance to which i'd been held from the film's characters or am i giving the filmmakers too much credit for something that might not have been their intention perhaps overall this is an extremely creepy production with glorious cinematography reminiscent of coppola's dracula and burton's sleepy hollow a grim score and solid acting but it's not for everyone some may be utterly repulsed by the gory particulars of these tragic events and even though the murders aren't shown as graphically as you might think there's enough here to send the squeamish right out the doors but i for one love movies that blend their eclectic visual style with an interesting mystery and palpable gothic atmosphere and this flick is just that and plenty more and god knows that i will certainly not be surrendering the burnt image of jack the ripper's haunting cape silhouette and gleaming silver knife from my mind anytime soon brrrrr where's joblo coming from the crow dark city dracula jfk the nightmare before christmas the ninth gate the others quills shadow of the vampire sleepy hollow
positive	in at the gates' jude law is a gifted russian sniper made hero by a political officer named danilov joseph fiennes who uses him in a propaganda newspaper to raise the hopes of the soldiers and people of stalingrad it's world war ii and the standoff in town could determine the outcome of things for the motherland law's vassili is the russian's top pawn to victory lots of war stuff happens an older german version of jude's character played by ed harris shows up halfway into the proceedings he's equally talented and the two men play a cat and mouse game trying to kill each other they constantly switch roles as the war fades far into the background the cast also includes the terrific rachel weisz as a love interest for both vassili and danilov the is decent and so are the production values boasting a wide range of grimy locales greasy hair and tattered costumes the art direction prospers the actors however suffer the problem matt damon had in private ryan' either their eyes teeth skin or a combination of other features looked too white and clean with dirt and blood all around the blinding teeth or bright eyes of these actors divert attention from the action that said the players are mostly good in their roles although i don't think ed harris was really trying maybe he realized his role struck a difficult chord in while the film is technically about snipers there are far too many predictable sniping scenes director annaud expects us to view each tense situation with jude and some cohort in a tight spot as edgy and exciting but after about the sixth time in which we realize that jude is not going to die it's relatively pointless we get that he's talented okay let's move on that's the problem with at the gates' it just doesn't know when to stop witness the wasted seventeen minutes that could have been spent elsewhere reestablishing his title as the most beautiful and often talented man on film jude law carries the movie without him this costly production would have gone into the ground the story and acting are of good quality but there's never a sense of authenticity or reality something about this war movie is undeniably modern and it loses its feeling strange enough the screenplay is based on the true story of a real russian sniper
positive	it's been a good long while since we had a good old fashioned thriller where mostly everything goes right for the audience and wrong for the characters but it's been even longer since i saw a thriller that actually shock cared for the characters not merely judged them but actually allowed their human foibles flaws and strengths to emerge so radiantly i'd saw that it's been at least a couple decades even as far back to the great hitchcock thrillers though i'm hardly comparing a simple plan to say rear window or strangers on a train yet it's almost as good it's simple yet strangely complex and astonishingly rewarding because instead of moving from plot point to plot point and merely laying out overtones it instead concerns itself with the moral corruption and depths of greed that its protagonists can go to all without ever judging them as either evil or even immoral elegantly directed by sam raimi yes the same a simple plan concerns itself with the discovery of a crashed plane and within a bag full of millions of dollars by an upright moderately financially stable working man bill paxton his brother billy bob thornton and his drinking buddy brent briscoe without anyone around and the possibility that no one would come looking for it the three debate and debate but finally reach the decision that yes they will keep it but until any authorities or possible owners of the cash come looking and so they generally don't flaunt anything they don't want to flaunt they'll keep it stored away in the custody of paxton the possibilites of this circumstance are much diverse a they could endlessly play cat and mouse with the authorities b they could try to fight off the rightful owners who are either villainous or just or c they could fight amongst themselves a simple plan though borrows a little from each of these a little tiff with the cops here a subplot involving an alleged fbi agent a chilling gary cole there and a bit of inside feuding over here but as austin powers would say that's not necessarily its bag baby what i most admired about this film and what makes this a far superior and unique thriller is that it's successfully able to have its cake and eat it too it effectively involves some of the traditional thriller cliches like the ones mentioned above but at the same time it involves itself more deeply with the way the characters become morally corrupt and what price they have to pay to have what they think is happiness in a black duffle bag so while steps are taken to neatly cover things up and these subsequent steps go miserably awry the film choses to never loose the sight that in covering things up to the extent that these characters have to they are slowly losing their souls and their humanity in one early scene paxton and thornton have to make a trip back to the plane to return some of the money so it doesn't look like it was all stolen not a bad idea when thornton screws up as he does continuously throughout the movie and paxton has to do some major read homicide instead of a quick murder and immeadiate raimi shows a lengthy painful shot from a onto paxton's face as he tries to sift through his emotions and reach a conclusion there's a similar shot afterwards of paxton watching the murder he's committing and taking in all the horror which is also wonderfully effective but the previous shot is even better more morally complex and more in short probably the best piece of direction raimi's ever done demonstrating once again that sometimes the simplest way to do something yields the best results for further proof watch persona sex scene and witness what may be the best scene ingmar bergman's ever done but the film hardly stops here it follows completely through and rarely loses sight of its characters humanity and the depletion thereof yet it also moves from step to step in such a graceful method that we never feel like the film is merely stamping out the plot points of the story when the time comes for paxton to start becoming selfish and thus diabolical with aid from his pregnant wife played by bridget fonda a pal to raimi he does and soon the horror of the situation is escalating to tragic heights there's at least two grand shootouts and at least one of them may be one of the greatest shootouts in cinema history and when they arrive they don't come with masochistic delight but with horror during the one i was actually sinking into my chair with the mantra they can't do this can they streeming through my head in fact this film which is getting many comparisons to the coen's but forget about fargo has many similar moments of manic insanity attributed to the major amount of subtlety and restraint with which the directors direct what in other hands would be distractedness imagine i suppose robert rodriguez directing this then again after seeing the evil dead films i'd hardly assume raimi would be able to pull something like this off although there are moments of the film which are easily dubbed raimi moments a notwithstanding instead raimi directs with maturity and a gentle touch easily letting the story and characters while still letting some of the more traditional raimi elements come out like some offbeat comic touches most particularly billy bob thornton's character jacob is a brilliant creation his is often hilarious for most of the film every line he uttered was greeted with howling laughter but there's authenticity to the performance that strangely enough makes sure that we're not totally laughing at him the chuckles he gets are not necessarily ones of because thornton is so damn real jacob's a character and while being stupid we see that as not so much a flaw but a strength to his character his simplicity is endearing and many of the acts he commits are out of a strong inner strength and belief system primarily towards the middle where his bud and begins to make some heavy waves concerning the money the final third of the film spends much time with him and many of the touches upon his character not only by thornton but also by screenwriter scott b smith adapting his own book by the way are just great i particularly admired a back story about an old high school girlfriend told by thornton with such sincerity and acception that the cruel story is reversed to and further strength of his saddened character thornton is absolutely brilliant in this performance by far the best performance he's ever given and further proof that he's the best character actor in contemporary cinema if you don't believe me go back and watch his wonderful performance in primary colors a performance that would have been nominated for an oscar if this hadn't been in the same year because he's easily able to slip into a character and make him completely and utterly believable he brings so much weight to the film that as it is with most character actors it's difficult picturing anyone else in the role the rest of the cast is great too from paxton's declining working man to chelcie ross' amiable town sheriff even fonda shows off her talents nicely and if i had any complaints about the film it's that the plot is almost too simplistic and that at times it seems too much like an exercise like a cruel test on humanity that still pays attention to the humanity involved and the occasional narration is as it usually is annoying narration should be used with extreme caution especially when you're trying to set things up express emotions didn't raimi watch the first murder scene and the thing that can most usually go wrong with a movie the ending is basically amiss i won't reveal it but it's way too cruel and too much of an outsider as if the appearance of a plane wasn't already too much of that anyway for a film that deals so much and so intimately with the humanity of the characters involved this is the wrong ending imagine a ending otherwise it's like if in crime and punishment if the police had caught him instead of him breaking down and confessing not that i'm at all comparing a simple plan to dostoevsky the ending does work despite my protestations but to me there was something incessantly nagging and unsatisfying about it but if you had no qualms and were happy as a clam with it then just ignore me and go about your day but despite my mere claims make no mistake that i was completely and utterly edge of my seat throughout and even sometimes curdling up by the situations that occured not because of any kind of gore factor which is thankfully for this very minimal but because the film places its characters in situations and gives them such painful things to overcome that i've frankly not seen much like it in quite awhile at least not since the previous worthy hitchcockian masterpiece
positive	some of my friends who went to live in usa complain about one thing that country is very different from the one depicted in hollywood movies that is especially true for those who end up somewhere in that unexplored land between los angeles and new york where they find to their big surprise that the majority of people vote republican go to church every sunday and usually don't tolerate liberal attitudes that are taken for granted in an average american film such rude awakening however can happen in another direction conservative people are sometimes forced to discover unpleasant truths about world they live in something like that happens to jake van dorn george c scott successful grand rapids businessman who shares strong calvinist convictions with the rest of his community one day his daughter kristen ilah davis disappears from calvinist youth convention in california van dorn is worried because he doesn't believe that his daughter would run from home however the truth delivered by private investigator andy mast peter boyle is even harder kristen is spotted in cheap pornographic film infuriated van dorn is unsatisfied with the way mast's investigation is going so he goes to los angeles to search for kristen himself unfortunately he lacks experience and the quest that brought him to the utter depths of sex underworld is fruitless things change when he devises cunning plan and while doing it stumbles on sympathetic prostitute and part time porno actress nicky season hubley almost two decades after its release hardcore is mostly forgotten by critics and film scholars it is a real shame because very few movies in today's hollywood would dare tackle controversial issues that writer and director paul schrader explored in his second directorial attempt in late it was totally different situation films were expected to have mature serious themes for the mature audience for schrader this film was nice opportunity to expand the subplot of his previous work taxi driver one that deals with the great generational divide that tormented the american society in on one side we have an old america that sticks to the puritan ideals of hard work and strict morals that made that country great but that america is obviously unable to cope with the new challenges brought by the social turmoil in and instead of facing them prefers to live in rural conservative cocoons the new america on the other hand fares no better ideals of the sexual revolution same as all other revolutions of the swinging sixties degraded into exploitation and depravity instead of being liberated baby boomers are stuck with their own inability to cope with the newly discovered freedoms schrader very cleverly brings the idea that those two americas actually aren't so far away nice example is a brilliant scene in which van dorn already described as an authoritarian and paternalistic capitalist meets sleazy porno producer the latter one also turns out to be authoritarian paternalistic and very dedicated to this job the difference between the two is simply in the line of work many contemporary critics actually accused schrader of promoting conservative agenda on the surface it may look that way audience is forced to sympathise with van dorn and his quest in the first scenes he is portrayed as nice family man who actually doesn't deserve to experience parent's worst nightmare the scene in the porno cinema that reveals kristen's fate is extremely cruel pain and humiliation brought by actor george c scott is of such intensity that the audience feels sorry for him and simply must support his agenda van dorn is perhaps flawed and the subtle hints lead to the unflattering truth at the end but the viewers simply know that his cause is just and that prodigal daughter must be better off with her loving father than with the sleazy pornographers that only want to exploit her body on the other hand schrader who grew up in an environment very much like van dorn's his own parents wouldn't allow him to watch movies until he was knows better and tries to bring another side of coin even the people connected with sex underworld can show redeeming qualities like nicky who actually tries to improve her life and sleazy detective who develops something like a conscience at the end unfortunately schrader fails to erase the impact of the shocking scene at the beginning and his attempt to reconcile the opposing sides of america seems lost in somewhat clich d finale the script is slightly flawed and schrader as director doesn't show too much originality his style seems too influenced by techniques that scorsese used in taxi driver apart from the scenes in grand rapids those two films even look alike but the content might be more than interesting for today's viewer especially those inspired by the current revival until boogie nights no hollywood mainstream movie ever dared to explore the phenomenon of pornography in hardcore on the other hand might serve as precious document because it depicts sex film industry in the period often regarded as the golden age by connoisseurs before the advent of video when many of the porno filmmakers could afford to think of themselves as artists the view of such age and the industry is very unflattering though but for the film whose main character takes time to explain calvinist doctrines to the audience that shouldn't be too surprising anyway despite some flaws hardcore remains very interesting and powerful piece of cinema
positive	vampire lore and legend has always been a popular fantasy element substantiated by not only the sheer number of movies about the subject but also the proliferation of cults and sects of adherents and unlike any of the more outlandish myths the vampire holds some probability one study claims bloodsuckers exist worldwide and places in los angeles but lest the nasties be mistaken for simple comic book bad guys john carpenter would like to remind us that they are and always have been a truly frightening element of the thriller genre and remind us he does in his latest film vampires there was some question as halloween weekend approached of how well vampires would do in comparison to new line cinema's immensely successful blade released in august the two films take noticeably different stands on the vampire issue and don't even agree on some basic points of the slaying method for instance blade's main weapons are silver and garlic whereas main character jack crow's technique is a wooden stake to the heart blade also gives more of a face to the vampire civilization while carpenter would like us to remain in the dark about how the pasties operate both have their advantages and here carpenter's style lends itself to a darker breed of suspense rather than the action movie that blade director stephen norrington delievered when it's all said and done though the vampires still kill and die with a bloody flourish the level for gore is indeed set to maximum this time our hero is slayer jack crow james woods he's a cynical veteran and the best of his bunch he and his team are responsible for cleaning out the american southwest and after exterminating a nest one night they run up against a termed a master named valek thomas ian griffith valek kills all of jack's team except for his partner tony montoya daniel baldwin and as the two regroup they learn that valek is the original vampire now over six hundred years old apparently valek and his minions have been sweeping the southwest for decades in search of a cross that will enable them to walk in the daytime so with the aid of a priest named adam tim guinee and a bitten hooker sheryl lee as bait they track valek down for the final confrontation the script for vampires written by don jakoby and based on the john steakley novel is perhaps the wittiest piece of screenplay to see production all year crow in particular is a fun source of and woods does every one of them with perfect stoicism baldwin lee and guinee are all fine supports adding to the character pool but the other true highlight of the movie is thomas ian griffith's bad guy griffith's intense expression is perfect for the role and the only downside is that he's got to talk sometime luckily he's got few lines and manages to pull off a rather thrilling performance all said fans will surely be impressed by this picture and those who found apt pupil a bit limp will be excited by this one certainly a worthwhile visit to the theaters
positive	if the current trends of hollywood filmmaking continue we are probably five or six years away from the moment when the would become the next golden age of movie nostalgia although some hollywood products already use the last decade as a background for their stories mostly in ironic way like grosse pointe blank and romy michelle's high school reunion some time should pass before the good memories of that era overcome the bad ones until that happens would be remembered as the decade of greed when the revolutionary ideals of turned into its cruel materialistic opposite and the money became the only thing that matters contemporary movies are good in illustrating what was bad for the people who had to live in those times one of such movies one that probably brings the essence of to the screen is william friedkin's to live and die in l a the money isn't just the symbolic motive in the film it is the major elements of the plot rick masters willem dafoe is an who used his artistic abilities in order to become one of the best counterfeiters in l a being too intelligent to fall into police traps and ruthless enough to eliminate anybody or anything that could jeopardise his career masters managed to elude law for years and became connected richard chance william l petersen is a secret service agent adrenaline junkie whose life gets new meaning after his partner got killed by masters however his plans of bringing the counterfeiter down meet one obstacle after another finally he sets up a final sting but his superiors deny him the necessary money being frustrated and against the reluctance of his new partner john vukovich bill pankow he decides to get the money by robbing underworld courier their plan backfires with almost tragic consequences when their target turns out to be undercover fbi agent but chance decides to carry out his scheme anyway like french connection one of his previous masterpieces this friedkin's movie was inspired by real life gerrald petievich author of the novel that later served as basis for his screenplay spent many years working as a secret service agent that turned to be useful for the portrayal of that law enforcement agency not much utilised by hollywood secret service millieu was also cleverly used in order to bring the viewer into the decade of greed the beginning scene where the movie's hero works as a part of presidential security detail is a nice opportunity to hear reagan's speech that could illustrate the political and economical notions of those times ultramaterialistic and egotistical view of the world is shared by almost any character in the movie willem dafoe brilliantly portrays dangerous and intelligent psychopath whose ruthlessness and lack of any moral fibber doesn't seem like affliction in the reagan years on the contrary those qualities actually makes masters socially acceptable compared with him and all the other side characters that want their piece of the action two heroes on the side of law seem like losers instead of being a classical good guy secret service agent richard chance portrayed by william petersen in his most impressive role so far is nothing more than a lunatic whose adrenaline addiction and madness work against his better judgement his sidekick who should serve as those better judgement is a weakling and sentimental fool that gets suckered in the end in such surroundings of moral decay the not so happy yet surprising ending doesn't seem out of line although the very last shot leaves too much questions unanswered the dark atmosphere of l a city of glamour and moral decay is nicely captured by william friedkin's directing skills the tight and realistic scripts with memorable characters portrayed by such capable actors like john turturro dean stockwell debra feuer darlanne fleugel and steve james gave opportunity for friedkin to use another gimmick that made him famous in his masterpiece great car chase that scene alone with lot of realism thrills and surprise twists is worth seeing the rest of the film the soundtrack provided by now almost forgotten band wang chung is also one of the more memorable of that decade in every case to live and die in l a is one of the rare movies in which hollywood actually tries to tell some unflattering truths about the world and succeeds in it
positive	picard patrick stewart and the rest of the crew of the u s s enterprise are back for their third outing in the ninth film based on the series star trek gone are kirk spock and mccoy and in their wake in the very able and very talented cast from star trek the next generation as usual a crisis is brewing and it is up to the crew of the enterprise to make the galaxy safe again this time out the united federation of planets and an alien race led by f murray abraham are trying to move some colonists off a planet against the colonist's will it turns out that this planet is the fountain of youth and the federation and their alien buddies feel that is should be used for the good of everyone and not just a few hundred colonists of course picard feels that this sort of treachery is wrong so he disobeys direct orders and vows to help protect the colonists insurrection is a lighter movie than the last two star trek films the film focuses on the lofty question of whether the rights of society as a whole outweighs the rights of a small group in this respect it gets back to the roots of star trek by disguising social commentary as science fiction it doesn't do a bad job other than it tries to inject too much humor into the story line many of the jokes are your typical inside star jokes while many of the others just fall flat the other criticism that i had with the story was that it ignores common sense there are only a few hundred people on this whole planet why do they have to be moved the explanation is that the planet has to be bombarded with deadly radiation so that this fountain of youth effect will be strong enough to help heal f murray abraham's aliens who number only a couple of dozen so the basic story line is bad enough in that we have a few hundred being booted out for a few billion at least that's plausible but in reality we have a few hundred being moved for the benefits of a few dozen which makes no sense whatsoever the other little hiccup in logic is the inclusion of worf michael dorn the trusty klingon worf was on star trek the next generation so they want to include him in the films no problem so far worf is now a character of star trek deep space nine so the writers have to find a way to have him show up in the last star trek movie first contact the included worf in a credible fashion in this one the writers are so lazy that the completely gloss over why he is even in the movie what little explanation they do give is so small that you would have missed it if you weren't hanging on every word on the screen my minor problems with the movie aside star trek insurrection does have an overwhelming number of good points as compared to its bad ones while many of the jokes do miss the mark many are pretty good even for the special effects are among the best for the star trek series the action is plentiful and well done this is a very movie it should come as no surprise to anyone who ever watched star trek the next generation that the acting is first rate it is very obvious that these actors have been working together for over a decade they interact with each other with a skill that few other ensemble casts can muster most star trek fans probably will not be disappointed with this latest film in the series if you've always hated star trek there is nothing here that is going to change your mind star trek insurrection is not the best film in the series but it is good enough to dispel the long standing tradition of the odd numbered films in the series being far inferior to the even numbered ones
positive	the promotion for fear and loathing in las vegas has made the film out to be a comedy and for about the first hour or so it seems like it might be one it's and the hippie movement has left behind quite a few among them journalist raoul duke johnny depp and his attorney dr gonzo benito del toro these two spend most of the film in a stupor having strange hallucinations trashing their hotel rooms and either annoying or scaring almost everyone that crosses their path duke is first assigned to cover an outdoor desert motorcycle race in las vegas but gets lost in a blur of drugs beer and flying dust and ends up wandering around with no clue who won he leaves vegas briefly before he is sent back in what can only be described as a strangely appropriate twist of fate to cover a drug enforcement conference fear and loathing has been misinterpreted by some as glorifying the use of drugs it doesn't even in the the pair's antics are sometimes amusing and relatively harmless at first the humor here is still fairly dark director terry gilliam views them with a rather satirical eye and even when we're laughing we're laughing at them rather than with them they spend most of their time paranoid angry or just plain befuddled which is probably an understandable reaction to seeing the entire room suddenly fill up with giant reptiles the black comedy may be entertaining to watch onscreen but it's probably not something most other audience members would want to experience all this aside i was starting to grow a bit restless as the film drew near its mark thinking to myself that i wanted something more out of this than just an satire of drug culture thankfully the script delivers it before too long as duke in a rare moment of lucidity stops to recall how he was once an enthusiastic hippie riding the wave of something that seemed special and important now it's six years later and the wave has finally broken as he puts it materialistic culture is still alive and well and for most of this film right in his face in las vegas the american dream of which duke occasionally speaks is still just as shallow and phony as ever the social protesters have lost and the more questionable aspects of the movement have turned ugly and left casualties such as duke to drift in a sea of drugs and disillusionment in many ways fear and loathing is gilliam's most film all of his others with the exception of the fisher king have made use of some sort of fantasy or plot elements yet it is his masterpiece brazil to which this film bears the most visual resemblance the protagonist of brazil found himself alternately surrounded by a plastic soulless society and the constant chaos of totalitarian police inspections and terrorist attacks and similarly duke's world is composed of the artificial empty glam of las vegas and the bizarre anarchy of his drug hallucinations unlike the protagonist of brazil however duke is not a particularly admirable figure and neither is gonzo during the latter half of the film their trips turn nastier and the consequences worse eventually building up to an incident an a diner in which gonzo crudely frightens and humiliates a waitress while duke though he doesn't seem to approve doesn't do anything to stop it either by the time this scene takes place they don't seem like hippies or peaceniks or protesters or anything of the sort any more they just seem like a couple of stoned jerks in a diner duke seems to realize at some level that he's become something he doesn't like but he's either too apathetic or too defeated to do anything to change this film has taken a critical drubbing from many who view it as an essentially pointless film that simply throws one trip scene after another at the audience while gilliam may have overdone it in a few places i think he and his deserve more credit than that there's plenty of substance here particularly in the second half its observations about the broken and defeated rebels from the and the objects of their rebellion just aren't usually very pleasant unlike say brazil or the fisher king both of which feature a character who dares to let himself dream in a repressive environment fear and loathing in las vegas shows us someone who's given up on his dreams and resorts to the quick fix of drugs in its own psychedelic way it's sad and regretful but i think it's also a bit of a kick in the pants a challenge to find an alternative between withdrawal and the equally addictive drug of materialism indeed duke himself admits at one point that he's never learned to accept that you can get higher without drugs than with them i'm not sure if he's any closer to accepting it by the end or not but i suspect the audience will get the idea
positive	james cmaeron's breakthrough feature was the first of his films to showcase his obsession with technology and more specfically technology run amok for those of you who do not know the plot in machines have engineered a nuclear for the expressed purpose of wiping out the human race human survivors are systematically hunted down and destroyed however some humans are fighting back led by the heroic john connor to stop connor the machines send a terminator arnold schwarzenegger back to to murder connor's mother sara linda hamilton and thus prevent connor from ever being born in response the humans send a protector kyle reese played by michael biehn images of machines and of humans' reliance on machines dominate the film even though the characters know that the benign oil drillers of will become the ruthless hunter killers of humans continue to use the machines in the climax of star wars luke relies on the force own spiritual destroy the death star in the terminator however sara must use another giant hydraulic vanquish her enemy cameron seems to be implying that this reliance on technology is he's not happy about it unabated technological growth brings about the terminator's other obsession the apocalypse we have plenty of imagery regarding armageddon thousands of human skulls line the streets of future la children watch the flames in a burning television when the terminator arrives in an almost biblical lightning storm precedes him even though the future is not set there is no doubt about where the world is headed at the end of the movie the machines will rise and the humans will have to struggle for their very existence all sara can do is await it cameron doesn't wimp out like he does in terminator the end of the world is the human race's own fault too after all it is the humans that created in the evil machines in the first place back in when the cold war was still in full effect the film must have been seen as a very apt metaphor for nuclear war another obsession of cameron's these days one can read a criticism of behavior in humans true humanizing touches are put into paul winfield's and lance henriksen's detective characters but the terminator is also able to move through the city undetected cameron also draw parallels between the mechanical efficiency between the terminator and reese when they first arrive in la from a technical standpoint the terminator is very well done arnold schwarzenegger is a perfect merciless obdurate we are not meant to empathize with this ultimate killing machine as we are in some of schwarzenegger's later works eg commando but fear him cameron and hurd's script basically depicts a one hour and minute chase taking a few moments here and there to explain time travel and develop the romantic subplot while we do see the hackneyed dialogue cameron is now so well known for there is also considerable suspense especially for the first time viewer who may be unsure of kyle reese's intentions cameron directs the film at a rapid kinetic pace either the camera is moving or something within the frame is both occurs the violence is not particularly graphic temple of doom's scene outgrosses the terminator's but it is brutally staged making it that much more effective for a low budget film the terminator's special effects and art direction especially in la are remarkably well done special mention should be made of the stop motion effects work at the end of the film depicting the terminator endoskeleton it is some of the best stop motion i have ever seen one thing that doesn't hold up after all the years however is linda hamilton's hairdo
positive	it might surprise some to know that joel and ethan coen who have brought such unabated lunacy to our movie screens as raising arizona and the hudsucker proxy made their feature film debut with blood simple a grim and often gruesome tale of revenge murder and literally fatal misconceptions in rural texas it bears some resemblance to the coens' recent fargo but even the darkly satirical humor and the enjoyably quirky characterizations that characterized that film are scarce here blood simple is pretty much cold and brutal from beginning to end the premise of blood simple is really just a slight variation on the standard scheme sleazy bar owner julian marty dan hedaya hires a shifty private detective m emmet walsh to kill his wife abby frances mcdormand and her illicit lover ray john getz things start to go haywire when walsh decides instead to fake the murder with photographic trickery but upon collecting the money becomes uncertain as to whether or not marty is capable of keeping his mouth shut about the scheme to reveal any more details of the story would be to give away too much but what ensues is a series of bloody and i do mean bloody confrontations each triggered by one or more characters misunderstanding what is actually happening every act of violence or deception in this film makes sense when seen through the perpetrator's eyes but we the audience are made privy to the big picture and thus can recognize that each misdeed is somehow either unnecessary or directed at the wrong person this aspect of the story along with the intense atmosphere of repulsion and brutality one gets the sense that if guns and in one case shovels were not available some of these characters would claw each other to death are the most effective components of the film the coens might have done well to title the film fear and loathing in texas some have labeled blood simple as a noir but while i am not an expert on either genre it seems more like a horror movie than anything else the coens seem much more interested in the plot twists and the atmosphere of confusion and paranoia than they do in the characters and the final sequence is nothing more than a showdown between the one relatively innocent character and the only one of the murderers left alive that said blood simple is a very good horror movie the fear and suspense here are genuine the coens also add plenty of quirky touches that nudge the weirdness meter upwards such as when a character enters an empty room and accidentally steps on a gun discharging it as it skitters across the floor or when a murder attempt unfolds in a way such that abby mistakes her attacker for another character who has in fact been killed earlier in the film that said blood simple is not exactly flawless for one thing the motivations for the killings are still a little thin at times i can understand that the characters had tracks to cover or at least thought they did but i found it a little hard to accept that all of them would so quickly resort to murder and although they at least didn t have anyone get hacked to death with a knife the coens also aren't quite immune to horror cliches they indulge in a prolonged scene that had me rolling my eyes the film also ends so quickly after the final confrontation that i found myself wondering if they had simply run out of film blood simple is not quite the masterpiece of that many seem to think it is but it's a decent movie and it showcases the coens' ability to handle suspense and violence in a visceral but manner i would firmly recommend it to all as well as anyone looking for something original in a thriller
positive	kirk douglas is one of those rare american actors who can say more with a simple glance than most can say with pages of dialogue all he has to do is look at someone with a raised eyebrow and you instantly know what he's thinking detective story features one of kirk douglas's finest performances he stars as a new york detective that has his whole world fall apart in one night the film is based on a play and this is quite evident as most of the movie takes place in the flat that the detective's work in the film opens with the douglas character getting ready to go home to his wife but through a series of events he never quite makes it there the bulk of the movie follows the case of a man named schneider a surgeon who routinely performs abortions with a high fatality rate however this schneider character has a connection in the past of douglas's wife a connection douglas himself is not aware of many secrets are revealed in the last half hour of this film secrets i would not dream of giving away with a name like detective story one would assume the film would resemble an episode of nypd blue but it doesn't quite work out that way however we do see douglas at work on a few other cases throughout the running time lee grant virtually unrecognizable plays a meek jewish woman arrested for shoplifting her scenes with bendix another detective provide the movie with a few laughs the performances all around are fantastic douglas may be the leader of this ensemble but he's not the center of attention all the time we get to catch a glimpse into other cases and other detectives working on those cases which brings me back to douglas he has a really emotional scene towards the end of the picture that really makes you feel for him we can see that this is a man who has spent his whole life trying to eliminate crime but has finally realized that what he's really done is gotten back at his criminal father how he handles coming to terms with this is something really worth seeing kirk douglas is the kind of actor we don't seem to see to much of these days he's a tough guy but the human elements are never hidden too deeply underneath that gruff exterior
positive	a man is not a man without eight taels of gold starring sammo hung sylvia chang directed by mabel cheung written by cheung and alex law cinematography by bill wong eight taels of gold begins as a fish out of water story and at some point becomes a love story involving two people whose past choices prevent the fruition of their love neither aspect of the movie is entirely successful but both are good enough and along the way there is one perfect scene which is one more than you find in most films slim played by portly sammo hung better known as a star and director of hong kong action movies is a chinese immigrant who drives a yellow cab in new york when the movie opens we see him shouting obscenities at another taxi driver he does not seem particularly out of place in fact he is about to return to visit his home in rural china for the first time in sixteen years spending most of his life savings in the process and it is there that he will become the proverbial fish out of water as he realizes that you can never go home he brings with him some statue of liberty cigarette lighters cheap sunglasses and lobsters which have to be large to prove they're american tokens of his success he also wears a gold chain and a gold watch because without eight taels of gold a man is not a man my dictionary tells me that taels are a unit of weight used in the far east and i assume the phrase is a chinese proverb he loses most of this the his van crashes into a river and he has to hitch a ride so to speak on a raft along the river which runs past his parents' village when he arrives unannounced he almost induces cardiac arrest in his father all of this has the makings of a routine comedy and the movie has its amusing moments as when the villagers take turns giving slim gifts during a celebration of his homecoming and they all give him birds so by evening's end he is surrounded by turkeys ducks geese and other sundry fowl but eight taels is not a is a sad sweet story about the choices people make and how they are sometimes irreparable director mabel cheung an autumn's tale the soong sisters sees clearly what it is like to have lived half of your life in one country and half in a country on the other side of the it is like to no longer have a place to call home slim does not belong in china nor does he belong in america where he can barely speak the language seeing water buffalo in the fields and rafts poled down the river and fireworks exploding gloriously in the sky over a small village we come to know the world slim left behind and it seems as if he too is knowing it for the first time and wishes it felt more like home the condition of the expatriate is eloquently portrayed i being one was sympathetic on his way to his parent's village slim hooks up with jenny sylvia chang whom he knew when she was a girl nicknamed which is what he continues to call her although she is now a mature professional attractive woman to be married in the spring to an man slim and fall for each other that's predictable the manner in which their romance is played out is not the emotions involved are adult and complex and the film avoids cheap solutions to their dilemma it's typical for instance that the fianc in this sort of plot be a colossal jerk because it makes it easier to empathize with the unrequited lover but here the fianc is a decent ordinary guy and although slim would like to feel anger he cannot the fianc has done nothing wrong the situation is the result of bad luck or bad decisions take your pick eight taels has its share of flaws the early sequences in america and on the plane to china are especially weak but it compensates with insight when tells slim that her future husband wants to move to san francisco she notes resignedly it's all the same wherever we go we'll be in chinatown and her straightforward statement expresses much there is insight too in the understanding of the consequences of slim and decisions he to move to america she to marry a both their choices were perhaps born of impatience perhaps of a sense that the grass is always it turns out that both choices were wrong but they cannot undo them they must live with what they have done such is life the movie is tender toward these people but it offers no false comforts everything that is right and true about eight taels comes together in one great scene which is the culmination of the love story slim and sit in a secluded spot and talk hesitantly with the muted of fireworks exploding in the night behind them and it seems the conversation will lead to a kiss the exchange that follows and what slim then does is poignant and perfect with clarity and understatement we see two people's lives their heartbreaks and virtues summed up in a single moment yes the film is flawed but moments like that justify most of its inadequacies
positive	the summer movie season is always the biggest and brightest season for movies throughout the year we are introduced to blockbuster hits that are usually trashed by critics loved by the people and make tons of money at the box office this year the tradition continues with an update on the universal classic the mummy i have always been a sucker for this kind of monster movies and i always seem to be the only critic who really likes them that tradition continues as well with this fun special effects extravaganza in the mummy the up and coming brendan fraser stars as the adventurous explorer rick o'connell he teams up with a curious clumsy librarian named evelyn played by rachel weisz to find the mysterious city of the dead hamunaptra evelyn loves egypt and would truly like to visit the city that people call a fable rick has claimed he has been to hamunaptra during a battle and that's why she chose him to lead her there also tagging along on the journey to the city of the dead is evelyn's brother jonathan played by john hannah sliding doors now in hamunaptra the three uncover the book of the dead the curious evelyn unlocks the book reads from it and now the body of the ancient egyptian imhotep arnold vosloo becomes alive and is out to kill the ones who opened and read from the book along with imhotep arising from the dead the ten curses of egypt become in full effect launching unbelievable forces against the three and another group who set out to find hamunaptra not only is imhotep furious with those who awoke him he is also out to restore the life of his girlfriend that lost her life long ago in ancient egypt don't expect huge things out of the mummy but just expect to have a good time this movie is extremely campy and plays out like an old horror film with beefed up special effects which may turn off some viewers on the other hand this type of film is one of my favorites but that's up to you to decide there is one thing that definitely not campy or corny about the mummy though the state of the art special effects take you into a completely different world we are dazzled by faces rising out of the desert swarms of beetles and locusts and even creatures crawling under a human's skin these may have been in other movies before but not like in the mummy as of now the mummy holds the title for best special effects of this year but all this could change when star wars episode the phantom menace is released into theaters across the country in the past brendan fraser has played mainly comedic roles when playing george in disney's george of the jungle he was mainly not known by anyone i would say that gods and monsters is the film that gave him a name and now the mummy will give him a name amongst teens in the mummy fraser gets to play an action hero and i liked him in this sort of role over the comedic role as in the films blast from the past and george of the jungle although brendan fraser is great rachel weisz gives the best performance among the cast weisz really reminded me of a character from an old horror film the way she acts looked and talked all reminded me of someone not from this time evelyn is probably the only character that was likable considering that the other characters like john hannah's didn't get much personal attention in many films when different genres are mixed the mixing usually works and i like it for the most part in the mummy though not all of the mixing works there are some scenes that have a lot of potential horror some with potential comedy some with potential drama and some with potential pure action but the film tries to mix them together too often for the mixing to work the mummy could have gotten an a rating from me if it had gone purely with one of these i didn't mind the corny here and there during action sequences but it certainly could have done without them the cinematography is amazing in the mummy particularly in one scene depicting ancient egypt we are taken into a very fun portrayal of egypt mummies and the treasures left behind by the ancient egyptians the costume design in the film is also up there with the great cinematography from ancient egyptians outfits to original troops outfits the costumes are always top notch the bottom with the mummy the summer is off to its usually great start
positive	jacques tati's classic les vacances de m hulot also known as mr hulot's vacation in english ought to be the textbook on how to do non dialogue comedy in film the characters hardly ever speak to each other directly and the film operates on the paper thin premise that monsieur hulot played by tati himself is awkward and clumsy and generally manages to annoy the other guests at the beach resort hotel where he is taking a week's vacation yet the film had me beside myself laughing more consistently than any in recent memory part of the reason the film works so well is the clever setup for the various gags slapstick has often been regarded as an unsophisticated and even crude form of comedy but i think part of the reason for this is that it often seems forced you can only see movie characters start running after something and then crash into a pole so many times before you start to wonder what all these poles are doing there in the first place or why these people don't watch where they're going in les vacances de m hulot the gags build upon each other and often start out relatively in one sequence for example hulot is painting the side of his small row boat on the beach when while his back is turned the paint can gets caught up in the oncoming waves washes away then comes back up on the other side of the boat while crossing over to get the can hulot steps in the boat and unknowingly cracks it when he actually takes the boat out into the water it breaks in half but the two halves flip up against each other trapping him inside as the bystanders mistake it for a shark fin and panic on the beach ensues tati doesn't waste a single opportunity for humor scenes that might have yielded one joke in most comedies are good for at least four or five in this film it has been said that comedy relies on frustrating the audience's expectations and les vacances de m hulot succeeds brilliantly in that area as well tati accomplishes this largely through a sort of deadpan understatement when hulot goes into a separate room during dinner and starts playing a record at defeaningly loud volume no fights or shouting matches ensue instead the waiter calmly walks in and shuts off the power in the room disconnecting the record player and leaving a puzzled hulot sitting in the dark tati also uses running gags to this effect allowing them to keep running far longer than most comedy directors would more often than not we can see them coming and think oh he's not going to do that again but lo and behold he does for example there is a recurring joke in which hulot's noisy sputtering car engine wakes everyone in the middle of the night as an exterior shot reveals the hotel's lights coming on one by one then this image turns up again in the finale which i will not give away other than to say that involves a lot more noise in the middle of the night than a car engine could ever produce the ending is one of two elements that really make this a film as opposed to merely an clever comedy as much as i was laughing during this film i was thinking to myself occasionally that tati had to top himself at the end to really make this work as a complete viewing experience suffice it to say that he did the other important aspect is that the film never seems disdainful of its characters it easily could have turned the tables on hulot and had the other guests exact some kind of revenge on him alternatively it could have portrayed the others as humorless curmudgeons instead tati seems to regard his characters with cheerful amusement more than anything else and invites the audience to like them however strange or irritating they might seem les vacances de m hulot is not subtitled but the dialogue is sparse and for the most part not terribly essential to the flow of events anyone with a taste for this kind of absurd humor ought to make this film their next rental from the video store note les vacances de m hulot was not rated by the mpaa it would at most receive a pg rating
positive	i had lost all faith in movies that are intended for teenagers and adults the last dozen or so that i have seen have all felt incomplete as if the most crucial scene was deleted in order to obtain a more lucrative rating however after seeing the creative frequency last week and now the exciting my bias is beginning to go away both films are as innocuous for younger viewers as they are intellectual for older viewers even better i didn't think either one of these films would be any good from first instincts everyone loves surprises looked like another action film using an actual war as an excuse to shoot torpedoes and bullets this may be true but the action is so extraordinary that it is clear jonathan mostow completed his ultimate goal to blow the audience's socks off set during the early stages of world war when the united states struggled to break the codes of the technologically advanced german follows a small crew of american men who swipe the typewriter necessary to solve the enigma from an enemy ship there's only one problem the american ship they came from and hoped to return to has been shot down stranding the men on a german submarine known as you guessed it it is now up to the mostly young and inexperienced sailors led by an interim captain named tyler matthew mcconaughey to return the typewriter to america without getting sunk by far superior german ships the film starts off very slowly with a somewhat weak opening action sequence and another uneventful half an hour to introduce several of the sailors most of whom die when the mission goes awry or just inexplicably disappear once the crew gets on the the movie shifts to another level and never leaves this high energy level until the ending credits roll down as soon as the action starts it does not stop and luckily because it is so exciting i didn't want it to stop this is not a movie for those wanting to avoid loud noises from the wonderful score to the constant yelling of panicking men make sure you see this at a theater with otherwise do not see it all the best parts of are when tyler is forced to make impromptu decisions on how to escape seemingly impossible situations throughout the movie several morals or characters are introduced to make tyler's job as stressful as possible germans gun down their own men tyler's mentor captain dahlgren warns him that a captain has to be prepared to sacrifice even the most beloved soldiers for a victory another sailor erik palladino threatens mutiny all of these examples and several others increase the chaotic atmosphere and the importance of tyler's every move they also make one of the most exhilarating movies i have seen in a while
positive	the produced two brilliant science fiction films one was the other was thirteenth just as was overshadowed by the mighty thirteenth was relegated to obscurity by however thirteeth though it deals with similar themes is a much better movie than the frenetic childish and improbable a cutting edge computer scientist hannon fuller played by the charming armin is murdered his associate douglas hall craig bierko apparently framed and suspected by the police enters into the simulated world they have created in order to unravel the mystery along the way a beautiful blonde gretchen mol more bodies and a deepening mystery about simulated worlds complicate the picture thirteenth unfolds slowly and telegraphs its punches choosing to elicit the more complex emotional response of empathy and anticipation rather than the cheap one of mere surprise the result is a movie that is a failure from two conventional points of view first its plot revelations can be foreseen if one has carefully followed its complex storyline second and more seriously it demands that its audience think and feel no wonder it fell through the cracks done in film noir style as a murder mystery this is a relatively deep movie that functions on several levels many audiences will simply be bewildered by it rather than engaged which is a shame because this movie amply repays a little emotional and intellectual investment i recommend a second viewing simply to get the flavor of the frequent ironic foreshadowing in the opening parts of the movie despite its philosophical challenges thirteenth derives its emotional force from the love story between jane fuller mol and douglas hall bierko as well as the close friendship between douglas hall and hannon fuller in that sense it is more akin to than which for all of its cute philosophical byplay is an adolescent movie with no emotional depth whatsoever the moment when jane fuller confesses her love for douglas hall is at once satisfying wrenching and intellectually challenging in its final moments the film even takes on itself when david jane's husband who has come to enjoy killing accuses her of being the sick one although there is a victory for the leading characters this resolution suggests a disturbing element of fantasy in jane and thus a character flaw in fact hannon fuller's activities in the simulated world the behavior of jane's husband and the effects of entering the simulation on douglas hall all hint at similar issues with those characters this is not a film of good people beset from without by great evil the tragedy is not in their stars but in themselves the major actors all of whom are required to play two or even three roles perform extremely well bierko who will be familiar as the psycho from long kiss is outstanding d'onofrio as whitney who plays a pivotal role in support also turns in a good performance the lovely gretchen mol whose elegance integrity and determination suggest bergman in does a wonderful job her voice however lacks the necessary weight at times this could be because she was given the worst lines in a movie whose major weakness is the script some minor flaws hairline cracks in fine porcelain appear in places there are one or two instances of jerky editing the script takes the edge off the film's climaxes the atmosphere becomes too claustrophobic at times yet there is a clue there too one wonders if even after two decades is still casting its long shadow over films one can see a group of suits in their suite waving their hands imperiously at directors like the emperor in make it more you know dark and rainy thirteen is that rare exception among hollywood movies a rich emotionally satisfying intelligent movie and yet ultimately it proves the suits right for when good is made where is the sf community turning out in droves to see it if we don't support great sf who will
positive	finding the courage to face life is a difficult task summoning up the audacity to fall in love is a harder job if you're a total jerk like melvin udall is the odds are even more against you melvin jack nicholson is a successful romance author who is just the opposite of what you would expect someone in that profession to be a solitary man hidden away in his new york apartment with no human interaction and not even a hint of ever having been in a passionate relationship he avoids the outside world as much as possible his disorder rules his life as he uses several different bars of soap to wash his hands and refuses to step on a crack on the sidewalk there's a great scene when he has to cross a floor made of mosaic tiles mosaic tiles melvin has some great lines when his publisher's receptionist asks him how he writes women so well in his books he responds i think of men and i take away reason and accountability don't get him wrong he's not merely a misogynist setting his sights higher than that he's also a homophobe racist xenophobe and intensely dislikes people who talk in metaphors when we first meet him he's busy dumping a neighbor's dog down the garbage chute he's an equal opportunity bigot he does venture outside his apartment every day to eat breakfast at a local cafe melvin is such a grouchy curmudgeon that waitress carol connelly helen hunt is the only one willing to wait on him and she's none too happy about it when carol doesn't show up for work melvin's routine is shot and he's determined to do something about it tracking down her address he shows up at her place begging her to come back to work so that he can eat breakfast the fact that she's a poor single mother caring for a chronically ill son doesn't appear to phase him he wants his food much more upsetting is that his gay artist neighbor simon bishop greg kinnear is brutally attacked during a robbery this doesn't upset melvin much don't worry you'll be back on your knees in no time but when he is bullied into taking care of simon's dog his life is turned melvin is sequestered because he's afraid of what's out there on the other side of his apartment door he has to make sure it's ritualistically locked three times to keep the world on its proper side when he brings the dog home he reluctantly grows fond of it talking to it and taking it everywhere he goes this little crack in his emotional armor opens him up hiding behind his need for carol to return to work so she can serve him he pays for a specialist to treat her son he even develops a friendship with simon all three people are heavily damaged melvin has retreated from life in his apartment carol has devoted herself to her son convinced that she has to give up her life for him simon is estranged from his parents and his friends disappear when he is hospitalized and his money runs out a more unlikely trio to form relationships you'd rarely see and in the midst of it all there are some wonderful moments melvin is hilarious in his grouchiness and touching as he attempts to be nice you make me want to be a better man he tells her one of the best aspects is that even as he opens up he is still a curmudgeon carol afraid that his monetary contribution to the wellness of her son hides a hidden agenda rushes over to his apartment in the rain to explain in no uncertain terms that she will never sleep with him it only takes her a second to realize that she is delivering that statement while looking as if she just left a wet contest there's hardly anything left to say about jack nicholson i don't remember ever seeing him in anything less than a stellar performance and his melvin is no disappointment nicholson may be the best actor working today hunt does a commendable job matching nicholson's energy she isn't afraid to be seen as something less than a babe and her portrayal of exhausted carol struggling with seemingly overwhelming obligations is their chemistry is a bit odd each does a wonderful job with the character but together there's something a little off it's a minor problem they do work well together but that missing element is what prevents this from being a film director james l brooks terms of endearment broadcast news has a movie that is picking up awards by the bucketsful nominees for all the top golden globes winners from the national board of review inevitable oscars and has a winner on his hands as good as it gets isn't exactly the quality that the title says but it's pretty darn close michael redman has written this column for over years and as soon as he finishes this one he's off to an annual night celebration typically held in freezing weather during a snowstorm this year it's in the sixties and raining that wacky el nino
positive	bruce willis stars as malcolm an award winning child psychologist who discovers one night that one of his former patients is still suffering from inner demons the now grown man breaks into his apartment while he and his wife olivia williams from rushmore are celebrating his award shoots malcolm in the stomach then takes his own life almost nine months later malcolm discovers cole haley joel osment in a brilliant performance another young man afflicted with the same turmoil as his former patient he takes on the child's case in the hope of redeeming himself for botching up the previous one alienating his wife in the process he soon discovers that they boy can see and speak to the dead and his life becomes forever turned upside down although the first hour is very slow the sixth sense turns out to be a very powerful and moving film i was expecting this film to be mercury rising but was astonished to discover an extremely well plotted out little thriller with an outstandingly satisfying ending you'll find yourself mentally retracing your steps through the film to see if you actually saw what you think you did once the credits roll i must give m night shyamalan a lot of credit for a brilliantly written screenplay the cast should also be given a lot of credit for making the movie as solid as it is a lesser cast could have made this film a joke bruce willis portrays his character perfectly balancing his need to help cole and his agony over his strained relationship with his wife skillfully haley joel osment shines as nine year old cole showing patience in his character that few young actors these days can pull off toni collette looking markedly different from her pathetic character in muriel's wedding gives a strong performance as cole's mother who is trying to cope with both her son's illness and the passing of her mother finally olivia williams deftly portrays a woman having to struggle with a husband who's not around and flirtations with a that could lead to a begrudgingly accepted end it's a shame that they show cole's abilities in the trailer because the movie takes close to forty minutes to get around to doing the same so we already know what's going on before most of the rest of the cast does in retrospect though the forty minute is essential to enjoying the end of the film so i have fewer complaints now then i did while i was watching the film i'm glad that the run of horror films has passed and filmmakers are starting to make more adult fare films like this the similarly themed stir of echoes and countless others to be released later in the year should make for a pretty entertaining close to 
positive	i suppose an argument could be made that toy story is one of those films that didn't need a sequel beloved by kids and their parents respected equally by mainstream america and geekish movie buffs that first movie remains a landmark of recent history the one that burst open the possibilities of computer animation and demonstrated through wild invention and giddy chutzpah just how complacent the disney animation machine had become in cranking out fluffy entertainment full of formula storytelling and banal songwriting if disney was embarrassed at being beaten at its own game toy story was a smash hit of unexpected proportions and one that caught the merchandising end of the business unaware as demand for action figures far outstripped supply it didn't show and as distributor and of the property at least it had a piece of the action toy story was greenlighted as a project disney's standard tactic for milking a few more bucks out of hot franchises without expending the effort of developing a proper feature film as someone who doesn't believe sequels are necessarily a bad thing granted they usually are a bad thing but that's because they're made for the wrong reasons i had to wonder what in the world they were thinking fortunately disney claimed to have been so by early animation tests that they let pixar go ahead with a theatrical sequel lucky thing too like the first movie this one is a joy to behold on the big screen and technically it improves on its predecessor on just about every level from a business standpoint the end credits show that the new creations are copyrighted by pixar while the previous film's elements are shared between pixar and disney a sign of the production house's new cachet in hollywood visually the main shortcoming of this fully movie is that human figures are still rendered relatively poorly making them look a little creepy fortunately that eerie unreality fits in perfectly with the perspective of the movie where the secret world of toys is more immediate and arguably more attractive than the world of the humans who surround them as before the story is predicated on the premise that the toys scattered around the bedroom of a little boy named andy and indeed all the toys scattered around the bedrooms of all little children come to life in the child's absence while the toys scamper about and chatter endlessly among themselves the real joy of a toy's life is to mean something to its owner one of the subjects of this new film is the sadness of toys that have been broken or abandoned left on a shelf to gather dust and another is the sort of emotional limbo inhabited by toys that are mere prizes of covetous collectors most often those toys are packed away in dark spaces safe from sunlight and humidity and often they're not even removed from their packaging imagine what a chip that would put on your shoulder and you'll understand the attitudes of the collector's items that show up in this movie sheriff woody voiced by a tom hanks the longtime favorite among andy's toys who was challenged in the previous by the arrival of action figure buzz lightyear tim allen suffers an injury early in the film when andy tugs too hard on his arm and pulls a seam apart revealing the stuffing inside this accident catalyzes some uneasieness among the toys who know too well that a broken toy is often a forgotten toy and a forgotten toy is one that loses its reason for existence those anxieties are crystallized when andy's mom tears through his living room collecting old toys for a yard sale and there's an ironic twist to the tale as woody winds up being stolen by an avid toy collector who needs exactly that quaint cowboy figure to complete a set that he hopes to sell to a japanese toy museum for a sizable sum the rest of andy's toys who owe him quite a debt resolve to rescue him that this film manages to turn a box marked cents into a symbol of doom or to make its screed against the retention of collectible toys by wrongheaded profiteers fuel for a metaphysical dilemma is a testament to its skill at metaphor seamlessly translating the hopes and fears of our real world into that of the toys operating on this level of abstraction toy story tackles some mighty heavy issues without once preaching or veering into pretentiousness the worst i can say is that randy newman seems to have reserved his sappiest lyric in years for sarah mclachlan who stops the movie cold by singing it at just about the halfway mark sometimes i think toy story tries too hard there's somewhat less of the loopiness that energized the first film allowing it to surprise and excite on a basis and more philosophizing about toys collectors the nature of happiness and the meaning of life while that leads to fewer bellylaughs it does make way for more elaborate humor and an uncommonly ambitious reflexivity that asks the toys to consider their own status as commodities that move in and out of fashion just don't ask why andy's favorite toy is based on a tv series that was canceled in where else in mainstream movies do you get such an awesome moment as the one where buzz arrives at al's toy barn to find it stocked to the gills with his doppelgangers buzz lightyear action figures forget the science fiction of the matrix this is a fundamental for buzz and the audience shares his humility and wonderment at the sight here as in the roughly concurrent scene where woody watches tapes of the howdy doodyish children's tv show that originated his character we see our protagonists come with god in sly ways then toy story can be read as a film about mortality a metaphorical consideration of aging and death significantly the film's very first sequence concludes with a grim shocker that had our crowd in a and toward the end when buzz and woody speculate on how long they have before andy grows up and discards his old toys one of them observes with an alacrity both inspirational and heartbreaking that it will be fun while it lasts so toy story joins the tradition of children's stories largely neglected of late that say something real about the inevitable joys and tragedies of existence what's really striking is that both toy story films and to a lesser degree pixar's a bug's life are kids' movies with wit and sophistication to shame most of their ostensibly adult counterparts not to mention whatever piece of is due from the disney dream factory any given summer it puts one in mind of the glory days of chuck jones and the old gang at warner bros animation i'm not sure lasseter and his pals at pixar will ever operate at quite that level of purely visual invention they love traditional narrative too much but boy it makes me wonder what they might come up with next directed by john lasseter colin brady ash brannon and lee unkrich written by lasseter brannon peter docter andrew stanton rita hsaio doug chamberlain and chris webb cinematography by sharon calahan starring voices tom hanks tim allen and joan cusack usa theatrical aspect ratio
positive	tone alone cannot sustain a film but it can go a long way if i can find myself lost in the time and place of a story it scores immediate style points when that tone is backed up by an outstanding story and great acting the effect can be described best by an adjective i do not use lightly literary what's eating gilbert grape is such a film it's a rich memorable and stunningly acted story of desire colliding with responsibility staged in a manner which many viewers might find too prosaic but which insinuated itself into my imagination with its confidence gilbert grape johnny depp is a young man living in rural endora iowa facing incredible responsibilities as the man of the house since his father's suicide gilbert must support the family by working at the local grocery store he also must watch over his mentally handicapped brother arnie leonardo dicaprio and help care for his extremely overweight mother darlene cates gilbert seems destined to spend the rest of his life in the small town until the arrival in endora of becky juliette lewis a free spirit passing through with her grandmother when their truck breaks down as he spends time with becky gilbert begins to think about all the things he is missing slowly his resentment builds until he realizes that he can no longer live his entire life for other people director lasse hallstrom my life as a dog and legendary cinematographer sven nykvist create a magnificent visual backdrop for peter hedges' screenplay based on his own novel endora is a town on the edge of the world represented by the giant foodmart a tiny insular community where everyone knows everyone else the midwestern sunsets and sprawling fields are beautifully photographed and the atmosphere of the town is intensely real minor characters like crispin glover as the town's mortician are vividly realized and there are echoes of the last picture show in mary steenburgen's desperately unhappy housewife one of the most perfectly realized scenes focuses on the grand opening of a burger franchise attended by the entire town and accompanied by the high school band not a single note in the depiction of endora rang false the same can be said of the character of gilbert it's testimony to the precision involved in his creation that he came together completely with one perfectly placed line when becky responds to gilbert's description of his father with i knew someone like that once gilbert is a man harboring an bitterness about where he finds himself in life a bitterness which reveals itself in moments of surprising cruelty in one scene he allows local children to look at his mother through their window displaying her like a side show attraction his entire life seems to be mocked by arnie's repeated chants of we're not going anywhere but instead of expressing his dissatisfaction he lets his anger simmer and it becomes clear that he is following in his father's footsteps in this regard johnny depp expertly demonstrates the tension central to gilbert by playing everything below the surface but he never gives in to blankness or simply regurgitates his naif roles in benny joon and edward scissorhands depp's performance is overshadowed however by leonardo dicaprio's astonishing supporting work as arnie he puts to shame such big name actors as john malkovich and dustin hoffman whose mentally challenged characters never seemed completely real dicaprio is perfect to the last twitch and squeal and anyone who has ever spent time with mentally challenged kids will be to spot a flaw darlene cates a actor brings real pain to her scenes as gilbert's tortured mother and laura harrington and mary kate schellhardt are solid as gilbert's sisters only juliette lewis doesn't quite click playing a critical role with her now familiar dopey drone and too little genuine spark gilbert grape does seem to drift into its conclusion but it never lost me thanks to a lovingly created setting and a marvelous cast this release proves well worth the wait
positive	hollywood has a batting average with elmore leonard adaptations last year's touch was and just plain odd but get shorty jackie brown and now out of sight all were highly entertaining movies steven soderburgh master of sex lies and videotape now adds crime to his repertoire in this tale of bank robbery prison uncut diamonds and oh yeah true love george clooney is the protagonist a risky choice after such duds as batman and robin and the peacemaker but for once i didn't want to slap the taste out of his mouth he plays his role in out of sight as the suave cary perfected in hitchcock movies the kind of guy to whom crime is just a profession like any other nowhere present is clooney's usual sneer there's just enough leftover lightheartedness to fit in with the leonard style clooney is definitely a perfect successor to john travolta in get shorty clooney plays a man who's robbed about banks without ever using a gun in the opening scene he walks into one bank and robs it not only with ease but with charm of course he gets caught so it's not all good it's while doing time in a florida prison that clooney learns of one rich inmate's albert brooks in a frightful bald wig collection of diamonds in detroit clooney and cohort ving rhames plan the score while protection artist and fight promoter don cheadle begins rival plans meanwhile there's jennifer lopez unintentionally funny in selena and intentionally funny in anaconda she's finally graduated to a worthy role as the u s marshal who happens to be driving up to the jail on the night clooney escapes rhames is waiting to give him a ride in a stolen car and lopez makes it a threesome her hostage ass locked in a trunk with clooney he's covered in dirt and has a gun to her neck and it's a little cramped in there but they manage to make a love connection anyway probably because it's a movie the relationship between clooney and lopez is at the heart of the movie and one of the details that elevates it beyond your normal crime story the leonard movies are more obsessed with dialogue than crime and this is no exception although they're not really germane to the plot lopez's relationship with her father dennis farina of get shorty rhames' relationship with his christian sister you could call her sister christian and a cameo by michael keaton all lend extra class to a movie already full of it out of sight spans at least three years but has a structure focusing on the jailbreak brooks score and flashing back to earlier times this is a movie with a brain as smooth and calculated as the clooney and lopez characters themselves the entire cast does the material justice clooney and lopez coming into their own and rhames and cheadle cementing their positions as two of my favorites here's hoping future leonard adaptations continue to carry the torch serving america for almost of a century
positive	synopsis rumored to be about a true person the story of mulan has circulated in oral tradition for over a thousand years and has inspired operas literature and even coinage since china has been issuing annual gold and silver coin sets commemorating famous historical figures the set includes mulan in the ballad of mulan written in the or century an imperial edict by the khan emperor orders men from each family to be drafted into the army to defend china a girl's parents hear sighing and think that their daughter mulan the name means magnolia is dreaming of boys but actually she's dreading what horrors might befall her old infirm father if he were to be drafted off to battle mulan bravely runs away masquerading as a boy to serve in the army instead of her father ten thousand miles and twelve years of brutal war later the army finally returns in triumph the emperor wants to reward mulan's valor with a prestigious position in government but she declines accepts a horse and returns home quietly to don her true clothes mulan's old army buddies visit and get the shock of their lives when they find out that mulan is actually a woman the disney animated feature mulan is similar to the ballad story only it adds a modern character for comic relief mushu the dragon eddie murphy in disney's mulan when a fierce army of invading huns threatens to overrun peaceful china the emperor orders one man from each family to be conscripted into the army old mr fa oh is handicapped and has no son he has only his spirited young daughter mulan wen fearing for her father's life the courageous mulan secretly cuts her hair disguises herself as a man and sneaks off to serve in the army in her father's stead meanwhile mushu the disgraced and demoted guardian dragon of the fa family has been reduced to the size of a squirrel and the status of incense burner his only duty is to ring a gong mushu hits upon a plan to redeem himself and regain his guardian status by helping the disguised mulan to become a macho male warrior hero with the help of mushu a horse and a lucky cricket can army recruit mulan save china and bring honor to the fa family opinion east meets west i know a chef in santa fe that does this sort of magic he combines asian culinary influences from the west coast with latin american from down south and european from the atlantic to concoct new creations that hit just the right combination of flavors from their state of the art animation studio in orlando disney is hoping to work the same kind of magic with mulan i mean what would you say if i told you that a new movie featured tang dynasty art with donny osmond singing wen acting and eddie murphy playing a chinese dragon that makes pop references to batman and the reverend jessie jackson yet this is the case in the disney's of the familiar chinese classic the end result is spectacular mulan is one of disney's best movies ever personally i'm also glad to see the detestable american stereotype of the subservient asian woman take a beating mulan is portrayed as a normal if spirited compassionate gal capable of taking the initiative mulan is more than just eastern graphics and faces combined with westernized pop and disney kids of any age will like the family themes and will understand the good guys versus bad guys thing and adolescent and preteen girls can appreciate the romance factor while the boys admire the battles and adults can admire those nuances as well as the interplay between traditional notions of family honor and duty with industrial age notions of romantic love gumption and questioning but even the tiniest details reveal quality the movie's art supervisors spent three weeks in china researching the right look negative spaces positive detail period clothing and graphic designs typical of the time and place computers were used for crowd scenes of up to people and a special program called was used for a spectacular sequence involving attacking huns on horseback and singers osmond and salonga are at the top of their game balance is crucial a movie about a chuckling lone dragon played by eddie murphy might not be disney's cup of tea but if you use the character as a comic sidekick to balance a determined and spirited heroine then pow the dream team by the same token a tale about a girl in the army might be a sober exercise in filial piety by itself but toss the dragon in there and you've got enough wahoo individualism for a light hearted disney romp it's rare that a movie can seamlessly combine elements from both east and west old and young male and female into a cohesive and entertaining whole but mulan hits the universal bullseye it's movie for any age creed gender or color
positive	if you've ever perused my college comedy diary another year in the life of a nerd i never run out of cheap plugs you know i didn't get along with my roommate too well in fact during the period between thanksgiving and christmas break i said a total of four sentences to him so when i saw in the residence hall cable listings a movie called roommates i envisioned minutes of conflict between a couple of bickering young adults trapped in a x foot dorm room then i saw that the star of roommates is peter falk scratch that idea but i still say someone should film the story of two college roommates whose relationship is less than ideal of course in my case it would be a silent picture even without the college element i still decided to watch roommates because i had absolutely nothing to do unless you count studying for final exams and who does i'm glad i did peter falk's performance was actually what made the movie and this is a guy i never considered a real actor more like someone who went around in a trenchcoat solving prescripted mysteries falk pleasantly surprised me here permanently earning my respect so all you columbo fans who think i live to insult the guy can just falk off falk plays rocky a polish baker who raises his grandson after both the kid's parents die the movie begins with the mom's death and the son moving in with his grandparents after a couple stops along the son's journey to manhood roommates progresses to the present day with the grandson a surgeon and rocky in a condemned house he refuses to leave the surgeon reluctantly offers the only possible solution rocky will have to move into his place the basement of a building rented by a group of chinese students communists the movie spans nine more years of rocky's relationship with his grandson and the trials posed when the grandson meets and falls in love woman and starts spending all his time with her so in his grandson's absence rocky turns his pursuits to professional boxing achieveing the world heavyweight title in a climactic fight with apollo creed or am i confusing movie plots again roommates has an almost epic feel to it covering several generations of a family with one fiesty immigrant who refuses to die death though knocks at the door of almost every other major character in the the movie roommates has about as many casualties as the first halloween the number can't be counted on one hand unless of course you're the victim of some hideous genetic mutation and you can probably guess who says farewell to planet earth at the end of the movie no not duran duran i won't come out and say it instead i'll just sit here and hum eye of the tiger until each and every one of you figures it out roommates plays on all the major emotions it knows when to make you laugh and when to make you cry movies that can perfectly mix comedy and drama are always hits with the audience even though this one bombed at the theaters my point there are no absolutes or another possible point peter falk just isn't such a great box office draw either way this is still a good movie and you should give it a chance like i did whether you hate your roommate or not
positive	capsule the director of cure brings a weird and very complex concept to the screen one viewing will not be enough to understand fully the premise of pulse the idea is something about ghosts and the internet the film has an amazing apocalyptic style to perhaps the most disturbing and disturbed filmmaker in the world is kiyoshi kurosawa his films all seem to have one style bleak the worlds he creates are terrifying and cold little known in the us to date his films deliver the kind of horror that so many of our filmmakers promise and are unable to deliver most of his ideas are fresh and at the same time morbid his film cure with one of his niftiest ideas is just now getting a sadly limited release in the us and hopefully enough people will see it that his name will soon be one to conjure with cure is probably his classic last year he released seance a remake of seance on a wet afternoon that was perhaps a miscalculation inserting supernatural elements into a story pulse is kurosawa back on form taguchi a young computer expert is late with his delivery of some important software two go to his apartment and find it a dismal dark affair in spite of his computer equipment taguchi acting very strangely lets his friends look for the missing software meanwhile he slips behind a plastic curtain when he fails to respond to calls his friends follow him behind the curtain and discover he has hanged himself if that was not horror enough the body seems to disappear leaving just a strange dark spot on the wall taguchi's computer seems to have been infected with some kind of computer virus people whose computer gets the virus seem superficially to die via suicide but they are not entirely dead their spirits seem to remain present somehow in the real world and on the internet people who get the computer virus are asked if they want to see a ghost if they say yes they seem to be able to see real time images of the spirits still nearby somehow the computer shows them impossible images of ghosts in their own rooms as seen from cameras that do not exist this is all somehow connected to heaven and hell somehow filling up and overflowing like a computer disk instead the dead seem to be staying on earth and inhabiting computer viruses there is some sort of passage between worlds having something to do with doors marked with red tape and strange electronic disturbances on computers leave it to kurosawa to find a new kind of death this is a film that has more weird ideas piled together than lifeforce and somehow kurosawa makes the film all work it may not totally convey his message of isolation and its parallels to death but whatever it does convey is nightmarish kurosawa who directs his own screenplay ties his story into the real world with some familiar and accurate computer discussion frequently the plot is advanced with character hunches being assumed to be fact his plotting is frequently hard to follow and always very strange junichiro hayashi the cinematographer who recently has been doing all of kurosawa's films creates a dark cold and gloomy tone images are obscured by or are behind plastic curtain scenes are not milked for their horror the way american exploitation films might people are shot with guns but there is little if any blood in evidence seeing black silhouettes on computer screens is not immediately scary kurosawa is not going for and easy visual shock but a deeper metaphysical dread of any horror filmmaker in the world kiyoshi kurosawa is the one to watch i rate this metaphysical look at isolation a on the to scale and a on the to scale
positive	when i first heard that disney's next animated feature was going to be tarzan i was almost horrified i was worried that disney was going to make another hercules sorry that effort was too overloaded with comedy and the hero was too boastful and pompous to be considered a sympathetic hero and after viewing it to this day i find it a disgrace for disney animation when i saw the trailers i was thinking hmm this isn't bad at all this just might have potential when i bought the soundtrack i was really quite surprised at how different it sounded from most disney features i have never really heard of phil collins nor have i heard of mark mancina so i was wondering how would these two make this disney flick spin i was pleasantly surprised the music is phil collins' songs are terrific pieces of work that seem to break the formula for typical disney songs the score from mark mancina was also neat it reminded me a bit of the lion king but it was more original so the soundtrack wasn't bad at all considering it was by two people i am not familiar with this film could be good but will it be when i finally went to see it on opening day as i tend to do with most disney animated features my question was answered in a complete turnabout of expectations for me disney's tarzan is surprisingly decent the story starts out with tarzan's parents surviving a shipwreck and finding a home on an island where apes live in peace however one day a vicious leopard sabor attacks and kills tarzan's parents leaving him at this time a baby kala of the apes rescues him kala wants to raise the child as her own she lost hers previously to sabor but her mate kerchak is not too sure it's not our kind he says he agrees though to let her take care of little tarzan but that doesn't make him my son tarzan grows up vowing to be the best ape ever but no matter how hard he tries or what he does at the guidance of his hilarious ape friend terk he just can't convince kerchak that he is one of the apes even when he defeats sabor in a battle one day a new animal shows up humans this is where jane comes into the picture she is on an expedition with her father professor porter and a despicable hunter clayton searching for gorillas tarzan rescues her when she is chased by baboons and soon they get to know each other even though tarzan falls in love with jane this causes things to go wrong clayton tricks tarzan into taking him jane and porter to see the apes who are convinced that he has betrayed them worse clayton has plotted to send the gorillas to london for money will tarzan find out which family he belongs to and save the apes i'm not gonna tell you sorry you're gonna have to see for yourself and see it you should the animation is as always top notch particularly when tarzan goes soaring through the trees read that skateboarding the deep canvas computer generated effect adds an authentic feeling to the jungle which tarzan lives in in fact it seems similar to the computer animation combination in rival disney animted films such as fox's anastasia and dreamworks' prince of egypt could it be that disney was actually taking ideas from their rivals the casting is fairly good tony goldwyn is emotionally believeable as tarzan and to my relief the animators have succeeded in not making him another hercules nicely done and glenn close is wonderful as kala she has a beautiful singing voice too by the way lance henrikson as kerchak somewhat reminds me of robby benson's beast voice which makes him all the more ferocious and gripping minnie driver had me a little worried at first as the voice of jane i thought she had the most annoying voice in the whole film when i first saw the trailers but when i saw the film i didn't have a problem with her i take back my insult on driver it's nice to hear nigel hawthorne do another voice for a disney animated feature he was fflewdurr flamm in disney's most underrated classic the black cauldron he is funny and delightful as professor porter on the villiany side of the voices brian blessed the guy who did boss nass in star wars episode phantom menace brings a pompous and later on vicious voice to the sinister clayton he might not be the strongest character in the film he's just a plain bad guy nothing else but blessed's vocal work contributes greatly but if there is any voice that i think steals the whole show it should be rosie o'donnell who is hilariously funny as terk she also has a fiesty attitude i'm gonna kill ya she says more than once i almost sung along with her during one of the film's best moments where the apes make a mess of the human's camp via song er scatting i can see why she wanted to have a rock song for the film she's a good singer not that she was the only funny character in the film though wayne knight who played stan in space jam gives a whimsically funny style to tantor an elephant who is especially worried about stepping into water thankfully there is no real sound of would have killed the picture the songs as i said before are decent mostly sung by collins this sets a new standard for disney animated films because for the first time the characters do not sing i tolerate musical numbers from characters a lot more than some other guys would but i found this to be a nice change of pace the story does have elements of comedy in it but they also load it with strong dramatic touches which makes this film far better than the unbelieveably uninspired hercules if there is anything disappointing about tarzan it might be the omission of the sync version of trashing the camp from the film i heard it on the soundtrack and wondered where it was going to be i was upset that it wasn't because i had thought of taking a few friends of mine who like sync to see tarzan oh well overall i was enthralled with tarzan i wouldn't hold it high the way i do with mulan or the hunchback of notre dame my favorite disney classics but this film deserves a high place among disney's greatest achievements i give a nod to disney for following up their spectacular masterpiece mulan with this great animated adaption of egar rice burrough's tarzan
positive	the opening crawl tells us that the galaxy is in turmoil over the taxation of trade routes and the greedy trade federation has used it's armada of powerful space battleships to blockade the planet naboo we soon find that the federation plans to invade the planet with an enormous army of warrior robots and force naboo's ruler the young queen amidala natalie portman to sign a treaty giving the federation control however the galactic republic has sent jedi knights jinn liam neeson and kenobi ewan mcgregor as emissaries to the federation in order to negotiate for the ending of the blockade no sooner do they arrive than the federation leaders are instructed via holographic transmission by a mysterious cloaked figure to destroy the jedi and the first battle begins it seems that for me and thousands of people like me the love for george lucas's trilogy of star wars movies has only grown over time we're the fans not the freaks we won't go dressing up like darth vader although you have to admit those imperial uniforms are pretty darn cool and we won't incorporate lines from the script in our everyday conversations not all the time anyway but if someone wants to challenge us to a little trivia contest we're throwing down all right stop looking at me like that we have been faithfully and patiently waiting waiting for this movie ever since the end credits of return of the jedi started to roll you see the trilogy is not just a set of movies but a religion of sorts to we the faithful disciples and the phantom menace is tantamount to the second coming of the messiah unfortunately it is not our savior for weeks beforehand i was going around telling people that this movie had better be damned good stupendously good miraculously good anything less and it'll be the biggest disappointment of the century i didn't want the doomsaying prophecy to come true really i didn't but this film nevertheless fails to reach the pinnacles of filmmaking character development is virtually nonexistent with the possible exception of most of the film's characters seem left with nothing to do but go through the motions none seem very affected by their experiences and few even show any passion at all contrast this with the horribly irritating comic relief we are nearly continuously subjected to in the form of jar jar binks a creature belonging to a race which lives in underwater cities on naboo in precarious symbiosis with the land dwellers led by amidala jar jar's life is saved by early in the film and travels with our heroes for the sole reason of making us laugh or supposedly so his speech mannerisms are so that i couldn't understand a third of what he was saying and the slapstick he performed was just distracting his head gets caught in an electronic field his foot gets caught in the stirrup of some large beast he describes being in trouble as deep doo doo and even manages to step in some of the same while walking around in mos eisley spaceport therein lies a key difference between this film and one of its predecessors in star wars we had telling us mos eisley was a wretched hive of scum and villainy in the phantom menace we get doo doo the films of the trilogy took me away from my everyday life and immersed me in a story a long time ago in a galaxy far far away this film on the other hand constantly reminds me that it's only a movie by including situations and phrases that are so uniquely modern american that they seem incredibly out of place and serve to jerk the viewer from the experience perhaps the most blatant offense occurs during a scene where young anakin skywalker enters into a pod racing competition it's kind of like chariot racing with large engines instead of horses and there are a couple of commentators in a press box delivering indy play by play i liked the pod race it was really exciting and ratcheted the tension but when the heck did lucas think up the idea of putting in the sportscasters the race would have been even more exciting without the distraction this aspect coupled with the emphasis on humor simply baffled me i suppose one may say that lucas was trying to appeal to the younger viewer but would more intelligent scenes and dialog hurt this appeal at all didn't millions of youngsters still go back to see the original star wars in over and over again didn't the action figures still sell like hotcakes of course they did and it's only poor judgment that allows the awaited film in history to be marred by pandering to children who would still have enjoyed a film with more appeal for adults one aspect that will appeal broadly however is the use of special effects the people at lucas's industrial light and magic the world's premiere effects house outdid themselves in providing seamless integration of images and footage some of the scenes have to be seen to be believed especially the shots of a land battle between the federation's robot army and jar jar's countrymen the space battles are also impressive although improved over past efforts by only subtle margins to the casual observer this however is a testament to the work which ilm produced two decades ago and still holds up well today john williams is back of course providing a score for the film as only he can his music is pervasive throughout as rousing and as dramatic as ever always serving to punctuate scenes noticeably and appropriately since this film is supposed to be the first installment in a story star wars the empire strikes back and return of the jedi being episodes four five and six respectively the phantom menace has the daunting task of setting up the origins of several characters we know already in addition to those with whom we unfamiliar as a result attention to history and characterization was spread a little thin it would have been nice to get more in depth with yoda and for example but given the fact that there were several new characters to cover it is understandable that some of the development has been left for the next two films one of the new characters is darth maul hailed as the new villain with as much hype as marketing forces could muster prior to this film's release in spite of the hype darth maul is a character which almost didn't have to be in the film his role is so insignificant he has maybe three spoken lines believe it or not a second actor voices the character and the rest of the time just scowls and looks mean with that working against him he never has a chance at being interesting and instead ends up an utter disappointment lucas seems to have wanted to develop the spiritual nature of the star wars universe something which has been prominent throughout however he does so largely by paralleling the star wars spirituality with the bible offering an easy out for and once again bringing the viewer back to planet earth with a connection oddly while trying to capitalize on spirituality lucas at the same time introduces the fact that mastery of the force is dependent upon having little parasites in your body's cells this only serves to the workings of the force a few notches by offering a scientific connection don't let me mislead you too far the phantom menace by most standards is a good film it contains a lot of visual treats sets the stage for an epic story gives us a bit of excitement here and there and even allows us to revisit some of our old friends it's just that when held up to it's predecessors and to not do so would be unrealistic this film simply pales
positive	in december of a little movie called scream was released became a smash and resurrected films targeted at teens first it was teen slasher movies that were the big fad both scream movies i know what you did last summer urban legend etc but just recently the popularity has switched over to the teen comedy genre a john hughes starting with last june's can't hardly wait it may be the first week of april in but so far this year we have been given a movie aimed at the market almost every single week varsity blues jawbreaker cruel intentions simply irresistible the rage carrie and the mod squad coming april are two more of this type never been kissed and go and on april we've got the teen satire election and the teen idle hands jeesh out of all of these moves however the one that is most similar to the latest incarnation things i hate about you is this past january's mediocre she's all that although similar in plotting ok darn near identical things i hate about you a version of shakespeare's the taming of the shrew she's all that got its inspiration from pygmalion is an infinitely superior film in every department from the smart direction by feature director gil junger to the charming and screenplay by karen mccullah lutz and kirsten smith to the striking ensemble cast who give the best group of performances in a teen comedy since the breakfast club and to top it all off in the inevitable climax set at the prom at least we didn't have to once again suffer through a goofy inappropriate dance sequence who could forget or want to remember for that matter this ludicrous development in she's all that the day shy new student cameron james joseph starts school at padua high he is swept away at the sight of the beautiful and popular sophomore bianca stratford larisa oleynik although he doesn't know french he purposefully learns some of it just so he can tutor her but finds that her paranoid gynecologist father larry miller won't allow her to date until her bitter unconventional older sister kat julia stiles a senior decides to kat of course has sworn off the likes of boys but cameron sets out to find someone that will be the perfect match for her which is exactly what he finds in the form of the rebellious patrick verona heath ledger complicating matters cameron's dorky friend michael david krumholtz decides to use a wealthy jock joey andrew keegan who also has his sights set on bianca as a pawn so that he will pay patrick to get kat to go out with him and then cameron hopes to steal bianca away from joey as you can see things i hate about you includes a huge number of characters some of which i haven't even mentioned such as kat's friend mandella susan may pratt and bianca's materialistic comrade chastity gabrielle union at a short but running time of minutes all of the characters are perfectly handled satisfyingly developed and for the most part are not treated as caricatures another flaw of she's all that where the bad guys and gals ran around constantly saying you're vapor since i could sympathize with the realistic depictions of the central characters and since many of the comedic and dramatic scenes were surprisingly effective i got completely caught up in all of the relationships and was thoroughly entertained aside from a good screenplay it's the performances that can make or break a movie and director junger has really hit the jackpot aside from joseph rock from the sun who gives his strongest performance to date here none of the actors are that but it is this aspect that brings a particular freshness to the proceedings as the main character of kat julia stiles last seen in the miniseries the is marvelous and always believable and certainly has a bright future ahead of her even though it is her role that is initially the most difficult and it was easy to identify with kat's way of thinking she is against the silly tradition of the prom and loves reading sylvia plath and i completely admired her individuality no one i think could have portrayed her as perfectly as stiles does heath ledger as the infamous of the town injects much life into patrick and has a lot of chemistry with stiles one other actor of note is larisa oleynik who with the help of screenwriters lutz and smith is able to turn bianca into a person with even though she is accurately at the in one truthful scene cameron angrily asks her if she has always been so selfish and bianca grudgingly realizes that yes she has one element of the film and a source of some hearty laughs is the way that the school's staff act which is strikingly unformal allison janney as the guidance counselor ms perky who is writing a trashy harlequin romance novel is comic dynamite as is daryl chill mitchell as the english teacher who reads shakespeare to the class in rap and at one point sends kat to the office because for once she actually thinks one of his assignments is really good although there are a few cheap laughs that are thrown into the film near the beginning most of it actually works especially in the humorous and witty dialogue exchanges and quirks between the characters in one very funny scene chastity asks i know people can be overwhelmed and they can be underwhelmed but can people just be whelmed at another point bianca and kat's father a larry miller who is constantly terrified that his daughters are going to get pregnant only allows bianca to go to the prom on one occasion before she leaves she has to put on the heavy fat suit he has so she will get an idea of what it's like to be pregnant things i hate about you once and for all proves that there is still life in the teen comedy genre and this movie is probably more reminiscent of the great john hughes than any other film of the it also helps that the movie has a soundtrack mixing with new wave songs and with thank goodness no rap by the film's end it actually had me rooting for certain characters to get together and i was also quite pleased with how everything was wrapped up especially in the final scenes involving kat and bianca kat and her father and a and moving sequence in which kat gets up to read the poem she has written for her english class this is where the title comes from luckily i doubt i would be able to find ten things i hate about things i hate about you but the positive aspects of the film far ten
positive	the last steve martin film i saw the spanish prisoner was a very different approach for the comic actor as a millionaire leading a massive conspiracy in order to rob a process from a clueless businessman martin's character did it all for money in his most recent movie bowfinger martin plays yet another con man except this time he does it to succeed in the film industry he wants to direct a successful picture that will force people to remember his name that will make him more popular at the parties and most importantly that will cause fed ex to deliver important business packages to his front door playing the title role martin is once again the good guy the one we cheer for to complete his low budget action movie this con man is very likeable for some reason even though he is doing the same exact thing as the malicious jimmy del from the spanish prisoner maybe the message is that in hollywood to win over the trust and friendship of others you have to be a little evil bowfinger is a very clever comedy with great performances from its two stars martin who also wrote the screenplay is perfect as a jerk with a conscience and eddie murphy does his best peter sellers in two different but equally hilarious roles one as a big time move star and the other as his nerdy burger king employee brother the story follows aging and failing bobby bowfinger as he makes one last attempt to become a respected member of his field by creating a movie called chubby rain in order to attract actors and crew members bowfinger promises them that hot shot actor kit ramsey will star in the movie the only problem is that kit refuses to be in it but this won't stop the aggressive bowfinger he is so determined to complete his film that he decides to put kit in it without even telling him he has his actors approach kit on the streets of los angeles in character with a hidden camera filming the footage will bowfinger be able to make his film or will kit ramsey discover what exactly is going on bowfinger is a very movie that pokes fun at hollywood and its famous residents while simultaneously holding a very solid story line the only area where the film really lacks is the cameo department this is the kind of movie that cameos are all about it is always funny to see making fun of themselves or especially in a playful movie such as this besides the very repetitive and superflous ending bowfinger is a joy to watch if you take a movie like this seriously then you will never enjoy it if you accept the incredulous plot and the extreme caricatures of real entertainment figures the movie is great fun
positive	whenever studio executives try to combine the successful formula of two blockbuster films the end result is always a mess of a script acting directing and generally a waste of time for any audience with an average iq above the latest movie morass from hollywood the crew appeared equally destined to fail a strange combination of grumpy old men and goodfellas tossed together with the likes of richard dreyfuss and burt reynolds helming the ship the scary thing is that it's actually entertaining and a breath of fresh air in this otherwise stale month the crew works for several reasons the clever script is reminiscent of an old billy wilder movie following four past their prime wiseguys from jersey who now live in the raj mahal apartment house in miami beach the wiseguys find themselves being evicted from their golden paradise by greedy landlords bent on raising rents for new beach bunnies and boys looking for beachfront property the four mobsters bobby bartellemeo richard dreyfuss joey bats pistella burt reynolds mike the brick donatelli dan hedaya and tony mouth donato seymour cassel decide to hatch a scheme to plant there a dead body heisted from the morgue in order to drive out the new tenants and keep their home this simple plan suddenly goes screwy of course and the boys become involved with a stripper named ferris jennifer tilly who wants her stepmother killed a paranoid latin drug lord who's convinced a mysterious rival is out to get him and a rat with its tail on fire the crew works as a strong comedic vehicle driven by a great ensemble cast of talented character actors and subtle leading men instead of concentrating on bobby's search for his daughter the film gives equal screen time to all four wiseguys balancing the production the acting talents of such screen veterans as dan hedaya seymour cassel and the great great burt reynolds are brought out by each character's uniqueness and synergy within the wiseguy circle a strong supporting cast including jeremy piven as a philandering and miguel sandoval as the paranoid drug lord provide the most laughs the film was produced by barry sonnenfeld and carries a hint get shorty with its energetic camera work by michael dinner emmy director of the wonder years the quick script written by barry fanaro screenwriter of kingpin is carried by plenty of subtly dry humor and wit the crew is a prime example of how simple and a comedy can get these days the great thing is that this comedy does not need to be punctuated by bodily fluids phallus symbols in the head or grandmothers giving head in a spa in the steady flow of extreme comedy these days flowing from hollywood like a broken water main it's the elder statesmen like dreyfuss reynolds and hedaya that can carry a comic arc with only a few weapons of choice a decent script and good acting
positive	along his carreer mel gibson has collected several successes not only from an economic point of view but also from an artistic point of view for all that i think no one could guess the skills and abilities now disclosed in braveheart the australian actor decided to produce and direct a film about sir william wallace a popular scotch hero of the century where he would also perform the principal role accepting so huge challenge mel gibson run the risk of stain all his work of years with a suppoosed failure just to see recognized by everyone all his potentialities and that way to consolidate his position in hollywood it was definitely an enormous risk but i'm sure mel knew exactly well what he was going to face braveheart is in fact a magnificent and magisterial film for three hours we are completely absorbed by the narrative's rhyitm which never gives place to a single moment of monotony or uninterest the william wallace's story is the story of so many others brave liberty's defenders who fought and gave the life for that essential value along the centuries seeing himself and his people victims of injustices and violent repression william wallace dares to face the powerful edward i king of england in a war by the autonomy of scotland as the victories succeed the number of fighters with wallace goes growing up his courage and inteligence are admired by everyone including the princess isabelle of wales wife of edward's son however william wallace was also surrounded by enemies and some of them were closer than he thought braveheart may not be an historically corrected movie but the nature of its message make us think about the importance that we give to liberty nowadays mel gibson directs with a lot of brilliancy a brilliant cast patrick mcgoohan has a very nice performance as edward i the king longshank the scene when he waits for the death and loses his voice is really good sophie marceau as princess isabelle has along the movie no more than fifteen minutes of performance but mel gibson gave to those minutes such a very special treatment that princess isabelle soon becomes one of the major characters in braveheart i also liked the performances of angus macfadyen as robert the bruce and of course mel gibson as william wallace however i think this time the mel gibson's work as director was much better than his work as actor the excellent music composed by james horner is another thing that helps braveheart to be the success that it really is when we join that music to the beautiful scotch landscapes view by the camera of john toll then we realize all the beauty of this film braveheart is in my opinion one of the best movies of i've heard some people saying that mel gibson is gonna be a new david lean for now let's see if braveheart equalizes the oscars of lawrence of arabia it won't be easy it's gonna be one more challenge for mel gibson
positive	renown surrealist director the frenchman alain resnais hiroshima mon year at lo has created a lighthearted musical played as an homage to britisher dennis potter and his pennies from heaven tv serial movie and the singing detective the film follows potter's gimmicky style of having the characters jump into old or contemporary french pop songs to express their private thoughts he also follows the kind of sweet and colorful musicals his fellow countryman jacques demy loved to direct such as the umbrellas of cherbourg and the young girls of rochefort the tale has resnais's unique touches as a director to go along with his homage it is a satire about class differences and falling in love with the wrong person and that there is a song in everyone's heart for every occasion what hinders this production is that the stars are not portraying particularly engaging characters the songs are not memorable and stand little chance of being recognized by an american audience the exceptions might be the edith piaf and maurice chevalier numbers and the farce seems more banal than daring yet it is not without its striking moments and charms such as when jane birkin does a cameo and sings one of her own songs also the glossy amberlike photography added a very french romantic feeling to the story while the mood of paris as being a place for love to flourish above all else which has always been embellished in movie lore comes through with flying colors it also does a good job of showing you the way paris is in the and in the way ordinary people exist there it tells the romantic story of six parisians who become intertwined with each other in their ordinary lives as they search for happiness they are the attractive sisters odile sabine az ma and camille agnes jaoui with the older businesswoman odile married and decidedly set on a bourgeois life of material comforts she is married to the glum and laconic claude pierre arditi she once went out with a businessman nicolas bacri who left her ago and now shows up in paris and asks her help to find someone to rent a flat for his family simon andre dussolier works as a salesman and is trying to find nicolas a flat in his spare time he writes radio plays simon's boss is the much younger unscrupulous and arrogant marc duveyrier lambert wilson who inherited the firm from his father and is the agent selling a more luxurious and larger flat with a better view to odile but fails to tell her that a building project is going up soon that will block her view screenwriters and actors bacri and agnes jaoui wrote themselves the best parts jaoui's camille is a university scholar finishing up a ph d in history using for her thesis the study of yeomen in the year at lake paladru she works as a tour guide in the meantime and suffers from panic attacks even though she appears to have outwardly perfect on her tours for the last four years has been the much older simon pretending to be doing research for his plays but really attracted to her but not having the nerve to tell her this to his dismay he finds out she is dating his but handsome boss whom she meets when looking at her sister's new place and seeing him crying but not realizing that it was from a cold not because he's so sensitive bacri as the classy nicolas turns out to be now working as a chauffeur he is a hypochondriac with a history of depression who visits many doctors until he finds one who tells him there is nothing wrong with him odile still pines for him but he's married telling her he expects his wife to arrive shortly love is same old song' that makes the world go even when all the characters are liars and not exactly open to what their true motives are everything comes together in a bourgeois housewarming party for odile's place as the characters reveal their true feelings and all their deceptions and neurotic impulses are either uncovered or about to be there's not a lot of bite to this satirical musical but resnais has never made a bad film and is one of the best current french directors if not the best this film is not one his great ones but it still has enough pep in its light touches to be interesting it not only has an odd way for the characters to break into song but some males even sing in a female voice while some females sing in a male voice it is also interesting in the way it examines its characters' behavior as being similar in business as in love
positive	in the stock market crashed and oliver stone's wall street was released to critical acclaim and packed movie houses wall street lucked out in its timing the recent crash gave the film a resonation it might not of had and though its approach to business was exaggerated that very ideology was keyed into the mind set of the quintessential businessman stone constructed his film as a mythical good vs evil tale relayed in the milieu of the burgeoning stock exchange critics and audiences lauded wall street elevating its status to that of a contemporary classic i'm proud to say that i will never be counted as one of them i found wall street to be just as axiomatic and pandering as the majority of stone's output with its thin caricatures obvious sentiments and a charisma barren performance by the young charlie sheen stone goes for broke in every scene the same could be said for nearly all of his works this approach tends to bury his purported message beneath a heap of good intentions he directs stock exchange scenes in typical hyperbolic mode with people shouting into phones as if they were in a plummeting airplane it's all an excuse for stone to ratchet up the emotion with false intensity rather than explore what these situations are really like i have a feeling the brokers would be psychologically manipulative as they are presented in boiler room rather than laughably over the top these guys are salesmen after all not televised judges more than anything i am baffled by why so many adore wall street the only possible solution i can muster is its release date and not just the timeliness of the greed is good subject matter the film was plumped down in the eighties a decade in which the comedy rose to an art form and a group of glamorous brat packers smirked their way through inane high concept low result movies in my mind the eighties will forever be remembered as a decade with not only a proliferation of bad movies but bad music bad hair and bad clothes maybe stone's after school special set in wall street was viewed as a welcome change of pace boiler room is an equally film with some similarities to stone's piece of crap they both feature a consequential relationship though boiler room's is much more subtle and touching and they are both concerned with the power of greed yet the men in boiler room are akin to poseurs presuming to be big shots rather than the heartless gordon gecko figures of wall street boiler room is a message movie as well though at least until the end doesn't shove it in our faces boiler room is about the pursuit of cash and the degrees to which people will go for that cash as i said this film is indeed timely in a society where who wants to be a millionaire is the number one prime time show every day bringing about a revolution of prime time tv watching that hasn't been seen in quite a while not only do we want to be millionaires we want to watch other people become millionaires in our culture the desire for money supersedes everything when you have money you have it all and seth giovanni ribisi wants it all the easy way he's a college drop out who gets lured into working for an illegally run brokerage firm the kind that sells junk stock whereupon he meets others just like him ben affleck is cast as jim the company headhunter who struts in commanding the room like a frat boy gordon gecko his job is to influence trainee's into becoming enthusiastic employees by giving a speech that subtly attacks their man hood it's ironic that he sells these pups the same load of b s that they're told to dish out to prospective buyers affleck's character is obviously supposed to recall alec baldwin's similar character in glengary glen ross and that proves detrimental to the actor's performance affleck shouts curses and his rookie employees just like baldwin minus the edge when alec played the scene he became the part spewing those brutal lines as if they were his own by comparison affleck simply looks as if he were doing a really hammy line reading the brokers approach their job with the fervor of overzealous jocks they storm to work like football players on the way to the big game rap music thumps on the soundtrack effectively illustrating who these guys think they are intellectual gangsters they aren't above a rumble as a test of man hood especially during leisure time where the lumbering scott caan seems all too eager to use his fists in minor disputes we drink up this world along with seth and watch him become seduced by it just like we might be as in all cautionary tales boiler room begins with seducing us into its illustrious world of profit and wrongdoing then smacks us with the consequences of all the recklessness i know this story we all do but it can work if it's told with intelligence and energy and that is how writer director ben younger tells it as a director of please excuse my french younger has much to learn his style is sitcom bland but his writing isn't younger's script is well studied in the vernacular of this bunch his dialogue is like a junior david mamet despite the moderate camera work younger fills his scenes with tension that comes from just the performances and the tightly wound script the brokers hucksters counter every customer objection gently bullying them into buying stock these moments are filmed like psychological action scenes a tense confrontation between a victimizer and a victim who isn't aware that he is one with the exception of affleck's brief appearances the performances are truly exceptional ribisi who has the edgy looks of a character actor is extremely potent here working his pale angular face and eerie plaintive stare for all their worth he conveys vulnerability his character seems to hide in a corner whenever things aren't going his way in some scenes and in others he's ferociously cut throat the jekyll and hyde contradiction works well in the movie ribisi is confident when it's just him and the phone but cowardly in front of authority figures including his abrasive father authoritatively played by ron rifkin boiler room thankfully avoids wall histrionics in the sequences the sales build slowly like a crescendo of intelligent psychological ploys those ploys are taught to seth by chris vin diesel a kind broker who alternates between seth's friend and his mentor diesl shines in his minor role this week i saw the opus pitch black in which diesel plays a completely different role in an equally effective manner in that film he has the kind of role that might have gone to arnold schwarzenegger in the and in boiler room he has the kind of role that might have gone to elliot gould in the nicky katt is also memorable as a superior broker obsessed with what he can't have nia long as the firm's secretary a lone black women amongst many white men is ribisi's love interest in a part that at first looks to be as insignificant as most of the parts this talented actress gets but develops into something more interesting the two make an oddly likeable couple long is smart and brash and ribisi is charmingly aloof at one point he says to her i'm just lookin' for some chocolate love it's a terrible line but ribisi delivers it in such an innocuous way it becomes sweetly endearing unfortunately towards the end the boiler room turns a tad schmaltzy there is much crying hugging and sorrowful stares this is okay when taken in small doses but younger's conclusion is constructed as a series of these moments one following the other a particular misstep is his attempt to show the effect that seth's manipulations have on one of his poor victims it's not a bad idea but the execution is lacking with those scenes feeling tacked on to further spell out the message that message being greed is bad yes it's patently obvious but boiler room conveys it by introducing us to a culture that i haven't seen much of in the movies the disenfranchised twenty something entrepreneur and all wall street did was introduce us to a simplistic fantasy world of saints and sinners boiler room offers neither extreme it gives us what is in between and for that i am thankful
positive	look back at all the times in your life when there was a fork in the path to the future some sort of decision had to be made and for better or worse it irrevocably altered the course of your existence everyone thinks about the roads not taken and how things might have turned out if the choice had been different perhaps even more dizzying to contemplate is how a seemingly minor action catching the am train for example could have an equally profound yet less obvious impact maybe that's where you met your significant other and had you reached the platform just a few seconds later film makers are no less fascinated by issues of destiny than anyone else and that's why there's no shortage of movies about this subject the best of the bunch were probably made by the late polish director krzysztof kieslowski who was obsessed with questions of fate and chance these themes weave their way through many of his movies including decalogue the double life of veronique and the triptych of blue white and red however they are most explicitly examined in a film called blind chance where kieslowski presents the three different fates of one man after a minor action missing or catching a train changes the course of his life in his autobiography kieslowski on kieslowski the director describes his attraction to the concept this way idea rich and interesting that every day we're faced with a choice which could end our entire life yet of which we're completely unaware while this approach has been the fodder for several notable dramatic films including in a way frank capra's it's a wonderful life sliding doors is the first romantic comedy to plumb its depths the road not taken approach isn't just a plot device either peter howitt expands upon both possible fates of a character after she just a train the audience watches with fascination how this one event impacts upon every aspect of her life her future career where she lives whom she loves and whether she has a family as her separate destinies diverge and then she becomes two completely different individuals that woman is helen played by gwyneth paltrow as a long haired brit one day after losing her job as an advertising executive she decides to return home in the middle of the day the scene of the pivotal moment is a train platform in scenario she just slips through the sliding doors before the train pulls out of the station on board she meets the cheerful talkative james john hannah a monty python fan who is taken with her beauty minutes later in her flat she walks in on her lover gerry john lynch in bed with another woman jeanne tripplehorn in scenario she misses the train and shortly thereafter is the victim of an attempted mugging she doesn't meet james and fails to make it home in time to discover gerry's infidelity juxtaposed one against the other while sharing many places cues and characters the two stories proceed in parallel from there on one level for viewers who enjoy pondering the workings of fate sliding doors can be viewed as a deep and wonderful experience but for those who just appreciate a romantic comedy characterized by solid acting a script with a few twists and a great deal of genuinely funny material sliding doors still fits the bill one of its most obvious strengths is that it can satisfy many different types of audiences those who demand something substantial from their motion pictures and those who could care less it shouldn't come as any surprise that the acting at least from three of the four leads is solid paltrow who does double duty as two helens who are initially the same yet gradually become much different is the standout she plays both of her roles effectively and believably the shy insecure woman who stays with gerry and the liberated who severs the ties to her old life and embarks on a new career with a new man john hannah known to most american viewers as the younger gay character in four weddings and a funeral is instantly likable john lynch taking a break from movies about ireland's troubles does a good job presenting gerry as a inept selfish philanderer only jeanne tripplehorn who plays an vixen seems out of place her attempts at broad comedy are occasionally jarring and it's occasionally difficult to see her lydia as anything more than a plot element one member of the supporting cast deserves special notice douglas mcferran who plays gerry's best friend russell is an absolute delight stealing every scene that he's in part of this is surely because he is given the best lines in the movie on one occasion he has a marvelous monologue bemoaning how advances in the telecommunications industry have trapped men into a life of monogamy on another occasion while laughing at gerry's plight with the women in his life he comments being with you makes the wait for the next episode of seinfeld more bearable but it's not all in the dialogue mcferran tears into this part with relish his performance becomes one of the most memorable aspects of a comedy this is the first feature film for peter howitt and he approaches the task with unimpeachable aplomb the script is shrewd and inventive combining wit romance and intelligent melodrama into a whole sliding doors grants more than just a good time at the movies however for those who are so inclined its central theme offers an opportunity to ponder some of the more philosophical questions about the workings of the universe all while having a good time
positive	three things i learned from being john malkovich when getting on the elevator for your first day of work on the floor of a building always bring your crowbar don't stand in the way of your wife's actualization as a man and whenever entering a portal into the mind of another human being wear old clothes because hey it's muddy in there being john malkovich is the most original film to come down the pike in a very long time wildly surrealistic yet presented in a funky style this is the kind of movie that sticks in your head after savoring the sheer inventiveness of the storyline you roll around the wealth of ideas contained within it from the ethics of relationships and politics of immortality to the very nature of identity itself there's a lot to think about here just don't forget to have fun clearly all parties involved in the making of the film certainly did starting with writer charles kaufman i wrote john malkovich' without an outline he explains in the press notes blindly with no sense of direction or purpose it's important to me that i don't have a map before i start this allows me to surprise myself stay engaged discover things and hopefully allow the unconscious to surface spike jonze mark wahlberg's na ve buddy in three kings takes it from there the director of the beastie boy's sabotage an parody of tv cop shows as well as numerous other music videos and commercials eschews typical mtv flash for his feature film debut jonze wisely realized that a storyline this unusual is most effectively presented in a style his flat approach works perfectly and then there's the cast john cusack plays control freak craig schwartz a street performer who periodically gets decked by parents objecting to his remarkably expressive but decidedly erotic puppet shows over the years his marriage to obsessive pet store employee lotte cameron diaz has devolved once passionate lovers the two are now little more than courteous roommates financially strapped craig takes a job as an file clerk at lestercorp located on the floor of a manhattan building navigating around dr lester orson bean his boss and floris mary kay place lester's dotty secretary craig tries to settle into his new position but two things keep him distracted first there's the beautiful and imperious maxine catherine keener who delights in tormenting craig over his obvious lust for her and then there's the hole behind the file cabinet which turns out to be a portal into the mind of actor john malkovich craig learns that anyone who enters the portal gets whooshed into the subconscious of malkovich where they can experience life from his point of view with enough concentration you can even influence his actions after minutes the visitor gets ejected and unceremoniously dumped in a ditch on the side of the new jersey turnpike then things get a little weird by the way if you're concerned that i gave away too much of the plot rest assured i barely scratched the surface one of the most satisfying aspects of the fable is that kaufman is not content to simply milk laughs from his bizarre instead he crawls into the dark premise as completely as craig crawls into malkovich rummaging around and toying with the various philosophical implications of compromising another person's identity he also examines the consequences of the to craig lotte maxine and of course john malkovich himself the performances are superb malkovich best known to mainstream audiences for his work in dangerous liaisons in the line of fire and as head psychopath in the con air tweaks his own image in a dandy turn far from his effete vaguely reptilian persona this malkovich is just another schlub drinking with his pals and trying to get laid incidentally charlie sheen also plays himself in a hilarious parody of his bad boy reputation as always john cusack nails his part handily pulling viewers along even as craig's actions become unconscionable the big surprises come from catherine keener and cameron diaz both playing against type kenner usually cast in icy subordinate roles is terrific as a highly intelligent extremely manipulative femme fatale cameron diaz barely recognizable under a mess of brown curly hair sheds her perpetually sunny smile and draws big laughs as a woman thrown into extreme sexual confusion after taking a ride in malkovich being john malkovich stumbles towards the end as jonze and kaufman try too hard to resolve the various subplots additional characters and increasingly complex explanations lead to a cluttered finale regardless this contemporary alice in wonderland is a real treat i enjoyed watching being john malkovich but only later after reflecting on the film did its resonance fully hit me at one point craig says do you know what a metaphysical can of worms this portal is truer words were never spoken
positive	in my reviews i try to make gentle recommendations rather than telling you what to see or what not to see i realize that we all have different tastes and i cannot predict what my audience will like and what they will dislike but in the case of american beauty i must make an exception if you haven't yet seen it go see it now stop reading this review and head for your local multiplex then after you've seen it come back i'll wait here welcome back if you followed my advice and i see no reason why you should not have do you i'm sure you've just had one of the richest cinematic experiences of your life american beauty is an extraordinary film a powerful jolting exploration of the dark side of the american dream it's humorous but it isn't funny because of the unrelenting ominous undercurrent that runs throughout the whole production mixing comedy and the darkest of drama was the way this film was intended and by god it works making it one of the year's very best lester burnham kevin spacey has entered the mother of all crises he is living life without a purpose he is bored depressed and sick of his sheltered insignificant existence he barely ever talks to his family has no sex life is stuck at a job and thinks he has no reason to live but one day when he and his equally troubled wife annette bening attend one of his daughter's thora birch cheerleading performances he sees something that makes him come alive what he sees is the performance by his daughter's friend the head cheerleader he develops a lust for the promiscuous young girl an obsession which soon becomes pedophilic in nature but for the first time lester feels that he is actually living this crush is only the beginning lester proceeds to make more and more radical changes in his life buying the car of his dreams cursing off the boss and quitting his job today i quit my job told the boss to f himself and blackmailed him for would you pass the asparagus please buying drugs from the ricky fitts a teenager who mysteriously videotapes what he considers to be beauty and refusing to be docile in family affairs his new attitude further alienates his daughter only reassuring her that her parents are nothing more than freaks of nature unjustly forced on her by the powers that be and inspiring her to enter a relationship with her eccentric neighbor and the burnhams's neighbors provide american beauty with a significant chunk of its dramatic momentum ricky fitts wes bentley serves as the film's thematic center providing the obscure powerful meaning of the title colonel fitts the father is one of the most fascinating and complex characters in the movie even considering his limited screentime kevin spacey has never been better and this performance will certainly earn him a chance to put a little gold person on his mantel he never plays his droll character as a freak rather he effectively portrays him as a normal person led to drastic by his dissatisfaction with life spacey is poignant and devastating in the role of a lifetime equally astonishing is young thora birch who plays her potentially stereotypical rebellious teen character with suprising feeling and tenderness at two hours and ten minutes american beauty didn't feel nearly long enough it's a complicated unforgettable film that like the ice storm two years ago dares to explore the darkest reaches of suburban life powerfully and cynically it dissects the notion of the pretty house with the white picket fence and appealing garden being the american dream it claims that this image is just that an image and hiding behind it are lives much darker than common knowledge would have it the dark deeply ironic ending though given away by our narrator in the first few minutes of the movie stays with you for weeks after it's all over american beauty is just the kind of uncompromising film hollywood needs every now and then to counterbalance the mindless drivel we see released even more so considering it's a masterpiece
positive	taps into hollywood's lack of integrity with subtle messages that can be easily missed www pleasantville com april friday cast tobey maguire reese witherspoon william h macy joan allen j t walsh jeff daniels mpaa rating for sexual content and thematic elements genre drama in my opinion in short it takes a lot of careful observation to see the true morals and lessons brought out in this film one can easily be misled as to what the real message is review in a literally colorless world with an almost mechanical population there is no room for transitioning variety or even the customary happenings of everyday life such as rain fire or emotions the town of pleasantville has one adjective pleasant there is no sadness no fear no danger no discomfort no love and no hate put simply it's a place alanis morissette could really work wonders for j one big note however is that it is only a sitcom that airs in reruns on an oldies tv station or is it i had waited months to see this movie and after doing so on opening day i was not disappointed i found it quite intriguing and delightful and went back more times in the period it endured at the box office but it wasn't until months later when i slipped in for a small showing in one of those crummy dollar theaters after not having seen it for so long that my eyes were opened to such a deeper meaning and perspective than i had previously experienced it is a far too feasible misconception that this is a film which forwards the idea that a world without some healthy immorality is not a world at all instead the actual message which so far has not been recognized by many viewers that i know of is that a world without immorality doesn't give one the ability to discern right and wrong for himself because everything is automatically right there is no room for mistakes and growth and learning because there are no mistakes to be made no space for growth and never anything new to learn and that is the key component to the entire purpose of the story now i'm not saying that's necessarily the way it was intended to be interpreted but that is hands down the proper way in which it should be besides a hidden symbolic depth and themes that go beyond what we can absorb from previews this film has elements of physical wonder and strength that make it just so great to watch the visual effects are indeed striking and what little color is revealed is impartially favorable after spending the bulk of the movie staring at black and white it's hard not to identify and appreciate the fact that our own world allows for all that brilliance and more a truly intelligent addition to it all however is the charming and ardently attainable cast that operates together like clockwork that said the plot goes as such david and jennifer are two very high school twins with the typical relationship outline of they demonstrate the teenage qualities of two of the common versions of adolescents today david is the shyer subtler twin who would rather watch tv land than mtv while jennifer is the wild licentious one who spends her days at the mall and relishes in the pleasures of the offensive world of degradation but when a freak accident enchantingly plops them smack dab in the middle of pleasantville as two of the main characters they are forced to depend on each other to make it back home nevertheless jennifer works her magic and introduces the town to a more unrestrained approach to life and while david frantically tries to stop her and get them back home he realizes that change was exactly what the town needed and as said earlier not to flip the town around into some corrupt society but rather to give people the choice to decide between good and bad and to reap the results of their decisions and learn from them not only were difficult choices being brought upon the town but the simple accepted occurrences of ordinary existence also began to take place people got hurt they cried they became afraid and happy and thoughtful and started to think for themselves and that's when their physical world turned colors as well this can be looked upon as quite a controversial movie but to me the message is finally clear i hope after reading this people can be more open to the film than they had been in the past and realize that without choosing how our own lives will be run we'll never know what we could have done better until the next great movie i see i remain sincerely danielle flynn imr
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned east meets west in mulan the latest installment in disney's parade of annual animated feature films an odd fusion of ancient asian traditions and disconcerting elements which betray obvious commercial sensibilities this confident entry is easily the most engaging and satisfying hollywood animated feature in years but falls short of actualizing its potential though not for lack of trying in many respects mulan is among disney's most mature efforts skirting the surface of adult themes and daring to sneak glimpses into the messier side of combat the violence of the battles in the film are admittedly sanitized the imagery of a pillaged village neatly encapsulated in the form of a child's discarded doll is in itself no more harrowing than luke discovering his fallen guardians in star wars and mulan's later heroics in dispatching of the ruthless invaders is done so in the most tidy bloodless method imaginable yet how often does a hollywood animated film long considered as the last safe refuge for the innocent dare touch upon the consequential horrors of war in such a provocative manner in an instant idealistic mulan's innocence is lost and her jovial squadron are reminded of what their efforts are spent defending the film based upon an ancient chinese fable centers on a spirited young woman who disguises herself as a man in order to serve as her family's obligatory conscript when china finds itself under attack by huns cartoonishly depicted by easy demonic overtones replete with glowing yellow eyes and teeth although lent a surprisingly genuine sense of menace dipping into the mythology of other cultures for the first time after cavorting in animated revisitings of familiar western european fables and literature for decades disney's new film is boldly set in ancient china rather than relocated elsewhere story intact to some neutral territory and revels in its east asian roots aside from a predominantly cast providing the film's vocal work there's liberal usage of oriental iconography throughout and the artwork reveal hints of japanese anime influence while the film does occasionally reach its limits and starts to tread upon old stereotypes invoking references to items like beancurd and rice in every third sentence grows rather hoary and i can't imagine that the regiment for ancient chinese warriors really included blocks of stone in two it's rather remarkable that a movie primarily positioned for american and european audiences delves so wholeheartedly into new foreign territory the film also freely touches upon cultural idiosyncrasies from its outset although savvy viewers should easily pick up on the intrinsics immediately it's startlingly assertive in providing as little shorthand as it does to unfamiliar youngsters with regards to the customs and traditions of mulan's land at its core the film is a tale of heroic adventure and as such paints its story in bold strokes of honour perseverance nobility and courage as such animation is the perfect vehicle for this flavour of epic where stark emotional simplicity is able to effectively work with visual purity scenes which would play out as unbearably hokey in live action such as mulan's venerable father pridefully tossing aside his cane when accepting his draft notice are lent a sense of strength and conveyed with greater emotional clarity in animation mulan capitalizes on this during its strongest moments particularly during our heroine's opening it's when the film attempts to integrate the traditional mainstays of recent hollywood animation the friendly animal sidekick the colourful array of supporting characters into the mix where it goes slightly awry off to battle mulan finds herself being trailed by a diminutive dragon called mushu and an agreeable little lucky cricket who ostensibly appear to assist in her subterfuge and realistically serve as comic relief they're affable presences and not precisely ineffective reasonable amounts of humour are elicited and eddie murphy who voices mushu is amusingly earnest but amidst all the high melodrama the effect is mildly jarring and from a storytelling perspective questionable in its necessity at training camp mulan antagonizes and eventually wins over a trio of fumbling recruits easily characterized simply as the short clown the skinny clown and the big clown who provide more levity into the film with decidedly less effectiveness and in a familiar retread of traditional disney patterns she grows a certain fondness for a handsome young captain shang everybody needs love even ancient chinese warrior princesses but not necessarily in this film the romantic angle which lets the air out of the sails of the story's underpinnings lacks any genuine spark and plays out like a contractual obligation another staple of recent disney animated films a cache of hummable little ditties has also obligingly been carried over to mulan but proves to be a decided weakness composed by matthew wilder none of the handful of tunes are particularly distinguishing and one i'll make a man out of you unimaginatively accompanying a tired montage featuring our crew of characters transforming into lean fighting machines becomes so grating and hackneyed that it seems almost interminable only reflections an early ballad of lament proves to be a song of any consequence serving as an effective showcase for lea salonga one of musical theatre's most wondrously pure voices nonetheless mulan is an especially appealing piece of work from the disney factory with a strong narrative arc and pleasant artwork the stampede of hun warriors charging down a snow mountain is wholly impressive while the blatantly elements at times seem incongruous with the remainder of the film they're not dissuasive and remain fairly enjoyable briskly paced with a smart energetic heroine and filled with high adventure the film is ultimately most satisfying on the intimate scale of father and daughter
positive	plot a momma's boy can't seem to leave his mother's crib and make good on the babies that he himself has produced in the world he visits his kids and their mommas every now and then but his main goal in life is well he doesn't have any goals then one day his mother gets an boyfriend and suddenly he isn't as welcome anymore in his own house it isn't long after that that his girlfriends start realizing what a jerk he really is and well it's either time to grow up or bow down critique first things first this movie ain't about the hood at all it's an intelligent film about love relationships family friendship maturity and growing up do not avoid this film because you think it's about gangbangers and stuff because it isn't at all it's about you it's about me it's about your girlfriend your mother your problems and your inability to face up to your responsibilities and to well grow up this is an extremely film with some of the most developed characters that i've seen on the screen all year with superb acting performances to match granted the film does start a little slow and go a little long but hang in there because once you appreciate and get to know all of its characters you will be glad that you did this isn't a kid's movie this is about the step that you need to take in order to pass into full adulthood and some might not appreciate the grander theme behind that step i certainly did because i too passed and am passing through many of these very same things right now yeah yeah i still live with my momma and related to a lot of the events that went down in this flick oh yeah and for the record i'm not black but that made absolutely zero difference in this case but that's not even half the story you see the film is damn funny too and i mean damn funny i was crackin' up at almost every other scene and they weren't jokes like your typical comedies either just things that we could all relate to like the scene in which ving rhames is drinking koolaid in the kitchen and his infamously improvised african squat f k scene which you just gotta see to believe and there are the performances too ving rhames now here's a man who has already established an early lead in the race for best supporting actor at the end of this year damn dude you scared the shit outta me tyrese gibson i have no idea where this guy came from an singer and mtv vj you say hmmmm but other than his uncanny resemblance to taye diggs he nailed this part to the tee from scene one on i was glued to his performance and sympathized with his character as he molded and shaped himself into the person that he hoped to become one day and everyone else too gibson's girlfriend in the film taraji henson made me a backer with her many subtle touches all of which helped raise her character several levels above the typical bitchie girlfriend that we've seen in many of these relationship movies but that's the thing that i liked the most about this movie everyone seemed real the situations felt authentic the characters all came across as people like you and me with issues and struggles and hopes and fears i liked this movie a lot because it was masterfully written wonderfully acted and genuinely entertaining to watch and yeah i even liked the whole homage to boyz the hood that singleton pulled off in the end he called this movie a companion piece to that film a very solid to an ever greater original baby boy is a film to be seen by anyone who feels like they never wanna grow up note the guy who plays jody's best friend in this movie is omar gooding cuba gooding jr younger brother cuba starred in boyz the hood where's joblo coming from the best man brothers shaft summer of sam what's cooking
positive	it is an understood passion and an understood calm bud white walks into the home of lynn bracken a prostitute cut to look like veronica lake he's one of l a finest investigating the murder of fellow cop and one of the leads takes him to her home it's understood that he is quiet thunder a guy who's calm voice is more powerful than his arms it's understood that she's supposed to be beautiful but underneath her face is pain and scraped out lines that say her life could have been so much more you know without having to be told you're the first guy who hasn't told me i look like veronicca lake in under a minute she says you look ten times better he says it without thinking like he knows without her having to say anything white's face doesn't turn it doesn't blush you see his eyes and you believe him it's a perfect moment in a near perfect movie l a confidential is the best movie of the year it is grace and poetry a richly layered work of pure entertainment it is a portrait of police and morality as it works it's way through characters that are so real on screen that you believe that they might have a soul in a phrase it is everything it is funny it is exciting has enough action and adventure and mystery and grace and suspense it is the pinnacle of a movie a complete work a flawless film it's hard to tell you about the plot because it's about so much more than plot besides there's too much to describe sure it's about police and searching for corruption and who fights for the right reasons and the definition of justice but it's also about what you feel when you look into the eyes of the characters in the film director curtis hanson has perfectly framed each character letting you see into them rooting for them one moment doubting them the next the actors work with their lines but in this movie their most important weapon is their eyes you can tell what each person is feeling just by looking into their eyes for one moment russell crowe plays bud white a muscle cop with a beef for wife beaters his movements are fierce when he strikes you jump when he's calm you know it won't be for long his intensity oozes out of the screen you follow his character through the movie afraid of him but in sympathy of him because you know how good his heart is he's looking for a way to solve crimes you're just never sure how he's going to do it his counter is ed exley played with a chisselled face by guy pierce you feel for him for his character because of all the cops in the movie he's the one that's actually trying to do the right thing by going by the book you know that he must face the reality of breaking the book and you love the way he gets there i've seen l a confidential twice immediately after it was over i wanted to hit the rewind button and watch it again i didn't want the theater experience to end it's been a long time since i actually experienced a movie feeling like i got something after i walked out that's why i love movies the great ones can be too rich and powerful to describe watch l a confidential after you leave the theater you feel like you just watched a classic movie that's why la confidential stands as the best movie of the year l a confidential directed by curtis hanson starring russell crowe guy pierce kevin spacey james cromwell and kim basinger
positive	capsule bleak and just the way it should be makes its case with precision and intelligence serial killer chic is a relatively new entry to the cultural vocabulary and one of the more ones i've never found someone automatically admirable or even interesting because they killed creatively or in great numbers and because of that i had apprehensions about seeing henry i wasn't sure i wanted to see the story of multiple murderer henry lee lucas portrayed as some kind of nihilistic thankfully that's not the way henry works the director john mcnaughton took a small budget and a gallery of actor friends and created a chilling and intelligent piece of work it doesn't provide explanations for henry's behavior it shows him up for what he is an unrepentant and man who killed when the mood struck him at the film's opening henry's friend ottis toole has a sister who comes by to stay while she tries to find work in chicago in a viciously riveting scene he admits to having murdered his own mother and she covers his hand with hers they are damned together from that moment on henry and ottis eventually begin to kill for fun the movie is especially good at showing how they seem to have drifted casually into it there's a scene where the two go to buy a new tv the pawnbroker they talk to goads henry with ugly words and henry responds by stabbing the man to death with a soldering iron no preface it smashes into us as suddenly as it does the broker in a scene which many damned the movie for unseen they steal a video camera and film the murder of a whole household playing it back over and over again for their own enjoyment the movie itself however does not glorify the killings but shows instead that henry feels no joy at his work only irritation henry succeeds thanks to excellent writing and direction as well as acting michael rooker is credible as henry from the first frame just standing there and the rest of the cast works by being unaffected and casual as well the producers had originally comissioned a slasher film from mcnaughton but he decided to give them something more memorable and consequently the film nearly didn't see release the film does not glorify or justify it just shows us with unflinching coldness what henry was i'm hard pressed to see how anyone can see this and consider henry any kind of victim or hero then again probably so would henry
positive	you don't have to know poker to like rounders but it might help that a great deal of this sharp little drama is set in the back rooms of new york's cardshark underground astoundingly doesn't limit its accessibility even for those who can't tell royal and straight flushes apart rounders success then is owed to its proficient cast and intriguing portrayal of a world not many viewers will be familiar with the dialogue may be filled with terms that only true players will grasp but you don't have to speak the language to understand the words a statement that pretty much sums up the effectiveness of the whole show matt damon fresh off his good will hunting hot streak is perfect for the role of mike mcdermott a young law student with a tremendous gift for gambling but after losing all of his tuition money in a killer match with russian poker aficionado teddy kgb john malkovich deliciously hammy he shifts his focus to scholarly matters leaving his true area of expertise far far behind things change however when mike's old buddy worm edward norton his life it seems worm just out of jail owes a hefty sum to nasty thugs and is counting on his friend's superlative skills to help him pay off the debt that rounders story quickly molds itself into a conventional predictable tale of redemption doesn't hinder its potency director john dahl infamous for his red rock west and the last seduction gets extremely convincing mileage out of the plot mechanics by trumping up the relationship between mike and worm damon and norton bring so much to their roles that they'd be worth catching even if rounders ultimately folded but the movie ups its fascinating ante by contrasting their wildly different ways of winning any sequence where the two men sit at the table together is an unarguable highlight if only the other character interaction was as successful rounders might merit consideration when it comes time to number the year's best films current it girl gretchen mol is sweetly appealing as mike's girlfriend jo aware and weary of his seedy past but her scenes with damon number too few to be very effective john turturro's aging mentor and famke janssen's tempting siren both interesting sketches are hampered by the same limited screen time and as a wizened judge the great martin landau makes memorable a role that's mostly a plot device he's on hand mostly to save the day and provide a voice for rounders moral that moral by the way is our destiny chooses us and it's something of a surprise when rounders supports this solemn proverb by eschewing the conclusion you might expect mike does learn from his mistake but neither the mistake nor the way he learns from it is what it initially appears to be in the end rounders sees gambling as less a mere addiction than a potential art form but the poker itself is only a metaphor for a much larger picture the road to true fulfillment lies within the realization and exercising of your natural passions the movie espouses no matter what they might be here lowlifes like worm just aren't cut out for the cards screenwriters david levien and brian koppelman entertain and educate in their quest to vividly render a culture that's often generalized by movies even complete poker neophytes should cross the line from observers to participants when the movie gets to its concluding game scene inside every adventurous filmgoer there is a desire to be taken someplace new and exciting and that's the precise allure of rounders it ultimately matters not that a few of our tour guides feel or that the journey itself is cluttered with sites we've seen before because the final destination is a satisfying one in the end rounders holds a winning hand
positive	melvin van peebles' sweet sweetback's baadasssss song was a watershed moment in the history of american cinema and the black movement it was released less than a decade after the civil rights movement had begun and almost twenty years before the rodney king incident its violent and highly sexualized revenge tale of a macho black hustler fighting back against white oppression and winning was something that had never been seen on an american movie screen before in style content and how it was conceived and produced sweet sweetback was a cinematic revolution whether or not one agrees with its subject matter van peebles a black american who first gained recognition by writing novels in france built sweet sweetback from the ground up almost entirely by himself because no studio would dare fund such a film he was forced to raise all the money himself the movie ended up costing about part of which was put up by none other than bill cosby van peebles cut costs by hiring labor and taking on most of the film's responsibilities himself he wrote the script scored the music edited and directed the film as well as starred in the central role he was also a brilliant entrepreneur who always found a way to make an extra buck for instance when the mppa slapped the film with a dreaded van peebles not only threatened to bring a lawsuit against jack valenti and the mpaa but he also developed a little marketing scheme he coined the phrases rated x by an jury which he put on the movie posters to help advertise the film he also printed the phrase on which he had no problem selling the storyline in sweet sweetback is deceptively simple it takes place in los angeles and van peebles stars as the title character a tough male hustler of few words who grew up in a brothel and makes money by doing what he does best having sex one day he agrees to go with a couple of amiable white cops down to the station to make it look like they're bringing in suspects on a case involving murder however on the way to the station the cops arrest a young black revolutionary named hubert scales who they proceed to beat viciously acting out of complete impulse rather than political motivation sweetback fights back and beats the cops to the brink of death the rest of the film follows sweetback as he evades the cops on his way to eventual escape in mexico although the repetition of watching sweetback run gets a little old by the end of the film this plot allows van peebles' camera to roam the darker side of l a the ghettos alleys and whorehouses that other films had always overlooked van peebles' entire point in making the movie was to secure on celluloid a vision of the black experience in america that other filmmakers had ignored at the beginning of sweet sweetback he offers this epigraph which is a traditional prologue used in medieval times when a messenger brought bad news sire these lines are not an homage to brutality that the artist has invented but a hymn from the mouth of reality van peebles wanted to make sure that his vision was one of reality not of exaggeration of course with today's abundance of rap and hip hop music that sings the same ode to black life as well as films by spike lee john singleton and the hughes brothers sweet sweetback doesn't seem all that revolutionary it is important to remember that this film must be viewed in the context and time period in which it was made at that time sweet sweetback was so controversial that only two theaters in the entire united states would play it distributors were petrified of a film that in van peebles' words gave the black audience a chance to see some of their own fantasies acted out about rising out of the mud and kicking ass of course once it caught on it caught on big sweet sweetback is now considered to be the film that kicked off the blaxploitation era although van peebles disassociates sweetback from other movies like shaft and the mack because those were financed by big hollywood studios sweet sweetback is also the only film deemed mandatory viewing by the black panthers however even if when viewed from an perspective sweet sweetback is certainly not without its controversies when it was first released an article was published in ebony magazine denouncing the film while at the same time the black panthers used an entire newsletter to praise it there have been arguments that the victory for sweetback is really no victory at all beating cops and then running away to mexico is nothing to be proud of others have pointed out that sweetback has little to say throughout the film he has no political motivations and therefore the violence and havoc he wreaks is not rooted in fundamental beliefs but in personal and selfish motives still others point to the clich black potency that stereotypes sweetback as being good at nothing but having sex illustrated in a scene where he gains the respect of a white biker group by bringing their female leader to orgasm nevertheless a movie like sweet sweetback cannot be made without conflicting points of view it is a revolutionary movie not because it's about one man's defiance but because it put black issues that had never been dealt with before until that point american cinema was an almost exclusively white domain and with the exception of sidney poitier all black actors were relegated to specifically black roles that were important only in relation to whites the fact that sweet sweetback was a movie by black about blacks was something new in the opening credits van peebles lists the starring actors as simply the black community van peebles tells an interesting story that goes a long way toward defining the difference between sweet sweetback and all movies that had come before it when the movie first opened he saw it in a theater next to an older woman near the end of the film when sweetback is wounded by the police and stumbling through the southern california desert she kept saying to herself oh lord let him die don't let them kill him let him die on his own it was so ingrained in her mind that death was imminent for any in a movie who rebelled against white authority that she couldn't even conceive of the possibility that the film might end with his successful escape and of course sweetback does escape and the screen fills with the message watch out a baad asssss nigger is coming back to collect some dues beyond the political aspects sweet sweetback is an entertaining picture which van peebles always intended it to be he squeezed every drop out of his limited budget and produced a film that although dated now was technically fantastic at the time he shot in rough fashion while also utilizing almost every visual and aural trick his technology would allow him he makes good use of older techniques like split screens freeze frames reversed color schemes and overlapping images the only time the film ever looks bad is during the night sequences because van peebles simply did not have the needed equipment watching sweet sweetback more than years after its initial release one realizes that it still has bite arguments can be made that race relations in the united states have made quantum leaps since the early seventies but there are still problems that are reflected in this film but there is more to the film than its racial aspect the legacy of sweet sweetback's baadasssss song is not only the plentiful amount of art and music told from the perspective but more importantly the work of every artist who has fought to fund and produce that which is important to him
positive	there seem to be two reactions to dark city you either love it or you are unimpressed count me as a love it as good as the crow and spawn are dark city is better where the former two have a specific following the latter is an original work with the potential for broader appeal it has a similar look to the others but dark city is much more thoughtful and much less violent not clever or complex the story is still fascinating like a selection from the twilight zone a man rufus sewell is awakened in his bathtub by a man with a syringe surprised the attacker runs off the dazed man gets out of the tub and finds a woman's body in the room a mysterious caller warns him to leave the apartment immediately so he packs some clothes and leaves never sure why he's leaving or what he's fleeing ghoulish figures in long coats recognize the man and chase him through the dark city hounding him like figures in a nightmare an odd blast of willpower allows the man to dream himself free from his pursuers long enough to check his i d the amnesiac learns that he is not dreaming and that his name is john murdoch now if only he could remember the rest of his life dark city is good on many levels first the look of the movie is excellent give credit to production designers george liddle and patrick tatopolous for creating a coherent look from diverse elements there are visual elements from the american mixed with urban industrial elements it is all pulled together in a sad dark look reminiscent of the diner in edward hopper's painting nighthawks proyas' use of models gives an appropriately eerie unreality to the film's world for not only does the audience see the city a model but so do the ghouls the look is like a cross between tim burton's batman and the bleak animation of the brothers quay second the editing of the film is good the pacing is on track and the plot is revealed the amnesia explained in satisfying increments also the stylized editing within each scene gives the movie a tense caffeinated look third the special effects are well used they look good but more importantly the right effects are used for the right job one example stands out in my mind the coated figures who haunt the city can attack telekinetically a simple ripple effect is used a more showy effect could have been chosen but then it would have just been gratuitous restraint was shown where necessary letting the more critical effects look more impressive finally like gattaca dark city spends a just a little effort striving for mythical significance unlike gattaca the story is just and enough to be successful john murdoch's recovery from amnesia is tied to the passing of the night and the hopeful coming of the dawn his struggle with amnesia is both figuratively and literally the struggle of all mankind at least in his world when we finally see the big picture of the movie's world it is as mysterious as the iroquois image of the world being carried on the back of a giant turtle a few minor flaws keep me from giving this movie the same perfect score roger ebert gave but i do strongly recommend it for its look its pace its story and its timelessness
positive	for the first reel of girls town you just can't get over lili taylor is it possible to remain unperturbed that a woman of this age is playing a high school student harder still can you avoid astonishment at how perfect she is in the part with the sure showy expertise of a de niro taylor imbues unwed mother patti with all the faux confidence she can muster it's a deeply felt performance and by the halfway point you've forgiven taylor her own maturity for all its verite pretenses girls town is less about a bunch of than it is about a movie director and a cadre of examining their own feelings about rape relationships and american womanhood the movie's opening scenes sketch an easy friendship between a group of four high school outsiders on the verge of graduation patti angela bruklin harris emma anna grace and nikki aunjanue ellis but about minutes into the film we get word that nikki has swallowed a fistful of pills and bowed out of life the remaining girls manage to smug nikki's diary out of her grieving mother's home and page through it at patti's place investigating the root of nikki's despair what they find is cruel and galvanizing nikki had been raped by an editor at a newspaper where she interned and was privately questioning the sanity and value of a world where such a thing could happen by the truth of the matter the three girls begin to talk among themselves and come to a realization about their own lives emma says she was raped last year on a date with a football player patti's barely sympathetic wondering what the hell emma thought she was doing with her shirt off in a jock's car and anyway patti's had her own share of guys who wouldn't take no for an answer pained acrimonious debate ensues as the trio grow more and more angry angry about the impossibility of saying no and angry with themselves for being weak for being naive for putting up with it why do we put up with it emma finally asks once the argument has reached a fever pitch we try to talk about it and look what happens we fight for minutes there's the admirable crux of this picture girls town is a political film in that it calls for action but it's never quite sure how to justify that action or what form it should take the trio become crusaders for their right to dignity and it's surely one of this year's most stirring movie moments when emma lobs a concrete block through the window of that damn jock's car doing the right thing they hang out in the bathroom chatting incessantly and scrawling slogans and naming names on the door to a toilet stall subvert the patriarchy emma writes and then starts a hall of shame list underneath that other students begin to contribute to the girls silence their hecklers take revenge on the deadbeat father of patti's child and eventually come with nikki's tormentor still the movie has a desperately unfinished quality and none of these subsequent exploits is particularly satisfying you keep waiting for someone to call the cops on these brazen girls but nobody thinks of it perhaps searching for a resolution missing from the material at hand the film borrows its epigraphs from audre lorde and queen latifah who you callin' a bitch the points are well taken but they should have been unnecessary long on characterization but a little short on story girls town is less than it could have been and too for my own taste director jim mckay is best known as a consort of r e m michael stipe he directed the nearly unwatchable tourfilm for that band and girls town is his first foray into feature filmmaking the movie was created and scripted by committee but mckay and his lead performers had to shoot on a shoestring when predictably the group couldn't secure funding then again girls town on a budget would hardly be the same film the movie's slapdash quality is key to its significance truth be told all three of the leads look too wise for high school but that's ok there's a quality to their fine spontaneous performances as the women take a very skillful look back at the girls they once were the girls they wish they had been or some combination for all its flaws this one gets extra points for having its uncertain head and heart in the same noble place
positive	the fighting sullivans contains a major plot development in the last ten minutes that every movie guide has seen fit to give away there was no dramatic tension for me while watching the film as i knew exactly what was going to happen and that's the worst thing that can happen before viewing a movie because of this i will tread lightly so i don't ruin it for anyone reading this review and it would be very advisable to avoid all other material regarding this film until after you have seen it the fighting sullivans revolves around a family that consists of a mother father sister and five brothers the brothers are very close despite the occasional disagreement they are inseperable and never stray from one another their friendship and loyalty is the foundation of this picture the first half of the movie follows the brothers as young children and their various adventures when four of them get into a fight with some local boys the youngest sullivan who is inside a church at the time comes running out to assist but not before properly exiting the chapel if i'm being awfully vague about details it's because what i have told you is essentially the first hour and a half all i can say is go watch this film because it is a fine portrait of a family that sticks together through the good and the bad and after you see the movie you will understand why this review has been written the way it has
positive	big courtroom thrillers have always captivated america o j simpson tom capano the menendez brothers all these names are synonymous to americans and courtrooms and of course courtroom dramas are not a new topic to hollywood whether it be john grisham's thrilling novels or television's famous dramas the courtroom has always provided big bucks so when i rented a civil action i was expecting the film to be like the rainmaker a brilliant law film that kept viewers on the edge of their seat however what i saw in a civil action was far different from what i expected a major surprise but fortunately a pleasant one john travolta always seems to come up big when you least expect it no one expected him to light up the screen in grease nor in saturday night fever but whenever he gets knocked down he always seems to come back fighting a civil action is not john's best performance but a strong one that could rival any performance in travolta proves that a normal and believable performance can vault a film into oscar nominations his performance is not flashy nor memorable just solid if he delivered the only solid performance this film would still be average luckily he has a strong supporting cast william h macy is probably one of the most underrated actors in hollywood he continues to deliver great performances one after the other but he is still regarded as a secondary actor in a civil action he delivers yet another great performance as travolta's paranoid and greedy accountant he is not a lovable character but a character who stands out in your mind whenever you think of the film he is not one of the big time lawyers just a measly accountant but he delivers one of the best supporting roles of but there is actually someone better in a civil action robert duvall is also an underrated actor he gets many leading roles but is never heard when you hear of big box office draws like tom hanks brad pitt and jim carrey duvall has a supporting role in this as a lawyer of the duvall is magical in this role he is the wise teacher who not only battles it out in the courtroom but also manages to teach every major player a lesson in his own twisted way in many films directors are always trying to find a way to implement a touch of comedy to keep the audience on their toes unfortunately they usually just key in on one character whose main objective is to be funny binks anyone however this usually backfires because the character is never fully developed this is not the case in a civil action they have comedy coming from all sides whether it be duvall's inane questions or macy's sharp anger the laughs come in a steady pace granted it's not roll in the aisle funny but it provides a nice addition to the film the plot is somewhat the setup is nice with the film actually starting with a victory in the courtroom then the case that will make or break jan travolta career rears its ugly head they find out the goldmine involved with the case and wind up taking it however budgets soon flounder and jan finds himself in deep debt i will not spoil the rest although i must speak of the one downside to the film the courtroom debates are great but the actual problem they are fighting for is never fully explored it left me somewhat confused although the rest of the film is terrific all in all john travolta is back yet again in this great film his supporting cast consisting of macy and duvall turn in tremendous performances which ease the load on travolta the film is smart witty and thought provoking not only does it gauge battles but also the various tolls it can take on the major players a civil action provides everything a drama lover craves
positive	time bandits from director terry gilliam is a very different fantasy movie about a group of dwarves led by randall david rappaport who have stolen a map of the universe this map contains time hole that if exploited enable the men to travel back and forth through time the supreme being of the universe ralph richardson is the former employer of these bandits and he wishes desperately to regain the map during the travels he appears as a ghostly face demanding that they return the map that they have stolen but according to randall they are just borrowing it kevin a young boy who seems quite bored with his life is unexpectedly brought into the schemes of the little men when they appear in his room which has a portal for time traveling he joins up with the men and becomes part of their gang following them on their robberies their first victim is napoleon ian holm whom they rob during a battle that he is commanding from here the group travels to the middle ages meeting up with robin hood himself eventually kevin is separated from the group and travels to an egyptian time where he is taken in by king agamemnon played by sean connery kevin accidentally saved the king's life and the king wishes to have kevin as his son but the group of bandits find kevin and transport onto the deck of the titanic meanwhile the evil genius david warner is watching the group from fortress of ultimate darkness attempting to find a way in order to bring the men and the map to him when randall learns of the fortress of ultimate darkness which supposedly contains the most fabulous object in the world the dollar signs seemingly appear on his eyes as he is convinced that they must travel there once inside the fortress of ultimate darkness it is unclear as to if any of the men will make it out alive time bandits is a fantastically made film that caters to the imagination of anyone with a terrific soundtrack courtesy of george harrison whom also was an executive producer time bandits is sure to be a very surrealistic adventure with unforgettable characters that is sure to entertain anyone terry gilliam however does not utilize that greatly his trademark ability in moviemaking during this film although this does not affect the film that greatly and finally if you liked labyrinth you'll love time bandits
positive	it seemed wholly appropriate that at a weekend screening of the horse whisperer the start of the film was delayed some twenty minutes due to projection difficulties robert redford's film version of nicholas evans' novel was supposed to have been in theaters last december going with titanic but is only now making its much anticipated debut this strategic delay has allowed the horse whisperer to compete sans fanfare against some smaller unassuming movies during a relatively slower time at the box office no matter redford's film stands head and shoulders above james cameron's tragedy especially in the writing and acting departments whatever the reasons for its postponement the horse whisperer supports the old adage better late than never redford has taken evans' book and given it the big screen treatment while parts of the horse whisperer are epic in scope and vision especially the aerial travelogue that maps out this great country of ours its real strength lies in the subtleties it uses to paint the fragile alliance between man and beast when her daughter grace is involved in a terrible riding accident fashion editor annie maclean kristin scott thomas devotes herself to rehabilitating both grace and grace's beloved horse pilgrim refusing to have the hideously disfigured animal put down annie researches every possible source of information about equine cures before discovering an article about a cowboy of sorts called tom booker redford who has a way with horses and perhaps with people too undeterred by tom's initial reluctance to get involved annie drives grace and a sedated pilgrim across country to meet him and finally persuades tom to work with the uncontrollable animal redford's film unfolds slowly and lovingly echoing the patience required in healing both physical and psychological wounds the film's a little long and even if you haven't read the book it's pretty obvious where it's these are minor complaints redford and thomas are strong and convincing as the couple drawn by a mutual affection for the great outdoors and each other but it's scarlett johansson as grace who shines in a more difficult role dianne wiest chris cooper lone star and sam than i've seen him out the respectable supporting cast and the director's respect for horses is clearly in evidence one word of warning however while brilliantly shot the accident scene involving an truck is extremely disturbing redford's canvas is huge and exquisite he doesn't hesitate to incorporate vast sprawling vistas of the american northwest spectacular mountain ranges azure skies and shimmering fields of are resplendent in cinematographer robert richardson's viewfinder veteran english composer john barry was originally signed to score the film but left the project which is a pity since the horse whisperer is dances with wolves by way of out of africa oscar winners both for barry fortunately barry's replacement thomas newman contributes a fine score that nicely balances the majesty of montana with the delicate human passages that swell with pride playing counterpoint to more poetic introspective movements ripe with nuance the horse whisperer is that rare kind of movie it looks good it feels good and by golly it does you good the wait it turns out was well worth it
positive	charlie sheen stars as zane a radio astronomer who listens for sounds from other lifeforms when he finally gets one his boss destroys the tape and fires him naturally zane is not ready to give up and he comes up with an ingenious way to do this himself he is aided by a young neighborhood kid and they discover that the sound is coming from mexico so zane goes down there to investigate and runs into a lady studying why the temperature of the earth has dangerously risen so suddenly zane is having marital problems at the time and an offer by her to spend the night with him is very tempting hearing charlie sheen deliver the line i guess there is something to be said for celibacy is the funniest thing i have ever heard in a movie since matthew broderick discussed asexual reproduction in wargames this is just the setup and i don't want to give too much away because a large part of the movies fun is the surprises charlie sheen who has had a rocky career as of late is in top form here he is funny serious and determined to accomplish his goal sheen's absolutely terrific performance is another big plus to this movie the story is ingeniously devised by twohy who also wrote and directed the equally clever cable movie grand tour disaster in time the films major flaw is a very slow pace and not much happens in the earlygoings viewers may be growing restless for a while but trust me if you stick around and keep your head in it you will have a good time
positive	field of dreams almost defies description although it's about baseball it's not a baseball movie although the film is extremely spiritual it's not about religion and although field of dreams is melodramatic it's not a tearjerker to really understand what field of dreams is all about you have to see it in the film kevin costner plays ray kinsella a baseball fan berkeley graduate and iowa farmer one day as he is standing in the middle of his expansive corn fields ray hears a voice it tells him if you build it he will come then ray has a vision and somehow concludes that if he builds a baseball field in the middle of his corn shoeless joe jackson will arise from the dead to play ball once again and even though it depletes his family's savings and his neighbors think he's crazy ray clears away the corn and builds a baseball field complete with bleachers and flood lights if you build it he will come and lo and behold shoeless joe does with him several of his dead teammates and then ray hears the voice again it tells him to ease his pain ray thinks this means that he must travel to boston to meet terence mann an influential and radical novelist from the who has since stopped writing and dropped out of society with great aplomb james earl jones plays the disillusioned author who joins forces with ray and embarks with him on a magical and spiritual journey the cast in field of dreams is excellent especially kevin costner in the lead role costner gives a quiet subtle and moving performance as a man who before building the baseball field had done nothing crazy or spontaneous in his entire life costner gives ray just the right mix of enthusiasm and idealism to make us believe in his mystic visions and swallow this wondrous fairy tale amy madigan gives a fine supporting performance as ray's feisty and loving wife who against her better judgement supports her husband's crazy ideas in her most impressive scene madigan vehemently argues against book burning at a p t a meeting displaying the sincere passion of a berkeley radical ray liotta is appropriately eerie and as the ghost of shoeless joe the legendary batter who was suspended from baseball for his involvement in the chicago black sox scandal and finally burt lancaster is memorable in a small but important role as a small town doctor whose professional baseball career was limited to only one inning field of dreams is a touching fairy tale full of life wonder mystery spirit and humor it for the most part succeeds in capturing our emotions and suspending our disbelief ray kinsella's spiritual quest in pursuit of his dreams proves to be moving and miraculous but while field of dreams generally avoids excessive melodrama it unfortunately does at times go overboard and by the end it gets sappy in general however field of dreams is an emotionally satisfying i can recommend to everyone but unromantic cynics
positive	making a sequel to a widely beloved film is a weighty proposition indeed especially when the first film is considered by many to be a masterpiece when it comes to living up to expectations a filmmaker is almost doomed to some degree of failure for a sequel to live up to or even surpass the original's greatness is very rare indeed and whereas babe pig in the city misses equaling the greatness of its best picture nominated predecessor babe it is a worthy companion piece more than that it is a spectacular work of art that deserves to stand alone in its own right babe pig in the city warrants the classification of being recognized with such classics like the godfather part ii and the empire strikes back as being one of the greatest sequels ever produced babe pig in the city picks up precisely where babe left off having won the sheep herding competition farmer hoggett james cromwell and his pig are elevated to fame status a series of unfortunate circumstances and hilariously freakish events leads to mrs hoggett taking babe from the small country farm into the big city in doing so the film transports us into a wonderfully imaginative world that simultaneously mirrors and exceeds the creative design seen in the original babe pig in the city flourishes where so many sequels fail most sequels simply rehash the events of the first film not babe pig in the city this is a completely original tale that offers up a story drastically different than the first also by not being content to utilize most of the old characters this film gives us many new ones to enjoy in essence it doesn't attempt to copy itself instead it strives to achieve an originality of its own and it succeeds that's not to say the familiar is absent babe pig in the city retains some of the best core elements and characters from the first film along with babe himself ferdinand the duck comes along for the ride as does mrs hoggett one of this decade's best and most underappreciated comic characterizations hilariously performed by magda szubanski the three singing mice also make the journey chiming in with their cute vocals the story structure is also similar as each segment is introduced with title cards read by the aforementioned mice from there we are guided once again by roscoe lee browne's soothingly deep narrative composer nigel westlake also returns with his whimsical music style that is perfect for cinematic fables such as these but these elements are simply the frame that surrounds an entirely new painting while staying at the flealands hotel babe encounters a veritable of new animals monkeys kittens and dogs of various breeds and sizes are some of the new urbanites that babe befriends as well as some wonderfully comical pelicans that ferdinand the duck happens to encounter each character is distinctly unique some of which are imbued with personal struggles that are endearing and touching and while this world focuses largely on these animals we are introduced to two new human characters as well mary stein plays the owner of the flealands hotel an young spinster who harbors these lost creatures much to the dismaying anger of her fellow neighbors stein's landlady is a wonderfully odd caricature we also meet fugly floom an old clown who owns many of the animals in the flealands hotel utilizing them as a part of the act that he performs at different parties and functions not having known who portrayed fugly floom prior to seeing the film it came as an unexpected pleasant surprise to see who it was so as not to ruin this secret i won't reveal the actor's identity here it was a treat indeed to see one of cinema's legends grace the screen again in what was a superbly gentle and heartwarming performance the greatest triumph of babe pig in the city is the art direction simply bleeds creativity taking the look of the original film to a whole new level restricted primarily to a farm the first time around this second installment creates an entire city dazzling us with unique architecture but the stroke of pure genius by production designer roger ford is his use of our world's architectural landmarks designing a skyline that includes the statue of liberty the sydney opera house the brooklyn bridge the hollywood sign and the eiffel tower ford has created a singular city that encompasses all of our cities as seen in the film photo and drawing to your right added to that many of this city's streets are the twin siblings of venice's rivers the metropolis that has sprung from ford's vision is a wondrous sight to behold it is a world that you want to walk around in norma moriceau's costume designs belong in this world vibrant in color and style equal to that of the ford's landscape most of the costumes are imaginatively cartoonish with the most exotically grand design going to that of fugly floom's clown outfit andrew lesnie's photography captures these elements with various lighting moods that are beautifully effective in creating the film's multiple emotional tones much press fodder has been made over the weeks leading up to the release of babe pig in the city reports stated that its original cut was branded with a rating these reports were discovered to be false as it was assigned a pg rating but even so to be anything harsher than the original' s g rating had many parents and fans up in arms by deleting a minimal number of shots babe pig in the city was eventually given the coveted g rating although appeased many fans were still concerned that it would be too dark fearing that the film may have come to be possessed by tim burton himself well to coin a phrase the reports of babe pig in the city death at the hands of a dark scary felliniesque interpretation have been greatly exaggerated granted it has its moments of but babe pig in the city is the funny and charming adventure that everyone was hoping it would be whatever dark moments it may have can be attributed to director george miller the mad max trilogy the witches of eastwick lorenzo's oil having served as a producer and on the first film miller moves into the director's chair for this one putting his own unique sense of style into this budding franchise the story of babe pig in the city is an enchanting yarn but one that doesn't achieve the emotional or character depth of the original missing here is the attempt to broach such heady themes as personal identity an individual's worth challenging conformity and one's purpose in life babe dealt with this weighty subject matter creating a timeless fable babe pig in the city should not have rehashed these themes but i do wish it would have attempted to explore new ones this film is not bereft of moral or message as it parallels such issues as urban strife class differences sacrificial courage and so on but this film's goals aren't as lofty as the first's instead choosing to take a more straightforward approach allowing its themes to take a back seat to an exciting sometimes intense fable adventure that is undeniably clever and inventive babe pig in the city also decides against developing a relationship to the level of which was present in the first film specifically the one between farmer hoggett and babe hoggett's love for babe which grew ever so gently is what gave that film its charming and endearing quality best exemplified in hoggett's dance for babe this moving relationship was truly unique it is something that i wish would have been present again and could have through fugly floom but was not please understand these are not negative criticisms per se' but simply statements of what i see as the differences between babe pig in the city being a very good film and the original being a great one but having said that these observations are minor critiques at best as an overall piece babe pig in the city is a thoroughly enchanting and entertaining fable from beginning to end sure it isn't a great film but it is an excellent one that possesses elements of greatness it is a film that is magical with its charm and humor exciting in its adventurous exploits funny with its dry wit and cute voices and breathtaking in its presentation babe pig in the city may not be moviemaking at its absolute best but it is on level of cinematic quality that is rarely achieved or seen in cinema as a result if you choose to let this film pass you by you will be missing of the year's best cinematic treats
positive	let me first say that the conditions that i was forced to watch the matrix under were less than ideal so i have tried to be as fair as possible considering that my viewing experience was significantly less than ideal i watched the matrix in a theater that is in serious need of upgrades at the best of times under no circumstances should it have ever been allowed to show a big budget special effects laden film like the matrix this theater owned by the parent company of one of hollywood's biggest studios hasn't even graduated into stereo sound yet the mono sound that the audience was subjected to sounded as if it was coming out of a speaker that was many years past mandatory retirement age in other words the sound sucked as someone used to digital sound in a movie theater bad sound doesn't do anything to add to a film i'm not even going to go into the horrible splicing job that the projectionist did putting this film together there i've had my rant now on with the regularly scheduled review which sadly won't include commentary on the film's sound which i'm assuming was spectacular but i'm just guessing my guess on the sound seems like a fairly solid one considering the visual quality of the matrix it is nothing short of stunning visually sadly the rest of the film while pretty good doesn't quite measure up to the obvious effort that was expended on making this film look so darn good the matrix has at it's core a good concept although it strays into the confusing side more often than i would have liked keanu reeves plays a computer hacker who is drawn into the frightening realization that reality is just a hoax it turns out that that many years ago the world was devastated by some sort of disaster now machines run the planet and humans spend their lives in a sort of incubator plugged into a computer network the computers are generating a virtual reality world which is a representation of the earth before it was destroyed the population of the planet never realizes that their entire life is a hoax and that they really spend their entire lives as comatose that is except a small band who have discovered this horrible secret and have escaped their virtual prisons they now spend their lives combating the computers in an effort to expose this lie reeve's character neo is recruited by this band of rebels led by morpheus laurence fishburne newcomer moss and one of hollywood's most underrated actors joe pantoliano join fishburne in the band of the action sequences are nothing short of spectacular this can be attributed as much to the amazing special effects as to many of the actor's extensive training in martial arts this lends itself to some of the best martial arts sequences that you are ever likely to see in a film when you add this to some of the wild effects in the computer generated world it all adds up to an eyeful as i already said the visuals far outpace the rest of the film acting in the matrix is not bad but it certainly isn't real good either keanu reeves gives his usual fairly emotionless performances although to his credit it is one of his better performances laurence fishburne on the other hand often seemed to forget that he was in a action film more than a few times he delivered his lines as if he thought he was performing in some sort of shakespearean drama joe pantoliano was a little under used in this film but he made the most with what he had moss turned out a surprisingly good performance for this her first feature film role it's nice to see that she was cast as much for her talent as for her breathtaking looks you have to give all of the main actors a healthy dose of credit for the work that they obviously put into the physical training for their roles in this film it was clear that no small effort went into getting the moves down perfectly for the fighting sequences i also put much of the blame for the somewhat strained performances in the matrix on the dialogue which was terrible at times in more than a few places it got way too existential for my liking and at other times it was just plain weird it almost seems as though the writers were having a difficult time trying to figure out how to explain the concept for the movie so they decided to make the dialogue as obtuse as possible so that no one could figure out what the heck they were talking about thereby covering up any leaps of faith that they may have had to make in the departments of logic and believability my other major complaint with the matrix was with the very unsatisfying ending the setup for it was hokey and frankly used in many a bad film before the ending itself was just plain strange the main reasons to recommend the matrix are the visual effects and computer animation which make this a real treat to watch while the rest of the film acting dialogue and to a degree plot detract from the high production values they don't detract enough to prevent me from recommending the matrix as a fun way to spend an evening
positive	alchemy is steeped in shades of blue kieslowski's blue that is with its examination of death isolation character restoration and recovery from loss suzanne myers' new independent film echoes the polish director's release language aside the principal difference between the films is that while kieslowski took great pains to draw us into the main character's world alchemy keeps its viewers at arm's length as a result while we're able to appreciate the film's intellectual tapestry it is emotionally distant alchemy is divided into three chapters charity faith and hope while there are common themes and story elements running through all three the single constant is the main character a translator named louisa rya kihlstedt when the film opens she's living with her painter boyfriend whom she believes to be cheating on her following his sudden death in an automobile accident louisa's life is thrown into turmoil events swirls around her and she can't find a source of stability in her quest to make sense out of her loss she befriends her late boyfriend's mistress visits her ill sister and eventually abandons her old life by joining a nature cult alchemy successfully explores a variety of compelling issues in addition to asking the basic question of how a person should cope with the unexpected death of a loved one it probes beneath the surface of concepts like the importance of faith in the healing process the meaning of love and the nature of art does personality restoration come through interacting with others or escaping from the familiar are artistic epiphanies the result of focused solitude or of living life with all of its various distractions to the fullest myers' challenge is to make these subjects art film staples engrossing in a new context through louisa's struggles she succeeds while alchemy isn't always emotionally appealing it never loses its fascination even when we're not connecting with louisa who is often more of a locus for ideas than a personality there's enough material to hold our attention the cinematography is stunning city scenes are tinted with blue adding a cold bleak dimension to the film's early portions later when louisa reaches the wilderness we're treated to a dazzling array of autumnal splendor leaves in the trees and on the ground it's a visual contrast that emphasizes the changes taking place in louisa's life as she travels the road back to emotional stability the title refers to the practice of a group of mystical healers who use alchemy to provide for the needs of the body and soul and although louisa partakes of their peculiar brand of medicine it's ultimately love and companionship not alchemy that brings solace her pain is assuaged only when she lets go of the belief that the inherent safety of being alone is life's ultimate goal even though louisa's final transformation lacks the impact it could have possessed had she been a more vital character it's still an intriguing and enlightening process to watch alchemy isn't pure magic but especially during its best moments it's close
positive	who would have thought jim carrey does drama when i first saw the advertisement for the truman show i thought what a hilarious idea for a movie however it was an even better premise for a drama the truman show takes us into a world that revolves around one man that man is truman burbank jim carrey truman has no clue what is really going on in his world and frankly cristof wants to keep it that way christof is the god of this world he keeps everything running and gives the actors their roles there were a few attempts to tell truman about his world but they failed and life went on as normal the opening parts of the film introduce to truman's world we see what he is doing at his current age then we get a flashback at his past it may seem a tad boring but it is so intriguing that you will fall in love with the film right from the start the film can be described in one word weird it seems like such a simple idea yet it is something that a majority of us would never think of but andrew niccol did it seems like a warped idea but it is andrew's idea and he did wonders with it jim carrey actually lived up to the hype the hype whether good or bad always focused on carrey's ability to do drama no one doubted how extraordinary this film could be the only thing they doubted was carrey and he showed them all up jim carrey was snubbed at the oscars i do not think he was the best actor but he deserved the nomination he plays truman burbank the unsuspecting star of the most popular television show in the world he has lived a normal life for almost thirty years but then strange things start happening he ventures into the wrong elevator a light crashes in front of him his father comes back and is then pulled away we are constantly teased with all of this and we know it is a show but truman does not and it is just a constant progression that never gets sluggish carrey is able to shed his comedy to play a major role in a major drama laura linney is magnificent as the camera hungry wife she plays her role as advertiser and budding star to a point peter weir does not make the cast perfect and their flaws eventually lead to truman's escape the story unfolds until the show becomes too big and everything crashes down despite carrey's greatness the best performance in the truman show undoubtedly is turned in by ed harris who plays the god of truman's world he displays the pressure he is under the world he has created he becomes so paranoid that he believes he is a god and that truman has him to thank for his sham of a life the action moves at a good pace and rarely gets sluggish but the main point of the film is how it looks like a television show it really makes you think maybe your brother is an actor maybe your best friend is in heated contract negotiations to stay on the show some of the best parts of the film are when truman ventures into the wrong elevator and sees cast members drinking coffee and talking or when truman tunes into the wrong station and hears orders being said for truman's arrival and when christof focuses in on truman and cues the dramatic music as marlon noah emmerich delivers his dramatic line all of these ideas are just perfect for the film and extremely innovative i was not only enjoying the film i was overwhelmed by genius of it overall the truman show is one of the freshest and innovative films to come out of hollywood jim carrey shows that he is not just a man of a million faces but a legitimate actor who could go down as one of the best andrew niccol is responsible for the screenplay and peter weir pulled it off to perfection the truman show is a must see for anyone who likes movies in general because they will be thoroughly impressed by this creative film
positive	capsule this is a harrowing look at a rarely dramatized chapter of wwii life in a japanese prison camp to end all wars is a moving film about the struggle of prisoners to retain their humanity and their dignity the somewhat religious interpretation may not be to everyone's taste to more than any other people the japanese seem capable of acting with one goal and not letting any other consideration get in their way this may be a holdover from the code of bushido when loyalty to ones master was the only law during world war ii of course the one goal was winning the war this led them to do some very inhuman things in pursuit of that goal when the japanese had captured prisoners they were very much treated in whatever way would be optimum for achieving the one goal minimum resources were to be spent in maintaining prisoners in keeping with maximal positive output while the germans not known for their kindness in those days had a mortality rate among captured prisoners of war the mortality rate of japanese prisoners of war was the best thing for the war effort was working prisoners nearly to death on the thailand to burma railroad that railroad was needed if japan was to attack india as it planned to do the best thing for the effort was not to waste much food on the prisoners so short and amazingly wretched food was the order of the day and just being in the jungle without proper medical aid took its toll in the public mind japan has never been held as accountable for war atrocities as was germany filmmakers have been reticent to tell the story perhaps for fear of offending the japanese there are comparatively few films about the japanese pow camps certainly there was david lean's the bridge on the river kwai there were some british exploitation films and that was about it then there were tv series a town like alice and tenko lest the experience be forgotten we have a new film to end all wars directed by david cunningham and written by brian godawa it is based on the account of ernest gordan who survived the horror of that world war ii prison camp and went on to become for years the dean of the chapel at princeton university the film while realistic shows the conditions in the camp as being considerably more brutal and sadistic than bridge on the river kwai portrayed them the story opens with six or so soldiers being marched into the prison camp only to be immediately placed in front of a firing squad it turns out to be a grim joke one of many that the sadistic japanese play to amuse themselves beating and torture are commonplace events men already imprisoned tell the new arrivals to enjoy the last of their health it will not last long with parasites and disease almost inevitable however unlike as in kwai the prisoners want to avoid going to the hospital called by the prisoners the death house so goes a war within a war with the prisoners trying to maintain their humanity and with the japanese trying to make them interchangeable and highly expendable cogs in a machine this is more than just a battle of who will win the war but a battle of ideologies the japanese believe that the individual is nothing that conformity to group's norms is all that gives a life meaning conformity is purpose before the film is over there will be some surprising revelations about the character of the prisoners and the character of those running the camp if this story showed nothing but sadism from the japanese it would be one kind of story if the british with one american by the way and the japanese learned to respect each other it would be another kind of story it is neither it is a stirring and believable account of camp life the color has been distorted in the film to give a washed out yellow this serves a double purpose for cunningham it gives an effect of technicolor film that has been left in heat it also creates a distancing effect the only touch that seems a little out of place is the use of gaelic music this is a powerful and philosophical view of the prison camp experience i rate it a on the to scale and a on the to scale
positive	another film' this comedy which was brought by miramax for million is good fun favreau and vaughn the lost world jurassic park play mike and trent two everyday on the lookout for women the film just basically follows their plight on the lookout for lurve and along the way we get to meet some of their friends see their attempts at chatting up girls and just basically get a insight into their lives and all of this is great fun swingers doesn't rely on huge special effects or big name stars to provide entertainment no it just has a great script and superb little known actors the script by favreau is great mike is always missing is girlfriend who hasn't called him for six months and every time he meets a girl he always end up telling her about the ex the audience feels for this pathetic little man thanks to the great script vaughn is money' swingers speak for best' as the womanizing trent always on the lookout for a new girl some of his lines are awful but he always seems to get the girl thanks to his man' nature vaughns character also gets the best laugh in the film towards the end in a diner the conversations that go on between mike and trent are great but it never quite reaches tarantino standards which i suspect the film was trying to reach there are some excellent laugh out loud jokes in the film and some superbly funny set pieces such as favreau battle with a answer machine that always cut him off before he finishes his sentence embarrassing to him hilarious to the audience mike trents friends are also good although there characters seem a bit underwritten and we never really learn as much as we would like about them although this is primarily mike and trents film it would of been nice to learn a bit more about their friends they just seem to wander aimlessly in the background but again the lines they say are usually pretty good and they do have some funny parts it's just a shame that they didn't have more meatier roles the acting is superb as said above vaughn is superb as trent he's definitely the best thing in the film favreau is also good acting as little man' very well and the way he always feels sorry for himself is very funny graham boogie nights has a small but good role as lorraine a girl mike finally falls in love with she hardly features in the film at all but she still manages to make an impact on the audience swingers then is funny but it does have some flaws firstly the running time is a bit too short the film comes to an abrupt halt and i actually wanted the film to carry on longer it never really comes to a satisfying conclusion which is a shame as most films are too long also this type of film has been done too many times such as sleep with me but these small flaws don't really spoil what is a funny entertaining comedy
positive	a frequent error is the categorization of a terrorist as a soldier or a common criminal a soldier commits acts of violence sanctioned by one against another a common criminal commits acts of violence for personal gain a terrorist employs random violence as a means to a political end if the target nation does not affect the desired change in policy the violence continues it is the fear resulting from the fact that the terrorist may strike at anyone even total innocents anywhere at anytime that gives the figure his label edward zwick's the siege explores the possibility of this kind of violence taking place right here in the united states you'd think the opening bit was ripped right from the headlines arab terrorists kill american citizens abroad and the u s responds by retaliating against the sheik whom supposedly ordered the attack however unlike the tomahawk cruise missile strike against bin laden's camp and manufacturing facility the film version depicts special operations troops kidnapping sheik ahmed bin talal in retaliation the terrorists bring the fight to the new world unwittingly involved is fbi assistant special anthony hubbard denzel washington who works out of the bureau's new york office at one federal plaza while investigating a series of bombings in the big apple he encounters cia agent elise kraft annette bening also trying to uncover information generally the fbi is charged with problems inside the u s while the cia takes care of problems in the international realm even spies from other countries are off limits to the cia as long as they are in our country hubbard therefore finds it highly unusual that an agency spook is nosing around what he considers his territory but as the two form a tentative professional relationship hubbard becomes more and more aware of an increasingly complicated series of allegiances and possibly illegal actions involving terrorism and the united states government the original tagline for patriot games was there has never been a terrorist attack on american soil however true it was pulled before the movie's release because it sounded too much like a dare revisiting the scenario of foreign terrorists committing acts of violence in the united states the siege is almost an invitation in itself because it shows just what kind of turmoil could be produced if an effective terrorist network were to set up operations here in america admittedly the terror wrought upon new york is a bit excessive who's going to believe that a few bombs are going to cause new yorkers to jump at the backfire of a bus or to curtail their shopping by but the basic premise is still valid i liked the fact that this film rises above the basic fare of good guy against bad guy terrorists by exploring some of the effects on society and law and order it provides a very possible hypothesis that violent activity on the part of a few arabs would escalate into a series of hate crimes against the population and that in an effort to find the terrorists the civil liberties of the minority may be violated by the government itself in fact about halfway through the film when the president authorizes the declaration of martial law within new york city the liberties of all americans are put at risk although it may actually be a side effect of a terrorist campaign the demise of social order in america is a scary thought and a goal which would not be beneath many international terrorist groups throughout the film maintains a conflict between hubbard who wants to use the fbi to pursue the terrorists within the letter of the law and general devereaux bruce willis who is in command of the army and of the mind that the greater good would be better served by suspending the law and pursuing the terrorists more forcefully what results is a fascinating debate over the appropriateness and constitutionality of the declaration of martial law and the invocation of the war powers act utilizing philosophy and historical examples to make points on both sides it actually gets rather heady at times but it's a credit to screenwriters zwick lawrence wright and menno meyjes that they don't underestimate the intelligence of the audience i don't know if it's his tone or inflection or something else but denzel washington has a way of spitting out dialog that makes whatever he says sound great this combined with his innate acting ability and his experience in playing the authority figure makes his performance in the siege convincing and enjoyable annette bening gives one of the more assertive portrayals of a female character i've seen recently and the chemistry she shares with washington is palpable it's somewhat unfortunate that her character's fortitude is broken at a certain point but it allows us to watch bening play a little more range bruce willis is pretty much relegated to a role always standing straight and with a permanent scowl fixed upon his face however the tension that exists between devereaux and hubbard is a major drive behind the film's development notable is tony shalhoub who plays fbi agent frank haddad a lebanese immigrant the role calls for evidencing both a kind of filial pride for his heritage and contempt for those of his own race who might interfere with his integration into the american society difficult to say the least shalhoub does it with a naturalness you can almost reach out and touch perhaps best known for his role as antonio the cab driver in the nbc sitcom wings shalhoub gained notoriety for his dramatic abilities in the wonderful film big night whereas denzel washington seems to be edward zwick's favorite actor he directed washington in glory and courage under fire james horner seems to be his favorite composer i therefore found it odd that zwick chose the prolific graeme revell seven films this year already over horner for the siege until i realized that this film contained a lot of music and horner's record has shown more of a propensity for scores either neutral in ethnicity or at most revell does a good job at providing appropriate music to punctuate key scenes and allowing the score to enhance the movie as a whole it's nowhere near as intrusive as in some of the other films we've been getting throughout the year missteps in the siege can be found in a couple of the excesses it takes for example it's pretty clear throughout that the film is meant to be more of thriller than an action flick unfortunately there's a scene where the army just cuts loose against some arab immigrants in a blatant display of firepower and explosions obviously meant for the sole purpose of being in the middle of the city and against no real opposition zwick even has the army use a cobra attack helicopter to shoot rockets into a building no farther than feet from friendly troops verisimilitude really goes out the window at that point the film also gets a little preachy toward the end focusing on the ability of different races to get along a noble gesture the film just puts the message across a bit too obviously these flaws are glaring but they don't detract too much from an otherwise good film that makes you think about issues you may not have considered since history class
positive	very few people would be unaware of beavis both created and narrated by mike judge they are the two animated mtv characters who have the most annoying laughter know to human kind you may have seen them on their television program as they snigger and make lude remarks about women anything related to sex and the music film clips that they watch in beavis do america the pair finally make their big screen debut to the delight of some and the deplore of others beavis yes those are their real names are two very ugly teenagers with extremely warped minds driven by raging hormones they live their lives in front of the television the worst possible event occurs to the pair when their television is stolen this happens as they sleep and when they awake it takes them a few minutes just to decipher that the television has gone beavis even tries to use the remote though there is no television there the two spot a van outside and two sinister looking men carrying a television even at this point they have no idea what has happened they look around seeing all the evidence but are completely oblivious to the fact that these men have just stolen their television before the movie i knew that they were stupid but i didn't realise just how stupid this is typical of their behaviour throughout the film eventually they realise that their television has been stolen so they leave their sofa to go search for a television luck would have it that they stumble into a hotel room looking for a television where a man is awaiting two guys whose task it is to kill his wife this man thinking that beavis are the assigned killers tells them that they can have if they do his wife beavis being the ignorant fools that they are think that he is offering them dollars to have sex with his good looking wife they are taken to the airport where they fly to las vegas to do her to them this is the best day of their lives not only are they going to lose their virginity one of their lifelong aims but most importantly they will have enough money to buy a big screen tv inevitably they become caught up in a huge crime and unbeknown to them are tracked across the country by the fbi oddly enough it is their complete stupidity that spares them from being caught as a result the fbi is convinced they are criminal masterminds they end up travelling right across america visiting places such as the hoover dam and washington dc the irony is that although they visit so many grand and spectacular locations their one time out in the big world away from their television they are completely oblivious to it at old faithful they are far more fascinated with the operated urinals than with the geyser itself beavis essentially have the journey of their lives they even get to meet the president but all they care about is getting their television back and losing their virginity this is one of the many reasons that the film is so funny it's unbelievable just how stupid they are and how they can be so oblivious to everything around them the humour is certainly crude but then beavis are just that crude lude and rude in the end you can't help but feel sorry for them a pair of couch potatoes whose life is television in this respect and also with regard to authority such as the fbi mike judge is quite critical of amercian society if you are easily offended or find this pair particularly annoying steer clear otherwise it should keep you laughing the whole way through one note of warning don't take friends who like to imitate beavis you'll never hear the end of it
positive	let me start off by saying that leading up to the release of the latest bond film i really wasn't looking forward to it as much as i have with some of the previous films i'm not sure if it was the fairly lackluster trailers or the dread that the next film will fall back into the miserable ways of the timothy dalton years i'm happy to report that any doubts were erased after about the first minutes of the film by that point it was evident that mr bond was back with a vengeance all doubts would have probably been erased sooner except for the fact that the first ten minutes of the film weren't exactly a pleasant experience it seems that nobody told the geniuses working at the theater that the house lights are supposed to be turned off when the movie starts it took a reminder from an audience member to clue them in i guess they can be excused though taking tickets and cleaning up popcorn between shows is extremely taxing on the brain anyway after somebody remembered what the light switch was for i settled in for bond i think the most noticeable aspect of this the film in the series is that it really goes back to the almost tongue in cheek style of the roger moore films there were probably more in this movie than in the last several combined and bond's last in the film is about the best of the series the world is not enough also contained perhaps the most action of any movie of the series everything from wild boat chases to the usual assortment of cool bond gadgets trotted out just when there seems to be no way out for for the most part the action sequences worked very well although there were a couple of times that i thought some things were a bit over the top even for a bond film i think some of the blame can be laid at the feet of director michael apted while he did a good job for the most part there were points in the movie specifically during action sequences that he seemed to loose site of the fact that he was making essentially an action film most noticeably sequences on a snow covered mountain and one involving bond getting through a closing door looked like apted thought he was filming some sort of high brow art movie he almost seemed like he didn't know what he was doing but they were brief scenes and really shouldn't take away from the otherwise solid job that apted did in directing if you have ever seen a bond film you won't be shocked to learn that plot has never been their strong suit the world is not enough is no exception this time we have yet another over villain that bond has to stop for the good of the world matches wits with the terrorist renard robert carlyle a man who has a bullet lodged in his brain that makes him impervious to pain why this point is included is beyond me they took great pains to explain his condition but it only came up later in the movie as a scene that can only be described as looking like an afterthought anyway renard like the typical terrorist that he is is bent on some harebrained scheme involving a oil pipeline i guess world domination just isn't as attractive to terrorists as a money making venture anymore bond is brought in to protect the pipeline's owner elektra king sophie marceau who is the daughter of one of renard's recent victims along the way bond has to enlist the help of a nuclear scientist dr christmas jones denise richards and his old rival valentin zukovsky robert carlyle like all bond films you basically just have to suspend disbelief over the plot since it is ridiculous beyond words my biggest complaint would be that it was about the most disjointed of any of the bond films there was at least one point that i had to stop and try to remember why bond was where he was and why he was doing what he was doing the buddy that i saw the movie with was completely confused over an earlier kidnapping of marceau's character it was alluded to earlier in the movie briefly although not included in the film later it became a big part of the story and left him with the distinct feeling that he had missed something but because it is a bond film the beautiful women and nifty gadgets seem to make you forget about script problems quite quickly after all it isn't shakespeare how about the cast brosnan seems to get better with each of his appearances as i grew up with the roger moore version of bond so i really enjoyed the lighter style that brosnan brings to the character judi dench as m had a bigger role in this film than in her two previous appearances in the role she brought the talent with her that one would expect from an oscar winner robbie coltrane was easily one of the best parts in goldeneye so it was nice to see his russian mobster character revived in this movie coltrane gets more screen time which simply leads to him stealing even more scenes then there are the bond girls sophie marceau might be one of the most beautiful actresses working today there is just something about her breathtaking eyes that makes her a natural to play the innocent victim those that saw her in braveheart know she is more than just a pretty face marceau may be the most talented actress to ever play a bond love interest then we have denise richards there was no doubt in my mind that she was cast exclusively for her looks and after you see the outfits she wears you won't have any trouble guessing what part of her anatomy caught the producer's eyes i was pleasantly surprised to find that she really did a good job playing a nuclear scientist admittedly there was one point that the audience snickered a bit at one of her technical lines of dialogue but other than that she stacks up no pun intended to her bond girl predecessors nicely i must say that the biggest disappointment was robert carlyle's character while carlyle did a fine job with the material that he had his character just never worked for me the producers tried very hard to add more complexity to his character but it just never quite got off the ground i guess i was hoping for a bit more regarding the whole impervious to pain aspect of his character but the writers decided to play up the emotional side of his character this might have worked well in another movie but i don't go to see bond movies for their deep characterizations last but not least we have desmond llewelyn as q this is the appearance for llewelyn as bond's gadget guy and he is as good as ever although his screen time has grown far more limited in the past few films he is still a treat to watch rumors abound that this may be his last appearance in the role he says future appearances are up to a higher power the producers have introduced his protege and future replacement a bumbling and somewhat pompous character played by comedy master john cleese while we don't see much of him in this film i think it is fair to say that desmond llewelyn's legacy whenever it is passed on will be in very capable hands so how does it stack up despite some problems the world is not enough is a very entertaining movie and all things considered what problems it does have are small compared to some that have plagued earlier bond movies this is easily the best of the brosnan films it may even be the best of the entire series certainly in the top one thing is for sure even after movies there is still plenty of life left in the james bond series here's looking forward to bond number
positive	seen september at p m at the sony nickelodeon theaters boston ma theater with matt perreault for free using my critic's pass rating okay seats sound and modern society is now inundated with more sex and sexuality than it ever has been before from teenage sitcoms to films about fetishes the biggest debate of the subject is whether or not it affects reality or just reflects it your friends and neighbors takes a different approach as it's a film that revolves almost entirely around sex and how can be used for both pain and pleasure even within a small circle of friends one of the most important aspects of the film that most be noted and analyzed before the film can really be dissected as a whole is neil labute's basic setup and some of the unique methods he employs to tell the story firstly and most importantly is the fact the script tells a rather complex detailed story of lust betrayal arrogance hypocrisy greed and just plain stupidity between six different characters three men three women without hardly any supporting characters a few have a line or two mostly extras everything they do will somehow affect another character and ultimately come back to themselves whether it be positive or negative but to just state this is arbitrary and explaining and criticizing the process is difficult labute's ability to tell his story through a few characters is a remarkable feat but what's specifically impressive is the fact the characters' names are never revealed until the end credits roll for the sake of this review i will describe the characters and refer to them as their main characteristic another interesting accomplishment is the fact every scene takes place inside with limited focus we're always able to tell where the characters are someone's home the gym a restaurant hotel room etc but what the city they live in what year it is what the society is like etc is relatively unknown the film is a complete character study with the tight intense drama of the theater no one plot dominates the story which makes the first act a bit tedious for its lack of background we're simply dropped in on the characters' lives and are expected to figure out the rest the characters are a group of white people who are all successful at what they do but they're only concern right now seems to be their sex lives first there's barry eckhart and mary brenneman a married couple who are going through a dry spell not unlike many other couples in other situations who don't know what they're problem is barry is kind of a dorky businessman who loves his wife and the sex they have but doesn't have a lot of ambition he just follows everyone else mary is a writer of some sort but lacks aggression and emotion like her husband and is the meekness character but ironically doesn't hesitate to commit adultery just to feel something labute's script does a good job in characterizing mary and barry as individuals but is very light on chemistry and connection between the two obviously this is the theme which is enhanced by the actors' good performances but at the same time seems just a bit hollow another couple is jerry stiller and terri keener who live together and seem to have been involved with each other for a long time yet they constantly argue over anything and everything their sex life is also fraught with problems and for some reason they continue to do it throughout their infidelitous relationship if only one aspect of the film could use improvement it would be this area it's natural for a married couple to become bored with each other but why would two people who can barely stand each other continue to have sex and live together what did they ever see in the other person to begin with labute never really answers but since the film is more concerned with the payoff than the process it still makes for good drama tension and manip ulation so intricate and deceitful it's fascinating two other characters act as catalysts cary jason patric and cheri natassja kinski cary is an arrogant hostile who defines the word bastard somehow he is able to bend women to his will either through charm or just attitude into getting his way he's the kind of guy everyone should stay away from as we realize he's secretly perverted but somehow barry finds comfort in his company although jerry is always nervous around him patric gives an outstanding performance so much so that we want to know more about him despite how intimidating and unlikable he is cheri is a character labute uses as a catalyst to see how the other characters react to her she works in an art museum and at some point throughout the film each character will engage her in almost the exact same conversation and her reaction is always different from becoming involved in a relationship with one to brushing it off as small talk with another to being outright appalled by yet another she's a sweet woman perhaps the most normal of any of the characters and although her symbolism is obvious her role as the outsider is the most relatable i will not reveal who cheats on who and how each character is specifically affected by the others' action as that's the hook of the film the first two acts begin to set up the characters and each's scenarios but it's often difficult to tell what they will do about it and with whom the result is sometimes surprising other times predictable but the actual course of actions is always fascinating for a while everyone has their fun but ultimately each character's guilt attitude or ignorance will disserve them one of the most important things to note is how realistic the story is supposed to be since the characters only interact with each other there isn't much pop culture references as almost everything has a deeper philosophy behind it are we to assume that these people are as the title states our friends and neighbors i don't know of anyone going through the same situations as these people often times the film is not unlike a network melodrama other times situations are like those not seen outside a porno movie but what this film does have that the others don't is repercussions in the end although the film creates its own reality it goes to show that even the immoral aren't immortal in what way your friends and neighbors is supposed to work is open to interpretation it definitely has a lot to say about the price that comes with infidelity but it could have been even better had it expanded on that theme more specifically still it's an accomplishment in because it has put a timeless theme into a modern perspective
positive	the characters in palmetto collectively sweat enough to fill lake erie and it's just the right way to capture the film's ripe atmosphere of sensuality tension and even farce this humid thriller nurtures a modestly absurd edginess that often winks at itself which is very much a good thing since the actors and director are in on the joke as far as is concerned the movie is nothing we haven't seen before but be patient palmetto spins some pretty wicked story twists that we really don't see coming it's not a classic by any means but it sure is quite an engaging surprise harry barber woody harrelson is fresh out of prison where he's served a couple of years for a crime he didn't commit even though he harbors animosity towards the obtuse local officials harry's first order of business is to return to his home town of palmetto to be with his sculptor girlfriend nina gina gershon while searching for work he catches the eye of rhea malroux elisabeth shue the mysterious sexbomb wife of a palmetto millionaire rhea proposes a scheme that'll get harry easy to play a small part in the staged kidnaping of her jailbait stepdaughter odette chloe sevigny you do like risks don't you mr barber rhea alluringly coos boys form a line behind me part of palmetto success can be attributed to the performance of elisabeth shue who demonstrates here that her turn in leaving las vegas might merely be foreshadowing great things to come shue's a seductive campy delight and pulls off a barbara swanson combo with admirable relish the other actors form a solid ensemble around her including sevigny kids tantalizingly slutty as a teen tease as well as the gershon cast a far cry from her extreme roles in bound and showgirls harrelson is still doing fine work to the people vs larry flynt palmetto does have its share of grievances harrelson's narration is needless i suppose and gershon's nina cries to be meatier than she ultimately is one of the plot's unexpected angles that harry is asked by the police to become the press liaison for the very crime in which he's involved could have been played a little better there are moments when you question the tone but it's never so unstable that it deserves the reproach it's been receiving from most other critics if palmetto didn't want to be laughed at would it really have tacked on a climax that plays like a who framed roger rabbit although a few elements can be questioned the movie works well on its own terms thanks to a juicy cast especially shue and the nifty material approach from director volker schlondorff you remember him from last summer's suddenly the tin drum right everything runs smoothly and for fans of endings this film's got a few shocks in store that i won't even dream of revealing palmetto is a generous amount of fun to watch and that's all you need to know
positive	you've got mail is the very definition of a cute movie it's got cute stars a cute and even cute pets despite this cuteness or maybe because of it i loved you've got mail i know i know i'm supposed to be a film critic i'm not supposed to love transparent and formula pictures like this but darn it somewhere along the way you've got mail reeled me in hook line and sinker the movie stars tom hanks and meg ryan as two somewhat unhappy new yorkers who meet in an aol online chat room and quickly become close friends without ever knowing each others identity as the movie progresses though they begin to discover that they have a lot in common with each other meanwhile in they are bitter competitors she owns a quaint little children's bookstore he owns one of those gigantic that offer impersonal service and discount prices while his store threatens to run her store out of business their online relationship grows stronger you've got mail is as artificial as movies come everything is nice and happy and by the end all the characters have gotten exactly what they wanted out of life there are no real conflicts no major disappointments no unresolved issues nevertheless i quite enjoyed it in fact i can't remember the last time i had such a good time at the movies i think sometimes you have to be able to watch a movie and just get drawn into it the fact that stars hank and ryan are at the top of their game does not hurt either in particular hanks is at his best here turning his up to everytime he was on screen he had my full attention and despite the fact that he was driving little bookstores out of business i was rooting for him it was good to see hanks back doing what he does best playing the affable everyman you've got mail certainly won't be winning any awards but as an exercise in pure entertainment it's as good as it gets
positive	with the sudden liberal emergence of personal privacy abounding in the news lately what with that whole clinton thing going on you know million bucks to discover the president got boinked by an intern oh please government waste my taxes just a bit more would you it's about time tony scott helmed the newest action pic disguised as an important if not slightly ignorant social statement with this and crimson tide he's created two successfully chilly films that are interesting exciting even pretty smart but never totally riveting as cinema and the problem i think with each of these films is that each film is too obsessed with its message to ever be really satisfying and too obsessed with looking all cutting edge to ever be totally smart that film dealt with a civil war inside a nuclear submarine over whether or not to follow rules or question them and was appropriately scary and all but never totally thrilling or overly brilliant enemy of the state is the same way it's engrossing for its entire running time and it's scary the way that it shows a man's decent into kafkaism but it's too technical it's too cold and not as fascinating or exciting as it could be it casts will smith one of the better big budget leading men in movies these days because he's charming and witty and never uninteresting and hopes that his charisma can make up for his character not being well developed enough to really be a person i hate to do this but last year's film the game got it damn perfect it casts michael douglas as a deeply flawed human being a man who is cold and has cut off everyone from his life and then pulls everything he thought he had as a security blanket away from him and watched what happened the result was not only a film that was exciting and chilling but also the best mindfuck of the entire year not that i want every kafkaesque film to be the game this year's the spanish prisoner succeeds with less thrills and chills but it should be an example of what works and what doesn't will smith's character is frankly too perfect at least too movie perfect he had an affair with another woman lisa bonet ha ha but his relationship with his wife regina king is basically fine regardless he has a kid and he's raking in money as a lawyer albeit a very good and reasonably moral one so he generally doesn't have any real problems as a human being and is therefore boring except that he is played by will smith who embodies him with about as much will smith charm as he can without entering men in black territory he's a good dramatic actor just see the first half hour of six degrees of separation for proof of this not that he isn't great the whole time and here he makes his character likable and sympathetic without any real strain on his character which makes the film lack any real deep interesting qualities smith becomes involved in a mass conspiracy involving the assasination of a senator opposed to a government law that would create world surveillance extinguishing privacy as we know it from the world under the pretense that it would make crime easier to control when he is passed a disk of the event caught on tape by an outside party a nature observer played by uh jason lee the government wants the disk and is prepared to destroy his life to get it as smith's plight is dramatized we are introduced to the masterminds who surveillance him sitting in vans disguised as other businesses staring at computers and pulling out tricks faster than a speeding bullet these guys played by jack black jamie kennedy and seth green are the most interesting part of this film because they're well fascinating they're doing their jobs which are evil but the film doesn't view them as such and they almost become our friends we like these guys for the sole reason that the film doesn't automatically judge them as the villains they're also scary because we get the idea that they're not fully aware of the impact their jobs have on the world it's as if they're obsessed with their jobs not because they're evil but because hey it's a fun job and no one else can do it like them unfortunately this also backfires a bit on the film instead of being the flashlight in the darkened room that the game was you see everything and are thus not as freaked out because you know what is going on sure you're chilled but you're not exacty freaked out by what's going on but what do you expect from tony scott the man who never met a piece of film he ever liked he's a director because hell he is always interesting to watch if not occasionally moronic exhibit a days of thunder but the reason he's not great is because he's too technical and calculated his shots are perfectly executed and leave nothing to the imagination and they're always making sure you're paying attention this is incredibly annoying and it reduces enemy of the state to a mechanical mishmash of flashy images that never expand the mind at any great depths but still manage to entertain without any real problems despite never actually becoming great it's never actually boring and it's always intriguing watching the government smith is endlessly fascinating and since we care about smith's likeable protagonist we are for a good two hours worth of tom entertainment add the best big cast this side of the annual woody allen film everyone from gabriel byrne to dan butler pop up for cameos and you've got a good old fashioned escapist drama which does all the thinking for you so that you never have to actually question the debate over personal privacy and so you can follow will smith's plight without a minute's worth of boredom
positive	mary norton's children's book series the borrowers has been made into several television movies so i wasn't too enthused as i entered the theater for the debut of the minute clan but i was in for a shock the borrowers is actually a thoroughly delightful movie with plenty of good laughs and even some decent special effects the lender family is being thrown out of their longtime home their aunt who owned the property never left a will now an unscrupulous lawyer ocious potter john goodman plans to demolish the house and replace it with an housing development but the lenders are not alone in their house living under the floorboards is a family of borrowers inch tall people who make their living as scavengers from the human beans above the clock family of borrowers is as distressed as the lenders especially once they discover the evil potter actually has a copy of the will which leaves the home to the lenders so it is up to the clocks pod jim broadbent and homily celia imrie along with their kids arrietty flora newbigin and peagreen tom felton to recover the will and save the household but when potter learns of the tiny people he enlists the skills of exterminator jeff mark williams to kill off the clan there's plenty of attention to detail in the borrowers especially in the furnishings of the clock family house made out of lost board game parts and credit cards the background details are nearly as rich as the entertaining story the various predicaments of the clock family are clever and thrilling based on an original story the screenwriters did a good job at imagining all the potential and unusual perils that could exist for a tall person as the villain john goodman's performance veers on the edge of being but his performance suits the role well and he does very well in the film's many slapstick moments with a nearly seamless mix of oversized sets bluescreen shots and cgi the special effects in the borrowers are very well done there are a few times when you can spot the effects at work but none of them are so jarring that you lose the suspension of disbelief hopefully the borrowers will surpass the curse of being labeled a movie for it is surprisingly entertaining and fun to watch
positive	touchstone pictures and spyglass entertainment presents a birnbaum barber production in association with a jackie chan films limited production jackie chan owen wilson shanghai noon lucy liu music by randy edelman co producers ned dowd jules daly executive producer jackie chan willie chan and solon so produced by roger birnbaum gary barber and jonathan glickman written by alfred gough miles millar directed by tom dey rated for mild language adult situations drug use martial art action and violence minutes super panavision what can you say about jackie chan that hasn't already been said since the release of in the bronx back in the u s release jackie has become a fairly recognizable commodity on america's video shelves having made over films jackie has finally succeeded in bringing his style of to the west his latest release shanghai noon is a joyful tribute spoof of the classic western and by adding jackie chan into the genre the tag line for the film the western gets a kick in the pants rings true jackie stars as chon wang a lesser imperial guard in the forbidden city of china the royal princess pei pei lucy liu is set to be married to the obnoxious son of a nobleman from another prefecture unwilling to follow her father's wishes princess pei pei with the assistance of her english tutor decides to escape to america but this is all a ploy devised by exiled guard lo fong which will lead to the princess' kidnapping and ransom unable to take any legal action the ransom demands are met and three of the forbidden city's bravest guards played by cui ya hi rong guang yu and eric chen are ordered to transport the ransom payment to lo fong in carson city nevada chon wang pleads with the imperial court and is given permission to join the team as he is looked upon as a buffoon on a train in the u s jackie meets up with bandit roy o'bannon owen wilson he is much less of a bandit than he is a glory hog looking simple for the notoriety and fame that being a bandit will bring him with his gang in tow roy attempts to rob the train when one of his gang murders the chinese interpreter of the royal court who also happens to be chon wang's uncle chon wang gives chase foiling the attempted robbery but also leaving himself stranded in the desert as the disgraced guard wanders through the desert he again comes upon roy who has been left for dead by his former gang buried up to his neck in the desert roy pleads with chon to dig him out chon demands to know where carson city is roy directs him and chon leaves but not before sticking two chopsticks into roy's mouth and telling him to dig himself chon soon finds himself confronted by angry crow warriors a friendly sioux tribe gunslingers a horse that thinks and behaves like a dog and an indian bride brandon merrill before once again running into roy shanghai noon is just good fun the chemistry between the cast is remarkable the performances are all acceptable within the whimsical levels of the film jackie's performance is as good as anything he's done before he's not called on to do much acting here as the character is not written with any depth but jackie's natural charisma shines through and his comic timing is so perfect both physically and surprise verbally that once again he commands the screen whenever he is on owen wilson last seen in the embarrassing remake of the haunting gives a good natured performance as roy o'bannon his innocence is refreshing and fun a bad guy that's not really bad his scenes with jackie are some of the best bits of comic dueling since martin and lewis lucy liu as princess pei pei is given little to do in the script but for a change does not play a nymphet or some other deviant the character is a noble woman of status and wealth but finds a greater cause as a result of her own imprisonment the rest of the performances are all broadly drawn comic performances nothing here is realistic mind you shanghai noon is first and foremost a light jovial film and the performances match that style with ease the cinematography by dan mindel is gorgeous using calgary alberta as the prime location mr mindel is able to create a lush romantic western feel to the film nothing here really looks like nevada but the locations are so beautifully shot and staged the film can be looked upon as a loving tribute to earlier films of the genre and as such the script by alfred gough and miles millar plays fast and loose with history but with reverence to past films homage to such films as high noon obviously red river and most notably butch cassidy the sundance kid all bring a sense of nostalgia to the film it is a comforting experience at a time when the western is considered either old hat or irrelevant here is a film that embraces those old attitudes and dare i say clich s and manages to make them palatable and refreshing here is a film that is not contemptuous of the genre this is the purest horse opera since the days of george o'brian or john wayne director tom dey has crafted a loving tribute to hollywood's past in this his first film mr dey shows both a love of character and of craftsmanship that is refreshing to see nothing here really stands out or takes one's attention away from the story or action and that is as it should be when jackie chan is your star and what of the action and stunts well while not up to a level of drunken master or any of jackie's hong kong films shanghai noon is miles ahead of anything jackie has done in an american film before his timing choreography and creativity are still as sharp as ever jackie even gets to recreate a few scenes from his earlier films obvious to those of us that have seen those films but refreshingly fun for those unfamiliar finally jackie can honestly say that he has made an u s his way and incorporating his style to sum up shanghai noon is a fun summer confection not too heavy and not too light a fun and entertaining film that the whole family can enjoy parents be advised there are scenes of smoking drunkenness and peyote use an enjoyable and charming film that can and will be enjoyed again and again
positive	the reunion film is not an original idea in any way shape or form it's been done throughout film history over and over again and has become one of the many like the prep school the teen and the slasher what makes peter's friends so remarkable is not how it doesn't follow the rules of this but how it follows it so well and creates characters that i wouldn't mind hanging with what are the rules of the reunion well you need a group of friends most of them married or at least dating and sometimes even married or dating eachother you need to have them brought back together over some sort of a crisis they are not to have spoken together much since they split apart the reunion has to come in intervals divisible by they all have to be slightly to highly neurotic the reunion has to bring them together seperate them with little crises then bring them back together because after all they're friends there has to be some sex or at least some making out either between the friends or with other people that are there or were invited eightly they're all unhappy or marginally so there's some sort of sexual tension amongst some of them that's built up over the years the friends are all wildly successful in the world of entertainment and the arts sometimes internationally so the film is filled with nostalgic radio hits from the time when they were friends sometimes causing them to get together in since it follows these rules so closely it will probably be and has been coined off as just a british chill and in some ways it is both follow the rules as i said and both feature lots of bitching big confessionals and broken relationships but while the big chill was at least to me a tad too whiny and unsatisfying peter's friends hits its mark making this film funny dramatic and poignant the friends of peter's were all in the same theatre group back in performig wildly outrageous british acts for people far too stuck up to enjoy them the opening scene has them all dancing in tux tops and tutus after peter's stephen fry wealthy father richard briers hardly on screen enough to register but oh well dies leaving a giant mansion to him he has to decide whether or not to keep it not sure what to do with it immeadiately he decides to throw a giant reunion party inviting back all his old chums of course all or most of his chums follow the tenth rule andrew kenneth branagh also directing here is an actor who's unhappily married to a tv star carol rita rudner maggie emma thompson is a successfuly publisher of books but looks like she needs them more than her customers as she is lonely and unhappy roger and mary hugh laurie and imelda staunton who were also married in sense and sensibility are married and are the most successful creators of jingles in the uk but have suffered a tragedy as one of their newly born twins has recently died and sarah alphonsia emmanuel is as promiscuous as ever having a new boyfriend as of two weeks named brian tony slattery who's married and wants a divorce because of her giving her doubts as for peter things seem okay the film features lots of jokes and even some old theatre anecdotes which i at least find a lot of fun in as i've done lots of theatre myself and there are big confessions brawls between the friends and by the end almost everyone is unhappy even though some have resolved their problems long before the end which i kinda dug the final twist would seem forced an but for some reason i felt the same way the rest of the friends did maybe it's because the people in this film are so likable that i just wanted to join their clique that's really what makes peter's friends so lovable the way you just want to hang with a group of friends who can be so dysfuntional sometimes but when someone's in crisis can come together wonderfully for one another it's when you have a giant crisis like this and people want to selflessly help you out instead of subtely pushing you away that makes you realize you have true friends and these people are true friends not to mention kenneth branagh is able to make the film seem nostalgic for the a decade i grew up in unfortunately without taking us outside of the there are some classics and like tears for fears everybody wants to rule the world but unfortunately no songs i think if i ever did an reunion film i'd put some crap go gos song on or at least some good old come on eileen but this is the british we're talking about oh well but anyway the direction is pretty good although nothing amazing branagh's forte is really making shakespeare fresh and magical but at least he's very good with making a less ambiguous film like this the writing is good from rita rudner and martin bregman with lots of good and even some really bad but good puns to mock the fact that andrew lives in l a peter while cutting some logs asks him is he has wood in l a and andrew says no but we have hollywood punishment like that the actors as in most speaking movies are better than their material though with some performances to the six friends as well as the outsiders like slattery rudner and phyllida law as the old housekeeper of the peter's mansion a little note should be made about hugh laurie's performance as he looks like he took some massive doses of prozac before doing this i mean i've never seen him actually act this dramatically peter's friends is a really enjoyable film which makes people like me pine for some sort of future reunion although i don't know what kind i'll have like most people i don't look forward to my high school reunion because of the way these friends are still able to maintain the same amount of care they have for one another and after such a long period of seperation i just look forward to the day when i can have friends like that
positive	once upon a time a solitary ogre named shrek mike myers was really annoyed to discover that his swamp had been invaded by three blind mice seven dwarves and all the other fairy tale characters in the land banished from their home by lord farquaad john lithgow unwittingly befriended by a talking donkey eddie murphy shrek travels to dulloc to speak with farquaad where he stumbles into a joust and comes up the winner his prize to save princess fiona cameron diaz from a tower surrounded by molten flame and protected by a dragon so she can become farquaad's bride the ogre agrees to the task in return for getting his solitary lifestyle back in shrek it took four writers ted elliott and terry rossio the road to el dorado roger s h schulman balto and joe stillman beavis and butthead do america to adapt william steig's children's book the bad news they've genericized an already simple plotline while heavily under the influence of william goldman's the princess bride the good news there's so much wacky humor culled from both fairy tales and popular culture that this movie should keep you in stitches we get our first inkling that we're in for a real treat as one of farquaad's men intent on rounding up magical creatures offers schillings for the possessed boy after observing dreamworks' rendition of disney's animated pinocchio meanwhile within the castle walls a gingerbread man being tortured by farquaad spits icing and yells me before breaking down and solemnly asking you know the muffin man shrek a green giant with bobbly ears is a grumpy recluse who really yearns to fit in although who could put up with his habit of making candles from his own ear wax donkey is a hyperactive endearingly stunted creature who can talk and therefore believes will make a great misfit pairing with the uncooperative shrek donkey proves his worth sweet talking the dragon the princess proves to be more than a shade offbeat after learning she's not getting the fairy tale issue rescue she's been expecting when fiona's true colors are exposed including opportunies for some tomboyish gross out humor a spark develops between her and shrek the script's details are gleefully impish constantly poking fun at disney from the theme park world of farquaad's dulloc with its turnstyle entrance and a small world' parody of an information booth to the blue bird which meets a most fate after duetting with fiona white' style popular culture is represented with film references to babe and charlies' angels via the matrix myers chooses his i married an axe murderer' scottish brogue for shrek in order to give his voice some heft while this may prove distracting for anyone familiar with that film overall it works more than not eddie murphy steals the show as the donkey proving once again his talent as a vocal performer is it another wink at disney that donkey is paired with a dragon a creature murphy portrayed in disney's lithgow's a good choice for the supercilious villain lord farquaad diaz is energetic but ultimately nondescript voicing princess fiona a better choice would have been minnie driver who's proven herself a terrific vocal talent in such diverse animations as disney's tarzan princess mononoke and the south park movie the computer animation looks terrific particularly donkey although it won't elicit the types of oohs and aahs of pixar's work toy story a bug's life toy story in keeping with its hip style pop music is used which like myer's voice may be initially jarring but ultimately satisfies while surveying bridal candidates via a game' parody broadcast by snow white's evil queen's mirror farquaad is told likes pina coladas' cue jimmy buffet shrek has good lessons for kids and humor targetted at every age group in the family while it may be derivative of the the princess bride shrek addresses a new generation with similar sensibilities and doesn't suffer in the comparison
positive	some movies have such an impact that they linger in your mind long after the credits have rolled making you think carefully and recollect on what you have just seen i finished mike figgis' leaving las vegas hours ago and it is still as haunting as when i hit rewind on the vcr alot of people refer to this film as that flick where nick cage plays that alcoholic dude leaving las vegas is not so much a movie about alcoholism as it is a story about two people who except each other for what they are a drunk and a whore ben nicolas cage in possibly the best male performance of the past twenty years is the drunk his family and friends have long since abandon him and all he has left is his liquor in a scene early in the film we see ben staggering into a resteraunt looking for a friend of his to mooch some money off of he finds the guy richard lewis having dinner with a buddy and two chicks trying to crack witty jokes that just come out stupid when ben approaches the table you can clearly sense that everyone immediatly feels uncomfortable after lewis gives ben the money he coldly says i think it would be best if you didn't contact me again now even though through the course of the film some much more depressing things happen this is when i felt the most for ben there was such a look of sorrow and dispare on his face not to sound hokey or anything it almost brought a tear to my eye it turns out that ben was once a hollywood player and apparently a pretty popular guy now he spends his time getting robbed by hookers and trying desperatly to pick up women not so much for the sex but for the company for someone to talk to or spend time with once he is fired from his job ben decides to burn all his belongings collect all his cash and relocate to las vegas to slowly drink himself to death one night he runs into a prostitute a brilliant performance by elizabeth shue how far she has come since adventures in babysitting named sera she is involved in an abusive relationship with her pimp a scumbag who by cutting her they are both very lonely people they immediatly hit it off both of them realizing that they need one another and it isn't even a sexual relationship they don't even have sex until like the last ten minutes of the film leaving las vegas is not a film about plot with the exception of what i have already revealed which all happens in the first thirty minutes or so by the way there isn't too much of a story to it it is more a film about people and how they react to one another from what i can see this is basically a perfect film the direction is great with mike figgis doing a brilliant mix between the glamor of las vegas and the moody smokey atmosphere of a film noir and it contains two of the best performances to come out of the or any other decade for that matter but don't go rushing out to see this movie without knowing what you're getting yourself into first off if you are easily offended by frank sexual dialouge stay away from leaving las vegas it is filled with lengthy discussions of orgasms rape and various forms of perverted activities involving burbon that's right secondly if you are not in the mood to see a very depressing film don't see it however if you are cool with those two things you are in for one of the most memorable experiences you will ever have
positive	lola run' a german import that gained a stellar reputation at the sundance film festival is a dazzling and kinetic film that deals with the subjects of fate and chance for a berserk and retroactive minutes of movement we follow a heroine named lola franka potente as she sprints to save her boyfriend from the clutches of drug dealers lola has roughly twenty minutes to somehow retrieve marks in time to save manni moritz bleibtreu from being killed by the dealer but in something of a day' approach director tom tykwer gives lola three separate chances to best navigate her way toward the goal in these trio of episodes we gradually learn the unique effects of fate for even if tiny changes are made in lola's journey the future can be seriously altered lola run' is an experience like club' or matrix' in that each film takes you through a wormhole of bending reality in surreal and exciting ways in addition all three movies have a visual style that separates them from the rest of the pack is no exception with stylish camera work and cinematography that serves as scintillating eye candy from the tykwer's world is a landscape of mood and color with brilliant shades of red and pink including lola's fiery hair used as effective symbolism throughout with it's visual style and pace lola run' is one of the more invigorating movies of the year even more so when considering the fact it's all stuffed rather nonchalantly into an time period as a heroine potente does little more than run wildly through the streets as the title suggests but she has a certain flair and charisma her exemplary running form made me wonder if she is actually a track star meanwhile bleibtreu does an equally fantastic job of bringing the dopey but passionate manni to life both actors perform beyond the call of duty the dazzling fun comes from predicting what each episode holds in store for lola and the outcome is ultimately rewarding several twists and turns are unique and unexpected the other characters lola runs into both purposely and inadvertently include her banker father herbert kraup and a friendly security guard armin rohde but aside from the two leads no one has more than a few minutes of screen time additional stars that couldn't possibly be ignored are cinematographer frank griebe and editor mathilde bonnefroy who are both responsible for the film's visual elegance lola run' is subtitled so be prepared to meet the challenge of reading the dialogue occasional sections of it are especially fast this is only one of the minor chores involved in watching the other is the sense that we never get to really recognize who the real people are in this hyperactive situation most are just chess pieces in tykwer's elaborate game of visual presentation and he never really makes a significant move with any but the average viewer is likely to be so absorbed in the action that few will realize the lack of potency in a few elements of the screenplay a few petty gripes aside this film is a wild exhilarating ride that turns maniacally on its wheel of originality most people believe foreign films are mainly boring talky character studies perhaps lola run' will recharge their batteries not only does this film offer insight into some intriguing questions of fate and destiny it also delivers a visual rollercoaster ride of overwhelming audacity like how the experience must have been for the persistent title character lola run' is exhausting
positive	in the sweet hereafter atom egoyan takes us beyond the tragedy of death into the tragedy of living he shows us how it isn't dying that hurts but rather the pain of living in the hereafter of death and dealing with the loss and grief that it brings on a cold winter day in a small isolated town in british columbia a school bus full of children slides off the highway and onto a frozen lake where it cracks through the ice and sinks fourteen children die and numerous others are hurt for the residents of this small town all of whose children were on that bus it is an event that resolutely alters their lives they have always relied on each other in the past to deal with heartache and pain but it seems that this tragedy is more than they can handle alberta and risa walker who own a local motel and lost their child in the accident hire an attorney named mitchell stephens ian holm to bring a lawsuit against someone anyone for responsibility the bus driver dolores driscoll gabrielle rose is a kindly woman who loved the children and although she lives with a burden of guilt is not held responsible for the accident the bus seems to have simply slipped on some ice and there was nothing should could do to prevent it however according to stephens there are no accidents in life and someone will pay for this tragedy whether that be the manufacturer of the bus or the guardrail the bus broke through he goes through the town approaching the parents who have lost children asking them to join the class action suit and find vent for their anger and for his work stephens will receive of the settlement money however it is immediately apparent that stephens has little or no interest in the money he is driven by something else something deeper that he shares in common with the grieving parents he has lost a child too but not in the same manner his daughter zoe caerthan banks who once almost died in his arms as a young child after a spider bite has been in and out of drug clinics and detox stations for ten years she calls him on an irregular basis begging him for money but refusing to tell him what she needs it for i don't know who i'm taking to he tells her in his mind his daughter is dead the lawsuit is to stephens not only a way to mend the town's pain but also his own however not everyone in town wants it to happen billy ansell bruce greenwood who was driving behind the bus when the accident happened and lost two children wants nothing to do with it he has already lost his wife and he buries his grief in an affair with a married woman he doesn't want to talk about the accident and he sees the lawsuit as nothing more than the unnecessary opening of old wounds to him the town should be able to take care of its own pain and it doesn't need outsiders like stephens getting in the way central to the sweet hereafter is the tale of nicole burnell sarah polley a teenage girl who dreams of being a singer before the accident turned her into a wheelchair girl as she puts it aside from stephens nicole is the most complex character in the film and it is she who ultimately decides the fate of the town and how the lawsuit will turn out it is also her sad haunted voice that we often hear on the soundtrack reading robert browning's poem about the pied piper and how when he led all the town's children away one was left behind because he was crippled obviously nicole is that child and she feels somehow betrayed that the rest of the town's children left her alone by dying in the wreck her situation is further complicated because she is involved in a loving but incestuous relationship with her father tom mccamus there is only one fleeting scene that suggests this relationship but it is somehow tied into the final act of the film of all the storylines in the sweet hereafter this is the most complicated and unresolved although its implications stretch throughout the entirety of the film egoyan knows that the kinds of questions he brings up have no simple answers if any at all and he doesn't condescend to the audience by trying to neatly wrap it up what egoyan has done in the sweet hereafter is really nothing short of miraculous in his adaptation of the novel by russell banks he has made a deeply moving film about a lawyer by transcending the pettiness of law and driving headlong into the deeper meaning of what is loss and how pitiful monetary and material possessions are when compared to human life egoyan has always been a talented but distant and cerebral filmmaker whose work suffered only in that it felt so cold the sweet hereafter is quite the opposite egoyan's stylistic and narrative structures work brilliantly to heighten the impact of the natural emotion and draw the audience into the tragedy the sweet hereafter seems to contain the combined emotional impact that all his other films lacked the film is filled with beautiful subtle performances from all the actors especially ian holm as the lawyer and sarah polley as the sad child who was left behind the beautiful roving camerawork by paul sarossy and the haunting melodic musical score by mychael danna both previous egoyan collaborators give the film a visual and aural cohesiveness with the thematic elements like his earlier films egoyan weaves together multiple storylines that form a blanketing whole he works with time as a fluid substance shifting back and forth between the past the distant past and the present with effortless ease the actual bus wreck itself doesn't happen until midway through the film but by that time the event has built up so much emotion that egoyan can film it from a distance with no graphic detail and still have it carry great devastating weight because human life has become such a cheap commodity in movies it is astounding that egoyan can convey so much heartbreak in such simple direct terms certainly one of the best films of the sweet hereafter is a deeply rewarding mystifying and ultimately human film
positive	when i first heard about scream in i was told that it was a spoof of horror movies from the master of the horror himself wes craven it ridiculed the cliches of the genre by overemphasizing them by making the teenagers do what they know they're not supposed to do when a serial killer is stalking them don't run up the stairs when you can easily go out the front door never say i'll be right back etc when i first heard this description i figured that it was an easy way out of making a bad movie how hard is it to make an extremely terrible film but claim it is actually a mockery of other bad movies was this wes craven's remedy from making real bad movies such as vampires in brooklyn it just seemed cheap to me then i actually saw the movie and the first twenty minutes involving drew barrymore and a intense phone conversation completely changed my attitude scream is not only a clever parody of your standard horror flick it's also a pretty scary movie if you've seen a million of these kinds of films you know exactly what is going to happen this is part of the fun of watching scream the movie reminds avid horror fans how similar and repetitive the genre is and it also reminds them how great a guilty pleasure it can be to watch pointless and predictable violence to innocent attractive teenagers to those who rarely see these types of movies scream is a thrilling unpredictable ride that could be mistaken as a serious slasher film there's nothing wrong with that misjudgment though i have witnessed viewers from both sides of the audience the newbies to horror and the fanatics their opinions on the film were so different but both very positive from these varied reviews i am convinced that scream has not only revived the teen horror movie and the normal teen romance movies but also the hilarious parodies of these and other categories films that both deride and celebrate genres like galaxy quest and the big hit would not have existed in my opinion if it was not for the outstanding success of scream the low budget gem may alongside pulp fiction be the most influential film of the this influence may exist to the chagrin of some moviegoers who despise movies like teaching mrs tingle or television programs such as dawson's creek but to others such as myself we congratulate the movie that has opened new doors for excellent young actors screenwriters and directors scream is also an extremely funny movie thanks to its script by kevin williamson within the film are characters who tell other characters as well as the audience the basic rules and cliches of a horror movie mainly from the rants of randy jamie kennedy and stu matthew lillard we are reminded not only of the obvious and hilarious rules but also some of the more subtle stereotypes that when thought over are mostly true as well the virgin always survives have sex and you're dead meat not only are we treated these rules on a plate but also the rules are referenced to a number of different films and actors the script feels like an obsessive essay from a college film geek who has nothing better to do but find every little blunder from every little film for his own in this case williamson finds these errors for the audience's satisfaction and amusement i hear there is a new movie coming out called scary movie which is a spoof of scream which is a spoof of scary movies i will certainly see the film but i have the feeling that this parody will be more obviously ridiculing the genre rather than scream's perfect subtlety however my last gut feeling about this stuff scream was dead wrong so who knows
positive	in present day hanoi three sisters reflect on their parents' relationship while trying to define their own in tran anh hung's the scent of green papaya the vertical ray of the sun youngest sister lien tran nu greets the day with hai ngo quanq hai the only brother whom she rooms and relentlessly flirts with their morning ritual of tai chi and lou reed precedes crossing the street to eldest sister suong's nguyen nhu quynh cafe where lien works for breakfast the three sisters lovingly prepare their mother's memorial banquet of traditional delicacies prepared as much for look as taste while giggling over the differences between the sexes after the family breaks from the banquet we learn that suong's young son monkey' is doted upon but there's a distance developing with her husband quoc chu ngoc hung who's leaving for one of his habitual botanical photography trips middle sister khanh tran manh cuong tells her writer husband she's pregnant before he leaves on a trip to saigon to research tuan a mysterious man in his past lien keeps crawling into hai's bed at night causing him to fall out of it the initial serenity we witnessed starts turning into a soap opera before coming to full circle one month later as the three women prepare their father's memorial banquet the vertical ray of the sun is a contemplative piece where strong passions exist underneath calm exteriors sly humor self deceit and harsh truths all exist in the cyclic screenplay tran anh hung and his cinematographer mark lee flowers of shanghai linger over and repeat the small gestures of everyday life a wife washes her husbands hands a woman makes water dance in a bowl a man pulls his lover to face him before they part small spaces such as rooms alleys and courtyards create intimacy the color green symbolizing life and tranquility is used heavily in the film's visual styling lapsing into yellowish hues and blues tran anh hung's film recalls ang lee's eat drink man woman another tale of three sisters of varying modernity coming together traditionally for a parent but while lee's more traditionally film resulted in radical changes for all concerned the vertical ray of the sun's characters strive for peaceful harmony watching it is like trailing your fingertips in a stream on a cool spring day
positive	star wars episode i the phantom menace review a review by jamey hughton stars neeson ewan mcgregor natalie portman and jake lloyd lucas rated g with all the hype that star wars episode the phantom menace has been receiving it seems almost impossible to avoid interest in seeing the film the movie is easily the most anticipated motion picture ever with a marketing campaign so strong it has brought colonel sanders the taco bell chihuahua and pizza hut together can george lucas succeed yet again with transporting us back a long time ago in a galaxy far far away yes this star wars prequel may be the worst of the bunch with amateurish dialogue and an overall lack of humanity but that doesn't mean it fails to comply on the basis of solid entertainment the phantom menace features the most visual look in cinematic history the tremendous action sequences will have you clinging to your arm rest and the special effects are nothing short of the best and most plentiful to ever be caught on film the vast digitized worlds and sheer imagination that was applied to this project is astounding the phantom menace is a delectable feast for the senses even if it has some disappointing aspects after we're treated to the famous prologue in the sky with john williams' thundering score we meet jonn liam neeson and young kenobi ewan mcgregor a jedi master and his trainee they are on the ship accommodating the fleet headquarters for the evil trade federation and have been sent to settle disputes regarding the taxation of trade routes to the planet of naboo oh but enough about that the prime concern for this prequel is introducing young anakin skywalker jake lloyd into the picture as you already know this seemingly charming lad is the boy who will soon become darth vader a spectacular pod race comes soon hereafter this particular race is the most exciting energetic action sequence that you'll ever see one of the delights of the series is meeting the newest set of strange alien creatures that lucas has devised and the phantom menace is no exception i loved sebulba the scoundrel whom anakin has to face in the pod race and boss nass the leader of the gungans who are a neighbouring species to naboo one character who has been subject to criticism is binks a member of the gungan race speaks like roger rabbit on a hallucinogenic drug and is there for the sole purpose of supplying comic relief yes he is initially annoying but i can admit to laughing over some of his harmless goofy antics there is some lack of dramatic pull in this star wars entry but the presentation almost makes you forget the plot and character lapses the final battle between the jedi's and the horrific and terminally underused villain darth maul is spectacular to behold jabba the hutt yoda and have cameo appearances lucas has not forget how to captivate an audience even if his latest shows obvious signs of tiredness one can only wonder what the possible technology will present for the next two installments episode's i and ii when they arrive you'll know where to find me
positive	bob the happy bastard's quickie review i must admit no doubt's single new is quite catchy it was bouncy and energetic enough to get me to go see this new film from director doug limon the man who had brought us the humorous swingers a little while back the result a movie that's just as good as that song really it follows the lives of several individuals over the course of one weekend first we hear about a grocery bagger sara polley who runs into a monetary situation problem and ends up selling bogus drugs at a rave with bad results as a drug dealer feels he's been swindled by her then comes the story of an english grocery store worker same store who heads to vegas for the weekend with friends where sex gunplay and stolen car trouble come into play then we see the story of two gay movie actors played by scott wolf and jay mohr who deal with a cop's strange insurance presentation and hitting a girl sara with their car and finally we come to another grocery worker katie holmes who has a strange fascination with said drug dealer the one mentioned earlier really it's all confusing to keep track of in review format your best bet is to just well go the movie features some very good acting from all angles and limon adds the same humorous energy he had with swingers to this particular product the dialogue is pretty snappy and the resolution is pretty well realized not going for the sappy happy ending nor the dreaded bad ending think of it as a well ending the intertwining of stories is a particularly good element to the movie as it's never really confusing and tells different sides of the story like sliding doors kinda did however it's better suited for the younger generation who want a little spice in their flicks which sliding doors kinda isn't
positive	while watching shallow grave i found myself periodically noticing thematic similarities to the coens' blood simple both are good films in which several characters none of whom are the most conscientious to have walked the earth but still are not really evil indulge in an act of deception that soon necessitates more serious crimes the body count rises and before long seemingly normal people have blood on their hands both films are also flawed but for different reasons blood simple is unrelentingly dark and moody but its characterizations were a little hollow shallow grave on the other hand is nearly flawless for an hour and twenty minutes and then the filmmakers throw away much of what they'd accomplished for a more standard ending the events of the film were sufficiently intense and disturbing that i honestly felt quite troubled by what i was witnessing on screen most of the time yet there was a slight grin on my face at the end as the film begins we are introduced to alex ewan mcgregor juliet kerry fox and david christopher eccleston a scottish trio living in an apartment in glasgow they are all sarcastic and occasionally obnoxious but other than that they seem like a fairly normal bunch a man named hugo moves into the apartment's remaining vacancy and the next morning he is found dead of a drug overdose juliet is about to call the police when alex discovers that hugo had brought with him a suitcase filled to the brim with cash presumably from criminal activities the three eventually decide to keep the money and cover up the death after a drawing of straws the particularly unenviable task of mutilating the body so as to make it unidentifiable and burying it falls to david who had been the most reluctant to partake in the scheme from the beginning all of this transpires in the first twenty minutes or so of the film and part of what makes shallow grave so brilliant for a while is that i honestly had no idea what was coming next other than the obvious question of why they don't report the death and simply hide the cash which is not addressed the plotting and characterization while sometimes predictable worked in a way that kept my attention and on more than one occasion gave me chills i will therefore attempt to continue this review in a way that doesn't give away too much of the plot broadly the trio are in danger due to hugo's underworld connections as two goons search for the money and kill several people in the process a police inspector ken stott is clearly suspicious and visits the apartment asking pointed questions and trying to unnerve the three suspects by exchanging banal and weirdly humorous bits of dialogue with a junior detective david meanwhile becomes increasingly paranoid moves into the attic and develops an affinity for sharp objects director danny boyle effectively creates an atmosphere of mounting tension and suspicion in the apartment and finally the three seem ready to turn against each other while i do not consider myself the happy endings are automatically stupid type i thought that shallow grave really should have ended in tragedy a realistic analysis of the story up to the last ten minutes of the film would indicate that all three characters were probably about to end up in prison in the mental hospital or in the morgue this could have been accomplished quite credibly but then boyle and screenwriter john hodge seem to flinch and opt for a more conventional caper ending in which we get a kick out of seeing who outsmarted whom and nothing more granted this isn't really a happy ending but it's still pretty compared to what preceded it i really shouldn't say anything more about the ending as far as details go but let me add that it seemed not only shallow and lazy but also inconsistent with the rest of the film and not very believable yes this ending made me crack a smile for a couple of minutes but ultimately it left me feeling as if i'd been cheated still shallow grave was brilliant most of the way through and it does at least meet the minimum requirements for an entertaining thriller and i am therefore awarding it three stars i guess i just can't help but think about that fourth star that boyle and hodge let slip away
positive	since most movies about slavery shield us from the true horrors of what they're portraying it's fitting to say that beloved come as a real shock as a film it's confusing bizarre and as tough a film to watch as any film i've seen all year and that's not necessarily because of the running time beloved is challenging to watch filled with tough and powerful poetry that takes us completely off guard and instead of a story about what happened to the slaves after they were freed beloved comes off as a cry of anguish from all those who actually lived through what happened or rather toni morrison who wrote the novel upon which this is based beloved tells the story of an named sethe played by oprah winfrey who lives on a large farm in the north with her children when the film opens her house is being terrorized by a poltergeist which shakes things up wounds the dog and makes things generally uncomfortable for the family sethe is proud though and will not move her sons run away leaving only her and her daughter denver kimberly elise alone with the ghost which is there without any factual explanation a couple years pass and the ghost remains and one day a man named paul d danny glover another who knew sethe years ago when they worked on a plantation together arrives asking for lodging he has been wandering around since he left the plantation and when he enters the house it turns red and becomes incredibly hot when he remarks about what he thinks is evil sethe replies it ain't evil it's just sad some more time passes and paul d has become a fervent member of the household and the ghost disappears but when they return one day from going out they discover a young woman sitting in the house her name is beloved and as played by thandie newton she has almost zero motor skills she stumbles around onto things and knocking them over and when she speaks she lets out a low guttural sound that eventually turns into baby talk they let her into her house and she begins to turn things upside down beloved acts like an incredibly difficult chamber drama paired with a ghost story most of the scenes consist of people arguing in one claustrophobic room with the occasional flash to the past where we see images of such horror that we thank god for psychoanalysts sethe and paul d have lived through such hellish times that they are forever implanted with the memories of their slavehood on the old plantation which includes such images as sethe being raped by the white plantation hands with her nipples being licked prompting her to cry out to paul d when reminiscing about it they took my milk worst of all was the month after her freedom when she was allowed to live like a free person working with other blacks on a farm and then seeing that her old plantation owners have arrived to presumedly take her and her children back she runs to the barn near by carrying her four children and when her old owners burst in they discover she has murdered one of them and is ready to murder the rest of them if they don't leave them alone when she is inquired about this moment by paul d in a moment halfway through the film she says she doesn't regret it she killed her daughter so that she would not have to live through the horror she did and she has convinced herself she did the right thing of course beloved is really her daugher materialized though we aren't flat out told that until later on in the film beloved represents the pain and suffering the slaves went through and shows how difficult it was for them to deal with their freedom after being tortured for so long thus beloved becomes a of the andrei tarkofsky classic solaris where a cosmonaut discovers that his wife who commited suicide years before has materialized when he is orbiting over a planet with a complex brain system that film spoke volumes about humanity and our memories how we are constantly regretting what happened in the past and when if it ever literally came back to haunt us it would control us completely beloved moves along freely without a lot of explanation and for the most part this is extremely respectable the most interesting films are the ones that don't explain everything for us leaving gaps in the characters that we are supposed to fill in with how they act in the present tense sethe is never fully explained as a character but we understand all her actions since she's being played by oprah winfrey it's been well over a decade since her last major performance in the color purple but judging from these two films i'll bet she's one of the best actresses working today if she was strictly an actress her talk show which i suppose is a great entity has prevented her from becoming a noteworthy actress and that's a shame because she brings so much to this movie emotion sadness strength watching the strong sethe who's so afraid of the past that she's built a rather strong protective coating around herself break down when she discovers who beloved really is is what makes this movie really great she makes it real that's not to say this is a perfect film in fact i'd wager to say that the fact that it's confusing and painful to watch is what prevents this from being the truly great film it is while oprah's performance is powerful and easily sympathetic and i'm dying to see her win at least an oscar nomination this february the structure of the film which doesn't show what happened to her children till halfway through the film prevents us from really making a cohesive connection to the film it doesn't necessarily move as though they're memories of one particular character and by the end it has lost control over sethe and as she takes to bed we are unable to truly identify with her anymore but despite its tediousness perhaps that's the point the distancing by the end of the film may be just part of the way it has been built from the start since they figure she has crossed over from being identifiable and it needs to get back with reality and for the most part this film seems like the cry of pain from the slaves that it really wants to be jonathan demme's direction is bizarre in nature with the story and he creates the right mood making it a tough film to sit through making sure that the audience feels as uncomfortable as the characters there's more to admire here like the way that the flashbacks pop up freely and without real organization just like they would be in real life and the way that the ending leaves it somewhat open to more pain and suffering but laced with a touch of optimism the acting not only from winfrey is amazing and i anticipate not only she will get an oscar nomination everyone has been raving about thandie newton's performance and how it should be rewarded however it must be noted that out of everyone she had the easiest part act like a baby throw things stumble around chew food with your mouth open i do think there's another performance worthy of oscar conisderation but it's kimberly elise as the daugher who has to stay sensible and sane and has to carry the burden of her mother's loss of reality towards the end it's not that newton isn't great she's as annoying and wacky as the role demands it's just that elise has the tougher job and pulls it off even better despite the fact that this film has winfrey written all over it and not that of writer morrison or director demme beloved has still not done well costing i think around ninety million dollars it has since grossed about unfortunately this film is a little too intense for viewers even for me and i can stand almost anything i recently viewed the hour long epic caligula the worst film i have ever seen in my life and did it in a mere sittings although i respect beloved i can't say that i really enjoyed it
positive	usually a movie is about something more than a soiled rug but not the big lebowski the new offering from the creators of critical hit fargo is to say the least wildly entertaining originality has always been a strong trait in the coen brother's movies and the big lebowski is insanely original it begins oddly enough when jeff the dude lebowski jeff bridges is mistaken for a millionaire jeff the big lebowski david huddleston who's wife bunny tara reid owes money all over town two goons out to collect on bunny's debt break into dude's house they attempt to collect the money that bunny owes them and one of them urinates on his rug the next day dude explains his situation to his bowling team steve buscemi john goodman respectively he is advised to go to the big lebowski and get him to pay for the defiled rug he does this and shortly after gets tied up in a kidnapping caper this is a extremely funny movie with lots of belly laugh moments the coen brothers have assembled a great cast that play off each other perfectly also several great supporting roles john turturro as a child molesting bowler named jesus the coen's script plays off perfectly and it all goes together to make it extremely entertaining i doubt this movie will be nearly as popular as fargo but its off the wall moments make it so far the best of if you like anything else the coen brothers have done you will love this one if not they give this one a try its a little different
positive	with the opening scene of a young couple in a van pulling up loading their guns kissing each other and uttering what sounds like rock and roll actually it's lock and load you can't help thinking tarantino and of course with its storyline of a crazy girl and boy in love who turn to violent bank robbery the film unapologetically takes its place alongside all those other films from bonnie clyde to natural born killers but if most of those movies have their roots in pulp fiction exploring a modern myth of the doomed rebels on the run normal life takes a much more psychologically realistic look at the phenomenon inspired by true events we've heard that one before and yet in no other tale of violent couples has it seemed so solidly demonstrated or so strangely poignant for this is a story of real people whose lives take on a steadily unreal quality who in their search for a normal life find themselves increasingly unhinged beginning with their final arrest the film goes back to trace the relationship between chris luke perry a policeman and pam ashley judd a factory worker they fall in love and marry but pam's increasingly erratic behaviour going on spending sprees slashing herself with a knife after an argument begin to trouble the solid and stable chris when chris gets sacked they find themselves heavily in debt and near breaking up then chris begins to rob banks luke perry accomplishes the feat of making us nearly forget that he was ever in beverly hills or buffy the vampire slayer moustached with a tough paternal look and yet a voice and eyes that suggest sadness verging on exasperation he is perfectly cast as the husband it's another of john mcnaughton's coups of after transforming robert de niro into nerd and bill murray into gangster in mad dog and glory but it is the character of pam who commands centrestage and ashley judd rises to the challenge with great alternating currents of ferocity and tenderness making pam into a fascinating yet often infuriating person if the performance falls short of greatness however it is perhaps because the role of the mad woman has been done so often before it is virtually a staple of cinema whether it's in betty blue tom viv or georgia as in those movies there's the danger that the performance seems mannered a collection of screwy tics and tantrums designed for the oscar presentation piece judd doesn't entirely avoid this pitfall but pam's is best and most movingly presented in counterpoint to the more chris when pam reacts to her death by showing up at the funeral in rollerblades and blaring headphones chris' face is the picture of pained restraint of course it's the question of what is that is asked in normal life mcnaughton constantly offers up the ironies of the aspirations for the average domestic life and its kinship with insanity it is the rational chris that loves guns shooting is about precision control and the pam that loves astronomy and yearns for a dog who is then called chaos chaos and you and me we're a real family she notes wryly it is chris' methodical mind and his knowledge of police procedure that allows him to be such a successful bank robber his disguise as a bearded roaring man of terror is another piece of method in madness in the carpark where he sets out for his first robbery a huge sign on a shopping mall stands out in the background the perfectly respectable american dream that has driven pam to her extravagant purchases and both of them into desperate situations it's not a perfect film some of the dialogue is a touch too banal perhaps intentionally the use of the punk hardcore soundtrack in pam's crazed scenes comes rather too close to making emotional disturbance seem glamourous and sexy an image which only detracts from the rest of the film indeed as in mcnaughton's seminal film henry portrait of a serial killer it is the avoidance of glamour or sensationalism the denial of some of the standard thrills of the outlaw film genre that gives this determinedly unflashy moving film its great strengths mcnaughton has filmed this story with a quiet coolly method that works far better than any nbk theatrics at unsettling the viewer the suburbs with their miles of houses and identikit malls take on a sense of claustrophobic blankness in its very different way this makes for as haunting a backdrop as the wide open spaces in terence malick's badlands while pam shares the yearnings of malick's heroes to escape from ordinary life chris takes up crime precisely so that they can lead a life' their little house on the suburbs is financed by his violent robberies but these are dreams defined by constrained by and even doomed by the limitations of the conventional world pam's final scene takes place at the edge of the suburbs where wild bushes grow symbolically the frontier the outer limits of her society but also quite literally the end of the road where there is nowhere left to go but to the final tragic denouement the flying inkpot's rating system wait for the video a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
positive	it's not often that i laugh so hard at a movie that my head hurts but that's just what happened to me at uhf weird al yankovic's big screen debut uhf is a television parody a la airplane and like airplane the movie is extraordinarily stupid but it's dumb in the best way a movie can be dumb it's so silly and outrageous it's hilarious the movie stars weird al as george newman a world class nerd with a hyperactive imagination the type who fantasizes he's indiana jones and who uses hostess twinkies as hot dog buns george is basically a loser his daydreams and attitude perpetually prevent him from holding onto a job for more than two weeks but george finally gets a chance to funnel his creativity into something productive when his uncle wins channel in a poker game and makes him the general manager of the struggling uhf television station george revives channel with innovative programming shows like wheel of fish and movies like conan the librarian as the station's ratings rise it comes into competition with channel the leading vhf as r j stage and film actor kevin mccarthy is flamboyantly sleazy he really hams it up with his snorts grimaces and scowls uhf satirizes anything and everything to do with television including game shows tabloid talk shows children's shows dizzy news women and from rambo to close encounters the funniest scene the one that made my head spin is a commercial for spatulas which has to be seen to be believed like most movies in its genre uhf is hit or miss for every gag that works at least one fizzles for instance weird al's mock video of money for nothing by dire straits is only mildly amusing and brings the film to a grinding halt although it does have some nifty computer animation but the funniest bits in uhf are so hysterical that we can forgive the ones that fail we know another gut wrencher is on the way in fact uhf hits the mark often enough to make it the most effective movie since well since airplane much of the credit goes to weird al's exceptionally inventive script and to the movie's winsome cast weird al seems a little stiff at the beginning but because he's not afraid to look silly he ultimately has a lot of fun with his character the real standout is michael richards as stanley the janitor who becomes the host of his own children's show stanley spadowski's playhouse stanley's personality is a big hit with the audience and makes him an star he is an endearing mixture of innocence enthusiasm and cuteness and above all he's a good janitor who adores his work another highlight is a vintage cameo by the incomparable emo philips the cast also features gedde watanabe the chinese student in sixteen candles as the karate master who hosts the hit series wheel of fish also aboard for the ride is fran drescher who plays pamela finklestein channel roving reporter unfortunately as weird al's girlfriend victoria jackson is wasted in a role that calls for nothing but whimpering whining and sulking her character is extraneous and should have been either further integrated into the story or cut from the script altogether while uhf is not an absolute it's definitely the ticket if you're looking for a wild and zany comedy the movie is good enough to see in the theaters but it may work even better on television the very medium at which it pokes fun
positive	it's hard not to recommend the others the supernatural thriller written and directed by alejandro amen bar open your eyes adroitly establishes and maintains a atmosphere of menace the cinematography by javier aguirresarobe is as good as i have ever seen and nicole kidman gives another in her growing body of fine performances but the pacing of the story moves from deliberate to downright sluggish and the payoff of the tale left me less than satisfied overall the film plays like a very high quality version of any number of old twilight zone episodes where the characters spend a great deal of time wandering about looking afraid and disoriented only to learn they are actually a child's toy a military test subject or a department store dummy watching those vintage shows and listening to the players chatter i always wanted to shout get on with it as much as i appreciated the atmosphere and acting in the others my reaction was much the same set at an island mansion off the coast of england during world war ii the story focuses on grace kidman who tends to her children anne alakina mann and nicholas james bentley and worries about her husband charles christopher eccleston a missing serviceman anne and nicholas suffer from photosensitivity and grace patrols the estate with the keys to all doors protecting the little ones from excess light by making sure that only one door is open at a time at the beginning of the film three servants mrs mills fionnula flanagan young mute lydia elaine cassidy and mr tuttle eric sykes an aging gardener join the family the two that speak seem agreeable enough at first but it soon becomes apparent that they know something that grace does not to make matters worse the children are upset nicholas is unusually jittery and anne claims to be seeing ghosts grace attempts to blame the troubles on the new arrivals to her home only to realize that whatever is happening is beyond them that's essentially the whole story with the tension growing until the pivotal moment when everything becomes clear earlier there is an outstanding scene where grace darts outside only to be enveloped in fold after fold of shimmering fog the visuals in the otherworldly sequence courtesy of aguirresarobe are simply astounding i also enjoyed the presence of religion a rarity in films dealing with the supernatural grace is a christian and answers her children's questions about life and death with the assurance of a devout worshiper when mother is away though the kids speculate whether her statements are fact or folklore just as real children do but those nice touches fail to enliven a film that is too slow or make up for a lackluster ending the others sets out to be a classic ghost story but fails to grasp that special something that makes such films more than layers of mist
positive	a private matter is based on the true story of sherri finkbine and the events in her life during the after becoming pregnant for the fifth time she learns that some tranquilizers she had taken have seriously deformed her unborn child she and her husband decide with the help of her doctor to have an abortion but this is the and abortion is illegal her doctor has made arrangements to have the procedure performed withing the law by claiming that the child is endangering the mother's life everything is about to work out just fine until sherri has the uncontrollable urge to talk about her situation with a local reporter this sets off a media frenzy and immediately sherri is the most hated woman in the world she and her husband are fired from their jobs reporters are surrounding their home at all times and most importantly no one in the country and eventually other countries will perform the abortion this causes emotion problems for all involved a private matter is a fascinating story and it's hard to believe that this only happened years or so ago it's only flaw is that not once is there ever a satisfactory confrontation with sherri and any of her opponents one woman passing her on the street telss her to burn in hell and when sherri appropriately yells back just tell me what i'm supposed to do the woman has no answer no one apparently had an answer they just wanted to control what should have been only the choice of sherri and her husband this is an important film telling an important story it's not just about not wanting another child it's about not wanting a child who will cause severe changes in their family none of which could be beneficial sydney pollack served as executive producer for this made for hbo movie
positive	director jan de bont certainly knows how to make top quality action films you need look no further than die hard he was director of photography speed and last years twister for examples of his octane edge of your seat thrill prowess speed is no exception this time the action takes place on a huge cruise liner on which sandra bullock and jason patrick are trying to develop their relationship yep that's right no keanu reeves this time but fear not jason patrick is more than up to the job speaking of which the job at hand is to stop completely bonkers terrorist willem dafoe from crashing the liner into a huge island after stealing a diamond collection the reason for this act of destruction is revenge after years of working for the company that builds cruise liner computers he contracts copper poisoning and is retired naturally what entails next is a lot of about and general high quality action as jason patrick does his level best to save the day thinking back on this film you can't help but admire it's structure the way willem dafoe initiates his plan and throws red herrings to the crew and passengers the race against time to save the liner from crashing and of course the finale chase scence although this is ruined by an over the top one too many stunt and explosion simple in construction effective in it's execution and the result a clear and concise highly enjoyable action film the acting is adequate although it's darned obvious that sandra bullock is only in it to create a totty' appeal to the men and she does that perfectly jason patrick fills the action hero role superbly and willem dafoe is just great as the crazed terrorist overall speed is a most enjoyable thrill ride not up to it's predecessor's high calibre but very good all the same there is plenty going on some of the thrills are quite tense and it also proves that you do not need blood and guts to make a good action movie
positive	after indecent proposal and up close and personal redford was wise to direct himself in a picture at last redford may look great but over the past few years he's proven himself a bigger talent behind the camera ordinary people is one of the best films of the and it was the first picture he helmed while the milagro beanfield war was only occasionally successful at combining with um realism and i've never been much of a fan of a river runs through it to the chagrin of many quiz show was dazzling energetic and convincing the horse whisperer represents both his directorial return to nature films and the first time in that redford seems equally concerned with humans and scenery plays annie maclean an uptight but respected new york magazine editor whose daughter grace johanssen loses a leg and a good friend when an early morning ride climaxes with their horses colliding with a semi grace's horse survived but barely and has gone mad annie refuses to put the animal out of his misery believing that if the horse heals it will mend grace's spirit eventually mother and daughter travel alone to montana to be with tom booker redford a famed horse whisperer who has a gift of calming horses with simple looks and touches leaving busy husband neill behind eventually they move onto the booker ranch with the rest of tom's family and annie finds herself falling in love with all things montana including naturally tom the wise and lonely trainer the horse whisperer is delicately made i dare say lyrical since to many people's ear that word is synonymous with boring hardly the horse whisperer has little to offer in the way of surprise but it does have an honesty that is refreshing and consistently enjoyable to watch especially in the final third of the story and johanssen seem like mother and daughter and you have no doubt believing that the mountain vistas would put these new yorkers under a spell especially since d p robert richardson's photography casts montana as heaven on earth a gimmicky but effective technique the filmmakers employ is a switch in aspect ratio from squarish to widescreen when the central location shifts from new york to montana the underrated sam neill turns in perhaps his most heartfelt emotive performance as the husband who is as authoritive and likeable as tom he is indeed a refreshing change from the sexist lout of a husband so many writers resort to as a for explaining away the cheating spouse's motivation unfortunately one of the horse whisperer's only flaws is the chemistry between lovers and redford i liked both of them but i didn't necessarily believe that redford would fall for such a cold fish even if the countryside air thawed her slightly luckily and curiously this is such a rich and textured movie that it doesn't quite adultery seems like an afterthought the obligatory that ties many of the characters' complex relationships together
positive	sam matthew broderick is an astronomer in a small american town and engaged to teacher linda kelly preston he is head over heels in love and lindas sudden departure to new york city to live with her new lover anton tch ky karyo comes as a complete surprise to him but as we all know love is blind and so sam leaves for new york as well to win her back he moves into an abandoned house across the street from anton's apartment and installs a camera obscura to watch them suddenly anton's ex maggie shows up but she does not want her former lover back on the contrary all she wants to do is vaporize him she may say that she doesn't want to kill him but the possibility doesn't bother her too much either after all people die every day in spite of their different motives the two team up and fall for each other as things move on the story sounds like something we all have seen a million times but we haven't griffin dunne brings us the most charming comedy since while you where sleeping the camera obscura adds a special something to the movie and makes it an exceptional romantic comedy everything about the movie is perfect from set design to casting the dialogues are inspired and the touches of black humor add a certain bite meg ryan known from when harry met sally or sleepless in seattle surprises in a role that may finally help her get rid of her sweet little girl image she impresses the viewer as a maneating biker girl even more surprising is the fact that the viewer believes her much more so than in last years courage under fire where she played a gulf war pilot matthew broderick is the goodnatured and somewhat naive sam who has trouble accepting reality the viewer can tell that he doesn't only watch the stars but also tries to reach out for them he has trouble keeping in touch with reality after all who would leave everything behind to chase a lost love his naivet that we don't question for a minute throughout the movie clashes with maggies exaggerated wish for revenge she would do anything to harm anton she doesn't hesitate to use sam for her plan and makes him understand right from the beginning that nothing will happen between the two of them that makes the scenes when they innocently share a bed have potatoe chips and watch the action across the street like a saturday night show on tv even funnier tch ky karyo is perfect as anton he is well repulsive that's all there is to say about him you can't really manage to pity him even after all his mishaps he not only took sam's bride away from him he is also a french chef worlds collide i e the usa and france this can only go wrong even if maggies revenge schemes are at times shocking you just can't sympathize with a man who plays je t'aime moi non plus on his tape deck not everyone is captured by the french charme that linda and even maggie fell for sam certainly isn't too bad for anton for him things take a turn to the worse addicted to love is one of this year's most pleasant surprises
positive	copyright graeme huggan carry on henry is all about henry viii and his eight wives sid james plays henry who no sooner has the film started is getting rid of his present queen and hopes to find another one soon as part of his alliance with france he requests the to the queen of normandy joan sims she comes to england in the hope of marrying henry but when he finds out that she loves garlic and has a reeking garlic breath he is totally averse to the idea of marriage henry's court is very corrupt with the cardinal terry scott trying to bribe cromwell kenneth williams and cromwell trying to bribe the king there is a state of crisis when the king puts marie the queen sims in the tower of london ready for execution the queen is pregnant but she has not liased with the king before so fingers are pointed at sir roger de lodgerley played by charles hawtrey who has a rather lecherous character to play this time the cardinal and cromwell decide to get a signed confession from sir roger by using all kinds of torture devices owing to circumstances sir roger is sometimes needed to sign that he is the father and sometimes that he isn't this is because of renewed threats by the king of france peter gilmore to come over himself which in the end he does by then henry has found himself a new queen played by none other than barbara windsor it looks like he has some explaining to do there are performances by sid james as henry joan sims as marie and terry scott in an unusual role as the cardinal also there are cameos from kenneth connor and peter butterworth who plays barbara's father the set and costume design is first class and the overall production of this film is good there is even an early appearance from david prowse who later became the green cross code man and darth vader the film does have it's downsides though as it is getting pretty routine for the team to stage historical films and the inventive streak of the script seems to run out pretty quickly there is also the absence of hattie jacques and bernard bresslaw who could have helped the film along however overall the film is funny and there are plenty of laughs and saucy jokes so that is why i mainly recommend it to carry on fans only but there is enough humour in the film to make it worth anyone's while to sit down and watch it
positive	this dumb cowboy blondie who thinks he is a good loverboy decides to leave his dusty ol' town somewhere in texas and go to new york he puts on his beloved cowboy attire and off he hops on the next new york coach when he arrives to new york he immediately sets out to play mr playboy thinking he is the best in the whol'o' new york city obviously he fails he meets the rico dustin hoffman who is terrifically good in a bar rico has a leg that is paralysed from the knee down so he walks in a peculiar way rico is a thief and wants to get some money off this dumb cowboy he cheats our cowboy out of through a somewhat detailed routine and disappears soon our cowboy runs out of money he gets kicked out of his hotel and starts getting hungry walking through the city with everybody's talkin' playing in the background oh and his prided techno transistor radio in hand he spots rico in a cafe rico pours out all the money in his pocket filthy cents our cowboy hungry is forgiving he is glad he found someone he knows rico offers to make it up for him and he invites him to his place and what a filthy cold place it is our cowboy falls asleep instantly in the junk bed when he finally wakes jumps up he finds rico looking at him you wanna cup'a'coffee rico asks in his friendly sleazy manner while he smokes on a ciggy what're you a goddamn faggot what do you want from me where are my shoes what did you do to them but all his doubts turn out to be unfounded rico really has a heart together they live in the junk apartment and almost freeze to death rico is convinced that the best place to be is florida where the sun shines beautifully and there are lots of coconut trees but he falls sick and is convinced that his cure is to go to florida we will soon be in miami is the last sentence uttered in this film and what a shocking moving end of a film it is the classic theme music midnight cowboy helps bring about the feeling of attachment that most viewers will experience towards the end of the film whether the attachment is to the two main characters or to their dreams is probably as debatable as whether it was the acting or the direction that makes this film so memorable
positive	playwright tom stoppard and screenwriter marc norman took on an astonishingly difficult task they wanted to write a script about william shakespeare that parallels shakespeare's works they also wanted to poke fun at the way all of us envision shakespeare i mean really who doesn't think of shakespeare as a guy seething with so much passion that he can barely write a play without exploding into a passionate introspective verbal couplet of iambic pentameter stoppard and norman are men who love shakespeare and they wanted to make a movie for everyone else who loves shakespeare and despite the difficulty of their task they have succeeded shakespeare in love is one of the smartest funniest most touching films of the year it's so rare that a picture with such high aspirations succeeds in all of its endeavors but here we have a movie that defines success it is at once charmingly acted and flawlessly written it could have been a smug movie that panders to shakespeare fans but the appeal of this film is almost universal if you've ever read a play by shakespeare or know anything about his life it's likely that you'll find grand entertainment in shakespeare in love joseph fiennes brother of ralph stars as shakespeare himself he's a delightful irresistible lad concerned mostly with women and detached from life's more serious problems debt plague etc he's commissioned to write plays for various people queen elizabeth judi dench wants comedies while local slimeball philip henslowe geoffrey rush needs him to write a play so that he can pay off his debts to hugh fennymann tom wilkinson shakespeare however has trouble focusing on his work he begins work on a comedy about a boy named romeo and a girl named ethel this all changes however when he meets viola de lesseps a radiant gwyneth paltrow a young heiress set to marry the lord wessex colin firth shakespeare instantly falls in love with her he first meets her when she pretends to be a man to try out for the part of romeo he discovers her identity and confronts her later she of course falls in love with him although their love is doomed because she absolutely must marry the tyrannical lord wessex but she continues to act because she loves shakespeare's writing so much and soon the production which later becomes romeo and juliet is set to be performed shakespeare in love is an amazingly good film not because it works as great entertainment but because it pays attention to detail and knows its subject matter i was instantly won over by joseph fiennes in the lead role he has such searing optimism and energy he's clearly a man who admires shakespeare and even in the shortcomings that he gives his character inability to turn away from women attention deficit disorder we sense a great deal of affection and care he practically overflows with passion in every scene fiennes is matched by paltrow whose english accent is so good that wonder where she actually comes from she is an actress who exudes strength and conviction in every performance i've seen her in the two performers work perfectly together taking the passionate scenes as far as possible without making them melodramatic and wringing the comedic scenes for every conceivable laugh of course it doesn't hurt that they have a masterful script to work with stoppard whose play rozencrantz and guildenstern are dead inspired an interesting film is full of dry wit and boundless understated humor all of his plays have similarly dry humor the first intelligent step stoppard and norman took was harmonizing the events of the film with romeo and juliet one of the funniest scenes in the film is an imitation of the famous terrace scene from the play in the movie shakespeare is bumbling about while viola is trying to fend off her nurse maid director john madden does a fantastic job dabbling in slapstick humor scenes like these would have seemed obtuse in the hands of a lesser director i'm going to have to see the movie again i'm certain there are numerous references that i missed in fact i doubt it's possible to gather everything with just one viewing stoppard is a master of detail you'll notice familiar lines placed throughout the film not as lines of a play but as dialogue suggesting that shakespeare simply spoke like that all the time there's also a brilliant running joke in which shakespeare is in constant competition with christopher marlowe and the fact that marlowe is played by the rupert everett is a joke in of itself proposing a slightly twisted explanation to marlowe's mysterious death in a pub there's also a scene featuring a dog that is so funny that i hurt myself laughing there's no dog in this play no no dog the ensemble cast is perhaps the strongest this year geoffrey rush is nearly unrecognizable as the detestable henslowe wilkinson is also hard to recognize but has a great role as a thug who takes his part as the apothecary so seriously ben affleck playing one of the actors in the company shows great range both in his accent his is almost as good as paltrow's and in humor he has some of the best in the movie colin firth always stuck playing the sap does a good job being hateful judi dench however has the best supporting performance as queen elizabeth rarely has so much depth been conveyed in so few words my single minor complaint about shakespeare in love is that i feel like i could have been more moved by the end the story is moving but there are a few missed opportunities in the final scenes but my quibbling is not important what is important is that i acknowledge the quality of this picture the sheer skill with which it has been written acted and produced shakespeare in love tries so many things and nails every one of them it's a film that both loves shakespeare and makes fun of him a film in which the actors writers and director are all perfectly in sync it's also a movie that has the potential to introduce a lot of people to shakespeare's work in a positive way without seeming condescending or superior i admire this film not only because it passes so pleasantly but because it has lofty aspirations and succeeds in them not just any film can poke fun at shakespeare and get away with it
positive	titantic writer and director james cameron's much anticipated and sometimes ridiculed epic arrives shortly into the theaters so the question naturally arises whether the film is worth it as a business proposition it seems hard to see how it can ever break even but as a movie it is nothing short of wonderful if you've already neatly categorized it as yet another disaster movie a la volcano or the poseidon adventure think again the movie is both a great love story told with the disaster as a backdrop and a portrayal of one of the world's most memorable disasters made real and personal by seeing it through the eyes of two young lovers in either case it is filmmaking at its best when we entered the press screening my wife asked the publicity rep if there would be an intermission since the film runs three and a quarter hours long he said no but that the time would go by so fast she'd never notice the length amazingly he was right titanic is one of the few long films that doesn't suffer because of it the lush picture filmed by russell carpenter in opens in the present with two diving subs exploring the wreck of the titanic on the bottom of the ocean fortune hunter brock lovett bill paxton leads the expedition looking for the world's most valuable diamond necklace that went down with the ship known back then as the ship of dreams the necklace's former owner rose dewitt bukater gloria stuart finds brock to tell him her story although almost all of the movie happens in flashback one of the engineers shows the elderly rose exactly how the ship was sunk using a computer simulation the movie takes the time to explain what will happen later which adds immensely to making a lucid story out of what would have otherwise been hopelessly confusing after twenty minutes the story makes its jump to the past as the titanic leaves on her maiden voyage in a classic movie theme the two parts of the ship first class and steerage exist in sharp contrast the strength of the script is the way it paints the differences between rich and poor without excessive moralizing entering the ship on its day out is rose along with her millionaire fiance cal hockley played with perfect snobbishness by billy zane and thanks to a last minute winning poker hand an itinerant artist named jack dawson gets himself into a little shared cabin in third class even with her own promenade deck rose feels trapped on the ship what with an upcoming marriage to a man she loathes in contrast jack can barely contain his euphoria at being on board after jack saves rose from committing suicide they start a brief but impassioned love affair never tawdry and rarely explicit their romance has the power to sweep the audience into the story leonardo dicaprio in his best performance ever plays jack with confidence and charisma in so many ways small and large he makes all the right decisions in his approach to the part when he confronts cal for example he remains composed and polite and yet subtly undermines every one of cal's supercilious kate winslet gives a wonderfully captivating performance as young rose the chemistry between these two academy award nominees him for what's eating gilbert grape and her for sense and sensibility is nothing short of astonishing from the scene where he embarrasses her by repeatedly asking if she loves her finace to the beautiful one of them hanging off the ship's bow to the one where she embarrasses him by asking him to paint her nude they dazzle the screen with a pair of mesmerizing performances if the film breaks after an hour and a half which is how long cameron wisely waits to have the iceberg show up you will still get one of the best films of the year peter lamont's sets are more than authentic one scene for example starts with the captain played with insouciance by bernard hill having his tea on deck it then shifts to the ship's massive gears and then to the boiler room filled with sweating muscular men shoveling in the coals the handsome interior common rooms of the ship resemble a palace more than an ocean liner easily the most fascinating part of the story is what happens after the iceberg hits and before the battle with the water begins in earnest at first since the iceberg tears a series of little gashes in the hull not some big gaping hole the passengers view the hit as more of curiosity than anything else what a lark we've struck an iceberg now let's get back to our brandy and cigars the ship's musicians play like troopers through it all even after the panic sets in after all they see it as their duty to calm the passengers when the musicians are about to die they politely thank each other for the pleasure of being able to play together and they mean it their civility borders on insanity but it is touching nevertheless the story is so rich that my description has merely touched the surface there are more than enough characters to love and to hate and all of the casting is special effects work best when their presence becomes almost undetectable in titanic for which he created a scale model of the entire ship cameron strove for accuracy at all costs the most dramatic moment in the film happens when the ship breaks in two and the front section becomes vertical in the water people are flung like ants either into the water to be shortly frozen to death or into other parts of the ship to be crushed immediately besides being romantic and dramatic the script includes liberal doses of humor from the many deliciously subtle verbal to the physical comedy as when jack teaches rose to spit like a man the show elicits laughter in addition to perhaps a few tears it's for a little while a less than confident father tells his little girl since it was indeed women and children first this boat's for mommies and children there'll be a boat in a little while for daddies basically there was a design decision to have fewer than half of the necessary life boats it made the decks look too crowded otherwise perhaps the sinking is best summarized by one of the guggenheim's the ship in the dining room with the lifeboats gone and the ship certain to sink he is offered a life jacket by one of the crew no thanks the elegantly attired guggenheim replies we're dressed in our best and would prefer to go down like gentlemen but we would like a brandy titanic runs it is rated for tastefully and delicately presented sex and nudity and would be fine for kids twelve and up
positive	the sweet hereafter could serve as a textbook example of the difference between television movies and real movies consider for a moment what a television producer would do with a book that features a fatal school bus accident and a lawyer out to sign up the bereaved lots of hot sensationalism interrupted with breaks to sell beer and toothpaste writer and director atom egoyan delivers instead a film with tremendous power whose most notable trait is its touching subtlety based on a respected book of the same name by author russell banks the movie represents a rethinking of the story's structure not merely a literal adaptation of the novel told in linear form by four narrators in the book egoyan's version happens instead in overlapping time sequences and without a narrator the author is even on record as applauding egoyan's changes in the press notes the book's author describes the story as a parable of lost children he says it asks what a town does in the absence of its children picking up on this egoyan has a flashback in which a sitter nicole burnell played with grace by sarah polley reads parts of the pied piper from an old illustrated book to her two charges periodically throughout the picture nicole's readings are heard in you have never heard this moving poem read so sweetly or in such an appropriate moment they and the rest of the town's children come into harm's way some live and others are seriously injured and the entire small canadian town where the accident occurs is never the same again although the physical damage is inflicted mainly on the children the adults bear the emotional scars of the loss ian holm in arguably the best performance of his distinguished career plays mitchell stephens an intense man of quiet misery mitchell is the outsider in the story set in a small community in the british columbian wilderness his mission there is a singular one to sign up the parents so that he can sue someone anyone on their behalf if this seems crass well it is but mitchell approaches his job with the dedication of a religious zealot the story unfolds slowly and always believably each little aspect has its own fascination as mitchell interviews wendell and rita walker played with quiet realism by maury chaykin and alberta watson he has a simple task he wants them to suggest some model couple in the village who has a lost a child so that he can use that couple to form the basis of the suit wendell ticks off one town member after another and then as one can in a small town enumerates each person's numerous faults although the town is no peyton place people there do have their foibles one of the best parents in the town appears to be billy ansell bruce greenwood who rides his pickup behind the school bus everyday just so he can wave to his kids well single parent billy's fault is that he has regularly scheduled trysts with the married rita his confessions to rita about his feelings of loss are one of the many heartfelt outpourings in the story the accident itself a simple one of a bus hitting a patch of ice isn't shown until the middle of the picture but nevertheless the mystery about it builds throughout the film although the picture is no detective story finding out exactly what happened is a subtheme in a movie that is primarily a character study of a town gripped by tragedy as the injured bus driver gabrielle rose dolores driscoll plays the role of a dedicated individual who loves kids with a passion and for whom the tragedy takes on special meaning to round out the story mitchell has his own private tragedy to bear his daughter zoe caerthan banks is a drug addict who has bounced in and out of one house and recovery center after another fond of calling her dad on his cell phone so she can ask for money or help she interrupts him at many emotionally charged moments as he attempts to sign up the townsfolk i can help you mitchell tries to reassure billy not unless you can raise the dead billy snaps back mitchell's pitch is never an easy one and worrying about zoe only makes it harder mychael danna's haunting music sets the stage for tragedy the cinematography by paul sarossy is sweeping in its outdoor grandeur but it is in the warm shadowy intimate moments indoors where it works best the show which is ripe for emotional manipulation never plays with its audience still when the house lights go up you may feel as i did i could barely breathe i was so overcome by the sum total of what i had witnessed more than anything the film is like a master painting each cinematic brush stroke is carefully laid down by egoyan with the beauty building with each dollop of paint with the final color in place the masterpiece is complete and the ending credits roll the sweet hereafter runs it is rated r for mature themes sexuality and some profanity and would be fine teenagers
positive	warning to those who have not seen seven this review contains some spoiler information seven is a powerful film on the level of the silence of the lambs it is a disturbing film that accomplishes its biggest of occupies the viewers mind long after the closing credits have rolled while this film is not for the squeamish there is no denying that seven demands attention for it is a film that transcends its genre in both style and substance for starters classifying seven as a thriller would not be an altogether complete classification of this film while i was genuinely thrilled throughout i would rather call seven an intense drama because that is what it scenes with a relentlessness that does not readily let up part of director david finchers accomplishment is in style he seems to have a knack for knowing exactly how the average person fears something as simple as a corpse and visually fincher shows us the remains of murder victims in and graphic terms courtesy of rob bottin's special effects throw in the appropriate but effects of lighting and a foreboding score and the result is a technical masterpiece of the murder scene these scenes alone are quite impressive as fascinating as they are harrowing yet seven is more than just a technical accomplishment in addition to style fincher supplies substance seven has compelling characters that it wants us to know and understand and fincher ties them all together in a completely pessimistic view of society detective william somerset morgan freeman is a man who has nearly given up on the world its easy to see why the world doesn't make sense somerset drives this point home with a rather ghastly story of a robbery victim who was attacked just blocks from the police precinct after knocked down and robbed of his wallet the attacker stabbed the helpless man in both eyes why should somerset believe that by following this murder investigation and picking up the pieces he will be able to catch the killer somersets new partner david mills brad pitt has not given up on the world perhaps because he is still young and perhaps by having this optimism he's naive in this films portrayal of the world he completely disagrees with somersets abandonment of hope however david's wife gwyneth paltrow has so much fear of her urban surroundings she isn't even sure if she wants to tell her husband about her recent pregnancy let alone carry it until birth and attempt to raise it in this environment these three characters are all performed with skill and authenticity that makes them feel like real people and not the typical hollywood characters a lesser film might have offered and in addition to making clear how each of these characters sees the world fincher gives us support for why they feel the way they do but if there's one character that underlines the message seven is trying to convey it has to be the killer john doe kevin spacey seven's payoff lies in its ability to allow us to see how the killer views the world and what drives him to do what he does one important thing to remember about doe is how easy it is to simply dismiss him as a psycho with no motives behind his slayings this is exactly the mistake mills makes in the extremely intense and superbly performed closing scenes were allowed to see that doe is in his mind merely a product of society he's a killer who kills those who are bringing society down in his mind he didn't kill innocent people and perhaps they were not completely innocent but then again who is hes absolutely infuriated that mills believes that the murder victims were innocent really seven doesn't just comment on the superficial obviousness of how john doe is seven makes larger statements about how society is hinting that society's degradation is simply conducive of creating more john does besides the stylistic and arguments for seeing this film i recommend seven because it is after all also a very slick and thriller it features exciting plot developments commanding performances lots of suspense and a conclusion that is chilling riveting and quite unfair but then again its a cruel world
positive	modern audiences are more likely to be familiar with les misirables from the musical rather than victor hugo's original tome adapted several times for the cinema this latest effort does a superb job of translating the characters story and heart of the novel to the screen liam neeson stars as jean valjean as a young man valjean stole some bread to satisfy his hunger and he was sentenced to years of hard labor for his crimes prison hardened him and on his release he seems doomed to a life of crime and squalor however an unexpected act of compassion changes his outlook on life and he vows to become a better man however he runs up against one man who doesn't believe in reform inspector javert geoffrey rush is an obsessive law abider he has no tolerance for anyone who breaks the rules even with benign intentions he once served as a guard at the labor camp where valjean served and after valjean breaks his parole javert devotes himself to bringing him to justice two women also get caught up in the struggle fantine uma thurman is an unwed mother suffocating in an unforgiving society her daughter cosette mimi newman and later claire danes is her life yet she cannot afford to raise her instead cosette is sent to live with a cruel foster family which extorts money from fantine and forces cosette into a life little better than a slave director bille august manages to create a faithful adaptation of victor hugo's novel which though omitting some of the political undertones remains true to the overall story and tone of the book hopefully you won't as some clueless members of the audience did wonder where all the songs went the movie manages to be completely engrossing without the andrew lloyd webber flourishes the experience is bolstered by strong performances throughout though neeson and rush deservedly take center stage with their core roles neeson in particular deserves kudos for his portrayal of a man trying to do good but continually haunted by his past the supporting cast is also extraordinary the only actor who dims in comparison is hans matheson playing the revolutionary marius the film slightly loses its luster during his brief love affair but it is transitory and truly only distracting when contrasted with the rest of the film the novel les misirables is by any account an epic both in its scope and in its length while it would be nearly impossible to cram everything from its pages into a two hour movie this latest attempt does an admirable job at the translation it too is an epic and one worth seeing
positive	i was born in which makes me barely old enough to remember bell buttons tracks and disco however since i was years old i've seen more than my share of adult films i mention this only because i thinks its important to state up front that i'm not against pornogrpahy i've seen enough of these films to know the range of content and quality available director paul thomas anderson's boogie nights offers us a view into the world of porn during the period considered to be the golden age of adult cinema the mid to late this was the period when movies were real movies shot on film shown in movie theaters and even reviewed by legitimate critics this was an age when porn directors actually aspired to make innovative often educational films films that attempted to tell a real story one of the more fascinating aspects of this film is how like in an any other billion dollar industry the creative visionaries tend to be ignorant to the trends that will soon make them obsolete in this case the arrival of the now ubiquitous videocassette burt reynold's manages to resuscitate his career portraying such an auteur known as jack horner horner's has a steady family of performers some of whom live in his plush l a home but in the world of porn performers are a commodity the fresher the better when horner scouts a fresh faced stud bussing tables at his favorite discotheque he decides to add him to his stable it is a pairing that leads to a meteoric rise and fall for a young man reaching his prime and an old man rapidly speeding past his as directed by anderson the camera moves through many of the scenes with an eerie omnipresence and an almost childlike curiosity to peer beyond the closed door boogie nights provides a voyeuristic peep into the underbelly of l a hardcore film scene but the peep show doesnut let us walk away when the titillation ends the downside of voyeurism is sometimes we end up seeing things we wish we hadnut by the film's final image what we we once found titillating has now become a grim reminder of the vanity of fame and the high price of realizing your dreams boogie nights is not about sex it does not glorify porn or the lifestyles of the performers in fact the film isn't really about pornography at all pornography is merely the setting to tell a compelling story about a lost and forgotten group of people who form their own to find acceptance of who they are the film goes to brilliant often hilarious and sometimes harrowing lengths to show us that the people who choose to produce or perform in these films are generally not all that bright and lack the basic tools to function in the mainstream world yet like in the lauded tarantino films these people still have their own moral code their own concepts of integrity and their own needs to experess themselves creatively the characters we meet are like a road map of dysfuntion first stop the den mother julianne moore in denial about her addiction to cocaine as she tries to retain custody of her son second stop the cuckold crewman william h macy who keeps discovering his wife having sex with anyone and everyone the wife is played in hilarious cameos by porn star nina hartley but the driving force behind the plot is year old eddie adams eddie is blessed with a natural endowment so famous that people actually pay just to see it with no real ambition of his own he hooks up with jack horner to fullfill his destiny of fame his alcoholic mother clearly dissatisfied with her own lot abuses him verbally and drives him out of the house horner introduces him to amber waves moore who immediately adopts him a nuclear family is born the surrogate relationship that develops between amber waves and her babies provides some of the films most poignant scenes clearly she is not even fit to manage her own life let alone nurture these lost children but the need to love and be loved is so strong they easily ignore the dangers of the less subtle addiction she introduces them to even the viewer is somehow lulled into feeling like the love she offers is similar to being in a real family then again perhaps its not so different from real families at all eddie adams who later takes on the screen name dirk diggler is skillfully acted by former mark wahlberg i say former pop star because with this performance wahlberg can officially quit his day job this is bold and brave territory for such a young man he pulls it off marvelously wahlberg is a big bright star with a big bright future boogie nights plays very much in the spirit of the people versus larry flynt without the first amendment preachiness its intimate studies of character make it the superior film wahlberg's surprising performance is on par with woody harrelson's but in my opinion boogie nights is not the best film of the year i got the feeling that itus hour running time could have been cut by or minutes without losing any of its resonance still if the subject matter of this film intimidates you thereus no doubt that once you start watching boogie nights you may still feel like its not your thing but youull find yourself grooving to it anyway ya know kinda like disco
positive	i remember making a pact right after adams' to not be easily be suckered by movies dripping with sentimentality but darn it of the heart' is just layered with material and bright characterizations it's hard to dislike a movie that uses such skill with it's manipulation in addition it's also a terrific family film this is the true story of violin teacher roberta guaspari who fought the school board to keep the musical program active in a handful of inner city harlem schools it could also be described as streep's opus' yes meryl streep brings her dramatic clout to the demanding role of guaspari and that brings both good news and bad out of the gate possibly because of her distracting star power and the rushed writing it is relatively difficult to identify with roberta's character and grasp her academic she is very strict with her students but what insight does that create into the story slowly but surely we begin to recognize the intentions of the character and show admiration for the thoughtfulness and human feeling that streep has once again applied one thoroughly interesting fact about of the heart' lies with the unlikely presence in the director's chair horror veteran wes craven after leaving an impression with the films and the original on elm street' craven has attempted a precarious to drama at first his inexperience with the genre is fairly obvious but as the film progresses craven finds a surprisingly comfortable niche with directing this material it doesn't carry the courage of holland's opus' but of the heart' is casually assured and filled with little morsels of dramatic truth the tag team of streep and craven works better than you would anticipate yes oscar could come calling once again for meryl streep but it's the solid ensemble cast that makes of the heart' work angela bassett displays her usual forceful stamina as janet williams the principal at an inner city school who initially doesn't hire roberta because of her lack of experience adian quinn is endearing as always playing a new love interest gloria estefan also delivers in the tiny role of a supportive teacher and the three lead actresses together produce a flaming fireball of estrogenic force it's like a schoolteacher's version of and louise' in a restrained but effective manner the movie tackles more issues than just guaspari's teaching of violin there's some powerful moments between roberta and her two sons who must cope when their father leaves them for another woman in it's dramatic the movie manages to produce some authentic moments of feeling and warmth it's a good movie for anyone to see although missing out on the experience would not be a decision it's commendable of wes craven to be attempting such a difficult and also for achieving his intricate goal watching this heartfelt chick flick about morals and musical instruments who may ask yourself this is the guy who directed of course when the third installment of that series comes around in february with craven directing you may find yourself wondering this is the guy who directed of the heart' mission accomplished wes thankfully there is no layer of artificial sentiment covering the film in it's entirety it's a wholesome and agreeable movie for the whole family despite the periodic flaws that surface every once in awhile the child actors are cute and perform up to par even if some of their problems are clich d and predictable in the extreme the mother who doesn't want her son to be learning man's music' the unexpected casuality basically everything is there it doesn't strike the perfect chord but of the heart' is highly convincing the uplifting true story of roberta guaspari could have been told better but of the heart' is still edifying enough to properly divulge her morals
positive	vannesa kensington do you smoke after sex austin powers don't know baby i've never looked and so begins our journey into the most anticipated sequel of the summer season austin powers the sequel to the sleeper hit of is filled to the brim with uproarious sight gags and lurid toilet jokes that will make you keel over with hilarity the mind of mike myers is obviously a very bizarre place myers returns as the swinging spy and his the bald headed dr evil who is given much of the spotlight here there's an early scene in which dr evil and his son scott seth green appear on a jerry springer segment entitled dad is evil and wants to take over the world' hosted by springer himself most of these gags spoofing everything from oprah to regis and kathie lee are no longer as funny as they once were happily this is an exception especially when a fight breaks out between dr evil and the other guests sample back here you mother you want a piece of me the audience was in stitches there are many good things about this sequel dr evil is now assisted by verne troyer a clone who is the result of an experiment gone awry is the most perfect new character that any fan could ask for and troyer does a terrific job of mimicking everything that his big brother does pinkie and all mindy sterling returns as frau farbissina evil's assassin sidekick and here we are treated to a brief romantic liaison between the two in an underground bedroom chamber this works surprisingly well afterward there's even a meeting at the coffee machine where their awkwardness is expressed in a scene you would expect in any normal office environment oh yes the plot after a short honeymoon with vanessa kensington elizabeth hurley that goes disastrously wrong powers is back on the case to thwart the diabolical plans of dr evil in the original the subject of the day was cryogenic freezing that enabled the characters to hop between two time periods here it's time travel dr evil has this crazy plan to steal austin's mojo the source of his sexual powers so he jumps through a time portal back into when powers is still is his freezing chamber there he employs a grotesque scottish assassin named fat bastard also myers to commandeer the mojo so that our future hero is left completely shagless meanwhile austin is informed of evil's by basil exposition michael york and is supplied with his very own device in the form of a volkswagen beetle once back in powers meets a foxy cia operative named felicity shagwell heather graham and learns of dr evil's plans to destroy washington dc with a lazer on the moon in one of the many uproarious jabs at star wars evil calls the moon base a star' if there ever was a movie that knew from the start it was a complete joke it's austin powers the spy who shagged me has many hilarious moments much more so than the original austin powers but what it doesn't have is the confident support system that the first boasted and the jokes are now more scattershot and while myers has a knack for delivering clever inspired gags he sometimes doesn't know when to call it quits the hilarious scene in the original involving mustafa will ferrell and his refusal to die is played out here in a disappointing and tired manner robert wagner as dr evil's man has only one scene early on in the film where he lacks all the focus of the character one nice surprise is rob lowe as the young who patterns wagner's voice and movements right down to a tee there are more recycled jokes from the predecessor including kristen johnston as ivana humpalot an unfunny rendition of alotta fagina but myers has clearly put so much dedication into this project and many bits are funny don't miss an extended visual gag in a tent where the shadows leave much to the imagination of the new characters graham doesn't leave much of an impression her performance is merely okay and she lacks the enthusiasm that made elizabeth hurley so enjoyable before her and as for fat bastard well he provides one or two hilarious moments but all of the obesity jokes and bathroom talk go too far but my most severe complaint mr bigglesworth was only in one scene but with gritted teeth i managed to get over that this sequel will not leave fans disappointed it's more often than not a laugh riot and i look optimistically to the future where i foresee more installments to the austin powers collection if myers can up the quota of fresh ideas we should be in store for much more c jamey hughton jamey hughton has written a weekly column in the starphoenix saskatoon sk since november he was a writing finalist in the canadian ytv achievement awards
positive	the premise of the new horror film destination' causes a recollection of a memorable halloween episode after attempting to repair a malfunctioning toaster lovably ignorant patriarch homer realizes he has created a portable after a trek into the cretaceous period homer observes that any minor alteration made there will erupt into a starling chain of events and seriously modify the present world again and again homer toys with the master plan and pays dearly for it the characters of destination' have also tampered with the blueprint schematics of their existence their someone is after them with the strict intent of correcting the mistake that someone is death you see alex browning devon sawa and six others have cheated the grim reaper but the dude has got some tricks up his sleeve for a high school excursion alex's french class is traveling to paris by airline transport alex tense and neurotic has a shocking premonition after boarding he sees the plane and every passenger on it spontaneously explode in in a panic of sheer lunacy alex charges his way through the aisle and demands removal from the aircraft after a handful of others including one teacher follow and are denied admittance back onto the plane the unwitting survivors' watch in horror as the plane actually explodes in the drizzling night sky the loony vision alex experiences does actually materialize but death won't be cheated so easily and one by one the survivors of flight are offed in mysteriously gruesome circumstances the grisly murder count baffles the local officials and fbi before i delve into the meat of the review i'd just like to confer is that one helluva premise or what destination' creepy beyond rational comprehension probably reads more like an unsettling episode than simpsons' therefore the surprise is minimal when you discover the mutual creators behind both are glen morgan and james wong on familiar turf the task of establishing footing is not difficult for morgan and wong and the opening minutes of destination' reflects that unlike most thrillers the is crisp and cool you just deeply sincerely hope that the momentum won't unspool leaving us with a effort with nothing but cheap derivative shocks young viewers have a palpable reason to expect this kind of formula deterioration what with know what you did last summer' and sequel hands' and a movie with a nifty premise that just plunged like an anvil legend' after the when i remained slouched apprehensively in my chair i started to really have fun with destination' low and behold a teen thriller that is actually unsettling actually suspenseful and yes actually intelligent some splotty logic and a heap of characteristic genre flaws aside this film is among the most refreshing and enjoyable horror movies to submerge since the in destination' stimulates the nerves and offers a exhilarating retaliation strike against all the slasher crap we've endured throughout the past few years not that the characters are that good sawa is game as alex a personality that we never fully comprehend in addition the survivors are endearing geek tod chad e donella jocky carter kerr smith of creek' carter's ditzy girlfriend terry amanda detmer the named billy hitchcock seann william scott supplier of lukewarm comic relief and a lone teacher the emotionally delicate ms lewton kristin cloke aside from alex the primary center of interest is intended to be ali larter blues' playing an abstract character named clear rivers what were her parents thinking the personality of clear is written with such a vague nebulous definition that she resembles a walking saying i am the offbeat character designed to identify with the main character's plight toss a few stereotypical fbi agents daniel roebuck and roger guenveur smith and a ummm mortician former tony todd into the mix and you have what could be another generic teenage frightfest with slicing dicing and assorted disembowelments not so destination' has no slicing and dicing or at least none dealt by a human killer and the thought of death itself as the unseen stalker is unique and frightening the extra dimension of disconcerting irony rejuvenates the decaying concept with assistance from a shrewd intelligently paced screenplay by morgan wong and jeffrey reddick the plot twists are fun and clever without toppling into utter absurdity listen up games' but i suppose the most satisfying aspect of destination' is the murder scenes creative resourceful and breathlessly inventive the death sequences involve an unlikely string of events leading to a character's demise what will trigger the accident will it be the john denver record just put on to play mountain high' yeah sick humor will it be the leaking toilet the falling fishing reel in the corner the murders are startling and largely unforeseen including one surprise incident that made the audience jump out of their seats and giggle nervously for roughly a minute afterward a sense of giddy unpredictability is added with this inventive approach it gets sorta tasteless and cheap sometimes but who cares it's fun in that simple regard destination' is my cup of tea this stylishly executed thriller although tagged with laughable circumstances and the occasional snippet of lame dialogue is an immensely entertaining jaunt to the dark side after the show it will also have an frightening impact on you when will your design' expire is death waiting around the corner the effect is a major case of the
positive	it is easy to see why the late stanley kubrick believed steven spielberg would be the perfect director for his a i artificial intelligence just as it is understandable why spielberg was attracted to the material for here we have another lost boy trying to find his way home an outcast seeking family themes very familiar from most of spielberg's body of work from sugarland express to close encounters of the third kind to e t to empire of the sun to hook to saving private ryan naming just a few examples a i is set in an undefined near future in which giant technological advances have led to the creation of robots who serve every purpose from housekeeping to fulfilling sexual fantasies it is an era when robots are treated merely as sophisticated appliances the last great leap in robotic evolution is the addition of emotions and with the number of births limited by the government many couples are yearning for children and professor hobby william hurt has the solution a robotic boy named david haley joel osment who is programmed to love as a test david is placed with henry swinton sam robards and his wife monica frances o'connor their son has been cryogenically frozen until a cure can be found for his illness the first third of a i deals with david's life with the swintons and how that is changed by the recovery and return of their son martin circumstances force david to be cut off from the swintons he is abandoned and alone david highly influenced by the fairy tale pinocchio feels that if he becomes a real boy he can rekindle monica's love for him the film's second act follows david's search for the blue fairy whom he believes will be able to fulfill his wish during these adventures he meets and is helped by gigolo joe jude law a robot who specializes in sex spielberg is at his top form in this sequence offering a brutal flesh fair where robots are destroyed via sadistic methods for the amusement of paying customers here is where kubrick's influence is strongly felt as the movie explores the fear and distrust humans have for robots the savagery conjures up images from the late director's a clockwork orange at about two hours and minutes the film begins to falter during the last minutes a sequence that seems most spielbergian with images that appear to be borrowed from close encounters it is all very and jarring these scenes seem almost superfluous as if from a different film a i is a dark fairy tale that deserves its rating it is a story combining hope and intolerance sacrifice and bigotry and while it does not coalesce perfectly the movie does offer some disturbing images but a i is really a showcase for the acting talents of the amazing young osment if ever an actor deserved an academy award nomination it is this lad who brings a sense of joy and wonder to the role of david a being created for the express purpose of loving he shines when with monica beaming with love as eager as a puppy to please after being left in the woods he is confused lost hurt focusing on one objective to become a real boy and find his way home so he can redeem himself in his mother's eyes law is pleasant as the robot who really doesn't understand david's quest but is nonetheless happy to help him on his journey probably the toughest role is o'connor's monica playing an emotional fragile woman who sees david as a substitute for her lost martin she grows conflicted after her boy returns and she begins to perceive david not as a second chance but as a threat to her family she gives her character enough emotional chaos that you cannot fault her for her course of action many of a i futuristic sets are breathtaking especially a mostly submerged new york lost to the world by the melting of the polar ice caps a i is a flawed film and you cannot get through the entire feature without pondering even subconsciously how it would have turned out with kubrick instead of spielberg behind the camera would it have been darker more cynical we will never know we can only judge what is before us on the screen a collaboration of two cinematic giants a i is a most interesting and examination of a future that is quickly gaining on us
positive	here's a word analogy amistad is to the lost world as schindler's list is to jurassic park in after steven spielberg made the monster dino hit many critics described schindler's list as the director's penance as if there was a need for him to apologize for making a blockbuster now after a layoff spielberg is back with a vengeance once again his summer release was special flick with dinosaurs munching on human appetizers now following his pattern he has fashioned another serious inspirational christmas release about the nature of humanity that film is amistad although not as masterful as schindler's list amistad is nevertheless a gripping motion picture thematically rich impeccably crafted and intellectually stimulating the only area where this movie falls a little short is in its emotional impact watching schindler's list was a powerful almost spiritual experience spielberg pulled us into the narrative absorbed us in the drama then finally let us go exhausted and shattered hours later aspects of the movie have stayed with me ever since amistad while a fine example of film making is not as transcendent the incident of the ship la amistad is not found in any history books but considering who writes the texts that's not a surprise however the event is a part of the american social and legal fabric and while amistad does not adhere rigorously to the actual account most of the basic facts are in order several mostly minor changes have been made to enhance the film's dramatic force on the whole while amistad may not be faithful to all of the details of the situation it is true to the spirit and meaning of what transpired one stormy night during the summer of the men imprisoned on the spanish slave ship la amistad escape led by the cinque djimon hounsou they take control of the vessel killing most of the crew adrift somewhere off the coast of cuba and uncertain how to make their way back to africa they rely on the two surviving spaniards to navigate the eastward journey they are tricked however and the la amistad which makes its way northward off the united states' eastern coastline is eventually captured by an american naval ship near connecticut the kidnapped africans are shackled and thrown into prison charged with murder and piracy the first men to come to the africans' defense are abolitionists theodore joadson morgan freeman and lewis tappan stellan skarsgard they are soon joined by roger baldwin matthew mcconaughey a property attorney of little repute aided by advice from former president john quincy adams anthony hopkins baldwin proves a more persuasive orator than anyone gave him credit for and his central argument that the prisoners were illegally kidnapped free men not property convinces the judge but powerful forces have aligned against baldwin's cause current president martin van buren nigel hawthorne eager to please southern voters and old queen isabella of spain anna paquin begins pulling strings to ensure that none of the africans goes free at its heart amistad is a tale of human courage cinque is a heroic figure whose spirit remains unbreakable regardless of the pain and indignity he is subjected to he is a free man not a slave and while he recognizes that he may die as a result of his struggle he will not give it up effectively portrayed by newcomer djimon hounsou whose passion and screen presence arrest our attention cinque is the key to viewers seeing the amistad africans as more than symbols in a battle of ideologies they are individuals and our ability to make that distinction is crucial to the movie's success to amplify this point spielberg presents many scenes from the africans' detailing their observations about some of the white man's rituals the larger struggle is of course one of defining humanity as the nazis felt justified in slaughtering jews because they viewed their victims as so the forces of amistad use a similar defense the abolitionists regard the africans as men but the slavers and their supporters see them as animals or property in a sense the morality of slavery is on trial here with the specter of civil war which would break out less than three decades later looming over everything amistad's presentation of the legal and political intricacies surrounding the trial are fascinating making this movie one of the most engrossing courtroom dramas in recent history four claimants come forward against the africans the state which wants them tried for murder the queen of spain who wants them handed over to her under the provision of an treaty two american naval officers who claim the right of high seas salvage and the two surviving spaniards from la amistad who demand that their property be returned to them baldwin must counter all of these claims while facing a challenge to his own preconceived notions as the result of a relationship he develops with cinque even though attorney and client are divided by a language barrier they gradually learn to communicate aside from cinque who is a individual characterization is spotty but the acting is matthew mcconaughey successfully overcomes his pretty boy image to become baldwin but the lawyer is never particularly outside of his role in the la amistad case likewise while morgan freeman and stellan skarsgard are effective as joadson and tappan they are never anything more than abolitionists nigel hawthorne who played the title character in the madness of king george presents martin van buren as a spineless sycophant to whom justice means far less than winning an election finally there's anthony hopkins whose towering portrayal of john quincy adams is as compelling as anything the great actor has recently done hopkins who can convincingly play such diverse figures as a serial killer an english butler and richard nixon makes us believe that he is adams his speech about freedom and human values is unforgettable one point of difference worth noting between amistad and schindler's list is this film's lack of a human villain schindler's list had ralph fiennes' amon goeth who was not only a character but a personification of all that the nazis stood for there is no such figure in amistad the villain is slavery but an ideology no matter how evil is rarely the best adversary it is to spielberg's credit that he has fashioned such a compelling motion picture without a prominent antagonist amistad's trek to the screen which encountered some choppy waters author barbara has cried plagiarism a charge denied by the film makers comes in the midst of an upsurge of interest in the incident an opera of the same name opened in chicago on november numerous books about the subject are showing up on bookstore shelves it remains to be seen how much longevity the amistad phenomena has but one thing is certain with spielberg's rousing substantive film leading the way the spotlight has now illuminated this chapter of american history
positive	you know you're in for a truly different cinematic experience the moment you realize steve buscemi has been cast as the movie in question's most normal character such is the case with the big lebowski joel and ethan coen's first venture since their fargo nabbed nationwide acclaim and a mantlepiece of academy award nods there's no need to fear that the coens suffered creative burnout with that accomplishment because lebowski is an effort that makes words like strange and unusual seem like an understatement thanks in part to delicious characterization and an sense of humor the film is a smashing success the central oddball here is the dude jeff bridges an unemployed cad whose ambitions appear to be zilch beyond smoking pot drinking beer and going bowling are you college students already rooting for him or what one night a pair of thugs break into his house and pee on his carpet a threatening act that's supposed to be carried out against a famous pasadena millionaire david huddleston who shares his birth name jeff lebowski with the dude once the dude realizes this coincidence he visits the big lebowski in hopes to claim reparations for his soiled rug and is back to his normal life with alley pals walter john goodman a hotheaded vietnam vet and donny buscemi a surfer before too long soon though lebowski's trampy trophy wife bunny tara reid is kidnaped and held for a hefty ransom and he turns to the dude for help it seems bunny's troubles are related to a line of work she's kept secret from her husband she's actually an adult film star and is very in debt with a shady producer named jackie treehorn the dude now on lebowski's payroll accepts the offer and agrees to handle the money drop walter tags along and insists that the dude keep the cash for himself chaos obviously ensues and the dude eventually finds himself in hot water with cops crooks and lebowski's artist daughter maude julianne moore the big lebowski deserves to win the coens the same amount of acclaim that fargo did while that black comedy was certainly a better film lebowski is at least as breathtakingly imaginative the movie boasts a absurdity level that sometimes threatens to topple over but thankfully never does the coens joel directed ethan produced and both wrote keep you in stitches as they unravel their exceedingly loopy tale and must be commended for juggling a number of people and subplots one would expect to find in a robert altman flick whether we're watching bridges fend off a marmet in his bathtub or moore don viking duds and dance in a busby dream sequence the big lebowski is immensely lively there are those who will dislike this film but not because it's boring the cast has a great deal of fun with the bounteous material they're given bridges exudes a likeable surprisingly sweet presence his dude sure isn't the cleanest guy around but you'd still follow him to another movie goodman merits first oscar consideration as walter's manic temper is one of the big lebowski many highlights the same goes for moore whose throaty delectable performance as maude is a hilarious hoot john turturro may very well steal the movie with his two scenes as a colorful bowler from a rival faction sam elliott's rambling narration gets the film off to a solid start and some will recognize peter stormare fargo silent heavy as carl hungus a porn star who's really a samurai german nihilist and pop star only in its final third does the movie falter with a couple of loose plot threads and some cast members who quickly disappear and never emerge for a curtain call these flaws are forgivable though the coens have crafted a tale so rich with personality that it's hard to look at the final product with anything but a big grin on your face without a doubt the big lebowski is the best film so far this year sure we're only three months in and the competition deep rising desperate measures the wedding singer etc has been pretty bland but it's still the gospel truth maybe during next awards season lebowski won't be a far cry from fargo
positive	a couple of months ago when i first downloaded the trailer from the net my initial reaction was a fourteen carrot gold followed swiftly by a press of my computers delete key not wanting to waste six or seven megabytes of precious space on this trailer then i started reading the first wave of reviews from the u s unique excellent well i thought still skeptical i suppose i might as well go see it when it gets here of course was still three months away i'll admit when i trotted off to see this film the only john woo movie i had seen before was the fairly enjoyable but highly forgetable broken arrow i'd heard good things about his previous work with movies like hard boiled but his films were definitely not on my list that let me tell you has changed completely i knew this fact only five minutes into the film after the brilliantly shot and acted opening sequence where sean archer loses his son blew me off my feet the acting throughout the film is staggeringly good for an action flick seriously i've never been a big john travolta fan but he like cage perfectly suited his role in the movie sorry make that in the movie even travolta's great performance however paled in comparison to cage's character portrayals my favourite cage scene was definitely when he was crashed out in compardre dietrich hassler's hideout half drugged out of his mind he sits there reclining back in a chair talking about his son's death from castor's perspective doesn't it just break your heart he mutters coldly now don't go thinking from the previous comments about brilliant acting that this is a drama focused movie it's not that's what really makes this movie unique it's an action movie with brilliantly portrayed characters not a common mix at all suspension of disbelief is paramount in this movie though that's the only way to overlook the fact that travolta and cage fire around rounds at each other and never hit several action scenes are just so well choreographed that they just make wish that you could press and watch it over again the part where archer and troy have a stand off on either side of a mirror is just plain brilliant whilst cage's and travolta's performances would be enough alone to sustain most movies the lesser characters are just as intriguing joan allen who usually sticks to the straight drama movies plays her part perfectly as archer's long suffering wife i like the fact that her character didn't end up toting a gun at the end of the movie it would have wrecked her potrayal gina gershon was surprising to say the least as castor troy's mistreated girlfriend make that one of castor troy's mistreated girlfriends other movies would have used her character as just window dressing a sex object but instead her character is very strong and independent dominique swain who plays archer's daughter also does a nice job though her character is not as explored as much as allen's or gershon's faults well there were some i have to say first the movie's ending whilst being very good overall was a bit too drawn out for it's own good after the two combatants begin duelling again after the final boat crash you can't help but think geez are you guys nuclear powered or what there were certain bits that weren't handled properly like where archer appears safe and sound on solid ground after jumping off the converted oil more explanation here would have been nice overall this movie was not perfect but i thought it was about as close as an action movie has ever came to perfect many critics have claimed that this movie will change the way action movies are made i certainly hope so
positive	those print and television ads trumpeting that is still the word are right on the money to celebrate its anniversary this quintessential movie musical is getting the royal treatment reserved for classics like star wars a rerelease that's fantastic especially when considering of all the classic characters and scenes the film has served up who can forget aspiring beautician frenchie didi conn being serenaded by her guardian angel frankie avalon or the principal eve arden reminding the student body to be an athletic supporter by rooting for the home team or national bandstand emcee vince fontaine edd byrnes flirting with marty a empty nest dinah manhoff and these are all probably considered minor moments a very skinny john travolta and a very young olivia have the respective leads of danny zuko and sandy olsson and their pairing still ranks as one of screendom's most effervescently charming for those eight of you who aren't familiar with the story here's a brief recap greaser bad boy danny and aussie good girl sandy are reunited for their senior year at rydell high after a brief fling during the summer both thought she was going to return to her native continent before school started but both were wrong sandy tries to rekindle their relationship but danny's too cool a cat to fall for her wholesome appeal in front of his buddies including jeff conaway so sandy hooks up with a gang herself the pink ladies headed by sassy sexy rizzo stockard channing just superb as an independent woman well ahead of her time and danny who still really feels love for her attempts a compromise of ideals in order to win her back the drag race finale is yet something of a drag and i never have thought much of greased lightening the film's big guy number that choreography ack but grease flaws amount too few to carp the movie's first showpiece is summer nights where danny and sandy separately recount wildly different versions of their romance not only is nights tremendously catchy but it's also a smart look at how men and women see the same events with varying eyes there has yet to be a musical sequence that rivals the punch of you're the one that i want and we go together grease euphoric cappers all this and some of the most pleasing moments come from the smaller quieter moments the hopelessly devoted to you is a lovely showcase for and channing's lamenting ballad there are worse things i could do is one of grease most unjustly overlooked tunes the soundtrack is remastered though travolta still hits that awful high note at the end of nights and the restored widescreen allows us to see previously choreography but nothing else has changed no backgrounds no outtakes or new musical numbers no jabba the hutt cameos and it's a testament to grease timeless success that nothing needs to be changed it's the same blast it's always been with an appealing cast in a fun story told with great music to viewers grease will probably recall disco and bellbottoms as much as it made its original audience nostalgic for and poodle skirts but regardless of what decade it transports us to we can all agree on one thing without a doubt grease is still the word
positive	the party is one of those classic slapstick comedies that will leave you at times cracking up the film takes place for the most part in during an exclusive evening party that is attended only by the biggest names in hollywood hrundi v bakshi played very well by peter sellers is a struggling actor who just came to america from his homeland india hrundi tries out his acting talents but it seems that he just isn't cut out for the job on the set of his current film that he stars in hrundi seems to make everything go for the worse during the filming of this movie set in the hrundi manages to annoy the director herbert ellis in any way he can this includes a pitiful acting job in many scenes wearing an underwater watch in one scene and accidentally detonating a massive set many of the hollywood producers and big names want hrundi out of the business forever and when the director makes a personal phone call to mr clutterbuck j edward mckinley pleading for hrundi's ejection from hollywood everything is pretty much over for hrundi clutterbuck writes his name down on a piece of paper to insure that hrundi will never again work in hollywood but when this piece of paper turns out to be the guest list for clutterbuck's exclusive party hrundi is invited and certain chaos is bound to occur of course as predicted hrundi causes lots of trouble each scene in which hrundi encounters a situation usually one that he can't handle is almost always very humorous and each scene with hrundi and the drunken waiter who is alone hilarious adds to the comedy in a great way the party can be compared to many other films of it's type specifically the trio of naked gun movies and the airplane movies but the party is a delightful movie that incorporates very well played out comedy into believable situations it also includes a number of memorable scenes can anyone say birdy if you're in the mood for fun and enjoyable slapstick comedy check out the party it's not going to be one of your favorites but if you enjoy this type of humor you'll enjoy the party
positive	once again the battle is dreamworks versus disney earlier this year the mammoth companies fought to the death with their asteroid flicks deep impact and armageddon here we are now just a few months later and they're at it again with dueling bug movies antz and a bug's life what i find so astonishing is that both pairs of movies are so inherently similar in both story and execution i mean come on what were the chances of two studios both deciding to bring out films about bugs as was the case with the meteor movies disney has come out on top though antz is a likable movie a bug's life is far superior in fact this movie made me realize what was wrong with antz i became immersed in the world of a bug's life while antz just made me scrutinize everything but it's not really fair to base an entire review on a comparison a bug's life is a remarkable film in its own right and deserves to be seen apart from any other film about bugs in fact it's one of the best films this year it's smart subtle and funny but it's also perfect family entertainment and relentlessly entertaining i haven't had such a good time at the movies in months it tells the story of an ant named flick voice by dave foley he's a nice guy but he's also a troublemaker the ants spend all season putting together the offering a big pile of food that they provide for the grasshoppers just before the grasshoppers come flick accidentally knocks over the offering and ruins everything for the entire colony the grasshopper's leader hopper kevin spacey is enraged and tells them that the ants need twice the food by the end of summer or they're all dead flick feeling responsible for this sets off to look for help he realizes that the only way to be rid of the grasshoppers is to fight them he heads to the city the city being a house a few miles away where he finds a colorful bunch of circus bugs a ladybug denis leary who is spectacular a black widow bonnie hunt a caterpillar joe ranft a butterfly madeline kahn a rhinoceros beetle michael mcshane and a stick david also giving a hilarious performance flick doesn't know they're actors and they don't know that flick needs them to kill a bunch of grasshoppers so they return to the colony with flick and find themselves in an unusual position the most obvious element of a bug's life is the quality of animation created by pixar the same people who brought us toy story a bug's life has some of the most amazing visuals i've ever seen the bugs seem to inhabit a space and occasionally there will be a shot that is indistinguishable from live action this is a lush colorful world full of life and imagination the way the animators insert the things all of us see in our daily lives matches bottlecaps tin cans etc and make them active objects in the bugs' world is innovative the film is also mercilessly exciting particularly in a scene involving our heroes' escape from a bird a little bird never seemed so huge and threatening but the makers of a bug's life know where the importance lies story and characters flick with solid voice work from foley is a great guy to lead the story but the real treat comes with the circus bugs they're such a likable group of characters the standouts are the stick is so good francis the ladybug and the big fat caterpillar all of these bugs have more than a token personality which makes the suspenseful scenes work because we care about the bugs and it also keeps the scenes from seeming obligatory in my review of antz i said that the film is a clever because it presents a bunch of little humans reacting to an existence in concept a bug's life is basically the same movie except that i was never given enough time to find things that i didn't like about it with such strong work in both animation and script a bug's life is nothing but a joy to sit through it really is too bad that it had to come out so close to that other bug movie but a bug's life is so good that i'm sure it will find its audience after a slew of endlessly violent and cynical movies it's downright refreshing to sit through an innocent picture like this and laugh without feeling guilty
positive	eight years after its release disney has decided to the little mermaid theatrically for days and long nights only coincidentally it was reintroduced to theaters the same day fox's animated film anastasia was released you know disney they can't deal with the threat of any other studio getting even a small piece of the crust of the kiddie entertainment pie so when someone else wants to make a little money they counter with an old masterpiece from their vault and you know what i went to see this cartoon rather than the brand new one from fox let no one say disney is losing its monopoly on the market they still have hotels on boardwalk park place believe it or not today november at p m i saw the little mermaid for the first time it took me a few years to get over an aversion to this movie that was caused seven years ago when i stayed with one of my mom's friends for a couple weeks they had a young child who listened to the little mermaid soundtrack constantly and over that two week period i heard every song from the movie probably a hundred times by the time i got back home i promised myself i'd never see the movie but promises are made to be broken especially when you're looking at a limited engagement damn those shrewd disney marketers and their mind games the little mermaid is based on a hans christian anderson fairy tale but it's which means lots of talking animals and bursting into song it also means the heroine is a total babe who shows off cleavage from a seashell bra at all times i never wanted so much to be a pair of shells the heroine of course is ariel voice of jodi benson a mermaid who is going through that rebellious phase she skips her concert to explore a wrecked ship and hang out with a seagull that talks like buddy hackett who tries to orient her to the mysterious world of humans she's also dealing with feelings she hasn't had before which comes when you get scales in places you didn't use to have them about a handsome prince no disney movie would be complete without one her father king triton of the merpeople strictly forbids such lusting after the ways of the savage humans in a condemnation that reads as a analogy about fashioned parents who forbid interracial dating what's a king to do though the girl's in love and even total destruction of her little shrine to the human world doesn't deter her ariel saves the prince's life when a hurricane rises up and just has to meet him she makes a deal with ursula the sea witch voice of pat carroll you know she's evil because she has a huge potbelly and one of the worst asses in cartoon history she also has octopus tentacles for feet something those dr scholl's corn pads will not fix and offers to help ariel out she'll make her a human for three days if ariel will give up her pretty voice ariel has three days to make that prince kiss her or else she becomes a slave to the witch forever and if she pricks her finger on a sewing machine or eats an evil apple she'll fall asleep forever it's a simplistic plot yes but the little mermaid was a revolution in the disney world coming after such lackluster efforts as the black cauldron and oliver and company it ranks as one of the best disney cartoons certainly since the all the elements are there memorable songs like under the sea and kiss the girl cartoon animals like sebastian and flounder an evil villain who still has characterization and charm and a fair amount of humor that caters to adults as well as children the little mermaid is worth a ticket in so hurry up you only have five days left serving america for more than of a century
positive	in a flashback the teenage girl in the eccentric family in the canadian film the hanging garden tells her senile grandmother that she is going to a school dance horrified the grandmother wants to know if her granddaughter knows the rule of if you don't break off a kiss by the count of then you committed a sin with the boy and most of all the grandmother wants to know if she has protection she must carry a rosary in her pocket at all times the richly acted film is written and directed by thom fitzgerald in a quirky but loving style although some may refer to the film as yet another dysfunctional family picture that moniker misses the mark yes every member of the household has their own special problems but the writer didn't choose to name so many characters for various flowers by accident this delightful little picture mixes love tragedy and pathos resulting in a hopeful and almost magical concoction during the opening credits we observe the boy sweet william at the center of the story first he's an average sized young lad who is slapped by his father next he's pound teenager played with hopelessness and depression by troy veinotte when the opening credits end we cut to years later william is now an reasonably happy adult played with love and compassion by chris leavins william has returned after years absence to attend the marriage of his and sister rosemary to his first childhood lover fletcher joe s keller kerry fox from an angel at my table and shallow grave plays rosemary with a compelling joy nicole burnell who gave such a devastating performance in the sweet hereafter plays the teenage rosemary the father of the family whiskey mac peter macneill is an alcoholic autocrat who is more obnoxious than harmful his wife iris seana mckenna says that she would have left him years ago to at least go to some place warm were it not for her lack of money and her obligations to the kids rounding out the family is christine dunsworth as violet the sister whom william meets for the first time as the exuberant irish music fills the air at the wedding in the family home william wanders off to try on one of his old coats which causes him to laugh at the size of his former self the director manages to stage simple scenes in wonderfully imaginative ways he takes a common wedding dress train and uses it to set up scenes in fresh and fascinating ways rosmary's trip to the bathroom after drinking too much beer is beautifully orchestrated and kerry fox is at her hilarious best trying to cope with the long train in a small bath all while talking to her brother as much as anything the film is a series of character sketches in one of the strongest we watch william in a flashback as he has his first sexual encounter a homosexual one although he is perfectly happy liking the same sex his mother is aghast a woman friend of hers suggests she take william to a local housewife dusty miller martha irving who for a fee will have heterosexual sex with william with absolute finesse the director crafts a subtle scene that manages to yield significant emotional punch without being sensational dusty after asking iris to watch her daughter takes william and gently introduces him to the joys of sex with the opposite sex all of this notwithstanding he still prefers males the film is at its most poignant in several sequences in which the grown william comes with himself when younger this causes his ugly old memories to be reignited in the most devastating he has to come to grips with his former self who was so overwhelmed with the stress that he tried to hang himself even here the director touches your heart without ever letting the story dissolve into anything approaching a tearjerker the ultimate result is an uplifting story that has more hope that one would ever expect from the outline of its plot the hanging garden runs it is rated r for strong sexuality language violence and some teen drug use and would be acceptable for teenagers only if they are quite old and mature
positive	dimension films scream distributor has asked press to say extremely little if anything about the film's twisty plot that's no easy task considering the wit that deserves to be mentioned here but i will do my best to be vague now there's a first the first one was but all the rest sucked said a teen in last winter's wes craven thriller scream her statement referring to the films of the nightmare on elm street series but really putting down franchise overkill in general the comment certainly carries clout for every truly great sequel there appears to be a couple of duds making one wonder if writers are better off sticking solely with fresh ideas but like it or not along comes scream and believe it or not it's a doozy a slick sinister madly subversive good time at the movies as intent on sending up hollywood's sequel syndrome as much as its prequel poked fun at slasher conventions scream is definitely that rare movie thing a that can stand along side its original with pride it's been two years since a pair of overzealous horror movie fans clad in edvard carved their way through the young populace of woodsboro california those surviving the ordeal have gotten on with their lives plucky heroine sidney prescott neve campbell is a drama student at the midwestern windsor college her pop pal randy meeks jamie kennedy has tagged along trash tabloid reporter gale weathers courteney cox has written a based on their ordeal the basis of which has been turned into a very bad movie called stab and dewey riley david arquette still suffering from wounds inflicted during scream has left his job as a police officer for a while life is tranquil at least for a while several sudden murders bring sidney randy gale and dewey together again but with suspicious eyes cast on each other and most of those in their surroundings if these four people learned anything from the past it's to trust no one thus the possible killer list includes said quartet as well as derek jerry o'connell sidney's new beau cici sara michelle gellar a chatty sorority gal joel duane martin gale's cameraman who's not too thrilled with her past hallie elise neal sidney's sassy roommate debbie laurie metcalf a local reporter who gives gale some competition and mickey timothy olyphant randy's good friend and fellow film student cotton weary liev schreiber the man sidney wrongly accused of her mother's murder in scream also shows up on campus but why like the first scream craven and screenwriter kevin williamson inaugurate things with a bang this time it's an extended sequence that finds an couple jada pinkett and omar epps attending a sneak preview of stab making sly references about everything from sandra bullock to the lunchmeat of blacks in slasher cinema before tragedy ensues at the screening the setup allows for plenty of jokey moments including a scene from stab which turns scream's drew barrymore prologue on its ear hang up the phone and his pinkett yells at the screen it's funny creepy stuff i don't think i'll ever feel safe in a movie theater again that effectively foreshadows the ratio of smart scares and spoofy laughs down the road another flawless example of this is a riotous cell of the killer on randy dewey and gale in broad daylight it builds comedically and ends with genuine terror because of the emotional investment made on these delicious characters there are other superb set pieces but explaining them risks ruining their effect there are more players this time around as to provide both a higher number suspects and a staggering body count it's something of a the new characters are too large in number to be as as the original scream gang but this movie packs in knowing performances especially by kennedy and cox and more death for your dollar it can be argued that while the original might outclass it by a tad scream is both scarier and funnier it certainly doesn't skimp with shocks a major one being the killing of one cast member very near and dear to my heart i actually questioned craven and williamson's judgment here considering how much this person has added to these films sometimes you wish that more could have been done with stab the two scenes we're shown are but for film fans there are plenty of subtle nods to movies like the usual suspects aliens and the empire strikes back still scream does so many things right it's petty to quibble its penchant for parody is irresistible discussions of the merits of film sequels and all the attractive solid cast is a definite bonus and the denouement while not as shocking as scream is priceless the film's final revelation incorporates bits of a particular horror film prominently referred to in scream with one of the best bad guy motives ever put on paper all this and a scream is in the works knowing the series' tendency for perhaps one of its characters will again discuss the concept of sequel justice mentioning scream help them in their argument
positive	edward zwick's the siege raises more questions than it can convincingly answer or even clearly articulate its subject is the rising threat of terrorism in american cities denzel washington is anthony hub hubbard who runs the fbi's task force in new york his investigation into arab terrorist cells intensifies when suicide bombers take out a busload of people hub focuses on a mysterious cia operative annette bening whose goes by both elise and sharon as the terrorist attacks continue and the body count rises the question of martial law is raised enter general devereaux bruce willis who opposes martial law at first but who as soon as the president decides to send in the army begins herding arab immigrants into a prison camp and attacking every link that hub uncovers in the terrorist chain hub listens as devereaux tortures and murders a suspect the future zwick and screenwriter lawrence wright offer is all too possible what would happen they ask if terrorism became as much a fact of daily life in new york as it is in cities like beirut and belfast what would happen to our civil liberties if soldiers patrol our streets with machine guns these questions the siege answers in realistic detail it implies tougher ones though what can be done to combat terrorism without sacrificing justice and freedom if we encourage terrorism abroad from bening's character we discover that the cia trained the bombers will it inevitably come back to us siege avoids the tougher questions by endowing its hero hub with a uncompromising sense of clear right and wrong this comforting fantasy of sir galahad confronting the evils of the modern world is an escape from the issues the movie raises still zwick deserves credit for at least addressing the issue with as much realism as he does where so many movies willis' die hard series for example offer only a view on terrorism
positive	a movie that's been as highly built up as the truman show with reviews boasting the film of the decade and a breakthrough can only be leading up to letdown that's no doubt it seems any movie with critical acclaim makes you think you're going in for the ride of your life that you'll end up changed on the other side and you come out of the theater going eh that's what all the fuss was about so naturally the truman show was building up to what was going to be a dissapointment and i convinced myself as i nestled into my uncomfortable movie theater chair actually to try not to enjoy it let me tell you that is an impossibilty the truman show is truly the film of the decade and a breakthrough and more and you will come out changed on the other side such a movie comes around only once in a lifetime where you find yourself feeling everything that the character is feeling and this friends is it jim carrey shows that he doesn't need to talk out of his butt to entertain us that he can be as dramatic as any of hollywood's leading men the film has a difficult premise to tackle trying to set us up thirty years into the truman show's run but tackle it it does and perfectly with flashbacks actually being flashbacks on the television show you get the sense that you are viewing a real hit and the way the camera constantly takes the forms it would in the real truman show is clever and people rejoice this is the first film of not only this year but of the last five years not since schindler's list has a movie captured human spirit and true despair so well this is a classic in the making and to borrow a line from esquire's review it stars jim carrey nothing in his career to date and nothing he can do in the future will ever be able to top his role as truman burbank mark my word for as i said this is the movie of a lifetime and the role is of the same calibre forget ladden summer fodder drop your romantic comedies in the trash toss your thrillers and teen flicks on the pile you need nothing more than the truman show to carry you through the summer or for that matter the year oh and in case i don't see you good afternoon good evening and goodnight
positive	go's is a gloriously slick hip machine director liman who also photographed go and screenwriter august celebrate the scene in l a preferring to take comedic snapshots of troubled youth rather than critique them after more than ninety minutes of tantric sex car chases and attempted murder go even has a happy ending this is the sort of film that gives members of the dove foundation splitting headaches as go wound down i anticipated an sermon that blessedly didn't arrive a la tarantino's pulp fiction go is comprised of three separate but related stories the basics are as follows ronna polley is a bitter grocery store clerk facing eviction who turns to drug dealing for extra dough her simon the improbably named askew is a clubber from britain ecstatic about his first trip to vegas zack mohr and adam wolf are soap opera stars escaping a conviction by assisting a peculiar cop fichtner in a drug bust perhaps because the innovative structure of tarantino's masterwork is by now old hat the go delighted me but rarely surprised me with the exception of that cat pulp fiction zigzagged down roads unforeseen but we see go's wheels turning from its first flash frame to the last torontonian polley of the sweet hereafter refused to do publicity for this picture on the basis that she was not pleased with her turn as the cashier in go she delivers her best performance to date here's an overrated actress who agreed to appear on the poster but not support her team at the junket or in interviews this sort of arrogance is commonplace for ms polley as anyone who has read of her political agenda in the canadian press will tell you if she doesn't want to be the ingenue of the moment she should have said no not go but i digress go is a fun film so chipperly depraved one can't help but turn off his moral judgment for its duration and enjoy the ride in that sense it's a departure from liman's last film swingers which at least lectured against in the form of vince vaughan's trent and his subtle comeuppance in the story's clever epilogue which has been aped by mcdonald's for their latest commercial i wish i cared more about go's characters like the techno music they listen to the bands of anarchists on display here are at once absorbing and vacuous when the lights came up and stung my eyes it was difficult to recall what about it entertained me yet entertain me it did go is light and frothy featuring compelling if not endearing work by polley timothy olyphant scream and especially fichtner whose homoerotic behavior is milked for effective laughs fichtner is a character actor best known for playing backstabbers in heat armageddon and others his previously untapped comic abilities shine in go unlike much of the film fichtner is unpredictable
positive	what's shocking about carlito's way is how good it is having gotten a bit of a bad rap for not being a big box office hit like pacino's previous film scent of a woman and not having as strong a performance as he did in that one he had just won an oscar carlito's way was destined for underrated heaven that's what it is an underrated gem of a movie and what a shame because pacino and de palma both do amazing jobs with it and turn it into a great piece of a pulpy character study carlito's way deals with well carlito brigante pacino a puerto rican kingpin who gets out of a long jailterm when his lawyer sean penn points out a legal technicality of course carlito was actually awoken in prison and has decided to go straight even if he's really a crook at heart carlito like barry lyndon is a man who is trapped by fate at every turn and can't escape into something he is not carlito's attempts at a clean legal life are thwarted at nearly every turn when he first gets out a friend of his ends up leading him into a big where he has to kill a couple people to survive he's constantly getting bugged by the government to see if he's doing anything illegal and his lawyer finds himself in a pile of shit needing him to try and help him out which includes him doing some prison breaking carlito like ratso rizzo wants to go to miami since according to film logic that's where it's at but needs some funding being a legend he is quickly able to get a nice job running a big dance club this is the by the way and since some of this takes place in night clubs we get to hear all sorts of classics including several k c and the sunshine band tunes my personal favorite he gets a bodyguard the great luis guzman at his best and is soon running a pretty good business even if he's constantly attracting underworld young thugs like benny blanco from the bronx john leguiziamo who is more than once pointed out to be a young version of carlito on the other side the symbol of promise and hope is gail penelope ann miller what happened to her his girlfriend from before prison she's a goregeous ballerina and a stripper and soon carlito is trying to get back with her and take her with him when he finally leaves for miami while this relationship is never fully defined or anything we get a sense of love between them and they have some truly interesting scenes between them she never gives him addresses or locales he always has to track her down all of these elements clash together at the end in a brilliantly executed emotional climax which is inevitable when i say inevitable i mean we see it at the beginning and then backtrack putting a great spin on it sure it's going to eleveate some of the tension but it gives the film a lot of depth as carlito is seen trapped by fate what's amazing is the big chase sequence amazingly done by de palma has a lot of tension and thrills like apollo we know what's going to happen but we're still thrilled by what happens in the middle it's also very emotional thanks to a great script by david koepp and amazing performances by pacino and miller de palma is famous or infamous for lots of violence in his films his earlier flim scarface which starred pacino in the lead has a ton of it especially at the end and a nasty chainsaw scene towards the beginning which i'm still not over but de palma actually reigns in more quieter scenes to me the best scene in the film is when carlito is on top of a building looking down into the room where gail is doing ballet this is the most brilliantly done and most emotionally stimulating scene in the entire film and probably the best in de palma film history with a gorgeous soprano duet in the background and rain pouring down onto a trashcan lid covering carlito's head and a saddened remorseful look on pacino's face it's a well for me i dunno about you the acting from all is great especially from the three leads pacino was panned for his performance chiefly because his accent wasn't puerto rican enough and well it wasn't as strong as his role in scent of a woman well his scent of a woman performance was great and all but it was nothing really but as comic kevin pollack said a foghorn leghorn impression in carlito's way he's emotional and strong despite the fact that he's remorseful over his entire lifestyle which he cannot change i felt more for carlito brigante than i did for the blind guy in scent of a woman as i said penelope ann miller is great and she and pacino actually have very good chemistry and they're scenes are with some good clever dialogue which adds some interest to an otherwise bland relationship and sean penn is amazing as the rat attorney every scene he's in he has great energy and even measures up to the greatness that is pacino in smaller roles john leguiziamo and luis guzman are great carlito's way is one of those films which you heard about briefly but when you finally watch it you're absolutely blown away it's a wonderful film a highly underrated little masterpiece which was shelved after it didn't do so hot but trust me and check it out it's a great little film and proof that the residential critics and mass populus are not always right
positive	life is beautiful is a rare treat a lighthearted comedy that tackles a very serious subject without committing the sins of being disrespectful or even worse humorless it combines a charming romance with a dash of farce stirs in a little poignancy and ends up a very enjoyable movie it's an italian film but don't let that discourage you will be missing a wonderful experience life is beautiful opens as a sweet romantic comedy with the clownish but good natured guido roberto benigni arriving in a rustic italian town to work as a waiter for his uncle the year is and guido literally stumbles into the girl of his dreams dora nicoletta braschi their romance seems to be picture perfect with only one stumbling block she's already engaged to another man can guido overcome the odds and win his girl what do you think however five years later things have taken a turn for the worse in italy the fascists have stepped up their race initiatives which is bad news for the jewish guido and his new son giosue giorgio cantarini who are rounded up and shipped off to a concentration camp unable to protect his boy in any other way guido attempts to shield his young son from the horrors of the labor camp he pretends that everything is all an elaborate game with points awarded for such tasks as hiding being brave and being very very quiet as you can tell from the description life is beautiful has two very different tones but manages to excel at both of them as a romantic comedy it is sweet and funny as a bittersweet tale of hope amid despair it is touching roberto benigni's work here has been compared with some of the best of chaplin's and it is easy to see why he is able to run the gamut of comic expression from slapstick to farce with a feeling that celebrates his downtrodden hero's triumph of the underdog spirit life is beautiful treads a thin line when it turns its attentions to the holocaust however it is able to successfully navigate the minefield without demeaning the gravity of the horrors involved nor without losing its humorous edge that allows you to smile through the tears with life is beautiful benigni has created a triumphant but bittersweet comedy it's quite simply one of the most enjoyable times i've had at the movies this year
positive	you've probably heard the one about the priest and the rabbi but never with the same dosage of featherweight charm that is sprinkled over the faith' it's a fluffy comedy thoroughly glazed with a sense of innocuous innocence and good cheer regarding two moral topics love and religion and how a romantic triangle causes the two to collide as youngsters brian finn jacob schramm and anna reilly were an inseparable trio while their friendship progressed anna always had the compassion to shower them both with the same love and support so neither would feel excluded but tragedy soon struck as anna was forced to move away now adults brian edward norton and jacob ben stiller hold similar but contrastive jobs the likable and father brian is a catholic priest while the spry and outgoing jacob acts as a jewish rabbi on the basketball court they refer to themselves as god squad' in the relationship field brian abides by his catholic principle of celibacy but jacob has reached the point where finding a jewish bride is practically mandatory everything changes when anna jenna elfman returns to new york to visit her childhood chums now a workaholic she devotes endless hours per week to her business but does find spare time to reminisce with brian and jacob both ecstatic about seeing their elementary school sweetheart once again with these oddball ingredients tossed into one cocktail there's bound to be some awkward romance between our three central characters predicting the outcome is not entirely difficult but the faith' is open entertaining and refreshingly relaxed as it travels en route from point a to point b edward norton has emerged as one of the finest most flexibly versatile actors in hollywood a success story sparked by his critically lauded debut in the thriller fear' after shockingly bitter roles in history x' and most recently david fincher's vicious club' a quaint romantic comedy might seem like a peculiar choice not in the least norton slips into the director's chair for the first time with the faith' and here his incisive resourceful approach helps add additional craft to a surprisingly perceptive screenplay by stuart blumberg weighing every aspect it is unanimously an impressive directorial debut in addition norton pushes all the right buttons with the sheepish sweetheart brian generating a thoroughly likable screen presence stiller the zipper guy from something about mary' is firm and funny boasting a comic maturity elfman's perky repetition can grow tiresome such is occasionally the case on tv's and greg' but she seems perfectly rambunctious here the remaining cast members offer fine support from anne bancroft as jacob's animated jewish mom to milos forman as an elderly priest quick to contribute intelligent advice the faith' is the perfect date flick though perfection is not a word to associate with the film in general there is turbulence during the process of as numerous failed attempts at establishing the situation cloud the projected comedy ahead once the film does settle in it is often funny and always cheerful stiller norton and elfman have created three enormously lovable personalities we enjoy their interaction understand their various dilemmas and feel humbled to realize everything rings perfectly true this is excluding the ending which is acceptable and all but seems to lack the charm and spontaneity of the preceding romantic entanglements nonetheless a narrowly mishandled finale certainly won't wipe the smile off your face nor anyone else's in the audience the faith' is a highly enjoyable romantic comedy although one that is more observant while surveying the questions of love rather than religion aww what the hell the quality is not quite but this little charmer could revive our in a potentially tired filmmaking genre
positive	naturally at the core of leon gast's when we were kings is the fight itself for what a fight it was thanks to the business savvy of don king an ageing muhammad ali was pitted against the formidable hulk of heavyweight champion george foreman fans were treated to an round battle of endurance and strategy as much as brute strength that immediately entered boxing lore with the benefit of the recollections of that old norman mailer this classic conflict is brought back to life but when we were kings tackles issues that are harder to pin down than the simple facts of a boxing match questions of political power and social justice appear throughout this documentary gast could hardly choose otherwise considering the vocal uncompromising politics of muhammad ali a member of the controversial black separatist movement the nation of islam ali opens gast's film with a forceful swipe at the united states when ali hollers damn america' the audience knows the imprecation is heartfelt the brutal yet casual way it is uttered leaves no doubt that ali is speaking his mind his decision to buck the draft for vietnam is defended with the same admirable fury no viet cong ever called me nigger ali reasons despite showcasing ali's proud unequivocal politics one of the most impressive features of when we were kings is the subtle way in which the documentary considers the difficulties inherent in the overarching philosophy of black unity and black symbolism that ali and his supporters champion listening to the film's numerous commentators it is clear that the geographic location for this rumble in the jungle is etched more in the imagination than anywhere you could place on a map spike lee tells us that the event was a pilgrimage a coming home to africa foreman reminds us that africa is the cradle of civilisation fair enough but this homeland is a specific nation cursed with a less than inspiring reality it is the newly founded zaire and it is ruled by president mobutu a brutal dictator while ali respects mobutu's ability to forge an independent african state mailer notes that beneath the stadium in which the titans battled lay hidden the presidents torture chambers mailer's insights are lost on most of the film's commentators george plimpton recalls that he always felt he was in the congo rather than the newly christened zaire with admirable restraint gast quietly suggests that for many the grandeur of myth and history all but obscured the reality of zaire' s squalid ruling elite mobutu is not the only dubious character to benefit from the heady symbolism of black power don king resplendent in yellow kaftan and at ease with the messiah label attributed to him by a loyal disciple passes himself off as the voice of a new black international solidarity understandably foreman believes he has gotten a raw deal he may be as one sympathiser notes blacker than ali but he is denied the iconic status shared by ali the thuggish mobutu and the tacky huckster don king africa zaire inspirational leader or vicious dictator all is left undifferentiated unconsidered in this optimistic celebration of black unity little wonder that the people of zaire were shocked to find that ali's opponent wasn't white admittedly these issues are only hinted at rather than substantially explored the audience must consider the significance of these issues themselves in their own time there is just too much to cover too much that is truly worthy of celebration for a protracted political analysis to be justified the excitement of james brown and b b king in concert for instance and of course there's always ali to consider as he shamelessly and hilariously hams it up in front of the camera shadow boxing and uttering one inspired rhyme after another we gonna get it on coz we don't get along doubtlessly considering the nature of the extravaganza they chose to cover the makers of when we were kings faced numerous difficulties in deciding what issues and what personalities best deserved their attention fortunately by refusing to simplify their complex subject matter they have captured the richness and excitement of this unique event
positive	kolya is one of the richest films i've seen in some time zdenek sverak plays a confirmed old bachelor who's likely to remain so who finds his life as a czech cellist increasingly impacted by the old boy that he's taking care of though it ends rather and i'm whining i wanted to spend more time with these the acting writing and production values are as high as if not higher than comparable american dramas this sverak also wrote the script while his son jan won a golden globe for best foreign language film and a couple days after i saw it walked away an oscar in czech and russian with english subtitles
positive	anna and the king strides onto the screen in full regalia wearing a brilliant suit of sumptuous landscapes deep vibrant colors and an epic storyline it's true beauty comes from it's subtle ruminations on the politics of power whether it's between governments or the interplay between a man and a woman anna jodie foster is a widowed british schoolteacher with a touch of wanderlust trying to grasp her quicksilver feelings concerning the recent death of her husband with son in tow she takes the employ of king mongkut chow to tutor his son in the english language mongkut sees the strength of the british and correctly surmises that his country's future lies in opening itself up to the ways of the western world anna function is to help provide that link the core of the film of course deals with the blossoming love between anna and mongkut as it attempts to germinate in the unfriendly soil of a shifting political climate foster plays anna with equal parts clenched jaw and wonder she is assertive yet respectful of the king as she initially tries to impose her western sensibilities upon him it is one of foster's strongest performances since silence of the lambs in a role she could not have played earlier in her career she brings a mature awareness and determination that might not have come across from a younger foster it's a joy to watch her cagily bargain for her own measure of influence within the realm of mongkut's monarchy when she makes her entrance into a politically charged banquet she exudes a hypnotic beauty that is deepened by her textured performance fat's king mongkut is every measure of foster's anna perhaps even more so this is the chow that hong kong cinema has been in love with for nearly twenty years he is imposing yet vulnerable playful but stern it is an impressively assured and nuanced performance precious time is stolen from the movie's minutes running time by an unengaging subplot involving one the king's concubines bai ling and her love of a commoner it strikes with the subtlety of siam's fabled white elephant as it stomps through the leisurely paced story some may be put off by the action filled climax of the movie although a bit inconsistent in tone from the rest of the film it fits within the established subplot of a perceived siege by neighboring burma a country backed by the british anna and the king transcends being a predictable traditional love story by avoiding mawkishness it shows a seduction of intelligence ever mindful of each other's positions anna and king mongkut negotiate a maze of social customs conflicting world views and lost loved ones to connect on a level that ultimately proves deeply satisfying if not achingly bittersweet
positive	while screen adaptations of john irving's novels have been disappointingly uneven the films have all shared one particular strength key casting who can forget john lithgow as roberta muldoon the transsexual quarterback of the world according to garp or nastassja kinski as susie the bear in the hotel new hampshire a lot of good casting decisions have gone into the making of the cider house rules an adaptation of irving's poetic novel about a restless young man called homer wells among those sound judgments was the decision to have the splendid tobey maguire assume the pivotal role the decision to cast michael caine as his mentor and father figure dr wilbur larch the head obstetrician of the st cloud's orphanage maine and the decision to offer jane alexander and kathy baker supporting roles as his head nurses then there are the brethren who populate the apple orchard where homer wells finds himself shortly after leaving st cloud's including delroy lindo oscar as the foreman of the migrant work detail that drifts up and down the coast as the seasons take them there's kate nelligan as the matriarch of the cider house and charlize theron as candy the lovely lonely wife of a wwii bomber pilot paul rudd sent away on a mission overseas leaving candy to set lobster traps with homer wells a man who's never seen the ocean before let alone a lobster am i forgetting anyone yes kieran culkin and paz de la huerta as dissolute orphanage residents who make you sit up and take notice every time they're on the screen but with the cider house rules the good people decisions don't end with the cast irving has written his own screenplay in order to get it right this time last year's simon birch loosely based on his a prayer for owen meaney was a example of irving handled the author appears fleetingly as a stationmaster here rachel portman a composer of such sweet and lyrical tenderness provides a score that's absolutely right for the lyrical and tender there's impressive new england photography by oliver stapleton too last but by no means least is my life as a dog director lasse hallstr m who shows enormous skill in pulling this collective together and helping bring irving's marvelously touching story to life for the many beloved who pass away in the cider house rules it's an extraordinarily story and now thanks to these talented individuals it's an extraordinarily film
positive	scream has a titillating little scene that lays down the unwritten law of horror movie sequels quite well during a discussion windsor college students articulate what these inevitable laws are and why sequels never live up to the originals a few rare exceptions are noted but they left out one   scream surprise horror blockbuster scream became an instant hit and developed an obsessive coterie of fans which included almost every teenager in america a sequel was unavoidable but luckily the of writer kevin williamson and director wes craven gives us nothing to fear in the way of lost entertainment in fact at the risk of sounding sacrilegious to all the adorning fans of scream i would say that scream might even be the better film sidney prescott neve campbell the sinuous heroine who survived a series of murders in woodsboro ca in the original scream is now two years older and off to college majoring in theater meanwhile tv journalist gale weathers courtney cox who covered the murders in the first film has since written a book about the dreadful events a book titled stab which has been developed into a major motion picture as scream opens a crowd of overzealous teenagers are piling into a crowded movie theater for the premiere of stab and before long a young couple are butchered to death unnoticed in the midst of hysteria this marks the beginning of a new murder spree as an unknown copycat sets out to repeat what's been done   and finish what hasn't of course the killer is just as obsessed with movies as the killer in the first film and yes movies play a huge role in the bizarre psychological outlook the murderer holds as goes about slaying an assortment of gorgeous twenty year olds but this is a sequel and without deviating from the original groundwork we are still given a fresh outlook on horror movies this is in large part due to williamson's deliciously written script which will easily leave you satisfied as much as the film condemns the use of cliches it is riddled with them but it is done so effectively and with skillful direction by craven that you're not bound to complain i will note however that the whodunit did wind up being the first person i suspected but believe me i kept changing my mind as i tried to stay one ahead of the movie all the actors outdo themselves here we're not talking oscar performances but cambell cox david arquette as dewey riley and jamie kennedy as randy all give surprisingly satisfying performances that go beyond their last outing the characters remain true to their roots and yet show a clear sign of development over the last two years we can see how the events in the first film has affected them but we don't lose any of the luster that made them such a delight to watch in the first place the nice thing about scream is that it doesn't seem from it's predecessor it's a natural smooth and believable as far as horror films go transition from film to film we skip two years but there doesn't seem to be any holes or shortcuts taken in connecting the two flicks it flows so well that you feel more like you're reading chapter two of a book long chapters eh than just revitalizing a cast of familiar faces while main characters are usually the only connection in sequels scream entire plot structure correlates completely with the first making for immediate fondness and absorption as i said before scream easily lives up to if not surpassing it's precursor the only reason scream will likely be hailed above scream is because it was the first this doesn't mean that it overcasts the unique whimsical humor or overall caliber of it's sequel it just means that scream will forever be known as the movie that mocked it's own while maintaining it's qualities if ever a film followed it's original so well it would be scream and it makes this a definite for all those unbridled scream fans out there scream fits snugly alongside scream and will hopefully receive as many high remarks it would top off the series quite well if it weren't for the fact that two movies don't really make a series it's unlikely to assume that a scream won't appear in the next few years but if they do decide to turn this into an undeniably acclaimed let's hope they can keep up the fantastic work like they say don't mess with perfection   but when a is almost guaranteed who's gonna listen
positive	devotees of robert a heinlein be forewarned paul verhoeven's starship troopers is less an adaptation of heinlein's novel than it is a literary satire the author's militarism and his tendency to create plastic characters with plastic conflicts had me expecting a soulless faceless parade of carnage from the film version and i suppose that's exactly what verhoeven delivers with sometimes hilarious results heinlein's basic motifs are so faithfully rendered that their flaws become a source of amusement while their strengths become the stuff of entertainment outlining the plot of starship troopers is a fairly silly endeavor since it's basically a big bug hunt aliens in broad daylight sometime in the future humanity is threatened by giant malevolent insects which have evolved into action figures arachnids with spikes beetles that spew forth lava dragonflies with guillotine legs among those who sign on to save the earth are a group of high school classmates from buenos aires conflicted rich kid johnny rico casper van dien his math whiz girlfriend carmen denise richards dizzy dina meyer who secretly carries a torch for johnny and carl neil patrick doogie howser harris who carries a torch for dizzy and also has a talent for speaking telepathically to ferrets while carmen heads for flight school and carl joins military intelligence johnny and dizzy become mobile infantry their various battles intertwining with romantic out of a third season episode from beverly hills so if starship troopers is another movie where characters wade through trite situations on their way to killing a bunch of aliens what makes it any better than say independence day a movie where characters waded through trite situations on their way to killing a bunch of slightly different aliens for one thing you sense that the are aware of the pulp nonsense they have as source material the very absence of major stars in the cast feels thematically appropriate not just fiscally prudent if starship troopers had been turned into a aaron spelling would have produced it it's a story which requires emoting not acting it's a prime time soap opera with big guns played for all the dopey melodrama it's worth the cast also plays into verhoeven's treatment of heinlein's most controversial conceit in this society we learn one can only be a full citizen after completing some sort of federal service military for most verhoeven pays the notion plenty of lip service then proceeds to skewer it with brilliant mock recruitment ads named after the world war why we fight series in which youngsters are indoctrinated into the joys of firearms or the pleasures of stomping cockroaches these characters really are just fresh meat for the grinder as one character puts it which makes their lack of familiarity all the more fitting it's not that starship troopers is because it never treats the true horror of war as anything but a great big violent video game in fact the characters are living the propaganda particularly johnny who receives so many field promotions he may not remember his own rank by the time the film ends verhoeven is actually having it both ways he's making fun of boosterism even as he fires his recruits into battle on a booster rocket of visual effects if that makes starship troopers hypocritical at least it's enthusiastically staged hypocrisy there may not be a person worth caring about in the whole film but it moves like nobody's business verhoeven stages some thrilling action sequences sending swarms of bugs after the anonymous grunts then having various body parts strewn about the screen like landscaping it is that rare special effects blockbuster which demonstrates a sense of pacing to match its budget i was caught up in the action enough of the time that i wasn't perpetually groaning over the absence of real human beings i wish i could find it in myself to work up more outrage over the callous way humans are dispatched in starship troopers but it didn't work out that way that would be punishing verhoeven for getting to the heart of his material
positive	no it is not a bad film in fact it is so good in achieving its purpose i actually wished for the film to end itself quickly event horizon is not your film i'm sure many who have watched this will agree with me it is not even original in that sense and it does borrow heavily from films like alien hellraiser and even blade runner the magic of this film lies in its unorthodox setting and methodical that makes it wonderfully horrifying the story brings us to the year where space travel have since enormously progressed the event horizon is actually a ship built for a secret experimental purpose it has the ability to fold time and space thus making it possible for travelling distances not reachable in a man's lifetime the ship disappeared as soon as it went into operation but after years it reappeared again within the orbit of neptune a search and rescue team led by miller fishburne is given the task to check for survivors of the event horizon the designer of the ship dr weir neill follows along to satisfy his curiosity on what actually happened to his otherwise technologically impressive ship event horizon is a horror film much truer to the word than say alien would ever be while in alien the crew has to cope with a ferocious creature while encased within tight spaces in event horizon the forces which goes against the crew is undefined but yet so powerful and horrifying the story unfolds itself slowly and the suspense buildup is superb up till the point where i really felt like saying out loud i can't stand this anymore there are more than enough jolts to send your adrenalin pumping overtime the story in itself is not exactly something very exciting and also the acting is only at most average by most commercial standards even so the essence of horror is carried out very well in this film thanks to its storytelling disturbing set designs and some really gory sequences which incidentally has been quite generously removed by our censorship board director paul anderson who did mortal kombat and his team of creators have done well in keeping event horizon within the bounds of the term this picture did not do very well in the us most probably for the impact it has on most audiences people will not see it again and not many would recommend their friend to watch this although on the face of it event horizon is mostly molded for many thrills spills and suspense to keep audiences in focus however the offbeat horror element which it ultimately convey audiences is very disturbing my friend and i could not say a word to each other for quite a while after going through the of event horizon i guess it was just the immense feeling of dread which the film had cast upon us be forewarned this film is not for the nor for pure entertainment be prepared to be disturbed if you should decide to watch this film event horizon is highly at your own risk it has been a long time since embraced the big screen and event horizon is one
positive	the italian hitchcock and acknowledged master of the giallo dario argento again offers us a fascinating turn on the formula in pheneomena this time the twist comes in the form of jennifer corvino jennifer connelly a bright teenager with gift for telepathically communicating with insects sent to a girls boarding school in switzerland she soon learns of a series of bizarre disappearances and at least one murder that has the school's population terrified a chance meeting with a brilliant entomologist donald pleasance leads the two of them to team up and solve the mystery with the aid of her remarkable gift phenomena is an imaginative original thriller argento creates several sequences of surreal haunting beauty here including a masterfully shot sleepwalking episode and a striking scene when a swarm of flying insects descends on the school at jennifer's beckoning the plot takes some wonderfully bizarre turns and the killer's identity is genuinely shocking and surprising the director took a big gamble with a soundtrack that mixes elements as diverse as heavy metal band iron maiden stone bill wyman and argento's favourite outfit goblin but it gels surprisingly well the film's opening music reccurs several times an eerie and evocative score that perfectly sets the overall tone argento fans beware the film was released outside europe in a terribly butchered form as creepers this deleted nearly half an hour of footage mainly of key dialogue scenes
positive	film adaptation of hunter s thompson's infamous book of the same title director terry gilliam of twelve monkeys and brazil fame took over the helm of this project after fellow director alex cox sid and nancy apparently alienated everyone associated with the movie according to gilliam plot writer thompson depp heads down to las vegas with his attorney dr gonzo del toro to cover a motorcycle race during their trip they systematically consume two bags of grass pellets of mescaline five sheets of high powered blotter acid a salt shaker of cocaine a whole galaxy of uppers downers screamers laughers a quart of tequila a quart of rum a case of beer a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls the movie presents us with the results of that heavy drug use critique i have given this movie two separate ratings because i believe that the enjoyment of this psychedelic picture is highly correlated with the amount of drugs or alcohol that would be floating around in the viewer's own mind whilst inhaling this cinematic vision of excess if you are prepared to get high or intoxicated before watching this film i would say that this is one picture that you will thoroughly enjoy on a multitude of colorful levels if on the other hand you decide to stray from the addition of nefarious elements to your system i could not imagine you truly appreciating much of this picture's entire ride for all those sober dogs note i have not read thompson's book having said that joblo did engage in an consumatory session before and during the viewing of this film so his critique of the film should be appreciated on that level this movie relies heavily on style and peculiar humour rather than substance or plot it moves admirably from one scene to the next without much basis of their being while presenting us with the two days in the life of writer hunter s thompson during which he seemed to consume more drugs and alcohol than anyone could ever imagine it was and the times were apparently a' changing in the states johnny depp chews into his role like an overgrown child sucking on a chocolate lollipop during the filming depp apparently become fast friends with writer thompson and was known to wander off the set from time to time for the sake of checking out the newest barmaid at the local watering hole i thought he did seem to exaggerate his walk a little bit too much but then again this movie is supposed to be a wild exaggeration of everything and anything so who am i to talk the one thing that did blow my mind was the actual physical transformation endured by actor benicio del toro for his role as dr gonzo i couldn't believe that this fat samoan lawyer was the same guy who played the slick mumbling criminal in the usual suspects word on the street is that gained over pounds for this role and i must say that his look was deliciously reprehensible plenty of cameos also pepper this kaleidoscopic moving picture in the form of ellen barkin christina ricci tobey maguire and cameron diaz along with a bunch of others other than that the soundtrack was expectedly eclectic the style was not as wild as i thought it would be and the ending was certainly not much of a but then again who really noticed this movie is about visions of bats floating through your head johnny depp looking goofy and being bald and the cornucopia of scenes filling your own intoxicated system with ideas of anarchy rebellion and the lost american dream and for all those who plan on seeing this movie without the partnership of a mean drink or a mighty doobie i suggest you move further down the aisle buy yourself a ticket to godzilla and enjoy the visual fabrications manufactured for the unstimulated mind little known facts depp and del toro snorted plenty of powdered milk instead of cocaine bill murray also portrayed a character in the film where the buffalo roam johnny depp turned down roles in the three musketeers speed and legends of the fall for smaller and quirkier roles in benny and joon and what's eating gilbert grape  in depp told rolling stone magazine that he'd tried every drug by the age of johnny hung out with some of the members of oasis while filming the uncompleted divine rapture in ireland and later played some slide guitar on the album be here now johnny was born in kentucky is a dropout has nicknamed himself mr stench has been engaged to four women until now including actress winona ryder whose winona forever tattoo had to be altered to wino forever after their breakup currently plays guitar in a band called p and owns the viper room nightclub in l a
positive	what is freedom how does one determine who is free in those questions were more difficult to answer then they are now yet the mistakes of our forefathers must be examined in order to rectify current situations that is in essence what steven spielberg's gripping drama amistad is about through its various dramas spielberg presents a case about a group of africans who after being seized from their home were forced onto a ship and sent to the united states aboard la amistad on their way there the slaves led by cinque djimon hounsou rebelled killing off part of the crew however the ship was still directed towards the united states where the africans were brought to trial under murder in the court various factions claim ownership of the slaves and therefore try to seize them away the united states government led by president martin van buren nigel hawthorne and secretary of state secretary forsyth david paymer try to ship the africans to spain where an year old isabella ii anna paquin wants them back the two spaniards who own la amistad want the slaves for themselves the american ship that found the slaves also wants them in the midst of this are two abolitionists stellan skaarsgard and morgan freeman who want the slaves to be free they enlist the help of lawyer matthew mcconaughey who tries to free them through various legal proceedings the case appears before the supreme court where it is argued by john quincy adams anthony hopkins the film itself is a visual wonder spielberg favorite janusz kaminski sets the film in a dark somber mood when appropriate and a visual setting when appropriate as well at times the film is very slow and very methodical however spielberg is not at his finest here because the courtroom scenes have a tendency to lag the film is in essence a courtroom drama one whose events are oversimplified the characterization is also weak displaying weaknesses in building up characters such as the lawyer baldwin mcconaughey and especially morgan freeman's abolitionist but spielberg's finest work in the film the opening scene a scene of cinque's family and the brutal voyage of the slaves to america is altogether stunning it is this emotional force that carries the film mcconaughey is superb as the lawyer defending the africans hopkins is sensational as the old adams freeman is outstanding when used spielberg vastly under uses his supreme talents and the rest of the cast is stellar the movie however belongs to hounsou his emotional intensity is brilliant spielberg manages to make even the slowest scenes sparkle with focus on hounsou and the film's extraordinary power is simply captivating the film is flawed for most of the supporting characters are merely cardboard but that doesn't matter the story is a gripping one and one of extreme importance kudos to spielberg for finding it finding the right men for the job and letting the audience listen to the words of cinque a good job all around
positive	your friends and neighbors is a rather bizarre film about people who hop in and out of bed with each other written and directed by neil labute who's first film in the company of men was simply marvelous disappoints a bit here with this one the story involves two couples ben stiller catherine keener and aaron eckhart amy brenneman an artist assistant nastassja kinski and an egotistical women abuser jason patric the character's names are not apparent and are not mentioned in the entire movie each of the characters has their own sexual style and they don't seem to merge together well so the group experiments behind their respective partners back there are some hysterical scenes one involves jason patric aaron eckhart and ben stiller's characters they are all in a sauna talking about their best lay when jason patric's character makes a surprising confession the whole scene is hilarious and exceptionally well written and acted the enjoyed this movie although it seemed a tad lengthy even though it only runs min the film's cast is exceptional with oscar caliber performances by catherine keener aaron eckhart and jason patric i would not recommend this film to people who are offended by conversations that are very sexually explicit it did seem to offend people more than half of the people in the theater left during the film although your friends and neighbors doesn't have the power of labute's earlier film it still manages to be somewhat entertaining and funny while maintaining a melancholy philosophy on human relationships
positive	i love this movie and i've just seen for the umptenth time unfortunately it is also completly unknown and very few have seen it it's my mission in life to spread the word see this movie fred george doug and howie are reaching middleage three of them have a wife kids and a house in the suburb with a mortgage to pay only fred is still a bachelor together they take the local train every morning to work in town on one of their organized thursday evenings at a bar fred tells them of his boss and the arrangements he has made to keep a mistress he has gotten an apartment in downtown where he can meet her but has told his wife that he needs the apartment to spend the night after staff meetings every thursday night since they always split everything four ways they decide that they should get an apartment with a young woman as well kathy however kathy isn't completly honest to them in fact she is a sociology student writing a thesis about the sex life of the suburban male with these four species she believes that she will make a very good paper ok have one thing clear though the romantic rendezvous' between kathy and each of the men are completly innocent the script stays above the waist or to be precise above the neck noboyd claims that kathy is their mistress the four guys call her their the censorship board here in sweden considered it to be suitable only for people above years but that only shows how long ago was small children could watch this without being corrupted kim novak is as lovely as always in this movie even if she seems to be a bit too old for a student james garner is the playboy just like in many other movies i liked howard morris the best as howard the accountant who has to diet to support his wife tony randall is funny as always was more than years ago how many accountants copywriters or investment bankers can today afford to live in a house in the suburb with a lot of kids and a wife who does not work this is the white middle class i can't remember that i saw any blacks on the commuter train they use these are the people who can count on their kids to live an even better life than themselves perhaps this should also be a subject for a thesis in movie sociology
positive	i remember seeing the trailer of the black cauldron on the pinocchio video it really scared me and i didn't want to go see it however after i heard about how wonderful it was i wanted to see it i didn't get a chance to do so until now the film disney's animated feature opens with a menacing shot of a great black cauldron unshrouded by mist as a narrator begins to tell the tale a long time ago in the land of prydain there was a king so evil that his spirit was captured in the cauldron it has been hidden for centuries and whoever possesses it will have the power to conjure up an army of deathless warriors and with them rule the world and destroy it then we meet a dallben and his young apprentice taran taran dreams of being a warrior instead of being a they have a pig named one day as he gives hen wen a nice warm bath the pig goes crazy and dallben then realizes after watching hen wen's thoughts through a bucket of water that taran must hide hen wen in the forest an evil ruler known as the horned king is searching for the black cauldron and only hen wen has the power to show its location taran leads hen wen into the forest but of course he loses her and tries to go find her along the way he meets up with a mischievous little creature named gurgi who desires and crunchings' much to his dismay besides he stole an apple that taran was trying to use to bring back hen wen when he hears hen wen's squeal from far away though he races to her rescue only to see her get kidnapped by dragonlike gwythants taran chases after the gwythants and finds himself staring at the horned king's castle from far away taran climbs the castle walls and brings himself into the castle where he attempts to rescue hen wen he manages to do so but he is himself captured and thrown into the dungeon there he meets princess eilonwy and her magic bauble another thing which the horned king was hoping to use to find the cauldron and the two escape through the deep castle walls along the way taran finds a sword in a burial chamber and they rescue a comic bard named fflewdurr flamm who has a harp whose strings break whenever he tells a lie the three manage to escape the horned king's castle but not before taran realizes that his sword is magic as they rest in the forest gurgi reappears claiming to have found hen wen's trail he leads taran eilonwy and fflewdurr by way of tracks' to a whirlpool suddenly they all get sucked under and they meet the fairfolk taran is reunited with hen wen and informed that the black cauldron is hidden in the land of morva he then devises a crazy idea that if they can destroy the cauldron it would prevent the horned king from destroying their world with the help of a grumpy fairy named doli the four travelers manage to find themselves at a mysterious cottage it turns out to be no ordinary cottage three comically strange witches inhabit the place when taran tells them that they are searching for the black cauldron they agree to let him have it in exchange for his sword taran agrees much to eilonwy's horror but at least they get the black cauldron but the cauldron can't be destroyed only its evil powers can be stopped the only way to do so is for a living being to climb into it of his own free will never to return alive things take a turn for the worse when the horned king's henchmen capture taran eilonwy and fflewdurr along with the black cauldron and lead them back to the castle taran eilonwy and fflewdurr watch in horror as the horned king unleashes the supernatural powers of the cauldron to ressurect his army of deathless warriors this is the most horrifying scene in the film because here a dead army comes alive just when all seems lost though gurgi reappears and rescues taran eilonwy and fflewdurr taran is about to jump into the black cauldron but gurgi stops him not wanting him to throw his life away gurgi then jumps into the black cauldron and the deathless warriors decay taran tries to find a way to rescue gurgi but he is forced to do battle against the horned king he kicks the horned king away who is then magically sucked into the black cauldron where its powers immediately destroy him completely taran eilonwy and fflewdurr manage to escape from the horned king's castle just as it the witches then reappear and attempt to take the now useless black cauldron away but fflewdurr stops them saying that they give anything away they bargain' in response to this the witches offer taran his sword back but taran instead has a new trade the cauldron for gurgi the trade is made gurgi's seemingly lifeless body reappears before the heartbroken group as taran cradles him in his arms though gurgi is not dead after all the happy group then returns home where hen wen brought home by the fairfolk once the dangers are past dallben and even doli await their triumphant return as spectacular as it sounds the black cauldron really suffered a lot in its past times before ron miller was fired from his position as chairman of walt disney productions he had bought a novel by lloyd alexander called the black cauldron a sword and sorcery tale for the studio bringing this book to the screen was the studio's fondest dream miller who entitled himself as the executive producer promised that they would do so after they had proved themselves on other projects when micheal eisner and his executives arrived at the disney animation studio the animators were struggling to complete the black cauldron by this time things had gone really rocky for the animation department many of the studio's old men had retired or died therefore the animators suffered a hard time making this film originally budgeted at million the costs raised to million because of constant changes on everything and when it was finally released on june the black cauldron was greeted by praising reviews from some critics but somehow the film flopped the film was rated pg and the film although from lloyd alexander's chronicles of prydain which is what this film is based on was much more scarier and darker than disney's other previous efforts such as the rescuers and the fox and the hound which is probably why so many people considered it too scary and stayed away from it in addition other critics rejected it for having heart' and compared to other disney animated features but whatever the real reason the black cauldron was a financial disaster grossing only million the failure of the film grounded the studio's animation department and exiled the animation team to annex buildings in nearby glendale and it seemed like animated features would no longer become a part of the studio's reputation the next two disney animated features the great mouse detective and oliver and company although a little more lighthearted than the black cauldron didn't do much better although oliver and company grossed much more than the black cauldron and the great mouse detective only with the little mermaid did the studio regain its reputation for successful animated features as for the black cauldron it was rereleased in some cities for a temporary time under the title taran and the magic cauldron finally the studio locked the film in the film vault and denied that it ever even was released because of all this you might ask yourself was the black cauldron really such a bad movie the people who had seen the film didn't think so in fact many people had calls to buena vista home video requesting for the film but of course they denied it for a while it seemed like the black cauldron would never be released to video until september disney released the black cauldron to video in the united kingdom few people imported the video from england and converted to ntsc including me and for those who hadn't seen the film yet i am included here they got quite a treat but people who had bootleg copies of the black cauldron noticed that in the scene where the horned king raises his army of deathless warriors about seconds of ghoulish looking skeletons were slightly trimmed so that the film would get a u rating in the uk the u rating means universal suitable for all ages kinda like their own version of g somewhere online a team of diehard the black cauldron fans signed a petition that said back the black cauldron and because of that disney finally decided to release the video to the united states before that time rumors online had been made that the video would be trimmed like the uk video so that it would get a g rating and that they would add in songs those rumors were put to rest when the walt disney company announced that the black cauldron would be released in its pg rated version even still when it was finally released to the us some reaction was mixed some felt that it was indeed cut but some felt that it wasn't but these where only minor criticisms which seemed laughable since a film that was absent for thirteen years was finally available as for myself when i saw the movie for the first time on converted ntsc video i didn't expect much at all in fact i had heard so many mediocre things about it that i didn't think the film would ever be such a good film much to my surprise when i saw the first few minutes of the film i was asking myself this is the same film everyone saw the one that flopped at the box office the one that critics and filmgoers alike called a bad movie this doesn't seem like all of the above instead it's a classic in its own right the film has a wonderful cast of characters there's taran grant bardsley an assistant pig keeper who would rather be a warrior than a the story's hero the critics have said that taran is not likeable at all but the opposite is true he is brave loyal and eventually learns a lesson about friendship later on there's a likeable character here not that he's the only likeable character in the film there's gurgi john biner a lovable little uh thing who remains loyal to taran even though they don't quite hit it off at first but another likeable character is the bad guy comic henchman a dwarf named creeper phil fondacairo who is loyal to the film's imaginative and sinister villain the horned king voiced gruesomely by john hurt yet he also fears his neck the other characters including the sidekicks a spunky but sweet princess named eilonwy and the comic bard fflewdurr flamm and three comically wicked witches who hide a dark secret although pleasant and likeable aren't quite as well rounded as they should be the story itself is an adventurous one a quest involving the mystical pig hen wen the black cauldron itself and an army of deathless ones with everything a hooking opening to a spectacular finale elmer bernstein's music also tells the story perfectly in a dark yet calming manner the animation itself is surprisingly good considering that this film was created in the darkest time of the studios even though there are some occasional effects that are not quite good like the ground opening when the black cauldron rises out of the earth the animation overall is top notch overall this film is an entertaining endeavor fans unfamiliar to the lloyd alexander chronicles of prydain will get a kick out of this one except young kids there are some extremely scary scenes which are more darker than disney's other films although some consider the stampede sequence from the lion king and frollo observing esmeralda in the fires of hell in the hunchback of notre dame are just as scary which is the main reason why this film is rated pg fans familiar to the lloyd alexander series will recognize the differences between the novel and the movie even though it doesn't have all of the ingredients of a true disney film this film is a classic in its own right and deserves a far better chance than what it has been given that better chance has finally come whatever reason about why the black cauldron was such a big failure seems to have disappeared and the film has finally achieved its place among disney's most proudest achievements i can't help but think though whatever would have happened if the black cauldron was a box office success
positive	quiz show an almost perfectly accurate true story is based upon the events of the popular television show of the on this trivial game show contestants were placed in isolation booths and then answered questions corresponding to a category of their choice on which they wagered an amount of points on the game went on until a player reached twenty one points on felt they had earned enough points to win but after ratings began to fall when players were struggling to break the zero mark the producers decided to fix the game by giving the answers to a contestant before the game began quiz show illustrates the true stories of two particular contestants herbie stempel and charles van doren stempel john turturro a former g i and your jewish man raising a family stempel has been the reigning champion on for many weeks and has accumulated thousands of dollars in his mind he is the best thing on television and the people love him although in the mind of the show's producers herbie stempel is getting old dan enright david paymer in particular feels that the people are tired of seeing a jewish guy from queens with bad teeth and that the kids need someone better to look up to therefore they need to find another contestant whom would be a worthy role model and the people will look up to and cheer to win someone who can defeat stempel even if they have to resort to cheating enter charles van doren ralph fiennes a professor from a widely recognized family van doren had decided to try out for the game show tic tac dough because his friends thought he would be good at that sort of thing but when albert freedman hank azaria enright's assistant spots van doren the two decide that they have found their of the kingdom van doren is not too keen on the idea of receiving the answers ahead of time so enright tells stempel that he is going to give the wrong answer on purpose in order to lose the game after stempel loses the throne to van doren he starts to feel cheated which he should meanwhile on his own dick goodwin rob morrow a harvard law graduate has decided to start an investigation on to try and find out if there have been any wrongdoings his investigation yields shocking results and leads to a trial for enright and the others involved quiz show is an extremely well done movie and robert redford's direction is especially superb the performances turned in by john turturro ralph fiennes and rob morrow are very good although it seems that turturro stands out more than any quiz show is also very precise when it comes to explicating the true events that inspired the film definitely a film you should not miss
positive	is jimmy stewart the greatest actor of it's quite possible his career spanned over years and he acted in more movies than most actors ever could yet when he is talked about in the media he is generally thought of as an actor who played one type of role the nice guy and that's really a shame the naked spur features jimmy stewart in a role completely different than what people would expect from him it's a western which stewart specialized in around this period and it casts him as a desperate man out to collect a bounty on a man who used to be his friend before he finds that man though he runs into two men who agree to help him thinking he is a sheriff when the criminal is eventually caught the two men discover stewart's secret and decide they want a piece of the action too the rest of the film is a suspenseful journey in which each man suspects the other constantly also featured is the woman travelling with the criminal well played by janet leigh we're never too sure who's side she's really on until the end leigh is an actress probably best known for her role as the shower lady from psycho and that's unfair she gives a strong performance as a woman who is pulled between these two men stewart gives a performance unlike anything i've ever seen from him he usually keeps cool no matter what occurs but here he gets downright hysterical at times i think perhaps he took this role to prove to the public that he was more than just a nice guy his performance borders on psychotic at times but i loved watching every second of it it's roles like this one that make me admire him as much as i do he was an actor unafraid to take chances and even ruin his public image
positive	every once in a while you see a film that is so effective in delivering the goods that it is easy to forget and forgive its glaring imperfections such is the case with good will hunting a subtle character study about a socially inept mathematics genius who struggles to find his path in life despite some serious character problems this is still a very good film you probably know about the plot so i ll make it quick will hunting damon is a janitor at m i t he s really smarter than einstein but nobody knows it he likes to go out with his friend chuckie affleck and their other buddies and drink beer he s charismatic and witty but has a terrible time with authority and stiff college folk after getting into a tiff with the law a distinguished professor skarsg rd discovers will s genius and offers him a chance to clean up his record and avoid jail time at a price he must attend weekly sessions with a therapist and work on various mathematical problems that have stumped the academic elite with the professor after outsmarting and scaring the hell out of a couple of different psychologists he meets his match when hooked up with a therapist named sean maguire williams who has his own problems in the meantime will meets a british medical school student driver and they begin to fall in love the story starts out well enough and is a pretty original basis for a film even though we ve seen movies about misunderstood erratic prodigies before shine ring a bell the script here creates a complex narrative that doesn t just focus solely on one character alas though this is not a perfect film as much as you feel like it could ve been while watching it the one real problem i had with it is the unrealistic nature of the main character is it possible for a lowly janitor to be this intelligent of course is it possible for him to be estranged from any deep human relationships usually yes but is it possible for him to also be so handsome funny quick with the tongue and tough not very likely come on usually these guys are total nerds who can t even buy their own shirts much less talk down a harvard student in a hip pub while picking up phone numbers from pretty med girls will is just a little too perfect and in order to accept the character your disbelief suspension needs to be in excellent working condition the statement made by will at a government job interview late in the film is also boorish overlong pompous and completely unnecessary all this sounds pretty bad but the film somehow makes up for it in other ways damon s acting overshadows the fact that the character is slightly unbelievable his performance is truly extraordinary which leads me to the really good part of the review the strength of this movie can be summed up in one single word acting i can t recall seeing a film recently that was so from top to bottom from minnie driver s frustrated lover to ben affleck s best friend and all the small roles in between the performances are magnificent robin williams skill is a given as a bereaved psychologist who could ve had a legendary career but was knocked off the path somewhere down the line the real gem though is stellan skarsg rd s turn as professor lambeau an mathematician who feels reduced in comparison to a younger smarter will hunting the scenes between williams and skarsg rd as two old college pals who ve been brought back together by this enigmatic kid display some of the best acting i ve ever seen when i say delivering the goods this is what i m talking about watching these two work is what going to see movies is all about gus van sant s to die for drugstore cowboy cold urban direction is right on as well as danny elfman s sauntering musical score i highly recommend good will hunting despite its faults it is still an intriguing and fascinating film and you are not likely to see a better acted one this year
positive	men in black is an explosive mix of science fiction action and comedy that hits the target in every possible way although another alien movie men in black succeeds in every way that independence day didn't and towers above many other movies of its type the brilliant acting especially by tommy lee jones as agent kay is also as good as it gets director barry sonnenfeld who was behind the camera for the addams family movies and get shorty has crafted a masterpiece the story behind men in black is just as interesting as you would want it to be the men in black or mib are a governmental agency that is not known to exist the mib are responsible for saving the world from the scum of the universe a though job indeed the film opens with a truckload of illegal aliens the human kind being transported across the mexico border and into the united states presumably these aliens are all migrant workers that is until the mib show up and begin interrogating them agent kay selects a particular suspicious worker and takes him away from the other local authorities to discover that he is not an illegal human alien but a real alien when the alien makes a run for it agent kay is forced to eliminate the alien with one of the mib's very unique weapons and after one of the local law enforcement officers witnesses this bizarre occurrence agent kay is forced to use another very unique device on them the device described as out of state eliminates the memory of anyone it is used on here we are introduced to james edwards played very well by will smith edwards a police officer is chasing a fleeing criminal the criminal gives a very good chase and at one point when edwards confronts him the criminal pulls out a very different looking weapon that disintegrated when it hit the ground edwards continues to chase the very athletic criminal to the top of a building where the criminal informs edwards that he must let him go because someone is after him edwards doesn't take this seriously but when the criminal shows very characteristics and leaps off the building he begins to wonder back at the police station agent kay shows up to ask edwards a few questions he informs edwards that is was in fact a that he was chasing and that the gun he pulled out was definitely not he has edwards identify the gun and asks edwards to come to the mib headquarters the following day edwards arrives and finds that he is involved in a recruiting process along with various other men who seem a bit more qualified than he after goofing up for half of the time edwards puts on a show at the firing range and agent kay notes the reason why he feels edwards should be the man to join the mib he chased down the criminal on foot which is something that no one is supposed to be able to do in the meantime an upstate new york farm has a very close encounter edgar vincent d'onofrio owner of the farm investigates a strange crash landing and is attacked by the inhabitant of the flying object which presumes to jump inside edgar and use his body as a human transport the bug as he is called is an intergalactic terrorist who has come to earth to attempt to kill two ambassadors and it up to the mib with newly recruited agent jay formerly james edwards to exterminate the bug and save the planet from intergalactic war men in black delightfully combines action with often hilarious comedy which is usually from will smith although tommy lee jones opens up his comedic personality in this film the special effects are also very well done and are not the entire source of the plot as in another big alien film from the past summer screenwriter ed solomon writer of super mario bros and the upcoming film has surely struck gold with this story all ages will enjoy men in black it is an extremely fun film that you will want to see again although it runs a very quick and speedy minutes the entire film from beginning to end is a adventure the ending of the film which ties up a few loose ends for one of the main characters is also very well done a sequel is already being planned so there is more to look forward to
positive	ralph fiennes is carving out a nice niche for himself in the genre of period piece romances for his followup to the the english patient he has once again turned to a love story this time directed by accomplished australian film maker gillian armstrong little women despite some obvious overplotting oscar and lucinda is a mostly effective and often affecting motion picture that touches our hearts while daring our minds to balk at its implausible coincidences the film opens in the with parallel storylines in new south wales australia and devon england as the helpful narrative voice of geoffrey rush informs us lucinda leplastrier cate blanchett is a headstrong young woman being raised in the australian outback meanwhile half the world away oscar hopkins fiennes has broken with his puritanical father over religious issues and has gone away to school to study to be an anglican priest lucinda is fascinated with glass oscar is obsessed with theology lucinda is rich oscar is poor lucinda is forward and oscar is timid and uncertain of himself yet one characteristic unites these two diverse individuals the compulsion to gamble whether it's on horses dogs cards or the flip of a coin and fate has decreed that they will one day meet that day doesn't occur until minutes into the film when oscar boards a ship bound for sidney australia where he hopes to change his life and minister to anyone in need of his help another of the passengers is lucinda who is returning from england where she was shopping for machinery to equip her glassworks factory at first their relationship is that of a reverend and a confessor but it doesn't take long for both of them to recognize a kindred spirit in the other a friendship is born and once they reach australia it develops into something more potent but oscar is uncertain of lucinda's affection and feels he must do something to prove himself worthy of her oscar and lucinda isn't beyond a little manipulation to get the desired emotional response and there are times when the storyline curves in preposterous directions on more than one occasion it's apparent that events are occurring specifically to funnel the characters into a position where there is only one possible route coincidence is a crucial plot device without it this movie can't go anywhere the voiceover narration never one of my favorite techniques is too verbose and breaks into the story at undesirable moments however without it the final twist which i will not reveal would not be as poignant yet despite these quibbles i enjoyed oscar and lucinda storyline faults pale in the light of two such characters thematically the film is also strong the unifying motif that everything in life is a gamble is successfully delineated oscar and lucinda don't just wager their money they bet their hearts minds and souls a card game they engage in shortly after they first meet could easily be considered a form of emotional strip poker where defenses are peeled away to reveal their shared secret passion oscar does not see gambling as a vice in fact he believes that the greatest chance one takes in life is betting one's immortal soul on the truth of a religious faith ralph fiennes who normally plays strong confident men is very much at home as the fumbling insecure oscar the actor brings a variety of nervous tics to the part all of which subtly add to a vague sense of discomfort whenever oscar is as good as fiennes is however he is eclipsed by cate blanchett the actress who appeared earlier this year as one of the leads in bruce beresford's paradise road is mesmerizing as lucinda she gives this liberated woman her flash and feeds the chemistry between the two lead characters so that it sparkles rather than fizzles effective support is provided by ciaran hinds the male lead in jane austen's persuasion as lucinda's close friend tom wilkinson the full monty as oscar's mentor and clive russell as a adventurer there's a real magic in the way armstrong develops the story keeping things moving in unexpected directions without lingering too long on any one moment or sequence in fact i wish she had devoted a little more time to the luminous middle act which has oscar and lucinda together with the skill of a consummate storyteller she weaves romance friendship passion humor and tragedy together into a complete package the characters with all of their human foibles and neuroses are wonderfully developed by fiennes and blanchett so who cares if the storyline is a little ripe and unwieldy oscar and lucinda still offers abundant pleasures to reward the viewer
positive	in october of the united states found itself on the brink of nuclear holocaust when spy plane of cuba revealed that the soviet union was actively deploying and installing medium range ballistic missiles miles from the us president john kennedy bruce greenwood and his staff must face this major threat to world peace and stop soviet expansionism in director roger donaldson's dramatic recreation of the most dangerous crisis in american history in thirteen days one of the highlights to come out of movies was a entry called missiles of october that also recreated the historic event that almost embroiled the us ussr and the world in an all out nuclear showdown that teleplay starring william devane and martin sheen as john and bobby showed the political tensions of the period that brought to the fore the danger the world faced in those two weeks in now a quarter of a century after the landmark tv movie director roger donaldson and producer kevin costner team together again the last time was for the taught spy thriller no way out to the events of that most dangerous time in america's and the world's history taken from the viewpoint of special assistant to the president kenneth p o'donnell costner donaldson and crew recreate that volatile event once again as the country is plunged into what could have been total nuclear war as o'donnell gets ready to head to work one october morning he deals with the usual family crises and problems meanwhile a spy plane photo mission over cuba has produced some startling images medium range nuclear missiles in the first stage of deployment suddenly ken's routine day switches into crisis mode as the president and his key advisor bobby begin to muster the considerable forces of the us military to face the soviet threat where thirteen days differs most from missiles of october is as expected in the scope of the project there is a big difference between making a television docudrama and one that goes to the big screen it shows as the makers of thirteen days craft a recreation of the cuban missile crisis that encompasses not only the political intrigue within the white house it also depicts the events that took place as america girds itself for nuclear confrontation the cast a true ensemble is led surprisingly by bruce greenwood as jfk and not by kevin costner costner's o'donnell represents the family guy thing as the drama of the crisis has its impact on him and his family this puts a personal spin on the film as we see both the crisis and america's preparation for war and the pressure it brings to bear on those in the know kenny reassures his wife and kids that all will be okay and they will be safe but he knows that if the crisis comes to a head his family will be no more the meat of thirteen days is in the big picture not the microcosm of family though this is where the film stands out as we see the workings of our government on the highest levels the story does not just cover the between the world's two most powerful countries it also depicts the animosity between the president and the the disaster of the bay of pigs invasion the year before left a distrustful taste in the mouths of the generals and admirals who blame the kennedys for not backing the cuban expatriates fighting fidel castro the missile crisis becomes a struggle for power as the force want to flex their might and invade cuba while jfk wants to end the confrontation peaceably but with america's dignity and world leadership intact while the internal battle for power rages in the white house with air force chief curtis lemay kevin conway advising the president to bomb cuba into the stone age our armed forces are set into motion to stop the soviets with a blockade of offensive weapons to cuba this is where the political intrigues of high office are replaced by exciting action when the first confrontation takes place between a us warship and a soviet freighter the tension is palpable the most involving action sequence takes place late in the game as another is sent up to shoot some snaps of the buildup and the fully prepared soviet forces launch an attack on the hapless pilot of the spy plane this is a sweaty palm sequence to say the least making you squirm in your seat as you try to help the pilot avoid those missiles the ensemble cast places greenwood as the first among equals with like weight given to all the principle players greenwood does not play act at being a caricature of jfk foregoing the typical kennedy boston accent instead he plays the man as a powerful figure who has to maintain the dignity of the office directing his subordinates but giving them the latitude to make clear all of his options kennedy used this decision by committee method to good effect as his senior staff uncovers all the options available to the president costner as ken o'donnell is really a supporting cast member as a kennedy crony brought on board as a personal political favor costner plays o'donnell as if he crammed on old jfk speeches with a forced kennedyesque twang to his speech the rest of the players are first rate from start to finish with steven culp looking and sounding just like robert kennedy the rest of the familiar players in this drama are uniformly well cast too standing out are michael fairman as the beleaguered us ambassador to the un adlai stevenson who was forced to become the challenging voice of the united states in the united nations and i remember the confrontation vividly the filmmakers capture the accusations laid down by stevenson with accuracy using old style video footage to good effect dylan baker has the look and feel of the intelligentsia as the brainy secretary of defense robert mcnamara kevin conway gives his general lemay the right bomb them to hell attitude also notable is christopher lawford as navy pilot william ecker who with his wingman takes on the dangerous mission of a photo recon into the heart of cuba bravely challenging kenny o'donnell's admonition don' get shot tech credits are superb across the board with an admirable depiction of the us armed forces being placed on a war footing it's an impressive production with the careful use of period aircraft and ships that gives the film a veracity fitting the event solid costuming by isis mussenden is subtle but has the look of the kennedys there is the usual array of vintage cars from the period to make things look right the special of the sequences are a nice crafting of computer imaging the cuban missile crisis is probably the most intense two weeks that the united states has ever faced in its survival as a world leader helmer donaldson and his fine crew and cast have given the depiction of this crucial event with the care and attention to details that make this one of the finest docudramas of the year i give thirteen days an
positive	true faith and its expression through organized religion is a difficult subject for a motion picture to tackle which is probably why so few of them do it even the most religious directors like martin scorsese or ingmar bergman usually address issues of faith in implicit rather than explicit religious terms so it's not hard to see why it took robert duvall fifteen years to get the apostle onto the as a matter of fact even after fifteen years he still never managed to get financial backing and he ended up paying for it with million of his own money he also wrote the script directed the film and starred as the central character a fiery texas preacher named euliss sonny dewey few filmmakers have the courage and sheer audacity to take on that kind of financial technical and creative responsibility and it's testament to what an intensely personal project this was for duvall and thankfully every bit of that personal investment translates into power and honest emotion sonny is an energetic pentecostal preacher who has been speaking actually shouting from behind the pulpit since he was twelve he spends much of his time traveling about the country evangelizing with other preachers at tent revivals unlike most hollywood characterizations of intense preachers sonny is not a phony or a swindler and the film's purpose is not to unearth hypocrisy and sin in either sonny or the church duvall makes it abundantly clear that sonny truly believes in what he says although like all humans he has weaknesses one of his weaknesses become apparent when he finds out that not only does his wife jessie farrah fawcett want to leave him for another man in the congregation but the two of them have secretly plotted to remove him as preacher faced with the loss of two things he loves his church and his family that same raw power that allows sonny to get entire congregations rocking and swaying transforms into a violent temper at his son's baseball game sonny snaps and smashes his wife's lover in the face with a baseball bat inflicting a wound that may be fatal not knowing what else to do sonny disappears he throws away his identification drives his car into a lake and takes a bus to louisiana hoping to start over again in the tiny mostly poor coastal town of bayou boutte sonny once again finds his calling after befriending a simple auto mechanic walt goggins and tracking down the town's john beasley sonny sets up his own church the one way to heaven temple himself as the apostle e f he quickly draws together an eager congregation and together they realize real change in each other's lives but always sonny's past is lurking a step behind him waiting to swallow his progress duvall has made his intentions in making the apostle clear in a recent article in newsweek he wrote filmmakers hardly ever depict spirituality with such a strong emphasis on the holy spirit and when they do it tends to be patronizing full of charlatans and snake handlers but what i really wanted to do was try to understand what these preachers go through and what they believe and to portray it in an accurate way the strength of duvall's convictions turn out to be the strength of his film the apostle always rings true even in the most painful moments because we know he's being sincere with the subject matter after fifteen years of traveling the country listening to all shapes and sizes of ministers and taking studious notes on what they said duvall has captured the energy and vitality of what it means to be truly spiritual his sonny is a man who speaks directly to god and expects to be spoken right back to i've always called you jesus and you've always called me sonny he says when neighbors call and complain that he is being too loud one night in one his rants with the man upstairs sonny's mother june carter cash just hangs up on them because she knows there's no sense trying to interrupt him the main theme to emerge from the apostle is the fact that good can come from any situation sonny's act of violence toward another human being is inarguably a horrific thing and duvall never shrinks from that fact however that very same act of violence is what brings sonny to bayou boutte where he finds people whom he desperately needs and who desperately need him in his short time in louisiana he does a world of good and when the police finally show up to take him away he goes quietly knowing that he deserves the punishment that is awaiting him and as a scene during the final credits shows he even turns his punishment into a positive opportunity for change and betterment it is that strength in sonny's character that makes him so appealing and magnetic to others he is flawed but he is powerful enough to overcome those flaws weak men are the ones who simply accept their weaknesses and lack the desire to better themselves watching duvall it's not hard to imagine that he would have been a magnificent preacher if he had chosen that vocation over acting as sonny he completely inhabits the character and his performance is certainly the best of the year because he spent so much time absorbing the traits methods quirks and personalities of real preachers duvall was able to create a complete character who always feels indelibly human as a director duvall feels that less is more his camera simply takes in what goes on in front of it with very little intrusion there are no fancy crane shots or extended dollies or excessive duvall knew that the power of the film's characters enhanced by the fact that he cast mostly churchgoers and actual ministers didn't need to be artificially enhanced in this way the apostle almost plays out like a documentary not only in its technical simplicity but more importantly in its sense of reality
positive	when a someone journeys to the theater to see a comedy he always risks having to sit through inanity such as what we recently saw in films like edtv and office space it really is too bad that comedies are so because when a moviegoer goes in a theater expecting to be amused it really is a shame when the alleged comedy fails to deliver but weep not dear readers because the latest comedy out of the hollywood movie mill is nothing less than a sure bet austin powers the spy who shagged me is one of the funniest things i've had the pleasure to see in a long time a completely looney delightful parody of the often pretentious james bond flicks if all comedies or even half or what am i saying even a fifth of them could be this consistently hysterical i would take up residence at my local multiplex even more to this movie's credit is the fact that it is a sequel to the hit austin powers international man of mystery the original came out of nowhere it was a eccentric movie that many expected to flop like a leslie nielsen parody all of a sudden it was being quoted by teenagers all over america ironically powers' yeeeeah baby yeah has almost become an icon of the late thus another installment was inevitable but it's also undoubtedly welcome the spy who shagged me is one of the most unrestrained comedies i have ever seen in my entire life it brings back most of the characters from its predecessor even if only briefly and adds new ones austin powers mike myers a swinging hipster from the transported into the has to go back to his own time to get back his mojo oh you'll figure it out which dr evil meyers again has stolen he enlists the help of a gorgeous secret agent felicity shagwell now that his prior sidekick vanessa has been properly disposed of in a hilarious opening sequence played without much distinguishable gusto by heather graham and together they go back to the to defeat dr evil yet again surprisingly the real star is dr evil rather than austin he gets most of the screen time because he was so popular in the first movie perhaps this is true because he is portrayed and written so affectionately instead of being the scheming villainous mad scientist we might expect from a character like this he is a bumbling often sweet mad scientist wannabe the spy who shagged me has much of the same stuff we saw in the original but that's okay by me because the original left us wanting more by the time that one was over we haven't had nearly our share of shag jokes crude puns and powers' antics and this sequel satisfies our appetites even by its conclusions i'm still not sure i've had my fill of bits like do you smoke after sex i don't know baby i never looked this may seem awfully immature of me but understand that the austin powers series unlike most of the crap hollywood feeds us these days is genuinely funny i don't know if i've ever laughed harder at any movie than i did during the jerry springer send up or the indubitably hilarious just the two of us rendition by dr evil and his new miniature clone named i don't have any pretensions that this is particularly smart social satire or anything of the sort indeed there is little beyond the joy a viewer feels when he sees something that is able to entertain him as much as this movie did but as far as i'm concerned that is enough eugene novikov
positive	almost a full decade before steven spielberg's saving private ryan asked whether a film could be both anti war and john irvin's hamburger hill proved it could lost in the inundation of critical acclaim that greeted oliver stone's platoon this excellent film was dismissed as too militaristic it's hard to understand exactly irvin in assembling his motley collection of young men who for predictable and often naive reasons chose to show up for the vietnam debacle refused to present us with the stone killer psycho and ruthless opportunist who have become to vietnam war epics what the polack the hillbilly and the kid from brooklyn became to wwii movies hamburger hill based on a true story is not an easy film to watch there is a scene that will have graying activists squirming in their seats or moved to genuine tears and the climactic final assault on the hill in question is visually confusing gristly realities are presented in brief flashes as if the brain dared not acknowledged what it had encountered and in the mud and smoke officer and enlistee veteran and newbie black soldier and white become almost indistinguishable from each other as they do in the chaos of actual combat the acting throughout is solid with an absolutely stellar performance rendered by courtney b vance as a role that will have many flatly disbelieving that this is same actor they cheered as seaman jones in mctiernan's red october if you've seen private ryan you owe it to yourself to see hamburger only to determine that the all the valour and horror of spielberg's vision was as present in the ashau valley as it was at omaha beach
positive	in these days of overlong movies meet joe black the thin red line the mask of zorro it is a shame that films like waking ned devine can't be longer than a paltry minutes this is just a cute movie even through its mildly risque subject matter old friends jackie bannen and michael kelley try to find the lottery winner they deduce must live in their dinky town of about so that they might kiss up to him and share the winnings through process of elimination they find that it must be lovable old ned devine who they find sitting in front of his tv clutching the winning lottery ticket in his cold dead hand what results is thuroughly amusing as jackie tries to convince his wife that not claiming it would be wrong and that they could really benefit after all old ned won't miss it rather than divulge the later twists and turns i'll stop here merely pointing out that jackie and michael get into all sorts of trouble in their little sleepy irish villiage bannen and kelly are a perfect pair one slightly stout the other as thin as a rail both getting on in years they make such a cute pair of old codgers waking ned devine may even be seen as a full monty for the geriatric set especially since kelly gets for one amusing scene waking ned devine is by no means perfect but it is so sincere and touching that it looks so much better than most films the performances by everyone in the town are great particularly the two leads there is one twist at the end which i find unnecessary but it hardly ruins the picture kirk jones should be held up as an example to all those hollywood screenwriters scripts as creative and endearing as this should be the norm not the exception perhaps it makes us appreciate this wonderful film even more had i held off on my year's list for another day waking ned devine officially released in late november of surely would have graced the short group of the year's finest films it is light but thought provoking and sweet i can't think of anyone who shouldn't see or wouldn't enjoy this film
positive	dark city is such a rare treat it s a stunning hyperkinetic vision of a place where our reality is fused with noir science fiction and the darkest nights in manhattan and london to boot it is accompanied by an intense well written and thoughtful story movies of this caliber and idea aren t made too often and it s unfortunate that i waited this long to see it alex proyas who s previous film the crow looked good but couldn t cover up the terrible acting or story here shows a near masterpiece a combination of metropolis edward hopper and phillip marlowe fused seemlessly at times it moves beyond film into artwork it is the story of strangers aliens from another planet and we know they re aliens because they shave their heads and wear overcoats one of the detractions of the film who experiment on humans to discover what makes them live what makes up our soul these aliens are superior to humans because they have mastered the ultimate technology of shaping matter with their mind called tuning they are aided by a human scientist played by kiefer sutherland who has betrayed his kind and at the start of the film watches as the entire city stops at exactly midnight during this time john murdoch played swiftly by rufus sewell wakes in a bathtub in a room with a swinging overhead light a terrific visual effect not only is murdoch confused but so is the audience without a memory and a strange guilt that he may be a killer he receives a phone call to flee as the strangers are after him i don t want to proceed to much further with the explanation of the story one of the pleasures of the film is watching it develop in a way regaining murdoch s identity along with him it s a pleasure to watch the characters develop through the cinematography murdoch s wife anna is introduced through a stunning beam of light she is a lounge singer who sings into a bright spotlight shadows outlines of men in hats watch as she gently curves through the shine we see the outline of her body from behind an hourglass as she sings a slow rhythmic song a great entrance however a film such as this is only successful if the morals and themes behind it are strong enough to leave the viewer satisfied the city is nice to look at but if it s a poor story then it s not worth watching blade runner was popular not only because it s visuals but it s story and themes were thought out and provoked strong response from the audience it is discussed it and argued therefore a success other science fiction films of recent times such as the fifth element are nice to look at but are dropped and forgotten because the cookie cutter moral behind them is so flimsy we re left with love conquers all after finishing the fifth element dark city is not so easily explained away as the strangers discovered locating the human soul and discovering what makes us survive is not such an easy task where is reality dark city is certainly the best science fiction film of the s and ranks along with the best made in the such as blade runner and the two aliens films perhaps it s the best of the both decades it had the darkness of the aliens films as well as the visuals and compelling story of blade runner but moved beyond i think because the themes behind it were much stronger anyone who wants to make an argument for better science fiction films please feel free to write i d love to hear it
positive	anyone who saw alan rickman's performances in truly madly deeply and sense and sensibility will be unsurprised that the is a bit of a poet at heart however for those who recall him only as the maniacal villain of die hard and robin hood prince of thieves this recognition may be something of a shock nevertheless poetic is an excellent term to describe rickman's feature debut as a director the winter guest the film has a simple unhurried rhythm that uses all of the available elements to fashion a successful whole the result is an occasionally haunting sometimes magical and always insightful human drama the winter guest isn't about resolving plot threads and advancing a story line it's about exploring relationships and examining life in all of its stages the winter guest does not tell a traditional tale nor does it ascribe to a conventional narrative structure there is no real beginning or end instead we are given an opportunity to observe one day in the lives of eight humans they represent both sexes multiple generations and a variety of relationships male and female young and elderly friends lovers and kin we see expectations fulfilled and disappointed emotional boundaries eroded and truths unveiled there is comedy and tragedy most importantly much of what transpires during the course of the winter guest will find an echo in our own lives in this fiction can be found much truth the setting is small town in scotland on the coldest day of the year it's so frigid that the sea has begun to freeze over the onshore wind cuts like a knife and snow blankets the beach giving the terrain an alien appearance it is against this backdrop that the relationships of the film are captured there are four pairings and although there is some interaction between the different twosomes the winter guest's focus is on the dynamics internal to each relationship the first meatiest pairing is that of elspeth phylida law and her daughter frances emma thompson these two have a stormy relationship they love each other deeply but both are stubborn and willful and neither is willing to admit that they need the other much of their interaction is argumentative but during the course of a long walk to the frozen shoreline they come to an unspoken understanding of how much each means to the other frances' adult son alex gary hollywood is a lonely young man who has been caring for his mother since the death of his father on this day he meets a girl nita arlene cockburn who has secretly been spying on him for weeks although their first encounter is antagonistic she throws a snowball at him both quickly become aware of an undeniable attraction once they retire to a place where they can be alone however things don't go exactly as planned lily sheila reid and chloe sandra voe are a couple of old friends who are frequent funeral attendees death is a topic of endless fascination for them perhaps because they are so close to it and they spend their spare time scanning the obituaries looking for the next funeral or cremation in the area it doesn't matter whether or not they knew the deceased it's the ceremony that they're interested in sam douglas murphy and tom sean biggerstaff a pair of schoolboy chums are spending this cold february day cutting classes and hanging out at the beach horsing around building a small fire for warmth and walking on the frozen water unlike lily and chloe these two have their entire lives ahead of them they are young enough to still believe in magic but old enough to recognize that the process of crossing into adulthood robs life of the simple joy that only children can experience the acting is strong and believable the mixture of veteran performers and is effective with the most successful choice being the casting of mother and daughter phylida law and emma thompson in the most prominent roles there is a chemistry in their interaction that would be hard to replicate with two different actors and of course the physical resemblance makes it that much easier to accept elspeth and frances as parent and child the winter guest began its life as a stage play in with rickman as the director four of the film's principals phylida law arlene cockburn sheila reid and sandra voe appeared in the theatrical version before moving to the film unlike several recent motion pictures adapted from plays the winter guest has been successfully opened up the rough bleak scottish countryside becomes as much of a character as any of the eight humans in fact considering how important the climate is to every relationship under rickman's microscope it could be argued that this is the single most important element of the movie if you appreciate character studies the winter guest is a solid effort with enough power to stay with you after you have left the theater
positive	i want to correct what i wrote last year in my retrospective of david lean's war picture i still think that the bridge on the river kwai doesn't deserve being the number in the american film institute's list of the greatest american movies and i think that angry men witness for the prosecution and paths of glory would have been better choices for the oscar for the best picture of but i can't deny the importance of the bridge on the river kwai cinematically and in its contents the film is set in burma in a batallion of british soldiers in japanese war captivity is forced by the japanese to build a strategically momentous railway bridge over the river kwai but the british commanding officer colonel nicholson alec guinness insists corresponding to the geneva conventions that his officers needn't work as simple workmen struggling toughly col nicholson forces the japanese commandant col saito sessue hayakawa to give way in this respect afterwards col nicholson assiduously commits himself for the building of the bridge he considers it an opportunity to raise his men's morale and he wants to prove superior british capabilities to the japanese but the british high command sends a few soldiers who shall destroy the bridge among them the american shears william holden an escapee from the japanese prison camp and the british major warden jack hawkins a flaw of the picture is the clich d characterization of the japanese people they are presented as if they were intellectually inferior to the british as if the japanese were incapable of building a bridge and the film doesn't consistently question the military spirit as kubrick does in paths of glory lean seems rather fascinated by the military hierarchies this is also perceptible in the conversations between col nicholson and col saito in this regard it is symptomatic that shears who doubts the military logic is presented as a somehow unpleasant person the audience is supposed to applaud col nicholson's perseverance concerning the question if his officers shall work on the bridge or not the spectators are supposed to neglect the risks col nicholson takes for his men the plot these risks that means the picture isn't perfect but it has a lot of virtues as well the bridge on the river kwai shows the madness of war and what it can produce in people's minds it shows how colonel nicholson becomes possessed by the idea of being a hero and that others like shears get cynics and lean's film is an interesting study of characters with clashing interests these points and the sometimes ironic dialogue make this film an film despite inconsistencies in the treatment of this theme david lean's direction is really effective and atmospherically perfect his film is highly suspenseful especially in its dramatic if not wholly plausible showdown the film is also and has an apt score alec guinness does a magnificent job of bringing col nicholson to life and making him such an interesting character the other actors deliver fine performances as well i like this extraordinary film despite its weaknesses c karl rackwitz klein k ris germany
positive	recently i read reviews of from entertainment weekly one from a newsgroup and two from different online resources each review compared this film to the truman show why the only reason people compared pleasantville to truman is due to the fact that their lives are on television other than that the two movies are completely different from each other reviewers seem to love to pick one movie i e the truman show obsess over it and make it a guideline for other movies when pleasantville and edtv opened all critics seemed to treat the two films like they were subjects of king truman the same goes for the thin red line as well when it opened in decemeber probably of reviews compared it to stephen spielberg's saving private ryan giving thin line no chance whatsoever critics loved private ryan so much that they automatically decided no movie is good enough to reach its standards this is why i think pleasantville was underrated if the truman show had never been made pleasantville probably would have received better reviews done better at the box office and would be remembered after it's long been on the video store shelves sure it wasn't perfect and it wasn't very believeable but neither was the wizard of oz or star wars and there stands two of the most prominent movies in history with the exception of don knotts as the annoying tv repairman the film is cast perfectly the ice storm's tobey maguire is david in real life he watches the old sitcom pleasantville to escape from his feuding parents his twin sister jen reese witherspoon is a popular slut who steriotypically smokes and wears revealing clothes but what makes her character believeable is the excessive terms such as like whatever and cool make her sound like the total dimwit she's supposed to be the twins with a little help from a tv repairman casting don knotts in this role was obviously a cast rather than a true acting one are sucked into pleasantville by a magical new remote their new parents played by william h macy and joan allen are perfect in every way their new names are bud and mary sue and right away they start to corrupt the town of pleasantville after the siblings fit comfortably in their new roles the movie begins to take form it's just like watching a sitcom in itself you don't want it to end mary sue has sex with her date the school basketball champion when he tells all his friends about it they stop preforming perfectly at basketball and things start to take color soon we learn that these people don't know how to express true emotions and when they learn to do so they eventually turn into color this eventually sparks a racial war between the coloreds and the black whites entertainment weekly reviewer lisa schwarzbaum claims the movie has none of the depth poignance and brilliance of the truman show yes the truman show was maybe a little more intelligent but the racial by the forcing of the coloreds to sit in the upper box of the classifies as deep considering it's what i least expected gary ross did not try to create an intelligent award just tries to convey moral messages within his work take for example big and dave his past films careful what you wish for or bad lying is still lying did these movies win big awards no but they won the heart of millions pleasantville could have done that too if it wasn't for snotty reviewers who set precedents with preceeding films pleasantville i almost lost my nose and i like it i like breathing through it nicholson chinatown
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned the teaser trailers for my best friend's wedding scarsely gave reason for hope it looked like the sort of goofy comedy than might put julia roberts back in the limelight but little more i'd frankly rarely seen a trailer place such an emphasis on people falling over for laughs so often it was then to both my surprise and my delight to find that my best friend's wedding was such a success a strong bouyant with some decidedly unconventionally quirky comic aspects featuring a triumphant performance from ms roberts the heroine of my best friend's wedding is julianne potter julia roberts a successful new york restaurant critic and we open the film with a whimsical revelation to her editor george downes rupert everett that years ago she had made a pact with her dear best friend and michael o'neal dermot mulroney a sports writer that if they both hadn't married by the time they reached they had promised to marry each other both julianne and michael are both single of course and when george inquires about michael's age julianne realizes that he's mere weeks away from his birthday and is quite distressed when she receives a phone call from michael later that day however she finds herself even more distraught when michael's call is in regards to his impending marriage to heiress kimmy wallace cameron diaz and when he asks julianne to fly down to chicago for the wedding julianne suddenly realizes that she loves michael and resolves to break up the wedding and steal the groom by any means necessary the setup for my best friend's wedding then is a fairly conventional one and in many ways the film's storyline is formulaic but only to a certain extent the film was directed by p j hogan whose first feature muriel's wedding had quite an offbeat tone for a traditional uplifting story and the same holds true for my best friend's wedding which confidently combines traditional elements with a really eccentric sense of humour the film is innundated with sly mischievousness which seems clearly the influence of mr hogan for example there's a heartfelt emotional exchange between julianne and michael late in the film with a trio of teenagers inhaling helium and sounding every bit like alvin and the chipmunks harmonizing in the background my best friend's wedding opens with an inspired opening credit sequence which sets the tone for the film and there are scenes where actors spontaneously burst into song to good comic effect it could almost be argued that this film is nearly as much of a musical as woody allen's everyone says i love you i'd even assert it's a more successful one my best friend's wedding keeps breaking conventionality with its characters as well in a typical kimmy would be portrayed as a snooty conniving ice queen and the audience would be cheering for julianne to rescue michael from her grasps this film is smarter than that here kimmy is sweet sincere and innocent julianne even admits at one point that had she not resolved to utterly destroy kimmy's life she'd actually like her too the george character is almost a staple of recent film the homosexual male friend of the heroine who acts as a confidant and provides the guiding voice of reason but in my best friend's wedding he gets to have a playful mischievous and charming personality throughout the film the formulaisms one often sees is are given little twists and the result is a film which is compelling all the way to its somewhat unorthodox conclusion there is a lot of smart writing in the screenplay by ronald bass we're given four interesting vivid and likeable characters with some good dialogue and some genuinely charming and touching moments my best friend's wedding marks a strong career rebound for julia roberts who turns in a confident and reassured performance as julianne this isn't the sort of role one usually associates with ms roberts the julianne character's neurotic fumbling characteristics are more in line with a meg ryan role but ms roberts works wonderfully in the film and demonstrates her aptitude at comedy here remaining compelling and empathetic to the audience if not entirely sympathetic even when her deeds done to destroy the wedding plans of her best friend are less than honourable even better than ms roberts though is cameron diaz who turns in a shining performance in my best friend's weddding with a smile which lights up the screen she effectively conveys kimmy's insecurity and utter sweetness in an endearing manner and never hits a false note in the film she even sings i won't soon forget her charming serenade of i just don't know what to do with myself rupert everett is given a very juicy role as george and he makes the most of it with a hilarious turn which makes his character perhaps the most vivid and most memorable in the film his george is a bit of a devilish rogue entirely affable and mr everett's performance is a delight to watch he's clearly having fun and his joy is infectuous dermot mulroney is adequate in a thankless role unlike the other characters in the film he's not given a lot to do but there is a genuine onscreen chemistry between ms roberts and mr mulroney and consequently the longstanding friendship between his michael character and the julianne character always seemed completely authentic when julia roberts' lustre began to fade and she was usurped from her title as america's sweetheart by sandra bullock i thought it was a canny career move on her part to take supporting roles in prestige projects like michael collins and everyone says i love you to raise her profile while that didn't quite work out it's that her successful return to the genre which made her a big star back in the will once again raise her ante in the hollywood game my best friend's wedding marks a return to form for ms roberts and cements p j hogan's reputation as a skilled director of comedy
positive	robocop is an intelligent science fiction thriller and social satire one with class and style the film set in old detroit in the year stars peter weller as murphy a lieutenant on the city's police force detroit suffers from rampant crime and a police department run by a private contractor security concepts inc whose employees the cops are threatening to strike to make matters worse a savage group of has been terrorizing the city on murphy's first day of duty after his transfer from another precinct these brutally murder him by shooting off his limbs one by one orion pictures had to edit this extremely graphic scene in order to get an r rating from the m p a a after the emergency room staff at the hospital cannot save murphy and declare him clinically dead s c i recruits his remains for their new robocop program using the remains of murphy's body as a foundation their scientists build a cyborg made of both flesh and metal the cyborg robocop is half human murphy and half robot the s c i engineers have erased murphy's memory and replaced it with a computer program or so they think with his lightning quick reflexes immense strength and impenetrable armor s c i envisions robocop as an indestructible the solution to detroit's problems the remainder of the plot follows robocop's and vengeance on his murderers as a science fiction robocop is extremely effective dutch director paul verhoeven combines gritty action with suspense shocking gore and spectacular special effects several sequences in the film such as the one in which robocop employs his extremely precise aim to stop a rapist are destined to become because robocop is so visually and emotionally rousing it demands to be seen on a large screen with an other words in a movie theater although the special effects and action are exciting they do not by themselves set robocop apart from other films in the genre rather robocop stands out for its accurate and biting satire of american society the movie makes a mockery of the star wars defense initiative terrorism board games and television news broadcasts with anchors these news broadcasts which are exceptionally clever recur periodically throughout the movie and help to provide comic relief from the intense action and gore the satire in robocop however is almost as frightening in its own way as the suspense and blood america as portrayed in the film may seem far fetched but is in actuality i think only a slight exaggeration of the current state of american society the humorous satire in robocop is simultaneously credible and absurd verhoeven adroitly balances the satirical comedy with the gory action to create an entertaining and enlightening piece of science commentary unfortunately robocop possesses several flaws which prevent it from qualifying as a classic within the genre the movie lacks the lasting impact of such films as the road warrior the terminator and aliens robocop's main problem aside from its dumb title is that it does not sufficiently develop murphy's character we never learn the degree to which murphy as robocop is human and the degree to which he is a robot does murphy have any human spirit or free will left or is he merely a computer following a program the script halfheartedly raises these issues but then abandons them in its climactic flurry of gory action moreover it almost completely ignores the question and tragedy of denying a man his right to die in favor of turning him into a machine robocop also contains several bothersome as you watch robocop you experience deja vu you feel as if you have seen the film before in many respects robocop is reminiscent of several other films including the terminator return of the jedi and even death wish however to its credit robocop easily has enough originality and unique personality to avoid becoming a cheap
positive	probably the most popular and praised film of all time turned out to be a primitive and predictable costume drama with a dose of social criticism everyone knows about the greatest and most famous shipping disaster of all time and the actual catastrophe is masterfully crafted by director james cameron combining visual sound effects he the frightening atmosphere of the sinking ship in the middle of nowhere i liked very much the emotional and brutal contrast between the first and the third classes while their cabin is slowly filling up with water a mother is telling her children a fairytail and they lived happily ever after and then the ship goes down and the few survivors are left alone under the stars and the chilling air however the actual disaster is happening almost at the end of the movie while the first two hours are just beautiful sets and bad dialogues in the present day the rms titanic is explored by brock lovett bill paxton a treasure seeker looking for the coeur de la mer diamond lost during the sinking somewhere inside the ship lovett's crew discover a sketchbook of an artist long dead here in the shape of a nude young lady is a window into the distant age of lovett is extremely surprised when he get's a phone call from rose dawson claiming that she is a model she is immediately helicoptered onto the vessel and she gets the first glimpse of the fated ship in years as the memories come flooding back she once again becomes rose dewitt buketer kate winslet the fianc e of wealthy cal hockley billy zane and daughter of ruth dewitt bukater frances fisher on board there are rich and poor everyone trust in the ship's designer jonathan hyde and her master captain e j smith bernard hill on board the ship rose unhappy and restless meets jack leonardo dicaprio a young american artist poor brave and attractive a love story slowly emerges and the two lovers must not only experience the difference between the social classes but also face the greatest power on earth death cameron could as well have called his picture the never ending love or love at first sight as he concentrates all his energy on the young couple and not on the disaster itself the plot is anything but original and the dialogues sometimes resemble a television the director doesn't even try to overcome his empty script because of its primitive and predictable plot titanic is totally depending on the visuals that truly are breathtaking russel carpenter's rich majestic and incredibly detailed cinematography is certainly everything from art direction to visual and sound effects are a top notch but it doesn't help much when the costumes are more convincing than the actors who wear them the actors are not to blame because their characters are more like caricatures in other words fake jack is a man with many talents he is a talented artist handsome brave honest strong funny you name it he doesn't have any dark side he doesn't make any mistakes that for a second would make him human jack is perfect but he is poor on the other hand we have cal he is a bastard that treats rose as an odalisque and not as his he lacks everything jack possesses but he is rich this childish contrast between the social classes is one of those things that makes titanic nothing more than a mediocre picture cameron knows precisely what we want to see his film therefore contains certain minimums to draw an audience attractive actors a tragic love story beautiful visuals including expensive special effects a dose of social criticism a fascinating historical event we love true stories and last but not least an incredible media support which proclaimed an average picture the greatest film of all time on the outside titanic looks perfect but behind that sparkling curtain of incredible visuals is emptiness nothing to think about the main weakness of this film which ironically became its success is simplicity cameron enables our basic and if you wish primitive emotions love hate fear and helplessness everyone understands the power of love and the threat to our beautiful couple is likewise imaginable a sinking ship titanic is a typical hollywood production totally and completely dependent on visual perfection to hide its primitive plot it's a good picture but absolutely not a masterpiece it's among hundreds and thousands good films released every year not better or worse than the average american film
positive	cinema has been around for about a hundred years now it's not my job to recap this century every time i talk about a new film but i'd like to think that i'm beginning to understand the art more as i watch more films from before my time recently i've seen the films of hitchcock capra fellini godard kurosawa chaplin lang and many others those men were talented artists and their films reflect their genius they are likely to be remembered for   well quite a while i like this film too yes it's a movie true its budget is a lot more money than i'll ever see in my lifetime and there's not a doubt in my mind that the only reason it was conceived was to make a lot of money in fact i bet the producers of armageddon would have worked towards a lousy film had they thought it would've been more profitable i certainly don't care what their intentions were because michael bay the rock is such a skilled director that i doubt he'd ever make a film that is difficult to sit through of course skillful direction doesn't complete the package but the rest of armageddon manages to keep everything together the story is out and perfectly paced to provide for an abundance of action sequences that never feel out of place the acting is terrific the script is sharp and get this there are characters yes you read that right armageddon actually has characters you can care about if you don't like this film then you have a problem with the genre itself armageddon is as good as a film like this can be if you've seen deep impact then you know the basic framework for the story it turns out that an asteroid the size of texas is going to strike the earth eighteen days from the start of the film so it's up to the u s government to stop it why the u s is always exclusively saddled with these problems is never fully investigated their plan to send a group of experienced oil drillers up to the asteroid drill down several hundred feet and detonate a nuclear warhead within the head driller is harry stamper bruce willis his group of men is a colorful bunch including a j ben affleck chick will patton and rockhound steve buscemi there's also an interesting triangle formed between a j harry and grace liv tyler who is harry's daughter a j and grace are of course romantically intertwined and dad isn't too happy with the situation it's absurd to wish for a complicated story in an event movie or a special effects movie or whatever it is you'd like to call armageddon it's not about story it's about viscera and action and and all that stuff it's incidental really that the story is cohesive and even remotely believable because most people will be too wrapped up in the explosions to give two seconds' thought to what actually happens but bay is the one to congratulate in this case for he has made a film so entertaining and so visually sharp that i doubt any director could have done it better i think most of the budget went to cameras alone because bay films every action sequence from about thirty or forty different angles take the spectacular opening scene for instance in which a meteor shower obliterates new york a meteor flies out of the sky and crashes into a building which sends fireballs erupting into the air and cars spinning like tops upon other cars the action itself might take five seconds in real life but bay edits so quickly that we get the same scene in six different ways i like his style because it's abrasive and exhausting to watch it's also very loud and obnoxiously noisy at times but it's fun to be obnoxious sometimes the special effects in this film put every other blockbuster to shame deep impact visually has absolutely nothing on armageddon and to offer a comparison between the quality of this film and godzilla is simply laughable special effects are very important in a film like this if they're not good then the image is not convincing and the film doesn't work everything here looks bright and explosive from the little meteors bursting through skyscrapers all the way to the shots of the earth through the jutting rocks on the ominously approaching asteroid the effects that don't look totally real are still a pleasure to behold and i credit everyone involved for creating the first blockbuster so that it actually qualifies as art of course all of this would add up to little more than an light show if i didn't get the feeling that bay cares as much about his characters as he does about his action the film is two and a half hours long and not all of that is spent submerged in numbing action much of the film is dedicated to developing the various characters' subplots i won't suggest that these are complex characters but their problems are real and the emotions aren't put forth in a sentimental and overbearing way in fact there are three or four scenes here that had me pretty choked up and that's a lot more than i can say about deep impact which was banking on the parts of its story bruce willis is terrific and i'm glad to see him bigger than life again recent turns in films like mercury rising have been very disappointing tyler and affleck are great together and make a convincing couple all of the scenes between them work on a comfortable level patton who is a magnificent actor thankfully is not wasted here and the minor subplot revolving around his and son is very moving the comic relief from buscemi and peter stormare who plays a crazy russian astronaut is nifty and keeps the film lively and funny i wasn't challenged to think real hard while watching armageddon and i don't mind too much but the film doesn't insult my intelligence it's pitched perfectly to entertain which is what all it really wants to do it's not mindless and escapist but cinema it might have been created for the wrong reasons but men like michael bay have my respect for showing me that they are interested in making something good in spite of the producers and the budget i'm not saying that films like this are risky moves what i am saying is that armageddon is a big loud expensive motion picture that reminds me that art often comes in the strangest of forms
positive	it's no secret in the motion picture industry that the relationship between a script and the actors involved often makes or breaks a movie at the box office a script can be bested by a superb acting corps and a piece can be mangled by a group of amateurs in directing his latest director brett ratner money talks takes a relatively mediocre piece of standup comedy and turns it into a funny as all buddy cop movie in addition rush hour serves as a example of directing a movie with conservative attitude a feature that is sure to draw in crowds of all types the two lead names share equal screen time here mostly because they spend it together jackie chan in his first completely american production makes an impressive debut by mixing dialogue with martial arts the other martial arts flick from a few weeks ago knock off stands no chance against the content of this one chan manages to make every fight scene exude grace and poise and there's no doubt that a large percentage of video sales for this movie will come from viewers who couldn't believe their eyes the first time chris tucker on the opposite side relates a hilarious comedic approach which smoothes out the rough edges to chan's performance he works perfectly with the script and it's quite likely he lent scribe jim kouf a hand with some of his lines almost essential to the action genre the plot is nonexistent we're quickly introduced to detective james carter tucker is a maverick officer for the lapd cut forward to another scene where the daughter julia hsu of the american chinese consul tzi ma is kidnapped by a gang of swarthy characters the fbi is quick to the rescue but the consul insists that one of his men detective inspector lee chan be brought on the case to help the fbi resists but then requests that lapd send a man over to babysit the chinese detective it's here that carter and lee hook up and the two unwittingly solve the case while the fbi rushes in to back them up rattner does a fine job of going the extra mile to get his movie to move a step up but it doesn't quite reach the top tier of like last year's grosse pointe blank there are moments where the plot strays too far off the straight line it sticks almost exclusively to and if not for the comedic interactions between tucker and chan this might be a major drawback also some supporting characters are almost entirely along for the ride and others are there simply to look menacing however none gives a standoffish performance and they mostly mesh into the background almost every member of the cast displays some reservation at one point or another whether it's tucker's routine or chan's tight rein on his action sequences and that contributes greatly to this being a watchable movie for all types a recommendable visit to the theater indeed
positive	when andy leaves for cowboy camp his mother holds a yard sale and scrounges in his room for old toys one of these toys is wheezy a penguin with a broken squeaker woody tom hanks saddles up andy's dog and rides out into the yard to rescue wheezy woody succeeds in his mission but doesn't make it back to the house before al the unscrupulous owner of al's toy barn recognizes woody as a rare collector's item and steals him buzz lightyear tim allen leads hamm john ratzenberger mr potato head don rickles slinky dog jim varney and rex wallace shawn into the city to find their friend meanwhile woody discovers the reason he was kidnapped al has collected every piece of merchandising from the tv puppet show woody's except for a woody doll now that the collection is complete al plans to sell woody and his the horse jessie the cowgirl joan cusack and stinky pete the old prospector kelsey grammer a toy museum in japan the gang is happy about the move they've been in storage for years waiting for woody if woody doesn't go with them they'll be closed up in a dark box again possibly forever trying to convince him to stay with them jessie tells woody how she was abandoned when her owner grew up and woody realizes that his days as a beloved toy are numbered while woody ponders whether to go to japan or to go home to andy buzz and the boys invade al's toy barn where the buzz we know is replaced by another buzz who doesn't know he's a toy the new buzz generates the movie's biggest laughs as he leads the other toys in an assault on zurg's fortress i e al's apartment building the original toy story won me over because its central themes reflected a sensibility rather than the usual while most kids' movies take the position that every person is special and has an extraordinary destiny to fulfill in toy story buzz discovered that he wasn't special that he was just like everyone else buzz sank into a suicidal depression but woody showed buzz that being a toy was worthwhile because a toy is loved and a toy makes a child happy in other words it's okay to be ordinary if you have love and a purpose in your life most of us probably come to the same conclusion when we realize that we're not space rangers and we're never going to be toy story addresses the question raised by the conclusion drawn by the first movie woody is forced to recognize that andy will grow up and forget him and that he will likely be discarded abandoned or sealed up in a dark box in the attic this is another big theme everything ends the theme is introduced early in the movie when woody's arm is torn and andy places him on a shelf rather than taking him to cowboy camp on the shelf woody meets wheezy who's dusty broken and forgotten the other toys are shocked that woody has been shelved and they worry that woody's ride out to the box at the yard sale is a suicide attempt after he's stolen woody has to decide between a long life in a display case and an uncertain future with andy and his pals of course in spite of the heavy themes toy story explores it's also very funny most of the laughs come from the toys' assault on al's toy barn and on the apartment building the brief substitution of a new still delusional buzz was a welcome surprise i'd wondered how a sequel could be as funny as the original without the pompous attitude buzz displayed in the original most of the vocal performances are tom hanks stands out for the level of enthusiasm he puts into his work however one also stands out as horribly miscast kelsey grammer sounds nothing like an old prospector although he does a lot of work in commercials and on the simpsons as sideshow bob grammer only makes slight variations on his own voice he doesn't have the range to pull off a role like stinky pete the animation is even better than in the first especially impressive were the textures of the figures we can now see the difference between flesh and plastic in the first movie the people looked just like the toys but now human skin looks soft and has a slight bluish tint we can also see that bo peep is porcelain as you can tell from the phrasing common in the merchandising disney and pixar's story this is pixar's coming out party to celebrate they appended their first project a hilarious short about two desklamps and a rubber ball to the beginning of the movie they made the short in which is incredible when one considers the relatively primitive level of computer technology available then on the downside toy story follows the formula of the original so closely that the sequel comes off a bit stale and some sections tend to drag overall though i had a great time and found story to be a worthy successor to the first toy story bottom line this one really is fun for the whole family
positive	david lynch's blue velvet begins and ends with colorful bright shots of flowers and happy americans mowing their lawns in a seemingly perfect american town however what lies inside this nominally safe atmosphere is a strange world of drug dealers sadists and murderers the opening and closing shots are a wonderful contrast to the rest of the gloomy disturbing film they show not to make assumptions from first glance and that oddness is common in all places under all circumstances odd would be a perfect adjective to describe this film its characters its direction and its story thankfully the obscurity that blue velvet relies on is enough to make this film enjoyable since its elements are so originally weird you never know what will happen next this is the main goal of a movie to be spontaneous and surprising blue velvet miracuously succeeds at this even though it contains mediocre acting lynch creates such a hypnotic world that it is hard to resist his style of story telling the film starts off with the discovery of a severed ear by a college boy kyle maclachlan from this point maclachlan finds himself involved with a lounge singer isabella rossellinia who has lost her son and husband to a kidnapping the plot is much more detailed than the aforementioned and this is what makes david lynch's story telling so amazing maclachlan becomes involved in a forbidden relationship in another relationship that could have been taken straight out of a high school flick and he is put into the shoes of a drug dealer who has some wild adventures with some wild friends through these multiple stories maclachlan lives multiple lives and as we follow maclachlan we are introduced to a variety of interesting subplots lynch masterfully builds these subplots but he does not piece them all together in the very end and make a convenient crowd pleasing conclusion instead he leaves some ambiguity and forces those curious enough to get the real meaning to watch the film several several times lynch has been known to do this with a number of his films meaning he may be too esoteric for some hoping to get a hollywood ending where the good guy gets the girl and everything turns out fine however for fans of odd difficult indies blue velvet could be just what they are looking for it is very hard to discuss blue velvet without discussing the performance of dennis hopper's sadistic frank most of the other actors in the film were not very memorable kyle maclachlan lacked one important aspect for his role a personality laura dern was consistently annoying but dennis hopper stole every scene he was in his evil character was just plain old frightening in his mannerisms from his obsession to velvet to his incessant breathing from a gas mask frank is a character that comes along once in a blue moon many producers know this and have inevitably begun to typecast hopper as the bad guy just like his villain in speed hopper is over the edge with cursing and screaming every chance he has to speak this harshness is exactly what frank is so weird and twisted that it is hard not to look at him even if he theatens you to look away blue velvet has characters and stories you will never see in a movie again for this sole reason it is recommended but also see it to admire lynch's obsession to avoid the norm even if this film is a little too weird for you it's hard not to congratulate a guy for trying something new and sticking to it
positive	if chris farley had strapped some fake sideburns to each side of his head spoken with a thick irish accent and tried his damnedest to play it straight he wouldn't have been nearly as funny as brendan gleeson in i went down gleeson who's not dissimilar to the late saturday night live alumnus in terms of physical attributes plays a character named bunny kelly in this delightful irish film bunny is sent to county cork to retrieve one frank grogan for an irish gangster called tom french well dressed like all good gangsters should be and menacingly portrayed by tony doyle bunny is to accompany git hynes peter mcdonald recently released from prison and obligated to tom for disfiguring one of his cronies that tom french is a mean bollocks he wants frank back and a small matter of some that tom's wife was supposed to have given to frank for this he won't break anyone's thumbs maybe inventively and engagingly written by conor mcpherson and directed by paddy breathnach i went down follows the trials and tribulations of git and bunny as they knock around peat bogs pubs and seedy hostelries trying to stay alive and out of trouble mcdonald is a newcomer and a promising one at that but gleeson has been in over a dozen movies most recently as father bubbles in another film with a very irish accent on hilarity the butcher boy even if you can't comprehend half of what they're saying gleeson and mcdonald together make i went down a trip worth taking the film is in many ways reminiscent of another little independent feature highway that film too was a road movie and it shares the same kind of wry dialogue and humorous situations as mcpherson's tale whimsical observations on life vignettes deadpan conversational asides and scenes that'll make you laugh out loud witness the episode in which our protagonists bind frank played by peter caffrey to a hotel bed leaving him with only the tv remote for company that sequence alone is on a par with satan locking himself out of his car in highway what's also charming about i went down is how the relationship between buddy and git develops their trip becomes an education for both of them but the way it's handled is neither sappy nor labored the only thing in the film which approaches clunkiness is the culminating explanation via flashbacks of the relationship between frank and tom it's a little too hollywood and what makes i went down so refreshing is the fact that it rarely panders to traditional conventions of hollywood gangster movies sure it's that it's also pretty goofy although i went down emphasizes the comedic elements of crime there are a couple of fairly brutal scenes in keeping with the subject matter don't let these deter you though i went down is a little gem it's only playing at one i suspect it won't be there for catch it while you can
positive	you leave little notes on my pillow i told you a million times i can't stand little notes on my pillow are all out of corn flakes f u it took me three hours to figure out that u was felix unger a frustrated oscar madison walter matthau running down a list of his complaints against his roommate felix unger jack lemmon in the odd couple the classic neil simon comedy based on his own stage play about suicidal felix lemmon who is persuaded by his poker friend oscar matthau to stay with him in his apartment after felix's wife throws him out and files for divorce the hook oscar is messy and likes his apartment that way while felix is an neat freak the two men despite their friendship instantly clash movies just aren't as delightfully funny as this one is every line of neil simon's dialogue flows like comedic poetry and all the actors are just perfect in their performances lemmon is at his best as the anxiety ridden felix but it's matthau who shines brightest as oscar whose world is being invaded and rearranged mostly against his wishes the type of character i always enjoy identifying with and who can forget that catchy score by neal hefti the best thing about the film and this is a testament to the quality of the writing is that it's a comedy with substance these two men even while at each other's throats genuinely care for one another as friends when they clash it isn't cartoonish hatred being displayed but genuine frustration with the fact that they are such good friends but just cannot manage to movies nowadays take grumpy old men for example just don't have that extra spark there these days it's just animosity for the sake of comedy a television series followed starring jack klugman and tony randall which i'll admit i've never seen an episode of in its entirety and neil simon even scripted the sequel the odd couple ii which was released in neither of them compare to this comic masterpiece though it's one of the best comedies of all time and easily earns its spot in my top ten favorite films
positive	ingredients lost parrot trying to get home friends synopsis a russian janitor named misha tony shalhoub discovers a little old parrot languishing in the basement of a science research facility paulie the talking parrot the voice of jay mohr soon regales misha with his life story as a young bird paulie is raised by marie hallie kate eisenberg a little girl with a speech impediment by attending marie's speech lessons paulie learns to like a regular person unfortunately after being unfairly blamed for an accident paulie is taken to a pawn shop and sold paulie's biggest wish is to return to marie many years later and after a succession of memorable owners gena rowlands cheech marin and jay mohr paulie falls in with a bad crowd and is apprehended in los angeles trying to steal jewelry he is sent to a cruel research facility where he refuses to participate and is imprisoned the basement will misha help paulie get back to marie opinion every time people watch movies that portray animals as beings with cute human personalities some audience members go out next christmas or birthday and buy a dalmatian or whatever creature is currently popular soon enough birthday kid loses interest and the purchased pup ends up at the local pound a victim of neglect my sister owns a real paulie it thinks like a parrot bites like a parrot and requires as much attention as a newborn human infant please think twice before buying one okay back to the story in movies parrots usually play support characters but paulie might be the first movie where the animatronic bird gets main billing paulie like those side characters in disney cartoons is cute and sassy a strutting miniature human actually paulie is the voice of jay mohr he played jennifer aniston's boyfriend on picture perfect doing his best buddy hackett impression which is interesting since hackett himself cameos as the pawn shop owner and mohr doubles as a customer paulie is for kids while watching paulie you hear little tykes in the theater laughing hysterically when paulie calls the cat a stupid furball sometimes however there are statements the kids don't get for example when paulie's elderly owner ivy gena rowlands dies paulie explains well one day the cat got her and you hear kids exclaim what cat imagine lassie come home except with a human dressed as a bird and you'll have a good idea of the plot and characterization bird tries to get home bird meets elderly friend bird loses elderly friend bird meets eccentric friend bird loses eccentric friend bird meets bad influence and so on and so forth with paulie meeting friends and saying goodbye at a meandering pace until he finally makes it back to marie trini alvarado the bottom line break out the popcorn money moms and dads paulie may be the low end version of lassie bambi or babe but he'll do sometimes the wisecracks go over their heads but i'm sure youngsters can appreciate a story about a little person paulie trying to get home meeting friends and experiencing moral lessons on the way and good luck explaining what it means when paulie says of ivy well one day the cat got her
positive	tempe mills cinema movie had us in stitches from beginning to end all those promotional clips that have been on tv for the past month came from the first five minutes of the movie if you thought they were funny see the rest of the movie it's hilarious how does one go about making a movie about a couple guys whose only claim to fame is synchronized on snl to exactly one song easy write an interesting script around ideas add some good lines and satire and voil you end up with an excellent very entertaining flick will and chris are idiot brothers forced by their father to work begrudgingly in the family flower business during the day at night they pursue their ambition to loose their virginity in failed attempts to get into the roxbury in beverly hills ca the only disco act worth going to the only problem the place is so popular and the waiting line so long that by the time the brothers make it to the front door the roxbury closes all the while bearing witness to guys with bills and movie stars like richard grieco who get past the doorman without fuss the script authors steve koren will ferrell and chris kattan cleverly devised a way for our boys to get into the roxbury their van is by richard grieco who fears a and is surprised to see the idiots are too to think about the car accident they just had but not about getting into the roxbury grieco happily takes them in even introduces them to the owner which has the added benefit of enhancing the financial appearance of the idiot brothers in the eyes of a couple of gold diggers elisa donovan and gigi rice who bet their time and bodies on will and chris what follows are some of the best dancing routines ever the music is superb and could have only been made better had the producers added patrick hernandez's born to be alive the choreography at times was a parody of an era gone by for example the bee gees and their stayin' alive it is nostalgic for those of us who remember that far back and the technique is a clever adaptation that worked well in forest gump one of the funniest scenes is when the gold diggers discover that will and chris don't have any mone y and dump both on the spot even expressing violence and anger that they gave sex away an poke at shallow women it's a scene that's an approximate parody of the vinegar's own rolf luedeke's editorial this week national organization for men nom replaces now ted unabomber kaczynski himself rejected for not having money will identify well with this scene if he ever watches the movie of course the script wouldn't be complicated enough without adding molly shannon the girl next door who has had a crush on will since they were kids and who will has had an aversion to in quest of disco blondes proof that men will turn down perfectly good women when there are bay watch babes always lurking nearby nevertheless will's father wants him to marry molly anyway but thinks idiot chris is standing in the way and sends him into exile during the wedding ceremony will's heart isn't exactly into getting married and when his brother appears on the balcony with a ghetto blaster and more music will thinks worse of the idea and runs to chris definitely an snl parody of the graduate where katharine ross changed her mind for the screaming dustin hoffman in the church balcony i found this scene a riot however it went over brandi's head she was born seven years after the graduate first appeared the scene has a good punch line when molly shannon marries instead the who looks like he could pass for the son of gary busy and who has been lusting for a for a long time but ready now to take anyone more stuff not even muscles can substitute for money in the real world the idiots' mother is played by loni anderson whose looks don't play well anymore she's a bit old and whose cleavage looks like someone botched a tracheotomy too low down i recommend this movie for anyone who wants to have a lot of fun or in need of a lot of laughs go with a date brandi laughed as i did and a might have concluded i was tickling her continuously for minutes
positive	there is nothing like american history x in theaters or on video no other feature film takes such a cold hard look at the lure the culture and the brotherhood of white supremacy nice guy ed norton jr who sang in everyone says i love you plays derek a old skinhead dad's subtle racism grew large in derek after gang members killed his father dad was fighting a fire when they shot him now derek keeps his head shaved and has a giant swastika tattooed over his heart derek is more interested in the ideas of white supremacy than in its culture of violence at a basketball court black and white tempers flare derek channels the aggression into a game black versus white for ownership of the courts when the choice presents itself derek goes for game point instead of the cameron stacy keach steps in to derek's life as a surrogate father he takes derek under his wing and nurtures his racist feelings keeping his own criminal record spotless he uses derek as a leader and organizer for racial intimidation derek obliges by leading his younger and dumber friends in mob crimes at the bottom of the chain derek's younger brother danny edward furlong made famous in terminator joins the skinheads not for ideological or intellectual reasons but because he admires his brother and he wants to belong one night three black youths break into derek's truck which is exactly what derek has been waiting for outside in his shorts and his tattoo he shoots them all the third thief unarmed is only wounded in the key scene of the film derek commands the kid into a position where he can be killed with one glorious enraptured awful stomp the of orgazmo seems even more inappropriate considering american history x was rated r what sort of country is this that says sex comedies are a bigger threat to our youth than brutal ecstatic violence the police arrive just as derek kills the last thief derek does not resist the cops and as they spin him around to cuff him the film slows down derek raises his eyebrows and smiles at his little brother in a chilling sadistic satisfied grin now in prison derek faces new challenges as the black man in the laundry tells him in the joint you the nigra not me there is a clique of skinheads but they are not interested in the ideology of white supremacy they only use the symbols as a means of intimidation derek finds himself truly alone truly in danger and truly afraid when derek finally gets out of prison he finds that his friends from the gang have also changed without derek's leadership they have shunned the white supremacist ideology for the white supremacist culture it is the final factor that makes him realize how badly he's screwed up in the end he spends quality time with is brother trying to undo the respect and admiration he had earlier inspired in danny the film ends a little too deliberately too neatly after the unchained emotion and violent glee of the rest of the film but it barely detracts from the overall experience edward norton gives an performance although some of his dialogue seemed to be written without enough conviction norton's performance compensated an example that comes to mind is his pep talk before looting the store he also captured the essence of an older brother he took his responsibility as a role model to his younger brother very seriously very lovingly both before and after his change of heart though clearly not for all tastes this film is bold and daring the subject matter is ugly cruel and at times hard to look at nevertheless its subjects are part of humanity's great face kaye gives us a good look at this fascinating if distasteful american subculture
positive	john von neumann progenitor of the computer age and critically important mathematician on the manhattan project pointed out long ago that there is a great way to explore the cosmos even without recourse to light travel you send out robot ships which explore and radio back information it may take decades centuries or millennia but it can be done with achievable technology and doesn't require a magical drive in the fifties british astronomer fred hoyle improved on this plan by suggesting that it would be better to radio plans for a complex computer and a program for it any civilization capable of receiving the transmission could build the computer which would then engage in a dialog with the aliens exchanging information and technologies and hopefully arranging to send back what it had learned about years ago the bbc contracted with fred hoyle and writer frank elliot to create the scripts for a called a for andromeda afa concerned the reception of a hoyle transmission the construction of a huge computer the computer's analysis of life on earth and its creation of an apparently human intermediary to facilitate communication she was played with ethereally inhuman perfection by the julie christie audience response was so strong that the bbc contracted for a sequel andromeda breakthrough which played to equally high ratings dennis feldman whose previous credits include the golden child has never been noted for coherent movie scripts they start out great and then disintegrate into a morass of chase and action mitigated only by the presence of the obligatory beautiful girl feldman writes good scenes but has no idea how to tell a story or write a movie even with a previous version to use as a model now in species we have a mundane retread of the andromeda plotline derailed by a preoccupation with removing the clothes from the leading lady and further ruined by a mediocre attempt to emulate several recent horror films in terms of splatter gore and chases species features ben kingsley who is completely wasted in a portrayal of a feebly amoral scientist forest whitaker and alfred molina are also served poorly by the script the species story is relatively simple we have been radioing information about ourselves and our dna out into space since and have been receiving answers for two years note that in the we really didn't know diddly about the human genome structure and were hardly in a position to radio out a set of blueprints for human beings even today all we can do is give information about dna and how it works not a copy of human dna because we don't have it analyzed yet the answers we get from the unknown alien source are plans for recreating a member of the alien race and doctor xavier finch played by ben kingsley is placed in charge of the attempt the script begins to go off the deep end at this point when the result is a beautiful young girl who can into any of several ugly alien life forms the first half of the film has something to offer as sil the alien girl struggles with her existence changing from beauty to lizard to giant cockroach and back again all while trying to understand her own place in the cosmos she seems oddly knowledgeable about human society with glaring gaps where her social skills should be her instincts are to mate and procreate and some of the best scenes deal with her attempts in this area escaping from her birth laboratory in utah sil is pursued by a team of drafted civilians with orders to find her and kill her she goes on an eating binge spins herself a cocoon and emerges as an adult played by natasha henstridge who goes a long way toward the sheerly inhuman beauty julie christie achieved in the pursuers michael madsen is an forrest whitaker is a convenient just as though the u s government actually had such people on call neither is able to do much with the writing and directing provided whitaker's role seems to be aimed at making whitaker a male copy of star trek the next generation's counselor cleavage the other members of the strike team are played by marg helgenberger and alfred molina kingsley and whitaker are both consummate professionals too good to not work to the best of their abilities but the performances donaldson elicited from the rest of the cast are disappointing and bland and it is apparent that the direction was a bit weak h r giger's design for the main form of the alien creature is actually a bit boring when we finally get to see it although previous digital effects were done quite smoothly the main fault of species is lack of originality it starts out with a wonderful albeit borrowed premise and then doesn't live up to it all we get are chase scenes and a few nice sex scenes with a few monsters tossed in there is no buildup of tension and suspense no climax worthy of the name species is just a sequence of scare scenes stuck together the movie is carried by its chase and sex scenes but not rescued by them on the other hand as an exercise in adventure it certainly beats the ichor out of judge dredd species earns an extra rating point or two for having ben kingsley and natasha henstridge on board but by and large it's fun only for those of us who really like this sort of thing my personal rating is three stars but knock one or two of those off if you don't enjoy pretty unclothed ladies and bloodthirsty alien monsters mpaa classification r violence gore nudity sex language stars ben kingsley michael madsen forest whitaker alfred molina marg helgenberger natasha henstridge directed by roger donaldson produced by frank mancuso jr and dennis feldman typed by dennis feldman cinematography andrzej bartkowiak music christopher young run time minutes aspect ratio from mgm opens july
positive	as the small boats rock slowly toward the shore at omaha beach normandy on the weary seasick soldiers take a deep breath and open the large protective shield at the back of the boat they are unaware of exactly what is going to happen one man kisses the crucifix that hangs around his neck as the flap falls the battle begins they are trapped like rats in a cage and proceed to be blown to pieces in the wake of enemy gunfire amid the chaos of this massacre stands a shot that at least for me hangs in the air like the girl in the little red coat in schindler's list a soldier clearly missing an arm wanders around the beach like a lost puppy we are not invited to know what he is searching for until he finds it himself he bends over picks up his arm and starts to carry it probably not bothering to ask himself what now saving private ryan is a masterfully composed film the direction is out of this world surely the type of command that can win spielberg another directing oscar the cinematography by janusz kaminsky is also astounding but be forewarned this is the most violent and graphic film i have ever seen the articles you read and the warnings you see are justified saving private ryan is visually as disturbing as a film can get the question is does the story and its realism justify the excessive use the answer from my point of view is no braveheart was a truly gritty and one would imagine realistic battle film ryan is ten times worse expect disembowelments sucked in skulls heads blown to bits arms and legs flying across the battlefield many in the theater could not bear to watch and it is a shame too because this is otherwise by far one of the standouts this year but such graphic displays may turn away even the most loyal spielberg supporters and academy members saving private ryan takes us from the attack at omaha beach on through into the film's primary mission captain miller hanks assembles an man crew and sets off to find a missing solider private ryan whose three brothers have already been killed on the battlefield the government goes to great lengths to make sure that mrs ryan doesn't recieve a fourth letter of condolences about her sons that no person should suffer such injustice miller's crew is not in favor of the mission and they begin to harbor a secret hatred for ryan though they don't yet know him they resent having to trudge out to bring home one soldier who doesn't have any more or less right to live than any of them this film manages to keep up a rapid pace and though there is a lot of set up between battles the story continues full speed to the end the pacing and dramatism of the extremely well choreographed battle scenes is really in a league of it's own spielberg though not a student of the quick cut school of filmmaking takes a stab at it here and does it better than michael bay or any of his mtv counterparts could ever hope to do it bay should pay close attention take copious notes if you want to jump cut every two seconds do it the way spielberg does it in ryan in the end the extremity of the gory violence is not justified by the importance of the film schindler's list taught many people the truth about the holocaust it opened eyes sparked debate and study though the battle scenes in ryan have never been portrayed as realistically before they don't amount to anything as serious or thought provoking as the schindler's list overall this is just the truest depiction of the old adage war is hell but would have fit this movie much more appropriately and would have made the difference between me getting up the nerve to see it again some day and realizing that this is something i doubt i could endure again masterful work marred only by excessive gore
positive	the faculty the and advertised film that has teamed up director robert rodriguez desperado and from dusk till dawn and screenwriter kevin williamson scream and scream is being called a cross between invasion of the body snatchers and the breakfast club and i don't think i could describe it any better than that the film sets up the six central teenage characters who do not seem to have much in common and then the aspect is added involving the fear that the faculty at herrington high school are actually aliens who are quickly transforming everyone in the town the six characters as in the breakfast club can be easily labeled as a stereotype but as they are developed they become far more complex casey elijah wood the much picked upon nerd stokely clea duvall a goth outcast who hides behind the false facade of being a lesbian so everyone will avoid her zeke josh hartnett a drug dealer who turns out to be a science whiz stan shawn hatosy the star football quarterback who is considering quitting the team to concentrate more on academics delilah jordanna brewster the popular cheerleader and newspaper journalist and marybeth laura harris the sweet southern new girl in town although the characters are only slightly connected i e casey is delilah's photojournalist assistant marybeth tries to become buddies with stokely since they both don't have friends etc when they all begin to suspect the teachers due to some grotesque and strange occurrences the only people they can count on for help is each other even though they aren't really even sure if they can trust one another the faculty is another smart and hip film from williamson although it does not equal up to his best film the original scream and rodriguez whose from dusk till dawn is still one of the more original genre films of the williamson and rodriguez are so assured at their professions respectively that the idea of teaming up together is pretty much a the plotline of the faculty involving aliens taking over other people's bodies has been done quite a lot before from invasion of the body snatchers to the puppet masters to invaders from mars so one of the obstacles that williamson and rodriguez had to overcome was to somehow make the idea seem fresh and by setting the at a high school and having the protagonists be a group of teens they were mostly successful surely the conventions of the story are still the same and the climax was inevitable but there were a few surprises along the way including the question of who were the aliens and who weren't the epilogue was also a refreshing as it did not set up a sequel but ended on a note that probably could not have been any better the performances in the faculty were a treat throughout since there were so many recognizable actors in roles that were the polar opposite of what they usually do one exception were the teens who aside from elijah wood are not very but they all aquit themselves nicely particularly wood the seasoned pro clea duvall and jordanna brewster as members of the faculty robert patrick judgement day was creepy as the gym coach piper laurie was amusing and threatening as the drama teacher bebe neuwirth actually was somehow able to look like an alien and salma hayek as the school nurse with a bad case of the cold was very funny in a small role the standout in my opinion of the whole cast was famke janssen who turns in an oddly touching performance as the shy and meek english teacher who after turning into an alien becomes the sex bombshell if there was any problem i had with the faculty it was that some of them were given no real payoff in the climactic sequence since the teenagers realize that in order to save everyone they must kill the queen alien many of the faculty members disappear it might have been more fun if they had to face every one of the teachers although the finale is still pretty impressive and includes some showstopping creature effects especially for a relatively low budget although not one of the best horror or films i have seen the faculty is still an exciting and worthy film that dimension films was smart to release around the holiday season when this type of genre offering is usually not released while the story is as old as the hills it is also in a way timeless because everyone i think has suspected at one time or another that a certain person simply did not act right as if they really weren't human and by putting this idea in the setting of a high school it perfectly contrasts with the alienation that most teenagers usually go through when relating to adults and other peers note the ad and poster campaign for this film is hugely misleading as it features r b artist usher raymond as one of the main characters in actuality he only has a small role as one of stan's buddies who becomes quarterback after stan resigns from the team if i were one of the heads from dimension i would change this advertising at once since it is unnecessary and rather deceiving
positive	the central focus of michael winterbottom's welcome to sarajevo is sarajevo itself the city under siege and its different effect on the characters unfortunate enough to be stuck there it proves the backdrop for a stunningly realized story which refreshingly strays from mythic portents platoon racial tumultuosness the risible the walking dead or a tinge of schmaltziness schindler's list the two leads stephen dillane as a reporter and emira nusevic as an orphan with a plight few can identify with are extremely believable not one moment with them involved rings false the question is not what went right the question is what went wrong for one the film fails to provide a political overview of the war as it progresses the dillane characters reports an american plane departing from sarajevo as it departs and that's about it the assortment of supporting actors ranging from woody harrelson as a yankee reporter into liquor and cigarrettes to marisa tomei as a huggable children's aid or somesuch are incapable of rising above the sketchiness of their characters albeit they strive the interrupted use of authentic war footage somewhat hampers the rest of the film it makes the fictional characters seem powerless by comparison still winterbottom eschews mawkishness through flashy frantic editing and imaginative use of music and it's a plus because he doesn't toy with our emotions with sentimental blandness he wants us to know that in war no one is victorious the sweet hereafter starring ian holm sarah polley bruce greenwood tom mccamus gabrielle rose arsinee khanjian alberta watson maury chaykin caerthan banks produced by atom egoyan and camelia frieberg script by atom egoyan based on the novel by russell banks directed by atom egoyan running time mins rated r atom egoyan's powerfully meditative the sweet hereafter is as anything as haunting and transcendental as i've seen this year it not only explores the aftermaths of a terrible tragedy with magnificent subtlety with cold and stunning shots of the backdrop of this mistfortune but also by telegraphing the sense of devastation that has permeated the small town with an enormous amount of dignity and respect for each and every soul affected ian holm as the somber lonely lawyer seeking compensation for the townspeople has a decency and a restraint uncommon with lawyers he's a lion for the wrong reasons the pain for having lost his daughter she's a druggie who frequently calls him begging for money is reflected on the town and in some mesmerizing flashbacks we witness how she lost her purity it's one of the most strikingly breathtaking takes on the loss of innocence i've ever seen but the most astounding part goes to sarah polly the peaceful benevolent girl who in contrast to the other characters remains the most mentally stable during past present or future her ability to convey concealed pain and unconditional love is the opposite yet role that won emily watson an oscar nomination for breaking the waves both women are torn apart by an extraordinary incident but it is only then that we truly see truly feel their wordless omnipotent love the sweet hereafter though is atom egoyan's movie and as of now he is emerging as the definite face of independent cinema after surging to worldwide recognition with exotica the sweet hereafter makes him something few people in this industry can call themselves an artist he interweaves time with a delicacy and sees a soul with a purity that is just not common
positive	after the average mouse hunt the silly small soldiers and the entertaining antz dreamworks try again with the children's film market with this stunning adaptation of the moses story as the film warns us at the beginning it's not the full story and some liberties have been taken but generally this the bible story we all know and love featuring burning bushes the plagues and the parting of the red sea the only thing missing is charlton heston instead we get val kilmer voicing moses an hebrew who is placed in a river by his mother and rescued by the queen of egypt helen mirren we flash forward several years to see moses and brother rameses fiennes all grown up moses soon finds out from brother and sister miriam and aaron sandra bullock and jeff goldblum that he isn't really the son of the pharaoh seti patrick stewart and that it his destiny to free the hebrews from the egyptians tyrannical rule he soon sets about this along with his wife tzipporah michelle pfeiffer rameses and his two wizard friends voiced by steve martin and martin short try to stop moses completing his task while the plot is familiar and somewhat exciting for adults for children reared on aladdin and hercules this film could be the most godawful thing they've ever seen gone is the quick fire humour and standard easy to follow plot but spectacularly and to dreamworks credit nearly every child in the audience was captivated by the story and events happening on screen jeffrey katzenberg who produced this film certainly knows how to keep a child interested he's included some songs in the film plus some comedy and a exciting chariot chase to keep the children interested and somehow himself and the directors still manage to get all the drama and intensity of the story across without ever being boring it's a remarkable achievement also remarkable is the animation which puts hercules an almost dash' effort to shame relying on hand drawn and computer animation the backgrounds and characters are amazingly detailed the film seems a little caught up with it's amazing visuals by showing a lot of sweeping visuals and shots but they look incredible the final where god kills every first born child and the parting of the red sea have to be seen to be believed kudos to the animators the vocal talent is also very good val kilmer does a fine job as moses although he doesn't sing and ralph fiennes is superb as rameses and he sing sandra bullock and jeff goldblum are great and steve martin and martin short are very good but not in the film long enough finally michelle pfeiffer does excellent work as moses wife kudos also goes to the voice of god who instead of booming and bombastic is quiet and subdued sadly he is uncredited and i couldn't quite work out who the voice was but if you do the songs are good ranging from the usual love sonnets to the traditional big production number they don't disturb the movie and while not particularly memorable they are nice to listen to they're well sung aswell the musical score is suitably epic with some beautiful tunes coupled with the superb visuals the prince of egypt is a visual and aural treat backed up with a great story entertaining both for kids and adults this film is a must see a david wilcock review you know for kids norville barnes
positive	i have seen several but not that many woody allen movies i didn't particulary like radio days the purple rose of cairo play it again sam i quite enjoyed manhatten murder mystery and everything sex and i loved might aphrodite however i found bullets over broadway to be a snoozing bore and bullets got some very raving reviews but i didn't think i'd like but i finally saw it double feature with ready to wear i think and hated it since i love you also seems to be getting raving reviews i wasn't sure if i'd want to see thankfully i did people burst into singing and dancing something i hardly ever like but this movie is so infectious and funny and entertaining and unlike evita they only sing when they need to sure some of the actors may not be great singers but they seems to be having a great time and so does the audience that's all i have to say really if you think that is going to be a dull movie you're probably dead and dead people should not be forced into movie theatres is mark leeper dead he said that this is an almost ghastly misfire the movie is rated r for one use of the word motherf
positive	fritz lang's first american film since leaving nazi germany is an about a lynch mob in a small town joe wilson spencer tracy is a regular joe a stiff a decent guy who is living with his two brothers tom walcott and charlie albertson in chicago he is engaged to katherine grant sylvia sidney but can't save up enough money to marry her she takes the train west for a better paying job as a teacher before she departs she gives him the wedding ring her father gave to her mother sews up his ripped trench coat corrects him when he mistakingly says the wrong word for memento and kisses him goodbye a year goes by and joe buys a car and tells katherine that he will meet her to get married in capitol city that he has quit his job and hopes to open a gas station driving through the rural backroads and camping out at night while going to met her he arrives at a town called strand but the deputy sheriff buggs meyers walter brennan comes upon him waving a shotgun and arrests him he accuses him of the kidnapping of a little girl the sheriff ellis finds salted peanuts on him just like the kidnapper had in his pocket he also has a five dollar bill on him that matches one of the numbers of the ransom money and he fits the general description of the suspect locked in jail he waits for the district attorney to look at his claim of innocence in the local bar the town citizens go into a rage when learning that an arrest has been made in the kidnapping fueled by angry talk about getting back at the kidnapper and of having the deputy inadvertently telling them of the ransom money found on the suspect a mob storms the jail burns it down and dynamites it when they can't get through to the prisoner's jail cell the sheriff called the governor for the national guard but one of his political advisers countermanded that request saying it wouldn't look right for the governor in an election year to call out troops for those he wants to vote for him somehow joe escapes but his dog rainbow dies katherine hears what has happened on the radio and rushes to the neighboring town of strand only to see him engulfed by flames in his cell and becomes convinced that he died the next day the newspapers announce that the guilty kidnapper confesses joe makes his way back to chicago and tells his brothers who are startled to see him alive that he wants revenge he thereby supplies his brothers with the names of the leaders in the lynch mob an ambitious district attorney walter abel prosecutes the for murder katherine not knowing he's alive remains in a state of shock but is asked to be a witness that she saw joe burning to death the defense claims that it can't be a charge of murder without a corpse the trial proves to be interesting as the citizens in this respectable community lie under oath providing alibis for each other to prove they couldn't have been at the jail the sheriff also lies saying he can't identify anyone in the mob but proof comes by way of a newsreel cameraman who caught the whole incident on film as for proof of the corpse an anonymous letter is addressed to the judge enclosed with the wedding ring katherine gave joe in the note memento is misspelled which makes katherine realize that joe is alive when the sentence is announced of the accused are found guilty of murder but joe marches into the courtroom and gives a pious speech about what happened katherine forgives him and this very strong film ends on a weaker note than i think it should have but don't blame lang for all the changes in the film of trying to take the town off the hook by introducing this wild revenge motive mgm couldn't bear to have it made the way lang wanted it that is by having tracy die in the lynching instead they wanted to stop short of condemning so many small american towns where lynchings actually do occur and they thereby meddled throughout the entire script to lang's credit even if this film failed to be a masterpiece because of the interference it still did not let the good citizens off the moral hook his portrayal of the attempted lynching was powerfully done and was not compromised you couldn't help get the feeling that the citizens didn't care that much that they almost lynched an innocent man but cared more about protecting the reputation of their town and would do anything to keep their vigilantes from going to jail even perjuring themselves their reaction to seeing joe alive was satisfying only in that it meant they weren't going to be convicted lang by no means implies that the town has learned its lesson from this incident he does imply that a dark side to joe wilson has been exposed and the innocent jovial seen in the beginning of the film has been largely altered forever by this traumatic experience
positive	veteran actor clint eastwood has never looked as grizzled as he does in true crime his latest directorial effort when steve everett his newest character gets angry at someone he glares them down with those famous dirty harry eyes furrows his brow and frowns like a grizzly bear who's just lost his cubs eastwood has played some particularly despicable characters in his time but everett could just take the cake he gets my vote at least partly because is a drunken womanizer who has many relationship problems very few of which are with his wife diane venora when his colleague at the oakland tribune is in an ugly car wreck and dies everett must take over for her at a vital interview session the interview is with frank beacham isaiah washington a inmate set to die at midnight for the murder of a pregnant convenience store clerk eastwood furrows his brow as everett gradually finds information he realizes that beacham could very well be innocent he interviews a key witness michael jeter who claims that he burst in the door at pocum's foods because his car had overheated only to see beacham standing over the dead woman's body blood on his suspenders gun in hand but everett protests how could he have seen the gun which was lowered by his side with the potato chip rack in front of him jeter doesn't know what he's talking about eastwood furrows his brow crinkled expressions and all clint is the centre of energy of true crime the film is by no means a standard yarn but a thoughtful human story in which the characters come before the isaiah washington has a performance as frank beacham and scenes with him and his weary wife lisa gay hamilton are truly heartfelt moments but the best scenes are ones that feature eastwood duking it out with those in authority over him denis leary as everett's editor and boss has more than a few memorable moments of restrained anger you see ev is sleeping with his wife but hands down the most enjoyable segments of the film are when james woods is on camera playing the big boss alan mann woods and eastwood create amusing chemistry and punchlines when true crime opts for a chase to the governer's house at the finale the quality of takes an abrupt nosedive eastwood was so successful with colorful character portraits that he didn't need to switch lanes true crime is a intriguing drama showcase for the talented director and star this is a road block he could have easily dismissed i furrow my brow 
positive	those of you who frequently read my reviews are not likely to be surprised by the fact that i have not read victor hugo's novel les miserables i don't know if a lot of people have though i imagine many are familiar with the popular musical based on the novel i haven't even seen that going into this film i had almost no knowledge of the story or its characters i even expected the film to be a musical walking away from it i'm kind of glad i had no prior experience with the material bille august's film version is a straightforward beautifully told film liam neeson stars as the miserable jean valjean in the beginning he has just been released from a prison sentence he is allowed to stay in a convent by a kindly priest despite his rude and destructive behavior the priest's words of wisdom influence him and he makes a vow to change himself nine years later we are informed that he is now the mayor of a town called vigo nobody knows his real name and that he is wanted for skipping his parole nine years ago conflicts arise when inspector javert geoffrey rush is assigned to vigo valjean remembers javert as one of the prison guards who constantly beat him and javert remembers jean to be a convict javert is on upholding the law and he does everything in his power to bring jean to justice along the way valjean meets and falls in love with a peasant woman fantine uma thurman and vows to take care of her daughter cosette played later by claire danes les miserables is visually a solid and often striking picture the production design by anna asp is authentic and vast and the sets don't look like sets they look like real towns and villages gabriella pescucci's costumes are noticeably spectacular basil poledouris' soundtrack is thick and usually though it does get a bit heavy at times many scenes in the film have a memorable photographic quality such as the climax which takes place next to a dark river in the grey obscurity of early evening augusts keeps the story simple which i hear is a good thing since the novel is so complex and easy to follow he manages to develop the main characters and most of the subplots adequately i was also impressed that he didn't go overboard with flash and style which is something so many directors seem to be doing to classic stories these days such as baz luhrmann's vicious tragedy william shakespeare's romeo juliet this film feels solid and whole and each scene has a certain amount of importance and vigor that keeps the audience interested liam neeson is terrific in the main role neeson is the kind of actor who does solemn desperation extremely well and valjean is certainly a man who clearly fits that adjective thurman in her small role is very good and proves that she has a lot of range and can perform in a very role such as this one rush is absolutely incredible as javert i don't remember ever feeling so strongly about a villain as i do here he adds depth and complexity with subtle glances and nuances and effortlessly makes each of his scenes intense i can't be as charitable for danes however though i know she is a talented actress here she tends to overact when it might have been better to underplay the character a bit les miserables is as i've said a solid intelligent motion picture my only complaint is that it feels a bit too easy and perhaps too staged each scene is grand and huge and exploding with poledouris' score but i didn't always want them to be for the most part les miserables is not a subtle or deep picture it's a good movie and tells its story well but august tends to us themes and scenes that would have worked better had they been more subtle however in a film this exciting and a few minor flaws are easily overlooked
positive	this is a stagy film adapted from roger rueff's play hospitality suite about three travelling salesmen attending an industrial convention whose chicago company has sent them to wichita where the company has paid all their expenses for them to rent a hospitality suite on the floor of the hotel where they aim to score a substantial account from the big kahuna someone named dick fuller who is the head of a big industrial corporation he is someone they have never met before but they want to sell him industrial lubricants and they want desperately to land this new account it is their only reason for coming to the convention the big kahuna revels in among the three white christian males two of them larry spacey and phil devito who are veteran salesmen having teamed together for the last twelve years while bob facinelli is a young man who has just recently been hired by the firm and works in the research department these three are virtually imprisoned in their small hospitality suite waiting to meet the big kahuna as the focus of this claustrophobic film is on their interactions in the hospitality suite the three salesmen have different things on their mind that is troubling them and a different attitude to their job and they are each going through internal changes that are profoundly altering their life the outstanding cast tries to figure out in their own way what they are doing and why what comes into question is their opinions on life and death on god and morality and on how they make a living these are tough questions and the truth seems to be somewhere in their sales pitch their dialogue is acerbic witty and analytical following in the long tradition of salesmen films from death of a salesman the tin men and glengarry glen ross as this film tries to get you to see what there is about salesmanship that gets these men high in this case it is landing the big kahuna they each are trying to see why he's on top and why they are chasing after him what makes this film different than the others is its blatant religious message comparing orthodox religion to what they do as both must sell their product and how after each one's psyche is stripped clean by the other there is a pause and some lesson about life has sunk in that is pertinent to each the goal in the movie is not in literally landing the big kahuna but in finding out what bill of goods they sold themselves that made them be salesmen larry and phil have one way of doing things and have no qualms of incorporating a sales pitch as part of their life bob thinks he is above the fray and he pitches every chance he can get about his belief in jesus christ his vacuous character and smug outlook on life are covered by a disarming smile and an eagerness for him to prove in his actions the words of jesus he literally believes in bob is a baptist who takes a very and literal attitude about religion to just look at another woman and lust after her is a sin according to the way he reads the bible when asked by larry why he married his wife he seems puzzled and can't even say because he loves her only that marriage is something sacred to him the contrast in their personalities is stark larry is all business he simply wants to close the sale he comes into the room pumped for the convention using his attack mode to establish how serious he is about being a salesman he criticizes phil for being so placid for getting such a small suite for having the cheap food tray of carrot sticks rather than the one of stuffed shrimp and for being he tells him to go on a vacation get a woman while phil is reflective on where all his best years have gone for him and is contemplating a career change now that he is and is painfully divorcing his wife after having lived too lonely a life on the road for too long he now finds himself suffering from some troubling dreams and questioning what he believes in he has always been a charmer shaking everyone's hand trying to please his clients while trying to make the sale larry is more aggressive as a salesman he is always a heart attack away from every big sale in contrast bob is only in his twenties and everything seems fresh to him this is his first time for him on the road when dick fuller doesn't arrive at the party the salesmen throw larry becomes confrontational and asks phil if he spoke to the man himself about the gathering when told that he spoke to the secretary larry throws a tantrum and is resigned to going back to their home office without the new account but when they start talking to bob whom they forced to act as the bartender they are surprised to learn that fuller did indeed come but was wearing another man's name tag and that bob spent the entire evening consoling the tycoon over his recently deceased dog and then talking to him about jesus bob then tells the boys about a private party fuller is attending afterwards and that he invited bob to attend larry and phil can't fathom how bob didn't make a sales pitch but they soon take another tact and decide to prep bob on how to get fuller's attention about their company's product as they sent him off to meet fuller and will await his return in the hotel room these two sharp salesmen are reduced to waiting for this smug kid to come back and tell them he saved their ass the irony of their situation is played out in the darkness of the hotel room as they stay up late into the night trying to make sense out of their lives these three performers were outstanding each understanding what their role called for each coming through with a marvelous performance the only problem with the film is that its more of a play than a cinematic experience but the insightful dialogue and refreshing dramatics give it an intelligent selling point and make it a good product to see
positive	the coen brothers are back again this time with homer's odyssey as the backdrop in their tale of three fugitives from a mississippi chain gang who trek across the south to find a secret treasure in o brother where art thou right for the beginning of o brother the coens grab your attention with a chain gang of prison inmates breaking rocks along the road in unison to a work song the camera flows around the hard toiling men giving a visually exciting symmetry to the scene that ends with our three heroes ulysses everett mcgill george clooney delmar tim blake nelson and pete john turturro escaping across a cotton field it is the beginning of a journey that takes on different meanings and urgencies to each member of the trio a strong suite as always with the coen brothers is the depth of character of the folks they create in their films their characters are goofy and comical like nicolas cage in raising arizona or dramatic as albert finney and john turturro in miller's crossing and even a mix of the two with frances mcdormand in fargo in all cases and in o brother too the characters populating their films are people ulysses everett is a handsome petty criminal with a silver tongue and not a lot in the brains department but he seems like a genius when compared to the simple sweet delmar and the maladjusted pete who follow their self appointed leader to a promised treasure of million their odyssey takes on the mystical proportions of homer's original material as they meet all manner of people along the way including those dangerous sirens who beckon them onto symbolically rocky shoals and a cyclops who beats them and takes all their money there is magic too when delmar believes that pete was turned into a horny toad by the sirens the story meanders through the different vignettes of the boys' adventures giving the flick a choppy episodic feel that disrupts the overall flow some of the interludes are an epiphany though the trio becomes a quartet when they pick up tommy johnson chris thomas king and visit a radio station in the middle of nowhere run by its blind owner stephen root they become the soggy bottom boys for the sightless radio station man and without their knowledge are recorded as they sing the traditional tune i am a man of constant sorrow it is a wonderful moment of moviemaking and gives us in my mind the best movie song of the year contrasting this and other wonderful moments the sexy seduction by the sirens comes to mind are some pretentious bits that detract from the overall quality of o brother in particular near the end is a scene where ulysses delmar and pete crash a ku klux klan rally to save tommy from being lynched the scene is overblown and flashy and reeks of the wizard of oz they don't say lions and tigers and bears oh my and there's no dorothy but it is the land of oz we're seeing here the highs and lows of the story flow are tempered by fine acting on several levels george clooney is funny charming a little dumb and one of the handsomest actors in the business today he has the charm of a movie idol and is able to put himself into silly situations with dignity ulysses has an ongoing obsession with his hair risking life and limb to get a particular brand of pomade and a supply of hairnets his vanity will come to plague him as it would any mystical while clooney is the name draw for o brother the show stealer is tim blake nelson as delmar the heretofore unknown nelson is terrific as the simple convict who at one point hears the word of the lord and joins members of a church congregation in their mass baptism delmar is saved and dedicates his life to doing good and provides a richness to his simple character that makes him shine the taciturn pete as played by longtime coen collaborator turturro is the sullen member of the trio and gives them the necessary angst all together the tuneful triumvirate is a mix of the three stooges and the three musketeers as they prove to be buffoons albeit brave ones the colorful supporting cast is rampant with homerian characters to meet and get to know along the way of the boys' odyssey charles durning appears as incumbent governor pappy o'daniel who keeps crossing paths with them in his bid for john goodman is wicked as the bible salesman and con artist big dan teague michael badalucco is manic and outrageous as outlaw and bank robber extraordinary george babyface nelson stephen root is amusing as the blind dj rep'ing one of the many references to the sightless that abound in the film in mystical ways holly hunter is wasted in the small role as ulysses' estranged wife penny and the real reason for this adventure not secret treasure techs are as expected in a coen brothers venture first class cinematographer roger deakins who has worked on five previous coen films captures the sultry atmosphere of the south the photography complements the lush period production and costume provided by dennis gassner and mary zophres respectively once again roderick jaynes the alter ego of ethan and joel coen is on board as editor the high points outweigh the low through most of o brother where art thou with particular praise for the wonderful selection of period and traditional music i give it a b
positive	contact pg there's a moment late in robert zemeckis's contact where i was reminded of why i started writing movie reviews in the first place we see a scientist dressed in a silvery space suit walking tentatively across a narrow walkway leading inside a compact spherical space pod unaware of what awaits when the ball literally drops anticipation excitement anxiety audience experiences it all the emotional tension right with the character nervously breathlessly eager to see what lies ahead it is this sense of discovery the anticipation of which and its accompanying exhilaration that makes this adaptation of the carl sagan novel such magical captivating entertainment jodie foster stars as dr ellie arroway a brilliant astronomer who dedicates her entire life to searching outer space for extraterrestrial radio signals and i mean losing her entire family when she was young the only thing occupying ellie's world is this quest to discover life beyond this earth after dealing with much skepticism on the part of government officials and wealthy financiers ellie receives her vindication when she stumbles upon an incoming radio transmission from the distant star vega which includes instructions on building an interstellar transport from this synopsis contact does not sound too different to most films about alien contact but there is a whole lot more to this intelligent film than the hook the alien contact angle generates a great amount of suspense and awe but perhaps more than anything else contact is a character study of ellie whose obsession with empirical scientific evidence has erased all belief in a higher power the irony is that while admitting to having no religious faith she holds onto her belief in extraterrestrial life with such passion and conviction that it becomes in a sense a religion in its own right it would be easy for scripters james v hart and michael goldenberg in trying to paint a positive image of the heroine to champion her scientific beliefs over religious ones but they wisely eschew easy answers giving equal time to both sides and in so doing depict ellie as not completely sane in the end there is no right or wrong nor is there one side that comes off more positive in the other even slightly are just two very viable points of view each with their own merits each with their own faults the complex role of ellie is an actress's dream and foster a virtual for yet another best actress oscar nomination next year more than rises to the challenge she conveys intelligence determination warmth and in a gutsy move always on edge we root for ellie and feel for her but we also feel at times that she goes too far contact is clearly foster's vehicle but others are given their chance to shine in smaller roles matthew mcconaughey who receives outrageously high billing for his smallish role holds his own as the religious counterpoint to ellie spiritual scholar and government adviser palmer joss however his main storyline the tentative romance is the film's weakest subplot john hurt is effectively creepy as s r hadden the wealthy eccentric who provides ellie with her research funding angela bassett continues to impress in her bit role as white house aide rachel constantine most memorable of all though are tom skerritt and james woods who play rival scientist dr david drumlin and national security adviser michael litz respectively both especially skerritt embody these asshole characters that the audience hissed just about every single one of their appearances zemeckis comes off of his break in top shape always known as a director of extravaganzas it comes as no surprise that contact's visual effects are quite stunning the central space journey is more than a little reminiscent of the close of a space odyssey but with more advanced technology at his disposal zemeckis's voyage is even trippier than stanley kubrick's yet more wondrously pure and zemeckis doesn't resist the urge to use the effect which is every bit as seamless here as it was in forrest gump effects however are confined to only a few scenes and clearly take a back seat to the drama emotion and pure wonder which zemeckis proved to be quite adept at in gump it says a lot that in a summer science fiction film such as this it's not so much the effects that stay with you as it is the drama and the issues that are raised the contact is a change of pace from summer but the fact that it is a smart film does not mean that it also isn't entertaining for all the interesting questions it asks the film is still what it's being sold a journey to the heart of the universe and what a fascinating unforgettable journey it is
positive	satirical films usually fall into one of two categories satire where everything including the jokes is somehow related on a large scale i e dr strangelove situation satire in which the comedy and themes are derived moment by moment and scene by scene i e men in black what's unique about wag the dog is that it doesn't necessarily fit either of these descriptions and yet is both at the same time the result is a clever comedy based on an original smart premise even if the focus does tend to wander a bit if there's anything that affects americans the most it's politics and showbusiness in this age of information and technology we've been so conditioned by the media and the entertainment industry in our ways of perceiving things it's gotten to the point that we are practically controlled by it we need the media to bring us the most news but we also need the escapism of hollywood to counter all that thinking this film starts off well by quickly establishing these ideas and then presents an interesting scenario if politics the media coverage of politics and the entertainment industry are so closely related couldn't someone with the power and authority to manipulate one of the aspects manipulate them all that's the idea conrad brean de niro a professional washington spin doctor comes up with in order to restore the president's good name who has been accused of child molestation just weeks before the election brean along with the president's top advisor winifred ames heche fly to california to meet up with movie producer stanley motss hoffman they pitch him an idea to produce the image of a war with albania it's a country no one's heard of so they people will buy it soon the wheels are in motion and the film's riffing satire comes into play we're inundated with the hollywood mind set as motss brings in a number of experts to help manage the situation such as a folk singer visual and sound effects technicians and a modern style expert known as the fad king leary the initial atmosphere is rich with numerous pop culture references where everything somehow relates to something on tv in the movies or in the news the characters' dialogue is witty and funny although some of the actual jokes and gags seem rather for example one scene shows motss and brean's production crew filming an actress portraying a poor albanian refugee motss ordered a kitten for the girl to carry but instead wound up with a dozen different dogs since it's all anyway she ends up cradling a bag of tostitos with the kitten to be inserted later this demonstrates the film's ability to take a relatively ordinary situation and make it smart and funny just through the premise but then there's the gags and that although are humorous seem a little gratuitious in the long run such as motss not being able to remember the actress's name or whenever a problem emerges always responding with this is nothing by the time the film makes it to the midpoint everything that is going to happen in terms of plot happens the first act is quickly paced while the second act contains most of the jokes and is the core of the film every ten minutes or so a new problem crops up that motss and brean must deal with and it's always fascinating to see what they do and how they do it the screenplay provides good characterization and actually deals with most of the problems in realistic manners however it does have a tendency to avoid things and shift its focus from the election campaign and false war smokescreen to something a bit off the subject as the third act rolls around the satirical nature becomes more concerned with the situations and less so with the big picture what had started off as a brilliant somewhat harmless conspiracy to fool the general public begins to seem more like something that would happen in a movie still the situation comedy is quite funny especially a montage showing the entire country flinging old shoes into trees to honor sgt willie schumann a war hero motss and brean concocted truly great satire manages to create for an entertaining story that makes you laugh at the time but think about afterwards and wag the dog at least succeeds in this respect however in retrospect it seems like so much more could have been done namely by extending the running time and filling in the plot holes then again it's a valiant effort
positive	after sixteen years francis ford copolla has again returned to his favorite project making the third installment in the this new film has been underrated for no reason it is as intellectual and majestically made as copolla's pervious films it is also more psychological pessimistic and more tragic than the first two the only regret is the unconvincing performance by the newcomer sofia copolla and some unfinished developments of some characters the film elegantly begins with nino rota's recognizable musical score the beautiful skyscrapers of new york and michael's voice as he is writing a letter to his children the only wealth in this world is children more than all money and power on earth you are my treasure the year is and michael corleone has used the time since the ending of part ii to make his father's dream come true making the corleone family legitimate michael sold all his casinos and invests only in gambling constantly haunted by the past his only reason to live is his children the family has amassed unimaginable wealth and as the film opens michael corleone al pacino is being invested with a great honor by the church later that day at a reception his daughter announces a corleone family gift to the church and the charities of sicily a check in the amount of million but the corleones are about to find as others have throughout history that you cannot buy forgiveness sure you can do business with evil men inside the church for all men are fallible and capable of sin but god does not take payoffs the plot of the movie concocted by coppola and mario puzo in a screenplay inspired by headlines brings the corleone family into the inner circles of corruption in the vatican there is a moment in godfather iii where michael says all my life i have been trying to go up in society where everything was legal but the higher i go the crookier it becomes  visually this film is as spectacular as the first two gordon willis' rich cinematography carmine copolla's beautiful composition and alex tavoularis' wonderful art direction could not be better but copolla's first two were more famous for their deep intellectual plots tree dimensional characters and incredible acting than for their visual perfection the third installment has only the plot and visuals some characters could be much more developed and the acting although good never accomplishes to reach the same height of the first two films the biggest miscasting is sofia copolla who is so unconvincing and unemotional that she manages to ruin several scenes throughout the movie that could have been grander and more emotional the best performance comes unsurprisingly from al pacino who should have got a nomination for best actor at the oscars andy garcia is powerful as sonny's son strong focused and loyal violence is natural to him he suffers no pangs of conscience when he takes revenge on his family's behalf and in this he is supposed to be strong in the uncomplicated way don vito corleone was however both kay diane keaton and connie talia shire are useless and characters like vito corleone and tom hagen are really missed the good part is that michael is again reunited with old friends that you remember from the first and second films in the third film michael has become almost like his father vito in the first film and vincenzo resembles michael when he was much younger this parallel could be more interesting if vincenzo's character was more developed many have pointed out that making the third film was unnecessary i disagree it is a beautiful film of great importance completing the tragic saga of the corleone family the first film showed some horrible results of corleone's life it showed michael making a choice the second showed a man damning himself for his choices and feeling the impact of changing times a man desperately trying to keep his balance focus family and sanity while everything is crashing all around him the third film is a terrifying conclusion a result of michael's life the life he chose for himself is like quicksand one wrong step and you are doomed there is no turning back and no matter how hard you try to get out of it to free yourself no matter how powerful and wealthy you are you are helpless sinking deeper and deeper till it swallows you completely the beautifully directed last sequence is also the powerful climax of the film when michael is sitting alone in his chair left by everyone surrounded by emptiness and memories of his friends and family members long dead here he dies alone miserable and unforgiven
positive	bruce willis is a actor in die hard he played john mcclaine a rough and tough chicago cop who gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time again in pulp fiction as butch coolidge an boxer he steps on the wrong guys toes in luc besson's the fifth element willis plays korben dallas a new york cabby who takes in the wrong passenger at the worst possible time a stylish science fiction epic the fifth element's complex plot begins right away in the deserts of egypt think stargate in an enormous spacecraft lands above a pyramid where the elements are stored and takes them away vowing to return them when the evil comes back cut to present day which is our future the year is and new york is the city the only basic differences between besson's futuristic depiction and the real life new york is that the smog is thicker the buildings are higher and the traffic floats anyway the evil comes back as a ball of fire to wreak havoc on the fair citizens of the earth so back come the aliens to return the elements to earth in order to defend themselves against the evil in the process however the ship is intercepted by fighter pods and is destroyed before landing when officials arrive at the site all that remains is a hand what can you do with a hand hey its the century reconstruction this hand turns out to belong to a beautiful but mysterious woman named leeloo milla jovovich dazed and confused she escapes and attempting to escape the police by swan diving off of an enormous skyscraper and crashing through the roof of korben's floating cab it's love at first site as korben and leeloo elude the cops when leeloo begins mumbling about a cornelius ian holm night falls on manhattan korben searches the yellow pages and delivers her to the door of the good reverend the only man who knows of her background and duties now korben leeloo and cornelius must journey to a foreign planet to board a cruise ship special effects were spectacular here to find the remaining four elements it is here where they discover that they have been followed by the evil emmanuel zorg gary oldman murder in the first he too wants possession of the elements as do a group of warriors think the gamorreans in return of the jedi in a spectacular ending with time running out leeloo is faced with a should she save a people who live to destroy each other the question is a good one and one that could be pondered but enough of that when korben points out his love for her leeloo is inclined to become the element and save the world from total destruction the fifth element features good performances by willis and holm an excellent portrayal of a comedic villain who reminded me a lot of jack nicholson's the joker in batman by one of the masters of villainy oldman and a heartfelt offering by relative newcomer jovovich the supporting cast which includes brion james tango cash tim tiny lester no holds barred luke perry buffy the vampire slayer and chris tucker friday added a comedic effect to the film although besson's the fifth element can be criticized for the outlandish use of cliches it is a solid motion picture with a definite point some other directors like anaconda's luis llosa should take a lesson from this ideas from epic motion pictures the right way ideas from star wars and stargate were utilized for the improvement of this film fan or not any should see this wonderfully stylish motion picture 
positive	there must be some unwritten rule that states one gets enlightenment not in the way one expects to get enlightenment but in the commitment given to seeking wisdom even if it is a foolish road one is on and it seems to be leading nowhere in the exotic morocco of a english hippie mother julia winslet of two sweet young girls the lucy carrie and the bea bella has arrived for a year's stay with the mother oblivious to how her daughters might be adjusting to this foreign experience while she is searching for a change of life from her unfaithful poet husband she is not officially married to him and her cold london flat and is sort of looking for the eternal truth in the sunny climate of marrakech at least she says she is as she is making some attempt to contact a sufi sheikh there who has all the answers she has not planned things out too carefully having no money and the trip doesn't seem like it's much fun more like a misadventure with some romance with a local moroccan thrown in drugs a youthful phenomena during this period where many westerners came to morocco to smoke the good hashish found there and to live the life' cheaply and to be in a spot where they did not have to worry about being hassled by the local authorities even though drugs are illegal there but this is not shown as one of her reasons for being here in this film the subject of drugs is never broached only hinted at in an but slurring way as the hippie commune is shown in a negative light strumming on their guitars and bragging about the hits of acid they have taken even the ones coming here for spiritual reasons to follow the mystical sufis seem lost following a culture that is far different from where they were coming from the film is based on the novel that contained the autobiographical experiences of sigmund freud's esther freud who traveled here in the with her mother and sister it is written by the director's brother who has previously directed regeneration the playboys and trojan eddie the title of the film comes from the squealing giggles that saying hideous kinky gives the little girls with julia strapped for cash and not receiving a needed check her husband often forgets to send her she is prevented from seeing the greatest living sufi who is located in algeria so instead she meets an acrobat street performer in the bazaar bilal said taghmaoui he becomes her lover taking the place of her husband as a father figure for the girls the girls readily accept him and there is no made about their openly sexual relationship but the girls really don't know what to make of the relationship it especially bothers bea who is embarrassed by her mother's loose attitude and wants to go home things go surprisingly sour when bilal takes them to stay in his small village it seems only that bilal's charm is matched by his shiftlessness as he has a wife who still lives there this scene didn't make too much sense as to why he would take them there knowing the situation unless the uneducated man was totally uneducated in the customs of his people also but i doubt that the family is now stuck without money in a backward area trying to decide what to do next as they hitch a ride away from there with a truck driver who nearly kills them when he falls asleep by the wheel lucy takes it all in stride and has a good disposition for travel while bea just wants to go to a school and learn something and be a girl the beauty of marrakech is matched by the terrific performance of kate winslet as the film accurately encapsulates the timeless city and its bustling street scenes expansive views illustrious mosques and grand sunsets kate enacts the feel of what it was like to be a westerner living out the countercultural experiences while awaiting to gather her sensibilities again and was fortunate enough to be able to go home the better off for her experiences as many a reluctantly had to do after their stay ran out of money and purpose the background music from groups like america and jefferson airplane provided further nostalgia for this easy to look at and easy to grasp film the only hope was that the two innocent girls would not be permanently harmed while on this sojourn a venture that should be reserved only for those of college age or older who choose to go there for themselves the family's travel which is on the edge has julia waking up screaming from dreams that are bleakly haunting but when she gets up all there is is this splendid emptiness all around her and a vacuous life that is starting to bother her that marrakech is disarmingly gorgeous and that london is old hat to her is starting to wear thin in her thoughts it will dawn on her when bea takes ill as she reflects on what the sufi guru tells her whom she finally meets and is driven to tears in his presence he is the guru who replaced the one she wanted to see but who died before she got a chance to see him the new guru is grounded in reality something she is not grounded in and seems to tell her what she couldn't comprehend from anyone else even comforting her by telling her that her tears are a gift from god the film's weakness was the empty feeling i got from watching the story unfold in its risk free tenor she was there basically to be just escaping from her situation and how unappealing the love affair seemed between bilal and julia the storyline about a helpless single parent detracted from the vibrant experiences many others of her same generation had during their trip to morocco who were taken in by the mystical culture of sufism a teaching that has a lot to offer its followers contrary to the impression the film might give seemed to pass her by her knowledge of that trip is only surface deep at best she perhaps would have been better off not taking the kids along smoking some hashish and have been less assured of herself but to have behaved more like a hippie and she wouldn't have been so uptight all the time and had some fun on her journey after all the mystical trip is the journey the film's strength is in how all the characters are shown for what they are and no one is that good or that bad or judged too harshly for their shortcomings bilal is unreliable but is capable of generosity the little girls are precocious but they are lovable julia the cornerstone the film is built on is a mother who cares about the children but doesn't know how to take care of them without unintentionally harming them she was trying to escape from reality and that by returning to london she has another chance to see if she can find the key to this world or whatever world she is looking for and should no longer have nightmares about where she's at this is a very freudian way to look at things as this sudden realization that things are not right puts an an end to her eastern hippie odyssey at least for the time being and after all is said and done who's to say if the children are also not better off for surviving their experiences just like she probably was
positive	did claus von bulow try to kill his wife sunny in their newport mansion that is the question reversal of fortune asks you to consider as it opens in a hospital ward with a comatose sunny von bulow she is the main narrator of the film in a narrative trick that was extraordinarily risky for schroeder the dramatic trick works as sunny von bulow narrates a compelling story of murder sex unhappiness and a lawyer's moral dilemma as he takes a case he thinks he cannot win jeremy irons is claus von bulow in what is his finest role and one of the most devastingly evil performances in history he is as hated as any man alive as cold as a cucumber his remorse for his wife's comatose condition is nonexistant and it is no wonder that even his children have difficulty accepting his version of what happened during christmas the background to the case is such during christmas of sunny von bulow fell into a deep coma from which she recovered and awoke the same situation occured in only sunny never woke and probably never will when examined it was found that she had times the normal amount of insulin within her blood claus von bulow is then accused of attempted murder by his stepson convicted and freed on bail he immediately hires alan dershowitz the renowed harvard law professor to acquit him ron silver is magnificent as a moral lawyer who cannot stand what has happened to him we follow him through two very different cases the case of the johnson case where two innocent kids are standing on death row for a crime they didn't commit and von bulow who he still hasn't figured out dershowitz doesn't know what happened to sunny and he is extremely hesitant to take the case nevertheless he does based on certain things which happen during the investigative process that deeply upset him together with a group of law students dershowitz concocts a defense and ultimately get the verdict reversed silver's performance is one of a handful of solid roles in this deep film schroeder directs on many different levels with multiple plot lines which blend in wonderfully in the mind of alan dershowitz there are flaws at times the film gets overly theatrical yet due to glenn close's troubled and brutally honest performance as sunny von bulow the use of her comatose body as a narrator works here fairly well the flashbacks are good but at times schroeder doesn't fill in the blanks the movie could have benefited with the increased attention of certain developments during the film and it could have used a better ending the film progressed wonderfully before ending suddenly without any intelligent conclusion the supporting characters are often neglected and dershowitz's team should have been allowed to grow character wise but schroeder the story and the characters yet for all these flaws the film is deeply engrossing because of irons as von bulow he is brutally evil prejudiced arrogant protective he is a rotten lying monster whose conviction may have been wrong legally but morally he was to blame irons plays him to a cold perfection with pathetic attempts to gain moral support for his claims to innocence he is an adulterous liar and a cheat who in all likelihood committed the murder however the genius of reversal of fortune comes in its distinction between moral culpability and legal responsibility there is no doubt von bulow is responsible for his wife's death by years of neglect and coldness however legally did he do the murder schroeder dares the viewer to make up his own mind with all the character flaws reversal of fortune is an engrossing puzzle because it is intelligent he wants the viewer to make up his own mind schroeder taunts the viewer with contradictory revelations and then mentions that the answer to this compelling puzzle shall be revealed when we join sunny von bulow in death for all the failed dramatic theatrics this is one that works beautifully we don't know what happened that sense of legal ambiguousness along with von bulow's obvious moral guilt is why reversalf fortune works in the end von bulow is as sadistic as ever irons is haunting and that is why reversal of fortune is so good
positive	driving miss daisy takes its sweet time to tell a small intimate story it's a quiet film a slow film a deliberate film but if you're patient with it the movie offers innumerable rewards such as a pair of performances by morgan freeman and jessica tandy driving miss daisy is based on alfred uhry's winning play of the same name which first opened in new york four years ago the play has garnered international acclaim with productions in chicago los angeles london vienna norway and the soviet union uhry himself wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of driving miss daisy he also penned the wonderful sleeper mystic pizza the film like the play is set in atlanta georgia and it revolves around two people in their twilight years a cranky jewish widow who feels guilty about her wealth and a black man who becomes her chauffeur the movie relies on character rather than plot to propel the action in fact the movie has no discernible plot in the traditional sense it doesn't present a linear story in which all the scenes flow together rather driving miss daisy is made up of the routine activities of everyday life shopping listening to the radio visiting the cemetery eating fried chicken and so on the film also incorporates into the story line actual events in atlanta's history including the bombing of the temple the city's oldest jewish congregation and a ceremony honoring the reverend dr martin luther king jr the story begins in with daisy tandy crashing and wrecking her packard as she pulls out of her driveway the insurance company cancels her insurance and her son boolie decides to hire her a chauffeur freeman reprising his role from the play plays the chauffeur hoke the film chronicles the warm friendship that slowly but surely blossoms between the chauffeur and his reluctant passenger driving miss daisy is a movie about human nature aging prejudice and a great many other things but more than anything it's about a relationship one that spans years cars the advent of civil rights and one gravely important cent can of salmon daisy is and set in her ways and from the outset she is utterly opposed to the idea of having a chauffeur initially she treats hoke with contempt refusing to let him drive her anywhere once she does get in the car daisy is the ultimate driver to make matters worse she is extremely about what others might think if they were to see her being escorted around town by a hired hand eventually however daisy is worn down by hoke's charm and infectious cheer she softens and opens up to him tandy plays the part of daisy exceedingly well but unfortunately this feisty cantankerous character is just a smidgen too commonplace we've seen this woman countless times before in other incarnations from on golden pond to cocoon nevertheless tandy manages to put enough of a personal stamp on the familiar character to make it her own freeman as hoke on the other hand gives the more distinctive of the two performances there is something profoundly moving about the way hoke maintains his pride and dignity in a society which forbids him from using public rest rooms because of his skin color hoke is uneducated and illiterate but freeman always suggests that there is something more to this man an inner strength beneath the simpleton exterior both freeman and tandy seem to be in their element in full command of their natural charisma they flirt with the camera and dominate scenes without overtly calling attention to themselves they bring a light touch to their humorous banter and to the movie's gentle humor at the same time tandy and freeman provide more than a few moments of truly poignant drama in his first dramatic role dan aykroyd is surprisingly chubby and unexpectedly effective as boolie tandy's loving and patient son drama seems to agree with aykroyd taking a break from comedy seems like a good move for the actor especially when you consider the wretched comedies he has made recently ghostbusters ii the great outdoors my stepmother is an alien the only other significant characters in the film are daisy's housekeeper idella marvelously played by esther rolle good times and boolie's pretentious wife played by patti lupone under the direction of bruce beresford crimes of the heart tender mercies driving miss daisy seems a bit stagey now and again but fortunately beresford never forgets he's shooting a movie and accordingly he offers plenty of striking cinematic touches such as gorgeous shots of flowers trees and tomatoes in adapting driving miss daisy from the stage to the screen the filmmakers have achieved a delicate subtlety uhry understands that what his characters do not say can be just as important as what they do say beresford wisely exercises restraint in the film's dramatic moments the movie tugs at your heart but it never goes for the jugular the only sap in driving miss daisy is in the trees
positive	when people are talking about good old times they actually want to make some bad times look better nice example of such behaviour is contemporary attitude of popular media towards the for new generations superseventies are the lost golden age of chic fashion cult tv shows and sexual freedom unchecked by aids for people who actually had to live in that period it was the gloomy decade marked by lost ideals of rampant inflation and unemployment international terrorism fuel crisis and loss of faith in almost anything that previous generation stood for feelings of despair and nihilism found its reflections in many films of that era martin scorsese's taxi driver which symbolises both the glory and despair of the seventies is most celebrated of them all the movie's protagonist is travis bickle robert de niro old former marine who takes the job of taxi driver in new york city because he can't sleep at nights the job gets him exposed to the dark side of apocalyptic megalopolis and travis gradually gets alienated from the rest of world the only bright spot in his life is betsy cybil sheperd attractive woman working in senator palantine's presidential campaign their date ends as humiliating fiasco because travis makes fatal mistake by inviting her to porno movie theatre losing his only link to better side of the world travis gradually descends into psychosis becoming convinced that his mission in life is to battle scum on the street he purchases a formidable arsenal of guns and begins physical preparations for the inevitable conflict that conflict finally comes when he takes personal interest in iris jodie foster old prostitute who temporarily took refuge in his taxi as many great movies that got cult status through the years taxi driver became the object of many interpretations for some critics and scholars it is an exploration of universal subjects that date back to dostoyevski loss of moral compass in a bleak reality of dirty overpopulated industrial cities the story could have been set in century same as in our times for others the movie uses figure in order to portray burning problems of america its apparent inability to deal with the consequences of rapid social changes that occurred in previous decade brilliant performance of robert de niro in role of a lifetime can give arguments for both sides his travis bickle has a lot in common with most of the average viewers of today many of us share his feelings of isolation loneliness and outrage towards crime drugs prostitution and senseless street violence his pathetic attempts to establish some kind of human connection with the people around him sometimes in most unusual circumstances like with secret service agents pimps or job interviewers make him a person too goofy to be the hero and too pathetic to be the classic villain however most of the average viewers are sensible enough to recognise the tin line that separate concerned citizens or troubled souls from fanatical madmen but despite anything average viewer at the end actually cheers for travis his crusade against scum is something that average person wants but doesn't have a of brains to do it while de niro's travis might come in and out of particular times and places other persons that appear in the film mostly played by the character actors give it distinctively feel wizzard played by peter boyle presents the only link with america's better past but only because he is the oldest taxi driver in company and therefore everybody assumes that he knows stuff his obvious inadequacy in giving advice to troubled travis illustrates the inability of generations to find answers to the problems of gloomy decade other characters on the other hand show the bad side of new age matthew sport keitel who befriended pimps in other to prepare for his role of a lifetime is dressed like a hippie iris found excuse for her escape to the world of drugs and child prostitution in a ideology of counterculture porno movies that should be the element of new times of sexual freedom are too much even for supposedly liberated betsy even the politicians like senator palantine are lost in and mess his broad and senseless messages that cover the lack of any serious program can't fool even such idiots like travis the past is gone the present is bad and even the future seems bleak and the feeling of pessimism can't be washed away even by ironic happy end travis and his world found themselves in a desperate situation and martin scorsese uses the best of his cinematic skills in order to spill the gloom of schrader's screenplay into the silver screen new york city in the night is portrayed as a hell on earth and the red light and steam coming out of sewers give it surreal almost stygian atmosphere another important element of the atmosphere is score of great bernard herrman whose efficient use of jazz elements gives some melancholy that softens the brutality of motion picture one of the greatest ironies of taxi driver is the fact that the movie was same as his protagonist famous for the wrong reason instead of receiving cult status because of his artistic merits for many years it was because of hinckley and his of events in the movie now more than two decades later when some other life imitating art incidents get more attention we can finally enjoy taxi driver in all its artistic glory
positive	note ordinarily moviereviews org will not give away any critical plot points of a film that could be interpreted as spoilers however being that music of the heart is based on a true story and that moviereviews org feels the film can not be properly credited without such revelations plot giveaways will appear in the following review if this bothers you please note the star rating of the film and stop reading now what does it take to play carnegie hall practice it takes two hours for music of the heart to play carnegie hall both figuratively and literally like the children it portrays the movie starts from the dark realms of awful cinema and works its way up to a performance at the legendary concert hall roberta guaspari academy award winner meryl streep has two kids a husband who left her and violins she bought from a small shop in the mediterranean her life desperately needs a jump start and gets one when she meets a man who introduces her to a job as a music teacher at an east harlem elementary school she soon finds her job is on the rocks as the men in her life continue to rotate through revolving doors that is the plot of this production ultimately the film chooses a answer to these problems and finds her music career at an high when the men in her life finally vanish the first hour of music of the heart is rather painful roberta's character lacks development and consequently seems to be flat also lacking depth is the film's bad guy a music teacher josh pais who rejects roberta out of principle the movie never explains exactly which principle that is and conveniently comes and goes from the plot according to when it might be dramatic to have a villain around the next minutes of the film are mediocre they are highlighted by one child's return to roberta's class coming after the great old hollywood scene where he explains be can't be around anymore because my mom said and a glowing concert not knowing the running time you may expect the credits to role at this point but they don't instead the film uses the next minutes to finish its journey from bad to mediocre to excellent director wes craven known for his works of horror uses some old sentimental tricks to get the audience tearing one romantic break up scene is highlighted by the classic but last night and roberta's two children also have textbook conflicts with their single mother regarding their father's absence the city of harlem plays a strong role in the movie roberta's mother is initially reluctant to see her daughter move to that part of town and the film does nothing to combat that stereotype the noise tracks for these scenes are dominated by sirens predictably one of roberta's students is gunned down and killed off screen one thing the film does lack is subtlety the fact that a little boy was playing we shall overcome on his violin after the aforementioned shooting was a cute and discreet reference the fact that the entire orchestra begins to play it over and over soon after is an overdone reference that shows how little credit he gives the audience of course in horror films the foreshadowing and moments are meant to be overdone so perhaps he too is just learning to play the game even with all its flaws music of the heart is a beautiful film that is not an excuse for the movie's poor beginning but as i watched the scenes in carnegie hall i thought of some of the great acts that have taken that stage in december of a comedian named andy kaufman put on a show that will forever be remembered as one of the most original in theatre history the performance included a elvis impression robin williams in disguise and a moment at the end when kaufman announced he would take the whole audience out for milk and cookies so how did this comic genius choose to open the show of his life he had a character named tony clifton take the stage for the sole purpose of irritating and angering the audience perhaps it is okay for music of the heart to start off rusty because just as kaufman had santa's favorite food this movie has an amazing finale
positive	seen april at p m at crossgates cinema guilderland n y theater by myself for free using my hoyts' critic's pass rating very good seats sound and do you realize that every time you encounter a new person you've just become part of a story everyone has their own life story both past and present and every time two or more interact they become part of each others' story not necessarily an important or even significant part but a part nevertheless that seems to be the basic theory behind where several characters' chance encounters all effect each other in extreme ways in order to test this theory screenwriter john august and director doug liman assemble a cast of characters that wouldn't usually be the types to have an entire film revolve around them such as a teenage supermarket cashier a dealer and two struggling soap opera actors these types of characters might not sound all that original but consider that they will all be somehow effected by a strip club bouncer and his psychotic father a drug dealer a narc obsessed with horny wedding guests a zen lovemaker two and a cute normal teenage girl to round things out how they will all come together is the process the film deals with i'd imagine the concept to the film started out as the creators' testing themselves to see if they could actually pull it off and the outcome is a terrific achievement in filmmaking and the craft of fiction in general the film starts out as anything else with little indication of what's to come we meet ronna polley a depressed los angeles checkout girl who doesn't seem to have much desire to do anything except work just to pay her rent she's not very charming especially to her customers but this is played mostly for laughs rather than characterization and it works maybe this is because she's not a very afeminite character but she's far from masculine a creative character indeed things start to progress when ronna reluctantly agrees to take the hours of the goofy hyperactive yet likable simon askew an english teen into vices for the sake of the experiences this agreement starts a storyline as it allows simon to go to las vegas for the weekend with his friends and in turn drags ronna and her friends into buying and selling an experimental drug the process of which will not only bring ronna close to being arrested but also to death nearly the same can be said for two other characters zack mohr and adam wolf who we don't think much of when they first appear as supporting characters but later will become major players to the film's makeup another process used by the filmmakers to elaborate on the theory of how significant insignificant interaction might be once the pace is picked up the film really begins to show its mettle when the title screen is flashed shortly after the aforementioned turning point scene it's clear this film isn't going to employ the standard linear method of storytelling considering how good it is up until that point it's a long overdue change of pace needed in movies today and so the film begins to take shape first by following ronna and her friends on a adventure that begins with a drug deal instigated by zack and adam who were actually looking for simon which doesn't exactly go as planned but that's what keeps it all so interesting the second storyline starts at the same moment as ronna's story but this time the camera chooses to follow simon instead simon and his three friends head to vegas for a night on the town and in the process experience things they never would have imagined the third arc about zack and adam again overlaps with ronna's story telling much of the same story but from a completely different angle we're shown things we never would have expected were going on while following ronna and many of the events that do happen to ronna because of zack and adam aren't even their fault they just happened to be where they were when they were i'd really like to dissect each of the three storylines and especially how the film wraps up in the end but that would take up too much time and space and spoil everything for those who haven't seen the film perhaps the greatest element to the film is its constant surprises and unpredictability and not due to plot twists or a confusing screenplay just through great filmmaking still i can list and analyze nearly everything the film does so well direction trying to piece together such a complex story is no easy task and for a rookie filmmaker such as liman it's a great accomplishment he doesn't just depict a story he wraps us up in it all pulling us into the fray so that we experience every high and low screenplay besides being chiseled with detail and creative in general it's clear the script has been inspired by many sources with both obvious and subtle references yet it never screams where other hollywood films have failed to bring the charm of the independents to the mainstream this one is able to create its own sense of the macabre it's not or twisted and the comedy isn't so satirical for it to be considered a black comedy more like light direction able to photograph both the intense and the lighthearted in the same manner characterization for nearly every character introduced no matter what role they play in the big picture we're able to get a sense of who they are what they're thinking and how they came to be in their situations even when their actions are surprising it never seems very out of synch performances every actor nails their role see above the film doesn't seem to be concerned with conveying any kind of political or social messages instead it's more of a philosophical experiment in fact it might not have meant to do that intentionally but there definitely is something existential to it all and to think that is just a big comedy and adventure also big lebowski brown fiction romance also by liman
positive	mars attacks c jack nicholson glenn close annette bening martin short danny devito rod steiger pierce brosnan sarah jessica parker michael j fox jim brown pam grier joe don baker natalie portman christina applegate lisa marie tom jones this is director tim burton's finest film to date many will compare this tale of martians who invade earth to independence day but even though the stories are similar they really are two distinctly different films however as a whole mars attacks is much more entertaining than and i loved you really have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy this film it is completely and unlike anything you've ever seen once the silly tone of the film is set it's easy to just sit back and throw logic out the window because logic and comedy just don't mix the plot is simple martians invade the earth but it's different than any other invasion film usually it's the evil aliens versus the heroic humans this time however it's the goofy aliens versus the equally goofy humans the martians who are all computer generated are just about the funniest things i've seen in a long time they look funny they move funny and their language is hilarious and about the special effects the effects in mars attacks are just about the most flawless ones i've seen to date the computer animation of the martians combined with the goofy personalities they are given makes them seem real there are just a couple of scenes that don't work mainly those involving sarah jessica parker and pierce brosnan on board an alien ship also glenn close overacts tremendously in her thankfully very limited screen time so much so that i actually applauded silently when her character meets her demise but there are many big laughs in the film as i said if you are in the right mood could it have been funnier certainly was it funny enough yes was i entertained absolutely on a personal note i'd like to thank whomever cast rod steiger my favorite actor in the film as general decker finally after many very small parts in direct to video garbage and minor tv roles steiger is back on the big screen in a real movie that many people will see while he's not given the type of role that you can give a real performance in he does the job well and has some good lines of dialogue the preview audience i saw the film with really seemed to enjoy him
positive	when i was asked to see this movie with a friend my initial reaction was not hugh grant i was perhaps wrong to be so harsh but after his insidious flirtation with a street hooker i just could not picture him in any romantic lead what makes this movie a wonderful experience is not the fact it stars hugh but because it stars julia and carries with it a brilliantly written script this writer richard curtis whose exceptional first work four weddings and funeral' shows us that he is a master in the domain of the romantic comedy with splashes of drama thrown in between hugh and his hair is almost identical to the character that made him famous in four weddings' he plays an ordinary guy who is down and out on his luck unfortunately he is type cast in this role but fortunately it works well for him in this movie if only he would dither a little less julia knows this role well the glamorous movie star who is searching for true love there are moments in this movie that you almost weep for her pain felt loneliness how sad it must be to be so wealthy and beautiful but to have no one to share it with the writer deals with difficult issues of love and social class on various levels how differences in social standing can make it almost impossible for love to grow in such a harsh environment how the media can be as cruel as it can be attentive and how fulfilment in life and love can be found in forgiveness and sacrifice
positive	you'd think it would be easy to spoof star trek but try spoofing it without cruelly mocking it that's a bit more difficult the farfetched series is after all enormously popular what with its gigantic fan base and ongoing installments both on television and in movies if you're not nice to it you lose galaxy quest is to star trek what mel brooks's spaceballs was to star wars an affectionate riotously funny parody that freely takes jabs at various elements of its subject but never seems or malintentioned the show's been cancelled but the journey is far from over that is the current tagline of galaxy quest a star trek type show that's no longer produced but lives on forever in reruns it also lives on in conventions gatherings of the show's obsessive fans who never fail to dress in galaxy quest costumes and ask absurdly logical questions about its delirious technobabble jason nesmith tim allen played commander peter quincy taggart on the show and is the only one of the cast who still gets excited about the gigs they have to do the attitudes of the rest tommy webber daryl mitchell gwen demarco sigourney weaver fred kwan tony shalhoub and alexander dane alan rickman range from indifference to utter contempt dane who played a alien is especially disgusted considering himself above his demeaning job and stubbornly refusing to recite his character's cheesy trademark line by grabthar's hammer you shall be avenged or something like that for his fans one day nesmith is greeted by an especially fanatical group of galaxy quest followers they are actually aliens from a planet known as thermia they have mistaken the galaxy quest episodes for historical documentation of actual heroic space travel the next day the thermians whisk nesmith away to a spaceship to help them defeat the evil sarris named in one of the film's only gags after village voice film critic andrew sarris nesmith thinks it is only an elaborate gig and sort of blows it off but when he is transported or i should say shot back to earth in a rather celestial manner he believes next thing the cast knows they are being dragged by nesmith to this spaceship of course they all think he is out of his mind and once he does convince them that there really is a spaceship what they want to do is get out of there as fast as the transporters will take them but after some persuading they stay on to fight the icky sarris and find a way to provide a peaceful existance for the flailing thermians i was quite surprised how well this comedy which came off as utterly brainless from its marketing campaign worked taking shots at both the obvious and elements of star trek and its fandom galaxy quest never goes for cheap laughs opting instead for broad but smart parody nothing is safe not the cliches not the fans not the absurd taglines but on the other hand everything is safe since galaxy quest treats its subject with utter respect and sometimes even subtle admiration the highlight of the movie is tony shalhoub's fred a k a tech sergeant chen who when in character is the complete opposite of scotty from the original star trek while scotty who was the technician for the enterprise would constantly yell i need more power down here captain chen's cry for help is more to the tune of the core like won't take it or something it's a hoot but it doesn't stop there weaver whose character has the menial task of repeating everything the computer says and rickman with his relentlessly attitude aren't far behind galaxy quest succeeds as a funny parody of star trek and while it's not a masterpiece it tends to falter in its more serious moments it is immensely entertaining fluff and excellent counterprogramming to all the sober oscar contenders being released this holiday season by grabthar's hammer this is a hell of a movie
positive	in my review of there's something about mary i said something to the effect of laughter isn't everything i now need to make a brief addendum to my postulate laughter isn't everything unless i'm watching a jim abrahams film see spoofs are easy with me i love movies and i love movies that make fun of movies that i love sometimes i'm the only one in the theater laughing sometimes i laugh so hard that i embarass myself because my laugh is so in comparison to my speaking voice it cuts right through everyone else's laughter sometimes i laugh so much that my cheekbones are sore by the end of the film abraham's latest film mafia induced this kind of hysteria upon me it's gotten some mediocre reviews but hey i'm the guy who laughs at everything there may be a lot of jokes that flop in this film but there are far more that work and i laughed so frequently that the failed jokes usually occurred as i was recovering from the previous bout of giddy madness i enjoy films like this because not one second of it is serious or most lighweight films that pose as comedies try to do other things like develop characters shape stories and other such nonsense mafia has no pretentions about characters or story and it exists for no other reason than to make people laugh the film begins on the perfect high note with a mockery of the opening of casino our hero jay mohr is seen walking from a casino and getting into his car which subsequently explodes and sends him flying through the air against a backdrop of flowing fire to describe the story of mafia is absurd and pointless but i will mention that it basically follows the framework of the godfather films with a lot of casino references inserted throughout along the way the parodies seem arbitrary and rarely victimize mob films pictures like the english patient forrest gump and jaws undergo severe and hilarious bashing movies like this rely on just a few things but the most important element is direction abrahams has been down this path many times before hot shots top secret airplane and any other film with an exclamation point in the title and so i hold most of the success of mafia to his experience he takes just the right attitude in each scene and manages to wring at least a bit laughter out of even the most oddly placed references one inexplicable moment seems like it wants to make fun of titanic but it never develops the actors are all energetic which helps a lot with the tone of the film mohr suicide kings paulie who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors is so good here he looks like he's having so much fun that he's containing his laughter in every scene watch his face in the sequence by the swimming pool he's probably the only performer in the cast who manages to urge laughter without the help of the material lloyd bridges does a decent imitation of brando's godfather while pamela gidley is in a mockery of sharon stone the hard thing about writing reviews for comedies is that i'm supposed to give examples of things and be specific unfortunately i was so constantly blindsided by laughter during mafia that i can't remember a lot of what made me laugh but that's a good sign mafia is so funny that i wasn't even given time to apply any of the scenes to memory i laughed so hard that it shut off my brain i know that doesn't sound particularly complimentary but when watching a dumb comedy like this the first thing i want to do is shut off my brain finally a film that does this for me
positive	showgirls is the second major outing for the production team of pual verhoeven director and joe eszterhas writer their last effort basic instinct played like the most sumptuous of classic hitchcock with a dash of raw sex and sensuality that made it come across with a hit like tabasco sauce a dish not to everyone's taste but certainly a movie possibly that movie's greatest strength was that the most important events happened offstage prior to the movie during the movie and after the movie and that after bringing all the plotlines together neatly it left the viewer with full knowledge of what would happen in the characters' future so there was no need to film it there was actually about four hours' worth of screen story there but eszterhas found ways to get it all in two by leading his audience into analyzing what was really going on and by still holding their interest with clever misdirection and false trails the major elements that made basic instinct work so well are present in showgirls we have attractive sympathetic but still highly repellent characters we have shows for the eyes and the ears plotlines that play on several levels we have beautifully delineated characters who are drawn from life and very believable and we have a story of an innocent who may not be so innocent who's trying to play straight trying to improve her station in life who slips into behaving the way those around her do but recovers with a flourish and quits a winner in this sense the movie is a bit of a departure for verhoeven who's not known for treating his characters well but nomi the part played by elizabeth berkley definitely opts out of the game in a positive way and we're left feeling good about her future this is not one of the great movies but it's far better than we'd been led to expect by all the negative publicity verhoeven got his first oscar nomination in and in the last has pushed farther and farther experimenting with the limits to his most recent three movies robocop total recall and basic instinct have been a progression of access to american culture moving from the fantastic through the merely psychotic to the underlying basic drives and now he's exploring the sleeze this movie may be the first movie ever made for which the director's contract contained a specific provision that he would not have to deliver an r rated movie verhoeven had to cut several parts of basic instinct to get an r rating although his original version is available on video many reviewers have taken the stance that any movie which uses naked ladies as scenery is a bad thing but they miss the fact that this movie is not about naked ladies it's about people in an environment where naked ladies are common and why such an environment should exist it's about the scum who use other people as toys and the need to escape their power it's about a world where sex is nothing and normal human values don't pertain and the lack of sexual excitement and passionate heat in even the most blatant scenes is something of an accomplishment an movie which isn't sexually exciting says a great deal about the phoniness and emptiness of a social stratum where sex has been robbed of any kind of beauty power or value the one scene in the movie that could have been a good sex scene berkley and maclachlan in a swimming pool is not exciting because by then we already know his character is a callous manipulator if anything it's a rape scene with a victim who's been duped into cooperation you don't make a movie about the history of black people in america without using a few black actors you don't make a movie about world war ii without a few guns going off and a few people getting killed and you don't make a movie about las vegas showgirls without showing a few las vegas showgirls and in an awful lot of vegas shows an awful lot of ladies wear very little clothing this is a legitimate portrayal of a rather seamy side of the entertainment industry in a town where sex is simply a negotiable commodity showgirls the las vegas show and sex industries with great effectiveness nomi is played in a very good performance by elizabeth berkley who gives us a solid picture of a woman with limited talents who's at the end of her rope desperate to live a life better than the one she's known she has nothing to market except her body and her limited dancing ability and is trying desperately not to to be a hooker trying to be something better than she seems destined to be when nomi realizes she's gone too far for too little she catches herself just in time to save the most essential part of who she wants to be gina rivera plays molly a dressmaker and costumer who befriends nomi providing her with what may be the one solid positive relationship in nomi's entire life molly is the one who makes the difference and provides the role model and framework nomi needs to verify the value system she'll be using for the rest of her life and nomi's feelings for molly are the spur that forces nomi's decision gina gershon plays cristal an aging but still very attractive starring dancer a reflexively competitive manipulator who's become a villainess by internalizing the ethos of the crooks and scum around her gershon plays cristal as a cross between ava gardner and raquel welch a fading talent made bitter by her character is very well drawn and performed in a major scene in a hospital room she acknowledges what she is and in essence passes the torch to nomi the relationship between the two of them is the most honest one in the movie and provides part of the impetus nomi needs to follow a different path it is no accident that the three important parts in this movie are women of different stripe molly is an honest person who means well and nearly dies because she confuses the glitter and the image with reality cristal is a talented dancer who's compromised her ideals and sold herself to be a part of the system exchanging for the species of stardom that can be had in las vegas nomi believes she can make it without selling herself succumbs to a degree and then realizes she can make it without selling herself and doesn't need las vegas or its brand of stardom the male parts in this movie are simply props they exist only to demonstrate and explicate the cultural milieu against which showgirls exist kyle maclachlan whose single best previous work was as an inhumanly emotionless cop in the hidden gives us a nicely reptilian bit of pond scum on two legs camouflaged as a nice guy glenn plummer plays a dancer who's working as a bellboy and provides a bit of alternate perspective plummer's character is the only one in the movie who's maintaining an interest in dance as a performing art but even he's succumbed to the cult of manipulation plummer's character is the closest thing to a sympathetic male character in the whole movie some of jost vacano's cinematography is fantastic and one particular delineation of nomi's character alteration a scene using nothing but color changes in the lighting is utterly terrifying this movie is rated due to language sexual situations full frontal nudity violence and probably the costuming as well i don't see a way this particular story could have been told well without it and i regard it as a legitimate exercise in but don't go see it if you're not in a tough mood the only person it's possible to like in this movie ends up in an i c u on life support and there is probably not one character in this movie you'd enjoy meeting in person
positive	it has been three long years since quentin tarantino stunned the cinema world by claiming the cannes film festival's palme d'or a box office gross and an oscar nomination all for his sophomore outing pulp fiction since then the talented film maker has been virtually invisible surfacing briefly as a of the wildly uneven four rooms and the screenwriter of the gory from dusk till dawn in between he has moonlighted as an actor with several decidedly unmemorable performances now with much fanfare and anticipation tarantino has returned with his third directorial effort jackie brown and while this motion picture adapted from elmore leonard's novel rum punch offers solid entertainment those expecting another bravura outing from tarantino will leave theaters disappointed for the most part jackie brown is a pretty ordinary crime movie the story which starts out slowly develops into a twisty affair with and and the movie is littered with occasional tarantino trademarks witty dialogue unexpected gunfire pop tunes and of womens' bare feet yet for all of that the production is something of a letdown the sheer exuberance that marked reservoir dogs and especially pulp fiction is absent the chronology of jackie brown doesn't match up favorably to the style of tarantino's previous efforts an approach that added tension and edginess to the narratives and there aren't nearly as many deliciously offbeat conversations this time around there's a samuel l jackson monologue about guns a tucker argument regarding the merits of hiding in a car trunk and a de niro exchange that recalls some of the material from pulp fiction but that's about it jackie brown's lone innovation is its presentation of a crucial sequence from three different perspectives this isn't exactly an original technique it has been done numerous times before most famously in akira kurosawa's rashomon and most recently in edward zwick's courage under fire however while in those two movies and others there was a legitimate plot reason for the multiple view tarantino's sole purpose for using it appears to be because it's unconventional had the scenes in question been shown from only one of the three vantages nothing would have been lost as a result this aspect of the film is little more than a curiosity for the second picture in a row tarantino is attempting to revive the career of a icon this time around instead of john travolta it's blaxploitation queen pam grier foxy brown has become jackie brown in one of many nods to the most famous segment of grier's career tarantino uses a song to accompany her first appearance during the opening credits there are also several instances during jackie brown when the director offers a sly wink towards certain conventions of the blaxploitation genre although grier never does any grier is jackie brown a flight attendant who gets caught transporting drugs and money into the united states she's working for gun dealer ordell robbie samuel l jackson but she keeps her mouth shut under questioning despite pressure from ray nicolet michael keaton a federal official no longer sure whether or not he can trust jackie ordell arranges for a bail bondsman max cherry robert forster tv's banyon to post the necessary then plans to shoot jackie if she proves disloyal jackie passes ordell's test however and soon the two of them are plotting a way to smuggle of ordell's money into the united states without tipping off the feds soon just about everyone is after that money including jackie max ray ordell's perpetually oversexed and girlfriend melanie bridget fonda and his man louis robert de niro unsurprisingly the most memorable performance is turned in by samuel l jackson but ordell isn't nearly as invigorating or compelling a character as jules from pulp fiction in addition to looking fantastic pam grier is also quite good although hers is not an caliber performance although she might get a nomination robert forster and michael keaton are solid in their smile roles bridget fonda is around for three discernible reasons to look sexy in a bikini to provide a little twisted comedy and to satisfy tarantino's foot fetish robert de niro is criminally underused in a part that could have been played equally well by any looking actor the film which clocks in at several minutes over the half hour mark is probably too long for the material but the plot is convoluted enough to keep us guessing throughout although the payoff is a letdown tarantino keeps things moving along nicely with a heavier dose of humor and less violence than in pulp fiction but on the whole this movie seems more like the work of one of his wannabes than something from the director himself when it comes to recent caper films like the grifters and bound jackie brown is a effort it's an entertaining diversion but not a masterpiece and certainly not an oscar contender
positive	one of the biggest cliches of any serial killer film is also one of the most believable you know the one where the detective looks at a wall of pictures and other police information and suddenly spots the clue which reveals who the killer is sure it's been used over and over but for some reason it is always fun to watch this cliche pretty much describes the level kiss the girls works on overused but always fun one of my personal rules about watching a film is not how original the film is but how it goes around giving its story this rule applies highly to kiss the girls there is something psychologically stimulating in a serial killer movie and kiss the girls is certainly well made however the whole film screams of unoriginality and so it relies on the power of its actors and the technical detail to pull it through well not only are the actors capable of pulling it through but they add so much to the film that nearly every flaw is covered up unfortunately one of the most revealing and rather insulting choices by the filmmakers one that seven a film a lot like this one knew not to make was to put the name of the killer in the opening credits that may give the actor credit for the role but throughout the film hidden in my mind i was waiting for him to appear on screen which spoiled the mystery however credit must be given to the director for suspending this knowledge through most of the film plotwise kiss the girls shows almost no originality we are introduced to detective alex cross morgan freeman a forensic psychologist and immediately we are given the cliched scene establishing him as the hero he gets a call about a woman who has shot her husband and is now threatening to kill herself obviously cross succeeds at getting the gun but this scene is quickly forgotten during the next scene at his house cross is told that his neice naomi gina ravera has been missing for four days this provides the motivation for cross to find the killer but we are never given a chance to establish the relationship between the two and as a result we can't sympathize with detective cross however what makes kiss the girls slightly original is the introduction of one of the abductees before she is abducted dr kate mctiernan ashley judd the actress of the judd family is a smart athletic woman and because of these traits becomes a target for the serial killer likes to call himself because of these scenes we care for mctiernan making the abduction scene all that more suspenseful after being abducted mctiernan wakes up and finds herself in a cell somewhere in the woods remembering that the killer gave her certain rules she decides to break one of them by calling out when casanova comes to punish her she breaks out and escapes by jumping over a waterfall after she is found she begins to help cross find his neice from this moment on kiss the girls takes on the form of every other serial killer film as the two leads search for the rest of the victims held captive many people will compare this film to seven another killer film starring morgan freeman but i presume that the similarities are intentional the screenplay by david klass is adapted from the novel written by james patterson and yet i don't quite see how this story could have worked in novel form what makes kiss the girls so good is the acting and the technical and visual impressiveness the cinematography by aaron schneider is reminiscient of seven and sometimes i felt that many of the shots were trying too hard to impress us sometimes a simple shot is the best one however many of the shots are stunning and unlike seven most of them take place during the day in sunlight the scene when ashley judd is running through the forest is extremely well done in more than one way the camera work is terrific but the editing makes this scene work so well the chaotic and cutting gives the audience a sense of confusion and unawareness exactly what judd's character is experiencing however the best aspect of kiss the girls is its actors morgan freeman is one of today's most powerful and believable actors detective cross is a very good character for him although it is just a similar one to the character in seven because of freeman's powerful presence he carries half the film by himself the other half is carried by ashley judd one of today's most promising dramatic actresses in fact her performance is better than freeman's if that is even possible her character is more original than freeman's and she handles it wonderfully we finally have a female character in a movie like this who does more than just scream the supporting cast is highly underdeveloped but the cast members do as much as they can with it cary elwes portrays a cop in north carolina and unfortunately has scraps for a character tony goldwyn fairs slightly better but we don't really get to know his character either gina ravera gives a good performance but again she isn't in many of the scenes so as a result of all these small supporting parts the weight of the film lies on the two leads and they do a phenomenal job some of the best acting of this genre and some of the best acting of the year two other essential aspects of the film are quite good director gary fleder does a good job of controlling his actors but the second half of the film loses believability especially during the revelation of the killer he also doesn't handle the suspenseful scenes as a better director would have losing a lot of tension during many scenes however to his credit he does manage a terrific first half part of the blame falls on david klass i'm sure the book developed many of the lesser characters more but klass focuses on the two main parts while this may give the two leads more screentime many of the small characters are and the killer when revealed is extremely implausible thanks to the smart dialogue adapted from the novel kiss the girls always seems intelligent none of the conversations are laughable and all move the plot forward without seeming forced one of the biggest problems i had with the movie was the motive of the killer i blame this mainly on the casting director because the killer's motive is because of rejection from women or so i assume from the opening monologue but the killer himself is very attractive one of my friends is a shall we say big admirer of the killer kiss the girls is rated r for terror violence language and suggested sex with all the implausibilities of this film and with the mediocre second half kiss the girls somehow manages to thoroughly entertain in fact i had the urge to see it again just for the performances the cinematography adds a lot of mood to the already creepy tone and the script is usually smart this is clearly one of those movies which rely on the acting to pull it through morgan freeman is possibly today's most convincing actor and ashley judd adds another notch on her acting belt i must also say that i loved the ending the showdown between good and evil was quite tense and the resolution of the scene makes almost anyone cheer perhaps it may not be possible but most of the film isn't anyway
positive	i was originally going to give the spanish prisoner two and half stars from my first viewing i noticed that david mamet's film was intense and clever at times but boring and cliched at other times especially at the beginning from my second viewing however i noticed that mamet's script was actually a masterpiece the spanish prisoner like the usual suspects or chinatown begs for the viewer's complete attention miss a scene or even a small detail and you could miss the meaning of the entire film also like the aforementioned films it rewards its viewer for paying attention by delivering a surprising and memorable ending mamet is success doing again what he once tackled in when he wrote and directed house of games like his past gem the spanish prisoner fools the audience as much or even more than the victim because we were deceived just like the victim we feel a strong attachment to the main character and consequently are more interested in the film mamet has the talent of not completely ending a film gift wrapped but rather leaving some ambiguity towards the end the power that he has in forcing the viewer to determine who the good guys and bad guys are once the film is over without giving a right answer is unique and ingenious the spanish prisoner will leave you seriously puzzled and intrigued after seeing the film again i noticed that the details mamet uses are so incredibly accurate it is frightening his direction is very subtle as he leaves so many clues explaining what is going on and who is who but it is still very difficult to tell what exactly is happening even if you see all of them or think you see all of them the story follows a young up and coming businessman joe ross campbell scott who has just created a mysterious and lucrative process that everyone is trying to get their hands on soon ross does not know who he can trust or who is after his process through his journey ross meets a number of mysterious characters the rich and popular jimmy dell a secretary who has a huge crush on ross and ross' boss mr klein played by steve martin rebecca pidgeon and ben gazarra respectively the supporting cast is very solid especially martin who deserved an oscar nomination for his commanding and manipulative role the most interesting character in the film though was campbell scott's joe ross the character's transformation from an ingenuous and polite rookie to a paranoid veteran is very apparent and justifiable david mamet's script is so interesting because we know people don't actually talk like the characters in the film yet we feel so connected to some of them his beguiling style could fool any viewer up for the challenge this is a must see for those interested in solving a complex puzzle of a movie
positive	an unhappy italian housewife a lonely waiter a goofy masseuse lots of love and gorgeous scenery all come together in bread and tulips which proves charming despite its covering of predictable material the story concerns the aforementioned housewife rosalba barletta licia maglietta who accidentally becomes separated from her immediate family while on vacation instead of waiting for a ride home rosalba opts not to go home to her italian town but to instead hitchhike to venice upon arriving she tells her husband mimmo an excellent antonio catania that she'll be home in a few days of course that doesn't happen as rosalba quickly gains a level of independence that has been unattainable in her past life of scrubbing floors and buying groceries in what seems like days she moves in with lonely suicidal waiter fernando bruno ganz gets a job as a florist learns the accordion and befriends her neighbor a wacky holistic masseuse named grazia marina massironi rosalba who is first seen wearing a gaudy stretch pants outfit starts wearing sexy dresses and getting closer to fernando i can think of at least five other american movies including fried green tomatoes and an unmarried woman that are more than similar to bread and tulips but maglietta and ganz who act with restraint and care help bread and tulips from becoming a tired retread ganz plays the suicidal waiter role with a solemn sometimes playful dignity that is a joy to watch while maglietta never overreacts to her growing comfort with the outside world throughout the movie maglietta has an easygoing confident demeanor which makes it very easy to root for her and her growing attraction for ganz's character the gorgeous scenery of moonlit town squares and sparkling rivers provides a perfect love story backdrop you just might want to ask the attractive stranger in the seat behind you for coffee after the lights come up director and silvio soldini must get credit for sprinkling the movie with effective goofy humor the cheap mimmo desperate to find his wife after all he needs his shirts ironed and his mistress won't do it hires a job applicant giuseppe battiston at his bathroom supply firm to do the job the reason mimmo discovers that the prospective plumber loves detective stories the novice detective's various misfortunes including him saying goodbye to his weepy mother are very funny unfortunately there are flaws that somewhat spoil bread and tulips' cheery tone rosalba is bothered by several surreal dreams during her time in venice which bring the movie to a halt it's like putting a gunfight in a nora ephron movie several details in fernando's life also never get proper closure including his suicidal tendencies early in the movie he nearly hangs himself before rosalba knocks on his apartment door after that fernando's step towards death is never made reference to probably because soldini wanted to include a lukewarm underdeveloped subplot about fernando's stormy past it seems more like a desperate attempt to pump up the drama in a plot that doesn't need any but there aren't a lot of overwhelming negatives in bread and tulips the movie is fun and romantic with beautiful scenery and characters whose lives we'd like to live if we had the nerve or if our passports weren't missing
positive	after the terminally bleak reservoir dogs and the brutally violent pulp fiction jackie brown seems like something of a departure for quentin tarantino it's more of a heist story with characters that speak the tarantino language luckily his showcase of actors convert every morsel of possible enjoyment onto the screen and jackie brown has no trouble entertaining the average viewer the story introduces us to a black woman named jackie brown pam grier a flight attendant who smuggles money and drugs from one destination to another she works for a airline and receives a minimal salary but one day she is picked up by a pair of federal officials including michael keaton as the ray nicolet and found with a handsome load of cash and a small bag of smuggled dope jackie is working for a weapons dealer named ordell samuel l jackson who pays her bail money but suspects her of tipping off the feds about their operation soon jackie and ordell are plotting a way to smuggle through to them under nicolet's nose with the help of ordell's oaf of a partner robert de niro and lady friend bridget fonda also entering the picture is a named max cherry robert forster who takes a liking to jackie and agrees at one point to make the situation even more complicated how i won't say the big is undoubtedly the high point of jackie brown in which numerous take place and many clothing store bags filled with cash switch hands it's unfortunate that tarantino takes his sweet time getting there and doesn't offer anything extremely compelling while doing so there are as always amusing exchanges between characters the funniest repartee is between de niro and fonda as he becomes annoyed with her constant bickering while making fun of his iq or lack thereof the most interesting relationship is between max and jackie a old white bail bondsman and a old black flight attendant with believable chemistry you've got to commend the acting jackie brown is a seriously exercise enlivened by such fine acting the film clocks in at a lengthy hours minutes tarantino's talky style manages to hold your attention heavily but there are more than a few dramatic lapses and crucial lulls in the storyline also fans of the director should be prepared for a lighter side to appear jackie brown has four major shootings and two of those take place mostly so don't be expecting a typical tarantino bloodbath you can expect frequent foul language mostly coming way of ordell who much to the dismay of spike lee uses the word as part of his regular vocabulary the acting is the glue that holds everything together grier making a sudden comeback from her reign in the is more than adequate for the title character in fact she's great another comeback comes from former tv star robert forster who does a grand job as max cherry and is perfectly cast in doing so michael keaton makes his presence felt albeit in small but dignified moments and de niro is ideal in playing the who goes over the edge speaking of that bridget fonda has relatively little to do as ordell's beach babe and yet she manages to look fairly occupied there's not a single sign of misplaced dialogue or snubbed line throughout the entire movie which is a for mr tarantino the story barely holds together in the meantime and we merely get a small tremor whenever there should be a defeaning earthquake but oh well jackie brown manages to be an enjoyable detour from quentin tarantino even if it is lacking the glaring and original bite of his previous work let's just hope that the director hasn't gone soft on us
positive	upon taking a seat at the theater and surveying the crowd i soon realized that i was the only person under forty in the premises i'm but have been accused of looking sixteen yet as the film began any consciousness of setting shifted to the home of five yet troubled sisters director pat o'connor inventing the abbots circle of friends weaves a quiet yet affecting tale of loss need and the bonds between five sisters the family is ruled by kate meryl streep an unconsciously strict schoolteacher who is completely conscious of the deterioration of her family there is very little background given to the viewer as we are thrust into a tense but loving home squabbles take place one after the other caused by years and years of history perhaps one of the best things about this film is its naturalness no situation is and characters react as real people do to real problems this probably is a result of the film being from a stage play the play was in turn is based on a time in the life of the playwright what seems to be an underlying theme are the pagan rituals and dances of peoples both in lughnasa and africa in fact dance seems to be the glue that holds the family together and most expressively shows their closeness legs tap and bodies sway even in the midst of impending disaster only after the music stops and the characters stand breathing heavily do we sense any trouble in the quiet after the music we muse that it's sad that music has to cease and families falter the movie is framed by a scene of michael mundy the narrator of the movie as a young child flying a kite he trips over a bump and loses hold of his string and the kite floats off farther into the distance drawn on the white diamond of the kite is a face that looks at once pained and at another glance mischievous the mundy family itself follows a similar fate to that of the kite and kate's hold of the family isn't strong enough to hold off the winds of change as michael stands staring at his kite fly away we hear the adult michael looking back at the season that his world changed forever the movie is not overpowering but it gives us a beautiful window into the life love and trouble of a household of lonely women note this is the first movie review i've ever written any responses on it would be greatly appreciated 
positive	in may of just years after steven spielberg's success with jaws and years after francis coppolas' the godfather a risky ambitious young director named george lucas went for the same unpredictable box office success little did he know that star wars would become the greatest science fiction epic in the history of film in january of this year lucas star wars on its anniversary in this new remastered version the added effects which range from leathery desert beasts inserted into already existing shots to an awkward new scene in which hans solo bargains his way out of a jam with a jabba the hutt don't do much but call attention to themselves other than these the film is exactly the same why pay to see it in the theaters you might ask simply because when this movie was released most of us were a few years short of being born we should all get up and go to the movies for the experience especially if you haven't seen it the plot is basic but in the same way complex it has many themes but the one rotates around luke skywalker mark hamill and his quest to become a jedi knight his mission begins when a droid named plays back a secret message recorded by the beautiful princess leia carrie fisher which tells him to contact the mysterious kanoby alec guiness he and kanoby then joined by two renegades hans solo harrison ford and chewbacca and skywalker's two droids and the voice of anthony edwards wage war upon the corrupt empire commanded by an evil general peter cushing and the traitorous darth vader the voice of james earl jones skywalker defeats the evil empire by rising out of himself to embrace something larger the force the film is obviously quite but how was lucas to know that ford would become one of the most sought after men in hollywood and jones' voice would appear so many more times in the future it just happened to work out for him the magic of star wars lies in the way that skywalker's triumph is symbolized by the audience's sense of becoming something larger than life universe of fans young and old recreating a movie atmosphere that will impress generations forever 
positive	days' chronicles the last two days of in los angeles as the locals gear up for the new millenium lenny nero ralph fiennes goes about his business of peddling erotic memory clips he pines for his faith juliette lewis not noticing that another friend mace angela bassett really cares for him this film features good performances impressive technique and crowd scenes director kathryn bigelow knows her stuff and does not hesitate to use it but as a whole this is an unsatisfying movie the problem is that the writers james cameron and jay cocks were too ambitious aiming for a film with social relevance thrills and drama not that ambitious should be discouraged just that when it fails to achieve its goals it fails badly and obviously the film just ends up preachy unexciting and uninvolving
positive	there's a thin line between satire and controversy and mike nichols the birdcage wolf has directed a sharp and very honest look at a us presidential election based on the book written by anonymous actually former newsweek writer joe klein john travolta plays governor jack stanton but he doesn't actually play stanton he plays bill clinton just the same as emma thompson no doubt plays the first lady and billy bob thorton is the campaign manipulator james carville although the credits will of course say otherwise the film is taken from the perspective of henry burton adrian lester a morally correct and somewhat hesitant new advisor to stanton he searches for justice and dignity in the ugliest possible situations and whether it be keeping the history of his boss' pants under wraps or contemplating digging up dirt on another politician he approaches his work with a keen desire to skillfully serve his country and his fellow workers richard jemmons billy bob thorton and daisy green maura tierney team up with henry as the president's advisors and hire lesbian veteran libby holden kathy bates as the campaign's eccentric tougher than dirt incriminator together they face all sorts of sexual allegations the irritatingly discourteous media and other witty politicians in the election race in its satire and controversy primary colors is a similar film to wag the dog they both are not afraid to wipe their noses in the and take a bold look at something that will never has honesty as a virtue but whereas wag showed us how much affect a few people can have on the media primary colors is much more concerned with fleshing out it's characters letting us understand what they want and why and making us truly appreciate the humanity and rectitude that they graciously represent seeing john travolta play bill clinton so confidently and justly is enough to make the film more than worth a look and the rest of the cast also make superb performances adrian lester sharply portrays the intellect of henry whilst kathy bates is perfect as the robust and energetic libby holden at occasions you can't help but feel that these terrific characters are going to waste there are long slabs of time where john travolta unquestionably the most interesting to watch is missed from the screen and since it is awkwardly structured as henry's story we are often forced to watch scenes that perhaps are not so necessary to the central plot or even the point of the film having said that make no mistake primary colors is always enjoyable to watch but frequently we have to ask ourselves exactly what are we watching most of the first half of its duration is a lightheaded look at melodramatic confrontations that seem so genuine we cannot help but laugh but the way primary colors chooses to finish tackles aspects that are very contrary and almost unsuitable to the rest of the film but as i mentioned before there is a thin line between satire and controversy and for the most part primary colors delivers an entertaining indulgence of political matters combined with a look at winning the public's opinion although at occasions the film may jump around a little too freely focus is never lost on how important and vulnerable the subject matter really is thankfully it is clear to make the distinction on what is entertaining movie cosmetics and what is a provocative documentation of something so really it's scary
positive	it was only a matter of time before a office comedy hit the screens however rather than coming from dilbert creator scott adams office space is instead based on the work of another animator mike judge creator of beavis and butthead and king of the hill in his directoral debut judge aptly spoofs corporate culture the story is certainly not very involved but there is plenty of truth and humor to fill the gaps peter ron livingston is a programmer working at the initech corporation every day in his mundane life is worse than the one before in other words every day is the worst day in his entire life he's stuck in a boring job with eight different supervisors all obsessed with administrative trivialities he's smitten with joanna jennifer aniston a local waitress but hasn't the guts to even introduce himself everything has simply made him a complete nervous wreck but all of that changes when after an unintentionally visit to a hypnotherapist peter loses all of his inhibitions he realizes his lifelong dream to do absolutely nothing he begins to blatantly disregard the nonsensical instructions of his boss bill lumbergh gary cole doing whatever he feels like peter's friends and samir ajay naidu and michael bolton david herman no not that michael bolton are perplexed by their friend's sudden change in attitude but they have larger things to worry about rumors about that initech is about to begin downsizing as bleak as much of this sounds let me assure you that office space is a comedy and quite a funny one although it shares the same absurdist office humor of the dilbert comic strip office space is actually based loosely on the series of milton cartoons which aired on saturday night life each mundane detail taken by itself seems completely regrettably plausible yet when combined into a whole the picture which results is absolutely surreal ron livingston tackles his role and becomes much funnier because of it his character isn't simply being a clown lampooning around the office but rather seems possessed by a clarity he is operating on a higher plane where everything suddenly makes sense and from this vantage point he allows the audience to smirk at the absurdities of life anyone who has had to deal with the inefficiencies of corporate bureaucracy or who has ever been frustrated with the technology of modern life will recognize many of the characters and situations in the film in fact in addition to being wildly humorous the film may actually prove to be cathartic the animated roots of office space show in the film's lack of complexity most of the characters in the film can be quickly summarized by a particular personality quirk one employee milton stephen root is practically a cartoon however despite their simple nature the characters still manage to be surprisingly funny it's not required to have a corporate background to enjoy this film though the situations may seem exceedingly if you are unfamiliar with just how close to reality they really are the film is flimsy and absurd but also very funny
positive	all those who were offended by there's something about mary should not tread in the waters of american pie a gratuitously sexual rollercoaster ride of raunch and while this uproariously funny summer movie is basically an exercise in bad taste it also demonstrates a surprising sweetness in the end american pie is the latest entry to the offensive fare this season i must question the studio that releases a movie like this the producers are aiming these films at the crowd but while pushing the limit of possible sex and violence in an film some have even been narrowly avoiding the dreaded a rating the mpaa gives when the adult content surpasses even that of a restricted movie american pie was threatened with an but after snipping a few scenes from the finished product it was given an r but at least this new addition is not as careless and unforgiving as something like south park it is sick perverse and ultimately disgusting not to mention extremely funny american pie is about four desperate teenagers who make a pact to lose their virginity by prom night jim jason biggs kevin thomas ian nicholas oz chris klein and finch eddie kaye thomas are a quartet of high school students in their senior year who think sex is something they must experience to be successful in their lives ahead jim inquires what it feels like when you reach third base to which one of his friends replies warm apple pie of course this prompts the scene unfairly exposed in the trailers in which jim and a freshly baked pie have a very intimate moment in the kitchen corner there are many moments such as this in which director paul weitz uses a similar to the one frequently displayed in mary to cause the audience to break down laughing in disgusting disbelief american pie is a effort that has replenishing rewards if you manage to stick with it i loved the young cast in this movie consider the subject matter that these actors have dealt with obviously suggestiveness never rivaled in any of their previous projects and you should appreciate their performances biggs is more than enjoyable and chris klein who recently played a similar jock in election is obviously a young talent on the rise but in a movie the best performance comes from comedian eugene levy of television's sctv who is unexpectedly brilliant as jim's uneasy father scenes in which the familiar conversations are brought to interesting new levels are the funniest moments to be found in american pie after levy discovers jim's new use for apple pie he tells him did a fare share of that sort of thing when i was your age but i never used baked goods it is performances such as his and bill murray's in rushmore that are often unfairly dismissed when awards are handed out there are some aspects of the film a bathroom incident involving finch and a bottle of is something we've seen before if weitz is planning to take after the farrelly brothers then this is a decidedly unwise move the same prank was pulled in the brother's dumb and dumber and used to greater effect secondly the characters are forced into a climax that seems more artificial than amusing but at one point in which we discover that american pie does have a heart of it's own biggs asks his buddies why he's going through so much pressure for something that's very important anyway and so we realize that while the film is expressive about a subject that is hardly appropriate it still manages to be mature in it's own way
positive	albert brooks saves the day just in the nick of time with a very poor summer for movies brooks is just what audiences were looking for to cheer them up and does so in a positive way while this may not be his finest work the muse still shakes up some delightful humor in albert brook's latest comedy he tells a story of a troubled screenwriter brooks who's losing his edge as his business partners say in desperation he goes to see his friend jack jeff bridges who has been a very successful screenwriter in the past he asks jack for some help and recieves word of a real life muse that has helped him and many other directors throughout their career so brooks seeks the muse named sarah sharon stone and is suckered into buying her expensive food etc as a sort of payment the real punch line however doesn't come until the end it really makes you wonder how screenwriters really get their ideas could it simply be from a friend or a bum in the street the idea itself is provoking and brooks does it in a hilarious manner speaking of brooks he was absolutely hysterical as a screenwriter every time he graces the screen i can't help but start laughing albert has a very unique sense of humor that makes him a very likeable character the real problem with the film lies with sharon stone she wasn't likeable at all brooks had the right idea with her occupation but she never pulled through in a way she drained energy from the once funny atmosphere and left it bleak luckily brooks could clean up the mess and cover for stone's mishap it was a shame that the film went slightly downhill after her appearance because the muse had the potential to a be a very authentic comedy on a brighter note andie macdowell was also charming as brook's wife she is always a nice addition as a supporting actress because she has that charisma that seems to complete the atmosphere to any film she's in the funniest moments in the muse in my opinion were the cameos by james cameron and martin scorsese i mean imagine brooks seeing these big named directors in his back yard seeking sharon stone for advice like it was something out of the ordinary it was just plain hilarious it just adds to the satire joke of how directors get ideas brilliant move by brooks as i mentioned before the film is a satire much like it's proceeder bowfinger which came out a few weeks before unlike bowfinger this is not a mean spirited film that's desperate for jokes it's rather a witty and humorous look at hollywood bowfinger had it's moments but had quite a few problems that were never worked out but the muse still managed to keep the laughs despite a bit of a detour by the end of the film you're glad to see a good hearty comedy come out of it for once i'm not fully disappointed because the film didn't slow down it kept moving even with some flaws thumbs up to brooks for his brave effort i think he'll still manage to keep his edge around well into the future
positive	for more than a decade anjelica huston has been one of america's finest actresses in her directorial debut bastard out of carolina based upon dorothy allison's largely autobiographical book on child abuse and poverty in the south huston displays impressive proficiency behind the camera as well the film tells the story of ruth anne boatwright nicknamed bone by one of her uncles at birth in war ii south carolina through narration done by laura dern we find that she nearly didn't survive birth as her single mother anney played by jennifer jason leigh was thrown through the windshield during an automobile accident that's just the beginning of her troubles bone is deemed illegitimate on her birth certificate a social stigma which her mother and her large poor family obsesses over for years to come anney meets and weds lyle a kind man and good stepfather whom gives bone a baby sister before dying in an automobile accident anney's brother earle played by michael rooker introduces her to glen played by ron eldard a at the mill glen the black sheep of a wealthy family when are you gonna make your daddy proud i'll tell you when never he's told and filled with bitterness courts anney and eventually wins her despite warnings of a violent temper when anney miscarries with his baby boy glen loses his capability to supress his violent outbursts and begins to direct them at bone beating and abusing her while the anney tries to turn a blind eye and justify his behaviour things turn for the worse when glen loses his job and the family of four sink into impoverishment while set several decades ago this story remains completely relevant in today's society where abused wives return to their husbands and abuse committed against children by one spouse is routinely overlooked by the other the real star of this domestic drama is not jennifer jason leigh but child actress jena malone who plays bone in a wrenching and wholly impressive debut performance her work is of and in this age in which a preponderence of superb child performers have emerged kirsten dunst tina majorino anna paquin natalie portman christina ricci elijah wood malone's performance stands up well leigh's performance in bastard out of carolina is fine although she's not really given much to do and ron eldard work is very solid skillfully manouvering his character's moods in and out of explosive rage one can always sense that underneath his glen is a ticking away of the supporting cast special note must be made of the criminally underrated michael rooker's performance there's a bit too much generic formulaism in the screenplay for my taste from the various characters spouting off country bumpkinisms to the familiar sight of a uptight wise old granny played by grace zabriskie sitting on the porch rocking chair to impassioned soliloquies better suited for a stage performance still it cannot be denied that anne meredith's screenplay contains a wallop of emotional power huston's direction of the film is surehanded and impressive giving the film good pacing and eliciting good performances from her cast particularly the young malone her sequences of child abuse are shot in a emotional rather than graphic manner and are very effective huston's talent with camera positioning is wonderful from a visually striking shot done through a fan to an extended sequence in the front seat of an automobile the film has the feel of a television production bastard out of carolina was originally composed and cut for broadcast on the tnt cable station who ended up declining the film due to sentiments that scenes of abuse and rape in the film were too disturbingly realistic for their audience perhaps some sequences of the film may be unpleasant but as a whole bastard out of carolina adds up to a powerful viewer experience worth seeing
positive	razor blade smile running as part of the vancouver international film festival played october and official release halloween reviewed by vince yim think you know all about vampires believe me you know f ck all with these words we are brought into the world of a sultry vampire seductress by the name of lilith silver played by eileen daly made into an immortal a century and a half ago by the sinister ethan blake she continues to alleviate boredom with her state of being so what's an undead girl to do except squeeze into the tightest fitting clothes possible get out her guns seduce a few guys and kill a few people for money and blood with that out of the way let me say this this film is bad this film is really really bad yet somehow it is strangely enjoyable with all the elements of a direct to video horror flick buxom babes gore cheesy dialogue and bad acting any casual film viewer would be more inclined to spend their money on renting innocent blood or going to see blade still it is considered to be one of the finest british vampire film agreed it might be but is far from being the best vampire flick ever period razor blade smile has some rather high production values shown by the nice overall tone to the film the film is also a bit of a departure from popular vampire lore with a vampire that can go out in broad daylight without disintegrating doesn't sleep in a coffin but leaves one next to her computer and sees religion as the of the peoples' hence immunity to crosses but aside from that it doesn't stray too far away from horror film conventions that is unless that is intentional razor blade smile literally goes for the throat then pumps the wound full of processed cheese you can't help but laugh when a female vampire gets decapitated and her severed head goes flying into a puddle you'll laugh even harder at the hideously contrived situations to distract two female guards lilith tosses a cellular phone towards them and dials the number you'll laugh the hardest when a murder witness recants the tale and suddenly starts sobbing uncontrollably and then there's the sudden twist ending i have enough heart not to give it away the film refuses to take itself seriously which is a good thing as by the time lilith zips up her body suit and then unzips it just to show the right amount of cleavage you've most likely forgotten the main point of the story but in case you really care she's been assigned to kill a bunch of people who belong to the illuminati and she's leaving a huge mess behind for the police to find as much as my criticisms this movie works best as a guilty pleasure or as a film that you watch with your friends and within groups almost destined for the film's campy cheesy overtones actually work towards the film while this may not necessarily be the film you'd want to be seen watching by yourself it makes for a fun time at the movies
positive	pitch black is a sheep in wolf's clothing it is full of darkness danger and violence and if you buy into the marketing hype an unsettling and scary film going experience don't be fooled pitch black is a morality play masquerading as a it starts off with blistering intensity a cargo spaceship crash lands on a planet apparently leeched of life by the scorching heat of three suns among the survivors is fry mitchell the ship's pilot who spends the film wrestling with the fact that she tried to jettison the other passengers in her effort to land the craft safely there is imam david an islamic leader whose faith in his god is tested repeatedly throughout the film there is a law enforcement officer in the form of johns hauser who attacks every situation with square jawed authoritarian zeal and there is riddick diesel a menacing convicted murderer who's being brought back to justice by johns the group quickly sizes up the situation and each other confident in their assessment of matters a plan is set in motion to escape their hellish environment those plans are shredded by the appearance of one of the planet's wildlife a predatory sometimes winged species that enjoys the taste of blood and flesh fortunately the creatures are light sensitive and are forced to live in networks of catacombs under the planet's surface unfortunately the group has managed to land on the planet moments before an eclipse is about to occur taking away their one protection from the monsters the group's savior comes in the form of johns whose decisive leadership looks to deliver them from purgatory or does it pitch black deviates from the standard fare by avoiding some of the stock escape the boogieman conflicts the genre typically serves up just as the planet gave a false facade of lifelessness first appearances given by the survivors proves to be just as false the excitement of the film comes not from the danger posed by the creatures but rather from watching the shifting allegiances and emotional growth of the characters as the planet serves as a deus ex machina of sorts to catalyze emotional growth a recurrent theme runs throughout the movie of faith whether it be religious or in a person and how that powers their motivations i found it telling that an accidental death occurs early on due to the misperception of a self professed atheist conversely imam constantly contributes any good fortune to allah one by one his perceived heaven sent blessings are taken away and crushed imam is forced to reassess his faith another character expresses belief in god along with a life long hate yet another character makes a decision that echoes the sentiments of christ about selflessness and has lasting repercussions for several of group it is a fascinating character study hiding under the guise of a scare flick special mention should be made of vin diesel who intriguingly conveys feral menace combined with a truly mesmerizing presence his character could have easily slipped into a parody of the baddass killing machine but twohy and diesel add surprising depth to riddick they can be excused for the two or three catch phrases that growl their way out of diesel's mouth the movie has its flaws that can be nitpicked the creatures do look derivative of the ones in alien the dialogue isn't the freshest at times reminiscent of a bad comic book yes the appearance of riddick's vision skills are more than a little timely considering the situation these trappings are on the periphery of the story twohy is really trying to tell twohy may have lured you in under the pretense of scaring you with film fabricated boogieman but he shows the real boogieman to be the prejudices and beliefs we use to direct decisions in our lives
positive	seen february on home video borrowed from chris wessell when it comes to modern gangster movies it's really difficult to describe and review them without making comparisons to other films of the genre just using the word routine i've always subscribed to the philosophy that any idea no matter how many times it's been used before can provide for a good story and donnie brasco clinches this idea it's not unlike most of the great films of the genre yet it never apes another's style as it has a good layer of authenticity even if its core is a tad stale the film starts off in typical fashion by defining its atmosphere of new york city in the late and the mobsters who inhibit it we meet lefty pacino an aging wiseguy who can still walk the walk and talk the talk he and his associates go through the generic motions you expect to see in crime films like this somehow he comes across donnie brasco depp a younger guy with a lot of spunk who isn't afraid of lefty and his rep and even manages to befriend him after lefty was ready to kill him it's clear donnie is new to the life and lefty recognizes this immediately telling him all the tricks of the trade i have never seen this technique of actually revealing the mafioso idiosyncrasies done before and for this the film deserves credit however we soon realize donnie is actually joe pistone an fbi agent working undercover a character who symbolizes the viewer as he will soon be purged into the lifestyle and treated as a newcomer the first act works as a guided to ot of rhetoric about wiseguy honor a brief history of the mob definitions of their slang and where their money comes from and who it goes to the screenplay is rather sketchy on the details surrounding these elements however the fact they are mentioned at all is quite original most gangster movies seem to be made with the notion the viewer already knows how the mob works probably from watching other gangster movies and although this attitude comes across the film tries to fill in all the holes where and when it can and the effort is appreciable thankfully the film doesn't become too caught up in the tedious details of organized crime and instead opts for character development much of the story is told simply through the interaction between lefty and donnie pacino is outstanding here as the pathetic hood who speaks of his job in the same manner any blue collar worker would he's old and exhausted but seems to enjoy what he does just as anyone loyal to the same employer for over years might be we learn of his accomplishments which are quite impressive within their context and when he complains about not being made top boss it's easy to sympathize with him newell constantly plays up this aspect making it a major theme which works well in the long run as donnie is constantly impressing and even lefty it's hard to tell which emotion is more powerful the fact donnie is getting closer to nailing the mob or the fact lefty has once again been over shadowed most of the film tells the story of donnie's life in mafia which creates for many and individual conflicts but doesn't always seem to come together as a whole the storytelling is genuinely interesting throughout even when the motions the characters go through seem familiar the resonance to donnie's actual assignment varies he often reports back to the feds with detail of his progress but it doesn't always seem to have much meaning back home his wife maggie heche is ready to divorce him because he's never a and the family is suffering since this is based on a true story i wouldn't doubt this would happen although the way it is handled often borders on the melodramatic my only major complaint is the film seems to have no final act or at least any real sense of closure a climax of sorts does occur but there's little feeling of a payoff we get a happy ending which is good but perhaps a sad ending would have been more powerful aside from a few minor general flaws donnie brasco manages to be a solid piece of storytelling and character development it may be routine but it's good and that's respectful
positive	sometimes the mile' seems sooooo long indeed and any filmmaker with a three hour movie who ends it with that gem of dialogue should expect to see it quoted in a review on a more positive note let me add that sometimes the green mile is almost good enough to make us forget its length the mile in question green due to its faded linoleum leads from the prison cell to old sparky the electric chair where executions were carried out at louisiana's cold mountain penitentiary in paul edgecomb tom hanks you've got mail is the head guard of otherwise known as death row keeping his prisoners calm as they await the carrying out of their sentence is his primary responsibility it is a responsibility which he capably delegates to the other guards on his watch by insisting they talk to the convicts instead of yelling at them this practice leads to an unusual camaraderie between the guards and the men behind their bars into his charge comes one john coffey michael clarke duncan armageddon a seven foot tall gentle giant who has been convicted of the rape and murder of two young girls immediately paul senses something different about this prisoner perhaps its the way he asked for a night light because he is frightened of the dark or perhaps it is the mystical healing powers he demonstrates as he takes back paul's bladder infection thereby restoring him to health based on steven king's serialized novel the green mile does offer other characters who have stories to be told eduard delacroix michael jeter patch adams is a frail cajun convict who befriends and trains a mouse to do circus tricks percy wetmore doug hutchison a time to kill is a young and sadistic guard sitting on a transfer to a more lucrative position because he has yet to see a prisoner fry up close and hal moores james cromwell babe pig in the city is the compassionate warden for whom despite all the executions he's witnessed death never loomed as large as when his own wife was diagnosed with a tumor while it is mr hanks everyman performance at the center of the film which gives it the anchor to hold our interest for minutes it is the performances of his supporting cast that are most worth noting all involved do credible work in their respective roles most especially mr duncan who turns in an impressive fully realized characterization if only the story were more credible frank darabont the shawshank redemption has crafted a flawed of sorts one which is more spiritualistic than spiritual relying on a preternatural mysticism rather than a genuine and godly spiritual power mr darabont also overplays his hand considerably in the manipulation of our affection towards and association with his characters was it an accidental omission that the first two inmates who walked the green mile were being punished for crimes never disclosed by not knowing the reason for the condemned convicts' presence on the audience never gets the sense of the justice which is being carried out making the death penalty appear cruel and unwarranted this is especially true during the gruesome depiction of the second execution which was horribly botched much has also been made of coffey's ability to heal but unlike the numerous healings which are recorded in the scriptures coffey's powers are shrouded in mystery taking on the feel of a circus trick coupled with a i feel your pain transference in contrast there is no mystery associated with the healing that is from god the genuine gifts of healing listed in corinthians is just one of the nine manifestations of holy spirit and can be operated by any spiritually instructed man or woman in accordance with the knowledge and wisdom of god true spiritual healing with few exceptions requires the committed believing of both the healer as well as the one being healed such believing comes not from the shrouded secrets of mysticism but from the revealed word of god
positive	i guess there are those who have never been kissed before a rare and dying breed except if you're child in which case it would be called experimenting rarer still are those who have never been kissed before they reach the twenties hardest to believe still is that drew barrymore has never been kissed despite all these hard to believe tit bits there are people out there who have never truly been kissed and who are still waiting for that right person to give them the wet sloppy warm feeling of tongues intermingling reassuring them that their search for true love is over well this movie is about a girl waiting for the right boy to give her the kiss of her life and it's sweet drew barrymore who shone in ever after' is wonderful as josie grossy' the high school dweeb who becase a professional editor before being assigned by her paper to return to school as an undercover reporter it addresses the issues of how a dweeb becomes a prom queen and finds the man of her life all in one sitting hard to believe but possible there may also be those who have been kissed before but in fact never truly been given the kiss so this movie can be watched by those who are waiting for true love or those who are still searching for it either way it is one enjoyable sit with a fairytale ending
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players they have their exits and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts excerpt from as you like it act ii scene when william shakespeare penned this passage he could not have possibly envisioned a world in which the domestic activites in an abode would be broadcast across the continent or where women would install webcams in their apartments in order to convert voyeurism into cash this is the world of today and it is the perfect climate to unveil a prototypical project like the truman show truman burbank jim carrey seems to have the perfect life he has a pretty doting wife meryl laura linney a comfortable insurance sales position an immaculate suburban home in the idyllic island community of seahaven a reliable childhood buddy marlon noah emmerich except for the dog that paws a greeting to him every morning and his hydrophobia this is paradise or so it would seem bizarre inexplicable incidents begin to crop up in truman's life a lighting fixture unexpectedly plummets from the sky a rainstorm which gives new meaning to the term follows him around a radio broadcast appears to be describing his every move for the first time in his life it is beginning to dawn on truman that things are not what they appear to be the truman show directed by peter weir and written by andrew niccol is a remarkably film paced perfectly with every scene fluidly leading into the next balancing drama with humour thoughtfulness with abandon this is a film which addresses an intriguing and intricate concept with just the right mixture of sermonizing and whimsical fancy in many ways mr niccol's screenplay mirrors the spirit of his previous gattaca both films focus on the theme of triumph of the human spirit over oppressive adversity with pivotal moments occurring at sea although the film's rather conventional climax doesn't sustain the inspired dynamic achieved in the first and ultimately just falls short on delivering the intended emotional punch there are moments through the truman show which are genuinely stirring and moving as truman attempts to make sense of his unraveling world and grasp the implications behind his discoveries of deception despite the multitude of pertinent issues being broached by the film it remains foremost a piece of entertainment constantly light and accessible the tone achieved is far too sunny for any sense of fearful paranoia to legitimately intrude and as the seahaven house of cards tumbles down the film eschews any psychological ramifications for a man discovering that the fundamentals of his entire existence have been false the end act of the truman show essentially boils down to a rehash of the reliable crowdpleasing underdog vs the system formula while the film is an impressive realisation of an inspired concept some elements are lacking the device of mysterious natascha mcelhone as a contributing impetus to truman's growing awareness isn't exactly convincing there's not much of a discernable spark between either the two characters or the actors themselves and the scenes in which she indignantly confronts the megalomaniac christoff ed harris with regards to the moral ambiguity of his actions unnecessarily spells things out for the audience thankfully avoided elsewhere in the film in fact although the film smartly restricts the number of scenes depicting the real world outside truman's artificial utopia to a mere handful of select reaction shots from enraptured gazers it might have perhaps been even more indicting and damning to immerse itself even more deeply in the insulatory seahaven world with the resultant effect that the repercussions felt as the film finally shifts outside the imposed bubble are all the more startling still the scathing commentary issued by this film is on target and its insidiously oblique manner of delivery is far more effective in conveying the message than the more forthright tirades such as that of the recent costa gavras film mad city i've always believed that the versatile ms linney possesses a tremendous comic gift she has always seems to have a impish gleam in her eyes and in the truman show she runs rampant with her duplicitous character mischievously flashing a glazed insanely jovial grin as she perkily recites impromptu product placement slogans cheerfully going over the top it's hilarious to watch her who would have ever guessed that she'd have the opportunity to outshine the reigning king of comedy in the laughs department of a film ms linney is a delight in the film but it is mr carrey who rules the show here he may not have been intuitively the most obvious choice to portray underdog hero truman burbank the role is seriously lacking in any of the frenetic comic interludes which typify his traditional parts but he brings to the character tremendous energy and eminent appeal it's difficult not to root for truman in a commanding performance mr carrey lends our protagonist an inherent sense of decency and integrity which makes him a genuinely engaging presence and acquits himself impressively in this dramatic turn demonstrating admirable restraint there's an early scene where he's down on his knees gardening and given his past track record one almost instinctively anticipates mr carrey to pull one of more infamous and in this case wholly inappropriate sight gags it's almost poetic how this notorious actor successfully tones it down to play a character who's constantly the centre of attention in addition to the fine performances by the bulk of the cast mr emmerich is particularly noteworthy for issuing his character a sense of sturdy trustworthiness the film is immeasurably aided by wonderful production design by dennis gassner in creating truman's antiseptic white smalltown utopia and by burkhard dallwitz's original score technical credits are all around while the truman show is clearly a definitive film it's not exactly a dazzlingly innovative one obvious predecessors utilising common elements abound ranging from secret agent through to the groundbreaking british tv series the prisoner all the same this is a visionary film entertaining provocative and intelligent the curious and possibly disturbing thing may be that although upon first glance the plausibility of the film's concept seems unfathomably outrageous it's abundantly clear that our society is rapidly approaching if not actualisation at least permissiveness of such a scenario perhaps the highest compliment which can be paid to mr weir is that his depiction of this bizarro state is so convincing that we accept it without question perhaps we recognize a bit of ourselves in this world
positive	in chocolat a chocolate shop owner tells her customers to look into a spinning object of obscure textures patterns and lines hoping she'll be able to foresee the kind of chocolate they'll most enjoy some scoff the idea but everyone who gazes into the complexity of the spinning object winds up seeing something different than the next revealing personality traits which the person may not have known they had before this can easily stand as a model for chocolat as a whole on the surface it appears to be a light fluffy fable with no depth or true worth but when one takes a second deeper look chocolat's true colors begin to shine through making a bold statement about organized religion and those who practice it lasse hallstrom's chocolat is flawlessly acted and meticulously to mention one of the best films of the year what gives chocolat its magic much like hallstrom's winner of two academy awards the cider house rules is its willingness to say what's on its mind without holding back to prevent offending audiences the bold and honest message hallstrom conveys with chocolat will no doubt outrage a select group of viewers but those who are willing to suspend their bitterness because they feel they are being intimidated or attacked should find themselves to be in agreement with what the film says about chocolat centers its story around the small french village of lansquenet where majority rules and the majority lives by only one law religion the bulk of the townspeople with few exceptions are preparing for the sacred time of abstinence lent but when the independent thinking seemingly vianne rocher juliette binoche and her daughter anouk victoire thivisol make the village their home the people will be tempted beyond belief by the confections in the chocolate shop vianne opens many are predictably opposed and deeply offended by vianne's opening of the chocolate shop just in time for lent especially the mayor comte de reynaud a alfred molina who will stop at nothing to put her out of business on the other hand the shop is a delight to others including the cranky armande voizin judi dench who sits day by day in vianne's shop telling the single mother about her unfortunate detached relationship with her grandson aurelien which comes as a result of his mother moss believing armande is a bad influence as she does not hold the same strict religious beliefs that she does also a fan of the chocolate is the nervous wreck josephine muscat whose husband is constantly beating her to whom vianne offers a home and befriends juliette binoche is charming and honest as vianne genuinely capturing her character's determination to turn the townspeople into more happy independent human beings but most of chocolat's success is unquestionably a result of the remarkable performances of the supporting actresses lena olin previously nominated for an oscar in deserves her second nomination for her earnest moving portrayal of a lost scared woman torn between staying true to her battering manipulative husband or leaving him to live the life which for which she longs judi dench is sharp incisive and occasionally greatly touching as armande voizin carrie in what is likely to be her first largely noticed and acclaimed role since the matrix shows a more solid side of her acting skills not previously seen crafting a character that the viewer both sympathizes with and despises simultaneously victoire thivisol shows much promise as anouk a young girl hoping her mother will eventually settle down a trade ad for chocolat sums up best the power the actresses have on screen with the tagline five extraordinary women one extraordinary movie that's not to say the men don't do their share though alfred molina makes for a sly and utterly repugnant antagonist hugh o'conor adds quite a bit of comic relief as the priest who seems to not even know why he is who he is and johnny depp gives a strong performance as the pirate roux who enters the film late in the game and sparks the romantic interest of vianne the technical aspects of chocolat are strong across the board lasse hallstrom directs his enchanting fable with great care perfectly balancing the elements of each genre to be found within the film cinematographer roger pratt brings an atmospheric fairy tale look to the film and rachel portman's masterful score is her best and most memorable since the cider house rules chocolat adapted by robert nelson jacobs from the joanne harris novel is a wonderful little treat of a film one that will most likely win over the hearts of audiences and the votes of academy members this winter and the aggressive backing of miramax films assures the latter while not as powerful as the cider house rules lasse hallstrom's chocolat is a film which works on all a drama a comedy a fable a romance and a fairy tale and it even lives up to its name it is delicious to savor the taste of easy to digest and like all excellent chocolate it is memorable for days afterward the bottom line chocolat is pure pleasure
positive	while alex browning devon sawa waits at jfk to leave for a school trip to paris bad omens seem to surround him as soon as he buckles into the plane he has a vision of the plane exploding seconds after when the vision begins to come true alex bolts for the door dragging several students and a teacher in his wake the plane takes off without them and explodes just as alex predicted he becomes an object of fear and suspicion among the community and the tension only increases as the survivors begin to die alex and another survivor clear rivers ali larter investigate the suspicious suicide of a friend and a mortician tony candyman todd clues them in to the truth alex interrupted death's design by saving people who should have died in the explosion and death will want to claim its rightful victims in order to save himself and the others alex will have to figure out death's new plan and thwart it of the countless horror films that have competed for a piece of the scream audience final destination is the best so far talented young screenwriter jeffrey reddick offers a fresh variation on a familiar formula we've seen hundreds of movies where a group of teenagers are murdered by a faceless slasher but reddick cuts out the and makes the villain death itself feature director james wong made the most of that premise every scene is permeated with creepiness and foreboding reminding us that death is everywhere can come at anytime everyday objects and events vibrate with menace the most amusing harbinger of doom john denver's rocky mountain high which is played several times in the movie before someone dies the link is that denver died in a plane crash and the song includes a line about fire in the sky the performances are stronger than those usually elicited by teen horror devon sawa who previously starred in another horror flick idle hands gives a frantic and convincing lead performance kerr smith is carter hogan an antagonist of alex's whose quick temper causes him to pulled off the fatal plane smith plays carter as filled with anger and confusion that constantly threatens to bubble over into violence seann william scott who's also in theaters right now in road trip plays the somewhat dim billy hitchcock and provides a needed counterpoint to the intensity of alex and carter tony todd's cameo is delicious but all too brief bottom line watchable teen fright flicks are few and far between but this destination is worth visiting
positive	assume nothing the phrase is perhaps one of the most used of the as first impressions and rumors are hardly ever what they seem to be the phrase especially goes for oscar novak an architect who is the main focus of three to tango a delightful funny romantic comedy about assumptions and being yourself novak matthew perry a shy clumsy chicago based architect along with openly gay partner peter steinberg oliver platt fights for projects day in and day out one of these is the job of restoring a popular building for charles newman dylan mcdermott a rich businessman charles immediately takes a liking to oscar as he enjoys his personality and sense of humor seeing oscar as someone he could trust charles asks him to watch his girlfriend an unpredictable adventurous girl named amy post neve campbell who makes a living by blowing glass charles wants to know who she talks to what she does and where she goes the point to make sure she's not seeing someone else of course oscar gladly takes the job and meets amy at an art show of hers and sparks fly between the two from the get go oscar feels he has found the one meant for him and he is content with the idea of being with amy well another popular phrase of the is all good things must come to an end and this stays true for oscar as well charles walks in on amy and oscar having a drink one night as oscar and amy have become great friends but he doesn't seem to mind why is this he thinks oscar is gay he's not afraid to share this with him either oscar stands in shock after the words i swear if you weren't gay oscar i'd have to kill you are muttered flamboyantly from charles' mouth the word spreads instantly through town will oscar come out of his supposed gayness or will he tell everyone that he isn't one would immediately think he would deny the fact but numerous occurrences come to oscar which result in the fact that if he denies the fact he could lose his job with charles matthew perry doesn't escape his character as chandler on the already classic t v comedy friends as both oscar novak and chandler are clueless shy and sensitive nonetheless perry is hilarious here and shows that he can handle drama as obviously his character suffers quite a bit here it's wonderful to see neve campbell outside of a horror movie she was the star of scream and and the upcoming scream as she handles comedy superbly here her voice smile and personality are more than perfect for romantic stay with this genre neve neve is delightful as her conflicted character who feels love for oscar but knows based on rumors that he is gay as usual campbell is likable as her likable character unlike the other two leads here dylan mcdermott is flat in his dialogue and is never convincing when his character his present mcdermott sets a dull tone to the scene with his horrible acting stick to the t v drama the practice dylan the major weak spot in three to tango is the direction of damon santostefano no originality or technique is used whatsoever three to tango is lucky that the script is so edgy and that perry and campbell are wonderful in comedy or else the film would have been a disaster as it is just plain boring to look at three to tango is a film done many times before as the plot is suspiciously close to the object of my affection but the plot has never been completed so well three to tango's script written by rodney patrick vaccaro and aline brosh mckenna is fun fast and funny delivering not only original hilarious gay jokes not your run of the mill material but a certain snappiness in the dialogue between characters that always keeps you smiling unlike last summer's south park bigger longer and uncut and in out three to tango is a comedy in which the gay element is not crude or vulgar the script is wise to take this route as gays can't i don't think so anyway be offended by this light playful comedy to prove this a gay couple was in the audience who were laughing constantly three to tango's climax is a hilarious clever scene that is pure irony based on the outcome of most identity comedies three to tango is a gem the bottom line three to tango is a light sharp snappy romantic comedy with a superb ending and great stars one of the better romantic comedies of
positive	the question isn't why has grease been reissued the answer to that one is easy to celebrate the movie's anniversary and to make more bucks for paramount's coffers because john travolta is once again a hot commodity no the question that ought to be asked is should grease be reissued the answer is not an easy one grease is a fun movie an entertaining fantasy of the embodying all the cliches of that era the music is lively and the dance numbers choreographed by patricia birch are energetic and travolta was at his pinnacle as a sexual icon cool but but grease didn't break any new cinematic ground it was not a milestone in movie history such as citizen kane or easy rider what grease is or has become is the musical in film history ok let's not be a spoilsport grease is a fun and entertaining movie even though it stretches credulity to see such performers as travolta olivia taxi's jeff conaway and the stockard channing try to act like high schoolers it's nostalgic to recall how good a dancer travolta was and it's sad to think of what could have been had not a few missteps sidetracked his career he could have become a musical comedy star in the tradition of gene kelly cinematically the musical comedy has basically gone the way of the dinosaur between grease and evita you can probably count the number of movie musicals on one hand two reasons have contributed to the demise of the genre the first is that movie audiences have become more sophisticated no make that cynical and jaded today if a character began to dance and sing with no orchestra in sight he or she would probably be hooted off the screen today's audiences lack the innocence that belief in movie magic that is required for a musical to succeed secondly a lack of talent performers with the charisma the style the panache of fred astaire gene kelly ginger rogers and judy garland are gone most singers and dancers remain on the stage and those who do succeed in movies usually wind up in serious dramatic parts a good example is gregory hines one of the greatest dancers in the world he danced a bit in the cotton club tap and white nights but those were essentially dramatic vehicles so perhaps the reissue of grease can serve a purpose if audiences show enough interest meaning if the earns the studio enough revenue it may spark a revival in movie musicals perhaps not original musicals such as singin' in the rain an american in paris or seven brides for seven brothers but for broadway properties that have been in the planning stages for film adaptations for several years at one time or another according to the industry rumor mill hollywood has been set to create an animated version of andrew lloyd webber's cats a filming of the popular phantom of the opera as well as les miserables and chicago the latter reportedly to star madonna so let this grease be the forerunner of an armada of movie musicals let grease be the word that sparks this revival
positive	let's face it since waterworld floated by the summer movie season has grown very stale with no new for four weeks straight we've had to sustain ourselves on the value of cheatin' husbands traveling chocolate salesmen and generated serial killers sigh thank god for desperado the freewheeling sequel to el robert rodriguez's notorious a cool antonio banderas as the returning guitarist with no name he's a man in black with revenge on his mind and an arsenal in his case the woman he loved was killed in the first film so he spends the entire story shooting drug dealers sort of a version of the punisher if you will there isn't much of an emotional core to desperado rodriguez is having too much fun finding new and innovative ways to pay homage to john woo and sergio leone and sam peckinpah some may wince at the body least graphic killings is a fair it's all played for laughs big broad hispanic laughs that for me recall the physical comedy of blake edwards and his pink panther films sick slick fun
positive	if beavis and butthead had a favorite movie from dusk till dawn would probably be it scripted by quentin tarantino and directed by robert rodriguez desperado the movie panders to the very worst in sex and violence and is incredibly fun to watch it starts off as a pulp crime story with criminal brothers george clooney and tarantino robbing a convenience store because this is a tarantino movie however it's not just a case of pull the gun and take the loot it's a case of a hole being shot through someone's hand a man on fire jumping out behind the counter and the entire store blowing up as they drive away the opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the movie everything overdone and nothing as it seems clooney and tarantino bring a hostage to the motel and then hijack an rv with a family in it harvey keitel plays the backslidden and juliette lewis his daughter whom registered tarantino eyes endlessly you know you're mentally unbalanced when you find lewis the least bit attractive although she's not nearly as obnoxious as usual in from dusk till dawn the first half of the movie has the criminals and hostages trying to get to and through the mexico border clooney's strategy involving hiding in the rv shower while lewis is on the toilet it does its trick the border guard takes one look at lewis relieving herself and immediately goes blind never noticing clooney or tarantino once they get to mexico it's time to wait at the rendezvous point a topless bar called titty twister where we're once again reminded tarantino wrote the movie as he drinks champagne off the foot of a stripper finally after about ten minutes of intercut boob shots and clooney forcing keitel and lewis to drink with him the stripper turns into a vampire soon half the people in the bar are vampires and the other half fall or fight back that's right we've come all this way to see a vampire movie but like everything else tarantino takes this genre and twists it to his own ends to produce entertainment so we get holy water condom balloons heads rolling quadruple impalement on an overturned table and keitel getting bitten by a vampire and announcing he only has a few minutes left before he becomes a lap dog of satan the from dusk till dawn dialogue is tarantino hovering between absurd and disgusting as when they're entering the nightclub and cheech marin announces the main attractions of the titty twister but always entertaining and is a huge reason the movie is so much fun to watch instead of being one more gorefest clooney keitel and especially tarantino are so with their delivery that the dialogue is that much more hilarious ensuring not one second of from dusk till dawn is taken the least bit seriously stuff like this would be terrible in any other movie but tarantino and rodriguez know exactly what to do to entertain people even if there's absolutely no message or meaning to from dusk till dawn pulp fiction had the vulgarity and violence for a reason but this movie just throws it out for cheap entertainment from dusk till dawn isn't the classic of modern cinema that pf is but is does prove you can do a good job making a really bad movie
positive	the film in limited release waking ned devine is a pleasant excursion to a time and place which allows the audience to absorb the full texture of a small town filled with breathtaking scenery and delightful music the movie would be interesting even without a plot the story contains several surprises which are best left unmentioned in a review the film starts out with a sharp opening which gives us a taste of what is to follow country folk with an inclination for a bit of larceny what gets things going is the fact that a winner of the lottery is apparently one of the residents in the small town pop of tullymore who that person is and how to share in the good fortune is the mission of two longtime friends jackie ian bannen and michael david kelly part detectives part scalawags they have to stay alert to the changing circumstances they face as the story unfolds the village consists of several amusing characters a clueless pig farmer temporary priest and a witch there's also the lotto man who must be satisfied that everything is on the there are no hollywood touches to this film except for the outer space introduction pacing is right towards the end it runs a bit out of steam but that's okay because for most of the minutes we've been interested in the goings on a mixture of laughs and occasional sentiment all the right emotions are engaged in one brief dream sequence you'll know it when you see it a fantastic combination of color and music transports the characters to a place you really hope exists one of the key moments in the film the music available on cd london follows the same arc as the movie and is well worth considering a fine film that's for everybody except action fans somewhat like englishman who went up a hill and came down a mountain but livelier
positive	warren beatty's bulworth is a caustic political comedy that doesn't attack any particular political group but rather the ingrained insincerity that has infected the american political system some might think this film is vulgar and in many ways it is however as loud and raucous as it is bulworth speaks the truth which is almost always ugly to hear beatty who directed the film and the script with jeremy pikser the lemon sisters stars as incumbent u s senator jay billington bulworth who has one of the best politician names in cinema history bulworth is a democrat and in beatty's view he is symbolic of everything that has gone wrong with the current democratic party once an ideological liberal like beatty still is bulworth has long since succumbed to the materialistic pressures of washington instead of waging the battles for the impoverished and the downtrodden which was once the calling card of democrats bulworth has become another money hound if he's not accepting illegal bribes from the insurance lobby or taking campaign contributions from the chinese he's making speeches that start with the amusingly clintonesqe statement america is standing on the doorstep of a new millennium blah blah blah when the film opens it is a few days before the primary elections and bulworth is sitting at his desk weeping because he realizes how corrupt he has become in a fit of desperation he takes out a million life insurance policy from a dirty insurance rep played by paul sorvino part of a shady lobby deal to kill a threatening bill in committee and then hires a hit man to kill him although he doesn't know who the assassin will be or when the hit will take place knowing that he will soon be dead bulworth unleashes his own brand of political rhetoric on the world which is made up of politically incorrect truths about the state of american politics and the society in general at a compton church he tells the group of that they will have no power in the u s unless they put down that malt liquor and chicken wings and get behind somebody other than a running back who stabs his wife later in a particularly hilarious sequence bulworth mixes with the hollywood elite then insults the quality of their movies and informs them that the only reason he's there is because my guys always put the big jews on my schedule all throughout this physically and politically suicidal escapade bulworth's chief of staff dennis murphy oliver platt follows behind in a state of constant shock and bewilderment platt has some of the movie's funniest scenes as he makes murphy into a politically savvy but nonetheless clueless assistant who is forced to watch his own career teeter at the brink of being flushed down the toilet his constant and to cover bulworth's stampede is equaled in its perversion only by a reporter nora dunn who acts like murphy's refusal to explain bulworth's actions something he really cannot do is somehow an act of treason when bulworth decides he wants to live after all and therefore must constantly evade a assassin to be who's trailing him at every turn he hides out in the ghetto complete with a stereotypical gangsta wardrobe which he wears to one of his television interviews at this point beatty abandons much of the political aspect and dives into a cartoonish exploration of the black experience bulworth becomes friendly with a young black woman named nina halle berry who he meets at the harlem church rally she has a brother who is deep in debt to a local gangster named l d don cheadle of boogie nights who also becomes involved in bulworth's campaign some of the scenes in the ghetto ring true but much of it feels like a lighter version of scenes depicted in more intense films like boyz'n'hood and menace ii society bulworth's chief liability is beatty's insistence on having his character adopt a clumsy style of rap as his new communication device instead of speaking at political rallies he breaks into a kind of rhythmless rap style that is a reminder of why almost all stars are black it's hard to tell whether beatty is being humorous by being so bad or whether he's actually that incompetent at any rate the rap sounds more run d m c than snoop doggy dogg which makes the film seem dated instead of contemporary beatty would have been better off simply adopting some of the lingo and working that into his speeches instead of trying to sound like l l cool j other than that bulworth hits all its targets with wry hilarious accuracy the film is like a letter bomb to the democratic party and even if you don't agree with beatty's liberal message about the unrequited duties of the federal government it is hard to deny the impact the film has in exploring the monetary and moral debauchery that infests modern politics unlike primary colors which opened earlier this year bulworth doesn't try to around the truly painful issues that hit close to home instead it takes them
positive	when i saw the trailer for this film i laughed harder than i had in quite some time while i was therefore pretty well psyched to see it i was ever mindful that a trailer can make even the most mediocre film look good i'm happy to say that there's something about mary is not one of those trailer in fact watching this film was quite a fine way to spend two hours the film opens up in flashback to at a high school in cumberland rhode island ted stroehmann ben stiller is a social reject who can't seem to get a date to the upcoming prom until he comes to the defense of the mentally retarded warren w earl brown who's being harassed by one of the school jocks it seems warren's sister is the campus queen mary jensen cameron diaz who is impressed with ted's willingness to stand up for her defenseless brother despite a very real chance of getting beaten up mary takes an immediate liking to ted and asks him to the prom ted was just flattered that she even knew his name unfortunately prom night is ruined when ted has an accident with his zipper at which every man in the theater will wince and is sent to the hospital fast forward to the present where ted has cleaned himself up now writes for a magazine but has weekly therapy sessions in order to deal with his obsession of the past years mary whom he hasn't seen since that fateful day with the help of his friend dom chris elliott ted hires slimy private investigator pat healy matt dillon to track down his only love however when pat finds mary he falls for her too and soon the both of them are competing for her affections there's something about mary is directed by bobby and peter farrelly who brought us dumb and dumber and kingpin not exactly intelligent comedies they are of the guilty pleasure variety where you might not want your friends or to think you had such a great time watching them with their current film the farrelly brothers have come up with something you'll not only enjoy but also won't mind talking about the next day at the water cooler the film succeeds in employing a pretty wide range of comedic styles from the subtle to the ridiculous and while a few of the gags might be offensive to some seeming like residuals from the farrelly brothers' last two films they almost all work i have not seen many movies in the recent past that shoot for the mark and so often hit it dead on one minute you'll be laughing at something ted says and the next you'll be howling at the sight of a dog dragging him across the floor of mary's apartment one of the great things this film has going for it is ben stiller he is perfectly cast in the role of ted because he's a guy who just looks awkward in almost every situation ted's a nice fellow and tries to do his best but for some reason or another things just don't always work out it's comical but also has that kind of appeal where you really feel for the him and want him to come out on top actually i've liked stiller since he did a short which aired on saturday night live back in the the film was like a theatrical trailer for a spoof on the tom newman film the color of money entitled the hustler of money in it stiller played wince not vince who is taken under the wing of an older man played by john mahoney to become a bowling hustler it was parody at its finest more of which showed up in the the ben stiller show on the fox network in late like the critic which aired on abc then fox i still mourn that show's cancellation cameron diaz is absolutely enchanting for most of the film although her character seems obsessed with perfection in the men she dates and some of the qualities she looks for make mary look at times however diaz pulls the role off with such panache and charm that you can still see why she's got guys just falling over each other to be with her heck i even found her laugh to be cute even though i thought it was annoying during an appearance she made on the tonight show last week my girlfriend remarked that matt dillon doesn't change and you know it's really true he and ralph macchio must hang out or something maybe they live in dick clark's pool house anyway here's another good piece of casting as dillon slips beautifully into the role of the guy who tries to worm his way into mary's heart the supporting performances are also good chris elliott has a bigger part than in the abyss yes check it out next time and less annoying than in cabin boy lin shae who plays mary's neighbor magda and also appeared as the landlady in kingpin provides some good laughs especially in scenes with her dog which acts as the focal point for a few of the funniest moments of the film lee evans as mary's friend tucker displays a flexibility in acting and accents which surprises and contributes to an interesting plot twist the farrelly brothers and scriptwriters ed decter and john j strauss keep the comedic pacing going so that there aren't any noticeable times where the film drags the only problem i saw was their use of a couple of musicians who provide segues between several key scenes they appear out of nowhere and actually sing information right toward the camera it's a device which was amusing for about three seconds when they opened the film after that it got a little annoying and it's unfortunate that those spots interrupt what would otherwise be a smooth flow fortunately filled with sight gags humorous lines and solid comedic acting there's something about mary will still have you laughing after you leave the theater
positive	plot a young recruit gets plucked out of nowhere by the number one gangster in london and quickly becomes a staple by his side but this new guy is not like all the others he's got ambition he's got goals and he loves everything he sees about being the number one gangster violence lots of swearing and betrayals ensue critique a very good unique british gangster flick which misses the great mark by way of an annoying popping up throughout the film and a ending here's yet another cool crime movie that actually manages to bring something new into the mix okay so it's not entirely new but it's definitely original when all put together as done here the thing i liked most about this movie was its authentic portrayal of the time period in which it was taking place it's and these dudes are looking good yes it's all about the suits fellas the italian shoes the cufflinks the ties and the birds that's ladies for those uninitiated hanging around you here are a bunch of horrible men gangsters if you will looking sharp talking shit and busting heads all over the place but that's not the basis of this movie the basis of this film comes in the relationship between the number one gangster in the group the excellent david thewlis and one of his cronies paul bettany also extremely good in this film and how the power sex appeal and coolness of one affects the other you know how there are always these gangster types who latch on to the godfathers the leaders the top dogs of every crime organization well most of the time these dudes are screened beforehand and are loyal to only one person that is their boss so all the gangster number one needs to worry about is his enemies on the other side of the fence but this film brings the betrayals the messed up loyalties the honor codes among bad guys into play within the same group and presents it in quite the stylistic package of course director paul mcguigan isn't trying to be guy ritchie here and doesn't his presentation jazz it all up with a hip soundtrack or add any humor to the mix nope he goes straight for the serious stuff and develops at least two particular scenes which are still embedded in my mind as i type this the first is a confrontation sequence between bettany and a man from which he's attempting to sway some information and it is downright nasty look into my eyes in fact the last time that i've seen a guy so scared in a movie was john turturro in that forest scene from the coen brothers' miller's crossing scary shite but there's an ever better scene than that in this film this one features bettany once again slowly torturing hacking and beating the living piss out of a rival gangster from that man's but not before turning on a quaint little tune in the background and removing all of his own expensive clothes one by one that's right he does the guy in his underwear that scene is also in tune with some of the obvious phallic and homoerotic undertones present throughout this film especially in the relationship between bettany and his boss why does he get so upset when he falls in love with that woman but the flick's not perfect in fact i didn't mind malcolm mcdowell's narration at first but as the film grew into a major flashback most of the film is presented as such he came in every now and then and rarely added anything of interest to the plot all he seemed to do was swear and call people the umpteen times and even described one scene as it was happening so i opened the door then went up the lift etc like yeah i know that already i could see it on the screen overdone i also didn't quite buy the ending of the movie which despite being original seemed a little unbelievable especially when you consider that it's supposed to be taking place years later and folks still seem to be holding grudges still in love still living in the same apartments i mean c'mon it's years man i don't know somehow it didn't work all that well for me but one of my favorite genres has always been the crime movies and this one is a decent addition to the lot forget the lame title and malcolm mcdowell's narration of the obvious plot points and concentrate on the film's stronger attributes such as its style the exquisite atmosphere of the time period its original look at the gangster dynamic within the same group its memorable sequences and the solid performances from its two main leads bettany and thewlis incidentally unlike a few of the gangster flicks that i mention below this one is in no way a parody or homage to this genre of films it's the real deal note this film is packed with strong accents all around which makes it hard to make out some of the words from time to time it's also quite violent and i don't remember any film that used the as much as this one so leave the kids at home for this one  where's joblo coming from american psycho a clockwork orange donnie brasco fight club get carter godfather godfather ii goodfellas lock stock two smoking barrels pulp fiction reservoir dogs
positive	bruce lee was a martial artist and actor bruce's unique character i e sound effects etc and seemingly perfected martial art and physique were all well portrayed by the actor james lee the story is told from his wife linda's point of view where she put a lot of family and practical side of bruce lee's life however you can't help but like whenever the fight scenes are on what he can does with his body and that familiar bruce attitude and character i also like the little bits of insight scenes about bruce lee's life before he became famous scenes like bruce practicing pronunciation of english it seemed as if he was no better than anybody else scenes like bruce delivering chinese food as a delivery boy ridding a bike through the american college looking at the students cheerleaders and athletes it seemed he too wished for the american dreams and hopes in conclusion the movie was well made it produced a realization of who bruce lee was and actor james lee was so much like bruce you have to remind yourself that he is just an actor and the fighting scenes were all excellent so go see it and enjoy the movie p s if you have seen the movie unforgiven by clint eastwood then the feeling left after dragon was very much like the feeling you got after the unforgiven
positive	clint eastwood in his ripe old age is cashing one talent in for another midnight in the garden of good and evil is an film clint isn't even in and it's damn good adapted from a john berendt novel based on true events this movie is set in the bizarre georgia town of savannah where people walk invisible dogs and attach horseflies to their head and that's just the mayor as director and producer eastwood contributes a indulgent but very competent minutes neatly balancing drama suspense and humor like all great movies midnight in the garden has a lot of funny moments that spring from the characters themselves and not from some contrived juvenile intrusion the acting from stars john cusack and kevin spacey is as good as you'd expect but it's the supporting stable that gives the movie its offbeat charm cusack plays a reporter sent to savannah to write a fluff story for town country magazine about one of eccentric millionaire spacey's parties lots of food beverages and gunplay yes an employee of spacey's has a huge argument in front of cusack and later turns up dead it seems like a simple matter of defense the guy threatened spacey shot at him missed then spacey took him out but being a movie there's much more to it than that and cusack decides to stay in town and write a book about the murder a book which will eventually become a movie he will star in the weird circle of entertainment this is where the stable of supporting characters comes in there's the requisite sexy woman alison nepotist's daughter eastwood the strange piano player the voodoo woman and the transvestite miss chablis deserves a paragraph of own as the stealer of every scene she appears in what would this movie be without the castilian scene and her testimony chablis playing herself is five times funnier than reigning drag queen rupaul but never seems exploited as the movie's comic relief or out of place in a basically serious movie there are also a fair share of courtroom scenes which these days almost never seem welcome in a movie but even here clint manages to keep the movie fascinating certainly the characterizations of the judge and spacey's lawyer both help immensely as does having the as the jury's foreman it's here we realize the case boils down to an indictment of spacey's homosexuality yes spacey had a sexual relationship with the dead man before he shot him of course midnight in the garden of good and evil isn't a classic but it is one of the better adaptations out there likewise no one from this movie will be getting any oscar nominations but the performances are all great in fact i'd almost recommend that the academy add a best supporting transvestite category serving america for more than of a century
positive	meet joe black is your classic story based on the film death takes a holiday meet joe black is a well acted romantic drama which explores the meanings of life and love william parrish anthony hopkins is a billionaire businessman on the brink of his birthday he has built a huge media empire and raised two beautiful daughters allison marcia gay harden and susan claire forlani william has been able to negotiate his way out of many tough spots but he has suddenly begun fearing his own mortality the one situation he won't be able to talk his way out of and he has good reason to fear for death himself is stalking him however death has a deal to make death has taken possession of a man who has recently died brad pitt and wants william to be his guide in a holiday among the living in return william gets to live a few extra days of course he agrees death under the human name of joe black gets to experience life as a complete innocent he never before has experienced the simple pleasures of a springy matters or peanut butter and he's not quite compared for the more complex pleasures when he and susan fall in love but is their affair doomed to an early demise at nearly three hours in length meet joe black is a little bit on the leisurely side though it never gets boringly lengthy instead the film gets a chance to develop some nicely textured characters and situations you get to soak in and enjoy the atmosphere rather than being hurriedly rushed through it the romantic angle works well though surprisingly the interactions between joe black and william parrish are more interesting than those with his daughter this is most likely due to anthony hopkins who once again displays his superb acting skills william is a desperate man who has had a seemingly ideal life and doesn't want to let it go by contrast claire forlani is merely the romantic interest she gets to show joe the ropes of love but is hardly as interesting a character as joe black brad pitt seems a bit stilted granted he's supposed to be but the overly formal technique used by pitt begins to distract from the role still he is able to hold his own and over the course of the three hours his character begins to grow on you the main character who seems out of place here is drew jake weber an ambitious executive in williams' company who is joe black's main rival for susan's affections weber plays the character with a hammy relish reminiscent of snidley whiplash this cartoonish foil an aberration in a film filled many more dimensional characters the supernatural elements of the film are handled murkily but never distractingly so we never learn what is the exact nature of death or why he's never done something like this before it actually gets a bit creepy when death talks to the dying in their own his initial conversations with hopkins sound shockingly like hannibal lecter and the ultimate resolution to one of the film's supernatural problems seems well somewhat superficial still even with the film's length it was a pleasant time at the movies something you wouldn't necessarily expect from a film about death but one which meet joe black delivers anyhow
positive	buffalo is a very rarely known movie that stars vincent gallo and christina ricci gallo plays a very troubled man who was sent to jail for gambling once out of jail he must visit his parents who he told he was married the truth is he isn't married to try to impress them he kidnaps a girl christina ricci from a tap dancing class to act as his wife the film is very cheaply made and it shows it throughout a lot of the movie but you don't need money to make a good film buffalo doesn't always stay with the realistic concept and sometimes goes through outrageous events gallo's parents played by angelica huston and ben gazarra are two very strange individuals the mother plays a football fanatic and the father plays a quiet man with odd habits gallo and ricci arrive at his parent's house and some extremely funny scenes take place within the house ricci's performance during the scene at gallo's parent's home are very well done there is constantly humor involved in the interesting dinner table scenes the way the movie was filmed in this particular part of the movie were interesting and creative they seemed very mediocre but they worked out just fine gallo's character is developed very well the impression that he is very depressed and confused is very clear gallo gives a performance that makes you believe what the character is going through his character goes through many many problems just like many people in real life this character seemed very realistic to me ricci's character is funny and different she doesn't care much that she has been kidnaped in fact she falls in love the man who kidnaped her ricci is a very wonderful actress and she is starting to get the recognition that she deserves buffalo isn't all laughs though many scenes are very dramatic and depressing gallo's character was so realistic he was extremely disturbing some scenes are supposed to come off as funny but they actually seemed sad and real to life the film sometimes drags along not giving much material i really would have liked to see gallo's parents a lot more and i would have liked to see the characters developed more overall buffalo isn't as good as some people put it up to be the bottom a few hysterical scenes save this film from sinking to the bottom
positive	after being hypnotized a man believes there is a ghost in his house the review two summer horror films have become surprise financial successes this year the blair witch project and the sixth sense each has made well over million in north america based on a combination of strong word of mouth and clever advertising if a film's box office take were based primarily on its quality stir of echoes would join blair and sense in grossing far more money than expected for it is as scary if not scarier than the other two david koepp has given artisan entertainment the folks who distributed blair witch a second creepy hit the story gets going after tom witzky bacon an average dad gets hypnotized by his wife maggie's erbe sister lisa douglas at a party while the hypnosis goes as expected to the it triggers something in tom's head things begin to change around him blinking red lights let off a strange hum for example and he fights to stay in control of his own senses where these experiences take tom maggie and their son jake cope who tom thinks might have some answers is down a dark path that will scare and disturb you david koepp keeps the action localized the majority of the action takes place at tom's house or just down the street by keeping things at home koepp is able to proceed without having to resort to any clumsy segues montages of driving down roads as we move from one city to another etc unfortunately the dread and spookiness of stir of echoes are frequently interrupted by moments of levity humour can take the tension away from a scene faster than any shoddy special effect or poor acting several tense moments become completely diffused by a few misplaced jokes also there are a couple of plot developments that are left unresolved though to mention them would be to give too much away kevin bacon handles the duel task of playing an everyman and a man losing his sanity admirably his total lack of understanding of what is happening to him is believable as are the reactions from his wife maggie kathryn erbe is given a role meatier and better written than that of most wife who can no longer handle her husband parts while it is still a supporting role her maggie is moving as she watches both her husband and her son enter what she calls a private club that i'm not invited to where they whisper about things all day long as jake zachary cope equals the performance of haley joel osment in the sixth sense but gets less screen time both children manage the same trick making the audience creeped out by their apparent acceptance of the way things are fans of blair and sixth sense will almost surely love stir of echoes it combines the dread of blair a creepy feel thanks to cinematographer fred murphy and great performances by the whole cast specifically bacon to give the fall its first genuine scary film if only they had let up on the unneeded funny bits and tweaked the plot a bit more this could have been one of the year's best
positive	being the professional film critic that i am i am somewhat embarrassed to admit that i had not seen lawrence of arabia coming soon to dvd until only recently after all it's considered by just about everyone to be the masterpiece epic of director david lean who also directed films such as bridge on the river kwai and doctor zhivago so one day a friend of mine loaned me a copy of the video and i sat down and watched it i was initially skeptical that something made almost years ago would be able to keep my attention for the hours of its duration but now i fully understand why this has become the film that other epic films are judged against the winner of seven academy awards in for best picture director editing cinematography art direction music and sound after watching the film again i am convinced that it is simply one of the finest works of cinematic genius to ever illuminate the big screen based on the autobiographical writing of british officer t e lawrence during world war i lawrence of arabia depicts lawrence played by actor peter o'toole as a lieutenant lacking any sort of military discipline whatsoever bored with his assignment of coloring maps for the british army in a dimly lit headquarters building lawrence jumps at the opportunity to be as an observer for an arabian prince fighting against the turkish army lawrence quickly sees just how caring and great these desert dwelling people can be and ends up rallying the various tribes together to fight the turks and help the british turn the tide of world war i shot in panavision's famed super format the film beautifully illustrates the definition of the word epic it is absolutely breathtaking using stunning cinematography costuming and direction shot in the most uninhabitable location on the face of the earth i can only imagine what it must have been like to sit in a theater in and watch this story unfold before my eyes every shot is choreographed as a portrait a living tribute to a great land david lean put his reputation on the line to get this film completed and the fact that it was even greenlit in the first place says something about the ideology of the motion picture industry at the time a far cry from its pathetic uncreative existence today after watching the film the first thing that came to my mind was i've got to do a remake of this film but then i thought about trying to pitch the idea to a movie executive okay it's going to be almost four hours long and shot over three months on location in the sahara desert we are going to need to blow up a train because effects probably wont do it justice and we are not going to use any big stars and won't have any female actors since there's no love story yes my friends the velvet curtain fell on the of hollywood a long time ago but at least we still have the proof to show all producers and directors out there just how good a film can be
positive	my summer was recently saved by two very different movies on opening night i saw american pie and laughed like a moron then a few nights later i watched and thoroughly enjoyed joel hershman's greenfingers even though it didn't feature a trip to band camp action or seann william scott however i felt just as good leaving american pie as i did after leaving greenfingers which tells the offbeat tale of british murderer colin briggs clive owen of croupier after spending roughly half of his life behind bars he is transferred to a more lenient facility edgefield the picaresque rustic prison allows its inmates to learn a trade while enjoying accommodations generally found at most colleges at first briggs doesn't want to be there he's used to living as a prisoner and wants to be left alone however his ailing roommate fergus david kelly of waking ned devine wears briggs down through his benign nature the two become friends with fergus giving colin a packet of violet seeds as a christmas gift briggs is astonished when the violets grow in the limestone soil and begins a fight with three other prisoners when an errant soccer ball smashes his beloved flowers after the prison's governor warren clarke reprimands them he's awed at what briggs has accomplished and he's struck by an idea briggs fergus and the other men will grow a garden on the prison's grounds greenfingers which is inspired by actual events becomes a bit like a sports movie after that despite their differences the men come together and through hard work and love earn a spot at the big game in this case a prestigious garden show one renegade in this case briggs will prove to have talent of course love will also rear its head no not prison love to hershman's credit he doesn't pump up the drama or try for cheap laughs like last year's lame marijuana comedy saving grace i had to keep pinching myself when i didn't see a single scene of a hardened con sneezing over a pot of pansies or the men giving over a particularly stunning batch of wildflowers the movie deals with people and scores on that concept it's wonderful seeing briggs turn from a bitter prisoner to a man who cares again give credit to owen for keeping his cool in a part that begs for overacting his speech to the parole board about being reborn through gardening is the best scene of its kind since morgan freeman's last stand in the shawshank redemption owen's bedside scenes with kelly who lends the film a human touch are a marvel to behold emotionally gripping without being sappy written by hershman greenfingers contains plenty of laughs most come courtesy of helen mirren who shines as the gardener who works with the inmates but fears for her daughter primrose natasha little when she starts dating briggs the mother can't believe what he'll do if her daughter burns the sunday roast nothing is forced in greenfingers the funny lines come forth naturally in conversations and not from punch lines primrose and briggs' relationship takes awkward steps even when briggs decides to go back to edgefield it's done for reasons of loyalty not because the movie requires him to do so after grimacing through the forced screwball antics of movies like america's sweethearts and the princess dairies it's an almost indescribable pleasure to see a director taking his time to tell a story very well
positive	so many students strive to get into schools such as harvard of princeton but they just don't get the good grades so many students would do anything to reach their goal of getting into this schools legend has it that if your roommate commits suicide the remaining roommates will get an automatic chris michael vartan and tim matthew lillard are two guys who really want the to get into harvard how far will they go to get their chris and tim are also roommates with rand played by randall batinkoff the two scheme to murder rand make it look like a suicide so they can supposedly get their they have heard this rumor many places and they are willing to take the chance to find out rand is a very very mean person he treats his girlfriend natalie played by tamara craig thomas like she doesn't matter at all she is very afraid of him and she especially afraid now that she must tell him she is pregnant she does tell him and he becomes enraged that night would be the last night of rand's life tim and chris give rand a bottle of rat poison making him think that it is beer rand drinks down the poison and then dies now tim pushes him off of a mountain with a suicide note near the site to make it look like he killed himself it does not take long until the suicide note is found but the body isn't found the police question chris and tim about rand to try and find any information feeling extreme guilt chris is having a very hard time especially with his girlfriend emma played by keri russell she wants to know more but he will not even speak with her will he give in will tim turn chris in will chris turn tim in will they turn themselves in all of these questions were running through my mind while watching this slick suspense film the events in the curve are very surprising original and fun the plot sounds much like dead man on campus but that is not the deal with this film this film is a very serious one with not many laughs there are many twists and turns that make this film different from most films the ending in particular is completely unpredictable and satisfying it is a terrific suspenseful ending that i could never predict would happen hands down to dan rosen who wrote this wild ride the sound really stood out in the film it is quite eerie and it really adds to the feel of the film the way the movie is filmed is also great all of the technical aspects as well as the acting and directing aspects are very well done the performances in the curve are very good matthew lillard gets to play another creepy role just like in scream he is very strange in this film as well i like him in this sort of role rather than the roles he has been playing in comedies such as senseless and she's all that michael vartan is fantastic as chris who has extremely mixed emotions about the entire murder and the michael vartan was also superb in never been kissed where he with drew barrymore as a teacher who fell in love with his student keri russell also gives a great performance she should be a good actress in the horror department of the film tamara craig thomas is also realistic especially coping with the death of her boyfriend some very strong supporting performances came from smaller roles such as bo dietl and anthony griffith who play two detectives investigating the case the bottom i might just have to curve that into an a the curve premiered at the sundance film festival in early it was decided the film would not be released widely it is now available at blockbuster video only and for rent only see you at the video store
positive	available for rental october things i hate about you is an update of the classic play the taming of the shrew that said drop any notions of what shakespeare's work is supposed to be like and welcome yourself to padua high school home of a student counselor allison janney who obsesses over the male penis a slightly too hip and racist english teacher daryl mitchell a new kid named cameron joseph a model named joey andrew keegan the subject of cameron and joey's crushes bianca larisa oleynik and bianca's sister the shrew julia stiles in a marvelous performance whose name is katarina kat for short with movies about high schools similar to these running through projectors like water down the nile it would be quite easy to write off things i hate about you as just another doltish yet you must realize that the story is timeless and a few hundred years later it is equally as witty and comical as when elizabeth gleefully looked on groundlings below and stuffed brassieres on stage the first reminder of the original scribe can be found in katarina and bianca's last name stratford their family is run by walter stratford pretty woman's larry miller a doctor who is all too familiar with teenage pregnancy and guards his children accordingly in what he thinks to be a moment of ironic humor the family no dating policy is amended to bianca can date when does with prom just ahead bianca's fate is grim unless of course she can tame the shrew don't think this mission to be a simple one as bianca kindly points out her sister is a particularly hideous breed of loser getting katarina to date is complex and oftentimes confusing when cameron who likes bianca learns of her father's new rule he is quick to consult a friend for advice the scheme they dream up is to fully exploit someone with money in this case that is joey the other guy with a crush on bianca cameron's friend a loser by teenage verdict convinces joey to pay someone who has enough guts to take the shrew out the solution lies no farther away than the second blatant reminder of the master scribe patrick verona heath ledger this verona is far from fair rumor has it that he previously laid his scene in prison moreover katarina openly opined to the aforementioned english teacher that hemingway was an alcoholic who hung around picasso hoping to nail his leftovers the laws of high school cinema inexorably turn patrick and katarina into romeo and juliet providing a constant reminder of the fact that this isn't exactly what shakespeare had in mind are the elements obligatory to a high school comedy a party polluted with liquor a best friend's betrayal and prom it is the latter that has become infamous for closing films like drive me crazy american pie never been kissed carrie she's all that and can't hardly wait yet surely even these practices have roots in shakespeare falstaff was a drunk romeo and juliet met at a party and caesar learned about loyalty the hard way
positive	my filmcritic com colleague norm schrager nailed session brad anderson's throwback to spooky horror films from the it worked as an eerie homage without being or smugly postmodern genre aficionados will acknowledge the similarities in tone to stanley kubrick's the shining and george romero's dawn of the dead without being taken out of the engrossing narrative i e a psychologically addled waste management team clears out an abandoned lunatic asylum unspeakable dread ensues in a for anderson shoots and mostly scores again with his eclectic riff on episodes from the twilight zone appropriately titled happy accidents much like session the cards are played very close to the vest here is boyish eccentric sam deed from dubuque iowa a futuristic voyager from the year or just your psychologically disturbed nutcase let loose on the streets of nyc as played by wonderful character actor vincent d'onofrio full metal jacket it's up in the air whether or not we should accept his detailed monologues about life after the polar ice caps have melted the question proves to be moot at least for a time even if the whole thing proves to be a creative delusion one agrees with the character judgment passed down on him by his new girlfriend ruby marisa tomei he's a freak but he sure tells a good story neurotic ruby thinks she may have found true love after a series of nightmarish dating disasters the junkie the fetishist the artist the frenchman etc but isn't quite sure how to handle sam deed when he starts explaining the barcode on his arm his elaborately constructed fake identity his pathological fear of dogs his ability to speak five different languages and his mission to change a crucial moment in time that may have ramifications on time's alternate realities don't ask it's all a bit much to take in ruby's close friend gretchen cuz ya can't have a love story without the token friend though nadia dajani invests the thankless role with warmth chalks it up as a sexy game but her cautious therapist holland taylor warns her that is rearing its ugly head again and she's in over her head with yet another doomed relationship who ya gonna believe despite her winning an academy award marisa tomei has always struck me as an annoying and unwelcome screen presence one that undermines the pleasure of watching happy accidents her brassy new yawk attitude never really meshes with her desperate desire to appear cute to her adoring fans being loud and flashing a disingenuous smile does not necessarily equal substantial and sexy it takes more than a crack team of hair and wardrobe people to imbue her with personality then there's that damned voice which strains to be look this stuff is purely subjective some people feel this way about richard gere others cannot bear to watch robin williams' hyperactive schtick for my money it's m tomei with a bullet happy accidents is a romantic comedy filtered through twelve monkeys or more appropriately chris marker's la jetee especially with those still framed memory photographs anderson employs as a stylistic device throughout modern manhattan is filmed with an otherworldly vaguely alien eye with a color scheme oddly reminiscent of logan's run as the stranger in a strange land d'onofrio walks slightly wonderfully affable but often inscrutable with his wayward expressions and bemused detachment this is science fiction told mainly via the power of suggestion though it often falls into the trap of having entirely too much forced exposition we want deeds not words at least twenty minutes too long happy accidents eventually gets around to a scenario that puts sam deed to the ultimate test no movie can live in ambiguity forever but anderson seems terminally unable to provide satisfactory conclusions to his otherwise well structured recent narratives let's pretend the loathsome and predictable next stop wonderland never happened shall we there are also some slow repetitive stretches as ruby and sam go over the same arguments again and again over whether or not he's crazy the premise is strong enough to sustain interest but it's enough to throw a nod in the general direction of rod serling for wrapping up his ideas in time slots commercials included
positive	what i look for in a movie is not necessarily perfection sometimes a movie has such strong ideas that despite whatever flaws it may have i will prefer it to a film that is not as the thin red line is flawed but it provokes terence malick returns to filmmaking years after days of heaven and produces this meditative look at war unlike this year's saving private ryan which dwells on war as a necessary evil and explores the moral ambiguities thereof the thin red line simply says war is waste while that might seem obvious to some only after experiencing the film do you realize how profound a waste it is saving private ryan has an underlying and practical acceptance that war will occur and it has a great cost the thin red line says idealistically avoid this at all costs one message is not necessarily more correct than the other it just depends on one's point of view in malick's film war is set in a tropical paradise and john toll's cinematography is beyond lush the setting poses the question why are we fighting in the face of such beauty in saving private ryan the capture of a german soldier presents the moral quandary of whether to let him go in the thin red line the japanese present the moral quandary of war in the first place they are just like the americans frightened and angry grieving and praying all that separates them is war the flaw in the thin red line comes in the unbelievable as coming from the characters and sometimes pretentious sometimes corny the tell us what the images before us already do and are completely unnecessary dispensing with them malick could have achieved a tarkovskian grandeur instead he gets distracting aside from that malick's direction is stunning the tracking shots across windswept hills and around transports speeding toward shore are extraordinary sean penn elias koteas and nick nolte give the best performances penn is subtle as a sergeant trying to hide his humanism koteas is genuine as a compassionate captain and nolte startling as a colonel whose blood vessels are about to burst if he cannot win his battle john travolta and george clooney are the worst in cameo roles ultimately however the thin red line's interest is not in the characters and it is not in drama it has been frequently criticized for its lack of dramatic structure but malick clearly has different things on his mind has no one ever thought that getting dramatic entertainment from war is exploitative what malick is working with is theme and in that the thin red line is most provoking
positive	mike myers you certainly did throw us a frickin' bone here in what you call the biggest austin powers adventure yet austin powers the spy who shagged me is the sequel to the smash comedy austin powers international man of mystery many are skeptical about sequels saying that the sequel is never better or as good as the original but austin powers tswsm goes beyond the first film austin powers the spy who shagged me stars mike myers in three different roles he reprises his role as the title character austin powers the shagadelic spy whose body was frozen in and unfrozen in to stop his long time nemesis dr evil also played by mike myers from destroying the earth tswsm leaves off where the original stopped with dr evil's frisch's big boy' space capsule floating through space dr evil returns back to earth by ejecting from his capsule plotting to go back in his time machine to the year in which he plans to steal austin powers' mojo what keeps austin going with spy talents upon his return to his secret lair which is now a starbucks coffee shop dr evil learns that his evil henchman which includes the returning robert wagner as number and mindy sterling as frau have created a size clone of dr evil which is later named mini me the evil mini me replaces scott evil played by seth green as dr evil's son in the madman's mind because dr evil thinks of scott to be only dr evil has always wanted a son that is evil just like him and now he has one dr evil tells mini me you complete me in a loving manner dr evil loving wow mike myers' third role is as fat bastard a scottish henchman of dr evil's who is sent to steal the mojo from austin powers' frozen body austin powers learns of dr evil's trip back into the and uses his own time machine to take him back to to try to save his mojo before fat bastard gets a hold of it once arriving in the year austin travels to his pad his smashing club where he meets felicity shagwell played by heather graham a cia agent who is willing to help him in his journey to stop dr evil as the film progresses hilarious one liners are thrown at us mainly by dr evil for example don't go there girlfriend to the president of the united states many witty gags take place note the entire tent scene and just plain funny scenes which are so they're funny come a dozen per fifteen minutes take for example scott evil going on the jerry springer show complaining about how evil his father is the way austin powers tswsm uses its humor is clever throwing a hilarious scene at you followed by five minutes of one liners followed by another outrageous scene so you never stop laughing there was honestly not one moment in austin powers tswsm where i wasn't laughing the last film that i laughed so hard in was well austin powers it is apparent that mike myers knew how funny this film was while writing it the film even makes fun of itself in a line something along the lines of it's funny how england and southern california look nothing alike tswsm was filmed in southern california but was supposed to take place in england i can tell you one he is having a lot of fun with this enormously popular character which is all over television newspapers magazines and the movie theaters i believe that dr evil got more attention in the tswsm than austin powers did dr evil provided more laughs more memorable moments and more interesting dialogue than austin did this time around who seems to missing the funny touch that he had in the first film i felt that austin really did have his mojo taken away but from screenplay writer mike myers not fat bastard also making a great addition to the series is mini me who is played by verne troyer even though the midget actor is years old he is adorable by dr evil's side constantly the first austin powers film had barely any sentimental quality such as lack of character development barely any detailed plot characteristics and barely any good acting but austin powers tswsm actually shows some quality behind the frequent humor mike myers with his three roles acts as eddie murphy did in the nutty professor disguising himself completely in one of the roles fat bastard all three characters are different and mike myers does do a good job handling each one of them heather graham made a great addition with her talent to tswsm and does a much better job than elizabeth hurley did who gave a very flat performance in the original speaking her lines without any feeling or emotion speaking of hurley she can be seen in tswsm for a few brief moments hopefully graham tags along for future austin powers adventures the bottom a groovy sequel that mike myers put all of his mojo into writing
positive	it is with hesitance that i call apocalypse now a masterpiece certainly it had the pedigree to be one of the greatest films ever made with a director known for producing masterpieces with ease and some of the finest actors of the the plot an adaptation of joseph conrad's heart of darkness was set in vietnam and the timing of the film was supposed to be brilliant coming on the heels of the end of the war apocalypse certainly has its moments some of which are the finest in film history the plot is fairly simple captain willard sheen is a troubled soldier who came back to hanoi for a tour of duty his mission is simple take a boat up to cambodian territory and destroy the command of renegade colonel kurtz brando with extreme prejudice along the way willard runs into a series of adventures including one with lt col kilgore duvall and a strange encounter with playboy bunnies willard' s four person crew finally make it to kurtz' compound where he discovers kurtz has set himself up as a god among the natives willard's experiences with kurtz take up the last with a confrontation and eventual ending the movie is visually breathtaking the battle scenes are exquisitely done and the score is brilliant setting a murky mood of darkness that is the collage of disturbing images that coppola presents is at times both astonishing and sickening the vast amount of detail poured into every war scene is stunning and there are many episodes that are deeply powerful which resonate through the entire movie the journey to kurtz' camp is quite a ride with psychosis setting in on almost every character the most interesting one is kilgore the lt col who cares more about the surf than about the mission it is at times revolting psychotic and incredible and it is one hell of a movie the scenes are bold inventive and powerful and the acting is stunning especially be sheen duvall and fishburne the narration is exquisite as is the mystery of kurtz coppola sets about a hallucinatory ride through vietnam kind of like saving private ryan on lsd the film is jarring in its implications and psychotic in its execution the problems come when the film slows down one of the major scenes in the film where the boat arrives at the final army checkpoint before they start their search for kurtz is a colossal mess the dialogue is confusing the lighting is atrocious and the scene drags on for terrible minutes of film the true problems happen after the crew does come into the kurtz compound the film slows down to a drag sheen seems forever captured by a madman played by brando is a lazy performance that is not deserving of the accolades it received brando is in the film for no more than minutes but is bathed in shadows the entire time making the last half hour of the film visually pathetic the scenes are poorly done the dialogue is muffled and the whole mess is utterly confusing beyond all belief sheen seems to adore this man but why the viewers are never told the entire journey is supposed to be a prelude for a stunning entrance of this kurtz but the scenes fall way short of expectations granted it has its moments which are brutally horrific but the general feeling is one of confusion brando mumbles his lines in a incoherent stir and my feeling was that this could never be a great man this could never be a man who inspires hundreds to follow him so why do they do it there are moments of brilliance but the visual confusion dilutes the power of the scene there are too many questions left unanswered with the character of kurtz to have a satisfying ending the finest scene at the end is sheen's escape and his entrace into the temple his rise out of the water with the smoke coming off of his slicked head is a brilliant seconds of film yet you cannot shake the feeling that there is so much more this film could have done the psychotic ride is unforgettable at times and indeed the film on the whole is very good it is a stunningly flawed expression of film for it addresses major issues such as man's mental stamina during bouts of war but one still cannot shake the feeling that this film could have so much more powerful had the character of kurtz been more explored and had sheen truly succumbed to the fate that the viewer thought he was destined for there is too much good material in here not to be called a masterpiece but it could have been so much more rewarding
positive	the verdict drama from horror maestro stephen king featuring an outstanding performance from kathy bates geez french and saunders had a field day when they set to work on parodying this sorry readers may not be familiar with french and saunders my apologies the pair are british comediennes jennifer saunders later went on to become edina monsoon in absolutely fabulous who did a series of film spoofs a few years back including alien the exorcist and misery needless to say amidst her chucklesome impersonation of kathy bates the resemblance was quite uncanny dawn french got pretty nasty with her sledgehammer when in reach of jennifer saunder's legs but despite the lingering memory of their sketch and although i've now seen the film a couple of times now that hobbling scene was no less disturbing i'm still left screaming at the telly in revulsion that may be the most memorable scene but it's certainly not the only worth watching stephen king whose film and tv adaptations tend to vary in quality strikes gold with this simple yet strikingly compelling tale it's a nicely crafted psychological horror which effortlessly succeeds in drawing you into the plight of writer phil sheldon james caan rescued from a car accident by annie wilkes bates who introduces herself as the writer's number one fan he soon becomes her prisoner both the script and kathy bates' beautifully masterful performance for which she won an oscar work as we quickly begin to realise that beyond her bubbly exterior the woman is basically as nutty as a or is that fruity as a bates relishes her demanding role and her performance is nothing short of a masterpiece at times she seems like an innocent victim of her own obsessive behaviour at times she's a rather tragic character and more often than not she's just damned scary this is basically a very simple tale but it achieves a large degree of eloquence in its simplicity it's an involving engrossing experience and considering it's basically a mainly set in one locale it's a remarkable piece of cinema there are no jazzy special effects or cheesy action sequences this one relies solely upon rob reiner's stylish directing and the wonderful performances of bates and caan oh i haven't really mentioned caan yet he does a good job as the writer who's a prisoner of his own success annie is obsessed with him and his books but as you no doubt gathered from the above bates is well and truly the star of the show along with the pig of course anyway the tension is with masterful aplomb and some scenes are almost agonisingly tense there's the dinner scene where seldon goes to lengths to poison her wine he succeeds but she knocks the glass over i bet you threw a pillow at the screen as well in the immortal words of homer j simpson d'oh other scenes include the bit where annie has gone off to town and sheldon starts snooping around the house we cut to annie in her car she's on her way home he realises this and tries to get back to his room cut to the car again she's getting near will he make it ok so these sequences aren't exactly original nor perhaps unpredictable but they work boy do they work if a film has you on the edge of your couch biting your nails and shouting at the screen in suspense then it's doing something right of course the most nauseating sequence is the aforementioned hobbling annie realises her captive has been out of his room and she's going to stop him once and for all cue a block of wood placed strategically between his ankles and a huge sledgehammer and i feel ill just thinking about it nasty it all builds up nicely to the final scene where sheldon finally gets the upper hand and once and for all tries to kill the crazy psycho and then we're given one of the most ridiculously fight scenes i've ever seen she gets hit over the head with a typewriter set on fire head smashed against the wall and she just won't die sheldon isn't in terribly good shape either if it weren't so gorey it would almost be laughable but it's a terrifically effective film and therefore the daft climax is easily overlooked misery is a tight tense intense and chillingly entertaining thriller the directing is and the performances bates in particular contribute to making this a suitably nightmarish little gem wonderful stuff for more film and tv reviews check out my site http geocities 
positive	an indian runner was more than a courier he became the message he was carrying what danger is a bear to a message i used to think sean penn was an immature arrogant punching loudmouth but all that has changed now the guy has grown up and that's not all it seems that sean penn has talents both as a writer and a director if this film is any indication one might imagine a movie with plenty of ruthless rage and showy machismo given penn in charge of bronson and and hopper but no this film is about a real struggle and the victories and defeats are not simple penn lets the story unfold at a pace dictated by the lives of the characters without unnecessary rush or flash the focus of the story is two brothers david morse is the brother who has grown up in the small midwestern town in which they were raised tending a failing farm and finally becoming a police officer viggo mortensen is the wild brother whose wild behavior seems to be a reaction to some ancient pain that he can't name much less resolve the film picks the story up on the day when mortensen returns from vietnam and morse coincidentally encounters an armed youth fleeing for the state line it becomes clear that some kind of conflict threatens the link that the brothers once shared the film is unobtrusive simple direct plain and sincere it isn't exactly perfect but its sincerity is well invested in the struggle of the two brothers to identify the sickness before it destroys them life seems to move forward a little faster than they can get a handle on their problems this is a good film without big budget sets or big name stars pushed into your face in fact i'm reviewing it because i suspect that it may not get much marketing there were perhaps others at the showing i saw i thought the structure was clean and not oversimplified though there are a few sections which also work very well the obligatory music seemed a little cliche but what are you going to movie does take place in the after all in my opinion it is worth admission
positive	seen july at the crossgates cinema albany ny theater at p m with my mom using hoyts cinema cash rating very good sound picture and it's very rare that any medium of entertainment can give one an authentic vivid sense of reality and life all stories are about select moments of time and places in the characters' lives but only the truly great ones are able to define their realities well enough so the audience can experience it just as the characters do therefore gone with the wind deserves accolades for its ability to tell the epic story it does in such a crafted intricate and entertaining manner it's a crowning achievement not only in filmmaking but for storytelling itself the film takes place in georgia before during and after the civil war this plays a major factor in the film's success to use such a historic setting presents many possibilities and problems since no one was alive at the time to verify its accuracy it might also seem cliche boring and other such deterent factors to potential viewers can a story set so long ago be relatable now the film confronts all these problems paradoxically by not cronfronting them it doesn't simply plug in the right thing at the right time it creates an entire reality where everything makes sense and said concerns are irrelevant building a strong foundation is important to all forms of media without which what is there to build on we're given some backstory here and learn a little about our characters especially our main character scarlett o'hara leigh a beautiful southern belle with a will of steel a cunning wit and a tremendous sense of liberty in such an oppressive time she knows how her society works wherein everything she does can and will play a role in the shaping of her life and those around her right from the beginning we realize how determined she is to have her way no matter what the consequences may be being the most woman allows her to manipulate men and their women to ensure she gets her way whether it be obvious i e who will be the one to get her food or subtle i e getting married just to spite someone the man she claims to love is ashley wilkes howard a modest gentleman who does not seem to have the same passion for her as she does for him he isn't so arrogant and demanding as scarlett in fact he's engaged to a woman with a personality much more like his her name is melanie de havilland and she is one of the sweetest kindest and most likable characters one will ever see she and scarlett become very dear friends but she never suspects the jealously scarlett has for her and the love she has for her husband her meekness is both her strongest and weakest characteristic it defines who she is but doesn't give her much emotional acting a catalyst to the love triangle and to the story as a whole is the daper cunning cocky southern business and military man captain rhett butler gable he's quite a character all right everyone listens to what he has to say even though he's got a bad reputation butler makes no apologies for his vast amount of money nor his behavior he tells everyone the truth in the rigid society where freewill doesn't seem to exist everything is done out of honor and tradition for example in his first appearance butler tells his fellow southerners there's no way the south could defeat the north if war were to break out this angers them not for his lack of faith but because he has the gall to say it aloud and boastfully at that do we have ammunition factories do we have food do we have a navy all we have is tobacco all true statements and yet the south still insists he's wrong butler is a shifty character to be sure but he takes such pride in his arrogance it's appealing scarlett notices this too when she first sees him and from the look butler gives her we know he's not going to stop until he has her but scarlett can't get past her need for ashley and during a scene which sets the stage for the grand story butler learns of this and continues to throw it back at scarlett forever and so the story goes on with scarlett being thrown obstacle after obstacle in her life the conflicts she must overcome range from taking care of her entire family to finding a proper husband especially after she is marked for life when her first husband dies this gives the film many opportunities to bring in more characters into the epic story some are vital for only a few scenes but their true signifcance will endure throughout the film in most films only a few characters exist for support in background but this film is more realistic and believable as it incorporates a supporting cast the size of a small town and everyone has signficance even people in the background seem more than just extras wandering the set the costuming design is outstanding so that the film makes for a real sense of time and place the filmmakers could have easily set more scenes indoors and narrowly focused to avoid having to show the outside real world but these types of simple approaches are never taken the first half of the film depicts the traumatic experience the south faced at the last days of the civil war fleming is able to convey the horror of it all by painting an image of destruction and letting the viewer decide just how bad it is one scene has scarlett working as a nurse at a military hospital while we hear a soldier in the background screaming no not my leg don't cut off my leg another scene shows her simplying trying to cross a street but as the camera pulls back we see that her path is blocked by hundreds of wounded soldiers but it is their moaning that's more graphic than all the bloody gore could ever be as the second half begins the film concentrates more on scarlett as a completely independent woman who takes care of her family and melanie just to spite the tyrany of the north she manages to resurrect the family plantation but all the willpower she has can't help her when she must pay exuberhant taxes set by the north after the south's ultimate defeat this brings rhett butler back into the picture and thus begins their torrid hate relationship most of the second half of the film is somehow related to the relationship or lack thereof between rhett and scarlett each uses the other for personal gain but at the same time they still feel an intimate connection with each other scarlett continues to use her manipulative powers over men to get what she wants and because rhett can't help but want her more every time she tries to him such as marrying another man and taking over his business they say opposites attract but the conflict between rhett and scarlett goes way beyond opposing personalities it borders on magnetic polarization they need each other and know this yet they never seem truly happy together perhaps they mistake love for passion and the film leaves it up to us to make this call both have things the other wants and vice versa but when they compromise is it just to get their own way or because they actually care for each other love and the perception of love are two completely separate things and throughout the final act of the film we're left wondering if rhett and scarlett ever truly loved each other and why gable and leigh do have great chemistry always leaving the viewer wondering which emotions were authentic and which were manufacture all none either way is possible and it's a mystery that cannot be solved even upon repeated viewings it's safe to say most of us won't live such overly dramatic lives as those in gone with the wind but it's still a masterpiece for its ability to give us a sense that we've just experienced a life's worth of joy and pain
positive	not since attending an ingmar bergman retrospective a few years ago have i seen a film as uncompromising in its portrayal of emotional truth as secrets lies like bergman director mike leigh is interested in probing his characters' inner depths through hypernaturally blunt confrontations also like bergman leigh engages in frequent closeups of his characters' ravished and wracked faces and the prominent mournfulness of a cello on the soundtrack recalls bergman's own use of a bach cello suite in an earlier film all that is missing is a discussion of god which is not to say that secrets lies is nothing more than an homage to the swedish master in fact it is quite possible leigh had no such intentions in mind nonetheless what we get is so far removed from the average moviegoing experience even from the reason we go to the movies in the first place that it takes some effort to adjust to the film's rhythms once the adjustment is made however there are great rewards one such is the chance to see life on the screen as it really is though leigh may have adopted some of bergman's stylistic touches most obviously in an early scene of terse during a married couple's strained conversation as well as in that somewhat obtrusive score the overall feeling of the film is that it eschews any style at all whereas bergman uses artifice as a tool to expose reality leigh makes the camera a mere observer almost as in a pbs documentary the effect of this is to focus all of your attention on the actors it is a tribute to everyone involved that despite such scrutiny only infrequently are we aware that anyone is acting much has been made of brenda blethyn's performance and rightly so but it is only when you remind yourself that you are watching a fiction that you realize how good she is there are a few missteps for one except for one scene tragicomic as it happens there is scant humor in the film this leads to a certain monotonous tone throughout and occasionally as with bergman the bluntness of the situations can seem forced for all that this longish film manages to keep hold of your attention it is unfortunate that the audience for secrets lies will most likely be limited to an intellectual elite for there is nothing inherently intellectual about this film in fact it might easily resonate more strongly for millions of working class filmgoers who will likely never see it there is even a sweet but significant irony in the film's unspoken take on race relations something an american audience at least would do well to observe nonetheless secrets lies is not for the faint of heart though there is nothing physically horrific to make one squeamish the exploration of common human frailty can be so raw and unsparing that it is tempting to turn from the screen needless to say it is also very depressing at times but for many of us of course so is life and though the film is too honest to tack on a phony happy ending that same honesty allows it to admit that things can also get better
positive	after a successful run in australia last year and with much critical praise heaped upon it muriel's wedding opens into medium release this weekend in north america muriel heslop is a withdrawn overweight young woman living in porpoise spit australia she is often the target of her father's frequent rants at the family and drowns out her feelings of inadequacy with abba music and fantasies of marriage her is such that only being wed shall she prove herself to be a success marriage will transform her into a new person who is respected and admired after her four cliquey friends dump her muriel plots to follow them to a resort where they are celebrating the honeymoon of one of the girls and muriel's wedding unfolds from there toni collette plays muriel in a winning performance conveying both the sadness of her character and her desperate eagerness to be accepted collette gained a frightening pounds in order to play the chubby title character she has a natural screen presence and exudes charisma easily winning the audience over with an honest painful performance collette basically carries the film appearing in almost every scene muriel's father bill the battler heslop is portrayed by bill hunter as a slick while chumming around with young fans and crowing can't beat progress' his slogan bill labels his family as worthless and embarrassments rachel griffiths plays rhonda who becomes muriel's cheeky new friend in the film she has good chemistry with collette and the film suffers when griffiths is muriel's tormenters played by pippa grandison rosalind hammond belinda jarrett and sophie lee are caricatures all saucy vain and bumblingly spiteful though that is probably due to hogan's scripting muriel's wedding is essentially a genre teen comedy with more intelligence and a lot of charm hogan's use of abba tunes which virtually comprises the entire soundtrack is interestingly appropriate although its repetitiveness tires after awhile hogan's script is right on the mark in terms of proportionately mixing comedy with muriel's earnest quest for acceptance and the gorgeous scene with muriel beautifully illustrates the wonder that marriage has for her the glaring pastel colours worn by the performers is an interesting touch muriel's wedding features a fine performance by toni collette and a charming if a bit too straightforward and conventional story by p j hogan on my four star scale i give muriel's wedding three stars
positive	every once in a while a film sneaks up on me and takes me completely by surprise i don't necessarily mean in terms of quality rather i'm referring to the mere knowledge of its existence usually i know what films are on the way a year in advance but two weeks ago i had never heard of princess caraboo it has slipped rather quietly into limited release and appears destined to slip out just as quietly that's a shame because princess caraboo is a delightful fable romantic gentle and very appealing what's more it's surprisingly insightful and provides a lesson in english social history princess caraboo is based on an actual event in early century england involving a young woman phoebe cates who is found wandering the countryside apparently unable to speak any english she is taken in by gentlewoman mrs worrall wendy hughes her banker husband jim broadbent is about this strange houseguest until the worralls begin to believe that the woman may be royalty from an east indian island the princess caraboo this development inspires plans for a lucrative trading venture for mr worrall and an introduction into elite social circles for mrs worrall however local journalist john gutch stephen rea is not convinced that the woman is what she seems to be and sets out to find out the truth about princess caraboo as a social satire and comedy of manners princess caraboo is a winner it takes place in an era when it was common practice in england to jail vagrants and hang beggars and that practice comes in for an obvious hazing but it is handled most effectively through the character of mr worrall a drunken womanizer whose bank is in deep trouble thanks to his corruption and ineptitude he is worse than one of the idle rich he is one of the actively odious gentry so eager to distance themselves from the lower class they think nothing of simply eliminating them and since the house and money are all from mrs worrall he is a bit too close to them for comfort while hypocrisy is an easy target for ridicule director and michael austin keeps the treatment too to be he also takes a unique stab at the trendiness of the upper classes as the princess becomes a sensation at court in one of the film's best sequences princess caraboo is the guest of honor at a party hosted by the prince regent a wonderfully foppish turn by comic john sessions and the lords and ladies end up following her around in a thoroughly silly native dance it is then that princess caraboo shows how easily people are swept up in sensations an idea that takes on a timeless quality and makes the film an interesting companion piece to the current quiz show social commentary aside princess caraboo is simply an eminently enjoyable entertainment the performers are mostly delightful particularly phoebe cates who is radiant in a part that requires a gift for pantomime her supporting players are also appealing wendy hughes as the patient and kindly mrs worrall kevin kline as frixos the worralls' suspicious and superior greek butler stephen rea as the but ultimately romantic gutch only john lithgow is a disappointment turning in a limp performance as a scholar who attempts to verify the princess's identity the story twists and turns just enough so that the question of whether or not the princess is really a princess is always in some doubt without becoming gimmicky it is unfortunate that the growing attraction between gutch and princess caraboo isn't given more time to develop because the potential seemed to be there when it finally does blossom it seems too quick to be plausible princess caraboo is patient enough in establishing its sense of time and place that it might seem a bit slow to viewers seeking a fantasy romp still it has both escapist and intellectual appeal and is well worth seeking out it is the kind of film that makes my job its most hidden gem
positive	through a spyglass i could see everything king louis xvi was beheaded on january but instead of visualizing this act of regicide legendary auteur eric rohmer's the lady and the duke observes from afar consider it a view to a kill made abstract a proper british yes british gentlewoman grace elliott lucy russell and her loyal maidservant gaze from a lofty terrace in meudon at the glistening city of paris where raucous crowds seem tinier than ants the maid narrates what little she sees of the execution through her telescope often muttering i don't know as the sound of cheering patriots and revolutionaries echoes through the air what we don't see might not be able to hurt us just close your eyes and think of england during times of revolution the aristocracy may feel a false sense of calm in their parlor halls discussing tumultuous events over glasses of sherry until the walls cave in on them adapted from elliott's memoirs journal of my life during the french revolution rohmer's latest artistic may seem far removed from his domestic comedies tales of the four seasons etc a period film set during the most violent changes in french history resisting the temptation for theatrics much of the lady and the duke is about quiet decisive moments between members of the cultural elite as they determine how to proceed as the world implodes grace elliott makes for an unlikely protagonist a headstrong snobbish blueblood one unprepared for the machinations of history that sweep her along a foreigner who accepts the french king as her own grace's life seems defined by fancy attire and lively political debate with her former lover the king's cousin prince philipe duke of orleans dreyfus the times are changing though and the gears inch ever closer toward violence during the september massacres of she is encountered by a procession of rioters brandishing the head of the duke's on a stake rohmer makes a harsh transition from tranquil old fashioned almost stagy parlor scenes to the swell of an angry mob in doing so he achieves what braveheart and the patriot could not the face of death when grace sees her friend's disembodied head on a pole rohmer's attention drifts from the societal change to one woman's reaction shot laden with hot tears grace finds herself taking in a fugitive from justice sheltering him from the mob through her relationship with the duke she seeks a passport for this one activist's escape grace doesn't even understand her own actions and the duke reacts in stunned disbelief at how she places herself in such danger she endures persecution from robespierre and his gang of thuggish equalizers ceaseless police monitoring house searches even a brief imprisonment for harmless international correspondence maintaining her stiff upper lip and pampered life her imperious attitude to the servants never changes she becomes a heroine through circumstance the events themselves are intrusions upon her person her home and therefore her values aristocracy proves a glass house one that can barely withstand the upheaval of stones the duke is called to vote on the king's punishment and despite his hours of deliberation with friends and advisors talk means nothing in the face of bloody action or futile inaction the episodic structure creates a wobbly jarring detachment from the events of the french revolution which serves as metaphor but also disconnects potential audience identification lazy viewers and critics may also complain that knowledge of french history is required for enjoyment of the lady and the duke that's foolery but brings up the valid criticism that rohmer's characters occasionally become didactic rohmer's imperfect but assured push toward the future remains staunch and notable for casting a cautious eye upon the past while taking bold steps forward into an uncertain future what may arouse interest in the lady and the duke outside of foreign film enthusiasts with literary and historical passions is rohmer's use of cutting edge digital technology as a means of exploring the theme of artifice as safety net or coping mechanism the actors were filmed against a bluescreen then placed against painted backdrops recreating the vastness of century paris this recreation calls attention to itself in every shot a technicolor dream of fanciful buildings and streets it looks as phony as titanic but unlike james cameron's debacle the lady and the duke plays with the notion of false security in those walls of stone why they aren't real the very foundation rohmer's characters stand upon is false and in their groundlessness they must discover themselves in all their insubstantial glory screened at the new york film festival feature coming soon
positive	wong fallen angels is on a purely visceral level one of the most exciting films i've seen in a long while unfortunately wong seems more interested in experimenting with his camera than creating tangible characters for the audience to root for ordinarily that alone would be enough to sink a movie but in the case of fallen angels this is not so every shot in this film is exciting just to look at wong does really interesting things with the camera but he doesn't allow the pyrotechnics to completely take over as was the case with last years dismal knock off which contained a shot of a foot entering a shoe ugh the movie follows three pairs of lost souls as they struggle to find some meaning in their lives i can't say much more than that as i didn't really know what was going on most of the time in fact it wasn't until about halfway through the movie that i was able to distinguish between each character the constantly moving camera doesn't really allow for the audience to associate with any one character we're always kept at a distance from these people i suppose in order to further add to the feeling of alienation felt by the characters fallen angels is a refreshing from most hollywood films which never bother to try anything different at least on a visual level in fact i'd go so far as to say that fallen angels is more challenging visually than any mainstream hollywood film i've ever seen sure there's directors like robert rodriguez who enjoy turning violence into operatic orgies of death but to see a filmmaker like wong who actually assaults the senses with images is truly something worth celebrating but if wong wishes to become a legendary filmmaker he needs to work on incorporating an actual story into those awesome images there were far too many instances during fallen angels in which i asked myself now who are these people again is this that first couple or the second couple it was impossible to keep track perhaps he could let the audience know right away which character is which by introducing them to us with name cards as in scorsese's mean streets that's really besides the point though wong has proven himself through very few films that's he's a to watch let's just hope that he hones his storytelling skills with his next few movies
positive	city of angels is the kind of love story that i enjoy the most moving and completely unsentimental i find it interesting that this film has been released the same day as my giant which is a film that is undone completely by its wretched sentimentality city of angels is a wonderful film enhanced by interesting and characters and some of the most immersive imagery of the last couple of years it's a love story that takes the familiar angel themes and makes them new and necessary to the story and avoids most of the cliches we're so used to seeing in films like this city of angels is an apparently loose remake of wim wenders' film wings of desire i have yet to see wings of desire so i am unfortunately unable to make a comparison of the two i have heard however that city of angels is dissimilar from the original in numerous ways which makes me glad that this film isn't a of its source material nicolas cage stars as seth an angel who like all of his angel counterparts is present to lead the dying to heaven or somewhere just like it one day he is forced to take the life of a patient of dr maggie rice meg ryan and his attention is called to her the angels can make themselves seen to humans but they can't experience any of the senses most importantly touch he shows himself to maggie and she falls for him unaware that he is slightly unavailable because of his apparition status seth wants to become human so he can feel her that's when he meets nathaniel messinger dennis franz former celestial messenger and recent addition to the human race as a side note i found messinger to be the most fascinating character for i can only imagine how incredibly liberating it must be to live knowing what lies beyond death messinger explains to seth that it is possible for angels to become human seth manages to convince maggie that he is an angel i know it sounds ridiculous but the scene in which she finds out is exceptionally after much deliberation she tells him that she could only be with a man who can feel this of course is when seth decides to take the plunge literally from a building when he wakes up from the fall he is human and happy to feel what it's like to have a split lip and blood oozing from his forehead since i love this film so much i'll make a minor note that it certainly isn't perfect although it is original and mesmerizing it does fall prey to a few of the cliches of the genre the plotting of the story by writer dawn steel is rather formulaic though the details are what make the story excellent and steel has done a great job with them the ending too could have been more powerful and less predictable these elements are minor though and barely detracted from my overall enjoyment of city of angels the acting is superb from everyone involved this is perhaps my performance from cage my favorite being the rock he's quiet and pensive and his eyes are engaging when he speaks his words he's perfect for a role like this and at the same time he reassures us he's not bound by playing the psycho though he is good at it as he shows in meg ryan is a powerful enticing and actress and her work here is some of her best dennis franz however steals all of his scenes as the energetic what i admire most about city of angels is its overall presentation director brad silberling is a talented man and he knows that a story like this is driven by the characters rather than forced sentimentality his direction is steady and he shows this in just about every scene near the beginning maggie has to tell a mother and her two children that their father is dead there is no music or elaborate camera work we simply see the reactions of the characters to the information this is the way stories should be told and the strength of scenes resonates more completely when the emotions are real the film also appeals to the senses in a way that few love stories do cinematographer john seale the english patient provides some of the most stunning images i've seen on the big screen hundreds of angels stand on a dim beach in the early morning hours just as an example the music by gabriel yared also of the english patient is perfect for this film it's quiet and moody music but not sentimental and adds to the atmosphere and tone nicely the visual presentation of city of angels is easily the best of so far all of this adds up to a film that is instantly set apart from other members of this genre it's a film that relies on character development and imagery to get the story excellent actors and the professional production values make city of angels one of those rare films that both entertains and instigates thought simultaneously
positive	have you ever wondered if death is something that simply happens naturally at any given moment in life or if it is an occurrence that is predetermined by some much larger force within the world or outside of it these questions are the subject of final destination which is the most riveting since the sixth sense stylishly filmed and tautly directed by alum james wong the film deals with several fairly heavy topics that are discussed truthfully by teenage characters in accurately written rather than overwrought highly intellectualized dialogue that even harvard scholars wouldn't use all the while developing into a darkly foreboding severely eerie thriller that successfully leaves you uneasy from the horrifyingly real opening twenty minutes to the but still suspenseful epilogue at the start of the film high school senior alex browning devon sawa is about to leave with his french class for a field trip to paris progressively getting a case of preflight jitters he spots several mysterious coincidences including the departure time being the same as his september birthday as well as hearing the john denver song rocky mountain high over the sound system in the airport bathroom john denver died in a plane crash alex grudgingly mutters to himself once seated alex suddenly gets a horrific premonition about the plane exploding upon takeoff and after causing a ruckus onboard he as well as six other students and a teacher are thrown off arguing in the airport lobby alex's suspicion comes true when the plane really does explode in flight killing all passengers including the rest of their classmates as two investigators interrogate alex about how he knew the plane was going to explode the fellow survivors whom he has saved treat him in varying manners carter kerr smith the hotshot jock holds him in contempt because he believes that it is only he himself who can decide his fate alex's best friend tod chad e donella wants to stand by him but can't because of his fearful parents the teacher mrs lewton kristen cloke is frightened by him believing that it was he who somehow caused the disaster as well as in a state of guilt for giving up her seat on the plane to a fellow coworker only outsider clear rivers ali larter who unboarded the plane due to a sudden connection to alex's premonition even though she had never even spoken to him before is sympathetic and thankful to him for saving her life that is only the setup of final destination and the less said about what follows the better suffice to say the film does indeed turn into a slasher film albeit one that is more thoughtful than most and replaces a maniac for the granddaddy killer of them all the grim reaper itself the setpieces in any horror movie are the death scenes and final destination surely boosts some of the most inventive ones to grace the silver screen in years graphic and brilliantly orchestrated in a rube goldbergesque manner they manage to occasionally be so intense you don't know whether to shrink down in your seat tap your feet in nervousness or turn away devon sawa a rising star who put his physical comedy skills to good use in underseen idle hands is even more of a charismatic presence here the conflicting emotions he feels for his survival which he comes to believe he wasn't meant to do as well as the loss of the other passengers is superbly and subtly acted on his part one scene in which he is watching a news report on the crash and slowly begins to break down is especially realistic and powerful ali larter varsity blues in the other central role is also effective as a girl whose life was going well until her father died in a convenience store shooting years before leaving her stuck with an increasingly uncaring mother who married a loutish exact opposite of her father the other roles are not as fully written and most remain rather the movie is mainly sawa's however and the rest of the actors equip themselves well in limited roles tony todd candyman as an arcane morgue attendant pops up for a cameo but his appearance is rather supererogatory and the aforementioned dialogue occasionally hits the bullseye while at other times it hovers over being just a little too stilted and campy ultimately what is so good about final destination is that within the confines of the slasher genre wong and screenwriters glen morgan and jeffrey reddick have created a premise that has never been seen before in this manner and a film that has the ability to both surprise and things that are rarely found in today's horror films if anything it's safe to say you will never ever look at flying in airplanes the same way again
positive	originally entitled dancing about architecture i e talking about love is like dancing about architecture but changed because it sounded too much like the recent dud dancing at lughnasa this film slaps together a stunning cast of hollywood names playing interesting and characters within a plot arrangement a la robert altman plot follow the lives of several couples falling in and out of love finding themselves regaining a clearer understanding of the people that they are and who they want and appreciating the fine emotional art of love critique charmingly effective romantic drama this film offers insight into various types of relationships presents us with interesting characters and excellent performances from the cast and scratches beneath the surface of love and its many complex subtleties how do people fall in love why do people fall out of love how do people fall back into love once they've been hurt and left to join the lonely hearts club all of these questions and more are touched upon in this film within several types of variant relationships meet a hip young couple going through their first date a divorcee attempting to date again after her many failed relationships a married woman finding herself while cheating on her husband a husband letting go of his inhibitions an older couple dealing with a past love of the man a secret recently uncovered a son dying from aids joined by his mother at the hospital there are many nuances to this picture and many ideas and quotes to which we could all relate but more importantly there is diversity diversity of relationships helped me and my gang of friends enjoy this film on many levels some related to the younger couples' issues others with the married there's a little bit of everything for everyone in here and i would bet dollars to donuts that if i were to watch this film again in a year i would relate myself to yet another predicament just like love itself this movie is distinct and appreciated by all on many different levels the actors in this film are all also very very good sean connery is solid as the older man with some issues to resolve as is gena rowlands as the aging wife with trepidations jolie comes out of this film a star with a great performance while philippe is as as ever anderson leaves scully far behind with her wonderful portrayal of a damaged woman trying to her love life opposite a surprisingly admirable performance by former host jon stewart even dennis quaid manages to step outside of his overacting shoes in this film and offers a convincing show of a man lost within his own imagination the only piece of this puzzle which left me somewhat detached was the part surrounding jay mohr the man dying from aids and his mother ellen burstyn the actors were fine but somehow the piece seemed out of place within the realm of everything else the ending of this film was also a little too saccharine for me but i guess that's just hollywood this film is actually a lot like your friends and neigbors and happiness in concept and style but its complete anthesis in regards to character relatibility and likeness the characters in those films were too unique and inhuman for anyone to care as opposed to this film which offers rich and believable characters living real lives and talking about real issues in today's relationships all in all this movie offers many interesting characters talking and living genuine and engaging love lives wonderful performances by its solid cast too sweet of an ending but an enjoyable and rewatchable movie nonetheless little known facts about this film and its stars according to a story in the london sunday mirror sean connery asked for only for his role in this movie as compared to his usual fee of million because he liked the script so much on top of that he convinced his including gena rowlands gillian anderson ellen burstyn et al to do the same this is willard carroll second real foray into the world of adult films before this he had written and produced many children's movies gillian anderson stands angelina jolie's full name is angelina jolie voight she is actor jon voight's daughter she has trained and performed at the lee strasberg theatre institute she divorced actor jonny lee miller of trainspotting fame in they were married in actor ryan phillippe's full name is matthew ryan phillippe he stands and spent his childhood in new castle delaware his acting career started on tv's one life to live he portrayed daytime television's first gay teenager jon stewart's full name is jonathan stewart leibowitz this film was originally entitled if they only knew and dancing about architecture watch for movie posters from swingers chasing amy and the texas chainsaw massacre at the movie theatre where the characters of joan and keenan go on their first date
positive	well this is not mission difficult mr hunt it's mission impossible difficult should be a walk in the park for you swanbeck sir anthony hopkins the series' new agent phelps takes ethan hunt tom cruise down a notch a russian scientist rade serbedzija has created a new virus and its antidote called chimera that destroys its host within twenty hours of injection a rogue imf agent sean ambrose dougray scott wants to use the disease and cure to blackmail a pharmaceutical company into selling him enough stock to make him owner of the company he knows it will soon be worth its weight in gold thanks to the outbreak of the virus he is going to cause posing as ethan hunt ambrose gains the confidence of the scientist long enough to get only the cure not realizing that the scientist had injected himself with the virus to prevent exactly what ambrose was trying to do the real ethan hunt is called in from his vacation to persuade beautiful thief nyah thandie newton to assist the imf team in retrieving the stolen goods ethan and nyah fall quickly in love but ethan soon finds himself in a real dilemma when he learns that his new love has only been hired because she was a former lover of ambrose's reluctantly he sets up nyah to be rescued from prison by ambrose so she can infiltrate his compound and send back intelligence to the team ethan must race against time to keep ambrose from obtaining and spreading the virus and prevent any harm from coming to nyah although the first mission impossible film was a moderate box office success audiences panned it because they felt the plot was too confusing and there wasn't much action although being a fan of the series both old and new i thought the movie was pretty decent and especially gutsy to make phelps a bad guy that problem has been rectified in the sequel by making the plot more accessible courtesy of one of the writers of the previous entry robert towne and by turning the film into one gigantic action set piece under the steady hand of action film guru john woo the end result is one of the most entertaining yet simple action films made in a long while unfortunately the first forty minutes or so are relatively slow dwelling mainly on ethan and nyah's quickly blossoming romance and seeming more in place in a james bond film than with the less glamorous mission impossible tv series ethan's conflict is a compelling one but it seems very rushed and comes about because of a near fatal car wreck that ethan himself causes john woo handles all of this with an artistic flair that seems out of place featuring a great deal of slow fades and dramatically framed the surreal nature of these sequences are distracting and ultimately a detriment to the film thankfully though at the point ambrose discovers nyah's deception mission impossible ii becomes very entertaining and robert towne's screenplay takes some of the conventions set up in the first film and parodies them during a sequence where ethan must break into a building and retrieve the remaining specimens of the virus after that the action scenes just begin to build in intensity as is the case with many of woo's previous films the final half hour is an all out assault of action a good deal of which is ruined by the trailer unfortunately as far as summer entertainment goes mission impossible ii is serviceable fare anyone looking for hardcore action won't be disappointed except for during the first half of the film perhaps even if you weren't a fan of the first film this entry deserves some checking out 
positive	robert redford is very good at playing characters who have incredible gifts but are able to act like ordinary people in the natural he played the fallen angelic character of roy hobbs the baseball player who was destined to be the best there ever was but still acted like a humble farm boy in butch cassidy and the sundance kid he was the most dangerous shot in the west yet he came off like a nothing more than a boyishly charmer even in indecent proposal where he played a man who was so good at making money that he believed he could buy love redford was still able to exude an aura of shy decency especially when reciting a tale of lost love in his latest film the horse whisperer based on the novel by nicholas evans redford again plays such a character redford also directed the film although he swore up and down that he would never direct himself in a movie i suppose the character of tom booker a man who has the amazing gift of understanding and somehow communicating with horses was just too good to pass up despite his enormous and rare gift when it comes to training troubled horses a magazine article coins the phrase horse whisperer to describe his uncanny talent booker sees himself as an everyday cattle rancher whose greatest fear is growing old and no longer having a purpose in life booker's talents are taxed into service by annie maclean kristin scott thomas a new york magazine editor whose daughter grace scarlett johansson was recently in a horrible accident the accident which is filmed with horror happens when grace and her best friend are out riding horses an kills grace's friend severely wounds and traumatizes grace's horse pilgrim and causes grace to lose part of her right leg annie believes that if pilgrim can be healed grace will be healed as well which leads her to booker at first she tries to get booker to come to new york to see the horse but that doesn't work instead she packs up grace and pilgrim leaves her husband robert sam neill behind and heads for the rolling hills of montana where booker runs a ranch with his brother frank chris cooper and his diane dianne wiest in many ways the film is like a journey both literally and symbolically the move out west has always been a great american tradition of renewal and it's hard not to see annie and grace's leaving manhattan for montana as a variation on the classic theme of city vs country in the horse whisperer country is clearly the victor the city is characterized by claustrophobia and unhappiness and it is not until the characters arrive in the spaces of montana that grace's anger at being physically and emotionally crippled begins to dissipate annie's controlling nature begins to relax and pilgrim once again learns to trust people redford is just as in love with the grand montana country in this film as he was when he directed a river runs through it six years ago in many ways the horse whisperer comes from the same poetic vein as river and the movie could probably be a good fifteen minutes shorter if redford had decided to spend less on the grass and mountains but then that would ruin the magic much of the film's photography is truly elegant and it creates a palpable sense of the sheer expansiveness of the land to further emphasize this redford and cinematographer robert richardson natural born killers platoon cheated a bit by shooting the beginning of the film which takes place in new york with mostly cold harsh bluish filters and a more squarish aspect ratio when the action shifts to montana richardson switches to and natural lighting and the screen widens to a aspect ratio in terms of the story itself the horse whisperer gives us the same romanticized view of adultery found in david lean's a brief encounter and clint eastwood's adaptation of robert james waller's the bridges of madison county richard lagravenese here also adapted bridges although the horse whisperer has a strong romantic sensibility i still find something oddly troubling about this kind of story it seems to me that there should be some sympathy for the husband who's being left behind for this brief affair but there rarely is in the horse whisperer the thankless role of being the husband falls to sam neill he plays the character as a decent man who is a good husband and father his only failure is that he loves his wife more than she loves him he is at risk of losing annie to booker not because he did anything to drive her away but simply because he happens to be a normal fairly uninspiring man there is one scene that is particularly telling of how the movie feels about each character it shows booker and robert going into a horse pen booker is dressed like a classic cowboy with hat and all while robert looks somewhat frumpy and in a baseball cap as they enter the pen booker assuredly swings over the fence while robert hesitates then opens the gate and in a goofy moment forgets to close it behind him it's a small scene but it clearly demonstrates the movie's thorough love of the booker character for his romantic roughness after all booker represents everything good about the city while robert represents everything banal and unnatural about it the best scenes in the horse whisperer tend to involve not the building romance between booker and annie but rather the healing process of grace and her horse although booker's methods are mythical and unrealistic the scenes with him and pilgrim are strangely mesmerizing these are paralleled by the scenes between him and grace some of which are humorous and all of which are tender and true at some point i wished the movie would drop the whole romance angle and focus on grace more nevertheless redford is obviously a romantic at heart and he brings a light touch to the erotic moments in the film there are no dramatic sex scenes but there is a moving scene when he and scott thomas are always moving ever closer together that is far more erotic than any scene of sweaty bodies grinding together although the movie is longer than it should be and is essentially a melodramatic tearjerker with an unsatisfying conclusion that guarantees unhappiness for just about every character there are enough moments like that which make the horse whisperer worth the price of admission
positive	in roger michell's romantic comedy notting hill william thacker hugh grant leads a rather dreary life maintaining his flagging travel bookshop in the quaint section of london which lends it's name to the film's title one day american movie superstar anna scott julia roberts walks in to purchase a book on turkey quickly enamored of each other the two embark upon an love affair replete with romance humor and the occasional lump in the throat the film opens with a cue to anna's stardom as the title credits appear over a montage of slow motion sequences featuring the actress's appearances in films and at premieres coming out of limousines walking the red carpets and such without words this sequence gives us a background to her character following however is a narration by william indicating what he does and where he lives i don't know why the filmmakers chose to go with a narration which tells us nothing we couldn't have figured out by watching the first ten minutes of film and which never resurfaces after the movie's beginning but there it is if there were ever a clear case for less is more this would be it the film is told nearly first person from william's point of view as he is in every scene by nature of this arrangement we get a very definite sense of what he is all about and his nice guy personality wins us over easily in fact much of notting hill's strength lies in the great dialog written for this character by richard curtis a scene where william is still in shock over the fact that he's even talking to a silver screen goddess is made golden by the way bumbles through his attempt to offer her some apricots from his refrigerator or take an instance where anna kisses william and asks him never to tell anyone for fear of the incident hurting her image william assures her he wouldn't say a word then adds well i'll probably tell myself now and then but i'd never believe it great stuff the downside to spending so much time with william is that we don't get to see enough of anna to make their relationship whole and plausible we're constantly exposed to william's thoughts feelings actions and desires but don't actually get the sense of how much anna really feels for him there are a couple of instances where she declares her obvious interest but they nearly come out of nowhere due to the fact that we're not sure what she's been thinking all the times in between this combined with the sheer iniquity of screen time between the two makes this hugh grant's film hands down he gets the great scenes look for one in which he has to portray an interviewer from horse and hound magazine in order to speak with anna the great lines and gives an overall wonderful performance julia roberts fans will probably be disappointed by the actress's top billing and subsequent lack of involvement in the film ala sandra bullock in a time to kill along with her detached performance which is only worsened by her character's unpredictable behavior anna doesn't get a lot of our compassion this romantic comedy leans a little more toward the comedy than the romance much of it supplied by grant himself but with considerable help from the supporting cast most notable is rhys ifans as spike william's eccentric roommate who is in the film for no other purpose than to make us laugh hugh bonneville emma chambers james dreyfus and gina mckee bring up the guard as william's friends and family particularly shining in a scene where william brings anna to his sister's birthday dinner and we get to see how these common folks react to the presence of a movie star in their midst it's a scene most of us will probably think would play out in our own living rooms were we faced with a similar situation roger michell's use of visuals doesn't sweep us off our feet but does give us more than your typical movie of this type for example there are a couple of instances in this film where large amounts of time pass whereas some films are content to simply put in a caption saying eight months later michell presents us with more interesting cues such as william's walk though his neighborhood while the seasons change around him another memorable shot occurs in a park where the camera is lifted from ground level to a couple of hundred feet in the air we're generally used to scenes where our point of view is lifted from the earth to treetop level or so but in this case the camera just keeps going up and up until we have a bird's eye view of the ground below music is used rather glaringly as an enhancement to many of the film's scenes and some of this might have been better toned down but in other areas it works to full effect it's kind of a mixed bag but still fares better than many of today's lighthearted movies which are so influenced by the mtv fare that the film becomes one long music video at least this film has some pretty good music that for the most part remains relevant and appropriate notting hill's grant and roberts will not go down in history as one of the greatest film pairings but the chemistry is decent and the comedic aspects of the movie more than make up for it for a couple of hours you should expect to laugh more than cry and that's not so bad now is it
positive	ingredients man with amnesia who wakes up wanted for murder dark science fiction city controlled by alien beings with mental powers synopsis what if you woke up one day and suspected you were not on earth and instead were part of an experiment in a giant space terrarium manipulated by intergalactic alien zookeepers in dark city john murdoch rufus sewell has this problem dark city starts out like a noir amnesia detective mystery poor john wakes up with amnesia in a hotel room with a dead dame in one corner a mysterious phone call tells him to get the heck out of there and soon enough john is chased all over town by a murderous army of pale people in black as well as by the police and the dogged inspector bumstead william hurt is john a murderer and what can his missing memories tell him he searches through his own wallet for possible contacts and clues but when the clues don't fit it doesn't just confuse him it causes john to go so far as to question the whole nature of reality in the dark city to john something is fishy and very unreal about this city how come it's always dark and nobody seems to remember what they did this morning and how come nobody seems to remember how to leave the city or how to get to nearby shell beach every night around midnight john notices that the whole city enters a state of suspended animation and at this time creepy alien experimenters known as the come out and do nasty things like inject fake memories into people's heads with big hypodermic needles the strangers have the ability to or warp reality using telepathic powers turns out the city is not on earth at all and the reason why john doesn't fall victim to the nightly suspended animation is because he is a human mutation that possesses the same abilities as the strangers even with the help of scientist dr daniel schreber can john take back the dark city opinion director alex proyas he also directed the crow mentions this in the dark city press kit in films science fiction is always used to have big spaceships blow up cities i think we're a little tired of that according to director proyas probably the most interesting thing about dark city is its layers it's designed so that you can watch the film over again and examine it from the perspective of a main character other than murdoch it's a philosophical piece cinematic science fiction is basically a thinly disguised shootout between the good humans and the bad aliens whether they be klingons giant bugs or proponents of the dark side of the force but science fiction in books reaches beyond the level and targets the big questions questions like who are we what is the human condition what is ethical what would a true human being do far from comic book style on the order of spawn batman or the mutant ninja turtles dark city not only features the showdown between good humans and powerful aliens but it also asks questions worthy of films such as brazil or blade runner dark city is what philosophers would call an existentialist screenplay a little more than years ago the world was filled with unhappy peasants unhappy because nearly every aspect of their lives was controlled by totalitarian military conformist medieval regimes the people took refuge in religion the idea being that earthly life was a time of suffering but after death heaven would be available meanwhile the state used these same ideas to prop up their regimes the king was often head of the religion and therefore sanctioned by heaven when science finally overturned religion the medieval dictatorships came tumbling down and were replaced by democratic governments but the new fear was that the power of science and experimentation would be used to create a world order as darkly totalitarian as the old this is the time period when writers and philosophers such as freud kant kafka nietzsche and dostoevsky pondered what society should be and what place the individual had in it the existentialists' in particular wrote about the power of the lone individual against what may be a hostile indifferent or alienated universe in dark city when the last dying defeated alien asks john murdoch why the aliens' scientific experiments on the human beings' brains failed murdoch replies pointing to his head because the human condition isn't located in here
positive	every once in a while when an exceptional family film comes along i will attempt to champion it by challenging parents to put their money where their mouths have been with all the hubbub over the lack of films suitable for children it is remarkable how many films disappear in a couple of weeks now i see that in so doing i have unfairly ghettoized these films so i am issuing my challenge not just to parents but to anyone who wants to support smart funny energetic see matilda see it in a theater rather than shrugging and waiting for it on video see the best film i have seen in not the best children's film the best film period based on a story by roald dahl it tells of young matilda wormwood mara wilson an extraordinarily bright girl whose great misfortune it is to have a pair of deeply stupid parents harry danny devito a crooked used car salesman and zinnia rhea perlman a bingo addict the wormwoods barely notice matilda exists and when they do it is only to scold her for spending too much time reading books when they finally do send her to school it is to crunchem hall a bleak place run by cruel miss agatha trunchbull pam ferris but things begin to look up for matilda when she discovers a sympathetic teacher miss honey embeth davidtz who nurtures her natural inquisitiveness matilda also discovers another special talent the ability to move things with her mind which allows her to help herself and miss honey to overcome miss trunchbull's cruelty it was this spring's james and the giant peach which inspired me to note that the best and most lasting tales for children tended to have more than a hint of darkness to them and you can bet that the roald dahl responsible for the gleeful ghoulishness of james and willy wonka and the chocolate factory has more of the same in store with matilda and just as james benefited from the dark sensibilities of henry selick and tim burton matilda soars on the direction of danny devito devito made black humor a key element in throw momma from the train and the war of the roses and he contributes some memorable images in one scene an unfortunate girl is made an example of by miss trunchbull when she is picked up by her and flung through the air like a throwing hammer later an overweight boy is forced to eat an entire massive cake after he is caught stealing a dessert matilda is just twisted enough to be a perfect fairy tale it is also characteristic of the best children's tales that they manage to teach lessons in such a way that children almost don't realize that they are learning them there is a hilarious moment when matilda's father snatches away the book she is reading in a wicked joke he thinks is pornographic and forces her to watch an inane game show hosted by jon lovitz in which contestants are smeared with adhesive and placed in a booth filled with cash blowing around matilda is a story which promotes the value of intellectual curiosity over passive entertainment and it does so while poking holes in that most frustrating of notions for a child that because i'm big and you're little i'm right and you're wrong more specifically it has as its heroine an intelligent girl who struggles successfully against other people's notions of how she should behave it is no coincidence that matilda was by robin swicord who contributed the superb recent adaptation of little women finally matilda has that quality i find rarest and most treasured in family entertainment it is family entertainment in the truest sense of the word devito knows enough to make matilda and appealing to children taking a deliciously nasty performance by pam ferris as miss trunchbull and making it the focal point of some priceless physical comedy including a great chase through her dark house the child actors are winning but never obnoxiously adorable with mara wilson making matilda a clever and extremely likeable character but there are also many many delights for adults including my favorite scene in which matilda uses her powers to frighten miss trunchbull by having chalk write on a chalkboard by itself while matilda's classmates recite in fashion there is also a deadpan cameo by paul reubens as an fbi agent staking out matilda's father i can't imagine anyone of any age leaving matilda feeling as though his or her intelligence had been insulted matilda is a film which left me glowing with good feeling i will see it again and years from now i will watch it with my children and now i will stop because somewhere near you matilda is about to begin and there is a seat in that theater you should be in if you have a child or ever were a child
positive	usually when one is debating who the modern queen of the romantic comedy is they will bring up names like julia roberts or sandra bullock others will mention meg ryan but for me it's not even close janeane garofalo is not only the queen of the romantic comedy she is the best comic actress in hollywood right now and it's a good thing she's starring in the matchmaker because without her presence the movie would be bland unfunny and dull garofalo stars as marcy tizard a top aide to boston senator john mcglory who is suffering in the polls in an attempt to capture the irish vote he sends marcy on a mission to a small irish town called ballinagra in search of other mcglory's that never moved to america unfortunately for marcy her visit coincides with the town's annual matchmaking festival things get off to a rocky start for marcy though she has no hotel reservations for no rational reason and the tiny confined room tired old cliche' she has to stay in has a visitor in her bathtub his name is sean and marcy finds him repugnant at first so you can obviously tell where this is headed the movie runs into a few roadblocks for instance the story is very thin none of the characters except the old local matchmaker are nearly as interesting as garofalo some of the characters like the political aide played by denis leary have wandered in from a completely different movie i think the director realized this and decided to throw in numerous shots of the beautiful irish scenery and several of garofalo's winning smile the strange thing is that it works garofalo's charm and the irish scenery could carry the thinnest of stories and it carries this one
positive	susan granger's review of bread and tulips first look pictures in this delightfully frothy italian romantic comedy after accidentally being left behind by a tour bus while on a family vacation with her cranky husband and two cynical teenagers rosalba licia maglietta an unhappy housewife from pescara finds herself and love in venice for the first time in years rosalba's on her own when she's abandoned at a highway rest area although her philandering husband antonio catania a dealer orders her to stay there until she's picked up she impulsively accepts a ride to venice a bohemian paradise which she's never visited rosalba finds refuge and romance with fernando bruno ganz a gruff icelandic waiter who offers her a spare room in his modest apartment and prepares breakfast for her each morning to support herself she gets a job working with a florist antonio catania silvio soldini gently explores the blossoming of this bored woman with warmth and affection savoring special moments such as when rosalba starts playing the accordion again and abandons her maroon stretch pants silver jacket and orange sneakers for a simple new dress with espadrilles the superb actors slip into their roles seamlessly particularly luminous licia maglietta and bruno ganz along with marina massironi as her nosy neighbor and giuseppe massironi as the inept eye who's sent to retrieve her on orders from her frantic husband who's discovered that his mistress has no interest in doing his laundry or cleaning the house on the granger movie gauge of to bread and tulips is a beguiling escapist as the summer ends it's a magical getaway for mature audiences
positive	i know what you did last summer the first slasher thriller to be released after scream and written by the same screenwriter kevin williamson is a stylish effective horror film that became biggest hit of the fall season while scream was a more knowing film about the genre i know what you did last summer is more reminiscent of a slasher flick but it is far more intelligent than such guilty pleasures as all nine of the friday the films well okay jason goes to hell was pure hell to sit through the film starts off with four talented aspiring teenage friends who have just graduated from high school in their small boating town of southport n c it is the of july and they will soon be heading their separate ways julie jennifer love hewitt and outsider ray freddie prinze jr will be headed off to college while helen sarah michelle gellar who has just been honored croaker queen in the town and her ignorant jock boyfriend barry ryan phillippe are going to new york to become an actress and football player when the four of them travel to a nearby beach for the evening they are dismayed after hitting a man in the road on their way home distraught and confused they decide they can't go to the police because they will be charged with manslaughter so they devise a plan to throw the apparently dead victim off a peer into the ocean in hopes no one will find him julie is apprehensive about it but is forced into it by barry switch to exactly a year later julie still unable to come to terms with what she did reluctantly returns home from college to find that all three of her old friends are still in the town because their career plans did not work out almost immediately julie recieves an ominous letter that simply reads i know what you did last summer and that is the start of their problems as they find themselves being terrorized by a mysterious figure dressed in fisherman gear and yielding a giant hook i know what you did last summer is a successful horror film for a number of reasons the cinematography by denis crossan could very well be described as hitchcockian as it put shadows fog steam and other clever devices to add atmosphere to the proceedings the characters particularly julie and helen are realistically written and the film amazingly deals with their broken relationship in a few scenes which is largely uncharacteristic in films of this sort and last the film creates a few dazzling and scary that are some of the most memorable i've seen in a horror movie particularly the suspenseful superbly shot sequence involving helen at her family's store with the killer inside with her perhaps the best character is that of missy egan anne heche a lonely backwoods woman whose brother was the one julie thinks they hit heche's performance is a standout as she is able to create a full character in only about ten minutes of screen time i know what you did last summer could have been a great horror movie if not for a few problems prinze jr gives a performance to be desired here and much of his dialogue sounds wooden coming out of his mouth also the climax of the film almost completely loses its frightening grip after it unveils the mystery killer who is a decidedly bad actor and should not have been given any lines luckily the penultimate scene saves the disappointing finale which includes an expertly crafted scare in the main roles hewitt and gellar are highly talented and hewitt especially is one of the best screamers i've ever heard she honestly could give jamie lee curtis a little competition for the best scream queen and gellar is touching as a young woman who in the course of one year finds her dream of being an actress ultimately shattered although not up to the level of either scream movies or the more recent urban legend i know what you did last summer is a respectable slasher film that firmly proved good horror movies were once again being made
positive	labelling is sometimes everything in original mad max the opening title set the plot of the movie in near future thus making it one of the science fiction classics despite the future world being almost exactly like our own walter hill wanted the same opening title for his action classic the warriors producers weren't thrilled by that idea and consequently the movie lost all of its futuristic overtones on the other hand producers were right on the mark walter hill was accused of actually promoting some disturbing trends that were quite visible in contemporary america to make the movie even more distant from future plot was loosely based on anabasis historical book written by xenophon greek mercenary soldier who had described his adventures in ancient persia years ago instead of ancient persia movie begins in contemporary coney island where cleon dorsey wright leader of the warriors local youth gang gets invitation to the great gathering of all youth gangs from the city the gathering organised by gramercy park riffs most powerful gang in the city is taking place in bronx that is far away from warriors' home territory but small and unarmed delegation of the warriors gets there safely thanks to the general truce on the gathering cyrus roger hill charismatic leader of the riffs announces his grand plan to unite all the gangs and take over the city crowd is enthusiastic but the small gang of rogues led by psychopathic luther david patrick kelly uses the opportunity to assassinate cyrus police simultaneously raids the gathering and in the commotion warriors get blamed by the killing and their leader gets killed by riffs the remaining eight led by cleon's lieutenant swann michael beck must now try to get to coney island but this time unprotected by truce and instead being chased by all the gangs upon its release despite the controversies and even some youth riots that were allegedly inspired by it the warriors enjoyed immense popularity and very quickly received some kind of a cult status however despite being one of the best movies of that year and being directed by talented action director walter hill at the peak of his career the movie failed to leave as strong impression to the future generations as some other cinematic achievements of that same year the reason for that probably lies in a fact that this movie aged very quickly if walter hill's idea was to warn the public about problems of urban america he failed miserably the future was much worse than his vision the youth gangs as presented in the warriors are far from shadowy armies able to take over entire cities their members seem more interested in unorthodox fashion and their little petty feuds than such prosaic and for the public more annoying matters like crime in their vocabulary word arms is reserved for small knives and blunt objects and only few of them use heavy artillery like handguns they even have their own very strict and detailed laws upheld more strictly than some governments do with their own many people in american cities would be more than happy to see their young criminals behaving like those in the warriors some of the critics who accused hill of actually praising youth crime had a lot arguments in their favour despite those objections the warriors have all the elements of a very good film the plot is simple and serves as good basis for numerous action scenes the fights are brilliantly choreographed and quite realistic although there isn't much bloodshed or gore in the movie editing is superb events happen at quick pace with the exception of middle when boring moralistic exchanges between swann and his mercy deborah van valkenburgh drag the plot from straight action to social drama territory the soundtrack by barry de vorzon is very suggestive and recognisable yet the trademark of this film are the actors who showed great talent although most of them later sunk into anonymity best known of them is david patrick kelly whose superb and original performance in this film later subscribed him to the roles of psychopathic villains michael beck as cool almost leader of a gang is also very good and james remar gives good contrast as his contender for top spot all in all this movie is perhaps dated yet in its hour and half can give a lot more entertainment than most of the contemporary movies
positive	for those who associate italian cinema with fellini and high art the son's room is an inventive subtle alternative written by directed and starring nanni moretti it takes us through the slow complicated path of bereavement slow is the best description for the film at first it takes its time in establishing the habits of what appears to be a normal happy family father and mother both work but still find the time to support their son and daughter through homework and after school activities they laugh spend free time together and reprimand the kids for innocent wrongs with a sigh and soft pat on the shoulder you get the feeling there is open communication and unconditional love amongst the foursome but suddenly the son is found to be dead after a diving accident the family dynamics begin an unpredictable descent that gives the narrative strength when you least expect it but can also be trying on the attention span though the film drags and even repeats itself this can be somewhat excused as influenced by the process of grieving though nanni moretti wore several hats for this production it doesn't come across as a vanity piece one might wish he hadn't picked the profession of analyst for the father giovanni which he stars as if only because this makes his character's reactions so predictable what saves it is a well written script with spare dialogue and an eclectic variety of human interaction the potency of the film lies in the recreation of the tiny details of everyday life that alter due to the death of a close relative or that remind a depressed person of loss you start to take notice of the cracked dishes ignored when familial bliss was in full swing you remember bonding during the routine jogs around the block and not necessarily huge events like graduation even better are the role reversals that take place within the household while giovanni and paola laura morante do check up on their daughter irene jasmine trinca there is a sense of being on autopilot not only does irene begin to take care of her own needs more she'll make her parents breakfast in an attempt to crack their new shells to life around them these scenes provide interesting portrayals of various coping mechanisms frequently crossing a boundary as to how much you can help yourself versus others during drastic unexpected change respectfully gender issues never enter the picture isolation is universal in terms of dealing so moretti intelligently uses this tool to separate the family though giovanni does stop paolo from discussing andrea at a party with friends there is never a sense that he or she is more stoic or more correct in the search to restore a sense of a balance to their lives most films that broach the topic of death utilize annoying melodrama speeches and conciliatory issues to get the waterworks flowing in contrast the son's room captures a more realistic depiction of the effects of death on a family by graciously flowing among the five stages of mourning denial depression anger bargaining acceptance through each of its main characters it's not the most engaging minutes but it is certainly easy to relate to
positive	the word in the title should be stressed since this is a movie that lacks any action scenes at all what does takes place is more based on character development the film starts right in the middle of the lives of four people nick beth carol and sid what they have done earlier is for the most part only hinted at nick and beth have a relationship and have decided to move from enfield arizona to butte montana and i who thought that butte was pronounced slightly different carol is nick's and beth's best friend sid is a painter that comes to repaint their house before the new tenants move in obviously based on a stage play the problem with the movie is that there's a lot of things left out it's not obvious that nick and beth are in love with each other the reason why nick was fired from his job isn't mentioned and why nick suddenly decide to go visit his parents remain a mystery when he hasn't seen them for many years set in a small fictional town in arizona was a good move since this makes the film focus on the four characters and not on their surroundings the name of the city is not important this could take place anywhere with four young people in a house discussing life and the future particularly impressive is bridget fonda as beth who end up in bed with sid when her fiance nick leaves her not an actress that i have found interesting earlier or seen many pictures with but i'll keep an eye on her in the future interesting trivia this was rated r in the us but rated ten' in sweden wich means that anyone at any age can see it
positive	airplane is considered among many to be the epitome of satire after all it's brought to us by one of the best known satire teams even if most people don't recognize the names behind the films they are bound to recognize the titles airplane top secret the naked gun and hot shots to name a few but although the team was first introduced with the kentucky fried movie in airplane remains the true cornerstone of their work and their directorial debuts in the seventies disaster films seemed to be at an all time high films like earthquake the towering inferno and the poseidon adventure were big hits there was also a series about the disasters that can arise when traveling by plane a series that spanned the entire decade and so in we were introduced to a new airplane disaster film this time the disaster had nothing to do with a maniacal hijacker or crashing into the ocean   it had to do with bad fish airplane is the story of ted striker robert hays an who has never gotten over the fact that a decision he had to make in the midst of war led to the death of six er seven comrades unable to stop living in the past ted's world fell apart he spent his time moving from city to city without ever having a stable job and eventually as we begin this film is getting dumped by his lover flight attendant elaine dickinson julie hagerty in a desperate attempt not to lose her ted buys a ticket for the same flight elaine is working unfortunately she is unsympathetic and even criticizes ted for following her which leaves him wallowing in in the midst of it all something happens someone gets sick then another then another soon the whole plane is full of people   and when the pilots get sick played by peter graves kareem and frank ashmore who will save the day gee i wonder of course the main draw here is the comedy with a hefty dose of both visual and spoken gags although i had seen this movie a few times before i was still laughing thru the entire thing the most fun character by far is the doctor played by leslie nielsen he's a dry subtle sterotypically doctor that ends up saying some of the funniest lines of the film in a film like this you're not really expecting an elaborate production so one can't complain about the amateurish quality what you can complain about is the absolutely annoying johnny played by stephen stucker this character is pointless nauseating and very unfunny i don't know why he was put in there and i don't think anybody will find a good excuse and when the film nears an end it slows down quite a bit almost getting old you gotta give it to a movie that only runs minutes and can feel two hours long aside from that airplane is really a spoof that will likely forever be known as a spoof classic it would be a good choice to pop in the vcr with a group of friends especially if they haven't seen it and if they ask what the plot is just tell it's a synopsis of the basic storyline of the film but that's not important right now if you've seen the film you'll understand
positive	this is the movie not the perfume a slow moving stylish psychological thriller in imitation of hitchcock's vertigo it is adapted from an original story by brian de palma and paul schrader and is directed by de palma and scripted by schrader set in new orleans it shows the wealthy michael courtland cliff robertson sitting on top of the world celebrating his tenth wedding anniversary with a party in his mansion as his lovely wife elizabeth genevi ve bujold and young daughter amy blackman both look up to him beaming with joy his development partner bob la salle john lithgow proposes a toast to him and to their prosperous business while his high society friends give him their best wishes upon retiring for the night his daughter and wife are kidnapped in their bedroom and he is left with a ransom note to deliver tomorrow or they will be killed inspector brie stanley reyes comes up with a plan to put in phony money and a transmitter in the briefcase exchange as that will lead them to the kidnappers but the kidnappers burst out of the house surrounded by the police taking the two victims with them and in the pursuing police chase the kidnapper's car explodes and goes over the bridge where none of the bodies were found grieving the loss of his wife and child the michael builds them a tomb on the expensive land they were to develop sixteen years later he goes with his partner bob on a vacation and he revisits florence italy where he met his wife when he goes to the church where they met he sees a young girl who looks exactly like his wife her name is sandra portinari genevi ve bujold and she's working there restoring art that is decaying he falls instantly in love with her and doesn't heed bob's warnings that she might be a gold digger and decides to take her back to new orleans and marry her sandra becomes his second chance to prove his love as he thinks he can finally put the past behind him the surprises to come weren't really all that surprising as the beauty in the storytelling is almost exclusively in the understated acting by the soul stricken cliff robertson the emotionally impactful performance by genevi ve bujold and the competent acting of john lithgow it plays too much like a rehash of the master's work to break any new ground yet it is still thrilling in its own way
positive	the farrelly brothers' third film after dumb and dumber and kingpin brings together the couple of cameron diaz and matt dillon some nasty humour a cute dog and a mix of love fate and romance plot nerd ted gets lucky when the cutest girl in his class asks him to the prom unfortunately for ted he accidentally gets a part of his male anatomy ouch caught in his zipper and misses the big night thirteen years later ted still can't get mary out of his mind and hires a private detective dillon to find her once found it turns out that mary has more than one suitor and that's when the real fun begins critique likeable comedy with a few extremely funny scenes some funny looking people and a plot that won't ever put you to sleep having said that i must admit that i did like the farrellys' two previous films more than this one but that is saying a lot since i really did love those earlier pics this one is also quite funny but it didn't really blow me away like the others then again maybe my expectations were too high then again maybe i should shut up and write a little more about the film and less about my supposed subconscious reasons for the film continuing where their other pictures left off the farrellys' create a cutesy world of people with strange and endearing qualities and a simple plot by which to tie them all together this one also includes plenty of toilet humour but also some borderline of the disabled and i must admit that i really wasn't sure whether to laugh at some points or not not a good place to be having said that the scenes that did tear through the audience and yours truly were extremely hilarious and went on for several minutes after the punchline the laughter practically killed out the next scene for one of the best ones in the movie something to do with hair gel on the negative end i did not like the musical interludes of jonathan richman that ran through the entire picture i found them quite useless unfunny and distracting also i found that a lot of the funnier scenes had already been shown in the film's trailer and of course i never quite buy the fact that these beautiful intelligent single women still can't seem to find the right guy see kiss the girls i did really like all of the actors in the film especially ben stiller who appears to be solidifying his mark as a great comical actor with this picture and one of my favourites from flirting with disaster i also liked matt dillon with his big teeth and lee evans with his superb british accent funny stuff also make sure that you stay for the credits because there is an entire montage of outtakes from the film that plays under a version of build me up buttercup which is really cool overall a cute comedy with a decent premise and a few particularly hilarious scenes little known facts the farrellys big break came when they somehow got a copy of their script dust to dust into the hands of eddie murphy via murphy's neighbour they only found out about murphy's interest when they saw eddie mention the script on the david letterman show one night matt dillon is a high school dropout in between acting gigs dillon has branched out into the restaurant business close to home in his native new york he both a bar called the whiskey and a swanky uptown eatery called the falls cameron diaz stands started working as a model at the early age of and loves cats ben stiller's father is jerry stiller he played george costanza's jason alexander father on tv's seinfeld peter farrelly has written a novel entitled outside providence which is currently being filmed starring alec baldwin rob moran who plays the cop in this film also played the millionaire bowler in kingpin and the bartender in dumb and dumber he is old friends with the farrelly brothers from college and is currently married to entertainment tonight julie moran harland williams who plays the nutty hitchhiker in this film also played a state trooper in the farrelly's earlier dumb and dumber and was the star of the unfortunate rocket man
positive	when jim henson passed away he left behind diverse legions of fans and a company whose ultimate success it now seems hinged on his input jim henson productions and the creature shop are still thriving financially but as the last two muppet films or that silly monkey from lost in space demonstrate the thrill and genius are gone i'm not sure the dark crystal made today would generate from an audience of kids five to fifty the same response an crystal has cracked causing the leaders of the green world to split apart into two beings the big gentle mystics and the skeksis the mystics send jen a naive gelfling boy on a mission to find the shard that cracked away which must be reinserted into the crystal before the skeksis become eternal rulers before the great conjunction of three suns along the way jen encounters and teams up with the only other gelfling alive the rebecca kira an named aughra who removes her eyes to look at things and a animal named fizzgig much of the beauty in the dark crystal which is a simple tale though it does not condescend to any viewer lies in its art direction and creature design the puppeteering is the scenes in which jen plays his flute or the landwalker i must stress that any thoughts of strings and hands and remote controls all but vanish in the opening moments of the picture a by john baddeley absorbing prologue the voice work in the film by muppet regulars and irregulars is as well trevor jones' score should not be discounted it contributes to the film almost as an unseen character i suppose due to the complexity involved in executing a movie of this nature that it couldn't be helped but i wish the film was longer jen and kira have wonderful well chemistry and more scenes of them quietly conversing would have been appreciated the dark crystal has a very small cult following the weaker labyrinth is probably which is upsetting a friend of mine related a story to me that henson was pressured into planting humans among labyrinth's creatures due to the financial failure of the dark crystal that film never quite found its footing it played like an episode of the muppet show with david bowie as borrowing from tolkien and pandering to tolkien's i suppose i just made labyrinth sound appetizing to a certain sector of the public the dark crystal deserved and still deserves a bigger audience it's the best kind of children's entertainment elegant fantastical and courageously brian henson fortunate son keep looking back at this your father's masterpiece
positive	bob the happy bastard's quickie review the mummy brendan fraser's stuck in the past again but at least this time he has something better to do than to quote sitcom lines and try to woo alicia silverstone fraser is the lead star of the mummy the second directorial effort from action director stephen sommers who also brought us the decent thrill ride that was deep rising it's a rough adaptation of the film and i say rough because it focuses more on special effects than on some guy in bandages like boris karloff was engulfed in but who cares the movie has a sort of swashbuckling quality to it you can't get from oh say godzilla or armageddon fraser plays a soldier who gets a premonition during a battle with soldiers in an egyptian ground basically it's a little sign from the mummy buried a priest named ihmoetep who was buried alive for taking part of murdering the king and making out with his mistress his wake back up and wake her up also making him invincible of course fraser returns to the site years later with a librarian rachel weisz and her brother john hanna along with a former buddy of his deep rising's kevin j o'connor and some americans and guess what yup ihmoetep arnold vosloo awakens and wreaks havoc fire flies from the sky beetles crawl about and well ihmoetep's plan begins to unfold ok so it's not really all that new a story but the way sommers tells it is entertaining enough the special effects from industrial light and magic are top notch and the acting from fraser and weisz isn't half bad either the action is pretty intense favorite scene the sandstorm and there are a few shocking scenes just to jolt you folks as well no it's no phantom menace beater but if you're looking for a solid to the summer movie season you won't find a better film under wraps than the mummy if this doesn't give fraser forgiveness from blast from the past and encino man then nothing will
positive	the laserman somehow the title of peter wang's film conjures up images of superheroes like ultraman and spiderman you kind of expect an adventure flick about a crime fighter who can shoot laser beams from his fingertips as it turns out the laserman about crime and about laser beams but there aren't any superheroes instead wang's film is populated by a group of refreshingly characters living in the ultimate cultural melting pot new york city the laserman is a comic brew which celebrates ethnicity eccentricity and electricity the film tells the bizarre story of arthur weiss marc hayashi a laser scientist whose life becomes incredibly hectic after he accidentally kills his lab assistant in an experiment he loses his job but finds work with a mysterious company which secretly plans to use laser technology to commit dastardly deeds arthur's professional life is cluttered with moral dilemmas his personal life on the other hand is cluttered with colorful friends and quirky relatives in fact arthur is by far the blandest character in the film despite a charismatic performance by hayashi the san actor whose films include chan is missing and the karate kid ii it's the auxiliary characters who give the laserman its unique spark arthur's jewish mother ruth for example is convinced that a chinese soul is trapped in her jewish body she has dyed her red hair black she takes herbal medicine daily and she is perpetually cooking up strange delicacies such as matzo balls in soy ultimate fusion of jewish and chinese cuisine veteran stage actress joan copeland takes the part and runs with it almost stealing the movie in the process she plays ruth as a driven woman determined to overcome her genetic heritage by immersing herself in chinese culture arthur's girlfriend janet maryann urbano is a kooky who would rather meditate than copulate her ultimate goal is orgasm through zen meditation arthur's best friend joey tony leung is a small time thief who hustles everything from microwave ovens to machine guns joey is married to arthur's jewish sister but he is also having an affair with a chinese immigrant who works in a whore house arthur's son jimmy played by the amazingly adorable david chan of at math he finds it impossible to meet his father's lofty expectations the various people in arthur's life come together to form a rich tapestry of humanity like wang's earlier film a great wall about a san francisco family visiting relatives in china the laserman revolves around cultural differences every character in the film is in some way or another trying to find his to negotiate a balance between his native culture and the american way the movie also offers a provocative look at technology wang appears in the movie as lieutenant lu a detective who is fed up with machines even though he relies on them to do his job the film views technology with a wary eye acknowledging its necessity while at the same time realizing its potential dangers wang raises the question of whether scientists should be held responsible for their inventions was einstein responsible for the is arthur weiss responsible for his lasers the movie pits spirituality against technology man against machine and the result is a draw according to the film technology has its place but we must employ it with great forethought and caution ironically by its very nature the laserman is a triumph of technology of filmmaking wang's direction is exquisite especially during the tense finale in which the director frantically between the various subplots perhaps in homage to d w griffith cinematographer ernest dickerson who has worked on all of spike lee's films gives the laserman a distinctive artistic look mason daring's score which includes a of bach is right on target the laserman is an ambitious endeavor which is to be applauded but it's sometimes ambitious to a fault wang serves up so many slices of life in the film that it's hard to digest them all for instance one character arthur's sister has negligible screen time and consequently we just don't care about her marital problems in weaving his web wang has included a few too many strands overall however the laserman is a charmingly eclectic concoction on the surface the film is a light and bouncy overflowing with whimsical humor and visual style the heavier issues emerge only when you take a deeper look at the film you can ponder the moral questions or you can just sit back and enjoy the absurdity of life in china town
positive	imagine this you're given a sword and a shield and very basic minimal training a man you don't know tells you that this will be the last day that you will live you are thrown into an arena with thousands of spectators wanting to see you die you frantically monitor several closed doors which in seconds will release vicious enemies prepared to destroy you you watch as the innocent friends you made in the last few days are murdered in cold blood if you are lucky enough to survive this chaos thrown at you you know you're going to have to do it all over again tomorrow eventually know matter how strong or skilled you are you're going to die this is the life of a gladiator you'll never have to be a gladiator and after seeing ridley scott's powerful gladiator you'll be thankful for that with his new film scott has returned cinema to the fascinating age of the ancient roman empire and like those preceding it spartacus and ben hur gladiator has nearly everything going for it a strong lead actor a wonderful supporting cast special effects and a great script since the two aforementioned films came out before the prime target viewers of gladiator teenagers to males were around a whole new genre may just be reborn and revisited a weak beginning the film starts off extremely gloomy and inauspicious rome's best general maximus russell crowe who has helped the empire conquer nearly everywhere they have attempted is currently in the year a d that is waging a war against germania scott shoots the gory battle in an awkward style similar to that of saving private ryan but much less effective it's blurry in slow motion and the sound is muted as soon as this artistic method began it was hard to tell what was what and who was who it's a good thing scott stops this after the first twenty minutes or else gladiator would have been torture to watch instead the general swears he will get out after this battle he wants to go back to his family and his crops he wants a quiet life but unexpectedly he gets anything but that the dying emperor of rome marcus aurelius richard harris decides to have maximus appointed new emperor of rome once he dies he asks maximus to restore the republic by giving more power to the senators all of this does not go well for aurelius' son commodus joaquin phoenix who was expecting his father to name him the new emperor jealous and upset commodus kills his own father names himself emperor kills maximus' wife and son and attempts to kill maximus but maximus is able to escape his own death and vows to kill commodus and fulfill marcus aurelius' wishes now a slave the only way he can win his own freedom and complete his goal is to become a winning gladiator who eventually are released for their success a story of betrayal and promises gladiator is more than just a mindless action flick you actually care about the characters sometimes even the evil villain commodus who is just a young man as determined to make rome one way as maximus is determined to make it the other way phoenix plays his character brilliantly think of commodus as the percy wetmore of the green mile of the roman empire a whiny sleazy brat who hates when he's not the center of attention every scene we see commodus he's either crying or he looks like he has just been crying phoenix has definitely matured as an actor since to die for and gladiator shows he's more than just river's little brother crowe is also excellent as the film's hero maximus is one of the few characters in recent cinema who actually has emotions this guy actually acts like a anyone in his situation would act he's no invincible superhero who only blurts out he believe it or not acts like a human being the rest of the cast including richard harris djimon hounsou walter hill derek jacobi and connie nielsen are also first rate ridley scott using outstanding special effects has brilliantly recreated the roman coliseum the loudness of the roman mob and the city of rome in general the visuals are breathtaking and voluminous like a cleopatra of the year the costuming is also wonderful from the detailed shields and armor to the exquisite dress of the politicians gladiator is another movie you have to see on the big screen to get the most out of the experience along with action fans should have plenty to see in theaters this week and should expect much more excitement to come this summer of
positive	so here is the second of remakes of classic horror movies the first was the dumb pathetic but ok remake of the classic haunting' now comes the highly awaited remake of house on haunted hill the classic which starred vincent price as a man who pays a group of people to stay in his house if they survive the night they get the money if not well you get the jurisdiction having not yet seen the film dvd on its way i wasn't sure if i would really like the remake but sure enough it comes through and has a great storyline to fall back on geoffrey rush in a fantastic role with an incredible performance is steven price the owner of an amusement park destined to scare the wits out of people his wife evelyn price is throwing a party with her friends steven dismays at the idea and makes his own list somehow someone or something changes that list and five other people are invited to the party eddie taye diggs an player sarah ali carter an who can anything melissa brigette wilson a host in sorts dr blackburn peter ghallager and watson chris kattan a humorist in ways what he is gonna do is pay these five people dollars if they can survive through the night if they can they get the money if not well they don't the house on haunted hill used to be an insane asylum years before mental patients broke out and killed the dr there forcing him to lock the place up because if he died so did they everyone who was in there burned to death now it is steven price's home and he is throwing this party for these five people what starts out as a seemingly normal night turns into a horrifying blood splattering night the deep dark secrets of what really happened in that asylum and why those guests are actually there are revealed the people start to disappear conspiracies start to turn up and steven price finds out that his house may be alive after all the people find rooms which once held mental patients rooms which once had people dying rooms which may still contain these people now these five people must try and survive the night and try and survive the house and they must survive each other with terrorfying results since i officially haven't seen the original i can't say which is better i can say however i liked this movie geoffrey rush gives a one in a million performance as the rich steven price and does a great job doing a vincent price role famke jansen as his wife was great and even kind of eerie at times ali carter and taye diggs sort of become the main characters and ali carter who debuted in varsity blues gives a fantastic performance here as does taye diggs chris kattan gives us great comic relief and the movie contains a lot of comical lines peter ghallager and brigette wilson were great as well and gave commanding performances as potential victims the plot was well conceived and was very absorbing the movie has atmosphere the whole way through that is disturbing and creepy and even sometimes downright scary i found even the opening credits to me a little ominous one thing i knew not to expect was a type movie with special effects galore even though it had fantastic gore and special effects the movie has only a million dollar budget which doesn's show all the way through but you can tell the movie was written well and it's only major flaw is the characters and plot holes that we are left with the ending is quite clever and some may not even get it i must say house on haunted hill was a surprise i was expecting another haunting with special effects no scares and a dumb ending instead i found a good halloween movie with gore scares and great acting house on haunted hill is one of those movies you really can't take seriously though it is a movie with a good storyline it still has some flaws but besides that the movie is fun smart and scary and makes us wonder why remakes like this can't be made all the time
positive	apollo is simply one of the most dramatic film this summer apart from swashbuckling braveheart director and former actor ron howard splash backdraft far away most noted for his dramatic film making displays again his brilliance in creating drama and suspense in apollo being the second largest box office hit in the us this summer with more than million in the states alone this film is his most successful effort yet perhaps one of the most appealing feature of this film is the pool of talented actors such as tom hanks gump himself kevin bacon footloose tremors a few good men etc gary sinise forrest gump bill paxton aliens true lies boxing helena and ed harris the abyss just cause all of whom gave good performances in their respective roles apollo was the second worst accident ever to occur in the history of us spaceflight the worst being the challenger accident jim lovell hanks the mission commander together with his crew fred haise paxton and last minute replacement tom swigert bacon are put to the ultimate test when part of their command module explodes on the third day of the mission more than three quarters way to the moon suspense and drama ensue as the three men are left in space with their spaceship out of control and the problem of surviving the journey home if they ever reach it ed harris and gary sinise who play respectively the man in charge of the entire mission control and the astronaut who was supposed to fly but was diagnosed with measles both delve into their roles superbly audiences are shown the chaotic and worrisome state of the entire ground control crew as they frantically attempt to come up with ideas on how to save the astronauts from hurtling into space also there are quite a number of real news footages which were broadcast during the accident which took the entire us nation into days of drama in the special effects by digital domain are up to standard and the music suits the suspense and drama very well thanks to maestro james horner watch out for the launching sequence it is simply one of the most breathtaking scenes of the film a bad point though apollo features much technical jargon and many physics concepts in its script those who consider themselves illiterate' might have a slight problem understanding what caused this and what caused that during the course of the show this is however just a minor point just forget all those technical bullshit and immerse yourselves into the drama and suspense throughout the film you should enjoy it
positive	in sylvester stallone breaks no new ground cinematically speaking but he covers familiar territory quite well yesterday as i was going about my business in the university bookstore i noticed this stand with these movie posters on it i had never heard of the movie so i stopped by to check it out it turned out that they were giving away free passes to the movie for people who had or applied for the credit card they were offering so i shrugged thought hey they probably won't give me the card anyway and i could always use a free movie so i signed up all in all i don't think i got that bad of a deal either rob cohen who has previously brought us such films as the bruce lee and more recently gee i wonder if he likes dragons for some reason you think now brings us a very nicely executed disaster picture with fx by industrial light and magic about the of an explosion that collapses a busy tunnel between new york and new jersey sylvester stallone plays kit latura who is essentially a carbon copy of the character he played in a paramedic on the outs because he made a mistake that got people killed when the crisis hits he is in the right place at the right time and takes it upon himself to go in and get everybody out there are other similarities to too perhaps the only real difference is that had a villain where bad guy is mother nature in fact had the two movies been made in hong kong this might have been titled bears the same relationship to that film that most hk film sequels do to their predecessors the first of is setup subplots are woven and the mechanism of the disaster is assembled we meet all the important people toxic waste disposal truck drivers a young frustrated jilted rejected playwright a family struggling to stay together an older couple and their dog a truckload of prisoners an ad agency executive a tunnel police officer stallone and others we watch the trucks trundle toward their destination we watch stallone and so many others driving toward the tunnel for their various reasons and then thirty minutes into the film and it's a big one there on in it's sly stallone to the rescue and rescue he does enduring batterings beatings falls repeated immersion in water explosions mud rats and constant setbacks before going on to save the day again there's nothing new here and yet there doesn't need to be the fun of is not in the story but in the execution the are thanks to industrial light and magic and the ensemble cast works well together once the film hits its stride it carries the viewer right along to the finish with very few jars along the way this review is copyright by christopher e meadows permission granted for distribution through rec arts movies reviews and all associated archival permission granted for free redistribution via cyberspace as long as this message remains attached all other rights reserved to the author
positive	perhaps the most dramatic changes in the motion picture industry in this decade have to do with special effects there is no question that and movies are now judged by the character of their light and noise whereas classic adventure pics of the last twenty years such as raiders of the lost ark were made in grand traditional fashion contemporary films like jurassic park are creations of computer technology the latest in this visually awesome series of movies the wachowski brothers' the matrix is a testament to the skilled use of special effects and its ability to enhance a movie's story unlike many movies which promote themselves as blockbusters but fail to deliver on that promise the matrix is a carefully constructed special effects event it runs minutes in length and employs a countless number of computerized tricks which range from gimmick to grandiose and the quality of the effects remains constant throughout the film's length contrary to popular trend the matrix commits itself to being a spectacle of light and sound in this regard the movie is something like a card sharp with its flashy mass stripped away the matrix would be quite shallow and untalented the script is characteristically weak and the dialogue suffers in lieu of a far more innovative visual approach but like the card sharp the matrix wows its audience to such a high degree that actual content is irrelevent the viewers don't care about what the matrix has to say as long as the next special effects sequence is right around the corner and right around the corner they usually are for the script tells a albeit frequently revisited story as the movie explains the world as we know it is nothing but an elaborate computer program constructed by an artificial intelligence for the purpose of placating mankind billions of human beings lie in this dormant state while the intelligence the matrix farms our life energy only a select group of individuals knows of the real world and a particularly ingenious squad of these rebels is led by morpheus laurence fishburne morpheus and his crew recruit a computer expert named neo keanu reeves believing he is a prophesied individual who will help them overthrow the matrix and return peace to earth the cast plays out this story in stylish fashion the set design is very dynamic running the gambit between cramped and dreary to bright and airy the costumes as well as the actors who wear them add to the roles for instance the manifested antagonists in the movie a group of agents created by the matrix in its computer program all dress in matching secret servicewear the rebel fighters on the other hand dress in rich hues of leather the casting cannot be criticized for the typically stoic reeves isn't required to say much and laurence fishburne gets plenty of time to be so damn cool supports in moss joe pantoliano and hugo weaving are all effectual one of the best comparisons to thw matrix is last year's science fiction masterpiece dark city particularly if one ponders how this same premise would've worked from a different approach the alex proyas film was far more dark and introspective requiring a bit of thought before themes became clear here the wachowski brothers have managed to construct a motion picture with little abandon and much noise the better picture between the two depends on the viewer but the key to the success of the matrix is that the noise did not get in the way of the fun
positive	let me open this one with a confession i love cop movies i adore them with such an unwavering near foolish passion that i was actually one of the first in line to see one tough cop starring the smirkiest of the baldwin brothers steven was it any good well just about as good as baldwin's steven seagal impression for those i've confused the answer is a resounding no now let me clarify i don't love just any cop movie i'm not too keen on the smug buddy cop flicks that were so in vogue in the and now slowly gulp returning thanks to jackie chan and chris tucker i'm partial to those gritty earthy cop dramas like serpico donnie brasco and the french connection problem is these films come along just about as often as george w bush makes a cogent point so whenever a true cop movie does hit multiplexes i come running towards it like an eager puppy and inevitably i leave head bowed tripping over my squiggly tail so what is it about cop movies that transform me into a moron willing to shell out for a movie called one tough cop which actually sounds a lot like a wiseguy no truth is i'm a sucker for those barren streets that gritty graffiti strewn modernist jungle where dangerous criminals lurk and cops like modern day knights must shield us from their iniquitous clutches yes it's all very corny and awfully boys clubish which i'm guessing is precisely where these feelings come from as little tots us boys are brought up to create our own wars with gi joe's enact cops and robbers or cowboy and indian fantasies etc the best gritty cop films tap into those gleeful adolescent fantasies and heighten them turning it all into an existential nightmare of thin moral lines and psychological chaos as an adult my tastes haven't changed all that drastically sure i can get a cerebral high from the emotional complexities of a krzysztof kieslowski film but i still delight at the promise a guy film could potentially bring now what if it's the cops who're the corrupt ones ooh that one really gets me going these protectors using all that at their service taking advantage of others for their own gain throw a courtroom drama yech into the pot and you have the tremendously absorbing sidney lumet film prince of the city how absorbing is prince of the city you ask so damn absorbing that when the film shifts from gritty undercover cop drama to courtroom drama a i loath the way kristy swanson must loath sarah michelle gellar i remained completely and utterly involved the film stars treat williams who gives the kind of performance that should have skyrocketed his career up to the level that brad pitt currently resides at since i was hatched a mere two years prior to the release of prince of the city i cannot provide an answer as to why it didn't though judging from his recent roles in tripe like deep rising and dead heat i would guess that it probably has something to do with quite a few bad career moves like mickey rourke and eric roberts both of whom are currently doing time in direct to video purgatory williams is a talented leading man who didn't make it to where he should have if there was any justice in this dog gone world keanu reeves would be the one banished to direct to video hell here the actor is given a role not all that dissimilar from al pacino's in serpico also directed by lumet williams plays danny ciello a member of an elite squad of police officers who take down drug dealers on the gritty streets of new york they work without uniforms or hours much like paid vigilantes and that analogy is more than apt seeing as how the bunch are kinda sorta forced into using corrupt means to get the job done the squad relies entirely on informants low level junkies to gain access to the big wigs and in order to obtain the info they seek they sometimes have to provide the junkies with the junk of their choice danny has done this and though he's a fairly honorable guy who took the job in order to do good his intentions have gotten a bit skewed along the way he seeks redemption and concludes that the best way to go about getting it is by talking to internal affairs who then convince him to go undercover as a double agent he does so with one condition he will not rat on his partners right away we know that that is exactly what he'll have to do and watching the movie build to that is thrilling in the way that any great character driven story can be undercover cop films are almost innately exciting even the kind that pull out all the cliches like in too deep how can one not be moved by the issues of betrayal ambiguity and the danger in putting oneself in such a risky position prince of the city takes all this and charges it with a perceptive hard boiled script and taut unintrusive direction by old pro sidney lumet as well as a handful of intense performances most notably by treat lumet's greatest contribution to the movie is how he lays back and lets the camera soak up the action his scenes transition rapidly from one to the next building layers of tension and he rarely holds for reaction shots instead he clicks away at precisely the moment a character stops yakking lumet's worst tendency is one that many film makers especially oliver stone tend to overuse he relies a little too heavily on actors shouting their lines at each other presumably in order to ratchet up the tension this isn't as much a problem here as it was in night falls on manhattan lumet's most recent cop lawyer endeavor a movie that nearly gave me an ulcer from just watching though of late lumet has made several really awful career choices maybe he and treat should get together for a drink or something the most recent a completely unnecessary remake of gloria here he was on sustaining tension in a film that runs for minutes with not one dull spot some of the formula pictures i like the best are the most simplistic hollywood often forgets how easy it is to make these kinds of pictures even tolerable of course cop movies aren't popular anymore yes buddy cop flicks are popular but those are more like extended sitcoms with gunfire amid the punch lines but just look at the average hollywood action movies flicks so bloated and full of unnecessary fat like the boring love interest that serves no purpose other than to stall the action and demonstrate that our hero isn't gay the lame comic relief character who's never funny and on and on for all its moral ambiguities prince of the city is a back to the basics cop courtroom drama that leaves out all the crap and really thrills it focuses completely on its story and its characters all of whom are completely believable from the cops to the lawyers to the junkies there's a great scene early on where an irate williams shouts at an ia officer and looks as if he's about to go into one of those corny braveheart inspirational speeches but instead he breaks down in front of the cop and begins sobbing this is a scene that would never make it into a michael bay film even though bruce willis sacrifices his life at the end of armageddon not one damn tear it would be cut out because the director would say oh that makes him too human excuse me weak in the very next scene danny speaks in a hushed raspiness straining to get the words out he's lost his voice does that little itty bitty detail matter maybe not to most but it sure made my night and in a sprawling epic of corruption greed betrayal and violence it's nice to see that someone is paying attention to the little things
positive	carla gugino graduates from high school and instead of staying in her small farming town she goes to college in california there she meets the residential advisor pauly shore who is a city boy when gugino goes back home for thanksgiving she brings shore with her and her parents lane smith and cindy pickett are less than thrilled dan gauthier gugino's boyfriend from high school proposes to gugino gugino isn't ready for anything like this so she makes up the story that she is engaged to shore she and shore have to make it look like they are engaged while her parents try to make it end forget jurassic park cliffhanger the firm and last action hero is the film to see this summer is a great romantic comedy that should please the viewers especially fans of the wiez when is long gone and forgotten the blockbuster summer films will still be playing and you will have a chance to see them then this film could also make great video fare for those that are leery of spending seven dollars on it nothing will be lost by watching it on a television screen although the basic story line has been done many many times before the film is still fun to watch the laughs are plentiful especially when the wiez is around the way some of the jokes are done are new even though some of the jokes are old there are also several new jokes that at least i haven't seen before still when presented right even old material can be funny still this film is just basically a light comedy that is great to see if you are in the right mood that doesn't contain much violence or any nudity that is definitely worth full ticket price the cast for this film does an excellent job pauly shore encino man is the star attraction of this film he is great and knows how to entertain the audience pauly shore just seems to take over the entire screen when he is on with expressions and comments that are hilarious this film would definitely not have been as good with anyone else in this role carla gugino does a very good job as the farm girl gone city girl she makes her character believable on some levels yet interesting at the same time the person who played the grandfather mason adams i believe also does a great job the way he delivered his lines kept me laughing throughout the time that he was on the screen patrick renna who played gugino's little brother was a little annoying but no where as near as macaulay culkin and for only part of the time so i can forgive him thiessen a killer among friends saved by the bell does a reasonably good job for the time that she is on screen she shows that she may have a potential in movies if she can get out of the corny young adults programming on television she wasn't given overly much to do in the film but what she had she does a good job with
positive	the soldiers of three kings have taken their cue from movies about vietnam fitting since the gulf war became a pop entertainment while driving through a long flat iraqi desert in a humvee with a bart simpson hood ornament one of the men under special forces sgt maj archie gates' who's steering command requests a beach boys tune these men want their apocalypse now moment only instead of surfing they bop to the music and skeet shoot out the back of the vehicle armed with automatic rifles our three kings okay four are good fighters but they don't necessarily take operation desert storm a reprieve from their hellish day jobs they are gates new father sgt troy barlow wahlberg sgt chief elgin cube and pvt conrad vig music video director jonze at story's start president bush has declared a ceasefire and american troops are tying up loose ends barlow elgin and vig discover during a round up of iraqi captives an that points to a bunker filled with gold bullion gates leaves his jurisdiction to commandeer the situation he barlow elgin and vig join him on a treasure hunt ditching his escort a relentless reporter named adriana cruz nora dunn is easy so is finding the treasure until the four men realize the magnitude of discord still breathing in iraq saddam's men are threatening the dictator's detractors citizens of his own country with violence when gates and company arrive at the bunker with a stolen truck ready to loot the unarmed rebels want help bush encouraged them to rise up against the government but provided no military support for such cause gates convinces the vault's guards that this is a mission and even accepts their assistance in loading the truck the situation could go off without a hitch the former enemies bear no grudges but the money hungry gates has a conscience and when one female bystander is shot by a sadistic grunt before these americans have left the scene he orders barlow elgin and vig to open fire on the surrounding arab forces the result barlow is kidnapped and the filmmakers imply that these kings are seeing more action than they ever did during wartime barlow is eventually locked in a dank room and wired up to a shocking device his interrogator lost his family to the bombs and he wants barlow to imagine the demise of his own wife and child he does in chilling lasting images i liked these scenes best because the political became personal it's one thing to champion the plight of thousands it's another to see a ceiling cave in atop a baby in a crib russell has shocked us before his first film spanking the monkey is about a young man's affair with his bedridden mother it's great his second flirting with disaster features a character who has an armpit fetish one could argue that it's easier to make an audience react to such sexual deviance than explosions though russell disturbs us in three kings by being about the violence when barlow conjures the detonation of his suburban home russell mutes the paying attention to the debris instead of thx bombast three kings is russell's first visually arresting picture stylistically it stands apart from other war dramas newton thomas sigel's cinematography of the exteriors is overexposed and extremely grainy which is of course entirely appropriate one practically breaks out in sweat staring at the screen a friend enthusiastically added it's like having sand in your eyes this also helps to blur the fact that the actual locations are far removed from the persian gulf facade three kings was shot in arizona california and mexico russell throws plenty at sigel's camera for it to was the case with russell's previous efforts the most absurd moments are also the film's most realistic even the most poignant we watch a bullet puncture an organ from the inside if anything three kings settles down and stops surprising us its climax is pure hollywood no doubt the answer to why a major studio felt comfortable getting into bed with the russell subsequently the characters become more revelry felt phony and chief a strong presence in the first third fails to escape the clich much for cube avoiding token status the arab players on the other hand duck stereotype clooney too transforms into a blandly heroic with the rebels i waited for him to shout let my people go hayseed vig notwithstanding the protagonists are very intelligent and too i had a glimmer of hope based on russell's filmography that our antiheroes would revert to their greedy selves at some juncture it's not spoiling much to write that then again what historical importance would such nastiness serve there's already enough cynicism in the film's mentioning of kuwait's waters russell offers the masses a primer on the gulf conflict and pulled off a neat trick a war tale full of battles that takes place after a truce has been declared if he set out to make something significant he succeeded with flair
positive	bill condon's gods and monsters is a fascinating look into the last days in the life of gay director james whale ian mckellan who made the horror classics frankenstein and bride of frankenstein since i was unfamiliar of whale prior to viewing the film there is no way to know how accurate the film is but i suspect that much of it only came from whale's inner fantasies and hallucinations whale who fought in wwi and then went on to become known for his work on horror pictures decided fifteen years before his death at age to quit filmmaking once a homosexual scandal broke out involving him as the film tells it during the end of his life whale at his large home in l a became infatuated with the tall handsome and much younger man clayton boone brendan fraser who was working as the gardener at his home james whale we learn quickly was what many people refer to him as in the film a dirty old man in one of the opening scenes a young film enthusiast visits whale's home to interview him and whale agrees on one condition for every question he answers the young man must take off an article of clothing because of this episode we know exactly what it is whale wants when he asks clayton to pose for him for a painting later making the excuse that his bright white shirt is disracting only so he will take it off clayon agrees and doesn't really think much of this much to the warnings of his friends becoming more and more intrigued in the stories whale tells him about his past certainly the relationship between whale and boone is headed for a downfall since whale starts to grow a deep love for this young man even though boone is not gay and whale himself realizes he is nearing the conclusion to his life as he begins to seldom suffer mild strokes and moments of true catharsis gods and monsters is an intimate and seemingly respectful portrait of a director who was forced to become somewhat of an outcast due to his sexual preference and never got the recognition he would have liked since he longed to be referred to as a motion picture director rather than a horror director and in one heartbreaking scene he attends a party with boone being his guest held by director george cuckor and finds that many of the other attendees do not recognize him anymore it is evident that whale's first love in his life was making movies and when his career ultimately fell apart so did his passion in life as played brilliantly by ian mckellen james whale comes off as a sad but dignified man and a person who was not afraid to stand out from others just as long as he knew he was being true to himself he never hid the fact that he was gay however even if it meant threatening his filmmaking profession and it was this unblinking honesty that made him a great person through the complicated relationship that develops between whale and boone boone of course only things of whale as a possible friend or someone he can talk to while it means so much more to whale who sees boone as sort of his salvation in life although boone is only in a job as a gardener of people's homes whale views him as the ideal man not only one that is even though it is this attraction that first begins his feelings but one that will actually listen to him since whale lives with only his loyal but disapproving maid touchingly portrayed by lynn redgrave it is boone that whale can talk to in his ultimate reclusion from the world and the only reason whale finally decides to attend the gathering of george cuckor although an extremely fine and mature picture a few small elements hold the film back from ultimate greatness it is appreciated that the film does not pull for any obvious or overly dramatic story developments but it is a little thin and the structuring of the friendship at the film's center is fairly predictable we know early on where these two characters are headed and we can guess that there will be a final confrontation between the two as the tension slowly builds in lesser hands this might have felt too calculated but it is not in the surprisingly deft treatment and writing that helps the film to be much more than this also a subplot is briefly brought up between clayton and a waitress working at a bar effectively played by lolita davidovich but abruptly dropped and never brought up again if the film was not going to follow up on this side story then it perhaps should have been taken out altogether gods and monsters is a heartfelt and intelligent motion picture impressively directed by bill condon who i sense relates to or fully understands the meaning behind the curious relationship between whale and boone the film also plays as a tribute to a fine man who met an untimely end walking away from gods and monsters it was ian mckellen's marvelous and astounding performance that left the most impression on me and i doubt there could have been anyone who could have stepped into the role more fully and believably it is a sad testament when a person's true talent and love is unfairly taken away from them based on the scrutinization and judgement of their personal life which ironically enough is no one else's business in the first place
positive	i must admit that i was a tad skeptical of good will hunting based both on the previews and the first fifteen minutes of the film in which the main character will hunting matt damon an mit janitor in his early twenties is discovered to be an closet genius when he solves two extraordinarily difficult math problems overnight the only problem is that will is a tough street kid who's had his share of with the law and before long he's being hauled in for assault after a parking lot fight professor lambeau stellan skarsgard who had brought up the math problems in his lectures tracks him down and strikes a deal with the police will is to be released provided he works with lambeau on his math research regularly and attends therapy sessions this sounds like the formula for mildly charming fluff but good will hunting rises above its fairly mundane premise to deliver a poignant and clever drama a conflict gradually emerges between lambeau and will's therapist sean mcguire robin williams lambeau wants to get will to use his brain while sean wants him to listen to his heart both of which he has been largely neglecting will finds that the former is much easier than the latter so much so in fact that he gets bored with it and grows increasingly resistant to lambeau's attempts to recruit him into the academic lifestyle he also has his share of problems with his girlfriend skylar minnie driver an mit student who is moving to california at the end of the school year and would like a reluctant will to come with her what makes good will hunting work so well aside from the strong performances especially from damon and williams is the depth of characterization and the representation of the conflicts in will's life the script's sympathies seem to lie more with sean mcguire than with lambeau but neither of them is presented as completely right or wrong lambeau while he may seem a little cold at times is still written well enough that we like him as a character even when we're not sure if we like what he has to say and sean for all his has as lambeau and later will point out not lived up to his full intellectual potential either the therapy sessions turn out to be just as revelatory for sean as they do for will will's reaction to this situation and the way in which he slowly becomes more receptive to skylar and to sean is presented in a believable fashion and in a way that forces the audience to consider all the characters' opinions rather than setting up an obvious right and wrong side and beating them over the head with it for a film with such an extraordinary character good will hunting presents itself as remarkably ordinary it achieves the difficult task of making the next albert einstein into an everyman a character to whom the audience can easily relate and who must make choices similar to those that almost everyone faces at one time or another this film gives us real drama when it so easily could have given us merely melodrama by having the government kidnap will to use him in covert spy missions or introducing some other equally situation good will hunting also has its share of fun humor such as when will in an early therapy session pretends to be hypnotized and smoothly parodies the alien abduction scenarios that have become so well known in popular culture and in the one scene in which government agents do in fact appear will blows them off with a hilariously scathing accusation of human rights violations in africa will's relationship with his friends most notably chucky ben affleck is usually rather amusing if somewhat crude the film has uses of the word which was most likely the reason for its and lends itself well to the development of will's character add all this to the fact that good will hunting even manages to pull off an uplifting happy ending without getting excessively sentimental and you might be wondering why i haven't given this film four stars well for one thing no matter how well damon and affleck who wrote the screenplay and director gus van sant pull it off the story is still rather contrived and not particularly original there are also a few scenes that did feel a bit formulaic including one that was supposed to be emotional but really just seemed like the obligatory crying scene for any movie involving therapy sessions still good will hunting takes its premise a lot farther than i thought it would and is definitely one of the better personal dramas i have seen in the last few years and as of right now it stands as one of the top five on my list of films
positive	a cinematic version of one of john irving's novels is always cause for celebration even if as in the case of simon birch the treatment is merely suggested by rather than strictly based on the book suggested means that irving author of the acclaimed the world according to garp sold the rights to his novel a prayer for owen meany to the disney machine for million but wouldn't grant them permission to use either the title or any of the character names that's an odd claims it's to protect both himself and the it's one that doesn't unduly harm the finished product irving's books are rich and complex works full of intriguing colorful characters a prayer for owen meany is no exception it tells the story of an unusual simon birch in the film is uncommonly small in stature and possesses a falsetto voice like strangled mice simon believes himself to be god's instrument placed on this earth to somehow effect god's plan simon is played by ian michael smith who suffers from a rare enzyme disorder known as morquio syndrome which among other things prevents bones ligaments and joints from developing normally smith's debilitating disease makes him an obvious physical choice for simon birch however the producers unwisely favored form over acting abilities are limited at best another drawback is that in the book simon's condition is described the way irving describes any of his careful loving detail watching simon birch however creates a different feeling altogether the audience is forced into a voyeuristic relationship with the character surely something irving would not have intended simon himself tends to be too cute and irritating a combination of smith's rookie status as an actor and the precocious he's forced to deliver courtesy mark steven johnson the film's director and screenwriter fortunately simon birch isn't the real star of the film that bears his name simon is more of a catalyst allowing his to shape the story and the actors who fill those roles to turn in outstanding supporting performances saving the film from an obsequious manipulative destiny first and foremost is joseph mazzello jurassic park who is nothing less than remarkable as simon's best friend joe mazzello turns in a wonderfully layered performance for a year old ripe with laughter pain and tears he is certainly an emerging talent ashley judd positively beams in her role as rebecca joe's single mother and oliver platt is warm and tender as her boyfriend ben david strathairn and jan hooks play the town's reverend and sunday school teacher respectively and their contributions uphold the high standards set by the others there's even a surprising yet effective uncredited cameo performance from well that would be telling perhaps suggested by the novel is the appropriate way to go after all since simon birch only focuses on one chapter one year of simon's extraordinary life the film also changes the book's ending to one that is more melodramatic yet necessary given simon's lot the flavor of irving's original novel remains passions friendships and insecurities that come with a change of seasons to the little community of gravestown maine and the engaging oddballs both big and small who reside there
positive	the only historical figure that has been written about more than william shakespeare is jesus christ which explains why the bard's materials are such a popular source for remakes revisions rewrites inspiration subtlety credit and dispute indeed in recent years american contemporary cinema has been swamped with a wash of shakespearean products including this year's upcoming a midsummer night's dream shakespeare's material has been the cause for big screen productions since but for a change of pace mrs brown director john madden gives us a story of the bard himself in the wonderfully vibrant shakespeare in love marc norman and tom stoppard's story is largely fantasy although as the viewer soon learns shakespeare in love is not a movie that takes itself seriously will shakespeare of the would've been married to anne hathaway and he would've had a teenage daughter and two young sons here he is a bachelor played by joseph fiennes will is a writer struggling to come up with a great play and his current comedy in the works romeo and ethel the pirate's daughter just doesn't quite seem right with the help of the great writer christopher marlowe rupert everett and the inspiration of true love with noblewoman viola de lesseps gwyneth paltrow he changes things around and writes one of his greatest tragedies romeo and juliet the love story between will and viola loosely parallels the story of romeo and juliet to great effect fiennes and paltrow develop a sexy chemistry as the two lovers which gives the movie much momentum this momentum smoothes out the bumps in the unfinished and largely unsuccessful comedy the supporting roles are well filled out from geoffrey rush as will's worrisome agent philip to tom wilkinson as the producer hugh fennyman even ben affleck leading the troupe of actors manages to make a favorable impression and judi dench lends some brief moments of screen time as queen elizabeth i gwyneth paltrow is by far however the standout of the lot creating a large percentage of the forementioned vibrance the story is if nothing else although it has dangerous moments where it flirts with the let's make a movie the dialogue is breezy and lighthearted and certainly accessible by the audience's lowest common denominator there's something for everyone in this romantic comedy making it prime date flick material although certainly not inspiring in any regard it revels in a wholesome atmosphere that has been absent in many of pictures the story is one of the best around certainly recommendable when the traditional slew of indifferent releases is just around the corner
positive	in a ship set sail on her maiden voyage across the atlantic for america this ship was built to be the largest ship in the world and she was she was also build to be one of the most luxurious and that she was finally she was built to be unsinkable and that unfortunately she was not to get a ticket for this voyage you either spent a life's savings to get to america to start life anew were part of the upper class and had the money to spare or finally were lucky enough to have a full house in a poker match by the docks like jack dawson jack dawson makes the trip and happens to be at the right place at the right time rose dewitt bukater a first class passenger climbs the railings at the aft of the ship with thoughts of jumping thus is started a tale of romance and intrigue and a tale of death and tragedy this movie is about a tragic event that took place a great many years ago an even that should not be taken lightly as any other bit of historical trivia the movie titanic shows what happened maybe not with a degree of accuracy but it still shows it very realisticaly now the titanic is both a story on its own and a backdrop for a story it serves as both admirably brining forth an interesting story that although simple in its most simple premise is very captivating this movie is very emotional simply because of what it is but that alone is not enough the story is brought out with a certain style that makes is so much more emotional and so much more effective movies such as this will not be forgotten all too quickly and unfortunately then are not something that is produced by hollywood with any great frequency the attention to detail that was paid is remarkable the whole premise for the telling of the story is interesting with the showing of brand new footage from the wreck of the titanic adding much flavor to an already good movie part of the magical chemistry behind this story is the acting and for this movie its extremely good acting from the whole cast the performances put in by the main stars is something to be admired the characters were played out so memorably that both leonardo dicaprip and kate winslet should receive at the least nominations for their roles looking at the acting done in the movie it seems as if they aren't acting but are actually the characters in the movie the casting for the movie could really have been better in my humble opinion that is one character that will most likely not be mentioned by any other review or commentary about this film is that of the ship itself yes you read correctly the ship is a character how is the titanic a character you ask well simple a ship had a certain character about it and as most sailors and boats men will tell you this character is everything about the ship from its specifications to its luxuries and the titanic was no stranger to this mr cameron brings the ship to life in an almost literal sense all this adds to the movie in a certain way that most hollywood productions cant seem to grasp now to produce the effect that i mentioned above and to sink the ship itself are feats that are accomplished by special effects wizards the effects in this movie range from marvelous costumes to beautifully rendered scenes of the ships sinking in some respects you cannot tell that the effects are there you simply think that what you see is what happened or what is happening if your imagination is good the technical wizardry done in this movie is just spectacular and actually getting new footage from the wreck of the titanic is unique the movie will leave you amazed at the effects and that is a feat since there is no monsters or aliens in this movie just humans and an oversized ship the movie will amaze you and it will pull on your emotions the theater that i went to had a few people leaving with tears in their eyes now that is not a feat accomplished by most movies now the fact that the tragedy actually occurred is brought home with something of a punch i wont spoil the ending and say what happens regardless it is an interesting movie from beginning to the very end the historical value of this movie is quite high and honestly is something that should be watched for the sake of seeing it and seeing the tragedy for it is extremely well done the method of telling the story is also good maybe not totally unique but effective none the less regardless of anything mentioned above this movie is a grandiose production and the sheer size of the project undertaken is something to be marveled at the simple fact that the movie is smashingly successful at what it aims to achieve is just astonishing if you get the chance to see this movie go it might not be the best movie in the world but it ranks fairly highly and is well worth the time spent watching it during none of the hours and minutes of the movie are you bored nor does your attention wane from the movie
positive	the start of this movie reminded me of parts from the movie stargate people are looking around in an egyptian temple reading about some dangerous thing that is going to destroy earth in the future after a sort of confusing bit involving cyborg things the movie jumps into the future and the movie improves by leaps and bounds the basic idea behind the movie is that every once in a while make that every years or so an evil force comes to destroy earth the things needed to defend against this menace are the four elements of nature plus the fifth element the plot in this movie really isn't that important to the thing though this movie has very good special effects for the most part the music in the background fits the mood very well bruce willis is an illegal driver in a futuristic new york city one day a lady draped with a few bandages drops down into his trunk this movie is about what happens the plot twists are interesting and the movie never fails to present the viewer with a variety of different locations also there is a fair bit of action in the film particularly towards the end some characters are just plain strange including a deejay in drag bruce willis does his normal job of blowing things away like he always does the movie is definitely watchable and rarely slows down it is one of those films where you'll be saying cool followed by a what the hell i give the fifth element
positive	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned james toback's return to directing after a layoff two girls and a guy is a film which is comprised more or less of just that one guy blake robert downey jr two girls carla heather graham and lou natasha gregson wagner one primary setting blake's absurdly spacious bachelor apartment and a great deal of dialogue embracing a near approach this is a highly theatrical feature that completely hangs upon the performances of its three actors and the quality of the dialogue written by mr toback for his bantering characters fortunately the film's cast is up to the challenge and the wordy exchanges between the triad of characters while admittedly variable are occasionally wickedly amusing the film's setup is fairly generic in nature and opens rather unpromisingly we meet blonde carla and feisty brunette lou both waiting outside a soho loft as they engage in idle chatter it is revealed that they're both waiting for their respective boyfriends to return from the airport and it doesn't take long for them to come to the realisation that they're being by the same guy more indignant with him than catty with each other the duo break into blake's loft and await his arrival for a confrontation it's when blake returns to his abode where the film hits its stride played with magnificent bombast by mr downey jr blake is a cad all right but a captivatingly dynamic blusterous and stealthy piece of work that bursts onto the scene and raises the stakes to new heights it's fascinating to watch this character in his natural habitat and perhaps the film's best choice was to have his two girlfriends scamper off into hiding upon his return allowing us to size up blake not with his interactions with others but by his own innate behaviour whether he's flamboyantly behind his piano in a rollicking rendition of vivaldi or on the phone leaving messages to his beloveds carla lou and his unseen sickly mother it's never less than wildly entertaining and insightful though at this point i almost hoped the film would transform into a show a typical afternoon in the life of blake if you will carla and then lou reveal themselves and the sparks begin to fly one of the great touches in the film is how blake when startled by carla's unannounced appearance begins to both verbally and physically backpedal even before he realizes that the cat's out of the bag by the understandably aggrieved women who are more smirkingly inquisitive than ferociously vengeful they want a justification for his ongoing hypocrisy an blake weakly defends himself with apologetic and even declarations against their verbal jabs surprisingly delightful in the waltz of scathing witty banter shared by its trio of characters two girls and a guy concludes its first sequence with an unexpected apoplectic act of such outrageous audacity that it seemed nothing was for this film however it'd be unfeasible to attempt to string along carla and lou's outrage to full and it's as the movie gradually transforms into the sharing of exploratory profundities on the nature of fidelity and relationships that it slowly but surely begins to unravel the dialogue becomes less and less engaging and clever the film's tempo loses its liveliness the dynamic between the characters evolves in unconvincing fashion and several sequences fall flat subtle and allusions are made a poster of jules et jim hangs prominently on the wall and secrets are revealed which barrel the film toward an uncompelling weepy finale one key turning point in the film is the kinky sex scene between blake and carla two girls and a guy was embroiled in a bitter dispute with the mpaa with regards to this scene to deliver an film mr toback was forced to resubmit fourteen versions of the steamy interlude before the mpaa withdrew their rating in favour of an r and while admittedly titillating the net effect of the vignette on the film's thematic narrative is rather dubious if anything two girls and a guy serves as a showcase for the phenomenal talents of mr downey jr whose versatility is put to the test in this film he plays the gamut from indignant to humbled from to disconcerted yet his acting gears shift so smoothly as to not be registered it's a wonderful performance in a role for him mr toback wrote the screenplay in four days shortly after mr downey jr was arrested on drug charges and it's hard not to see echoes of reality seeping into his character in a monologue to his mirrored reflection blake's to get shit together is disquieting in its resonance while mr downey jr showstopping performance is undoubtedly the primary strength of the film both actresses are solid in more roles ms graham is quickly becoming one of america's more daring actresses involving herself in three successive risky projects two girls and a guy and boogie nights are both quite sexually frank while lost in space has a screenplay penned by akiva goldsman she's quite appealing here playing a character at once both dainty and sultry meanwhile ms gregson wagner initially portrays lou with such an unwarranted spunk that audiences are likely to find it either annoying or like me endearing she tones it down substantially as the film progresses but i found her more fun to watch as the artificially excitable chatterbox the film was reportedly shot in eleven days filmed mostly in sequence and the resultant artifacts of this rapid shoot are evident throughout two girls and a guy has an agile spontaneous sort of feel and one senses that mr toback encouraged a good deal of improvisation from his three actors while the film could be transposed directly to the stage more or less intact it doesn't feel constricted the expansive apartment setting is to vary the background and mr toback allows his camera to wander and linger on his characters in an effective manner two girls and a guy falls short of its potential but thanks to some stellar work by mr downey jr it's still often an enjoyable bitingly funny romp particularly as we watch the blake evasively try to rationalize his behaviour and even turn the tables on his girlfriends i'm an actor he tells them at one point using the ol' defense actors lie but not they all seem to agree denzel washington
positive	robert altman's cookie's fortune is that rare movie that does not depend on sentimentality to be uplifting and to make its viewers feel good it is a sunny delightful dreamy comedy filled with lovely performances skillful direction and topped off with an understated clever extraordinary script as this is an ensemble piece it is forced to start of slowly as it introduces us to its characters all of them residing in a southern town called holly springs first we meet willie charles s dutton an honest man with a slight drinking habit we then see that willie takes care of an elderly lady nicknamed cookie who is slowly losing her grip on sanity and is being filled with loneliness despair and want of her dead husband we cut to camille glenn close who is obsessively directing a play with her sister cora julianne moore then we briefly get acquainted with emma liv tyler an apparent relative of cookie who is a teen outcast still full of love and hope even though she has no real place to live we also fleetingly see emma's lover jason chris o'donnell an ambitious but far too excitable young cop we are now about one quarter through the two hour picture and robert altman decides that it is time to set the plot in motion we see the ecstatic cookie stare hopefully at a picture of her husband she exclaims here i come and then puts a pillow to her face and shoots herself soon after her niece camille stops by to get a fruit salad bowl comes upstairs finds cookie dead and flips out convinced that suicide is a disgrace and that she will have none of that in her family she eats the suicide note and convinces her slightly slow yet sweet sister that it was a murder she makes sure that she stages it like a murder as well scattering jewelry all over the floor breaking a few cabinets windows and doors and then throwing the gun out in the back yard the only reasonable suspect is willie who immediately gets taken into custody and put in a jail cell they all know he didn't do it so the cell stays open and he plays scrabble with the sheriff and the faithful emma meanwhile the unperturbed camille continues her manipulations trying to further cover up for the murder while at the same time making her easter play a success so begins cookie's fortune a film aptly described by critic scott renshaw as a southern spin on fargo except that this one is far funnier and much more enjoyable than the coen brothers' darker somewhat disturbing and slightly overrated escapade robert altman's slight picture is in some ways reminiscent of something like midnight in the garden of good and evil as well in that both films focus on and off on the eccentricities of the residents in a southern us town indeed most of the characters in cookie's fortune are loads of fun to observe and a portion of them are fascinating and surprisingly dimensional glenn close turns in an insubstantial in terms of her career but magnificent performance as the conniving camille and is also the source of a good portion of the many laughs that we enjoy in this movie and she is perfectly cast as the prolific aunt alexandria character endlessly obsessed with family dignity the equally essential role of willie is handled with an intangible grace by veteran thespian charles s dutton mimic a time to kill there is nothing like a movie which leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside hours even days after the film ends cookie's fortune is such a movie i loved the light kindhearted approach altman whose last project was the dark intense drama the gingerbread man took towards the tricky subject matter i enjoyed the talented ensemble cast i even liked the trite in the south everybody is related to everybody cliche that is inevitably employed by the time this movie draws to a close i'm not sure why cookie's fortune had such an pleasing effect on me perhaps it's that good ol' southern charm
positive	well i'll be damned the canadians can make a good movie the world is coming to an end we don't know why or how but apparently there is no way to stop it the world has had this information for months as most of the rioting and other assorted chaos has passed and governments have shut down operations yet for a handful of toronto citizens life goes on they aren't going crazy or attacking people in the streets instead they are simply preparing themselves for the end some engaging in activities they've always wanted to do some gathering with family and friends and others just seeking to be alone these people's lives however all intersect during their final six hours don mckellar has crafted a highly unique and emotional film all of the main characters are compelling as they try and do whatever it is they need to do on their last night on earth craig callum keith rennie tries to fulfill all his sexual fantasies a gas company employee david cronenberg calls every customer letting them know the gas will be flowing until the very end and thanks them for their business and patrick mckellar just wants to be by himself but isn't having much success even minor characters keep popping up where you least expect them to tying everyone even closer things seemed a little hokey towards the beginning of the film but ultimately everything comes together nicely although it's not a happy film some moments are understandably the story is enhanced by some unexpected humor and very realistic performances particularly from sandra oh whose character is just trying to get home to her husband before the end i have absolutely no problem that the reason for the end of the world is never given nor does it bother me that the world is ending at exactly midnight in toronto anyway but i do wonder why the sun never sets come midnight the sun is still shining brightly maybe the sun is crashing into the earth who knows also it's comforting to know that in mankind's final moments on the planet people will still gang up on the street for the sheer purpose of pushing over a car or a bus that's not a shot at this film mind you i know people are just stupid and truly would be out in the street tipping over cars last night is available on dvd from universal home video it contains the film in fullscreen format and includes the original theatrical trailer 
positive	hedwig john cameron mitchell was born a boy named hansel in east berlin as a teen seeking his other half he reluctantly agrees to a sex change operation in order to marry american g i luther maurice dean wint the operation performed by a hack surgeon is botched and the angry inch is all that's left now a she hedwig comes to america is abandoned by luther forms a rock band and falls for her old g tommy only to be rejected by him later too she and her band the angry inch shadows the tommy gnosis across the us for revenge but hedwig is really in search of her lost other half in hedwig and the angry inch first time helmer john cameron mitchell along with stephen trask created and starred in their acclaimed production that has become the movie and quite a movie it is in its eclectic variety of songs outrageous costumes sets and makeup and especially a riveting performance by mitchell as the title character mitchell and trask have reinvented the movie musical and couple it with the underlying story of just whom hedwig is and what she is looking for i am by far not a big fan of musicals sure there are exceptions like bob fosse's all that jazz and cabaret but for the most part they are just not my cup of tea hedwig and the angry inch is an exception though with its combination of humor wit and a collection of tunes that covers musical styles ranging from the rocky horror picture show and meatloaf to david bowie to the sex pistols the original songs by stephen trask also appearing as one of the members of the band the angry inch are full of energy and variety and even though it's not my kind of music i found every one entertaining and fun the audience i saw hedwig with thought so too the main attraction to this show is the presence of its star john cameron mitchell gives a solid sometimes fun sometimes angry performance as a person searching for and love as a young boy growing up in east berlin hansel is abused by his g i father and raised by his german mother in a tiny flat so small that mother would make me play in the oven where he listened to pop music on armed forces radio later as a young man he meets luther another g i and is swept off of his feet the ensuing angry inch incident comes soon after flash forward to a trailer park in junction city kansas and luther is leaving hedwig for another boy frustrated and broke she takes on and the odd job to make ends meet she also forms a band with four korean housewives and the musical talent of hedwig is born she meets falls for and loses young tommy who steals her songs and goes off to become a rock sensation jealous and angry hedwig and her new band begins a campaign to shadow tommy's tours and with the help of her manager phyllis stein andrea martin is trying get a law suit going against the star for stealing her songs hedwig and the angry inch get gigs not coincidentally at a chain of seafood restaurants that just happen to be next to the forums where tommy gnosis is playing things finally come to a head so to speak in new york city the popularity of the musical and its offshoots have garnered a audience base for hedwig the wit humor music and search for identity has great appeal to young adults but the charismatic presence of mitchell makes this a cut above what it could have been it is this show that casts its spotlight on its internationally ignored rock star and mitchell is outstanding in the role there isn't a lot going on with other characters though there are amusing little sidebars like hedwig's backup yitzak miriam shor deciding to break away from the band to join a polynesian road show of rent as a puerto rican drag queen the low budget that the moviemakers have for the production belies the quality of the film attention to details hedwig's costumes and outrageous cabaret makeup the seedy trailer park setting and the kitschy seafood restaurants are loads of fun to watch and lend the appropriate air to the proceeds all on what has to be a beer budget hedwig and the angry inch may not be for everybody but the energy of the effort the songs the imaginative sets and costumes and a fast steady pace make it a pleasure to watch if you're a fan of contemporary edgy music it is an even bigger draw i give it a
positive	niagara niagara r bob gosse's niagara niagara follows a blueprint not unlike a lot of movies wild marcy robin tunney and calm seth henry thomas meet cute literally running into each other while shoplifting at a local store a mere couple of scenes later the two embark on a journey to toronto from their small unnamed american town in pursuit of a rare doll that marcy desperately wants along the way true love inevitably blossoms what sets niagara niagara apart though is that marcy is afflicted with tourette's syndrome a neurological disorder that causes sudden muscle and vocal tics tunney displaying an acting range not hinted at in the teenage witch thriller the craft delivers an astonishing performance that won her the best actress prize at last year's venice film festival to term her work a is not to imply that she attacks the scenery tunney's effectiveness lies in her modulation and vulnerability which makes her depiction of marcy's often causes her to act much more convincing and tragic she and the nicely subtle thomas develop a sweetly innocent and beguilingly chemistry their journey hits a few rough spots creatively along the way mostly the fault of writer matthew weiss a detour involving a kindly widower michael parks who takes the couple in brings the story to a screeching halt and the key character of a pharmacist stephen lang is highly unbelievable but these missteps do not blunt the power of tunney's bravura turn which carries niagara niagara to a level of poignance it would not have otherwise achieved opens march i didn't know what to expect it's like something you chase for so long but then you don't know how to react when you get it i still don't know how to react jordan on winning his first nba championship in or my thoughts after meeting him on november
positive	notice this is a review and analysis of exotica the first part of this piece is the review the second part contains some analysis of the movie which might be construed as spoilers if you have not seen the movie and after reading the first part you intend to do so then save the second part for the discussion afterwards starring bruce greenwood mia kirshner elias kosteas don mckellar arsinee khanijian sarah polley director atom egoyan screenplay atom egoyan exotica is a film that grows on retrospection exotica keeps the viewer guessing about the relationship between the various characters in the film all of the people know each other but apart from that there seems to be no other reason why to select such set and follow them in this fictional account the director hints for possible solutions using a plot so popular with critics in mystery train and used to good advantage by quentin tarantino in pulp fiction exotica reaches a whole new dimension using this technique at the end it is surprising to see how well the pieces of the puzzle fit together in spite their apparent unconnectedness and even misleading features the technique has become ever so popular perhaps even de rigueur for biographical films similarly we can now expect to see more movies in the future which will use to varying extent converging multiplots on a first glance once the puzzle in exotica is solved there seems to be little left to look at but perceptive minds which take the time to dig further will be rewarded with interesting views on life or rather commentaries on views of life exotica is very much worth seeing it opened to critic's praise worldwide i first saw it in mexico city last december in canada it broke records for a movie of its kind which prompted the american distributor to go for a wide release apart from a strong plot acting is very convincing and the soundtrack seems as if made for the movie the crowd may not appreciate this movie and thus it might last little on screen but if you want to try a movie a cut above the crowd with an originality that is ever so rare by all means see exotica analysis spoilers ahead what is behind the complex plot in exotica first a common theme of the quest for gratification by monetary means the lone the repressed homosexual pet shop owner the pregnant woman which runs the nightclub the rich man which has the club remodeled the audience at the movie theatre all use personal wealth to buy palliative relief for the penuries of the soul then we have the quest for gratification through visual means by most of the same people including those who sit watching exotica in that regard exotica stands for onlookers at a nightclub for the rich man looking through silver mirrors and people looking at other's people lives through a silver screen exotica also stands for unwanted society attention into the lives of other people such as the tax auditor and the pet shop owner exotica is the customer agent looking at the pet shop owner which in turn is looking at the core of the problems between the strip dancer and the tax auditor through the detached eye of a gay person no attraction to the strip dancer and only interested on avoiding jail no personal relationship with the tax auditor in exotica everybody is watching and what is worse everybody knows second exotica is about isolated people holding back their feelings about people which by voluntary or involuntary means transfer their view of reality to other characters the strip dancer becomes the proverbial daughter the dj becomes the proverbial killer by means of breaking the relationship between the father and the proverbial daughter the niece becomes the baby sitter the baby sitter becomes the dancer and the dancer becomes the proverbial daughter the pet shop owner becomes the proverbial dj by finding the proverbial daughter a chain made of real and imagined links coming around full circle just as everything comes around to a fitting whole at the end of the movie
positive	i actually am a fan of the original or so flick of the same name starring hayley mills twice as a pair of twins separated at birth by divorcing parents never to come in contact with the other so the parents never have to meet again and everyone should know how i feel about remakes especially of films i happen to enjoy my fallacy unless you're going to either capture the same exact spirit of the original or do something different with it or maybe even both just wrack your brain and come up with a gasp new idea this remake was not originally on the top of my viewing list and was actually quite the opposite contemporary films are not one of my favorties anyway they're usually unfunny alienating and a big fat bore at least to anyone over the age of and above the iq of this one however is shockingly not bad in fact it's actually good not the original good but what's great about it is that it doesn't necessarily retread the original or capture the same exact spirit as it does become entertaining for the same exact reasons the original was entertaining because it's cute and innocent fun because it has a pretty killer plot that is endlessly fun to follow along with because the lead star is immensely appealing because the parents are also immensely appealing and i'm repeating myself because it's cute and innocent fun there's nothing too risque about it save the plot the idea of separating twins and denying them the truth for years is ominously selfish but that is precisely the point of the movie and it's aimed directly at either kids adults who want to remember the original or young adults who want to remember what it was like to be a kid i personally am somewhere between the second and third i can vividly remember when my taste in movies wasn't so weird or diverse the names godard and kubrick weren't even a glimmer in my right eye back then when i would tune in every sunday night for a couple years to see abc's wonderful world of disney where they'd show you a disney flick an hour per week i can remember my mom taking my sister and i along with all my friends and their mothers to see all the rereleased disney films like lady and the tramp and pinnochio and most sadly i remember every single christmas without fail there were a barage of children's animated shows made exclusively for the christmas season that i wouldn't dare missing i can even remember seeing the parent trap ii on tv one night and after i had seen that one over and over and over again i saw the original parent trap it's more of a late childhood movie because it deals with the issue of divorce but it deals with it in a version it's playful and witty and charming and if i saw it for the first time right now having never experienced that part of my childhood i'd probably dismiss it i'd probably do the same for the new version of the same movie if i hadn't seen the original at such a perfect age watching it i could remember what fun it was to watch a disney film and how divorce for me started to get me thinking about the possibilities of my parents splitting up and how it affected my adolescence and also how it brushed that fear off with a smooth stroke and pointed out that even in the most of situations things could always work out if you well manipulate things a bit at least for the better this new version did that for me but it's also charming in its own way it has a new cast a contemporary feel and for the first time in awhile for a flick a tone that isn't corny or condescending but just right the moments that would otherwise seem corny are actually affecting in a safe kind of way and for the first time since the original film the kids actually know better than the foolish adults the story is basically classic by now repeated almost as many times as kurosawa's the seven samurai a pair of twins played here by lindsay lohan just like they were played by hayley mills in the original are separated at birth by their divorcing parents one annie is sent to live with the mother natasha richardson resembling her mother vanessa redgrave more than i had ever noticed in london where she lives with her parents and her devoted foppish butler simon kunz as she works as a swingin' fashion designer she grows up refined and classy but also with a keen knowledge in sports and the other hallie is sent to northern california with her father dennis quaid to live on a vineyard with their lisa ann walter and grows up rugged yet charming they both meet at the same camp one that annie wants to go to to become more rugged they feud because they look similar and are thus in tight competition which results in some nasty pranks which winds them in seclusion together in a private cabin there they become friends then learn about eachother once they know everything they concoct a scheme to switch places so the one can meet the other parent whom they've only heard of they learn about eachother's lives in detail they make sure they look alike which requires hair cutting and notoriously a scene which is like the kiddie version of the hypodermic needle scene in pulp fiction and when the end of summer comes they switch and hope for the best lindsay lohan doesn't necessarily copy the acting style of hayley mills in the original but she comes off just as appealing as she did once she does though add a couple new things she makes the california twin a little more appealing and the london twin a bit more frank and snobbish than the snotty and proper original respectively she also adds on an american and british accent to each one with one faking the other accent throughout and if you really take notice you can see that the fake ones' accents aren't exactly perfect she's also incredibly appealing not merely cute which is especially notable since this is her first feature film and we know how notorious child actors are especially in their first films she makes a great protagonist and it only helps that the supporting cast is equally appealing dennis quaid in fact hasn't been this likable in about a decade his big dumb smile and near cocky attitude is what has made him a notable actor in the past not just that he's mr meg ryan ditto natasha richardson except that she just hasn't ever been this likable period the two make a winning couple maybe not so winning as maureen o'hara and the late brian keith in the original but they still work for this film instead of the bickering that ensued in the original the film adds another dimension and another angle to their characters that was amiss in the original during the opening credits we see glimpses from their courtship on the where they fall quickly and madly in love with eachother and when back together again the film's more smarmy scenes come off as actually sentimental but in that great way not the way as in many such films this all brings this new parent trap to a level of entertainment that hasn't really existed since well the original film years ago still my money the best flick of all time this is because it has a form of intelligence and wit that makes such plot points as an otherwise standard villainous love interest subplot a sharon stone type played by elaine hendrix who's deliciously tormented by the twins later on in the film a treat instead of a bore like the original this film transcends all the crap that it very well could be case in point it takes two starring the olsen twins because it treats the children as the smart ones and the adults as the silly ones not the other way around and because above everything it knows exactly how to be charming without biting off more than it can chew however in comparison with the original it could be a bit better certain scenes work well but not nearly as well as they worked in the original i liked the way the parents fought over past dilemnas and then fought over falling in love again better than i liked watching two old flames getting back together over a bottle of wine somehow feuding is always more cinematic and pleasing than mere reminscing a lesson extracted from the howard grant films of yesteryear and as much as this film transcends mere cutedom compared to the original this film almost drowns in cutedom the original though not gritty was far more stylized and just as suitable for adult audiences as it was for young audiences as such this remake may never be nearly as great or classic as the original film but it at least knows how to treat its source material with dignity and respect and how to create virtually the same effects without bordering on plagerism or petty annoyances
positive	gere willis poitier chase each other around the world the jackal a film review by michael redman copyright by michael redman when the soviet union imploded the western countries lost their shadow with the united states friendly with the russians we no longer had an entity to blame for the world's problems this showed up in hollywood films as the communist government was no longer the easy bad guy it's time to rejoice because we've found our new villain now it's no longer the russian government who sends killers out into foreign lands it's the russian a perfect solution it combines the dread of organized crime and the uneasiness with the former eastern block countries best of all the villains are still foreigners fear of the other always plays best so it is a crime lord in moscow that sends legendary hitman the jackal bruce willis to assassinate a highly placed us government figure in retaliation for the death of his brother during a nightclub raid the fbi is at a loss as to how to protect the target from someone they're not sure even exists coming to their rescue is former ira operative declan mulqueen richard gere who is temporarily released from prison to assist fbi agent carter preston sidney poitier and russian major valentina koslova diane venora mulqueen's basque terrorist isabella mathilda may is the only person who has seen the elusive jackal presumably there is an exclusive international terrorist club somewhere where the three met the film follows two parallel tracks as the jackal prepares for his million hit and mulqueen attempts to locate him while preston makes sure that the irishman doesn't slip away crossing numerous borders and donning various disguises for both himself and his the killer is always one step ahead of his pursuers being very loosely based on the same book the thriller the day of the jackal comparison between the two films is inevitable there is no doubt that the original is the better movie playing the story for suspense rather than the current as a mystery the jackal has enough holes in it to ruin the tale but if you can accept it for what it is there's entertainment to be had holes let's see a pivotal clue for mulqueen is so obscure that he must possess psychic powers to pick it up for a veteran that can command the big bucks the jackal is an incredibly poor shot the final scene between gere and willis occurs in a location that should be mobbed with police but it's just the two of them willis' disguises usually look like bruce willis and are just as interesting as val kilmer's in the saint and lest you misunderstand that's not a compliment but the three stars are fun to watch it's good to see gere in something other than a business suit willis has a mixed history in picking projects but his characters are always watchable poitier is by far the superior actor but has limited screen time the problems in logic are flaws but don't ruin the experience occasionally there are movies that transcend their blemishes this is one of them appeared in the bloomington voice bloomington
positive	it's terribly unfortunate that stir of echoes tautly written and directed by david koepp who made one of unsung treasures the trigger effect should be released little more than a month after the sixth sense which is still going strong at the box office these two films are undoubtedly going to be compared judging from practically all of my fellow audience members last night and although they have eerily similar storylines stir of echoes is more of a straightforward psychological horror film while the sixth sense is closer to a psychological drama additionally while the sixth sense had a shocker of an ending that undoubtedly has been one of the major factors in its recent repeat business stir of echoes is more conventional and predictable in its final twist and where the sixth sense was disturbing stir of echoes is just plain scary i have a feeling most viewers are going to come away unimpressed because of the unavoidable similarities and will foolishly forget to judge this film on its own respectable merits adapted from a novel by richard matheson that was written some forty years ago stir of echoes opens with a cute boy named jake zachary david cope who is taking a bath he is speaking directly at the screen but we immediately have a feeling someone else is there finally he asks does it hurt to be dead apparently jake sees the ghosts of dead people but unlike the sixth sense this young child isn't the focus of the picture instead tom witzy kevin bacon a chicago lineman is our protagonist jake is his son and maggie kathryn erbe whom has just discovered she is six weeks pregnant is his wife one night while at a party with their closest friends tom convinces maggie's sister lisa illena douglas to try and hypnotize him it unexpectedly works and before long tom is seeing things he wouldn't normally see including a deceased teenage girl jenny morrison in his house who happens to have been missing for the last six months seeking help from lisa she tells him that while he was under hypnosis she told him that after he awoke his mind will remain clear and free like an opened door she didn't expect it to work but it did and the only way to stop it is for tom to somehow find a way to help this girl he sees stir of echoes isn't a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination but in the thick atmospheric mood it conjures up it is a terrifically eerie domestic and is not only effective on a technical level but is impressive in its portrayal of a struggling family kevin bacon and especially kathryn erbe dream with the fishes are and exceedingly believable as a loving married couple who nonetheless have their fair share of problems after tom is hypnotized and starts seeing ghastly visions he is completely taken over by his desire to solve this mystery of the disappearing girl whom he has seen lurking in his house and instead of maggie not being understanding she instead believes what tom says and aside from being a little worried by what he is going through does not try to stop his pursuit bacon and erbe are not traditional hollywood stars like tom cruise and julia roberts and therefore are easier to relate to and always plausible as a struggling couple who have to work overtime at their jobs just to make ends meet in a entrancing sequence tom is hypnotized by lisa but instead of watching him we instead see what he sees starting from his view as he closes his eyes into darkness lisa tells him to visualize being in an empty movie theater and so we as audience members are watching a movie screen from inside a theater which is also showing a movie screen in a theater telling him to move closer and closer to the screen as a fuzzy word in black letters pops up on the screen we begin to float closer and closer to the front of the theater until we see that the word is sleep never before have i seen a hypnotism scene as mesmerizing and as this one truthfully this and another in which tom wakes up from a nightmarish dream only to quickly discover he is reliving what he has just dreamt are worth the full price of admission alone just to see them on the big screen having loads of fun with her small role as maggie's sister lisa illeana douglas to die for her last great character is a delight but rarely used to her full advantage in feature films funny and enjoyably offbeat douglas gets to utter the best line in the film while talking to maggie about tom's visions of the girl she remarks i wouldn't be worried about him seeing another girl although the fact that she's dead gives one pause also of note are jenny morrison intersection who is truly poignant in the last half of the film when we flash back to see what really happened to her missing character and liza weil remarkable in whatever as morrison's grieving teenage sister debbie if the resolution of stir of echoes does not live up to its obviously frightful full potential and it doesn't what comes before is both involving and appropriately gritty the music score by james newton howard and unsettling use of whispers and ghostly sound effects successfully compliment and foreshadow the that tom is put into and director david koepp proves once again that he is a director with a knack for creating almost unbearably tense situations that revolve around characters stir of echoes isn't as good as the sixth sense but why should it need to be both films are fully capable of standing on their own two feet and stir of echoes really is a spinetinglingly good horror film
positive	usually when a blockbuster comes out it's loaded with effects stars bad scripts and plenty of action mystery men may contain an cast and efects but the clever script and characters are what really works which is rare to see this year the film is based upon the comic book series the flaming carrot by bob burden in which wanna be super heroes try and fight crime only to be out done by the real hero of champion city captain amazing greg kinnear things go a little haywire when the sinister casanova frankenstein geoffrey rush is released into the city where he captures captain amazing and plans to wreak havoc upon champion city well the trio decide to take matters in their own hands by saving the city but first they need some assitance this is where the film takes a turn for the better in the beggining there were only wanna be heroes blue raja hank azaria mr furious ben stiller and the shoveller william h macy sure they were enterataining but their acts grew old fast that is until they aquire invisible boy kel mitchell and the bowler janeane garafalo and mr splein paul reubens of which rescue the film from becoming a disastorous mess thankfully the original heroes become amusing with some support of reuben and garfalo on screen the whole premise is rather ridiculous but packs a few punches to keep interest for one the film is considerably clever it literally pokes fun at super hero films like batman and robin superman etc in fact many scenes are similar to batman and robin including the opening sequence only altered in a humorous and superior way a part of the cleverness comes from the cast sometimes a film with such talent is overblown but the acting is what keeps it alive here while azaria and macy were enteratining characters really stood out one was paul reuben no matter how disgusting or revolting mr splein may be you still can't help but laugh it' so incredibly moronic it's just a riot watching reuben relieve himself of bodily functions janeane garafalo also was an interesting character she seemed to be the most outgoing and convincing character on screem due to her enthusiasm that kept the film flowing men is worth seeing alone for those troubled heroes on the downside a few of the heroes and especially the villain never really lift off kel mitchell and geoffrey rush were both utterly useless their parts were so limited they'd be lucky at all to be on screen for more than minutes ben stiller too was wasted mostly because of his unlikeable power and dialogue none of these characters get a rise out of anybody but happily they are lost in the charming flow of the film as far as the budget goes it was wisely spent on the cast not the effects while the set designs and action all look nice i'm glad there was a seperate aspect that the film focused on and for that i applaud slow at times and rather pointless mystery men still delivers it forgets about money making because it's not likely to make a bundle like it's proceeders and that's what works stupid maybe but for once i'm not disappointed no one expected an intelligent film but you get a film thats wit captures your attention and makes you forget this miserable year
positive	peter jackson's the frighteners has received some notice for setting the record for most computer effects ever in a movie and still coming in at the extremely cheap million price tag but for those who were dismayed by this year's blockbusters like twister and independence day the frighteners has much more to offer than special effects and for those worried wether or not peter jackson would compromise to hollywood you can rest easily the frighteners is as far removed from hollywood as a movie can get michael j fox stars as frank bannister a con artist who can speak to ghosts he uses this ability to set up a scam in a small town where his ghost buddies scare the hell out of people then he comes and pretends to get rid of them this is how he has made a living ever since his wife died in a car crash years ago frank's latest customers are a young couple played by trini alvarado and peter dobson when dobson ends up dead alvarado starts to take an interest in fox but dobson's spirit is still around as he refuses to beleive he's dead this leads to a very awkward and amusing dinner date between fox and alvarado with dobson tagging along as a ghost things start getting complicated for fox when he is accused for a series of murders taking place in the town fox sees someone named the soul collector crushing the heart of the victims but noone else can see that so when fox shows up to try and save each victim naturally people suspect he is the killer fox sees that alvarado is next on the soul collector's hit list and the last half hour of the movie deals with fox's attempts to save her from this evil spirit there are many wonderful twists and turns in the screenplay written by peter jackson and frances walsh the movie starts off as a black comedy and ends up a film the mix between these genres are perfect no laughs are sacrificed in the name of horror and vice versa one point of contention might be a lackluster score by danny elfman but that hardly seems like a flaw when you have such a diverse cast all in top form michael j fox delivers one of his best performances to date as a man who hides the sorrow of his wife's death and then is forced to confront this later on alvarado looking like andie macdowell makes a great frightened tough and smart heroine and jeffery combs as a paranoid fbi agent is brilliantly bizaare the frighteners never once feels like it is running long the first hour is as funny as any comedy this year and the last half hour is as thrilling as any of the big budget blockbusters this movie is probably what casper would've looked like if david lynch directed it it's easily the best film of the year so far
positive	before you read my review you gotta know that i love woody allen this is a very important note because allen's films are generally an acquired taste and definitely not for everyone i know folks who believe him to be a complete genius while others see him as a dirty ol' schnook who keeps making the same movie over and over again i love most of his films but will admit to having been quite disappointed by his recent crop during the in fact why he felt the need to make movies in those years is beyond me if you look at the quality of those films you'll hear what i'm saying the only two films of his that i really liked during that time were bullets over broadway and husbands and wives in fact i secretly hoped that he would take some time off at the turn of the millennium just to or something but it doesn't appear as though he has any intention of doing that so here i am again reviewing yet another woody allen movie and hoping that it brings back the woody from the days of old plot the year is and woody allen is a insurance investigator his methods are very and apparently out of date a new employee hunt has just been hired to streamline the operations for greater efficiency the two do not like each other one night they are both put under a hypnotic trance by a magician and unbeknownst to them placed under his control soon thereafter jewels are stolen words of love are exchanged and everyone is looking for an answer critique a wonderful recreation of the style movies with the witty banter between a catchy jazz score moving things along film noirish elements such as the veronica sexpot galore and a fluffy if inconsequential plotline on the downside the film actually starts off pretty slowly with the first hour tossing only a few guffaws out there but never really generating any kind of steady flow or energy the sets on the other hand were amazing the production design and costumes were perfect and the casting ideal so i kept hoping that the film would pick up and not turn into yet another mediocre outing for the man but it wasn't not long before i was fully engaged by the characters entertained by the many zingers delivered between allen and hunt and actually interested in the resolution of the flick i also appreciated how allen played the fine line between homage to the films of old parody and actual reinvention note theron's entire female persona that is drenched in film very cool of course films like this with little or no real tension in the plot need solid actors to keep you interested in the dialogue and once again allen does a great job in playing his character who for once isn't his typical new york jewish neurotic cheating insecure husband dude he actually plays a macho guy here and handles it pretty well especially the scenes in which he's hypnotized but the bigger surprise for me in this film was helen hunt an actress who i was openly sick of seeing in movies late last year sorry babe you were just in too many at the same time anyway she's really great in this film as the headstrong woman looking to a new era of equality amongst men and doesn't miss a beat of allen's dialogue i didn't care much for her running joke about him dying whenever he left a room but overall she was really good and i especially liked the way that her sweaters clung to her breasts as they did yum yum harumph but i digress so let's recap a great looking picture with a nice jazzy score some funny especially in the second half a decent plotline although you shouldn't expect a real mystery or anything and some solid acting all around i can't say that this is even remotely close to any of allen's best work but i certainly believe it to be a step in the right direction especially after the dinky decade of films that he just went through it's probably better geared towards allen fans more than anyone else but i would still recommend this film to anyone looking for a cute kind of vibe with chemistry between the leads zippy dialogue and a satisfying conclusion little known facts about this film and its stars annie hall celebrity everyone says i love you husbands and wives mighty aphrodite small time crooks when harry met sally you've got mail
positive	susan granger's review of legally blonde m g m it's a pretty in pink clueless story for the new millennium as elle woods reese witherspoon a perky southern california sorority queen switches from fashion to law in order to win back her yuppy boyfriend matthew davis the story begins as this sweetheart of delta nu is unceremoniously dumped by a bonehead who says if i'm going to be a senator by the time i'm i need to marry a jackie not a marilyn determined to prove she's as smart a snobby brunette selma blair from connecticut elle not only applies to harvard law school but gets in much to the amazement of family friends and faculty once there this not only survives but tenaciously thrives befriending a local manicurist jennifer coolidge dazzling a professor victor garber and rescuing a defendant ali larter in a celebrated boston murder trial plus finding a more worthy beau luke wilson in the tradition of john hughes and his disciple amy heckerling there's wit cheerfulness a fidelity of observation and a penchant for feature director robert luketic is blessed with reese witherspoon who's joyously incandescent in this utterly formulaic light comedy written by karen mccullah lutz and kirsten smith based on a novel by amanda brown the supporting cast is terrific particularly raquel welch and holland taylor and i particularly got a kick out of the gag of elle distributing scented resumes in pink her signature color on the granger movie gauge of to legally blonde is a frivolous funny filled with ditzy blonde ambition it's a movie for kids that their parents would be happy to have them see
positive	what do you get when you combine clueless and dumb and dumber to answer the question you get director david mirkin's new comedy romy and michele's high school reunion romy white mira sorvino mighty aprhodite and michele weinberger lisa kudrow tv's friends have been inseparable buddies since they graduated from sagebrush high in however when former classmate heather mooney janeane garafolo the truth about cats and dogs confronts romy about the year reunion she is astounded that she forgot watching pretty woman for the time they are reminded of how they wouldn't let julia roberts' character shop in the expensive stores because of her appearance then it hits them they are not successful what are she and michele going to do romy's instant solution is lose some weight off their already slender frames bag a couple of boyfriends and get jobs romy says this will be easy but michele retorts that if it is so easy why hadn't they already done it robin schiff's script keeps the show moving with some nice one of the best has romy reminiscing about her life's battle against the bathroom scales i was so lucky getting mono she says looking at her thinnest high school picture that was like the best diet ever the casting for the film is so perfect that one begins to suspect that the leads were chosen and then the script was developed romy and michele use their high school yearbook to discuss the caste system at their high school the film's editor david finfer dissolves the stills from the yearbook to live action flashbacks which makes the past come to life at sagebrush high the hierarchy consisted of the a group cheerleaders the b group drama club and the c group nerds romy and michele were none of the above ridiculed as the weirdoes they were constant targets for abuse even though they were quite attractive they had so much fun being together that they did not care about the others that they make their own outlandish clothes helped keep the wall around them complementing romy and michele's lightness is janeane garofalo as the dark pudgy heather mooney heather who invented a new cigarette paper for cigarettes with twice the taste in half the time for the gal on the go has the success and the money that they would like heather was even more of an outsider than they were in high school garofalo's role is only a side show this is a two person film with the other characters there merely for the two leads to bounce their lines off of the genuine chemistry between sorvino and kudrow makes for a sweet and sometimes touching comedy they have so much fun acting out their parts their enjoyment spreads to the audience 
positive	martin scorsese's triumphant adaptation of edith wharton's the age of innocence is a stunning film for the quintessential new york filmmaker the man who brought the streets of taxi driver and mean streets to life it seems like an odd choice for scorsese to do a period piece in the early but the fact that he pulls it off so brilliantly is a wonder and a testament to the greatness of scorsese as a filmmaker this is a gorgeous visual experience that it surely one of scorsese's finest newland archer is a prestigious lawyer who is engaged to may welland ryder a somewhat empty and shallow new yorker who belongs to a prestigious family and is quite beautiful the marriage is one which will unite two very prestigious families in a society where nothing is more important than the opinions of others on the day that archer is to announce his engagement to may countess ellen olenska pfeiffer cousin of may walks into archer's life archer is immediately captivated and finds himself in love with ellen archer is also bound by the limits of new york society which is an intrusive as any other in the world archer finds himself having a secret love affair in his mind with countess olenska attempting to keep her in his mind while trying not to lose his social status the film's subject matter may seem alien to scorsese but the theme is definitely not it is a theme of forbidden romance guilty pleasures and the consequences causes because of those actions there is a painstakingly flawed hero and his choice between the life he wants and the life he is destined for in truth it is a film about a society the audience doesn't know about but wants to find out more much like the society of goodfellas or even kundun the performances are absolutely breathtaking portrays more mental anguish in his face than one man should be forced to take pfeiffer is marvelous as countess olenska a mix of passion and beauty that the audience would die for as well ryder is probably the gem of the group for it is her quiet presence that overwhelms the plot and slowly pushes closer and closer to his eventual ending the supporting cast is also wonderful with several characters so singular that they are indelible in one's memory scorsese definitely has a passion for filmmaking his lavish and sumptuous set design and marvelous recreation of new york is a wondrous sight he literally transports the viewer to another world with incredible imagery his script is also excellent slow in buildup with a rapid conclusion and a fantastic ending that has to be seen to be believed it is difficult to make a period piece gripping scorsese however does it beautifully the famous cameras of the legendary director are also everywhere he is patient but he films everything and anything remotely important the cameras sweep pan track and do more than they've ever done but they are so subtle one doesn't realize he's watching all the scorsese hallmarks until a viewing the central tracking shot is probably longer and more complex than the famous goodfellas shot but the viewer doesn't notice it because we want to see more of this gorgeous world there are a few deft touches of filmmaking that are simply outstanding and joanne woodward' narration is exquisite not a fast film like goodfellas this shares more in common with kundun than anything else and like kundun this is a film that truly shines when given the chance to fully breathe and bloom in the end a beautiful film by a director continuing to challenge himself year after year
positive	plot a dude and his brother are driving and decide to fool around with a trucker on their cb radio it isn't long before their little prank gets someone put into a coma long story and the next thing you know the trucker is following them too lotsa nuttiness ensues and then they pick up their other friend venna a girl who the dude has a crush on but what's this the trucker is still on their tail and is now harassing all three of the young whippersnappers you bet buckle up dorothy this is gonna be one bumpy ride critique a good ol' time at the movies here's a film that actually gives away most of its plotline in its trailer and doesn't really bring anything new to the forefront if you've seen flicks like duel and breakdown you've crossed this path before but still manages to entertain you gangbusters with realistic situations believable characters funny moments thrills chills the whole shebang let's give it up for director john dahl who continues to put out solid films every other year if you haven't seen red rock west do yourself a favor right now and jot it down on a piece of paper and rent it at your earliest convenience and much like that film this one has an excellent premise and sets everything up at an even pace it gives you a little bit of background on each of the main three characters and then shows you how one small prank can lead to a whole lotta trouble for everyone paul walker really surprised me in this movie since i've never much thought of him as anything more than a pretty face and damn is it ever pretty or what but here he actually manages to put some depth behind the looks and that's always appreciated in films in which you are so closely tied to the main characters sobieski is also good but she isn't in the movie for as long as you'd think but the man who really takes this film to another level is steve zahn if you've loved this guy as the goofball in most of his previous roles you'll appreciate him even more here as the dude who starts off as one of the most manic and excited human beings i've seen in quite some time this is so awesome only to turn into a man scared out of his wits by the end of the flick and speaking of the ending boy does this movie deliver some chilling moments during its final clicks or what the arrow and i were practically in each others arms well maybe i'm exaggerating but you catch my drift as each minute brought about another turn of events which in turn took it all to an even higher level once again kudos to director dahl for being able to generate that type of intensity suspense and tension with a great score editing style and camerawork i too did wonder how the bad guy was able to track them so well but it didn't really bother me all that much you can assume that he had bugged their car but pretty much everything else in the story stuck like glue and i couldn't help but put myself in their shoes and appreciate their thoroughly desperate circumstance a great movie with an even cooler ending this film will likely be remembered as one of the better thrillers of the year this is amazing where's joblo coming from american psycho deep blue sea eye of the beholder the fast and the furious final destination the glass house no way out
positive	wyatt earp has a lot to tell and little to say this story of the legendary lawman runs three hours and nine minutes and that's too long for this that plays more like a tv than a movie the story opens on the earp family farm with young wyatt ready to run away from home he wants to fight in the civil war but his dad hackman has different ideas and wants his son to study law time passes and wyatt heads west returns home to marry and after a spell begins his career in law enforcement by the time he costner and his brothers madsen david andrews and linden ashby arrive in tombstone wyatt has tried his hand at everything from hunting buffalo to dealing cards wyatt earp is very appealing in such as cast costumes and but an overstated story and overpowered score deaden most of the emotional impact who can be moved by scene after scene after scene of swelling strings and suffocating speeches somber is just ask clint but this film that boasts not one not two but three count three hammy death scenes still a little bit of earp goes a long way and the life and times of the legendary lawman are from uninteresting stuff his uh unusual relations with women for example are an intriguing contrast to his character's credo of nothing counts as much as blood equally amusing is a and skinning sequence that is decidedly director lawrence kasdan takes a refreshingly realistic approach to the gunplay the infamous gunfight at the ok corral is both brutal and brief devoid of almost any theatrics don't look for much glorified violence here despite some large exclamation points in the story the characters do come to life the diverse cast includes everyone from betty buckley to mackenzie astin kevin costner is very good in the title role dances with whitney nevers get as steely as the role requires though but his transformation from lighthearted law student to stoic sheriff is fun to watch he was tougher in a perfect world his foil is dennis quaid who pulled a deniro by losing pounds to play the tubercular terror doc holliday gaunt and gamely he's a scene stealer who's seen too little other familiar faces include tom sizemore looking like bruce mcgill bill pullman looking like jeff daniels and lea thompson looking like someone other than lea thompson both gene hackman and isabella rosselini appear and disappear like magic while late entries catherine o'hara and jobeth williams are surprisingly solid though the story and score should've tried less is more all other credits are technical tops production designer ida random art director gary wissner and costume designer colleen atwood are some of the vips who helped spend what must've been an enormous budget clearly no expense was spared
positive	when i first heard that kevin costner was making a movie called the postman i thought an american version of postino starring costner god help us when i found out that it was not a remake of postino but an postapocalyptic epic i thought please god make him stop as it turns out the postman is a much better film than i had expected despite being set in the movie is at heart a western a band of thugs terrorizes peaceful villagers a wandering hero opposes the bandits and inspires others to fight back the setting however allows that familiar plot to take on greater significance american society has collapsed due to plagues and wars and survivors live behind barracades in isolated villages the struggle of a dead society to be reborn has a grand quality and deserves the epic scale costner grants it costner's nameless character a wandering actor rides in from the vast wasteland and is soon shanghaied into the service of general bethlehem will patton a former salesman turned bandit king our hero escapes and discovers the body of a dead postman taking the uniform and bag of mail he passes himself off as a representative of the restored united states he is shocked at the hope that he inspires in the people he meets one young disciple ford lincoln mercury larenz tate organizes a postal service ford spreads the postman's message of hope until bethlehem finds that the villagers are beginning to resist his rule as war breaks out between bethlehem's army and the postal workers costner's character steps into the legend he created and goes from loner to leader of the revolution his lie of the restored united states becomes a prophecy postman is an odd blend of a bleak setting and a message of optimism sort of sergio leone meets frank capra but its treatment of hope and renewal is compelling what could have been another of the road warrior like waterworld was surprises the viewer with a sensitively told story of nobility emerging from rubble tate is the in the movie's large cast ford lincoln mercury is the polar opposite of tate's character in his debut film menace ii society and tate makes ford's innocent belief in hope as convincing as cynicism and brutality his performance sells the movie interestingly as tate moves from his usual roles to youthful optimism the patton who usually plays nice guys proves a disarming villain olivia williams makes her film debut as the postman's love interest abby when they first meet abby asks him to father her child because her husband is sterile predictably the husband is soon eliminated by the bandits and abby is thrown back into the company of the hero however their relationship develops slowly as the emotional conflicts of both characters are explored she torn by grief guilt and anger he resisting his destiny the postman is costner's best work thus far perhaps that alone gives us hope for the future  
positive	in zoolander the world's most successful influential and male model derek zoolander wonders is there more to life than being really really really good looking obviously the film's creator and star ben stiller asked a similar question when crafting a movie out of his hilarious fashion awards subject can there be more to this film than being really really really silly no of course not and it never aspires to be anything more much like derek zoolander is a sweet simpleton of a movie it's not complex in either its social commentary or its comedy and it never produces any laughs except maybe a scene when derek's model roommates all die in a tragic gasoline fight accident a riotously funny of tommy hilfiger ads but it has a satisfying handful of strong chuckles wild characters and performances and mildly harsh potshots at the fashion industry to keep you amused better yet this exaggerated version of the original skit is only blown out to an efficient minutes just enough time to string together its goofball plot without exhausting the gag zoolander opens with several fashion bigwigs plotting to assassinate the prime minister of malaysia since he wants to abolish child labor in his country and thus driving up their costs fashion designer and criminal mastermind jacobim mugatu will ferrell drafts a plan to brainwash the dumbest fashion model to carry out the evil deed enter derek whose career is slumping as newcomer hansel owen wilson takes the spotlight on the trail of mugatu's plot is time magazine reporter matilda jeffries stiller's wife christine taylor and she's hoping to use mugatu's pawn derek to ultimately foil the scheme much like the austin powers films zoolander relies heavily on the strength of the talent involved and this zany comedy features some of the funniest people in entertainment today wilson is hysterical as the young vain hansel ferrell nearly steals the show from everyone as the flamboyant freakish mugatu in the same way dr evil upstages everyone in austin powers jerry stiller ben's dad who's best remembered as frank costanza of seinfeld makes a priceless turn as derek's slimy agent maury ballstein even ben stiller show alum andy dick shows up as a deranged masseuse as for ben stiller it seems his derek has one gag he's stupid which plays out in some uproarious unfortunately taylor seems out of place and out of her league here maybe it's just because i can't stop seeing her as marcia brady who she played in both brady movies making her unbelievable as a dowdy brainy plain jane who hasn't had sex in two years she leaves me pining for the cynicism of janeane garofolo who would've added real comic substance to the flimsy role while zoolander is hardly highbrow its screwball humor is welcome during these trying times especially considering the gross lack of decent pickings in the theaters these days zoolander's no masterpiece but a very worthy distraction
positive	originally titled lose your head' this parody of the scarlet pimpernel story was the first carry on to be produced by rank film productions two english fops the sir rodney ffing sidney james and his counterpart lord darcy pew jim dale decide to travel to revolutionary france in an attempt to rescue their fellow french royalists and aristocrats from losing their heads by the guillotine due to a series of machinations and disguises they are largely successful ffing becomes known as black fingernail' because he leaves a calling card behind which shows two fingers sticking up one with a black fingernail after the fingernail rescues a prominent royalist the duc de pommfrit charles hawtrey citizen robespierre peter gilmore orders the head of the secret police citizen big cheese' camembert kenneth williams and citizen bidet peter butterworth to follow the fingernail to england and do away with him in fact darcy and ffing are their coachmen once at calais the fingernail meets jacqueline dany robin and they fall in love instantly he tells her his identity and gives her his locket when camembert realises that the fingernail is nearby he searches the inn at calais and captures jacqueline thinking that she is wearing a diguise and is really the fingernail jacqueline is imprisoned in the bastille and camembert his love desiree dubarry joan sims and bidet all travel to london in pursuit of the fingernail they pretend to be of noble stock calling themselves the duc and duchesse de la plume de ma tante with bidet their assistant and are invited by darcy to a ball held by ffing desiree finds out that ffing is the fingernail by wearing the locket around her neck but she ends up falling in love with him ffing attempts to stall camembert so that he can return to the bastille to rescue jacqueline camembert has her moved to the neuve' and a climactic decides who will lose their heads at the end of the film a more complex story than most carry ons this film enjoys good production values sets costumes and an cast sid james is excellent as the english fop and black fingernail kenneth williams excels as the evil camembert and peter butterworth expertly plays the substantial part of camembert's crony other acting honours go to joan sims who is perfect as desiree and charles hawtrey who is excellent as the french aristo pommfrit although it suffers from a disasterously sword fight at the end of the film it is largely successful due to the performances of the main stars its slick and professional production and its script definitely one of the best of the series and a joy to watch
positive	if there is one thing that bothers me about hollywood films it's their predictable endings the devil's advocate has the atypical hollywood ending when everything that should happen does unfortunately for the devil's advocate this ending nearly collapses in on itself and ruins the entire film nevertheless the film does provide two and a half hours of pure entertainment note to self kill whomever was in charge of the previews for this film i don't think i was quite prepared for this movie because the trailers made it appear to be some supernatural horror film about satan well it does contain this element but what is not mentioned in the ads is the other plot elements and seemingly more interesting ones at that the devil's advocate begins in florida with an ongoing trial in session kevin lomax keanu reeves is the defense attorney working for a client whom has been accused of raping a young girl he ends up with a verdict despite an emotional testimony from the victim heather matarazzo he leaves the courthouse with his lovely wife mary ann charlize theron where he is approached with an offer to travel to new york city to help choose a good jury he accepts mainly after seeing the paycheck he will receive and he flies to new york with his wife after proving his worth for selecting juries and his perfect winning streak in court the head of the firm john milton al pacino asks him to work permanently as a criminal lawyer he graciously accepts where he is treated almost as a god he is given an incredible apartment which is bigger than my entire house now and a hefty paycheck his life seems to be on the rise and of course his life suddenly begins to waver and slowly decline he is attracted to fellow employee christabella connie nielson and his wife begins to feel very lonely in her large apartment mary ann takes up a friendship with a neighbor who always gives advice especially if it is not wanted meanwhile kevin nabs a case surrounding alexander cullen craig t nelson who apparently murdered three people he spends hours upon hours with this case while forgetting his loving wife who may or may not be going insane all of this while john milton may or may not be the devil himself after a while things turn completely as kevin's wife claims to have seen monstrous images superimposed on her friends a fellow employee is murdered in the park and his mother judith ivey reveals information about kevin's real father is it all just a big nightmare or is john milton really satan playing tricks with kevin's life the devil's advocate plays out fairly but for some odd reason the screenwriters wanted to surprise everyone by giving us something we don't expect is this surprise conclusion supposed to make us feel good and go home without feeling depressed or disturbed if so the devil's advocate messes up completely and ironically i felt more depressed because of the ending as is now than i would have if it had ended ten minutes early i went into the devil's advocate expecting a shocking horror film and that is exactly what i got i was settled in to be disturbed mentally and emotionally and that is what i got but what was the most disturbing and horrible aspect of the movie is the poor ending did i mention that i didn't like the ending the producers of this film take you on a thrilling roller coaster ride and just as it is ending they pull the rug out from under you films like and the usual suspects can survive with this surprise ending because it is expected more or less we know it is going to end in an unpredictable way the devil's advocate on the other hand ends unpredictably not from us knowing a lot but knowing nothing at all if that is confusing i recommend watching the film and then reading that again as for the film overall i enjoyed the entire first two hours being drawn in by a terrific character study and then adding the supernatural plot to increase the tension build from the character study the film runs like a clock slowly building until finally exploding with a highly charged climax and an unpredictable one at that and then you settle in for a nice resolution which does not occur it was at this point that i felt cheated taking us on a terror ride of intrigue we follow kevin lomax around as he is the centerpiece of the film everything occurs from his perspective he is our representation on screen sort of but we are forced to witness a conclusion which makes most of the film seem like a game i don't want to spoil the ending so all i can say is go see the film and decide for yourself perhaps the most shocking thing about the devil's advocate is the extreme amount of everything it earned its r rating for a reason there is plenty of nudity sex violence gore and then you have gore violence sex and more nudity this film really isn't subtle about anything showing us everything it actually surprises me that this film did not receive an rating as it is quite harsh however the movie does have its merits and nudity and sex are among those i don't condone sex and nudity in films but if its there i might as well enjoy it the biggest merit of this film is also the most interesting to watch the confrontations between kevin lomax and john milton are entertaining but what stands out amidst this extreme hatred is the decline of the wife mary ann portrayed by the extremely effective charlize theron mary ann's problems are incredibly intense and i found myself wanting to witness her decline this may sound uncaring but i wanted to watch because i felt sorry for her she is the most interesting character on the screen who is forced into a world where she is not wanted something the devil's advocate contained actually shocked me for reasons other than extreme violence and nudity especially for a film of this nature the story actually has something to say about humanity in one of the last scenes john milton explains to kevin lomax the game god plays with his children he is satan of course he comments that it is human nature to lust and loathe in vanity then god sets up rules which contradict human nature this bashing is more humorous than frightening what milton says is so true about our society that i found myself laughing out loud partially thinking it was funny but patially realizing it was true these moral dilemmas are present throughout the devil's advocate giving it an added depth many films skip over in their writing but i'm sure they came straight from the novel it was based on when a film has something to say about our society it deserves to be watched the cast of the devil's advocate is one of the highlights as we see memorable faces and they put spins on those memorable faces we don't expect heather matarazzo makes a brief appearance as the terrorized victim in the opening court case and she does a great job probably the big surprise of this film is keanu reeves he has proven himself an uneven actor successes such as speed and bombs such as johnny mnemonic but he tops himself with this performance i have never seen him more believable to date al pacino is of course the scene stealer his devilish performance is equal to those of jack nicholson the witches of eastwick and max von sydow needful things he could have easily gone too far over the top in many scenes but he remains completely believable if that is the correct term jeffrey jones mostly known as the principal in ferris bueller's day off also gives a good performance as eddie barzoon judith ivey manages a credible performance as the mother who holds a secret to kevin's past connie nielson is very effective in her role and she also appears naked several times one familiar face with a twist was coach star craig t nelson who gives a very good performance the devil's advocate is rated r for sexuality nudity violence language and some gore at minutes this film moves along fairly quickly for the first two hours i sat completely engaged in the good performances and strong characters the technical quality is also remarkable with great special effects and a good musical score director taylor hackford has managed to create a very disturbing motion picture only to ruin a good chunk of tension with the final fifteen minutes i guess my biggest problem with the ending is the fact that i went into the theater expecting a disturbing film and hackford gave me just that for a long time but just before the end he got jitterish and relied on the hollywood safety net in order to make his film more mainstream personally i would have preferred it ending fifteen minutes early
positive	ingredients evangelist church synopsis sonny dewey robert duvall is a tireless texas pentecostal preacher who unexpectedly catches his wife farrah fawcett in bed with another guy in a regrettable crime of passion he takes a baseball bat to the guy's head and suddenly finds himself a fugitive for murder and estranged from his wife and two kids to atone for his sins sonny flees to a rural bayou town in louisiana and baptizes himself as a new creature the apostle e f as the apostle e f sonny's main mission is to revive an abandoned church community and preach the gospel at the local radio station soon he sets about resurrecting the one way road to heaven holiness temple but sonny knows his time is short one day the police will find him opinion this movie is a look at an evangelist in real life terms i believe that robert duvall who is the producer director writer and main star of the apostle deserves an oscar for his performance as sonny the religious crusader a performance which is so complex and realistic it ranks as one of the finest acting performances on film duvall's portrayal of a true believer is authentic superb and inspired it offers the audience a completely honest look at southern religion as well as a portrait of a fallible complicated man driven by his beliefs incidentally in real life duvall was just as in getting the project underway since no major hollywood studio wanted to risk financing a complex movie about an evangelist the apostle as a project lay dormant for almost years before duvall was able to get it done paying for its production with his own money about five million dollars in terms of realism and character portrayal the apostle would rank as one of the best movies of this decade and i emphatically recommend the apostle for connoisseurs of stage and fine acting on film similarly those with a steep background in pentecostal christianity would find the apostle a experience on the other hand the apostle's main strength duvall's preaching is also what limits the apostle's target audience in terms of plot and pure entertainment value the apostle is definitely not for everyone teenagers action fans comedy fans and people who find church completely boring should stay far away from this movie since three quarters of the film is watching sonny preach at church in other words the apostle is a four star performance but with a very limited audience
positive	the most amazing thing about paul cox's innocence is how unlike a movie it is i mean that as the highest compliment if most studios were to profile an elderly couple who rekindle a romance i'd want to run and hide the sex scenes would be handled as a farce producers would shed years off the characters' ages so susan sarandon and harrison ford could star and true love would shine through any obstacle without explanation and consequence along with a charming romantic story the innocence shows how an increasing sense of mortality combined with revisiting the past while being entrenched in the present can make something that seems so right seem downright questionable the romance gets started when former musician andreas charles bud tingwell learns that his true love claire julia blake lives nearby they decide to catch up on old times but soon find themselves in a reinvigorating affair complicating matters is andreas' frail health and claire's longtime husband terry norris who can't understand why he's suddenly become obsolete in my mind the movie is less about the relationship between andreas and claire than the feelings of everyone involved john claire's husband endlessly questions what he did wrong claire initially insists she's a but admittedly behaves like a child a prospect that thrills and disappoints her andreas an agnostic begins to question his fate a message cox delivers in a memorable dream sequence cox litters the movie with flashbacks including the repeated vision of a roaring train it's a reminder of andreas and claire's past love as young lovers they met by train but as it recurs we get the feeling that the past and the present have clashed a pall is cast on the whole affair a master of the understated cox strings together a series of memorable moments in andreas' dream sequence amidst the roar of the train and conversations we get the whole picture of andreas and claire's love we also get glimpses into john and claire's relationship during a silent candlelit dinner shortly afterward claire admits to john about her indiscretion telling more than any monologue could all that's heard is the scraping of forks against plates the characters are unlike anything i've seen they're people so many times movies and especially television portray senior citizens as gratingly spunky or they're reduced to comedic buffoons ordinary people with a pile of emotions claire and andreas aren't sure what the next step is they do want to be happy which consists of an entirely different set of conditions than what they've known throughout their adult lives bravo to cox who wrote the script for not making john a monster so that claire's affair is automatically justified norris is so effective as john that he makes andreas and claire's love difficult to accept we feel for him he's a decent man sure he may have become complacent but he never expected this especially now with so much presented to the audience it's only expected that the material gets a little drawn out and repetitive which it does however in bringing up tough questions and not offering easy answers cox displays a skill and lan isn't likely to be surpassed by anyone anytime soon
positive	contact is a film that tries to do several different things it is intended to present a realistic picture of what alien contact might be like to restore a sense of wonder and mystery to the issue of extraterrestrial life to raise questions about science and faith and how they would be relevant in such a situation and to tell a personal story of a romance between the astronomer dr ellie arroway jodie foster and the religious spokesman palmer joss matthew mcconaughey the film succeeds wonderfully at its first two goals the portrayal of the communication from an alien world is much more reasonable albeit less immediately engaging than say the destructiveness of the invaders in independence day or even the complex process of abductions and genetic hybridization that forms the ongoing plot line of tv's the the aliens in contact seem to be like are more curious than anything else they know we exist they want us to know that they exist and they would like to make the next step and communicate in person the film wisely refrains from showing us the aliens directly and between the characters' ongoing speculation about the extraterrestrials and the outstanding visuals in the climactic yet enigmatic scene when arroway arrives on the alien world that sense of wonder and mystery comes through with a force rarely seen since stanley kubrick's a space odyssey most of the film however takes place on earth where there is an extended public debate on how to respond to these aliens scientists are enthusiastic ultraconservative religious leaders are wary and government officials are caught somewhere in between the debate is fueled largely by dr arroway's atheism she seems the obvious choice to pilot the spacecraft for which the aliens have provided blueprints but many are wary of sending an atheist as humankind's representative to another species the film is partly successful in raising and exploring these questions especially when it reaches a conclusion that suggests that the two approaches science and faith could be viewed as complementary rather than diametrically opposed still the film falls a little short in its representation of this conflict as it exists in american society the two sides are represented primarily by arroway and by fundamentalists but in reality probably of americans are neither atheists nor fundamentalists palmer joss occupies something of a middle ground but he ultimately becomes distracted by personal motives and comes across as a spokesman for any ideology then again the film does concentrate mostly on public debate which does after all tend to be dominated by extremists rather than on or discussions contact is accurate in its portrayal of these issues then but only within the narrow scope to which it confines itself the film's one clear failure is in the portrayal of the romance between arroway and joss for one thing it resorts to the tired movie clich that two attractive people will immediately fall in love as soon as they appear on the screen together as there does not seem to be any other reason for their instant mutual attraction the romance rarely if ever sheds any light on the characters although it occasionally tries and fails joss's explanation that he quit the priesthood because of the celibacy requirement i guess you could say i'm a man of the cloth but without the cloth for example is more like a punchline to a joke than character development instead the romance mostly seems to exist for the sake of later plot developments granted this is a and film and the characters are secondary but this just seemed like laziness on the writers' part more than anything else the successes of contact however far outweigh its failures even if the social commentary had fizzled altogether which it didn't the simple yet mysterious story of alien communication still would have made it a memorable film contact doesn't quite cover all the bases but it covers about as much as one could hope for in a film and its rejection of theatrics for a more realistic story is certainly admirable and i would not be surprised if ten years from now contact is mentioned in the same breath as and blade runner as one of the finest examples of sophisticated and intellectually relevant science fiction
positive	billy bob thornton who had a sudden rise to fame with sling blade after spending years as a virtually unknown actor and writer is becoming one of the most versatile and most accomplished american actors around at the moment as jacob the simple but at times very bright loser brother of bill paxton's hank thornton gives a performance which should leave an indelible mark on all but the most hardened viewers three men hank paxton jacob thornton and their friend lou brent briscoe stumble upon a plane wreck which upon closer inspection yields a rotting corpse and a bag full of money jacob and lou want to pocket the cash hank the smarter and perhaps more naive of the three insists on leaving the money for the authorities to find eventually they agree to keep the cash safe until the plane is found and then split the money three ways things start going wrong though with greed and violence weaving their ways through their plan disaster is sure to strike director sam raimi of the evil dead and darkman fame has made an excellent and film worlds away from the comic horror films which made his name while there are a couple of moments which might remind one of his earlier work raimi has made an intelligent and mature departure which will hopefully be a sign of even greater films to come scott b smith's screenplay based on his novel which i haven't read is a fine example of escalating tension while it does remind one of danny boyle's shallow grave without the abundance of black humour it keeps the drama that should really be a part of such a story on morality or the lack thereof found in a film with this subject matter alar kivilo's cinematography reminds one of joel and ethan coen's fargo with the bleak snowy landscape almost becoming another character danny elfman also does well with his moody score if there's a flaw in the film it's that it goes on for just a little too long just when we think that they are about to wrap things up raimi and smith decide to let the film go on a little further while this isn't really a bad thing it did become a little frustrating at times this may have been due to the fact that i had consumed a large sprite beforehand the performances are excellent with the usually annoying paxton in fine form and bridget fonda giving a turn as hank's scheming wife this is an excellent showcase for thornton's fine skills as an actor and a great change in direction for raimi who could very well have a career ahead of him as an accomplished director of dramatic films fingers crossed though that this doesn't stop him from making another evil dead sequel
positive	tibet has entered the american consciousness slowly during the past few years and burst into the forefront recently the dalai lama has made speaking tours tibetan designs and artifacts are showing up in shops the plight of the people has captured the imagination of major actors and artists and now there are two big budget films within as many months kundun presence a name the monks call the young dalai lama opens in with the search for the incarnation of the tibetan leader a group of monks enters a village and a child catches their attention the young boy proves himself by identifying possessions of the previous holy man as mine he and his family are then moved to a monastery in lhassa where he is to be prepared to take his position as the religious and political leader of the country he is forced into difficult decisions when china invades the country in the peaceful and isolated country is to fight off the intruders and diplomatic attempts over the next years yield no results eventually he must make the painful choice to flee to neighboring india comparisons to seven years in tibet are inevitable both films cover much of the same ground although the earlier movie does so from a westerner's point of view and features boxoffice draw brad pitt kundun features only native actors and is more of an insider's story in some ways this makes this film a superior concept but it lacks the movement and spark that made seven years such an the actors contribute to the realistic feel of the movie filmed in morocco for obvious reasons the only disappointment is chairman mao who looks like a wax dummy and moves as if he were a character on an intellectual level it is interesting to see how two different approaches handle the same facts some events are depicted differently and pitt's austrian who was portrayed as a pivotal influence in the dalai lama's life isn't even mentioned here glossed over in seven years the problems with the tibetan political system is hinted at here as the dalai lama muses we were just about to change things after the chinese attack the film is magnificently beautiful thanks primarily to the cinematography of roger deakins his lingering camera shows the exotic tibetan culture with luscious detail especially striking is an extreme moving close up of a sand mandala grain by grain the visual treats more than make up for the movie's faults creating a poetic meditation for the audience walking out of the theater you feel like you have awakened from a transcendental experience martin scorsese known for his dark tales of the underworld goodfellas taxi driver casino has shifted gears something of a thematic to his the last temptation of christ this is his slowest film yet oddly enough for a director with a history of graphic violence presenting a history filled with atrocities by the chinese most of these events take place his decision to not rituals is commendable the stumbling oracle who spits out his prophecies while in a trance state is much more effective as a mystery than if we were interpretations philip glass's score is impressive although at times it is too overwhelming and distracting i talked to a tibetan i met outside the theater who had just seen the film and was walking back in to see it again hearing his description of how he escaped from tibet at the age of seven and how his father was one of the soldiers accompanying the dalai lama during his trip to india i was struck by what was missing in the movie as grand as it looks and as historically accurate as it is there is a distance between the audience and the movie the film is more concerned with visuals and history and less so with human beings with the exception of a few scenes involvement with the characters is slight one of those exceptions is the portrayal of the young dalai lama shown as a mischievous boy who can't resist being a kid sometimes an encounter with his older brother thubten j norbu a retired indiana university professor who tells the young leader the chinese have ordered him to persuade him to accept communist rule or kill him is an outstanding moment but there aren't many of these even with its problems the kundun experience is phenomenal but one that i fear most will miss many people who saw seven years in tibet will have a been there done that attitude it's likely that the film will miss a appeal and public response will be the sound of one hand clapping
positive	i swear i have seen the edge before in fact it reminded me of the bear the river wild and other various films mixed into an entirely different film however the edge has done something that most action films should do and that is add heart and characters we like to the plot in doing so the edge draws many more suspenseful moments out of cliched scenes than say the peacemaker unfortunately because of those overused moments we can pretty much guess the outcome of the film but leave it to screenwriter david mamet to add humor and a few surprises to mess with your head one surprise in particular left me smiling just because mamet actually had the guts to add it to his script action films are a dime a dozen in hollywood and while they are somewhat successful at entertaining us they lack the one thing which would make them a more respected genre intelligence even horror films have learned this a genre which is probably the least respected of them all the river wild was one of the best films i have seen from the the intelligence of the screenplay and the suspense drawn from the realistic characters is nearly unmatched to this day the edge has the intelligence and smart characters but this time the lack of originality is the downfall i must admit that it was very suspenseful and had an original third half but the first hour and a half is riddled with cliches and plot holes this is an example of the final act saving the film instead of the other way around as in the lost world if only the screenplay had maintained the final thirty minutes' intensity it could have become a great action film and i use the term loosely the edge is pretty much a film but taking scream's lead the edge makes fun of the genre's cliches and then uses them though not quite as effectively charles morse anthony hopkins is the main character a rich and very intelligent man who wonders what the accumulation of all this knowledge has brought to him for once we don't immediately care for the main character instead we like bob alec baldwin a photographer who is going to take pictures of charles' wife mickey elle macpherson out in the wilderness they board a plane and head to a cabin somewhere in the arctic charles' birthday is the same day and he receives a gold watch from his wife and a pocket knife from bob as action films go these items do have importance to the rest of the story but quite a bit more than we first expect soon however bob wants to find a native to shoot pictures of because of his personality charles bob bob's assistant steve harold perrineau and the pilot head off to find him and as shown in the previews hit a flock of birds flying south for the winter down the plane goes the pilot is killed and the three are left to survive in the wilderness director lee tamahori is aware of the silly plot which is about to follow and therefore has to create original ways to approach the situations he succeeds often enough for us to enjoy the film take for instance the entire bear plot this has been done many times in films with different animals and even bears but given the charles' intelligence and bob's uncertainty many of the cliches are given fresh twists even charles himself seems to have seen these action films before my favorite line of the film comes from charles most people die in the wilderness because they didn't do the one thing that could save their life thinking despite the predictability of the main plot a subplot develops late in the film which took me by surprise and made me smile when i realized that everything isn't as it seems anymore i have to write cautiously as to not reveal this surprise so instead i will avoid it entirely the first of the edge have many humorous moments to push it along and some of charles' survival techniques seem possible even making fire from ice tamahori is able to create a lot of suspense from the stalking bear but whenever the bear is present the characters lose all sensibility i have always wondered why characters in films walk over a log to get across water why not do what an intelligent person would and crawl across i guess getting chased by a bear makes your thought process turn off for a while thankfully we already have begun to care for the characters and so we let this small detail slide but some of the technical details are awkward such as the nice stitching done on the fur coat that charles and bob make where did they get thread and needles the acting of the film is highly above average for a film of this nature and borders on phenomenal anthony hopkins gives a terrific performance creating his most likeable and layered character since remains of the day hopkins usually brings greatness to his roles but here he exceeds at gaining the audiences' sympathy something he definitely did not do in silence of the lambs alec baldwin gives one of his best performances i have ever seen it sure is better from his fair game baldwin can be a good or a bad character and here he succeeds at both in a way you can never quite guess if he is a nice or a vllainous character until the end and baldwin is able to handle the photographer elle macpherson gives a good performance albeit slight she isn't in the film all that much but for the scenes she does have she handles as an actress not as a model harold perrineau is a good actor and his scenes are nice and underplayed he is eliminated early and i reveal nothing by saying this because it is inevitable and predictable the edge is rated r for graphic violence some gore and language some of the violence is a little too disturbing even for me this film is a nice change from the mindless action most of us are used to but too many cliches bog it down director tamahori has created a very smooth and suspenseful action film out of recycled parts david mamet's script though has a lot of humor to keep the first hour afloat and the acting is solid the best thing about the script is the ending which doesn't end with the normal action sequence but with a small detail involving a certain gift it's a nice touch considering what we have had to go through with the bear and by the way most people laughed when the film faded to black due to a large credit to bart the bear way to go bart
positive	one of the more unusual and suggestively violent films ever made is just a few steps away from brilliance however those few steps away are only a few steps from a level of evil and depravity that few people want to discuss the film received mixed reviews upon release but there's an underlying sinister appeal and intrigue to this that many critics perhaps did not notice at times it gets preachy about the horrors it seems to be criticizing but the script and the ultimate are excellent the shocking conclusion is just as unpredictable as the endings of most films are predictable this piece of work is intensity it's uncomfortable to watch yet compelling i want not to look yet i cannot turn away the story creeps along slowly and deliberately crafted by visionary director david fincher he has experience in tantalizing his audience with information and visions but not giving away too much too soon this is the guy who directed the ominous alien is even more ominous because the threat is real it's human and while the script takes some artistic licence the way in which the diabolical killer works here is actually realistic that is if a human being could be so intelligent patient wealthy and disillusioned after the most bizarre opening credits i've ever seen refreshingly different in editing style and musical accompaniment the initial character development takes place morgan freeman stars as detective william somerset a knowledgeable veteran who is ready to give up on his job and the sickness of society brad pitt as detective david mills the young hotshot who is brand new to this unnamed city and full of fury to catch the bad guys these two fine actors give the film its human qualities along with the appealing gwyneth paltrow who plays tracy mills' wife however none of them stands out above the material no disrespect intended but two other actors could have played these parts and the film probably would have been about the same an ironic note is that somerset has only a week or that's seven days left on the force to train his young protege the title of the picture also refers to the deadly sins as chronicled by john milton in paradise lost greed sloth lust pride envy wrath incidentally i wrote the sins in order of how each victim was found it's the last two sins that are the most intriguing and shocking but i won't give that away as i said this has a great ending and no one should spoil it anyway the brilliant killer sets out to make a statement to the world that these sins will no longer be tolerated and he makes the sinners suffer for it the two partners stumble over the corpse of a grotesquely obese man they learn that he was to eat himself to death the killer leaves small clues at this and other murders and of course somerset and mills are smart enough to stay with him all the way if they didn't it would be one short movie the deliberate pace allows for craftsmanship of detail and story we see a lot of blood but it's not especially violent the suggestion of what happens is far more disgusting than anything actually most of the violence in pulp fiction is gory graphic and disturbing but all the gore is still if you tend to get queasy don't eat food during this film kevin spacey plays john doe the avenging angel who claims that he's the messenger who will right the wrongs with his teachings like many crazy men he has some fine ideas but some sick ways of expressing himself spacey doesn't appear until the final minutes and also doesn't receive billing in the opening credits however it's his appearance that turns this film upside down and for that he should have gotten an oscar nomination a great villain manages to make you either root for him or feel compelled to listen to his ramblings regardless of whether you agree with him or not this character is so well written that it's hard to disagree when he says that what he is doing will be remembered by everyone no serial killer has ever been so creative is blatantly unsubtle with its messages about the horrors of the world and it's often a little too depressing what it lacks in those areas it makes up for with believable dialogue screenwriting unexpected twists and realistic characters the technical aspects of the film are unobtrusive fincher uses lighting music and editing quite well but his story is always the thrust of the film fortunately we don't find out what happens to mills and somerset after the closing credits which are run backwards up the screen it's better to imagine what paths they will follow this is not the kind of film you turn away from and quickly forget it's got a sinister message and john doe is right about one evils of the world aren't going to cure themselves raises some tough questions and it's intelligent enough to allow its audience to answer many of those questions for themselves useless in brad pitt and kevin spacey also competed for the best supporting actor in monkeys spacey in the usual suspects for which he won
positive	there are some works of art that are almost impossible to review not because of their own complexity but because of their legendary status which prevents the reviewer to say anything original one of such masterpieces is casablanca probably not the best film in the history of the seventh art but definitely the most popular one its popularity can be measured not in a multitude of more or less disguised remakes that were made in more than half a century since its premiere but also in countless tributes and references that movie makers use in their works to this day casablanca is also a movie that has the very rare virtue of both being praised by the critics and loved by general audience one of the things that makes this film even more unique was the fact that it was doomed to fail at least judging by conventional wisdom of its time it was based on a broadway play so mediocre that it hadn't been produced on stage screenplay by three writers julius g epstein philip j epstein and howard koch was beeing written as shooting went along the main actors were producers' second choice and finally man behind camera michael curtiz was considered to be capable but not great director however the movie was commercially successful and earned three oscars including the one for the best film until this very day it is considered to be the best example of hollywood making in its own golden age the plot of the movie was heavily influenced by the needs of propaganda yet it also used rather complicated and now almost forgotten political circumstances of that global conflict in order to make intriguing story in december casablanca exotic port on the atlantic coast of north africa is controlled by officially neutral yet french vichy government thousands of refugees from europe are stuck there on the way to lisbon and safety of america and ready to pay any price for precious exit visas many shady characters thrive on their misery including the corrupt police chief captain renault rains his best friend is rick blaine bogart who used to be idealistic and now owns popular night club in casablanca and lives by his own cynical philosophy of sticking his neck for nobody however everything changes when he gets in possession of two precious extra visas this event coincides with the arrival of two new refugees to casablanca one of them is victor laszlo henreid czech resistance leader who escaped three times from nazi concentration camps and became the legend of enslaved europe he is accompanied by his beautiful wife ilsa lund bergman with whom rick had a stormy affair in the eve of nazi occupation of paris the couple needs visas especially because of the gestapo major strasser veidt being on their trail rick is now forced to choose between love wounded pride interest and his own hatred of fascism the casting for this movie seems influenced by divine inspiration humphrey bogart most legendary actor in the history of cinema is one of the rare character actors who elevated his persona to the star status bogart's portrayal of rick as complicated man torn between idealistic past and bitter present was so perfect that his icon would forever be connected with that character another icon in his company is ingrid bergman great actress of old hollywood here in her artistic and visual prime the cinematic coupling of bogart and bergman became one of the main symbols of that era of filmmaking some happier times when the romance on the screen didn't look childish nor trite like in some more contemporary works for many people casablanca is probably the best romantic film ever made but the reason for that isn't the romance itself it's the realistic story of people forced to make tough and often wrong choices in their life the casting of casablanca was right on target not just in a case of main leads the supporting actors also did a marvellous job sidney longstreet and peter lorre were here mainly to give a mystic flavour spotted in a previous bogart classic john huston's maltese falcon yet both of them managed to portray colourful and original characters another shining example of good casting is now almost forgotten paul henreid as the weakest part of love triangle character of victor laszlo has believable charisma and looks like a somebody who could inspire millions of people to rise against nazi tiranny unfortunately the charisma that burdened laszlo leaves little place for difficult choice making his character forever overshadowed by coupling however rick and ilsa actually have a serious competiton for most memorable character in casablanca captain renault brilliantly portrayed by claude rains in a role of a lifetime was embodiment of perfect almost unmatched balance between ethical corruption and physical charm despite being the undoubtful villain in almost entire movie rains managed to make renault sympathetic character and his final conversion to the side of good symbolized in not so subtle gesture at the end of movie looked unnecessary rains also gave another dimension to the movie making it even more ambiguous people who like to analyse movies to death discovered signs of homosexuality in renault's relationship towards rick and rick's final words leave room for even more outrageous speculations together with characters and exciting story the movie was good in creating his own atmosphere professional nitpickers would probably have a field day in discovering numerous historical and geographical inaccuracies but casablanca is still a shining example of hollywood movie that is beliavable if not realistic any way even if we don't see it as a historical document casablanca is movie that can be source of entertainment as well as infinite inspiration
positive	like the great musical pieces of mozart himself amadeus is a true work of art it is one of those few movies of the that will be known for its class its style and its intelligence why is this such a good film there are almost too many reasons to explain the story court composer salieri f murray abraham feels waves of different emotions going through his head as wolfgang amadeus mozart tom hulce comes into his life as the young genius composer salieri feels envy and jealousy but at the same time is fascinated with mozart's brilliance and ingenious we travel through mozart's life as a composer through his struggles his triumphs and ultimately his demise the acting abraham is magnificient as salieri his acting range enables him to focus on each individual emotion and express it through his speech and body language this performance earned him a well deserved oscar tom hulce is interesting as well as mozart a quirky annoying bratty kid with an annoying laugh he's strong but weak at the same time and must be aided by his wife elizabeth berridge who is good in her role but lacks dramatic depth jeffrey jones in a smaller more dignified role than such roles in stay tuned and mom and dad save the world is cast perfectly because of his noble charm the movie every element of this movie works the costumes and makeup are very memorable as well as its stunning art direction and unforgettable scores adapted from mozart's original music while wolfgang amadeus mozart was a genius at music milos forman proves with his film that he is a genius of filmmaking this movie is a classic that will be remembered for years to come i almost lost my nose and i like it i like breathing through it nicholson chinatown
positive	armageddon in itself symbolizes everything that is wrong in modern filmmaking stories have been replaced with special effects character development gets overshadowed by bad dialogue plotting consists of a bunch of shit getting blown up armageddon is as stupid as loud and as shallow as any movie you'll see come out this summer or maybe even any other summer but i loved every freaking minute of it believe me i'm just as shocked as you are hell i don't even know why i went to see it in the first place the previews were so annoying that i predicted this was going to be the worst film of the year or at least in the running i'm sorry but somebody dial isn't quite the tagging that's going to sell a movie it isn't too wise either to market the film using the movie's stupidest lines beam me up scotty yeah that sure is great writing i mean let's face it armageddon's previews rival the truman show's as being some of the worst of the year neither of them even come close to doing their respective films justice of course you all know the story when the earth is threatened with total annihilation via an asteroid the size of texas nasa calls in the us's top oil drillers to go into space and implant a nuclear device and someodd feet into the asteroid in the coarse of all this mayhem we are introduced to some interesting and not so interesting characters belonging to the former group is rockhound steve buscemi a horny little womanizing genius who's always full of wisecracks even when flying into space at a huge amount of g's also there's the always billy bob thornton as dan truman the bigwig at nasa who recruits all the drillers he kind of reminded me of ed harris in apollo only without the intensity and great lines to deliver then on the flip side of the coin is the tired contrived character of harry stamper bruce willis who does the whole movie employing with annoying accent i can't quite place the leader of the pack as well as liv tyler and ben affleck as the token lovers you must have in any summer movie basically that's about it as i said this is hardly a film about plot it's another summer blockbuster with plot points that are beyond unbelievable and dialogue and characters that are mostly completely wooden case in point nasa doesn't know that there is even an asteroid on it's way until eighteen days before impact huh another example at one point in the movie two children are playing with toy space shuttles in front of a poster of kennedy how pretentious is that want another one okay before the oil drillers blast off into space one of them starts singing leaving on a jet plane and soon all the rest join in did michael bay attend the school of sappy filmmaking before he made this picture but naturally all this sappiness melodrama and special effects accumulate to one bitchin' time at the movies and don't get me wrong despite all of the things i found wrong with armageddon i still very much enjoyed it so even if you don't win one of mcdonald's free tickets it's still definitely worth checking out
positive	this is one of the most funny and entertaining comedies of the year and it just happens to be animated there are some great voice over commentaries from hollywood's most famous celebrities some fabulous animation and a compelling story this is the best we've seen from disney since beauty and the beast this film begins an unspecified time following the conclusion to toy story in the aftermath of their earlier adventures buzz voice of tim allen and woody voice of tom hanks are now fast friends and all the toys live in perfect harmony content with their lives one day andy broke woody's arm off while playing with him woody is now officially discarged and worthless left with his nightmares where he lies in a trash can with the other discards later andy's mother decides to have a yard sale and she collects a few old toys from her son's room since one of these discards is a member of the moving toy gang woody goes to the rescue leaving the safety of the house for the uncertainty of the front lawn in order to bring the toy back although his mission is successful he is placed in a serious predicament when a toy collector named al voice of wayne knight spies woody while hunting through the wares available at the sale the cowboy toy represents the final collectible needed to complete his collection of merchandise from the old tv series woody's roundup if he can acquire woody al can ship everything to a toy museum in japan for a huge profit so after andy's mother refuses to sell the wooden cowboy al steals him and it's up to the other toys led by buzz to go into the city to save their friend and so buzz rex voice of wallace shawn hamm voice of john ratzenberger mr potatohead voice of don rickles and slinky voice of jim varney go out on a dangerous journey to rescue their friend they find themselves confronting things like busy streets and other buzz lightyear toys there are car chases gun fights and finally the confrontation between buzz and his nemesis who by the way resembles darth vader meanwhile woody learns that he was once a tv celebrity and has a family a cowgirl named jessie voice of joan cusack a horse named bullseye and a father figure called the prospector voice of kelsey grammar they offer him another life as a celebrity a toy in a museum in japan he is now forced to choose between being loved intensively by andy for a little while before he grows up and be forgotten or be admired by children for generations the problem is if woody escapes from al's clutches and returns home they will end up back in the lonely darkness of storage a real effort is made in the technical department the animation is rich and colorful with lots of wonderful details the cinematography is also extremely improved since toy story there are a lot of complicated swings turns and that really make an impression lighting and filters are used to create a mood as in a surprisingly emotional moment jessie's remembrance of her days when she was a beloved toy the film contains a lot of jokes such as the one about videogames and entertaining parodies on jurassic park and star wars the film ends with the failed takes the kind of scenes that we are used to see after comedy shows on tv these outtakes are some of the funniest scenes in the film but what in the end makes toy story a memorable experience is not the jokes its multiple parodies or marvelous animation it is its heart and emotions the story about the meaning of friendship love and even life itself it is not difficult to predict that toy story would be a huge economical success but its artistic achievement was unexpected unexpected because the first film wasn't much more than a demonstration of special effects but mostly it was unexpected because disney hasn't produced anything spectacular in years and is constantly surpassed by companies such as dreamworks and warner brs but here the director has changed the atmosphere of the film making it more accessible and interesting for persons older that years this is a big from the ancient laws of off course this is not antz it is not as intelligent this is not a landmark and no masterpiece but i promise that you'll find it as funny and enjoyable as i have whether this is the best animated film of the year i dare not say my choice would probably be the iron giant but along side with american pie this is the comedy of the year i almost lost my hopes for disney but toy story proves that disney hasn't lost their ability to entertain
positive	not too many people know who james whale is but it's a safe bet that a good chunk of them have seen his movies if we are to believe the biographical gods and monsters whale would have wanted it to be that way this is an insightful haunting exploration of the last days of the frankenstein and bride of frankenstein director and it is notable for introducing one of the first complicated gay characters in a hollywood movie gods and monsters has no interest in being a biopic of whale's life because it tracks only the final few days of his life and it's probably a better movie for it it's focus is on whale's ian mckellen untraditional and deceptive lust for heterosexual gardener clayton boone brendan fraser it begins with whale a fairly talented artist aside from being a director asking boone to sit for him pose for a portrait at first boone doesn't realize that whale is gay and grows fascinated with the old man when he does discover whale's sexual orientation from his dedicated and protective maid lynn redgrave he is frightened refusing to sit for the guy but he comes back only to storm out again disgusted with whale's locker room talk boone returns yet another time after whale promises to tone down the aforementioned locker room talk and finds their platonic relationship to be strengthening meanwhile jimmy himself is suffering from hallucinations and mental attacks as a result of his stroke not long ago his ailment leads to desperation and depression which build to the point where he is forced to ask boone for an incredulously big favor what is perhaps most sensational about gods and monsters is brendan fraser's bravura performance up until seeing this film i intensely disliked the young actor because of his tendency to ruin the movies he is in blast from the past for example i was surprised how expressive an actor he proved himself to be here this is impressive because his character's dialogue is minimal with mckellan doing most of the talking that requires fraser to act through body language a difficult skill to master but something he proves capable of doing well this is not to ignore mckellan's oscar nominated turn he earned that nomination with his touching performance here although at the risk of sounding like a philistine i would have chosen his performance as the nazi in apt pupil for the nomination an understated compelling gem whale dreaded being remembered solely for his work in the hollywood horror genre and he thought hollywood to be the equivalent of a battlefield he rejoiced in being free from it only reluctantly going to receptions with fellow movie people in the end perhaps it is what killed him the memories of hollywood and war blending together to form a living nightmare eugene
positive	when i initially set out to review this film my tag line was going to be you too can believe whales can fly then it was going to be you too can believe pastel triangles can fly then it was going to be you too can believe wood sprites can fly finally i just gave up trying to come up with a tag line and decided to say there's a lot of flying going on in this film as our first host steve martin tells us the original concept behind fantasia was to bring it out every year with some old segments retained and some new segments added in well apparently that plan fell by the wayside for a while because approximately sixty years have passed since the original classic was released part of this might have something to do with the cold reception the film got when it was first released in grossing somewhere close to in its original month of release subsequent of the film have elevated the popularity of the film to the classic status it has finally achieved and rightfully deserved to celebrate the release of an updated version of fantasia disney and imax teamed up to present the animated film in a fashion no one had seen before six stories high in an exclusive four month engagement from january to april fantasia can be seen at many imax theaters across the us after the engagement is over the film will be shown at regular theaters is the format effective for the film with a few exceptions yes the first segment we are presented with is set to beethoven's fifth symphony it's hard to describe exactly what this segment is about but it involves a bunch of brightly colored butterfly looking triangles flitting about happily everything seems to be going great for these little things until the ground erupts with swarms of evil black triangles that attack and engulf their lighter counterparts eventually shafts of light from above help drive away the evil things and peace returns to the butterfly things though this segment isn't very story driven some of the images are very visually strong especially the scene in which the dark cloud of bat things who are all outlined in blood red colors begin to overtake the skies the next segment is set to ottorino respighi's the pines of rome in this segment some humpback whales swim happily through the ocean and eventually emerge from the water and fly around the massive icebergs that pepper the oceanscape a whale calf gets into a scuffle with some nearby birds during the flight and ends up getting trapped in a giant iceberg he smashes into while trying to avoid the birds attack he is finally saved by another liberating shaft of light and he and his brethren take to the skies and fly into the upper atmosphere where they frolic in the oceans of clouds again visuals are the key with this segment especially where the whales are involved reportedly the whales as viewed on an imax screen in certain sequences are shown as actual size the cgi whales look incredibly except for some googly cartoon eyes drawn onto the images one especially striking image involves the giant shadow of one of the whales being cast through the wall of an iceberg as the whale calf tries to find a way out to its parent absolutely beautiful stuff the third segment and the least of the eight segments is set to george gershwin's rhapsody in blue this segment is designed as a tribute to acclaimed caricaturist al hirschfeld and intertwines four different stories about sad souls living in depression era new york there's a construction worker who dreams of being a jazz drummer an sad sack that dreams of having a job a young girl that dreams of spending time with her parents instead of being hustled off by a schoolmarm and a nebbish who dreams of being free from his overbearing wife i won't go into how everything works out but in fine disney tradition there is a happy ending unfortunately the story drags quite a bit and the seems out of place within the hyper reality of the rest of the segments segment four is set to dmitri shostakovich's piano concerto no and is an animated version of hans christian andersen's the steadfast tin soldier a one legged toy tin soldier falls in love with a clock ballerina whom he assumes is also one legged because he can't see her other leg extended out behind her much to the dismay of an evil jester the jester knocks the soldier out of a window and continues pursuing the ballerina little does the jester know the soldier has been deposited in the sewer and has journeyed through the pipelines only to be swallowed by a fish that has been captured and sold to the owner of the set of tin soldiers that the one legged one comes from the soldier eventually saves the day and gets the girl although the ending has been altered from the andersen story the steadfast tin soldier is decently told with in the framework of a seven minute short some children may find the jester to be a little frightening but otherwise the segment is well made segment five is the funniest of the bunch set to camille the carnival of the animals this segment features a flamingo torturing his fellow flamingos with a while they are trying to perform a choreographed dance number while it is the shortest clip of the group and a throwback to the alligators and hippos dancing in the first fantasia it is still well accomplished and a welcome bit of comedy segment six is the only segment to be repeated from the original fantasia and it's the one that people remember most the sorcerer's apprentice the story is the most recognizable so the draw here is seeing it on the enormous imax screen in remastered stereo unfortunately the segment wasn't made to be presented on large format film considering it was shot full frame and exhibits large amounts of grain there were at least two occasions where images were very hard to make out due to the excessive grain similar problems crop up on modern day releases when projected on screens too large for the image to be shown accurately but no one seems to notice for some strange reason an anomaly common to many screen theaters segment seven is set to sir edward elgar's pomp and circumstance march no and is the only other fantasia segment to feature a stock disney character donald duck stars as an assistant to noah whose task is loading all of the animals onto the ark during the loading donald and his wife lose sight of each other and both believe that the other one didn't make it on the boat they are constantly missing each other due to comic misadventures mainly involving donald being crushed by animals in various manners despite the slapstick style of comedy in this piece it displays more emotion in its final scene than many of the foisted on audiences these days powerful stuff segment eight brings a whole new meaning to the clich saving the best for last set to igor stravinsky's the firebird an elk awakens a forest sprite that proceeds to change the wintery landscape into a beautiful springtime landscape trees bloom and flowers blossom and everything seems to be going well until the sprite becomes inquisitive about a large mountain housing a strange formation when the sprite examines the formation it awakens and becomes the titular firebird in a stunning spectacle the firebird rears back and unleashes and fire storm that destroys everything in its path including everything that the sprite has worked to create some amazing animation is present here and well worth the ten dollars a ticket alone although brush strokes are evident in one scene due to the enlargement of the film the host segments are largely no pun intended throwaways although steve martin's clip is pretty funny be sure to stay through the credits for a little more humor from martin penn and teller are usually funny but here their gags seem routine and therefore uninteresting the best segment comes from of all people bette midler who gets to tell us about some of the abandoned segments that never made it off of the drawing board pieces like flight of the bumblebee a take on the four horsemen set to wagner's ride of the valkyries and a strange segment prepared in the by salvador dali that never was shown are all previewed here and teased that they may appear in future installments for fans of visual stimulation or classical music fantasia is a perfect way to spend the afternoon the film is also decent family entertainment and contains little to no objectionable material as i mentioned earlier in the review if ten dollars seems like too much for you to spend on this film fear not because after its run in imax theaters it is going to be brought out in regular theaters i must stress that the best way to see this film is on an imax screen though then you too can believe that can fly 
positive	it's tough to really say something nice about a type of person who's so ethnocentric that any humanity they once had is now gone but by god american history x does it and for that i commend it it not only takes balls but intelligence to make a human being out of a skinhead a kind of person who dedicates their lives to hating anyone who's not what they are and this film wisely and miracurously pulls it off the subject of this film is one of them but he is worse than one of the blind followers that make up most skinhead members since he is the leader of the pack he's the one who instigates them to take a firm grip onto their rage and then in another brilliant stroke justifies it with political propoganda that makes eerie sense when he speaks he's so utterly convincing as a public speaker and so firm in his convictions that it comes as a shock when he actually goes through the rehabilitation process his name is derek vinyard and he's played by edward norton with so much fire and intensity that when he speaks he's almost as convincing and arresting a public speaker as say malcom x when we first see him he's clean shaven with a jet black swastica emrboidered on his left breast a devlish goatee and he's attacking the black carjackers outside of his house dressed in nothing but his white boxers and carrying a handgun in his hand that never seems to run out of bullets at least when he doesn't need them he so believes in his convictions that he's willing to put his beliefs to the test even if he knows it will mean a stop in prison if only for a couple years american history x is about derek how he became a skinhead how he rose to power how he was rehabilitated in prison after murdering two black men in a fit of rage that was less to do with the stealing of his car and more to do with proving himself and how he tried to save others namely his younger brother from making the same mistake we see him at all of these stages as a smart teenager a vicious hate monger a man having an epiphany and the man who tries to correct what he's done before and in all of these we get a portrait of a man from all sides or at least that's the intention the film's framing device is his brother danny edward furlong perpetually looking about also now a skinhead and how his principal bob sweeney avery brooks who i just found out was or is the captain on star trek's deep space is trying to correct him when the film opens danny has just written a book report on mein kampf landing him in trouble with sweeney which causes him to make him write a paper on derek's life and how it has gotten him nowhere coincidentally this day is the day derek is released from prison and when we see him he's not as buff and has a full head of hair he's just as intelligent but still very rough along the edges but he's wisened up he's no longer controlled by his anger at blacks and jews and tries to persuade danny who's becoming what derek was before to give up his lifestyle but danny won't he goes to a large skinhead beer bash meets with the skinhead leader stacy keach and then discovers that derek is as opposed to as he was for it a couple of years ago the film circles around this then spins off into flashbacks all done in black and white we mostly see derek at his prime as a skinhead living in venice beach organizing vicious and raids on local stores that no longer hire the white teenagers since they can easily get cheaper illegal immigrants to do the same work and mouthing off his theories on affirmative action and how illegal immigrants and blacks have destroyed the fundamentals this country was built on to them the white man is the one who has gotten the fuzzy end of the lolipop and he not only speaks elloquently forcefully and intelligently but he backs everything up with political reasons justifying their rage at least to them and frighteningly enough much of what he says sounds true american history x is a collection of really great scenes and moments rather than a cohesive great film that flows effortlessly from one moment to the next in it there are some of the best scenes i've seen all year one scene features a dinner between derek's family and his mother's newest boyfriend played with reserve by eliott gould a jewish liberal who quietly disagrees with derek's rightist views launching the scene into a fit of rage and anger that builds unparalled emotions in the audience gould's reaction to derek's final summation is unnerrving another scene uses humor and traditional macho sex talk to build a friendship and a nice connection between derek and a black guy torry while folding laundry in prison and another is actually divided in two the murder of the two black men that winds derek in jail which contains a final murder so nasty that it may be the most revoltingly shocking all year there's much more to appreciate like the acting which is uniformly good with coming from avery brooks beverly d'angelo as the mother and gould who has one horrible line but other than that comes off with the best performance he's given in what seems like a really long time norton walks off with the film though coming off with such intensity that he reduces anyone not doing an adequate job to rubble in only the fifth movie of his career norton has invented himself as one of the most reliable and intense actors of his generation and maybe the best there's nothing like it when norton really gets rolling in this movie spewing out lines with such authority that he commands all attention from the audience coming off with power similar to that of a young maron brando that he allows the little emotions to seep through is amazing sadly enough this isn't going to be the great portrait of racism that it perhaps hopes to be it's too unambitious and even a little contrived to really take off as either a powerful statement or an emotional masterpiece the ending especially is pencilled in from other movies tossed in just so the emotional keyboard can be trounced upon some of the skinheads are reduced to mere cliches kevin smith regular ethan suplee fairs rather annoyingly as the fat skinhead whose lines consist without fail of expressing his desire to eat more and even the dramatic arc isn't as well travelled furlong's danny never seems to really be learning a lesson since the flashbacks refuse to show his point of view and when he decides to make a change by the end which was inevitable it doesn't seem like it has actually arrived there even derek's descent into doesn't seem justified though his fireman father william russ the dad from boy meets world and don't ask me how i know that is killed by a black junkie and even before he spoke against affirmative action intelligently there never seems to be any real back story why derek became so intense about his beliefs as such one can see why the director tony kaye wanted to have his name removed sorta american history x is a very good movie and i was very moved by it but it could be a lot better and the problem seems to be that the cut as it is is not up to what he claims to be his potential somewhere he claims there lies a tony kaye cut and that was to be the true cut until it was viewed by norton who then ordered another cut and that is thus although he aimed for the directing credit to go to alan smithee the resident name for any film that is to be disowned by its director it wasn't allowed to him under the grounds that once you disown a film you can not badmouth it but really that's the macguffin no one really wanted a film this good to be given the alan smithee sign of disapproval kaye's right in that it's not up to par even if he's not referring to normal par but rather his own personal par this will not be a do the right thing for the late yet it still gets its point across intelligently and backs it up with its story its message that one cannot be so enwrapped in one's own beliefs or pain and suffering will occur is literally said over the narration unfortunately and even if it isn't perfect at least when avery brooks turns to norton after he has been beaten and raped in prison and asks him if anything he's done has made his life any better it realy hits a nerve not only in derek but also in the audience
positive	synopsis as a response to accusations of sexual prejudice in the armed forces a female naval intelligence officer is chosen to be a test case if she can survive the demanding s e a l training she will open the way for other women to be permitted to follow in her footsteps throw in a lot of political machinations sabotage brutality water and sand and you have an entertaining movie review the title of this movie turned me off at first i mean jane the other titles which were considered were more promising in pursuit of honor or a matter of honor would have been acceptable although navy cross or undisclosed are a little meaningless as far as i'm concerned i went into this movie not liking the title and being one of those people who thinks that demi moore is absolutely ghastly as an actor to my surprise i really enjoyed the movie moore as lieutenant jordan o'neil is much more likeable than her washed out excuse for a gusty woman in a few good men the storyline is simple anne bancroft playing senator lillian dehaven is a ruthless machiavellian politician with an agenda to push using feminism to achieve political mileage she forces the military powers that be to backdown and permit a test case to enter the highly intensive navy s e a l training jordan is selected due to the fact that she has it all looks brains and strength the training is gruelling and the indignity almost painful to watch nonetheless it's one of those movies that makes me want to cheer out and encourage the hapless along in endeavours sure there are the stereotypical elements inhuman treatment sexual innuendo resentful peers pained boyfriend and sexist commanding officer stepping away from the stereotypes though viggo mortensen as master chief john urgayle tries to get away from being nothing more than a brutal screamer his character exercises a little more intellectual rigour than you would normally expect from such a character jordan's boyfriend royce is also in the military although they both started at the same time due to the fact that he has seen active service he has advanced through the ranks much more quickly than she has royce what is his surname do we care almost resents jordan's attempts to advance herself although he quickly settles down to being and supportive his character seems to have been thrown in so that we know that you don't have to be a lesbian to want to be in the military in parts this is a very silly movie with gratuitous lines and scenes thrown in for effect which are so blatantly obvious or contrived that it's hard not to cringe i still liked it though weaknesses in the script aside this is a film which captures a heroic and reckless mood as we watch jordan's battle it's increasingly clear that it is a personal battle this is an individual's fight for we don't have to have our teeth set on edge by didactic preachings we don't have to feel uncomfortable because we're having ideology thrust down our throats it's enough that we can sit back and hope that this one person gets what she wants and we can admire her tenacity and determination without coming out and saying whether we believe women should go into combat or not
positive	the idea at the center of the devil's advocate which is thus far one of the three or four best films of is that no matter what decision is made evil will triumph god is a trickster satan is a humanist the last humanist he appears in many guises and seduces many men and women in his own words vanity by far my favorite sin al pacino plays this role with relish and gets to chew some delectable lines lemme givya a piece o' inside wisdom on god i have a million names as john milton the devil the main idea that he can appear as anyone in any form in this case a buisness man harkens mainly back to terry gilliam's the time bandits but the film is something else something original part of what makes it so very good is that it never takes itself too seriously it dabbles with morality vanity death and child abuse but doesn't try to become any profound study of power this is a marvelous confection cocky funny thought provoking it is also entertaining there is no way you could possibly predict the ending it pulls back upon itself drawing purely out of the mind's eye the final shot is more creative more daring more challenging then anything in cinema since the white sock in the coen's fargo the central themes are fascinating sometimes reminiscent of james' the turn of the screw and oates' accursed inhabitants of the house of bly and the product that is built around it really wows its nice to know that things like this are still being made
positive	scream like its predecessor is a film it is about horror film and murder mystery the mix worked very well last time and it continues to entertain this time scream was also known for its tone many inside jokes were made in reference to horror movies and wes craven again scream follows suit with characters saying such things as sequels suck and the entire horror genre was destroyed by sequels scream story is very similar to it's predecessor's sidney neve campbell having survived the killing spree in scream is now in college gale weathers courteney cox has written a book about the murders and that book is now being released as a feature film called stab which for all practical purposes is the movie scream at the premiere of stab two students from sidney's college are stabbed to death and a new story begins the press descends on sidney and her college to get the scoop on this sequel killer they want to know all about the links between stab sidney and the recent murders the most complex i saw this should be an olympic event was the scene where gale weathers was asking questions at a press conference the rest of the press was watching and videotaping weathers the other survivors from scream were watching and videotaping the press the audience was watching the whole filmed scene whew the movie is packed with layers and that make it a pleasure to watch even better would be to watch a double feature of scream and scream that's not to say that these references necessarily make scream a deep or even a good movie the just add to the fun of watching it i recommend it for other reasons as well what i liked best about the horror aspect of the movie is that the monster is not supernatural no werewolf or ghost or psycho with superhuman strength is responsible it is a person in a mask and a robe his only advantage the fear he strikes into his victims no extraordinary leap of faith is needed to believe in the killer the down side is that if you are frightened by horror movies you have less grounds to say it's just a movie the whodunit aspect of the movie is not that great by itself gale weathers and deputy dewey david arquette also from the original track down a killer they are likeable but not outstanding but in combination with the horror aspect the whodunit is a perfect counterpoint it was exactly a year ago today that i wrote the review for scream the internet movie database says that scream is in the works so i wonder if i'll be doing the same thing on january if craven and screenwriter kevin williamson are able to keep the quality high i'll be happy to mark my calendar
positive	when i first saw the previews for ron howard's latest film my expectations were discouragingly low a show about nothing sounds like seinfeld a guy whose entire life is broadcast hours a day sounds like the truman show what is it with hollywood that no sooner than one production company puts out an animated feature about ants another puts one out about bugs which is why i was pleasantly surprised by edtv which turns out to be a fresh insightful and often times hilarious film about the follies of instant celebrity the writing by howard's longtime collaborators lowell ganz and babaloo mandel is right on the money and howard himself should be credited for giving the subject matter a fresh focus in the hands of a director edtv could easily have had all the flavor of yesterday's meatloaf with their tv' cable ratings being threatened by gardening channel' apparently people would rather watch soil the northwest broadcasting company is looking for a novel concept to attract viewers program director cynthia topping ellen degeneres comes up with the idea of putting a nobody on the air and broadcasting his every waking and sleeping moment the hook is to find a regular guy someone normal that people can relate to while scouting possible candidates cynthia's camera crew discover ed pekurny and his pig brother ray woody harrelson in a bar where ray believes he has what it takes for his fifteen plus minutes of fame but on watching the videotape the show's producers are more taken with ed than with ray he's cute he says all the wrong things and he's usda hick cynthia's boss played by rob reiner gives the show a week to deliver the goods and it's tough going in the early stages the most exciting thing that happens is ed brushes his teeth action shot wags one of the production assistants when a couple of pop tarts jump out of the toaster you get the idea but soon enough kinds of to happen to this unassuming san francisco video store clerk and the tv' cameras are right there to document it ed's privacy is no longer his own his newfound fame starts having a negative impact on his family life and what little dignity he has left is trampled on by the media who should ed go out with you can be sure the pollsters have a list not only is the film exceedingly well cast but its performers are consistently excellent matthew mcconaughey provides the face the body language and the lovable texan accent to fill the shoes of america's latest phenomenon he and harrelson look like they really could be brothers sally kirkland is noteworthy in a difficult role as ed's mother and martin landau is one of the film's highlights as al ed's ailing stepfather jenna elfman from tv's dharma and greg proves herself surprisingly worthy in the company of kirkland and landau although those alpine eyebrows of hers get a little distracting even degeneres and reiner are better than you'd expect in albert brooks made a zany little film called real life in which a opportunist makes a documentary about a typical american family the scenes of ed's family sitting around the dinner table feasting on kentucky fried chicken and waxing idiotic play like a variant on that film paralleling its wickedly inventive humor as with most films by albert brooks real life was funny but absurd the about edtv is that it is absolutely believable
positive	ingredients james bond scuba scene car controlled by cellular telephone synopsis warped media tycoon elliot carver jonathan pryce plots to start a war between britain and china in order to boost ratings by using a ship' to fire a captured british missile at the city of beijing james bond pierce brosnan uses trick gadgets pluck and charm in order to foil carver's scheme this time bond teams up with top female agent wai lin from china michelle yeoh the film contains fights chases gadgets and comedic moments opinion it does not have a casino scene or a ski scene but tomorrow never dies is nevertheless a solid enjoyable bond movie it neither stands out nor disappoints in old bond movies bond sometimes teamed up with american cia agent felix leiter tomorrow never dies introduces a new character in the form of chinese agent wai lin like leiter's character wai lin would be a sure bet for a cameo in a later bond movie stars michelle yeoh was born a leo in the western zodiac in the year of the tiger on the asian astrology calendar i believe in horoscopes but at an airport i once browsed an astrology book with a section on leo tigers lts leo tigers prefer enough solitude to grow at their own pace lts are unbelievably courageous when facing adversity the lt is also classy and has an excellent sense of refinement but she sees herself as an adventurer and prefers freedom of movement rather than flashy status symbols this person loves family and friends with a fierce loyalty she delights in siblings nephews nieces and extended family but she must have her personal freedom to come and go as she pleases sometimes annoyance at injustice drives her to take up one or two causes in love life the lt has an unfortunate mental block against committing to any partner who is less powerful than she in real life michelle yeoh is asia's top female star like jackie chan she does her own stunts she was born in malaysia a country of many languages and her primary language the language she speaks in her sleep is english she was taught malay in school and learned cantonese from bilingual parents as an athlete michelle represented malaysia internationally she enjoyed squash diving swimming and rugby she studied ballet at the royal academy of dance in london but switched to drama after a spinal injury in she won the miss malaysia pageant without really intending to since a family member had entered her in the contest without her knowledge notoriety from the contest led eventually to a movie career as an action heroine michelle has survived a divorce with asian retail tycoon dickson poon a nearly fatal stunt accident falling from a freeway overpass which put her in the hospital for three months and a retirement from the movies her comeback from retirement supercop became the top grossing film in asia that year it is not clear what martial arts style is but it may be a theatrical version of wing chun of her character wai lin in tomorrow never dies michelle says wai lin is the first bond girl who is on a par with bond someone who can match up with him mentally and physically my own opinion is that casting michelle yeoh as agent wai lin was an excellent choice
positive	it is always refreshing to see a superstar actor who gets paid more than enough to forget about working for a living to want to take a chance and play a character as mel gibson does in payback of course if i was being paid million for one month's work i'd probably be willing to take risks as well but that's neither here nor there payback is based on a novel by richard stark apparently actually donald e westlake author of the grifters itself a fine crime film which was also filmed in the as point blank starring one of the toughest of tough guys lee marvin the film opens with gibson having recovered from being shot several times in the back by whom we don't know yet all we know is that gibson as porter isn't a happy chappy and is hellbent on getting the money stolen from him back and getting even in the process no matter what the consequences it turns out that the man he's after is val gregg henry his sometime partner with whom he stole a briefcase full of cash from a gang of chinese mobsters obviously not having much of a crisis of the soul val figures porter is dead and goes about using his share of the money to pay off a debt to his employers porter however is the sort of man who holds a grudge and once on his feet goes about exacting revenge on the val gibson gives a terrific performance in the sort of role which he was born to play that of a slightly unhinged guy who doesn't mind beating up or shooting people to get what he wants you probably wouldn't see other actors in his salary range take such an offbeat role such as porter jim carrey won't be doing anything like this in a hurry after what happened the last time he tried the cable guy anyone harrison ford's idea of playing an unsympathetic character is presumed innocent the last time schwarzenegger played a villain was batman and robin which we won't mention further and has stallone ever really played a villain at all this is not to say that porter is a villain per se while he isn't the sort of character you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of he's nothing compared to some of the ones we are forced to watch in countless bad thrillers and action films where they kill innocent people in the blink of an eye or execute their men just to prove how mean they are porter is only trying to get back what is his which in a way is almost understandable payback is an enjoyable dramatic black which won't be remembered as being among gibson's most important work but is still one of the finer films he's done the only real problem with it is that while everything seems to work out in the end i was left feeling something was lacking was that all the ending looks as if it was tacked on at the last minute and the final doesn't ring true even though it was used to good effect elsewhere in the style the rest of the film embodies the film just ends far too suddenly after a huge in the penultimate scenes a fine film even though it needs just a little something more to be the kind of a film that can be recommended without hesitation just be ready for a possible letdown of an ending
positive	if you thought baz luhrmann's radical take on was wild wait until what you see what tony stage director julie taymor does to the bard's for her very debut while luhrmann transplanted the lovers to florida taymor keeps this grisly tale of revenge in places it in a surreal temporal limbo the colosseum suggests the proper time of imperial rome but high rises and heavy duty kitchen ovens suggest the while the vintage automobiles and some costumes are more and and other garments are more as tamora queen of goths jessica lange exacts revenge on roman general titus anthony hopkins for killing her eldest son and he does the same to her for the wrongs she commits taymor obviously wanted to express the timeless relevance of the story's underlying themes however the time convergence approach only works at times for often it's just distracting as in one scene where tamora's suviving sons matthew rhys and jonathan rhys meyers blow off steam playing video arcade games taymor didn't have to resort to such avant garde time tricks for the story would have resonated just as strongly had she jettisoned them she is a strong storyteller and a master visual stylist the latter compliment encompassing all areas makeup and costume choices as well as those in the editing and photography departments she also has a sure way with actors hopkins' titus is at once tragic and horrifying and lange is sultry as the viperous tamora the clear standout of the cast however is harry lennix as aaron a moor who is tamora's secret lover and a schemer in his own right lennix brings great depth to a role that could have easily been played as a stock villain a great villain he indeed is but to leave it at that isn't giving full justice to his powerful and work isn't a complete success but it is never less than fascinating and it announces the arrival of a fearlessly imaginative new cinematic voice
positive	meteor threat set to blow away all volcanoes twisters summer is here again this season could probably be the most ambitious season this decade with hollywood churning out films like deep impact godzilla the armageddon the truman show all of which has but one main aim to rock the box office leading the pack this summer is deep impact one of the first few film releases from the dreamworks production company following the rather dismal showing of their previous two releases mousehunt and amistad deep impact shines with elements which could just make it one of the biggest movies of the year deep impact begins with the discovery of an earth bound comet during a school astronomy outing by leo beiderman elijah wood which subsequently stirred up the political community of the world keeping the information under wraps to prevent widespread panic president beck morgan freeman took it upon himself and his subordinates to execute a highly secretive space project to destroy the comet before it hits earth while pursuing a story amongst the presidential ranks ambitious up and coming reporter jenny lerner tea leoni unfolds the wool that president beck has pulled over the citizens of the world as if the knowledge of the imminent annihilation of mankind is not enough jenny has to come to terms with her father maximillian schell leaving the mother for a younger woman president beck announces the discovery and preparations to destroy the comet exactly later with so much confidence that it left no trace of panic within the american community achieving fame from announcement of the comet to earth the name of its discoverers leo beiderman continues life in his small town as a young celebrity a team of astronauts led by the ageing veteran astronaut spurgeon tanner robert duvall was secretly trained to carry out the mission to land on the comet and create and explosion with a nuclear device with the hope of blowing it out of its current path towards earth despite him being the most experienced in the team the younger generation of astronauts in the team doubts tanner's ability due to his age but these are just problems of individuals life on earth goes on as any other day confident that the comet will be destroyed when the attempt to avert path failed and caused the comet to split into two comet wolf and comet beiderman the president unfolds his contingency plan to evacuate part of the population leaving the rest to die citizens are randomly chosen to live underground for years prior to impact when the dust due to the impact around earth have settled by then all life on the surface would have died jenny and leo were picked but many of their loved ones were not only a handful of earth's population will be saved from destruction  deep impact's moving moments occur in the least laced scenes while the effects are fantastic they only form a small part of the film which indulges itself in the development of its main characters leo lerner and tanner leo's struggle when he learns that his girlfriend is not part of the population to be saved lerner's dwindling relationship with her father and her pain for the mother's loneliness tanner's strive to gain the respect he deserves from his crew and his ultimate sacrifice all form the backbone of deep impact's moving moments deep impact smells suspiciously like the previous year release contact despite vivid differences i think its probably because they both delve in a story of global proportions and indulges in the premise of hope faith and life itself both do not depend heavily on in the form of cgi effects director mimi leder who won numerous awards directing television series and made her debut with peacekeeper last year is definitely a director to watch despite this being the first of the two meteor movies this summer the other being armageddon i think there will be stark differences in the approach to the subject matter while the premise of both may be the same execution and focus of the films will in fact show that deep impact has more focus on human elements than armageddon which is done by the team which brought us bad boys crimson tide and the rock  deep impact should be able to satisfy a variety of audiences from the most to those who just want to immerse into its manipulative but nonetheless dramatic premise
positive	there is a striking scene early in city of angels where all the angels who live unseen in our midst gather at the beach to watch the sun rise the camera moves above them showing the endless rows of ethereal men and women all garbed in black then the camera moves in on the face of seth an angel played by nicolas cage and as the sun rises he smiles and his entire face lights up you see the angels can hear music in sunrises and sunsets but they cannot feel a human touch it is an important scene for several reasons first of all it is one of many instances in the film that make angels seem thoroughly plausible the film presents these fantastic beings as people who drift amongst the inhabitants of earth watching what goes on with little interference there are none of the standard hokey angel references used in recent films like angels in the outfield or michael the angels here are stark and believable this early scene on the beach is also an important scene of juxtaposition for its shows how god's angels can enjoy aspects of the earth that human cannot and yet they are denied so many simple human pleasures like feeling the sand on their feet or the waves lapping at their legs or the smell of the salt in the air there is an inherent tragedy in being an angel although there is much beauty in it as well they eternally walk the earth listening to our thoughts touching us in our pain and leading the dying to heaven like human existence being an angel is often confused and unsure city of angels is essentially a love story between seth and a human a beautiful but sad heart surgeon named maggie meg ryan he first sees her when he is in her operating room waiting to lead the soul of her dying patient to heaven maggie is distraught doing everything in her power to stop the man from dying on her table and seth is moved by her efforts and more importantly her overwhelming sadness when the patient dies angels have the limited power to soothe humans in time of misery and pain and seth does what he can with his invisible touch but it's not enough he wants to be with her and share her pain not just stand back at a distance he learns that the only way to fulfill his desire for human love and touch is for him to fall and become human he learns this from another fallen angel played by dennis franz n y p d blue in a touching and humorous performance sitting at a diner together franz tells cage's character about how wonderful it is to be human to be able to taste food feel another person's skin smell the air and most importantly have a loving wife and children of course there is pain to go along with all this but for seth it will be worth it city of angels is something of a reinterpretation of wim wender's haunting film wings of desire wenders' film was more like a poem it was the feeling the emotion that truly mattered over what actually happened the americanized version moves the location from divided berlin to broken los angeles and the emphasis shifts onto the relationship between the immortal angel and the mortal human and unlike most foreign films that are into hollywood fare it doesn't suffer extensive damage this may be because director brad silberling casper and screenwriter dana stevens blink wanted to make city of angels its own movie inspired by wings of desire but not an attempt to copy it and yet city of angels is not a typical hollywood movie it is beautifully filmed in lush colors by cinematographer john seale the english patient whose sweeping aerial shots and golden lighting make los angeles into an almost unrecognizable new world seale creates many striking visuals in addition to the beach scene there is a wonderful sequence in a circular library where all the angels appear at banisters all around looking down at seth as he watches maggie walk by while the film travels along a charted plot it takes time to develop its characters and situations it sheds light on the boundaries between what is earthly and what is heavenly and shows just how thin those boundaries are both cage and ryan give soulful performances ryan who is usually so bouncy and energetic truly embodies a sadness that can only be alleviated by a heavenly touch cage projects all his desire and longing to be human in simple heartfelt gazes and speaks with the comforting knowing voice that only an angel could have what is most striking about city of angels is that stevens has added a new ending to the screenplay which is both unexpected and challenging it's not a formulaic hollywood ending because it is both sad and uplifting at the same time it doesn't give the audience what it thinks it wants at the end of a romance instead it offers something much better something that speaks to the depths of what it means to be human and alive visit charlie don't surf an eclectic collection of film reviews by james kendrick http bigfoot com
positive	star wars episode the phantom menace review by matt pusateri few movies evoke nostalgia enthusiasm and affection like george lucas' classic star wars the original blockbuster film and its two sequels not only evoked wonder and passion in a generation of filmgoers but has deeply entrenched itself in american pop culture arguably more americans today can explain what the force or a jedi is than a budget deficit or a serb so years after the release of the original and years since the third film the return of the jedi how can any new star wars film withstand the weight of incomparable expectations and anticipation can a new storyline and a new cast of characters possibly compete with the legends of the first trilogy luke han solo and darth vader cultural icons against this challenge the fourth star wars film episode one the phantom menace hit the screens last week and despite some early critical reviews in the major media the film is neither a flop nor a disappointment while the phantom menace is certainly not the finest film in the series it is nonetheless engaging exciting and visually breathtaking it is a worthy sequel er prequel to the original star wars films the phantom menace takes place decades before the setting of original films as the film opens kenobi ewan mcgregor the wise old master who introduced luke to the force in the original star wars is only a young jedi apprentice still learning from his fellow jedi and instructor jinn liam neeson the republic government has sent the two jedi to settle a trade dispute that has developed into a blockade of the planet naboo by a shifty trade federation the jedi quickly find themselves not in negotiations but in the middle of a planetary invasion rushing to protect naboo's young queen amidala natalie portman later after eventually rescuing amidala and helping her escape naboo they are forced to stop at tatooine to repair their ship before bringing her to the galactic senate to make an appeal for justice on tatooine discovers a young slave boy anakin skywalker jake lloyd who not only can help them get the parts they need but displays uncanny intelligence insight and instincts senses the child is unusually strong with the force and begins to suspect that he may be the one prophesized to bring balance to the force as anyone who has watched the original star wars trilogy knows far from being a galactic savior the will in time become the ruthless darth vader complicating matters further is a mysterious hooded figure darth sidious is behind the trade blockade and invasion of naboo and sends out a lethal apprentice darth maul to find and capture queen amidala while amidala and the jedi fight to save her planet they soon also have to deal with the deadly and relentless darth maul if the plot sounds a bit complicated it is the phantom menace not only introduces an earlier generation of characters and an immediate crisis but sets up the foundation for the events that will eventually lead to the fall of the republic the demise of the jedi knights anakin's turn to evil and the rise of the dark empire of original trilogy but the complexity is not overwhelming the story moves quickly with the only drawback being that many questions predictably remain unanswered at the end of the film setting the stage for the next episode one of the reasons the film's story seems hazy is not that it is too confusing but too unfocused it's unclear whose story phantom menace is in the original trilogy the movies were clearly luke's story with the stories centering around his growth from farmboy to rebel hero to jedi knight but it's unclear whether this new film is anakin's story or if this trilogy is centered on anakin it's a shaky foundation lloyd like many child actors lacks the subtle acting skills of adult performers and as a result his character seems shallow and unimpressive on screen we see nothing that suggests a dark side lurking underneath his face or for that matter any presence that would make him seem so special that is willing to believe he is the one the rest of the cast does fine though they often work with some iffy dialogue by lucas neeson is perfect as an aging jedi knight mcgregor is as and conveys a balance of youthful energy and calm sensibility portman fits the role of a young queen well but her lines were often very formal giving her little room to give her character much personality the biggest problem with the phantom menace is not the plot or the characters but the interaction between them individually the characters in this new film are no less developed than those in the original star wars and the storyline is not more confusing than previous films in the series but unlike the previous trilogy lucas doesn't do as good of a job playing the characters off one another in star wars there were immediate contrasts and memorable exchanges between luke and han han and and leia and luke the ensemble played off each other and immediately showed their distinct attitudes and personalities in the sequence in where luke han and chewbacca attempt to rescue leia from her cell on the death star the audience learns a lot about all four characters in the ways they react to the immediate problems and each other there is no comparable sequence in the phantom menace to flesh out the characters and their relationships with each other individually they are interesting characters with clear motivations and interests but lucas develops little chemistry or tension between the them this is perhaps the most glaring weakness of this film and is probably the reason it has disappointed many reviewers but despite the need for a richer dialogue and stronger character interaction the film is still very engaging many of the wonderful elements of lucas' previous films make the phantom menace both memorable and entertaining first of course is the remarkably rich and imaginative universe lucas creates the characters visit magical underwater cities evade sea monsters fight battle droids and menacing destroyers on planet of naboo watch a spectacular event part race part nascar circuit on the arid desert planet of tatooine then head to corsucant the gothic urban capital of the republic and home to the galactic senate and the jedi council each location is elaborate and complex lucas never settles for vague ideas about the look of his settings he creates rich spectacular landscapes palaces and skylines most of the new special effects in his special edition trilogy in were changes that allowed him to give the earlier movies the look and feel that just weren't possible when the films were made more than ever in this new film lucas' universe is filled with a menagerie of creatures robots with personalities and a supporting cast of aliens who interact with the main characters the best such character is watto a greedy tatooine junk dealer who owns anakin and his mother as slaves watto has a scratchy italian voice and a short paunchy body with oddly mismatched wings that flutter like a hummingbird as he floats around the room of all the characters in the film watto is the best done and most enjoyable speaking of characters no review of the phantom menace is complete without mentioning the most controversial figure in the film jar jar binks with more than minutes of screen time jar jar is the realization of george lucas' dream to include a fully character into the cast of the new trilogy jar jar a clumsy amphibian and member of the gungan race literally stumbles his way into the path of the jedi knights early in the film and becomes qui jon's accidental sidekick jar jar usually performs a role in the film lightening scenes with his mishaps and inability to stay out of trouble the animation of jar jar is nearly seamless and he interacts with the characters throughout the film as if he were really on the set with the actors however despite the technological magic that makes his character possible jar jar isn't completely convincing he still moves and sounds too much like a cartoon to blend into a scene throughout the movie jar jar never transcends a roger rabbit presence you accept that he's there but you never lose sight of the fact that he is an animated character initially i found jar jar annoying but grew to enjoy the humor he added to the film on my second viewing of the film jar jar was a lot of fun and i didn't mind him at all a second reason this film continues the fine tradition of star wars movies is that the film is replete with humor and small details that flesh out the world lucas creates despite all the film's struggles between good and evil and the sober musings about one's destiny and the force like all star wars films the phantom menace never takes itself too seriously fortunately lucas hasn't lost sight of the fact that his films are entertainment not high art from the bumbling jar jar to a announcer team calling the action at the film's thrilling sequence to a cameo appearance by e t in the film the phantom menace is simply a lot of fun with lots of jokes and humor that can easily be missed and finally the phantom menace works because as in all his films there is no shortage of speed and action from beginning to end there are battles chases and thrilling duels between good and evil the sequence on tatooine is one of the most entertaining and exciting scenes in any star wars film and the final showdown between and darth maul is arguably the best choreographed most thrilling fight sequence lucas has filmed the phantom menace won't win any major oscars it probably won't beat titanic's box office record and it's not even the best star wars film i'd put it third after the original and the empire strikes back but it's an exciting and entertaining film far better than your typical summer blockbuster the film can't live up to it's hype no film not even the original star wars could have done that but it's still worth seeing probably more than once
positive	the premise is simple if not bizarre a mad scientist trace beaulieu as dr clayton forrester launches an michael j nelson as mike nelson into space where he forces his subject to watch the most horrendous movies ever made why it's torturous it's maniacal and it's just plain fun based on the cable television series mystery science theater the movie isn't torturous but as for being maniacal and just plain fun it foots the bill quite nicely mike nelson on a shaped spacecraft spends his days as any young man would dream indulging in sarcasm and horseplay and seeing quite a few movies the catch is these movies aren't the movies he chooses but retched examples of chosen specifically by dr forrester in an attempt to break mike's will to live dr forrester is convinced that one too many movies is all it will take to ruin a man but with a couple of puppet buddies tom servo voiced by kevin murphy and crow t robot voiced by beaulieu the torture becomes somewhat of a honorary party for all that is wrong in the world of cheezy cinema the purpose behind is to exploit some of the worst films known even if by very few of us to man we watch as the silhouettes of mike tom and crow sit in a darkened theater poking fun at the movie going on before them in this case it's the film this island earth we basically watch as our three leads watch only we get the pleasure of eavesdropping on their hilarious commentary the plots behind the movies ripped apart are really quite irrelevant but for the sake of those who might want to know i'll explain this one this island earth is the tale of two scientists a man and a woman who wind up aboard a spaceship whose crew intends to destroy the earth together the two fight to survive as well as save their home planet to make work the naturally has to be as horrible as possible and although the introduced us to several worse films than this island earth it's a bad enough flick to bring about some hysterical cruelty which doesn't actually contain the complete this island earth is a short minutes but this is a step very wisely taken as funny as some of their observations are it can only go so long occasional breaks from this island earth also help the film tremendously although it takes a second to get back into the right mode after this premise has been left for a moment it's better than overkilling the whole concept post haste lovers will likely hail the film greatly but if you don't know what you're in for it could be a jarring disappointment although i thought the sharp wit of this film was worth three stars it is a movie to be seen on home video late at night when your brain is not functioning to full capacity anyway and with a large saracastic crowd new year's at midnight for example which is when i saw it warning although has more to its end credits than most the three leads use the credits to poke some more fun they are actually more annoying than most the name slandering and asinine were extremely unfunny and after laughing for about minutes straight it put a heavy damper on the overall experience most people will likely stay to see what the have to say but for me it almost ruined an otherwise good film
positive	any movie about the underground music scene is a difficult beast to master any meaning found in the underground is usually lost by the of the experience to make it more accessible to the general public or the film is produced and directed by people that have about enough understanding of the subject matter that they ought to work as production assistants for human traffic a new film exploring the british underground scene and the people immersed in the world of clubbing pubbing drugs sex and the beautiful beautiful music is an example of how it really ought to be done the film follows five brits in their young twenties during a wild weekend of parties drugs dancing sex pop culture discussions relationships and wanking off in front of a mirror while mum interrupts the cast of character consists of jip john simm our narrator who has a bit of a problem with his willy known as mr floppy koop shaun parkes our black dj maestro who has insecurity issues afraid his girlfriend nina nicola reynolds is shagging other men nina herself can't stand her mcjob and longs for the freedom of the weekends lulu lorraine pilkington jip's best mate is tired of her cheating boyfriends and moff danny dyer can't seem to escape the black hole of his awful life the film follows these five individuals during one weekend as each of them discovers love friendship and all against the raging party background human traffic is proof that cinema can still tell us deep stories while being visually alive as director justin kerrigan's subtle use of the camera lets the audience become part of the action the use of direct communication to the audience by the collection of characters works well making the viewer the subconscious mind for the characters dialogue is crisp and moves with an even pace and the acting is confident however the two females leads tend to promote their relationships and dialogue with a bit of unneeded urgency that shows through when poignancy is needed human traffic does not try to explain the rave scene instead it gives the audience the ability to listen to the people inside it letting you choose your own convictions about this powerful musical movement that brings together strangers friends and lovers for one blissful night of music and peace
positive	steve martin took an extended vacation from all facets of moviemaking a few years back he spent this time writing essays and short stories for the new yorker several of which wound up in his hilarious hardback compilation pure drivel much of the book spares tinseltown from mockery although he does riff on the racist comments made by marlon brando during a larry king interview in a fine chapter called in search of the wily filipino now as writer and star of bowfinger he offers the masses plenty of good reasons not to pursue a career in the cinema perhaps finally venting the frustrations being made now is crap' that led to his brief retirement from hollywood martin stars as bobby bowfinger a roger on the cusp of fifty and desperate for some success as a producer quality of the projects be damned his accountant adam proposes a movie called chubby rain about aliens who travel to earth in raindrops slightly fatter than regular raindrops bowfinger latches onto the idea immediately and convinces his troupe of actor friends to appear in the film based on the lie that america's top box office draw kit ramsey murphy has agreed to star ramsey of course wants nothing to do with such material so bowfinger on the thinking that action stars need to run not speak decides to photograph the superstar surreptitiously he sends his cast members who aren't in on it either they are told ramsey hates the sight of cameras and fraternizing with his to ramsey's table at restaurants asks them to follow him in parking lots etc spouting script dialogue all the while shooting the outcome from a great distance the paranoid ramsey flees the scene nearly every time ramsey is a member of mind head a cultish organization apparently dedicated to recruiting celebrities as if that's not familiar enough mind head guru terry stricter terence stamp has been dressed and combed to resemble l ron hubbard founder of scientology when he goes to mind head with tales of caucasian strangers appearing from nowhere to babble white code in his face they fear the nervous breakdown of an important client and rush him off to a retreat requiring bowfinger to find a murphy will probably win more fans as jiff ramsey's adorable ignoramus double than as kit but it is his portrayal of the latter that took courage always surrounded by an entourage suffering from a racial inferiority complex murphy plays right into the tabloid image of himself furthermore consider the enemies he'll make of popular scientologists pacing stricter's office as if on an amphetamine binge and stripped of his bigshot veneer ramsey is asked to shout inane personal affirmations repeatedly murphy's scenes with stamp are exactly what i imagine of a john travolta clearing not that murphy is entirely responsible for this schtick bowfinger is steve martin's invention his script is surprisingly clever as satire given that the is a sitting duck as is the entire los angeles film industry the griffin take quite a beating in the form of robert downey jr as bigwig jerry renfro martin's decision to tell the story from a bottom feeder's point of view is what keeps it fresh and have we seen on screen a group of people struggle this hard to complete a motion picture as expected there are laughs only to be had insiders or buffs such as martin's crew of mexican who gain unexpected appreciation for the classics from reading cahiers du cinema or martin's nonsensical explanation to dave his loyal cinematographer jamie kennedy that every movie in the end has a budget of dollars most of bowfinger is universally funny however i defy any viewer to keep a straight face when christine baranski one of our brightest comediennes is on screen bowfinger's main flaw is a plot twist that has an insubstantial aftermath we're also asked to believe that a few simple of kit ramsey would redeem chubby rain entertainment that would make ed wood blush this aspect of bowfinger has much in common with the ludicrous oscar sequence in oz's last directorial effort the poorly conceived in out these are significant enough weaknesses that they distracted from my enjoyment of the piece as i mentioned at the start of this review bowfinger offers solid reasons not to do what heather graham's character daisy does hop a bus to hollywood in search of stardom that said it offers one fantastic reason to get on that bus the sense of community between filmmakers who gel is awesome martin gets sentimental by story's end as he did in l a story and how could he not for those who can hack it the movies might be the greatest business in the world
positive	the man who presented us with henry the portrait of a serial killer comes a wild tale set within the elite and white trash of florida's south coast plot guidance counselor dillon is accused of raping one of his students she happens to be the daughter of one of the wealthiest women in florida the counselor is brought to court on the charges as another white trash girl campbell also joins the rape club as the story unfolds we find that many things aren't exactly as they seem that's as much as i could say without ruining anything critique good little flick that slows down at certain points and runs a tad long but generates enough twists and turns to keep most people interested throughout mind you i could see many people not liking it because it takes one too many twists and turns but hey i happen to like that kind of thing and besides the twists and turns in this movie managed to remain within the realm of believability or scathingly close to and even explained many of its turns with a showcase of missed scenes during the credit crawl at the end of the film do not leave the theatre before you see the credits it really does clear up some stuff other than that the acting was good with campbell transforming her good girl stereotypical role into a white trash chick out for a good time denise richards from starship troopers fame solidifies herself as hollywood's pinup girl of the moment and proves that all breast implants needn't lead to lawsuits bacon is solid and so is dillon while continuing to prove his inability to age to the whole wide wondering world sprinkle the story with a bunch o' shots of alligators peeking through the swamp waters bacon showing the world the size of his do we really need to see this a couple of lesbian kissing scenes and a and you've got yourself a decent time at the movie theatre on the down side the soundtrack was not as prominent or slick as i thought it would be and theresa russell real name theresa paup seems to have lost her way in every which way possible ooooh i almost forgot bill murray's exquisite role as the lawyer who agrees to defend dillon in court murray actually added that extra little spice of humour that allowed this film to affirm its position as a quirky little noirish tale of sex greed and mystery little known facts neve campbell specified a clause in her contract she's also born in guelph ontario go hoser director john mcnaughton says he deleted a scene that would have shown matt dillon and kevin bacon showering together as it was gratuitous kevin bacon plays in a band with his brother called the bacon brothers is married to actress kyra sedgwick and has a game based on him called six degrees of kevin bacon
positive	how many of us would become strippers for those of us who wouldn't is it a moral reason or purely a lack of confidence that's probably not a fair question and for a lot of us it could very well be for neither of those reasons as you watch the full monty however you may begin asking yourself these kinds of questions would you be willing to grin and bare it to bring in some much needed dough in case you haven't guessed the full monty is about stripping but striptease it ain't it's actually quite a charming comedy that uses its ideas with a great deal of tact and sophistication it is the story of six blue collar brits whose recent job losses have left the boys penniless but not without need what to do it hits our main character gaz robert carlyle as he notices the large crowds of women who pour into a local male strip club on a regular basis it seems that simple take it off and bring in the cash eventually gaz is able to convince his friends to join him in starting their own exotic dance routine despite their initial reluctance these include the overweight dave mark addy the uptight gerald tom wilkinson the once suicidal lomper steve huison and two additional fellows who gain their place among the group by audition horse paul barber an older gentlemen chock full of graceless energy and guy hugo speer a young looker who compares himself to cary grant when the sextet is complete we're given a hefty dose of physical comedy we watch the bumbling men choreograph dance numbers all the while proving why none of them were strippers in the first place as if there wasn't enough they decide to boost interest in the group by promising the full monty on opening night which for us americans means baring it all   and i mean all the movie actually ends on opening night a hilarious applause worthy ending i might add it's sure to leave nothing short of a big smile on your face as you leave the theater with the subject matter you might not expect the fully monty to be such a almost inspiring film but it surprisingly turns out that way the amount of light touching drama also comes as a nice surprise never feeling from the otherwise highly upbeat moments of the film there's a lot more to this movie than you might think in other words and the ensemble cast couldn't be better each character is completely individual interesting funny and most importantly real the full monty is never offensive a very impressive attribute since its subject matter alone could've easily fallen prey to tastelessness it's one of those movies that is best described as a solid piece of entertainment perfect for a great night on the town or as a saturday night movie rental either way you see it it shouldn't let you down in the slightest and pun heavily intended when it's all said and done you'll be smiling from cheek to cheek
positive	director dominic sena who made the highly underrated kalifornia and producer jerry bruckheimer the rock armageddon bring us a slick and entertaining remake of the film of the same name that absolutely no one has ever seen nicolas cage plays memphis a retired car thief who's pulled back in to the business by an evil car thief overlord christopher eccleston determined to kill memphis' kid brother giovanni ribisi memphis is ordered to steal cars in four days time or his brother will meet an unfortunate demise all while having to elude the detectives hot on his trail and a rival car thief who feels the job should have been given to him and his gang memphis sets out to put his old crew back together but discovers that most of them have retired as well gone in sixty seconds does things right from the opening credits in that sequence we get a rockin' little tune from moby along with some simple back story told only with photographs and assorted objects filmmakers can sometimes make or break a film just from its opening title sequence and this one easily gets you in the mindset for an entertaining ride and what follows doesn't disappoint cage turns in one of his good performances here he can easily go either way good or bad i don't know how he does that and his mannerisms and dialogue delivery carry the film along nicely of the supporting cast members angelina jolie as memphis' former love is in the film just to provide eye candy she's definitely the hottest looking grease monkey i've ever seen and robert duvall as memphis' former mentor is just around to lend the film some class also i'm a big fan of will patton armageddon the postman and would love to see him get a huge role someday none of these three performers are given much to do unfortunately some underrated performers however are given meaty supporting roles delroy lindo get shorty shines as the exasperated detective in pursuit of memphis as does timothy olyphant go as lindo's partner i just wish some of the other characters could have been as important the only real gripe i have about the film though is its conclusion mainly because you know how it will end before the opening credits even roll there's no doubt in anyone's mind that the cars will be successfully stolen and the filmmakers blew a perfectly good opportunity to add some suspense to the picture by using the rival car thief plot line as it stands that story line is wrapped up about halfway through the film in a tidy little package but if i was making this film i'd have had the rival gang trying to get to the cars before memphis and his crew thereby making memphis have to improvise thereby adding some meat to the plot the finale is essentially just a big car chase and there just aren't ways to make car chases interesting anymore it's all been done the chase is also shot and edited in that jerry bruckheimer action sequence kind of way that leaves the audience wondering what specifically is going on in the scene sure it's a car chase but what exactly are the particulars of it it's very hard to tell finally there's a stunt during this scene that comes close to challenging the bus jumping the ramp sequence from speed in the oh i don't think so department despite those minor complaints gone in sixty seconds is pure summer movie entertainment it's not thought provoking but it's shiny loud and fun just what a summer flick should be 
positive	books could be and indeed have been written about the star wars trilogy and rightfully so this is a set of movies that shattered all expectations of what science fiction could be in the late inspiring literally dozens of clones from battlestar galactica all the way up to stargate and independance day and one could argue revitalizing the whole science fiction genre the special effects were groundbreaking revolutionary for their day and still eminently watchable well into twenty years later literally millions of people have seen the star wars trilogy and been touched by it and now george lucas brings it back for a new audience to enjoy much has been and is still being made of the fact that mr lucas has gone back and revised his trilogy for rerelease now some fans are angry that he has dared to meddle with what they consider perfection while others are thrilled by the idea of seeing yesterday's star wars updated with today's special effects wizardry either way the special edition release means that star wars is back on the big screen where it rightfully deserves to be seen can there be anyone in the world who doesn't know what star wars is about in a way star wars is so much a part of our cultural heritage that it feels silly and almost artificial to try to summarize it it's a story about a young man's coming of age a fight for freedom against an oppressive empire a tale of swashbuckling and the likes of which haven't been seen on the silver screen in decades strange new worlds with strange alien creatures and weird surprises around every turn and the yearning within each of us to realize our dreams and make a difference in the world it's high adventure incredible special effects and well it's just an something about this movie sparked the imagination of a generation and it's about to do so again this new release of star wars comes as no surprise to many of the film's devoted fans who have been trading rumors and bits of information about it for quite some time now interviews trailers leaks from within lucasfilm all of these have been collected collated and placed on webpages for people to see pages such as http islandnet html or my personal favorite http cs latrobe edu  pictures of before and after have been placed side by side even months before the movies were released fans were making comparisons in some cases the changes were nothing less than phenomenal and this can be seen from the comparison shots even before you go into the movie theater the digital matte effects that were little more than a toy in forrest gump are put to excellent use here unnoticeably sprucing up scenes that that george lucas was unsatisfied with in the original for instance in my personal favorite example the ancient temple on yavin that was formerly a flat stone edifice now has deep carvings and etchings and mos eisley spaceport is now a bustling booming city with more surprises and things going on in the background than you can notice on the first viewing all the starships and fighters are now getting rid of glitches and artifacts of the special effects processes used when the film was originally they look four and a half minutes of new or missing footage have been added including a scene with jabba the hutt that had originally been shelved because the state of special effects in simply couldn't do it justice however much of the ten million dollars that was spent on the star wars special edition restoration went into restoring the quality of the film itself the negatives badly damaged by the ravages of time were brightened and returned to their original splendor the audio tracks were remixed and reprocessed with reworked sound effects by effects maven ben burtt into glorious booming dolby digital stereo and more than the added scenes or new special effects is where the real value of this new version lies it's really true what they say in the commercials star wars loses on the small screen even letterboxing doesn't make up for the decrease in size and definition in regard to the star wars special edition and to the other two films of the trilogy which have yet to be released i'll make this final recommendation go and see it go and see it more than once it may be another twenty years before it comes back to the big screen after it's gone this time take along the youngsters who've never had the star wars enjoy seeing it through their eyes as much as they will enjoy it for the first time there's magic in this edition or no there can be no denying that it's still star wars and still has the power to thrill and enthrall children of all ages from four to four hundred let's all return to that time long ago and that galaxy far far away
positive	eddie murphy has had his share of ups and downs during his career known for his notorious late slump murphy has still managed to bounce back with a handful of hits in the past few years with the exception of the dreadful holy man he appears to be on pace for a comeback life was a great move on the part of murphy and martin lawrence because it's a great showcase for both actors that never resorts to drivel director ted demme is smart enough to realize that the two comedians can generate enough genuine laughs on their own and doesn't insert a distracting plot to back them up life is in a sense one great balancing act with murphy on one end and lawrence on the other amazingly the scale never tips in either's favor due to the marvelous chemistry and wonderful contrast that each actor allows the other as the movie opens we're introduced to ray gibson eddie murphy a pickpocket who schmoozes his way into a club there he meets a successful businessman named claude banks martin lawrence somehow after multiple contrivances the mismatched pair find themselves on their way to mississippi on a moonshine run when all is said and done ray and claude have been framed for a murder that was actually committed by the town sheriff hence the setting of life mississippi state prison where the main characters come to realize their unlikely friendship is important and become set on finding an escape plan the film takes us from the all the way to the presenting a difficult task in showing how the aging process affects ray and claude luckily rick baker handles the makeup effects of the two actors in a fantastic academy award caliber manner not only do we believe the characters look as if they're years old but they sound like it too murphy and lawrence are completely convincing in the lead roles even as crotchety old cons bickering over a game of cards this is just one of the pleasant surprises that the film has tucked up it's sleeve while the ads are marketing life as a straight arrow comedy there is a hefty amount of dramatic material hidden at it's core but the comedic aspects work wonderfully wisely drawing strength from the talents of the two stars the movie is more of a comedy than it is a drama but in both senses it's an overwhelming delight i could say a few bad things about the movie but i don't want to it's such a nice surprise such a great vehicle for eddie murphy and martin lawrence that it warrants a huge smile as the credits begin to roll
positive	cinematically speaking gordon parks' original is not a great film a bit slow at times and more than a little rough around the edges as it builds to its climactic explosion of violent action this spirited but formulaic yarn that initially brought ernest tidyman's black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks to the big screen hardly qualifies as groundbreaking filmmaking yet nearly years after its original long after the genre it spawned blaxploitation died with that remains an extremely entertaining watch never having completely escaped pop culture consciousness the reason for this is the same one that explains the film's connection with moviegoers far beyond the target audience the title character of john shaft while the fact that the strong smart virile and superbly suave shaft is black is the primary factor for his historical and cultural significance his appeal stems from an idea that transcends race he is comfortable confident and proud about who he is and anyone who had a problem with that could simply kiss his ass this fact also explains why john singleton's revival of john shaft is as enjoyable as it is much like the film that started the franchise this plot doesn't score points in the originality department but the energy level and smooth attitude distinguishes it from standard crime thrillers contrary to what has been reported over the past few months this is not a remake of the original film but more of a the star audiences know and love from the original film and its first two sequels and richard roundtree once again plays john shaft who still runs a private investigation firm in new york city however the focus of the film lies on his nephew samuel l jackson who as the film begins is a cop whose demeanor constantly leaves him at odds with his superiors when a privileged young man named walter wade jr christian bale accused of a brutal murder is allowed to be released on bail a disgusted shaft leaves the force and decides to take matters into his own hands as a p i but that's easier said than done for also standing in the way of shaft and his way of justice is peoples hernandez jeffrey wright a dominican gangster who is hired by walter to rub out waitress diane palmieri toni collette the only eyewitness to his crime rather wright is also the big obstacle in jackson's way toward commanding this film peoples is more of an outrageous comic character for most of the running time and wright is insanely funny during these stages however he isn't so funny as to make the character come off as goofy and buffoonish and peoples' eventual turn to more serious villainy is seamless and believable which probably would not have been the case had he been played by original casting choice john leguizamo who bowed out before filming it's no easy task to steal a film from the jackson who is his usual captivating charismatic self here but that's exactly what wright makes it seem effortless then again with such a talented ensemble surrounding him it is not too surprising that jackson's impressive star turn doesn't quite tower over the rest he is strongly complemented not only by wright but all his other bale has already proven his ability to play an uppity killer in so it only follows that his performance as a similar less exaggerated character would be collette lends the film some convincing and welcome dramatic weight as the frightened conflicted diane busta rhymes brings some good laughs as shaft's sidekick rasaan registering not as through no fault of their vanessa williams as tough narcotics cop carmen vasquez and a dismayingly underused roundtree they simply are given little to do in the script credited to richard price singleton and shane salerno jackson also has little to do in a sense some throwaway footage during the opening credits aside his shaft doesn't even have one sex scene that singleton once again proves his ability with actors is an especially good thing since he's not really an action director this is not to say that he does a bad job with the numerous gunfights and the requisite foot and car chases they move well as does the film as a whole and are reasonably exciting it's just that there's nothing terribly inventive about them these set pieces are functional in the way the script is they work well enough but they're unsurprising and conventional but if there's anything that a movie does well it's make the familiar look this keeps that tradition alive from the slick title of course to isaac hayes' theme song which singleton wisely sprinkles throughout the the film looks great and easily sweeps the viewer into its world with its energetic bravado even a common visual trick such as employing fancy wipes for scene transitions not only feels unforced it feels necessary style doesn't exactly make for a great film but when it comes to that's of little consequence what matters above all else is having a good time and the latest should be just the first of many fun rides to be had with this bad your mouth
positive	uncompromising french director robert bresson's lancelot of the lake achieves the exact opposite effect of sir thomas malory's morte darthur instead of enshrining the legend of king arthur and his knights of the round table it dethrones them by revealing arthur as a weak ineffectual leader and the knights as a group of jealous bickering men who failed to live up to the legends prescribed to them chivalry has no place in lancelot of the lake except as that of a dying ideal bresson begins his tale as the knights of the round table are returning decimated after failing merlin's command to retrieve the holy grail the mystical cup that was filled with christ's blood bresson immediately gives us his impression of the essential meaning of the grail quest bloodshed and failure the opening sequence is a series of clumsy disjointed fights amongst anonymous knights a head is hacked off a stomach is impaled a skull is split open skeletal remains hang from trees and burning bodies smolder in the ruins of a flaming house since the film starts with camelot in and takes only an hour and a half to arrive at its inevitable conclusion it doesn't carry the grand tragic resonance of other arthurian films we never get to see camelot at the peak of its power therefore there is no real downfall to witness but then again it is not the name of camelot that is evoked in the title of the film rather it is lancelot and bresson is more interested in the internal battle within his heart than the external downfall of a kingdom lancelot has always been a tragic figure in the arthurian tales and bresson uses him as the central figure to explore the battle between the spirit and the flesh the greatest of all knights he was flawed only in his love for arthur's wife queen guinevere and it was that illicit affair that eventually caused the downfall of camelot even when lancelot attempts to end the affair with guinevere laura duke condominas he only finds himself falling back into her arms against his better judgment he knows it means the destruction of the idealized kingdom but he is powerless in his passion when sir mordred patrick bernhard accuses lancelot of the affair other knights including sir gawain humbert balsan spring to lancelot's defense it is this battle within the knights that is the eventual undoing of the round table the flesh wins out over the spirit and the consequences are dire bresson is an intensely personal filmmaker most interested in the interiors of men's hearts and minds lancelot of the lake is filled with his particular trademarks a minimalist style flat expressionless dialogue and a grand use of natural sounds in place of music he uses background music only twice in the film during an opening narration segment and during the opening credits the music here is a heavy drumbeat and accompanying bagpipes but the rest of the film is scored with natural sounds that punctuate the film's thematic elements the incessant clanking and creaking of heavy armor the neighing of horses the rhythm of hooves beating down dirt roads and the natural chirping and whispering of the forest like most of his other films bresson employed nonprofessional actors who recite the dialogue in emotionless flat voices all the actors he used in lancelot of the lake had never acted before and with the exception of patrick bernhard they never acted again never once do they raise their voices or put any emphasis on a given word instead of using vocal inflection bresson strove to create emotion through images in some ways this technique works in other ways it doesn't the final montage of arthur's men battling each other is quite marvelous and the final image of the knights in shining armor reduced to a literal sums up the entire film in one moment however other times bresson's uncompromising methods are distracting and questionable for instance during an important jousting contest bresson films the majority of the action so that the only things visible are the horses' legs he does this repeatedly opening each shot with the same few notes from a bagpipe and the raising of a different flag while there might be symbolic value in this the resulting experience of watching it can be bothersome nevertheless lancelot of the lake is a fascinating cinematic experience boldly made by a master filmmaker bresson's style may not be for everyone but one has to respect his strength as an artist by the arthurian legends and making them his own he turns lancelot of the lake into something rare in modern cinema a truly personal film
positive	capsule the best place to start if you're a jackie chan newcomer roars along never stops for breath and frequently hilarious to talk about jackie chan as a stuntman is to miss a million things jackie is not only one of the most accomplished and fearsomely unafraid physical adepts on the screen today but also a very funny guy he reminds me of the way arnold schwartzenegger used to make me laugh he's funny just standing there copping a look supercop has jackie making us laugh scream duck root and gasp for breath often all in the same scene it's actually the third in a loosely related series of movies each with jackie playing kevin chan a hong kong policeman who has a knack for getting into trouble and then his way out of it the others are also worth seeing it's a little slow to start but once it gets moving it's a field day the movie has a fairly sophisticated plot for movies of this kind kevin is tapped for a dangerous dea assignment to be accomplished in mainland china which requires him to collaborate with the attractive and chief fo chinese security played here by the michelle yeoh there's a fun chemistry between the two of them especially in an early scene where she tries to brief him and he keeps making wondering comments about how great she looks in that uniform kevin is assigned to help spring a known gangster from jail all undercover of course and have him lead the two of them to a noted drug boss the drug boss however has problems of his own his wife's on trial for many of his own crimes and she's got the key to an account with all of his drug funds this means of course endless trouble not the least of which is that kevin bumps into his girlfriend while he's out in the field and she sees him with this other woman and but that's one of the movie's unique pleasures the way it crosses from action to comedy effortlessly action there is of course action in this movie everything from kung fu to gun battles to a sppedboat with eight engines outrunning the hong kong coast guard there is also a virtuoso climax which features among other things jackie danging from a ladder tied to a helicopter a freeway chase which requires michelle to do an awesomely difficult handstand stunt a fight on top of a moving train that also involves the as well as a motorcycle you get the idea this is to action movies what a burger with everything on it is to fast food quick enjoyable filling watch it with friends when they stop making movies like this the world will be a tad greyer
positive	the calendar year has not even reached its midway point but that hasn't prevented columbia pictures from trotting out a lavish period drama more befitting of the winter season bille august's adaptation of victor hugo's classic les miserables delivers everything one would expect from a classy hollywood production values strong performances by a cast a literate one critically missing element emotional sweep for those not familiar with hugo's original novel or the hit stage musical it inspired the hook of les miserables essentially boils down to something like a version of the fugitive after serving years in a prison work camp for stealing a loaf of bread the brutish jean valjean liam neeson is paroled immediately upon release he steals valuable silverware from a kindly bishop who takes him in for a night he is caught by authorities only to be forgiven by the bishop who lets valjean keep the silver to start a new life on the straight and narrow that he does and in doing so breaks his parole which sets the obsessively determined inspector javert geoffrey rush who was one of the guards in valjean's prison camp on his trail thematically however les miserables is a story about redemption which valjean finds through his dealings with two women the fantine uma thurman and her illegitimate daughter cosette years after breaking parole valjean becomes mayor of the town of vigau where he forms a warm friendship with fantine after saving her from an unjust arrest by javert valjean promises the gravely ill fantine he will rescue the young cosette mimi newman from her cruel caretakers the thenardiers and raise the child as his own the father and daughter eventually land in paris where the teenage cosette claire danes falls for dashing student revolutionary marius hans matheson the story is the stuff that cinematic epics are made of and the danish august turns in his most accomplished work following the underrated superstar soap the house of the spirits and last year's stylish but highly preposterous mystery smilla's sense of snow he and screenwriter rafael yglesias bring the sprawling tale into clear focus and keep the events moving at a brisk pace production designer anna asp costume designer gabriella pescucci and cinematographer jorgen persson give les miserables a sumptuous period look whose accomplishment is mostly matched by the efforts of the cast neeson is commanding yet endearingly vulnerable rush's finely modulated menace is far more rewarding than his overrated theatrics in shine and thurman disappears nicely into her highly unglamorous role the younger members of the cast fare less well danes is convincing as cosette but her overdone lip quivering during her crying scenes becomes a distraction and matheson while competent is a less interesting robert sean leonard as technically adept and cerebrally engaging the film is by the time les miserables was over my emotions had only been superficially involved while i was touched by valjean's relationships with fantine and cosette i was not moved not even reaching the touching level is the pairing my only previous experience with les miserables is with the musical as i am sure many others' is and i was dismayed to see eponine a friend of marius's who selflessly dies in the name of her unspoken love for him almost completely jettisoned from this adaptation the daughter of the thenardiers here she is only briefly seen as a child her presence would have added some conflict and emotional heft to the youthful romance but i suppose august and yglesias felt one tragic heroine fantine was enough even so as creeps into summer blockbuster season les miserables is a thoughtful entertaining film one that will sate moviegoers hungry for a dose of drama before popcorn invade the multiplex
positive	an entertaining hours awaits the audience in this film set in the early sevigny and beckinsale play disco chicks alice and charlotte who are on the lookout for love alice is mousy shy intellectual charlotte is bitchy and fun we join their adventures as they go through a variety of adventures and men all to the background of the local disco whit stillman has both written and directed an interesting and believable story alice and charlotte are both well written characters and the actresses who play them aren't bad aswell sevigny delivers an honest performance and makes the audience feel for her character beckinsale plays extreme bitch personified yet her character never becomes completely unlikeable the huge supporting cast also play a part in making sure this movie is thoroughly entertaining the dialogue is sharp and well written with many funny set pieces for example there's a great discussion about lady the tramp by the main characters the disco tunes playing in the background also make sure that this admittedly long film is good fun the direction is good bringing out the drama and comedy in the scenes but their are slight flaws with the movie firstly although it is supposedly set in the the characters are very very the way they dress and act have a very feel to them although the male hairstyles look slightly frankly the atmosphere just wasn't conveyed which is a shame also as mentioned above the film is too long and some parts do lag the charm of the characters do help these moments but generally the editing could of been a bit tighter the plot also into a silly cocaine dealing bust which seemed out of place in this movie finally their are almost too many characters in the film and despite the running time the film never really spends enough time on them some of the characters are very slight which is a shame the conclusion while funny is also surprisingly weak and certainly not strong enough but despite these qualms the last days of disco is a funny warm movie which is certainly worth seeing and is a fitting homage to the disco era of the worth a look overall review by david wilcock you know for kids norville barnes
positive	gordon fleming peter mullan is in a bind he has a new unexpected baby and his business hazardous material removal is in danger of going under when he and his crew get a job opportunity at the danvers state hospital he underbids the competition to secure the contract and promises to get the job done in one it will prove to be a fateful week for them all in session gordo gets the job to remove asbestos and other hazardous materials from the spooky old mental hospital in preparation for relocating town offices there their guided tour of the facility by a local official bill giggs paul guilfoyle brings them through some of the creepier parts of the former asylum but a job is a job and if they finish in a week as promised there is a bonus in store as they get down to their work things normal and not so normal begin to happen gordon hears a disembodied voice beckoning him phil david caruso is conflicted working with a guy hank josh lucas who is seeing his old girlfriend mike steven gevedon has discovered a cache of audiotapes and transcripts from old psychiatric sessions hence the title with inmate mary hobbs a patient with a dark secret gordo's nephew jeff brendan sexton iii suffers from night phobia and is afraid to venture into the dark bowels of the hospital as the agreed upon week draws to an end hank mysteriously disappears from the workplace after a nocturnal confrontation with someone something in the hospital tensions mount and distrust build among the rest as they watch their chance for the bonus start to slip away but there is more much more at stake as the hospital and its history of insanity weigh on them all i don't want to give away too much of the story of session so i'll stop there what we have here is a spooky horror flick that uses none of the cheap shots that have become part and parcel with horror films since the advent of halloween and friday the thirteenth there is no cat leaping out of the dark or the shock of suddenly seeing oneself in a strategically placed mirror with the exception of one shadowy and chilling image at one point spooky interlude in the film there is little that you can get your arms around as far as what specifically is frightening as i watched session i became aware of the subtle things that built up during the story that make it a true horror movie the striking video camera work by uta briesewitz who worked with the director brad anderson on his next stop wonderland helps to build up tension with fluid camera movement and odd angles in a way that would make alfred hitchcock proud music too is used to intense effect joining with the camera to make simple scenes frightening even horrifying couple these tech feats with an intelligent story that uses elements of the shining the blair witch project and even the texas chainsaw massacre and you get a decent intriguing horror flick additionally the brilliant decision to shoot at danvers state hospital gives the film another starring character the institution itself which lends even more chills to the equation acting is another factor that raises session above the usual dreck presented in recent horror hits like scream i know what you did last summer and their sequels those films took though generic young actors and actresses and put them to use to build up a body count substituting mayhem for real horror anderson opted instead to use mature experienced actors like peter mullan and david caruso to fill his characters' shoes and the difference in casting quality is notable mullan in particular puts an arc on his character gordon as the troubled guy who slowly and inexorably falls under the pressures of family job and finally danvers state hospital the rest of the small cast fit the bill as people not just fodder for the mayhem david caruso as gordo's senior man and near equal in the business shows just how good an actor he is he made the jump from tv's nypd blue to film far too soon and his decisions in the roles he took i'll never forget the horrendous jade were less than star making he rolls his sleeves up and does the job well here gevedon lucas and sexton are more than fodder too the only problem with session lay in the uninspired ending it takes on a fairly conventional finale that covers old ground and is a bit of a disappointment after the terrific and inspired build up the pleasure is getting there and i wish that anderson and gevedon had kept up the steam they had so ably built during the bulk of the film session is an unusual feat it is scary doesn't use cheap tricks and raises goose bumps with its intelligently rendered subtle horror because of the local interest of danvers it should do well with the northeast crowd i hope it gets the national distribution it deserves i give it a
positive	the latest epos from lars is a blast although a rather moody one this lovestory is situated in a small town in the rough dreary cliffs in the vestern part of scotland in the something the church calvinistic is so strict that the church bells has been removed from the clocktower they are considered being too unrestrained in these surroundings we find the jan and bess played by stellan skarsgaard and the remarkable new movie actress emily watson jan is on leave from the oilrig and bess is just bess a bit naive and innocent in every aspect of the word at first at the wedding party we are told an anecdote illustrating her infinite kindness she once lend a bike to an stranger her best friends bike however but bess is suffering in this scary religious society we soon take part in a funeral where a man fallen off the orthodox path is laid to rest while doomed to hell women are not allowed to attend funerals or speak up in the church when the end of the honeymoon approaches we see bess idolizing jan in such an intend almost manic that her friends try to calm her down a bit the time has come when jan is to return to the rig bess is falling into the darkness of depression her yelling of grief and sorrow are heard above the breaking of the waves she can't stand the thought of life without her husband we witness her dialogues with god she speaks both parts paranoia convincing god to return jan from the oilrig and her prayers are heard an accident on the rig bring him back paralysed from the neck and down now he can't satisfy her need for physical love he try to persuade her into finding a lover with the ulterior motive to make her describe these affairs to him in every detail at first she resist but her love for jan and his assurance that this will make him recover more rapidly make her comply imagine what this is doing to the poor girl the story is cleverly divided into eight chapters parted by beautiful pictures made by danish artist per kirkeby accompanied by music from the era procol harum deep purple and others the use of camera and lack of any make the characters solid and help to separate this movie from others in the sentimental genre the incredible performance from the actors makes the movie brilliant though a bit too gloomy for my taste i would say that it is in the genre of betty blue le matin and bitter moon lunes de fiel emily watson as bess and katrin cartlidge as her best friend dodo deliver outstanding performances this must be the reason for giving it the grand prix du jury in cannes this year although we had hoped for the palme d'or the screenplay is now available in print the transformation being made in the period from ultimo may to july just in time for the danish premiere
positive	anastasia contains something that has been lacking from all of the recent disney releases especially hercules emotion all the wacky characters voiced by celebrities and fantastically animated adventure sequences aren't going to hold anyone's interest unless there is an emotional core to hold it all together not since disney's beauty the beast has there been such a compelling animated film with interesting characters and drama that works the story of the romanov family the rulers of russia and their downfall begins the film anastasia one of the daughters narrowly escapes the mad monk rasputin voiced by christopher lloyd with her grandmother voiced by angela landsbury but anastasia gets lost and grows up with no memory of her royal origins the grandmother lives in paris hoping to someday find her beloved anastasia the only member of the family to survive the russian revolution a young woman named anya voiced by meg ryan runs across dimitri john cusack and vlad kelsey grammar who are trying to put together a scheme to create an anastasia to fool the grandmother and get the reward money they pick anya to pose as their princes and of course it is soon revealed that anya is in fact the lost anastasia dimitri realizes that he can never win her love as he is a commoner and meanwhile rasputin is not dead and plots his revenge against the last romanov the plot is actually quite well structured there are a lot of complexities that may have to be explained to the kids later but it moves along fast enough that they'll never have time to be bored what this really means is that the adults won't be bored by it either there is a great deal of banter between anya and dimitri that is very funny and their relationship develops quite naturally as the film progresses there is of course lots of comedy for the kids including rasputin's pet bat bartok hank azaria who is easily the funniest thing in the film however the comical scenes never distract from the drama but are worked into the plot almost seamlessly the animation is gorgeous the characters seem to come to life through the talented animators not since beauty the beast have animated characters had so much life to them even without the voices they act the musical number in paris is a with some of the backgrounds rendered in an impressionist painting style as with all recent animated features there are songs however these songs do more than just provide fodder for singers to get on the radio although there are three of them during the end credits the songs are all very catchy and advance the plot instead of just being showpieces except for the paris number but that's so much fun it's okay i can't reccomend anastasia highly enough it's a wonderful film that ranks right up there with other animated classics kids and adults alike will enjoy it and it's also nice to have a quality animated feature film from another studio besides disney
positive	i can hear the question already what on earth do these two movies have in common to most people not a lot except that both are by renowned directors as i saw them however both movies have flawed romantic scripts wrapped in distinctive packaging of lavish visuals musical numbers but oh how differently the packages affect their films while everyone's production numbers make an otherwise ordinary woody tale something special jane campion's imaginative visuals only serve to emphasize how pompous and uninvolving laura jones' script is i left everyone says i love you not remembering a lot about who loved whom but its infectious happiness put a grin on my face i left the portrait of a lady not remembering a lot about who loved whom and i could have cared less everyone features nothing allen hasn't done before storywise woody is again desperately in love with a beautiful woman roberts and against the odds they manage to click for awhile before allen is left wondering what went similar situations happen to his family and friends some of the more outlandish comedy scenes even hark back to his early funny films the scenes between tim roth and drew barrymore could have come out of take the money and run his directorial debut however nothing allen has ever done prepared me for this display of sheer good spirits in fact in this movie the feeling itself is what's most important yes the movie would have been his very best i it had a meatier story but what it lacks in substance it makes up for in feeling and what better way to express feeling than through music love is often best expressed in a song and the numbers the cast break into here cut straight to the heart some are a tad too goofy such as the number where a lot of ghosts prance around in a funeral parlor but i admired allen for even putting them in there it also helps that as usual allen has a cast working with him their singing voices range from quite good goldie hawn to not quite good allen to literally unlistenable barrymore whose real voice was dubbed by a professional but while their vocal abilities differ all the actors do a great job of putting joy up there on the screen and making it rub off on the audience granted some people will simply never accept characters singing in movies but for those attuned to it this film should work wonders jane campion too has a cast working for her in portrait of a lady too but even their considerable skills can do nothing to keep the film from being a stilted virtually lifeless mess albeit a visually interesting one campion and her cinematographer stuart dryburgh come up with a great variety of images that linger in the mind unfortunately what didn't linger in the mind for me was the story the visuals were supposed to be reflecting i remember very well shots of a train with its light beaming and shots of men vanishing around nicole kidman but i can remember very little of what happened between all these people even worse i don't find myself feeling bad that i've forgotten the problem i think lies not with the cast which seemed to be trying very hard for the material it was the script that couldn't convince me to care about anyone the characters were putting out all kinds of emotion but i found no reason to connect with any of them i understood that the story was about cold emotionally vacant characters but for me to care about them i have to identify with them somehow and want them to inject feeling into their lives jones' script never simply gave me that opportunity in the end it almost seemed as if campion was trying to inject some life of her own into the proceedings with her visual flourishes unfortunately as she kept painting these dazzling pictures they only served to push me further away from the material and remind me that there was no connection between me and the film in the end the movie's one strength ended up hurting it so here we have two films with pretty uninteresting plots and yet i was able to truly enjoy one of them why with both films my head cared about neither story but only everyone says i love you was able to make my heart sing
positive	you've got to think twice before you go see a movie with a title like maximum risk the title is generic it's meaningless and i can't believe it's good business when you pick up the phone and dial how in the world are you supposed to remember that the new van damme movie the one that looked kind of cool in the trailers and is directed by some chinese hot shot is called geez maximum risk yuck the movie itself deserves your attention for sweet bloody thrills this one beats the summer blockbuster competition only mission impossible came close to delivering as skillful a thriller and i'll give maximum risk the edge simply because it's not as slick as the tom cruise picture and therefore more gratifying in its execution much to my surprise van damme continues to develop as a pleasant unpretentious action hero his track record isn't as solid as schwarzenegger's but he's a hell of a lot more adventurous than arnold in van damme worked with hong kong's premier hardcore action director john woo on a fairly lame movie called hard target if you can find a bootleg copy woo's radically different director's cut is much better than what was eventually released this is directed by ringo lam city on fire full contact whose hong kong films are distinguished action pictures that have consistently played second fiddle to woo's more operatic offerings the surprise here is that maximum risk is a more effective hollywood action flick than either hard target or woo's subsequent broken arrow here's the rundown van damme plays a french cop named alain moreau who is shaken when a policeman friend anglade finds a corpse that's alain's exact double turns out alain was separated at birth from his twin brother michael who has been killed by some russian heavies and some strangely american looking cops alain does some investigating he finds that michael had booked a flight to new york city and received a message from someone there named alex bohemia assuming michael's identity alain flies to new york and gets tangled up with michael's girlfriend natasha henstridge the fbi and the russian mob in little odessa that's as much as you need to know the story is adequate but not overly involving and the major plot points are basically explained to you twice just in case you go out for popcorn at the wrong moment there's a love story too but i didn't find it terribly convincing partly because henstridge is too in her debut she had precious few lines as the alien ice queen in species she's great to look at and she can certainly read a line but what she does here can't really be described as acting of course acting isn't really what she was hired for i lost track of whether her shirt comes off more often than van damme's the movie is exceptionally violent bordering on gratuity keep that in mind when planning your date the stunts are spectacular and the fact that you can spot van damme's makes his work no less impressive there's only so much you can do with a car wreck but this movie makes crisp effective use of in a handful of frenzied destruction derbies and lam has a surprising innovative sense of exactly where the camera should go to catch any bit of action the main difference between lam and woo i believe is that while woo relies on sheer spectacle to gas up his action show pieces lam has figured out more about using cinematic space and points of view to make things run don't get me wrong when chow soars through space pumping bullets out of two pistols and chewing on a toothpick with glass and confetti littering the air around him in woo's it's an amazing moment but it's a moment that's hard to reproduce in hollywood for one thing hollywood doesn't yet have chow while woo's hollywood movies look like the work of a talented upstart maximum risk is a surprisingly confident picture the very first shot of the film is an awkward overhead view of a chase through the streets of a european city but lam's use of odd camera angles becomes more efficient later on the film editing is a particularly savvy complement to lam's shooting style accentuating rather than amplifying the action the performances could have used some fine tuning in particular there's an annoying overwritten manhattan cab driver in the early scenes who should have been toned down or jettisoned completely and the movie doesn't always overcome the limitations of its genre the story is a little mundane although there are some effective moments involving van damme's unrequited feelings toward the brother he never knew he had but it's not often that hollywood cranks out a truly satisfying action picture and it's doubly surprising that this one should come with a mere whisper of publicity van damme fans should treat themselves to what may well be the man's best movie and international action buffs will no doubt savor this flavorful hong hybrid
positive	in many ways twotg does for movies what la confidential did for police stories there's savviness in its writing and a mature patience in allowing the material to unfold but i suppose we wouldn't expect less from christopher mcquarrie who was responsible for giving us the usual suspects his writing talents are still in tact as he brings to us a bloody yet intellectual tale of two unabashed but dimwitted thugs and a plan gone awry the two goons are parker and longbaugh ryan phillipe and benicio del toro these two men show the hardened wear of those who have always had it tough their troubled youths have forged two nihilistic souls who use their amazing gunplay skills to survive given the choice of minimum wage or petty crime they'll always choose the latter yet they are incredibly foolish planners actually these two never really have a plan they just improvise along the way hoping that their bravado and arsenal of guns will take care of anything that they might have overlooked their next scheme which they cook up about as fast as a mcdonald's burger is to kidnap some surrogate mother named robin juliette lewis that was hired by some family if all goes well they'll receive a nice bit of ransom money and life goes on what parker and longbaugh do not realize is that robin is carrying a baby for the chidduck family whose patriarch is a feared crime boss moreover two bodyguards nicky katt and taye diggs constantly escort her these two protectors find an eerie sense of pleasure when being confronted and tested in life and death situations they would rather die than fail thus their bravado level is equally high but it seems that the testosterone levels of parker and longbaugh are a bit higher and they employ some unusual but tactics to pull off the kidnapping and to outrun the pursuers in a sort of car chase down a series of alleyways the next hour or so we watch the chidduck camp regroup and assess their situation during this time additional plot lines come into play and more and more details are revealed because the chidduck's can not go to the police and because of the special circumstances involving the kidnapping we are introduced to more characters that will help to influence the outcome we discover that not everyone in the chidduck camp is loyal to the cause as a result there are undercurrents of a conspiracy and elements of betrayal and subterfuge the atmosphere is made all the more fascinating thanks to a terrific soundtrack which emits velvet forebodings shrills of intrigue and crescendos that tell us of life and death situations that are about to occur the momentum and the coolness of the film however begins to fizzle in the last minutes which featured an overly extended shootout where our two desperados try to make their way off with the ransom money you can expect lots of bloodletting and an odd denouement in fact you may admire this film more than you like it yet for the most part the way of the gun stays on target it feels cool with its elements of conspiracy and gunplay and smart for its invective dialogue and tough guy poetry
positive	marie charlotte rampling aberdeen and jean bruno cremet sorcerer are a comfortable married couple looking forward to a peaceful vacation at their second home in lit et mix on their first full day marie sunbathes as jean goes for a swim hours later marie's initiated a full scale search when jean hasn't returned but no trace of him is found marie returns to paris and resumes her life including chats with jean at the end of each day in francois ozon's under the sand marie's british friend amanda alexandra stewart frantic and her french husband gerard pierre vernier try to snap marie out of her denial with a dinner party where they introduce her to the handsome vincent jacques nolot nenette et boni yet marie suggests that gerard accompany her and jean to their gym the next morning eventually marie does begin dating vincent but she discusses him with jean and even smiles at jean hidden behind a bedroom curtain when she makes love to vincent slowly though reality continues to chip away at marie's fantasy life her bank advises her that without access to jean's account she needs to reduce her spending one of her university students she's reading virginia woolf's the waves turns out to be one of the young men who participated in the beach search then police arrive asking her to identify the clothing of a body they've found washed up from the ocean that night jean's not at home when she returns to their apartment her andree tainsy cruelly insists that jean simply abandoned her out of boredom finally marie goes to the police insisting on viewing the body horrified she's been warned it was in an advanced state of putrefaction she laughs when handed a bagged watch insisting that this is not her husband under the sand is a character study and melancholy portrait of aging lost my youth marie declares and loss charlotte rampling given the chance to portray an older yet still sexual woman runs with it bringing us into the mind of the character her chemistry with bruno cremet is startlingly natural as marie returns from her first date with vincent she sits on the couch with jean he kiss you he asks the mood the two create is incredibly intimate and sad ozon water drops on burning rocks see the sea who cowrote the script with emmanuelle bernheim marcia romano and marina de van has turned in a more mature work than his previous creepy see the sea while he cleverly never lets us see jean enter the water that fateful day leaving a number of possibilities accident suicide escape open he definitely tips his hand towards a certain outcome cinematography by antoine hiberli and jeanne lapoirie water drops on burning rocks glides around marie their shot as she initially searches the ocean's horizon for a sign of jean conveys her panic or captures rampling's exotic face in mood divining closeup in an inventive fantasy scene marie imagines jean's hands massaging her feet while in a state of his two hands become four then more combined with her own becoming almost a one person orgy and recalling roman polanski's repulsion original music by philippe rombi quietly adds to the overall melancholy under the sand is a unique portrait of loss it would make an fascinating double bill with liv ullmann's faithless from earlier this year another character study of a woman facing loss for different reasons
positive	is it just me or have disney films gradually lost their appeal i was almost stunned by the quality of who framed roger rabbit a fun unique look at a world where cartoons and people lived together the little mermaid harkened back to and perhaps surpassed the classic disney animations from the first half of the century however the endless stream of the little mermaid is getting to me you know the spiel a lame plot recycled from some story colorful almost psychedelic animation the lead character who learns a valuable moral lesson the comedic the seemingly unattainable love interest a few catchy songs a few for adults and the occasional out of place type joke it's a formula and like any formula it gets tiresome that's why i'm delighted to hear that disney recently picked up the international distribution rights to the works of ghibli a japanese cartoon studio from what i've seen of their movies kiki's delivery service and the already and distributed my neighbor totoro foreign audiences are in for a treat these movies particularly kiki's delivery service are wonderfully original and entertaining kiki's delivery service starts with an unusual premise kiki upon hearing forecasts of clear skies decides it is time for her to leave home this is unusual because kiki isn't a college student or a young adult making her start on the world but a thirteen year old girl eager to begin her training as a witch her mother is also a witch and as thirteen is the obligatory age for such training her parents treat her leaving understandingly and put up only token resistance just the idea of a witch heroine may scare away some audiences but no mention is made of the occult and the subject is dealt with harmlessly throughout the movie kiki's mother acts as a village doctor and kiki is able to do no more than fly on a broom kiki must choose a city to move to and what she chooses is the of the movie a german seaport town far removed from the country life she has been used to initially lost in the impersonal hugeness of her surrounding she's discouraged and unable to support herself though her rudimentary skills as a witch on the verge of leaving for a new town she uses her power of flight to deliver a pacifier to a baby who dropped it the favor eventually blossoms into her working as a courier a delivery service this is where the movie becomes shockingly good kiki's job is a catalyst for her realizing the beauty of the city and the world around her the townspeople she is put in contact possess an inner worth that doesn't seem forced or artificial but merely derived from looking at ordinary people in a different light they're dimensional impossible to quickly evaluate possessing of faults and understandably reserving in kindness towards a strange girl however each one has something about them some interest or trait that makes them interesting and unique the personal beauty of the citizens is complimented by the beauty of the surroundings the seaport town genuinely looks impressive capturing the european charm of a medieval city adapted to the more modern needs of the this beauty is beauty with depth for every detail left in dozens are only hinted at i could probably go on all day but i won't suffice it to say that many of these minor details could have been the highlight of the movie some of my favorites are kiki's relationship with the baker's husband although he's quiet never shown speaking to kiki throughout the movie and he initially scares her his kindness wins her friendship in the garage of a deliveree's house can be found a vintage model t two old ladies have a relationship evolving from to such details gives the impression that the beauty shown in the movie is only the tip of the iceberg added on top of this is a lesson on the importance of kiki initially seems to derive much of her from the beauty of her surroundings and the people around her but an encounter with a rude girl crashes down her bewonderment making her question the importance of such beauty this causes kiki to lose faith in herself however kiki comes to realize not only the beauty of her surroundings but the innate beauty inside her seeing kiki regain faith in herself is marvelous and the principal device used to do it is so sublime that i don't even want to hint at it the ending of the movie has a subtle charm combined with a sense of awe and ironically the most moment i've ever seen if you don't hold your breath in wonder you might want to get medical attention the movie steers free of many of the disney conventions there is no violence however cartoonish no number and kiki's pet cat jiji is more a friend than a comedic sidekick although jiji is given many funny lines and scenes however i would be surprised if disney doesn't give jiji more jokes or at least the voice of some comedian refreshingly enough the moral lesson of the movie is not a habit disney movies have gotten into beauty and the beast beautiful belle for instance learned that beauty was derived from a person's inside and was then rewarded by having the beast turn into a handsome prince in snazzy clothing kiki on the other hand learns to separate her wardrobe from her and nothing more is made of her early desires for better clothing than illustrating her increased maturity at the end of the film another difference with disney movies is in the style of animation for kiki's delivery service not as colorful and dynamic as disney animation can be but with a greater attention to realism and detail it fits the movie to a t this is particularly true with scenes of kiki's flights the extreme realism of the birds in flight near kiki is magnificent to behold and helps these scenes capture the wonder of flight better than any other film i've ever seen i'm not sure when or how this movie will be released in the united states disney tentatively plans a theater release of monoko hime shortly following the summer japanese release and should start releasing the other ghibli films after that i'd guess that some will be released on video and some will be theatrically released in peak seasons with no competing disney release although the wait is unfortunate it's good to know that it's being released at all for kiki's delivery service is definitely a movie worthy of widespread promotion and release watch this movie along with man bites dog and perhaps something by woody allen this is the best movie i've ever seen
positive	insane but inspired musical about alferd packer the first man ever tried for cannibalism in america as the story unfolds we learn what events led to packer trey parker supposedly killing and eating the five men who got lost while accompanying him through the mountains of colorado in search of gold throughout packer must contend with evil trappers bent on stealing his prized horse a tribe of indians that doesn't seem quite on the mark and a terrible winter storm that leads to the eventual cannibalism parker obviously knows his musicals very well because the viewer is also treated to some of the most maddeningly catchy songs to appear in a film he would accomplish this again in his musical motion picture south park bigger longer and uncut apart from the inherent interest of seeing a south park parker and stone in their first effort cannibal also offers up some pretty decent laughs the aforementioned indian tribe that packer's group encounters is a definite highlight as are two rousing musical numbers about snowmen one of which ends on a comedically deadly note stone's humphrey character steals the show especially when complaining about the prospect of having to butt' or revealing what's underneath his muff cap jason mchugh's character of mr miller is the stand out performance though as he offers a hilarious dissenting voice to the proceedings as i mentioned before parker's songs are very catchy you'll be hard pressed to get a shpadoinkle day' out of your head once you've heard it incidentally the braniff logo that appears at the end of every south park episode is scored with a few notes from this song other songs you'll find yourself humming include i was on top of you' a love ballad trapper's song' the villains leit motif and the bastard' the rousing finale thankfully none of these songs are quite as embarrassing to find yourself singing in public as south park bigger longer uncut's songs are released as a through troma studios the film is available on videocassette and dvd the videocassette includes an intro by the beautiful jane jensen and an interview segment with lloyd kaufman discussing his admiration for parker and stone and the fact that they had been hired for a zucker brothers film which turned out to be the hilarious baseketball there are also multiple trailers for upcoming troma films as for the dvd well that's a different story probably one of the best dvd packages of the year and potentially of all time cannibal the musical the dvd is a massive achievement presented in full frame only the disc has the usual troma inclusions the tour of troma the troma intelligence test trailers for upcoming releases but where the disc truly shines is in its cannibal specific extras the first thing i must note is the transfer is about as beautiful as any i've ever seen on any disc the picture is crisp clear and free from any noticeable artifacts add to that one of the funniest commentary tracks i have ever heard featuring trey parker matt stone jason mchugh dian bachar and andy kemler getting drunker and drunker as the track continues and you still haven't scratched the surface of the extras there's also behind the scenes footage of the shooting of the film a clip with trey matt and lemmy of the band motorhead from the film terror firmer an index for easy location of all of the songs in the film and finally an index of all the songs as performed by the cast of a stage production of cannibal it's good to see this film finally get the treatment it deserves kudos to the entire production staff at troma and aix for making one of the most entertaining dvds i have seen in a very long time
positive	allen star of many a brian depalma movie in the early eighties has a brief throwaway part towards the end of out of sight as the maid of a crooked financier in keeping with her past performances allen wears little more than a green velvet victoria's secret ensemble which begs the question did they really need a costume designer for this out of sight is not likely to secure ms allen the kind of plaudits bestowed upon pam grier who likewise returned from out of obscurity to appear in another recent elmore leonard adaptation jackie brown but it is intriguing to see her name kicking off the also starring credits given her limited screen time the real stars of out of sight are george clooney batman robin by way of e r and jennifer lopez selena whose winning chemistry coupled with steven soderbergh's directorial technique help the film retain the charismatic charm of leonard's original work with the success of get shorty three years ago filmmakers have realized that adapting an elmore leonard novel can be an easier proposition than trying to dream up a storyline from scratch in out of sight clooney stars as jack foley a career criminal who specializes in unarmed just waltzes into banks and politely makes a withdrawal claiming that his partner just another customer it so happens will shoot the manager if the teller doesn't comply for all of jack's charm though he's not very lucky his latest scam lands him in florida's glades correctional facility federal marshal karen sisco lopez coincidentally arrives at the prison just as jack and his buddy ving rhames typically appealing are breaking out there's a brief struggle and jack bundles himself and karen into the trunk of the getaway car it's in these cramped confines pressed intimately together that jack and karen start falling for one another the mutual attraction continues as the couple on opposite sides of the law slip in and out of one another's grasp karen follows jack to detroit where he's about to pull off another heist this time a cache of uncut diamonds from incarcerated businessman richard ripley played by a albert brooks almost unrecognizable in the prison scenes it's during this final that allen makes her scant appearance clooney's range as an actor is limited but he has undeniable charm lopez too is easy on the eyes but she demonstrates more depth in her portrayal of karen a tough yet tender professional she dispenses with hit men as easily as she sleazy artists in a bar especially cute is a sequence in which karen fantasizes about jack in a motel bathtub admirably supporting clooney and lopez are don cheadle as fellow felon maurice miller steve zahn as the perennially stoned glenn michaels and dennis farina as karen's dad who affectionately buys her a piece add a couple of uncredited cameos from jackie brown cast members and out of sight proves to be a lot of fun not as hip and clever as shorty perhaps or as complex and colorful as brown but loads of fun nonetheless
positive	synopsis in phantom menace the galaxy is divided into power groups whose interests will inevitably collide in later sequels there is an overarching galactic united organization called the senate presided by a weak chancellor within the senate two camps are at odds a bickering isolationist alliance called the republic and their aggressive rival the trade federation preserving law and order are a council of jedi knights who are meanwhile searching for a prophesied chosen one of virgin birth manipulating events behind the scenes is a dangerous reemerging clan called the dark lords of sith so shadowy and secretive that they comprise a phantom menace jedi knight jinn liam neeson and his apprentice kenobi ewan mcgregor witness an invasion of teenage queen amidala's home planet naboo and befriend a gungan named jar jar ahmed best on the desert planet of tatooine the two jedi jar jar and amidala natalie portman attend a lengthy drag race involving the young boy anakin skywalker jake lloyd the five protagonists try to solicit help for freeing naboo by visiting the city planet of coruscant where a lot of debate and political maneuvering takes place can they free amidala's helpless planet opinion on tv last night i watched young wannabe celebs pay a ticket and come running out of theaters to bask in front of news cameras gushing with testimonials of the phantom menace's greatness in exchange for a few seconds of being on national television given this kind of media mania i wondered if phantom menace the most anticipated movie of could possibly live up to the extraordinary hype that preceded it does phantom menace match the exaggerated hype director george lucas answers it's only a movie to me any movie with accents for bad guys jamaican accents for good guys and middle accents for seedy gamblers accents can be expected to be more tongue in cheek than profound visually star wars episode i phantom menace is a kid show where parents can take their young ones to marvel at cgi characters and wondrous backdrops even if the character dialogue mostly geopolitics is beyond the level of children it is left to parents to patiently explain the conversation droid origins family lineage the definitions of terms like blockade appeasement federation alliance symbiosis robots et cetera at least this much is clear there's plenty of eye candy and in the last few minutes it's good guys and joe camel lookalikes versus a caped horned red devil character and his mechanical hordes weaknesses weaknesses lie in the writing and in the performance at first it seems like the film is to be an invasion story but then phantom takes an detour to cover one chariot race before returning to the invasion theme this dilutes the central story additionally smaller scenes seem written self consciously as if they were added more to fill us in on extraneous background information for other movies rather than form an integral part of the present movie veteran actors liam neeson and ewan mcgregor noticeably outperform the other acting leads better ensemble chemistry between the five leads and background information that is central to a tight story line could have made have given phantom stronger performances and storytelling punch strengths on the bright side phantom menace as a production is far ahead of the competition in terms of making whimsical creatures worlds and vehicles appear real the film boasts sophisticated visuals and quality exotic costumes a musical score entertaining enough to stand alone and three worthwhile sequences in the second half bottom line seeing the film is entertaining and informative like a visual theme park with star wars filler information serving as dialogue between impressive money shots we are bound to be completely inundated by star wars publicity music and for the next few months
positive	at one point during brian de palma's crime epic scarface the radiant michelle pfeiffer turns to a ranting al pacino and pops a question that the audience has no doubt been wanting to ask for themselves can't you stop saying all the time fucking good question that it may not be an honour that instills the filmmakers with pride but as far as i can tell oliver stone's script contains the said expletitive more times than any other film in cinema history yet it would be a shame if bad language is all de palma's scarface is remembered for because this is a damn fine gangstar flick the overall structure is similar to howard hawks' original but this time the scene has switched to miami florida and our chosen vice is cocaine traffiking pacino sporting a thick cuban accent gives one the best performances of his career golden globe nominated as tony montana a cuban refugee with a criminal past who flees castro and comes to america to live the american dream and live it out he does with lashings of violence abuse murder and the funny white powder from his earliest jobs as a drug runner for various middlemen tony montana makes it clear to everyone he meets that he's not a man to be fucked sorry soon he's the king of the cocaine heap but his hot head and an increasingly out of control drug addiction prove his undoing never do your own stash warns one character early in the film as sure as night follows day the emperor of miami eventually falls writer oliver stone and director brian de palma make an explosive combination here stone's script offers solid storytelling and some fine character development montana is fascinating uneducated but calculating a straight shooter who speaks from the heart an ambitious violent man yet one with a conscience a man fiercely protective of his beautiful year old sister not wanting her to be sucked into the glitzy dangerous world which he inhabits pacino is dynamite taking to the role with a brooding bristling energy which in his more recent films has often degenerated into just simple overracting pfeiffer also registers strongly as the gangstar mole with no inner life only once does tony express real affection for her and his desire to have children and even then you sense all he really wants is a regular screw and a beautiful object to show off to his friends and she's happy to oblige this isn't as meaty a role for pfieffer as sharon stone's was in casino but its an effective one nonetheless and she aquits herself well as director de palma sets up a number of dramatic scenes with his typical stylistic brauva the escalating tension he creates in various mob situations a drug deal gone wrong an assination attempt is often thrilling and in this respect he is every bit the equal of scorese and coppola where he differs from say coppola's godfather trilogy is in his overall treatment coppola gives his crime sagas an operatic sweep whereas in scarface de palma opts for a grittier feel and it perfectly suits the material the only major botch is giorgio moroder's mostly crap synthesier score it's just not right and unfortunately compromises the impact of some otherwise good scenes as expected scarface is very violent at times but you shouldn't be watching gangster movies if that upsets you at over two and a half hours in length it's a true epic and if you're a fan of the genre you'll love f minute of it
positive	for any groom on the verge of proposing marriage to his girlfriend there are certain rules that he needs to follow firstly fill her life with happiness and romance during the courtship secondly buy her a beautiful ring that glitters as brightly as her eyes thirdly find the perfect moment and location to propose finally the should probably get her parent's blessing of these four the last one can be a nightmare meeting parents is a rite of passage fraught with unexpected questions bouts of nervousness the reality of being disliked and the inability to make a positive impression if you're lucky things will go smoothly but if you're greg focker ben stiller everything will go wrong and with a name like that how could it not when greg first meets his fianc e's father jack byrnes the grimacing robert deniro greg immediately feels overwhelmed and is put on the defensive when he tells jack that he's a male nurse the incorrigible dad shoots back not many men in your profession huh greg it's definitely not a good start but greg is determined to win him over and it's this desire that fuels the movie he first takes small steps such as agreeing to say grace before dinner it doesn't matter that he's jewish if daddy byrnes asks him to say grace then that's what he's going to gamely do oh god you're such a good god he moons his discomfort at trying to force out a simple prayer will make you chuckle but when jack gives him the deniro squint that familiar unsettling gaze that gives deniro that aura of invincibility it's pretty hard not to grin things get progressively worse for greg and that's too bad because he's a genuinely likable guy with a romantic heart eventually he begins to try so hard that he starts to mess everything up committing a host of gaffes that embarrass humiliate or injure other people it's a ordeal of missteps miscues and mistakes he buys some champagne but uncorking the bottle leads to disastrous circumstances he tries to find jack's missing cat but his method of solving the problem leads only to more trouble and there are several other episodes each one trumping the next in outrageousness the more our beau screwed up the more the audience groaned in sympathy we liked greg and we liked this movie meet the parents is a farcical comedy that certainly has its moments just sit back and watch greg get into trouble no matter what the situation whether its playing a harmless game of water volleyball or sneaking a smoke on the roof of the house things will horribly go wrong we laugh at greg's expense but love often makes a person do dumb things and ben stiller has the knack of playing the romantic fool deniro is also affable tough on the outside yet sentimental on the inside their is often funny the slapstick is elaborate and there are several topical throwaway gags mostly targeted at the airline industry to make this film an amusing yet smart lampoon about future from hell
positive	i like movies with albert brooks and i really like movies directed and written by albert brooks lost in america and defending your life are two of my favorite comedies his humor is of a kind that is not very prevalent in movies today inundated as we are with films which revel in their aim toward the lowest common denominator you will rarely see any slapstick in an albert brooks film while the dialog will not be as oppressive as in some of the independent talk films which are finding their way into theaters the situations in which his characters find themselves are ones we can often identify with but even if we can't brooks has the talent to make them comfortable and therefore we laugh teenagers and jim carrey fans probably won't find an albert brooks movie very funny but people who look for more than what we could find on television probably will put simply brooks' comedy is intelligent mother is albert brooks' latest film and it does not disappoint brooks plays john henderson a science fiction writer just coming off his second divorce he makes an attempt at dating but fails miserably he then has dinner with his brother jeff rob morrow a successful sports agent who seems to live the ideal life jeff has a good job a loving family and most of all a warm relationship with their mother beatrice debbie reynolds after dinner john witnesses a telephone conversation between jeff and beatrice and is at the same time amazed and sickened by how the dialog is in comparison beatrice always hints at a fault in john and his career every time she talks with him and john gives it right back to her at the end of one of their conversations where beatrice has just picked apart john's life she says i love you and john replies with i know you think you do the thing is beatrice is not overt with her criticisms but instead gives them in that mothering way which is tantamount to and guilt loading it's the kind that goes something like yes dear i think you do that wonderfully but it seems as though nothing he does makes her happy there's always the big but john believes that his mother is somehow connected to his failed relationships with women either because of his flawed caused by his need for validation or perhaps because he tends to unconsciously seek out women who remind him of his mother in an oedipal manner he comes to the conclusion that since his problems are rooted in his boyhood home he should move back in with his mother for a while just to see what kinds of feelings come out and by that be able to sort out why his life is the way it is a great experiment he calls it brooks' own brand of humor really shines in this film especially in the interaction john has with his mother there's a scene where john has just arrived at his mother's house and after having driven from los angeles to sausalito and having explained to his mother about the great experiment beatrice asks now explain to me again why you don't want to stay at a hotel she still doesn't get it and it is absolutely hilarious in the same scene we get little glances at the life his mother leads when she tries to feed him food that is no longer fresh she apparently buys in great quantities and refrigerates it until the lettuce is wilted and the sherbet is iced over when john points out the ice on the sherbet beatrice tells him not to worry about the protective glaze you've named the ice asks john he's also surprised at the variety of items beatrice keeps in the refrigerator such as a block of cheese the freezer was a good invention says john but it's not supposed to be used for everything that's why it's smaller than the refrigerator it's something most of us find strangely familiar brooks is also a master at employing the non sequitur for example in defending your life his and meryl streep's characters are in a comedy club having a discussion when they're finished and walk out brooks cuts to the comic on stage who is just at the point of delivering his punch line and so the moral is if you have to fart go outside you don't know what the joke was because you couldn't hear him during the entire scene but i must have laughed for the next five minutes it seemed so out of context in this film brooks uses the same trick a couple of times to open or close a scene i don't want to give them away but suffice it to say they work just as well as they have in the past john's purpose for staying with his mother is to learn and we as the audience learn right along with him his mother is not the fascinating type to begin with but as john spends more time with her we learn things about her personality and her lifestyle that give her depth watching the character of beatrice unfold is every bit as enjoyable as the humor that accompanies it each step of the way on screen brooks does an excellent job playing this kind of character you get the feeling he often believes he is the only sane person in an insane world in a way he's very much like yosarian of expect with something of an attitude casting debbie reynolds as beatrice is perfect she assumes the part with ease even moving and speaking a little slowly and is just so adorable it's hard to get mad at her character this only helps the audience to share the frustration john feels when dealing with her as his first choice brooks originally wanted to lure nancy reagan out from her acting retirement to play beatrice but the former actress and first lady could not leave her husband who was beginning to show symptoms of alzheimer's disease that may be just as well since reynolds lends a softness to the character which enhances it immensely rob morrow also does a good job at playing the younger brother who has always been mother's favorite and for all his success in his job and family is slowly exposed as a mama's boy the only things that hold this movie back from being better are a couple of plot holes a solid connection is not really made between john's troubles and his reasons for living with his mother additionally the end results of the experiment do not necessarily jibe with the stated goals and although this may have been sloppy screenwriting how can you be mad at the guy who also wrote this beatrice you must think i'm some kind of moron john no i think your someone who thinks i'm a moron beatrice well it takes one to know one
positive	note there are spoilers regarding the film's climax the election of course we see matthew broderick a man torn to a primal state he's been unfaithful to his wife lied to and manipulated his students and by the same token they've demeaned his masculinity his his desperate attempt at changing the world and yet he equates the cause of his pain his torment with tracy flick reese witherspoon no matter how many students have come and gone and disappointed him as an educator she's the real threat about to give in and divulge that she's won by only a lone vote broderick's mccalister turns in defeat sees tracy's euphoric celebration in the outside corridor and says the fact that he simultaneously lusts after her ideologically further illustrates that freudian foundation of entitlement which all men no matter how obscure have in their relationships a traditional expectation of success to usurp and surpass women as a proverbial industry she can't go higher than him he won't allow it and what's amazing about election is that every word of that criticism is drawn from a rather opaque metaphor early in the film we learn that tracy was romantically and then sexually involved with a now departed teacher it's like payne and taylor his have taken tracy a girl desperate for friendship loyalty and almost perversely drawn the mythological pattern of kids who were so utterly rejected by their peers that they found sitting at the teachers' lunch table more fitting to an unlikely extreme with her as the protagonist and it's amazing the compassion that we have it seems so real to us and not merely because it's happened before splashed all over the front pages but because of the all around nice persona of these people we easily dismiss the truly wayward deeds of the characters it's with mandy barnett's if you'll be the teacher playing winsomely over the closing credits that payne skewers the tenets of his detractors most a final viscous injection of bittersweet irony sexuality though is not the only basis for payne's satire or its success it also makes a telling point about politics friendship and class boundaries satire is required or ought to be anyway to take itself seriously or act so while the audience does not it's a fine line to straddle but some films ignore it altogether drop dead gorgeous leaps infuriatingly to mind payne and taylor hit the right chord their characters are real people neither is perfect but rather both of the leads are flawed misguided individuals who retain somewhat noble intentions at heart we sympathize with them but still as a satire their idiosyncratic behavior and their wrongdoing is taken to an extreme for the audience to knowingly chuckle but also reflect and meditate about minus half a point though for payne admitting not to having seen ferris bueller's day off whatever
positive	martin scorsese's films used to intimidate me because of his reputation i felt obligated to appreciate them as deep film art rather than as great flicks as much as i enjoyed them i usually felt like i missed something i learned from scorsese's casino that whatever techniques he uses are merely there to enhance the story no mystical interpretation is required to appreciate his movies for example in casino he uses subtitles when robert deniro and joe pesci are using code words with each other there was no meaning more exotic than that subtitles were the most succinct way for him to tell the audience what was really going on or toward the end when he uses three quick dissolves to compress a scene of a car backing away from a building again the simple mundane explanation is that it helped the pacing i don't mean to say that his techniques are not creative or but he simply uses the best tool for the job it shouldn't have surprised me then that kundun a film about a mystical religion actually turned out to be quite straightforward the movie follows the life of the dalai lama the spiritual and political leader of tibet the movie's title is another name for the dalai lama which means ocean of wisdom his story is told in strict chronological order and there are only a few cinematic visions to embellish the literal story one of which makes an interesting statement pay attention to the film's opening shot and watch where it is repeated we first glimpse the dalai lama when he is two years old his curiosity and capture the attention of a monk wandering in search of the new lama a test is arranged to see if this boy really is the reincarnation of the dalai lamas who have gone before several items belonging to the previous dalai lama are laid before the boy alongside some other items the child is asked if he recognizes any of the items as his own the boy picks correctly proving that he is the new and the old dalai lama scorsese and editor thelma schoonmaker were kind enough to allow the possibility that the child was taking his cues from the monk before selecting an item he would look at the monk perhaps for some sort of confirmation sometimes he picked right the first time and sometimes he made a second choice either way whether through reincarnation or quick human perception the tibetans were assured of choosing a boy who could be a wise perceptive leader this point on the boy is raised as the reincarnation of the lama's spirit and the future leader of a nation it is a great weight to put on the mind of a child in the u s it might be grounds for a call to social services but the young lama accepts his destiny without any apparent emotional damage neither the great power nor the awesome responsibility keeps him from becoming a genuinely likeable person certain patterns take shape over the years for example the dalai lama is fascinated by technology radios clocks and telescopes are some of his favorite toys when he is old enough to accept his leadership he makes plans to modernize isolated tibet he also has a soft spot for creatures who are suffering or in pain including herd animals it's nearly a running gag that he will buy sheep to keep them from being herded to slaughter but the most ominous constant throughout his life is the presence and threat of tibet's gigantic neighbor china tibet and its leaders prove correct in fearing china as first the propaganda then the political pressure and finally the armies come across their common border the chinese invasion is so successful that the lama's life is in danger if he stays the movie ends when after much agonizing the dalai lama leaves tibet for india the story doesn't lead up to a cinematic climax as strongly as most feature films do it just doesn't fit that mold if it were forced into such a shape it would have been a completely different movie perhaps more like seven years in tibet which is good in its own right the pacing of kundun is more calm and level than that the structure of the film is made to fit the characters and events not perhaps because the pace is slower we have more time to notice the beautiful art vestments and architecture of tibet a mandala tibetan sand painting with beautiful vibrant colors is shown throughout the movie the robes and hats of state are bright red and gold the bricks are a rich reddish brown not unlike the skin tone of the tibetans even the touchstone pictures logo before the movie which is usually light blue is the red and gold of tibet philip glass composed the music for kundun and he was the perfect choice for those who don't know of glass his music is like a tibetan mandala his building blocks are lots of small notes tiny grains of music which are first grouped then repeated in patterns these patterns create interesting textures which are themselves part of a larger composition people won't be flocking to kundun for it's great ending or talking about its outstanding plot but it does have a lot to offer an interesting lifetime exotic sights rich cinematography and innovative music it gives interesting insight into tibetan buddhism and takes a warm look at the dalai lama as a person on top of it all is the cinematic mastery of martin scorsese who gives the film a strong beautiful consistent look
positive	robert redford's a river runs through it is not a film i watch often it is a masterpiece one of the better films of recent years until it was my second favorite film of all time the acting and direction is never sappy always touching a friend of mine once reported that he avoided it because i was afraid it would just be really politically correct and tick me off all i could do was tell him to go in unbiased and enjoy it is one of the few movies that has completely reduced me to tears but certain memories should not often be rereleased in the last few shots you have to cry upon my first viewing i left bawling it is not flawless but it is so very good that you can't help but be effected the opening is dangerously nolstalgic and sentimental watching these shots of people who have been dead so long gives you a feeling of perspective and history observation that you will find in very few other films martin scorsese once described the movies as a dream state like taking dope and immersing yourself in an alternative world that is what a river runs through it does it exploits the unique power of cinema to engross you and help to forget your real self both times i've seen it its been hard again to quote scorsese waking up but the dream is lovely
positive	richard gere is not one of my favorite actors however i like courtroom dramas and this film looked good enough to take a chance on i wasn't disappointed it wasn't a great film but it was interesting and took several unexpected turns one thing what's with the title not only is it extremely forgettable it doesn't really have much to do with the film as far as i could determine in the long run it will probably hurt the film as people won't be able to think of or remember it martin vail richard gere is a grandiose defense attorney he loves the money and the fame that go along with defending successfully rich scum such as mafia men and once he sees that the accused killer of a prominent chicago archbishop is a alter boy he wants in on the case presumably for the press he'll get we soon find out that the prosecutor assigned is a former lover janet venable laura linney vail himself is a former prosecutor and quit because of tensions between himself and the district attorney played very well by john mahoney frasier's father on the tv series there is an underlying theme of dichotomy in the movie people have public faces and private faces we see this in the murdered archbishop in the accused and most strongly defense attorney martin vail richard gere does a fairly good job at first he appears to be a and lawyer with no consideration of the truth but we see another side as he becomes a seeker of justice and comes to believe in his client alfre woodard as the judge is capable though somewhat wasted in a standard role laura linney also does journeyman work nothing spectacular but acceptable her relationship with vail is believable their verbal fencing adds to the film the actor who playes vail's investigator unfortunately i don't remember his name is quite good his female assistant she looked very familiar but i can't remember where i've seen her was also capable but unspectacular the best performance in the film was by edward norton he was excellent as the timid turned alleged butcher boy of st mike's i was impressed by the depth of the plot there are and that in a lesser film would lead to a predictable ending i liked the plot twists the film took and most of the supporting characters thus i give primal fear a respectable rating
positive	when you get out of jail you can kill him starring ashley judd tommy lee jones bruce greenwood rated r double jeopardy is a lurid prepostrous thriller that's also one of the year's most enjoyable it's an uncompromisingly brutal cheerfully anarchic hyperactive actioner that has a mission and never diverts from it there is not a moment here when the events on screen don't have a direct bearing on the plot once the film gets going it never stops it has been branded as the female version of the fugitive and that's probably a correct assessment of the plot but the film itself has little in common with the andrew ford collaboration besides the presence of star tommy lee jones not even bothering with character introduction director bruce beresford floors the gas pedal from the and never finds the brake we meet rather hastily libby and nick parsons ashley judd and bruce greenwood respectively a seemingly happy married couple with a son matty age they go out on a sailboat one night and after a period of some rockin' sex they go to sleep libby hears a strange noise wakes up and discovers that she is covered with blood she follows a red trail to the upper deck where she finds a knife and out of astonishment picks it up at that convenient moment the coast guard shows up and libby is arrested her lawyer a friend puts up a defense in court but though we know she is innocent the evidence against her is too compelling her friend adopts her son and she goes to prison once in prison she makes a phone call to her friend her friend gives her son the phone nick walks in the room little matty screams daddy the phone goes dead libby realizes that the man she is imprisoned for killing isn't even dead she gets some advice from a lawyer who tells her that since the state already convicted her of killing her husband they can't convict her of the same crime again meaning that when she gets paroled she can kill him and they can't touch her after a weirdly short amount of time she gets out of parole she is sent to live at a house with other recent parolees under the command of parole officer travis lehman tommy lee jones she sets out on a mission to find her husband and get her son back which turns out to be much more difficult than anticipated she winds up tracking him all the way to new orleans where she finds out that he has long killed his girlfriend and her son's adopter double jeopardy is based on an assumption that is legally false the law stating that nobody can be convicted twice for the same crime assumes that it is the same crime same time same place same circumstances it's not like it matters this is a rollickingly good thriller intense exciting fast and furious it's silly alright but this is the kind of film you just don't question in some films plausibility is everything double jeopardy however is not concerned with making sense its sole purpose is to entertain and it does judd helps the film tremendously in a difficult role this is her breakout performance and she is terrific she brings some emotion to what could have been a role giving the movie a little soul to go along with its effective chase scenes and action set pieces tommy lee jones basically just reprises the role for which he won an oscar in the fugitive but the movie makes good use of his wit thankfully too double jeopardy refrains from developing a romance between libby and travis a subplot which doubtlessly would have interfered with the film's story this is one of those movies where cops are the bad guys and i took a sort of sick pleasure in that the sheer anarchy of the proceedings was nothing short of wonderful as ashley judd kicks the crap out of every authority figure in the book after all the idealistic hollywood features featuring hero cops deft fbi agents and the virtues of the american legal system it's great to see a movie that doesn't so much demonstrate their fallacy as it delights in their failure double jeopardy is really good but it isn't the kind of good that is remembered or recognized with awards it's one of those movies better viewed with the brain turned off otherwise your brain will be busy ruining your experience this is a thriller that isn't concerned with being smart or plausible instead it diverts all attention to the action which this year is second to none
positive	let's say you live at the end of an airport runway large jetliners continuously pass over your house rattling your windows and allowing few moments of peace let's say the ground beneath your feet is also contaminated with toxic substances and high voltage power lines run across steel towers only yards from your home now let's say an airport conglomerate wants to buy your property in order to lengthen the runway and offers you more than it's worth wouldn't you jump in the air and have your bags packed before you landed of course you would but what if this bit of land was your idea of paradise and the house your castle that's what they are to darryl kerrigan michael caton and although he's happy that a corporation would like to buy his home sorry it's not for sale unfortunately the corporation wields quite a bit of influence over the australian government which serves darryl and his family with what amounts to an eviction notice not about to take this lying down darryl enlists the help of his inept attorney friend dennis denuto tiriel mora and makes a determined albeit pathetic attempt to fight back the castle an australian comedy by rob sitch is perhaps one of the simplest movies i've seen in recent memory yet also one of the funniest in fact it is this film's reliance on simplicity which makes it so successful the good guys and the bad guys are clear the humor is straightforward and the storyline is as uncomplicated as it gets it's the perfect setup for a relaxing hilarious good time and as much as i hate to admit it i liked the fact that i didn't have to think all that much while watching this film i just sat back and enjoyed myself the situation is one we've seen before regular joe fights back against the government or big business or whatever what makes this film different is its characters darryl thinks he's got the best life in the world he tells his family that living next to power lines is a constant reminder of the success of mankind he asks who would ever want to go out and eat in a fancy restaurant when he's got the meat loaf feast prepared by his wife sal anne tenny and he swells with pride when his son dale stephen curry digs a hole in the yard steve kerrigan anthony simcoe constantly combs the buy and sell ads looking for investments like jousting sticks and overhead projectors while wayne kerrigan is in jail as a result of dennis denuto's incompetent courtroom maneuvers the great thing about the kerrigans is that they aren't so stupid that they get annoying they're just a group of simpletons whose naive nature is perfectly harmless and even endearing we look upon them with a little bit of pity but a whole lot of affection screenwriters sitch santo cilauro tom gleisner and jane kennedy pit this lovable bunch of unlikely crusaders against a stoic court system and a condescending business conglomerate further polarizing the extremes and deepening our feelings for the kerrigans sympathy for their situation the laughter they bring us and the family's wonderful characterization simple as it may be leaves us with a degree of emotional investment that causes us to actually care about what happens to them i suppose one might wonder how deep characterization can go when your characters are as inane as the kerrigans but trust me it works i particularly noted that the writers did not have to use slapstick in order to get laughs don't get me wrong slapstick when executed well can be genius it's just that too often a film will resort to it's use as a shortcut to amusing the audience not always successfully instead the jokes in the castle are all hinged upon the dialog uttered by these people who have no idea that they are totally skewed to the rest of the world when they are by themselves the are funny and when they are with normal people they are hilarious one of the few problems i saw with this film was a detour taken about midway though the kerrigans go out to a vacation spot for seemingly no reason other than to pack in a few more jokes and increase the film's running time luckily it's a funny little detour that while slightly distracting from the film's main drive is still quite enjoyable with all the levity abound in the castle the film still manages to take on a pretty heavy concept that of the innate right of a citizen to keep his property an issue which has been bandied about in courts across the civilized world with differing outcomes i'm not certain the courtroom monologue near the end of the film would actually hold up in real life but it brings to the forefront the essence of the constitution of australia and certainly sounds impressive at any rate and for that matter it's more than i would have expected out of a light hearted film like this
positive	in this good natured pleasent and easy going comedy bill murray ghostbusters plays grumpy weatherman phil conners who every year is sent to punxsutawney p a to report on groundhog day the groundhog day ceremony involves a groundhog being lifted out of a box and if he dosen't see a shadow it will be an early spring phil really hates the ceremony and not even his producer rita macdowell can change his mind however fate has a cruel trick for phil and he starts groundhog day over and over and over until he gradually likes it and rita falls in love with him groundhog day is a well written totatly unoffensive and funny comedy the screenwriters director ramis and danny rubin have written a funny warm but never overly senitmental comedy although the idea of a day repeating over and over may sound tedious there are enough good jokes to hold the audiences attention throughout the whole film ramis's direction also helps and although he dosen't try any flash director tricks the film is directed well enough and the jokes are set up well and the editing is also good especially when it shows one part of the day over and over again such as when phil tries to have the perfect night with rita the performances are also excellent bill murray is great fun and his transistion from cynical to happy is smooth and delivers his lines in his usual smary style andie macdowell is good as rita although sometimes she is just a little bit too sweet in some parts of the film there is chemistry between the two leads thankfully otherwise the whole film would probably fall part chris elliot as the cameraman larry is also funny although you have to like his goofy style otherwise you are really going to hate him throughout this film and it will lower your enjoyment of the film overall the supporting cast aren't bad either with stephen tobolowsky hillarous as phils old school mate ned ryanson and even director ramis popping up as a neurologist in fact there is not one dud performance in this film and even the groundhog gets a funny scene involving a car chase overall there is really nothing wrong with groundhog day at all it almost seems perfect however the film can get a bit soppy sometimes and some people may get irritated by the day repeating over and over and over and over also there's not much of an music score and the music there is is pretty bad but these criticisms hardly affect the audiences enjoyment at all overall then groundhog day is a funny smart and also has some room in there for some heart an excellent comedy overall
positive	no man is an island one character quotes john donne in apt pupil effectively summarizing the movie's themes while hardly a great film singer's ambitious adaptation of king's short story is challenging nonetheless perhaps the most shocking aspect of this inclement psychological thriller is that a major studio got behind it apt pupil is a bleak picture destined to be misunderstood by the masses high school honours student todd bowden renfro conducts his own extracurricular investigation of kurt dussander a nazi war criminal who fearfully fled berlin in the and was never heard from again bowden suspects arthur denker mckellan the lonely german senior citizen who lives nearby is actually a pseudonymous research and dusting for fingerprints proves young todd's theory bowden strikes a deal with dussander in exchange for not revealing his identity dussander must satisfy bowden's intense curiosity by recounting the atrocities of the holocaust from the nazi point of view the stories he hears keep todd up at night and haunt his daydreams but like a bystander at a traffic accident todd's desire for gory details overrides his repulsion bowden revives in dussander feelings dormant since the end of wwii marching in a mock uniform around his kitchen is wholly cathartic for dussander it leads to his torture of a cat and the torment of his student among other things bowden who has taken on very hateful qualities he kills birds and doodles swastikas on his notebook engages the veteran in an endless game of dussander stands to lose his freedom and bowden his effect his school future all of this winds down to a fairly unpredictable and unsettling conclusion one which requires leaps of faith from its audience yet is more satisfying than the source material's excessive climax singer has yet to get keyser s ze out of his system his the usual suspects and apt pupil are both about evil masquerading as innocence verbal's tics and todd's reputation are plausible ruses they showcase morally bankrupt to whom telling the truth is not an option if they are to achieve their goals apt pupil is a richer film than the usual suspects a movie famous and popular partly because its plot machinations were not germane to the was no way you could see the ending coming as it was all a hoodwink anyway thankfully singer has gotten most of the usual suspects' geek theatrics out of his system some scenes in apt pupil feel overdirected obvious the dream sequences were extraneous but the majority of the film is singer's handling of the violent scenes is boldly restrained for a film about a murderer and a mckellan's and renfro's performances contribute enormously to the overall success of the film while most people will focus on british stage vet mckellan's realization i'd like to single out renfro's daring work he isn't afraid to play someone largely unappealing and he strips his character of vanity something many of his peers wouldn't do can you picture kieran culkin or jonathan in the same role renfro was recently charged with possession of hope he doesn't continue down that path because he has a big future in good movies waiting for him as guidance counsellor edward french friend schwimmer also deserves mention he wants to be the parent to todd that todd's own folks are not todd like most modern mom and dad wrapped around his pinky finger and his sincerity makes the apt pupil's even more apparent but one of the film's ultimate questions are we born evil or do we learn evil might be answered in french whose motives are the slightest bit ambiguous no man is an island all have the capacity to make the right or the wrong choices schwimmer winningly plays one of a trio of fascinating characters who make the unconventional apt pupil laudible  the excellent collection king's stories called different seasons spawned not only apt pupil but the shawshank redemption originally titled rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption and stand by me originally titled the body
positive	i rented this movie with very high hopes this movie got praise as one of the best films of and unfortunately was not as good as i hoped but was still very intriguing and thought provoking first of all the casting for this film is great tobey maguire and reese witherspoon are the future of hollywood they play their roles as the parker brother and sister perfectly with a plot as unbelievable as this film you need chemistry and honest acting from your cast tobey and reese bud and mary sue parker play their roles perfectly and display their characters with honesty and believability william h macy an actor i have grown to love over the past year turns in another great performance as the tv dad who is torn over his wife a colored person and his friends the ones he also displays believability and must display a certain lack of chemistry with his wife he does this perfectly and yet again shows why he should be one of the top actors in hollywood joan allen is equally great as betty parker the ideal tv mom her character is the most ambitious she is very na ve and must display this well to make her character believable and she does just that her lack of chemistry with macy which the role calls for and her developed chemistry with jeff daniels is terrific and if daniels would have been as stellar as the rest of the cast then this film would even been even better as said before jeff daniels gives a bad performance his character displays the change going on throughout the town yet he does not display it with enough conviction his character is very confusing and he is not very believable this film could have been elevated to a whole new level had daniels been able to give a better performance the movie is very provocative it challenges the issues of racism that existed in the past and that still exist today i really was not expecting all of the elements they brought up but they pulled them off with such flair that it was mind blowing they demonstrate the racism issue without a hitch but do it in a slow pace the only major flaw in the film besides the performance by daniels is length some films are not meant to be that long pleasantville is one of those films this film could have been so much better had they not moved so slowly to it first they are amazed by the implementation of color then they want to have it then they do not want to then the war ensues between the colored and this is all strung out over two hours which was way too long some movies need a lot of time saving private ryan was a little bit under three hours long and i thought it could have used more time this film is only two hours long and seems much longer length is everything in films if you can nail down the perfect timing and pace you can win half the battle pleasantville can move at a good pace at times but it is not consistent enough overall pleasantville is a very pleasant and provocative departure from the predictability of most films these days i went in expecting a film about change i left learning an important lesson about racism and the way things change luckily pleasantville teaches this lesson in such a way to make it appeal to all audiences only if it could have done in a shorter amount of time
positive	few films in have divided the critical consensus as sharply as alan parker's adaptation of frank mccourt's memoir angela's ashes many dismissed it as an humorless sentimentalized uninteresting version of the hugely popular novel others hailed it as a heartfelt sincere portrait of the human spirit i'm somewhere in between leaning strongly towards the latter it's certainly and it never becomes tedious like some literary adaptations have a tendency to be but i have a feeling that parker filled the movie with shots of rain falling on the homely streets of ireland just so it can have the hour running time that screams i'm important mccourt's book of the same name was about him and his family moving from the us to ireland in the early a time when most people were desperately trying to get into the us as he comments we were the only irishfolk to say goodbye to the statue of liberty in ireland frank played by joe breen as a small child his brothers his mother angela emily watson and his father malachy robert carlyle get financial help from angela's mother a stereotypically strict catholic who chides her daughter for marrying a northern irishman she helps them get a apartment and malachy goes looking for a job positions are scarce and when he does finally find one he is unable to hold on to it because of his fondness for drinking meanwhile frank goes to an uptight catholic school where the instructors beat students with blunt wooden objects as often as their heart desires two of frank's brothers soon die crippled by the dreadful living conditions and malnutrition as if the poverty and the suffering weren't intense enough as it stood malachy and angela have another baby worsening the situation further i imagine this doesn't sound like much of a plot that's probably because it isn't one these are people this is their story director alan parker the commitments knows how to tell a good story and angela's ashes despite its relentlessly literary tone remains interesting though the film occasionally indulges too much in its gloomily picturesque irish setting it avoids looking like a glorified travelogue supplementing parker's able direction are the engaging often poignant performances of the leads some of them seasoned thespians others relative beginners carlyle the charismatic british actor who has shown astonishing range by hopping from the lead in a rowdy slapstick comedy to the villain in a james bond movie and now to sentimental melodrama perfectly portrays his rather pathetic character we empathize with the guy but we don't like or admire him emily watson turns in a heartfelt sincere supporting performance it is mostly she who implants that lump in our throats also worthy of mention is little joe breen whose face graces the film's superb poster it is breen's first feature film and he's extraordinary as young frank not unlike sudden oscar darling haley joel osment of the sixth sense you can peer into the character's soul through breen's sad eyes on the flip side one thing that could have vastly improved angela's ashes is a more decisive editor while gerry hambling sure makes the most of the scenery he and parker also leave in at least a half an hour of unnecessary footage the first half especially could have been trimmed down bringing the film to a more reasonable running time and doing our bladders a favor in the process things pick up at about the halfway point sort of dismissing a lot of the criticisms i accumulated during the opening hour but i maintain that the aggressively deliberate pace parker and co set in the first half was ludicrously unnecessary spoiler warning skip next paragraph if in suspense the film's final message is somewhat conflicted as frankie in effect leaves his family famished in ireland while he himself goes back to america what exactly are we supposed to make of that his mother doesn't seem to mind because she wants the best possible future for her son as any mother would but it still seems inconsiderate of him i haven't read the book but i'm sure that mccourt justifies his actions therein therefore i'm suspicious another thing that's never made clear in the movie is the meaning of the title which i'm sure is also explained in the memoir if seen as a film onto itself rather than an adaptation angela's ashes stands tall despite a few minor setbacks it is a captivating story of people forced to live in the trenches by an merciless society where those of weaker character are shoved to the bottom of the financial ladder
positive	now that boogie nights has made disco respectable again well fashionable at least we shouldn't be surprised to see more films glorifying that dubious era the latest art house interpretation is whit stillman's the last days of disco stillman who made metropolitan and barcelona using some of the same actors uses disco's final hours to highlight what is another movie that benefits from typically astute writing from the director the young professional don't call them yuppies men and women of the last days of disco frequent a prestigious new york city nightclub pulsating to the rhythms of earth wind and fire amy grant and andrea true connection here they talk and talk and talk intellectualizing about such things as dating success and being liked accepted and admired if talk is cheap the last days of disco must surely have been an extremely inexpensive movie to shoot what makes the film so entertaining is that this preppie jet set actually have something to say and say it with wit perception and style including at one point a riotously inventive deconstruction of the lady and the tramp na ve alice chlo sevigny and sophisticated charlotte kate beckinsale are recent college graduates who work as assistant editors for a new york publishing house charlotte is confident and a little too outspoken alice is shy and introverted like a kindergarten teacher the two friends often doll themselves up and head out to the nameless nightspot looking good and looking for excitement and that ms beckinsale sure looks good on a dancefloor here they meet or a variety of eligible men many of whom they knew in college des played by stillman favorite christopher eigeman is one of the club's managers whose job is on the line for sneaking his ad agency buddies in the back des has reached a crisis point in his life he just found wednesday in he's gay whether it's true or not it makes for a convenient excuse to dump his latest girlfriend jennifer beals in a small but turn charlotte observes cattily that the only gay thing about des is his mouth jimmy mackenzie astin is the advertising exec who by the end of the picture winds up heading for a new job opportunity in spain visions of barcelona josh matt keeslar is an assistant district attorney who dreams of being able to say just once book this clown and robert sean leonard plays another one of alice's revolving suitors the two have an amusing exchange about the true definition of virginity any film that can make robert sean leonard palatable is worthy of respect in my book in fact the entire ensemble is appealing in that stillman way while the eschewing of ferocious pairing is a favored topic of conversation in the film the protagonists tend to slip in and out of love lust and trouble with each other in an emotional that cleverly develops its characters through the preferred dynamics of social group interaction more mature than stillman's previous two films the last days of disco is as consistently droll as it is stimulating it's a movie you should definitely get on down to
positive	this has been an extraordinary year for australian films shine has just scooped the pool at the australian film institute awards picking up best film best actor best director etc to that we can add the gritty life the anguish courage and friendship of a group of male prisoners in the section of a jail and love and other catastrophes a low budget gem about straight and gay love on and near a university campus i can't recall a year in which such a rich and varied celluloid library was unleashed from australia shine was one bookend stand by for the other one dead heart the opening credits the theme of division is established the cast credits have clear and distinct lines separating their first and last names bryan brown in a desert settlement hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town there is an uneasy calm between the local aboriginals and the handful of white settlers who live nearby the local police officer has the task of enforcing white man's justice to the aboriginals these are people with a proud year heritage behind them naturally this includes their own system of justice key to which is payback an eye for an eye revenge usually extracted by the spearing through of the recipient's thigh brown as the officer manages quite well to keep the balance he admits that he has to the rules' a bit including actively encouraging at least one brutal payback be warned that this scene near the start is not for the squeamish the local priest an aboriginal but in the white fellas church has a foot on either side of the line he is figuratively and literally in both camps ernie dingo brings a great deal of understanding to this role as the man in the middle he is part churchman and part politician however the tension like the heat flies and dust is always there whilst her husband the local teacher is in church white lady kate milliken and her aborginal friend tony pedersen have gone off into the hills he takes her to a sacred site even today strictly she appears to not know this tony tells her that this is a special place an initiation place he then makes love to her surrounded by ancient rock art the community finds out about this sacrilegious act and it's payback time the fuse is lit and the brittle peace is shattered everyone is affected in the fall out to say more is to give away the details of this finely crafted film suffice to say it's a rewarding experience bryan brown acting and is the pivotal character his officer is real human and therefore flawed brown comments that he expects audiences to feel warmth towards the man then suddenly feel angry about him it wasn't long ago that i visited central australia ayers rock uluru and alice springs for the first time the cinematography shows the dead heart of australia in a way that captures it's vicious beauty but never deteriorates into a moving slide show in which the gorgeous background dominates those pesky actors in the foreground the cultural clash has provided the thesis for many a film from the western to the birdcage at least three excellent australian films have covered the aboriginal people and the line between them and we jedda the chant of jimmie blacksmith and the last wave in a year when the race has reared up in australia it is nourishing to see such an intelligent film as dead heart the aboriginal priest best sums this up he is asked to say if he is a black fella or white fella
positive	i think the first thing this reviewer should mention is wether or not i am a fan of the first let me assure you that no prior experience with the series is required to fully enjoy this movie the producers are not stupid making a movie just for fans of the series is not profitable you have to reach for a larger audience therefore the movie is quite altough will only fail to understand certain emotions behind the looks many characters exchange but fear not duchovny and another man later on provide more than adequate background info on what is going on you will never feel as if you just walked in on the third act of some great opera in any case the answer is no i am not a fan of the i only watch it when nothing else is on and i prefer millennium however since the fox network as been so kind as to air several key episodes for several weeks before the movie's opening weekend i took that opportunity to test the movie i taped all of these episodes and watched them only after seing the movie i am glad to report that i learned nothing new everything you need to know is explained to the viewer by duchovny and others i know i am going maybe a bit too far to make my point but everybody should get the chance to experience this movie warning major spoilers follow please do not read to fully enjoy this movie you must not be able know what is coming what exactly is over that hill and what that weird hummm sound is all about you have been warned the is what a summer should be exciting scary great special effects unlike other summer movies the effects do not take over the movie and are only there when it is really necessary and good performances this is coming from a guy who thinks david duchovny is the human equivalent of a wooden plank from start to finish this movie does not let go of you when i compare it with last summer's movies the best way to describe it would be take the excitement and great score from and the deadly use of sound from event horizon this flick is scary not in a b movie kind of way where you always know where and when the critter will jump at our heroes in fact the first time the critter in this movie makes an apperance it is totally out of the blue you might as well bring ear plugs because this thing is louuuudd the last time a monster scared me that much was when i first saw aliens as a six year old kid you know when you are affraid to put your feet on the floor because the creature might be under the chair or when you keep trying to cover your throat with your shirt so yeah the is scary and guess what you never even have to see the monster but your imagination works overtime and it sure beats having to watch a flawed computer generated babyzilla it looks like you could walk right through it not even scarier than your grandma in undies type of monster do not think that the is a monster movie in fact the creature is there for maybe three minutes total no the is definately a mulder episode of the series scully is at his side of course but gillian anderson gets maybe half the screen time she has a couple of good scenes with duchovny but she gets kidnapped during the last half hour of the movie so she does not get to do much no this is mulder's time in the spotlight by now you have heard of the scene where mulder showers independence day if you have not then i will not spoil it for you let's just say that due to recent events mulder should be showering godzilla instead to those of you wondering if mulder discovers that the truth is indeed out there who cares if he did find it the series would over anyway so what are you complaining about the dialogue in interesting and the director is marvelous the camera is almost always looking over the shoulder of our heroes so we feel as if we are right there with them when they open a door or climb a hill the script is spotless every thing that happens happens for a purpose if you are confused by something do not worry because it will all become clear later on but and i cannot stress this enough pay attention unlike most summer movies the dialogue is twice as important as the effects miss one vital piece of information and like most people who talk during movies you will go home and tell all your friends how this movie made no sense also to those people who need to go to the bathroom during movies don't the person who watched the movie with me had to go twice and twice she missed an important conversation there is no time to take a breather between scenes because again unlike most summer movies godzilla anybody the does not need to fill scenes between the suspense and the action with useless subplots every scene is crucial and serves a purpose who needs to see the blond chiouaoua have a big emotional scene between godzilla attacks so far this summer i have seen only one movie who ranks higher on my list of movies i'd recommend and that is the truman show but it only wins by a nose but the truman show is not what i would call a summer movie the is what more do you ask from a summer movie other than the chance to be excited cool effects it's got some pulse pounding hell yes strangely enough i think that fans of the series will hate this movie while will have a good time it does not provide answers to the show's many questions the status quo remains nearly the same and no mulder and scully do not get together rating four and a half out of five stars for the best movie yet this summer several jump right out of your seat thrills many whoah i never saw that one coming moments four holy shit where the hell did that come from and one heck of an ending you may wonder where this movie lost half a star well i swore never to give a movie the full five stars so i had to find something about the in his ice truck the tracks it leaves in the snow behind him go on for several miles but then they just stop it's pretty obvious the film's makers drove the truck for several miles to give the appearance that mulder had been driving for a long time but in the end it looks like mulder just dropped from the sky and started driving
positive	trees lounge is the directoral debut from one of my favorite actors steve buscemi he gave memorable performences in in the soup fargo and reservoir dogs now he tries his hand at writing directing and acting all in the same flick the movie starts out awfully slow with tommy buscemi hanging around a local bar the trees lounge and him pestering his brother it's obvious he a loser but as he says it's better i'm a loser and know i am then being a loser and not thinking i am well put the story starts to take off when his uncle dies and tommy not having a job decides to drive an ice cream truck well the movie starts to pick up with him finding a love interest in a year old girl named debbie chloe sevigny and i liked this movie alot even though it did not reach my expectation after you've seen him in fargo and reservoir dogs you know he is capable of a better performence i think his brother michael did an excellent job for his debut performence mr buscemi is off to a good career as a director
positive	i wish i could say that there is something more to the new star wars installment than what you see in the commercials but there isn't george lucas is an expert at crafting triumphant special flicks and he has done it again this is the first star wars film i've seen on the big screen so of course the impact was much greater than when i watched the three original episodes on video what is compelling about the phantom menace is not its disposable story but its amazing visuals basically the film's plot is centered around trade disputes between two planets liam neeson and his young apprentice kenobi ewan mcgregor set out with the animated binks to fix the mess that may result in war when their ship breaks down and they are stranded they find a young boy anakin skywalker jake lloyd and his slave mother strongly believes that anakin is destined for jedi greatness and immediately takes him under his wing anakin participates in a podrace one of the highlights of the film to get the equipment needed to fix ship however most everyone is doubtful about entrusting the future to some unknown slave boy meanwhile queen amadala natalie portman is frustrated and at wit's end being na ve and young and having so much responsibility on her shoulders there are hardly any emotional scenes in the even when we discover that anakin will be leaving his slave mother behind to begin jedi training the frenzied excitement of the whole film wears down the poignancy to the size of a crumb this does not prove that the phantom menace is poorly made for it is brilliantly made in all the star wars films human emotions that we the audience can identify with are usually nil but the films are for pure enjoyment not for uplifting purposes despite the fun of watching the movie the phantom menace is not without flaws for starters we have the moronic character binks who should be considered a threat to star wars galactic society and to the audience what a klutz george lucas clumsily tried to create a fun character that would be as memorable as say yoda or but alas his efforts were in vain secondly this may be good or bad depending on your point of view the movie's atmosphere is so different from the familiar feel of the previous three star wars installments this is due perhaps to the utter complexity to this movie's plot and the higher level of sophistication of the visual effects used here the movie seems to be reaching for epic proportions i can't say much about the acting though acting has never been what you saw star wars movies for anyway however there is absolutely no pizzazz to the they are straightforward and at times stale natalie portman has a great presence but her turn as queen amadala makes the queen a stoic unfeeling enigma there is nothing we can hold onto in her performance to make us believe the trade predicament is anything of importance jake lloyd is the only actor here who has an ounce of evident spunk despite the inevitable faults there is so much to enjoy about the movie the heightened excitement of the final sequences doesn't quite surpass the famous the empire strikes back climactic scenes but they are amazing and fun in their own rite the film is a treasure to look at the visual effects are astonishing of the the sight of the underwater city is nothing short of production design and special effects genius not since the fifth element has there been a film as drenched in visual treats as this one the production design is reminiscent of the fifth element the previous star wars movies kubrick's maybe even of fritz lang's classic silent metropolis however all the sets are so original the original star wars movies can't even match the grandeur of this film's visuals and that is a sheer pleasure for the it gives us hope of even greater things for the upcoming episode the costumes are remarkable and have gaultier written all over them whether its queen amadala's gigantic wardrobe complete with and feathers or the jedis' simple brown uniforms the costume designer has fused talent with outrageousness the costumes are one of the true delights of watching the movie as for john williams' score i don't think he's done one as complex or powerful since i can't even remember it is as epic as his schindler's list score and as thrilling and zestful as jaws it includes the bare bones of his music from the previous three films but williams has added on made the music much more intense and moving what with the overwhelming hoopla that circled this movie one might come in with high expectations and be disappointed there is very little to hate in the film it's a very accomplished and skillfully made flick it is the best fun film and the best film out today most definitely
positive	lisa cholodenko's high art is an intelligent quiet drama its strongest quality aside from the central performances is the perceptive way in which the film also written by cholodenko observes its characters they are all flawed people some more troubled than others but they are not judged judging the characters in this picture would be a creative misstep on the filmmakers' parts because no one no matter how bad off they are deserve to be negatively judged if they are involved in some serious problems that they cannot break free of syd radha mitchell a woman living with her longtime boyfriend james gabriel mann has recently been awarded an ideal job at the photography magazine frame she very much enjoys where her career is headed but is often not taken very seriously by her managers who are always giving her petty jobs to do when she knows she could be doing more important things one night while taking a bath syd notices a leak coming from the apartment above hers so when she goes up there to inform them of it she meets lucy beliner ally sheedy a thin and unhappy woman who lives with her german girlfriend greta patricia clarkson a pathetic former actress who is usually so that she often is in and out of conciousness syd quickly strikes up a conversation with lucy and discovers that she used to be an acclaimed photographer ten years before lucy claims she doesn't want to get back into the profession but syd manages to convince the frame editors to do a piece on her work all the while syd begins to grow deep feelings for lucy even though she has never previously been attracted to a woman and lucy starts a battle with her personal demons high art is such an effective motion picture because it is never or idealized but instead an honest and convincing portrait of a handful of unhappy people whose lives are going nowhere while syd's luck begins to rise the film in no way is about lesbianism but about love which was a refreshing change of pace from the usual stereotypical portraits of homosexuality as lucy and syd grow closer and closer together we really do believe that they are falling in love with each other even if the relationship might be doomed with this picture ally sheedy's star has risen once again thanks to her touching nearly flawless portrtayal of lucy a woman who in the course of a decade has found her life consumed almost entirely by drugs which has taken away her career her characted really is tragic and one particular scene involving lucy and her mother in which lucy admits to her that she has a drug problem and her mother responds by saying she can't help her is heartbreaking although not autobiographical sheedy has had drug problems in her past and i suspect she brought that knowledge of already being in lucy's footsteps to her role also very good is radha mitchell as syd who previously starred in the slight australian comedy love and other catastrophes wh caught me by surprise with her performance easily being able to pass as christina ricci's older sister mitchell obtains the same natural charisma that has made ricci so popular recently as accurate as almost every detail is in high art i wish the relationship had been more tightly written involving syd and james who played by gabriel mann is left with a throwaway role by the time he finds out about syd and lucy he disappears from the film and i wish there had been another scene where they confronted each other this is a very minor fault however in a film that is full of riches although many of the characters are stuck in a hopeless pit of despair syd and lucy are intelligent people who recognize their problems the character of dominique anh duong the frame editor who decides to give syd a chance with her ideas was also written to be far more mature than expected and the one sex scene in the film was beautifully and originally done for once it did not invlove steaminess or violent sexual activity or gratuitous nudity but focused on the actual characters who love each other and their insecurities involved in making the decision to actually have sex high art which won the screenwriting award at the sundance film festival marks the superior feature film debut of cholodenko as well as sheedy's strongest and best role to date
positive	the relaxed dude rides a roller coaster the big lebowski a film review by michael redman copyright by michael redman the most surreal situations are ordinary everyday life as viewed by an outsider when those observers are joel and ethan coen the surreal becomes bizarre when the life is that of jeff the dude leboswki the bizarre falls over the edge into the world of what'sgoingonaroundhere the marvelous sound of the stranger sam elliot introduces the film at least it does until he forgets what he was going to say and gives up the dude jeff bridges is described as the laziest man in los angeles possibly the world although he's not so much slothful as he is relaxed spending the last years with a roach clip in one hand and a white russian in the other he doesn't have much of a life but he's having a good time when asked what he does for fun he responds bowl drive around and the occasional acid flashback lebowski's passion is bowling when he's not rolling the ball down an alley towards a strike things just happen to him arriving home one night he's beaten by thugs attempting to collect money that his wife owes them even worse they urinate on his rug the problem is that the dude doesn't have a wife his assailants realize that their target is a different lebowski when they glance around at his apartment the big lebowski david huddleston is a and his dudeness lives in squalor the next day our ragtag hero visits his namesake's mansion attempting compensation for his soaked rug the carpet is important to him because it pulls the room together not surprisingly since it's virtually the only object there when he's denied any money he picks up a replacement rug off the floor on his way out he runs into lebowski's trophy babe wife bunny tara reid who offers to perform a sexual act that according to rumor is one of bill clinton's favorites for a thousand bucks the penniless dude wisecracks that he's heading for the cash machine later he gets an unexpected phone call enlisting his aid in being the bag man to deliver a ransom to bunny's kidnappers this begins the trademarked coen brothers sequences the kidnappers are impossibly inept the dude and his cronies are even worse every plan goes awry you can almost see lebowski's brain churning in slow motion as he tries to figure out the clues that's the story but to tell the truth it doesn't much matter there could be almost any plot and the film would be just as entertaining the narrative only exists so we can watch the offbeat characters and the quirky predicaments they fall into the dude's bowling buddies walter john goodman and donny steve buscemi look like people you'd see on the street but like everything else in this film they're not quite what they seem walter is a vet as stuck in vietnam as the dude is in the sixties everything that happens reminds him of a situation in the nam when a fellow bowler crosses the foul line but won't admit it walter pulls a gun on him until he marks a zero on the score sheet donny gets precious few words in between walter's screaming and the dude's rambling when he does walter shouts him down with horrendous albeit seemingly unintentional bowling puns donny is out of his league and doesn't have a frame of reference the film is peppered with people for whom the term character would be an understatement the big lebowski's daughter maude an vaginal artist paints while swinging naked in a leather apparatus like an mary martin the kidnappers are german techno nihilist bikers bunny lebowski is a high school cheerleader turned porno star most impressive is john turturro in his far too small role as a hispanic bowler as the flamenco music swells we see him putting on his lavender hose the camera pans up to an bowling outfit with jesus pronounced with a j not an h embroidered on the pocket he addresses the lane with intense seriousness and one painted fingernail his tongue slowly snakes out and lovingly licks the glowing bowling ball bridges works the dude as if he had been living him for decades and maybe he has i can't think of anyone else who could have done a better job buscemi has a limited role but he plays it perfectly the more that i see john goodman the more convinced i am that he's one of the treasures of our time it's odd to think that most of the world knows him only as roseanne barr's television husband more like the coen's raising arizona than their hit fargo the big lebowski demands an open mind and even more open eyes a mark of the coen brothers is that even with all wonderful dream sequences and the broad slapstick physical comedy on the screen much of the humor is subtle and easy to miss there's so much going on that frequently it disappears before you can see it walking out of the theater i felt that the film had something important to say on further examination i wasn't sure exactly what it was if you meet jesus at the bowling alley it's not going to be what you expect when the going gets weird the weird go bowling maybe there's no real message perhaps it's just a roller coaster ride through a hilarious world maybe that's enough michael redman has written this column for years and just realized that he was so taken with the dude that he ran out of space to talk about the man in the iron mask starring that favorite of girls of all ages com is the eaddress for estuff
positive	i don't box with kid gloves i don't play nice i'm not a nice guy and i never ever go easy on a film i consider it to be a breech of some sort of code of ethics for a movie critic however i do some favors and these often come in the form of points that i hand to certain groups due to the artistic bravery rigormortis the production company that has been my prime example of how money does not need to motivate filmmaking gets several of these points each time i still however will not go easy on them they recently sent me a vhs copy of their down with america trilogy which begins quite wittily with a disclaimer that they are not trying to undermine america with the making of this film and i decided to spend an hour of my day watching it in the famous lines of many martyrs i have no regrets well i do have some regrets but that is not the point in the previous sentence the point of it was that down with america was a film that from a critical standpoint did not entirely disappoint me sure the risky use of vhs instead of super or was a pain and the natural light was one of the most annoying things about public access films but the movie itself was fairly enjoyable down with america concerns a government agent needless murder and a book containing everything from the unabomber's manifesto to the apple computer profit report like the previous films of rigormortis that i have reviewed it displays an humor and intelligence it succeeds in making me laugh where countless studio films fail the best way to see this film would be as a parody of the countless conspiracy films that we have been drowned in since the paranoia of the a dying movement from the day they started these paranoid had the government always covering up something and had the same favorite word in down with america the line is highly absent with an about ten minute running time down with america effortlessly sidesteps every clich that the conspiracy films fell into makes jokes at them at the same time and provides us with funny and memorable characters again i have seen movies that have gone on two hours with characters i couldn't care less about the film as previously stated concerns a federal agent peter roach an obsessed librarian meri stevens a mystery man joe kaczkowski and two people obsessed with silence in the library robb sherman kevin flowers the plot a book containing the secrets of all anarchists is hidden in a public library where it can be viewed by all from there we go into a delightful parody the federal agent claims his sovereign right to alter the truth the librarian goes on a diatribe about the sanctity of books we spend our time laughing at fairly idiotic jokes that are performed much too well considering the lack of coaching of the cast although the actors and actresses are in small roles and give a whole new meaning to it ends up being the people who do a good job delivering better performances as comic villains than half the crap that hollywood turns out for once i don't have a url that i know offhand to give you as to where to locate the film online i can only say that you should find my previous reviews of l'auto and les and look up the rigormortis productions site in and of itself it's almost as much fun as the film
positive	here is a film that is so unexpected so scary and so original that it caught me off guard and threw me for a loop okay it isn't quite original considering it is a sequel to the box office hit species but it certainly is smart most films of this genre are reminiscent of those cheesy films from the and and some even become them however as we learned with the film sometimes expectations can be shattered a lot of criticism has gone against this film from what i have read so far all two reviews and it makes me wonder why these types of films are automatically dismissed as gory laughable pieces of trash but the thing is it isn't it's well made well acted and quite intelligent i can see most of the critics now complaining about the level of gore or the level of sexuality in the film but the species series isn't about the lack of these elements it's about how much it can get into one film and yet behind it all it has this basic premise that allows it to get away with doing so species ii begins in the present day though it seems to be an alternate universe many films especially ones create similar timelines as our realistic one but change it to fit the film's needs species ii begins with the arrival of an american spacecraft the excursion landing on the surface of mars aboard is patrick ross justin lazard a very bright and very handsome astronaut patrick is the son of senator ross james cromwell who just wants patrick to succeed well it would seem that he has succeeded landing on the surface of mars he is the first human being to ever do so of course he isn't the first ever about a billion years ago an alien species supposedly landed on mars and destroyed the perfect living conditions that were able to sustain life now of course the red planet is cold and rocky no life lives on it that is no visible life patrick upon leaving the spacecraft and landing on the red soil collects samples from the ground he takes them aboard and puts them in storage unfortunately one of the samples contains a form of life and it gets loose when it is heated aboard the ship just prior to heading back to earth this life form creeps along the floor and inhabits the earthlings they pass out for approximately seven minutes and then shrug it off as nothing because they can't even remember they blame it on a technical malfunction back on earth patrick begins to have strong urges to mate with as many women as possible as we know from the original this is because the alien wants to breed and take over the planet however the children that are bred are as their father is patrick is really looking for another alien to breed with and he finds it in eve natasha henstridge eve was cloned from dna taken from sil the original alien however this time around most of her alien urges have been either decreased dramatically or lie dormant the project is led by dr laura baker marg helgenberger reprising her role from species and her motives seem respectable since she was involved with the original alien attack she wants to learn how to stop the alien should it come again and it has species ii is much stronger than its predecessor but it is also much stronger than say aliens hey i love the film but you can't tell me it was strong on story what surprised me the most with this film was the incorporation of historical facts into the screenplay in my search for extraterrestrial intelligence course in college we learned about a piece of rock from mars which landed in one of the poles this piece of rock contained fossils which may have been proof of life on mars later it was proven that it was not a living creature that created it the script uses this effectively but also manages to provide a plot beginning with the first man on mars something i have always dreamed of seeing i was hoping that the film would turn this element into a useful starting point for the movie and it does it quite well the characters are all smart and they know what to do and what not to do the only character that seems a little cliched is the general george dzundza and yet he remains logical in everything he does there are the obvious flaws of course mostly lying in the technical aspects the special effects are only mediocre and some are just plain bad but for the most part they remain believable i even noticed a homage to the alien series when the mothers gave birth to alien children also the most realistic ones are usually the goriest ranging from people being torn open or someone's head being blown off however some plot elements also may elicit laughs from the audience including a menage a troi that is all but necessary many people dislike the species series because all it is is an excuse for sex nudity and gory violence however i tend to disagree what were the alien films about and if an alien species ever did come to earth and their sole purpose was to destroy us wouldn't you mate as quickly as possible with as many people as possible my only gripe with this is during the scene where patrick goes searching for a mate in a grocery store i didn't realize that aliens were that picky on choosing women to mate with i just assume it is his side looking for the most beautiful one the acting is quite good for this kind of film it is a vast improvement over the first film at least the acting is the key element to this film if it was bad it would have lowered itself into camp if it was good it would have asked for comparison with films like aliens okay so it isn't that good george dzundza is probably the most obvious mistake on casting as his impersonation of a general makes him annoying and distracting natasha henstridge is limited this time around as she is usually enclosed in a cage however she does manage a very impressive performance with this aspect hindering any of her talent oh yeah and she's quite fun to just plain watch marg helgenberger is immensely better this time around and her performance is probably the best in this film michael madsen is but he isn't annoying and he soon becomes rather appealing with his nice cynic personality james cromwell has a small part but he makes it much better than what it could have been with a more incapable actor as i say any film with james cromwell dramatically increases in likeability mykelti williamson gives an enjoyable performance and he gives the film a more feel and of course justin lazard lazard has so far been ridiculed for his performance but i think he is effective sure he is wooden but isn't that what his character is like the moment when he touches the glass separating henstridge from him was extremely well done due to the couple's acting species ii is rated r for strong sexuality and language this is definitely an r rated film that young kids should not see more than likely they would probably have nightmares and never have sex for the rest of their lives hell i don't even know if i will what is sure to be a critically lambasted film turns out to be the surprise film of the year i probably won't see another film where i was expecting so little and got so much for quite a while director peter medak has crafted a very suspenseful and sometimes very scary movie out of a mediocre series medak has also mastered the wonderful jump moments and has probably the second scariest moment i have ever seen on film scream still has the first strong acting smart dialogue intelligent plotting and a director species ii is exactly what these films should be entertaining
positive	plot this movie takes place over one day it's a rookie cop's narcotics training alongside a seasoned police veteran the rookie doesn't know much about street justice so the older cop teaches him about the way things work in the real world how even cops like themselves have to bend the rules and break the law every now and then in order to catch the really bad guys critique a pretty intense little movie with solid acting across the board some ups some downs and a thrilling ending despite a couple of small flaws i really enjoyed this movie because it followed two extreme characters and put them in situations which had me wondering about what i would do if i were in their place the film gets right into the dirty side of well the dirt on the streets and proceeds to teach the rookie cop and us the audience how things really work down there of course we're receiving this lesson from a man who has put away a lot of scum in his time but the things he seems to be doing aren't exactly on the either and therein lies the fun of the film do you agree that you yourself would need to break a few small laws in order to put away the people who break the really big ones well as the film moves along we're given two points of view in respect to this predicament and to me both sides made sense at some point or another and you gotta give a lot of credit to the screenplay for that the director who builds the film up wonderfully with the darkness of the day leading to the darkness in the script and the two actors who deliver their parts in spades hawke first off because he rarely plays these commercial roles but does so perfectly here with a vulnerable side which has you feeling for the bastard right off the top and denzel well what can you say about mr washington that hasn't already been said before he comes through as per his usual style here and gives the audience a completely different side to his talent of which i personally would like to see more he's nice he's not so nice he's smart he's not so smart he's caring and he's a dog all the way the few problems that i did have with this film included the redundant nature of the whole thing at some point okay we get it you have to be nasty in order to deal with these nasty people move on and this one really major coincidence which involved a bathtub that saved the day for one character but seemed a little too convenient for my taste i also never really understood how washington's character got out of a certain dire predicament only to be seen driving his car in the very next scene but obviously these small flaws didn't taint my overall enjoyment of this tense drama a film that gets you right into the streets into the nooks and the crannies and into the moral dilemma which lies between the justice system and the drug busts see it if you want to wrestle with some of these issues yourself see it if you want to see denzel and ethan strike up a palpable chemistry and see it if you like holding on to your real tight during a movie in fact see it for the scene in which ethan hawke plays cards with a host of alone dang now that's intense where's joblo coming from the corruptor crimson tide l a confidential lethal weapon requiem for a dream seven shaft traffic
positive	a thriller set in modern day seattle that marked marky mark's migration from the good vibrations and calvin klein undie ad guy to mark wahlberg and a mighty good one at that plot boy wahlberg meets girl witherspoon boy likes girl girl likes boy boy and girl begin dating parents of girl aren't crazy about the boy girl steps to boy's defense family problems occur girl learns more about the boy boy goes nuts fun ensues critique ever wonder what would happen if your better half turned out to be someone other than the person that you had come to cherish and love well if you ever have then this film is definitely for you it isn't the most original premise in the world but it is handled pretty well here and pretty quickly for that matter a speedy minutes i think one of the main reasons this film worked for me is the groundbreaking performance by mark wahlberg of boogie nights infamy he completely captured all the goodness and badness of the main character of this film and always kept me wanting to see more and more of him his performance scored him a solid nomination from his core target audience as best villain at the mtv movie awards the soundtrack is also very effective in this setting and of course the slutty performance by alyssa milano is something we could all indulge in look for the nice bikini and butt shots if you're into that kind of thing that is i didn't much care for the relationship which seemed to be a little too contrived but for the most part i was really into this movie then again daddy dearest did have one of the coolest lines in the movie when his wife is asking him what the big deal was about his daughter dating david his reply the big deal is that the guy gives me the creeps and the girl is my daughter good point all in all the movie kicked some fun ass mindless as it was and effectively demonstrated every parent's worst nightmare mind you i still can't tell if reese witherspoon is good looking or a douchebag but hey life goes on and on a personal note we finally decided to add some taco meat onto our nacho fiesta of usual and let me tell you all it was a flaming success another firm recommendation by joe schmoe little known facts director james foley was the man responsible for the critically acclaimed glengarry glenross back in at close range in and even directed an episode of twin peaks in mark wahlberg stands is born in massachusetts dropped out of highschool later got his ged and was convicted of several minor felonies before starting his career as the lead singer of marky mark and the funky bunch his brother is donnie wahlberg of new kids on the block fame he is also testing the waters on the acting front
positive	wow what a movie it's everything a movie can be funny dramatic interesting weird funny weird and strikingly original yep that pretty much describes this movie it starts out like a regular movie and ends up being one of the weirdest funniest most original movies i have ever seen it boggles the mind and some have to wonder why we cannot get movies like this more often besides being one of the best films of the year being john malkovich may as well be one of the best movies ever period then again there are so many good movies that one cannot pick an all time favorite john cusack plays a puppeteer craig schwartz a man out of a job in search of a job his wife lotte schwartz who is played by a completely cameron diaz who looks like something off the streets is an animal lover and has about every kind of animal you could think of craig finds a job as a file at the floor of a business building you have to pry open the elevator doors open before it reaches floor eight the floor is just a floor between and he is hired by his year old boss orsen bean to be a filer in his office he discovers a little door to which was boarded up and hidden to his curiosity he opens it and starts to crawl toward it he then gets sucked to the end and ends up in john malkovich's mind fifteen minutes later he is shot out onto the side of the new jersey turnpike he returns to tell his maxine catherine keener that he has found a portal that will lead him into john malkovich's mind she doesn't believe him but after she sees it it changes her mind lotte also finds out about the portal and discovers that being someone else is good after all john malkovich of course has no idea what is going on and by the end of this bizarre film there are so many twists and turns that we don't know what really happened john cusack is outstanding and utterly believeable in a role only he himself could play he fits the role perfectly and to me was brilliantly cast cameron diaz is outstanding and utterly one of the world's most prettiest women is made up here unnoticeable and very unattractive she however gives a very comic performance and this could easily be her best role to date catherine keener is very funny and sexy as maxine and of course the best thing of the movie is the magic himself john malkovich who is very brilliant and this movie plays big time homage to the master himself the whole group combined gives us a wonderfully funny movie that is also smart and clever spike jonze three kings makes his fabulous directing debut and did a fantastic job of directing this new classic film he lets the viewer go on the trip as well as let the viewer know they are watching a movie by the time the ending rolled around my head was spinning from disbelief of how good this film was the screenplay written by charlie kaufman was hilarious and often the film also had a soft side to it and even though the ending is very surprising it is also a little sad and the whole movie was fantastic and had me rolling in the isles from cameron diaz's appearence to john malkovich's explorations i laughed very hard and it may as well be as funny as as good as it gets the funniest there isn't a slow point in the movie or an overused idea there are no cliches except for the fact that this is the most original inventie witty and smart movie i've seen in a long time i found myself amazed by everything the direction acting writing and the whole idea of the movie by the end i had to wonder why hollywood doesn't want to make movies like this anymore or why they don't all filmmakers watch this movie and get some ideas of movies to come out this was a surprise hit as was american beauty john malkovich' is in the top movies of the year and in the top best films ever made it has something that no other movies playing now has in fact it may as well be the best movie out right now i highly recommend john malkovich' and have no doubts you will be disappointed
positive	richard gere can be a commanding actor but he's not always in great films everything comes together here gere is a big time chicago defense attorney who takes on a seemingly unwinable case in hopes of even more publicity it doesn't go exactly as he expects gere's client aaron edward norton is a shy stuttering tennessee boy who is accused of brutally murdering and mutilating a catholic archbishop the evidence is stacked against him he was caught running from the scene covered in the bishop's blood his bloody footprints are all over the murder scene he has a relationship with the priest gere talks to the boy believes that he is actually innocent and sets about finding the real killer despite the lawyer's proclamations that he doesn't care about the guilt of his clients and that the real thrill is gambling with people's lives he becomes involved with aaron and is determined to free him lots of complications and twists the prosecuting attorney is gere's former and lover they both work each other's motives to their legal advantages and it gets messy her boss had major economic dealings with the archbishop that went sour and seems to have crime connections aaron gets weirder and weirder as the trial goes on gere's case is falling apart and he is faced with about a dozen ethical dilemmas gere is exceptional as the reserved counselor but just once i wanted to see him kick back and come out of his suit persona even when he loses it you don't see very far inside norton's aaron is convincing he comes across as the backwoods kid misplaced in the big city the supporting cast does a fine job of holding together the story as with most of the effective courtroom dramas the cinematography is crisp and rich the story will keep you on the edge of your seat nothing is what it seems
positive	matthew broderick denzel washington and morgan the true story of the regiment of massachusetts the first black fighting unit recruited by the north during the civil war broderick plays robert gould shaw the young white officer who led the black soldiers into battle shaw the son of abolitionists hailed from boston high society the letters he wrote home to his parents during the war are on display at harvard and were evidently the inspiration for glory as the film begins in shaw is a captain in the northern forces like private eriksson michael j fox in casualties of war shaw initially is naive and idealistic about the is until his company is attacked by enemy forces shaw experiences first hand the horror and chaos of battle witnessing mass slaughter and receiving a minor wound himself when a bullet grazes his neck soon after his recovery shaw is promoted to colonel and assigned to enlist and train blacks in the war effort glory is the story not only of colonel shaw but also of the black soldiers who laid down their lives to free their brothers from slavery the film periodically jumps between shaw's point of view and the perspective of the black soldiers the movie introduces us to a handful of black recruits and we follow them from their enlistment through basic training and finally into action the large black cast is uniformly outstanding especially washington who is electrifying as a runaway slave with a big mouth he is brash and pushy always getting into trouble and always looking for a fight his bitter tough guy facade is really just a mask for his loneliness and vulnerability washington provides much of the film's intensity and emotional power in one heartbreaking scene he is whipped for allegedly deserting the army when he removes his shirt to receive the punishment you cringe at the sight of his back which is riddled with ugly scars from his days as a slave it makes your blood boil the humiliation of the beating is far more traumatic than the actual physical pain it brings a tear rolls down washington's will probably run down your cheek as well the episode becomes even more tragic when we learn that washington wasn't deserting the army at all he left camp to look for shoes because his feet were covered with oozing sores freeman is as usual a strong presence even in a small supporting role he plays a grave digger who has buried more white soldiers than he cares to remember he quickly becomes a leader among the black soldiers holding the group together and serving as a liaison to the white officers colonel shaw recognizes freeman's leadership ability and promotes him to sergeant major making him the first black officer in the army andre braugher makes an impressive film debut in the role of thomas searles a free black who is one of shaw's close childhood friends searles is educated and refined like a white man prompting washington to nickname him snow flake the burning question is whether searles is tough enough to survive basic training and to kill in combat the road from marching drills to battle action is a bumpy one for the black regiment the soldiers suffer innumerable hardships but somehow they never lose their morale the army treats the black soldiers like second class citizens subjecting them to racism and discrimination they are paid only a month whereas their white counterparts earn thirteen and for a long time they have to go without shoes guns or uniforms to make matters worse the white military hierarchy is extremely reluctant to allow the blacks into action preferring instead to use them for manual labor eventually however the regiment receives its boots uniforms rifles and right to fight thanks to the stubborn resolve of colonel shaw shaw has absolute faith in his soldiers and he fights tooth and nail to get them what they deserve even if it means threatening a general with blackmail broderick in fact is most convincing in the scenes where shaw stands up for the regiment unfortunately however broderick's uneven performance is in many respects the weak link in the movie in an effort to look more mature broderick sports a mustache and a goatee and throughout the film he slips in and out of a phony boston accent he is never altogether convincing as shaw since much of the time his emotions seem forced the film places too much weight on broderick's character and not enough on the black soldiers who are more intriguing glory regains lost ground with its harrowing depiction of war the movie shows the devastation of war without resorting to the unnecessarily graphic gore which marred born on the fourth of july glory does not try to rattle you with nauseating blood and guts except for a few bullet wounds and one exploding head the film for the most part leaves the gore to your imagination which is not to say that the battle scenes in glory are timid to the contrary they are chaotic and horrifying it's just that director edward zwick the of thirtysomething films them with far more subtlety and restraint than oliver stone could ever muster the key to glory is the group dynamic among the black soldiers the movie depicts some of but not enough of their customs and rituals in one scene for example the soldiers motivate themselves by singing prayers around the campfire each man has a chance to relay a few words of inspiration a couple of the movie's most touching moments involve young black children looking up to the black soldiers with awe disbelief and pride the regiment's greatest triumph comes when the soldiers distinguish themselves in battle thereby earning the respect of their white peers and earning the honor of leading the climactic assault on fort wagner like any war film glory has its share of gloom and despair but ultimately it proves to be a truly uplifting experience and an important history lesson a valuable reminder that despite what the history books say or more precisely what they do not say blacks played a critically important role in the north's victory over the changing the evolution of america
positive	steven spielberg's second epic film on world war ii is an unquestioned masterpiece of film spielberg ever the student on film has managed to resurrect the war genre by producing one of its grittiest and most powerful entries he also managed to cast this era's greatest answer to jimmy stewart tom hanks who delivers a performance that is nothing short of an astonishing miracle for about out of its minutes saving private ryan is flawless literally the plot is simple enough after the epic invasion whose sequences are nothing short of spectacular capt john miller hanks and his team are forced to search for a pvt james ryan damon whose brothers have all died in battle once they find him they are to bring him back for immediate discharge so that he can go home accompanying miller are his crew played with astonishing perfection by a group of character actors that are simply sensational barry pepper adam goldberg vin diesel giovanni ribisi davies and burns are the team sent to find one man and bring him home the battle sequences that bookend the film are extraordinary literally there is nothing in film that has ever been recorded that will prepare you for the sheer onslaught of terrorizing violence in the film's first minutes spielberg films almost the entire movie without music leaving it up to the characters to generate emotion and they do to perfection the sequences in france all of them beginning with the battle and ending with the battle are fabulous especially the dialogues between the men as they walk through the hills and countrysides trying to save private ryan there are no words i can use to describe the true horror and power of these sequences this is what coppola was looking for in apocalypse now but couldn't create the sheer horror of these sequences all but condemn war the performance by hanks as the leader of this gang is also extraordinary he is head and shoulders above of the rest of the actors in the world with his comic timing dramatic flair his quiet emotion that stirs an entire nation to tears hanks is this country's finest actor and he proves it here however spielberg almost destroys his own masterpiece with a chance to make it the one of the greatest films of all time spielberg creates minutes of purely worthless film the sequence involving army george marshall and mrs ryan is decent but doesn't hold up to the rest of the film relying on wartime cliches to power it but that is forgivable what isn't is the bookends of the film the cemetary sequences the first one is quite good a decent introduction into the lives of these men the last sequence is atrocious the forced emotion accompanied by a ridiculous piece of music is simply horrible compared to the rest of the magical film these flaws are what downgrade ryan from the greatest film of our era to the greatest war film of our era spielberg should have trusted his own material and he should have trusted hanks to deliver the most chilling line of the movie to end his masterpiece right there the use of the flag though patriotic is in contrast to the movie's theme the power of the bulk of the film however is astonishing spielberg has truly made a wondrous work of art that persists even after first viewing of the film is extraordinary this is the film of the year
positive	truman burbank is the perfect name for jim carrey's character in this film president truman was an unassuming man who became known worldwide in spite of or was it because of his stature truman also recalls an era of plenty following a grim war an era when planned communities built by government scientists promised an idyllic life for americans and burbank california brings to mind the tonight show and the home of nbc if hollywood is the center of the film world burbank is or was the center of tv's world the world where our protagonist lives combine all these names and concepts into truman burbank and you get something that well describes him and his artificial world truman leads the perfect life his town his car and his wife are picture perfect his idea of reality comes under attack one day when a studio light falls from the sky the radio explains that an overflying airplane started coming apart   but then why would an airplane be carrying a studio light the next day during the drive to work the radio jams and he starts picking up a voice that exactly describes his movements he is so distracted that he nearly hits a pedestrian when the radio comes back to normal the announcer warns listeners to drive carefully his suspicion aroused he wanders around the town square looking for other oddities the world appears to be functioning properly until he enters an office building and tries to take the elevator the elevator doors open up on a small lounge with people on coffee breaks a grip sees truman him and quickly moves a paneled door made to look like the back of an elevator into place two security guards grab him and throw him out truman is really suspicious now it gets even worse the next day when his wife a nurse describes an elevator accident in the building where he saw the lounge it's best not to think about it she says trying vainly to change truman's memory truman becomes determined to see who or what is behind this apparently elaborate hoax at his expense at every turn he is stopped by an amazing coincidence that just happens to keep him in his own little town his last hope is to quell his fear of the ocean and sail to the edge of the world you know by now that truman's life is the subject of a television program his actions are real but everything else is carefully scripted from the death of his father to the choice of his wife truman is determined to find out what the big hoax is meanwhile christof the creator of truman's world does his best to keep him unaware and happy it's sort of like westworld told from the robots' point of view or jurassic park from the dinosaurs' point of view we root for the captive of the our protagonist is counting on chaos theory to help him escape his elaborate trap the story written by andrew niccol of gattaca introduces some interesting questions such as the ethics of subjecting a person to this type of life or the psychological impact of learning that your entire life has all been fake although these questions came to mind i don't think the film itself asked them it certainly didn't address them or try to answer them i was particularly disappointed that the film didn't deal more with the trauma of learning one's life is a tv show carrey's performance at the end showed a smidgen of truman's pain but i almost felt that he got over it too easily for the sake of the film's pacing earlier in the movie i found myself wondering if it would be better for truman to find out the truth or whether i should root for him to be well the two seemed exclusive of one another but weir and niccol didn't see it that way perhaps it's not fair to criticize a movie for what it isn't but it seems like there were some missed opportunities here but on its own terms the movie is well made sight sound and pacing are all handled competently much of the first part of the movie is the truman show the scenes are all apparently shot from hidden cameras with snoots and obstructions covering the corners of the screen one hidden camera is apparently in his car radio the green led numbers obscuring the lower part of the screen the music is and scored the film opens with what sounds like family drama theme music when truman's world is still beautiful and perfect when the movie ends the score sounds more like a frantic driven tangerine dream opus while still keeping the same timbre philip glass' epic music from powaqqatsi permeates truman's scenes of suspicion and awakening glass has a small cameo as a keyboardist for the show and the pacing of the story was brisk there was no unnecessarily long setup explaining the concept behind the truman show just a few quick title cards a few interviews and then right into the show and the movie one of the first scenes is of the studio light falling there was no token scene of truman's idyllic life before it falls apart because it wasn't necessary we pick up the story at the first sign of trouble and no sooner there's also no point in the movie where the plot slows down it's a quick straight shot to the movie's end in terms of overall quality i would compare the truman show to niccol's gattaca both films are well made with interesting stories set in interesting worlds but neither film really felt like it capitalized on all the great ideas neither film clicked and became an instant classic nevertheless i look forward to niccol's next film whatever it may be
negative	plot two teen couples go to a church party drink and then drive they get into an accident one of the guys dies but his girlfriend continues to see him in her life and has nightmares what's the deal watch the movie and sorta find out critique a movie for the teen generation that touches on a very cool idea but presents it in a very bad package which is what makes this review an even harder one to write since i generally applaud films which attempt to break the mold mess with your head and such lost highway memento but there are good and bad ways of making all types of films and these folks just didn't snag this one correctly they seem to have taken this pretty neat concept but executed it terribly so what are the problems with the movie well its main problem is that it's simply too jumbled it starts off normal but then downshifts into this fantasy world in which you as an audience member have no idea what's going on there are dreams there are characters coming back from the dead there are others who look like the dead there are strange apparitions there are disappearances there are a looooot of chase scenes there are tons of weird things that happen and most of it is simply not explained now i personally don't mind trying to unravel a film every now and then but when all it does is give me the same clue over and over again i get kind of fed up after a while which is this film's biggest problem it's obviously got this big secret to hide but it seems to want to hide it completely until its final five minutes and do they make things entertaining thrilling or even engaging in the meantime not really the sad part is that the arrow and i both dig on flicks like this so we actually figured most of it out by the point so all of the strangeness after that did start to make a little bit of sense but it still didn't the make the film all that more entertaining i guess the bottom line with movies like this is that you should always make sure that the audience is into it even before they are given the secret password to enter your world of understanding i mean showing melissa sagemiller running away from visions for about minutes throughout the movie is just plain lazy okay we get it there are people chasing her and we don't know who they are do we really need to see it over and over again how about giving us different scenes offering further insight into all of the strangeness going down in the movie apparently the studio took this film away from its director and chopped it up themselves and it shows there might've been a pretty decent teen movie in here somewhere but i guess the suits decided that turning it into a music video with little edge would make more sense the actors are pretty good for the most part although wes bentley just seemed to be playing the exact same character that he did in american beauty only in a new neighborhood but my biggest kudos go out to sagemiller who holds her own throughout the entire film and actually has you feeling her character's unraveling overall the film doesn't stick because it doesn't entertain it's confusing it rarely excites and it feels pretty redundant for most of its runtime despite a pretty cool ending and explanation to all of the craziness that came before it oh and by the way this is not a horror or teen slasher flick it's just packaged to look that way because someone is apparently assuming that the genre is still hot with the kids it also wrapped production two years ago and has been sitting on the shelves ever since whatever skip it where's joblo coming from a nightmare of elm street blair witch the crow the crow salvation lost highway memento the others stir of echoes
negative	the happy bastard's quick movie review damn that bug it's got a head start in this movie starring jamie lee curtis and another baldwin brother william this time in a story regarding a crew of a tugboat that comes across a deserted russian tech ship that has a strangeness to it when they kick the power back on little do they know the power within going for the gore and bringing on a few action sequences here and there virus still feels very empty like a movie going for all flash and no substance we don't know why the crew was really out in the middle of nowhere we don't know the origin of what took over the ship just that a big pink flashy thing hit the mir and of course we don't know why donald sutherland is stumbling around drunkenly throughout here it's just hey let's chase these people around with some robots the acting is below average even from the likes of curtis you're more likely to get a kick out of her work in halloween sutherland is wasted and baldwin well he's acting like a baldwin of course the real star here are stan winston's robot design some schnazzy cgi and the occasional good gore shot like picking into someone's brain so if robots and body parts really turn you on here's your movie otherwise it's pretty much a sunken ship of a movie
negative	it is movies like these that make a jaded movie viewer thankful for the invention of the timex indiglo watch based on the late television show by the same name the mod squad tells the tale of three reformed criminals under the employ of the police to go undercover however things go wrong as evidence gets stolen and they are immediately under suspicion of course the ads make it seem like so much more quick cuts cool music claire dane's nice hair and cute outfits car chases stuff blowing up and the like sounds like a cool movie does it not after the first fifteen minutes it quickly becomes apparent that it is not the mod squad is certainly a slick looking production complete with nice hair and costumes but that simply isn't enough the film is best described as a cross between an cop show and a music video both stretched out into the span of an hour and a half and with it comes every single clich it doesn't really matter that the film is based on a television show as most of the plot elements have been recycled from everything we've already seen the characters and acting is nothing spectacular sometimes even bordering on wooden claire danes and omar epps deliver their lines as if they are bored which really transfers onto the audience the only one to escape relatively unscathed is giovanni ribisi who plays the resident crazy man ultimately being the only thing worth watching unfortunately even he's not enough to save this convoluted mess as all the characters don't do much apart from occupying screen time with the young cast cool clothes nice hair and hip soundtrack it appears that the film is geared towards the teenage mindset despite an american rating which the content does not justify the film is way too juvenile for the older mindset information on the characters is literally to the audience would it be that hard to show us instead of telling us dialogue is poorly written and the plot is extremely predictable the way the film progresses you likely won't even care if the heroes are in any jeopardy because you'll know they aren't basing the show on a television show that nobody remembers is of questionable wisdom especially when one considers the target audience and the fact that the number of memorable films based on television shows can be counted on one hand even one that's missing a finger or two the number of times that i checked my watch six is a clear indication that this film is not one of them it is clear that the film is nothing more than an attempt to cash in on the teenage spending dollar judging from the rash of really awful that we've been seeing as of late avoid this film at all costs
negative	quest for camelot is warner bros first attempt to steal clout from disney's cartoon empire but the mouse has no reason to be worried the only other recent challenger to their throne was last fall's promising if flawed century fox production anastasia but disney's hercules with its lively cast and colorful palate had her beat when it came time to crown best piece of animation this year it's no contest as quest for camelot is pretty much dead on arrival even the magic kingdom at its most mediocre that'd be pocahontas for those of you keeping score isn't nearly as dull as this the story revolves around the adventures of kayley voiced by jessalyn gilsig the daughter of a belated knight from king arthur's round table kayley's only dream is to follow in her father's footsteps and she gets her chance when evil warlord ruber gary oldman an table steals arthur's magical sword excalibur and accidentally loses it in a dangerous forest with the help of hunky blind garrett carey elwes and a dragon eric idle and don rickles that's always arguing with itself kayley just might be able to break the medieval sexist mold and prove her worth as a fighter on arthur's side quest for camelot is missing pure showmanship an essential element if it's ever expected to climb to the high ranks of disney there's nothing here that differentiates quest from something you'd see on any given saturday morning cartoon subpar animation instantly forgettable songs computerized footage compare kayley and garrett's with the angry ogre to herc's battle with the hydra i rest my case even the characters stink none of them are remotely interesting so much that the film becomes a race to see which one can the others in the end it's a tie they all win that dragon's comedy shtick is awfully cloying but at least it shows signs of a pulse at least fans of the tgif television will be thrilled to find jaleel urkel white and bronson balki pinchot sharing the same footage a few scenes are nicely realized though i'm at a loss to recall enough to be specific and the actors providing the voice talent are enthusiastic though most are paired up with singers who don't sound a thing like them for their big musical moments jane seymour and celine dion but one must strain through too much of this mess to find the good aside from the fact that children will probably be as bored watching this as adults quest for camelot most grievous error is its complete lack of personality and personality we learn from this mess goes a very long way
negative	synopsis a mentally unstable man undergoing psychotherapy saves a boy from a potentially fatal accident and then falls in love with the boy's mother a fledgling restauranteur unsuccessfully attempting to gain the woman's favor he takes pictures of her and kills a number of people in his way comments stalked is yet another in a seemingly endless string of type movies which are a stable category in the film industry both theatrical and their proliferation may be due in part to the fact that they're typically inexpensive to produce no special effects no big name stars and serve as vehicles to flash nudity allowing them to frequent cable television stalked wavers slightly from the norm in one respect the psycho never actually has an affair on the contrary he's rejected rather quickly the psycho typically is an or other than that stalked is just another redundant entry doomed to collect dust on video shelves and viewed after midnight on cable stalked does not provide much suspense though that is what it sets out to do interspersed throughout the opening credits for instance a narrator spouts statistics about stalkers and ponders what may cause a man to stalk it's implicitly implied that all stalkers are men while pictures of a boy are shown on the screen after these credits a snapshot of actor jay underwood appears the narrator states that this is the story of daryl gleason and tells the audience that he is the stalker of course really this is the story of restauranteur brooke daniels if the movie was meant to be about daryl then it should have been called stalker not stalked okay so we know who the stalker is even before the movie starts no guesswork required stalked proceeds then as it begins obvious obvious obvious the opening sequence contrived quite a bit brings daryl and brooke the victim together daryl obsesses over brooke follows her around and tries to woo her ultimately rejected by her his plans become more and more desperate and elaborate these plans include the cliche the murdered pet for some reason this genre's films require a dead pet to be found by the victim stalked stalked is no exception it's a cat this time found in the shower events like these lead to the inevitable showdown between stalker and stalked where only one survives guess who it invariably always is and you'll guess the conclusion to this turkey stalked's cast is uniformly adequate not anything to write home about but also not all that bad either jay underwood as the stalker turns toward melodrama a bit too much he overdoes it in other words but he still manages to be creepy enough to pass as the type of stalker the story demands maryam d'abo about the only actor close to being a star here she played the bond chick in the living daylights is equally adequate as the stalked of the title even though she seems too ditzy at times to be a strong independent brooke d'abo needs to be ditzy however for the plot to proceed toward the end for example brooke has her suspicions about daryl to ensure he won't use it as another excuse to see her brooke decides to return a toolbox he had left at her place to his house does she just leave the toolbox at the door when no one answers of course not she tries the door opens it and wanders around the house when daryl returns he enters the house of course so our heroine is in danger somehow even though her car is parked at the front of the house right by the front door daryl is oblivious to her presence inside the whole episode places an incredible strain on the audience's suspension of disbelief and questions the validity of either character's intelligence stalked receives two stars because even though it is highly derivative and somewhat boring it is not so bad that it cannot be watched rated r mostly for several murder scenes and brief nudity in a strip bar it is not as offensive as many other thrillers in this genre are if you're in the mood for a good suspense film though stake out something else
negative	capsule in on the planet mars police taking into custody an accused murderer face the title menace there is a lot of fighting and not a whole lot of story otherwise john carpenter reprises so many ideas from his previous films especially assault on precinct that the new film comes off as his homage to himself to john carpenter apparently believes that action scenes in which people fight something horrible are the same as horror scenes for a writer and director of horror films supposedly an expert on horror it is a very bad mistake to make ghosts of mars is called a horror movie but it is more just a drawn out fight between humans and a surprisingly alien menace in addition if anybody but john carpenter had made ghosts of mars carpenter would have grounds to sue this film is just chock full of pieces taken from assault on precinct the thing and prince of darkness it is in fact surprising that carpenter managed to fit so many pieces of his previous work into this film in such an admittedly novel way but that still does not make for a really good science fiction experience ghosts of mars takes place in the year mars has been mostly terraformed so that humans can walk on the surface without breathing gear which is good for the film's budget it is never mentioned but the gravity on mars has been increased somehow to again making it easier to film society has changed a bit by that time but it has advanced surprisingly little apparently the culture has changed so that women are much more in positions of control and from carpenter's view women have really made a mess of things society has stagnated under female control so that beyond some minor technological advances society has changed less in years than we might expect it to change in ten the basic plot of ghosts of mars has much in common with that of assault on precinct except that precinct yes precinct has been replaced by a somewhat tacky looking rundown martian mining colony instead of having the criminal napolean wilson this film has the criminal desolation williams instead of facing hoodlums with automatic weapons the police face well ghosts of mars because the ghosts are somewhat alien in nature they should behave in some alien manner but they essentially behave as human savages in another lapse of imagination the story is told in flashback flashback within flashback and flashback within flashback within flashback ghosts of mars takes place entirely at night and is filmed almost entirely in tones of red yellow and black carpenter manages to give us a powerful opening scene showing a mining train rushing through the martian night to the sound of music with a heavy beat sadly what follows is not really up to the buildup the terror he creates looks a little too much like fugitive wannabes from the rock band kiss his idea of building suspense is having a bunch of sudden jump scenes that sucker the viewer into thinking something scary is happening and then prove to be just something boring these are standard haunted house film shock effects that require no great talent to give the audience somewhat newer but also unimpressive are the cgi digital decapitations in some of the fights within a short stretch of time we have seen the release of mission to mars red planet and ghosts of mars after mission to mars was panned by too many reviewers it looks better and better and better as time goes by i rate ghosts of mars a on the to scale and a on the to scale following the movie i showed my wife who liked ghosts of mars moderately more than i did carpenter's classic assault on precinct her comment is that it was seeing the same film twice
negative	so ask yourself what eight millimeter is really all about is it about a wholesome surveillance man who loses sight of his values after becoming enmeshed in the seedy sleazy underworld of hardcore pornography is it about the business itself how bubbling just beneath the surface of americana there's a sordid world of sick and depraved people who won't necessarily stop short of murder in order to satisfy their sick and twisted desires or is it about those who can those who are in a position to influence the making of the kinds of films sick and demented people want to see i'm not talking about snuff films supposed documentaries of victims being brutalized and killed on camera i'm talking about films like and its director joel schumacher with a recent run of big budget movies to his batman robin a time to kill batman forever the client certainly has that kind of influence is something you really want to see probably not the first of unwind as a fairly conventional missing persons drama albeit with a particularly unsavory core then as it's been threatening all along the film explodes into violence and just when you think it's finally over schumacher tags on a ridiculous finale that drags the whole unpleasant experience down even further trust me there are better ways to waste two hours of your life nicolas snake eyes cage plays private investigator tom welles who is hired by a wealthy philadelphia widow to determine whether a reel of film found in her late husband's safe documents a young girl's murder welles goes about his assignment rather and the pieces of the puzzle fall into place rather neatly almost as if you don't need any specialized skills or training to do this welles certainly makes it look easy and cops obviously never look in toilet tanks for clues the deeper welles digs into his investigation the more obsessed he becomes like george c scott in paul schrader's hardcore occasionally a little flickering sound whirs in his head like sprockets winding through a film projector reminding him of his unpleasant task there are hints that this is taking its toll on his lovely wife played by catherine keener who is frustrated by her husband spending all of his time in cleveland rather than in their ugly home in harrisburg pa doesn't condemn or condone its subject matter it just exploits it the irony of course is that schumacher and seven scribe andrew kevin walker's vision of life in the snuff lane is limited by what they can show in an hollywood product so we only see snippets of snuff and a lot more footage of nicolas cage covering his face in horror later it's the turn of joaquin phoenix who's quite good and by far the film's most interesting character as adult bookstore flunky max california to cover his face as the horrid thing is screened over and over again all this to get to the familiar yet offensive revelation that sexual deviants are not indeed monsters but everyday people like you and me neither super nor standard is shocking only in its banality
negative	that's exactly how long the movie felt to me there weren't even nine laughs in nine months it's a terrible mess of a movie starring a terrible mess of a man mr hugh grant a huge dork it's not the whole thing referring to grant not me that bugs me it's the fact that grant is annoying not just adam we're talking jim since when do eye flutters and nervous smiles pass for acting but on the other hand since when do really bad slapstick a fistfight in the delivery room culminating in grant's head in joan cusack's scene he paid to have included in the movie and obscene double entendres robin williams the obstetrician tells grant's pregnant girlfriend she has a big pussy referring of course to the size of the cat hairs on her coat but nonetheless grant paid to have the exchange included in the movie pass for comedy nine months is a predictable movie with no originality in humor or plot hugh grant plays a successful child psychiatrist why a child psychologist so the scriptwriters could inject the following unfunny exchange kid my dad's an asshole grant flutters eyelashes offers a nervous smile then responds in his annoying english accent and talent attitude could you possibly elaborate on that kid my dad's a asshole more like a hugh asshole but that's beside the point which is nine months includes too many needlessly stupid jokes that get laughs from the ten year olds in the audience while everyone else shakes his or her head in disbelief so anyway grant finds out his girlfriend is pregnant and does his usual reaction fluttered eyelashes nervous smiles this paves the way for every possible birth gag in the book especially since grant's equally annoying friend's wife is also pregnant the annoying friend is played by tom arnold who provides most of the cacophonous slapstick none of which is funny such as a scene where arnold beats up a costumed arnie the dinosaur you draw your own parallels on that one in a toy store the only interesting character in the movie is played by jeff goldblum who should have hid himself away somewhere after the dreadful hideaway as an artist with a fear of and simultaneous longing for commitment not even robin williams who plays a russian doctor who has recently decided to switch from veterinary medicine to obstetrics has much humor his is a the old stereotype did someone say yakov smirnov that's my favorite vodka by the way hence the line now it's time to take a look at your volvo another nasty but unamusing joke except this one goes right over the ten year olds' heads while the adults simultaneously groan nine months is a complete failure low on laughs and intelligence and high on loud unfunny slapstick failed jokes and other uninspired lunacy hugh grant's sunset boulevard arrest please no jokes may bring more people into the theaters but they certainly won't leave with a smile on their faces not after minutes of grant's nervous smiles everything in the movie is so forced so unauthentic that anyone with an i q over sorry hugh will know they wasted their money on an unfulfilled desire but at least they didn't spend bucks for it
negative	call it a road trip for the walking wounded stellan skarsg rd plays such a convincingly zombified drunken loser that it's difficult to spend nearly two hours of screen time in his smelly presence yet this swedish actor adds depth and significance to the otherwise plodding and forgettable aberdeen a sentimental and painfully mundane european drama playwright august strindberg built his career on families and relationships paralyzed by secrets unable to express their longings until the hour is far too late that's an accurate reflection of what aberdeen strives for focusing on the pairing of an alcoholic father tomas skarsg rd and his alienated openly hostile yuppie daughter kaisa lena headey gossip they haven't spoken in years and wouldn't even be making the long trip from norway to aberdeen scotland by automobile if it weren't for kaisa's mother charlotte rampling under the sand rotting away in a hospital bed from cancer in a soap opera twist mother has only a few days to live only in the movies right too blitzed to even step foot on a plane tomas hits the open road with kaisa loathing each other all the while they make periodic stops for tomas to puke on the dashboard or pass out whenever he isn't muttering what a rotten kid she turned out to be despite his sloshed viewpoint tomas recognizes that the apple hasn't fallen very far from the tree kaisa gets nosebleeds from snorting coke sabotages her personal relationships through indifference and is unable to restrain her quick and vindictive temper ain't they a pair unable to find true notes of unspoken familial empathy in the and repetitively bitchy dialogue screenwriters kristin amundsen and hans petter moland fabricate a series of contrivances to propel events forward lost money roving street hooligans looking for drunks to kick around nosy cops and flat tires all figure into the schematic and convenient narrative by the time they reach the hospital it's time to unveil the secrets from a dark past that are not only simplistic devices that trivialize the conflict they're also the mainstays of many a bad strindberg wannabe this revelation exists purely for its own sake aberdeen doesn't know where else to go weak unimaginative casting thwarts the pivotal role of kaisa if lena headey were a stronger actress perhaps aberdeen could have been able to coast on the performances and moody haunting cinematography rendering norway into its own pastoral ghost world the reference to a certain superior american indie flick intentional headey's too busy acting using her face and furrowed brow to convey every last twitch of insouciance if she were paying any attention to skarsg rd maybe she'd figure out that doing less can reveal so much more it's worthwhile to compare aberdeen to an earlier film released in jonathan nossiter's captivating signs wonders it's not just because skarsg rd and rampling played disturbed parental figures in both films they're not bound by ceremonial wedlock in aberdeen the differences in the way their characters were presented is significant in aberdeen rampling is a luminous diva preening and static in her hospital bed despite skarsg rd's solid performance as tomas his pathetic drunk is never given much of a chance to emote anything besides catatonic sorrow there's genuine ferocity and sexually charged frisson during their understated confrontations in signs wonders allowing them to suggest a gray zone of complications that accompany torn romance and years of stifled curiosity nossiter's film thoroughly explores this neurotic territory in addition to delving into the americanization of greece and the use of mysticism as an illusion to deflect pain if signs wonders sometimes feels overloaded with ideas at least it's willing to stretch beyond what we've come to expect from traditional drama aberdeen is never half so ambitious content to sleepwalk through the rhythms and timing of other movies when did character driven stories stop paying attention to the complexities of real life the depressing answer can be found in lawrence kasdan's trite but occasionally useful grand canyon where steve martin's hollywood mogul pronounces all of life's riddles are answered in the movies even foreign films are taking that advice to heart
negative	plot a young french boy sees his parents killed before his eyes by tim roth oops i mean an evil man he vows revenge on that man and is taught the ways of the musketeer by some old dude who used to be one himself anyway fourteen years go by and arrgh well you know the rest critique this is a pretty bad movie let's see where should i start okay first of all the story is just plain boring it's not original is entirely predictable and lacks energy okay what's next acting you say hmmmm well the main actor justin chambers is basically an uncharismatic version of chris o'donnell but with less range think about that and mena suvari is just plain off not as bad as thora birch was in dungeons dragons but entirely miscast with bad deliveries awful sequences and a accent that comes and goes now i'm not sure if this was ms suvari's fault or the director's but i've definitely seen her at a much higher level than in this film the only grace is tim roth as the irrepressible bad guy but once again it's not something that we haven't seen before a thousand times by the same guy tim please for the love of god beg your agent to ask the marketplace for some modern day american roles for you as a nice guy in a romantic comedy or something stretch dude stretch we all know that you can do much better than this gunk alright what else was bad in this film oh yeah the score yikes how's about taking it down a few notches there fellas this thing blares in your ear whenever it feels the need to accentuate a certain scene but actually does little more than annoy i think it's important for the man behind the music to recognize that this film isn't a real epic by any stretch of the imagination it's a fluffy rehashed created by some shrewd studio heads who decided to take advantage of the whole phenomenon in films and test it out on an old classic dudes you failed all around keep reading the editing is also pretty shoddy in this movie the dialogue banal and stilted and the plot problems plentiful why does the guy on top of the horse carriage just stand there when his opponent takes forever scampering his way back to the top why don't they just cut the mouseketeer's rope at the top of the tower instead of jumping down on their own chords and fighting him while hanging why doesn't anybody look a day older when the sequence says years later at least change your shirt man keep in mind that i have never strayed away from championing certain movies that are created simply for the sake of a fun time but this flick just didn't cut it for me it was boring for stretches the acting was atrocious at times the romantic scene between suvari and chambers next to the lake reminded me of plays in high school which made you cringe there was little reason to care for anyone and since when were the musketeers fat i will give the movie this much and that is that its main reason for being its as the french would say its fight sequences do come through despite the lack of their numbers in the film i was hoping that the movie would be packed with cool stuntwork as promoted in its trailer but what you see there are essentially the snippets from the two major and cool swashbuckling sequences from the film the first comes right at the beginning of the movie while the other essentially finishes the film off hanging from the tower and juggling off ladders the ladder sequence itself is a definite keeper but unfortunately the rest of the movie is just regurgitated crap and can anyone please tell me how catherine deneuve got her name placed at the top of this film's credits hullo the film is called the musketeer and stars a dude name justin chambers deneuve is barely in this movie ugh just another small thing that annoyed me about this trash now say it together gang all for one and one for all we vow to stay away from it all thank me later where's joblo coming from a knight's tale american outlaws crouching tiger hidden dragon the matrix the replacement killers romeo must die shanghai noon
negative	best remembered for his understated performance as dr hannibal lecter in michael mann's forensics thriller manhunter scottish character actor brian cox brings something special to every movie he works on usually playing a bit role in some studio schlock he dies halfway through the long kiss goodnight he's only occasionally given something meaty and substantial to do if you want to see some brilliant acting check out his work as a dogged police inspector opposite frances mcdormand in ken loach's hidden agenda cox plays the role of big john harrigan in the disturbing new indie flick l i e which lot picked up at sundance when other distributors were scared to budge big john feels the love that dares not speak its name but he expresses it through seeking out adolescents and bringing them back to his pad what bothered some audience members was the presentation of big john in an oddly empathetic light he's an funny robust old man who actually listens to the kids' problems as opposed to their parents and friends both caught up in the act of their own confused lives he'll have with them only after an elaborate courtship charming them with temptations from the world l i e stands for long island expressway which slices through the strip malls and homes of suburbia filmmaker michael cuesta uses it as a pretty transparent metaphor of dangerous escape for his old protagonist howie paul franklin dano in his opening howie reveals a morbid preoccupation with death on the road citing the l i e highway deaths of filmmaker alan j pakula songwriter harry chapin and his own mother on exit he's both fascinated and disturbed by the l i e and those feelings are projected onto big john who follows howie around in his bright red car but never makes a move to force the boy to do something he doesn't want to do this makes him much more complex than the usual child molesters seen in movies he's a beast but ashamed of it l i e would have worked best as a short film about howie's foray into big john's haven there is unnecessary padding with howie's miserable dad bruce altman in the hot seat for a crime degenerate youngsters who get their kicks from robbing houses and some homoerotic shenanigans with gary terrio billy kay a handsome artful dodger rather than add to the themes of suburban ennui not that we needed another movie on that subject these awkward subplots pad out the running time to adequate feature length concurrently the relationship between howie and big john is evenly paced and exceptionally well acted cox sporting a baseball cap and a faded marine tattoo is all bluff and bluster dano is quiet and at first glance seems so withdrawn as to be transparent we're so used to child actors whose dramatic choices are broad and obvious calling haley joel it's surprising to see one who actually listens throughout any given scene the restraint is admirable but l i e screenplay doesn't always give them the best material when howie reads big john a walt whitman poem the moment feels a bit too precious director michael cuesta lingers on an ecstatic reaction shot of big john who may as well be hearing glenn gould performing bach's goldberg variations it's too much there are also some obvious dramatic contrivances involving big john's other boy toy walter masterson jealous over the newbie this plot thread predictably leads to violence not content to be a haunting observational portrait of teen alienation in a royally screwed up world like terry zwigoff's superb ghost world cuesta lacks the confidence in his own work to end on an ambivalent note it's typical of unimaginative cinema to wrap things up with a bullet sparing the writers from actually having to come up with a complex philosophical note in this regard l i e and countless other indie films share something in common with blockbuster action films problems are solved when the obstacle is removed how often does real life work this way to extend the question if a movie is striving for realism do dramatic contrivances destroy the illusion
negative	janeane garofalo in a romantic comedy it was a good idea a couple years ago with the truth about cats and dogs but is almost excruciating in the matchmaker this is a movie that plods along on a predestined course with no surprises and very few laughs it also jumps on the political satire bandwagon and manages to fall flat there too garofalo plays a campaign aide to a massacusetts senator jay o sanders running for reelection denis leary plays the stereotypical strategist with no ethics who decides the only way for the plagued senator to win is to play up his irish roots and cash in on that boston roman catholic democrat contingent that's made the kennedy family so popular so leary orders garofalo to go to ireland and dig up some relatives to exploit she soon learns why easier said than done is the mantra of movies like this the matchmaker falls for every cliche of things that can go wrong garofalo has to take a tiny plane to ireland almost misses the bus to town can't get a hotel room ends up in the smallest trashiest one around has a dog piss on her luggage and so on then comes what roger ebert calls the meet cute it happens in every romance the man and woman have to meet each other for the first time in some unconventional cinematic way in the matchmaker it happens when garofalo walks into her hotel bathroom and finds a nude sean david o'hara in the bathtub his dog sitting at his side no points for guessing it's the same dog that just made water on her luggage also no points for guessing garofalo hates o'hara on sight that's how it works in movies like these i know from the instant i saw that irishman in the bathtub that she'd hate him for awhile then succumb to his charms live happily for a reel or so before allowing some superficial detail to throw the relationship into turmoil after which they'd reconcile in time for a happy irish tune to play over the end credits i haven't mentioned the movie's twist yet garofalo comes to the small ireland town during the annual matchmaking festival during which lonely folks from around the county pair off into a future of bliss milo o'shea who looks like an irish tom snyder is the matchmaker who pops onscreen occasionally to spew his words of wisdom and bring lonely souls together rest assured he'll do all he can to match up garofalo and o'hara oh and in keeping with the matchmaker's utter predictability he dies toward the end what the message here sometimes even the most respectable person of comedic distinction like garofalo will sell out with a weak script i was excited to see garofalo and leary in the same movie but they actually only have two or three scenes together leary stays stateside for the most part yelling at garofalo over the phone and generally being an asshole he even undoes himself with the old microphone's still on after he's done giving the speech cliche both of them should have known better
negative	and now the hong kong style of filmmaking has made its way down to the classics and it isn't pretty this time out the nod to asia goes by way of france in the excruciating bland and lukewarm production of the musketeer a version of dumas's the three musketeers by bringing in popular asian coordinator xing xing xiong whose only prior american attempts at stunt choreography have been the laughable van damme vehicle double team and the dennis rodman cinematic joke simon sez our musketeers are thrown into the air to do their fighting the end result is a tepid and dull that stinks of indiana jones and bad asian kung fu the story is so simple my grandmother could have adapted the screenplay d'artagnan justin chambers is the vengeful son of a slain musketeer he travels to paris to join the royal musketeers and find the man that killed his parents in paris he meets the cunning cardinal richelieu stephen rea who is trying to overthrow the king and richelieu's associate febre tim roth the killer of his folks he finds the musketeers in paris disbanded and drunk so he rounds up aramis nick moran athos jan gregor kremp and porthos steven spiers to free the musketeer's wrongfully imprisoned leader treville from the king's prison d'artagnan and his new frisky love francesca mena suvari play footsy and coo at each other as the cardinal hunts down the musketeers until finally the queen catherine deneuve ends up being captured by the menancing febre forcing the musketeers to regroup with d'artagnan leading the charge and save the day director peter hyams end of days obviously wanted to blend eastern and western filmmaking styles but here it's a disaster one problem is that in reality most eastern films have taken their lead from western ones jet li's high risk is a of die hard not the other way around ironically there is awfully little swordplay or action in the film at all maybe ten minutes of swashbuckling spread over five scenes most asian action films carry the bulk of their production with to action sequences because they know the scenes have to carry the picture the musketeer instead weighs itself down with a predictable and monotonous screenplay by gene quintano sudden death horrible acting by stephen rea and tim roth and the prosaic attempt of justin chambers the wedding planner to deliver his mousy self as a leader chambers' d'artangnan isn't a musketeer he's a mouseketeer and hyam's use of candles and torches to light the grime and filth of century paris are but that's the only standout in an overall flat production
negative	a movie like mortal kombat annihilation works and must be reviewed on multiple levels first there's the rampant usage of randian subtext that pervades the entire movie but occasionaly almost as if making an ironic remark the movie tosses in clearly marxist imagery no no just kidding had you going there for a moment didn't i in all seriousness however and to be fair to the movie it is necessary to provide two viewpoints that of a movie watcher unfamiliar or only marginally familiar with the whole mortal kombat phenomenon and that of a fan of the first movie a fan of the games the first movie mortal kombat concerned itself with a martial arts tournament that would decide the fate of earth and it's billion inhabitants the mortals won and in theory this should have prevented the emperor shao khan from taking over the earth unfortunately shao khan was a poor loser and the very final scene in mortal kombat showed him arriving anyway ready to take over the planet as our heroes assumed a fighting stance the first movie was extraordinarily entertaining for those like myself who are fans of the game i'd even go so far as to say that many folks who didn't know about the game probably enjoyed the movie the writers and directors knew the limitations of both their cast and of the basic story itself and they didn't try to overachieve there were a lot of really cool fight scenes with really cool accompanying music intersperesed with some distracting but ultimately bits of fluff passing itself off as a plot and as we know the movie was a smashing success at the box office mortal kombat annihilation picks up precisely where that movie left off with some introductory exposition to clue in those who may not have seen the first movie shao khan has decided that he's going to take over the earth anyways and to hell with some silly rule about mortals winning the tournament thereafter follows approximately minutes of film that alternates between being confused being trite being silly and being just plain stupid one gets the general impression that the producers of the movie thought hey that last movie was such a success that we can get more money and make a real movie now too bad they didn't simply stick with the formula from the first movie i could write volumes about the things that are wrong with this picture but here are the high points the acting is truly bad sandra hess playing the sonya blade character is particularly execrable especially in scenes where she tries to convince us that she loved johnny cage a character from the first movie who gets greased at the beginning of this movie in one of the worst pieces of i think i've ever seen james remar plays raiden the god of thunder in the first movie christopher lambert played raiden and played his character as though he was in on the joke a french actor playing a japanese thunder god being revered by chinese mystics i generally like it when actors are cast against type tim tiny lister jr being cast as the president of the u s in the fifth element for example and remar has always been one of my favorite utility actors but he's so totally wrong for this part that he doesn't even have the luxury of amused there are too many characters that are introduced as being potentially important but then never seen again there are a number of completely meaningless story sidetracks including a muddled scene where liu kang robin shou seeks out nightwolf litefoot has a mystical hallucination and then wanders off with jade irina pantaeva for these reasons and many others i can only give the movie a unless you're a huge fan of the games the first movie in that case the following critiques also apply sandra hess while being an even worse actress than bridgette wilson who played sonya blade in the first movie is much more convincing as a fighter wilson looked like she was simply mimicing some movements taught to her by the fight choreographer hess looks like she actually knows some martial arts and puts together a much more believable fight scene in the fights each of the characters does at least one thing they do in the game and often more sonya does her kiss of death jax does his earthquake liu kang does his animality and so on a big bonus for those of us who were looking for similar moves in the first movie and found them only rarely there aren't as many fight scenes in this movie as there were in the first because the folks making the movie mistakenly try to hang a more robust plot in between silly silly folks and the lamest fight involved two of the women in what turns into a match lame and so obviously sexist even i politically incorrect for the most part noticed and remarked upon it the special effects are generally better except for the final fight scene between the emporer and liu kang in which both perform their animalities motaro and sheeva are both more convincing and lifelike than goro was in the first movie for folks like myself who loved the first movie and enjoy the games i give this a you'll probably like it but not nearly as much as you liked the first one
negative	she was the femme in la femme nikita he was the baldwin in backdraft sliver and fair game with cindy crawford together anne parillaud and william baldwin conspire to make shattered image the biggest piece of hooey since the thriller the specialist the film poses the question what if the life you're living now is really a dream and your dreams reality it's either about a woman who's haunted by a recurring and recurring and recurring nightmare that she's a hired assassin or it's about a hired assassin who's haunted by a recurring and recurring and recurring nightmare that she's honeymooning with william baldwin in jamaica it doesn't much matter and believe me by the time shattered image runs its painful and pedestrian course you won't care these two lives with parillaud looking like siouxsie sioux with a black wig black emotionless eyes and black leather clothing in the assassin scenes and moping around like karen carpenter in the jamaica scenes play out endlessly throughout the film and the result is it's now twice as boring as it might have been it's not that complicated plots can't be entertaining of course it helps if you have interesting characters crisp dialogue and a modicum of style shattered image isn't complex it's just stupid and boring parillaud and baldwin who aren't exactly shakespearean material to begin with are saddled with such leaden dialogue that their characters have zero chance of breaking free of their cardboard confines lines like you don't beg you insist i like that in a woman that's parillaud's character talking to her cat and you're not the reason i couldn't care less about you huh and this wonderful bathroom interchange early in the film if you give me a couple of minutes you know i'll charm the pants off you i don't have that kind of time talking of pants parillaud has her clothes off faster than you can say point of no return we have come to expect this from billy baldwin but it might have been nice to have learned something about their characters first but there's nothing to learn karen is as interesting as a cereal box a crybaby who imagines the voice at the other end of the phone the stranger who sends her flowers maybe even her husband himself is her killer siouxsie is the chromium cool crack killing machine who shoots out a couple of mirrors in order to justify the film's meaningless stock title baldwin seems more interested in parillaud's nest egg so that he can pave paradise and put up a parking lot than he does in her each time graham greene shows up he gets killed barbet schroeder reversal of fortune and should be ashamed of himself every now and again it's fun to watch a really bad movie and every now and again as shattered image makes agonizingly clear it isn't
negative	john carpenter makes always has halloween escape from new york the thing and by the looks of it they live escape from l a vampires always will carpenter's latest horror opus with a science fiction bent or science fiction outing with a schlock horror bent is the john carpenter's ghosts of mars in case i suppose you went looking for someone else's ghosts of mars like all those films prefixed by the very possessive john carpenter's ghosts of mars is an unashamed punctuated by a plot actors and special effects in category one above we have a storyline that borders on idiotic and at times chaotic dormant martians i e swirling red gases awakened by meddling humans possess the souls of hapless mining colonists rendering them testy marilyn manson lookalikes all this explained in flashback to some grand counsel by martian police official melanie ballard natasha henstridge from the species films the only returnee on a train officer ballard went in to bring back incarcerated felon james desolation williams what she found was not a pretty picture in the second category we have ms henstridge her blonde hair pulled back tightly and awkwardly into a ponytail ice cube as the desolation pam grier briefly wanted to work with whom i wonder and a host of extras all assuming that the story and special effects were going to carry this film and therefore they didn't need to try too hard in category number three we have in addition to those swirling red gases and the train a couple of shots of a sprawling martian metropolis reddish also special effects have never been a carpenter trademark and once again the who seems to have no problem finding work however doesn't waste any of the film's budget in that department ghosts of mars is lock laughing stock and barrel all your standard carpenter fare dingy interiors cluttered exteriors inane dialogue lots of leather scarred aliens and lots and lots of weaponry the film often and always explodes into warfare without stupidly carpenter might like to think he's made a western here but it's a western without any real heroes villains or border conflicts it's just the shootouts minus a hissing snake plissken i never thought i'd miss the guy but i do it's not all the same however dubbed the wonder for his minimalist music soundtracks carpenter seems to have graduated from simplistic yet effective scoring by highlighting his action with loud screeching guitar work fortunately this drowns out a lot of the dialogue the final exchange between henstridge and er cube though is both audible and priceless mars has proven an infertile breeding ground for hollywood in the last year or so what with the stillborn mission to mars and red planet with val kilmer ghosts of mars sadly adds to those disappointing returns in its opening weekend it was overshadowed by a bunch of sequels among them american pie and rush hour the irony is that the mars in carpenter's film feels sadly absent there are occasional references to the red planet of course but the film might as well have been set in perth amboys than on earth's closest neighbor two things keep john carpenter's ghosts of mars from getting a huge slap upside the head  henstridge keeps her top on miraculously and the film doesn't pretend to be anything it's not what that means however is that fans of superior intelligent grade a are singularly out of luck
negative	i'm really starting to wonder about alicia silverstone sure she is one of the most beautiful creatures on god's green earth second only to that movie critic at large guy but when it comes to choosing what movies she stars in she always strikes out the crush was a predictable piece of fluff hideaway was a horrific novel adaptation alicia had only a minor role in clueless was an annoying unfunny waste of time and people have me too saying clueless is a good movie and that i'm the only one who doesn't like it one girl said if i'd seen the movie with an open mind i would have enjoyed it nothing could be further from the truth i went into the theater expecting to love the movie the preview looked good and of course i'm crazymadinlove with alicia but the movie was a bunch of bad jokes coming from whiny unlikable characters almost everyone i saw the movie with felt the same way when we were walking out of the theater one guy and it wasn't me yelled out that was the worst movie i've ever seen and the rest of us had to laugh in agreement so last night i walked into the video store and saw alicia's pretty face on the cover of some thriller called the babysitter i knew it would be bad but some inner compulsion i'll probably never understand made me rent it anyway what i got was minutes of worst alicia silverstone movie ever and you already know from the last paragraph what the competition is like where to begin in criticizing this movie the plot is a thin shred that moves slower than a glacier the writing could have been done and for all we know it was by a ten year old alicia is the star and she's still wasted in a movie that has no appeal whatsoever there is zero humor zero suspense zero drama and zero action until the last ten minutes when the story is needlessly and pointlessly concluded with a violent sequence zero plus zero plus zero plus zero equals zero so why does this movie get one star out of me well alicia spends twenty minutes of the movie in the bathtub and if it wasn't bubble bath the babysitter would have instantly joined the ranks of our other star features but you settle for what you can get alicia plays a babysitter who's spending friday night looking after two kids whose parents are out getting drunk at a cocktail party and of course anyone as beautiful as alicia automatically spends their friday nights at home at least that movie critic at large guy does as the movie trods along we discover she's not only the star of the movie but also the object of every male character's fantasies and probably every male viewer's too the drunken father thinks she's just the thing to recapture his lost youth her boyfriend lets his imagination run wild while spying on alicia from outside even the prepubescent boy looks in on alicia through the bathroom keyhole while she's taking her bubble bath they even throw in the middle aged wife's fantasies about a male counterpart at the party not that any of us asked or ever even thought about seeing this pound woman in a black silk teddy at least none of the sex fanatasies ever leave the realm of the in fact i could imagine the babysitter becoming a cinemax staple if not for the fact that there's absolutely no nudity in it so you can't call it a sex flick i've already pointed out that it can't fall under drama comedy thriller or action so what do you classify the babysitter as bad
negative	so what do you get when you mix together plot elements from various successful films such as close encounters of the third kind a space odyssey apollo and contact well whatever it is you'd sure as hell hope that it would be a thousand times better than this shoddy attempt at such a melange considering the disastrous results we're left with here this is a film that takes a little bit of everything but ultimately adds up to a lot of nothing it's like i said this movie sucks plot a rescue crew of astronauts is sent down to mars in the year after an unknown energy force leads to a loss of contact with the previous gang of space aviators to visit the red planet critique extremely underwhelming is the best way to describe this movie uneven would be another the trailer for this movie actually showed some promise the buzz around it had been and even the film itself starts off with a decent first twenty minutes all leading you to believe that it's actually going to go somewhere but it isn't long before the entire movie downshifts into neutral features more space walks than anything interesting on the planet tries too hard to get us into the pain of some its characters and unsuccessfully tosses some romance into the mix in a movie well i don't know much of it just seemed like a bunch of nerdies talking techie jargon for about an hour and a half only to figure out some big secret in the end a secret which practically had me yawning with excitement ultimately this is a movie that starts off with a decent premise joins the crew in their misadventures in space for the main crux of its journey and eventually settles down for one of the most endings this side of contact mind you if you enjoyed that film's ending you might just enjoy this frivolous ditty as well of course i don't remember contact having such obvious and painfully distracting computer generated effects at its end of story ugh what a friggin' mess films like this generally get me wondering about the brass in hollywood again didn't anybody recognize the crappiness in this script didn't they read the bad dialogue the cheezy lines the obvious derivative nature of the work mind you with a director like depalma at the helm that ain't saying much of course you can't really blame the brass for the inclusion of jerry o'connell in this fine crew of thespians said neither can you blame them for depalma cranking up the juice on the film's musical score during the last fifteen minutes presumably in order to wake the audience up okay we get it brian this scene is supposed to be powerful wow yawn my ears hurt so is anything salvageable in this movie sure gary sinise does another great job as does cheadle the film doesn't completely bore you as much as it just moves along slowly without anything really interesting happening and yes the effect that you see in the commercial is well done other than that i guess i could say that i admire how filmmakers have become so much more devious in their product placement strategies oops did i say admire i meant am disgusted all in all this movie delivers very little in actual substance offers dialogue masked in a lot of pretends to be deep when really it's just sappy and eventually just settles into an ending which other than presenting us with a pathetic computer graphic as a part of the story gives us little more to think about than how we might be able to get our money back for sitting through this rehashed dreck go see the ninth gate now there's a great movie and on a personal note i think it's time for depalma to stop worrying so much about his proverbial uninterrupted film sequences and start worrying more about how crappy his movies are getting
negative	the law of crowd pleasing romantic movies states that the two leads must end up together by film's end if you're not familiar with this law then maybe you've seen the trailer for this film which shows that the two leads are together by film's end now if you're a regular reader of mine you've heard me say this countless times you know how drive me crazy is going to end but is the journey to get to that ending worth it no it definitely is not melissa joan hart from abc's sabrina the teenage witch likes a hunky stud on the basketball team adrien grenier is her grungy neighbor who's just broken up with his activist girlfriend apparently he wants to make his jealous enough to take him back and she wants someone to take her to the big year end dance so the two pretend to date for some reason but only after hart gives grenier a bath to turn him into a hunky stud will grenier like his new popularity and turn on his friends will this crazy scheme work do i care the teen comedy resurgence of late has been surprisingly good in terms of comedy what makes movies like can't hardly wait and things i hate about you work and to a lesser extent she's all that and never been kissed is because the writers of those films seem to realize that high school is a joke and write their scripts accordingly i don't know what the writer's intention was with drive me crazy there was some smart comedy in those films to make the obvious endings worth getting to here there's nothing just teens whining about who's going to take them to the big dance do me a favor kids go get a job or something just shut the hell up in all honesty the best part of this film is the end credits now normally when i say that it's followed with the joke because the movie is finally over in this case though the end credits really are the most entertaining part of the film after the obligatory second playing of britney spears' titular song there's a quick commercial jingle for a burger joint the kids in the film hang out in and a brief rendition of the school song for their high school nothing great but more entertaining than anything in the minutes which preceded them fans take note there are brief appearances from stephen collins star trek the motion picture and faye grant the tv miniseries v and v the final battle 
negative	mighty joe young blunders about for nearly twenty minutes before we actually get to see a great big gorilla his entrance however is a grand one out from the trees he leaps gargantuan and imposing sporting hands big enough to crush a volkswagen bug and a pair of feet much larger than any pro basketball player will ever have joe bellows at the poachers before him angry that they would like to kill him and sell him for millions of dollars during this scene i turned to my friend and said wow that's some ape joe is quite a gorilla a big digital gorilla he runs around the fields chasing cars and people he picks things up and stares at them pensively he breaks things on accident because he's just too big to avoid clumsiness joe as a special effect is an image that might hold your interest for five minutes as a character he doesn't quite register and the story he's been put in is as limp as they come the words family entertainment have never been a stamp of quality but might joe young is just a silly special effects movie pretending to have a heart the picture is a remake of the film it's mostly just about the big gorilla but strictly as a formality the movie also has a few human characters the main one is jill young poor charlize theron forced to waste her talent a lover of gorillas as a child she witnessed a group of poachers murder her mother now she lives in the jungle to protect the wildlife specifically she's out to protect joe a giant gorilla who has been her friend since her childhood soon zoologist gregg o'hara bill paxton discovers joe he quickly realizes that poachers want to get joe and sell him to a big game hunter named strasser rade sherbedgia who just happens to be the same guy who killed jill's mother so in an effort to save joe jill and gregg take the big gorilla to a preserve where it is instantly clear that he is not safe from poachers in addition the space is way too small for him after all he is a really big gorilla and to add to the complications strasser shows up under a benevolent pretext he tells jill that he has a preserve big enough for joe and joe recognizes strasser as the guy who killed jill's mother jill of course doesn't recognize strasser even though he did kill her mother this is just one of the many examples of stupidity in mighty joe young a film that fulfills every stereotype that comes with a special effects film the movie isn't really offensive it has some competent actors a few nifty sets and a lot of scenes with a big digitized gorilla but the story is really dumb there aren't any characters and the film isn't satisfying on any level beyond its visuals the movie also has bad dialogue if a critic says that a film has bad dialogue it's only fair to quote some of it but most of the words spoken in this picture are phrases like joe isn't happy and joe isn't safe here we need to get joe out of here joe is way too big for that cage i don't know if these phrases are word for word but they're close as i said the characters here are only present as a formality they do little more than state the obvious of course joe is too big for that cage paxton and theron are talented performers who deserve to work on a script that provides characters for them sadly mighty joe young wastes them both there are a few clever moments although none of them are surfacing in my memory at the moment and as i said the digital effects held my attention for at least five minutes it's certainly not a bad film for kids i doubt joe will give them nightmares but adults in the audience aren't likely to find much of anything interesting about the big gorilla a big gorilla is only interesting for a little while after that something needs to be done with the big gorilla nobody ever figures out what to do with the big gorilla
negative	spawn features good guys bad guys lots of fighting bloody violence a machine gun chick gooey bullet holes scatological humor and a monster it not only appears to have been tailor made for a swarm of and boys it appears to have been made by them in a classic example of telling and not showing spawn opens with a truckload of mumbo jumbo about forces of darkness forces of light and how men are the ones who create evil on earth so much for a message the movie then lurches forward into the plight of al simmons michael jai white a government who is murdered by diabolical boss jason wynn martin sheen who plays all of his scenes like an oscar clip while on a top secret mission in a north korean biological weapons plant simmons goes to hell and back after making a deal with satan himself if he agrees to command the devil's army to overtake the world he'll be allowed to return to earth to see his wife wanda underused theresa randle and little girl cyan sydni beaudoin of course seeing as how five years has passed wanda has fallen for and married simmons' partner d b sweeney his uh shoulder to cry on comes in the form of clown john leguizamo a disgustingly disproportioned minion of satan's clown manipulates simmons now in superhuman spawn form into a stand off with wynn wynn who thinks he is in league with the clown recognizes spawn as a threat and undergoes an operation where a bomb is placed on his heart when it stops beating major cities around the world will detonate causing the leak of a disease that makes the ebola virus look like a skin rash phew got all that it would be easy to dismiss spawn as just another one of those action pics but it doesn't even work on that level the sequences are often and plenty and the problem is that they look too the several scenes set in hell present a devil that looks and acts like a video game graphic with the movie's healthy budget you'd think they could have afforded to make his mouth move when he talks other elements of the movie are spawn's enormous red flowing cape is a wonderful sight but it's too obvious when he's being played by a costumed actor or an image in movies like contact the special effects serve the story in spawn they are the story and spawn himself isn't even an interesting character the film's reliance on would be acceptable if we were given somebody to root for but both simmons and his funky are completely underdeveloped what we need is a batman a luke skywalker even watching the adventures of kleenex man would be more interesting than spawn poor leguizamo he starred in february's the pest a movie that i still think is the year's worst so far although this one does give it a run for its money as clown he overacts to the extreme never missing an opportunity for a punchline leguizamo farts green mist munches a pizza slice covered with maggots and even dons a and performs a cheerleader routine all before turning into a giant grey demon the guy was brilliant in to wong foo thanks for everything julie newmar what is he doing wasting his talent in this and the pest i'm one of the few people that liked batman robin this summer's other comic book film yet after catching this movie and making the inevitable comparison i can only hope people will change their minds and think of batman as the superior adaptation there's a compelling story somewhere in spawn including strong religious overtones and the debut of the first superhero ever but it's just not found anywhere near here as it is spawn is just awful it stinks worse than a dead trout
negative	in dreams might keep you awake at night but not because of its creepy imagery bizarre visual style or story about a clairvoyant madman who lures young girls to their untimely deaths no the source of potential sleeplessness here lies within the movie's brutally squandered potential the least of which is an admittedly nifty premise even by tired serial killer genre standards the big letdown however comes upon the realization that this was masterminded by neil jordan the man behind the crying game he's no stranger to cinematic weirdness but this nutty nonsense really pushes the envelope things start out strong enough with cinematographer darius khondji's stunning camera work guiding viewers into the bowels of a underwater ghost town during a creepy prologue that establishes a notably grim tone right off the bat this eerie opulence remains a dazzling display of showmanship throughout the entire film there's even something macabre about the way khondji photographs a rustic seemingly innocent new england autumn but if there ever was a film that didn't deserve so good a polish it's this one don't knock the look but say what you will about the foolish plot underdeveloped characters and flat dialogue annette bening another asset in dreams shouldn't be so lucky to boast gives an increasingly effective performance in a role that doesn't do much for her in return she plays claire cooper a massachusetts children's book illustrator who's plagued by terrifying nightmares involving kidnaped children she thinks these visions are a warning knell for horrible crimes but neither her husband aidan quinn nor the police can muster up the sense to take her seriously this being a thriller we know that she is in fact on the money and it's a credit to bening's acting that she delves equally into claire's madness and compassion but as soon as a body turns up and claire has given the authorities reason enough to believe her claims in dreams trades in its nifty supernatural chills for a long series of allegedly spooky jolts that simply refuse to make sense scenes pile up like a car wreck with little or no explanation or exposition subplots appear and disappear when claire finally comes with our evil murderer robert downey jr it turns out his name is vivian he's clairvoyant and he's got some major issues with mama a la norman bates in dreams reaches its absurdist zenith here and the climax drags with mumbled revelations and laughable twists some questions then what's with the garbage disposal retching applesauce are the drawings on the wall blood or paint who cranked up the andrews sisters on the cd player and caused the swing to move on its own what about the computer does vivian possess the gift of telekinesis in addition to his other powers why would he continually endanger claire if she was necessary for his ultimate plan is the woman in australia integral to anything and the aforementioned flooded city what function does that serve sigh at least in my own dreams i can imagine a better movie where certain talent didn't go to waste
negative	knock off is exactly that a cheap knock off of an action movie it's also the worst movie i have seen thus far this year i figured it would be at least a couple of months before i saw the worst film of but alas it has already been found van damme stars as i think a designer jeans executive who discovers his has been supplying him with cheaper goods rob schneider plays van damme's partner and rochon plays actually i have no idea who rochon was supposed to be she just sort of popped up halfway through without an explanation as to why she was there many things are not explained in this film but i do know that for some bizarre reason van damme seemed to be doing a jackie chan impression throughout the flick where chan comes off as endearing in his normal guy character seen in many of his films van damme just comes off as a wimp we're never given any clear explanation as to the basis for many of his actions to be more clear i did not even know who he was supposed to be until about an hour into the movie and even then it was not made too clear the film has been directed in the style of some strange film experiment gone horribly wrong tsui hark who directed van damme's last movie the bad but not nearly as bad as this double team never lets the camera rest for a second and that's no exaggeration we are even treated to a five second shot from the point of view of van damme's foot entering a shoe fabulous seriously though i have no problem with directors who want to play around with film conventions as long as they don't get carried away for example look at sam raimi army of darkness one of his best movies features some of the most inventive camera work i have ever seen but raimi never lets the special effects get in the way of story that's a concept that tsui can't seem to grasp the special effects and outrageous camera angles rule knock off to the point where the audience doesn't have a clue as to what's happening any more another problem with the film is that it looks cheap the film stock used is of such low caliber that i thought i was watching one of those chinese films shown really late at night and for some inexplicable reason everyone's voice seems to have been dubbed even the stars and even the special effects seemingly the only aspect of the film the director actually cared about are inconsistent for example there is a scene in which van damme drives a car out of a window the car slams into the ground and the left wheel is completely destroyed seconds later the car drives off at full speed hey i have no problem suspending my disbelief in an action movie but a line must be drawn somewhere finally the acting nobody gives a good performance in this film van damme an actor i usually like is way off the mark playing everyman and schneider here to provide comic relief i assume is totally unfunny and over acts his way through every scene even the usually solid paul sorvino gives a terribly performance as once again i have no idea who he was supposed to be in case i haven't yet made it clear enough knock off is the worst movie of van damme's career and possibly the worst movie of the decade and it's not even one of those movies that's so bad it's funny it's too inept to be funny there are no redeeming factors in knock off and i seriously hope that every print of this film is burned to a crisp and that somehow my memory of watching the film can be erased
negative	snake eyes is the most aggravating kind of movie the kind that shows so much potential then becomes unbelievably disappointing it's not just because this is a brian depalma film and since he's a great director and one who's films are always greeted with at least some fanfare and it's not even because this was a film starring nicolas cage and since he gives a brauvara performance this film is hardly worth his talents it's worse than that it's aggravating for the sole reason that its story could be so much more could be totally intelligent and it opens up with absolutely no subtlety that it will be handled complexly and intensely then at one point in the movie makes on wrong turn that leads it to the hall of fame of or more deservedly the hall of fame of the in certain circles snake eyes was being advertised as a kind of modern day version of kurosawa's classic rashomon where a crime is told from the four different and i mean different perspectives and it looks as though it may actually be just like this with the opening which i might add is superb in one very very very long steadicam shot we meet the protagonist crooked atlantic city detective rick santoro cage and follow him before a boxing match as he talks on his cell phone with his wife interupts a event on tv chases down a gambler enters the arena all pumped up for the fight sits down and talks with his bud kevin dunne gary sinise who's character should not be confused with that of actor kevin dunn who's also in this and watches as it happens there's a big name in the crowd and that's the secretary of defense charles kirkland joel fabiani who's sitting behind rick and who gets shot a second after the heavyweight champion lincoln tyler stan shaw is knocked out this all happens in the opening shot and it creates so many red herrings and possibilities of what happened that it opens this scene up for close examination and total deconstruction what really happened this film asks and it sets this film up extremely well for when rick begins to question people and get different perspectives on the scene and discovers there's a very good possibility it was a conspiracy as we follow rick trying to learn of more information we also meet a woman who was talking to kirkland before he was shot carla gugino and who flees the scene in a panic and tries to hide from the cops in the arena and the adjacent since the cops have blocked off the doors so they can get witness' takes on what happened this is all going pretty fine and dandy and it's extremely interesting to watch then it takes one wrong step we follow the wrong character and we learn of the answer to the mystery too early on and way before rick can find it out but that's not the worst part of it it's that it's the one person you didn't think it would be because he was too obviously supposed to be the red herring the one you didn't think did it because it would be stupid and cliched of that person to be behind it it only gets worse the film turns into a chase film about half way through the film and since we already know what happened we can't rely on rick's investigation to be all that interesting it's as if the film ran out of the guts to be really complex and original about a third of the way in and decided to just fall back on an easy way out and that just happens to mean that it has to become less and less credible events become more and more proposterous and by the end the film has decided to rely on the worst offender in mysteries like this the deux ex machina that's where some outside intereference brings the film to a sudden conclusion and makes everything okay this time it's a hurricane an police car and a big round ball that adorned the arena what went wrong depalma and the screenwriter david koepp are extremely credible people in their respective fields and have been known for bringing life and complexity to mysteries such as this depalma who idolizes hitchcock to death has done many a film like this such as his masterpiece blow out where a movie soundman uses movie elements to uncover a conspiracy piece by piece but granted depalma at least makes it intriguing to watch what with his shot notably the beginning and a sequence where the camera pans over top of a bunch of rooms in the hotel forgetting anything about boundaries at least his direction makes up partly for it then there's koepp who showed such great ability at making a character's flaws come to life like he did in depalma's earlier carlito's way a film that dove right into the life and past of its character and examined him extremely well he can write a flawed character but his rick santoro seems to be just a effort he's flawed and we can see redemption if the story wasn't so formulaic a scene towards the end where he has to make a fatal decision is cheapened by the fact that his answer has no emotional buildup he may as well have said the opposite of what he says it would have at least gone with what the character was like this is the most disappointing kind of film because it promises intelligence and complexity because it promises disection of a flawed character and perhaps even redemption then pulls the rug from under us just as we were about to be convinced it would be able to go all the way as i was watching the first half hour i couldn't wait to see how the mystery would be unearthed how many different perspectives he'd be given and perhaps he'd have to make a choice between who's he has to believe now there's a film unfortunately the film has two major deux ex machinas one in the disasterous ending the other about a half hour in when the film goes into autopilot and becomes a stale and recycled piece of crap we've seen all too much before but never from someone like depalma
negative	forgive the fevered criticism but the fervor of the crucible infects set in at salem massachusetts the crucible opens with a group of teenage girls passionately singing and dancing around a boiling cauldron in the middle of a forest under the glow of a full moon they beckon the names of men as the targets of their love spells then one of the girls lets her hair down and sheds her clothes not to be outdone in her quest to regain the attention of john proctor daniel day lewis abigail winona ryder suddenly seizes a chicken beats it against the ground and smears her face and lips with the fresh blood taking even adolescent hormone surges into account surely this bit is a bit excessive especially for prim puritan sensibilities surely to the puritan eye this is as close to a coven of witches as it gets the crucible errs from the beginning and arthur miller's name should be summoned for blame here for the addition of the above scene to his screen adaptation of his play this is far from a harmless event a bad start to an already shaky morality tale the play describes the film's opening scene during tense exchanges that makes one wonder about the veracity of both accusation and reply and this adds to the play's charged atmosphere in the film the opening scene becomes an unintentional pandora's box not only is credulity stretched but abigail's obsession is unfortunately spotlighted it positions the crucible more as a cautionary fable about obsessive and malevolent women than against witch hunts it will bring back the memory of a rabbit boiling away in a pot not surprisingly the nighttime forest frenzy does not go unnoticed and when two girls fail to wake the following morning witches are invoked by those eager to blame when the girls are questioned their confession of guilt is accompanied with an announcement of their return to god and they are thereafter converted to immaculate witnesses led lustfully by abigail with alarming synchronicity our girls zealously gesture and point accusing fingers at innocents constant reminders that abigail's passion sets all this into inexorable motion abigail seizes on this opportunity to rid herself of her rival for john proctor's love his wife elizabeth joan allen by including her among those accused of witchcraft appropriately and equipped with a distractingly white smile watch his teeth deteriorate much too quickly to a murky yellow day lewis plays the dashing moral hero with an that longs to be watched director nicholas hytner is guilty of encouraging day lewis' fervour with shots where we stare up at proctor as if he was mounted on a pedestal for our admiration otherwise hytner's direction is unremarkable ryder's performance as abigail is as consistent as her mood swings her fits of frenzy are energetic enough but the quieter moments are less successful abigail supposedly revels in her newfound power but ryder fails at being convincingly haughty although there is much haughtiness to spare here paul scofield is fine as the overzealous judge danforth but the incessant moral posturings of all the characters along with the recurrent histrionics of the young girls pricks at the nerves probably because she is the only refuge of restraint amidst all the huffing and puffing allen's elizabeth comes out as the most sympathetic character a scene near the end featuring a private conversation between the imprisoned elizabeth and john is undeniably powerful because for once we are given a reprieve from the moral bantering and the human consequences are revealed unfortunately when john's audience again increases to more than one his urge to pontificate returns and the human urgency of his situation is lost it is clear that miller meant well but i do wish he did it with more delicacy and fewer diversions his screenplay is an imperfect creature with the distractions coming out as loud as the message the result is a clumsy muddle i felt like the chicken from the opening scene head ceaselessly banged with piousness too to be wholly believable when the gallows beckoned it was sweet release indeed far from bewitching the crucible tests the patience
negative	one might expect a cathartic viewing experience walking into a new godard film after all he was a founding member of the highly influential french new wave he is also an esteemed film critic lending intelligence and historical perspective to us in much of his writing however his latest creation in praise of love is possibly the most exasperating film experience of the year the abstract concept on which the film is based had merit to dissect love into the following four categories meeting physical passion quarrels and reconciliation these four universal truths would be revealed through three different couples young adult and elderly it is edgar's bruno putzulu task to capture these moments after a recent breakup to define a central idea it's only when things are over that they make sense whether this project will end up a play film or opera remains undecided the thesis is simple enough that if played right it could really hold sympathetic value for anyone instead what ensues is an hour and a half of repetitive vignettes the next scene no more engaging than the last only once does any character utter something worthwhile but by the time it happens you're so thoroughly bored you can easily miss it but don't fret it will surface again you could easily sleep through whole sections of the film as some fellow critics did and wake up in a scene exactly like the one you nodded off in not having missed anything worthwhile but you hold hope for some time the background music keeps you in a state of urgency and even suspense for the first few conversations it's only after repeated failures to pay any of this off that you lose all hope and with speeches like i am thinking of something but i can only think of that something when i am thinking of something else how can you expect to hold anyone's interest to godard's credit he certainly knows how to frame a scene the black and white footage used for the first half of the film is starkly beautiful watching edgar read while walking along a train track on a mountain makes you wish you had something to ponder along with him and if this film had anything poignant to say you would have which makes you all the angrier at the numerous missed opportunities the environments be it city or country are impeccably captured in crisp detail but the script never complements them unfortunately godard also manages to pillage his photographic eye by randomly cutting to black numerous times within any given scene sometimes these breaks are used for chapter headings but these are even more cryptic than the spoken words the second half is composed of nauseating that often blurs the image you suddenly feel like a doomed character straight out of scanners the only scene that makes any sense is one that complains about the united states bastardizing history in the making of movies steven spielberg is picked on in particular while i'll grant that this does happen and i tend to shy away from watching such garbage it's still a pointless focus for a film that purports to articulate the specific qualities of couplehood it just goes to show an intelligent person isn't necessarily an admirable storyteller the days of breathless are no more
negative	america loves convenience after all we're the culture that invented the cell phone the atm and my most beloved the remote control yet perhaps this time with ghosts of mars we have taken our love of convenience to far ghosts of mars stars natasha henstridge as a tough as nails martian cop sent with her squadron to retrieve demolition williams ice cube from a remote mining town for trial back home when she and her comrades appropriately dubbed the commander the rookies and the guy with the cool accent discover the town's residents slaughtered they are forced to team up with williams to escape from the remaining residents' clutches filled with a lovely overuse of storytelling flashbacks and viewpoint changes ghosts of mars is a hapless mishmash of poorly constructed dialogue and action sequences the only thing keeping this film from becoming an incomprehensible mess is the sheer idiotic simplicity of its story ripped straight from the pages of a zombie movie ghosts leaps from one convenient moment to the next stopping only to kill the characters which are most convenient to lose attempts at character interaction and development are rare and forced most of these moments come off as wisdom dispensed heartily around the slushee machine of life by the streetwise hand of ice cube with a gun in one hand and a dynamite cap in the other cube reminisces about his street life comparing the fun to me and my brother when we was kids apparently crime in the bronx has gotten so bad that the residents have actually taken to ritually decapitating one another for entertainment but even in the film's darkest moments fate conveniently lends a hand supplying heavily armored transportation and easily accessible rifles and dynamite yes in the future man may travel to space and conquer mars but nothing beats a good stick of tnt and as we all know every police station past present or future keeps a healthy supply on hand characters die heads are lopped off but they were only supporting roles anyway so why should we care as long as you have plenty of narcotics immunity is guaranteed eventually though even the most zombie alien gets a bit uppity and needs to be taught a lesson what better way than by sacrificing a few minor characters to a convenient nuclear detonation killing anything the machine guns can't handle explosions are fun and even if the nukes don't get them the conveniently placed dynamite packs on the train stolen from the set of the road warrior certainly will in the end this film defines itself when our cop's tribunal pronounces is that all you have to tell us for indeed john carpenter has run out of things to say and has instead decided to use whatever is convenient to tell a ridiculously bad story
negative	reindeer games is easily the worst of the three recent films penned by ehren kruger scream and arlington rd are the others each derivative in their own special way the guy can't seem to write believable dialogue sample from reindeer games rule never put a car thief behind the wheel create characters or even engineer coherent plots but he sure knows how to pile on numerous nonsensical twists and turns no matter if each one deems the actual story increasingly unlikely his screenplay for reindeer games turns the tables on the audience so many times that watching the film becomes something of a punishment with no reward anywhere in sight i can just envision kruger laughing behind his keyboard oh you thought my movie was gonna go here f ck you jack ass take that twist decipher this mother f cker it's almost as if the writer were angry at us for shelling out money to see his stupid movie and why the hell would anyone want to invest time in a movie when the screenwriter keeps changing his own rules for no reason other than to congratulate himself on how damn clever he is auteur theory be damned it's kruger's style not the director's that winds up on screen kruger has obviously never paid much mind to the old chestnut sometimes less is more and his numerous twists can't even claim to be originals arlington rd's ending is a direct steal from the much better alan j pakula thriller the parallax view and in reindeer games we get this ol' gem character incriminates themself by saying something they shouldn't know pronouns used to protect the gender of the character grammar be damned how did you know that the stunned protagonist asks suddenly realizing that the character was in on the whole thing all along   since twist endings are currently so in vogue and seeing as how kruger's screenplays usually come equipped with about three twists per ending i guess it's no wonder why he works so frequently he's quickly becoming miramax's mickey mouse the company has already signed him to work on several of their upcoming projects this is appropriate considering that miramax which used to place their label on some of the most artistically daring films has quickly become a grindhouse for coddling foreign imports life is beautiful and freddie prinze jr vehicles their company's current logo could be we ride the trends reindeer games stars ben affleck as rudy a supposedly hardened criminal spending his days and nights behind bars with fantasies of pecan pies dancing atop his head although affleck is given some barbed wire tattoos to insinuate bad assness he plays the role like steve guttenberg preciously mugging through a police academy flick affleck is such a puppy dog that it's impossible to believe he could survive in a harsh prison environment without becoming nearly everyone's bitch the role itself is so badly written the character only grows balls when the plot calls for it the twists so outrageous and the directing so self consciously gritty that this is about as close to self parody as i can recall a recent serious movie getting it may have been wiser had the film makers simply went all the way in that direction casting jerry seinfeld as the hardened criminal and howard stern as the sniveling bad guy who's played here by gary sinise in yet another over the top villain performance james frain is nick rudy's cellmate a manslaughterer who's found a pen pal in the gorgeous ashley mason charlize theron ashley is a prison groupie who sends nick many cheesecake photos of her though she's never seen one picture of him which works out fine since the character is killed in a and rudy who was to be paroled on the same day as nick takes his place which leads to a sudden and very frenzied sex scene between ashley and rudy so frenzied it kinda looks like rape and a surprise visit from ashley's brother gabriel gary sinise who waltzes into their shabby hotel room flanked by his thuggish he plans to rob an indian casino on christmas eve with the assistance of rudy who he thinks is nick who according to what he wrote in the letters to ashley used to work as a guard in the indian casino though by the end the film pulls the rug out from under us so frequently that everything i've described might as well be irrelevant this is what you can expect should you chose to take this reindeer on several scenes in which after catching his prey the bad guy proceeds to stall interminably until the good guy has a chance to kill his captor and crack a stupid included two scenes of two different bad guys explaining their motives to the hero when they should be killing him one following the other no less though it's an action film the ending is more a talkfest where we get the whole movie explained to us by one flustered character actor after another while affleck looks on incredulous as the audience the flick was directed by john frankenheimer a straightforward action director who lucked into the manchurian candidate early in his career fell off the following a string of flops and now in his old age is slowly climbing his way back up it would be a success story if he were choosing better scripts but his last major film was ronin one of those almost but not quite movies which followed the island of dr morneau you remember the one with marlon brando in mime and a not so flattering and now this he films action sequences with a minimum of quick cutting which i like considering that nowadays action scenes are commonly comprised of millisecond flash cuts strung together and laid out for a mtv audience to pick apart problem is these action scenes nearly all failed escapes serve no purpose in the story other than to further pad out the running time and to remind the audience that their watching an action movie rather than a filmed radio play character problems abound rudy is made to shift between sweet boy next door earnestness and hard edged wiseacre the latter of which is not at least at this point something ben affleck is capable of pulling off the former he can do with ease and often the actor coasts on his lackadaisical charm while those around him growl and swear but then suddenly affleck starts growling and swearing alongside them like the class clown imitating a tarantino gangster charlize theron an extraordinary talent is like affleck playing whatever part the script requires her to play whether it be vulnerability at one moment anger at the next she never has a chance to evince any charm or make much of an impression beyond her obvious physical attributes frankenheimer has her needlessly pop her top to further italicize this gary sinise has played this role frequently and here as in snake eyes he does the snarling bad guy thing with such over the top vitriol the guy must be so incredibly bored of stomping through the same paces that going out of control is the only thing that keeps him interested any more that it becomes more of an annoyance oh there he goes again than a threat these are talented people who made the mistake of jumping on to a script with little but stock characters and a bag of tricks that it dully springs on its audience
negative	a to disney's dalmatians that's better more entertaining than the first just as unlikely with dalmatians the disney studios have proven that when it comes to going to the dogs more is definitely not the merrier dalmatians certainly wasn't the greatest experience of all time but it did feature glenn close in an outrageous performance in addition we had two amiable leads in the form of jeff daniels and joely richardson and lots and lots of adorable spotted puppies this time around there seem to be fewer puppies on the screen and close's facial and physical gyrations are starting to feel as old as the actress under that startling black and white wig of hers but that's only half the problem with kevin lima's laborious film what makes dalmatians such a collosal bore is its embarrassing attempts at humor here almost foisted on a wisecracking macaw who thinks he's a dog voiced by eric idle its rabid plotlessness cruella goes after puppies again winds up in goo again and most of all the incredibly wooden actors who plays the romantic heroes of the piece a welshman named ioan gruffudd and the alice evans as a parole officer named chlo gruffudd is cute and harmless perhaps but evans can't even aspire to that the dogs upstage them both of course but in the case of evans even close's split ends are more animated bad acting however seems to be a requirement for this sequel since g rard depardieu shows up as a french furrier with a haircut like robert de niro's in men of honor jean pierre le pelt is a flamboyant fashion designer with a penchant for fine furs and depardieu's antics mimic those of the campy close flail for flail and wail for wail france's most popular export besides brie has long since turned into a caricature of himself and in dalmatians the producers milk that realization for all it's pelt likes to refer to the furry little critters as poopies par example and ad nauseum the finesses of the script attributed to four screenwriters no less and far removed from anything dodie smith ever dreamed up are quickly dispensed with since all it takes for a paroled cruella to be shaken from her years of successful aversion therapy in the slammer is the tolling of big ben that done it's back to the mansion to roll around in her heretofore sables and minks and a plan to skin those little dahlings for the sake of a hooded designer gown the dogs are pretty making a puppy look that's pretty much all they are there's always the feeling that there's a trainer off in the wings coaxing the dogs to open doors or pick up their food bowls in unison or pop a tape into the videocasette recorder savvy holiday goers should skip dalmatians and pop the original animated classic into their vcrs instead it's one dalmatian less but more satisfying
negative	doom and gloom documentary about the possible annihilation of the human race as foretold by the bible orson welles narrates and appears in the film in which he along with author hal lindsey discusses various prophecies from the bible and relates them to recent well for anyway events the film is dated badly as many things that are supposed to happen in the future never do for example the planets of the solar system were supposed to line up in the year and cause chaos here on earth we're still here the arms race between the soviets and america was supposed to the apocalypse we're still here some of the more ludicrous moments come when it's alluded to that people like jimmy carter and henry kissinger may actually be the antichrist also there's ten minutes of stock footage at the end of the film meant to give us an idea of what the battle for armageddon might be like if it's anything like it's depicted as here then it's going to be incredibly boring the late great planet earth is available on dvd from vci home video it contains the film in standard form aspect ratio of although some moments of stock footage are letterboxed also included are brief bios on orson welles and hal lindsey as well as a trailer for another recent vci home video release chariots of the gods audio is mono dolby digital and the video is fair to good for a film like this i believe this is the first appearance of this film on any home video format so any condition at all is fine with me certainly i never expected a remastered print curiously the menu screens on this dvd look nothing like the menu screens pictured on the back of the case but they're menu screens so who really cares 
negative	play it to the bone the newest addition to ron shelton's sports themed repertoire fails in numerous ways like most of shelton's other great films bull durham white men can't jump this dud unsuccessfully attempts to use athleticism as a method of connecting characters and creating interesting subplots shelton's films are not considered sports films but they do heavily revolve around a specific game to tell a story shelton has been so good in the past at using sports to analyze the structure of society that from his collection of films we are given an examination of different classes and races living in various different regions play it to the bone is unsuccessful because not only is the boxing theme dull but the side story of the two guys and a girl travelling across the country is even worse the film has no social message like its predecessors the relationship between the friends two failed boxers who must face off against each other in the ring for thousand dollars is very confusing for a number of reasons the whole film since it is primarily a buddy picture depends on the strength of the friendship the two characters have for each other unfortunately it is a very weak bond for the reasons listed below we never see how cesar antonio banderas and vince woody harrelson meet the two are so different from each other that a scene of how this odd friendship developed should have been mandatory vince and cesar argue every moment possible on their trip to las vegas there is not one convincing moment dedicated to seeing the characters laugh together or actually agree on something the third character on the trip grace lolita davidovich stands in the way she is in nearly every scene with them making it impossible to understand the difficulty the two male characters are going to have when they fight each other there are two many interfering irrelevant side stories vince is convinced that he sees jesus on a regular basis cesar yells at the sky in spanish when he is angry and grace tries to sell her inventions to hotel owner robert wagner these boring tales only hurt the central plot when it comes to time for the two men to fight they don't even hesitate to pound each other wasn't the whole point of the road trip to show that these two are friends who could never hurt each other by the time the road trip part of the movie is over with the film wants to be over shelton on the other hand continues to tell his story forty five painful minutes remain the boxing scene between cesar and vince starts out very powerful and interestingly different from other boxing movies however the fight goes on for way too long and becomes very repetitive and predictable after awhile kind of like the whole film
negative	some movies i should just skip my daughter and i had a really vile time at my favorite martian a few weeks back and here comes another disney flick based on an old tv program true the probgram is only years old this time and it's a cartoon but it's a cartoon i liked and i was understandably reluctant to see what disney had done to it on the big screen but my daughter really wanted to go and how bad could it be turns out i was right mostly inspector gadget oddly enough follows almost exactly the same format as my favorite martian down to the at first i thought it was done by the same people but imdb informs me that ig was directed by david kellogg and written by dana olsen and kerry ehrin where mfm was directed by donald petrie and written by sherri stoner and deanna oliver this odd similarity between the two movies may best be explained by the studio that produced it where formula isn't just business it's a way of life the producers who obviously micromanaged the two projects should get prominant screen credits in some parts you can just hear them saying more zany i want more zany here and here let's have a really painful sexual reference for no reason right here make it really painful i want the audience squirming in their seats ok that's fine but i want you to add bug guts what does this scene do character depth but where's the zaniness i don't see zany here if you can't make it zany cut it the latter is the only explanation i can come up with for the absence of the thoroughly charming michelle trachtenberg for most of the movie michelle who plays penny gadget's niece shines in every scene she's in but unfortunately she only gets about nine minutes of screen time my guess is that the rest is on the cutting room floor dabney coleman's comedic talents are utterly wasted as chief quimby i kept expecting him to say or do something really funny and somehow save the film but instead he does the best he can with some really poor lines in a few unexceptional scenes he is thoroughly upstaged by cheri oteri as the gidget bitch from hell town mayor oteri's overly enthusiastic and continually speech patterns and mannerisms were so much like portland oregon's own manic mayor vera katz that i had to wonder if the studio wasn't poking fun at our fair town or maybe all career politicians are like that i must say matthew broderick does not stroll through inspector gadget as he did godzilla he appears to have some fun with the film especially as the evil gadget rupert everett is entertaining as the maniacle claw joely fisher does fine as the zany scientist and even better as the zany carbon copy of herself her performance is one of the few things worth watching in the film d l hughley plays the vehicular in a role that firmly sets emancipation back years the dialog is let's face it it's pretty bad the after a major battle is a faux pas that makes no sense in context a lot of the lines especially hughley's appear to be made up as they go along by people with little gift for about of the film is a somewhat unnecessary origin story for both gadget and claw gadget then spends the latter third of the movie trying to locate claw and having various altercations not really battles with the evil gadget penny does about a minute and a half of the detective work her character did every week in the cartoon let me rage here just for a minute michelle trachtenberg was an excellent choice for the penny character she's utterly charming and has excellent experience harriet the spy for the part of the detective why she is so underutilized in this film is a real mystery the film loses a star for casting brilliance coupled with scripting or editing stupidity inspector gadget is missing the long long stretches of potty humor that among other things made my favorite martian so unbearable but it's a very short movie so perhaps something was cut at the last moment probably the best scenes in the film occur during the end credits the evil sidekick support group is especially worth seeing and has an amazing number of cameo appearances for the few seconds it's onscreen all in all another bad live action film from the premere studio for bad live action films i wonder if disney uses the revenues for it's generally cartoons to produce these losers but if true why if they're trying for another mary poppins they need to find a team that can produce one and then give them a chance to do it
negative	hong kong cinema has been going through a bad spell the last few productions have been effect laded action adventures that combine both the best and worst of american filmmaking with the same qualities of hong kong films in a nutshell the current crop of films from hong kong has been maddeningly convoluted and visually sumptuous with the one time british colony reverting back to mainland ownership a lot of hong kong's best talents have crossed the pacific to work on u s productions such talents as jackie chan rush hour chow anna the king the corrupter and yuen the matrix have all moved into the budget bloated world of hollywood filmmaking with mixed results now we can add two other hong kong filmmakers to the mix with star jet li and director and fight choreographer corey yuen kwai unfortunately romeo must die bears all the trademarks of a typical hollywood action film and none of hong kong's rhythms the film opens in a nightclub as an asian couple is necking enter a group of chinese gangsters led by kai sing russell wong kai confronts po sing jon kit lee the son of kai's boss and leader of the local chinese family a battle breaks out between the bodyguards of the club and kai who handily kicks and punches his opponents down it's not until club owner silk rapper dmx bears down on kai and his henchmen that the fight ends the following morning po sing is found dead suspicions escalate as issac o'day delroy lindo is told of the murder his concern that the war between his and the chinese family may explode and ruin his plans to move out of the business of corruption and into a legitimate venture issac implores his chief of security mac issiah washington to watch after his son and daughter the scene shifts to a prison in china where han sing jet li learns of his brothers murder he fights with the guards and is dragged off to be disciplined hung upside down by one foot han recovers and battle his way out of custody in a blistering display of fight choreography and stunt work escaping to the u s han sets out to find the person responsible for his brother's death romeo must die is in many ways a fun film it is both absurd and assured the basic plot of a gangster wanting to become legitimate echoes the godfather the relationship between jet li's han and aaliyah's trish o'day reminds us of abel ferrera's china girl except that romeo must die's couple never once exchange more than a loving glance towards one another their romance is much more puritanical than any other romance in film history the performances are adequate if not fully acceptable li of course has the showiest part having to express both an innocents and steadfast determination allayah in her feature film debut manages to carry what little is asked of her with a certain style and grace it's obvious that the camera loves her and she is very photogenic but still the part is under written in such a way that even a poor performance would not have affected it delro lindo as issac o'day carries himself well in the film an unsung and under appreciated actor mr lindo turns out the films best performance the other performers are all adequate in what the script asks of them except for d b woodside as issac's son colin the performance is undirected with the character changing his tone and demeanor in accordance with whatever location he is in an unfocused performance that should have been reigned in and or better written first time director andrzej bartkowiak does a workmanlike job in handling the film having a career as one of the industry's best cinematographers bartkiwiak knows how to set up his shots and romeo must die does look good but the pacing of the film is lethargic only coming to a semblance of life during the fight scenes the script by eric bernt and john jarrell is not focused in such a way that we can care about the characters or the situations they are in the big gambit of buying up waterfront property to facilitate the building of a sports center for a nfl team is needlessly confusing and of course the common practice of one character being the comic relief of the film becomes painfully obvious here as anthony anderson as allayah's bodyguard maurice has no comic timing whatsoever the best things about the film are its fight scenes jet li is a master of these intricate physical battles one needs only to see his film fist of legend to understand that the man is without peer in the realm of martial art combat here jet is given the opportunity to show off in a way that lethal weapon jet's u s debut didn't allow unfortunately a lot of jet's fights are aided with computer effects that detract from his ability and precision also romeo must die must be noted as having the most singularly useless effect ever committed to film and that is an effect that appears three times during the course of the film showing the effect of bone crushing blows on an opponent obviously a homage to the famed scene from sonny chiba's streetfighter the scenes here are just pointless and interfere with the pacing of the film it's as if the film has stopped and a video game has been inserted one problem though about the fight scenes those that are familiar with hong kong action know that even though the films are fantasies and are as removed from reality as any anime or cartoon they do have an internal rhythm to them a heartbeat so to speak in their choreography the fight scenes in a hong kong film breath with an emotional resonance this is created by the performance the direction and the editing here in romeo must die there is no staccato every fight scene even though technically adroit and amazing becomes boring as the editing both cuts away from battle at hand and simple follows a set pattern the rhythm is monotonous a hong kong film has a tempo that changes heightening its emotional impact is limited to a standard tempo not allowing for any emotional content whatsoever a fine example of this difference can be found by examining a couple of jackie chan's films watch the restaurant fight from the film rush hour and notice that the context of the fight while technically amazing is rather flat the framing and cut always do not help now look at the warehouse fight from rumble in the bronx there you have a heartbeat and emotional draw that doesn't let the audience catch its breath the stops and pauses for dramatic effect work perfectly causing the viewer to be both astounded and flabbergasted here in must die' the fight scenes have no more emotional content or character than any john wayne barroom brawl jet li is a grand and personable screen presence it's a shame that his full talents were not used to full effect here one day filmmakers here in the u s will stop making films by the numbers and start to embrace the style and emotion that has made hong kong action pictures such a commodity until then we'll be left with emotionally hollow product like the replacement killer and currently romeo must die
negative	i wish i could have been in the pitch meeting for this ridiculous notion of a sports film i bet it was some hotshot warner brothers agent with an dark armani suit and manicured fingernails saying it would be a very light comedic version of any given sunday and we could throw in the hoosiers angle with the casting of gene hackman as the tough but determined coach throw in that hunk of a guy keanu reeves and a cast of wacky characters and poof we'll have a hit on our hands the replacements is a hokey mistake of a football film a mishmash collage of characters rampant stereotypes of cultures and races cliched emotional statements of purpose and keanu reeves wishing for the matrix sequel to start principal photography the story is loosely based around the pro football players' strike in and a team of replacement football players taking up the reins of professional play for a variety of teams with names like the washington sentinels keanu reeves stars as shane falco a football college player looking for redemption gene hackman dons a fedora like tom landry and speaks with gusto like a certain coach in hoosiers rounding out the cast includes swingers' jon favreau pitchman orlando jones gruff owner jack warden and cast of wacky and unknown actors who do amazing jobs of portraying perfectly stereotyped characters the drunken welshman the overweight sumo wrestler the black convict the violent cop and the dumb dumb cheerleaders this bunch of nobodies try to make something of themselves by taking the team to the season playoffs with unbelievable football plays gene hackman yelling and asking himself where the hell dennis hopper is keanu reeves looking for his body double making him look good on the football field and cheerleaders hired from the local strip club making the girls from coyote ugly look like waitresses from denny's the usual things happen like clockwork the hero rises from the ashes of failure the team comes together in unity the hero falls in love with a conventional love interest the football games are won with enough schlock value to make the most ignorant of audiences cheer and clap and the cheerleaders make you want to go home and watch late night movies on cinemax it's also a shame when decent directors with good movies under their belts go to seed and become television and sequel hacks howard deutch who was behind the camera for two of the best films of pretty in pink and some kind of wonderful has since been doing grumpier old men and caroline in the city episodes obviously the problem is that without a good script any director will fail in the end sports films are strong vehicles for cinematic glory gritty tales involving the honor of men and the valiant efforts taken for the ultimate goal of victory in the face of insurmountable odds the rise and fall of gallant heroes and stories of dramatic gusto painted with blood and sweat on the battlefield of life the replacements offers none of this
negative	if you're into watching near on two hours of bored florida teens having sex doing drugs having sex listening to eminem having sex playing video games having sex and killing one of their peers then bully for you based on jim schutze's novelization of a event bully charts the story of a handful of disenchanted teenagers who in murdered their high school bully in cold calculated blood the film could have provided fascinating insights into what turned these aimless kids into premeditated killers in the hands of controversial director larry clark kids however it has less to say about its subject matter and more to say about the filmmaker's pornographic proclivities in terms of the incident and what provoked it bully stirs up nothing new the high schoolers are presented as a uniformly screwed up with life not much ambition promiscuous profane the bully in question bobby kent nick stahl is certainly an unpleasant piece of work but he doesn't exactly tower over his colleagues in the pathological department he hounds and harries and humiliates his best friend marty played by brad renfro and marty's girlfriend lisa rachel miner doesn't care for it at all and comes up with the idea of killing bobby simply remove him from the equation marty and lisa and a handful of their promiscuous profane and stoner friends plus a recruited hit man lure bobby to a swamp one night stab him beat him over the head with a baseball bat and dump him into the canal where the sand crabs and the gators presumably finish him off there's no next day they're talking about it as openly as a homework assignment they did it because they wanted to and because they could what's most troubling about the film however isn't the unsettling subject matter and the way these young people go about eliminating one of their own but the way in which clark is constantly distracted by his own material not only is the nudity plentiful and graphic in bully but there's also an uneasy exploitative feel to it gratuitous crotch shots abound one of which makes the zipper in there's something about mary look like the height of subtlety clark is so with his female predominantly leads that you forget at times what this movie is supposed to be about the stripping bare literally and figuratively of these actors who are after all playing underage teenagers becomes harder to watch over time as you begin to feel for them and question the motives of the man behind the camera the conclusion of bully offers up literal snapshots of information about the sentences imposed on each of the protagonists for their involvement in the crime it's a short sequence of years ali years lisa life imprisonment for it's infinitely more telling than the minutes of rampant unpleasantness that precedes it bully aims for truth exploits it shamelessly then bludgeons it to death
negative	sean connery stars as a harvard law professor who heads back into the courtroom by way of the everglades to defend a young educated black man blair underwood the guy is on death row for the murder of a white girl and says that his confession was coerced from the region's tough black cop lawrence fishburne watching connery and fishburne bump heads for two hours is amusing enough but the plot's a joke there's no logic at work here tone is also an is none director arne glimcher never establishes exactly what his film is trying to say is it a statement on human rights is it a of silence of the lambs glimcher never tells instead he forces his characters to jump through hoop after hoop over drawbridge after drawbridge hoping that the audience won't notice what's missing just awful the madness of king george min not rated still wondering who nigel hawthorne is then check out his nominated work in the madness of king george still playing in both raleigh and chapel hill stage director nicholas hytner in a remarkable screen debut has adapted alan bennett's tragic comedy to fine effect and only mildly stuffy the film charts the madness that plagued king george iii hawthorne almost years into his reign a man of no importance min rated r in suri krishnamma's a man of no importance albert finney disappears so deeply into the role of a lovable dublin bus conductor that it's a shame when the film gets so serious around him his character is a conductor with a passion for oscar wilde he reads to his riders and once a year with their help he tries to stage one of the author's plays this year it's salome for about an hour there's a sweet magic behind finney and his troupe of stiffs conflict arises but it's small administrator from the bus company here an outraged catholic pork butcher michael gambon there but with finney at the wheel so to speak the film rolls smoothly over these plot like the gorgeous leland bus in the story where things get serious is toward the end of the film when the plot takes a turn that the bus never would and the story heads down a very dark alley that marks the end of an enjoyable ride the twist makes helps paint a complete picture of finney's the trip to get there betrays the light airy atmosphere of what had come before it's not a fatal misstep mind you and it doesn't send the story soaring into the realms of incredulity it's just a turn off dr strangelove min not rated mein fuhrer the most fun that i had last month was in durham at the carolina at a screening of stanley kubrick's comedy dr strangelove or how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb the film stars peter sellers in three roles george c scott sterling hayden and slim pickens their antics brought the house down which to my surprise was packed by an audience younger than the film
negative	among multitude of erotic thrillers that had been released in the early woman of desire is interesting only because it was directed by robert ginty star of the action films of the previous decade those who tend not to be nostalgic about can find very good reason in the type of movies that made ginty the star as director ginty did very little to improve that impression the protagonist of the movie is jack played by jeff fahey yacht skipper that falls madly in love with christina ford played by bo derek however she has relationship with rich and powerful jonathan ashby steven bauer one stormy night the tragedy occurs and jack is accused of rape and murder however his good friend walter j hill robert mitchum happens to be very good lawyer so jack might even prove his innocence in the end belonging more to the genre of courtroom drama than erotic thriller woman of desire distinguishes itself from similar films by having almost all characters behaving like total idiots unfortunately this film isn't comedy and any laugh is unintentional the characters are totally antipathetic and irritating and soon we stop caring what would happen to them the actors that play them don't help either that is especially the case with jeff fahey whose jack is so stupid that even the character played by fahey in lawnmower man looks like a genius in comparison his partner bo derek on the other hand shows that she didn't age enough to cease being the sex goddess but that is small compensation for her apparent lack of acting talents ginty on the other hand tries to bring some life in the movie by using many flashbacks and strange angles of shooting but in the end it gets only irritating to the already bored and dissatisfied viewer
negative	lake placid marks yet another entry in the series of predator pics that were a screen staple in the late jaws and were revived recently by the godawful anaconda placid claims to be a directed by the same guy who did house its attempts at humor are actually less funny than deadpan seriousness of anaconda paleontologist kelly scott bridget fonda is sent up to maine to examine a tooth removed from a body that had been bitten in half on the lake discovering that the tooth belongs to a crocodile which shouldn't even be in this hemisphere kelly goes with game warden jack wells bill pullman and sheriff hank keough brendan gleeson they're joined by an unwelcome guest hector cyr oliver platt a scholar who worships crocs and searches all over the world for them along the way the merry band meets mrs delores bickerman betty white a weird old lady who lives out on the lake you know what to expect from this movie lots of shots where the camera is the eyes of the predator croc cam swimming toward someone's dangling legs while jaws music plays one character hector who's obsessed with the croc and stupidly endangers the rest another character who insists that the predator can't possibly exist unlike its slippery cousin anaconda lake placid wants to present its formulaic plot which is the result is neither scary nor funny it's just tedious while director steve miner has several horror films on his resume including two installments of friday the and halloween screenwriter david kelley best known as the creator of tv series like ally mcbeal and chicago hope doesn't seem to have the stomach for a chomp up flick the body count is surprisingly low and doesn't include any of the major characters and most annoyingly kelly and hector insist that they capture the crocodile alive rather than killing it lake placid manages to have it both let you discover how for yourself the croc itself is mostly of course like the snake in anaconda the monster crocodile doesn't seem real it moves too quickly and in ways that seem unnatural lake placid also offers little explanation for why a giant crocodile is in maine there is a lot of mumbo jumbo about how we really don't know much about crocodiles they would have been better off going with something like the urban myth about alligators in the sewers a movie like this doesn't have to offer much of an explanation radioactive mutant creature from outer space but it does have to give the audience something to hang their disbelief on pullman and fonda seem to be plodding through the movie on most of the time they're probably thinking about killing their agents or wondering if making this movie marks the end of their careers platt and white on the other hand seem to be giving their best efforts and they manage to squeeze a few chuckles out of this sorry script
negative	capsule where are you tonight leni rienfenstal starship troopers is an expensive hateful and unenjoyable piece of violent pornography and bad pornography at that it is not good cinema not good storytelling and not even stupid fun it's so cynically calculatedly that even the least demanding members of the audience i was with were alternately bored and revulsed it's one of the worst movies i've seen in a long time why am i calling this movie pornography pornography in the abstract is anything which is calculated to appeal to the baser instincts i remember reading a review of full metal jacket which described the climact moment at the end of the movie where private joker has to shoot the downed vc sniper as a eternity i didn't agree with that assessment but i could see what was being implied the reviewer felt as if the audience was being incited to stand up and pump their fists and shout do man do that sentiment is echoed ad nauseam throughout starship troopers it's literally like a giant recruitment film that has gone berserk it tries frantically to enlist our emotions but it winds up only being dull or sickening the film takes place in our future when earth has come under attack by some alien species that doesn't appear to have intelligence to counterattack humankind does the single stupidest thing imaginable instead of nuke the planet from orbit which they're clearly capable of they send down grunts with rifles this isn't heinlein it's a bad wwii movie one where all the most obvious points of satire are ever poked and prodded in combat scenes that are noisy repetitive and ultimately tiresome one scene has a journalist on a battlefield filimg soldiers being slaughtered and ends with groaning predictability said cameraman gets skewered too the soldiers and their commanders are consistently idiotic they do not possess a germ of tactical intelligence or even common sense they don't even behave like soldiers in a bad movie and therefore we don't care about them we hated the tom berenger character in platoon but he mattered and therefore we were curious to learn about his fate here we don't even hate the bugs what's there to hate hating them would be like cursing a hurricaine if there's anything really hateful there the movie doesn't know how to give it to us the screenwriter ed neumeier perhaps a better appelation would be screen typist and director the increasingly paul verhoeven have not found any way to make the characters or the story serve each other one of the subplots concerns a woman pilot who's great at getting out of tight situations and does it again and again and again once or twice is fine by the fifth or sixth time it's worn out its welcome there's never any sense that these people are really thinking their way out of anything or really being tested to show their mettle also the movie is irritatingly selective with how effective the bugs are to earthling weaponry if a bug has one of the humans screaming in its grasp then five guys can stand around it and blast away on full auto without doing a damned thing but if one human gets cornered he lays waste to whole platoons of bugs with one clip  the very worst feature of the movie is its repulsive flavor i say because while the movie uses many of the trappings of fascism ot eroticize its action the gear the uniforms etc the movie doesn't have the nerve or the brains to be genuinely fascist or intelligent about the subject the bumpers between scenes which are apparently intended to parody wartime recruitment propaganda are propaganda just so clumsy and oafish that they wind up making the bugs look relatively innocuous in comparison like the rest of the movie there's more i suppose but it's not worth it the acting is bland neither arsenic nor gravy the music disposable the camerawork turgid the heartbreaking thing is that it makes independence day look like a masterpiece
negative	the classic story the production which ruined it marking the centennial anniversary of the h g wells classic new line cinema armed with a stellar cast and expert effects man stan winston alien predator terminator etc churns out yet another hollywood film based on the classic novel of course the production is no doubt much more superior compared to the earlier movies one of which was made back in the and the other in the under the title the island of lost souls sounds like a much better title the story begins with edward douglas thewlis a un representative sent to oversee a peace treaty somewhere in the south pacific who is saved from the brink of death by montgomery kilmer after his plane crashes into the sea douglas soon learns that montgomery is working for dr moreau who incidently owns the island and also a reputable geneticist who has been awarded the nobel prize his host's reluctance to allow him to freely move around the island becomes clear when he stumbled into moreau's lab when a monstrous birth was in progress even worse the other workers in the lab are not exactly normal people douglas stumbles across yet another shocking discovery when he is led to the community which considers dr moreau their maker using and the law dr moreau has long been able to keep his civilised to some extent but there are a few who are just too savage to be controlled the island of dr moreau questions the ability of men playing god dr moreau is a man obsessed with creating a race of beings which is free from hate and violence but the savage within every beast is not something one can suppress for long moreau has no doubt a very interesting premise within its grasp even so the production has failed to make the most out of it there are too many characters to put your attention to and the worst thing is the characters are not prioritized so when the audience is led to believe that a particular character is important before they know it he or she or it perishes rather ungloriously at times too perhaps there is some redemption in the development of the beast people especially aissa balk the most human of moreau's creations the two very important characters montgomery and dr moreau himself receive no development at all and it is in this area that the script fails miserably more screen time could have been used for character interaction and development i really would have liked it better if say they delved more into dr moreau's obsession montgomery's purpose in the story and justification to as why the had to rebel maybe the nature of the screenplay which incidently does not incorporate much action sequences in the film forced the filmmakers to cut a long story short and make it more of an action film than anything else it's still summer and movies have to be marketable the special effects too are really nothing for anyone to shout about at most i would say the looked just a bit more realistic than those apes in planet of the apes this h g wells classic really has potential to be a good film unfortunately after adaptations they still could not decide on how and what to focus their attention on to really bring out that important message which makes up the entire essence of the story as a third outing the island of dr moreau accomplishes little and is nothing more than an inferior version of planet of the apes' the flying inkpot rating system wait for the broadcast a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
negative	lengthy and lousy are two words to describe the boring drama the english patient great acting music and cinematography were nice but too many dull and characters made the film hard to follow ralph fiennes strange days schindler's list gives a gripping performance as count laszlo almasy a victim of amnesia and horrible burns after world war ii in italy the story revolves around his past in flashback form making it even more confusing anyway he is taken in by hana juliette binoche the horseman on the roof a boring nurse she was never really made into anything until she met an indian towards the end developing yet another count almasy begins to remember what happened to him as it is explained by a stranger willem dafoe basquiat his love kirstin scott thomas mission impossible was severely injured in a plane crash and eventually died in a cave he returned to find her dead and was so he flew her dead body somewhere but was shot down from the ground don't get the wrong idea it may sound good and the trailer may be tempting but good is the last thing this film is maybe if it were an hour less it may have been tolerable but hours and minutes of talking is too much to handle the only redeeming qualities about this film are the fine acting of fiennes and dafoe and the beautiful desert cinematography other than these the english patient is full of worthless scenes of boredom and wastes entirely too much film 
negative	out of sight director steven sorderbergh baffles the hell out of us all in the limey a cold uninvolving confusing new thriller though the plot description may at first seem like it came from the pen of elmore leonard author of out of sight as well as jackie brown get shorty and pulp fiction after you watch it you realize that it's not nearly good enough in an aggressively fashion the limey li mey noun an english gentleman tells the story of wilson terrence stamp a british just released from a year stint in prison for armed robbery he has come to the us to seek vengeance for the death of his daughter jenny he doesn't know much about the circumstances of her demise all he has is a name terry valentine valentine was jenny's former boyfriend a wealthy and corrupt record executive he's played by peter fonda in his first major role since the terrific ulee's gold in seeking valentine's reclusive place of residence turns out to be no easy task for wilson he finally finds the impressive abode high in the mountains and sneaks in just as valentine is having a big party he winds up breaking his cover eventually setting off valentine's head of security and valentine himself who decides to run for it what a mess i have no problem when films refuse to be constricted by the linearity of time pulp fiction which twisted time every which way was a masterpiece but i do take exception to movies that decide to play around with it for no reason other than to confuse the viewer the limey does exactly that the plot is permeated with flashbacks and what can only be described as random without any evident purpose there is no method to this movie's madness it uses a fancy way to tell a story that would be better off told more conventionally and more comprehendably the plot isn't particularly interesting in the first place traditional mildly hackneyed and not very involving this is a sort of brooding film our protagonist doesn't speak much and the action sequences are done with an annoyingly perfunctory attitude i felt like the director wasn't very interested in the proceedings himself almost like he made this film for a paycheck ditto for the editing which seems to be deliberately sloppy and unpleasant sixties icon terrence stamp manages to at least be menacing as the aging criminal he's not much in the way of stature but he has a surprisingly imposing physical presence that works to his advantage here peter fonda is an unbelievably underrated actor he's shy quiet but always effective he's adept at conveying emotions through speech rather than expression his feelings don't always show on his face by you can always tell what they are this is basically a conventional thriller told in a pretentiously bizarre fashion why soderbergh couldn't just parrot down and tell a story i don't know but what he does do certainly doesn't work the result is a wild cornucopia of images that amount to precisely nil even the action scenes don't work may have signified the death of the traditional act one act two act three storyline but obviously some movies have not yet transcended it shall we go back to basics
negative	a film about the world of art magazines high art is as wasted as its protagonists in the only notable part of the movie ally sheedy and radha mitchell deliver nice performances in the two leading roles not that lisa cholodenko's script or direction makes you care much about either character living in a world of heroin induced highs they float along until they fall in love with each other this uninviting picture full of pretentious minor characters has a receptionist that reads dostoevski and a woman in the restroom line who is a certified genius having recently been awarded a prestigious mcarthur grant syd radha mitchell who has a rather bland boyfriend was just promoted to assistant editor at the artistic photography magazine frame although the receptionist is impressed syd is mainly a gofer for her boss until she meets famous photographer lucy berliner ally sheedy for her to do photos for frame lucy demands that syd be promoted to editor and assigned to her since lucy fancies her lucy lives with her current lover a washed up german actress named greta played with a frequently indecipherable series of mumbles by patricia clarkson the two of them and their friends wile away their time snorting and shooting up dope usually heroin this does not happen in a single episode but becomes more commonplace than sleeping in the picture syd who lives in the apartment below them joins in on the fun and becomes a member of the zombie club lucy seems pretty happy with her life of drugs which apparently is funded by her mother lucy quit working professionally years ago since she thought she was being pigeonholed and since her mother has money we can only assume that that's how lucy supports her habit and procures her living expenses a typical scene has the editors arguing about whether a potential photographer's work is transcendental or merely classical that no one has a clue as to the dogma they are spouting becomes obvious but not particularly funny your work has a cultural currency that is important now is the that the frame's manager uses to convince lucy to show her pictures in the magazine when the big scene comes in which lucy puts the moves on syd her idea of a romantic line is i want to get high with you in lucy's world sex and drugs come and the movie except for the obligatory scene of someone almost overdosing shows drug usage as being a hip and natural part of the art scene this vacuous picture throws in a standard downer ending in an attempt to manipulate our emotions in another movie it might have worked but in this one the reaction is likely to be decidedly muted high art runs it is rated r for explicit sex pervasive drug use and language and is not appropriate for those younger than college age
negative	party camp is one of the most mindnumbingly brainless comedies i've seen in awhile a late of the meatballs series the film follows a group of young camp counselors at camp chipmunk that's really about all that can be said about the plot because nothing much happens except that the main character jerry andrew ross has the hots for a cute blonde kerry brennan and there is a big contest in the climax how fun since party camp has practically no screenplay and there is no talent at all involved the least the makers could have done was make it raunchy and exploitative it's not that i think exploitation is necessarily a good quality but when you are talking about a dull turkey like this the least that could have been done would be to fill it with a lot of mindless sex even a psychopathic slasher at the camp would have done the trick at least then it wouldn't have been such a chore to sit through never before have i seen so many jokes fall astoundingly flat the comedy was easy to spot but it wasn't the least bit funny it was constantly throghout i was asking myself if director gary graver actually thought this movie was worth anything so what saves party camp from the dreaded zero star rating well that's simple jewel shepard as a flighty bimbo was admittedly fun to watch although nothing could have saved this film from the lowest depths of motion picture trash at least if the film had centered on shepard she might have been able to add a little spice to an otherwise rancid teen comedy
negative	i'm currently accepting all future names for drew barrymore characters in wedding she was julia gulia in been she's josie grossie future db character names include janet granite janey grainy and for that project in the works aw forget it i'll stick to my day job this is a teen movie all right except the main characters aren't teens drew barrymore is a copy editor at the chicago sun times who gets her big break as a reporter only it's very clear from the onset that she lacks the toughness and the pushy extravertedness that marks the best of reporters the story she's covering is not really a story but a story in the making she is to return to high school as a student and explain what's really going on the irony is that drew's character was such a dweeb first time around that she is terrified at going back when she does she says the wrong things wears the wrong clothes and projects the i know the answer in class that popular kids or at least popular kids in the movies reject at least she befriends nerdy aldys joan of arc's leelee for her who turns out to be more beautiful than those who are supposed to be more beautiful than her what works drew's geeky after a start in films that was headline driven and a nadir of roles that had her play the sluttish character it's a surprise to see her with bad hair big glasses and braces it's very funny what doesn't work drew's geeky come on nobody dresses as bad as she does couldn't she just go to and take suggestions had she dressed like princess leia it would have been better the comedy is supposed to progress when drew's younger brother played with zest by david arquette reenlists to his baseball career now how in the world can somebody as nerdy but in a funny way as he can be the most popular kid in the school in a day the dialogue in the film is well an embarrassment her molly shannon john c reilly and gary marshall are in terminal her teenage peers except sobieski are so inept and stupid that there's little bite from them couldn't the filmmakers watch first lastly i am proud to say that i caught a significant gaffe in the film if you see the film you'd know what i'm talking about drew walks into a bar has her hand stamped and over the night associates with some rastafarians with some delicious um cake she goes wild sleeps in late when she wakes she rushes off to school without showering without noticing that her head lying on her stamped hand all night has transferred part of the stamp's image to her forehead spelling loser funny eh except that the hand would have transferred that image backwords
negative	when it comes to the average teenage romantic comedy i expect negative reviews from critics left and right predictable unoriginal and forgettable will most likely be the three adjectives to haunt the down to you's and the drive me crazy's released by the dozens these last couple of years what i really look for in this kind of movie is the entertainment value while i'm sitting in the theater am i enjoying myself is this a comfortable break from my week of finals this is why i have given films like final destination or road trip high marks i had a party of a time wasting my money on something i won't remember next week so last week i opened up the new york times and no surprise boys and girls got a negative review daily news negative reelviews negative epinions com negative this was nothing new american pie final destination road trip didn't get such hot reviews and i loved those guilty pleasures same goes for she's all that a formulaic but enjoyable pygmalion adaptation that got unjustly pounded since boys and girls reunites she's all that director robert iscove and actor freddie prinze jr i predicted d j vu al over again but still curious i asked around my school and from the one or two people who had seen it the reactions were far from positive i had made up my mind i'll catch it on video or cable in a couple of years but soon after following a series of unexpected events we couldn't get into shaft because it is rated r i found myself watching boys and girls whoops boys and girls is about a nerdy smart boy named ryan prinze jr and a popular flirt girl named jennifer claire forlani briefly meeting as and now attending the same college the two bump into each other so many times that eventually they become best friends but in the movies a male and a female cannot be friends without having that nagging feeling of attraction for each other with advice from their roommates amanda detmer jason biggs ryan and jennifer attempt to discover the true meaning of their relationship the film definitely lives up to the dreaded three adjectives and mindless entertainment is nowhere to be found i could hardly sit through the minute running time for several reasons the dialogue is probably the worst i have ever seen in any movie mainly because the whole movie depends on the boring script and the ridiculous words these characters use is what hollywood thinks kids can relate to it is almost offensive an example of an insightful conversation you're dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb no followed by a mandy tune background well it's not as bad as wing commander i guess the supporting cast is also painfully useless detmer and biggs stand in the way for anything interesting to happen with their own boring pointless subplots and although this is supposed to be from both perspectives of the human sex prinze jr's ryan dominates the screen while forlani's jennifer simply acts as a dilemma for him to work with we never learn anything about jennifer which is a shame too because forlani is the only actor to bring any life into her character teenager or not you'll hate this movie i guarantee it maybe i should rent she's all that again is it really as good as i think it is
negative	all through its production and into the early days of its initial aborted publicity hard rain bore the appropriate moniker of the flood ultimately however paramount pictures nervous that this movie would be confused with other underperforming disaster films dante's peak volcano changed the title and shifted the release date by nearly a year but to paraphrase the bard swill by any other name would smell as rank no number of name changes can help this picture it's not just about a disaster it is a disaster hard rain is the case of a movie that gets progressively worse with every passing minute the best shot occurs during the opening credits as the camera pans over the streets and byways of huntingburg indiana as the water level slowly rises the community protected by an overworked dam is being evacuated as the rain continues to pour relentlessly from the skies from that moment on it's all downhill whatever initial entertainment value the film possesses has long since drained away by the halfway point it takes forever to get to the end credits this is one of the motion pictures i have recently endured basically hard rain is one extended dull chase sequence punctuated by occasional there's a lot of water broken glass gunfire and explosions it's all very routine and uninteresting because there aren't any real characters and the plot only occasionally makes sense the film's conclusion is so preposterous that it's almost worth watching for the sheer masochistic enjoyment of seeing the monumentally idiotic way that the film makers decide to resolve the myriad subplots that are floating around action films are supposed to become progressively more invigorating as they rush towards a conclusion graham yost the writer of both speed and hard rain surely understands that principle unfortunately neither he nor mikael salomon a far off place applies it the action in hard rain grows tedious through repetition we see the same kinds of things speedboat chases flood damage etc over and over again the movie constantly recycles about twenty minutes worth of material to pad the running time out to an acceptable movie length the storyline gives us a number of characters in contrived circumstances there's tom christian slater the dimensional action hero who works as a security guard driving an armored car full of cash he and his partner charlie edward asner tv's lou grant get stuck on a street that's rapidly turning into a river a group of men led by jimmy morgan freeman arrive on the scene not as rescuers but as robbers after charlie is killed in a tom hides the money then runs as he swims and boats his way through huntingburg's roads he encounters some of the locals karen minnie driver a love interest a bickering old couple richard dysart and betty white who are on hand to provide comic relief and the sheriff randy quaid whose seeming helpfulness hides sinister ulterior motives there isn't any real acting in this film christian slater utters a few lame and does a lot of mugging for the camera tom is easily one of the most lifeless characters the actor has brought to the screen randy quaid sneers a lot and is totally unconvincing morgan freeman and minnie driver both attempt to give legitimate performances but they are defeated by the script freeman one of the best cinematic thespians working today looks suitably embarrassed to be here but i suppose everyone needs a good paycheck from following in the wake of twister this is yet another natural disaster movie that doesn't trust nature's fury as the chief engine of conflict as a result we are saddled with an idiotic good guys story that effectively ruins any potential that the flood tale could have had titanic proved that there can be a wealth of drama in a movie where everything goes under water hard rain successfully demonstrates that the opposite is equally possible thus far this year hollywood has already subjected us to its unique brand of moronic mayhem by fire firestorm and water hard rain fortunately there are only two elements left
negative	instinct is the kind of movie that inexperienced moviegoers will undoubtedly label as powerful or touching i have a name for it myself gross this is the sort of film where somebody stands up to a bully the bully looks at the rebel threateningly about to hurt him and then everyone else whom the bully has heretofore controlled stands up too how that scene is still present in so many movies today appalls me aren't present day moviegoers beyond being inspired by something like that this is one example there are actually some more in instinct alone of filmmakers insulting the audience's intelligence instinct's plot is brimming with potential anthropologist ethan powell anthony hopkins disappeared for two years whilst doing research in the jungles of africa he was found and is coming back to the united states a convicted killer he murdered to african policemen who were allegedly trying to capture him after committing a few more brutal acts of violence in the airport the authorities stick him in a prison's psychotics ward assigned to do an evaluation on powell is a bright or so we are told young psychiatrist theo caulder cuba gooding jr caulder starts out doing the evaluation merely for the purpose of furthering his career of course and no mainstream filmmaker would ever have it any other way he starts really caring for powell and he becomes fixed on helping powell prove that he is not a psychotic and that he should not be in prison and then there's the inevitable heartless meanie character in the form of donald sutherland who plays caulder's mentor he cares for caulder but does everything he can to discourage him from helping powell let's get one thing straight dr theo caulder is the most blatantly incompetent psychiatrist i have ever seen on screen or off any good shrink will listen to what his patient has to say no matter the subject because any good shrink will learn a great deal about his patient that way not good old theo no he asks purposefully pointed questions and when powell dares to venture to another subject caulder says we need to talk about this right now this is a flaw only in the sense that it detracts from instinct's already dubious credibility unfortunately it's also the least of its problems director jon turteltaub who made the delightful john travolta vehicle phenomenon as well as the surprisingly cool runnings decided to make this movie so shamelessly sentimental that contrary to what this movie's promotion would have you believe it has much more in common with patch adams than with the silence of the lambs it's not the kind of sentimentality that can almost bring tears to your eyes what dreams may come aptly demonstrated that but the kind that brings vomit up your esophagus excuse the graphic depiction it aims to inspire rather than to touch hearts as yoda would say inspire it does not it is the ultimate sign of futility when a screenwriter the very experienced gerald di pego has to resort to literally telling the audience a movie's story indeed somewhere in the beginning of instinct one of the characters actually reads aloud the film's plot to another character this like the instance i mentioned in the first paragraph of this review is a horrid insult to our intelligence i am forced to wonder whether turteltaub and di pego did not think that we could figure out what instinct is about simply from regular conversation i think that anthony hopkins is one of the greatest screen actors and he chews the scenery in this movie brilliant as ever oscar winner cuba gooding jr on the other hand is dreadful his performance is at least part of what makes his character seem so incapable of being a shrink i liked the guy in jerry maguire as well as in as good as it gets but here he fails to project any shred of credibility or real feeling i love animals and instinct's prominent save the in harmony with nature theme is certainly something i could sympathize with however this movie's execution is completely unacceptable tone down the violence and this will be a chick flick eugene novikov
negative	sydney lumet is the director whose work happens to be of varied quality he is praised for some of the most important films of the previous decades like twelve angry men serpico or the verdict but in the same time almost any of such pearls is followed by stinkers that hamper lumet's reputation a stranger among us of peter weir's witness belongs to the latter category the heroine of this movie is emily eden melanie griffith tough lady cop who sometimes shows too much enthusiasm in battling bad guys on the streets of new york during one of such actions her partner nick jamey sheridan got hurt and as a result she becomes depressed in order to help her recover bosses give her rather easy task of locating missing jeweller who belonged to hassidic jew community emily starts investigation and soon realises that the case involves murder concluding that the perpetrator belongs to community she decides to go undercover that isn't easy because her modern manners are colliding with traditionalist ways things get even more complicated when she develops feelings for young cabalistic scholar ariel eric thal using peter weir's formula isn't the greatest flaw of this film even the lame and unispiring crime mystery subplot works to the certain extent but the worst insult to viewer's audience is terrible miscasting of melanie griffith the author of this review never liked this actress very much but she was at least tolerable in some of her roles role of emily eden unfortunately isn't one of them first of all she can't pass for tough nypd street fighter and her attempt to pass for orthodox jewish woman isn't much better screenplay by robert j avrech makes things even worse with some formulaic red herring subplots scene involving two italian gangsters was almost too painful to watch but on the other hand other actors are more convincing lee richardson as an old rabbi thal as ariel and charming mia sara as his intended bride and the photography by andrzej bartkowiak very effectively creates atmosphere of warmth when the scenes take place in hassidic community also the film might educate viewers about hassidic culture that is the only thing that prevents it from turning into total waste of time
negative	the world on land it's just too big for me starring tim roth pruitt taylor vince bill nunn clarence williams iii rated r the legend of is the year's most absurd movie a rambling nonsensical piece of seafaring garbage that goes nowhere fast it stars thespian extraordinaire tim roth looking wistful as ever as a guy named  you heard right his name is in all actuality he was born on an ocean liner on uh hence the name abandoned and adopted by danny a ship crewman spends most of his early years hiding in the bowels of the ship because of danny's fear that he might be taken away from him because of visa matters well when is about or so he starts wondering all around the ship one day he discovers a grand piano he sits down and starts playing miraculously what comes out is beautiful a group of onlookers gathers to watch this stunning prodigy make such amazing music at such a young age when one of the people who knows tells him that his playing the piano like that without permission is totally against regulations replies f ck the regulations ho ho ho grows up never setting foot on dry land when he's about and can play the piano like nobody's business onboard comes another musician his name is max pruitt taylor vince and he plays the trumpet after catches max barfing everywhere during a storm he sits him down on the piano next to him takes the piano's braces off and plays while the piano flies all around the hall taking them with it how the chair they're sitting on and the piano don't separate i don't know but this apparently isn't the kind of thing we're supposed to ask after that and max become friends max is determined to get off the ship and discover what he is missing on land but has no intention of doing so what's more he doesn't even want his music to go anywhere without him when a record company hears about his talents they come on board to make a record of his music but after finding out that gasp they're going to make millions of copies he breaks the record the conflict of the movie is that after max unsuccessful in his endeavor to get off the ship gets off himself he stumbles upon a record of music in a store the record shouldn't exist because a never stepped on dry land and b the one record that was made on the ship was broken ladies and gentlemen it's a mystery the story itself is ludicrous and uninteresting and so are its elements we're supposed to be roused by a climactic piano duel there isn't anything in this movie with the potential to compel comes off as a whiny brooding extremely unlikable man i can't recall a single word he said that was not some sort of depressing meditation on life ditto for max who doesn't seem to have a life outside his friendship with tim roth plays with about as much panache as a fig leaf there's no spirit no gusto to the character he insists that he leads a happy life on the ship but to us he is dead pruitt taylor vince is a little more palatable at least providing a moment of comic relief here and there to liven things up a bit the highlight of the movie would have to be the eminently amusing clarence williams the iii as the arrogant leering king of jazz who challenges to the aforementioned piano duel the legend of was made by giuseppe tornatore whose cinema paradiso is considered a masterpiece by many this effort is utterly limp and lifeless at once ridiculous boring and pointless this is one movie that should be and will be quickly forgotten
negative	my giant is two movies for the price of one but neither is worth the cost of admission even if you get in free as lamely directed by michael lehmann the picture tries to be a comedy by using and reusing every giant joke in the book without goliath david is just some punk throwing rocks languidly paced throughout the movie becomes increasingly lugubrious as the screenplay by david seltzer the omen meanders toward its sad ending since it's rarely funny or convincingly dramatic what the filmmakers thought they were doing remains a mystery other than a few nice visuals there's nothing to recommend the picture with great film comedies under his belt from when harry met sally to the original city slickers billy crystal has shown that he's more than the world's best oscar host he does however have a propensity for choosing hopeless material as in last year's father's day and this year's my giant one wonders if he reads the script before agreeing to go ahead with a project surely reading the one for my giant would have shown that there was nothing there perhaps he thought he could ad lib it into success or maybe he wants to be a dramatic actor and thought he could do something serious with the movie's somber tone the most charitable thing that could be said about it is that it is so ineffectual that people will probably forget they saw it by the next day this movie's single idea is to place basketball player gheorghe muresan who stands seven and a half feet tall into as many visually striking situations as possible sammy crystal an agent currently without clients is rescued after a car accident by a sweet romanian giant named max muresan after throwing out constant either god is in the salvage business or big foot just took my car sammy decides to get serious seeing max as his meal ticket and although he doesn't like it he's willing to sign max up to do disgusting events like a wrestling match with a dwarfs the movie itself knows no bounds as it contains one of the most putrid and lengthy vomiting scenes ever after a series of missed opportunities the comedic part of the movie is over and it turns into a cheap and maudlin disease movie we learn that max's condition is terminal and he will soon die to be fair the movie does contain a few good scenes all of which you can see in the trailers let's hope billy gets himself a pair of reading glasses before he signs up for another movie my giant runs too long even at just it is rated pg for violence and profanity and would be acceptable for kids around ten and up my son jeffrey and his friend matthew both gave the movie a single star and had nothing good to say about it matthew pointed out that it is not as good as it could have been or should have been amen he went on to comment that he did not like the way the movie changed completely in the middle jeffrey complained particularly about how gross the movie was
negative	talk about a movie that seemed dated before it even hit the theaters spice world is the feature film debut of the pop band the spice girls it's intended as a sort of hard day's night but ends up simply hard to watch when watching the spice girls i'm reminded of an old saturday morning cartoon trick such as from the smurfs the snorks or teenage mutant ninja turtles in which identically animated creatures are differentiated into characters merely by one personality quirk and a different name the spice girls are themselves as interchangable as pringles and about as talented there's ginger geri halliwell the brainy one sporty melanie chisholm the athletic one baby emma bunton the childish one posh victoria adams the one and scary melanie brown the one with a tongue pierced back so far you're almost certain the post sticks out her throat the film itself doesn't really have a plot it follows the girls as they travel here and there culminating at their first live performance at albert hall the action however seems more like a hodgepodge of mismatched ideas the various misfires include an alien encounter a fiendish tabloid editor scheming to wreck the spice girls the shooting of a spice girls documentary a movie producer george wendt trying to pitch various ideas for a spice girls movie nearly all of which though incredibly far fetched seem more plausible than the mess with which they ended up a meeting with a pregnant friend whose sole purpose seems to be to maintain the film maxim that all pregnant characters must give birth before the movie ends a boating adventure a bus race wherein apparently no one notices the famous spice girls among the crowd even when they start to sing and an assorted number of musical performances press conferences and general celebrity stuff whew for some reason the film is littered with star cameos from elton john to elvis costello from bob hoskins to meat loaf heck even roger moore shows up though he can't decide if he's parodying himself as james bond or if he's lobbying to be the reincarnation of ernst stavro blofeld richard e grant has the largest secondary part a thankless role of the band's manager clifford the celebrity spotting is partially amusing and a decent way to pass the time when confronted with the rest of the film neither amusing or spontaneous when the spice girls are between songs they are deadly boring their songs are alright but they play like lifeless adaptations of the music videos my advice to fans is stay home and watch that video collection or at least spin that cd a couple of more times either option will be more enjoyable than the film should know to stay well away from this one
negative	this feature is like a double header two sets of clich s for the price of one not only do we get the usual tired sports chestnuts but the banal rich boy love story is tossed in for good measure an original moment in this loser is as rare as a chicago cubs world series appearance the screenplay by kevin falls and john gatins based on a story by falls merely lobs its plotline at the audience this is a story that needed sent down for seasoning and more coaching summer catch centers around ryan dunne freddie prinze jr a cape cod youth chosen to participate in the prestigious cape cod baseball league supposedly a showcase for the best young amateur and college players in the country ryan is a kind of guy he works with his dad taking care of the lawns of cape cod's rich and famous he also as we are informed early his own worst enemy he has the potential and the talent but always seems to at the crucial moment so ryan tries to remained focused on baseball then he meets tenley parrish jessica biel daughter of one of the blue bloods whose lawn he manicures tenley a name only a hack screenwriter could invent is unlike her snobbish counterparts and falls for ryan if you can't figure out where all this nonsense leads then you need a remedial course in film viewing as always prinze is pretty to look at but his performance mainly consists of facial expressions puppy dog love heartbreak frustration or determination biel cries a lot while bruce davison merely acts smarmy as her father the only beacon is matthew lillard's billy brubaker the team's catcher summer catch borrows situations and stylings from other baseball movies such as bull durham and the natural no curve balls here no sliders every pitch is predictable a blind umpire could call this movie summer catch is strictly rookie league moviemaking it has as much chance of making the movie hall of fame as the dodgers have of moving back to brooklyn
negative	one of the responses those that enjoy detroit rock city probably kiss fans mostly might have upon first glance at the rating i've given the film might be something like oh that casey's gone and become a jaded critic on us just what did he expect out of a dumb teenage rock n' roll movie like this i'm wondering the same thing i feel like i should have had a grand time with detroit rock city it's the sort of movie i wish i could've had a lot of fun with but i didn't i just didn't surely this film isn't trying to win any major awards so should i have expected an film no but i expected something a funny joke a clever prank a plot development anything the movie never delivers you've got to marvel at how the filmmakers managed to come up with a movie that is truly about nothing detroit rock city is one of those films that you walk out of after the credits have rolled and realize that you just spent minutes watching a movie in which absolutely nothing happened to justify the film's existence and it's not a very satisfying realization the film is about four teenage boys all huge kiss fans from cleveland trying to get into a kiss concert in detroit michigan that's it there is no big plot description in this review because the movie has very little plot the characters are hawk edward furlong lex giuseppe andrews trip james debello and jam sam huntington they have a garage band they're pathetic like all garage bands but they like kiss and they like rock n' roll so i guess that means we root for them they have tickets they lose them they get more tickets they lose those too they come up with crazy schemes to get tickets most of which backfire there's not much more to it frankly it becomes a little less than exciting to see them try to get kiss tickets about halfway through the film when a total of eight tickets have already graced the boys' hands only to be lost because of their sheer stupidity oh and jam real name jeremiah has a really really annoying mother who ought to be reported to the child welfare agency she doesn't want them to see kiss if you hadn't figured that out already it's really quite disheartening to see such a fine soundtrack go to waste in a pointless movie like this we've got plenty of kiss along with some ramones and thin lizzy then again maximum overdrive had an awesome soundtrack me being the big fan that i am but is probably one of the worst movies of all time detroit rock city doesn't quite reach that level of ineptitude but it gets dangerously close in fact the music is the only thing that keeps this movie from being a complete failure in my mind basically the soundtrack has earned the film a full which means all the bands involved can pat themselves on the back except for marilyn manson whose cover of highway to hell sounds like something my neighbor's cat coughed up it's also really sad to see the talents of the cast go to waste because it' s evident that they're all trying really hard to squeeze some life out of this dead turkey of a movie edward furlong has done far better work than this and so has natasha lyonne and so has lin shaye but hey they've got to make a living in hollywood people wanting to see kiss and lots of it will probably be disappointed considering the band appears for about five minutes and plays one song too bad they might have provided some energy to this mess director adam rifkin knows he hasn't got much material to work with so he takes a chapter from the michael bay book of directing and keeps his camera spinning we get an endless parade of and rotating cameras all in an effort to cover up the sheer stupidity of the script it's fun for a while but eventually it becomes disorienting i would recommend that those who felt seasick at the blair witch project stay far away from detroit rock city because the witch has got nothing on this baby i haven't felt such an urge to reach out and hold the camera still since armageddon and what about that script it's written by carl j dupr which sounds like as a name as i've ever heard if it is i can't say i blame the writer for distancing himself as far from this script as possible a plotless pointless rock n' roll movie can be fun if the jokes and gags are actually funny the jokes in detroit rock city rarely are in fact the only time i really laughed was when a priest gets stoned on a pizza and that was just because it was so surreal the rest of the movie just seems like they just threw a bunch of vulgar stuff up on screen and called it comedy there is no just a succession of punchlines that don't provide for much in the way of chuckles precisely because there was no it's as if they just whacked someone on the head pointed at him and said see funny look that woman was so shocked by hearing loud kiss music that she spilled her drink see funny look that guy just got clocked by a telephone receiver twice see funny look that kid has been vomiting for minutes after drinking an inordinate amount of alcohol and is now about to perform an exotic dance for money see funny a word of advice to mr dupr no these things aren't funny all by themselves they must be preceded by a clever so the audience hasn predicted them five minutes in advance that's it i've said enough about this movie it's a waste of time and money i liked the music but don't bother buying the soundtrack i hear it' s just modern bands doing inferior versions of the songs that are actually in the movie you want to see this concept executed well go rent roger corman's classic rock n' roll high school it features another rock band the ramones and a far more interesting story about a girl trying to get tickets to their show yes go rent that and skip detroit rock city which will probably bomb and deservedly so
negative	has it really been two decades since walter matthau coached the bad news bears nineteen years and two mighty ducks later the formula is still going strong police academy graduate steve guttenberg stars as a deputy sheriff corralled into the school's hastily formed soccer team his is the new british exchange teacher olivia d'abo a lively lass who has obviously seen dangerous minds and knows that the best way to gain the respect of a disinterested audience is to teach them something neat like soccer most of the gags are of the variety such as runaway cows and lawnmowers kids will laugh at the occasional belching bit while their parents peacefully doze beside them other than letting a supporting character named newt go unscathed what's missing from the big green is a better integration of music and comedy instead of a peppy pop score which would arguably work to better effect most of the action is set to a bombastic orchestral score that belongs somewhere else comedy needs music just watch any old bugs bunny short the marx brothers knew it mel brooks knows it unfortunately the current trend is to overscore lush strings and booming brass in every scene at every moment remember the simple strains of bizet's habanera in the original bad news bears these days it's usually a bellowing fanfare that threatens to smother every scene in its path much like adding frosting to already frosted cake an awfully big adventure the reteaming of director mike newell and star hugh grant is about as far removed as you can get from the lightsome comedy of four weddings and a funeral their second collaboration is a downbeat theatrical drama about a young intern georgina cates struggling to survive in w ii liverpool hugh plays the gay director an extremely unappealing character who may alienate whatever fans are left after the nonsense of nine months bleak and thick accents conspire to make this a difficult story to settle into an awful adventure is not without some rewards tho the peter pan subtext is intriguing as is the diverse ensemble cast that includes peter firth alan rickman and prunella scales basil devil in a blue dress the comparisons to chinatown are easy enough except for the fact that this film isn't nearly as gripping carl franklin one false move is the force behind this adaptation of walter mosley's crime novel denzel washington is as sturdy as ever but he's burdened with a miscast supporting cast tom sizemore and don cheadle are both fine the problems start with jennifer beales who never registers as the plot's femme fatale she's a pretty face and nothing more also underweight are maury chaykin and terry kinney they play opposing mayoral candidates in los angeles and neither actor commands enough authority to stifle giggles john huston we miss you fine period detail and a strong sense of humor are a plus they help to overcome a pace that's too polite for mosley's jazzy swingin' story steal big steal little i can't say much about this one director andrew davis follows the fugitive with a wildly unfunny farce about twin brothers andy garcia with opposing moral codes they're fighting over their adoptive mother's estate a ranch worth millions and supporting dozens of migrant farm workers so many different plots are trying to come brothers reconciling husbands hired you have to admire the director's ambition too bad that almost every single person or is out of sync that is with the exception of alan arkin he's the best thing in a movie the work of four credited still manages to waste such diverse talents as david odgen stiers kevin mccarthy and joe pantolinao and what the heck does that title mean
negative	funny how your expectations can be defeated and not in good ways the ghost and the darkness promised at least it seemed to me to promise a hemingwayesque showdown between men and nature what it delivered was mystery science theater material an inadvertently hilarious story that made me scream advice at the characters get new jobs was one line if i remember correctly at the end of the century col patterson val kilmer whose irish accent comes and goes like an african zephyr is an engineer who has been hired to build a british railway bridge across the tsavo river in uganda he is having immensely stereotypical problems the natives are restless his boss is a jerk and now two lions are stalking the work camp and killing people off patterson tries to handle the situation himself incompetently and then turns to charles remington michael douglas a hunter of world reknown or something like that the movie stacks the deck so heavily in favor of the lions they should have gotten top billing and with siegfried and roy they are as one comic book put it and this is of course just the excuse the movie needs to have one native after another stepping forth to solmenly recite lines about the power of nature give me a break the movie hasn't got the wherewithal to even begin to exploit such ideas it's just trying to find convenient ways to stall us even the lion hunts themselves are idiotic get this remington's big plan is to build a large structure in the middle of the savannah sit on it and wait for the lion to show up he does this and then gets knocked off by a bird by the end of the movie the blood vessels in my palm were all broken open from me pounding my forehead with my hand the acting is forgettable douglas does a good job of portraying a relatively cracked fellow but it's nothing he hasn't done before kilmer looks like he wishes he were someone else somewhere else and the rest vanish into the cinematography the camera by the way sometimes behaves so stupidly all by itself that most of the lion attacks are incoherent what did i expect from this movie i dunno some real excitement i suppose a sense that there were formidable forces on both sides of this equation no such luck i dug out my tattered copy of hemingway's the short happy life of francis macomber and read that to get the taste of this movie out of my mind
negative	unfortunately it doesn't get much more formulaic than one tough cop there's the renegade cop with the loser partner who has to many problems to explain the renegade has to prove his good name and is trapped between the good guys the bad guys and some woman who really has nothing to do with the story other than being there for the purpose of providing sex for the hero in the middle of the film bo dietl pronounced deedle baldwin is one tough cop a guy who is being investigated by hardass fbi agents due to his association with the ny mafia on top of that problem he has a drunk gambling addicted partner penn who has a penchant for collecting parking tickets i guess cops aren't immune then throw into the mix the femme fatale gershon right there you have plenty of ammo for a decent cop drama but right in the middle of the film they throw in a completely plot point dietl and his partner duke try to solve a case that they have been warned to stay away from the film spends over half an hour tracking the case of a nun who was beaten and raped to near death once the case is solved the film shifts focus back to the mafia issue whatever neat mesh the screenwriter wanted to create between the two stories failed miserably aside from being asked to accept michael mcglone as a mafioso an insult if you ask me the performances were pretty good baldwin though he occasionally slips into an impression of his brother alec does a fine job as one tough cop penn who also slips into an impression of his brother sean is even better as a loser tough guy cop what one tough cop lacks is originality this film offers nothing new nothing that you can't get from any cop film it screams sidney lumet all over the place perhaps because it was produced by marty and michael bregman producers of lumet's dog day afternoon and serpico but even the masterful sidney would not have been able to make one tough cop into a good film too much else is lacking i also saw the boom mic pop into the top of the frame twice early on in the picture something that i almost never notice but once i saw that i had it in the back of my mind every time i saw a medium or long shot at times i was hoping to see it one tough cop isn't laughable nor is it a terrible film but it just isn't unique it is a classic example of a film that didn't need to be made but one thing is for sure it could really use a better title
negative	supposedly based on a true story in which the british drive to build a rail bridge deep in africa grinds to a halt after a pair of lions start killing off the workers in john patterson val kilmer the bridge building expert set to oversee the operation tried to rid his operation of the lions but fails a world renound hunter remington michael douglas is called in and the battle man against lion begins this film has a great soundtrack and wonderful scenery the acting is not too bad except the characters are all so thin we only see one side of each character kilmer is a bridge builder and that's all we see him as these lions kill dozens of his men and he doesn't even appear to be too upset about it and the plot it's jaws but with lions again we're presented with an animal that behaves not at all as it should it appears to kill men because it just likes too why who knows i guess there wouldn't be much of a story if it didn't the problem is that there isn't much of a story even though it does
negative	of course i knew this going in why is it that whenever a makes a movie it's always a romantic comedy and then they say on entertainment tonight or something that they were attracted to the characters they were really original original let me give you a of picture perfect character a kate jennifer aniston from tv's friends a smart beautiful professional woman wants two things she can't have a new and the love of her kevin bacon her boss will only give her the job if she gets married and gets a mortgage and gets a lease on a german sportscar and kevin bacon pnly sleeps with married or involved girls what does she do she invents a fiance then when everyone wants to meet him she tells some poor schmoe she met at a wedding that she will pay him to pretend to be in love with her for a company dinner and pick a fight with her at the end thus breaking the engagement but still being able to keep her job since the guy ends up looking like a jerk and she is the poor defenceless female he of course goes along with it gee i wonder if they get together in the end i've seen more original stuff on the wb and better stuff too picture perfect also makes the mistake of being too long at minutes and expecting us to like aniston's character who comes off as a cold spoiled bitch
negative	louie is a trumpeter swan with no voice in order to woo his lady love serina louie makes friends with a young boy sammy who persuades teacher mrs hammerbottom carol burnett to allow louie to attend class louie learns to read and write and returns to his flock but is laughed at once again when no other swans can understand his message of love for serina to make matters worse louie's father feels he's lost his honor because of the trumpet he stole for his son in this animated version of e b white's trumpet of the swan as jane austen and henry james have become popular sources for adult filmmakers over the past decade or so e b white is being returned to for children's films the animated charlotte's web has become a minor classic since its release in and brought us a live action version of stuart little trumpet of the swan directed by richard rich animated the king and i the swan princess series is unlikely to be remembered along with those two trumpet of the swan is receiving a regional theatrical release but is sure to quickly appear on home video boston is one of the targetted cities because our hero louie becomes famous playing his trumpet in beantown he encounters a con man in the public gardens who pitches louie and his trumpet as an added attraction to boston's swan boats louie stays at the ritz carlton before giving a concert at the hatch shell along the banks of the charles river at this point louie's earned enough money so that dad can pay for the trumpet and become musically capable enough to win over serina's father trumpet of the swan features flat background art some poor sound syncing and insipid sugary songs this effort would be better suited to saturday morning television than the big screen but may be ok for the real small set
negative	one of the most respected names in american independent filmmaking is john sayles he has built a strong reputation with films like matewan and the secret of roan inish and one of his best was his last film lone star after sayles gave us this complex and unconventional look at ethnic tensions on the border expectation ran high for his next film unfortunately his men with guns is not the film anyone was hoping for we are essentially told in the first reel where the film is going to go and what it is going to do then the film does exactly what it promised a painful as that is the plot of men with guns can be summarized in a central or south american country things are really bad for everybody in the mountains where the army clashes with the guerrillas dr fuentes did not believe how bad things were so he went and he found out again and again and again of course it is perfectly true that in many places in that region armed conflicts have turned life into a living hell a guerrilla war is always bad for civilians but the film talks down to the viewer dr fuentes played by federico luppi teaches medicine in the capital city of his country he has as a great humanitarian gesture trained and inspired some of his best students to go into the mountains and make the world a little better for the poor indios fuentes believe the students to be up there doing humanitarian service then he discovers one of his best students has instead returned to the city and runs a squalid private pharmacy in shame and disappointment fuentes asks the student what has happened to the others the student tells him the others are still in the mountains but suggests that it may not be a good place to be fuentes goes off to find and visit the doctors ignoring the advice of his family and a patient who happens to be an army general the results are little different than one would expect dr fuentes starts out incredibly naive even some american tourists present in the film mostly for comic relief seem to know better than dr fuentes that things have gotten pretty bad in the mountains but fuentes has to go from one scene of barbarity to another and discover how wrong he was sayles certainly could have used minute of screen time to tell us something more profound than that nasty things are happening down there and most of the worst happens to the unarmed civilians the cast is mostly unknowns to american audiences federico luppi is the good mexican actor who played the antique dealer torn by mysterious forces in cronos damian delgado makes a late appearance as an army deserter mandy patinkin has a small role made to look bigger in the trailer
negative	violation' dr daniel's review of dr d's rating critical condition okay here's the deal i'll be the first one to grant that everybody needs a day off now and then i'll even go so far as to say that a vacation is a necessary part of doing any job well i mean hey i've been known to stretch a weekend into a outing if friday looks to be a slow day and if monday ain't looking like a well i've been known to give martha nell a call and say do me a favor sweetheart bump old man ferguson's boil lancing to tuesday morning and tell miss audrey that i'll swing by her house monday evening and see if we can't get her trick knee back in line a simple sentence like that and i've got a nice fishing trip with the boys or more often than not a trip up to cherokee n c for jackpot bingo and assorted other mountain funnery but the point is if you take a day off do something different if you've worked yourself silly for months relax a bit sleep in eat pancakes at noon microwave an egg in its shell watch pro wrestling with the sound off listen to some barry white records at high speed whatever but do not under any circumstances spend your vacation doing the same thing you do for a living and if you do don't make the final product look ten times worse than it would any other time because i do not want to hear your sob stories oliver stone you apparently thought you needed a break from making important films cool so you found this hinky little book and decided to make it a movie that's cool too but ollie old sage do not take a good story and a hot cast and make one of the most pointless and worthless films of the decade i'm just eager to meet you one day so i can buy you a stoli look you in the eye and say what in the wide world of sports were you thinking with and i'll stand there staring i get a straight answer sean penn stars as bobby a drifter who's had some troubles a while back he's heading cross the desert minus two fingers when his mustang ragtop blows a radiator hose stranding him in superior arizona held there by an ignorant inbred turtleneck hick of a mechanic named darrell while darrell puts a new hose on the ride bobby walks into town to see what's cooking is it needless of me to say that superior arizona is not exactly the shiny scrubbed home of all things lovely probably not bobby meets up with grace jennifer lopez who invites him back to her place for and other domestic issues just as those issues are starting up grace's husband jake storms in looking like day of the elks lodge convention just beats bobby silly bobby takes to the road only to meet up with jake again and jake asks bobby to kill grace a little while later grace asks bobby to kill jake them murderous arizonians gotta love if any of this sounds familiar congratulations you win a kewpie doll the story is a straight shoplift of red rock west a cult favorite a few years back from john dahl maker of the phenomenal the last seduction but the contest doesn't end there guys and gals we get steals from russ meyer movies where everybody in town is horny and sweaty we get the town from bad day at black rock minus the train plus busty women who can speak look at any schwarzenegger film and you'll see our hero bobby as bobby has a mudhole stomped in his keister a dozen times has his ribs stove in at least fifteen times gets bit by a tarantula gets shot at and ends up with vultures circling overhead all the while getting up like he just got a shaving nick bobby as terminator stretch it a bit and we have a discount from doc hollywood where the whole story occurs because of car trouble forcing the main character to stay at the mercy of the town and the mechanic okay he's working from a book so maybe ollie's not totally to blame for blatantly copping these ideas i just expect a man who can make up an alternative history of the united states to be able to craft a few original ideas before exposing the negative i just wish he hadn't brought a cast like this together for what amounts to a group sean penn gives a great performance and jennifer lopez and nick nolte are as on target as they can be playing caricatures of stereotype characters the best thing about the movie is watching penn react to the madness around him and try to figure out exactly what the is going on too bad it's not fun to watch when it's happening to us while we sit through this mess of a film is not a bad film if you're a fan of technique it's the oliver stone you've always known robert richardson is his usual cinematographer and rob and ollie know how to shoot a flick great camera angles shifting viewpoints wicked colors nice looking pictures but pictures of what i think i'd rather stare at a xeroxed envelope for two hours than try to figure out the point of this loser film plot twists are one thing repetition is almost unforgivable and this is dang near as unforgivable as any movie i've seen in the past five years oliver i know your body of work is nothing to sniff at you've been nice enough to limit us to only one doors movie and films like platoon jfk wall street and nixon give us plenty to dig on your scripts are certainly respectable your budgets are up there on the screen and your actors don't dog it and i know that maybe with you were just kicking back just having fun that's fine but don't do that with a movie with the potential of this one do some police academy sequel imagine that do a big comedy like a remake of it's a mad mad mad mad world but do not drop a limp out of your pocket and expect us to accept it as an oliver stone movie and not question why it stinks like snook there's a right way to have fun and a wrong way to have fun this was as wrong as you can get without going to jail
negative	there are two things the american film industry should avoid at all costs one is letting an ambitious actor convert one of his or her favorite novels into a feature film two is never greenlight a film starring john travolta to wit we present the disaster that is battlefield earth a opus starring the barbarino of the actors guild battlefield earth should be shown only at prisons when a prisoner is tossed in solitary for bad behavior is always a tricky beast tight script a good director an ensemble cast of decent actors and the ability to suspend even the most difficult of disbeliefs battlefield earth fails at achieving even one of these attributes here's the the year is mankind has been become an endangered species thanks to the conquest of a race of aliens called the psychlos sounds like either the latest clown act from cirque de soleil or a white rap group a small band of humans dwell in radioactive caves located in the rockies in fear of the who dwell in the cities below the psychlos are the earth for its resources and terel played by travolta is the head of security for the base located in denver a young rogue named jonnie goodboy tyler played with dramatic flair by barry pepper ventures from the safety of the caves into the city to uncover the truth about the he is promptly captured and taken to the alien base after several attempts at escape johnnie is placed in the middle of an underhanded subplot of terel's involving circumventing gold from an exposed vein in the rockies to his own end jonnie assumed leader of the mining slave group then manages to attain all psychlo and human intelligence through a learning machine terel forces him to use then the story just runs along until jonnie teaches the rest of the humans the basics of trigonometry the bill of rights how to use a machine gun and how to fly a harrier jet the whole mess concludes with a big loud obnoxious battle that had me praying for the end credits roger christian the director of this lumbering beast must have rented dune blade runner planet of the apes independence day stargate beastmaster the airwolf episodes the miniseries the matrix and the omega man and decided to steal every scene he could for battlefield earth christian even shoots every scene in a weird dutch angle titled left or right for every frame of the movie and every scene in the movie ends with a middle wipe really the psychlos reminded me of a cross between jamaican basketball players with bad teeth and bloated hands and klingon extras working the star trek convention circuit travolta's acting hasn't been this bad since the experts or maybe perfect jonnie goodboy tyler evolves into william wallace with lines like can have your freedom if you fight then there's the script the film just never convinces you that the plight of jonnie in teaching his fellow humans to fight and back the planet' would be a difficult task to achieve why because terel provides all the necessary tools to incite a revolt for no particular reason beside the fact that are stupid terel may be right you know humans made this movie
negative	would you believe in real life i mean that if you were julia roberts that you'd be the ugly underdog to your sister the creepy catherine let me tell you what reality is reality is that you are megastar julia fricking roberts and your brother is eric roberts and he picks up whatever crumbs of stardom fall off your coattails as you blaze across the sky in a golden chariot that's reality america's sweethearts is the opposite of reality a train wreck that tries to sell julia as a scruffy presumably because she wears glasses and used to be overweight the plot follows two married stars gwen and eddie and poor poor john cusack whose material gets worse every year on the eve of their new star vehicle's release a film called time over time the only problem gwen and eddie have gone through a nasty separation and the press and public have not been forgiving think meg and dennis gosh and the director has vanished with the film holding the only print hostage veteran pr agent lee billy crystal is called upon to clean up the mess throwing a press junket in the nevada desert to woo them with the story of a possible reconciliation between the gwen and eddie presumably distracting the stupid stupid film critics into forgetting they haven't seen the movie at all note to sony any studio executive that thinks this plot is going to win points with the reviewing press needs to check into rehab and did i mention gwen's sister kiki roberts is along for the ride and that she and eddie just might fall in love along the way oh billy you're a scamp the script you've with peter tolan what planet are you from and bedazzled need i say more is a roast of hollywood and celebrity sure but it's not a funny one yes crystal tells us hollywood is lying to our faces if you are surprised by this you might want to check on your subscription to people magazine it's about to expire aside from a scant few zingers yeah se or winces rules america's sweethearts' jokes aren't funny its pace is choppy and the whole affair comes off as a vanity project not for headlining star julia roberts but for billy crystal to deliver a bunch of lame punch lines that he wrote himself i didn't time it the movie's not that bad but it's crystal who really has the most screen time and is the unequivocal focus of the film bad move billy your jokes suck the crotch humor is outpaced only by the meanness of the movie's gags and with unsubtle sexual innuendo dripping from every scene how this movie earned a rating is a mystery to me julia overcame a lot of spiteful writing and acting to make my best friend's wedding into a winning film but not even that smile can save her here obviously aware of the ugliness before him director joe roth turns to goofy supporting characters like hank azaria as a lisping spaniard christopher walken the insane time over time director and alan arkin a new age guru in a fright wig to crack wise none of the stereotypes is successful except for walken azaria comes off as a preening queen when he's supposed to be macho as for roth in case you don't know went from direcing revenge of the nerds ii to launching his own movie studio revolution which produced this work he's back behind the camera for the first time in years it'll probably be another before he's back again i could drone on about how america's sweethearts will only appeal to the morons who talk on their cell phones during the movies but that would get old instead i'll settle for discussing the movie's worst sin that sweethearts is painfully contrived and wholly unbelievable not just in its plot but in its sentiment every single character in this film with the arguable exception of kiki is simply hateful and putting them in a romantic comedy is a waste of a bunch of villains when you leave the theater you'll ask yourself too why would i want any of these jerks to be happy
negative	rated r for strong violence language drug use nudity and some sexuality starring wesley snipes anne archer michael chaykin donald sutherland marie matiko running time minutes directed by christian duguay i've never fully understood wesley snipes's career he has his ups and downs but mostly the downs his best movie was one of the best of and that movie was entitled blade he has had his typical action movies boiling point passenger but his new movie the art of war should just be called rising sun the art of war cause basically it's a of the same plot with a different cast and forced to be a ridiculously unbelievable thriller that is high on style and low on substance wesley snipes plays a james bondish type secret agent working for the u n after a chinese ambassador is killed he is on the track of the killer trying to find out who it is how it happened where the killer was and what to do anne archer plays his boss type person of the u n and she has hired snipes to track down the killer well snipes is mistakenly framed as the killer and is now an outlaw kidnapping a chinese woman with him and having her help him along the way all this leads to a finale that is so dumb and so stupid that is it unbelievably dumb and the stunts dialogue and acting all ruin this movie wesley snipes isn't one of my favorite actors because of the fact that the character he plays in every movie is the same character he plays in the movie before the only good role snipes has really had was in blade i walked into the art of war expecting a good high octane thriller and all i got was a pile of mush the only real thing the movie has is action and plenty of it but i noticed it is badly filmed the camera is so shaky you cannot even tell what is going on the ending finale is so worthless and pitiful that it even tries to mock the matrix laughably funny it is undeniably stupid christian duguay's direction is also not that great his camera angles and sense of style are all in place but sadly his lighting and editing are all badly done even the whole matrix ending wasn't even good the stunts and action are badly filmed and badly choreographed his placing of the characters and the assination of the chinese ambassador and the plotting of the movie are so predictable and laughable that it just takes all the fun out of the entire movie anne archer who is usually good in her roles turns in a horrible job here she is sour downbeat and dreadfully dull with her forced dialogue and dumb moves even donald sutherland as a can't save this movie from being a bust so for an overall opinion the art of war is a total waste of time it's not entertaining nor exciting or even action packed it is a pointless movie and makes absolutely no sense at all if you really want to see a good version of the art of war rent the wesley snipes and sean connery action vehicle of the same kind rising sun it isn't a great film either but at least it's better than this
negative	movie reviewers have an obligation to see the good the bad and the despicable i originally wrote this review for my college newspaper back in but i wanted to it because not all retro reviews should be about the classics we need to be warned about some truly awful films too this picture was so bad it inspired the description for my rating see ratings chart below the only thing saving it from a rating is that being able to rent a movie like this is slightly less embarassing than renting a porno so it does indeed have some plusses in fairness elizabeth berkley is certainly worth seeing in the buff and her ability to whine and irritate us even while nude was appropriate in her role as selfish temptress nomi malone this character is not smart not interesting and deliberately far too annoying far too often like in bulworth when the movie was over i didn't care one little iota about the main character at least warren beatty tried to make a statement with his dreary and overrated film though showgirls is too stupid to make a statement some people claim that the story is based on the legendary all about eve of all things if exploitation expert joe eszterhas was half the screenwriter that joseph l mankiewicz was he'd be well he'd be a good screenwriter instead this project may have sunk his career he wrote the ha ha script and the usually reliable paul verhoeven directed the same team who created a good in basic instinct struck out here with their occasional violence gratuitous sex scenes and numerous and quite unnecessary lesbian overtones the predictable storyline revolves around nomi streaking into las vegas to make it big as a dancer after the supposed young lady gets conned out of her suitcase by a yokel in the opening sequence she befriends a tailor of the glamorous stage production at the stardust hotel nomi doesn't take advantage of this contact to break into the of dirty dancing right away first she becomes a lap dancer at a scummy strip club she sells her hot little wares at the cheetah for a short time turning on the fictitious customers and the actual theatre audience hey i never said she wasn't a hot number maybe it's that her body which gets her into the when the star of the stardust hotel crystal connors gina gershon stops into the strip club it certainly isn't her brains or pleasant disposition crystal requests a private lap dance for her boyfriend kyle maclachlan he also happens to be the worm who runs the big show crystal gets nomi onto the stardust team and after an interminable amount of time nomi earns the role of crystal's understudy the slut then deliberately injures and hospitalizes crystal it was almost laughable that nomi had the guts to claim that she's not a whore that's a phrase we hear a few different times and it's completely ludicrous of course she is she sells her soul to make it big but in the end we're supposed to believe that she's a better person than that we're supposed to root for her no way she's a tramp and a who deserved of all vindication in the ahem climax she is not a good person and they take over two hours to explain that the audience should think that she is the with a male dancer glenn plummer who claims to see talent in nomi is just a gratuitous opportunity to let her dance naked a little bit more it sure ain't character development plummer also appeared in speed in in a smaller yet better role this goes absolutely nowhere except maybe to deliver an unsubtle hint that fornicators should practice birth control kyle maclachlan must have been promised a big or his standards have dipped since appearing in blue velvet that picture was weird but some critics claim it's one of the best movies of the now ol' kyle can say that he acted in one of the worst of the too his sleazy character is important to showgirls but we don't learn anything about him he uses people to get what he wants but that only means that he fits in well with the other characters in this movie is he a villain who cares ultimately this movie is as tiresome as it is explicit everyone must know by now about the acts of copulation especially the riotous romp between berkley and maclachlan in his pool what few reviewers take issue with is how this movie is everyone's either having sex exacting revenge or wishing they were having sex or exacting revenge it's just too hard to take especially for over two hours if we must be exposed to the evils of the vegas world why couldn't verhoeven have also made a point of highlighting the whispers grunts and other sounds during the dance numbers it's hard to care about these people if we can't even appreciate what they're capable of doing berkley may have a future in hollywood because she can dance and she has a great body after all the world of porn is still an active dishonourable profession perhaps berkley could join their ranks and leave the real acting to pauly shore and cindy crawford oops they're bad actors too well at least they're not selfish and contemptable like good ol' slutty nomi malone useless elizabeth berkley played virtuous and holier than thou jessie on the tv show saved by the bell before breaking onto the big screen
negative	mr nice guy is the latest jackie chan film so you should know what to expect a weak plot terrible dialogue very little acting ability but some action sequences that nearly make the rest of it worthwhile however mr nice guy lacks the sparkle of jackie's best efforts and its weaknesses are more glaring than ever jackie chan plays who else jackie this time out he's a famous chef who hosts an australian cooking show not that it ever makes a difference in the plot there are only two scenes of him cooking for the rest of the film somehow he mutates into jackie chan supercop it never does explain why his character has such superb martial arts skills perhaps he was in the same cooking class as steven seagal in under siege a tv newswoman diana gabrielle fitzpatrick covertly tapes a drug deal involving kingpin giancarlo richard norton and a local gang of toughs the demons although she only has one camcorder somehow the result is full of and multiple angles hmmm shades of broadcast news anyway the goons discover diana and will do anything to recover the tape here lies another crucial flaw in the story doesn't anyone realize you can copy a tape oh well no one ever said jackie chan movies had to make sense as luck would have it diana runs across jackie and wouldn't you know it jackie accidentally ends up with the tape this leads to countless chase fight scenes which look like they could have been lifted from rumble in the bronx or nearly any other jackie chan movie in a move apparently designed to woo american and other audiences the film uses english as its primary language however that doesn't mean an end to the atrocious dubbing that has afflicted jackie's recent americanized releases strangely many of the characters speaking english are overdubbed with english and poorly too whether this is just a very bad case of looping an effort to minimize accents or a simple case of nostalgia it does achieve the same level of distraction present in all of jackie's dubbed films the plot in mr nice guy is negligible merely an excuse to have jackie on the run from various goons but even though plots have always been second to the action in jackie's films it seems odd that the filmmakers have stuck us with this tired retread look if you have jackie chan playing a chef why not use that to your advantage watching jackie doing his stuff in a kitchen beating the bad guys with foodstuffs sounds like the perfect setup for innumerable comic stunts the action is a mixed bag here there's really only one no holds barred fight scenes that have become the trademark of jackie's films it takes place in the arbitrary location of a construction site apparently for the sole reason that there are lots of nifty things lying around that can be useful ala jackie chan the action in the film is neither jackie's best nor worst but you long for some more inspiration in the scenes the film's gratuitous use of slow motion is distracting once or twice it may be useful to highlight a spectacular stunt sequence but to jackie running either this is a nod to the dollar man or a pathetic attempt to disguise the fact that jackie may be slowing down if you've seen all of jackie's films and are in need of another fix go ahead and see mr nice guy however if you're just in the mood for some good action you'd be better off hitting the video store for some of his better work such as supercop
negative	first rule of fight club is don't talk about fight club this quote deals directly with my opinion of this film because quite frankly it's not even worth mentioning director david fincher seven has completely gone over the edge with crude humor an intolerable script and hours and minutes of pure torture i'm surprised i didn't walk out this just goes to show that hype kills it's very rare that a film so hyped up as fight club turns out to be noteworthy and this is no exception the story goes like this edward norton is an insomniac trying to enlighten his dull life by going to a variety of disease therapy sessions until he meets marla helena bonham carter norton claims that she is wrecking his pleasurable lifestyle when he spots her at a session that he also attended apparently the disease sessions help them see what life is like literally living in pain why any person would think of such a thing is beyond me but things do get worse norton is soon assigned to a job that calls for traveling and it's on a plane that he meets tyler durden brad pitt the two men develop a bond and go out to a bar and by golly after they get drunk the two pitiful characters fight how do they come up with this stuff anyway their fighting catches other pathetic loser's attention and a club is formed out of all this mess there manages to lie a message fincher shows us that society is like robots we work in our jobs doing things step by step and want out our insanity gets to our brain and makes things worse than they really are and we blame it on others call me crazy but this is common knowledge i think fincher was acting as if the film is moodier and more poignant than it really is which is probably one of the reasons it fails miserably even with two good actors and a solid actress they only manage to weaken the story i couldn't help but hide my face in shame when norton beats himself up into a bloody pulp it just shows how desperate the script is for attention i guess brad pitt was right for this role because i felt like beating him up myself his bothersome and depressing character made me disgusted at his million fee it only showed me that he was in it for the money and nothing more helena bonham carter however really had no purpose she just popped up on screen mumbled some lines smoked and left this continues for what seems like hours the film drags on and my headache gets bigger while fight club nears what i think might be the end unfortunately by then the film hits rock bottom though the conclusion kept my interest for a mere minutes it backs down again and continues to move at a snails pace on a side note the trailer shows the only redeeming elements of the film that coincidentally lasts the same amount of time that they did on the trailer fincher will hopefully regret making this film or at least learn a lesson concentrating on the atmosphere or a particular key moment won't do any good if everything else is in need of support also i'm afraid that immature men might respond to the film's violence the last thing the world needs is people praising a leader of a pointless cult when the film ends i'm just glad to get home and take some advil you'll either enjoy what the film has to offer or agree with ed norton when he says this is so f ing stupid
negative	note to screenwriters and self when you hit the big time and the studios come knocking for those scripts that are sitting in your bottom drawer tell em all to hit the road gilligan wrote the home fries ten years ago it was shelved until he found success as one of the took a second look at gilligan's comedy they read it again wearing glasses drew stars as sally a dim but sweet pregnant waitress at a small town burger joint located somewhere in the southern united states the father of her child is dead the victim of a severe heart attack brought on by sadistic torture from his two stepsons these flyboys scared him with their helicopter dorian wilson and angus busey were getting even for his philandering ways on behalf of their anguished mother o'hara trouble is sally picked up some interference on her headset and angus worries she may have heard conversations that took place in the helicopter prior to the accidental killing so dorian goes undercover as a before you can say with cheese he falls for the too bad mom and angus have homicidal plans for sally does this sound like a movie you want to see without a doubt the best thing about home fries is barrymore at the risk of sounding sexist she's never looked better than here as a curly redhead with twinkling eyes she is winning in a role that requires her to do absolutely nothing except look cute and gawk at wilson her boyfriend but the plot and the situations are so that nothing could save it this movie desperately wants to get mentioned in the same breath as the coen brothers but home fries' brand of laboured hipness would be foreign to geniuses like ethan and joel it's raising arizona without babies without charm without laughs without human characters and without intelligence worst of all it's creepy what's funny about threatening to gun down a pregnant woman with a machine gun unless the woman in question is a spice girl take out the helicopters the relationship between the mother and her sons it is absolutely illogical within the movie's framework that dorian still lives with his mother and brother and the scenes of murder attempted and otherwise and what are you left with the story of a single woman with child who works at a fast food joint but dreams of becoming a country singer that could turn out to be the most boring movie ever made but it'd be better than home fries
negative	the recent onslaught of film noir that has popped up in multiplexes with everything ranging from l a confidential to palmetto to the big lebowski has proved to be an artistic commodity for veteran talented directors with this particular genre directors are able to collate the sleazy underworld of the and the glamorous opulent while maintaining the noirish ambiguous ambience the staple of film noir wild things could be classified as a black comedy a sultry film noir or a plain ol' erotic thriller but the one category it doesn't qualify for is that of a quality motion picture overacted overwrought and overlong wild things is a confused mess a movie that wants to have its cake and eat it too with its incalculable twists turns more twists and more turns it soon becomes a tedious exercise in pointlessness in spite of game efforts by kevin bacon and matt dillon who manage to sustain straight faces throughout the ordeal wild things not once jells in its eroticism unpredictability character motivation sense of the world plot etc there's not one redeeming quality in the picture that is not technical directed by john mcnaughton henry portrait of a serial killer wild things follows sam lombardo matt dillon a hunkish suburban florida high school teacher who's the dream of every spruced up female in the community particularly one kelly van ryan denise richards adores him to such extent that she offers to wash his jeep with a partner soon her tiny shorts are soaked and tells the other girl to take a hike enabling her to come into his house next thing she cries rape and the ride ensues a second accuser comes front suzie toller neve campbell a tattooed piece of trailer trash that charges lombardo of sexually molesting her virtually guaranteeing a trial where preposterous confessions asinine occurrences and laughable courtroom procedures are bound to happen even bill murray gets into the act as lombardo's zany lawyer he wears a fake brace waves the finger at the other client and infuses the script with some billy murray you can tell mcnaughton knew he had nothing to lose assigning murray to this role as ridiculous as it sounds he's the most sane character in the movie the community is astonished reporters flee to the scene there's an settlement for a libel suit against kelly's mother theresa russell there's the ambiguous cop kevin bacon who also executive produced who sniffs something iffy in this concoction of deceit murder and lust we the audience sniff something not so lustful like so many thrillers these days including the usual suspects and the game wild things eschews character for plot mcnaughton knows how to handle the camera and he keeps the campy fillings of the script flowing with workmanlike ease as if he knows the territory he's covering is a harmless appetizer to accompany henry a furious unsettling film directorial george clinton's score is a delight to behold but it's the humans the characters are mere devices for the nasty twists what writer stephen peters does not grasp is this becomes tediously uninvolving almost unbearable if those who inhibit this twisted world are not interesting don't feel real or we don't care for them not even the unintentionally funny moments work the people in wild things are not so much people as they are caricatures then there's the erotic content which nearly earned the film an for a sexless badly edited poorly lit and in what has to be one of the most flabbergastingly inept scenes that has graced this country kevin bacon's member makes a cameo appearance with ten minutes to go ironically the wildest elements of wild things are not wild at all
negative	it lots of rocks fly at us or from us in slow or fast motion at several points in the film they seem like dangerous rocks because they kind of twirl through the air instead of just propelling forward and when they in a while when we need a break from the space cause damage enough to destroy the chrysler building and the like nary a mention of these apocalyptic events is made after they occur they also just might be the most interesting element of armageddon a steroid user's answer to deep impact bruce willis stars as harry stamper a famed commissioned by the white house and nasa to stop a giant asteroid before it travels beyond zero barrier and destroys our planet why an oil driller they require someone experience with mining to plant a nuclear missile into said asteroid in one unintentionally hilarious sequence nasa asks harry to inspect a driller they built based on his blueprints it is poorly criticizes almost every aspect of it we trust nasa to build space shuttles harry assembles the obligatory ragtag bunch of cowboys including a blond guy a fat guy a black guy a wiseass and the man who is sleeping with his daughter affleck once they reach space we experience sequence after sequence of something going the fact that they sent a bunch of nincompoops into outer space has something to do with it i cannot count the number of times they almost fail the mission on all my fingers and toes whether or not they save the day i will not reveal nor will you care i will say this you know you're in trouble when deep impact dwarfs your asteroid movie in terms of emotion and scope willis has barely a chance to come alive ditto for affleck their big scenes are mostly reserved for the third act in a last to inject warmth into the material steve buscemi's exceptionally problematic rockhound as he's called is sarcastic and foolish so they tape him to a chair where he spends most of the film so why did they bring him up there to begin with rather why write him into the film his to serious willis who scowls and mopes and demonstrates psychotic tendencies at one point he chases after affleck with his shotgun for screwing his daughter firing often and causing significant damage to his oil rig i'm guessing he qualifies under nasa guidelines as someone unfit for space travel at least in my world where the sky is blue liv tyler is pretty and humourless as always suspiciously four of her father's band's aerosmith songs grace the soundtrack director michael bay lays the visual and sound effects on thick like ketchup eventually drowning the movie the middle hour is a pyrotechnic assault on the average primate's brain whenever someone dies in this movie a crew member inevitably yells out we lost insert dead person's last name here i must admit that not once could i distinguish a dead from a live one and of the corpses' faces beneath cracked helmets provided little assistance as their skin was often covered in fake blood armageddon is not as terrible movie as godzilla it looks nicer and has fewer within its equally ludicrous framework it has a vivid soundmix but at almost hours i could not believe how little actually happened over the course of the story the love story has been played up in the ads perhaps hoping to catch people before they recover from bollocks the lovers in the film are miles apart all thoughts of nude sketching or and replace them with obligatory shots of liv tyler tearing up while ben affleck dicks around in a remember a little film called jaws in this film three men suddenly found themselves on a fishing boat in pursuit of a deadly shark they didn't much like each other at first eventually they started to respect one another one of jaws' great scenes involved the drinking and singing songs and telling stories this is the sort of foreign to bay or his producer jerry bruckheimer who throw too many characters into the mix and expect we'll care about them on the grounds that the world is about to end not once do we get the feeling that these characters are even be surprised if these actors bothered to introduce themselves to one another before action was called a male friend who loved the film suggested to me that perhaps i cannot relate to a bunch of men who don't bare their souls who believe in dying macho concepts like heroism and a kind of bravery to this i will respond that the boys in armageddon are neither heroic nor brave nor smart even this team couldn't build a birdhouse and if i get no respect for disliking a movie with all the synthetic feeling of a trailer for a movie written by a team of and greeting card never been a prouder wimp my whole life
negative	there's a tidal wave at the end of deep impact i'd say it pretty accurately represents the towering flood of the last two years worth of disaster movies which are getting more irwin esque with every release the early wave of this revival while just as cheesy and laughable at least knew to include thrills every five to ten minutes deep impact tries to disguise itself as a human drama with endless filler comprised of disaster prevention plans the country keeps taking the repeating cycle is as follows the president morgan freeman will go on tv and tell the country that there's a remote chance a comet will strike the earth but that the nation's crack scientists and astronauts have some brilliant plan to stop the problem then we get to see the plan in action in some sequence utterly lacking suspense the mission will barely fail and freeman will tell the country that the comet is still headed toward earth and there's a remote chance it will strike but that the nation's crack scientists and astronauts have some brilliant plan to stop the problem it goes on and on throughout the movie but every time freeman goes on tv we know his plan is going to fail how do we know this because we've seen the tv ads for deep impact ads that feature freeman telling the nation that the comet is still headed right for us and show disaster shots of the comet striking earth and the giant tidal wave spreading ladies and gentlemen that is the movie successful disaster movies have the main disaster toward the beginning and more little disasters that follow but deep impact saves its one disaster for the end and discloses all in its tv spots television is what's wrong with deep impact the main character played by tea leoni is a broadcast journalist for msnbc and that's the mere tip of the iceberg who stumbles upon a huge government conspiracy she thinks it's an instance of an of something or other james cromwell resigning because of a mistress and that maybe he took the fall for the president in the same area when she goes nosing around cromwell he begs her to keep it under wraps i know you're just a reporter but you used to be a human being she figures out what's really going on after getting roughed up by some fbi men and doing an internet search where all good journalists learn the difference between a mistress and an level comet upon a meeting with president freeman leoni agrees to keep the story under wraps until the president can hold a press conference at which she gets to ask the first question and everyone knows if you get to ask the first question baby you're a star leoni ends up in the anchor chair broadcasting every step of the comet's collision course with earth and i'm sure it's comforting for her to know that even though the world's ending in a matter of months she's a cable news personality so there she is narrating the mission to blow the comet up such personalities as robert duvall jon favreau and blair underwood cash their paychecks and go through the motions of this process but as anyone who's seen the commercials knows the astronauts fail they only end up breaking the comet into two pieces which means even more destruction to the earth yeah thanks nasa that's when freeman has to come on tv for the last time and say goodbye to all the people who aren't picked to live in the missouri cave site for two years they even have animals two by two ready to climb into the cave if the focus had been on people living inside these caves after the world had been destroyed deep impact could have been a far more interesting movie instead we watch as a lovestruck elijah wood defies all odds to chase down his young wife while people pack the highways out of town the reasoning is of course that if a comet is going to strike they might as well be out in some scenic rural location and amusingly the highway is spotted with people in trucks i'm sure it's comforting to know that even though the world's ending in a matter of minutes the people are doing the most business of their lives
negative	there will be another the ads for this sequel proclaimed and why not true brandon lee is dead but there would be no reason for him to appear in a followup to the crow anyway the idea of spinning artist james o'barr's original comic book series into a sequel franchise revolves around the notion that a different startled soul would come back from the dead in each movie taking its own righteous vengeance against the world given that basic framework the story could move in any number of directions of course it doesn't stubbornly the crow city of angels backtracks to the beginning of the previous film when lee's eric draven found himself drawn back out of his grave to do a charles bronson on the thugs who tortured him and his girlfriend to death i remember the first film primarily as a harrowing exercise in brutality in flashback we see the most excruciating crimes exacted on eric and his lover and then we watch in as eric pays each perpetrator back in kind it's loud and repetitive true a sadist's delight but it's also horrifying and fascinating city of angels gives us more of the same but less skillfully there's an audience guaranteed for a film like this although bad reviews and poor will likely ensure that it won't be much of a success in fact miramax subsidiary dimension films was so fearful of the critical reaction to this picture that reviewers were shut out of advance screenings i've never understood the reasoning behind this tactic since good notices have never been key to the success of movies like the crow so much for any confidence in the worthiness of their followup this time ashe actor vincent perez is retrieved from his watery death he and his young son were shackled together shot and then thrown off a pier by the crow who serves as his link between the worlds of the living and the dead perez might have some screen presence if he's given something to do with himself but here he's simply thrown in front of the camera as a pretty face at first he's shivery and frightened but he quickly recovers from the shock of his own death and becomes a badass biker from beyond the grave he's befriended by sarah mia kirshner presumably an older version of the child who narrated the first film kirshner so beguiling in exotica is here an exquisitely photographed blank tattooed with angels' wings sarah is just about as lovely as women come but she serves no purpose not even as seductress the gang of punks who killed ashe are ostensibly commanded by judah richard brooks but a far more interesting choice as leader would have been iggy pop who plays a gaunt fellow named curve iggy all bones veins and drawl is the only one who seems to have shared in the aesthetic of ruin that defines this film like all good things here he's dispatched too soon and without much imagination in the meantime we're subjected to tedious glimpses of judah's compound where bondage is the order of the day and hot wax is poured over naked bodies in fantasies that would seem shy of the cutting edge even if they weren't distinctly secondhand even the soundtrack is tired more than anything i've seen from hollywood lately city of angels smacks baldly of product it's a movie with a lousy script but a great look critics have been quick to fault the direction of mtv veteran tim pope but his work isn't that bad per se he's got a good eye and some intriguing visual ideas if anything this movie has a few too many scenes of ridiculously striking imagery his major stylistic failing is that he can't seem to direct an action scene and the quick nonsensical cutting that ensues is reminiscent of a low budget kung fu movie but as director he must also shoulder the blame for the little screenplay that wasn't the performers who couldn't and an apparent lack of ideas on the parts of everyone involved who bought david s goyer's anemic script anyway the producers of this crow were either too dim to realize their story was doomed to be a hollow rehash or too cynical to figure their audience would know the difference
negative	late in down to you the lead female character julia stiles states her greatest fear is having an artificial conversation with her boyfriend freddie prinze jr the irony of this statement will not be lost on audience members who have not yet walked out fallen asleep or otherwise given up on this pathetic attempt at romantic comedy the film is a dollar testament to everything artificial filled with characters motivation plot and dialogue that ring fake and shallow at every step this is an unquestionable disaster prinze plays a college student intent on playing the field until he falls for stiles' freshman at first the movie seems to be an attempt to string along scenes with the sole purpose of the previous in how cute it can be the happy couple psychoanalyze each other they pick out a song because as prinze's dj mother lucie arnez explains every couple needs a song he smells her shampoo she scratches his chest in the morning to let him know she wants to make love then in standard romantic comedy style things fall apart why well because they have to otherwise the couple can't make up and live presumably happily ever after down to you exists outside the realm of normal logic scenes do not connect to each other and it often seems to be attempting some sort of surrealism but this is handled so poorly that everything comes off random and stupid instead a picnic scene involving the six key characters is just bizarre not only for the stretched logic of these people hanging out together or even knowing each other but mostly because an unusual amount of screen time is dedicated to a goat the supporting characters are remarkably flat and insultingly ridiculous as well stiles' best friend rosario dawson is a pot head prinze's roommate shawn hatosy is a girl crazy fool who can't meet women and then there are the porn stars zak orth and selma blair he is one of those famous porn stars who is frequently interviewed on television does the college lecture circuit and stars in high budget costume epic porns that are shot on film you know the average porn star the costume epic idea gives him a reason to appear in a different ridiculous outfit everytime he's on screen the porn angle exists just so there can be a couple of stupid sex jokes she is a porn star mostly so we know she's slutty so her very existence will make stiles jealous and prinze tempted attempts at drama which means julia is going to cry include a pregnancy scare and the big break up these characters are so insipid only the most forgiving viewer would be manipulated by these weak scenes what happened here the cast is full of likable promising young actors stiles especially seems to be going places kris isacsson has simply given them material so weak not even seasoned pros could pull it off in fact the whole film feels like a reworking of last year's extremely unpleasant the story of us for teen audiences the direction is obvious it's stylish in a hugely self conscious way which throws in split screen a pointless parody of cops characters walking into the flashbacks of other characters and a hilariously cheesy airport meeting between prinze and stiles where all the extras move in fast motion while the couple moves in extreme slow motion plus the whole story is told flashback style narrated by prinze and stiles directly addressing the camera this is the second film in a row following wing commander starring freddie prinze jr which should have premiered on the aisles of the local blockbuster but was likely saved from that fate due to the fluke success of she's all that if he doesn't start making better choices fast his future films won't be so lucky
negative	for better or worse the appearance of basic instinct in the movie marketplace gave the greenlight to a whole slew of overheated oversexed underwritten thrillers apparently not having joe eszterhas as the writer doesn't change a thing since body of evidence wasn't written by him but has a puzzling presence all over it in other words it's a really dirty and b really really stupid madonna first warning sign stars in body of evidence as a woman who has piles of money and no apparent job she lives on a houseboat and likes to parade around presumably for the edification of the shrimp she's been accused of having murdered an older man who was her lover already two classic examples of hollywood sexism are in effect the first being that any woman in a movie cannot be sexual unless she's under thirty or at least looks it and that they usually only exist for the sake of studs or filthy rich older men what's worse is that the movie confirms all the above and wallows in them as well madonna's character is accused of forcing sex on the old goat when she knew darned well he had a heart condition and yes there are the obligatory cracks from the cops about how at least he died happy this movie leave no scummy stone unturned anyway willem dafoe very good but completely wasted also stars as the lawyer who is doomed to run afoul of madonna's sexuality how do we know this because his character is set up with the token wife and kids how obvious is it that he's gonna cheat on her and have to fess everything up and get kicked out of the house and get welcomed back anyway don't skip to the end yet we're just getting warmed up dafoe and madonna have a lot of sex in this movie most of it is about as erotic as surgery since it involves such goodies as hot candlewax always the kink of choice among screenwriters who don't know the first thing about really kinky sex and smashed light bulbs don't ask another thing that people are starting to realize about explicit sex in movies is that unless it is critically important to the story it's insanely dull what's worse is that body of evidence is dull everywhere not just in the sex scenes the stuff in the courtroom is recycled from other bad courtroom drama scenes the thriller business itself is ridiculous it involves nasal spray bottles and drugs and juergen prochnow as a surly doctor and the ending another homage to eszterhas maybe is one of those endings where you can almost see the exact frame where one of the five or six various endings to this mess was spliced in the director is uli edel all the more disappointing since he also directed the elegiac and powerful last exit to brooklyn and christiane f everyone has to eat i guess but this isn't a meal ticket it's leftovers
negative	it was with great anticipation that i sat down to view braveheart last week as it premiered on american cable the academy award winning film had been highly acclaimed it also featured the music of one of my favorite film composers james horner what i was in for was a disappointing and overlong film which was anything but the best picture of what drags braveheart down is its screenplay it abounds with high production values john toll's cinematography which also graced edward zwick's legends of the fall a gorgeous score by horner and the sort of logistics that make you wish assistant directors were household names but this does not save a misguided script the film wishes to paint its central character as a hero but the viewer's only response to his heroism is intellectual william wallace mel gibson is fighting for freedom and against tyranny so we have to root for him but wallace's actions paint a different story he speaks of freedom and acts of vengeance though one intellectually realizes wallace is on the right side the film paints an unconvincing emotional portait in which wallace is just not as bad as the english king wallace speaks of freedom but his acts point toward vengeance after kicking the english out of scotland he decides to invade england this is evident of a spartacus complex and this example applies both historically and cinematically the historical spartacus at one point moved from liberating slaves to sacking roman cities the film spartacus like braveheart has high production values and competent performaces and is dragged down by an awful screenplay it is a shame that such an excellent score is part of such a terrible film horner's score tries to make emotional connection but the performances and the script do not help gibson portrays wallace in such a way that the audience cannot relate to him or identify with him this drags down any emotional connection to the film's plot and turns three hours into a total waste of time
negative	susan granger's review of the watcher universal just what we need another lurid trashy serial killer saga this time keanu reeves plays an elusive homicidal maniac who engages in a gruesome game with james spader a fbi agent who has suffered a traumatic nervous breakdown after too many years on the job with the lapd to taunt spader who has relocated to chicago reeves packs up his trusty piano wire and moves too before long he starts mailing photographs of the lonely unsuspecting young women who are his intended windy city victims challenging spader along with the chicago police department to stop him within hours before he strikes again in the midst of this murderous frenzy there's spader's psychologist played by marisa tomei who is even less convincing as a medical professional than jennifer lopez in the cell writers david elliot clay ayers and darcy meyers along with director joe charbanic helmer of music videos for reeves' band dogstar dwell on the warped thrill of the methodology and the chase revealing early on exactly whodunit since the killer says he and the cop need each other to give meaning to our lives plus as reeves explains we're all stacked right on top of each other but we don't notice each other any more after that it's all sound effects and tricky along with a muddled discordant soundtrack james spader's acting technique can be described as deadpan' while keanu reeves maintains his perpetually monotone persona which sometimes works sometimes doesn't chris ellis as spader's colleague is the only cast member who manages to be convincing on the granger movie gauge of to the watcher is an appallingly awful amateurish the real torture is watching it
negative	ahh yes the teenage romance an attractive young cast is pitted into an unlikely scenario that could only happen in the movies and in the end the guy always gets the girl and with the arrival of the breakout hit all that' last year followed by a long catalogue of imitators including things i hate about you' and me crazy' the genre previously on life support is once again a hot commodity along now comes to you' the folks at miramax are obviously trying to capitalize on the rabid all that' craze with their latest project which has the studdly freddie prinze jr attached and all only to you' doesn't have the unlikely scenario' mentioned above it is an extraordinarily ordinary romance a dull unattractive teen comedy that sticks to the boring game plan that we're accustomed to this is the kind of romance that only giggly old girls will find convincing in strictly textbook fashion college sophomore and aspiring chef al prinze jr meets freshman artist imogen julia stiles they hit it off like a couple can only in the movies from here it's the standard story the plot is conveniently assembled to suit the requirements of the main characters who are frequently taking part in activities that well only happen in the movies fortunately the cast of to you' has a certain appeal freddie prinze jr and julia stiles are an adorable couple and when on screen together they radiate the sort of warmth and charisma that the movie should have centered around zak orth as the newly realized porn star monk shows an unmistakable flair with handling all of the film's intelligent dialogue rounding out the impressive ensemble of young talent are shawn hatosy faculty' selma blair intentions' and ashton kutcher tv's shows' even the fonz himself henry winkler the epitome of teenage angst and nostalgia has a welcome role as al's dad the host of the popular cooking program ray' maybe the concept of to you' looked good on paper to draw such a crowd as a feature film however the finished product is bland and tasteless fluff with only an occasional whiff of cuteness to keep the gears from stopping entirely perhaps worst of all to you' is not funny the jokes are drawn from obvious sources and the resulting humor is banal and uninspired the characters on screen often laughing at each other's antics seemed far more amused than the audience even the giggly old girls had grown restless toward the end as they waited impatiently for the formula to run it's course the one mildly clever segment featured winkler and prinze jr in a fantasy sequence called a in which the father and son would storm houses and cook a decent meal for needy' families with the assistance of a swat team of course when this is the highlight reel you know the remaining film could leave something to be desired in order to make a teen comedy work you've got to have characters that show something by way of depth and identity things i hate about you' actually featured characters who were more than walking flashcards and the result was refreshing no such luck with to you' it's just a textbook romance where despite absurd circumstances everything is bound to work out in the end and at the end of the whole clich d ordeal the nicest thing you could possibly say would be only in the movies'
negative	virus is the type of cliched vacuous film that has been recylcled so many times before that you wonder why anyone would even bother putting work into making it strangely enough on the same weekend last year another film was released like this deep rising about an ugly monster on a cruise liner prior movies with the almost exact same storyline include leviathan deep star six and all four alien pictures virus in comparison is a servicable thriller and produced but since it doesn't include one moment of even remote originality or intelligence it sinks under the weight of the water that the film was shot on based on a series of comic books virus concerns the crew of an ocean salvage tugboat which becomes extremely damaged during a violent typhoon after discovering that the boat is slowly sinking un lucky for them a huge ocean vessel that appears to be dead in the water turns up within the confines of their radar screen once the team reaches the russian ship they go on board to find that the place is seemingly deserted after turning the power back on however there gradually are signs that something else is on the ship and the electrical equipment is oddly working by itself one survivor finally does turn up nadia joanna pacula who informs the suicidal and stern captain donald sutherland and one of the crew kit foster jamie lee curtis that a mysterious alien life form hit the santi mir space station which then was transported down to the ship taking over the minds of all of the electrical machines and thinking that humans are viruses that should be completely wiped out if virus sounds like all of the previously mentioned movies you're correct although the technical artistry is fairly impressive to bring the mechanical creature to life the film itself doesn't appear to have a brain in its head the film sticks so close to the conventions of the creature genre that it is amazing anyone would spend the money and time filming it when they could be making an original film the actors are all very good and have all proven their acting abilities in the past but they are sorely wasted here and do not really even have characters to play in her second return to horror in the last year jamie lee curtis once again proves to be a strong and resourceful heroine but that is about it although halloween was also a disappointment at least she was given a few scenes to develop a character unlike here donald sutherland has fallen on hard times recently by starring in thoroughly disposable films such as the puppet masters although i just watched him in the superb classic invasion of the body snatchers where he was fabulous the last of the three is william baldwin but it is fairly hard to say if he is good or not in the picture since he has nothing to do basically virus is another one of those films where a group of people walk around and investigate a space house until the deadly and equally grotesque and slimy creature pops up and kills them it is not the worst of its type but it is far from one of the best and when exactly are studios going to give up recycling such shameless and overdone plot gimmicks such as this as long as some of them keep making money i suspect the answer is never
negative	over years ago a japanese production company called toho introduced the land of the rising sun to gojira a reptilian creature of immense proportions created by mankind's nuclear testing partly flight of fancy partly commentary on the exploitation of atomic power and weaponry gojira emerged from the ocean to terrorize tokyo a year later gojira was marketed to the united states by adding three things a new name a dubbed english track and raymond burr as godzilla the film took on the rest of the world thirty years later toho remade the classic film and once again took it to the american market by adding the same three things yes including raymond burr and called it godzilla now it's years after toho's remake and director roland emmerich has allowed the giant lizard to make an american first run in emmerich's godzilla matthew broderick plays dr niko tatopoulos a biologist who is called in to join other scientists in the south pacific already studying the existence of a super mutant which leaves footprints the size of livingrooms when the mutant reptile suddenly appears out of the hudson river tatopoulos and the rest of the team relocate themselves back to the states meanwhile tatopoulos's college girlfriend audrey timmonds maria pitillo works in new york city as an assistant to a news reporter she'd like to be a reporter herself and when godzilla comes ashore she figures this is her big break of course with the big guy running amok in the city niko and audrey are bound to cross paths and are joined by victor animal palotti hank azaria audrey's trusty cameraman friend and phillipe roche jean reno an operative for the french government whose nuclear testing started the whole problem in the first place together they attempt to find and destroy the surprisingly elusive godzilla with the resources of the most cutting edge special effects houses and the clout of one of the nation's premiere movie production companies one would think emmerich could make a film truly deserving of the name godzilla he didn't right up there with the lost world godzilla is one of the biggest disappointments in recent cinematic history the plot is pretty much what we expect the big creature comes out of the water and starts smashing new york city and it's up to our heroes to figure out why this thing is on its rampage and how it can be stopped while the military makes futile attempts to bring the creature down the script however is painfully bad it's fraught with lines so corny they don't even belong in and includes many character actions which make you think you idiot or you stupid girl i suppose when you've got a movie with a giant lizard loose in new york any other semblance of reality goes out the window as well why is it that godzilla topples some buildings by merely brushing against them but is conveniently able to leap atop others why do helicopters have to follow godzilla by flying dangerously between buildings where they can lose sight of him when they could more easily keep track of him by flying a little higher and in a straight line why do sidewinder missiles which have small explosive warheads blow up entire buildings when they miss godzilla why is a mission to bomb madison square garden carried out by three when flights of such aircraft are always comprised of multiples of two okay maybe the last one was a bit but hey i was on a roll broderick is usually a good actor but in this film he's weighed down by an unexciting character and an atrocious screenplay which seem to fight against him every step of the way hank azaria does what he can but don't expect to see development of any of the promise he showed in the birdcage like broderick's azaria's character is quite simply lacking in color what really annoyed me was maria pitillo who actually takes the bad script and makes it worse with her acting casting must have been asleep on this one the one bright spot here is jean reno who oddly enough seems to fit well into a role which is often comedic quite unlike what we've seem him do in the past although his character is contradictory to the unfolding disaster reno brings a style to the role of phillipe which makes him enjoyable unfortunately the same cannot be said of the other incongruities the entire feel of the movie is and seems to pay comical homage to a dozen or so films that have come before it this results in a significant amount of parody which contrasts sharply with the threat of the monster and ends up just producing a mess most of the characters seem to be there for comic relief and almost none are smart enough for the audience to take seriously although emmerich obviously wanted to make a fun action picture what good is it to sink millions into a cgi creature whose ferocity is undermined by the humans he threatens if we can't take the characters seriously the threat they face is an empty one because we simply don't care what happens to them godzilla simply pulls too many punches in its attempt to be a film more than it should be far be it from me to want to see more carnage in the theaters but here's a behemoth running through the city there's bound to be a lot of casualties but instead godzilla is afflicted with the g i joe cartoon syndrome where almost everyone seems to get out of harm's way just in time in a couple of scenes godzilla briefly breathes fire none of the characters even remark upon this ability nor is it used to any particular advantage by the filmmakers it's as if the special effects people just wanted to show that yes godzilla can do this just like in the old movie consider another punch pulled through creative script writing you can make a sequel out of just about any movie but the final scene in this one doesn't just leave the door open it opens into a hallway leading directly into a room where godzilla ii is waiting patiently it made me want to gag emmerich should have done away with of the humor and and played this one as a straight action film with an intelligently written screenplay godzilla could have been so much more however by confusing the viewer with a ton of and parodies the movie ends up being something that just doesn't work now if they only had raymond burr
negative	before the remake of psycho appears we've got to suffer through this remake of an earlier hitchcock film dial m for murder as usual hollywood has filled it with glitz and big name stars and it all amounts to a loud sounding nothing the film opens with emily paltrow and david viggo mortensen fun' in an loft apartment the problem is paltrow is married to stephen douglas who is not too happy when he discovers this affair if i was paltrow though i'd definitely go with mortensen less wrinkles anyhow stephen approaches david with an interesting proposition he'll pay him to kill his lovely wife mortensen agrees but the murder goes awry and the twists keep on coming as the film progresses unfortunately the film dosen't progress very fast in fact it moves like a tortoise with arthritis read very very the plot moves nowhere fast and only becomes exciting in very short bursts not too good for a also the performances apart from douglas are below par paltrow showing immense talent in and sliding doors is strangely stilted even unconvincing in this movie mortensen is a little bit better coming across as a younger douglas but his role isn't meaty enough to show all his talent which leaves douglas to waltz away with the film which is does however i doubt douglas finds it very hard to play a stogie smoking drinking womanizer with a creepy underside also popping up in the film is david suchet playing a shifty looking detective again it's not a character we're seeing on the screen it's david suchet the director who bought us the fugitive piles on all the flash techniques such as quick cuts etc the lighting is also interesting however looks can't save this film from the depths of mediocre and the film seemed to work better in a single set anyway the screenplay is o k but there's some hackneyed about douglas being a ruthless player on wall street again and the ending is surprisingly stupid and cliched the characters also make incredibly dumb moves especially paltrow and stephen appears to lose all intelligence in the last reel with a combination of no tension drama or decent characters a perfect murder is a failure all round and an incredible disappointment there are a few bright moments but they are far and few between the last thing a thriller should be is boring and although the film just barely manages to keep your interest thanks to michael douglas you wouldn't be missing anything if you decided not to watch a perfect murder overall review by david wilcock you know for kids norville barnes
negative	coinciding with the emerging popularity of movies that deal with anything related to serial killers relentless low budget thriller about lapd detective sam dietz played by character actor leo rossi spawned three more sequels relentless third in the row features sam dietz again but this time detective who had to catch vicious serial killer in his very first case doesn't want to deal with similar line of work divorced demoralised and transferred he reluctantly returns to his old post when los angeles becomes a hunting ground for another serial killer and evidence indicate connection with one of dietz's old cases to make things even more interesting it seems that the killer deliberately stages murders in order to bring dietz to the investigation fans of the british tv films and like prime suspect or cracker would probably see a lot of similarities relentless series of movies they both feature vicious psychopathic killers yet also give a lot of usually depressive details about chief investigator's private lives this one isn't an exception but similarities with british television are only in content the execution and style is different which makes this film mediocre piece of entertainment at best useless gratuitous erotica also doesn't help either obviously making this film longer than it should be the actors are good though leo rossi is fine as usual and william forsythe plays one of more compelling villains in his career signy coleman as dietz's love interest is on the other hand quite miscast but she won't have to worry about it in the future career since relentless wasn't supposed to be anybody's finest moment anyway
negative	edward burns tackles his third picture with no looking back and like his previous two it is a relationship picture however unlike his previous work the film dwells on a more personal story and with a female protagonist and in no looking back he stumbles making a slow boring film without the spark that enlivened his previous work claudia lauren holly is a small town waitress who is feeling stifled by her life she's at a turning point in her life and feels as if she's going nowhere her boyfriend michael jon bon jovi is broke and in a dead end job if she were to marry him she'd never get a chance to escape this town enter charlie edward burns claudia's old flame he skipped town several years before without any explanations even for claudia he has come back to town to see her and suddenly she is torn should she stay with stable michael and never escape her hometown or should she ignore her instincts and fall for charlie again part of the answer lies in the character of her mother blythe danner who fell for the wrong man and has spent her life pining for claudia's father to return now it seems that claudia is about to make the same mistakes at only a little past ninety minutes no looking back is rather short for its genre unfortunately it seems much much longer the storyline is simple and uninspired and there's a lack of energy to the whole proceedings which makes the entire drama rather tedious edward burns makes a misstep by casting himself in the crucial role as the egomaniacal old flame there's no one to restrain his ego which reigns unchecked he walks into the room and lauren holly swoons yeah right lauren holly does what she can with her central character but we never understand why her character makes such pathetically bad decisions and we never really care bon jovi is the only sympathetic character in the whole movie his acting talents are much greater than they might seem but he is given a mostly bland and ineffective role to work with there's not much to recommend in no looking back it's not that the film is bad it's simply boring there's no zest in any aspect of the film and no reason to spend ninety minutes watching it
negative	i don't expect much from eddie murphy these days for the past four years the gods of the expansive payrolls of studio allowed him to make one bad movie after another such films as metro doctor dolittle holy man life and bowfinger have reduced a once great comedic persona to a living and breathing hack performing as a studio puppet for century fox and universal pictures the biggest shame to fall on his shoulders is his newest film nutty professor ii the klumps the klumps once again revisits the life of sherman klump an overweight university science professor looking for love in all the wrong places sherman has just invented a new youth drink that enables man or beast to become younger for a short period of time janet jackson is the love interest who chooses the lovable sherman for a soul mate rather than excel at her career as a university professor and for the most ridiculous reasons with love on his mind sherman is determined to rid himself of his alter ego buddy love from the first professor who still resides with vigor inside his psyche and causes sherman to act like a bad imitation of vince vaughn from swingers with some convoluted about dna extraction sherman extracts the buddy love link in his dna and smartly deposits buddy into a lab beaker but one night the beaker is knocked over and buddy love is regenerated because every movie like this needs an unnecessary villain to thwart the good guy then the klump family all played by eddie murphy step in for some comedic relief involving old people having sex flabby breasts a slew of fart and dick jokes and enough fat people jokes that i lost count after the first thirty minutes and did i mention the part where larry miller gets anally raped by an overgrown hamster the movie finally dissolves into a really bad hallmark family special about realizing who you are and what you can be in this world with enough soft lighting and people on the verge of tears in every scene pure and simple the klumps is a failure its script was handled by not one but five screenwriters and it really shows during the awkward transitions between scenes any sense of story and plot were lost in the rewrite process it's more discerning to learn that chris weitz and paul weitz the team behind one of the funniest films of the last decade american pie have their names stamped to this trash hey guys quick note keep this movie off of your resumes the characterization of sherman's family the klumps is one of the most ignorant stereotypes of a black family i have ever seen in cinema everyone member of the family is a large person who wipes the bins clean at a local buffet restaurant like pigs at a trough the grandma is an oversexed fiend who constantly talks of ways to pleasure her man and her sagging breasts the father is gruff is fired from a job is sexually inadequate and cannot communicate with his family about his feelings the mother is ignorant of all the negativity around her and seems to hold no opinion about anything or anyone the brother is silent and brooding and resembles the ice cube gangster character from boyz in the hood sherman himself is terribly insecure and never conveys anything for the audience to become attached to but the main problem with the film is its inability to create any type of convincing conversational or situational comedy the family scenes from the first nutty professor worked so well because their conversations were short and direct and you got the feeling that these crass people couldn't act like this all the time the sequel does the reverse and drives the negatives of the klumps right in to the hilt making the first five minutes of their interaction enjoyable and the last or so unbearable and pathetic after a while their conversations just become a barrage of frustrated anger tinged with indecency and overworked premises that end up drawing energy away from any type of empathy one might feel for the central themes of the story its also a damn shame that the makeup magic of rick baker who worked on the original nutty professor and won an academy award for his work on an american werewolf in london and amazing digital special effects that enabled murphy to interact with himself in such beautiful motions are built around such a lame story line even the best effects can't seem to save the most pathetic of movies these days now that i think about it the worst thing about this film has to be all the money that it will make people will be lined up around the block for it the studios will concoct the a sequel for release in the summer of eddie murphy will be signed up to take not just one role or five roles but he'll play every character in the movie i just can't wait to see eddie murphy in a love scene with himself
negative	brian de palma the director who bought us carrie dressed to kill and mission impossible is back and has bought all his technical expertise with him sadly he forget to bring a good story and believable characters nic cage plays rick santaro a fast talking cop who is watching a boxing match with his friend commander kevin dunne sinise an assassination takes place and santaro tries to peace together how it took place trying to work out the roles of the people involved in this conspiracy the film uses flashbacks and video cameras to bring the mystery together however the film doesn't keep the mystery for long and once the big is out concerning kevin dunne the film is at a dead end although there are some fantastic shots by de palma including a minute steadicam shot at the start of the film halfway through the film drops dead the problem is that de palma doesn't have a strong story or characters to work with he tries to offshoot this with flashy camera techniques but pretty soon this has no effect on the audience and i quickly got bored nic cage and gary sinise try to inject some life into some poorly realised characters but it's no use they are boring faceless and completely unlikeable yes another problem with the film is that there's to root for we're supposed to be on cage's side because his character becomes nicer throughout the film however his change is sadly unbelievable poor gary sinise's character is terrible who completely changes throughout the start the middle and the end in an appalling way the film's use of flashback quickly gets boring while clever and interesting the first few times it quickly becomes apparent that flashbacks are being used because the film has nowhere to go they certainly don't increase the tension or suspense of the movie there is small thread of suspense running through the film but it certainly doesn't make this film a powerhouse thriller rather just a slightly below average one the script is lousy and contrived the characters flat and two dimensional certainly not good factors for a film passing itself off for a thriller the most depressing aspect of the film is that it had potential there's a good story buried in snake eyes it's just bogged down in razzle dazzle and flashbacks it also gives itself away far too quickly rather than leaving the big twist for the end while the performances are intriguing especially by newcomer carla gugino as a sexy cruncher' wrapped up in the case there's no way of altering the fact that snake eyes is a terminal case of style of substance and unless you're a big fan of either cage or flash directing should be avoided a david wilcock review you know for kids norville barnes
negative	it's now the anniversary of the slayings of julie james' jennifer love hewitt best friends still besieged by nightmarish memories of the man responsible for it all she seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown she can't concentrate on her schoolwork can't get a good night's sleep and is even frightened by the shadows and the blinking strobe lights at a local dance club everywhere she looks she sees visions of the man in a rubber slicker with the hook on his hand in the first movie know what you did last summer' julie and three of her friends accidentally kill a man running him down while driving down a dark mountain highway to cover their misdeed they dump the body into the ocean however he never quite died and returned to hunt down julie and her friends julie and one other ray freddie prinze jr survived only to make this dismal sequal needing some desparate rest and relaxation she is elated to learn that her college roommate karla brandy has won a trip for four to a secluded tropical island accompanying these two girls are karla's overbearing boyfriend tyrell mehki phifer and a potential beau for julie but was this contest too good to be true the resort is filled with a skeleton staff that seemed like love boat rejects meanwhile the hotel is practically deserted as the storm season is about to begin this presumably creates a venue where they will be secluded and will have no possible means off the island eventually they will be hunted down during power outages and chased around during intense lightning storms as you might have guessed somewhere in the shadows lurk a mysteriously strange figure that is wearing a rubber slicker and wielding a hook julie tries to convince her friends that the killer is on the island an eerie touch is when she is singing i will survive at the karaoke bar and the words scroll i still know but her friends chalk it up to paranoia but the body count soon starts to rise and for julie it's going to be the worst vacation of her life the funny yes i used the word thing about this movie is that i heard more chortling and giggling maybe it was my giggling than i heard screaming this movie boils down to a mindless slashfest that never conjures up any amount of wry wit or even a quirky campiness there isn't even any suspense that leads up to the deaths here's an appropriate example  housekeeping says the diminuitive cleaning lady the door suddenly opens up slash next victim is there any reason to go and see this movie not unless you want to see four uninteresting college kids run around in circles for about minutes but i do want to say one thing about this movie that satisfied me i was thoroughly irritated with tyrell who incessantly ranted and raved about his sexual libido i secretly wished for him to get filleted did he get well let's just say that if he didn't i would give this film a grade of d
negative	lucas was wise to start his star wars trilogy with episode episode is a boring empty spectacle that features some nice special effects after the familiar long time ago opening the film starts with the opening yellow crawl that features in every star wars movie and computer game the plot is that the trade confederation are blocking off supplies to the peaceful planet of naboo ruled by queen amidala portman jedi knights neeson and obi wan mcgregor are sent to negotiate a deal with the confederation to stop the blockade however this simple blockade is not all it seems and the jedi knights soon have to deal with many more dangers including facing the evil darth maul ray park they also meet the future darth vadar anakin skywalker jake lloyd star wars is largely a failure in all the major areas of filmmaking script direction and characters the script desperately tries to make an thin and boring story into a two hour epic the trade confederation plot is just not as exciting as the death star and as the film goes on the drama becomes more and more there's no underlying tension and no urgent need to see what the outcome is the film also takes a leisurely pace in telling the boring story which doesn't help there's no snap to make the film work it moves at a plod the script is boring all the characters speak in morals especially anakins mother there's no group spirit evident here and when all characters can speak only in profound statements or bark orders it's evident that not much is going to happen the two leads are hideously boring static characters given little to do and too much time to do it and hold no presence on film and give little for the audience to root for the audience will probably warm more to bad guy darth maul if he had been given more screen time maul is one of the most underused bad guys in film history even if he does provide the only plot line in the film all the other plots in this film are to be concluded throughout the trilogy anakin is annoying and unlikeable instead of cute and huggable as lucas no doubt intended it's probably not surprising that his hateful little boy unfortunately blessed by everyone he knows joins the dark side and kills everyone as quickly as possible the comedy relief is supposedly provided by the gangly jar jar brinks although in the end none is provided in the film by him although his floppy features will no doubt be great for stuffed toys the lines and actions he is given are painfully unfunny the only good laugh is when his tongue is burned by a racer because i knew he wouldn't be able to talk for a while queen amidala is a nothing in the film she serves no real purpose apart from the fact that she must her people and go over anakin again her role will become more important in the later episodes and is given little to do here the actors don't help the movie much either liam neeson seems bored and embarrassed and seems desperate to leave the movie as quickly as possible mcgregor comes across as a posh mothers boy with little charm the casting director must have chose him because he's scottish like alec guinness there's little other explanation for it natalie portman is plagued by hideous costumes and a poor script but she delivers a spunky performance and jake lloyd looks at everyone with hateful eyes and delivers his lines in a bored voice there's very little talent evident with him it's hard to see why lucas chose him when there are better child actors out there he's not even very the main claim of the film the special effects are okay there's nothing impressive about them yet they complement the story well the cgi takes away much of the human element however the battle droids for example the replacement for the stormtroopers are characterless little computer graphics lacking the humour and humanness that came from the stormtroopers episode is just disappointing it's got high production values but little else the music is meandering except near the end the plot gives us to root for or even care for the effects are nice but dull the plot goes on for half an hour longer than it should there's an air of manufacturing among the whole sorry affair and many clich s are catered for throughout the film apart from a remotely exciting pod race sequence episode is a dry affair that serves little purpose except to make money and to get us to watch episode to see what happens to the many unfinished plot lines in the film disappointing is barely the word 
negative	five girls spend a day in a closed building doing inventory when a strange box gets delivered there is this starting to sound familiar by mistake the girls accidentlly open the box big surprise huh and release an evil spirit of a killer that kills the girls off one by one betcha didn't see that one coming hard to die i found out while watching the film is a sequel to sorority house massacre nightie nightmare r a m r  two of the actresses from sorority house massacre are in this film robyn harris and melissa moore but they play different characters here orville ketchum is also back as get ready for this orville ketchum yes the same character from number two yes he is also built like a tank in this film too i'm telling you a nuclear bomb detonated next to this man wouldn't harm him at all the before mentioned three were the only actors from part two that i thought could act well they seemed to have lost that ability thankfully for my sanity i also saw the film warlock which undid all the ill effects that i got from this film the story for this film is completely ridiculous and has many elements from many cheapo low budget horror flicks any good moments that this film fails to make are even more destroyed by the story line the film is so pathetically predictable that every moment has already been figured out analyzed and discarded before it happens there is no point in this film that any suspense is ever afoot while we are on the subject of the story the story also provides every chance it can to disrobe an actress the film goes to the extent of putting a shower in the manager's office i'm sorry folks but this is completely unnecessary ridiculous and hurts the story more if that is still possible the script for this film is completely pathetic the lines the actresses come out with are completely horrible the only thing that i think could have happened is that the actors made up the script as they went along here is an example of the wonderful dialog the scene is two girls have just entered a gun store and have picked out a really big gun the line is my dad used to be a marine i bet i can work it this line has got to be a contender for the bad line hall of infamy now we fast forward for a few minutes until just after a big plan has been presented one comment from an actress is not a lot of strategy involved but i like it i'm afraid folks that this is about as good as they get now lets talk about the great special effects for this film this obviously wasn't a big concern of the film makers the killing scenes are so obviously faked that they go to the point of threatening the viewer's intelligence a girl gets hacked with a knife and enough blood comes out to do one friday the movie are we trying to see how unrealistic we can get the continuity department was obviously asleep along with the viewers when watching this film in one shot actress has cloths on camera angle changes actress seems to have lost clothing very impressive trick the one half plus that this film has going for it is that in many places it is unintentionally hilarious the incompetence behind the film makes it incredibly funny and so the viewer can get some enjoyment from the film however this doesn't make it worth the rental fee of over a penny in the acting department the only thing i can say is two thumbs squared and one head down i would normally do a detailed paragraph on this topic but there is no point here because there is nobody that i was impressed with in the least oh well win some lose some
negative	the first film produced by adam sandler's happy madison production company clever title eh is essentially a one joke movie much like the movies sandler stars in himself however the difference here is that this one joke just isn't very funny rob schneider stars as the title character a scruffy fish tank cleaner who ends up becoming a to raise enough money to replace a wealthy client's custom made fish tank which deuce destroyed while staying in his home deuce goes on numerous dates and each woman he goes out with has a humorous quirk about herself one has narcolepsy one has tourette's syndrome one is a man etc etc my problem is that we see all of these women in the film's trailer so why do i need to watch the movie seen the trailer seen the film only a quick cameo from norm macdonald and a follow up joke during the closing credits generates any chuckles deuce bigalow male gigolo is available on dvd from touchstone home video a division of the disc includes the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of and features the original theatrical trailer as well as trailers for mystery alaska happy texas and outside providence an extremely brief production featurette which contains footage not used in the film and comparisons yep you read that right there are storyboard comparisons on this dvd two scenes are storyboarded neither of which are particularly exciting there are fight scenes in this movie so why aren't we seeing storyboards of those segments especially the parody moments from the matrix i wonder what's funnier the fact that any moment in this film required storyboards or that thought fans of this film would want to see them deleted scenes sure audio commentary you betcha but storyboards come on 
negative	tectonic plates is an incredibly painful motion picture experience that nearly prompted me to walk out minutes into the movie the film which opened in canada during but was never released in the united states is based on a stage play by canadian auteur robert lapage and while it's evident that this could be a fascinating live production the translation to the screen is a creative disaster enduring tectonic plates is like sitting through a filmed version of performance art lifeless and tedious the qualities that make it captivating when seen in person are effaced in the motion picture medium tectonic plates has a storyline although the narrative is developed in a decidedly fashion with shots of the stagebound play intercut with more typical cinematic sequences it's not an inherently uninteresting way to present a movie despite the valid complaint that it is pretentious look art although it keeps the audience distanced from the characters because we're constantly made aware that we're watching a play or a movie it's impossible to accept these individuals as anything more than mouthpieces for the writer's ideas they're not real sympathetic or believable i'm willing to give director peter mettler credit for trying something different but this particular experiment is not a success tectonic plates opens by introducing us to madeleine marie gignac an art student studying in montreal who has fallen in love with her professor jacques lapage one day he disappears and fearing that he left because she was undeserving of his love madeleine travels to venice to kill herself while preparing to commit suicide she encounters drug addict constance celine bonnier who causes madeleine to her decision meanwhile jacques has moved to new york city where he starts calls himself jennifer and becomes a successful talkshow host with settings that shift from paris to venice to montreal to manhattan to scotland supporting characters that include a topless goddess and a and cultural references that point to chopin george sand and jim morrison tectonic plates is unique if nothing else however as interesting as the film sounds and i was excited to see it because the synopsis is promising it never really delivers the tone is soporific the prattle is inane and uninteresting the plot meanders in a pointless and irritating manner although it doesn't take long for the viewer to determine that the story is largely unimportant and the symbolism is obvious tectonic plates is trying to show that human interaction is as volatile as unpredictable as the shifting of the earth but it takes minutes to get across this transparent point there are some worthwhile moments such as a silly sword fight between jacques and the topless goddess and an entertaining discussion in both french and english about the differences between the two languages although the fine points will certainly be lost on those who aren't bilingual the only people likely to enjoy tectonic plates are those who feel a strong need to praise something this rootless and boring because a it's different b it's not like anything they've seen before and c it's pretentious for everyone else it's not only a waste of time but a poor introduction to the work of robert lapage
negative	various films seen at the seattle film festival it's all men on a raft u s a director orson welles a recently uncovered of orson welle's planned of amazing stories around the world named it's all true this short dealt with welle's attempts to document the actions of several brazilian fisherman in who had become folk heroes for their fantastic voyage to rio on a raft while several clips of the film are seen the short tends to spend more time trying to recount welle's attempts to film it despite studio problems a staggering workload and extremely ill fortune on the set impressive photography but really only interesting to film historians sadie thompson u s a director raoul walsh screenwriter raoul walsh from the john colton play rain based on w somerset maugham's story miss thompson cast gloria swanson raoul walsh lionel barrymore silent after the discussion of the version of frank capra's lost horizon where several scenes had been restored using stills i was interested to see sadie thompson where the last minutes of the film had been destroyed many years ago this is the silent version of the somerset maugham short story miss thompson this is one of the most skillful silent films i have ever awkwardness and a very clever script the actors gloria swanson raoul walsh who also directed and wrote the screenplay and especially lionel barrymore as the hypocritical reformer who supposedly wants to save sadie's soul but really wants to get her between the sheets is the absolute epitome of sanctimonious scoundrel swanson adds real life to the character adding an worldly affectionate air to the bawdy sadie unfortunately the ending is rather poorly tied up it is difficult to know whether this is due to the lack of film or the original script the happy ending seems particularly poorly tied on i cannot believe maugham's short story ended with sadie and our hero moving to australia the stills are expected to fill in a conclusion we've been waiting an hour and a half for still it's entertaining right up to the end certainly barrymore's incredibly hammy performance which nonetheless works perhaps due to the silent screen is a must for anyone who is fed up with the actions of the falwells bakkers and robertses of the religious worlds a c movie worth if you can find it the pied piper czechoslovakia director jim barta screenwriter kamil piza this is an animated film from czechoslovakia that is definitely not for kids it tells the old folk tale of the pied piper with a twist ending i find highly appropriate and with a lot of political comment along with it perhaps economic content is a better certainly doesn't show capitalism in a good light nor human nature nor anything else for that matter as you may have guessed this is not a tgif film this is the kind of film you are glad is over not that it wasn't interesting for technical reasons this is that is very well done all the puppets have been carefully carved out of for the animated stuffed rats boy sounds like a real comedy vehicle doesn't it add onto that set design that makes the cabinet of doctor caligari absolutely cheerful in comparison and you have something to give the wee ones and some of the mentally unstable larger folk to keep them up at night some gore don't bring children to this one don't bring adults to this one unless they're fascinated by puppetry hate capitalism so badly they enjoy seeing wooden puppets raped blech no fun whatsoever meier west germany peter timm cast rainier grenkowitz nadja engelbrecht alexander hauff thomas besvater this film takes us back and forth over the east german border with meier an east german wallpaperer whose father in the west dies and leaves him a good deal of money his uncle also in the west sneaks meier out of the country unknown to the east germans meier however is less than his girlfriend his friends and his job which he likes all exist in east germany after a trip his boss think's he's on leave in bulgaria meier starts visiting east germany on day visas with a fake id and uses his money and his connections to the west to buy his girlfriend presents and bring credit to his work crew's everyone think's he's still living in east germany of course something goes the ending is very funny but it takes the film too long to get there the humor is spread too thin and much of the plot is too obvious as is the acting still a good concept for the comedy and the last five minutes are pretty funny c the right hand man australia director di drew screenplay helen hodgman cast rupert everett hugo weaving arthur dignam jennifer claire catherine mcclements after a lifetime of and about four years of attending the seattle international film festival i've learned several rules which while not absolute should certainly be given deference to be wary of french comedies these people like jerry lewis ken russell is never going to grow up no matter how long you wait any film where siff associate director gary tucker refers to the lead as old is probably not worth watching when an australian film only awards credit is best cinematography watch out australia has good cinematographers up the whazoo but since weir and miller left for foreign shores finding a good script or director seems to be a difficult not malcolm last year task well i ignored rules last night and sat through a film that should be in the golden turkey awards it's as if the director was trying to do one of those classic romance stories that were done in the about tragedy among the gentry and falling in love with people below your station and horses lots and lots of horses the film opens with a stallion mounting a mare under the direction of her ladyship which i guess is some kind of foreshadowing because the missus of the house wants to have her son produce an heir unfortunately said son a reckless idiot who faints at the very worst times kills his father and loses an arm during a racing accident highlights include the amputation sequence the doctor's daughter who has the hots for the son tasting his urine for a diagnosis their tender kissing with a window between them while it's think a woman studying medicine would know better the photography is good but i kept wishing for seems anyway actually i wished i was watching swimming to cambodia instead but that's life grade z avoid like the plague unless you're looking for inadvertent yuks
negative	capsule the weakest and least engaging of the alien movies dragged down by an uninvolving story and no real tension alien the should be in superscript is a sad and wan entry in what was shaping up as one of the best sf sagas ever put on screen it continues the story of ripley the but seems remarkably uninterested in her in fact the movie seems lucky to be interested in anything at all it's so elegaic and limp a little of this would have been nice for atmosphere but the movie telegraphs its own tragedy from the beginning at the end of the last film aliens ripley and two survivors were on their way home unfortunately an alien pod had been deposited in their ship and wound up triggering off their ejection in an escape pod the pod crashes on firorina a prison planet designed to house the incurably criminally violent ripley lives through the crash the others do not the prison is a grim place even as prisons go it's been built around the remnants of an abandoned steelworks which provides no end of backdrops for the actors to be backlit against lice are endemic and so ripley's head is shaved another surreal touch at first it looks like she just has to hold out as an unwelcome guest until a company rescue ship can arrive but it doesn't stay that way one of the other eggs on board the wrecked escape pod hatches and soon a alien is running amuck worse it looks like ripley herself has been impregnated what's weird is how little tension this generates except near the end when the pressure is being troweled on through every cheap cinematic form of cheating imaginable loud music shaky camerawork etc sigourney weaver has become comfortable with the role and she does well with it but this time the role has been underwritten and left slack the supporting actors are also not given a lot to do the doctor charles dance and another rather religious inmate charles s dutton very good hiave presence but they're not asked to do anything with it in light of the impending sequel which apparently plays fast and loose with the ending of this movie i will not talk about the ending except to say that they found a remarkably good ending for such a drab movie it's strange that some of the desperate and improvisational thinking that they found to wind up this story couldn't have driven the rest of it
negative	from the director of the nightmare before christmas it said in the previews which i'm guessing was said to get people to go see the movie obviously it hasn't worked since the million dollar movie has yet to break million to each it's own however since monkey bone is not only a bad movie all together but technically a tragic waste of talent and incredible visual effects stu miley is the genius behind the new phenomena monkey bone a crude comic strip that everyone wants to merchandise they go to great links to get it as well including dollars that let out fart powder when stu and his girlfriend julie bridget fonda are in a freak car accident you'll see stu goes into a coma and while in his coma stu travels to i'm guessing dark town where all the characters in dreams come to life people are stuck in this town with their nightmares roaming around them when stu spots monkey bone whom he really can't stand he tries to keep him under control making a new friend kitty rose mcgowan he learns that if he gets an exit pass from death he can go back up and live his life when monkey bone and stu steal a pass monkey bone becomes a trader and takes it and goes into stu's body now monkey bone must get everyone to buy these dolls with nightmare powder so everyone has nightmares or something like that rather complex in fact more than it needs to be monkey bone had potential in the script and even the story what is considerably noticeable is the gaping plot holes and lack of character development for instance we really don't get to know who stu or julie are so why should we even care kitty played well by rose mcgowan ha a story behind her but we are not given a chance to know her the cast is decent however brendan fraser seems to be enjoying himself in the role as stu miley but becomes awfully annoying when monkey bone takes over his body bridget fonda is dreary and seems to bring the film to a screeching halt her performance is bad and she seems miscast dave foley isn't given enough to do as well as will grace's megan mullally who can be funny the standout performance is the voice of nick turturro as monkey bone himself he is very funny and entertaining and really keeps the film from being a total bust the special effects of monkey bone is what might really bring in some curious viewers these special effects are highly effective and nice to look at with the eyes some of them are believable and some unbelievable for monkey bone he seems to be like stuart little you really don't realize that he is animated but on occasion it sneaks up on you the direction by henry selick is good but at times he doesn't know what kind of film he wants to make and the ending climax falls off the cliff it's too bad really monkey bone could have been a real good movie but with it's heavily done hack job and lack of character development it just sinks when the end credits role for those curious however it might be worth the rental but other than that avoid this one
negative	numerous comparisons can be made with this movie to past suspense thrillers soldier is a multi crossbreed between the likes of terminator aliens and offspring the problem with such mixed genes is that the final product is a real mongrel not well made and should have been put down before production got off the ground besides this the action is mediocre when compared to the standard action flicks of this day and age the fight scenes between jason scott lee and kurt russell seem laboured slow and sluggish and could have done with better choreography russell who is usually a good actor in action flicks is unusually hampered by his character sergeant todd who seems more like a sergeant toad besides having almost no dialogue his character appears stunted which is in line with his screen persona but scores little points of empathy with the audience this movie has not made me change my opinion about director paul anderson whose last epic event horizon has left an unusually bitter taste in my mouth although this movie does not come anywhere close to the strangeness of former it is still a long way from anything considered desirable
negative	a documentary from the twin hughes brothers allen and albert dead presidents menace ii society about street pimps all of whom are an offscreen interviewer questions them about their lives and profession it is mostly the pimps who do the talking for their ho's and the egotistical and flamboyant way you would expect them to be is what you get i learned that the word bitch is their favorite word as it seemed to crop up in every sentence they used it makes for a film with no surprises or nothing fresh to say but if one has a sense a humor for what their lifestyle is about then some of what they rap about might seem amusing they seem to all want to be thought of as businessmen in the business because it is the easiest way for them to make big money it's also a power trip accomplished by manipulating the girls to work for them mostly by humiliating them and keeping them in place this sleazy pic soon became grating and wore out its welcome to my unreceptive ears these verbose pimps had a smart answer for everything and never knew when to shut their face the hughes brothers used as their pimp role models the diamond gold chain wearing flashy pimp of the late blaxploitation the mack and willie dynamite also used as reference was iceberg slim's pimp the story of my life we meet pimps such as fillmore slim charm gorgeous dre bishop don magic juan and rosebudd they readily discuss their business arrangements including percentages lifestyles knockin stealing another pimp's ho and the thrill they get from women giving them money these dudes needed no prompting to talk as they just love to brag about about themselves priests need nuns yaps a san francisco pimp doctors need nurses so ho's need pimps as he tries to persuasively make the same case all the other pimps in the film make that the girls need them to show them the ropes how to make money to be their security blankets protectors and counselors the race issue was brought up right from the film's onset as a number of white interviewees regular citizens note that their impression of a pimp is that he's the lowest form of human while we are told in the black community the pimp is looked upon as a successful entrepenaur riding around in fancy cars flashing wads of money dressed in a flamboyant style where his shoes might cost him a grand and where he boasts hollywood style status in the community we also see that the black pimps have a number of white girls in their stable and we see how they treat them like dirt as the film implies that this could be payback for the days of slavery of master and slave relations the film was all about pimp style and their projected image as they run a riff about the virtues of their work there are different styles of pimping but the film mentions them only as being macks and players or real pimps and perpetrator pimps but no further clarity is attempted it is also failed to get the women's side to this story of abuse primarily taking the pimp at his word the film could never get to the core of what makes the pimp think in such a perverted way as he does as the filmmakers were taking for a ride by the pimps who were looking only to pose in front of the camera and say their thing hungry for their of fame the only laughs i got out of this bleak look at an american subculture was hearing how a few pimps retired and what they are now up to danny brown became a blues singer so he could keep his pimp's wardrobe while a hollywood pimp called rosebudd married his ho and turned square working to support his wife and daughter as a telemarketer
negative	gord brody tom green is an aspiring animator approaching thirty who still lives in parents jim rip torn and julie's julie hagerty airplane basement as dad declares all out war gord secures a job in a cheese sandwich factory in far off la and sets off to make his dreams come true gord doesn't make much of a go on his first attempt and lands back home with fawning mom and outraged dad in freddy got fingered tom green cowrites with tom green show scribe derek harvie directs and stars in what is essentially tom green's primal scream so if tom green screams in an empty theater does he make a sound it's clear that freddy got fingered is at least partially autobiographical and green sure has one hell of a complex about his dad mom gets off easier when sonny boy advises her to go out and have sex with basketball players and greeks while this may be of interest to his hard core fans there's little about green's mania on display here to recommend this movie to anyone else the film starts promisingly enough with a well executed skateboarding scene through a shopping mall set to the sex pistols' green's put together a first rate soundtrack and yes i laughed a few times green's flummoxing of a security guard with psychotic ramblings and his attempt to draw make music and eat at the same time the would you like some sausages' scene repeatedly shown in the film's trailer are inspired comedy but what's funny about a paraplegic girlfriend who gets turned on by having her legs caned or a skateboarding injury that results in an exposed kneecap a baby delivery bit shows some promise until enough blood is splattered to coagulate the laughs younger by three years brother freddy's internment at the institute for sexually abused children does nothing but confirm one's worst fears regarding the film's title and green's infamous of a real horse while not nearly as shocking as it would seem doesn't make sense by the time he repeats the gag with an elephant at film's end the overall effect is numbness while freddy got fingered has the admirable end result of depicting the harm in demeaning a child's self esteem it's essentially a whole lot of tom green running around being noisy rip torn what were you thinking
negative	much ado about nothing ah how sweet the irony it's accepted wisdom in some circles among english literature nuts mainly that whenever a critic knocks shakespeare they are only doing so through ignorance he just doesn't understand shakespeare you will hear them say the bard's work is apparently beyond criticism what a load of old cobblers if these arbiters of public taste think kenneth branaugh's film of shakespeare's comedy much ado about nothing is comedy in any modern sense of the word it's time to get a life get monty python get woody allen get john waters whatever just get a real taste of some clever witty risky comedy and banish this nonsense to where it belongs drama and tragedy was shakespeare's strength to my sensibilities and i'm no stick in the mud much ado about nothing resonates with no spark whatsoever no kidding this film ranks among the most embarrassing two hours i have ever spent in a cinema in my years of movie going the only thing that stopped me walking out was loyalty to my lady friend as this was our day out and i hadn't seen her in ages but boy does she owe me one i won't spend too much time on the plot basically we follow the trials and tribulations of two couples one young the other older there's some dark treachery amongst all this but everyone is so awfully jolly that you'd hardly know it mind you there's nothing wrong with the basic story good romantic comedies based on similar premises abound nothing wrong with most of the cast either branaugh emma thompson and denzel washington are all talented performers the problem is the script or more accurately shakespeare's original text light comedy shouldn't be complex yet wrapped in elizabethan english the dialogue becomes difficult to comprehend for this alone it will be a problem for modern audiences unschooled in shakespeare and in search of nothing more than a good undemanding laugh the only laughs to escape my belly were brought on by the gloriously inept performance of keanu reeves the actor once again miscast as a jealous or something but when dissected and understood what it all boils down to is that this stuff is just so goddamn lame this is comedy so clean and nice and corny and so devoid of danger that it leaves this viewer totally cold ho ho ho boy likes girl ho ho ho men are such klutzes ho ho ho she's so awfully clumsy oh please there's wit in here somewhere i'm told i call it pretentious something lightweight striving to be something sophisticated through clever wordplay in the end it's cringeworthy watching some of the cinema patrons around me collapse with laughter made much ado about nothing a very weird movie going experience comedy bah humbug
negative	another formula good' quirky comedy from the british isles much like waking ned devine and a host of other popular low budget movies that turned a nifty profit off a thin story line it is filled with likable establishment types living in a quaint town such as tolerant vicars and policemen plenty of eccentrics and of locals who stick together through thick and thin the strength of this film lies in its rational theme that smoking pot should be legalized since it is even less dangerous than drinking alcohol the film is tolerable until after its first hour it then falls completely apart becoming just too absurd to consider as anything but sitcom fluff gone completely bananas but its long overdue message of decriminalization for certain drugs is on target and allows the film to at least be viewed as containing a pertinent message its message is especially appropriate nowadays considering the on drugs' is about to be escalated into colombia the drug war has been a total failure so far and with no hope of it being won by law enforcement methods in the future it has so far just ended up causing america's jails to be overcrowded with drug prisoners and offers zero hope of curtailing america's drug usage and drug supply billions of dollars have just been allocated by congress to get officially involved in the colombian civil war by backing a corrupt government remember vietnam with the idea that military might could stop the cocaine and marijuana harvests in that country everything about this proposed action smacks of vietnam with this scenario closer to home so what probably awaits such an effort is a more futile result than the other war the film's mild theme of showing squares getting into the weed business and finding it acceptable by the public something that should have been accepted some years ago is a theme long overdue for public acceptance but one that is better received late than never there has to be some common sense in distinguishing what drugs should be legalized and how to educate the public on this rather than making it a police matter altogether the film opens in a quaint cornish seaside village at the funeral of the husband of a woman grace brenda blethyn who fell out of an airplane evidently committing suicide the widow soon finds out her husband was a bigger bastard than she imagined he left her with a stack of enormous bills and put up without her knowledge their comfortable year old house as collateral for a failed business venture by taking out a second mortgage the widow finds herself bankrupt and with no marketable skills to pay back her husband's enormous debts and prevent her from losing the house and becoming homeless she also knows that he was having an affair with a sophisticated woman from london honey quick what makes the affair doubly unsatisfying is that when conferring with honey she finds out that he was a tiger with her in bed but refrained from having sex with her even though the locals try to help the bankrupt widow out as best they can the creditors swoop down on her like vultures her gardener and handyman matthew ferguson decides to stay on with her despite his last check bouncing since she is an expert amateur horticulturist he convinces her to help him revive his hemp plants which he grows for private use the two soon see this as a possibly big business opportunity as grace works miracles with the plants which turn out to be stuff for grace this is a way to save her house and get her out of debt for the scotsman matthew it offers a chance for him to continue to live in this beautiful village and earn enough money to marry his fisherman girlfriend nicky valerie the locals all let the illegal activities go on undisturbed the police sergeant campbell pretends not to notice what the bright lights in grace's greenhouse is for the friendly vicar phillips counsels about the wisdom of not taking action over something that you can't control and the doctor clunes enjoys smoking the weed for recreation the story becomes incredulous when grace decides to go to london and score with a drug dealer instead of having matthew go because she finds out nicky is pregnant and doesn't want matthew to end up in jail it is interesting to note that no one thinks smoking grass is bad for you only that one can go to jail the scene with grace on portobello road in the notting hill section of london trying to find a drug dealer while dressed out of place in a white dress and hat one would wear to a tea party in cornwall but not on the streets of notting hill while looking to make a drug deal was completely hokey and the film descended into a huge black hole whereby it never recovered its dignity the film moves into the formula mode whereas grace beats the odds against her failing to survive as she meets an international drug dealer a frenchman tcheky karyo who is first seen threatening to cut off her fingers but later becomes her business partner and husband as she becomes a millionaire and writes a best selling fiction book about her experiences thereby becoming a celebrity things work out in a ridiculous way where there is a total breakdown in the character development of grace where this matronly figure suddenly becomes merely a cartoon figure instead of live flesh and blood there are a lot of silly giggles that come forth and the film has just enough of an acting performance by brenda blethyn to breathe air into it before it comes to its belated finale as it drones on with its transparently gratuitous upbeat tone until it makes the audience feel good that the sweet old lady succeeded this film leaves one with the impression that smoking and growing pot is silly but should be tolerated as something naughty widows screwed by their terrible former husbands must do in order not to remain destitute ummm
negative	love to kill starts off aimlessly and gets progressively less coherent as time passes at the outset the movie appears to be about tony danza who's an illegal distributor of guns trying to establish a relationship with an unsuspecting woman danza sets up a double date with her her sister and a collegue of his everything seems to be going well until the sister accidentally dies by falling down a set of stairs much confusion and mahem ensues as the death is covered up and other associates of danza's begin to emerge all after one thing or another sound confusing it is i think what the filmmakers were trying to do is take the standard crime movie and throw in a little humour and levity in some respects it works but the majority of the film is a convoluted and confusing mess characters keep popping up with no explanation demanding money for deals that occur the only aspect of the movie that actually works is the budding relationship between danza and the dead woman's sister but so little time is devoted to this part of the story we never really become too familiar with these characters and because of this we don't really care what happens to them well i didn't at least one thing i will give the movie is that it's a complete departure for tony danza here's a guy because of his many sitcom roles who's ingrained in the consciousness as a nice guy who always does the right thing here he plays a man who's just looking out for himself and if that means he needs to kill in order to save his own skin so be it i was very impressed by his performance and within minutes of the start of the film i had forgotten all about his persona michael madsen is also good as an associate of danza's who spends half the movie buddying up to him and the other half trying to kill him like i said it's not exactly a linear storyline love to kill should be praised for trying to do something different with the well worn crime genre but it's just too bad that the story doesn't really add up to much the stars deserved better and so did the audience
negative	whether you like the beatles or not nobody wants to see the bee gee's take on some of the fab four's best known songs well maybe that's not true   maybe you're curious the way you have to look in your hanky after you blow your nose you just have to know how bad bad can be if that's the case rejoice because it was twenty years ago today or so that sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band was released unleashed to the world and thanks to our modern technological advances you can find this retched piece of filmmaking on vhs derived from the lyrics of various beatles' songs sgt pepper's tells the story of the fictitious band made popular from the song and album of the same name released in of course the movie was made eleven years later the gibbs three have become the lonely hearts peter frampton is the one and only billy shears and aside from being about a rock band the story doesn't correlate to the song at all and oh what joy we're the lovely audience they'd like to take home with them i don't think so but at least these characters are actually people in a beatles' song whereas other characters such as strawberry fields sandy farina gets her name from a song about a place called strawberry fields the debate over this is really quite futile when it comes down to it because all the film really has to offer is a feast of horrid cover tunes embarrassing cameo appearances george burns steve martin alice cooper and uuuuuuggggggglllllllyyyyy fashion and faces check please the plot is a bit unclear people with bad hair run around in leisure suits engaging in music video sequences that look like a sick and twisted world of from an overly demented mr rogers mean mr mustard frankie howerd somehow gets hold of all billy co instruments calling dr maxwell edison steve martin with a silver hammer and an singing voice the sun king marvin sunk alice cooper and a couple of creepy robots to his aid supposedly this is a horrible thing i guess in heartland the talent is pretty meanwhile the lonely hearts are off doing the classic sex drugs and rock n' roll thing leaving poor strawberry fields without her true love billy she sets out to find him leaving her poor dad and mom mrs fields hey wanna cookie all alone to sing a horrible rendition of she's leaving home accompanied by those same creepy robots but is billy getting it on with lucy dianne steinberg ya know the diamond possessing girl who hangs out in the sky well there's some crazy chick singing soprano on the roof of a building next to a bus stop and i assume that's who it was it's movies like this that make ya sit back and ask the unanswerable question what the hell were they thinking nobody will ever know but as a novelty sgt pepper's is one to examine carol channing robert palmer keith carradine they're all here but why who knows it's irrelevant there's as much meaning to be found here as there is to be found in your lint although the latter may be more interesting with the recent onslaught of nostalgia in the movie world the ice storm boogie nights reissues of the star wars trilogy etc let's pray this doesn't get a special anniversary in theaters in the words of paul mccartney live and let die in fact bury this one while you still can
negative	warning spoilers are included in this review but it doesn't really make much of a difference deep impact begins the official summer movie season and it also brings back memories of remember when dante's peak came out in february a few months later volcano was released the first film was smart exhilirating and one of the best disaster films i had ever seen the latter film was an incohesive mess that defied logic and wasted talent well it's deja vu all over again as two disaster films go head to head in competition this time unfortunately the first comet flick is so bad that people may shy away from armageddon the upcoming to be released the beginning of july of course the general reaction of the audience was oppposed to mine and so i am in the minority as i was when i stood on the side of dante's peak but while watching deep impact i began to wonder how anyone in their right mind could actually like this film apparently many did and it utterly baffles me to be completely honest i haven't had this little fun watching a disaster film in my entire life volcano had implausibilities up the wazoo but it was still rather fun to watch deep impact doesn't just have implausibilities it also contains cheap human drama incredibly horrible special effects and a poorly constructed plot the only thing that gives it a half star above my bottom ranking is a slightly entertaining final fifteen minutes and some good actors making the most of their characters deep impact begins in an unnamed year the year varies advanced technology sets it in the future but fire in the sky is showing on a local movie theater pushing it back to a line of students is outside at night peering through telescopes at the dark sky above among these are leo biederman elijah wood and sarah hotchner leelee sobieski leo unknowingly discovers a comet and his teacher sends a photo of the unknown object to an astronomer who then is able to determine the correct path of this distant comet in about a few seconds he races off to mail the information but is killed in a reckless car accident a year passes and nothing is heard about it again we are then introduced to jenny lerner t a leoni a reporter for msnbc she gets handed a job to investigate a possible in the government involving senator alan rittenhouse james cromwell she talks to a woman who mentions that rittenhouse was having an affair with a girl named ellie after talking with rittenhouse and unsatisfied with the information she gets she decides to use the internet for help luckily she knows exactly how to spell the certain ellie that she is looking for they spell it ele in the film that girl is pretty darn smart for guessing how it was spelled before she can use the information the government decides to push her car off the road they take her in to meet the president of the united states president beck morgan freeman beck recommends that jenny keep the information secret for hours so they can confirm it and then hold a press conference naturally she wants to be compensated and they offer her a front row seat and the chance for the first question and so yada yada yada they reveal the comet to the public and their plans send a massive spacecraft out to destroy it before it can arrive they announce a plan called ark which is their only hope for survival a computer will select people at random these people are the ones who will go into a large cave underground so that the impact of the comet won't kill off the entire human race after two years the dust will settle actually it would take much much ninety years from what i understand and the humans could come back to the surface and start over the rest of the plot is your standard disaster film procedures but there is one subplot worth mentioning jenny and her father jason maximilian schell have a very touching relationship that forms out of the impending doom the final moment involving the two characters is heartfelt and emotional it's a shame that nothing else is heartfelt now of course we all know that the comet does impact the surface the title alone suggests it and the previews actually show it by doing this absoltuely no tension can be drawn from any attempt to stop the comet because we all know that it won't work director mimi leder came from her successful tries at direction with episodes of the hit television show er her major film debut was the peacemaker a pathetic and heartless action film well this time leder outdid herself creating a film worse than that one suggestion to ms leder please stay away from the big screen or at least the action genre much of the blame can be placed on leder directly because the pace is disastrously off throughout the film we are given subtitles that tell us how much time has passed it goes from months to weeks to hours it literally feels like this lapsed time is taking place in that boring of course leder isn't all to blame for it screenwriters michael tolkin and bruce joel rubin have crafted a simplistic story that only gets worse with time what starts out promising soon turns deadly for the audience anyway chock full of cheesy one liners you know you are going to have more sex than anyone else in school and stupid characters you might think we were back in the again only one of the subplots is remotely interesting while the rest are forgettable and boring and the main plot is so outrageous that you can't figure out if this film is supposed to be an action drama or to put it simply the special effects of this film are a hit and miss situation that's right miss and hit scenes above the earth are well done and the orbiting ship is majestic but the comet is a huge mistake making it more laughable than frightening the concept of even trying to land on a comet is preposterous enough but that's forgiveable what isn't forgiveable is actually having humans walk on the surface give me a break will ya and of course the much hyped collision of comet and earth well it is far from spectacular and it makes independence day look brilliant the water rushing towards the land is effective but once it hits the continent the effects turn ridiculous cgi water is used and it looks so bad that i heard more laughs from the audience than shrieks in fact i may even recommend the film for those who want to see how bad effects can actually get these days just when we think visual effects can't be improved along comes a film to show that they really can and should be one thing has struck a wrong note with me concerning mimi leder's direction which also influences the actors leder loves to show the actors' faces before and during moments of terror this reminded me of another action director renny harlin die hard cliffhanger but harlin succeeds because he shows the faces of the victims in realistic situations leder likes to flaunt people's fears via their faces but instead of coming off as sympathetic leder seems more of a sadist one moment has an astronaut flying off into space this should be enough to warrant a response from the audience but leder wants to go farther and shows us the person's face while drifting into space this is one of the cheapest ways to ellicit an emotional response from an audience and i for one am not going to be fooled on another note leder's film only picks up its pace during the last fifteen minutes when the comet actually impacts the pace does pick up and some very emotional moments are shown then again when you watch people cry for their loved ones it's obvious it will be emotional it's mostly just a big trick to rope viewers into feeling for the characters but it didn't work for me but anyway the actors do as much as they can with what they are given t a leoni bad boys tv's the naked truth is the best of the film and she is given the meatiest role her character is made stronger by leoni's presence and we grow to care for her robert duvall is energetic and fun to watch but his character is turned into shreds by the plot elijah wood also comes off rather successfully but he still hasn't had many good roles wood stick to drama you are too talented for this stuff vanessa redgrave is barely acknowledgeable and her performance is only enhanced by her strong presence on screen maximilian schell is distracting but he does provide some nice humor morgan freeman has been infinitely better than this and gives one of his most shallow performances to date which is quite remarkable for him leelee sobieski could have been better but i think she just suffered from a poorly written character a special note should go to ron eldard and denise crosby eldard is good in his role but is limited by the plot crosby is special to me personally because she was tasha yar from tv's star trek the next generation seeing her was one of the highlights of the film overall a very talented cast virtually wasted deep impact is rated for disaster related elements and brief language this is one of the worst films of the year and if it is any omen of things to come this summer could be one of the worst ever luckily the movie is coming up and hopefully armageddon will be more successful it's a shame that this film will do so successfully because it just isn't worth much costing nearly million with special effects done by the illustrious ilm which is a huge shocker and with a score composed by james horner titanic one might have expected this to be more fun to witness and experience well it's not when the comet does hit the earth you almost wish it could just take this film along with it
negative	my first press screening of and already i've gotten a prime candidate for my worst ten of the year list what an auspicious beginning welcome to the dog days of winter when the only film openings of merit are those oscar contenders that the studios opened in late december in new york and l a and which are just now beginning to appear elsewhere firestorm the directorial debut of dances with wolves's academy award winning cinematographer dean semler is the first of the new year's crop of movies as our story opens the movie pretentiously informs us that of the tens of thousands of firefighters only are smokejumpers we then cut to a plane load of smoke jumping cowboys and one cowgirl where one of the guys is taking a romance quiz from cosmopolitan having the time of their lives they then jump into the middle of a burning forest when even in the beginning the director can't get the small parts right you can sense the movie is in trouble with the noisy fire roaring all about them and with the trapped people huddled near their cars smokejumper monica christianne hirt tells them to get away from their vehicles not bothering to shout nor even get close to them she announces her warning without raising her voice much or approaching the people miraculously they manage to hear her and move away in a movie that specializes in cheap shots the camera locates the proverbial young girl trapped in a nearby burning building as it does throughout overly dramatic cinematographer stephen f windon from the postman uses extremely fast zooms right down to the endangered girl's face our show's two heroes the crew's chief wynt perkins played laconically by scott glenn and his jesse graves played by howie long in a weak attempt to be the next steven seagal enter the burning house looking for the little girl in a panic they have difficulty in locating her before they are engulfed in flames the manipulative script has her hidden in her own dollhouse this mawkish show cuts back to monica who has a decision to make the chopper with the chemicals has only enough to save one group will it be the large group near the cars or the helpless little girl and monica's two firefighting buddies she has only seconds to decide who will be saved yes she goes for the majority but miracle of miracles the other three come out alive anyway not content with a traditional firefighting story chris soth's screenplay attempts to jazz it up by having william forsythe from palookaville play a vicious killer named randy earl shaye who sets a forest fire so that he can join the crew to put it out and then escape hoods in the woods is what the yell out when the convicts are bused in to help them fight the fire along the way shaye picks up an ornithologist hostage played by suzy amis who turns out to have been trained in warrior ways by her father who was a marine drill instructor most of the highly predictable movie is a long chase in which poor howie long is given one ridiculous stunt after another to look silly performing he flings a chain saw backwards over his head while riding a speeding motorcycle so that the saw can hit the windshield of the pursuing truck arguably the low point is when he escapes from a locked burning building by riding a motorcycle conveniently parked inside using a ramp he shoots straight out of the top of the building's attic and when he hits the ground he just rides off in a cloud of dust when the film isn't using some stock footage of actual forest fires the simulated ones look hokey editor jack hofstra cheapens the action even more by his use of burning flames in scene transitions the ending with its sick twists manages to be even worse than the rest of the movie perhaps the best that can be said for the picture is the faint praise i heard afterwards in the lobby it's not as bad as some of the television sitcoms firestorm runs mercifully just it is rated r for violence and language and would be acceptable for teenagers
negative	ever since wargames the first real computer hacking movie hollywood has attempted to produce more and more films about hacking these films usually show the audience a look into computers that really is not impossible and is usually ridiculous if it's not this the exaggeration about what is real is usually greater than you would expect hackers is guilty of all of these crimes to anyone familiar with computers the internet most of the movie is so incredibly stupid that you can't take it anymore those of you who frequent one of the greatest sites on the world wide web the internet movie database are probably aware of the section for movies entitled goofs this is the section for mistakes in the movies well imdb sums up hackers extremely well with the first goof listed generally and ridiculous to the extreme regarding the capabilities of computers and technology and truthfully this is percent correct the plot obviously centers around computer hacking more specifically it follows the exploits of dade murphy a young computer hacker played by jonny lee miller miller should be extremely thankful for the film trainspotting because if it were not for that who knows where his career would be now after hackers the film opens with a young dade murphy being arrested for hacking computer systems he was forbidden to use a computer until he turned eighteen years old the film then picks up at that point an eighteen year old dade murphy hacking away at the computer dade later meets up with fellow hackers acid burn angelina jolie cereal killer matthew lillard lord nikon laurence mason and the phantom phreak renoly santiago who are basically trying to do what is next to impossible hack the gibson computer and not get caught by the fbi oh and as a little dade also tries to woo acid burn the only female hacker in the film really i can't think of much more to say about the film's plot aside from what i've said it's just a bunch of computer geeks no obsessive compulsive computer geeks a little too advanced for reality running around hacking computers and staying away from the fbi thanks to this movie the public unfamiliar with computers now has a distorted viewpoint of computers and what they can do this movie makes computers look a little bit too advanced for their time and the frivolous suggestions it makes are too many to list to sum it up hackers is a terrible computer film if you're looking for a film about computers closer to what goes on in the real world i suggest sneakers although at times it too may seem a little far fetched it should be much more believable than hackers to regular computer users hopefully this film didn't influence too many young computer users out to think they can do what is portrayed in this minute waste of time
negative	if there's one thing i just can't stand it's a film that oozes with sentimentality here's a note to all film makers films are more effective when the emotions of the characters speak for themselves swelling saddening music is not a good way to tell us that the people in the film are unhappy and that the situation is hopeless alas my giant is a film that uses manipulative sentimentality so frequently and with such high intensity that i forgot as i watched it that there are other ways of getting audience members choked up what reminded me was that i wasn't choked up or even the slightest bit moved for that matter my giant is a forced contrived and conspicuously i detest the word cute but i've chosen to use it because the makers clearly wanted to create a cute film here it takes a premise that might have been interesting i liked the preview and bogs it down with endless plot turns and cliches all of which are intended to get some kind of easy emotional rise from the audience maybe it will work for some people it didn't work for me billy crystal plays sam cayman an agent who at the beginning of the film is in romania he's in romania because the kid actor he made famous is doing a film the screenplay has him in romania so he can get fired get in a car accident and get saved by an enormous individual who stands almost eight feet tall his name is max gheorghe muresan and sam thinks he'd be a great movie star because of his size subplots are as follows sam has a son and a wife kathleen quinlan and he's never around for them so they move to chicago max is in love with a woman named lilianna who moved away from romania twenty years before the film begins sam convinces max to go back to america with him so they can make lots of money and so their various subplots can all be resolved sam is broke max is dying pass the kleenex my giant as a comedy is only moderately funny it has its moments the best of which features steven seagal making fun of himself in one great scene sam gets his son on the phone to talk to seagal of course his son doesn't believe that he's actually speaking to seagal and he goes off about how bad of an actor he is i would quote the line i like but it would probably lose its effect crystal is always entertaining and he has a few good lines here some of which are subtle throwaways that many will miss entirely often however he's countered by a slew of jokes that aren't funny and cause an involuntary rolling of the eyes muresan is kind of fun to watch but he just can't act very well quinlan on the other hand is a great actress who needs to get a role that shows off her talents she was underused last year in both event horizon and breakdown but at least in those films she had moments in which she could show us her stuff here the best thing she gets to do is fake a romanian accent all of these disappointing ingredients create a film that for much of its running time is simply mediocre as my giant lumbers to its inevitable conclusion however director michael lehmann who did a great job directing the underrated hudson hawk and scriptwriter david seltzer pile on every cliche imaginable each one intended specifically to pull at our heartstrings sam's multiple engagements with his family are all completely hackneyed how about a main character who has a healthy relationship with his family later it turns out the entire story is supposed to be a great big metaphor signifying sam's reunion with his family and some people might think that what sam does for max towards the end is a valiant thing but i had a few morality problems with it and i apologize for being vague it's icky it drips with gooey wannabe human emotions my giant could have been a straightforward and funny family film more importantly it could have been moving on a level far deeper than it is instead it's a complicated overlong and film that elicits too few laughs and strives for superficial tears and since it left me feeling completely unmoved i stand by my position that sentimentality is evil and will ultimately destroy the world
negative	this is not a simple plan about finding a plane load of money and getting away with the cash this is more about a parable of greed and how money can become the bane of your life yes there are elements of fargo' here the snow and cold although not as vivid in the blood and gore department it shows how greed can set of a chain of events leading to death and the destruction of lives and how at the end of the day the things that matter most are love truth and honesty although in one sense it may seem tedious making a movie about the ugliness of greed not box office material it does become tedious not because of the morale ending but because one expects the movie to end that way this becomes apparent after the first murder to cover up the crime the rest of the movie just spirals downward from there the characters in this drama are a mixture of simple and intellectual folk brothers and friends who all fall prey to the avarice of money they should have perhaps thrown in someone sensible level headed and not affected by greed to give the party more balance commendable is the exceptional performance of billy bob thornton whose portrayal of the simpleton brother was masterful bill paxton also gives a powerful performance as the greedier younger brother whilst bridget fonda is convincing as the greediest wife who indirectly causes the most problems fill a room full of greedy people and several million dollars and you will end up with a simple recipe for a blood bath it's not a simple plan when you shoot everyone you love for money unless you're the menendez brothers
negative	based on the tv series that i had never seen or heard of before this movie be happy i won't bore you with any lame and unnecessary comparisons this film allows will smith to take a third stab at the independence day weekend after scoring huge successes with men in black directed by the same man who controlled this one and independence day can you say the third times not a charm plot james west and artemus gordon are chosen by the president to find the man responsible for the kidnapping of the nation's top scientists and threatening to take over the united states within a week critique i did not laugh once during this entire picture when you consider that this film is a that's not a very good sign i also did not tense up or particularly enjoy any of its unenergetic action sequences which provided me with little more than a few minutes time to think back to the lovely salma hayek scenes when you consider that the other part of this film is geared as an i would say that this another negative sign and when you consider that the first hour of the film was boring and a little slow the tired reminiscent of swiss cheese and uninvolving and the special effects interesting but worth very little inside a plot filled with lame weak characterizations and an end you pretty much have the gist of my impression of this big summer blockbuster it blows or as they say in french eet blows could it be that the script was crappy because it took four people to write it maybe could it be that most of the special effects don't show up until the last half hour and even then we don't see anything that its trailers hadn't already given away perhaps or could it be that we have come to expect so much more from will smith and hollywood movies that we cannot help but evaluate them on a scale onto their own naaaaaaah a bad movie is a bad movie on a positive note i could honestly say that i did very much enjoy the lovely performance by the adorable salma hayek who seemed underused in my humble opinion and lit up every bubbly scene that she was hardly in branagh was also fun as the bad guy but that's pretty much where the stopped smith and kline were static at best the plot full of holes and the score insignificant and derivative of a dozen others i would strongly advise anyone not to see this movie then again there is that one scene with the lovely salma hayek tied up in a cage huh oh yeah but the rest of the movie sucked little known facts about this film and its stars will smith has starred in two of the ten top grossing films worldwide summer blockbuster men in black for which he also recorded the title song and independence day he once turned down a scholarship to mit to pursue his singing career kevin kline is a graduate of the juilliard school of drama and has been married to the actress phoebe cates since they have two kids together greta simone and owen one of the buildings that gets blown up in this film has kasdan written on it lawrence kasdan is a director known to have worked with kevin on five of his movies including the big chill silverado i love you to death grand canyon and french kiss salma hayek gave up a successful career as a major television star in latin america and moved to the united states to start over even though she spoke no english she made her feature film debut as an actress with a small role in allison anders' mi vida loca no not the rickie martin video and played her first starring role in robert rodriguez's desperado opposite antonio banderas since then she has made an appearance in each one of rodriguez's films she stands was born in southeast mexico and the daughter of a lebanese father and a mexican mother one of the actresses cast as branagh's lovely but lethal beauties includes bail ling a stage and screen star in her native china who was last seen starring opposite dick gere in red corner another is frederique van der wal who is one of the world's most recognized supermodels having graced the cover of cosmopolitan numerous times as well as harper's bazaar vogue and mademoiselle
negative	in the line of duty is the critically praised series of television movies dealing with the incidents that claimed lives of law enforcement officers in usa the twilight murders another one from the series is dealing with the case of gordon kahl played by rod steiger old farmer from north dakota who would rather spend a year in prison than pay taxes to the despised u s government after being released he still refuses to pay taxes and the warrant is issued for his arrest when the u s marshals come to arrest him it turns out that kahl isn't alone many poor farmers in rural northwest share his extremist beliefs and the routine operation turns into shootout that would leave federal officers that that brings fbi on the scene and agent mayberly michael gross is supervising the manhunt however his efforts seem fruitless since kahl still has many supporters some of them even in the local law enforcement after betrayed thriller by costa gavras hollywood mostly ignored the disturbing trends of rising extremism in the american northwest and that remained so until oklahoma city bombing when media hype brought back into spotlight until that time only the television movies like this one bothered to pay attention to that phenomenon unfortunately the twilight murders is still routine and formulaic television film that uses sensationalist real life content in order to cover lack of originality in the script sometimes like many american tv movies it creates drama where drama shouldn't be on the other hand film is steadily directed by dick lowry and rod steiger does good job potraying gordon kahl on the other hand michael gross as his pursuer is quite wooden and his interaction with some of the actors is terrible however film does deal with potentially social and political issues so hour and half spent in front of the screen shouldn't be the total waste of time
negative	the following review contains spoilers it's just the way we are a rapist matt frewer responds to supergirl's helen slater query as to why she's being attacked an example of the bad dialogue in supergirl i'll admit it i love superman iii i know it's hated amongst the superman faithful who dismiss it as nothing more than a vehicle for richard pryor but i still think it's a worthy addition to the man of steel franchise supergirl a film of sorts from the series' same producers alexander and ilya salkind doesn't even rival superman iii in terms of quality let alone superman or superman ii supergirl lost me from the opening scenes and went steadily downhill for the rest of its two hour plus running time as the film begins we see the residents of argo city a commune like place consisting of refugees from krypton which resides in inner space go about their daily lives ok what so these are exiles from krypton which blew up right were they living there before krypton exploded how do you get to inner space this whole inner space notion is never explained particularly in terms of how these people get information from the outside world how do they know where superman went how do they know he took the name clark kent and now works at the daily planet these kinds of things frustrate the hell out of me argo city is kept running by a power source called the omegahedron one day the founder of argo city zaltar peter o' toole gives the omegahedron to superman's cousin kara helen slater for use as inspiration in her art kara uses it to create a thing which immediately crashes through the layer of whatever that protects the city in the chaos the omegahedron sails out through the opening dooming the argonians to death in three days time or something kara then climbs into a pod which zaltar had designed for interdimensional travel and chases after the omegahedron to save her world the power source travels directly to earth and lands in the bowl of dip belonging to a witch named selena faye dunaway who immediately before her dip was ruined announced her desires to rule the world to her sometimes warlock boyfriend nigel peter cook selena somehow knows that this ball from the sky will help her with her evil plans and she sets out to achieve world domination selena is unaware of course that kara has also arrived on earth and that she's arrived as supergirl complete with appropriate costume supergirl emerges from the bottom of a lake when she arrives ok huh why does the omegahedron fall from the sky but supergirl shoots out of the bottom of a lake attention movie explain yourself i'm sorry i can only suspend disbelief so much i can't buy into any of this nonsense just because the movie wants me to knowing that she needs a secret identity supergirl basically wills herself into a school girl outfit complete with a different hairstyle picks the alias linda lee and enrolls into school she's given her dorm assignment and who happens to be her roommate lois lane's sister lucy ok coincidence is one thing folks but we're getting really contrived now what follows are some generic school hijinks complete with evil bully girls mean for no reason of course and even a shower scene best moment though comes when supergirl decides to put a bra on over her school uniform and starts stuffing it with socks at this point i'm rapidly wondering why i'm bothering with this nonsense there is some credit to give to the film however one lengthy and elaborate sequence featuring an evil bulldozer destroying a small town in search of its prey is very well done also its commendable to see genders reversed in the film whereas the women have all the power and the men are merely objects and tools hart bochner die hard is particularly fun as kara's love interest a lovesick landscaper who is under a spell cast by selena although he is unfortunately part of one of the film's more ridiculous moments when he has to be rescued from being tapped by some menacing bumper cars then there were numerous little things that bothered me the flying effects are never convincing for a moment it's all too obvious that helen slater is hooked to wires instead of having her look like she's flying the filmmakers wanted her to be graceful so she poses a lot and does maneuvers also who are the first two humans to meet supergirl when she arrives on earth a pair of truck who immediately attack her and then meet a wacky demise there is also some rampant product placement in the film most notably for popeye's tylenol and root beer with the latter actually putting its logo on the of one of the rapists finally just one word monsters faye dunaway and peter o'toole ham it up unmercifully however when o'toole overacts he's entertaining and when dunaway does it she's annoying her character actually says the line seize them at one point dunaway's henchmen played by peter cook and brenda vaccaro fare much better with vaccaro coming off best as the equivalent of ned beatty's otis character from the first two superman movies helen slater effectively portrays supergirl as the innocent naive character she's written to be as she's able to gaze at flowers and bunnies with the right amount of genuine wonder to make it believable believability aside though it's still annoying now despite all this negativity and i'm not alone here supergirl is not a well liked nor a well respected movie in many circles leave it to the good people at anchor bay entertainment to actually make people not only interested but excited about its release on dvd they have released two separate editions of the film on dvd to the delight of many people including myself yet i'm still unclear as to why since this movie is so awful the first and most widely available dvd release features the international version of the film which runs minutes longer than the print which ran in u s theaters the movie is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of is enhanced for televisions and has been remastered in full thx glory extras on the disc include a full length audio commentary track with director jeannot szwarc and special project consultant scott michael bosco the excellent documentary from called making of a feature dig that workout montage trailers tv spots talent bios storyboards accompanied by score from the movie and assorted still galleries the transfer on this international version is incredible you'd think you were watching a new release images are sharp colors jump off the screen and the picture is free of scratches or artifacts only some special effects sequences show the wear of time and there just isn't much that can be done about that unless you're obsessive like george lucas the new thx approved audio is loud and clear in all the right places however you'll be hearing absurd dialogue and a mediocre jerry goldsmith score which is completely unrelated to john williams' classic superman theme and sounds better suited for a cannon films' production the commentary track featuring director szwarc and project consultant bosco is a step in the right direction in the evolution of audio commentaries bosco seems to be an expert in all things supergirl and is there with szwarc to ensure that there's no dead air on the track bosco probes szwarc for information on virtually everyone and everything that comes onscreen and we learn a great deal more about the film as a result of his participation although at times you can tell that bosco is looking for a specific response from szwarc and is surprised when he doesn't get that response we learn some fascinating tidbits on the track most notably the almost appearance in the film by christopher reeve great detail is given about superman's proposed role in the original script before reeve wisely dropped out as it stands superman is written off early on in the film when we hear a radio broadcast mention that he is billions of light years away on some sort of peace mission for the sake of brevity i won't even get into that one szwarc also reveals that is was the conscious decision of the salkinds and everyone else agreed that supergirl needed to stand on its own replacing the science fiction of the superman films with cutsy whimsical fantasy nonsense bosco also points out scenes not in the american release as they come along claiming that had they been in the original release it would have been a hit at the box office again for the sake of brevity i won't even get into that one anchor bay has also released a limited edition only copies pressed set disc one contains everything mentioned for the regular release disc two features the never before seen director's cut of the film which runs minutes long the additions mainly consist of scene extensions which don't add much of note except for a few moments which lengthen peter o'toole's screen time particularly during his latter appearances the print is rough in spots and the sound is only in mono but fans of the film won't care one question though shouldn't the director's commentary be on the director's cut of the film i'd never seen supergirl before i sat down to watch this dvd i was nine when it was released to theaters and even then i was smart enough to inform my parents not to take me to see it so when i popped the dvd into my player and sat down in my easy chair i had no idea what to expect i knew the film wasn't beloved and i never had any interest in it before but i was willing to give it a shot because of the impressive amount of work put into the disc as the disc began to spin i was rather impressed with the opening sequence which made me sit up and wonder if my assumptions all this time could have been wrong come to find out however it was just the chase digital stereo logo so i slunk back into my seat as the nightmare started at the end of the film supergirl flies back into the lake with the omegahedron and flies back to argo city ugh i give up i'm surprised i even made it to the end of the film not once not twice but three times to review these discs supergirl is definitely a terrific dvd package but a very lousy movie 
negative	practical magic is a film that is so misguided in so many ways that it makes you wonder how such talented and actors would even get involved in an embarrassing like this one the film stars sandra bullock and nicole kidman as sally and gillian owens two sisters whose family comes from a long line of witches spanning back years at the start their parents die when they are still children and they go to live with their two zany aunts stockard channing and dianne wiest switch to the present day gillian who is the stronger more rebellious sibling leaves home and meets up with a dark abusive guy goran visjnic while sally stays in their hometown meets and falls in love with a sweet caring man has two children and then is devastated when her husband is hit by a truck and killed come to think of it she's not too devastated since she gets over it in about two minutes when gillian calls sally to come get her after having another abusive spat with visjnic they accidentally murder him and in desperation bury the body in the backyard of their aunts' house add to this wildly convoluted story subplots involving the dead rising and an exorcism not to mention a spattering of whimsy and you have a pretty good idea how messy practical magic is after seeing the film i reflected that there was not even one scene or element that i liked or enjoyed it is a comedy to be sure but all of the humor falls astoundingly flat and the occasional dramatic moments are the least bit touching it is not charming or entertaining in any way and then to top it off we've got this dark but story of an evil spirit taking over gillian's body whatever the characters are handled terribly and actually most of the actors do not have the fortune of even getting to be what you could call a character there is no reason why channing and wiest should have decided to be in this film and in every scene involving them they are always standing no attempt is made to flesh them out into actual people the same goes for aidan quinn as a handsome police investigator who has the misfortune of being the romantic lead opposite bullock even though he comes into it at around the mark and once again there is no attempt to develop their relationship or his character in any way in fact every line of dialogue in the film is in service of moving the plot along rather than getting to know the people saying the lines i should have know i was headed for trouble during the opening credits when i found out the screenplay was written by the deeply hated akiva goldsman who managed to destroy the batman series with batman forever and batman and robin practical magic is directed by griffin dunne primarily an actor who last year made the contrived clumsy romance addicted to love with meg ryan and matthew broderick i disliked that movie quite a bit but since practical magic is even worse that can only give you a taste of what a talentless filmmaker he is i'd tell him to quit while he's ahead but in these last two years he's ultimately already buried himself
negative	nearly every film tim burton has directed has been an homage to the horror genre frankenweenie beetlejuice batman edward scissorhands ed wood mars attacks yet none of them have been horror films sleepy hollow is his first attempt to actually scare people i greeted the prospect with high anticipation burton's whole career seemed to be leading up to this i left disappointed andrew kevin walker's screenplay takes only the character names from the classic short story the legend of sleepy hollow in the movie ichabod crane johnny depp is a new york city police constable who is trying to introduce scientific methods of investigation to his superiors ichabod is dispatched to the small town of sleepy hollow to investigate a series of murders several of the town's leading citizens have been decapitated by the headless horseman although he rejects the ghost story the town elders tell him ichabod finds that the facts of the case confound his scientific reasoning he also discovers that the killings are not random that the victims are tied together by a secret along the way ichabod gets help from a bewitching literally young woman christina ricci and the son of one of the murder victims marc pickering my reaction the plot is an accumulation of cliches without even the slightest touch of originality to make it interesting that in itself is forgivable hollywood constantly tries to sell us used products in new packages however burton's attempts at inducing fright come off as goofy it might be his background in his previous movies goofy was the goal along the same lines it doesn't help that creature designer and producer kevin yagher has done his best work for the tales from the crypt tv series a witch's eyes and tongue shoot out like roger rabbit's a tree spurts blood like it's in a monty python sketch and the headless horseman   well he's a guy without a head   on a horse boo the performances are also awful although he's impressed me with his work in other films depp doesn't seem to know what to do with ichabod and his dialogue is hampered by stilted diction that's supposed to pass for an century accent ricci seems to put all her effort into seeming enigmatic which guarantees that we won't sympathize with her character the actor who is revealed at the end to be the villain comes off as ridiculously cartoonish the only pleasure generated by the cast comes from surprise cameos by christopher lee martin landau and christopher walken i wonder if this movie was originally conceived as part of francis ford coppola's projected series of gothic adaptations a series that produced only bram stoker's dracula and mary shelley's frankenstein coppola is an executive producer for sleepy hollow and the script reflects his interest in early forms of moving pictures particularly in a toy that ichabod carries which blends two pictures to create an optical illusion there's a bird on one side of the card a cage on the other when the card is flipped rapidly the bird appears to be caged bottom line the hollow isn't the only thing that's sleepy
negative	annie wilson cate blanchett a widow who struggles to raise her children in a small town in georgia is asked for help by local authorities in solving the case of a missing woman annie is something of a psychic she has involuntary bouts with the supernatural where she can see the past and the future and physically feel the actions happenning to her she envisions her gift leads to the arrest of a nasty wife beater who may or may not have killed the pretty rich girl found in the swamp on his property in an ultra conservative backwoods town will her testimony based on her psychic visions hold up in court do they even have the right man what's good about it aside from keanu reeves giving one of the best performances of his career as the loathable redneck donnie barksdale there is little else going for the film what's not so good about it lame unoriginal screenplay predictable ending suspense scenes that are just plain boring ridicously trite characterization makes the entire south out to be ingnorant hateful goobers relentless in its emotional sensationaliztion overall critique the gift is one of those movies that makes you wonder where you've seen this story before it's a collection of every cliche and stereotype of the south ever made and coming from a yankee like me who dislikes the south that's really saying something for an established talented director sam raimi is unable to provide any kind of originality to this film it's predictable from the first scene the screenplay is written like a of a photocopied bootlegged play you know that as nasty as the murder suspect is he didn't actually do it it's no surprise either who the real villain turns out to be and what their motive was sigh how trite for a supernatural thriller this is neither scary nor intense because it's so cliche the gift is basically a glorified
negative	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned i was incredulous when i first heard that mgm was planning a sequel to their flick species squandering an intriguing premise the original film turned out to be a dreadful mess widely disliked by both audiences and critics alike and nonetheless still somehow succeeded in becoming a financial success raking in over million domestic during the competitive summer season despite a distinct lack of star power in its cast ben kingsley's a splendid actor but a marquee name he ain't miraculously dodging the bullet with the first film i doubted that they'd dare tempt fate and go for another round so here comes species ii with a new creative team director peter medak and screenwriter chris brancato step in for roger donaldson and dennis feldman respectively that fails to improve the series one iota like its predecessor species ii fails to capitalize on a potentially promising kernel and instead runs the gamut from ridiculously silly to unmitigatedly stupid the film follows the exploits of a young man patrick ross justin lazard whose sole focus is on cruising along the streets in order to pick up women loitering in strip clubs and generally trying to bed as many different ladies as he possibly can in other words patrick is like a lot of guys these activities could describe the everyday routines of a huge percentage of men his age but there's a catch he's an astronaut who recently returned from a seemingly successful mission to mars and who's now infected with alien dna patrick's overriding compulsion to mate and sire countless numbers of gooey little alien offspring and when he becomes aware of eve natasha henstridge a clone of the monster from the first film being studied in a government lab patrick's primary focus turns to her if these two were to mate the resulting pure strain of offspring would be unstoppable warns dr laura baker marg helgenberger gamely reprising her role with admirable conviction species ii opens with the mars mission and the space scenes are remarkably unconvincing and even splicing back to dated grainy footage of actual spacecraft activities they really skimped on production values this time around however this all looks positively inspired when compared to the first appearance of the evil alien goo which ultimately infests patrick watching as it slinks around the command module of the spaceship any question as to whether or not this is a cheesy is quickly answered mr brancato's original screenplay is filled with outrageous lines which often leaves the audience in stitches like the first film and perhaps in homage to it there's a real penchant for dialogue which underlines the obvious last time around featured the hootworthy line uttered by forest whitaker's psychic empath character upon entering a bloodsoaked room something bad happened here this time laura gets to stand over a fresh shredded corpse with its entails ripped out and mutter this is awful and she's not even empathic and when a psychotically horny patrick accosts a supermarket shopper and drags her kicking and screaming behind the building in a suspense sequence eve who's telepathically linked to her counterpart whatever helpfully tells our protagonists he's going to rape her while species ii is often unintentionally hilarious at least it occasionally demonstrates a sense of humour of its own there's an amusing bit of product placement which doesn't really make much sense but i appreciated the sentiment as well as some hijinx he's in aisle informs eve if the film maintained this sort of tone it would have been much more charming and enjoyable to watch but to its detriment it instead takes its silly plot far too seriously and barrels along to a bloody anticlimactic conclusion much of the film fails to make a whole lot of sense and there are such gaping plot holes that it's terribly difficult to contain any suspension of disbelief the implausibilities are endless what about the toxic bomb in eve's brain why are the guards armed with guns when they already know firearms are ineffectual my favourite was the sequence in the film where eve sporting superhuman strength is shown tossing aside guards who are attempting to contain her with what look like body blocks this is the sort of movie which leaves you holding your head in amazed disbelief incredulous that it's being foisted upon the public returning headlines michael madsen who reprises tough guy press lennox and ms helgenberger do what they can with this goofy screenplay but there's realistically only so much one can do with this script as a basis mykelti williamson portraying astronaut dennis gamble churns out an spin on a generic character and fine character actors george dzundza playing colonel burgess and looking ridiculous in the process and james cromwell patrick's neglectful father senator ross are utterly wasted in the film mr lazard gives his character an appropriately look while returning vixen ms henstridge is actually given the opportunity to act in one scene and acquits herself nicely but is mostly relegated to reprising her familiar role of parading about in skimpy clothing or none at all ms henstridge recently commented on how some female audiences have expressed appreciation for her character in the first entry of the species series claiming that she's so empowered a lethal in heat who dispatches of her sexual partners in grotesque fashion now that's what i call empowerment
negative	the sequel to the fugitive u s marshals is an average thriller using it's association with the fugitive just so it can make a few extra bucks tommy lee jones returns to his role as chief deputy samuel gerard the grizzly cop who was after harrison ford in the fugitive this time he's after fugitive mark sheridan snipes who the police think killed two fbi agents but of course he's been set up and when the police plane escort he and gerard are riding crashes he makes a run for it gerard not so hot on his tail what follows is about hours of action brought to us by the director of executive decision another film curiously involving a plane when comparing this movie to the fugitive the prequel is far superior but even on it's own u s marshals is a pretty lousy movie while the original was reasonably intelligent and had a fugitive to root for the audience feels strangely distanced from snipes fugitive mainly because we know so little about him until way into the film's overlong running time while the fugitive gave a little time to develop harrison fords character u s marshals is straight in there pulling it's trump card the place crash almost immediately to be honest i couldn't care less if snipe's character got captured or not snipes performance is average and his character gets surprisingly little screen time considering he is the fugitive for reasons i'll explain later tommy lee jones is as fine as ever although his role is hardly a challenge the sense of deja vu was overwhelming i know it's the same role from the fugitive but there is seemingly no attempt to develop his character from the last film there's a few nudge' references from the first film but apart from that nothing nobody even mentions harrison ford in this movie downey jnr is ok as fbi agent john royce who's roped into the chase and sexy french actress irene jacob wanders in and out of the movie as snipes wife nobody looks as if their having a good time and all the performers are on autopilot the supporting cast are o k but when it comes to performances u s marshals falls flat on it's face it doesn't fare any better either the film starts off with gerard trying to capture snipes but then veers off into terrorists territory as said above the film is an normal average terrorist thriller seen a million times before but is using the fugitive reputation to make it sound more professional if this film wasn't the to the fugitive this would probably go straight to video or not even been made at all because it's so average and because of the film's plot changing it's course snipes is almost forgotten apart and hardly features in the movie stuart baird the director is all right but there's no particular scene that stands out it's director is the usual action movie style even the plane crash is sorely lacking in tension the special effects are nice especially the plane crash and there's a good if very loud soundtrack by veteran composer jerry goldsmith but in the end u s marshals suffers from an overwhelmingly lack of excitement sure it's loud and dumb but in the end u s marshals just ain't fun bored performers and a lackluster plot and script do not make a good action movie overall review by david wilcock web space provided by geocities
negative	one of the contributors to the destruction of the batman film franchise chris o'donnell stars in this remake of buster keaton's silent film seven chances now i've never seen seven chances as i'm more of a chaplin fan than a keaton fan but i seriously doubt that the classic version could be as insipid as this o'donnell plays jimmie shannon the manager of a pool table manufacturing company he also fears commitment and despite dating anne renee zellweger for over three years he's unwilling to marry her his reasons well he's a guy you see and well guys are like stallions and they apparently don't like to be roped or something hey that's the movie's explanation i'd marry renee zellweger in a second eventually it comes time for jimmie to propose and when he does it's the most absurd proposal ever uttered by a man ever he essentially says to her you win and hands her a ring the audience should now hate this character i did then the meat of the plot presents itself jimmie's grandfather peter ustinov completely wasted dies and leaves jimmie his entire estate of million dollars as well as ownership of the pool table business however in order to get the money and save the jobs of the factory workers jimmie must be married before his next birthday which is just over hours away having blown his chances with anne jimmie proceeds to track down all his prior girlfriends and suggest a business proposition the movie wasn't half bad by this time surprisingly it wasn't boring me and even managed to read my thoughts at one point ustinov's character left a video will and while he's reading the ridiculous clause in it i thought to myself what is this brewster's millions as soon as i thought it hal holbrook's character actually says what is this brewster's millions it was quite surreal something happens though during the film's final act that caused me to sharply drop the rating it was going to receive up to that point all of jimmie's prior girlfriends had turned down his business proposition which i felt was good at least the film wasn't painting women to be cold hearted gold diggers when jimmie has no other options his goofy friend played by artie lange making a career out of playing the goofy friend places an ad in the newspaper that somehow becomes a front page story at this point women don wedding gowns and head off to persuade jimmie to pick them to be his bride these women arrive at jimmie's location and immediately start bullying him about what he's looking for in a woman when he's had enough of their unjustified attacks he tells the angry mob that there's been a mistake and he won't be marrying any of them as a result the women proceed to chase him around the city in hopes of catching him and tearing his limbs off this goes on for the rest of the film it's just chris o'donnell running from obnoxious greedy angry and stupid women my groans of disgust could be heard for miles the film finally ended thankfully but to this day i'm still groaning the bachelor is available on dvd from new line home video it contains the film in both full frame and in its original theatrical aspect ratio of cast and crew info and special features the original theatrical trailer is also on the disc which contains scenes not in the film apparently there was even more footage of the gang of brides chasing o'donnell around the city and at one point o'donnell is leaping from the tops of buses so that was bad enough to be cut but the other minutes of bride shenanigans was good ugh
negative	the happy bastard's quick movie review holy man more like holy crap the film stars eddie murphy as a figure named g on a strange journey of some sort when he comes across two network execs jeff goldblum and kelly preston with a flat tire on their hands somehow he ends up in their car and on their channel a of infomercial programs featuring the likes of betty white morgan fairchild and a slew of other celebrities and nameless figures it's here that he seems to hit his stride speaking of life instead and somehow boosting sales at this point in the movie of course morality comes into play particularly on goldblum who suddenly feels he can market the magical g into megabucks to get in good with his boss robert loggia it doesn't take long for the movie to unfold into sappy mush with realizations taking place left and right and poor plot points only a real zippy sequence involving frying morgan fairchild's face seems to have any interest in the movie murphy lends nothing to his character and poor goldblum looks as if he'd rather be someplace else some may argue that the movie has a message but all that came across to me is that i could probably get more entertainment watching that informercial with the guy in the question mark coat at least he has something for us to laught at
negative	forget get carter instead get me a cup of coffee what the hell has happened to all good american action movies did i unknowingly miss a meeting somewhere when did all of the kicking butt and taking names crazed vengeful characters of the from such films as commando cobra predator raw deal first blood suddenly turn into innocent compassionate sensitive knuckleheads the only place to turn these days for an honest action film is towards the east and i don't mean new york city get carter the latest masterpiece from sylvester stallone is a prime example of large and in charge action stars trying to fit back into action roles they have long since outgrown stallone seems like that one uncle you have who tries to be cool with his members only jacket and izod polo shirt with the collar popped up a few years ago stallone made a movie that gave him the opportunity to gracefully exit the roles that typecast him as an action monkey that role was sheriff freddy heflin in copland a strange film about redemption within a broken soul stallone actually gave an amazing performance and it seemed he had shaken off the past too bad get carter returns stallone to action but with the shiny paint rusted off on the edges get carter is a simple story stallone plays frank carter a vegas bruiser for a loan shark played with amazing gusto by the uncredited voice of actor tom sizemore when frank's brother gets himself killed in a drunk driving accident frank feeling all guilty and mushy inside thinks foul play is involved and travels to seattle to set right all the wrongs with the patented carter's way he talks tough with his brother's wife lends a helping had to his brother's daughter doreen rachel leigh cook and walks around seattle in the pouring rain dressed like a lost member of the rat pack with a really bad goatee carter finds out that his brother was involved in some bad stuff with a slimy porn king played by mickey rourke a computer geek alan cumming and a strange foreign guy michael caine who speaks in riddles and talks tough carter stalks all of them while trying to figure out who did in his brother and how to extract proper revenge on the responsible parties what a minute this sounds just like another film i saw last year the limey better not tell terence stamp about stallone ripping him off actually get carter is a remake of the british production of the same name starring caine in the title role and what with his cameo here the cleverness is astonishing while stallone still carries his own weight here the movie lacks what the original did as well purpose throughout the film stallone looks like an old guy trying to act tough while nobody is taking him seriously his fall flat and he seems tired and uncertain of all the actions mental and physical required of his character there is even a strange homoeroticism between rourke and stallone that lends a bizarre tone to their numerous conversations in both fists and words the biggest surprise in get carter is that the best job done in the film is by the versatile mickey rourke an amazing method actor in the eighties who fell into drugs spousal abuse a boxing career and an intolerable attitude towards not getting his way rourke still brings a dangerous sense of purpose to his porn king character he may not win any oscars but he still ranks highly in my book get carter has great directing strong acting by rourke and caine and energetic car chases that would make william friedkin proud the only thing it lacks as with most hollywood productions is a good script and proper casting never mind that it should never have been made at all
negative	a remake of the warren beatty vehicle heaven can wait which in turn was a remake of here comes mr jordan down to earth tells the tale of lance barton chris rock lethal weapon iv a young black standup comic trying to win over the audience at harlem's apollo theater when he's taken to heaven prematurely by bumbling angel keyes eugene levy best in show his only recourse is to return in another body he chooses that of charles wellington the tenth richest man in the united states of course wellington is not only rich but white and years old which makes lance's bid for closing night at the apollo as well as his desire to woo suntee regina taylor jerry maguire a tad tricky the original elaine beatty script has been reworked by chris rock lance crouther ali leroi and louis c k to turn beatty's vehicle as a football player into rock's vehicle as a comic and add some racial humor as directed by chris weitz and paul weitz codirectors of american pie and costars of chuck buck the whole affair comes off as amateur hour initial scenes play like filmed line reading rehearsals production values are shoddy most serious of all is the use of rock when his wellington counterpart would have been more appropriate this problem is clearly attributable to the fact that the old white guy is never lip or action synched when he is on screen rock does get the chance to do some fun schtick such as his turnaround on wellington's plans for a poor neighborhood hospital in the head you got a bed but he's uneven when interacting with the rest of the cast regina taylor fares well amidst the mediocrity as the young activist who confusedly ends up falling for the man she believed to be her nemesis also good is frankie faison hannibal as whitney lance's compassionate manager the only human who's made privy to lance's body body switch chaz palminteri and levy are pretty much wasted as heaven's ambassadors another best in show alumnus jennifer coolidge is poorly used as wellington's cheating wife and shown several days apart wearing the same outfit and greg germann tv's ally mcbeal sweet november continues display his sitcom roots as her lover and husband's lawyer mark addy the full monty is sorely underutilized as cisco wellington's fake english butler stealing the show in every scene she's in is wanda sykes the chris rock show as wellington's disgruntled maid down to earth is for chris rock fans only all others should go rent heaven can wait or truly be brought down to earth
negative	what would you do if no one could see you well if you're a super smart research scientist working for the military you'd grope a and your neighbor from across the street that's right of all the possibilities brought about by rendering oneself invisible in hollow man kevin bacon's character opts to commit sex crimes er it's kevin bacon who plays the super smart military research scientist something sounds horribly wrong already but this is a paul verhoeven film and the sleazepin director of such classics as basic instinct and the infamous showgirls never lets a little credibility get in the way of his voyeuristic tendencies which when you come right down to it is all this film is about hollow man features a string of hapless actors among them bacon elisabeth shue josh brolin and kim dickens in a plot with a lot of special effects that frankly don't look much better than those used in the version of the invisible man oh bacon glistens when he gets wet all right and looks like a rather fatty side of cheap flank steak when he's attempting reentry but otherwise it's lots of thermal shots and inanimate objects elisabeth shue included bobbing around without any visible signs of support since invisibility once achieved isn't much of an effect the actors spend half their time conversing with nobody and the other half of their time talking to each amounts to much of a muchness the director elects to wardrobe all of his female protagonists in sweaters so that the minute bacon's character gets invisible he can head straight for them it's as if that fascinating would you do if no one could see you simply a verhoeven ploy to show some skin as a horror film hollow man is unsophisticated and disturbing in its intent not its achievements and not worth your time or your dollars it's minor even that's not saying boy is it hollow
negative	roger ebert asks in his review of sexy beast who would have guessed that the most savage frothing gangster in recent movies would be played by ben kingsley my response would be that anyone who has seen alan arkin in wait until dark henry fonda in once upon a time in the west or anthony hopkins in the silence of the lambs should have guessed it they should know that the way for a film to create a really creepy sociopath is cast someone who generally plays mild sympathetic or even ineffectual character roles the same characteristics that make an actor seem gentle in most of his roles can work in his favor when a role calls for him to be fierce and vicious that is the principle that works for kingsley in sexy beast gary gal dove played by ray winstone has retired from a london career of crime and is living on a luxurious villa in spain life has become a routine of sunning himself and relaxing but his paradise is about to be shattered by a the first punch is a boulder that comes rolling down the hill next to the villa the second punch comes from gal's past back in london gang boss teddy bass ian mcshane tv's lovejoy is planning to break into a safety deposit room in a bank and he wants gal he sends his most rabid henchman don logan ben kingsley to fetch gal don will accept any decision gal makes from yes to certainly however if gal says no don will do whatever it takes to turn it into a yes including threatening guy's star wife deedee amanda redman in the meantime don knows just how to get under everybody's skin kingsley makes don a compact package of fury and nastiness there are some serious problems in louis mellis's and david scinto's script that should have been caught before filming when we see the actual crime we have no idea why gal was so important to its success beyond an ability to use gear no special talents are required of him any local hood could have done what gal is needed for additionally the crime involves digging from a swimming pool to the bank vault flooding the vault no only could they have let the water out of the pool and avoided the complication altogether but there is by far too much water to be accounted for by what was in the pool in spite of the provocative title the story is cliched and overly familiar i know i have seen all the plot elements of sexy beast in old westerns like the law and jake wade the story is usually of the reformed outlaw a robert taylor type who has hung up his guns and is trying for a life of peaceful respectability the old gang however wants to do one more job with their old buddy and sends a rabid richard widmark type to go and git im it is not a great plot in sexy beast even the plot twists have gray beards perhaps the film has a little more respectability because it was made not as a western but as a stylish british gangster film it is an old plot dressed up to look new if the plot is old at least the style is creative this is director jonathan glazer's first film but he has reputedly done some notable tv ads for guinness stout his style does have some unexpected touches including some very odd dream sequences cinematographer ivan bird uses a lot of half lit scenes we see one side of a person's faces but the other side fades into the darkness a sort of metaphor for the these characters half of everything that is happening is also kept hidden us yanks will have a hard time with some of the dialog at least in my theater it was difficult to make out the words with the quiet speaking the heavy accents and the cockney language sexy beast is a very and familiar minor plot lent respectability in the us by being done in what is here a still somewhat novel genre the london crime film the plot may be new to british crime films but it would be overly familiar as a western further respectability comes from ben kingsley's performance i give it a on the to scale and a on the to scale
negative	apparantly money talks   and uses quite a bit of obscenities doing so i've always considered myself pretty open about the gratuity a film can possess whether in language violence sex or what have you i find that this fact gives me a little more leverage to complain when a movie goes overboard and money talks definitely does it's not so much that the movie swore nearly constantly and i mean constantly but it swore so much that it seemed overly prominent and way too staged perhaps if one character were foul mouthed but in this film everybody swears nearly every other word money talks is about a black ticket scalper named franklin hatchett played less annoyingly than expected by chris tucker franklin is your typical and ends up with more than one person out to get him when the plot finally gets underway there's no less than three people or groups that want him dead or alive the frenchman who's somewhat responsible for franklin's escape from a bus a hoodlum whom franklin owes seven grand and the cops who wrongly suspect him of murder franklin's only hope james russell charlie sheen an investigative reporter for the local news who's out to prove himself a worthy journalist james offers to help clear franklin's name if franklin will just allow him an exclusive report to help channel conquer sweeps week both of these elements are completely lost along the way however and never do reappear as expected the odd couple of franklin and james do wind up friends at the end which is another wasted element seeing as how they show no signs of becoming friends at any point along the way there is just nothing original or intriguing about this film and so many developments are either or just plain forgotten about money talks is a movie that lacks any real involvment with the audience frivilous dialogue a predictable flat storyline and characters make money talks a reason to save your money
negative	starting with the little mermaid and most recently the lion king the walt disney company once again proved that they could not only consistently make modern day animated classics but were particularly in touch with what the general viewing wanted to see therefore it's with some surprise that as a big fan of the above mentioned movies i was so disappointed with pocahontas despite some innovation and risk taking the story is surprisingly straightforward and dramatized in broad strokes as are its characters a group of englishmen lead by the evil governor ratcliffe come to the new world in search of gold with no regard for the savages that live there the natives look upon the english with just as much fear and distrust only the love between the beautifully structured pocahontas and the dashing captain john smith can prevent a terrible clash the ending as it turns out is not entirely a happy one and is one of the film's finer moments the characters are mixtures of stereotypes and lack any real depth governor ratcliffe for instance is a snobbish bore whose mere appearance is supposed to bring about hisses captain john smith is a blond hunk who while slightly misguided is good at heart pocahontas herself is the typical disney heroine who is practically being forced to marry a man who everyone but her likes and finds the man of her dreams just in time she even comes complete with insignificant best friend again against tradition talking animals aren't used but a lusty wizened talking tree is this is an odd compromise but it's one of the few elements that really work the animals are a delight and what brief time their interactions take place brings the only humor and fun to a rather bland presentation maybe it would have been a better film if we saw the story unfold through their eyes the talking tree who seems to have a thing for john smith is the only other character that can hold our interest and is perhaps the best developed of the bunch the music a welcome delight in the later disney films is mostly a let down here with the exception of the catchy and motivational colors of the wind mel gibson as the voice of john smith has a solid singing voice and should have been used more the opposite holds true for the governor ratcliffe led songs the singing is even more grating than his simplistic character i was rather bored through what turned out to be a shorter than expected running time even the children in the audience seemed restless while there's no stopping a kid from seeing something that they disney wants them i believe will be disappointed perhaps the biggest problem is that disney has strayed from their familiar fable and fairy tale themes to history it's all right to change or embellish fantasy to suit a movie's entertainment value but doing so to historical facts doesn't work nearly as well as creating nagging questions in the viewer's minds and plot holes that are never filled even the artwork another disney strong point varies greatly in quality making any story problems even more obvious as mentioned above there were many questions that stayed with me while viewing the film for instance if john smith was truly such a world traveler and had so much experience with savages why did he so quickly change his previous kill as many indians as i can attitude if he was such a nice guy after all he should have changed his ways long before this or how about pocahontas' amazing english speaking ability when this had supposedly been the first time she had seen white men i can understand making the native americans speak english for the benefit of the audience but simply saying that they had met a missionary years earlier would have cleared up a lot history was modified in the film anyway as it is i wonder if it doesn't give kids the wrong impression in short the film is too simplistic for adults and contains too much romance and not enough action or humor for the younger set while disney tried valiantly in many ways to break with some of their firmest traditions they end up failing on too many levels
negative	plot upon the realization that they are failing all of their classes two roommates try to find a third roomie who will kill himself since the school's charter automatically grants top grades to the roommates of any student who succeeds in suicide critique despite this film's interesting premise and dark subject matter this movie sucks because it is unfunny boring and presents us with one of tom everett scott's worst acting performances add that to a completely unsuccessful romance element many lame and corny jokes a long wait for the setup and an ending that takes all the blackness out of this black comedy if you're gonna create a black comedy don't chicken out in the very bad things for a perfect example and you've got yourself a trite mtv creation worthy of its own subject matter i barely laughed at any gags found the bong element contrived and repetitive and was horrified not to find any gratuitous nudity tossed anywhere in this movie if you're gonna make a bad college comedy at least slap in some free shots for the kids this one's not even worth the rental fellas skip it altogether little known facts about this film and its stars during auditions for that thing you do tom everett scott's first feature film role director tom hanks was opposed to hiring tom because of the fact that scott could've passed for hanks years ago it wasn't until hanks' wife rita wilson saw the audition tape and decided he was cute that hanks decided to risk hiring scott the actor who played scott cooper in this film gosselaar is best known for having played the character of zack morris on tv's saved by the bell his parents are dutch and named hans and paula and who would've guessed that this is director alan cohn's first shot at directing a feature film
negative	when respecting a director you must also respect the fact that they are not perfect woody allen has made a couple good films and he's my favorite even martin scorsese hasn't had a perfect track record kevin smith after a smashing debut with the classic clerks stooped as low to and make the dreadful mallrats i mean so far the only director who's made several films none of which have been bad is richard linklater slacker dazed and confused before sunrise and suburbia all which were great now i adore quentin tarantino his first two films were classic films the second one being one of the greatest films of all time but just wasn't that good of a year for him he made way too many tv appearances he mispronounced jackie chan's name on the mtv movie awards and he made this film he was also awarded an oscar so i guess that would be a grand exception robert rodriguez is also a great director not a brilliant one but a cool one i've never seen an alexandre rockwell or allison anders film so i can't comment on them but in this crap ensemble director's film all four give pitiful efforts pitiful for any director too now in all fairness ensemble director pieces never really work out i've never seen all of new york stories but have heard the first two films by scorsese and francis ford coppola are crap i saw woody's one which was hilarious but not totally up to par but i will rate each film individually and then report back to you on the overal average score of the film exposition a simple one a bellhop ted the totally overdone tim roth who's a god and all but not in this one though he has a couple good moments is working on new year's eve for his first shift in an old fancy hotel he's the only one there again and he only has a couple rooms yet again the old bellhop the seemingly immortal marc lawrence who hated pulp fiction actually hands over his cap to ted and he goes to his job happily as the night goes on he becomes increasingly annoyed and hostile yea the short films are presented in order btw the missing ingredient allison anders starring sammi davis amanda decadenet valeria golino madonna ione skye lili taylor alicia witt this one starts it off horribly with no plot no intrigue and crap dialogue the situation is so terrible that it's physically painful to watch the plot has something to do with a coven of witches needing sperm to bring back a godess who is gasp stuck inside some object in their hotel room the witch that was supposed to bring it ione skye calls up ted and asks him if she can perform fellatio on him to get it yeah that's what i said stupid plot inane characters who aren't interesting at all etc etc etc the only good thing about this is it has a good cast which in turn it wastes pitifully not even actually funny for a second my rating out of no stars the wrong man alexandre rockwell starring david proval jennifer beals and laurence bender another bad little film with another stupid sex thing going on ted stumbles into the wrong room or something and gets in the middle of a couple david proval and jennifer beals in her attempt at coming back who are playing sex games ted tries to escape and we cheer him on so it will end soon but at least this has a bit of comedy in it just not that much and david proval has never overacted as much and it's pulp fiction producer laurence bender who gets to puke from a window a masterpiece compared to the first one but still the misbehavers robert rodriguez starring antonio banderes tamlyn tomita lana mckissack danny verduzco salma hayek would a robert rodriguez film be the same without salma hayek's navel nope luckily she's on the tv dancing so we get to see her surprisingly enough when i read the screenplay about a year before actually seeing it this one seemed to have the most potential it was funny and well funny but when i watched it it seemed and only seemed to gain any momentum towards the end when everything happened at once antonio overacts nicely and the two kids lana and danny are funny but as i said it moves slowly and in that way it's more painful than funny but the ending was stupid and funny at the same time oh the plot antonio is a supposed gangster assumed really who leaves his two troubling kids home while he and his wife tomita go out to get drunk at a new year's party antonio hires ted for a couple bucks to watch his kids all night long but things go wrong it was okay the man from hollywood quentin tarantino starring quentin tarantino bruce willis paul calderon and jennifer beals again ironically this one could be considered the best for a bad reason it best represents what quentin has done with this film he plays chester a spoiled brat actor or something who has just had a huge hit on his hands and is living it up by playing an game from a hitchcock tv episode starring steve mcqueen and peter lorre where they gamble to see if one of them can get light from his lighter ten times in a row they're drunk and need sober but nervous ted to hold the cleaver and bring it down if the lighter doesn't light they also pay him a lot of cash this is so much exactly what this little film is about that it's campy tim roth was probably payed a lot of money to do this stupid part in this stupid film made by a bunch of people who are high on themselves they've had hits major or minor it took quentin to realize that but the thing is it doesn't seem like he realizes that if he did i'd give this a good stars but this sucked it was and the dialogue wasn't very good he starts off with a very long steadicam shot then goes to flashes that makes no sense it's cool for a while then he makes it uneven it's long and it's just not very good hopefully quentin never repeats what he did with this one conclusion what's the moral here if you've made celebrated films don't do an ensemble piece they should have new york stories and then stopped in their tracks none of these have any point to them and they're embarrassing to not only the but to the actors they're working with crap but i will forgive everyone involved and i especially look forward to quentin's next directing job even though he and rodriguez jumped back to the top immeadiately with the cool from dusk till dawn which i found exhilerating i love quentin and i suppose it's good he made the man from hollywood because it makes him seem more realistic and not some god of cinema i seem to respect directors if they aren't gods and are actually human beings who make mistakes the man from hollywood is his big mistake and let's hope he doesn't return her continuously
negative	you don't need to have seen the original species to appreciate how utterly lousy species ii is with few exceptions sequels tend to be worse than the films that spawned them but the fact that species ii is a isn't the only reason it's so miserable it's the predictable storyline the cardboard characters the banal dialogue the failed attempts at humor the revolting special effects the gratuitous nudity all female of course the bad acting and the bland direction the plot simply geared at getting the alien species back on planet earth so that it can reak some more havoc involves three astronauts landing on mars and inadvertently bringing some alien slime in a soil sample back aboard their shuttle the slime well sort of jumps out at them and the screen turns black that should have been the end of the movie right there back on terra firma at least one of the crew is now a carrier of alien dna and as you'll remember if you saw the first movie driven by a strong urge to procreate on a parallel track government scientists have cloned a version of sil from the first film now called eve again played by natasha henstridge and are keeping her around for some testing this apparently includes observing eve's reaction to the dukes of hazzard tv show which she appears to enjoy eve's go off the scale each time one of her kinfolk mates which we are forced to witness in detail but otherwise there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of reason why henstridge is in this film unless it was written into her contract let's hope it cited one sequel and one sequel only eve finally breaks free of her her the finale but the effects are so messy you can't really see what's going on peter boyle is totally wasted as an institutionalized scientist who screams i told not to go at the top of his lungs referring to the mars mission but more likely aimed at the makers of this piffle michael madsen reprises his role of press lennox so that he can enter high security areas flash a badge and claim to be press maybe as does marg helgenberger as dr laura baker the one subjecting eve to the tv reruns they're both unbelievably wooden what's a talented filmmaker like peter medak the ruling class the krays let him have it doing directing this tripe i wonder it's an unfortunate trend this directors throwing in the towel and lending their names to unchallenging horror flicks like species ii last year peter hyams gave us the relic no thanks necessary there and the first species was helmed by roger donaldson who although certainly no genius behind the camera had demonstrated much better judgment with his previous choice of projects is it just that there are no better offers out there species ii is worthless worse than that it's also exploitative offensive and insulting to the intelligence at every turn it's not that there isn't anything positive to say about the film there is after minutes it ends
negative	something is fishy in the state of universal about ten years back with the unexpected success of mad max and the road warrior survival yarns became popular at the movies we've always had movies of this nature on the beach the end of the world damnation alley the ultimate warrior and so on to date the most smoothly done were straightforward haircuts of the classic western plot like the lone gunman who comes to town and protects the widow and the son against an evil organization usually one in possession of some critical resource like water feed range or a mining claim most of these grew out of venerable but solid hero yarns like the virginian and shane my personal favorite is a patrick swayze movie called steel dawn which was fairly well made on a small budget now we have waterworld which again brings the traditional lone gunman to town to rescue the young widow and her daughter well she's not a widow and the kid isn't her daughter but you get the idea the lady is helen played by the stunning jean tripplehorn who isn't given a chance to be stunning or even interesting by the mediocre and unimaginative script the child enola played by tina majorino is living proof that a child actor need not be a bad thing to have in a movie she outshines her material all the way through in simple the scene is earth hundreds of years from now the polar ice caps have melted and somehow produced enough water to inundate the entire planet the few remaining people live in boats and floating colonies and survive by trade theft or piracy somehow an oil tanker has survived the centuries and its inhabitants called smokers are able to keep gasoline engines running despite the dearth of replacement parts and raw materials so the bad guys have outboard engines and boats airplanes and jet skis enola found at sea as a young girl has a mysterious map no one can read tattooed on her back we suspect early on that it is the way to the mythical dryland the place where trees crops and animals grow and what plot there is hinges on who has enola the psycho ruler of the smokers the deacon is trying to get her and find his way to dryland played with typical histrionics by dennis hopper deacon is the only thing in the movie that's close to amusing his performance is almost laughable but there just isn't enough there to be funny the star and a is kevin costner he's playing an lone denizen of the sea a man called the mariner who turns out to be a gilled mutant with webbed feet very little is done with this the script ignores the ineffectuality of gills in supplying enough oxygen to support a human metabolism it ignores the fact that even with both ice caps completely melted much of the earth's surface would still be above water and it ignores the blatant impossibility of the cultures and technology shown canned meat does not last for centuries ammunition does not fire after it's more than a few decades old and so on and so on i'm quite fond of tina majorino's previous work very impressed by jean tripplehorn's past accomplishments and still speechless over costner's dances with wolves but this movie could destroy the careers of anyone associated with it this movie cost one hundred and million dollars and there's nothing in it we haven't seen before done better on only a few percent of the cost of this turkey at minutes of material this movie cost over one point four million dollars per minute to make the budget of this movie could have given us over thirty movies it could have paid for six years of a sf tv series with expensive fx work or ten years of an sf tv series with good digital fx in sum this movie is beneath contempt it has nothing new to offer it has a script that could easily have been bettered by the people who write comic books for dc and it spent more money than the national budget of a small nation if you have to go see it see it on a matinee otherwise you'll find yourself sneering at you every time you pass a reflective surface for weeks
negative	this season needs another serial killer movie like kathie lee gifford needs more public devastation but lo and behold here comes switchback and fast on the heels of such stalker fare as kiss the girls and i know what you did last summer but switchback is an undoubtedly weak genre entry as the material it covers is old and tired and the filmmakers rarely sustain enough energy to make any of the proceedings interesting switchback opens with the murder of a babysitter and the abduction of the young child she's watching we learn late in the game that the kid belongs to fbi agent frank lacrosse dennis quaid and that the is a nameless fiend that lacrosse has been tracking across the country for quite a while he is promptly removed from the case but this conflict of interest doesn't keep him from offering pursuit lacrosse's most recent trek takes him to a hotel room in amarillo texas where the local sheriff r lee ermey is torn between his campaign and helping his new ally catch his man in a related aside former railway worker bob goodall danny glover is cruising through the snowbound west in his even on the seatbelts el dorado along the way he picks up and subsequently saves the life of hitchhiking loner lane dixon jared leto this tangent isn't a random one as bob or lane will end up either holding a piece of the puzzle or turn out to be the killer himself or is the villain in fact lacrosse only pretending to be after the murderer he knows so much about in a sense that's half of the basic problem with switchback for its first hour the movie presents evidence that any of these three men could be the perpetrator so we're given little insight into who they are likely for fear that we'll learn too much too fast and therefore be able to make the proper deduction but switchback then decides to explicitly reveal the killer's identity at its midpoint and the following contradictory character motivations muddle both the pacing and the generation of suspense some of the acting is a burdensome area as well probably because the performers were instructed to build personas that are the exact opposite of their true selves what is danny glover doing here grinning and yeehawing his way through the messy plot and dennis quaid that monotone stop it ermey is solid in a supporting role that's more interesting than the two leads thrown together but the charismatic leto claire danes' object of affection in my life is a tried and true a material standpoint switchback is pretty empty but even when director jeb stuart who wrote the fugitive and die hard doesn't know what to do he knows what he wants it to look like the movie provides some great visuals the climax looks good even though the action is illogical and the beautiful crisp cinematography captures the rockies in all of their icy splendor still that's not enough to turn a lump of coal into a diamond and more than the movie's look will end up leaving you cold
negative	plot a separated glamorous hollywood couple must pretend to reunite for a press junket of the last movie that they ever shot together kewl now i only wish that i could pretend never to have seen this movie critique trite unfunny boring and a waste of everyone's talent how a premise with such zest and bite can turn into a movie that doesn't feature any chemistry any real laughs any surprises or any spice is beyond me how julia roberts is used solely as a puppy dog character puttering around in the background while we endure the complete bitchiness of character who is not one bit funny or romantic two ideal ingredients in a romantic comedy is also beyond me and why they chose john cusack a great quirky actor in his own right to play the most bland uninteresting and unfetching character with zero chemistry with either of his leads is further more beyond me and to anybody who decided that this project was funny enough to greenlight featuring the talents mentioned above along with billy crystal christopher walker seth green and stanley tucci well what can i say i just don't have the words so is this the worst movie that i've seen all year no but it definitely sucks and it's basically because well it's just not funny and for the record allow me to state a few more problems with it it starts off slow it's got no energy it doesn't engage you with any of its characters julia barely gets somewhat interesting in the film everyone else lame it utilizes way too many flashbacks to move the story forward it's utterly predictable standard routine and uninteresting as a plot and it just sits there on the screen big and ugly waiting waiting for you to laugh or find something in it that is amusing and then hank azaria shows up aaaaaah the film's savior mind you some might be offended by his exaggeration of a stereotype but that's another story altogether but when an experienced voice actor upstages all of the main stars in a summer blockbuster romantic comedy with an antonio banderas accent damn dude your film's in trouble rent this movie on video just to see what went wrong yourself the references to ricky ricardo and senor wences huh the points like when one of the characters goes on the roof to stretch his arms out and relax but everyone believes that he's going to kill himself and the cheap way of getting the audience to leave the theater laughing by bringing back a dog that has no place being in the location at the end of the movie well i could go on but i won't because i do still respect all of the actors in this film and actually did laugh at azaria green and tucci's antics from time to time ironic eh what about the leads dammit and liked the premise behind the film before i saw the finished product of course a dud all the way around btw all the talk about this film was that julia roberts was to be in a fat suit for one scene her character is supposed to have lost pounds so when the scene finally came i did get a little excited about what it might look like and then well it basically just looked like julia roberts in a fat suit ugh i think i'm gonna start drinking again after this movie c'mon hollywood enough with the crud where's joblo coming from beautiful my best friend's wedding notting hill pretty woman bride someone like you wedding planner when harry met sally you've got mail
negative	some talented actresses are blessed with a demonstrated wide acting range while others almost as gifted have more limited types of parts for which they are suitable as was amply evident after basic instinct sharon stone can play sensual roles with great abandon rejecting her natural abilities she has spent the rest of her entire career trying with little success to play against type gloria is her latest disaster babe ruth didn't quit baseball after one season to play football in a quixotic quest to prove his athletic dexterity and neither should stone reject what she does best janeane garofalo for example is no less wonderful an actress because she could have never pulled off stone's part in basic instinct neither is stone any less talented because she couldn't do garofalo's comedic roles gloria directed by respected director sidney lumet and adapted by steve antin from the screenplay by john cassavetes was not screened in advance for critics almost always a sign that the studio isn't behind the picture after seeing it in a nearly empty audience after it opened it is clear why they held it from the press it is a film more to be endured than enjoyed as the story opens an angry gloria stone is being released from prison after years confinement she's got a bad attitude and a big mouth she also has a bad case of wavering and overblown new york accents a disease suffered by much of the rest of the cast an annoying child actor named figueroa plays a orphan named nicky just before his whole family is gunned down by hoods working for gloria's kevin jeremy northam nicky's dad gives him a banana yellow floppy disk with secrets about kevin's operation and offers him a piece of fatherly advice be a man his father lectures him sternly don't trust nobody not no broads nobody most of the film's leaden dialog is delivered with the emotive power of the automated time and temperature announcements add in the movie's almost background noise and the excruciatingly slow pacing and you can hear the sounds of the lines falling to the ground like stones lumet places his actors in the frames like fruit in a still life painting they stand awkwardly mouthing the stiff sentences that pass for discourse say you're my baby kevin coos demandingly i'm not gonna gloria pouts back the movie has a plethora of logical flaws and implausibilites the kid rarely seems the least bit worried or scared no matter how many people are after him with guns trying to kill him and in one key scene the yellow floppy he holds is assumed to be the right disk without checking it and is further assumed never to have been copied gloria who keeps saying how she hates kids takes nicky under her wing and protects him from kevin and the bad guys think her maternal instincts will show up before the movie finally and predictably ends if you don't know the answer you may be just the right viewer for this film you have to say this for stone she can keep a straight face when explaining life to a kid she says with utter seriousness you got a lot of love making to make you got a lot of boozing to do gloria runs it is rated r for profanity violence and brief male nudity and would be acceptable for teenagers
negative	susan granger's review of ghosts of mars sony pictures entertainment horror auteur john carpenter halloween vampires strikes out with this that's so bad it boggles the mind to imagine how the project ever got the script by carpenter and larry sulkis appears to have been lifted directly from last year's pitch black involving a violent prisoner who must be released from bondage so that he can help a small band of humans protect themselves from marauding aliens in the year there are earthlings on mars living in a matriarchal society led by a commander played by pam grier grier natasha henstridge and some rookie mars police officers clea duvall jason statham travel to the remote mining town of shining canyon to fetch desolation williams that's ice cube to bring him back to chryse city to stand trial for murder but when they're besieged by demented miners they readily free the scowling ice cube since they need him for protection it seems a red cloud was released from a shining canyon cave and soon after most of the miners went bonkers as remnants of an ancient martian civilization took over their minds and bodies lopping off heads as vengeance for anything that tries to lay claim to their planet according to a scientist joanna cassidy carpenter uses so many flashbacks to tell the night of the living dead story that the idiotic plot gets incomprehensibly confusing but you can easily predict each of the supporting characters who will be killed along with the order of their elimination on the granger movie gauge of to ghosts of mars thuds to a laborious perhaps indeed there is a curse on mars films if you recall two other duds mission to mars and red planet
negative	plot based on the wildly popular jerry springer tv show this movie follows the lives of two groups of people before they make their bizarre appearances on the infamous program one posse comes from the trailer parks and are to be featured in the i slept with my stepfather segment and the other is based on some whose girlfriends keep sleeping with her undevoted dog boyfriend critique the truth is that if i didn't have a day job i would probably watch the real jerry springer show every day i find it quite entertaining despite its complete lack of redeeming value having said that the show itself is outrageous funny and always filled with goofy surprises as opposed to this film which features no laughs is this a comedy or a drama uninteresting and completely unbelievable stereotypes and a contrived plot which bores us stupid all the way i never thought i would utter the word boring in the same sentence as jerry springer but this film is an absolute despite offering various scenes featuring simulated blowjobs lesbians and tv violence who would've guessed that i wish they would have either a made this movie much much funnier or b turned it into a complete drama and given us a real perspective as to why people like this actually put themselves through these public forums of embarrassment unfortunately it doesn't seem as though screenwriter jon bernstein spent more than a drunken weekend watching real jerry springer reruns to complete his script leaving us with a boring film featuring no laughs characters and no fun whatsoever little known facts about this film and its stars jerry springer used to be the mayor of cincinnati ohio for this film he won the razzie award for worst new star tied with joe esterhas from an alan smithee film burn hollywood burn
negative	i never understood what the clich hell on earth truly meant until very recently i've just never experienced anything in my life which was so terrifying so horrible so monstrously deplorable that it justified being termed as hell on earth after all i've never been to war i've never been the victim of any violent crime i've never really been broken hearted and i've never been audited so i really had no frame of reference as to people meant when they said that something was hell on earth then i saw cruel intentions in a perfect world i would be in charge of all the movie studios the very first thing i'd do in this perfect world would be to take every hollywood producer who thinks that setting any story in contemporary america with a cast playing teenagers and featuring a soundtrack ripped directly from mtv and throw them in jail but it wouldn't just be your average jail not even a maximum security installation i'd have these producers and everyone else involved in the production of these films put in front of a war crimes tribunal and forced to beg for mercy for their crimes against humanity now you're probably thinking to yourself is this really how bad cruel intentions is the answer is no it's actually much worse watching the cast of this motion picture atrocity try to act their way through roger kumble's awfully written script is probably a lot like stabbing yourself in the arm with a chainsaw and then pouring salt on the open wound and then pouring acid on the salt i don't know if kumble was trying to evoke comedy or tragedy out of his opening scene where marci greenbaum tara reid whines about having nude photos of her posted on the internet but the only emotion i felt was sheer boredom from that opening scene where boring actor ryan phillippe tries to seduce tv actress swoosie kurtz to the conclusion which i don't remember because i had practically fallen asleep cruel intentions is truly hell on earth right up there with war and tax audits
negative	about an hour or so into the jackal a character wandered around as people were being shot at in a big suspense sequence and one of the audience members in the theatre i saw it in shouted out i hope she gets killed now at that point it hit me i didn't care for any of the characters being played by actors i didn't really like when the sole reason you care about a character being played by sidney poitier in a suspense film is because he's being played by sidney poitier you know something's rotten in the state of denmark every year a couple films like this are released you know the cheap action packed international espionnage film featuring a premise some actors usually bruce willis and the hopes that some audience members will forget the cold war ended several years ago this was the third one of following the very lackluster the saint which featured an amoral costume changing bond wannabe and the surprisingly fun the peacemaker featuring clooney and kidman trying to stop an almost untraceable villain the jackal tries to mix both elements and you thought the saint was bad the jackal is loosely very loosely i hope based on the fred zimmerman classic that i've yet to see the day of the jackal which featured apparently a suave hitman called the jackal played by edward fox trying to assasinate charles degaule well welcome to the where a sorta suave hitman also called the jackal bruce willis trying to kill the head of the fbi or is he after being hired by a russian mob lord as a bit of vengeance for the murder of his brother killed in the opening scenes the jackal romps all over the northen hemisphere from helsinki to virginia setting up an elaborate scheme wherein he'll be able to assasinate this person and still get away to live in seclusion and like the saint the jackal changes his look over and over and over again to elude people the agent working on the case cater preston sidney poitier yes that sidney poitier working with a russian agent valentina koslova diane venora lady capulet from romeo juliet gives up early on and meets with an man declan mulqueen richard gere putting up some tight competition between himself and brad pitt for worst fake irish accent of who's in a massachusetts jail but who has apparently seen the jackal who has been eluding the law forever soon he's out working with the two untrusting agents and trying to help them catch him there are numerous problems with the film and which one is the biggest one is pretty impossible to put a finger on the film is supposed to be a big suspense thriller but save a couple moments the film never achieves suspense or even a sense of intrigue sure the big assasination attempt is a bit cool looking and even slightly tense but every other scene in the film is too short and too dull to register the film never picks up enough to become a thrilling experience or even an entertaining one it doesn't help that the plot is designed to be complex but falls into so many problems like plot holes and unbelievable circumstances the script of the jackal is a complete mess mostly because it can't decide what it wants to focus on is this a film about a man trying to find redemption by catching a nasty killer is it a film about a nasty amoral hitman who's in everything for the money or is it a combination of both the jackal aims for the latter but never focuses in on either character the connection between the two feels completely edited so much that in a scene when the jackal turns around and notices declan you wonder how he recognized him so fast the worst part is the little past they try to give declan most notably his relationship with an old girlfriend isabella mathilda may given so little screen time that you almost forget her character exists until she pops up every now and then the supporting characters are worse sidney poitier is given a completely unplayable role that of a man who is just stern sometimes and other times more giving and likable what is poitier doing here he's one of the best living actors does he really need to waste his time doing drivel like this diane venora's russian character is almost as bad with a cigarette perpetually in her mouth and a plastered on expressionless facade it's not that anyone's bad here it's that they have nothing to do the plot is a joke feeling like it was pasted together by someone in who dropped each scene on the floor and pasted them together quickly so it could be released on time the jackal himself is not even much of an international villain there are several times where he's in a tight situation and makes things worse for himself the only explanation being that the filmmakers wanted to toss in a cheap thrill take a scene where he's being followed by some agents into a parking garage he quickly sprays his car another color and adds a solvent that if touched kills the person who touched it doesn't killing someone attract more attention than it does distract and does he think dying his hair bottle blond makes him fit in in a public place geez is there anything good here well a couple things i did like willis's icy expressions he may not have been real suave or anything but some of his looks are worth a chuckle richard gere has a couple of good moments making his character as likable as he possibly could have and a couple sequences are kicky in that kind of proposterous completely inane but fun kinda way most notably a sequence where he tests out a new gun on an annoying gun builder jack black and a bit where he seduces a gay washington man which has its share of a couple good jokes most particular a kiss by willis but none of these elevate the film any higher than it could go they're just little distractions along the way to amuse us mildly then toss us back into the world of dullness and stupidity that is the jackal director michael who directed the far superior rob roy has made a film that is made very couple months one that is unentertaining unintriguing and pretty much cold but will nevertheless make money because hey the trailers do make it look like it may be fun in that kind of kinda way every now and then the filmmakers get it right clear and present danger which was enormous fun in that smart kinda way but the jackal is an example of when they go completely wrong
negative	showgirls is the first film to receive an rating and its release last year came at a time when senator bob dole and other politicans chastised the entertainment industry for promoting sex and violence but if showgirls is any indication of hollywood's future the folks in washington should focus their attack on a more dangerous threat to american moviemaking showgirls is a relentlessly exploitive look at the las vegas strip scene and the film turns out to be just as trashy as its subject matter director paul verhoeven and writer joe eszterhas who collaborated on another project basic instinct follow the plight of a young woman teen tv star elizabeth berkley determined to make a name for herself as a topless dancer it's a hackneyed premise to begin with so not surprisingly all of the stock characters are trucked out there's the demanding producer the loyal friend the bitchy competitor lest i forget the scummy club owner of course any attempt at character development or a coherent storyline is just window dressing for the film's main endless parade of nudity unfortunately showgirls doesn't satisfy in this department verhoeven's style of direction proves neither arousing nor erotic to make matters worse you'll be forced to sit through the movie's clothed scenes which don't cover up for laughable acting and some of the most absurd dialogue ever spoken in film history verhoeven and ezsterhas deserve credit for trying to break ground but if it's adult entertainment you want stay home and watch the playboy channel you'll be the wiser for it
negative	here's a concept van damme gets killed within the first ten minutes of the movie now if that isn't enough to get you to finally see a van damme movie i don't know what is all sarcasm aside it is certainly a different way to start a movie of course a few minutes later we find out that the newly deceased had a twin brother so lucky us we get to see more of van damme works for the russian mafia in the united states and is killed by some of their operatives van damme is a police officer in france who finds out that he had a twin brother he never knew about after gets killed in france the remaining twin the french cop goes to the united states to find out who killed his brother and avenge his death once there he hooks up with his deceased brother's girlfriend played by natasha henstridge and the two of them set out to discover who the murderers are acting abilities don't seem to be up to the usual lackluster standards in this movie in other words just in case you missed the sarcasm his acting is worse than normal on the upside natasha henstridge is in this film and she does what she did best in species she gets naked sadly this is probably the high point in the movie she is actually a decent actress but didn't improve as much as i thought she would after species this is the typical van damme movie with doing a variety of high end martial arts moves on his opponents nothing new here and certainly nothing we haven't seen in every other van damme movie simply put there is absolutely nothing new about this movie it has a retread plot this isn't the first time has played twins he still can't act we all saw natasha's breasts in species although this is one repeat performance i'm not complaining about this is pretty much like every movie that van damme has ever been involved in sub par
negative	what makes reindeer games even more disappointing than just a predictable lifeless action flick is the cast and crew who signed onto the project most of the people involved in reindeer games just came off terrible slumps with excellent comeback performances in their most recent films john frankenheimer who made the unforgettable cold war drama the manchurian candidate way back in the early recently showed critics and fans alike that he still had some magic left in his directorial skills when he created the brilliant car chase scenes in ronin screenwriter ehren kruger gave a remarkable first impression when he wrote the script for the underrated arlington rd ben affleck displayed his comedic talents in dogma and boiler room and even on saturday night live directly after the horrible forces of nature and cigarettes even charlize theron who i was convinced couldn't act did a decent job in cider house rules when all of these bright stars come together one would assume that the movie will have great potential to be entertaining after coming out of the theater showing reindeer games disbelief was my first reaction then frustration the movie could have premiered on cinemax at two in the morning starring an cast and still would have been equally lacking in entertaining the acting is so pitiful and the script so dull i may have to rethink some of my opinions on how talented these actors actually are it seemed like everyone was restricted to just the script and not given a fair amount of improvisational rights we have all seen ben affleck have some fun on the set it is so apparent in a number of scenes in good will hunting when he exchanges jokes with his friends at a bar the actors in that movie were having fun and from that the audience had fun reindeer games is the complete opposite the actors don't seem to want to be their characters even danny trejo who will do practically anything doesn't look like he is enjoying himself causing the audience to quickly lose interest evidence of public disapproval was noted when a woman behind me yelled boy this movie is horrible and when there were scattered giggles during the most dramatic moments the story follows a man rudy ben affleck who is leaving prison in a few days along with his best friend and cellmate nick james frain nick has been exchanging love letters with a beautiful woman ashley charlize theron and cannot wait to leave prison and meet her in person when nick is killed in a prison riot rudy decides to pretend to be nick and take ashley out on a date for the christmas holidays unfortunately ashley's brother gabriel gary sinise interferes with their relationship thinking rudy is nick he kidnaps rudy and threatens to kill him unless he helps rob a casino which nick use to work at as a security guard now rudy must pretend to be nick so he can protect ashley from her brother gabriel confused the movie only gets more complex as it goes on until it gets way way too complex at its climax but reindeer games makes its first serious mistake during the first half an hour the hero commits a greedy selfish act when he decides to pretend he is his dead cellmate in order to date ashley some hero the point of a hero is to do the morally correct thing a person for the audience to relate to or admire when rudy lies and cheats his way into trouble instead of gathering support from me for him to ultimately succeed in getting the bad guys i felt more like he was getting what he deserved and even wanted to see him fail at times the most irritating part of the film besides the fact that this is a christmas movie released in february is the number of chances the bad guys get to kill rudy but fail or delay for some idiotic reason the routine in which the bad guy must explain his genius plan to the hero before attempting to kill him with some elaborate machine is getting so tired nowadays especially when i eagerly want to see the hero dead the only saving grace keeping this movie from receiving zero stars is an amusing but pointless cameo from isaac hayes as a prisoner upset with his food why he was in this movie for such a pointless role beats me why any of these people had anything at all to do with this movie beats me
negative	dreamworks skg running time hours starring robert duvall tea leoni and elijah wood directed by mimi leder the first of the two asteroid movies coming out this year the second is the macho armageddon is actually a dull affair elijah wood plays leo biederman who during astronomy class discovers that a large asteroid is heading for earth tea leoni plays a rather crap news reporter jenny lerner who soon discovers about this asteroid through a very long winded and boring way and robert duvall plays the leader of a space crew spurgeon tanner who are planning to blow the asteroid out of the path of earth also featuring is morgan freeman as the president and maximilian schell and vanessa redgrave as jenny's father and mother while many people will walk into the film expecting a big special effects fest with the asteroid blowing everything up as the trailers seem to promise the film is actually more of a character study if a very poor one the main problem is that there are too many characters in the film and not enough time to explore them all only the space crew are given any depth jenny lerner leo and the president are surprisingly and we never get to know these characters and because i couldn't care for them i didn't really give a crap if the asteroid killed them or not the script by bruce joel rubin and michael tolkin is horribly simple and never really makes any interesting statements mimi leder the former er director and director of the average the peacemaker again directs in a style and never really gets any emotion out of a scene which is a shame the cast are seemingly on autopilot although tea leoni does gives a rather good performance even if she acts a bit too dorky for her own good she seems uncommonly stupid for a journalist robert duvall is on autopilot with a underwritten role he just seems to be in this film for the money elijah wood one of the best child actors working today is surprisingly average although his choice of roles lately haven't exactly been brilliant i e flipper his role is also vastly underwritten morgan freeman again is utterly wasted with a ridiculously underwritten role like duvall he just seems to be in the film for the money the supporting cast are all o k none making much of an impression ok so deep impact may have messed up character wise but surely the special effects are good well yes and no although the special effects should be impressive with a massive tidal wave destroying new york the special effects look like well special effects sadly the waves looks like it's been drawn on computer and doesn't look too good at all surprising really when the effects are done by industrial light magic who did the effects for the lost world and twister in the end deep impact is a wasted opportunity what could of been a moving movie with good effects turns out to be a dud in both characters and effects the hours the film had could have been used to much greater effect once again dreamworks has churned out another average movie let's hope armageddon is a bit better overall review by david wilcock web space provided by geocities
negative	seen may at p m at the crossgates cinema theater with chris wessell and sean o'shea for rating very good sound picture and the event movie is becoming so trendy now it is becoming a weekly routine instead of a seasonal one gluttony is hollywood's favorite sin but it is the who pay the price by being dealt the same things over and over on an basis lost in space is the latest such offering a film so poor it would be twice as good if it were mediocre it's made up of every element of science fiction but at no time does it evoke the slightest amount of wonderment the genre was meant for audiences' attention spans are rapidly decreasing and as is the trend with such films this one opens with a space battle which serves not only as the most interesting scene in the film probably because it has star wars written all over it but as the producers' way of showing off their budget through the special effects battle scenes are worthless without tension and since we have no idea what the setting is it's impossible to care about anything that happens in essence the entire segment works like a teaser for an arcade game not a piece of filmmaking we meet the robinson family a family of five that does not get along but has been chosen to act on earth's behalf in effort to find another planet worthy of colonization due to the exhausting of our natural resources each member of the family has a special trait and personality and yet none of them seem like actual people professor john robinson hurt is the intelligent quiet leader who has devoted so much time to his work his family and marriage are suffering without his realizing it it's obvious what role this aspect will play of course this is all established through extremely melodramatic scenes such as the children and parents arguing and bickering among themselves and with each other while the necessary problems are resolved at the right moments the only thing worse than the screenplay is the fact it's presented in a completely serious manner without a trace of satire and is so pathetic it's laughable the first act is not a building of a story but a juxtaposition of scenes that serve no purpose other than to plug in all the required elements such as plot conflict and characterization god forbid we're provided with the minimum amount possible of these elements to keep the film from being completely silent in fact it might as well be since the dialogue is virtually yes the characters do speak but they do not talk they say things that only relate to the conflict but they never really interact unless it's the cartoony flirting scenes between arrogant major don west leblanc and uptight unemotional judy robinson graham it's amazing that after an hour of trite dialogue and generic plot devices that so little happens eventually the pacing rapidly increases but the amount of genuine interest does not the story finally gains some prospective by living up to its title as the robinsons find themselves lost in space after narrowly managing to defeat dr smith oldman the cartoony villain and his plans for sabotage what ensues is a series upon series of completely unrelated conflicts the first such scene takes place on an abandoned spaceship and what ensues could best be described as alien the story changes again when the robinsons crash land on an alien planet and must act quickly to escape it and survive but there's never any real notion of suspense here because the script constantly wanders aimlessly plotlines are developed but each becomes totally irrelevant as the story changes from scenario to scenario the atmosphere attempts to be surreal by incorporating time travel and various time paradoxes but it's presented in such a ridiculous way it's utterly boring by the time the last act rolls around there is no sense of a payoff building the ending does not go out on a high note with any kind of climax instead it seems to come to a sudden halt but at least it ends at all lost in space is major film production at its worst it's frightening that a film so poorly written directed and acted might be considered mainstream entertainment
negative	the only thing worse than watching a bad movie is realizing that the film had a lot of potential and could've been effective such is the case with the new horror film from first time director jamie blanks the idea behind the movie is that the mad slasher of the film muders people according to various urban legends examples include the killer in the backseat of the car and person getting calls from inside her house the killer wears one of those l l bean parkas with the hood drawn completely up so you can't see the face i guess halloween masks are out of style for psychos these days anyhow the premise is certainly a nifty one and the opening scene is spooky and atmospheric it's a very good setup that promises more chills to come unfortunately the film never takes off from there the movie takes place on a peaceful new england college campus like most slasher flicks this one also centers around a young female main character whose friends are slowly killed off by a knife wielding maniac or in this case an axe wielding maniac i've always wondered why these killers don't save themselves a lot of time and trouble and just go after the person they ultimately aim to kill after the fine first scene the movie degenerates into a monotonous series of those annoying scares these are always accompanied by loud bursts of music i guess sudden sharp music chords are what passes for terror these days the actual killer will attack at about every third music blast the slasher appears attacks the victim is eviscerated and the tedious cycle appears anew false scares should always be used in moderation someone needs to tell director blanks that things like this just aren't as scary as they used to be this movie commits the biggest sin a horror film can not frightening remember the horror movie cliches that were so mercilessly mocked in and this movie still adheres to them tons of illogical moments about more than i really have the inclination to list and i don't mean illogical in the summer popcorn movie sense that type of illogical can be fun this film insults your intelligence more times than i care to remember the last minutes especially degenerates into such lunacy that you'll be laughing more than you'll be screaming actually you won't be screaming at all at its best the acting can barely be called adequate and the script could've definitely used a rewrite or two the film still manages to have some strong points the killings are certainly inventive and plentiful enough to satistfy most gore fans there are some intentionally funny moments these were exceeded by the unintentional ones the film is well made from a technical standpoint besides the first part there is also another good scene a prolonged cat and mouse chase inside a radio station if there had only been more sequences like this that relied on tautness and suspense rather than loud bursts of music might've been worth your money
negative	my opinion on a film can be easily swayed by the presence of actors i love i love ralph fiennes i love uma thurman i love sean connery hell i'm even a big fan of jim broadbent and fiona shaw i saw the fantastic preview for the avengers nearly eight months ago and i've been eagerly awaiting the film ever since a few months into the summer however i noticed that its release date had been changed a few times and that it had ended up in the dumping ground then in this final week before its official release i learned that it was not to be screened for critics and that the actors had not been plugging the film on late night programs and that it was directed by the same man who brought us the remake of diabolique my expectations fell to pieces when i learned all of these things the film i saw today didn't even meet those expectations this is a lousy incoherent mess i would slam it harder if it weren't for the nifty sets and the mere presence of all these fine lovable actors but sets are ultimately empty and the performances are completely uninspired that's the main problem with the avengers for all it's flash and tidal waves none of it feels the least bit energetic or inspired it's like a chore a bland exercise in superhero film making it also feels like its been cut to pieces clocking in at minutes and forgetting to close some of its own subplots this is just plain depressing the avengers is a film version of the popular television show frequent readers of mine will not be surprised to learn that i've never watched an episode i wasn't alive then i don't even watch television now i'm very sorry that i don't have this perspective but judging from the reviews i've already read knowing the tv show just makes matters worse i didn't know and love john steed and emma peel and therefore i was not as upset to see how these actors i love have managed to thrash their roles i also doubt that familiarity with the series would allow me to understand more clearly the chain of events that do take place in this film based on what the film told me i gather that steed fiennes is some kind of british super guy somewhat like james bond and that dr peel thurman is just a really smart doctor who also happens to know a lot about weather and about beating people up while limited by tight leather suits they are to work together under mother's orders mother is played by jolly jim broadbent while his father is played by the fiona shaw it seems that there is a man out there controlling the weather his name is de wynter connery he is a crazy scottish guy our heroes had better stop him or else   the weather will keep getting colder until they have to go to hell to warm up one of the film's few funny lines along the way there is subplot after subplot hinged sloppily together by scenes that go nowhere feel perfunctory and ultimately make no sense for example our heroes are eventually attacked by a swarm of giant mechanical insects with machineguns attached to their torsos now killer bugs don't really go with the theme of the film the purpose of the bugs other than to annihilate our heroes is never established they're never even directly connected to de wynter they're controlled by his crazy henchman played by eddie izzard the special effects aren't bad but they're loud obnoxious and intrusive like so many scenes in the film it seems present only to keep your attention from waning and i guarantee you it will wane i stopped thinking about the story when i realized it didn't do any good to think the avengers has clearly been chopped up and so many times that even the people involved couldn't tell us what happens there are several scenes in the preview that didn't make the final cut in addition many of the sequences have irritating grainy film quality which makes it feel the last scene is particularly bad the scenes that don't feature action should be electric thanks to our wonderful cast they aren't the action scenes should be electric because this is an action film they aren't either and what about this wasted cast oh it makes me weep with disappointment we're talking ralph fiennes here one of the best actors working today one of the best actors ever i love the guy i've loved all his films until this one he seems like he wants to understand the film but he's as lost as we are and thurman in all of her spectacular beauty and talent can't manage to look at home here i don't blame her completely for there is a strange subplot involving her evil twin that is never explained in any way and it can't be easy to deal with such terrible screenwriting connery however seems the most out of it totally lacking any kind of focus or interest for that matter who is to blame is it the screenwriter don macpherson perhaps although i can see a shell of a story here that could have been a good superhero movie had it been handled right is it the actors for god's sake no these people clearly lost interest when they saw the inevitable path of destruction on which this film was travelling i blame director jeremiah chechik who shouldn't have been given the task to begin with his best film benny joon is quirky in the same way that this one was supposed to be but here it mostly seems like a lot of failed attempts at wit and humor add to that a lack of experience in action and you have the worst choice for director this side of james ivory if the avengers has a saving grace it's the set design the sets by stuart craig are big colorful and often pleasing to look at i like the final on de wynter's island even if none of it makes a bit of sense i admired the overhead view of the stairs showing dr peel running around in circles and never getting anywhere i also enjoyed michael kamen's music score particularly in the opening credits but this stuff is routine good sets and music are nice but there's a lot more that needs to be here inspiration for instance would have been really nice maybe a little bit of cohesion in the story or a sense of purpose most of all though i would have liked to see these actors relish in their roles damn this movie for not giving them the chance
negative	if snake eyes were a dog you'd put it to sleep if it was a couch you'd put it out on the sidewalk where it would sit for a week if it were your child you'd be reading military school catalogs if it were a ship no it wouldn't be the titanic that would imply glamor and tragedy it would be the exxon valdez personal side note i saw this movie on the road during a houston business trip for whatever reason my hotel's cable system wasn't showing the game which featured a randy maddux matchup this forced me to pay full price for snake eyes instead of watching a perfectly good baseball game for free so the invective deserved as it is should be seen in that perspective snake eyes is supposed to be a mystery movie and good mystery movies are supposed to leave you asking yourself questions on the way out of theater snake eyes is not a good mystery movie but i had some questions where's the manager and how do i get a pass if i fall asleep on the drive home and wreck my can i sue brian de palma is it too late for the academy to revoke nicolas cage's oscar will someone please i'm begging you give gary sinise a role worthy of his talents and how exactly does cage end up wearing the exact same shirt and tie as sinise does the first and most glaringly wrong thing with snake eyes is the trailer if you've seen the trailer without seeing the movie consider yourself fortunate the trailer is a work of sheer genius it manages to convey everything worthy of the movie the noteworthy steadicam work the exuberance of cage's performance as a thoroughly corrupt atlantic city policeman the essential elements of the marginal plot the expert craftsman who pieced together a fairly good trailer out of snippets of a wretched movie deserves praise and a percentage of the gross is a best trailer category at the oscars that after all but all it does is set us up for an overwhelmingly disappointing movie the trailer sets up what should have been a promising plot detective ricky santoro cage must solve the mystery of who shot the secretary of defense at an atlantic city boxing match unfortunately there are multiple problems afoot the trailer gives away much too much of the story the shooter is killed instantly so the story revolves around why the secretary was killed and who is involved in the conspiracy the film's secret is at best and anyone who has watched the trailer and is aware of the law of economy of characters can figure out who the top conspirator is without an interesting plot without interesting dialogue and without much of a reason to care about the characters or the story snake eyes is a failure on almost every possible level as much as i hated this movie i must give brian de palma one tiny bit of credit de palma is maddeningly inconsistent he can on his day create amazingly movies the untouchables carlito's way on he can be well just horrid the bonfire of the vanities raising cain snake eyes falls into the horrid category but there are a couple of moments that are worth seeing strictly for their value the steadicam opening scene does a good job of introducing the cage character and is a virtuoso technical job by both the director and the actor there is a chase scene that looks pretty good and it's followed by a god's eye view of a bank of hotel rooms that's imaginitively done this is what's called giving the devil his due but the technical skill doesn't even come close to making up for the sheer evil of this movie placing plot holes to one side for a moment snake eyes features easily the worst boxing match in cinema history george foreman is in better shape than the movie boxers a hurricane that exists for no other reason than to punctuate significant plotlines with portentuous thunderclaps and perhaps the worst most overly drawn out ending in years snake eyes is a criminal act an evil waste of time and talent cage sinise and yes even de palma deserve better the audience deserves better but no refund no pass no free popcorn coupon can ever restore to us the time we've spent or wash the awful images from our mind however we are left with one consolation that we were warned by the movie's title because snake eyes is nothing more than a roll of craps
negative	the last line or near to that honor is the great butler alfred the ubergod michael gough saying i think we need a bigger bat cave or something to that note that's exactly what this film is too big for its own good because it has too damn much cut batgirl out cut one of the villains it's too much to handle in one dosage it's so much that characters get left behind poor elle gets a mere scenes and a subplot which is introduced but never finished in any way shape or form and elle deserves better this is the fourth in the gigantic film series and the second from director joel schumacher it's also the fourth worst in the series and second worst from joel the series has been declining since its stunning debut followed by the sequel and then the third one first by joel this one's not i knew it was gonna suck it's up to joel to make it fun though batman forever was fun this is a big bore of action sequences and shallow characters i mean this one bit i'm gonna put all the plot in one paragraph mr freeze who's wife was dying of some disease has become the new big villain these days he's a huge who fell into some weird liquid hello joker and now has a body temperature of a big fat zero and has a blue body batman george and robin chris fight him a bit but find they're growing apart meanwhile another villain shows up poison ivy uma who was a dorky scientist chick working on flowers in south america with a twistet scientist john glover who kills her when she finds out he's used her research to develop an uberman bane who is basically a man pumped with chemicals which probably killed any personality he ever had she emerges from her chemicals don't ask i can't tell ya as a sexy woman the real uma who's poison when or if you kiss her and has some aphrodiasiatic scent she blows at people she starts to tear away at the dynamic duo meanwhile alfred's dying of the same disease mr freeze's wife has but in an earlier state than she and his niece barbara alicia comes all the way from oxford without an english accent to get him away from the butler trade but soon well not really soon it takes her hours becomes batgirl meanwhile in an unfinished subplot bruce batman's if you forgot has been dating the lovely julie madison the even lovlier elle macpherson who wants a commitment after a year but he says nothing end of her for all we know mr freeze ultimately teams with poison ivy and they want to freeze the world and then take it over growing new plants as their population don't ask the trio must team together as family to beat them there ya go not the whole story but no big context clues too much right right the films seems patched together of nice little ideas which would have made for a couple good sequels however while tim burton nicely balanced the storyline although not wonderfully joel seems to do almost nothing with batman in this one he gets some corny speeches a couple clever lines and that's it maybe some stunts for all this i can't even comment on george clooney as batman i hardly saw the guy and when i did he had horrible dialogue to say i think michael keaton is the quintessential batman but val kilmer was too robotic and fake as batman in the last episode george is in between them he's not quintessential he's not horrible he's good but i'm sure next time when they decide to renovate the series since they'll be critically murdered for this sorry effort we'll get a good script and clooney will shine if he still has the job the villains are the only interesting part of the series according to schumacher last time we had the brawn of two face as played by tommy lee jones and the supplied by the riddler as realized by jim carrey this time we have a somewhat sympathetic and somewhat hatable villain the same guy mr freeze we feel bad for his collapse but does he really need to kill everyone for plants arnold isn't very good too hokey but kinda sympathetic at some points when he watches old movies of his wife he actually looks somber wow but uma makes the most of her seductive character getting the right point between hamminess and seductiveness it's like she's almost parodying herself in pulp fiction at points she's incredibly hot and makes the movie pretty much a star better as for the lower chris is the same as he was in batman forever although i think his work in these is too hokey when he's best at quieter parts in scent of a woman or just plain cool parts in fried green tomotoes alicia i love the girl but she's not particularly good in this film she can hypotheitically act we all saw that in clueless but her lines kinda sound weird and it isn't the this time but in all fairness she has virtually no part joel gets around to her occasionally and when she's on she does stupid stuff although i know i'm not the only one who loved the catfight between her and uma and poor elle poor poor elle i love that woman and she can also hypothetically act for those of us who saw sirens but she has no part it seems like joel had so much footage that he had to edit almost an hour out of the final product there are no couch scenes like my best friend noticed now listen to me on this one in every batman flick there's a couch scene in the original it was with vicki in returns it was a good scene with selena and in the last one it was a chat with nicole this one it's nothing and batgirl does in this film till the end when she's suddenly part of the family fortunately we get a lot of alfred he's the always reliable butler in case you didn't know who has been with bruce all his life he's a god he's a father figure he's also dying this got to me i love alfred almost as much as bruce and to see him in a robe not in his tux and freaking dying just gets to me we also get the idea that he might have been unhappy the whole time but this is never answered as this film is too cluttered but in defense it does have some good parts other than uma for one george is a good batman but unfortunately gets nothing to do and there are some nice touches when they show the asylum at one point they show the patient's belongings in a room and we see the riddler's costume i laughed and during a biker scene involving robin and batgirl another subplot never handled past initiation period we not only see coolio but a bunch of dressed as droogs from a clockwork orange i laughed at all these the film falls apart around the mark during an enormously long action sequence which must last around minutes or did it just feel like that the film should serve as another in the of films which demonstrate that we need more intelligent films nowadays people are fed up with stupid films that's why the word of mouth killed the lost world that's why last year indy films grossed more than ever that's why this will have a strong initative from people who just want to see it like me but will die after a week or two when the word around the grapevine kills it that's why the next two aciton pics are john woo's and barry sonnenfeld's men in black both which are the first two to catch on to the wave early on i like joel schumacher more as a person than an artiste i like some of his films flatliners a time to kill but a lot of them suck he's a really eccentric person and i loved one of his quotes about how he admits to being a mediocre director and that's what makes him great but his costuming for woody allen's sleeper was more interesting than this one and his costuming was cool look for the nazi number i love the batman series the first two rocked and i did like the last one but this one is not going to be one that i watch repeatedly like the other three hopefully this will also serve as a springboard to a better batman next time and maybe they'll get smart and bring back catwoman and michael keaton but we can only hope
negative	writers dennis feldman and jonathan hensleigh based on the comic book by chuck pfarrer starring jamie lee curtis william baldwin donald sutherland joanna pacula sherman augustus marshall bell cliff curtis julio oscar mechoso i suppose i'm not extremely surprised that virus comes to us from a deciple of james cameron john bruno and if i strain real hard i could even say that it's an obvious given particuarly looking from the standpoint of mr cameron's early works in fact virus is yet another in the long line of thrillers from the aliens vein a group of people are dropped into a mysterious situation only to find a entity is out to get them a textbook example hailing all the way back to the early talkies and maybe even to the first pictures albeit redeveloped by cameron in his blockbuster that earned him esteem and bigger budgets to come in his future no such thing will happen to bruno whom i believe worked in some capacity on that feature while bruno may have studied under cameron's wing for years and years i'm beginning to wonder at what capacity and what exactly did he learn from him in fact virus should at least be mediocre the fact that bruno could have worked under a man like cameron a director who if anything just knows how to make a movie and then make a film like virus is just another detraction fairly aimed at this schlockfest of a film albeit a schlockfest with a respectable budget the film seems to not only borrow it's plot from last year's deep rising but also from a clunkish from the called leviathan an underwater thriller starring peter weller richard crenna hector elizando and daniel stern about a group of miners who stumble upon an alien lifeform that was part alien part john carpenter's twisted remake of the thing virus again has a similar uh selling point a group of sailors on a boat stumble upon a russian cruiser that is dead in the water they get on they break up into pairs and investigate and they find an alien lifeform on board that comes in the form of energy has taken over all the machines on board have meshed the machines with parts from corpses and have deemed humankind their enemy because of a misquote in the dictionary ha ha not that any of this is for a second scary or the least bit involving not only does this film start off with a chintzy opening the destruction of the cruiser via a satellite transmission from mir destroying any of the suspense in what could happen but it also fails to bring us any interesting chracters of its motley crew it only choses as its potentially eccentric cast of characters a lead woman skipper a masculine a drunken captain a black technician a tatooed aborigine a manic russian survivor and a couple other candidates for alien food none whom are the least bit interesting or more dimensional than a thin plain piece of writing paper and it's not the traditional argument for films like these where you may in fact want them all to be eaten even aliens played with the karma of the arrogant soldiers but this was more of a for the film as a whole than the opposite instead as another cliche goes you just don't give a damn i almost don't even have to say that the acting from everyone ranges from to horrific the former being jamie lee curtis in the lead showing off what a strong female lead she is and she is just not really here and the latter being and it pains me to say this as he's a particular favorite of mine donald sutherland who plays the captain so poorly and without a second of credibility that this will go down as the like anthony hopkins for legends of the fall the line scrooooooo has been thus embroidered upon my membrance or peter o'toole in caligula great actor horrific performance it happens every now and then and it only helps sutherland's career that no one except for an elite few even bothered to see this film though it has sat on the shelves of universal studios for about two years waiting until it can be released and make as much money as it possibly can read early january when everyone's still trying to catch up on the potential it does show that universal shelled out a pretty penny to make this film it's laden with complex machinery boasts respectable production design and it may even feature believable special effects if of course i or anyone else could see them virus mostly takes place on a large abandoned cruiser and mostly at night until the dawn and mostly without the use of lights not so much for the productivity of the alien creatures in their pursuit of their human prey but more so because as the hollywood cliche seems to go if it's dark enough then the special effects will be more believable and if you don't believe me go back and rent godzilla and tell me if there's even one shot where we see godzilla either a in his entirety in one wide shot or b n the light so that we can at least see him well you don't really have to sit through it again just take my word for it but all of this doesn't matter since virus is basically just one loud cluttered mess of a movie the action scenes are muddled and as difficult to follow as any action movie i've ever seen my um favorite part was the scene where a trio of them end up somehow on the outside of the ship during a five minute bouillabaisse of tidal waves rain and any other the film can cook up then end up back in the ship when one of them is revealed to have apparently drowned well i must say thanks for telling me afterwards because i sure couldn't figure it out when i saw it imagine the first attack of the aliens in aliens shot from the pov of the soldiers and then the authorities in the battle car if it was all hard to follow and done without any dramatic intensity and that's basically the whole of virus one action scene after the other capping it off with a proposterous gadget that saves the day and at least a couple of the original cast members and my god it's a long damn sit with no interesting characters no dramatic urgency no tension not one good moment of action and no mesmerizing visuals it's a wonder that it even got made we already know that big movie studios' mentality is shallow at best and movies like out of sight and saving private ryan give you more faith in them but movies like virus manage to drain a little more out of the pool i almost wish that instead of making this movie john bruno had gone cinema verite and captured the meetings with universal heads when they gave this film a green light they read the script they knew they were entrusting millions upon millions of dollars into a director who might have very well been a cameron hack and he is and they still went ahead with the project only to have bruno and company shit back in their face even though i hold universal in contempt for making this horrible movie i'd say even more contempt should be aimed at mr bruno for making a movie that could be this bad in fact shouts of egad man what were you doing when you worked for cameron anyway are not only justifiable but encouraged
negative	deuce bigalow rob schneider cleans fish tanks yeah i didn't know that was a real job either one of his customers is antoine leconte oded fehr a successful gigolo when antoine has to go to sweden for three weeks he lets deuce use his house to look after an ailing fish fooling around deuce sets fire to the kitchen and smashes a fish tank after taking a try at one of antoine's clients and earning deuce decides to prostitute himself to raise the money to replace the fish tank before the antoine returns enter t j eddie griffin a pimp for who arranges for deuce to service an assortment of women whose imperfections keep them from dating there's an enormous woman played by transvestite porn star chi chi la rue who hides food in her clothes there's claire gail o'grady whose narcolepsy causes her to fall asleep every few minutes tina torsten voges is so tall her face doesn't fit on the screen and ruth amy poehler has tourette's syndrome and shouts obscenities without warning finally there's kate arija bareikis whose sorority sisters secretly paid her fare she seems perfect and deuce quickly falls in love with her she does we discover later have an imperfection but deuce decides it isn't important deuce's life is complicated by a bothersome cop william forsythe looking for information on antoine and by kate's discovery of his however neither threat generates much suspense the formula is so familiar that we know how it will end from the start deuce bigalow is the first project from adam sandler's company happy madison the formation of which assures that we'll be seeing the sandler style of comedy at an increasing rate in years to come be afraid be very afraid the good news is that sandler doesn't actually appear in deuce and that rob schneider and eddie griffin are funnier than sandler schneider has a sweetness that makes the clueless but deuce believable griffin's delivery is especially in the coining of technical terms for t j profession as in don't make me you there's the expected amount of toilet humor in deuce for one thing deuce's dad is a men's room attendant does anyone over the age of eight actually find bowel movements that funny for most of us i think that childhood fascination with bodily functions disappears when we hit the of puberty and discover how funny sex is i for one will be glad when the toilet trend is finally flushed bottom line deuce doesn't offer anything new but it is intermittently funny
negative	this is your definitive hollywood movie extremely predictable following the basic formula a horrible ending overzealous writing meaning the writing was bad and seemed as if it were trying too hard to make it exciting therefore making it look as if many things were merely tossed in there to fill space and if tommy lee jones and his lovable character of which we've seen before in the fugitive and quite frankly wasn't used enough here i'm afraid the film would have been completely unbearable in this film ashley judd plays a women who is wrongfully convicted of killing her husband while out sailing for a weekend while in jail she finds out that her husband really is alive and that he framed the murder on her over money how original while in jail she works out exercises and basically does her best to get into near perfect condition now she has learned about a law titled double jeopardy stating that if she serves her full sentence and get out she could kill her husband and the law could not touch her although there has been talk that this is not the way the actual law works now her po parole officer and a bunch of cops are chasing after her and are conflicted whether or not to believe her claims skipping over to the acting the fact that judd is more of a looker than an actress no offense she has been good and even very good to great the at times in the past and i believe may have the potential to be better but she's terribly unconvincing in this and her performance seems stale and unsatisfying doesn't really add to the movie at all just takes away as i'd said jones was fine although he did not have much to work with he was much more of a supporting character which is fine and he handled it well especially considering the material he had to work with i feel this film had alot going for it originality not being an issue the acting was the only thing as i said keeping it alive the plot seemed pretty intriguing and could have been as well if applied better the action scenes were well made however sometimes out of place i was just left unsatisfied in the long run so basically some of the action may have been exciting but genuinely the plot has certainly been done before generally speaking the movie moves way too fast for us to get involved in either the characters or the plot and is basically a film that was almost saved by tommy lee jones who if he had some more screentime could perhaps have earned the film a higher rating in my book anyway keep this in mind if you're in the mood for a good action film rent the fugitive 
negative	an action thriller starring don johnson lives up to its dumb title or at least to half of it although is definitely dead it is anything but a bang in fact they should have called this one dead bore in the film johnson plays you guessed it a cop the role must have been really challenging for johnson since his character jerry beck is a gritty los angeles homicide detective a real stretch from the slick vice detective johnson portrayed on miami vice a la mel gibson in lethal weapon beck is an emotional wreck complete with violent outbursts unscrupulous police methods and a bleak outlook on life beck's wife has just divorced him and she is cutting him off from their children she will not even allow him to wish them merry christmas by telephone but beck's family and emotional problems take a back seat to the action and thrills in beck is investigating the brutal murders of a shopkeeper and a cop his investigation starts in l a and finally culminates and climaxes in oklahoma where he has a violent showdown with the killers at a white supremacist camp virtually every aspect of is inept and ineffective the plot is incoherent and full of holes the movie depicts beck's investigation so clumsily that you never see the connections between his clues and his conclusions the action sequences in are strictly and the movie has absolutely no momentum or suspense i certainly expected more from director john frankenheimer who directed the classic political thriller the manchurian well as black sunday seven days in may and the french connection ii in all fairness to frankenheimer however i should note that most of shortcomings seem to stem from its shabby script rather than from the direction tries to don a mask of social relevance by incorporating themes of racism and white supremacy but its efforts are nothing more than token gestures and nothing less than insulting according to the movie's production notes is based on the experiences of detective jerry beck you would never guess this from watching however since the film totally lacks credibility it is utterly unconvincing and unbelievable most of the characters in are either atrociously acted underdeveloped superfluous or all of the above william forsythe for example is painfully bad as arthur kressler a wholesome fbi agent who's offended by beck's foul language and unorthodox methods forsythe's lame performance and corny dialogue makes his character unbearable marks the motion picture debut of tim reid wkrp in cincinnati and frank's place but his talents are completely wasted in a cliched and contrived role he plays the chief officer of a squadron of black cops who help beck to nail the villains the sole function of penelope ann miller's character is to give an excuse to include a gratuitous love scene between characters about whom you could not care less i guess the film's title refers to this love scene since it's definitely a dead bang the only real virtue of believe it or not is don johnson who tries to overcome the limitations of the movie's pitiful script johnson succeeds in giving his character a sarcastic sense of humor and a hint of depth and his pessimistic wisecracks occasionally bring the film to life and i must admit that does have one or two amusing moments the funniest scene has johnson all over a criminal as he interrogates him but when barf is the highlight of a movie you know the movie's in trouble the other amusing scene involves a psychological examination of beck in which he can't keep a straight face because the psychiatrist resembles woody allen but two funny scenes and a couple good wisecracks do not a movie make
negative	it was once said that in order to truly enjoy some of movies or novels you must disbelief however there is a distinct separation between opening your mind to ridiculous situations and believing a bunch of flat lies it came as no surprise to me to learn that huntingburg indiana where the film is set does not have a mcdonald's a sears store a statue of a man on a horse nor even a dam close by even if you can ignore these somewhat lies even though the dam is crucial to hard plot there is still a bunch of things that just gel firstly morgan freeman possibly the greatest actor alive after such films as driving miss daisy the shawshank redemption and was cast as a shifty goon intent on stealing enough money for a healthy retirement he have played the town sheriff an experienced and somewhat intriguing policeman as a massive flood started by a dam accident overwhelms huntingburg its residents presumably flee as the water level steadily increases i say presumably simply because we never know what happened to them and it seems a tad strange that an entire town with the exception of some folk who get introduced along the way can vanish before the flood has actually started but nether the less armored guard couriers tom christian slater and his uncle are carrying three million dollars in the back of their van with a heavy rainstorm causing depressing conditions and slippery roads it take long for the van to end up stuck amongst mud and water off the side of the road jim morgan freeman and a small gang of thieves locate the van and attempt to steal the three million dollars but of course tom is more than willing to save the day so he takes the money and hides it elsewhere in town the local sheriff randy quaid whom most will remember as the drunken pilot in and a couple of police men investigate the situation but their morals are soon overpowered by greediness as each character contemplates what would do with their share of the three million dollars director mikael salomon has made sure that hard rain ends up turning everything and whilst the film may at first appear to be a definite versus baddies there are numerous twists in plot that make this a slightly more enjoyable experience but by the time these interesting changes occur far too late in the film for them to have much affect hard continuos corniness and lack of originality washes out whatever hope the script may have had and although cast is somewhat appealing most of its stars act well below par not at one stage capturing what could have been a fabulous on screen battle between slater and freeman we are left to reminisce on films that dared to do something different and achieved more than what was expected such titles as broken arrow slater and john travolta and nicholas cage and john travolta come to mind as films that have mastered silver screen confrontations strangely enough they were both directed by john woo and both star john travolta we can forgive morgan freeman for giving a slightly disappointing performance since he is newish to the action genre but christian slater could have achieved so much more had the amount of crummy one liners been reduced and some personality added to his character if you had asked me whether slater could perform well enough to substantially boost a movie prior to the release of broken arrow my answer would have been a definite no i now know that he has no excuse and do better if you believe me rent a copy of broken arrow from your local video store although hard rain never really works from the start i somehow felt feelings of missed opportunity when the credits filled the screen the addition of an enticing would have given the film time to breathe rather than try to cram minutes of action and disaster into a story that handle anything else despite the fact that hard rain fails on almost every account if your standards are low enough you may find this to be a mildly enjoyable film no creative flair and no inventive scenes means that hard rain does not stand up well against its many competitors but it really matter since the last thing you would want to do after shelling about is compare this to other films
negative	some houses are born bad goes the haunting's tag line to which i must add some movies too nothing short of hiring a new cast a more literate screenwriter and a new director could have saved this tragically misguided adaptation of jackson's meritorious novel the haunting is late entry summer dreck too slick to be creepy and its seemingly endless stream of digital trickery and spooky ooky sound effects don't frighten so much as numb the audience into film is like a rube goldberg contraption rigged to shout boo fragile nell taylor bisexual theo and smiley luke wilson are three insomniacs who gather at the reputedly possessed hill house for an extended study on sleep disorders hosted by professor marrow neeson marrow's secretly gathering data on their respective paranoid responses to his recount of hill house's bleak history he's not prepared for the very real apparitions that terrorize the crew nell especially who has some ancestral connection to the manor's previous inhabitants taylor is thoroughly insufferable in her first lead for starters her consistently dour expression sucks the life out of even the early scenes when we're introduced to the mansion and all its trappings her character is supposed to be depressed having tended to an unloving mother for too many years but taylor plays nell as supernaturally lame alternately grouchy mopey wiggy and pathetic and i kept wondering why the other characters didn't just ditch this bitch as for the obscenely photogenic she breezes through her scenes with a wink and a smile and takes the scenery with her unfortunately she's saddled with some of the most unlikely dialogue the screenplay has to offer theo's assessment of the house i love it sort of charles foster kane meets the munsters who on earth would say that in place of citizen kane meets the munsters furthermore would you gladly spend a single night in a house befitting that description both actresses fare better than neeson who looks embarrassed to be a part of this ensemble and for good reason and his character is the most bland as luke puts it dr marrow pulls the old academic bait and switch on his subjects but he breaks down and confesses to this the second he's accused later he risks his life by climbing a crumbling stairwell to save nell it's amusing to hear neeson shout nell repeatedly given his starring role in the jodie foster vehicle of the same name why was this nice helpful and redemptive researcher so absent of ethics at the start the haunting was well designed by eugenio zanetti his sets are obsessively detailed and even before the cgi kicks in they seem alive never quite still i do have one beef with this aspect of the production the real life mansion used in exterior shots nottinghamshire's harlaxton manor is so vast that one has trouble believing that nell and company no matter how much running away they do from ghosts and goblins always finish up in locations that were established in act one as if all the action has been confined to one wing of hill house eighty million dollars was spent on the haunting and despite a powerhouse box office debut i doubt it will recoup its costs including marketing domestically thank jan de bont for that proving for the third time that speed was a fluke in that it was actually enjoyable de bont has served up another ride sans thrill his images though they are have an unmistakable been that quality in fact whole sequences not to mention the cloaked airy ghoul who owns the climax feel lifted from a much smarter and infinitely more enjoyable spectacle from three summers back peter jackson's the frighteners i don't mean to suggest de bont is a plagiarist i mean to suggest that he's a hack having found no new ways to give us chills
negative	play it to the bone is a mess of a movie containing a good cast but awful acting an interesting premise but terrible execution ron shelton white men can't jump gives us a rocky story with not one rocky but two rocky no is vince boudreau woody harrelson edtv a bald tattooed newly converted christian whose idea of christianity is not using the name of christ as a curse word something that he has not yet successfully achieved rocky no is caesar dominguez antonio banderas the warrior best friend of vince who is currently dating vince's grace both men are nearing the end of their almost careers when a fluke provides them with a redemptive opportunity when both fighters of the undercard of a vegas based mike tyson title fight become incapacitated the fight promoters need to find a quick replacement our boys are tapped to fight each other the winner of which is promised a shot at a future title fight the film is divided into two sections at first we have a buddy road picture as our two heroes in grace's sassy grassy green muscle car travel through the desert to vegas in order to make the fight scheduled for that day along the way we learn about their pasts and the opportunities that have come and gone by once in vegas the movie settles down to the effectively staged fight sequences between vince and caesar both mr harrelson and mr banderas have provided us with stunning characterizations in the past not that we'd know it from their work here mr harrelson is uncomfortably awkward apparently never having gotten a firm handle on vince the christian conversion angle simply falls flat and unbelievable mr banderas is uncharacteristically as caesar weak and ineffectual there is little life in his screen performance the other actors involved merely play stereotypes of one sort or another tom sizemore saving private ryan robert wagner austin powers ii the spy who shagged me and richard masur fire down below are crooked promoters lucy liu payback is a hitchhiker looking for a good time and lolita davidovich gods and monsters is the shared girlfriend who can't make her mind up which boxer she prefers because of the weak characters and the lack of screen chemistry between them the film flounders with all the appeal of a dead fish until the boxing match actually begins but even then because the outcome is so predictably obvious the suspense factor is negated and we are relegated to just watching two men pummel each other ron shelton clearly spent much time orchestrating the fight sequence as it is well photographed and if only some of that same detailed attention had been diverted to the remaining parts of the film as it is the scenes which require the characters to actually talk to one another are weak and laughable the title is actually the most interesting aspect of the film the phrase play it to the bone' is a reference to seeing something all the way through or not quitting until you've achieved your desired goal that is a biblical principle know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize so run that ye may obtain corinthians achieving anything worthy in life requires playing it to the bone we need to develop fully persuaded mindsets and commitment levels in order to endure and persevere past the obstacles and distractions which lay between us and our stated objectives this is true in practical matters of our physical lives as well as the in the developing maturity of our spiritual lives as a movie play it to the bone is hardly worth our time but as a principle of life the phrase play it to the bone are words to live by
negative	i have no real tangible proof of this but i swear that there are a lot of producers in hollywood who adamantly believe that if you take a bad script written by a bad writer and give the project it to an equally bad director then it is actually possible to make a good movie using their logic all that really needs be done to change the bad movie into a good movie is cast a bunch of actors and provide an almost unlimited production budget this is the only way i can fathom how century fox hired jon amiel in order to direct this eighty million dollar waste of my time not counting the time it took me to get to and from the theatre now before i continue to ferociously attack what's wrong with this film i just want to point out that one of the reasons it fails so miserably is because it does have the potential to be an exciting thriller catherine plays virginia baker an insurance investigator tracking down an infamous art thief named robert macdougal sean connery if you've ever seen any hollywood blockbuster before i really don't have to spend too much time on frivolous plot details the two team up for various jobs stealing various things for various purposes the problem we come to is that we've all seen this a few billion times before and this film doesn't break any new ground in the genre the result is that the entire production feels contrived i'm going to be completely honest here pretty much the only thing keeping me awake throughout the was looking at catherine now while this may be a compliment for ms it certainly isn't for either the writers or the director who are not nearly as clever as they think they are just about the most profound thought they can inject into this film is when they have macdougal lecture baker on the semantic difference between entrapment and blackmail with an eighty million dollar budget you'd think that entrapment would at least feature seat action scenes or breathtaking special well you'd be wrong the action that is present in this film takes place in a huge skyscraper and is relatively unspectacular unfortunately for all those involved with entrapment die hard narrowly beat it to the screen by years the reality is that after minutes of watching this picture you know exactly what's going to happen despite rather pathetic attempts in the screenplay to throw in plot twists many scenes seem to exist merely as a reason to outfit in extremely clothing one particular scene features baker crawling around trying to avoid while she tries to steal an ancient chinese mask nothing wrong with that but she entered the room from the floor and knew exactly where the mask was so why didn't she and macdougal tunnel in directly under the mask instead of the other side of the room i'll tell you why because it's a great excuse to photograph posterior as it slides underneath those beams and it also allows a second scene of the exact same thing the rehearsal ving rhames also makes an appearance in this movie and though he has great screen presence although so do connery and and the most interesting character in the film not even he can rescue this film from the depths of the boring film abyss a concept i invented just to describe this picture one last complaint entrapment is littered of instances where macdougal will just slip into a shadow or behind a building or he becomes obstructed by a moving vehicle and then in the next shot he'll spontaneously disappear in fashion i can picture amiel patting himself on the back thinking to himself it'll leave the audience wondering for days how did he do that we know jon it's called editing
negative	when i originally saw the trailer for analyze this a few months ago i must admit i thought it looked kind of lame and then when the commercials started popping up a week or two ago i thought it looked outright bad but then when analyze this finally opened a few days ago an odd thing happened it got great reviews critics were proclaiming it hilarious and a parody of mob movies well with praise like that i figured it must be good and so i headed off to the theater you know that expression that says always trust your gut instincts well turns out that expression is more valid than i ever gave it credit for analyze this is slow unfunny and badly acted don't get me wrong i think that deniro is one of the top ten greatest actors of the century but he is just out of his league here i think the problem is he didn't quite know how to approach this material he plays his character mob boss paull vitti somewhere in between the realm of comedy and drama if he had played the character straight along the lines of leslie nielson in the naked gun series he probably would have been a lot more successful as it is though he plays the character completely serious at some moments and for laughs at others this doesn't work it creates an uneven character that never breaks out of the deniro mold you always know it's him and the movie is badly paced too it never takes off it just crawls from one scene to another without any forward momentum i think the blame for this should be placed on the script it's obvious the writer had a good idea for a movie mob boss faces breakdown and needs the services of a psychiatrist but once this is established the movie doesn't really go anywhere the formula of the film seems to be this billy crystal says no to deniro deniro forces him and much wackiness ensues this formula of sorts is repeated several times throughout the movie i've said it before and i'll say it again the only thing that matters to me in a comedy is whether or not it's funny if analyze this had been funny the pacing and bad acting wouldn't have bothered me i would have been too busy laughing to notice but as it is i only chuckled a few times the only really funny scene is a parody of the godfather sadly though i don't think anyone in the audience i saw it with realized it was a parody because i was the only one laughing but my sense of humour i have come to realize is vastly different from the general population i loathed there's something about mary yet loved baseketball now if you want a movie that i think is funny go out and see office space it's full of genuine laughs and won't leave you glancing at your watch every minutes as analyze this did
negative	van damme movies tend to be if nothing else a lot of mindless fun his latest film knock off skips on the fun part leaving a wildly incoherent exercise that is well simply mindless you can't really blame van damme no one i suspect has ever expected the muscles from brussels to contribute a heartfelt performance brimming with introspection and delicate shades of gray and even his sidekick saturday night live alumnus rob makin' copies schneider does what's expected of him although neither appear to want the role of straight man no the problem with the film is its direction the first five minutes of the film are incomprehensible and it goes downhill from there five hundred characters it seems are introduced within the first fifteen minutes van damme doesn't land his first kick until after late for most action by the time the hour mark has rolled around your jaw will be on your cup holder and you'll be wondering why you elected to spend seven dollars on this mess director hark tsui whose previous film was the van rodman teamed double team films at such a frenetic pace that it's hard to know what's going on who's on whose side and what the point of all this is faster than you can yell fruit stand we're watching a crazed rickshaw race with schneider being bounced along by an energetic van damme when schneider starts whacking van damme in the behind with a eel while enthusing move your beautiful big ass the movie takes an unprecedented turn to the bizarre every now and again knock off will deliver some truly ingenious directorial camera shots and angles wild rides down gun silencers and from the tops of buildings to the sprawling street below revealing within the they all happen too quickly and within such a furious frame of reference that they're wasted if only hark could have slowed things down just for a minute if you're interested in the plot you're better off reading a capsule review than trying to extract any meaning from the shenanigans van damme plays a shady bluejeans manufacturer who uncovers a russian mafia plot to terrorize the world with nanobombs hidden in cabbage patch maybe with paul sorvino a more accurate summary would be van damme bums around hong kong failing to avoid large blatant product placements the fact that the film is staged during hong kong's last days under british rule gets some lip service but doesn't figure in at all perhaps knock off most intriguing credit is that ron and russell mael composed the frenzied music score some of you might remember the mael brothers as the synth pop duo sparks their contributions here are as confused as the accompanying kimono my house indeed like the cheap jeans and pumma sneakers manufactured in hong kong van damme's latest is a real phony
negative	in twilight a harry ross paul newman works for a pair of aging hollywood actors catherine susan sarandon and jack ames gene hackman jack is being blackmailed and he asks harry to deliver the payoff instead of the blackmailers harry finds a dying m emmet walsh as more bodies begin to pile up harry realizes that he will have to solve the disappearance of catherine's first husband twenty years earlier to find out who's willing to kill to keep that secret buried newman sarandon hackman with an cast of oscar laureates like that twilight would seem very promising however the script is tired and predictable it would serve well as a possibly with some detective hero reprising his role the appeal of the project for its stars and its director robert benton is nostalgia twilight wants very much to be a film noir with alan ladd or dick powell all of the standard tropes are here a p i among the rich and beautiful whose glamour hides sinister secrets a femme fatale who tempts and confounds the hero shadowy figures shooting from doorways dead bodies confronting the hero at every turn cops dogging his path and interfering with his investigation the script offers little originality and benton and richard russo seem unaware that what was original in is a clich in elmer bernstein's score is hauntingly melodic and could have been drawn from a vintage noir the lead actors try of the three has every made less than a full effort even when burdened with a bad script they try to invest every line and gesture with meaning and they create a convincing sense of the relationships between the main characters harry is fond of jack but is in love with catherine jack is dying of cancer and is jealous of harry's love for catherine catherine teases harry and enjoys his attention but her real feelings are hidden beneath a veneer twilight wants to be like nobody's fool also directed by benton also starring newman based on a novel by russo was but the tired script gives the actors too little to work with twilight also squanders a fine supporting cast stockard channing harry's friend on the police force reese witherspoon jack catherine's bratty kid giancarlo esposito the humorous sidekick john spencer harry's nemesis on the force liev schreiber and margo martindale the blackmailers and james garner a cop who bailed movie stars out of trouble
negative	there was probably a good reason that the warner bros studio chose not to allow critics to view this steven seagal film when it first opened and after seeing this piece of toxic waste i now know why this movie is by far the worst offering that has hit the screen since possibly those ernest movies years ago fire down below centers its story on a little mining town in god's country somewhere in eastern kentucky it's beauty and natural goodness is being slowly destroyed by an uncaring mining magnate kris kristopherson who constantly looks like he wants to kill his agent for getting him this role it turns out that he's filling the mines throughout kentucky with toxic waste for a tidy profit seagal plays jack taggert an fighting machine who is an agent with the epa no not the cia nor the fbi nor the nsa it's the environmental protection agency i had no idea that epa agents were trained to be killers taggert is sent to find the perpetrators and to bring them to justice written by someone named jeb i could already envision the stereotypes of incestuous relationships preachers and rednecks but the script puts seagal right smack dab in the middle of all of these scenarios as he tries to discreetly fit in seagal's idea of a disguise is a leather jacket but to get closer to the kinfolk he will fix people's porches for free that's another great epa asset teaching agents how to fix porches slow and plodding this project is a total mess the sometimes allure of watching seagal is watching him outmaneuver enemies that outnumber and outgun him like in under seige here his bravado basically turns into bullyness townsfolk who are foolish enough to challenge seagal are quickly subdued fight scenes are quick and senseless and offers no enjoyment value whatsoever and his soap box message wears thin within the first minutes the most annoying moment comes when he barges into the middle of a sunday church ceremony gets behind the pulpit and beseeches the townsfolk to take control of their lives and to help clean up the environment but the epitome of how moralistically mushy this film gets happens when the person responsible for the toxic dumping kristopherson meets up with seagal kristopherson asks seagal how much it will take for him to go away seagal gallantly replies i'll leave when you take the poison from the streams and the earth i was expecting patriotic music to start blasting and a show of fireworks in the background this is truly nothing more than a pompous showcase for seagal's righteousness and narcissistic arrogance seagal has been vanguard in trying to bring a new genre into the filmplace that of the on deadly ground however the message will never come across through poorly developed vehicles like this still i believe in preserving mother earth so save your and please donate it instead to some worthy environmentally conscious charity
negative	tom dicillo directs this superficial comedy about superficial people in superficial careers all searching for deeper meaning however they won't find much meaning in the real blonde and not enough real humor either joe matthew modine is a struggling actor or he claims to be one even though he has no credits under his belt his girlfriend mary catherine keener has no pretensions about her career she's a makeup artist working for the eccentric fashion photographer blair marlo thomas and supermodel of the month sahara bridgette wilson sahara who has acquired a new age spirituality from repeated viewing of the little mermaid has an relationship with joe's best friend bob maxwell caulfield however bob has gotten his biggest break yet a starring role on a soap opera opposite the beautiful kelly daryl hannah who may be that illusive woman he's always pursued a real blonde there are some moments of good humor in the real blonde but not enough the best stuff is in throwaway details in the background such as sahara's perfume ads depression it's not just a state of mind but to find humor in the superficiality of models and actors is to shoot fish in a barrel and unfortunately the film's forays outside the realm of comedy are pathetic take for example the film's framing device of an old lady and her dog the story serves absolutely no purpose makes little sense and is completely tangential to the main plotlines of the movie matthew modine and catherine keener have the most sympathetic characters in the film but they're stuck in the most boring plotlines modine whines and complains and would be completely pathetic if he was matched against someone stronger than elizabeth berkley who appears as another struggling actor keener's character has a stronger edge but the insult class taught by denis leary no less she is stuck in makes little sense the movie's running time is under two hours but it seems like it is well over it there's just not enough humor to speed things along and not enough meaning to propel any drama
negative	the ads for batman and robin scream the event of the summer is here and that's the problem the producers were apparently so intent on creating a spectacle that they forgot to put an actual movie inside of it batman and robin is minutes of lavish sets flashy costumes and big confusing fight scenes with barely a hint of substance it's like one of those cheesy kings island stage shows bright busy and visually diverting but not very much fun it wasn't always this way tim burton's batman was an epic story of obsession and duality of darkness and revenge the film while far from perfect was a striking mood piece with an otherworldly feel batman was a creepy brooding creature of the night the joker brilliantly overplayed by jack nicholson was at once charismatic and repellent batman and the joker were opposite sides of the same coin battling inner demons and one another over gotham city's breathtaking gothic skyline those days of the dark knight are gone replaced by a psychedelic ice capades run amuck batman and robin has far more in common with the campy batman tv show than with tim burton's tale of darkness the blame lies with director joel schumacher a former schumacher is adept at decorating sets and dressing people in exotic costumes unfortunately when it comes time to have those people walk and talk he hasn't the faintest notion of what to do batman and robin is overstuffed with intricately choreographed fight scenes so poorly edited that it's often difficult to tell who's whacking who while the characters flail at each other and bad puns are tossed about like confetti a few carefully placed jokes can set an action movie sailing but too many wisecracks can undermine the momentum of a film batman and robin doesn't merely lose momentum it stalls out completely on several occasions it's rare to see an action flick as sluggish as this one ironically the parts of batman and robin that work are the ones showing the characters in street clothing and most of those succeed because of george clooney as bruce wayne easily the best batman yet clooney's expressive eyes and weary smile gives the character a sense of depth that the script doesn't even hint at the film's most effective scene is a tender quiet exchange between clooney and alfred michael gough bruce wayne's butler and surrogate father as for the other heroes chris o'donnell's robin is enthusiastic perky and horny as hell while pudgy alicia silverstone is hard to accept as an athlete in her debut as batgirl in a movie filled to the brim with major characters the decision to add the entirely unnecessary batgirl and elle macpherson as bruce wayne's girlfriend is puzzling i suspect the producers inserted the women in an attempt to convince audiences that two guys who run around in rubber suits with nipples shapely buttocks and huge codpieces are actually straight of course the real stars of a batman film are the villains and that's where batman and robin really suffers as mr freeze arnold schwarzenegger gives his worst performance in years spitting out a stream of lame catch phrases in wooden fashion laboring under a ton of appliances schwarzenegger looks as if he's having trouble even moving in his suit let alone trying to act uma thurman fares somewhat better as poison ivy she overacts terribly in the early establishing scenes of her character it's apparently a rule in the batman series that before a person becomes a villain must be a cartoonish bumbling nerd once thurman transforms into the poison ivy she does a nice mae west impersonation as a classic vamp who can seduce men with her breath and kill them with a kiss thurman fails to maintain the character's maniacal sense of style though and ends up merely sputtering her way through the latter scenes of the film the biggest lesson to be learned from batman and robin is that more is not better joel schumacher fills the screen with eye candy but the technicolor overkill merely emphasizes what a trifle the film really is some critics suggest that the batman series has run out of steam i don't think so my prescription fire joel schumacher but offer him a ticket to a rubber fetishist's convention so he'll understand that there's no hard feelings give alicia silverstone her walking papers while keeping clooney o'donnell and michael gough call jack nicholson and michelle pfieffer and beg them to reprise their roles as the joker and catwoman then ditch the campiness and for the love of pete lose the event mentality and make a movie instead of a spectacle next time
negative	gordy is not a movie it is a sesame street skit and a very bad one at that this movie is so stupid and dumb that it's depressing to think that some hollywood executives actually gave this the green light and even more surprising is the fact that this is a disney movie i'm sure children are the target audience of this movie but only kids under the age of five may be able to tolerate it it is the story of a farm a piglet named gordy voiced by garms whose family has been taken away to up north which we know means death of course we can hear the animals talk to each other and they actually went to the trouble of attempting to sync the voices with their mouths but it comes out terrible actually it's almost funny in a way the only remotely interesting and likable character soon appears a little girl named jinnie sue macallister young who sees gordy on the back of a truck and essentially steals him jinnie is a country singer and the film goes off on a huge tangent to show her little concert and the people dancing to it what is the point of this maybe she is one of the producer's relatives and they wanted to show her on camera to promote her or something we then cut to a huge social gathering and drop in on another young kid named hank royce roescher who is sad because his divorced mother is dating he leaves the party and meets jinnie sue but he accidentally falls in a pool probably because he was sitting on the diving board with a suit on nah didn't see that one coming starts to drown and is miraculously saved as gordy pushes an inflatable float over to him and saves him if this had not been insanely stupid already the story quickly changes when jinnie gives gordy to hank who then ends up becoming the ceo of a food processing corporation when hank's grandfather the original ceo dies and leaves his fortune to hank and gordy of course there must be a villain but even this villain donadio as sipes isn't that evil he never raises his voice or becomes angry and of course he has the typical idiot goons kidnap gordy but this is just so beyond stupid and cartoony we are constantly two steps ahead of the story it's hard to tell whether the overall corniness and cheesiness to the movie is intentional because it is a family film or if the filmmaker's are just this untalented and stupid at times gordy is tolerable to watch thus earning it one star and not the dreaded but it's just so unbelievably boring cliche dumb unfunny corny and just plain bad it may scare children it certainly disturbed me also babe
negative	senseless r marlon wayans is a very talented physical comedian and it is that gift that brings senseless moments of life alas moments are simply that moments which are not enough to lift this above its premise granted that one joke is initially amusing when wayans's darryl witherspoon an economics major at stratford university hits some dire financial straits he becomes a guinea pig for a experimental drug that heightens all five senses after some initial side effects and problems controlling his superhuman senses darryl learns to enjoy the benefits of his abilities and uses them to land a position at a highly esteemed corporate firm at this point the film sounds more like senseful than senseless but through some turns of the plot darryl finds himself only able to use four of his five senses at once essentially leaving this sets up some showcase moments for wayans's gift for physical comedy especially when darryl loses his sense of feeling and his body goes completely hilariously limp but these gags and the gag behind the entire movie quickly grows stale once darryl is shown without the use of all of the senses instead of exploring any new comic territory director penelope spheeris and screenwriters greg erb and craig mazin take the easy way out and simply recycle each form of senselessness wayans approaches each with gusto but by this point he's simply treading water for the rest of the film's unfunny duration senseless would not be as problematic as it is if it didn't strive to be anything more than a comic trifle however the raucous and often raunchy comedy is wrapped in a blanket of bogus sincerity darryl goes through the experiment in order to help his family and this serious angle seems to come from an entirely different movie unlike wayans's last starring vehicle the surprisingly effective and serious the man the emotional content of senseless is forced and unconvincing any attempt at anything more substantial than broad comedy romance with janice tamara taylor a young woman who yearns for a man who is true to himself does not generate sparks of any kind once his wb television sitcom the wayans bros comes to an end the genuinely funny marlon wayans has a promising future ahead of him but if he continues to associate himself with projects as flat as senseless his film career could go the way of his older brother damon who is now set to make his television
negative	a slight romantic comedy with a feminist bent but one with no edge to it it turns out to be a conventional film filled with the usual clich s and stock characters of this genre though it's a and fluff piece it still does not have too much to say that is surprising it's made for the gentle set those who don't want something too disturbing to think about it's about a critically successful writer husband alec pryce who is so that he's threatened by his department store model wife kate bouquet who wants to be a writer she meets his crass publisher vanni corso walken another man and a predictable relationship occurs the fireworks occur because she outgrows her husband's first impressions of her as someone who was impressed with his genius and worships at his feet she now wants her own identity and her independence the film looked like the usual sitcom stuff and is plagued with the cheap set design features reserved for a tv movie the film sagged in the middle of the story from the weight of its tedium and eventually landed on its rear end with its unspectacular climax it's set in london and it opens as model kate rebuffs sexual advances by a wealthy american shopper vanni she later meets him as her hubby's new upstart publisher who seeks to have her intellectual author husband in his stable in order to give him credibility as a publisher of quality and he quickly wins favor with her by publishing her vanity novel alec who is an obnoxious grouse someone whom it seems it would be impossible to live with tries to do everything to stop his wife from having her book only pushes her into the grasping arms of vanni the publisher is proud that he's a mamma's boy who never married and is a man who has earned millions he has recently acquired a failing old london publishing house and plans to revitalize it as he proudly tells kate if my father could sell pizzas in harlem i could sell culture in europe the only thing that couldn't be sold is this stiff story and tired plot line the mystery to me is how the lovely kate could like either man unless she was an insensitive dummy she soon divorces the beleaguered alec and marries the vanni when she writes a second novel he rebuffs her the same way her first hubby did it ends with the same results that happened to hubby number one as its story of ambition and lust winds down in a whimper a business affair was loosely based on the literary and romantic travails of married authors barbara skelton and cyril connolly in their celebrated love triangle
negative	if you're the kind of person who goes to see movies just because you long for some of that overpriced theatre popcorn butter optional then this is the movie for you indeed this has got to be either one of the most unimaginative of other recent action movies or an incredibly unfunny spoof of them it's difficult to fathom such insipidness unless you actually watch this film but at least we're warned very quickly that we may regret our ticket purchase giving us an opportunity to sneak on out and into the adjacent show what are the four ingredients of a really bad action movie first the movie gives us an introductory premise huge caverns exist deep beneath the ocean floor and in this area many ships have disappeared oooh scary secondly a cheesy soundtrack tries to connote a tone of mystery but only succeeds in drowning our ears with an abrasive musical score third the main character is a mercenary that delivers goods without asking about the contents of his cargo treat williams he operates a sophisticated pt boat and every word that comes out of his mouth is awash in comical flippancy finally in the cargo hold we see those that hired him they are also mercenaries that have haircuts talk with accents and try to show how macho they are during their trip across the stormy sea their boat suffers an incident and requires repairs spotting a cruise ship in the distance they make their way to the ocean liner and devise a plan to raid the machine shop take the parts that they need and then continue on their merry way little do they know that this cruise ship has become infested by some kind of ocean monster yet they board the ship armed to the hilt with grenades and machine guns that can kill dozens in a matter of seconds this is nothing more than a action film their realization of the situation that they're in doesn't happen until they are in the bowels of the boat those who are dumb enough to stray off on their own will ultimately get killed the corridors on the ship are narrow misty and provide the kind of atmosphere that all must have yet despite the predictable nature of this film there are some scary boo moments but most of it is just outright silly and this film is unusually gory too monsters basically suck off the flesh and spit out skeletal remains there is one particularly neat scene where a monster has been cut apart and reveals a victim that is still alive he screams horribly as the monster's digestive juices continue to slowly eat him away additionally it borrows heavily from alien and a bunch of other recent films the mercenaries even run into a lone surviving passenger femke jannsen who looks amazingly like sandra bullock to be honest when i left the theatre i just had to laugh at how witless the film was it's moronic fun at best so if you're hankering for a large bucket of popcorn served with a side of silliness then this might just hit the spot
negative	synopsis when a meteorite crashlands in the arizona desert community college professors ira kane duchovny and harry block jones are first on the scene they discover that an alien lifeform has arisen from the rock and is evolving at an amazing rate soon the army advised by dr allison reed moore moves in and forces kane and block out but when the aliens begin to menace society it may take the scientists' combined efforts to stop them before they terminate the evolution of another lifeform humanity review evolution certainly has the ingredients for a decent comedy it's directed by reitman clearly trying to parlay his ghostbusters success into a counterpart it stars duchovny and although one might question his judgment in lampooning his character so soon after leaving the tv series it should certainly provide him with plenty of ammunition and then there's moore who may not have much prior experience in comedy but who has certainly proven her ability as an actress a shame then that it all deteriorates into such a hopelessly unfunny morass evolution is a movie more concerned with its special effects which are quite good than anything resembling a consistently funny script it has its moments a scene in which jones' body is invaded by an alien is particularly entertaining but there are embarrassingly long stretches that are utterly devoid of humour moore is totally wasted her clumsy shtick getting very old very fast duchovny has stunningly little in the way of material to work with and the story is so formulaic it could have been written by monkeys part of what made ghostbusters so wonderful was a combination of a great script and characters the audience could root for evolution is so tedious that it's difficult not to start cheering for the aliens
negative	deceiver is a plot twist in search of a movie this overly constructed film succeeds in having many surprises and being true to its title being deceptive but there is little in the film that is worthy of deceit braxton chris penn and kennesaw michael rooker are two cops investigating the brutal murder of a prostitute renee zellweger their lone suspect is wayland tim roth a wealthy young man whose phone number was found in the hooker's pocket however a routine lie detector test turns against the investigators as the crafty wayland somehow turns the tables braxton and kennesaw are forced to confront their own troubled lives braxton is a gambling addict in deep to mook ellen burstyn a local bookie kennesaw is bitter about his marriage to a socialite rosanna arquette believing his wife to be unfaithful the plot is twisty and complex with lots of lengthy flashbacks and plenty of surprises however there are times when it is needlessly complex and at least one instance the storytelling turns so muddled that the answers to important plot points actually get lost take a look at l a confidential or the film's more likely inspiration the usual suspects for how a complex plot can properly be handled the dialogue in deceiver is as overcrafted as the plot for example the film tells a few substories such as the tale of a woeful absinthe bender or an alternative telling of how van gogh lost his ear but they are so flat and so plastic that they come off as prefabricated and unbelievable there's never the sense that these are real characters engaging in conversation they appear to be nothing more than words on a screenplay the characters themselves are rather pathetic and despicable not one of them is an ounce sympathetic and as a result the labyrinthine plot is all for naught what does it matter who is guilty of what and why josh and jonas pate seem to desire to emulate the coen brothers' masterwork blood simple or the wachowski brothers' less worthy bound but while they have got the plot twists down cold they need to work on characterization and dialogue
negative	this is the kind of movie that makes one appreciate disney's action george of the jungle tarzan and the lost city the latest attempt to bring edgar rice burrough's legendary hero to the big screen is one of the most inept and of any tarzan adventure so far badly conceived and poorly executed tarzan and the lost city appears headed for a quick trip to video store shelves i have no idea why the producers chose now to bring back tarzan it's not as if there are legions of new fans clamoring for his next movie furthermore it's even more curious that this film is rated pg which by definition rules out any sex or explicit violence and while i'm not advocating the excesses embraced by the bo derek version of the story tarzan deserves a slightly more adult approach than the one used in the embarrassing production of course no tweaking of the content to change the rating could have saved tarzan and the lost city since the film's troubles originated with the script and were propagated all the way down the line imagine george of the jungle stripped of all intentional humor and you have a fair idea of what this tarzan is like with its uninspired action and tepid adventure sequences the film barely registers a pulse anyone in search of a relatively entertaining family jungle adventure should check out the version of the jungle book which uses the same basic elements to much better effect the only worthwhile element of tarzan and the lost city is the pretty scenery which unfortunately includes the two lead actors the film doesn't attempt to the origin story the thinking is that it has been done often enough instead tarzan and the lost city introduces us to lord graystoke a k a john clayton a k a tarzan the ape man casper van dien several days before his marriage to lady jane porter jane march he is living happily in england enjoying the benefits of being a noble meanwhile in central africa the dastardly nigel ravens steven waddington a scholar and explorer believes he has found the way to the lost city of opar which he calls the cradle of civilization on the way there he and his band of mercenaries do all sorts of nasty things like burning native villages to earn the wrath of the locals one shaman determined to stop ravens from unearthing opal sends a mystical message to tarzan for help with lady jane following close behind he returns to the jungle where he was born its patently obvious that casper van dien one of the heroes of starship troopers was not hired on the basis of his acting ability with his plastic facial expressions monotone voice and complete inability to make convincing animal noises his range rivals that of steven seagal his pecs however are impressive and director carl schenkel makes sure that he is given every opportunity to show them off jane march on the other hand has to keep her shirt on which may be a first for her some six years ago march give a solid performance in jean jacques annaud's steamy the lover since then she made the decision of appearing opposite bruce willis in the color of night which exploited her every acting defiency tarzan continues this trend march may be attractive but at least judging by this performance she can't act meanwhile steven waddington has serious trouble summoning up the menace necessary to be a really detestable bad guy instead he turns out to be little more than a nuisance the story line is pure formula which has largely been true throughout the years for almost all of the tarzan movies the problem is that this one seems so childish and lifeless the romantic elements are all contrived in fact lady jane's presence is necessary only so she can be captured and subsequently rescued by her buff fiance the special effects are truly including some laughably bad men in ape costumes apparently animatronics were too expensive for this production and of course as with all jungle movies there are the obligatory cute animals over the years the legend of tarzan has been one of the most popular sources for film series material the most famous ape man was johnny weismuller but no less than two dozen other actors have essayed the part including gordon scott who is widely believed to be the best actor to tackle the role weismuller made tarzan features van dien will probably fall short of that number and having seen tarzan and the lost city i would argue that the public would have been well served if he had missed by
negative	desperate measures is a generic title for a film that's beyond generic it's also a depressing waste of talent with the solid team of michael keaton and andy garcia unthankfully thrown thankless lead roles not to mention director barbet schroeder sadly continuing his string of flicks this thriller is more before and after than reversal of fortune the movie is a big disappointment and yet it's somewhat easy to see what motivated such big names to attach themselves to it the premise is both promising and intriguing too bad the execution's all wrong though because the of desperate measures boasts some rather enticing elements that deserve to be put to far better use san francisco cop frank connor garcia is a single parent with a troubling dilemma his son matt joseph cross is stricken with cancer which only a bone marrow transplant can push into remission even worse the only compatible donor is violent sociopath peter mccabe michael keaton currently serving a life sentence for multiple murders and other various crimes against society connor tries his best to convince mccabe to go along with the surgery he's at first reluctant but reconsiders after he realizes he can plan his escape at the hospital when he does make a run for it connor offers close pursuit but for different reasons than his superiors including the crusty brian cox they want to take mccabe down while connor needs to keep him alive or all hope is lost for his little boy one misstep desperate measures makes is in its underdevelopment of matt's illness what's needed are more details as to exactly why mccabe is the only bone marrow match that works there would seem to be other possible contenders somewhere in the country and thus many of the ways that connor endangers the lives of himself and those around him by attempting to keep mccabe alive are just a little too hard to swallow take for example a scene where mccabe is trying to make a getaway by climbing over an elevated passage tunnel connecting two sections of the hospital the police have their spotlight and guns aimed right on him and what does connor do he shoots the spotlight out so that mccabe can continue his flight connor knows very well what dangerous deeds this guy is capable of and yet never seems to think that mccabe will eventually get to and try to harm his son whatever to be fair though the lack of story background is the least of the movie's problems first and foremost is how cheaply desperate measures trades the potential of it's opening scenes for the routine action ballistics of its final hour once mccabe escapes the film becomes the fugitive in reverse and with no thrills there are countless scenes where the good guys catch up to keaton only to have him grab a hostage and get away also the movie is so intent on giving you a villain the ads have compared peter mccabe to hannibal lechter natch that it completely casts garcia's frank connor by the dullsville wayside desperate measures appears to like its antagonist so much more than its protagonist and the movie's of a confirms this there is some good to be found amongst this mess particularly in the acting department cast against type michael keaton's understated menace is highly effective although he's not given much believable to work with andy garcia plays off a taut emotional chord joseph cross as garicia's ailing son is surprisingly unsentimental and marcia gay harden lends solid support as a doctor who becomes a major player in the unfolding chaos this cast does its best to camouflage the sorry plot as it chugs towards an inevitably happy ending but most is lost it goes without saying that desperate measures needs an operation of its very own
negative	robin williams is a comedic genus that is he is one when he's in a film that allows him space to move flubber straps him in a straitjacket covers him with duct tape stuffs him in a coat closet and piles furniture against the door to make sure that he doesn't get out in a of its own absent minded professor disney offers us proof that more is definitely less recycling old films that darned cat dalmatians dressed up as new is the newest money machine from the home of the mouse that roared professor phillip brainard williams is a terminally forgetful scientist teaching at a small college his fiancee sara jean reynolds marcia gay harden president of the college is none too happy with him because he's left her waiting at the altar due to his lack of and memory she's giving him one more chance he blows that chance when he invents flubber flying rubber and is so excited by his discovery that sara jean is once again awaiting him in her white dress his tardiness is helped along by his jealous flying robotic assistant who wants him all to herself it's not all bad news flubber is a green jello that can magnify and reflect energy that is applied to it brainard realizes the commercial potential within the goo can save the school from bankruptcy and being taken over by the town's evil industrialist charles hoenicker raymond barry while he's busy with his new breakthrough the slighted sweetheart is being wooed by his sleazy rival wilson croft christopher mcdonald there's a flying car basketball game and an assortment of broken lab equipment none of which are the least bit interesting or funny at one point my son looked around the audience and asked why are these people laughing although williams turns in one of his least inspired roles he is easily the most lively of the actors everyone else comes across as the is successful in that respect it feels like a bad disney movie from the sixties i remember the original as being charming but my guess is that the memory from almost four decades ago has been artificially enhanced by the years there have been some updates fred macmurray's flying model t has been replaced by a his faithful dog charlie is now weebo the hovering robot the biggest change is that with sophisticated computer animation we now can have films show off special effects without being at all entertaining flubber is anthropomorphized into a being supposedly with personality the gloop has little arms and legs and splits into tiny little gloopettes for a big dance number this has nothing to do with the story the only possible reason is to create merchandising opportunities so that kids can badger their parents into taking them to mcdonalds for the toys not that contributing little to the plot is a big problem there are very few aspects of the film that move the story and those that do don't make sense the discovery of flubber is going to save the college because brainard can sell his flying car to ford anyone with half a brain would be able to see that his intelligent flying automaton is worth billions it's unbelievable that his lover well probably not a lover after all this is disney starts dating croft after the aborted wedding there's not one appealing component of this man after the professor discovers that smearing a golf ball with the gunk causes it to bounce uncontrollably around his lab wreaking havoc i cringed as he picked up a bowling ball this guy is beyond forgetful venturing into the certifiable john hughes used to direct but thoughtful teen films the care behind pretty in pink and the breakfast club all went out the window after his home alone franchise heated up the box offices looking much like home alone flubber even features a couple of vapid goons who get banged around and a cute little boy who screams a lot in some ways it's difficult to judge this film i have a suspicion that i'm not it's target audience after all i measure my age in two digits
negative	ever watch a very young child try and tell a joke that is beyond his or her sophistication it's full of stops and starts and usually the punch line is ruined i felt the same way watching drowning mona skip a stone across water and you approximate the depth of this attempt at an ensemble comedy there are some slightly successful attempts at humor but they only serve as window dressing there is a running gag about the town verplanck n y being a test town for the then new yugo everyone drives a yugo differentiating their cars with personalized license plates even the police chief drives one there is a certain sublimeness to the image of a lights and siren decked out yugo skittering its way through the town streets there also is a running gag about one of the characters jeff missing a hand and how it occurred it pokes gentle fun at the notion of urban legends it turns out the truth is more horrifying than any legend there are some sight gags that pop up as well such as mona's tombstone which reads demoted instead of devoted still the core of the story maintains the flatness of a still pond the lynchpin of the film falls on the redundant and sporadic scenes involving mona midler each scene with her is the same scream at someone hit someone then scream some more there's no uniqueness or modulation to her or explanation for her meanness anyone off the street could have played the role such as it is the other characters are walking cardboard cutouts each one is defined by one trait and no further attempt is made at deeper characterization there is a burly female car mechanic so of course there is a forced lesbianism gag mona's son jeff marcus thomas is a simpleton hence you can predict his dialogue before it even plods its way from his mouth chief of police rash devito likes broadway musicals and loves his daughter there's nothing more to him elle the chief's daughter campbell is bland personified a dutiful girl with no higher aspiration than to have a child and be married mona's husband phil fichtner jeckle and hydes from shirking coward to reptilian letch bob affleck elle's betrothed and business partner to jeff is a mumbling obvious dullard there is no contrast to any of the characters by having at least one character with some wit or wits to serve as counterpoint to the others perhaps steinfeld's attempt at satirizing a small town infested with ambitionless people might have come off better ostensibly a murder mystery drowning mona gives you almost all the clues immediately then lets you sit back and feel superior as you watch the cast of paper people fumble their way to finding the killer who could be anyone due to mona's loving manner with everyone on town even that aspect of the film fails throwing in a convenient ridiculous and unsatisfying wrap to things it's been a while since i walked away from a movie theater in an angry mood what makes it all the more remarkable is that i rarely remember a comedy making me so angry for wasting my time at it's ineptitude
negative	what are we going to do with jim carrey viewers of television's in living color know this cartoon from such characters as fire marshall bill viewers also know that in living color is a and that a little of jim carrey goes a long way unfortunately this fact was forgotten by the makers of the carrey comedy ace ventura pet detective three writers including carrey worked on the slapstick story which sends a pet detective on the trail of a stolen dolphin the missing mammal belongs to the miami dolphins who need their mascot for the upcoming superbowl for plot porpoises this story works as well as any three stooges short carrey gets to do his official schtick as he snoops around greater miami he leers and sneers craning his neck to funny effect he even does his captain kirk impersonation again all of this is pretty harmless stuff up until the point that you realize that the writers have absolutely no intention of focusing on anyone other than carrey suggested alternate carrey will do anything for a laugh export it to france and you may have a hit as it stands ace ventura isn't even good kid's stuff the profanity count alone is too high which is ironic since children are probably carrey's best audience the film doesn't even have the goofball charm of chris elliott's recent cabin boy sure carrey has his moments but what can you say about a film whose include watching carrey slink around to the theme from mission impossible ace ventura has one glaring incongruity amid the and the script takes great pains to an elaborate and rather funny crying game gag and for this intended audience that takes ahem cojones
negative	there are some pretty impressive stars in lost in space it's just that none of them happen to be actors the stars i'm referring to are the computer generated ones that make up the movie's outer space the stars that the less impressive actors hurtle thru as they try to find their way home yes in terms of acting the star power is   well more like a falling star kinda pretty and pretty much dead lost in space as if you really didn't know is based on the television series of the same name it's the year and earth's precious resources are quickly being usurped by the needs of its massive population john robinson william hurt is the scientist leading a mission program to colonize a foreign planet earth's entire existance is contingent upon a successful mission but nobody whether it be john's family or hired battle pilot don west matt leblanc seems too enthusiastic about leaving their home planet for several years john's family consists of his wife maureen mimi rogers his atypical teenage daughter penny lacey chabert his ingenious son will jack johnson and his beautiful scientist daughter judy heather graham despite everyone's reluctance the jupiter spacecraft abandons planet earth and makes its way into the vast eternity of space unknown to anyone but the audience there is an evil doctor stowaway determined to sabotage the entire mission dr smith gary oldman has been hired by a group of rebel conspirators to turn the expedition sour and dr smith has a talking robot to destroy robinson family when everything that could go wrong does go wrong for both sides the spaceship is warped to an unknown destination and now the premise of being lost in space is complete as for the audience you will likely be lost in boredom by this point wondering if the plot like the jupiter will ever get off the ground it's hard to tell who deserves the most blame the incredibly bland and corny characters or the horrifically lame script chabert is basically the only one to overdo it sounding like a whiny munchkin on helium if you like me were convinced by commercials that her voice was altered for some sort of plot twist where her body would be taken over by aliens you're wrong that's just her normal voice in yet another example of a friend faltering on the big screen leblanc is so incredibly dull and yet so obviously trying so hard to be so incredibly charming make sense it makes you want to shove his ass out the escape pod corridor without an escape pod graham is a babe thank goodness there was something for me to think about during this film hurt the black hole of excitement sucks up any energy that might have been left if hurt were available in tablet form he would be a prescription strength sleeping pill johnson isn't dull he's just lame as the young know it all who winds up saving everybody's ass all the time want an example of how cool this kid can be how about when he convinces the robot to think with its heart and reconsider killing the family hey don't laugh the thing actually listened to the mr sentiment but alas if you thought a character couldn't be much worse there was rogers as the epitome of generic or mother as she was known why hire an actress they could've had a white cardboard cutout with the word mom printed on it now that would've had some pizzazz lost in space luckily doesn't suffer in every single category that it could have the special effects are crisp clear and at least mildly captivating unlike any of the presences onscreen save it be oldman who plays his evil character with a great deal of fun and finesse unfortunately oldman is locked away for most of the film giving us nothing but ample mocking opportunities to enjoy while the special effects are pleasing to the eye they are nothing you couldn't find in most modern films contact for example far exceeds this film in terms of imagery and imagination lost in space just has too many shortcomings to ever be considered a work of cinematic art with numerous contradictions the time travel aspect was horribly flawed wooden and corny acting worse dialogue and an ending so disappointing you'd be happier to have seen the entire robinson family get blown to smithereens then again with an ending like this film has it's obvious a sequel is already being considered what an awful note to end on knowing there could be more of this in a year or two the attempt to be family oriented is commendable but lost in space is lost with the illusion that special effects and the nostalgia of a classic tv series being revisited is enough to satisfy all age groups well danger potential movie goers danger this movie crash lands without ever breaking thru the atmosphere of mediocrity
negative	so it's thirty years later and oscar and felix are together again that might have been an exciting notion if it wasn't for the fact that the odd couple of jack lemmon and walter matthau have been reunited in several recent movies grumpy old men grumpier old men and out to sea i e grumpiest old men so the odd couple ii i e the grumpiest old men of all really seems just another entry in a tired series the plot is even similar to that of grumpy old men in that lemmon and matthau's mismatched characters are brought together by a romance between their children oscar's son jonathan silverman and felix's daughter lisa waltz are getting married and former roommates felix ungar lemmon and oscar madison matthau meet at the airport and decide to share a car   then hilarity ensues well a few chuckles ensue anyway neil simon the playwright who created oscar and felix provides the screenplay which is a shock because the script is a piece of talentless hackwork from beginning to end unlike the original odd couple ii doesn't find its humor in the personality conflict of its characters instead it depends upon a series of humorous situations oscar and felix lose the car over a cliff are caught smuggling mexicans over the border take up with two women on the run from their violent husbands the women are played by christine baranski of cybill and jean smart of designing women and hitch a ride with a man who dies in the desert the original movie the odd couple remains a classic comedy it introduced the motif of that has provided gags for movies and sitcoms ever since it was the second outing for the team which debuted in the fortune cookie and they made a couple more worthwhile comedies the front page and buddy buddy before going their separate ways the reunion of lemmon and matthau in grumpy old men six years ago was delightful and its sequel seemed appropriate because it tied up some loose ends from the first movie but out to sea and the odd couple ii are just beating a grumpy old horse you can add lemmon's my fellow americans i e grumpy old presidents to that list too let's hope that hollywood offers these two actors something fresh to do let's hope also that we see neil simon's name on movies that do it justice this is his first since lost in yonkers
negative	except for a few bright moments of good verbal comedy that old feeling is embarrassing to sit through bette midler and dennis farina play lilly and dan actress and author once married now violently divorced and back together one last time for their daughter molly's paula marshall wedding lilly and dan hate each other passionately so passionately that they have sex at the wedding and fall in love again each ditches his or her current spouse of years and runs off with the other molly married now only hours runs off in search of her irresponsible parents while her husband keith jamie denton tries to console the abandoned spouses in molly's search for her parents she somehow falls in love with lilly's paparazzo joey danny nucci meanwhile the newlywed keith ends up consoling dan's wife rowena gail o'grady in bed the audience i saw this with apparently thought that all the adultery was hilarious i'm no dan quayle but i thought it was a bit creepy the message seemed to be ignore your responsibilities unrepentantly and have fun fucking who you wish family values aside there's something cruel about all this perhaps this movie would have played well as a black comedy but the movie is a romantic comedy we are supposed to be rooting for these creeps reiner and screenwriter leslie dixon tried to make it easier on us by making the victims unlikeable lilly's husband is a flake who rambles about emotional valet parking so we can write him off as irrelevant dan's wife is vain manipulative and jealous so we can write her off as a bitch molly's husband is a republican politician who thinks she's too fat and just for good measure he also fucked dan's wife so we can write him off as a prick everyone else falls in love but still that somehow doesn't justify the actions of the movie's main characters he's a prick or she's a bitch is no defense the movie is somewhat redeemed by some funny dialog often during heated arguments and by performances by midler and farina breaking out of his mold other than that it's a standard romantic comedy with a very substandard gimmick
negative	maybe this mission should have been scrubbed mission to mars a film review by michael redman copyright by michael redman there's a world of difference between artists and technicians the artist has a vision to create something new he may not do it well it might be sloppy but it's something you've never seen before a good technician can make it look good but without direction from his own inner artist or someone else it's going to be just a xerox obviously successful films need both skills brian de palma is a masterful technician he's spent his career copying others most notably hitchcock he usually knows exactly what to do to make a scene work but only because he has learned it by rote aside from rare flashes of originality his films are often in de palma's latest he turns his attention to stanley kubrick to tell the truth i enjoyed portions of this movie but i liked it a lot better over years ago when it was called i enjoyed it even more when it was titled close encounters nasa has set its sights for mars when the first crew meets with disaster a rescue mission is sent to the red planet they don't do so well either but eventually meet up the lone surviving and solve the mysteries of the universe and it's all so boring there are so many scenes that just don't work it's difficult to begin when the first crew is a few feet away from a raging massive martian tornado which looks remarkably like a sandworm from dune destroying everything in its path they just hang out watching error the most interesting character and that's not saying much is killed off error the alien is laughable error the rest of the characters are the dullest people imaginable error there's some nice eyecandy the face on mars which turns out to be a giant metal thai buddha head looks cool a holographic planetarium is more fun to watch than anything at disney world maneuvering in space suits outside the ship seems realistic but there's so much more that feels as if we've been there before from there's the rotating space station the blinding white room close encounters they solve a sound puzzle and play it to the aliens the list goes on the actors are mostly mobile wooden statues even gary sinise and tim robbins can't muster enough emotion to convince us they are breathing no one seems to care about anything that happens you won't either the absolutely worst sin is the blatant product placement as dr pepper with a foot tall logo saves the day they should save the commercials for those insipid bits before the film
negative	mulholland drive did very well at the cannes film festival as you can see from the rating it did not do very well from me at the toronto international film festival it may not be clear to the viewer why i am so negative on this film for most of the running time in fact it is an interesting mystery story told on the backdrop of the hollywood film industry toward the end of the film i think everything that has been built falls apart the film was to be a pilot for a tv series but writer and director david lynch did not sell his tv pilot and i think he decided that he wanted to do something else with it something else is what he did the film opens with a woman played by laura harring about to be killed in a car when a car crash saves her life she crawls away from the accident with a concussion and finds herself a bungalow with an unlocked door to sleep meanwhile young vivacious betty naomi watts arrives in hollywood from canada she wants to build a career as an actress betty is a little surprised to find a woman sleeping in the borrowed bungalow she does not know who the woman is she is even more surprised when the woman awakes and does not herself know who she is they fix on a name rita for her but are not sure if this right or not meanwhile local director adam kesher justin theroux has problems of his own he is trying to cast one actress for his new film and is getting pressure from the producers and from crime figures to cast someone else cammie rhodes melissa george these two threads are joined by a third one in which there is a strange and comic murder that goes terribly wrong there is also a strange character called the cowboy monty montgomery adding to the confusion in what was probably intended for the television pilot the film opens with a great vibrancy showing dancing style under the credits a lot of mulholland drive starts out fun lynch wants you to know he could make an enjoyable stylish film he just chooses not to as with any david lynch film there is strange material added for little reason there are no earthworms but there are some decidedly strange david lynch touches the film is a little long for the subject matter toward the end it gets into some heavier violence and sex scenes clearly not intended for the tv pilot unfortunately some of the most important comments to make about this film would be spoilers i will not mention them in the main body of the review but i give mulholland drive a on the to scale and a low on the to scale mulholland drive spoiler warning i have rated this film fairly low you should read this only after seeing the film or deciding that you will not see the film david lynch is in large part a dark satirist most of his work is done in familiar genres but in some way shows their underside in mulholland drive i think he is having a laugh at the expense of the crime film genre what he does with this film is are you sure you want to read this playing off the audience expectations that there will be a simple explanation for what is going on the first of the film he tells a simple crime story with clues sprinkled throughout then suddenly at the end he turns the story on its ear with a large number of clues that appear that they should add up to something the audience expectation is that they will add up but he has given clues that are lynch wants the audience to argue about what they have seen afterward and come up with theories in fact the pointers are noticeably contradictory and until i hear a better explanation i think lynch is merely playing a joke there is a visual curiosity that was popular in the sixties mad magazine called it a poiuyt other sources called it a pronged look at small portions of it and makes sense look at the whole figure and it does not this film is in my estimation the cinematic equivalent of a
negative	ingredients possessed plastic dolls in love plastic dolls having sex starring jennifer tilly voice of brad dourif katherine heigl nick stabile john ritter synopsis this is the fourth film in the chucky series which debuted in the late basically chucky is a plastic doll that can walk and talk because it is possessed by the spirit of a slain murderer in bride of chucky chucky's longtime girlfriend tiffany jennifer tilly dies and her spirit inhabits a female plastic doll through voodoo dolls tiffany and chucky get married and embark on a quest to reach a cemetery in new jersey where a mystical gem might enable them to be humans the dolls stow away in the back of a vehicle driven by a newly eloped couple so in the side plot the couple suspects each other of being a murderer opinion bride of chucky is an attempt at horror with humor but doesn't succeed somehow chucky moaning about mid life crisis and how he should have gotten married does not make for a very scary chucky and tiffany harping about mid life crisis and how she should have gotten married does not make for a very scary tiffany the suspenseless bride of chucky relies mostly on jennifer tilly's cleavage to keep attention during the first half and on occasional puns to keep attention during the second half the best that can be said about bride of chucky is that it is sarcastic
negative	watching the movie i vowed to subtract half a star from the review because the filmmakers included a saccharine syrup cute cuddly monkey if the monkey died the movie got an extra half star alas the monkey showed up at the end unharmed to the wet sickly sound of gagging and rolling eyeballs what that means is that lost in space actually deserved stars that's pretty generous considering the movie's camp lacked any hint of tongue in cheek when will robinson jack johnson teaches his pet robot about friendship you are actually supposed to buy it so why such a seemingly high rating there are a few reasons that made me unable to throw away the experience with the garbage first we saw the movie on opening night of the first day of operation of a brand new theater the sound and screen kicked ass nobody in the country enjoyed the movie as much as my audience did and i don't necessarily mean that in a good way also there were more than zero scenes where i found myself rooting for the robinsons or getting caught up in the movie's tension i even liked the settings i usually prefer to see models or sets but the cg was more detailed than i've seen in a lot of movies it looks like someone spent a little overtime to render some of the futuristic cities also gary oldman is never a bad actor even though he is typecast as a villain william hurt isn't too bad either neither actor had a great role but their performances were watchable and perhaps i shouldn't admit this but something about the tone and outlook of the movie brought me back to my childhood there is very little swearing or blood there is a strong moral message saccharine though it is there is a bit of romance whose culmination after hours is a real kiss no sex it felt like one of those disney movies that i so looked forward to when i was six those movies were probably as bad as lost in space but at the time they were manna from heaven that type of moviemaking is a lost art now for the bad news worst and most unforgivable was the incredibly bad dialogue it's family fun trying hard to be as hip as pulp fiction you better hold on to your joystick is one such line and when a robinson is called upon to deliver a line about warp conduit thingamajigs they inevitably stumble badly enough to embarrass even the lowliest star trek ensign second worst and closely related is the screenplay the story's exposition takes place at a press conference which allows the writers to explain what's happening with the least amount of creativity effort or interest once the story gets going i do concede a momentary burst of interest once in a while but on the whole the situations that arise are silly and contrived when gary oldman easily reprograms will's pet robot to kill the robinsons my friend summed it up perfectly he flipped the switch to then there's the tone of the movie the colorado daily said the film would have been more interesting if the central character was will robinson and not his father john robinson then it could be an adventure movie they're mostly right except that johnson will wasn't a good enough actor to carry it off still that the film has the robinson patriarch as our hero shows a lack of imagination just because a movie is tame enough for kids doesn't mean that we have to bow to a promise keepers notion of who's the center of a family many quality family films have been made with a family structure fly away home comes to mind to much better effect and the politics of the time seem a bit conservative and regressive for a futuristic movie in star wars the rebels were the good guys we were rooting for those who were fighting against the system in lost in space the rebels are the bad guys a terrorist force that must be killed crushed and silenced so that our children may live free that ominous excuse for violence almost makes me sympathize with the terrorists finally a few specific details deserve criticism the movie tells us that the setting is the year why why bother saying what year this is just tell us it's the future i bring it up because the tv series was supposed to take place in setting a specific date only dates the movie and guarantees that it won't be timeless not that this movie was really in the running anyway then there is a scene that shows john robinson checking one of his controls on a chair that rises about fifteen feet on a pole this silly waste of money reminded me of bugs bunny's barber chair and only shows that the future is a time when spaceship designers haven't learned a thing about ergonomics one vaguely redeeming quality is that the end credits succeed where the rest of the film failed it made lost in space look cool the strong techno beat sampled the cheesiest dialogue and out of context made it sound hip this is overlaid on a cool jumpy credit sequence with interesting distorted clips from the movie but if that's the best part of the movie i can't in good conscience recommend it still if you get stuck seeing it as we did you might be able to appreciate it if you keep your distance think of liking bad movies as a child and bring along your bad movie bingo cards
negative	i was going to see ram shrasta on the big screen last night but before that i stopped into my video store to rent some movies luckily my video guy was in the middle or recording ram shrasta i knew it was going to be a bad print with only and poor sound quality but i couldn't help myself i got it well after watching it it indeed was a bad print i was glad i didn't dish out to waste three hours of my time sitting in a bad theatre watching a bad movie this movie really sucks it had so many inconsistencies it was driving me crazy for example how can jackie shroff grow two feet of hair in just three or four days jackie shroff looked really stupid with his steven seagal ponytail the songs are bad the acting is bad especially deepti bhatnagar's and the direction is the worst of all the comedy scenes with jagdish and johnny lever just made me want to throw up i didn't even finish the movie i couldn't take it anymore note but if anyone out there liked aatish by the same director i guess you'd like this movie it's practically the same except that sanjay dutt is replaced with jackie shroff aditya panscholi is the sidekick again i was going to give it a zero but i personally like jackie shroff so i loosened up a little he looked fresh wore good clothes as always and his performance even though it wasn't his best was the only saving grace of the movie
negative	starship troopers is a bad movie i mean a really really bad movie not only does it cross the line of bad taste when it comes to blood gore and body parts shown on the screen it blissfully jumps over that line apparently unaware that the movie trailers appeal to an audience of five to fifteen year olds of which i saw many in the theatre looking past the appalling sight of overdone violence we are left with a movie with a thin plot at best no strong lead characters a blatant disregard for physics and a very obvious naziesque theme that being said onto the review the movie starts with a propaganda message from the federation who's logo bears a strong resemblance to a nazi german eagle urging the populace to go off and fight the bugs who are attempting to destroy earth the film shows large rallies with young children in attendance pledging allegiance to the federation again sound familiar as the movie progresses we are shown terror tactic training as a drill sargeant very graphically compound fractures one recruits arm and throws a knife through another's hand eventually the recruits embark on a journey to a location two thirds of the way across the milky way galaxy to fight the bugs on their home planet as our faster than light travelling heroes arrive on planet they drop onto the planet and burst our of their craft brandishing what you say laser beam weapons sonic weapons phasers photon cannons nope they hop out brandishing good old machine guns pump action rifles and tactical nuclear weapons i guess a lot of physics money went into travel and not weaponry as the assault begins our group of troopers are seen walking in a straight line through a box canyon two members of the group notice rocks slipping and falling above them and one even sees a streak fly by but disregards it as nothing this of course leads to more massive carnage blood shed and graphic depictions of limbs and heads being ripped and severed from their bodies again i see that military tactics in the future must have evolved at about the same pace as their weapons in the end we see neil patrick doogie howser harris burst onto the scene in what could accurately be described as a nazi ss trenchcoat hat and gloves he does a vulcan mind meld on the giant slug and then proclaims that the bugs are scared this sets the troopers into a frenzy as they are now one step closer to completing their goal total genocide of a species again sound familiar i have tried very hard not to step on and spoil the plot with this review but given it's i may have anyway i could go on for pages ripping this movie apart but don't want to bore you too badly in short i felt as if i were subjected to a mix between a war film with bugs substituted for allies a drivers education accident scene film and a complete blank screen the plot of course i wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone anywhere under any circumstance copyright c tim jandt
negative	capsule one of the ten worst movies ever made christopher lambert vs evil ninjas in japan and nobody wins the hunted is such a bad movie so completely inept and so totally that i could almost feel affection for it i could see myself showing this movie to friends and getting a good jolly guffaw out of it if it weren't also insanely xenophobic and insulting christopher lambert plays a salesman who's on business in japan he meets a slinky young woman joan chen and has a torrid night of lovemaking with her and then manages to witness her death at the hands of an evil ninja clan and their leader john lone apparently they had some unfinished business that could only be concluded with her getting slaughtered since lambert is a witness he's of course the next one to die let's stop and think about this for a second if lambert were in real life being chased by fanatical devotees to a ninja secret society he'd have a lifespan you could only measure with an atomic clock in this movie the ninja manage to kill just about everyone except him i imagine the japanese gods smiled down on lambert and provided him with a goof field that radiates out about ten feet from his body you know what a goof field is that invisible zone in which anyone who has intent to do harm to you becomes a klutz no matter what their real dexterity is this is of course only the beginning of the movie's problems lambert eventually finds with a samurai yoshio harada and his partner yoko shimada who you may remember as lady toda buntaro in shogun they are the two best things in the movie in every scene they have authority and presence and they actually look like they belong here even when dressed in full samurai armor and wielding bows the script doesn't know what the hell to do with them lone as the bad guy is the only cliche he has to wallow around in is the one about how the bad guy always has exotic women dripping off of him in the hunted this is elevated to the level of an insulting stereotype what's funny is that the peripheral characters in the hunted are not sterotypes there's a nice little scene with a tokyo cabdriver and a girl in a pachinko parlor but many of the main characters are unsalveageably hateful also the phenomenal instrumental troupe kodo has assembled a superior soundtrack get the cd that manages to survive despite the drek it's been designed to accompany there is an extended battle scene in the middle of the movie that is almost reason enough to watch the whole thing a gory excellently staged fight on the bullet train that shows some real imagination for a moment and then smothers it by trying to clumsily the whole thing with the movie's relentlessly stupid plot by the time we get to the final showdown with lambert getting to wield his own sword which judging from the editing of one scene was forged in seven hours or so we no longer care we're not even given any definitive information about whether or not one of the key characters lives or dies someone once said that the key to good art good movies good books whatever is to start somewhere interesting end up somewhere interesting and show respect for the audience all along the way this movie bungles two out of three badly
negative	hello kids today the movie studios want to take over my critical review and somehow persuade you that the summer's biggest blockbuster is a film for everybody and remember if a film is for and if it makes the most money for the summer it be good right armageddon is a comedy with a capital c it stars bruce willis who has a hundred it has a tiny rock land directly in the middle of a heated argument in new york city and chuckle chuckle one of those new yorkers with charcoal all over his face snorkle sniff hiccup and it has steve buscemi as a who wants to work for an oil rig  isn't this just so so funny armageddon also has romance with a capital r it has a tender moment between forbidden lovers ben affleck and liv tyler with with animal crackers and it has will patton as a long lost husband trying to reunite with his separated wife and child who thinks he's a salesman gurgle sniff awwwww and it has steve buscemi spewing more about minors and strippers umm moving right along armageddon also has lots of action with a capital a not just any action sequence would do it must have action sequences that are designed to thrill like drill darn it drill and let's have inept people destroy the mir space station can't you hear your heart beating and steve buscemi goes crazy and starts shooting at people what drama lastly armageddon is out there to save the planet with a capital p this can't be any old must have an asteroid the size of texas head straight for earth and and we must have beautiful scenic worldwide shots like paris blown up and and we must have peoples of all colors nations and religions join hand in hand for one final hopeful hug the final sequence where muslims in prostrate worship stand domino cheer the victory filled me with such emotional goo that i wanted to to to rip the screen into shreds i mean i mean cheer for ecstatic joy it was over comedy c romance r action a planet p okay kids what does that spell seriously folks any film that could take the most valuable talents and throw it all away with a bruce willis vehicle a dollar budget but have sets and lousy special effects is bottom line living proof that hell exists and has made a deal with universal in the midst of all the action the terseness the the fake sets the overall waste of time i recognized matt malloy playing an underwritten nasa technician malloy give me a reading remember him he was a principal player in last year's the company of a film that was more powerful shocking terrifying funny and shocking than could ever aspire to be cost over million to make cost a paltry need i say more
negative	deserves recognition for achieving the task of making a grander monument to than steven seagal's on deadly ground capsule review a question after the floating baby ruth that was waterworld what in the were the hollywood execs who gave kevin costner the money to make another movie thinking in this hour advertisement for his new hair weave costner plays a nameless drifter who dons a long dead postal employee's uniform and gradually turns a usa into an idealized society judging by the costuming at the end of the movie the main accomplishment of this brave new world is in polyester when he's not pointing the camera directly at himself director costner does have a nice visual sense and it is undeniably fascinating to see such an unabashedly jingoistic film in the but by the time the second hour rolled around i was reduced to sitting on my hands to keep from clawing out my own eyes mark this one return to sender
negative	starring ben stiller elizabeth hurley maria bello janeane garofalo screenplay by david veloz based on the novel by jerry stahl directed by david veloz permanent midnight is a pretty bad movie though it took me a few days to conclude this the film is more masturbatory than bleak with its main character intent on confounding us with his stupidity he has a a week drug habit ultimately as adapted by veloz jerry stahl comes off as one of those playground braggarts who chainsmokes at the age of twelve you are less mystified by his nature than bored into a stupor yourself ben stiller plays stahl a young author who arrives in l a with ambition and a nasty drug habit he eventually gets a gig for writing for a sitcom called mr chompers a thinly veiled for alf chompers looks just like alf except he's blue marries a producer hurley so she can get a green card and hooks up with a spanish mother liz torres who shoots heroin with him in the afternoons insert proverbial downward spiral here permanent midnight is structured mostly as a flashback with recovering addict bello meeting stiller at a fastfood restaurant where stiller works the as part of rehab taking him back to a hotel and between bouts of serious screwing listening to his life story i've spent the last week trying to figure out why stiller never seemed to find the frighteningly gorgeous hurley i've been trying to figure out why hurley did find stiller attractive as stahl stiller displays none of the charm or wit one would expect something about mary of either the actor or a comedy writer what separates stahl from the hundreds of other hollywood it seems is that stahl wrote a book about his idiocy watch stahl shoot heroin next to a baby watch stahl spoil numerous pitch meetings with babble stiller gives a technically flawless performance the film could double as a documentary on how to be a junkie but permanent midnight is mostly soulless when the movie poses the question will stahl be saved and then answers it in the form of bello's character basically a shrink in black panties could a person care less in the film version of his autobiography of the same name stahl doesn't need saving he needs someone who will sit there and listen to him go on about himself if you learn anything about the other characters in this movie it's that they are the most incredibly tolerant known to man stahl also seems to be the only person at schmooze parties doing drugs is this hollywood california i learned very little about the entertainment business from permanent midnight and a whole lot about an egotistical lunkhead of course you know that stahl triumphed because he lived to talk about his problems so basically his drug habit got him a book deal a movie based on his life and now he's apparently collaborating with stiller on future projects so much for the moral of that story temporary midnight is more like it chambers september
negative	the camera zooms in incredibly close it focuses on the closed eyes of a person presumed dead all of a sudden with a thunderous sound effect and an eerie sounding musical pulse his eyelids open the camera zooms in incredibly close it focuses on one of the characters desperately running for her life then with a thunderous sound effect and an eerie sounding musical pulse she bumps into the killer the camera zooms in incredibly close it focuses on a door from where seemingly strange sounds emanate all of a sudden with a thunderous sound effect and an eerie sounding musical pulse the doors swing open to reveal what's inside such as these seemed to elicit more laughter from the audience rather than genuine fear which is a pretty good sign that you're not watching the thriller that the director had originally envisioned rather you adopt the opinion that the characters are so goofy and so unaware of the trouble that they're in that you stop caring about who lives who dies and where the story goes instead you become more interested in how the characters get killed off the four young teenagers who are the potential sacrificial lambs for this movie are helen and barry and julie and ray two couples and dear friends to one another during the summer just after high school graduation they take a fateful drive down a dark mountain highway suddenly without warning their car hits someone whom the teens presume was killed as a result of that collision fearing jail time and possible manslaughter charges if they confess they instead decide to dump the body into the ocean and make a pact never to discuss the episode again a year goes by and things among the four friends begin to change relationships fizzle future dreams crumble and attitudes change but they can not forget what they did and apparently neither can someone else someone begins to send letters to all four of the teens with the frightening message i know what you did last summer the a figure in a rubber slicker wielding a large metal hook soon makes his presence known and begins to hunt down the four teens it's now up to the four of them to try to figure out who the killer is before it's too late while this movie has some nice visually eerie effects too much of it's impact had to be generated with extreme while the level of suspense was choppy at best there is so much more that this movie could have been but decided to give us nothing but cheap thrills it could have been a clever whodunit but discovering who ultimately was the killer made me just shrug my shoulders it could have explored the changed friendships after a year of adulthood but seemed to only include that aspect to add more minutes to the film it could have given us smarter characters who knew that anytime you're alone and you see shadowy figures moving about you don't walk towards them yelling hello once you yell hello you can expect an extreme a thunderous sound effect and an eerie sounding musical pulse it's difficult to be in suspense when you know what's about to happen the only redeeming aspect of the movie is that i now have a neat idea for a halloween costume but i'm not sure if the local costume store sells rubber slickers and hooks the horror that i experienced from this film is realizing that i actually went to see it
negative	goodbye lover sat on the shelf for almost a year since its lukewarm reception at the cannes film festival last may and one look will tell you why it's a mess and that's way before ellen degeneres shows up the film is one of those torrid crime stories that in this case required the services of three screenwriters i suspect that one wrote a sexy thriller one wrote a murder mystery and one wrote a comedy then director roland joff tried to piece it all together in the editing room while scratching his head in bewilderment i didn't laugh at ellen degeneres much i think i was supposed to degeneres is horrible and her character is even worse a vulgar cop with a bad wardrobe and bad hair either degeneres is wearing a most of the actors appear to she doesn't yet have enough clout to secure a hairstylist every single word out of her mouth is supposed to be racy and hip but her incessant wisecracking is and merely stupid her reaction to the brutal killing of a jogger is at least she died healthy and that's one of her wittier asides degeneres' sgt rita pompano is called in to investigate the allegedly accidental death of wait to give away too much of the plot would all but ruin a film that has very little going for it outside of its numbing plot twists and multiple it's best described this way sultry estate agent sandra dunmore patricia arquette is married to jake a creative yet unfocused and alcoholic advertising rep played by dermot mulroney sandra likes to act out her sexual fantasies and jake's brother ben the don johnson likes to help ben is also coming on to his petite mousy peggy blaine parker and someone somewhere is planning to cash in on that huge life insurance policy of his the film is ripe with cheating lovers cheating on each other and back again although there are some genuine surprises the plot twists get too contrived too quickly probably around the time degeneres' gumcracking gumshoe appears at least the former ellen star is going for something a little different arquette turns in yet another of her platinum blonde bombshell roles see lost highway true romance while quoting embarrassing lines like i'm not wearing any underwear i hope she got paid a lot of money to do this here's an example of some of the film's stupidity sandra purchases a used car and disguises herself in a red wig prior to stalking two of the film's duplicitous lovers she drives the motorbiking couple off a cliff while blaring her favorite the sound of music on her car stereo intent on identifying herself to her hapless victims so what was the point of the wig and the car the sound of music stuff might be a reference to the wizard of oz allusions in david lynch's wild at heart but if so joff must have forgotten that wild at heart was a despicable movie it's hard to believe that goodbye lover was directed by the same person who made the killing fields and the mission it's not however hard to see why it sat on the shelf for so long it should have stayed there
negative	as with any mtv movie like last year's dead man on campus the movie is marketed for a primarily male audience as indicated by its main selling points sex and football those two items wrapped in a package are sure to snare a sizeable box office chunk initially but sales will decline for two reasons first the football sequences are nothing new nor can they be the sports genre isn't mainstream and it's been retread to death second the sex is just bad despite the appearance of a whipped cream bikini or the party there's nothing even remotely tantalizing the acting is mostly mediocre not including the fantastic jon voight cultivating his usual sliminess voight gives an unexpectedly standout performance as west canaan coyotes head coach bud kilmer kilmer is the driving force behind the coyotes' conference championships and two state titles in thirty years this year he plans to make it unfortunately when his star quarterback lance harbor paul walker goes down for the count he's got to rely on the unreliable abilities of backup john moxon james van der beek moxon leads the team through its last four games and then must cope with his newfound stardom the effect it has on his relationship with girlfriend julie amy smart and other temptations that abound in west canaan most regions of the country are not nearly as as texas and so the atmosphere is likely to be lost on most similarly the set design is wrong for a high school setting the teams are decked out with sparkling uniforms radio headsets which never seem to work however and instead require coaches to signal plays manually and even a giant bronze statue of coach kilmer these elements as well as the heavy drinking and carousing might be more appropriate on a college campus but mtv's core audience is the high school demographic this focus is further emphasized by the casting james van der beek of tv's dawson's creek is an understandable choice for the reluctant hero although he never manages to do anything with the role other stars are similarly young and unmemorable there's not much that goes right about varsity blues and there's not much to like about it either everything herein has already been done and if it hasn't the movie manages to botch it one way or another this is certainly missable
negative	nicolas cage comes up with an ingenious survival mechanism for his role in the con air the opening credits sequence introduces us to cage as cameron poe a gulf war veteran convicted of manslaughter and serving eight years in prison after an brawl the prison scenes are accompanied by in which poe in a languid southern drawl describes prison life to his wife back home and offers simple homilies for the daughter he has never met if the scene gives you a tickle of familiarity it probably should cage appears to realize that con air is going to be utterly and ridiculous and that he's going to have to do something to keep himself entertained and thus he slips into a familiar surreal role as his own commentary on the proceedings cage plays cameron poe as a version of raising arizona's h i mcdonnough cage should have known what he was getting himself into he got a paycheck from jerry bruckheimer last year for the rock and if there's one thing you can count on from a bruckheimer production even without his late partner don simpson it's that you can count on seeing everything you saw in the bruckheimer production the critical difference between the rock and con air is cage's performance in the rock cage appeared to be having the time of his life jumping into the action fray for the first time that sense of discovery has been replaced by a wry while the plot of con air finds poe a parolee on board a hijacked prison transport plane whose goal is just to get home cage's goal is different but just as simple to get out of the film with some measure of dignity intact audiences too should know what they're getting themselves into with a bruckheimer production in fact the marketing people are counting on it no one who loathed the rock for its repetitiveness will be converted by con air no one who loved the rock for exactly the same reasons will be dissuaded director simon west yet another tv commercial auteur plucked by bruckheimer from the advertising equivalent of the schwab's soda fountain delivers exactly the kind of cocktail which could launch an endocrinology lecture it's perversely appropriate that one sympathetic con spends most of the flight nearing a diabetic coma like insulin con air does the work of a gland what he doesn't deliver is a moment of suspense a bruckheimer film has no use for hitchcock's notion that showing you the bomb under the desk creates a more interesting scene than just blowing up the desk a really big desk and a really big bomb will serve the purpose nicely if either west or bruckheimer were interested in genuine tension they might have done something with con air's creepiest at a desert stop for the of convicts serial killer garland greene steve buscemi wanders of into a trailer park where he meets a little girl having a tea party in a drained swimming pool their is eerie and menacing providing a welcome shift in tone and giving buscemi a chance to stand out in a cast with too many villains danny trejo ving rhames and a characteristically reptilian john malkovich among them in fact con air usually opts for too much of something when the tiniest measure of restraint would have been an improvement too many characters too much editing too many dopey punch lines too much of the cheap ugly appeals to machismo which characterize too many bruckheimer efforts it is that kind of exhausting excess to which cage is responding with his detached performance while malkovich goes for the outrageous and john cusack as a u s marshal goes for earnest cage looks like he just wants to go to sleep his recycled raising arizona performance is a means of escape his chase after a stuffed bunny a continuation of his pursuit of that big box of huggies it doesn't bode well for cage's appearance in later this month perhaps he already realizes that all he can do in action films is more of the same over and over there's a word for people like you nicolas that word is called recidivist repeat offender
negative	a big house a big director jan de bont of speed and twister fame a big star catherine hot of the heels of entrapment and zorro a big remake of the haunting and big special effects so what do they all amount to unfortunately for us a big bore plot a hotshot doctor brings three insomniacs to an old spooky mansion for controlled testing unbeknownst to the patients the good doctor is actually conducting his own cover project that has to do with the psychology of fear critique this movie just didn't scare me one bit sure it creeped and spooked me out a little here and there but on the whole it took waaaaay too long to get going provided very little meat in the plot went way past its own bedtime and basically relied on grunts the muttering of children's voices and special effects to scare us well this film didn't do much for me and they might as well have called it the haunting of lily taylor since she's basically the only character who had any real depth background or reason to be in the house in the first place don't get me wrong catherine zeta was sweet window dressing despite my continued perception of her faint entrapment and owen wilson was good as the standard comic relief but come on people if you're going to have us sit through two hours in a theater with these folks how giving them a little more than as dimension neeson was also wasted as the smart british guy it's all too sad cause certainly the idea seemed like a good one see the shining for a close to perfect example of a creepy gone awry but the story was thin the conclusion was laughable be gone poof and the special effects well they sure were nice to look at but not for a moment did one of them scare or even for a have me believe that they were anything more than hollywood special gadgetry see it for or if you like special effects and scary movies that take forever to get going and provide very little payback otherwise skip it and check out the original or the ultimate movie about spooky homes from the netherworld the shining little known facts about this film and its stars goofy actor owen wilson indie favorites rushmore and bottle rocket with director wes anderson his brother luke wilson is also an actor who once dated drew barrymore for a year or so brother andrew is also an actor singer lisa loeb is listed in the credits as having portrayed the character of olivia morice but i personally did not notice her she is well known for her number one single stay i missed you and goofy glasses the creaks and moans heard throughout the house were prerecorded and played during filming in order to get a more natural expression of fear out of the actors catherine is currently dating flabby ass actor michael sex is my life douglas she stands in actor michael rapaport pleaded guilty to the aggravated harassment of lily taylor he was ordered to stay away from her and undergo counseling for one year actor bruce dern who plays the throwaway role of the gatekeeper in this film was once nominated for an oscar for best supporting actor for his role in coming home director jan de bont was born in holland and began his lengthy career as a cinematographer on films as die hard hunt for red october and basic instinct directed by another dutchman paul verhoeven actor todd field also played a small but pivotal role in stanley kubrick's last film eyes wide shut he was nick nightingale the pianist this film was originally titled the haunting of hill house
negative	it's always a bad sign when the core audience of a film children are either walking out early or are when the credits roll at the end of a film that about sums up the dreadful ugliness of dalmatians a cold pea soup of cute animals stupid home alone antics a boring puppy love subplot between dumb humans and glenn close reprising her best joan crawford impression indeed walt disney is rolling over in his grave again cursing john hughes' name for making the original dalmatians one of the worst kiddie flicks of all time and now its sequel the main culprit behind the hideousness of dalmatians is its predecessor dalmatians the original made more than million dollars at the box office spawned a torrid collection of collectible items that ended up months later in the discount bins of across the country and generally made every kid on the planet want a damn dalmatian pup for christmas well it's been about four years since then and dalmatian fever is coming back and this time it's digitally enhanced here's the story cruella de vil glenn close is released from prison due to the cure of her puppy homicide urges by one dr pavlov oh how witty she rejoins the world as a dog lover and is assigned to a probation officer who oddly turns out to be her victim from the original film cruella then becomes ella dog lover until the plot twists like a dog with his leash caught on the back of a moving truck and she becomes the evil vixen again a kidnapping plot unfurls again as cruella decides she still needs her dalmatian coat but she now needs dalmatians instead of the commonly used dalmatian formula at this point i was envying those kids filing out of the theater how low have glenn close and gerard depardieu as the film's villain sunk in the film business it's almost laughable in a sadistic way to watch close walk around in costumes that seem to be pulled from the wardrobe of flash gordon and depardieu how can a french guy have a bad french accent and never mind the toilet brush haircut the only minutely positive selling point i can even think to point out is the talking bird with a british accent courtesy of eric idle that thinks he's a rottweiler now that's funny
negative	the animal is a marginally inspired comedy that only manages to lumber along generating just enough momentum to keep it from stalling it's clunky and slow like watching an trying to accelerate up a hill there are certainly better things you can do with your time actually if you've seen the trailer then you already know the plot and have seen its funniest moments the story centers on bland marvin rob schneider who is an evidence clerk at the local police department that yearns to be a real officer but he's afflicted with dogs attack him neighbors torment him children bully him and his ignore him truthfully with his bad haircut seemingly modeled after weird al yankovic little richard and giant poodles and his unenthusiastic demeanor we'd probably throw tomatoes at him just for fun this is actually bad because you can't like a character if you can't develop sympathy for him we never do and it may be just as well that he drives off a cliff and plummets to the canyon floor however marvin is found by an eccentric doctor michael caton who uses a radical and experimental procedure to save him implanting our doofus with various animal parts and organs as a result marvin develops heightened senses and increased agility and speed he can smell drugs hidden anywhere on a body swim with the speed of a dolphin and can run as fast as a cheetah imagine the comedic possibilities that arise from this operation with his enhanced abilities he could now reap vengeance on all those who have shunned him however the spirit of the film takes a raunchy turn and instead marvin spends most of his time trying to subdue or satiate his voracious appetite and his animalistic sexual urges goats beware he also chases cats urinates to mark his territory or growls at his enemies what he should've done was stick his head in the sand like an ostrich equally tenuous is its other running joke which involves one of his friends guy torry who constantly complains that everyone is treating him too nicely because he's black it's reverse racism he declares as he blows smoke into the faces of strangers but none of them says anything this element doesn't work the first time it's mentioned and it becomes increasingly trite with every recurrence you don't have to be as wise as an owl to realize that the animal is tame if there's any reason to see this film it's to see colleen haskell who makes her big screen debut remember her she was voted off in week of the program survivor here she plays marvin's sunny love interest while her role required very little actual acting she seemed very comfortable even when marvin licks the side of her face like a lapping dog yuck with her adorable disposition radiant smile and playful innocence she could be a meg ryan in the making it's too bad that she's in such a mediocre offering
negative	romeo is bleeding wants to carry the unusual flavor of reservoir dogs or bad lieutenant with director peter medak whose previous credits include the good films let him have it and the krays and character actors gary oldman and lena olin they seemed likely to be a successful combination those mentioned films however brought something to the screen that romeo is bleeding did not a solid screenplay call me cynical but the jobs of writer and producer don't seem to mix well gary oldman plays jack grimaldi a good cop turned bad selling information to the mob and cheating on his wife his cheating is obvious enough to obtain his nickname although the name doesn't provide any insight or analogy to the shakespearean character jack has become addicted to feeding the hole a hole in the ground where he stores his payoff money when he realizes his colleagues are being shot he feebly attempts to get out gary oldman's performance is disappointingly weak he seems nearly bored in the process he also gets with mona demarkov a russian mobsterette who wants to take over the territory from top boss falcone played adequately by roy scheider demarkov played by lena olin is a tough but tremendously sexy woman with seemingly no problems maneuvering within the mob world this character is combination of both linda hamilton and arnold schwarznegger from terminator i can't remember seeing a character quite like her after being shot handcuffed and thrown in the back seat of a car she still manages to cause an accident kick out the windshield with her legs grab a suitcase full of money plus some important documentation climb through the rubble land on her shot leg and still succeed at running for safety what a woman lena olin's performance is the only glimmer in this dismal film anabella sciorra is wasted in her role as romeo's wife there is little insight into her character she's depressed she makes obvious references she mopes around the house juliette lewis as romeo's girlfriend is treated with the same cliche attitudes although ms lewis' portrayal certainly didn't improve it both women were anything but sexy or attractive poorly developed characters aside the screenplay also suffers from several logistical problems it is so discouraging to watch a film and want to shout at the main character not to do something for example jack and his friends attend a funeral to hang in the background to the mob scene fine jack spots the big boss with his goons by the gravesite fine what does jack proceed to do he brushes his friends off by telling them he isn't feeling well then strolls over to the boss why the boss had all ready threatened him falcone simply takes the opportunity to issue more threats by ordering his goons to take off some of jack's toes by the gravesite i guess they weren't worried about any federal agents lingering around after the funeral or here's another demarkov her own death by cutting off her arm with a circular saw she proceeded to set the place on fire wouldn't the flames burn off the fingerprints aren't dental records more important as bright and resourceful as she was supposed to be couldn't she come up with a better plot and it took her no time at all to get a functional prosthesis lack of attention to detail certainly adds up in a film this film doesn't even add up the large details there is little or no consistency in the not much makes sense the direction lacks cohesion surprising from a director whose previous credits are impeccable the moods shift the styles shift and no one can seem to decide if it is a serious film or satire of one so while it certainly isn't reservoir dogs it certainly isn't diva there's plenty more to tear apart in this film my advice to someone who hasn't seen it to to wait until it comes on video there are some quotable lines that would provide a campy evening if not taken seriously it's not a boring film just not a good one or an intelligent one
negative	is dull perfunctory uninspired and boring a greater writer might have created a lyrical sentence for each of those adjectives flowing in lovely arangements with soaring metaphors i however would rather cut to the chase is dull perfunctory uninspired and boring there is nothing in it not a glimpse of depth nor a shimmer of intelligence or insight there is no electricity in any of the scenes or a moment of interest in the story or its subplots and it's underdeveloped and features an array of bland characters played by actors who think they're in this year's boogie nights they are so wrong the picture has been assembled by mark christopher based on this film i don't know how he got a job in the business is supposed to be an amazing insight into the world of the dance club of the same name which originated in the and closed down in the i don't know if this film went into production after boogie nights was released but christopher has managed to plagiarize paul thomas anderson's brilliant work in every possible way from the framework of the plot down to the style of the cinematography what it lacks is everything that made boogie nights great depth intelligence energy fascinating characters and challenging themes can't even measure up to the last days of disco which is flawed but still smart and entertaining it's remarkably bad timing i'd say to release a film this tedious after a couple of noteworthy pictures of the same kind i have exaggerated though there is one interesting character and one terrific performance that character is steve rubell played with more perceptiveness by mike myers than this limp production deserves steve rubell is the owner of studio and if christopher had focused on him then myers could have forced a good film out of this wreck all by himself alas we are instead guided to endure the trials of a young man named shane ryan phillippe a new jersey teen who gets a job in the club thanks to rubell's homosexual impulses it's here that he meets his friends the array of uninteresting characters his greg brecklin meyer his wife anita salma hayek and of course the love interest julie black neve campbell shane is just an innocent young fool in the beginning and he has a reasonably sturdy home life some of the scenes with his father border on interesting while heather matarazzo who plays his sister pushes phillippe off the screen but he decides to envelop himself in the disco scene and succumb to peer pressure and to drugs why his friends push him into drugs is never really explained but the fact that they are friends is questioned only is superficial ways greg gets really mad at shane because he's been elevated to bartender status there isn't a single conflict that takes center stage except that shane has some kind of unexplored reservation with the business in which he works most of the film is dumb and most of the dialogue is inane there's a scene late in the film in which shane confronts julie black and in the next scene they're without a bit of development then they're kissing in a bowling alley this is five minutes of material thrown into the picture at the last minute well past the mark and this isn't a long film to begin with campbell is a talented actress but she needs a role that gives her a little depth this one doesn't and phillippe has almost no presence whatsoever this performance pales in comparison to mark whalberg's role in boogie nights he seems dumb and misguided and his voice never changes tone i guess he was picked for the color of his hair and the shape of his body but he seems pretty lanky to me he's all wrong for a lead role but it doesn't help that christopher has forgotten to develop his characters by the end of shane's most notable trait is his stupid fake accent the rest of the performances are wasted hayek is an energetic talented young actress and does almost nothing here meyer is endearing but allowed to be no deeper than cardboard only myers by sheer force of talent manages to rise above christopher's of a script rubell has been written just as depthless as the rest of the characters but myers is good enough to inject subtleties that help round out the performance in fact myers is the sole reason to see and all it really does is make you wish that the film had revolved around him i've read that studio has been recreated down to the last detail frankly i don't care it's easy to recreate something technical like this a fairly skilled production designer and a few carpenters can manage such a task besides christopher keeps the lights so low that the sets are invisible anyway aside from myers' performance is a complete failure it's dull perfunctory uninspired and boring some may find my comparisons to boogie nights unfair but they're so obvious to me in any event is pallid without the contrast it doesn't even work as mindless entertainment it's so shallow that the most escapist viewers are likely to dismiss it so don't forget those key words dull perfunctory uninspired and boring everything else i said was just padding
negative	an experience like baby geniuses can have certain effects on an average moviegoer you may be scarred for life after seeing this petrified piece of garbage which is so disarmingly horrible that it may cause you to ponder it's hollywood existence when i think of the screenwriters behind this film i picture a room full of monkeys the monkeys are pounding on their typewriters while scratching themselves all of the monkeys combine their efforts hop in a cab and take the finished product downtown to director bob clark's office the designated monkey explains the plot by jumping up and down on clark's desk while flailing his arms and shrieking the director appears to be deep in thought until he slams his fist down on the desktop and exclaims love it the writing behind this project is embarrassing for your amusement i will explain the plot dr kinder kathleen turner and dr heep christopher lloyd are two of the executives at the baby geniuses institute where peculiar studies are going on as the story goes there is an ancient myth explaining that babies ages and under know all the secrets of the world from previous life experiences when they move past this phase they become like any other drooling toddler kinder and heep want to unlock the secrets using their test babies namely little sylvester sly for short who can break in or out of any given situation so efficiently that he would be right at home on the mission impossible team there is so much crap derived from this premise despite the fact it's virtually identical to the plot in look who's talking a far superior film in any league you will be able to determine the quality of the film by examining the opening scene sylvester has broken out and managed to elude several security guards with his amazing intellect and tactics question it's obvious the babies are but why are they able to fight like jackie chan the adults in this film are furiously beaten by these youngsters in diapers it's a shock when writers will stoop this low just to draw cheap laughs by using john hughes' familiar home alone formula i also found it disturbing that the babies in this film have attitude and endless knowledge quoting numerous movies and insulting their adult captors the effects in baby geniuses similar to the talking animals in babe are pathetic the editing is a disaster and the jokes are never funny the only reason viewers may avoid vomiting is the argument that the babies are i suppose they are i can admit to smiling a few times because the babies were cute other instances though i was howling in laughter due to the inane stupidity of the script there are supporting characters who have no personality whatsoever their entire existence is based on punch lines peter macnicol and kim cattrall as an unwilling couple who have adopted sylvester's twin are both miscast then again i don't suppose any performer could handle the uneven material without looking incredibly stupid meanwhile dom deluise plays a fellow who gets hit in the crotch with a monkey wrench hahaha i would avoid baby geniuses at all costs instead of watching this i would recommended filling your bathtub with cement and going snorkeling or perhaps you would consider going diving in waters anything to avoid this painful movie the final line in the film spoken by the bratty sylvester is they think i'm doing the sequel for less than mill they're nuts' sequel please have mercy
negative	houston we have a serious problem after making mission impossible brian de palma has a lot to live up to by making an epic science fiction and inviting great cast and talented crew he hopes to reach the modern audience and the possibilities are certainly there but the result is a great disaster starting in a near future with a prologue copied from apollo de palma slowly builds up his story the human race has already set foot on mars a research expedition has vanished without trace on the red planet and another one has been sent to find out what happened this is basically the whole plot so it's hard to imagine that it can be stretched to hours but de palma manages to do that it is not a very good achievement as we follow this expedition to mars and watch them slowly float in space the hardest thing to do is stay awake the film's major problem is that it tries to seem more clever than it is david mamet's dialogue while trying to seem natural is distant and simply fake de palma and mamet wanted to combine action with a thought provoking plot the result is more like an unsuccessful mutation of kubrick's a space odyssey apollo and godzilla to make time pass the creators have inserted several refreshing scientific details that would not convince a frog it consists of multiple copies and direct from several great science fiction films and stories when it finally presents an almost original idea it falls flat because of its uncovered stupidity i can't even call this film predictable since no one with a healthy imagination can come up with something like this sometimes it gets so cheesy that you'll start laughing when you're supposed to cry and cry when you're supposed to laugh you'll see enormous sandstorms hear mysterious sounds and last but not least on this constantly surprising tour you'll see an alien it's really hard to find comparisons to such an experience and i know that i've never said that before i thought i never would but lost in space is actually better that's an achievement in itself director brian de palma has stroke gold with untouchables that became an instant american classic it is for this film that he will be remembered while all his other failures will be forgotten he'll live to fight another day i send the actors my condolences since they truly do try to transform into their undeveloped and dull characters and both the cinematography production design and art direction are very decent it is because of the achievement of people that i rate this film unfortunately their hard work was in vain if you have problems with insomnia i recommend you this film if you're not asleep within the first half hour consult your doctor
negative	gun wielding arnold schwarzenegger has a change of heart by the film's end and becomes a believer in god instead of a skeptic going through an amazing transformation by having a christian epiphany in the final scene as he becomes someone who can now beat the devil by his faith alone this is after two hours of throwing people out windows and shooting more people than your average serial killer nobody can save this bomb from it's own stupidity and arrogance in filmmaking and arrogance in believing that this is a positive of film it's just a pile of dreck an exploitive project a pyrotechnical film end of days aims to be an apocalyptic thriller it features an idiotic script a hack director and a star who is past his prime which makes this film dumber than dumb plus it's not funny not campy or is it in the least bit entertaining it's just dreary and unwatchable a slasher film arnold plays an alcoholic security guard who finds his new mission in life is to stop satan occupying gabriel byrne's body and possessing a wall st bank account from destroying the world the film opens in vatican city roma where the pope is alerted by a young visionary priest tomaso looking out at the night sky and seeing a comet whiz by who proclaims after looking at his scrolls that's the sign for the of god which reveals that a child has been born who is being prepared to give birth to satan's baby the in the hour before the new century begins when satan will fuck her and open up the gates to hell on earth tomaso has some twenty years to find this woman and save her and the world from doom but some in the pope's circle want to kill her if found even though the pope insists on having faith and letting her live as he lectures them even in the world's darkest days doing evil doesn't stop evil but brings on more evil we saw the girl being born in nyc in which seems to be the place to look for satan according to the astrology charts of the visionaries the chosen woman is christine york robin it is now a few days before the new year celebration for and arnold and his security guard partner kevin pollack are hired to guard a wall street turd and when he is fired upon by a renograde priest thomas aquinas arnold saves him and through a ridiculous chase captures the tongue less priest who fired the shot he nevertheless can speak and tells arnold an of days' is coming as prophesized in revelations but satan gets to him in his hospital room and nails him to the ceiling while scribbling latin warnings of end of the world' on his body it is now up to arnold to save the world and find the chosen woman he quickly finds christine and does everything to protect her from all the evil forces around her as the film includes ludicrous helicopter rescues people jumping out of windows satan taking a piss and dropping a match to kill arnold's partner as the piss explodes like gasoline satan being fired at resulting in his sometimes experiencing pain and sometimes nothing as if the director forgot which way he wants to have it there is nothing spared in nyc from fire bombs including the subway churches and luxury buildings the only trouble with all these action sequences was that it lacked purpose and even entertainment value the story was so terrible and inaccurate that it did not have an iota of value or credibility mercifully the movie drags to a final confrontation in times square trying unsuccessfully to build tension to the countdown toward the year why is the end of considered to be the devil's number well  satan's numeral is actually which is upside down of accordingly you just put a in front of and bingo you get with logic like that this film might even think it pulled the wool over the viewer's eyes and got away with such a febrile explanation of the occult this film should become a classic used by film schools in how not to make a horror film i highly recommend seeing it for that purpose
negative	after enduring mariah carey's film debut glitter i'm reminded of a bit from chris rock's bigger and blacker in response to women saying that they can raise a child without a man rock says you can drive a car with your feet but that don't mean it should be done to that i say you can give mariah carey a movie but that certainly don't mean it should be done sure there are plenty of pop star film vehicles out there from the beatles' a hard day's night to the spice girls' spice world but none have been so vapidly pointless or laughable as glitter everything about this complete tripe is ludicrous start off with the story which as gruesomely predictable as it is is the least offensive part of the movie the film is inexplicably set in the a period piece that really shows no sign of its period except for a few chicks in leg warmers worse yet everyone's speaking late slang in what should be meant to be partially autobiographical carey plays billie frank a young singer in new york who struggles to overcome a rough childhood and abandonment by her alcoholic mother influential club dj julian dice a k a lucky max beesley playing a bad mix of puff daddy and robert de niro hears her sing on a track and decides to make her a star in predictably rapid succession billie and dice fall for each other she starts hitting it big dice gets jealous and starts acting like an ass and suddenly billie's on the roller coaster of superstardom in the meantime billie is on an emotional hunt for her missing mom i won't give away the ending but honestly just think of unicorns and rainbows you'll figure it out the movie screams to be made with camp and that could've been fun but the filmmakers thought making the bulk of glitter weepy and dramatic would be better what a mistake the brief attempts at comic relief as in a scene where an effeminate director gets wacky with filming billie's first music video go over like lead balloons instead the audience at my screening tended to laugh loudest during mariah's most dramatic scenes which brings us to the performances of which there's nothing good that can be said mariah is primarily seen with a look frozen on her face she actually looks scared during her one love scene but you have to wonder if the writing isn't even worse so much of the dialogue is so hackneyed and watered down for carey's virginal target audience that it's probably impossible for any actor to pull it off with aplomb even the characters couldn't have been written more absurdly they're all members of a barbie playset the important film director who swoons billie i'd love to put you in a movie i'm making and the record executive who takes billie's demo tape and says oh i'll make sure the whole team listens to it in the morning everyone in the film is a device and it's painful to keep watching just to see another one appear to say more would be a waste there's so much wrong with this film and it pains me that mariah carey with her ego and sanity in such fragile condition these days as evidenced by her multiple hospital stays will have to suffer through all the negative reviews she's likely to get but then again i had to suffer through her movie
negative	poster boy for needs patching patch adams a film review by michael redman copyright by michael redman mediocrity is a pox on civilization in our heavily consumer oriented society there is an enormous demand to churn out stuff what would happen to our economy if we didn't feel the need to have more things to make us buy more businesses need to produce a ton of product the sheer volume of items necessitates that most of them are of dubious quality the film industry is like any other in order for studios to survive they have to make money the prevailing attitude is that more films equal more profit some movies obviously exist only to put wares on the screen and to do that less talented people are used there aren't enough great directors and actors to create the number of films necessary for some reason it's never crossed anyone's mind that the real equation is quality films more profit often mediocre films are more of a pain for the audience than the horrendous ones at you can have a good time making fun of bad movies i'm not suggesting that patch adams was tossed out just to rake in the bucks my guess is that someone was asleep at the wheel it features an accomplished actor and a potentially engrossing story but it's as dull as could be hunter patch adams' robin williams desire to become a doctor has an unusual genesis checking himself into a mental institute after a suicide attempt he discovers that he can help the other patients by clowning around patch could be a poster boy for he explains that he likes devoting himself to others because then he doesn't focus on his own problems he decides that he wants to be a physician leaves the place and a couple of years later enrolls in the medical college of virginia as a med student patch's antics at the school's hospital catch the attention of his soon to be dean walcott bob gunton the dean is so opposed to the goofiness that he wants patch kicked out of school although he's one of the top students he writes in patch's academic file that he shows excessive happiness i walked into the film knowing little about its history and wondered about its odd mechanical pacing there also seemed to be no reason that it is set in the early seventies then it struck me it must be based on a true story the movie is an adaptation of a book by hunter adams who founded the gesundheit institute a free clinic robin williams is an amazing actor while he is adept at dramatic roles his forte is free spirits that's what makes his failure here so remarkable patch is exactly the character he should be best at yet even the scene where he and another mental patient are battling fierce imaginary squirrels falls flat something holds him back most of the rest of the cast is for a film that champions seeing patients as human beings it's curious that the ones here are cardboard characters peter coyote as a man dying of cancer is refreshing because he seems like a real person unfortunately he's in the film for only about two minutes the audience is blatantly lead by a ring in its nose from scene to scene we're not left to our own emotional decisions we're hit over the head with them children with cancer an elderly woman whom patch makes laugh a beautiful woman who can't love because of her abusive history when a group of students fix up an old house to use as a clinic in the andy hardy hey let's put on a play we can use the barn and my mom can make the curtains mode they laugh and roll around while painting each other there might as well be giant signs flashing feel good now feel bad now patch is a good title for the film it is a patchwork of every manipulative scene you can think of the student fights stodgy establishment types there's a touching death then there's another the film doesn't trust us to get it the first time the dean tries to kick patch out and later he tries again worst of all is the final courtroom bit old men sit in judgment of a man who only wants to help people the room is packed with patch's supporters williams makes a supposedly impassioned speech about the humanity of all it has as much emotion as his earlier statement humans are the only animal that kills members of its own species contains truth most of the blame must be placed with the director tom shadyac and screenwriter steve oedekerk shadyac also directed the first ace ventura movie oedekerk directed the second one need i say more the real adams is to be admired for his devotion to treating patients as people rather than diseases the film has a number of worthy messages about the state of the modern medical business with hmos and managed care the doctors are not gods theme will resonate with a number of people but it's so poorly produced that no one will care
negative	young einstein is embarrassingly lame but that didn't stop it from becoming a phenomenon in australia where it became the third largest box office hit of all time in the u s warner brothers is hoping the movie will follow in the footsteps of paul hogan inxs and shrimp on the barby to become the latest rage from down under personally i'm hoping americans everywhere will rise to the occasion and make young einstein a box office bomb young einstein sprang from the twisted mind of yahoo serious who not only wrote produced edited and directed the film but also starred and did his own stunts his creation is about as stupid and contrived as you'd expect from someone named yahoo the movie takes substantial historical liberties in recreating einstein's youth whereas the scientist actually hailed from germany the film finds him still living with his parents on tasmania a remote australian island in addition to deriving the formula for energy and the theory of relativity albert invents surfing bubbles in beer and the electric guitar yahoo plays einstein as a naive and unrefined country clown with an insatiable curiosity although yahoo's performance is at first endearing the characterization loses its novelty faster than you can say yahoo has created a charming family for albert and the scenes on tasmania are often clever but after the first twenty minutes the movie quickly plummets and degenerates into a poor excuse for a comedy young einstein is hampered by its lethargic pace and inane plot yahoo must be an mtv addict because his movie features an omnipresent soundtrack unfortunately the music is altogether gratuitous and quickly becomes overbearing almost every other scene includes a blaring rock song that leaves you wondering whether you are watching a movie or a music video the instrumental score on the other hand is generally playful yahoo uses such classics as the overture and the theme from the good the bad and the ugly to great comic effect halfway through young einstein i knew for sure the movie was a stinker but it wasn't until the very end that i finally put my finger on why the comedy takes its roots not from whimsical film fantasies such as young sherlock holmes but from cheesy sitcoms in fact young einstein might have been more at home on network television where its sophomoric humor wouldn't raise any eyebrows
negative	this is the last carry on film with its almost intact regular cast and it is the swansong of hattie jacques and sid james dick turpin sid james and his gang which includes barbara windsor and tom doc scholl peter butterworth terrorise the countryside by staging highway robberies stand and deliver owing to the increased occurrence of turpin's robberies captain desmond fancey of the bow street runners kenneth williams and his sidekick sergeant jock strapp jack douglas visit turpin's area of influence to bring him to justice they are under the express orders of sir roger daley bernard bresslaw their intellect does not count for much and when they increasingly become suspicious of reverend flasher aka dick turpin sid james whom they confided in earlier they still cannot believe that the rector has any part in these robberies however once they catch harriett and put her in jail and sir roger daley takes complete charge it seems that there is no hope for dick turpin then again sir roger has assigned the dimwits fancey and jock strapp aswell as the old dithering constable kenneth connor to keep an eye on their prisoner there is no doubt that this is a james' carry on movie he excels in double roles as in don't lose your head' and his performance as flasher and turpin is hilarious barbara windsor is also funny as harriett the sex mad housemaid and member of the gang and hattie jacques' small but effective role as the rector's housekeeper martha hoggett is played to perfection jack douglas plays a milder version of his excruciatingly annoying persona and kenneth williams is given a rather mundane part peter butterworth is not allowed to shine in his boring performance as tom and bernard bresslaw's character appears only briefly in the film the only notable performance from the support cast comes from joan sims as madame desiree who is travelling around the country escorting her starlets the of paradise' and sporting a fake french accent when her girls and her are robbed by turpin she is determined to catch him and helps the reverend to find the culprit a carry on by the numbers this movie is only notable for the great performance by sid james in his last carry on movie the jokes are bluer the script is poorer it is the last script written by talbot rothwell but the music is a marked improvement although nearly all the regulars appear they seem to be just going through the motions none of the high spirits of the earlier films are apparent here just a selection of crude jokes and repititive
negative	one of the first films of is this mtv pictures release which marks the first leading feature role for james van der beek the star of the wb's runaway hit dawson's creek following in the foot steps of mtv's two other live action films joe's apartment and dead man on campus varsity blues is a bad film and is unlikely to cause much of a sensation in the marketplace set in west cannan texas the film examines the small town obsession with high school football through the eyes of second string quarterback john mox moxon van der beek we know he's smart because he reads kurt vonnegut instead of the playbook coach bud kilmer jon voight has been around so long there is actually a bronze statue commemorating him the star quarterback lance harbor paul walker is a handsome blonde hero who has his own billboard in his front yard and dates the sexy head cheerleader darcy ali larter also on the team are an enormous guy ron lester with some health problems and the token team member eliel swinton whose only real dialogue scene deals directly with the color of his skin when lance is seriously injured mox gets his chance to shine and he runs with it undermining kilmer with his unusual playing strategies his relationship with his dutiful girlfriend jules amy smart is threatened and there's a big game at the end guess who wins nothing about varsity blues is inspired and the whole film simply moves through the sort of conventional motions that coach kilmer would love there's a chance for some smart satire on small town obsessions but the humor here is decidedly lowbrow van der beek does a decent job of carrying his first film although a silly accent trips him up sometimes also the role isn't very much of a stretch from his dawson leary character he's still a whiny nice guy except here he also happens to be a jock voight is a terror as he chews up every single piece of scenery and spits it out the other adults are all notably awful while the younger performers don't fare much better on the positive side walker is a charismatic actor who is due for a breakout role following this and his supporting turn in pleasantville scott son of james caan has some lively moments as tweeder the team's wild man larter as a gorgeous seductress looking for a one way ticket out of texas gets to show off the film's most interesting costumes including a very whipped cream bikini it's interesting to note that the film definitely earns its with a lot of harsh language alcohol abuse and an unusually high amount of nudity including a gratuitous trip to a strip bar that reveals a not very surprising surprise all this is likely to come as a shock to the young female fan base of dawson's creek presumably the target audience for the picture director brian robbins previously helmed the kids feature good burger from nickelodeon films a sister company of mtv and changes directions here a bit but still fails to make much of an impression the look of the movie is as bland as the town and characters who populate it the football scenes are generally unexciting and the entire film looks a bit washed out there's an ok soundtrack featuring music from collective soul foo fighters green day and aaliyah but it's not as impressive as one would expect from a mtv film
negative	susan granger's review of america's sweethearts what a waste of a talented cast billy crystal and peter tolan have concocted a sly provocative premise and as the opening credits roll it's obvious that they're attempting an romantic comedy the story involves a veteran publicist billy crystal who is summoned to orchestrate a press junket in las vegas when an arrogant director christopher walken holds a megabuck movie hostage in his editing room refusing to show it to anyone he figures that by giving the journalists juicy hints of a possible reconciliation between the film's stars gwen and eddie catherine john cusack they'll be so distracted that they won't remember they didn't see the movie or it wasn't what they expected and crystal thought of this long before a sony exec concocted the phony manning quote scandal for help he turns to gwen's personal julia roberts but the laughs are few and crystal's glib cynical flack isn't wickedly funny enough with a few amusing after six months under the care of a depak guru alan arkin cusack's character's too emotionally fragile lacking the necessary charisma vain narcissistic diva is undeveloped and only hank azaria as spanish lover and stanley tucci as a studio exec and roberts manage to whip up any farcical froth basically we don't like these stereotypical characters let alone root for them to unwind their romantic entanglements and joe roth's direction is predictable formulaic and telegraphic on the granger movie gauge of to america's sweethearts is a contrived shallow as a screwball satire it's strictly superficial
negative	susan granger's review of jeepers creepers entertainment this nasty little horror film begins as a bickering brother justin long and sister gina philips are driving through the desolate countryside on their way home from college and spy a man dropping bodies down a drainage pipe when long decides to investigate there's nothing but trouble you know the part in scary movies where somebody does something really stupid and everybody hates them for it well this is it philips warns what he finds in the basement of an old abandoned church is a dying boy with a horrifying incision from his neck to his navel plus hundreds of other mutilated bodies stitched together on the walls and ceiling like a disgusting tapestry long flees but now the monstrous winged creeper jonathan breck is after both of them eileen brennan appears briefly as the cat lady and patricia belcher is jezelle a psychic who explains the evil creature's bizarre feeding habits on the granger movie gauge of to jeepers creepers is a fiendishly visceral with an extraordinarily gruesome conclusion giving new meaning to the old song jeepers creepers and now as paul harvey would say for the rest of the story what's more scary than the cruelty of the satanic film itself is the fact that victor salva is a convicted child molester who videotaped himself having oral sex with a actor in california sentenced to three years in prison he served months and completed parole in when salva made powder the story of an albino boy with supernatural abilities disney studio executives claimed that they did not know about his prior conviction as a pedophile and now once again in this film that fact is conspicuously absent from his press kit bio
negative	this independent film written and directed by eric bross has the look and feel of all those other troubled youth films that have inundated the market in recent times it is hard to tell what is independent about this film it might as well have been made in hollywood or on a home videocam it is the debut film for the director who tells his personal story about italians growing up with heavy new jersey accents and remaining tight with each other as they grow into young adults a tale which could have been rewarding to see in the where the of all the characters depicted is grounded but to see it in the is a different story it is old news the love story between the simple girl waiting to get married and her luckless boyfriend turning nasty on her doesn't mean much since their relationship remained undeveloped the introduction of the angle and the loyality among buddies bit are not moving enough emotional experiences or intelligent enough dramatics to elevate this film above its limited story line despite the performance by the star of the film adrien brody as ray ray is the only son of a mobster once arrested for running an illegal casino operation out of his bloomfield new jersey suburban basement ray sr vincent is now trying to make a go of it by running a small scale business his son lives with him and works unhappily as a shoe salesman dreaming of getting rich quickly so he can open a business and marry his waitress girlfriend joanne sybil the title of this film refers to the shoe size of paul which really has nothing to do with explaining anything about the film you should be aware that there are a lot of things about this film that don't make sense its constant brainless chatter between the buddies their uneventful growing pains and the despair of their lives make it very difficult to feel any empathy for them desperate to make his dream come through ray goes to a loanshark humorously and menacingly played by james e moriarty and borrows grand to bet on a sure thing at freehold raceway the horse loses and now ray has big problems as the loanshark comes after him with his muscle to get his dough there is nothing i have seen so far to like about ray he is undependable and stupid so when his best friend mike gallagher the narrator of the film gets a chance to sleep with his cares the director must be kidding himself if he thinks we do as for ray's gambling debt and his dilemma of how to pay it off the story is too predictable for anything other than what you would expect to happen his buddies the college student mike and the dependable butchie gillan and his old man who he has this relationship with rally to his aid and the film ends on an obligatory artistic note of ambiguity that seems to be the way it is for all those wannabe artistic films as ray is off to florida all by his lonesome self to try to put his life together there was just no energy or spark or anything relevant in this superficial film to keep it interesting though adrien brody showed signs that he could be a future star because of his intensity and looks he reminds me of sean penn
negative	come on hollywood surprise me stop giving us these poorly written thrillers with banal dialogue sketchy characters and plots as predictable as the sunset the always watchable morgan freeman plays a detective who becomes personally involved in a case involving missing girls personal because his niece is one of the victims it's a slobbering psychopath of course but this time there's a twist freeman notes that each of the young women who've disappeared are all strong willed assertive and more successful in their careers than the average girl we soon learn that the guy calls himself casanova whose aim is to dominate these modern gals by imprisoning them in some dungeon and keeping them as his personal harem anyway one of the women manages to escape ashly judd and teams up with freeman to well you know the rest a brief glance at the plot to silence of the lambs with which this film is constantly being compared to by the hype merchants may suggest lambs also has a fairly predictable story perhaps but that film also has superbly drawn characters and smart dialogue so lets not insult a great movie by taking the comparisons any further okay and as for comparisons to seven oh please kiss the girls is based on the novel by james patterson and written for the screen by one david klass maybe the novel was a stinker to start with but whatever the case it's the writing that's clearly at fault here one these characters have very little to say that's engaging or interesting two the script has no sense of humour three while the notion of a psycho's victims being smart successful women is an interesting twist the execution isn't even half as good as the idea thus ashly judd comes across all out of focus instead of being the heart of the story we can't feel her rage some atrociously written casual exchanges between her and several male characters are supposed to remind us that she's the type but these conversations barely register and as for freeman kiss the girls is his second dog in a year first chain reaction now this for an actor of his calibre this is most worrying young director gary fleder scored a hit a few years back with his quirky pulp things to do in denver when your dead but what can he do with material as resolutely mediocre as this not much and you can hardly blame him there's a few chase scenes through the forest where the camera whirls dives and jumps and the effect is startling but the script is beyond rescue what hurts most is that hollywood continues to get away with serving up this tripe safe in the knowledge that jaded audiences will lap it up complacency rules it's been so long since we saw a mainstream american thriller that delivered juicy characters real surprises and consistently sharp dialogue the only consolation for this viewer is that my ticket to the movie was a freebie positive proof that the best things in life aren't free 
negative	capsule the much anticipated of the pierre boulle novel comes to the screen as a dark and a little dreary film with lots of chases and fighting but very little intelligence visually there is much to like about this version but the approach is to take an adventure after the style of gulliver's travels and treat it as an action film that makes it a film without much center to pierre boulle author of the bridge on the river kwai wrote planet of the apes a k a monkey planet the novel as a social satire it reads a lot like a fifth book of gulliver's travels humans discover a planet in which the roles of apes and humans have been reversed not unlike the roles of horses and humans on jonathan swift's island of the houyhnhnms the novel moves somewhat slowly to create some suspense in revealing all the things most film fans know to be true about the nature of the planet it seems to me there is also a statement about human cruelty to animals but perhaps i was just looking for that when rod serling adapted the novel into a film released in he added a number of serling touches familiar from episodes of the twilight zone and changed the ending to make it more the final irony of the original version has become film history without it there could never have been a planet of the apes film series i can surmise only that serling ran into serious script problems in how to handle the tricky question of language in the book the apes had their own language and the human eventually learned that language that could have been done in the film but that would have required the entire film to be subtitled for the serling avoided this by having the apes speak english and of course there is some justification for that by the end of the film justifying why the apes spoke english may have even been the inspiration for his surprise ending but serling never tackles the question of why a supposedly intelligent human never shows any curiosity or even surprise that the apes speak his own language a language they had no opportunity to ever hear few viewers questioned this serious plot hole however and the film has become well respected in cinema history partial credit at least should go to jerry goldsmith whose extremely inventive score is one of goldsmith's best if not his best when the film's success called for sequels the filmmakers turned up the violence and they added though not very subtle political messages about what was happening in the united states of the and while the first film had a little shooting of guns and what was there seemed a little hearted by the second film beneath the planet of the apes there was a good deal more violence and from that point on the series had a lot of violence and chases the series concluded with battle for the planet of the apes in now director tim burton tries his hand at adapting the original book again for those who thought that the version was not very faithful to the book burton's new version is even less faithful first he does not really reverse the roles of the humans and the apes he has them both be intelligent articulate races battling for a dominance of the planet currently in the hands uh make that paws of the apes that could be a good story too but it is not planet of the apes as with the mission impossible films and so many other cinematic homages to the third quarter of the last century the title makes promises that the filmmakers have no intention of honoring in leo davidson mark wahlberg not this world's most expressive actor works on a space station increasing the intelligence and usefulness of apes then a convenient time storm sweeps him up and drops him on an alien planet yes he survives this storm but then no storm is perfect he quickly finds not greatly to any surprise he shows that on this planet apes rule and humans drool but everybody talks and the language they talk is english apparently it does not even occur to leo that there is a mystery that needs to be explained about that the fact it does not occur to leo and apparently didn't occur to tim burton either is the heart of the real horror of this film both just assumed that if apes were going to talk the language they would speak would be english in any case having one talking race dominating another makes this not a look at relationships and more one of the relationships outside of sudan and a few other countries this is a less relevant topic leo is captured to be used as a slave but also is discovered by ari played by helena bonham carter ari is an attractive ape with close ties to high political power she is bent on making the world a better place perhaps in a previous draft of the script she was called in any case with makeup that stifles her usual pout carter is just about as attractive as she has ever been in a film she may want to consider this to become her standard look from this point forward it is not long before leo escapes with some human and only a couple of sympathetic apes this is a further abandonment of the source material the chase severely limits the interplay of ape and human and the examination of each's place in this reversed society each important in the book we cannot see how the society works because most of the screentime society has broken down we see the humans either separated from the apes or fighting them burton chooses visceral thrills over cerebral ones at almost every turn this is a miscalculation as characters so lacking in empathy value are difficult ones to place much emotional investment in they are basically chess pieces and the viewer has little reason to root for them to win the script had little subtlety with lines like i never met an ape i didn't like but at least we cared for what happened to taylor the main character most of what this film has to offer is in the visuals the visual work is spotty but generally nicely done except that so much of the film takes place in the night or in fog this tends to limit close looks at the makeup in general it seems much improved from the makeup team is led by rick baker instead of john chambers who did it for the version in chambers makeup was a it was realistic enough to almost be believable but flexible enough to show emotion chambers is good but if anyone had a chance to best him it would have to be baker today audiences have higher expectations baker's visualization is really an improvement these visuals work nicely what does not work is the assisted leaps some of the apes make they look like they were inspired by the defying leaps of crouching tiger hidden dragon apes spring incredible distances some of the best scenes are apes running into battle looking like they have ape posture but when they start flying through the air the effect is lost one final visual problem is that the film frequently shows its budget in what should be spectacular battle scenes the camera shows us only a small group of people since the days of lon chaney and boris karloff few actors have crossed over to stardom in a role that required heavy the one actor who has a shot is paul giamatti it is not that his lines are so good most are silly jokes but he delivers them very well he was always a watchable actor but has not yet made stardom as the limbo he to overcome his ape but does it very well in doing so he makes himself the most interesting thing on the screen he is probably the best thing in the film and conjures up memories of peter ustinov's performance in spartacus as an there are several lines in the script borrowed from the film and an old ape played by charleton heston becomes an allusion to the first film by itself danny elfman's score has a nice primitive feel but jerry goldsmith's tour de force score is a real classic that score and the whole film will be remembered when the film is forgotten i rate the remake on the to scale and a on the to scale
negative	i wish i could accurately describe the theme music for part the best way i can put it is that it's funky i know this is an odd question but remember the opening music of police academy citizens on patrol when steve guttenberg and michael winslow perform the title song citizens on patrol during the opening credits it's just like that anyway part takes place a day after the events of part so technically still this time a group of horny teens who also bring along two aging hippie potheads for some reason head up to a cabin on crystal lake for a weekend of sex and weed it turns out that one of the teens had been attacked by jason earlier in her life which must have been between parts and so why she has returned to crystal lake one day after a new batch of murders is beyond me she's the lone survivor this time part was originally shown in theaters in and from what i can tell from the video it looks as though they may have been fairly decent effects jason had long wild hair when he was unmasked in part now one day later he's completely bald also it being one day later it can't be friday the now can it oh well steve miner is the only director who helmed more than one film in the series 
negative	jessica lange is one of the most inconsistent actresses working today from she blows away audiences with powerful intense performances on the other hand this is the same woman who made her awful feature debut in dino delaurentiis' king kong and much as lange would probably prefer to develop amnesia regarding that particular entry on her resume every once in a while she does work that is reminiscent of it if only in quality hush is one such example lange is so bad here that she might have been fun to watch if the rest of the film wasn't such a prime example of motion picture tedium the film opens as many psychological thrillers do by posing as a light drama we are introduced to jackson johnathon schaech last encounter in tom hanks' that thing you do and helen gwyneth paltrow a picture perfect young couple who are very much in love jackson is taking helen home for the holidays so she can meet his mother martha lange the moment i first saw martha i started looking for fangs soon the wicked witch of the east is plotting a way for her son to get helen pregnant this involves poking a hole in a diaphragm once that goal is accomplished she manipulates events so that the expecting couple moves out of new york city to the horse farm where she lives as long as she gets her way martha is a perfectly amicable person but when helen defies her it's a declaration of war hush has three very simple problems it's incredibly dumb it's incredibly boring and it's incredibly predictable at least up to the stupefying ending this film has absolutely nothing to recommend it with the exception of a couple of nice shots of fields and a quick glimpse of gwyneth paltrow's bare buttocks frankly it's embarrassing to watch a respected actress of lange's stature give a performance like this it's like a bad blanche dubois the role she played in a tv version of a streetcar named desire meanwhile paltrow does her best to get through her dialogue without gaping at the stupidity of some of her lines and schaech attempts a passable imitation of an inanimate object as in all psychological thrillers the battle lines are clearly drawn here it's mom and against wife with jackson caught in the middle of course since schaech's character is and badly acted it's impossible to say how he feels about being in that situation maybe someone should ask him if he's familiar with oedipus martha is of course the evil one how do we know she's evil she smokes cigarettes and drinks hard liquor two sure signs that the devil is at work on the other hand helen is a good girl the evidence for this is that she's nice to old ladies and treasures a locket with a picture of her dead parents that's about it for character development beyond that point hush is just a series of increasingly coincidences contrivances and moronic plot twists however the first minutes are just a for the ending which is as anticlimactic as it is profoundly dissatisfying i can't imagine anyone no matter what they thought of the movie as a whole liking this conclusion either there was some serious editing or someone left out a few pages of the script before the climax i disliked hush by the time the end credits started i hated it viewers invest something in every movie they watch no matter how good or bad it is cheating them like this is offensive and unpardonable most entries into this genre aren't especially good films like consenting adults the hand that rocks the cradle and single white female rely on stock plots and predictable twists to propel the narrative along in general however they're directed with a degree of competence that assures a level of sustained tension that's not the case with really bad thrillers like this which fail to generate even a momentary heart palpitation the characters are too bland and the plot is too uninvolving for anyone in the audience to care indeed the title of this movie probably refers to what the producers hope viewers will do in lieu of telling their friends what they really think of this sorry piece of celluloid
negative	synopsis sonny koufax adam sandler is a rich childish angry man who has just been dumped by his girlfriend vanessa kristy swanson in a bid to impress vanessa sonny impersonates his friend kevin jon stewart and adopts a year old boy named julian cole and dylan sprouse while kevin is on an overseas trip under sonny's supervision julian soon learns to lie to women tell people how he wipes his ass throw tantrums and scream for his god damned treats self centered julian breaks a school classmate's arm without apologizing or even realizing he has done anything wrong meanwhile sonny bribes julian with sugary talk food toys and flashy promises in order to get the kid to perform not surprisingly the government takes julian away from sonny's incompetent supervision and this leads to a custody battle opinion it's a movie about an embittered creep teaching a little kid to be a jerk and we all get cheap laughs because for minutes the innocent kindergartner never finds out what it means when he mimics all the bad boy behavior that's the essence of big daddy but there's a bigger issue involved marketing movies that are rated pg and are heavily marketed towards children of preteen age and below on tv film clips advertise these movies as hit comedies then when you go see them they turn out to be either raunchy sex acts like austin powers with characters named fat bastard or big daddy where adult characters get their jollies by buddying up to naive five year olds and encouraging them to experiment with drugs and mistreatment folks in hollywood are trying to develop a preteen market for raunchy stuff but i think most american parents would agree that early childhood is a time of mental innocence that should be protected from uncaring media market exploitation to many american mothers there's probably nothing more pathetic and unsettling than the sight of a theater full of unsupervised little eight year olds laughing raucously as movie character father adam sandler jokes about a woman's ice cold tits
negative	certainly no one would rent ed wood's glen or glenda expecting to see a good movie but this screwy discourse about transvestitism betrays a level of incompetence that i didn't know was possible in fact wood's infamous plan from outer space actually seems pretty tame by comparison watching glen or glenda i found myself occasionally wondering if wood had originally made two or three separate movies and accidentally edited them together as a result it is actually quite entertaining in that it is unintentionally hilarious the movie starts out as what mostly seems like a bad documentary with endless repetitive narration about transvestites how difficult it is for a transvestite to look at his girlfriend's clothes without being able to wear them how transvestites are not necessarily homosexuals and how the main character is as it reminds us probably half a dozen times not half man and half woman but man and woman at the same time the camera work is the camera lingers on say a closed door while the characters talk or inexplicably zooms in on someone's ear or nose wood also makes copious use of mostly irrelevant stock footage which leads to like yes our world is a busy and frightening place with so many people driving their automobiles finally there is occasional commentary from bela lugosi as a sort of omniscient being who seems to inhabit a laboratory delivering pointless lines such as people   all with their own thoughts   their own ideas    while lightning crackles overhead had wood continued in this vein glen or glenda probably would have been remembered as nothing more than a poorly done documentary with the occasional inappropriate touch unfortunately he then wanders so far off into left field that you have to wonder if he had been eating some funny mushrooms when he wrote the script pull the string pull the string announces an alarmed lugosi as stock footage of buffalo appears there is another crash of lightning before lugosi returns this time warning us beware   beware the big green dragon that lurks outside your door    it eats little boys   and puppy dogs' tails   and big fat snails a bizarre nightmare sequence which is probably meant to be symbolic but instead is just incredibly stupid ensues during which finds his fiance trapped under a fallen the living room someone who is apparently intended to be the sinister green dragon but looks more like a klingon from the original star trek series appears to be orchestrating all this though the film is far from clear on this point to put it kindly near the end of this here i must confess that wood lost me a violent sexual encounter on a couch that features two characters who do not even appear in the rest of the movie and is scored by goofily upbeat folk music after this scene ends not a moment too soon glen or glenda returns to its documentary style but at that point any lingering sense that wood had the slightest idea what he was doing is pretty much gone the film wanders to a dumb happy ending that also seems to abandon much of what it was trying to say about transvestitism but at that point it didn't matter much what happened as soon as the aforementioned sex scene was over glen or glenda had pretty much cemented its place in my mind as the most incoherent film i had ever seen i honestly think that if i picked up my camcorder and deliberately tried to make the worst movie i possibly could it still might not match glen or glenda for sheer cinematic disaster i am giving this movie an f but i'm not sure that quite does it justice
negative	the second thriller of the month is just awful oh it starts deceptively okay with a handful of intriguing characters and some solid location work after a gets gutted in the ably spooky prologue parallel stories unfold the first involving a texas sheriff r lee emery a gruesome double murder and the arrival of a morose fbi agent dennis quaid on the eve of voting for the local lawman's reelection the second pairs a hiker jared leto with a friendly former railroad worker danny glover they're headed west toward the rockies and away from the murder scene which one is the killer well it doesn't really matter when director jeb stuart die hard finally spills the beans you won't take his choice seriously anyway the whole thing goes south about an hour in with the tale taking hairpin turns that i certainly couldn't follow and through the whole thing there's quaid playing with the most intense monotony this side of steven gal i guess i'm glad that i didn't walk there's some nice train stuff at the end and a fun nod to dr strangelove
negative	this is my first review that i post to this newsgroup and i kind of feel like i have to say something negative about this film no one else seems to care that it takes certain liberties that should not be taken with a historical story however even if one thinks of it as fiction the prince of egypt remains shallow but i'll begin from the beginning the biggest difference between the original biblical story and this version is that moses has some semblance of divinity in the bible whereas the animated version gives the impression of a reluctant hero maybe it's just me but if i knew i had god on my side i'd have a little bit more confidence there are other differences as well such as a lack of important female characters and the passing over of the original pharoah's death like it's nothing but a thing most of all though the story's focus has shifted rather than being a story about the prince of egypt is almost solely about the relationship between rameses and moses i was originally excited about this story element until i saw the movie where it came off as maudlin rameses and moses squabble like children and then in the interests of peace moses saves rameses' butt even though moses was the one who started it yawn i didn't care anymore by the time moses ran off for murdering an overseer which of course never happened in the original story moses was exiled but enough about the differences let's talk about the movie itself it features a moses who in the interests of making the character more human lacks any divinity whatsoever which isn't convincing at all to anyone who knows who god is it features a rameses who at least is given dignity by the voicework of ralph fiennes from schindler's list among other things the film also features an extremely annoying character by way of the miriam voiced by the sandra bullock even though the most irritating thing about her is her tendency to burst into song for no apparent reason here bullock is replaced by a singing voice speaking of which it contains very annoying music it contains shallow writing it features extraordinary animation which is one good thing i can say about this film most of all it contains an attempt to commercialize homogenize and a story about a manifestation of god i am not christian but i got the impression of blasphemy the writers and producers took a butcher knife and into the story
negative	for original sin the road to the screen has been rocky initially slated for release last november the film was bumped twice finally landing in the dog days of summer advance screenings of the film were denied to all but a few critics generally a sign that the studio realizes it has a dud on its hands so is original sin really all that bad yes it is but the melodrama does offer some rewards the location settings are gorgeous and there is a healthy sprinkling of with angelina jolie providing the t and antonio banderas the a more importantly the movie is entertainingly bad veteran readers know that as a rule i don't encourage people to patronize lousy films most of the time there are plenty of quality offerings on the marketplace that are more deserving of our money and besides the let's go laugh at the failings of others mindset reflects an elitism that makes me uncomfortable but things are different this summer quality films to put it mildly have been few and far between so as far as i'm concerned it's fair to find our kicks where we may original sin will never join such treasures as valley of the dolls road house and showgirls in the bad movie hall of fame but it'll do until something worse comes along the film adapted by director michael cristofer from the cornell woolrich novel waltz into darkness which was also the source for the francois truffaut film mississippi mermaid opens in a prison as jolie's character slated for a dawn execution tells her lurid tale to a priest who appears desperately horny the freshman writing class tone is quickly established when she says things like this is not a love story it is a story about love wary of local cuban coffee dealer luis antonio vargas banderas makes arrangements to secure a mail order bride from america listing himself as a mere clerk to dissuade foreign a practical man luis chooses a frumpy looking lady hoping she will be a loyal mate able to provide him with children imagine his surprise when his fianc e julia russell jolie turns out to be infinitely more attractive than the woman in the photo julia explains that she sent a different woman's image because she didn't want to be selected solely for her pretty face luis then confesses his deception leading julie to state with great significance we have something in common we are both not to trusted after their wedding luis and julia retire for a glorious night of carefully choreographed lovemaking with their bodies positioned to display her breasts and his bottom as erotically as possible jolie and banderas are attractive people and watching them naked is fun although the filmmakers' insistence on using one of banderas' legs to cover jolie's crotch makes it look like he's trying to climb her luis the stupidest man who ever lived immediately instructs the bank to make his personal and business accounts available to julia despite the fact that she seems nothing like the woman with whom he corresponded his blissful ignorance continues as the warning signs mount up luis must force julia to write to her sister emily who is frantic over her lack of communication shortly after julia complains about the chirping of a pet bird it is found on the floor of its cage with a broken neck finally when she cleans out his accounts and disappears luis begins to suspect that something might be wrong incidentally if you're afraid i'm giving too much away rest assured that all of this happens in the first minutes of the movie leaving plenty of time for numerous dopey plot twists a great deal of operatic acting and more footage of her tits and his ass along the way private detective walter downs played by thomas jane who was terrific as mickey mantle in the hbo movie turns up hired by the frumpy woman's sister to find out what happened to the real julia luis is also eager for the detective to track down the con artist having decided that if he can't have her he will kill her oh the pathos of it all the cast appears to recognize the trashiness of the story adjusting their performances accordingly banderas is suitably impassioned while jolie alternates between vamping and pouting and with those lips she can really pout as for thomas jane he starts off acting suspicious and cagey then accelerates to a snidely whiplash level of nastiness his most startling moment comes when to prove his power to humiliate he forces luis against a wall verbally taunts him while rubbing his cheeks against those of luis and then finishes establishing his dominance with a kiss if anyone ever questions the difference between sex and rape show them this chilling scene and if anyone ever questions the difference between real drama and a laughable potboiler show them original sin
negative	one would think that david duchovny star of the cult favorite would be very careful in choosing his leading man cinema roles at least one would hope so one would be seriously incorrect eugene sands duchovny is a surgeon so dedicated to his craft that he becomes addicted to amphetamines to stay awake and work more it turns out to be a bad plan when he loses a patient and his license while under the influence ten months later in a seedy bar to score synthetic heroin the doctor gets a chance to ply his trade when assassins gun down a customer using a plastic water bottle and bar tubing sands operates and saves his life smalltime hoodlum raymond blossom timothy hutton is impressed with the cutlery skills on his associate he kidnaps and then offers eugene a position in his organization blossom needs a doctor to patch up gunshot victims that would be problematic at a hospital sand's temptation is that this will give him a chance to practice medicine again albeit illegally big chunks of cash to fuel his habit and close proximity to the gangster's womanfriend claire angelina jolie this film's babe factor the big time operator is desperately in need of help on the run from russian mobsters the bad guys that seem to be all the rage in this year's films and trying to cut a pirate software deal with the chinese mafia blossom is surrounded by blood after a few medical misadventures the physician grows disenchanted with his employment an encounter with a couple of psycho surfer dudes who threaten to blow him away unless he fixes their dead buddy cements his feeling that he is in the wrong line of work when the fbi visits and forces him to become an informant there is no question that he needs to be somewhere else oddly enough these seem like they could be exciting scenes the film disproves that assumption then a bunch of other uninteresting things happen writing this only two days after seeing the film its a struggle to remember the events you can take that as a solid lack of recommendation for all the coolness that duchovny exhibits in it's a surprise that his big screen presence is so lacking in charisma the doctor is particularly bland and dull even the cold turkey bit which is rife with dramatic possibilities come across as banal a little chocolate and minor sweats get him through heroin withdrawal like virtually everything else in the film it's a missed opportunity the fox mulder detachment doesn't work here hutton's manic mobster is much more difficult to get a handle on played partially for comedy and partially as crazed killer blossom almost becomes real but then sinks into goofiness most of the time hutton looks as if he's searching for his character and coming up empty jolie also makes a few false moves towards creating a human being before giving up and turning into scenery the most interesting aspect of her performance is watching her pouty lips threaten to take over the screen the rest aren't any better michael massee's eccentric fbi agent never revs up one of blossom's henchmen steals a few moments of the show as a quirky gunman reminiscent of val kilmer's doc holliday in tombstone his blasting as he does a bizarre dance is the high point of the film but that seconds isn't worth sitting through the other minutes first time film director andy wilson known for his work on the british television series cracker appears to be attempting to jump on the pulp fiction bandwagon the best of these movies combine a sense of style and flash with significant substance the ones concentrate on just one of these aspects playing god does neither well the basic idea of the film is solid and then it goes nowhere even worse it plods back and forth up and down a long and winding road before it ends up nowhere fox fails yet again in his search for intelligent life
negative	i would appreciate it if you didn't do that again starring jet li bridget fonda tch ky karyo burt kwouk directed by chris nahon rated r it's no secret that martial arts film often use their plot simply to get from one action sequence to another when the fight scenes are enough to justify paying admission there is no problem with this as in most jackie chan projects and a lot of the hong kong actioners when they aren't well we're in bad shape kiss of the dragon jet li's second consecutive american misfire plays like one big miscalculation and fails even as the most rudimentary entertainment now before i start getting angrily touting the genius of jet li let me explain myself li is as spectacular as ever here and i don't think anyone would ever dare call his skills into question the problem isn't with him it's with the movie's tone the much touted here are filmed with such unflinching unrelenting brutality that they are unpleasant to watch they're joyless perfuctory li's rogue chinese detective is more of a killing machine than a hero a terminator with a black belt instead of a metal skeleton but even the terminator in judgement day had a sympathetic side the plot isn't relevant but if you're curious it's some nonsense about a chinese law enforcement officer li sent to paris to investigate a possible drug ring and encounter a corrupt chief of police tcheky karyo who kills people and does sinister things with no motivation whatsoever oh yeah and li's character is also an acupuncture expert who is able to ease pain kill at the touch of a needle kiss of the dragon is the name of an acupuncture maneuver in which you stick a needle in a precise location on the back of the victim's neck somehow redirecting all of the body's bloodflow to the brain and killing the poor sap more or less immediately there's a vague attempt to humanize li by having him fall in love with a downtrodden prostitute whose daughter is being held hostage for some reason by the villain this is one of the worst love stories i have ever seen on screen even worse than the one in pearl harbor there's no conviction whatsoever as the movie barely pays lip service to it it's only here because someone apparently thought there should be some kind of subplot kiss of the dragon was written by luc besson whose screenplay the messenger the story of joan of arc for all of that film's flaws was at least thoughtful i don't know why the guy got himself involved in this train wreck but perhaps he wanted to so something more mainstream after the neverending weirdness of the fifth element and the aforementioned stylized biopic i suppose you could call this mainstream but i'll choose the bizarre any time of the day if action scenes in a movie are going to be brutal instead of dazzling you need a story to justify watching them the filmmakers behind kiss of the dragon should have rethought their strategy no one will walk out of this misbegotten project smiling but i hear rush hour is coming in just a few weeks
negative	the rich legacy of cinema has left us with certain indelible images the tinkling christmas tree bell in it's a wonderful life bogie's speech at the airport in casablanca little elliott's flying bicycle silhouetted by the moon in e t and now starship troopers director paul verhoeven adds one more image that will live in our memories forever doogie houser doing a vulcan mind meld with a giant slug starship troopers loosely based on the robert heinlein novel is the story of an interstellar war between humans and giant insects in the hands of verhoeven the mammoth battle flick is one of the most astonishingly bad films ever made a monument to inept filmmaking on a colossal scale to put it simply it's a bug bomb in robocop and total recall verhoeven displayed a gift for creating an entertaining mix of violence special effects and social satire and starship troopers starts off in similar fashion with a futuristic military recruitment ad that shows promise things go downhill fast though as we meet our heroes a group of buenos aires teens preparing to graduate from high school inexplicably johnny rico carmen ibenez dizzy flores and xander barcalow are played by anglo kids who look like they just stepped out of a mountain dew commercial it's a veritable alpha centuri as we watch the teens squabble in the name of love michael ironside plays their teacher who waves around a cheesy fake severed arm while lecturing about civic responsibilities eventually the kids join the military with dreams of glory in their addled little minds one of their classmates carl jenkins doogie houser's neil patrick harris snags a job in military intelligence because of his strong psychic abilities he displays his gift by psychically ordering a pet ferret to crawl up his mother's leg a long dull boot camp sequence follows enlivened only by an extended coed shower scene where the recruits swap snappy banter as the showgirls director's camera roams over their buff bodies finally a full hour into the film the war finally starts and we meet the enemy the bugs hail from klendathu and colonize planets by hurling their spores into space they attack starships by spinning around and firing deadly plasma blasts from their rears yes incredible as it seems the bugs actually kill with cosmic farts a phenomenally large amount of money was spent creating the computer animated insects and the results are mixed at best sweeping distant shots depicting hordes of giant bugs racing to attack are both impressive and scary but the are a different matter the insects have an odd artificial look like origami creations with a mottled plastic coating the attack scenes are intensely violent as one would expect from verhoeven but the overall look is too phony to generate any real tension while the action is frantic the military strategy wildly illogical even by hollywood standards grows tiresome quickly verhoeven tries to spice things up by throwing in more satiric news coverage but the scenes of children doing their part for the war effort by squishing roaches on a sidewalk aren't enough to make up for the long stretches of sheer dreck one can only guess what paul verhoeven was trying to do here his customary one part satire two parts formula is way out of whack and most of the film just flounders in showgirls fashion some scenes are almost bad enough to be good an intergalactic kegger party with jake busey playing dixie on a green plexiglas fiddle has a certain bizarre appeal a sex scene between two of the teens achieves a smarmy charm enhanced a few minutes later when the female receives a fatal jab from a bug but tells her hero that she doesn't mind dying it's okay she gasps i got to have you and then of course there's doogie's mind meld with a bug it's possible that verhoeven was attempting to create an homage to the era of the original novel heinlein's stranger in a strange land books were aimed at adolescent males and starship troopers has the antiseptic look of late the one cityscape shown is a gleaming metropolis with flying cars whizzing past an obvious matte painting the hairstyles are retro too straight from the frankie avalon annette funicello school of fashion ultimately verhoeven's motives are irrelevant he has produce a gargantuan film that fails as an action film or as a social satire it even fails to be an entertaining bad movie avoid starship troopers at all costs
negative	tim robbins and martin lawernce team up in this road movie comedy robbins plays an exec who discovers his wife having sex with his boss he goes into depression and drives around his neighbourhood until he arrives inside the usual side of every american city there lawernce attempts to steal his car but to no avail and is dragged along with robbin's on a trip to arizona there they hold up a store are mistaken for two other robbers just like in my cousin vinny and are chased by the police and the other robbers of course there's gags along the way usually from lawernce although the film is midly funny and quite watchable there's something so horribly familiar about it all this film should really be called beverly hills midnight run there's lawernce with his wisecracking and heavy profanity just like eddie murphy in beverly hills cop and pratically the same idea as midnight run it's full of all the road movie cliches and even has a car chase which just seemed so eighties even the credit sequence seemed to be out of a steve martin or chevy chase eighties comedy there also isn't much chemistry between robbins and lawernce in planes trains and automobiles there was real chemistry between steve martin and john candy in nothing to lose there is hardly chemistry at all towards the end the chemistry seems to work but for the bulk of the film there is hardly any the director directs the film in a workman like fashion but gets the jokes across and although there is no chemistry between the two leads they give good performances on their own lawerence gives a good eddie murphy performance and robbin's is alright aswell however robbin's performance is nowhere near as good as the characters he played in jacob's ladder and the player in fact if you want to see robbin's do comedy much better than in nothing to lose i suggest you rent out the hudsucker proxy where he is much funnier nothing to lose does have some funny moments in it however the humour isn't particulary sophisticated but if you enojyed dumb dumber you might enjoy this the characters in arizona are funny and there's also a good scene where robbin's asks a shopkeeper which approach' was better lawerences which consisted of lawerence threatening to shoot the shopkeeper's ass and swearing a lot or himselfs which was speaking in a deep scary voice but the gags are predictable the lack of chemistry infurating and the ending too and nothing to lose then is robbin's first movie and hopefully his last and suggests that odereick should twice before making another film he nearly ruined carrey's career with ace ventura when nature calls let's hope he hasn't ruined robbin's or even lawerence's with nothing to lose
negative	capsule not as bad a sequel as crow or batman robin but still horribly putrid cheesy and this one belongs in saturday morning cartoons extended review you know about halfway through this movie i realized that if you hacked out everything except the fight scenes you'd have a damn fine minutes or so of flashy hong kong style martial arts beautifully choreographed by robin shou who also plays liu kang the fight scenes are both and graceful acrobatic enough to make olympic gymnasts weep this is what made the original so fun but unfortunately for the sequel we are without the frenetic directorial style of paul anderson instead they got john r leonetti the cinematographer for the original mortal kombat not a good choice while the fight scenes are brutal and the rest of the movie looks like standard made for tv fare the acting is which i could endure if it were not for a the director's style b the special effects c the treatment of the story and characters a mr leonetti should go back to lighting in my opinion i could say dozens of bad things about him he way overuses he has no eye for action he can't get even mediocre performances out of actors and so on but by far his worst move was the way he treated jumping apparantly everybody can now fly hell i'm all for the occaisional gravity defying flip kick and whatnot but not when it happens every few minutes and is done so poorly better jumping and acrobatics has been seen in xena warrior princess in short they should have gotten paul anderson back or at least let robin shou direct b unlike the first one whose sfx were vibrant and somewhat realistic mk a's special effects are bland fake looking and overall just plain bad i counted at least half a dozen times that was painfully obvious had this movie been made in the it would have been but in today's industry it doesn't even look finished c now for the bad parts i admit i'm an avid fan of the mortal kombat series the games are amusing diversions an easy way to work off stress and anger the first movie was a mindlessly fun thrillride this could have been a really cool movie it isn't the writers apparantly deemed it necessary to lower the target audience from teens to preschoolers some of the plot elements are just plain stupid how stupid take for instance how our heroes move around they use giants spheres the roll around underground supposedly at thousands of miles per hour oh boy even worse is the treatment of secondary characters blink and you'll miss most characters had more depth in the video games if you thought batman robin was bad about this you ain't seen nothin' yet a good of the characters are introduced kick somebody around a bit then either die or are forgotten about there's no explanation at all for this and for the final blasphemy the fight that all the fans were waiting rabidly for the fight hyped to be the most intricate of the movie lasted about minutes and then just sort of ended it almost made me weep to sum it all up rent it on video and through everything except the fight scenes
negative	in the astronaut's wife charlize theron plays a young woman with a nervous demeanor and demon spawn unwittingly growing in her belly if only her name wasn't jillian the makers of this embarrassing bit of shlock could have come up with a far more appropriate title rosemary's species what a shame it is to see such a gifted actress as theron in the devil's advocate struggle with the lamest of a screendom classic in recent memory ok maybe the astronaut's wife deviates from rosemary's baby turf for its which finds our heroine terrorized not by satan's minions but her possessed husband johnny depp a shuttle pilot whose mission mishap leaves him um a changed man predictably he and the missus get it on in a sequence best described as unpleasant his evil seed impregnating her with twins and realizing that great bowfinger line about alien love theron's advocate character faced a similar dilemma the horror there resonating strongly astronaut provides only artificial anxiety last year's equally species ii spun a similar premise about the breeding habits of an extraterrestrial on earth but at least that movie more or less knew it was garbage the astronaut's wife is grave and passing its increasingly silly story off as serious right down to an ambiguous finale that isn't even going to satisfy those who've stayed with it thus far here's a hint it involves lots of water electrical equipment a special effect from the abyss and the tots who doubled up as adam sandler's in big daddy draw your own conclusions rand ravich coats the proceedings in dynamic sights masterminded by legendary e t cinematographer allen daviau but too often favors the film's visual presentation over the story he's trying to tell this bodes horribly for each dramatic development like the surfacing of a suspicious nasa official speed joe morton to instigate jill's slow and stupid comprehension of the truth his behavior is probably supposed to give wife a paranoid edge instead he adds to the phoniness theron and depp are certainly beyond this junk and will get other chances to prove themselves this fall she as part of an imposing ensemble case in the john irving adaptation cider house rules he in the lead of tim burton's sleepy hollow undeserving of such talent the astronaut's wife manages to be derivative dull and uninvolving despite its seemingly ripe potential for unintentional laughs in space no one can hear you scream but in a movie theatre everyone can hear you snore
negative	for a good ten years or so super cool chow yun fat has enjoyed god hood status in the hong kong action scene now he has followed in the footsteps of director john woo who launched chow's super stardom in the acclaimed better tomorrow' by moving to hollywood i had some reservations about this move and it would seem i was right to have them chow plays a hitman who is doing jobs in order to repay a debt his final job requires him to kill a policeman's seven year old boy this he refuses do and runs however he is forced into a violent confrontation when his family are threatned and replacement killers are brought in to do the job cue around minutes of various and quite frankly tedious outs which take place in various locations some thought had gone into making them a bit different but unfortunately they end up being just plain boring the car wash scene i found myself laughing at how stupid it looked tut tut the emphasis during the constant action seemed to be on the accompanying music i could have sworn one piece was ripped out of a bruckheimer movie and not on the content mia sorvino a passport forger is dragged into the affay and also provides a lame love interest as well as being rather handy with a gun director antoine arqua has clearly not observed chow's excellent acting capabilties and simply requires him to mutter a few lines of broken english and look flash as he stands and shoots chow's trademark of twin pistol shooting is saved for the finale which in fairness is quite good and there's not even a toothpick in site and as for making chow shoot like a cop well that's damned unforgiveable to round up the replacement killers is a pretty darned lame first outing for chow it would appear he has left asia for a minute pop video this is not what we wanted at all considering john woo was the exec producer did he have no say so at all watch killer' again and weep at the difference review by chris hill there's room at the top they are telling you still but first you must learn how to smile as you kill if you want to be like the folks on the hill
negative	libby parsons ashley judd has the perfect little life a rich husband a cute son and a house on the ocean but when her husband nick bruce greenwood takes her sailing she awakes to find him gone and her hands covered with blood just as she makes it to the deck and picks up the bloody knife lying there the coast guard arrives in response to a distress call her vanished husband sent she's convicted of his murder of course and leaves her son matty benjamin weir with her best friend annabeth gish time passes and the friend disappears with matty during their last phone conversation libby hears matty yell daddy and realizes that her husband is still alive libby serves six years growing harder and driven by the desire to kill nick based on the theory that because of the double jeopardy amendment she can off him with impunity when she gets parole she's sent to a halfway house run by travis lehman tommy lee jones a former law professor who ruined his life with a drunk driving accident after a little breaking and entering and some destruction of property libby jumps parole and lams it across the country looking for nick and matty travis pursues naturally double jeopardy is a version of the fugitive with jones through his pursuer persona although libby never leaps from a bus that collides with a train she manages to get into a few chased down the beach by a jeep chained to a car that plunges into the ocean sealed in a coffin that add some much needed thrills to an anemic script character development is thin travis' intriguing backstory is mentioned a couple times but has no effect on the story i think they only made him a former law professor so that he could verify the theory when libby gets the drop on nick it's a long way to go for one line there's considerable sexual tension between travis and libby hey there's something the fugitive didn't have but it never goes anywhere libby is a everywoman but judd's intense performance draws us in and makes us forget that her character has no distinguishing characteristics this is judd's most prominent role to date and she proves that she can light up the screen let's hope hollywood gives her more to work with next time around the quality of director bruce beresford's movies seems to depend on luck when he has a good script and a strong cast he turns out work like morant driving miss daisy and tender mercies when he doesn't   we get double jeopardy screenwriters david weisberg and douglas cook previously collaborated on the rock a script which probably benefited from the numerous uncredited rewrites bottom line ashley judd tries hard but can't save this predictable bore
negative	as far as mystery men is concerned the burning question is less is it really as bad as it looks from the trailer the answer there is an unequivocal yes and more how in the name of sweet jesus did director kinka usher get such a cast to act in this muck mystery men features greg kinnear as the captain amazing and geoffrey rush as his arch nemesis singular casanova frankenstein a veritable police lineup of hot hollywood talent plays the superhero wannabes of the title who join forces to get c amazing out of a tight spot when c frankenstein puts the screws on champion city there's william h macy as the shoveler hank azaria as the blue raja no knives but a phony english accent that's just as sharp ben stiller as mr furious whose only power seems to be his ability to get hot under the collar janeane garofalo as a crazed bowler with her father's skull interestingly preserved wes studi as a cowled avenger and kel mitchell as the token and adding insult to injury invisible black guy bringing up the rear so to speak is paul reubens yes that's pee wee herman paul reubens as well let's just call him the gas man the production design is overblown the special effects are overdone and the script based on bob burden's dark horse comic book series is overbaked the appealing actors are uniformly good and stiller is even stellar but they can't begin to save mystery men just one big mess you're better off renting the video and pressing to get to the funny bits i believe i counted three
negative	the swirling sick feeling hit me just a few minutes into heartbreakers ray liotta's character was making out with his secretary when his new wife knocked on the door of his office while scrambling to collect himself he frantically shouted to her just wait a sex er i mean sec i was struck by a wave of revulsion thinking geez didn't lines like that die when company' was canceled over the next few minutes as the barely double entendres and lingering cleavage shots grew more numerous i realized that the mindset behind heartbreakers predated three's company suddenly i had an experience as my internal machine swept me to the all across america the was growing like wildfire but there was scant evidence of it on tv while young people were challenging traditional values on the streets frustrated teenagers like me were stuck at home sulking while our parents enjoyed the latest bob hope special women in skimpy bathing suits would prance onscreen while hope made growling noises and leered at their breasts on another channel dean martin made wisecracks about booze and broads and peter lawford decked out in love beads and a nehru jacket purred suggestive as he ogled the dancers the adults laughed and laughed heartbreakers reeks of that stagnant mentality from its lingering shots of jennifer love hewitt's breasts to its leaden screenplay which paints women as haughty schemers and men as drooling buffoons too to realize they are being manipulated in addition to liotta and hewitt the cast includes sigourney weaver gene hackman jason lee nora dunn and anne bancroft i can't imagine what drew performers of their caliber to this project perhaps they thought it was a parody of the sniggering sex comedies of the if so they were sadly mistaken the story revolves around a it opens with the marriage of max weaver to dean liotta a new jersey chop shop operator having withheld sex until the honeymoon max pretends to pass out on their wedding night the next morning she feigns illness sending a very horny dean off to the office where he ends up in the arms of his new secretary just as the two are about to get overtly physical max bursts into the room and catches them the horrified bride dissolves the union garnering a healthy cash settlement along the way of course the secretary was really her daughter page hewitt and the whole thing was a the women move on but an irs agent bancroft catches up with them and demands a huge amount of money to cover unpaid taxes in desperate need of funds max and page head for palm beach to replay the scam their mark this time is william b tensy hackman in hideous a decrepit tobacco tycoon obsessed with the joys of smoking max starts to put the game into action but page is so repelled by the old man and angry with her mom that she slips off to enact her own score targeting jack a laid back young beach bar owner who is worth a fortune complications arise when page realizes that jack is stirring actual emotions in her steely little heart as if that wasn't enough dean reappears on the scene with revenge on his mind the attempt to weld a romance onto a caper comedy served only to remind me of the infinitely superior a fish called wanda i won't bother to compare the two suffice to say that everything done right in wanda is done wrong here heartbreakers is soulless inept and at minutes at least a too long sigourney weaver and jennifer love hewitt throw themselves into their parts but have nowhere to go with the metallic characters gene hackman is utterly wasted in a part that has him doing nothing but smoking coughing and waxing rhapsodic about smoking and sex poor jason lee is stuck in the ingenue role and the normally charismatic actor comes off as merely bland ray liotta manages to squeeze a tiny bit of humanity and humor into his walking clich but only a bit the low point in the film has weaver employing a russian accent bad enough to make boris and natasha wince while doing slapstick with a broken off penis from a statue bear in mind though that this is merely the worst segment of a movie made up of nothing but low points if you remember bob hope specials with fondness this might be your cup of tea as for me i'm going to watch a fish called wanda now and try to forget i ever saw heartbreakers
negative	american pie alums jason biggs and mena suvari star in this summer's attempt to capitalize on the youth market looking for a comedy about young people they can relate to that combines generic hollywood cute and zany comedy it's about an student biggs as paul who gets a scholarship to some college in new york city who sticks out like a sore thumb and falls for dora suvari a ditzy goth chick who has no ambition or whatsoever and allows herself to be pushed around just like paul is so we've got a formula mixed with romantic comedy which ideally should make for a good movie unfortunately the atrocious screenplay and boring direction by clueless auteur amy heckerling successfully manages to screw up everything about the film these characters are totally unrealistic and unbelievable it's as if everyone under age is a stoned raver there's no background or details to anyone or anything it's just a bunch of cartoon characters running into each other not to mention the story itself which is virtually and contains so many plotholes it's like swiss cheese even the basic editing is bad if you're looking for a romantic comedy stay far away from this one because it is neither romantic nor funny i saw this in a packed cinema on opening night and the audience barely laughed at all if you've seen the commericials you've seen all the funny parts which are all from the first five minutes
negative	last summer a version of the avengers hit theaters to the tune of a unanimous critical panning based on the famous television show the film was an enormous flop and a huge disappointment for warner bros a year later the studio is up to their old tricks again with the unnecessary revival of the robert conrad program the wild wild west but it sounded promising the same of star will smith and director barry sonnenfeld who both contributed to make men in black such a financial success is at the reins again and kevin kline is attached to the project as well as a substantial budget to spice up the special effects i mean what could possibly go wrong the answer is just about everything wild wild west is a cinematic abomination a film that was so entirely pointless to begin with that it is never given a proper chance to get out of the gate there are a lot of fancy special effects and a handful of distinguished actors who try desperately to tunnel through the inane plot and make a lasting impression but the script is so deliriously uneven the entire movie so off course that no human being or technical achievement has a chance to salvage it at square one we have a bizarre case of casting will smith plays james west a renegade cowboy who was originally played by white actor robert conrad in the tv series my guess regarding the casting of smith is a simple one the actor a cozy summertime release big bucks for all those involved smith is a very talented performer who usually brings swift assurance to any comic relief material but this is not an ideal role for him he's too much of a joker i heard that initial casting included george clooney in the lead role and frankly that sounds a lot more plausible what makes matters worse is that smith goes through the role with such in his eyes you can practically sense his contentment with the fact that he knows wild wild west will be a huge hit at the summer box office the plot involves west and government agent artemus gordon kevin kline who are assigned by the president to recover a group of kidnapped scientists the trail leads to the diabolical dr arliss loveless kenneth branagh a man with no lower body who speaks in a dry witty southern accent loveless has taken the country's top technical minds hostage so that they can assist in his deranged plan of total government control using lethal superweapons to destroy entire towns one such weapon is an mechanical tarantula bearing eight spindly legs of thrashing metal and spewing enormous fireballs left and right the visual effects that bring this metallic bug to life are spectacular seamlessly blending imagery with the western surroundings unfortunately all of these effects seem so detached from the story and can do little to support the film's plot deficiencies which are undoubtedly the main problem wild wild west is a running gag that never truly works most of the jokes usually care of smith die on arrival if it's one thing that could possibly be the saving grace it's the performances and even they are mostly and poorly delivered kline is admirable but he has little to do but invent silly devices on the spot salma hayek is wasted as the romantic interest because she is viewed as little more than that window dressing to look pretty and create conflict between west and gordon branagh an esteemed shakespearean actor and director adds marginal enjoyment to the film but even he is so utterly weird and rarely is a film so lost in itself as wild wild west is i suppose there's always one turkey of the summer season a highly anticipated release that manages to completely disappoint wild wild west is such a movie and will probably go down as one of the biggest disappointments of but it is highly unlikely that this will go down in defeat at the box office perhaps after this audiences will be less assured when they see will smith's name stamped on a summer movie after such hits as independence day and mib wild wild west is not an impressive addition to the resume
negative	at the outset of swordfish john travolta's gabriel shear is pontificating about the status of american cinema today basically he says it boils down to a lack of imagination among the majority of writers how ironic as travolta seems to be describing his latest venture swordfish is loud violent and amoral it has the audacity to justify murder and mayhem in the name of sustaining our way of life and how does travolta's gabriel plan to do this by robbing billions from his own government and using the funds to terrorists swordfish is a very cynical movie it relies on an audience's perception of our leaders as ineffectual and duplicitous and on terrorists as faceless entities not worthy of compassion or consideration the movie's plot is preposterous with enough illogical leaps that if the film ever slowed down you'd actually see how ridiculous it all is this is a road runner cartoon moving so quickly that it's over before you can catch your breath to ask any reasonable questions the storyline revolves around super hacker stanley jobson hugh jackman recruited by gabriel to crack the government's computer codes so gabriel can gather billions for his campaign talk about patriotism my objections to swordfish are many the body count is high but that is expected in a movie of this sort it's becoming a bore watching anonymous soldiers police officers and government agents blown to bits another example is the family dynamics between stanley his daughter and his stanley though having served time in prison for hacking is shown as a loving and caring father forbidden by his ex to see his little girl audience animosity is immediately created for his former spouse by showing her as a drinker and smoker who also sometimes stars in her new husband's adult films thus when she is found murdered late in the movie neither stanley nor his daughter are allowed any time to grieve in fact subconsciously many in the audience are probably glad she was killed then there is the sequence involving one of gabriel's henchman holding a gun to the head of stanley's daughter to coerce the hacker to download the key computer program for gabriel children as pawns have become a most unwelcome clich in recent films there is enough violence in the real world involving children without having to make them victims as well yea it's only make believe but that doesn't mean you have to tolerate it travolta is cool deadly charming and flamboyant as the gabriel his character is reminiscent of his villainous characterizations in broken arrow and jackman looks dour through most of the proceedings his only moment of any depth comes when he finally is able to create the worm to get inside the government database his sense of joy and accomplishment is one any computer whiz can appreciate halle berry is decorative and lovely as gabriel's assistant while don cheadle is given little to do as the head fbi agent hunting gabriel swordfish plays like a comic book with a character in gabriel viewers align themselves with him despite their uncertainty if he is hero or villain and maybe that is the movie's underlying flaw there is no real hero to speak of only those doing their upmost to survive and that is not enough this is one swordfish that should have been thrown back in the water
negative	it's probably inevitable that the popular virtual reality genre the matrix existenz would collide with the even more popular genre kiss the girls the result should have been more interesting than the cell as the movie opens therapist catharine deane jennifer lopez treats a catatonic boy colton james by entering his mind through some sort of virtual reality technique that's never fully explained after months of therapy sessions in a surreal desert catharine has no success to report meanwhile killer carl stargher vincent d'onofrio has claimed another victim his particular hobby is to kidnap young women keep them in a glass cell overnight and drown them he takes the corpse and soaks it in bleach then suspends himself over the body and jerks off while watching a video tape of the drowning although carl's been doing this for awhile he's recently become sloppy and fbi agent peter novak vince vaughn is closing in fast not fast enough though to keep carl from sticking another woman tara subkoff in the cell or to catch him before he suffers a schizophrenic attack that leaves him in a coma from the videos in carl's house peter can see that the drowning cell is automated and will fill with water forty hours after the abduction to save the kidnapped girl peter has to find the cell before the end of the day and comatose carl's not talking so off they go to catharine in the hope that she can go inside carl's mind and find out where the cell is in time the focus of the cell in on the ornate interior of carl's mind but the universe director tarsem singh creates seems more an exercise in spectacle than an exploration of the psychotic personality for the most part it's style without substance in his own mind carl is a decadent emperor in flowing robes ming the merciless as well as a frightened boy jake thomas abused by his father all in all the mind of a psycho killer turns out to be a strangely dull place and i kept wishing i could to the next development singh is best known for directing music videos particularly rem's losing my religion and the cell seems very much like a really long really slow mtv video with the sound deleted singer lopez seems to think she's in a video as well she devotes more time to posing in elaborate costumes than she does to acting the premise had great promise the world within carl's mind could have been a bizarre surreal universe governed by insanity and symbolism rather than logic the first room catharine enters in carl's head shows this promise she finds a horse standing in center of the room suddenly sheets of glass fall into the horse dividing it into segments the panes of glass separate pulling apart the pieces of the horse this scene is twisted disturbing and because the psychological importance of the horse and its fate is left to the viewer to ponder another element that should have been developed is the effect on catharine of merging with the mind of a psychopath their minds begin to bleed together at one point in the movie and this should have provided an opportunity to discover the dark corners of catharine's own psyche like sidney lumet's the offence or michael mann's manhunter the cell could have explored how the madness of the killer brings out a repressed darkness in the investigator however catharine's character is hardly developed at all and lopez has no depth to offer the role bottom line don't get trapped in this one
negative	synopsis an aging master art thief his supplier and a young buxom security consultant are all not who they first appear to be or are they in this convoluted mess involving a risky heist during the millennium comments this movie was boring plain and simple entrapment should not have been boring it stars sean connery who can still carry an action film despite his age catherine a likeable enough film presence and ving rhames star of pulp fiction and mission impossible it takes full advantage of the computer bug fears a current hot topic in the news in its storyline which is set at the end of it has some genuinely action sequences so what went wrong plenty unfortunately the major problem with entrapment is its script it has a feel to it nothing seems particularly inventive or original so the whole movie lacks suspense and drags it runs nearly two hours the screenwriters for example periodically use a countdown to the millennium as a means of transition between scenes i e days to the millennium this device was used much more effectively in the overlooked film strange days the characters are not who they appear to be at the beginning which is neat at first but the device wears thin once the umpteenth surprise revelation is made entrapment in other words relies too heavily on the audience not knowing what each character's true motive is resulting in a convoluted story which leaves many scratching their heads in confusion the star power here is quite strong but the viewer can't help but feel the actors are wasted in this production sean connery is given such lines as never trust a naked woman ving rhames' character seems like an afterthought he's not developed at all the camera zooms in frequently and leeringly at catherine tight wardrobe this in and of itself is not bad but after a while it has a juvenile feel to it at least the species movies hold no bones about the fact that they're exploiting the female body entrapment does the same under the thin disguise of plot development sean connery supposedly falls in love with the girl while watching her in tights arc and pivot around laser beams the tagline for this movie reads the trap is set it sure is on those who spent money to see this movie entrapment really isn't that bad it is watchable i would suggest however one waits until this is on cable or television to see it
negative	the first image in final fantasy the spirits within is a of a human eye it's a beautiful piece of work remarkably detailed and quite convincing when the picture pulls back to reveal the owner of the eye however things change the young woman has mesmerizing hair although it hangs too artfully even by movie standards to be believed the facial features are more detailed than any seen to date but the result is more reminiscent of a very doll than anything human she is pretty but bland and not nearly expressive enough to come off like a person all the characters in final fantasy are like that of the core group the younger white men and women are all athletic attractive and indistinct like applicants for a tv reality show the black man is taller and burlier and the aging scholar is bald with wrinkles and a beard none of them appear to be based on individuals they all look like the products of general descriptions given a police sketch artist it gets worse when they talk and move why is the sarcastic voice of steve buscemi he of the great twisted face and snaggleteeth coming out of the mouth of some dreary ken doll why for every fluid physical gesture do we also see motions more to the point who decided a computer animated movie featuring hyperreal their term not mine humanoids was a good idea final fantasy is based on a phenomenally popular video game i've never played with a story straight out of japanese anime which more often than not leaves me bored and depressed if you're a fan of either please spare me your letters as i will focus solely on the finished film and not its source materials with an cast final fantasy mixes turgid action scenes with heaps of mystical shit the result is ugly confusing and boring note the following reveals the basic plot if you want to have a fighting chance of making any sense of the movie i suggest you read it earth is at war with aliens that appear to feed on human souls most of our planet is devastated with humans living in a few protected cities while the bulk of the survivors focus on military strategies aki ross voiced by and her mentor dr sid donald sutherland believe in a more organic approach they operate on the notion quoting straight from the press kit that all life forms have signature spirit waves that can be identified and contained aki and dr sid collect a series of organic specimens whose spirit signatures combined will form a wave of equal and opposite intensity to the spirit wave of the alien force the waves will in effect cancel each other out and disarm the foreign contagion they have collected six of the eight key spirits needed to complete their wave they are on a desperate hunt to find the remaining two spirits before their time runs out are you still with me there's only a little more aki is infected with the alien force dr sid has developed a method of confining the contagion and keeping it from killing her but the defense wall won't hold much longer already the alien is communicating with aki through her dreams aiding aki and dr sid are the deep eyes a group of types that would have felt at home with the troops in aliens capt gray edwards alec baldwin heads the task force that consists of a wise guy buscemi a tough woman peri gilpin and a gentle giant ving rhames throwing a monkey wrench into the plans is the requisite dumb ass in this case general hein james woods who wants to use the zeus cannon to bomb the aliens back to the stone age even if it destroys earth as well so there you have it like most of the anime i've seen the plot combines apocalyptic settings lots of shooting and fuzzy spirituality all wrapped up in a bow but i'm bored with apocalyptic settings i understand why so many films employ them they're cheap but animated films can show anything so why wallow in an industrial trash heap the action scenes and don't satisfy either the humans move oddly and their facial features are so muted that the talented voice cast can't bring them to life in fact their efforts merely emphasize what we're missing aki is especially disappointing with her lack of expression and flat delivery she looks and sound like a brunet version of weena the eloi girl from the time machine drab color choices and aliens that appear to have been created in molds sap the pizzazz from the big set pieces students of computer animation may be fascinated with the technology behind final fantasy the spirits within but i found it across the board futurama does more effective battle visuals the kids in south park are far more expressive than these mannequins and any old episode of the contemporary version of the outer limits does better doom and gloom so who needs this not me
negative	plot token director alan smithee steals the only copy of his film trio from the studio after they complete the final cut without him he threatens to burn the film reel if they do not allow him to keep his vision critique wow i really can't remember the last time a movie sucked on so many levels the comedy in this film is pathetic obvious and dated oj simpson jokes galore the plot is uninteresting boring and bad the structure of the film is annoying repetitive and pretentious the acting is pretty bad especially jackie chan who can't act to save his life the cameos are lame and seem forced and the ending blows chunks all in all this movie believes itself to be a clever humorous and edgy look behind the closed doors of hollywood but comes across as a boring stupid and completely unentertaining piece of shite i love to see movies about hollywood shenanigans but this one bites the big one see it if you like to watch really bad movies otherwise skip it because it will just have you hating every star that makes an appearance in it luckily for us all this mess only lasts about minutes and miramax honcho harvey weinstein plays a detective by the way is there any reason why the studio or the producer couldn't have cut another version of the film by the way of all the filmed stock that was left over who knows who cares this satire sucks the bag little known facts about this film and its stars ironically the original director of this film arthur hiller also requested his name be taken off the credits and replaced by the dga's alan smithee moniker this was after the film's production company cinergi pictures preferred the cut made by joe eszterhas to his the original script of this film included arnold schwarzenegger and bruce willis eszterhas announced through the media during that cinergi pictures didn't have the money to pay for soundtrack he said that he would finance the soundtrack from his own money and asked to submit tracks for it to him he received cds and cassettes from mostly unknown and unsigned artists listened to all that was sent at least a couple of tracks from each record and compiled the soundtrack this film practically swept the razzie awards in given out to the worst of all movie categories of the year with no less than the worst picture award the worst screenplay joe eszterhas the worst supporting actor joe eszterhas the worst new star joe eszterhas tied with jerry springer and the worst original song i wanna be mike ovitz as written by joe eszterhas
negative	plot a rich guy who doesn't believe in love orders a bride for himself that very evening the couple is married and fall madly in love soon thereafter but what's this one of them might not be the person they are pretending to be wow a sin indeed critique easily one of the worst movies that i've seen all year too long too boring too predictable and too ridiculous for anyone interested in watching a good movie what the hell were they thinking when they made this thing it's no wonder that the film has been sitting on the racks for about a year this felt like a really bad tv movie of the week with some nudity stuffed in from time to time just to wake up the audience have you ever switched channels and fallen upon one of those ridiculously melodramatic tv movies one that you just couldn't help but switch back to from time to time just to make sure that it wasn't part of some sick joke well this movie is exactly like that only it isn't a joke it isn't on tv and you are asked to pay money to see it i say again what the shite were they thinking okay so where do i start first of all the trailer of this film gives away the movie's main plot twist the betrayal so for the first half hour of the film you're basically just sitting there watching these two lovers go through the motions until the betrayal occurs whoopee big surprise second of all angelina jolie is horribly miscast in this part why well it's like this not for one second do you ever believe that she is not a nasty backstabbing woman i mean it's like all of those people who complained about jack nicholson being psycho from the start of the shining well the same goes here every look in jolie's eyes screams psycho then of course you have the case of the patsy husband a man who just can't seem to figure out anything in time i mean how boring is that for the audience you're watching this guy screw up time after time after time and somehow we're supposed to feel sorry or care about this dude no thanks and if we don't care about him and we really don't care about her she's a beeyatch and as confused as we are about her actual motivations in the film who the hell are we supposed to care about in this film well i'll tell you the only thing that i was worrying about the whole way through this picture was whether or not i'd actually fall asleep before the end credits rolled no suspense no chemistry between the leads no real love or passion no sense of surprise plenty of plot holes for everyone and an extra moronic ending so why am i even giving this film a rating of three points well it's actually pretty simple i liked the locations in the movie and the groovy score but my primary reason for slipping three notches onto this bedpost is for the gratuitous shots of jolie's boobies that's two points right there and another one for antonio's ass hairless just for the record everything else in this movie was pointless boring and just plain stupid try imagining a movie but without the plot that's pretty much what you've got here a low point in the careers of both stars oops i almost forgot to mention the crappy dialogue god oh mighty make it stop where's joblo coming from american psycho cruel intentions eyes wide shut fatal attraction playing by heart under suspicion what lies beneath what women want whipped
negative	not a great twelve months for either of the principals from this movie earlier this year nora ephron wrote and produced one of the year's least likeable comedies called hanging up featuring a bunch of annoying women ironically lisa kudrow played one in that film as well who barely have time to care about anyone but themselves ick real sweet stuff but her little unsuccessful project was nothing compared to what john travolta went through earlier this summer with a film entitled battlefield earth i seemed to be the only person on this planet who somehow appreciated the film even if it was on a cheese factor as everybody and i mean everybody else pretty much classified the movie as one of the worst disasters of all time yipes another beauty so what happens when you put these two people in the same room and come out with a movie the lisa kudrow uhhhm you guessed it not much plot in order to escape major financial difficulties a local weatherman hooks up with his lotto girlfriend and rigs the state lottery but as more and more people find out about their scheme more and more people demand a part of their winnings and more and more problems arise critique simply stated i didn't laugh once during this entire picture for a comedy it offered me a few smiles a bunch of nincompoops as characters a miscast john travolta hamming it up and lisa kudrow in what can only described as a sluttier version of her character of phoebe on tv's friends this film was not as disastrous as i thought it would be but it was pretty close thankfully the clips of travolta dressed up in goofy outfits dancing as the weatherman were left in the film's trailer and not in this final cut and not unlike the worst movie of the year so far beautiful this film also managed to feature many unsympathetic idiotic and just plain irritating characters in its cast foremost was travolta's character who declined to give us any reason to care for him once in the entire movie and for me the casting choice of john travolta for this role was just plain wrong he didn't fit the part i just saw him in get shorty the other day and thought about how perfect he was for that role a cool calculating roughneck with a certain hip suave je ne sais quoi in this film he looks like he's trying to be funny trying to be bad trying to be good we're not supposed to be able to notice that and when we do at least in my case i consider it a wrong choice in casting add that to lisa kudrow boring us with yet another one of her patented dumb blonde routines but this time dressed in sexier outfits michael rapaport stretching one small acting muscle to play the guy who isn't quite up at the same speed level as everyone else and a truckload of empty comedic bullet shells and you've got yourself an extremely quiet audience anticipating punch lines that never quite materialize the only real good thing that i could say about this film is that its story was actually and never really bored me i also liked michael moore's perverted cousin character and i loved and i say it again loved the character that bill pullman played give this dude his own movie he played a lazy cop a man who tries everything not to do any real work he fakes injuries to get off duty tries to avoid arrest situations so that he won't have to fill out any forms now there's a base of humor sadly the filmmakers decided to bring him into play with only about half an hour left in the film and there's not much else i can say about this movie folks on the whole it was lame included a slew of unlikable characters fiddling around in a pool of unfunny lines and very little of interest for any target audience but get somebody to write up a movie featuring that lazy cop played by pullman and i'm there
negative	the stereotypical american male has an undeniable fetishistic love of sports cars producer jerry bruckheimer plays upon that attraction with a movie so loaded with testosterone and laced titillatingly with shot after frenetic shot of powerful muscle cars sleek foreign road huggers and iconic speed machines that many males will leave the theater in an orgasmic haze gone is seconds is an orgy of maleness gone horribly awry cage is legendary retired car thief memphis raines don't you love cute movie names who must call upon his time worn skills to save his brother ribisi from being killed seems a murderous crime boss eccleston with a fetish for wood insert your own joke hired brother kip to steal a ridiculous amount of expensive exotic autos fifty cars to be exact poor kip screws the pooch and bungles the job badly if the cars aren't delivered in three days bossman has a casket carved out just for kip literally if only someone could save him hmmmm wonder what memphis is doing in order to give the film some emotional heft there are several subplots designed to tug at our heartstrings or give us the thrill of yawn excuse me dramatic tension shadowing memphis is an old law enforcement foe lindo who's looking to send memphis away will he catch him there's old flame sway jolie who had her heart broken by memphis years ago will they get back together shortsighted thrill seeker kip idolizes his brother yet resents him for moving away from the family will they reconnect raines old mentor duvall has long since left the life of crime will memphis get him finally caught as he pulls him back into the life one more time can you answer all these questions correctly in seconds without seeing the film first i'll bet you can following the opening credits which fill you in on the accomplishments of the raines family through a montage of old photos we was taken full throttle into the splendor that is memphis he's first shown living the good life teaching young children to drive in a later scene as misfit brother kip knowingly tells memphis he has the stolen car situation under control all the while making breakfast a metaphor is made of shakespearean proportions just as a pan of grease flares up with kip clueless to how to quell it big brother memphis calmly and efficiently throws some salt on it looks like everything might turn out alright after all you know this because the music swells on the crest of violins that's about as strong as the characterization gets which is a shame bruckheimer has a real talent for loading his movies with an obscene amount of talent given the task at hand monumentally underused jolie portrays an empty headed sexpot whose idea of sex revolves around cars and memphis or maybe it's just the cars duvall trots out his ornery but sweet old codger outfit i'm sure he's still laughing at taking a paycheck for this one lindo projects a warm hearted but tightly focused detective that almost transcends the material the biggest waste of resources is vinnie jones who plays a mute accomplice of memphis without saying a word he is easily the most charismatic person in the movie like a blast of nitrous oxide he attacks each scene with a straightforward zeal too bad his minutes onscreen are so few somehow bruckheimer manages to attract top hollywood acting talent to high concept poorly written movies gussies up the film with lots of gold hues and pleasingly stylized action and they sell like proverbial hotcakes every time something clever happens it's counterbalanced by something so overtly wrong that it jerks you back into realizing you're watching a movie there's a innovative usage of black lighting that goes from being a novelty to a part of the plot it's counterbalanced by an extremely feeble attempt at humor by having an asian american repeatedly failing a driver's test imagine the yuks there's a segment where one of the thieves shows another his cool fake fingerprint trick it's countered by the lame of a car being stolen with a bunch of heroin in the trunk the ramifications are never explored then there's the ridiculousness of the many cops who actually shoot at fleeing cars not only is it stupid but it's against the law this is a movie made of pretty but tepid car chases strung together by just enough character interaction to move the plot along gone in seconds aptly describes how long it'll take for this marginally entertaining but empty film to leave your memory
negative	first and foremost i think this movie comes to grief at the hands of the pg rating it's been given for those of us who haven't read the james lee burke novel that heaven's prisoners is based on do not rabidly go out and buy tickets to movies featuring the combined talents of alec baldwin and eric roberts feel vaguely depressed by the notion of swamps gangsters with louisiana accents plots more plots and well really just want to see teri hatcher naked this is one movie you're going to worry the price of admission over hopeful still well let me share my moment of sheer panic and then the cold enervation of the big when a hatcher purrs to alec baldwin what do you think of my butterfly butterfly i asked myself what butterfly and then it hit me the scene had been snipped damn you godless pg rating show us her butterfly we want to see the goddamn butterfly so no naked teri hatcher forget about that okay now heaven's prisoners is about dave robicheaux alec baldwin who's trying to discover life anew running a bait shop and boat hire business with his loving wife annie kelly lynch everything dull but hunky dory until a plane carrying illegal immigrants crashes almost ontop of the couple while they're on their boat the plane nosedives into the water and sinks but from its wreckage robicheaux rescues a little salvadoran girl whom he and his wife immediately decide to adopt what they don't realise is that the plane's pilot was also a drug dealer and that the plane had been sabotaged by the latter's erstwhile colleagues when robicheaux discovers this he predictably against the advice of his wife a dea agent and two gangsters who rough him up begins his nose where it don't belong' we know that the man deserves all the misery he's going to get the question now is whether or not you want to be dragged along for the ride through a tedious meandering yet utterly suspenseless plot with an unlovable hero as your guide as dave robicheaux alec baldwin is fat no seriously this is not the svelte thinking man's hero of the hunt for red october it is an guy who doesn't look too good in a chasing scene he's also unconvincing in the movie's dramatic moments acting with what as far as i can tell is a steven economy of expression of the way through the show while you're probably waiting for the next scene in a bar where robicheaux contemplates succumbing to the temptation of the whiskey bottle getting drunk and beating up someone or getting beaten up you'll want to beat on him a little yourself on the other hand mary stuart masterson some kind of wonderful fried green tomatoes benny joon cast as a stripper who has her fingers broken is quite a breath of fresh air with just the right mix of cynicism warmth insecurity and humour to be the movie's only endearing character eric roberts as bubba rocque always believable as the bad guy who knows how to box see final analysis coincidentally also directed by phil joanou is believable here as the bad guy who knows how to box and lest we forget teri hatcher's role in all this this being her rather paid vacation from playing lois lane on tv's adventures of lois clark she is totally ridiculous as rocque's manipulative and seductive cajun wife coming across as devious as a mildly disgruntled au pair who's trying to get back at an employer who hasn't been giving her enough days off it's probably safe to say that her day job beckons and at the end of our day none of this is really worth hrs and minutes of our personal misery the flying inkpot's rating system wait for the video a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
negative	it's amazing how a comedian can have the some of the funniest around but completely fall flat in the movies take adam sandler on the basis of his first two cds they're all gonna laugh at you and what the hell happened to me he's the best thing to hit comedy since robin williams but when you put him in front of a camera it just isn't the same i kind of enjoyed happy gilmore and thought that it warranted a marginal recommendation but his latest film the waterboy is about as funny as a root canal seriously i'm willing to wager than there were more laughs in saving private ryan than there are here in fact i found this movie to be more depressing than comedic the first half hour generated not one smile in me with it's scenes of emotional abuse towards adam's character of bobby boucher not only by the cruel football players but also by his very disturbed mother kathy bates what is the world coming to granted after the film gets rolling there are a few mild chuckles throughout i'm even willing to admit that it actually had me laughing once or twice but not nearly enough to sustain the waterboy for it's nearly hour and a half running time you're all familiar with the plot because you've seen it at least a million times before everyone picks on the hero until he shows a hidden talent and leads the underdog team to victory over the champions in the process not only winning the respect of his teammates but also getting the woman he loves and believe me i'm not giving anything away by saying that sandler's team wins if you would actually feel any degree of suspense watching this movie then god be with you the only things that keep this bomb from getting the big banana are the winning performances from henry winkler as the insecure coach and the severely underrated fairuza balk as bobby's love interest i mean they should be lending their talents to some loftier purpose but they do extremely well with what they are given here kudos to both of them my advice to adam is to try and follow in the footsteps of veteran comedians like williams and steve martin who made a very smooth and successful transition from stage to screen rely more on actual comedy rather than strange voices and rude noises to make people laugh or maybe even show what dramatic talent he might have like jim carrey did with the recent truman show with the obvious and considerable talent that he possesses he just can't keep going on like this
negative	according to popular film opinion a film's greatness is determined by time take for example casablanca great film even today it's still as powerful as it was when it came out and still as romantic and tragic another example would be star wars which had a very very healthy box office gross despite the fact that we had all seen it about billion times before but as i rewatched independence day when it came out on video after being the number one hit of i kinda felt like it wasn't as cool as when i had first seen it i had liked it when i saw it the first time was my original view and basically saw it as a good escape film but when i rewatched it i felt cheated thus the curse of the event film independence day is like that kid who come out of nowhere and makes everybody happy at once except for a couple kids the critics in this situation but after a while this kid becomes annoying and you just wait for the next one well this kid is the event film in my little analogy and when i rewatched independence day not only did it not look cooler at all on the big screen but i felt insulted the whole time there are too many gaping craters in the plot and you just aren't sure if it's comedy or hokey drama one scene you'll see a hilariously nebbish scene between jeff goldblum and judd hirsch the next you'll see a bunch of military uptight guys walking around saying corny lines the worst is a scene between brent spiner and bill pullman where spiner is sayinig something innocently funny but is barked like a junkyard dog by bill pullman who gives him the most unitentionally funniest speech since the end of glen or glenda now this annoying kid's problem is that in the process of trying to make everyone like him all at once he shows he has no balls and independence day has no balls it plays it safe everywhere it throws in a ton of action that is borrowed from other superior films the chase scene between the alien ship and will smith is straight out of star wars i mean isn't that devil's den and the aliens are about as anticlimactic as demi moore's breasts in striptease they're these octopus men boring freaking octopus men i mean come on the aliens in were more interesting and you didn't even see them basically the plot is straight from a from the aliens come to earth and we wonder if they're hostile or peaceful okay it's an interesting topic but it's not handled greatly now they aren't and somehow a computer geek jeff goldblum figure out they're using our satellites as a countdown to destruction yep these aliens are not only heavily armed they're stupid too they also use the same kind of computer as we do but that comes about later the president bill pullman who's under attack for being a wimp decides this would be a nice time to be belligerent and he decides he'll stay in the white house which the aliens have covered i don't care if it's bob freaking dole in the white house get him out of there i don't care if you have to inject him with sodium pentathol just get him out of there later on he's stupid and wants to fly in the attack on a big alien ship i think it's time for impeachment for this guy he's more senile than reagan on pot then there's a cocky pilot will smith who is the only person to survive the on the second day and becomes moses in leading his children to the elusive area the film's only sign of being brave his girlfriend's a stripper sharing a subplot with striptease in that she has to do it for her son come on she has a fighter pilot fiance i think she can quit that job and get a more respectable job at long john silvers she's also the few the proud the lucky to survive the igniting of l a as well as her dog who narrowly survives there are some bright spots they tossed in enough old film homages to keep me laughing the best one is when jeff goldblum nicely named david turns on his computer and a picture of hal comes up and says good morning dave and they even played r e m it's the end of the world as we know it and i feel fine at the beginning and judd hirsch steals the film by actually acting great he's a stereotype but i just loved the man anyway but there are no real subtle comic moments will gets way too many and he has no one to play off of execept jeff towards the end and the two do great as i said this film has no balls it is just aiming for a crowd pleaser and that's what it is but after a couple months we all move on to the next event film while intaking little films and a couple indy ones for good measure but at least the indy ones last for a lifetime this one's short on batteries
negative	by trying to satisfy every kind of viewer it's possible that sphere may end up pleasing no one action lovers will be bored by what they will see as an interminably boring setup audience members who crave more intellectual fare will be disgusted by the film's sudden collapse into mindless storytelling and by the ending which is an insulting somewhere out there maybe there's a small cadre of who will appreciate sphere's dubious charms but i'm not among them i sincerely hope the novel is better than the movie i no longer read anything by either michael crichton or john grisham because if the finished motion picture product is anything to go by it's hard to understand why the rights were optioned sphere is the kind of class mess that only a director with an cast can create with expectations high and how could they not be considering that another barry hoffman collaboration the excellent wag the dog is still playing in theaters something this bad can't help but look even worse the last time a film displayed this level of ineptitude was last year's batman robin and everyone knows how that movie was received sphere starts out a little like an amalgamation of contact and james cameron's the abyss but somewhere along the way it collapses into the cellar with another recent science fiction effort event horizon science and philosophy which are used to good effect during sphere's first hour give way to mindless confusing action sequences attempts at characterization fall apart intelligent writing which is evident early on is replaced by hackneyed drivel special effects take over as the plotline devolves into incoherent silliness but all that is just in preparation for the ending which is inexcusably awful this is the deus ex machina device used to its worst effect i left the theater feeling cheated by the way crichton and his screenwriters had chosen to end the film there is some promise but it's all in the setup we're introduced to norman goodman dustin hoffman a psychologist who once wrote a report for the government about what to do in the event that a crashed space ship is discovered when one is found in the middle of nowhere feet below the surface of the pacific ocean norman is called in to be part of the welcoming committee on the team with him are beth halperin sharon stone a biochemist who was once his student and lover harry adams samuel l jackson a mathematician who earned his first doctorate at the age of ted fielding liev schreiber an astrophysicist who is awed by the opportunity to explore alien technology and harold barnes peter coyote the government operative in charge of the mission together the five descend into the bowels of the ocean where they rendezvous with a temporary sea base on the ocean floor from which they will attempt to make first contact for a while sphere had me fooled into thinking it was going to take an astute approach to the situation the overall scenario is not without promise and several plot twists such as the revelation that the enormous craft is actually an american space ship apparently from the future offer intriguing possibilities then right around the mark that's the time to sneak into the theater next door and check out whatever's left of titanic the virtually action begins and once it starts the script becomes superfluous this might be acceptable if director levinson generated some legitimate tension but instead he relies on loud overbearing music strange camera angles and quick cuts to make things exciting additionally because none of the characters are a common failing in anything penned by crichton who's more interested in technology than people viewers don't develop much of a rooting interest it makes sitting through sphere a frustrating and pointless experience what about that cast not surprisingly the most energetic performance is given by samuel l jackson but his harry isn't a person he's a walking plot device spouting dialogue dustin hoffman isn't lively or particularly good it's ironic that this which may be his worst work in a decade has arrived in theaters on the heels of his best actor nomination for wag the dog sharon stone and peter coyote are both flat their characters exhibit little evidence of emotion automatons would have been as effective then there's queen latifa who despite getting fifth billing in the credits ahead of liev schreiber who boasts at least quadruple her screen time has less than a handful of lines and almost nothing to do other than inflate the body count i like to think that levinson and hoffman recognizing how uninspired this movie was likely to be chose to make wag the dog as a sort of penance the picture was filmed during sphere's lengthy phase if that's the case forgiveness is granted i'm less inclined to look favorably upon crichton although he has a few enjoyable titles on his resume jurassic park and the disclosure come to mind even if his novel was butchered in the adaptation process crichton's credit as a producer disallows him absolution he was a willing participant in a creative travesty no wonder sphere is being released in february in the midst of the early year's cinematic wasteland it deserves no better than to get sunk by the unstoppable titanic which should plow sphere under on its way to a weekend atop the box office heap
negative	shakespeare in love is quite possibly the most enjoyable period piece ever made for the silver screen it is both humorous and romantic in a very unique blend that can successfully entertain any audience for the nearly and and a half hours that it occupies that is however not to say it is a good film a quality production or anything of the sort shakespeare in love is an incredibly cheap illusion that truly pans out to be very little quality or original work the finest sign of this may be the plot in looking back there seems to be little more than a thin predictable plot that is only carried by the portrayal of people that we revere in our history books philip henslowe geoffrey rush owns of the theatres in london it is at the peak of the royal theatre era and queen elizabeth the recently damed judi dench by appropriately enough queen elizabeth ii is very much a fan however to directly quote the film he has cash flow problems through a long set of events it becomes apparent that his entire life is dependent on his next show doing well enough to pay off his debts so mr henslowe employs the young playwright william shakespeare joseph fiennes to pen a comedic production however the young writer has a severe case of writer's block and blames it on the fact that his love life is struggling as well he has the title in mind romeo and ethel the pirate's daughter even that joke loses steam after a while but can't seem to put words to paper then as only hollywood could have it through a long set of twisted events he meets viola de lesseps gwyneth paltrow and falls madly in love thus curing his writer's block there are many other little issues that mr henslowe encounters but they all pan out to be much ado about nothing the first realization that i reached in watching this film is that one of the messages given is that a show should not always be credited to it's author ironically that couldn't be truer here the great scenes that will sweep audiences away are not the scenes that fit in the plot but rather the recitals of shakespearean lines by actors playing actors one of the most breathtaking moments in this film does not involve the character of shakespeare or queen elizabeth or even the theatre owner but rather young children named romeo and juliet who chose to end their own lives in the name of love so it is that i am offended by the fact that marc norman and tom stoppard are credited with writing this production and the name william shakespeare is no were to be seen beyond a character's name in the credits the acting in this entertaining yet poor film is often thin to the point that it would not have survived even in queen elizabeth's theatres joseph fiennes may just be the worst of fall though he is tragically unbelievable and comically bad gwyneth paltrow is little more than satisfactory in her lead position as well however the supporting cast does almost save the day geoffrey rush is nothing short of incredible and judi dench is breathtaking they both seem to have shown that as proven actors they could survive in this film of weak links you will also find a very good performance by ben affleck in his first real role since good will hunting no armageddon doesn't qualify as real acting and rupert everett was cute in his small part as well but not even they could save this sad excuse for a film so it remains plagued by poor performances when all is said and done shakespeare in love is only worth the trip if you want to be entertained however as the film so kindly pointed out entertainment may be fun but it isn't necessarily quality and this certainly isn't quality perhaps this may be best compared to a john grisham novel as a dear friend of mine often does compare things to his work simply put it is poorly crafted but very entertaining
negative	at times you'd think edtv would be an entertaining film i mean who can resist the story of your average joe becomming a celebrity by having his life filmed every minute of every day but this average joe ed perkuny matthew mcconaughay is a sappy lifeless creation that wanders around trying to solve everyone's problems and settle his own mcconaughay is awful especially because he is trying to pull off his usual hollywood charm with a week beard and torn jeans frankly he had more charm in the devestating flop the newton boys he overacts in every way his overexaggerant body language obsession with kissing women every second he gets the chance and that cliched scene where he loses someone in his life and drops to his knee and cries the rest of the cast is very good especially martin landau as ed's who plays a cute role as the old guy that makes all the witty comments jenna elfman is good but a little overemotional her main problem is that she keeps getting sucked into bad films i e can't hardly wait and krippendorf's tribe woody harrelson as ed's brother ray does his usual role with his comic wit as well he wrote a book entitled my brother pissed on me elizabeth hurley is perfectly cast as the easy slut and dennis hopper in a quick cameo as ed's biological father is a nice choice ironically coming after the role he turned down as christof in the truman show ellen degeneres stood out as the executive who after awhile decides the show must not go on much to the opposite of the head exec rob reiner's opinion i hate to compare this film to the truman show but the fact is i was ashamed to see this movie it felt that i had dropped from college to kindergarten after seeing truman and ed edtv had no real wit or genius it was typical hollywood extracting the tv part of the movie you have the simple plotline man steals brother's girlfriend girlfriend leaves town man gets new slut girlfriend to feel like he can move on slut breaks up with him real girlfriend comes back and voila you have a romance i got so restless during this movie i almost walked out the only reason it doesn't drop below a c grade is because of the fine supporting performances i almost lost my nose and i like it i like breathing through it nicholson chinatown
negative	five years after his directorial debut based on stephen king's writings called the shawshank redemption frank darabont returns to the big screen with another prison film based on the famous scribblings of stephen king unlike the latter film this one is a big long laborious bore plot a death row inmate is discovered to have secret healing powers critique this film is slow boring uninteresting unexciting predictable and topped with a couple of evil characters its only positive attribute lies in its actors who all do credible jobs and its message of hope and belief in miracles the real miracle of my night was the fact that i did not fall asleep during this straightforward unimpressive film about a guy with special powers who we never truly understand or care about of course much like all other death row cell blocks this one is filled with decent inmates who all happen to be misunderstood except for one crazy guy who is evil personified and let's not forget all the guards on death row who also happen to be angels from the heaven above except for one crazy guard who is also evil personified and is there any reason why there are about six guards when there appears to be no more than three inmates am i supposed to identify with anyone in this film or even more importantly am i supposed to give a rat's ass about anyone in this film well if i was i sure missed that boat because the only thing that i ended up caring about during this entire picture was the obscene amount of fat that tom hanks has been able to burrow under his loose chin furthermore there is absolutely no reason in the world why director frank darabont needed to take three hours and ten minutes out of anyone's life to present this story in fact the story is empty within itself i truly did not get anything out of the film other than the fact that there is a guy on death row who has special powers to heal and we are left wondering if he should still be executed or not wow how interesting the plot's utter predictability is also at fault here with one guess as to whom is to get healed by the gentle monster in this film we are told that one certain lady has a tumor early on in the movie whip out those thinking caps kids hmmm and i wonder what will happen to those two evil guys who have nothing in their system but hate and negativity hmmmm now think hard here boys and girls what a crock i am guessing that this film was supposed to be some exercise in spirituality but unfortunately for me it was neither spiritual or the least bit engaging in fact it was one big bore i didn't see the point of the movie i didn't see the point of the story and i certainly didn't see the point in tom hanks' big all in all a bad movie starring some great actors doing solid work especially michael clarke duncan as the man of the hour john coffey give that man an award or something
negative	synopsis a small town thug convinces a dimwitted student to spy on his girlfriend who is babysitting three unruly kids for their alcoholic parents on a friday night while this is going on the thug the father the boyfriend and a kid reaching the onset of puberty all have fantasies about the babysitter comments to say this movie is bad would be quite an understatement i'm not sure what writer and director ferland was hoping to accomplish with the babysitter suspense family drama humor erotica elements of each of these genres exist in the film yet it fails to successfully achieve any of them instead the babysitter is a dull lifeless movie which manages to bore and ultimately irritate its viewers i suppose this film could have been watchable if it weren't for the fact that the characters are universally unappealing alicia silverstone is completely wasted playing jennifer the babysitter her character has absolutely no depth at all and her sole purpose in the movie is to be the object of the other characters' fantasies everyone else in the film seems to be in a competition to see who can stoop to the lowest level by the time the film ends the parents are alcoholics who become increasingly obnoxious as the movie proceeds the father played by j t walsh fantasizes about the babysitter the mother fantasizes about her husband's best friend none of these fantasy sequences trust me are things that need to be seen but we see them anyway complete with cheesy saxophone music the thug in the meantime proves that he's evil through his annoying habit of smashing beer bottles all of a sudden and for no apparent reason the most absurd character however is the babysitter's boyfriend who seems catatonically the thug in a manipulative manner though he doesn't really need to try hard manages to talk the boyfriend into smoking grass running away from cops and playing peeping tom on his own girlfriend in a matter of minutes incredible of course the boyfriend's original plan for the evening was try not to laugh to sit in an empty diner and read catcher in the rye by j d salinger if the goal of the babysitter was to be suspenseful then it fails there are surprisingly few tense moments in this film and nearly all of them come at the final minute by that time however the audience is so tired of the inane characters that no one truthfully cares what happens to any of them no suspense occurs in the dream sequences either because every single one of them is obviously a dream sequence from its inception if the goal of the babysitter was to be humorous then it also fails i found nothing even remotely funny about the boozing parents who seemed at times to be played for laughs if the goal of the babysitter was to be dramatic then once again it fails the characters are and uninteresting finally if the goal of the babysitter was to be titillating the type of film destined to be played ad infinitum on hbo at in the morning then it fails as well the dream sequences aren't erotic they are too brief and outside of one very short scene contain no nudity i can't completely trash this movie the first minutes or so vaguely resemble an interesting film and the conclusion sports a halfway decent fistfight the other minutes though are a drag silverstone's character at the end of the movie turns to her boyfriend and asks what were you thinking i asked myself the same question having spent cents renting this turkey
negative	working in the motion picture industry must be a constant source of frustration for a african american actress like jada pinkett smith despite being one of the freshest talents available pinkett smith has often been relegated to playing thankless supporting parts a low down dirty shame the nutty professor the problem is of course that there aren't many good roles available for black women take away the likes of waiting to exhale set it off soul food and eve's bayou and all that's left is a chance to be someone's girlfriend a local whore or a murder victim as a result for pinkett smith's first opportunity atop the marquee she is stuck in a stupid formulaic romantic comedy with the unpromising title of woo actually woo the latest directorial effort from daisy v s mayer party girl could have been worse than it is the film offers a few funny albeit juvenile moments and the relationship between pinkett smith's woo and tommy davidson's tim is appealing on those rare occasions when the two aren't forced to play it dumb for the sake of an endless barrage of cheap gags unfortunately huge portions of the movie are insulting to the intelligence of anyone with a i q the situations are painfully contrived the main characters are lifted right out of and the supporting players are so incredibly stupid that i wondered whether they all participated in some kind of free lobotomy lab experiment woo is a spontaneous energetic young woman who has been looking for love in all the wrong places her latest relationship with a came to an abrupt end when she refused to wear a beeper now her friend celestrial girlina predicts that she's about to meet mr right and that he'll be a virgo later that day woo is given an opportunity to go out on a blind date with tim a shy man with a penchant for neatness and order who just happens to be a virgo it's not love at first sight however things get off to a rocky start when tim makes an awkward pass and they get even worse when the pair arrives at a swanky restaurant to enjoy a quiet dinner in the year history of motion pictures there have been a ton of bad white movies about mismatched lovers so i suppose it's only fair that we get a black effort of the same low caliber as in all romantic comedies we know from the beginning that woo and tim are going to end up together the question is are their courtship rituals entertaining in a good entry to the genre the audience becomes caught up in the love story no matter how familiar it is in woo the constant reliance upon unfunny moronic humor sinks the project for those who enjoy spotting continuity gaffes there's a huge one in woo involving a corvette with a broken window that miraculously repairs itself added to that is the mystery of how the car looses its top sadly that's one of the film's most enjoyable sequences and the entertainment value is entirely unintentional despite exuding charm from every pore there's little that pinkett smith and davidson can do to save their characters or david c johnson's script since it misses the mark by so much a better name for woo might have been whoops
negative	there is a scene early in jakob the liar that hints at how much better it could have been the scene is set in a jewish ghetto in poland circa where a cafe proprietor named jakob heym is walking resolutely through the streets fists stuffed into coat pockets to one side of him residents scavenge for food in the street to the other side german troops beat a group of jews jakob however never stops moving it's an efficient effective for the character who is clearly nobody's idea of a hero at the outset he is a man who has responded to the horror of his surroundings by withdrawing from them excising his moral peripheral vision the is critical because fate will turn jakob into a reluctant savior after a visit to a german commandant's office and a moment alone with a radio jakob learns that russian troops are quite near when he brings this first news of the war in years to his fellow jews they become convinced that he must have a radio which is a punishable offense in the ghetto the good news brings hope to the ghetto the everyday specter of suicide vanishes a private man of limited creativity finds himself burdened with creating stories of russian military progress just to keep his neighbors alive this promising story of an ordinary person doing the extraordinary is burdened from the outset by casting the ordinary person in question jakob heym is played by robin williams i am of the depressing opinion that williams is growing less assured as an actor in his serious roles with every passing year compare his dramatic scenes in the world according to garp and moscow on the hudson with what dreams may come or patch adams and see how much more mannered he has become or at the very least how much less sensible at choosing material jakob the liar depends on the notion that jakob has to struggle to craft his fictions but williams always looks like he's struggling to craft them when he improvises a radio address by winston churchill for ailing orphan lina hannah taylor gordon he seems relieved that he can finally get wacky oh yes and then there's that little girl some viewers will undoubtedly consider the hero's fanciful stories for a young charge too reminiscent of life is beautiful but those scenes aren't problematic because they're familiar they're problematic because they're jarring and distracting introducing a cutesy relationship into a film that shouldn't have been about cutesy relationships jakob's character arc may be about his willingness to act for the benefit of others but there are plenty of others without poor little lina every scene with her feels contrived pulling jakob the liar away from its central story of hope coming to a previously hopeless people it is a pleasant surprise to find that jakob the liar is a much grittier production than you might expect from a holocaust combining the weighty subject matter with dark humor in some effective ways director peter kassovitz working from jurek becker's novel crafts some nice scenes between jakob and the other townspeople and draws solid performances from armin as a doctor and bob balaban as a barber drifting into depression there are just too many things going on that prove distracting whether it's the sketchy romanctic angle involving liev schreiber as an earnest former prizefighter or williams' incongrous presence or a sweet but utterly irrelevant little girl jakob the liar deals with too delicate a subject for such fumbling and has too compelling a central character to waste and after one wonderful early scene you can see the film wasted and fumbled away
negative	first troy beyer wrote the critically panned b a p s now she makes her directorial debut writing directing and starring in this film about women talking about sex though not without redeeming qualities this film is bad the basic story follows three single friends jazz beyer lena randi ingerman and michelle paget brewster in their search for love jazz has an idea for a local talk show it would feature women talking about sex and dating she and her friends make a demo tape of interviews with the women of miami the film itself is sprinkled with these real interviews throughout both as part of the plot and as commentary on the situations of the main characters the fact that they are real provides a refreshing break from some of the more melodramatic moments in the film there are several moments of bad acting corny dialogue and emotional overextension in a independent film from a director these faults can sometimes be forgiven if the screenplay is fresh and solid that is not the case here the script suffers from random plot developments there are four or five of these turns in the plot each one raising the question where did that come from at one point a character has a lifelong reconciliation with her mother we are supposed to be moved but since the scene is completely to we really don't care if she and her mother get along we've never seen her mother before we never see her again who cares what's worse these sudden developments are supposed to engage our sympathy at another point a character announces that she can't have children apparently this is devastating we wouldn't know this because she never talked about having kids before but we are nevertheless expected to be devastated for her the scene feels like an afterthought its emotion manipulative and shallow these scenes grow worse and worse culminating in an absurd climax two scenes were played with such overwhelming melodrama that i found myself laughing one scene is a lover's spat between two minor characters the other has the main characters expressing their copious grief by cleaning house in wails of despair and clouds of ajax thinking on these scenes it is hard for me to admit that the film has redeeming qualities but it does first it is original we men often wonder what women talk about when they are alone in groups and i imagine this film gives me a pretty good idea it's something i don't think has been the subject of a film second the interviews of the miami women are sincere taken together they form a mosaic picture of miami beachwalkers and bistro diners the mosaic is made of sound bites and stereotypes but each tile is some woman's real experience neither the picture of women nor their picture of men is truly representative but the point is that both sets of generalizations are telling in their own way at some level the stereotypes that emerge can be called true i can imagine some people liking this film when its characters talk about their likes dislikes skills and thrills but on the whole it's pretty bad and that makes it even harder to forgive the bad acting corny dialogue and emotional overextension i'll give beyer one more strike and then she's out rated r almost got an for explicit sexual dialogue and nudity
negative	susan granger's review of mulholland drive universal focus whatever david lynch is selling i'm not buying from the of blue velvet and twin peaks comes another dark mysterious thriller that opens with an automobile accident on mulholland drive the serpentine street that twists high in the hollywood hills dazed a beautiful brunette laura elena harring emerges and stumbles down a hill slipping unobserved into a apartment as the tenant leaves for a trip the next morning a dewy blonde naomi watts from deep river ontario arrives in la with dreams of stardom in her suitcase her aunt owns the apartment and the two women meet the brunette has amnesia so the blonde tries to help her discover her identity along with her latent lesbian lust meanwhile a hotshot director justin theroux whose wife is in bed with the poolman is forced to cast a certain actress in his new film and there's an assassin mark pellegrino roaming the city the tortuous paths of these various characters and others named cookie coco and cowboy intersect at various points but the plot remains elusive because midway through the story lynch has the brunette and blonde play two different women in an alternate reality leaving a huge wad of cash a blue metallic key a paralyzed mogul and a lot of questions that go unanswered elena harring and particularly naomi watts are gifted actresses effectively making the subtle switch the same cannot be said for former m g m dancer ann miller who's stiff and speaking like most lynch players in staccato tones on the granger movie gauge of to mulholland drive is a frenzied frustrating originally designed as an episodic tv pilot this surreal triumph of suspenseful style over substance is packaged as a puzzle with several of the key pieces left out
negative	georges polti once wrote a paper called the dramatic situations in which he asserted the fact that all drama could be defined by no more than different situations this may be the modern restatement of the biblical prophecy from ecclesiastes there's nothing new under the sun the faculty the latest movie by from dusk till dawn director robert rodriguez certainly proves this in typical hollywood fashion there's not a measureable fraction of original material in this unworthy outing drawing elements from both the puppet masters and invasion of the body snatchers screenwriter kevin williamson of scream credit gives us a horror tale set in middle america ohio one eventful fall making use of a cast of unusually stock characters williamson designs an alien invasion that will not be done independence but rather through the back door parasitic aliens take over the faculty of a high school and soon have infested most of the student body leaving it up to the ensemble of principal characters to win the day the lack of gusto is the movie's major stumbling block even though the genre has seen movies that have a lack for quality such as this they've been saved by an energetic approach this casts more than a shadow of a doubt on williamson's ability who enjoyed success with the wes scream but couldn't pull anything solid in for this outing or i know what you did last summer although he designs the faculty with more of a bent than his typical slasher picture it still comes down to the same results throw the stock characters in a steel cage match and see who comes out alive on that level the main roles are played by virtual unknowns only the recognizeable elijah wood deep impact is at the front other than that the screen veterans are saved for the minor roles of the alien teachers perhaps williamson has it in mind to champion these to the fame that their scream and last summer counterparts achieved but to do that they'd all need to star in their own wb television show about the horrors of puberty a la dawson's creek needless to say the acting is far from top notch nor does necessity ask that it should be there is a moment or two of genuine horror but unfortunately williamson and rodriguez did not take the story far enough in the direction to make any use of it in sum the faculty was just one long shot that did not pay off
negative	the most popular trend of the last couple of years has been the twist ending watching one of these movies everything seems to make sense until suddenly you are blown away by an unexpected surprise when the film ends there is a moment of confusion then recollection then some more confusion then possibly a second viewing for clarification this is a description of an ideal twist that perfects everything it sets out to do and more good surprises make movies fun to watch then there are the bad twists you either know what is going to happen ten minutes into the movie i'm talking about you reindeer games or you did not guess the ending because it is so outrageously stupid screwed perfectly suits the latter description what starts out as a dumb guilty pleasure which should be fun to mock with a group of friends ends with a complex finale with way too much going on by the writers of man on the moon and the people vs larry flynt scott alexander and larry karaszewski leave milos forman behind and take a stab at film directing whoops screwed is an inane christmas carol gone berserk with few genuine laughs and many acting embarrassments norm macdonald stars as willard filmore a hard working chauffeur who just wants a little respect from his rich old insidious boss miss crock elaine stritch when he overhears her plans to fire him on christmas day willard is convinced by his best friend rusty dave chapelle to kidnap crock's beloved dog and hold it for a ransom of one million dollars too excited to pay any attention the hapless losers' plan goes awry when the dog escapes and returns home now crock thinks willard has been kidnapped and the two friends realizing they can make even more money decide to stage the fake kidnapping of course everything that could go wrong does the first minutes of screwed is harmless entertainment a guilty pleasure that should be enjoyably bad but the convoluted script eventually builds into a disaster that is impossible to bear the more idiotic these characters get the more reckless the script becomes at one point i wanted to get out of my seat and yell at these characters no you idiot i'm not just talking about willard and rusty who were extremely annoying i'm also talking about the cops in this film a monkey could have solved this case within an hour but these guys headed by murder one's daniel benzali were just too clueless to forgive they give real cops bad names also poor danny devito apparently does not know how to turn down a role these days looking almost identical to his penguin in batman returns every time he appeared on the screen i had to shake my head in disbelief he just didn't belong in this movie macdonald and chapelle are veterans at these kinds of movies but devito made the film much worse than it already was gross out humor is certainly not his forte if you're a fan of norm macdonald's other chaotic comedy dirty work you might actually love this otherwise don't get screwed out of your money
negative	spice world is just one long promotional film for the british girl band the spice girls sure there's a hint of humor in there every once in a while actually there's a couple of pretty good jabs at the spice girls but overall who cares not me if you don't know by now the spice girls sing songs of love and friendship and responsibility and girl power yet dress like streetwalkers from a lower middle class neighborhood in spice world they ride around in their big tour bus whining about having to do photo shoots and give interviews amazingly all the talk they do about keeping commitments and upholding responsibilities only really applies to fun things things they want to do not things they are required to do to keep earning money and they keep babbling about girl power when they should really be talking about cleavage power i mean if all it takes is girl power then why are they only one thread away from bursting out of their skimpy outfits the film is pg but really with only some very minor dialogue changes and scene extentions you'd have yourself one raunchy adult film by the way there's something in the opening credits which says based on an idea by the spice girls wow they got idea credit i certainly wish that was a new trend in hollywood giving credit for simply having the thought say girls let's make a movie the supporting cast fares well roger moore the real james bond mockingly plays the chief of the spice girls and darn it all he's fun to watch mark mckenney also is good as a screenwriter trying to pitch film ideas to the band's manager richard e grant one question though george wendt you'd think that spice world would envoke one of two reactions in people if you like the spice girls you'll like them even more afterwards and if you can't stand them like me then spice world will really make you sick oddly the audience i saw the film with roughly twelve girls sat in silence for the entire film well not the two who sat directly behind me they kept muttering this is stupid over and over again maybe there is hope for humanity after all 
negative	i read the new yorker magazine and i enjoy some of their really articles about some incident they will take some incident like the investigation of a mysterious plane crash and tell you what happened in detail it becomes a real education in what agencies get involved and how theories are suggested and what kind of pressure the investigators are under and just about any other aspect you can think of frequently i get the feeling that the article sounded exciting but i am being told in more detail than i really wanted to know often i get to the middle of a story and say ok it sounded good but i now have invested more time than i am willing to spend on this subject film is a different medium it is a visual medium that slows down the telling of stories much more than people realize i frequently am surprised to find out how short a film script is and how much of the pages are empty space the magazine article and the film script are two very different media the insider is a film adaptation of the vanity fair article the man who knew too much by marie brenner it is too much an adaptation of a magazine article slowed to the pace of a film it really verges on being tedious at least at times for years the seven big companies knew that they dealt in an addictive drug that caused a host of unhealthy but they pretended for the public that it was unproven and they did not really believe it the business was incredibly profitable and the proceeds translated into the political power to squelch and discredit any political movements against big tobacco the tide turned when a former of one of the companies was convinced by the cbs minutes news team to tell the public how much the tobacco companies really knew about the health effects of smoking the resulting pressure to stop the story created a small civil war at cbs who were the major people involved what were their motives how was the story almost killed how did it get aired anyway that is the story covered in surprising detail by the insider this all could have been enthralling but it is not the sort of thing that a stylist like michael mann would be likely to do well and in the end he failed to make a long story short the film needed a director who knew how to make a long story short the film opens with the cbs minutes team in iran with the assignment to interview a terrorist we get a taste for their personal style and how they get the upper hand they go from being one newsman blindfolded at the hands of the terrorists to the actual interview with mike wallace played by christopher plummer there the news team under producer lowell bergman al pacino are ordering around the terrorists and getting away with it this seems to have nothing to do with the main line of the story but later when the tobacco industry is so much harder to manipulate than committed terrorists we have a wry irony on who really has clout in the world terrorists can grab the headlines but the tobacco companies have the real position of power incongruously intercut with the iran interview sequence we see jeffrey wigand russell crowe dejectedly returning from work to his home we discover that he has been fired and his career brought to a complete halt unexpectedly he had been a very profitably rewarded in charge or research and development at brown and williams tobacco now he was unemployed and needed money to support his family rather than support him his wife liane diane venora demands of him what are they supposed to do for income meanwhile the minutes team trying to do a story on fires started by cigarettes have obtained some data they do not understand they offer wigand just to interpret the data wigand's severance agreement swears him to secrecy about anything he knows about tobacco dealings but he is reluctantly he stretches the severance terms he is willing to read some documents from another tobacco company and interpret them for bergman in spite of the secrecy wigand's former employers seem immediately to know wigand is talking to minutes and he is warned off by former boss thomas sandefur played michael gambon in an all too brief but deliciously sinister role and so the game begins wigand is irate at his negative treatment for what he still considered continued to be loyalty to his agreement and his former employer meanwhile someone is playing very rough with wigand and his family the film examines wigand and the pressures placed on his family as they are caught between two powerful giants wigand has always wanted to make tobacco safer and has natural sympathies with getting the story out he and his family are assaulted psychologically and financially by the giant tobacco industry that had never lost a legal fight al pacino is given top billing but the wigand family is the core of the insider the story is told slowly and in just a bit too much meticulous detail the film is minutes and is an extremely demanding film for the audience the musical score by pieter bourke lisa gerrard and graeme revell is one of the worst in recent memory it puts ominous chords under some scenes and using voice in ways that become a distraction that gets in the way of the storytelling also disturbing is the casting of christopher plummer as mike wallace plummer and wallace are such different types and wallace is too for even so good an actor as plummer to play him convincingly this film might have been a really engaging experience under another director's control michael mann was the wrong person to helm this film and the insider lacks intensity because of his style i rate it a on the to scale and a on the to scale
negative	i should have known damn it i should have known ewan mcgregor codename eye is pointing a gadget at a fat bald american engaging in illicit sexual activities in a window across the street we get the requisite view we the audience seeing a high tech gadget of course think that eye is going to assassinate the target but instead he pulls the trigger and the rifle takes twenty or so hazy photographs which eye then proceeds to fax and to everyone in his target's office all right so thirty seconds in i was slightly befuddled by this seemingly pointless but i was still open minded maybe there's a really good reason for it i've got reason to believe you see i admire a lot of ewan mcgregor's previous work and he's obi wan for god's sake and director stephan elliot's last movie priscilla queen of the desert was a quirky little delight there's some genuine talent involved here i think at the twenty minute mark there was still a spark of hope in my heart eye has been assigned to investigate the leader of his organization's son i still have no idea what this organization was british intelligence national spy ring private investigation who is apparently stealing from his trust fund he has received his assignment from k d lang through an elaborate and expensive teleconferencing briefcase when eye tracks his target to an looking secluded house he witnesses a mysterious and beautiful woman ashley judd take a knife out and proceed to stab the poor bastard ok that's odd i think to myself this could be interesting then she starts to cry and through her tears exclaims merry christmas dad for the first time so begins our tale of obsession or something the rest of the movie involves ewan mcgregor's eye character following ashley judd around to every corner of the united states totally and completely obsessed by this woman from afar throughout his entire professional life he has been a voyeur so when he falls for someone the only way he can handle it is to watch and drool through telescopes and cameras fine that's a lovely premise i suppose but gosh darn it if you're going to go there you better have some sort of explanation and that's precisely where this film fails this is the kind of movie that pisses me off it's an abortion a collection of and wasted ideas that amounts to absolutely nothing in the end it pretends it is something that it is not a surreal and deep psychological character study wrapped in a thriller here the filmmakers have confused surreal and deep with vaguely unclear and crammed full of insultingly obvious metaphors i never even for an instant had the foggiest idea why eye would fall so in love with this woman who changes wigs and kills people the movie offers only two explanations neither of which make a lick of sense explanation number one the obnoxious presence of eye's imaginary daughter who was taken away from him by his wife some time ago tells him he shouldn't leave ms judd explanation two which by the end of the film has been beaten into our heads through imagery and dialog and even the title of the movie beauty is in the eye of the beholder whoo hoo that helps thanks a bunch case closed that's as deep as it gets folks there is an attempt at an explanation in the final minutes which instead of tying everything together ends up being as profound as a clever mad lib there are secondary characters that move in and out of the picture and serve little or no purpose except to make the audience wonder what the hell the point was my personal favorites include the modeled after austin powers' frau farbissina who apparently taught ms judd everything she knows about wearing wigs jason priestley's awfully played dirty desert vagrant who tries to emulate dennis hopper a la blue velvet but fails miserably and the each one in this sad little parade is a little more pointless than the last the script pays no attention to the laws of time and space any time one of the frequent location changes occurs the camera zooms in on a souvenir snow globe and minutes weeks or years could have passed bewilderingly inane stylistic decisions plague the whole affair one character passes a glass of cognac to another in a awash in a lot of bass ewan mcgregor at one point takes up residence in a bell tower just so he could be repeatedly awakened and deafened by the giant bell jason priestly starts philosophizing about sharks then laughs maniacally cut to random guy with eye patch iguana out of focus iguana comes into focus wow man when i found out afterward that this film was based on a novel it came as no surprise to me there are plenty of elements here that if extended and fleshed out more would have made for a decent story and i wouldn't be surprised if i found out there was an hour and a half of footage cut from this movie lying in a landfill somewhere or waiting in the wings for the dvd special director's cut not that anything would ever possess me to purchase such a thing to find out what i was missing the last ten or so minutes featured a conversation between the eye and the judd that was supposed to be some sort of revealing exposition some guy in the back of the theater was talking on his cell phone and this time i didn't particularly care all that much because what was happening on the screen was a steaming pile of unholy crap the audience around me chuckled and whispered sentiments similar to what i was thinking someone near did eventually yell shut the hell up but it was a lot funnier when we thought he was talking to the screen
negative	as bad as mimic was it definitly scared me mimic continued the frightening hollywood trend of taking a foreign director who shows a lot of creative ingenuity and style and completely flushing it when he comes to america to make a movie director guillermo del toro was recently imported from mexico after he made the award winning and inventive horror film cronos that movie worked because it took an unconventional story unique characters and well written plot and dialogue to create a truly scary movie in mimic del toro doesn't bother to give us anything original the plot is a stupid combination of aliens meets species meets jurassic park the characters have been recycled from a few hundred other movies there's nothing new in mimic it's just a bunch of old tricks that rarely work at the end of the movie you're stuck wanting your money back maybe the worst thing about the movie is that del toro followed another annoying trend of recent movies he forgot to turn the lights on i don't understand why suspense movies lately have to follow the seven trend and be set in dark dank areas watching mimic i was tempted several times to yell at the screen turn the lights on the switch is to your right use common sense just do it you'll be able to see the monster in the corner there's a scene where mira sorvino is standing in subway station while the lights are flickering on and off it looked like the light operator was having a seizure and sorvino didn't even notice she just stood there looking like she was having deep thoughts hmmm i think bean soup would be good for dinner tonight mimic has a lot of incidental shock tactics boo just kidding and follows them up with the real scare but nothing in this movie scares you the audience in the theater never jumped during suspenseful moments i think they were bored too i shouldn't blame del toro he isn't the first successful foreign director to come to hollywood and make a bad movie hong kong director john woo made two of the best action films of all time the killer and hard boiled then came to america to make the stupid broken arrow french directors luc besson la femme nikita and george sluizer the vanishing followed woo's lead and made dumbed down versions of those movies robert rodriguez who directed the terrific low budget el mariachi came to hollywood and directed the horrible desperado i don't know why a foreign director who shows such talent in his country can't make a good american movie woo finally broke through and made but it still isn't up to par with his earlier films i get the feeling a hollywood producer sits in his office chews on a big smelly cigar and says to the director welcome to america i bet you must be tired after being on that boat for so long do you speak english now i know you think you've made good movies in the past but now you're in america so things are a little different here just remember what the american audience always wants and you'll be fine they want to see at least one big breasted woman characters that they've seen a thousand times before because change scares americans and you always need a cheesy ending to wrap things up if you don't make that kind of movie you'll be shining my shoes in no time
negative	darren jason biggs wayne steve zahn and j d jack black have been best friends since the fifth grade like the three musketeers they've been together through thick and thin but when darren meets an attractive but and manipulative psychiatrist judith amanda peet the long time friendship is placed in danger it's up to wayne and j d to rescue their best friend in saving silverman silverman has its heart in the right place but the story by newcomers hank nelken and greg depaul is too lightweight to sustain the tale of the battle for darren's soul based on their experience of a friend making a major marital mistake the story is centered on the three life long amigos when wayne introduces darren to judith he doesn't realize that he has opened a pandora's box of disaster for himself and j d judith was once in a relationship where her boyfriend was the dominant figure until he died in a kick boxing match since then she has sought a new mate someone she can boss around and mold into her own vision enter darren silverman once they realize the magnitude of their error in judgement wayne and j d try everything they can including threats and bribery to get judith to free darren nothing works until the duo come up with a plan kidnap judith and get darren back together with the girl he called his one and only pretty sandy perkus amanda detmer the only problem here is that sandy is about to take her vows to become a nun things spiral out of control as judith repeatedly attempts to escape while wayne and j d play cupid the boys even bring their idol neil diamond into the picture to help resolve things thinking about it this is a real mishmash of contrivance and coincidence that is held together solely by the comedic efforts of steve zahn and jack black the pair is able to elicit the film's only laughs with their goofy antics and behavior they are relegated to providing slapstick guy humor and the two are more than equal to the task steve zahn has been steadily honing his comedic acting skills and gives some complexity to wayne the brains of the gang jack black has the moves of a chris farley giving j d an amusing physical presence the neat thing is that the two actors are able to get fresh laughs from stale material the rest of the cast doesn't fare as well though jason biggs is the straight man of the musketeers and gets very little to do though having watched his previous films american pie and loser i'm not sure what attraction biggs actually has amanda peet is caustic as the manipulative judith there is no humanity at all to her character as she strives to recreate darren into her mind's image she's a monster that wayne and j d must defeat to save their friend unfortunately there is no dimension to her character amanda detmer brings nothing or gets nothing as darren's one and only r lee ermey as the psychotic coach made a bad decision taking this role neil diamond gives a cameo perf as the boys' idol and savior production values are on par with the rest of the film lackluster and director dennis dugan has a track record for broad comedy with films like big daddy and beverly hills ninja but falls flat with saving silverman the movie year has yet to provide us with a good film to sink our teeth into at least with saving silverman we get a couple of funny perfs from zahn and black too bad that the rest of the film lacks their level of humor kick boxing deaths and conflicted nuns are not the makings of a good comedy i give it a
negative	an intimate drama about a troubled youth at a crossroads in his life read the press notes for i'm not really sure what film that statement is describing because those words bear little resemblance to the slow completely uninvolving bore i least it certainly does not describe what goes on for most of the film alessandro nivola plays robin fleming a troubled directionless who has a penchant for breaking storefront windows in a small town police sergeant phil quinn william sadler takes him in and what ensues for the first minutes is a tedious series of and where robin slips out of his jail cell breaks a window then returns all without quinn ever noticing also added to the pointless proceedings is some humorous shenanigans involving quinn's dimwitted deputy ernie attempting to engage in clandestine patrol car sex with his girlfriend donna karen sillas with a half hour if even that long remaining director william ryan and writer john hughes yes john hughes of youth films and finally approach something close to a point turns out robin still pines for his high school sweetheart lise brooke langton who has long gone on with her life and hughes's main concern at long last reveals itself as a tired live in the present and for the future message most moviegoers however will likely be asleep by that time wide awake however is the cast who individually tackle their showcase dramatic scenes with energy and revealing the purpose behind this listless enterprise to serve as a series of acting exercises such a glorified workshop may have its rewards for the actors but it leaves audiences with a booby prize opens october
negative	vampire's is a rude chauvinistic movie where women are portrayed as pawns of abuse present only to pleasure men feed vampires readied to be bashed or beaten till one's sensibilities is shocked by the low iq and mentality of this regressive movie to make matters worse the buffoons that go hunting vampires are all rednecks and deserve to have their heads bitten off if not their bodies carved in half the dilemma of hating the heroes' as much as the villains' makes one wish that the hand of god' would suddenly appear and blast both parties into oblivion james wood portrays jack crow a man obsessed with killing vampires whose soul reason for living is based on revenge they killed his parents but this is not a good excuse for being more obnoxious than the vampires as for adam baldwin he is nothing more than a stooge who is ordered to beat women when the director shouts action' and the script should have been reworked to avoid much offence against the female sex as for the claims that the catholic church created dracula' well that is the second most sacrilegious suggestion outside the fact that priests and monks bear the brunt of the vampire fury with enough blood spilt to make the inquisition look tame an awful movie on all counts my suggestion is to bring back buffy and bury this group of incompetent rude vampire slayers
negative	synopsis blond criminal psychologist sarah chooses to copulate with greasy tony the mysterious puerto rican rather than bearded cliff the wisecracking neighbor upstairs in the meantime someone sends sarah rotting flowers puts her name in the newspaper's obituary column and kills her cat comments never talk to strangers a colossal waste of time moves slower than molasses in winter to arrive at a conclusion which should be obvious to the audience minutes into the film one wouldn't think that two genuine movie stars antonio banderas evita and rebecca de mornay hand that rocks the cradle and the acerbic comic genius dennis miller saturday night live would be involved in such a celluloid backfire as this turkey not only are they in it however but de mornay executive produced it what was she thinking never talk to strangers centers upon sarah a psychologist examining the max a murderer soon to stand trial she receives a sudden visit from her father which elicits flashbacks of some tragedy in her early childhood two men woo her tony the security consultant wins her over so they have passionate sex replete with cheesy saxophone music a lot of psychobabble is thrown around about multiple personality disorder but the movie asks its audience not to derive the obvious conclusion between mpd and sarah and instead offers several male characters as red herrings minutes the running time of this cinematic mess thus seem like hours a good chunk of never talk to strangers is spent upon sarah and tony why would the professional sarah feel attracted to the walking steroid with a black hat called tony that's one of the film's mysteries which are never answered regardless of motive de mornay and banderas strip down and have sex several times in what passes for eroticism they also manage to go out before copulating occasionally in one of the stupidest scenes of the film tony takes sarah to a carnival that's right outside his dingy apartment that way they can hurry back and have sex quickly also apparently the weather changes quickly in their locale they're at this outdoor carnival one day before having sex the next day they're out playing in the snow before having sex the filmmakers attempt to produce a suspenseful plot interspersed with tony and sarah's character development someone is out to get poor sarah though most of the audience should have figured out who before any of this starts rotting flowers a writeup in the obituary and a beaten neighbor are just a few of the bad things which happen to her suspense cliche number one also occurs whenever someone is stalked in thrillers by any means if the stalked has a pet that pet will die oftentimes to even further the cliche the murdered pet is a cat suspense filmmakers for some reason just don't like cats sarah in never talk to strangers receives a package and lo and behold discovers her mutilated cat within suspense at its very derivative as stated before never talk to strangers is a poor excuse for a film whose sole purpose seems to be exploiting banderas and de mornay's bodies as often as possible comedian dennis miller is completely wasted here he's not given lines that are suitable for his persona and doesn't even appear all that much maybe in a way he's lucky for that early on in the movie sarah tells tony after meeting him in a supermarket that she had been advised to never talk to strangers allow me to advise that you never watch this stinker
negative	a sensuous romantic comedy about as appealing as your average lightweight tv sitcom there is no special ingredient on the menu for what is dished out its the kind of stuff i've seen before and was made nauseous by its silly idea of love and what it thinks is funny the film plans to exploit the beauty and sweetness of its delicious star pen lope cruz who plays a brazilian chef with a magical touch for bringing out the spices in her preparations the aromas just sensually waft from her cooking pot but who can't get by on looks alone in this transparently predictable story pen lope was wonderful in pedro almod var's all about my mother but here she is so visible in such a stale story where she can only smile and tease the audience by having us see a constant barrage of cleavage shots as she bends when cooking that she somehow looks ridiculous as if she got egg all over her face the best you can say about her is that she's not to blame for this picture being so off this exploitation of sex film without even delivering nudity or sex is in my opinion worst than a raunchy film that delivers what it says it will the story is all about the love motion sickness and cooking ability of isabella cruz who is born in bahia brazil and learns to cook at an early age from her parents' cook to cure her motion sickness her parents tried every remedy until they went to a spiritualist who prayed to the goddess of the sea for her cure she is able to control it now as long as she doesn't drive a car ride elevators follow in dancing and is the woman on top when making love in other words she has to be in control of things in her small fishing town she falls in love with a handsome macho latin waiter toninho oliveira murilo ben cio and marries him they open up a successful restaurant where she slaves away in the kitchen but he gets all the credit for it even though he's a loafer one night she catches him in bed with another girl and decides to leave for san francisco we don't see her in flight so i can't tell how she handled her motion sickness problem unless she flew the plane she visits her friend's apartment monica harold perrineau jr who is a blending right into the san francisco scene to cast away her love for the irresistible toninho she calls her spiritualist friend and gets her to cast an irreversible spell freeing her from ever loving him again her luck changes when a local tv producer cliff mark feurerstein gets a whiff of her cooking and storms into her cooking class as if were in a spell and presents her with her own live tv cooking show you can really write the script from here on by yourself as the despondent toninho begins to realize what a good thing he had but things continue to go bad for him there is a curse he caused on the fishing in his village there is no chef to replace his wife as the restaurant is about to close for good so he comes to san francisco figuring he can charm her again he brings along with him his guitar playing musicians the ones he used when courting her when he serenaded her under her window he sees his wife on tv with monica as her sidekick the yuppie tv producer chasing after her and sees that she is no longer charmed by him when he sneaks on her tv show set and tries to woo her with his musical group and him singing corny love songs to her the ratings go up and he's hired as a regular on the show the show gets so big that the network honchos come onboard taking it national but they want to change the ethnic flavor of the show get rid of monica because he's a freak have isabella cook with tabasco instead of the brazilian peppers she uses and they change her ethnic dresses to vanna white type of sexy dresses cliff her boyfriend acts creepy and sides with the network even though he loved everything she did these tv scenes were not only bad stereotype scenes of tv honchos they were revolting it was an insult to one's intelligence i'm sure that i'm not spoiling the ending for anyone when i tell you that toninho reforms his macho ways and together they cook up a meal that breaks her spell of loving him again if the film wasn't terrible enough monica and cliff act on their attraction for each other and become lovers it was so awkwardly done that it had no sense of truth or humor to it this film might as well have been made by the same network guys featured in this film because it doesn't look or feel like an almod var film the type of film it aspired to be but more like a film that was interferred with from above its more like a futile commercial film that is more annoying than charming and more dull than chic as it searches for box office heaven
negative	let me just start this review off by saying i am a huge fan of professional wrestling and have been for fifteen years i am not too fond of ted turner's world championship wrestling however and i am even less fond of it now after seeing this ridiculous excuse for a wrestling movie tonight the plot concerns two losers named gordie boggs david arquette aptly cast as a neandrathal and sean dawkins scott caan who are so obsessed with professional wrestling that they believe everything they see on wcw monday nitro is something more than a flashy show when they finally get to see their hero wcw world champion jimmy king played by oliver platt i personally would have gotten a wrestler to play king he ends up getting screwed over by evil promoter titus sinclair a wasted palitaliano in a role originally meant for wcw president eric bischoff before he was fired and rehired six months later and if anyone reads this who knows bischoff they will agree with me that the role of sinclair had his name written all over it they embark on a quest to find him and help him get his title back when they find him they discover in horror that jimmy king's real life is nothing like it is on wcw tv king is a drunken atlanta native rather than an english king after convincing king that they don't care that his persona isn't real gordie and sean sneak him back onto wcw monday nitro after which sinclair agrees to book him in a main event steel cage match for the wcw title and his job back in las vegas at wcw's gee whiz there are so many things wrong with this movie i don't know where to begin yes i do the characters of gordie and sean show you what eric bischoff wcw president who thought up this project thinks of wrestling fans he thinks of us as idiots who take everything wrestlers do seriously he actually thinks wrestling fans are dumb enough to believe this is meant to be taken seriously i got news for you eric nobody above the age of four is dumb enough for that this is you know not i know he'll probably cover arguments up by saying it isn't meant to be taken seriously but it is because that's how big an ego bischoff has there was a documentary made in wrestling with shadows that documented the owner of the world wrestling federation vince mcmahon's screwing bret the hitman hart out of the title this movie's storyline is basically a comic of that plot with the poor man's wayne and garth thrown in eric bischoff is trying to make vince mcmahon look bad with the character of titus sinclair but any wrestling fan knows titus is more like bischoff than mcmahon and that vince did what he had to do to bret hart  the movie's main wrestler jimmy king has an english king gimmick and the audience cheered big for him no wrestling fan actually enjoys characters like that in this day and age we want bad asses today why make this a comedy instead of an emotional drama i know wrestling isn't a sport but you can still get behind a guy who struggles as a wrestler and finally makes it in the end  in the movie gordie starts up an romance with nitro girl sasha the lovely rose mcgowan what she sees in that freak marilyn manson i'll never understand only to find that she has hospitalized king's trainer for sinclair wouldn't it have been easier to just have them fall in love instead of doing the typical cliche i hate that  last but certainly not least there was not one single moment in this movie that i could not predict would happen nor did i laugh once either the world wrestling federation should have been the wrestling company to make the movie for these reasons they're the better promotion they have better and younger talent performers and wrestlers  they give their fans what they want and don't treat them like idiots they're winning the ratings and they're the promotion everybody cares about simply put they could make a movie a hundred times better and they could do a wrestling movie the right way the only good thing about this movie was they played outtakes at the end and if i spoiled it for you good i saved you from wasting seven dollars
negative	battlefield long boring and just plain stupid battlefield earth a film review by michael redman copyright by michael redman in my years i had a horrendous nightmare behind the wheel of a car i was driving down a straight road in the middle of a desert no scenery except the horizon line and the converging parallel lines of the highway no matter what i did the view didn't change travelling but not getting anywhere each time i awoke in a sweat terrified you don't have to be carl jung to understand that dream powerless to make changes trapped in a boring situation with no hope of rescue this is the stuff of nightmares whether we are asleep or awake this is exactly how you will feel minutes after battlefield earth begins for all of its flash and style l ron hubbard's science fiction epic is the earliest and best entry for the dullest summer film of dull and stupid in the year the psychlo aliens have ruled our planet for years humans either work as slave labor in mining operations or live as barbarians there's no hope the future is bleak then the psychlo make a mistake and capture feisty jonnie goodboy tyler barry pepper who organizes a revolution against chief of security terl john travolta and the alien race it's an archetypal plot full of promise considering some of the talent involved and all the millions thrown at the screen it's difficult to see how it could have failed so miserably but it does the story is so full of holes that it falls apart within minutes of the opening credits are we really supposed to believe that after a millennium of looking for gold the psychlo never discovered fort knox or that fighter planes are still in pristine condition after all that time and gassed up or that the cavemen become such expert pilots in seven days that they can easily down the advanced alien ships or that the psychlo spy cameras somehow don't notice that their slaves are missing for days travolta prances across the screen hamming it up for all he's worth and is almost entertaining almost the rest of the actors are wooden mannequins trying not to laugh while delivering lines that no person or not would ever utter some of the film good but it also looks so familiar a race of large hulking creatures has taken over the world while our cities lie in ruin sound like something charlton heston might be in the psychlo look like overweight klingons in gear from dune the final air battle between the air force fighters and the psychlo ships in their city is something george lucas might have been associated with it's too loud it's too oppressive it's too slow it's too long far too long and on it goes the list of the problems with battlefield earth is endless it's difficult to find anything in the film that does work oh yeah the color scheme is nice the real question is how this movie ever got made could it have something to do with the fact that l ron hubbard was the founder of scientology and that john travolta is a member of the church that might explain why travolta bought the rights to the novel years ago but it doesn't give us a clue as to why screenwriter corey mandell's atrocious script was used or why the project was entrusted with roger christian who had never before directed a major film or why no one looked at this thing before it was released and realized there might be problems the one bright spot is that no longer will kevin costner's the postman which i begrudgingly admit as a guilty pleasure be the big budget science fiction failure battlefield earth has the honor sewed up often reviewers will recommend that you skip mediocre films and wait for the video that's not the case here you can act now and make the decision to not see it on the big screen or on the small one don't hesitate strike now while the iron is cold
negative	hey i've got a great idea for a movie ok here it is we'll get tim allen to pull angry faces for about two hours or so what's that sounds too boring ok how about this then we still have tim allen pull faces for about two hours but half of them are angry looks and half of them are i'm in pain looks what's that that still doesn't sound funny to you how about if we through in some ewwwww looks still not funny if you answered no that doesn't sound funny then ding ding ding you're absolutely correct for richer or poorer is a moronic farce about a rich married couple played by tim allen and kirstie alley who seek refuge in an amish community after their bumbling accountant wayne knight best know as newman on tv's seinfeld gets them in trouble for tax evasion what ensues is a badly scripted and horribly directed minutes of cinema hell what makes this all wrong is that nobody seems to have what the film needs   namely talent backing up the married couple is brad and caroline sexton allen and alley a popular snobby duo who seem totally in love to everyone else but in reality are on the brink of divorce just as their marriage seems to be hanging from it's final thread brad discovers that his accountant bob lachman knight has been engaging in illegitimate deals in the sexton's names the irs catches on but since everything points back to the sexton's and not lachman there is nothing much to do   except run away and join an amish community first time screenwriters jana howington and steve lukanic give us a couple of moments and even some decent laughs here and way over there but there is so much to cringe at in this horribly made film that you'll likely miss the laughs while regurgitating popcorn alley is absolutely unwatchable and the chemistry between her and allen is about as believable as my chemistry homework from tenth grade which i inform you was total b s allen and alley are in no way convincing as tycoons nor are they very convincing as an amish couple this entire movie is one bad notion that should have been curtailed from the very beginning the amish in this movie are also flimsy and unconvincing it's such a trite stereotypical script that i imagine the actors that were cast noticing that they're all predominantly tv figures were probably the only ones they could get bryan spicer's directing doesn't help one bit either in fact listing spicer's filmography which includes the first power rangers movie and the big screen adaption of mchale's navy is more of an insult than a r sum now that i've pretty much run for richer or poorer into the ground i will let you in on the best thing about it it bumped seven films up a notch on my worst of movie list that's right thanks to this film ranking at number for the year's worst six films are now not seemingly as bad and a smile like yours previously inhabiting the number ten spot now doesn't have to suffer the ridicule of making my bottom ten list if you look at it in that respect for richer or poorer will end up making someone happy after all
negative	even the best comic actor is at the mercy of his or her material as this subpar submarine comedy proves down periscope stars kelsey frasier grammer as an inept navy captain who is given command of his own ship as part of a corrupt officer's james coburn plan to get him out of the navy like any lame emsemble comedy the officer assigns him to a group of misfits like the guy who wants to be kicked out the fat guy who eats all the time the beautiful woman who doesn't belong there lauren holly the who does everything by the book rob schneider the crazy old guy who freaks everyone out harry dean stanton and so on then comes the transparent plotline first grammer has to fix up the delapidated korean war ship the navy has given him and that comes courtesy a sad sight gag montage that includes a guy with a mop knocking schneider overboard after the ship is fixed up come the early drills where everyone seems completely inept like the electrician who can't connect wires so instead lets the current run through himself every time grammer gets on the phone finally and this covers the final hour of the movie grammer has to lead his men and holly to overcome the other ships in a wargames exercise and he has to be a clever rebel to do it in scenes that stretch all levels of believability first they're singing louie louie like a bunch of drunk sailors to throw the radar of the other ship off then thirty minutes later they're making whale mating noises to throw the radar of the other ship off the whole while evil captain coburn is overacting underwater cursing grammer as most people watching the movie probably are too it's all predictable without any original humor to redeem it the jokes are right out of mchale's navy and other sitcoms of the past there's one scene where schneider looks through the ship's pantry in disgust holds one food can up and announces this expired in i yelled back at the screen so did these jokes i watched this movie with the whole family and everyone hated it my mom was so bored she brought out the coupon book midway through and around the start of the second hour i started writing my will the blame can't really be placed on the stars though kelsey grammer is good in this he just doesn't have anything to work with his character is said to have gotten so drunk one night that he had welcome aboard tatooed on his penis grammer probably did something even worse got really drunk and agreed to appear in a movie he knew nothing about same for holley save the penis part who is likeable in down periscope just because she's so gorgeous as for schneider whose character is downright annoying there was nowhere to go but up after surf ninjas although he's still in the depths of the comedy ocean after jumping the snl ship my theory is that down periscope is one of those movies that got the green light before the script was even written as a formula comedy okay it's police academy in the navy with frasier at the helm and the chick from dumb and dumber and after everyone was signed on turned into a disaster judging from the video box most other movie critics agree with me the only quote the down periscope copy writers could dig up came from the prevue channel's jim ferguson i guess even jeff craig from second preview who said tank girl kicks butt without ever seeing it didn't like this
negative	movies don't come much more ridiculously titled than i still know what you did last summer but since the movie in question is best described as ridiculous the title sort of works as a warning more than a mouthful to blurt out to the ticket vendor this horror sequel's moniker also contains a grievous oversight that anyone who saw the original will be able to spot what you did summer you actually did the summer last summer and since i knew about it summer as well as summer it's really illogical to say that i know what you did summer the filmmakers would have at least made sense with the shorter i still know the longer i still know what you did two summers ago or the appropriate stupid people getting hacked to bits that last suggestion is the preferable one since the characters in this film do things that are the polar opposite of smart for example if your roommate is plagued by terrible nightmares as a result of being stalked and nearly murdered not long ago would you sneak into her room late at night and hide in the closet even if it was just to locate and borrow a cute little dress probably not but that's precisely what college student karla pop diva brandy does to best friend julie jennifer love hewitt resulting in the first in a long line of phony frights julie you'll recall was one of the sole survivors at the end of surprise hit i know what you did last summer after a slasher with a grudge to bear it's a story began trying to pick off her her buddies and various others in their coastal carolina village in this installment the plot picks up as karla wins a trip to the bahamas and julie yet racked by guilt decides that maybe a tropical getaway will help ease her mind yeah right their island paradise has room of course for one more in the form of the killer muse watson from the first film he sports the same gorton's fisherman a heavy hat and rain slicker that mask his identity but why he's still trying to stay anonymous is a mystery this movie never solves though i suppose his would look funny protruding from the sleeve of a leisure suit in a sense that's the movie's glaring flaw everybody knows who the bad guy is thus evaporating the level of paranoid tension nicely sustained by its prequel the murders and attempted murders in that film were vivid and scary but trey callaway's derivative i still know screenplay makes the fisherman just as dumb as his pretty potential victims when julie lays blissfully unaware in a tanning bed giving him a perfect chance to wreak vengeance once and for all what does he do he the lid shut and cranks up the uv rays you'd think he'd want her gutted now instead of a skin cancer victim later even prequel summer lovers might balk at how little there is here beyond sporadically amusing absurdity and a few shots of blood flowing from toned teenage flesh the innovative gallows humor that scribe and scream wunderkind kevin williamson injected into i know unfolding story is sorely missed replaced with the grating antics of a white rastafarian cabana boy who smokes weed and tosses off slang like yo you'll cheer not shriek when he ends up with a pair of hedgetrimmers firmly implanted in his chest if i know what you did last summer however effective was just the kind of movie that those subversive scream flicks poked fun at then the deadly i still know what you did last summer deserves a roasting on mystery science theatre
negative	synopsis a humorless police officer's life changes when he befriends a golden retriever named einstein and a cute young blond scientist unfortunately einstein shares a psychic link with a trained by the blond scientist to be an unstoppable killing machine and this is loose and after the dog and the girl meanwhile a group of white nsa agents in sunglasses and business suits tries to kill all the other characters in the movie comments watchers reborn a cheaply made turkey is the fourth sequel to the first film version of dean koontz's bestselling novel watchers technically this should have been called watchers v but it seems that this cycle of horror movies much like many other film series has decided to drop the numbers from the titles even the star trek movies dropped the numbers from their titles after star trek vi the makers of watchers reborn probably want to fool unsuspecting video rental customers into thinking this might be a good movie instead of a crappy fifth installment of a film series which should have died a long time ago this really isn't a good movie have you ever rented a movie and recieved a sinking feeling about it when you watched the previews preceding the feature presentation well any hope a viewer may have had perhaps because he is a fan of novelist dean koontz or actor mark hamill will be dashed by the time he's seen the trailers tagged on before the beginning of watchers reborn they're awful these commercials cover films like a strange stripper movie called shadow dancer some weird crap about a dead indian teens and wolves and an action movie called detonator starring scott baio scott baio what idiot dreamed this movie up after surviving these abysmal trailers the person finally gets to watch the movie he rented watchers reborn maybe it won't be that bad he may say to himself perhaps just perhaps the film fluff advertised before it is greatly misleading watchers reborn after all is based on that cool book dean koontz wrote a decade ago it stars mark hamill luke skywalker himself from that terrific star wars trilogy lou rawls is even in the mix unfortunately the force is certainly no longer with mark hamill he looks very sick here and this movie shares only basic plot elements with watchers the book the latter is really too bad koontz is a hack writer producing way too many thrillers for his own good but he is still my favorite hack writer koontz has a writing style which is succinct and suspenseful people who read many of his books however often complain of repetitive plot devices it's definately not a koontz book if there isn't a psychic a dog or a psychotic killer who likes ripping out people's eyeballs watchers has all three devices which may explain why it's arguably the most popular of koontz's books the idea behind koontz's novel though highly implausible is very interesting basically a biological war machine is created a smart dog can be released in battle track down its target and then relay the target's position psychically to a large creature designed to kill in combat silly but kind of neat too i'm sorry i don't mean to ramble on about matters not directly linked to watchers reborn the movie i suppose i just don't want to talk about the movie itself this turkey is really cheesy no one in this movie can act including mark hamill and it's difficult seeing the aged luke skywalker stumble around trying to be the hero the cheese factor is only increased when he's involved in an implied sex scene with the blond biologist geneticist zoologist whom he befriends mercifully the filmmakers opted not to do nudity to be honest the only actor in the film is the golden retriever who plays einstein you know a movie is bad when a dog outacts all of its human counterparts i find it difficult to relate how laughable the action sequences are in this movie and the creature yes the creature out after poor einstein is some guy in a furry suit and a mask which poorly imitates the werewolves in the howling this creature is shot about times but it's okay the creature has the ability to kill people by swinging his arms around and pushing oh he can also rip body parts off allowing for many scenes of fake hands and arms being thrown around cheesy gore that's another main element of watchers reborn it has many bloody scenes which are thoroughly unconvincing and only increase the film's campiness rather than its suspense ultimately i gave watchers reborn a star and a half because bad horror film buffs may get a few kicks out of the film's silliness though this film will tax even their patience it's an minute film but it feels like four hours also i hate to admit i have survived far worse than this anyone who has sat through the christopher lambert and natasha henstridge debacle known as adrenalin fear the rush will know what i mean finally i couldn't help but think that watchers reborn would work well as bot fodder for the creative folks behind one of my favorite shows mystery science theater this thought alone helped me survive watchers reborn with a smile on my face rated r watchers reborn contains dozens of bodies and unconvincing gore it also has violence obviously i wouldn't recommend it for the little kids but i'm sure even young teens would make it through this movie okay instead of watching this film however i recommend reading koontz's book trust me it'll be time much much better spent
negative	you should have heard the old guys in the crowded bathroom following the odd couple ii sneak preview they were as happy a group of men as i've ever encountered what a great movie exclaimed one gent at the urinal everything was so true yeah laughed a man standing next to him i drive as slow as that one guy did my kids give me holy hell for it and peeing is a big part of my day just like with felix chuckled another fellow as he fastened his trousers up around his nipples and prepared to rejoin his wife if you're over and in the habit of driving at least miles per hour below the posted speed limit neil simon's the odd couple ii may be just the film for you others will likely be less charitable while the odd couple ii is amiable enough neil simon's shockingly lazy screenplay feels like a tv reunion show suffering from wheezing situation comedy and jokes straight out of the simon once the toast of broadway has apparently shifted his sights from the great white way to the neighborhood multiplex in branson missouri the contrived story involving the marriage of their kids provides the excuse for a reunion between oscar madison and felix unger who haven't seen each other in years the former roommates fly into california from their respective homes for the wedding and quite literally run into one another at the airport they take off in a rental car for the ceremony in san molina get lost and have a series of wacky adventures on the road jack lemmon and walter matthau reprise their roles as felix the neat freak and oscar the slob while there is an undeniable chemistry between the pair the impact of their reunion is lessened by the fact that they've headlined three films together since grumpy old men grumpier old men and out to sea still the two veteran actors are fun to watch matthau whose magnificently rumpled face looks like a big pile of laundry with eyes has a field day as oscar the crown prince of the curmudgeons lemmon looking pastier than usual is fine as the annoying felix who still punctuates his chronic whining with occasional allergic honks of phnah phnah despite their bickering the characters have real affection for each other providing a welcome respite from the barrage of insults that marked their previous three films together unfortunately matthau and lemmon's charm isn't enough to compensate for simon's hack script which wouldn't pass muster even on a upn sitcom one contrived situation follows another lathered with enough stale liners to supply a dozen comics on night at the local comedy club if someone drags you to this film and you find yourself as bored as i was try entertaining yourself by counting the product placements burger king gets one as does the el pollo loco taco joint but budget car really hits the jackpot between script references to their business and shots of signs and stickers bearing their company name i couldn't keep count of all the plugs i did however keep track of some of the swearing i came up with four three shitheads and two fucks the inclusion of those particular profanities seemed odd for a film aimed at an older audience but the theater full of seniors appeared to have no problem with them howling like crazy every time the boys let rip with a naughty word it's sad that a writer of neil simon's stature has grown desperate enough to resort to swearing for cheap laughs but not surprising when you look at what else gets passed off as humor in this tepid exercise one running gag involves oscar and felix's inability to remember the name of the town where the wedding is to be held at one point the men actually spend seconds just riffing off variants of the word san the sequence is so creatively bankrupt that it is simply embarrassing one of the oldest maxims of is beware of movies that use the author's name in the title neil simon's the odd couple ii is no exception to the rule while the production has enough minor pleasures to warrant a tv viewing on some lazy sunday afternoon it has no business playing in a movie theater of course there's a bathroom full of old guys who would strongly disagree with every word i've written and would probably whip my ass to boot one thing's for sure though they'll never catch me in a car chase
negative	the army comedy genre has never turned out a truly good movie if you don't count neil simon's biloxi blues year after year more predictably cliched military movies come out most recently sgt bilko and none of them ever manage to be anything more than a rehash of the last i thought stripes would be different with ivan reitman as director bill murray as star and harold ramis as and it seemed like it would be ghostbusters in the army instead it was a bunch of unfunny crap in the army murray about as funny and sophisticated here as he was in meatballs plays a loser cab driver who sees the army as his only chance for success and convinces his friend ramis to enlist with him so he does and we get the obligatory drill sergeant from hell and sequences more stale here than ever the characters are even less original ranging from underachieving slob john candy to incompetent captain john larroquette all the big name stars in stripes and even larroquette fall victim to the lame rehashed material and are never really likeable murray in particular he only gets a few decent lines in although those one liners pale in comparison to the hilarious peter venkman character he played three years later in ghostbusters he was even better in caddyshack for crying out loud as with a lot of the late early comedies stripes is a completely juvenile movie only a child would like but is so obsessed no child should be able to watch it i'm sure it seems funny on paper to have candy pay over to mud wrestle five beautiful women but while watching it all that was coming out of my mouth was the admonition dear god every few seconds stripes isn't the playful kind of sex comedy either most of the time it seems downright misogynistic as when larroquette uses his telescope to peer into the women's showers or murray lifts a female m p onto the stove and with an look on his face says he's going to give her the aunt jemima treatment which means shoving a spatula under her butt repeatedly you don't want to stick around as the scene progresses and he uses an ice cream scoop on her genital region i'm not enjoying this the woman protests my sentiments exactly
negative	mercury rising has numerous flaws but there is one that really stands out its central plot device is unnecessary that's right the major aspect of the film that which is supposed to make it different from other routine government conspiracy action flicks could be dropped from the beginning and the movie would turn out exactly the same if not better this central device is the fact that a boy is autistic his name is simon and an evil government bureaucrat named nicholas kudrow alec baldwin wants him dead because he unknowingly cracked a supersecret government code slipped into the back of a puzzle magazine by its programmers just to see if someone could beat it simon is intended to be the heart and soul of the film and we are supposed to feel for him because he is a poor handicapped child thrown into a violent unfair world against his will with only a renegade fbi agent played by bruce willis to protect him the fact that he is autistic does nothing for the emotional intensity or the plot necessities of mercury rising i suppose the original novel upon which the movie was based did much more with this aspect of simon's character and his relationship with willis but here it is lost miko hughes the young actor who plays simon goes through the prescribed motions of being autistic he walks slowly drawls his words kicks and screams when he's touched and has a hard time looking at other people it's a difficult role for an adult much less a young child to play and unfortunately hughes never convinces us that he isn't playing like he's autistic unlike dustin hoffman's performance in rain man or leonardo dicaprio's in what's eating gilbert grape we are always painfully aware that hughes is acting however unlike rain man which used its character's autism in unique and interesting ways to build a credible and touching story mercury rising could go right about its generic predictable plot with simon being simply a really smart but really shy kid hell he doesn't even have to be shy in fact the movie might have been more interesting if he had had a more active role rather than just being carted around under willis' arm willis' character art jeffries is a disillusioned fbi agent who has been removed from undercover work and is now doing menial tasks like listening to wiretaps with rookies who are happy to be doing anything he becomes involved with simon when he is called to check out a murder scene at simon's house where his father has apparently shot his mother in the back and then committed suicide of course we know that isn't the way it happened happen because we saw an evil government hitman with a knock off the parents simon was able to get away and jeffries finds him hiding in a secret compartment in a closet which the rest of the chicago police department had overlooked jeffries who is accused by several characters at different times of being paranoid although his actions never suggest it knows there is something more and he makes it his personal mission to go against everything and everyone in order to protect simon this is quite a task because that same hitman who knocked off simon's parents is crawling everywhere attempting to kill simon at the hospital on the highway and every other place he goes late in the movie jeffries is forced to enlist the aid of a pretty young woman named stacey kim dickens who he meets at a coffee shop of all the aspects of the movie this is the worst i can believe in the decency of the human heart but stacey's character is far too accommodating not only does she agree to watch simon while jeffries runs off to solve the mystery she lets him into her apartment at two o'clock in the morning when she knows the police is after him and then lets him leave simon in her apartment which means that she has to forgo a business trip that is desperately needed to pay the rent the grinding squeals of the rusty plot machine are almost overbearing at this point the movie might have been redeemed by some good action sequences but even here mercury rising doesn't rise to the challenge the movie was directed by harold becker who has made some good suspense films including sea of love and malice but his talent is nowhere to be found in this latest excursion there is one fight on a streetcar between jeffries and another hitman played by peter stormare that is so ineptly directed shot and edited that i had no idea exactly where they were on the streetcar who was hitting who and where this hitman came from and how he knew where jeffries and simon were the grand finale takes place on the roof of a tall building and features a harrowing yawn scene where simon walks along the very edge of the building not because he has to but because it's more suspenseful that way taken as a whole mercury rising is an tepid confused movie that lacks style wit and any traces of a sense of humor usually willis brings his personal brand of understated humor to his roles but here he is too straight and serious this is because the movie wants to be an action flick and a heartfelt drama at the same time but it ends up failing on both fronts maybe the book was better but the way it's handled here is a perfect case study in formula filmmaking guaranteed to bore
negative	i have never been a star trek fan and to tell the truth out of the five films in the series that i have seen i have disliked all of them i do however always go into one of these with an open mind and the ninth film in the series star trek insurrection is no exception dropping almost completely the element of the previous one in the series first contact insurrection tells the story of a planet that holds only people known as the ba'ku as well as the fountain of youth at the start of the picture the villagers go under attack by a second alien species known as the son'a who want to push all of the ba'ku out so that their own race will not die out also attacking the ba'ku is data brent spiner a robot from the star trek enterprise after returning to picard patrick stewart and the gang on their space ship no one can understand why data was somehow taken over by another force so several of the star trek members travel down to the planet of the ba'ku where picard meets up and starts to fall in love with one of the inhabitants a sultry kind alien woman donna murphy who is over but looks to only be in her thirties star trek insurrection is a completely unoriginal and installment in the series and is a big step down from first contact which at least appeared to try to make something a bit different in insurrection however it plays like a episode of the television show due to the generic storyline and an emphasis on rather than excitement the film was filled with nearly comedy and worse yet most of it fell flatter than a cartoon character that drops off a cliff meanwhile when there were action sequences they were not at all interesting or inventive relying on that old reliable ticking timer that counts down very very slowly this plot device which is seen in just about every action film made nowadays is getting old fast are filmmakers so bankrupt of ingenuity and ideas that they must always have a timer ticking away during the climax another element of star trek films in general is that picard seems to always have to have a love interest but then she always miraculously disappears when the next film is made two or three years later although donna murphy who falls victim to this thankless love interest role here is actually one of the few characters that we get to know in the running time alfre woodard was far superior in first contact she should have returned for this one but i don't blame her for not wanting to waste her time with this movie's disappointing and often lifeless screenplay by michael piller star trek insurrection is perhaps the weakest film in the star trek series although i have not seen what is widely considered the worst star trek v the final frontier insurrection is the type of safe sequel that will bewilder since it is so compared to most of today's blockbuster action films although most of these are honestly not very good either and should disappoint the loyal trekkies since it could have easily been better if the makers had realized that the screenplay needed to go through a few more drafts on second thought they probably should have completely thrown the script out that way they could have come up with a story that at least had a sign of intelligence and freshness
negative	while the summer movie season approached its long awaited cessation we had yet another shoddy subordinate disposable celluloid superhero movie brought on by the inexorable hasten from the major studios to please kids with everything they think kids will go for to disburse their seven bucks and once again we have one of the worst films of the year the trend of the and bear in mind it's a trend not a movie is spawn and if you've seen the animated series on hbo you'll recall it embodies the lost life of a disfigured man an individual who has transpired the ultimate punishment he's been sent to hell todd mcfarlane the creator of the spawn comic book must have had a tough time sitting through spawn for his creativity and themes about resurrection and loss of identity were all being jettisoned in favor of reliable special effects style over substance ambience over anything else not only does spawn rely entirely on special effects the story about a bewildered individual who must take on a group of bad guys and find himself in the process is realized in such a sordid incapable manner it becomes indigestible after a while every character in this film is lifeless vacuous and seemingly written by a depressed college student the story begins like in every superhero movie in this age with a man living an idyllic life al simmons michael jai white a government shares the love of his wife wanda theresa russell and daughter has a wiseass partner terry d b sweeney and is content with the job his boss jason wynn martin sheen provides him the next element in the film is the part when things go awry and as expected everyone turns the tables on poor al as the two are investigating their latest mission at some sort of biological weapons plant al is befriended by jason and dies in a gory and truly sickening scene inevitably it leads everyone to the conclusion that he has passed away hence jason's mischievous plan to conquer the world is just commencing its initial stages when al makes a pact with satan himself agreeing to command the devil's army to take over the world and he gets to see his family again so our pal al has been uplifted to hell and while his transformation from normal guy to spawn takes place his ol' partner terry forms a relationship with his wife time passes and now spawn is present in the grotesque inner city the ghetto where cog nicol williamson teaches spawn how to utilize his neat artifacts his motorbike armor etc this character is merely a poor man's obi wan kenobi without all the mythological hoopla now the stage is set spawn the new of evil' vs evil and evil takes the cake doubtlessly john leguizamo's deliciously heinous performance as the injurious clown working for wynn is the film's relief point all this anguish pain themes and putrid action scenes are invisible to leguizamo who steals the show and derives joy from his character which is basically a compilation of one liners and then there's martin sheen whichever way you look you will find carving boards near his pitying and downright appalling last two years his selections calls for an immediate firing of his agent as the megalomaniac boss his caricature plays like a bad dream out of a scrambled and left in the shelf to rot this is the man that starred in films such as apocalypse now and wall street i'd never thought i'd be saying this but at this juncture charlie sheen's career is in better shape spawn is a movie in which realism or even an attempt to draw a parallel between the problems of the hero and real life is identifiable for most of the film the vapid michael jai white consumes his time ogling jumping through roofs and performing all kinds of acrobatic exercises which even batman and robin accomplished better it constantly reminded us we were watching a superhero a very bad superhero movie continually the film kept on depending on special effects and sadly this is how pictures are being made perhaps no other movie better than spawn illustrates the deterioration of cinema through computer wizardry the filmmakers seem to have forgotten every human element possible the quality of this film is abysmal and insulting it is perceptible that director mark dippe attempted to touch the psychological chord that tim burton's batman did touch the desperation of a man whose life has all but evaporated in one spontaneous act but bruce wayne had human elements to him he was pensive resourceful and had relationships which made our perspective on him equally human the character of al simmons seems to be longing for a drastic change as if he's fatigued about being normal and as all superheroes batman superman the phantom they must possess an element of normal civilians to make us think they are extraordinary none of this is present in spawn the fighting sequences are weakly executed the dialogue is and the art direction an odious duplicate of blade runner's as an example of this film's vastly creative imagination the writers of spawn decided to include a poor orphan boy who is abandoned and beaten and then rescued by spawn so our emotions tend to be a little more sympathetic admittedly i did laugh once in the film and that's when todd mcfarlane showed up in an unexpected cameo as a bum it is no wonder why so american children grow up with no engrossment for art or literature besides blaming a large portion of it on the laughable school system i condemn the other part to garbage like spawn movies that present no admiration no captivation no richness and vague interest in what children are being subjected to and kids will continue to see films like spawn simply because they are unable to differentiate what makes an imaginative wondrous film from an insipid and wasteful one children are not muppets and spawn unapologetically targets children
negative	it's not a bad thing to update old stories it's done all the time in the oral tradition the difficulty with this film is not that the tale has changed it's that it's dry the new cinderella danielle drew barrymore is not sitting around waiting for her prince to come she's a woman of the late twentieth century albeit situated in sixteenth century france when her father dies she stays on in his house even though she is mistreated by her wicked stepmother rodmilla anjelica huston she works by day but reads sir thomas more by firelight at night although the story is updated you know the plot danielle meets prince henry dougray scott goes to a ball disguised is later found out and they live happily ever after the movie is often like watching a filmed play theater in real life is engrossing theater on the screen is usually lifeless there doesn't seem to be much going on the camera can be a star of films here it's a danielle's convictions are compromised a socialist and a feminist she pretends to be royalty to get her man a kind woman her last act in the movie is one of revenge the most enjoyable characters are the most cartoonish the fairy godmother leonardo da vinci patrick godfrey is fun to watch as the eccentric old man who advises danielle huston is enjoyable in her wickedness in all fairness my companion loved the film maybe it's one of those chick flicks that men don't like it is certainly a date film nearly the entire audience was couples oh well maybe it's good for something
negative	i suppose it's unfair to criticize a movie like hudson hawk which has been panned by reviewers and moviegoers alike since it's release michael lehmann's was quick to win the title box office flop of all time' or close thereof the movie stars bruce willis as renowned cat burglar hudson hawk who's just been released from sing sing prison after many years in isolation me put it this way he explains never saw et' greeting him is his old friend and partner in crime played by danny aiello who becomes the subject of many amusing fat jokes these are rather welcome in a movie filled with so many completely unfunny sight gags cartoonish villains and unbelievable coincidences it appears as if director lehmann didn't know when to stop all the absurd silliness and he piles on layer after layer of utter ridiculousness as the movie propels itself toward the finish line if at some point during hudson hawk you make the assumption that things couldn't get goofier you'll soon be eating your words but i'm inclined to say that this film is not quite as terrible as it's box office numbers suggest it's and entertaining if you've got incredible patience and a warped sense of humor for the first portion of this review i'm going to try and center on the positive aspects of hudson hawk wish me luck first and foremost bruce willis is a good sport while i'm not entirely sure what he was smoking when he this script willis is quite aware that the entire project is a big fat ugly joke he constantly gives deadpan reactions to things that are very silly and which means he has more than his share of deadpan reactions another plus is the appearance of andie macdowell as a schizophrenic nun and love interest for the title character they meet when hudson goes on a mission to steal a priceless book from the vatican and their relationship escalates in interest from there it's unfortunate that mcdowell's character is used just as an excuse for there to be a predictable and she offers absolutely no encouraging chemistry with willis but now i'm rambling on again about the negative things aren't i enough of the charade for the most part hudson hawk is an excruciating experience it's stupid pointless and repetitive i can only wonder what bruce willis fans thought after exiting the theater because this film really doesn't have the potential to please anyone action fans should take note that hudson hawk is composed of comedy and even the action sequences are skittery rushed and poorly edited and those expecting a hearty laugh or two will find it difficult even to smirk during all of the don't get me wrong this film is not devoid of laughs it's too bad most of them are unintentional or just plain forced the impressive cast looks suitably embarrassed it's understandable to see willis and aiello in a movie of this caliber but as for the presence of future academy award winner james coburn i'm not entirely sure coburn plays a former nemesis of the hawk who again comes into play and he looks unsure of his place the entire movie especially when he resorts to martial arts during the final showdown and has a fight with willis that would look right at home in a jackie chan film things get more bizarre when we're introduced to his team of rejects named after chocolate bars including future nypd blue star david caruso as the speechless if that's not enough for you there's richard e grant and sandra bernhard hamming it up as a deranged couple on the brink of a convoluted economic takeover their pooch provides a couple of the big laughs here wait maybe the only big laughs i'm not sure what kind of movie everyone had in mind when filming hudson hawk i can't even begin to start about the film's absurd plot but let's not get into that i suppose there's some amusement viewers could derive from the ridiculous premise if they were that desperate but hudson hawk never even has a clue of where it's going from minute one and from there it's minutes of pure cinematic muck
negative	if there were a subject just screaming to be made into a film it was studio the late steve rubell's infamous new york discotheque which came to symbolize the excesses of the disco era's heyday easy drugs and even easier sex between everyone all set to a thumping dance beat so when miramax started production on last year the buzz of hype and resulting anticipation began an edgy film as as the club itself written and directed by a promising mark christopher and starring some hot young talent salma hayek neve campbell newcomer ryan phillippe and mike myers in his dramatic debut my how easily does the worm turn hype turned into damage control when word got out about reshoots wrapped only a month ago a rash of edits that left virtually the entire cast and crew especially christopher unhappy and the very likely possibility that miramax would not screen the finished film for critics at the last minute though miramax did decide to screen the film so hastily scheduled was the screening that myers's last name was misspelled on the invitation not to mention the numerous typos in the press notes for a media audience that came away noticeably less than impressed myself included and with good some way the supremely disappointing has made the historically hip haven of hedonism boring although christopher has distanced himself from the finished film he still must shoulder some of the blame for lifelessness focuses for the most part on a trio of employees at the club coat check disco diva anita a wasted hayek her busboy husband greg breckin meyer and most prominently the shane o'shea phillippe who enjoys a quick rise from busboy to head bartender these characters are about as generic as those descriptions in focusing on the hired help christopher really missed the boat with the exception of the flamboyant rubell myers in a turn the meaty stories to be told at studio are not the workers' but those of the people who went there to party not necessarily the numerous vip guests but the wild eccentrics who managed to be picked from the crowd by the club's famously doormen and dance among other things the night away with the rich famous and infamous the only taste of the crowd comes by way of ellen dow's feisty dottie a and granny but she's a peripheral character at best as such aside from the expected overhead crowd shots there is precious little actual in what is a disco one about the pinnacle of the the dancing even whit stillman's which wasn't so much concerned with disco as it was witty dialogue within a group of preppies featured at least one extended dance scene dancing isn't the only thing glazed over in is the sex but that may not be entirely christopher's fault from what i've heard his original vision was something considerably more dark and daring starting with the shane character he was conceived and actually filmed as a wild morally ambiguous bisexual which would have made an efficient springboard to cover the pansexual pleasure palace aspect of studio legend but somewhere between principal photography and the final cut shane was defanged and quite literally straightened out consequently so was the film aside from a brief glimpse of erotic encounters toward the beginning of the film shane's fleeting dalliance with seductive socialite billie sela ward and an abbreviated bedhopping montage the sexual dimension is just about ignored shane in this incarnation is sanitized to the point of blandness an idealistic who pines for a frequent guest at the club julie black campbell a worldly soap star with yes a heart of gold this romance would have been slightly less tedious if either campbell or phillippe made some connection with each other or the audience they fail on both counts ultimately failure comes down to three letters as in there isn't any to be had for the audience too much time is spent with the boring shane and too little is spent on the club floor where all the action took place anyhow though whatever time is spent on the floor is not used very effectively when anita finally gets her big break and perform onstage at the club it should be a euphoric height for her the crowd and the audience however the moment doesn't get a chance to reach that level for it is cut short by a moment of forced sentimentality which also mars the film's conclusion one of the reshoots strangely upbeat and wistful the resolution is wholly unconvincing and unsatisfying there is an interesting portrait of studio out of them in is not one of them they're on cable tv a couple of documentaries produced by e and these two fascinating looks at the club and all the sordid within it show that there's still a great disco movie to be made the problem is after the critical and certain box office failure of the subject may have run its hollywood course
negative	a hotshot lawyer gets an obviously guilty child molester acquitted and shortly after during the victory celebration gets offered an opportunity to show his prowess in new york city the lawyer kevin lomax keanu reeves is not offered a job yet he is asked to simply pick a jury he accepts the jury he selects work out well and before long he is offered a job with the firm making his decision easy is the fact that not only is he offered big money but a gorgeous apartment he convinces his wife mary ann charlize theron to make the move to new york the first case given to him is a big test a winless case concerning a man who sacrifices animals in his basement the charge was health code violations and kevin once again shows his skill and earns an acquittal his new boss and partner in the firm john milton al pacino is quite impressed and takes kevin under his wing explaining many of his philosophies on law women and sex and angles the promise of a blissful wealthy life kevin's next case is a dream case given to him by milton himself much to the chagrin to his colleagues defending a triple murder suspect who has had a history of problems with the law although kevin's career is taking off his home life is not doing very well mary ann is starting to have numerous problems she is experiencing severe depression over kevin's long hours and before long is having horrible dreams and hallucinations of people turning into ghouls their faces becoming horribly disfigured kevin does not help matters by dismissing his wife he does not spend more time with her as he explains to milton that he needs to spend as much time on the case as possible to get it over with then focus all of his attention on his wife not helping matters is the fact that kevin is having ideas about a possible affair with a sexy lawyer connie nielson also working with the firm mary ann falls deeper into her madness as kevin spends more time away from home kevin eventually looses control of his life and has to institutionalize his wife and gets disturbing news from his mother judith ivey about the mystery concerning the identity of his father he also starts to lose control of his case kevin learns that all of his problems have been caused by the work of one man that man is his boss mr milton a truly evil character who just may be the devil himself kevin must somehow confront milton and thwart whatever diabolical plan he has in store but how do you defeat the devil why is it that most courtroom scenes in the movies are absurd do filmmakers really believe that normal courtroom drama doesn't fit the bill and they have to juice them up the courtroom scenes in this movie would never happen in a real courtroom which wouldn't have been too bad if it weren't keanu reeves trying to pull it off i give reeves credit for trying hard but throughout the movie i never saw the kevin lomax character just an actor trying very hard to play kevin lomax and coming up short charlize theron defines the term in her performance as mary ann lomax a disappointment in contrast to her good performance in days in the valley the only good performance in the movie is by al pacino but i kept asking myself what the heck he was doing in this mess maybe he felt it would be interesting playing the devil and you can tell he is having fun doing so but his skill as an actor cannot save the poor performances and lackluster script that surround him it's pretty standard stuff including the fact that the hotshot lawyer appears to be the only competent person on the planet who can do anything right in the courtroom please read no further if you do not want the ending spoiled but i have to get something off of my chest in i remember watching a movie called wisdom with emilio estevez and demi moore and the ending of that film did the worst possible thing that a movie could do what i like to call guess what it was all a dream scenario in wisdom the two lead characters are killed at the end only to have one of the characters wake up from an apparent and say gosh i'm glad that didn't really happen i considered it inexcusable the way the audience was toyed with well the same thing happens in the devils advocate and although arguments could be made surrounding whether it was actually a dream perhaps milton went back in time to try a different route for his plan since it failed and he is the devil but the point is that the last of the film didn't happen i know it's a stretch after all it is a movie and nothing really happened but i just get annoyed to get toyed with like that of course the dream ending could almost be forgiven if the story that precedes it was at least an interesting one as i recall wisdom was a decent film the devil's advocate is not the devils advocate directed by taylor hackford john milton al pacino kevin lomax keanu reeves mary ann lomax charlize theron mrs lomax judith ivey eddie barzoon jeffrey jones christabella connie nielson written by randy turgeon march
negative	the spy game is up you can thank charlie's angels the movie for that when did banality and pandering become okay just steal from hong kong the matrix and a kitschy tv show from the and that's a movie charlie's angels is one of the worst examples of action film homogeneity and shameless duplicity in any film i've seen in ages charlie's angels is dumb just plain dumb as we all know three of the hottest females on the planet drew barrymore cameron diaz and lucy liu are three working for the mysterious millionaire named charlie they all drive fast cars look even in the morning and don't seem to get a scratch even when fighting armed men having buildings explode ten feet in front of them or flying through the air in matrix and while the entourage spends minutes romping around in wetsuits waitress uniforms and wet they scarcely succeed in resembling so much as a group of annoying drunk sorority girls the kind who hit on everybody at a party the actual plot revolves around the ridiculous story of a millionaire computer engineer the great sam rockwell who gets kidnapped by a mysterious rival computer company of course the rival wants control of his new personal identification system which involves such buzzwords as gps cellular tracking and even mainframe the amazing crispin glover lends his acting chops as a crazed henchmen involved in all the nasty things that happen to the angels like battling each of them in many matrix again fight sequences and harboring a strange attraction to locks of the angels' hair the coup de grace is bill murray as bosley serving as charlie's manservant or more to the point the angels' pimp the rest of the movie comprises a revenge arc enough costume changes to fill three productions of les miserables fight sequences that would lend credible evidence to a jackie chan and the wachowski brothers lawsuit for intellectual property theft and the strange transformation of sam rockwell into mickey rourke's brother charlie's angels starts off with a bang and ends up being a soggy burrito left out overnight nothing is difficult plausible or believable in any of the angels' actions it feels like the matrix mission impossible and cleopatra jones and the casino of gold all rolled into one diaz is a knucklehead barrymore is the dangerous one mean and tough and about as believable as katie holmes in the role liu is just lucy liu looking good in a black leather suit the list of movies from which charlie's angels is directly lifted is equally astonishing the writers apparently ran the copier all night stealing scenes from armageddon lethal weapon ii all of jackie chan's movies the great escape saturday night fever revenge of the nerds payback darkman dr no the matrix as mentioned and even tv's friends it's a shame too because one of the many screenwriters john august was at the helm of last year's favorite go then again what can you expect from a director known solely as mcg there is no camp value in the film no interesting main characters no invigorating action scenes no reason at all to waste your time except to ogle the hot chicks and enjoy the performances of a few supporting players note to hollywood next time let's leave the tv shows on the tv
negative	i have always been a fan of director neil jordan from his early work such as the company of wolves to the crying game and interview with a vampire his latest film the butcher boy is a return to his roots in ireland but unfortunately it is not a successful homecoming told through the eyes of a irish boy francis newcomer eomann owens this peculiar film follows him as we learn a little about his decidedly unstable life his father stephen rea is an indifferent alcoholic his mother fiona shaw is mentally ill and always in and out of hospitals and francis himself delights in terrorizing the mother of one of his friends after he is forbidden to see him anymore francis is the type of boy who always has a lot to say but mostly fluctuates between sarcasm and frightening honesty and it quickly becomes apparent that he may very well be a little psychotic even capable of brutal murder the premise of the butcher boy is one that could have very well been turned into a disturbing motion picture but somehow nothing works francis is in almost every scene but we learn very little about him as if the film was distancing itself away from him when i suspect we were actually supposed to sympathize with him this is definately not young owens fault however because he gives a brilliantly accurate performance and is able to also seem menacing as well the fact that we don't get close to his character is because of the sloppy screenplay the supporting characters are no help though rea is wasted and has practically no scenes where he actually talks to his son or to anyone else for that matter he usually seems to just be sitting watching the television throughout shaw has a little bit more to work with since she has one touching scene in which she talks to francis in a time of despair but is out of the picture just as we are beginning to know her and singer sinead o'connor appears rather effectively as the virgin mary who occasionally gives francis advice the pacing is all off in the butcher boy although the story could have been dynamite it moves at a deadeningly slow rate and i found my mind wandering every once in a while it is also very episodic because the developments in the story fly by with no satisfying payoffs at one point francis is sent away to a juvenile prison and an odd possibly sexual relationship begins to develop between a priest and himself but nothing comes of it i'd rather think of the butcher boy as a brief diversion for director jordan rather than a total misfire he has already proven to be a strong director but he lucked out with this latest film what could have been a courageous unsettling character study of an emotionally disturbed young boy only manages to be an ineffective uninvolivng bore
negative	as you should know this summer has been less than memorable with a total of decent films it's not a surprise that these big budget failures keep appearing with that said you can pretty much predict what my opinion on the warrior will be the film is based on the michael crichton eaters of the dead in which ahmed ibn fahdlan is banished from his country for looking at a wife of a king after tarveling for many months he comes across a gang of norsemen who are forced to pick men to protect a town from mythical monsters who travel in the fog so they start picking men and are left without thus ahmed is choosen so far it sounds interesting right not when all of this takes place in minutes after that they basically run around killing that alone shows how much a script is needed for a film because once your story is introduced you have the rest of the film to start developing it obviously that's not the case here even if you are going into the film expecting an action packed adventure you will be disappointed since all the action takes place in fog it is constantly hard to see a scene clearly due to those circumstances and to poor camera work can't the camera men sit still i'd like to actually watch a film in focus but again they failed to deliver that as well the film moves on and on until the point where you can care less about anything but the popcorn you're eating with corny dialogue that the characters laugh at for some odd reason a script that goes nowhere dull action sequences a predictable ending and worst of all weak characters there's basically nothing to like here except for maybe the set designs that's the only thing that honestly caught my interest when i heard that john mctiernan the director wanted his name kept out of the project that made me wonder why well now i know crichton's greed forced mctiernan to edit his finished product which led to a big arguement what's there to argue about anyway the film couldn't be saved no matter how much they spent or casted seeing films like the haunting and big daddy making money i wouldn't be surprised to see the warrior become a hit please do me a favor and save your money at all costs or else you will be lost in the fog like the film itself
negative	if i were one of those arrogant critics who thinks his review has some great impact on the success or failure of certain films i might say that i review movies that don't look particularly good because i'm doing a service to my readers by warning them against seeing it if that were true i could put a banner at the top of my site that reads shay casey seeing bad movies so you don't have to but i know that's going to see whatever movies you want to no matter what i say so i have to tell the truth every once in a while i get a nasty masochistic urge to see a bad movie you know the feeling when you're sick of seeing all these damn academy award contenders and you want to see something you can have a ball trashing mercilessly sometimes i think that's why anyone goes to see pauly shore movies ever admit it sometimes you like seeing bad movies so do i so i saw supernova truth be told supernova wasn't quite as bad as i thought it might be maybe i just felt sorry for the actors or maybe i thought it could have been decent if the studio hadn't started tinkering with the director's walter hill final cut causing him to want his name removed maybe i'm becoming a softy in any case i didn't find supernova as bad as the advance buzz would have me believe but it's still bad the film takes place aboard the medical space vessel nightingale the crew includes captain a j marley robert forster his new second officer nick vanzant james spader head medical officer kaela evers angela bassett medical technicians yerzy penalosa lou diamond phillips and danika lund robin tunney and computer technician benj sotomejor wilson cruz there are some attempts at characterization but all that means is that nick has a shady past involving a drug addiction which puts kaela on edge yerzy and danika have a relationship that requires them to make at each other every five minutes and benj apparently gay is in love with the computer apparently female don't expect any more explanation because you won't get it anyway the crew gets a distress call from a location deep in space to which a failed mining operation had been sent during the dimension jump i think that's what it's called but don't hold me to it the captain is killed and the man who sent the distress signal peter facinelli is brought on board he calls himself troy larson making him the supposed son of a man kaela once had a relationship with then a bunch of really predictable stuff starts happening have you seen alien have you seen event horizon a lame movie in its own right good then you've seen supernova cuts or not there is nothing original about this screenplay and nothing unpredictable either after all no one's going to think for a second that troy won't turn out to be a villain but the bigger problem with supernova is that it can' t just stick to the simple plot it's afforded numerous the script may be credited to three people but it's a gross underestimate have crammed this lean film with tons of extraneous plot threads that all remain underdeveloped was there something about a limping robot shaped like a fighter pilot did the ship's computer learn something about humanity what was that glowing lava lamp artifact troy brought on board with him and just what does the film's title signify if anything as far as i can tell it refers to a very small plot detail that isn't developed just like the rest of these unnecessary story elements character relationships in this film also make very little sense for some reason every person in this film keeps having sex we get an unusually early sex scene between phillips and tunney within the first minutes bassett and spader's characters start off hating each other fifteen minutes and one bottle of pear brandy later they're engaging in some when troy the creepy stranger shows up on the ship of course both female crew members will fall in love with him every single shift in character interaction happens extremely suddenly which is only one of the many obvious clues to how much this film has been cut the most prominent example however may be the fact that when the film starts there are no opening credits furthermore the end of the film looks like they took what were originally intended to be the opening credits and spliced them in right before the real end credits maybe that's why the film's title is mentioned twice during the end credits right between james spader and robert forster right after you get over the shock of not being told what movie you're seeing lest you decide to walk out upon making that discovery you might notice that the movie seems to have dropped you right in the middle of a scene with introduction to any of the characters or situations the rest of the movie feels like they skipped over the middle stuff in the character changes you know where they explain things and just went from point a to point b point a danika is thoroughly enamored of yerzy and is ready to have his baby point b tunney is now shagging troy and yerzy is unusually obsessed with the lava lamp thing doesn't make sense since i didn't understand anything about these characters' motivations did i care when troy abruptly starts murdering them and he does knocking off three of them in about minutes not a whit it's a shame because this cast contains a lot of talented actors looking for something to do they don't find it bassett and spader say every line in the same monotone voice with the same blank expressions on their faces sexual tension more like constipation maybe they're just embarrassed at having to utter such howlers as this thing was made by someone more powerful than god and a whole lot less nice not that we ever find out who that is mind you the climax of their relationship taking place in a transport pod is probably the film's biggest as troy peter facinelli inhabits the most obvious villain in history that no one ever suspected he' s awfully but it's not as if he's given any more notes to work with the rest of the cast does even less tunney stands around looking cute then scared phillips broods cruz flirts with the computer then they all die and a star blows up or something but i really wasn't paying much attention by then supernova is pretty awful but i'm cutting it a little slack merely because i expected less than what i got that's it if you expect it to be good for whatever reasons you may have you'll probably hate it more than i will even the special effects are fairly unimpressive nothing you haven' t seen before and suffice to say the script isn't going to save the film honestly though what do you expect from a film with about a dozen writers and a director who had his name removed and replaced with a pseudonym it usually results in a bad movie and that's what supernova is
negative	for timing reasons having to do with baby sitters we recently went to a multiplex and saw undercover blues i would give it one half of a star for guts anyone in a movie this bad would have to have guts i later read a ny times review that said kathleen turner and dennis quaid had gotten so plump they looked like they had the mumps in the show the script was the worst part they had characters who talked with funny accents in an attempt to make you laugh they had lots of great sight gags like two people trying to go in a door together and therefore bumping shoulders against the door turner and quaid both kept smiling like some idiots on a game show the good news is that we were smart enough to vote with our feet and left buy some tickets and give them to your worst enemies tell them the show is great and smile a lot one of the top few films of this or any year a must see film excellent show look for it average movie kind of enjoyable poor show don't waste your money one of the worst films of this or any year totally unbearable review written on september opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's
negative	the obvious reason for producing a sequel to an immensely popular movie is to acquire continued profits the rationale is sound but in many cases of this and recent years the sequel is a shoddy product that's exposed for the vehicle it really is last year's speed and scream as well as this year's species ii have all been products that have been decisively less than satisfactory in some cases a sequel can even discredit its predecessor as with the latest flick i still know what you did last summer whatever uniqueness the original might've had now seems trite and overplayed when paired with this abominable thriller julie james jennifer love hewitt and ray bronson freddie prinze jr are back from the original to star in i still know reprising their roles in typical fashion julie and ray experience a rather predictable at the beginning of the movie leaving the door wide open for newcomer will benson matthew settle will and julie hit it off and along with friends karla brandy norwood and tyrell mekhi phifer the foursome heads off to a radio vacation in the tropics unfortunately things aren't so peachy once they arrive and with a regularity you could set your watch by the infamous fisherman muse watson is back with his hook it's another bloody showdown complete with cliffhanger ending there's not much that's original about i still know and with the market saturated by thrillers like this one it's unlikely that i still know will get any recognition other than that of a bad sequel for fans of the genre this will be required viewing material but the bottom line is that the material here is just recycled from the original i know what you did last summer the aura of thrillerism surrounding the plot isn't heightened by skillful scripting or camera work but rather a tense score and manipulative editing the man with the hook ends up becoming very belittled this time around when the script gives him too many lines of dialogue he goes from being a scary figure to a nutcase in a few short and painful moments much of the mystery is dropped for the sake of getting the point the whole reason the plot exists julie and karla must guess the capital of brazil in order to win the trip from the radio station is a dead giveaway lessening suspense and creating a timing problem and whereas the killer's identity might've been a question in the first movie it's almost a given here which changes the dynamic of the movie drastically three or four teens run automatically from a man in a rain slicker they nonchalantly refer to as the killer they're almost used to it and the performances show it not hewitt nor prinze nor brandy nor phifer give a decent show and so in the end it's left wide open for a third movie and most likely a brand new supporting cast god help us
negative	i'm a dedicated fan of writer kevin williamson's work he always finds a clever way to spice up old material with witty dialogue and fresh ideas that stem from his inventive brain with teaching mrs tingle his directorial debut williamson has reached the end of his rope what used to be intelligent about his films is hopelessly stale here the components are all there including an encouraging premise that all high school students can relate to but where are the thrills the laughs both are supposedly absent from this draggy exercise in elaborate revenge and what a shame that is i loved the scream films heck i even enjoyed the goofiness of the faculty kevin williamson was the reason horror films were such a big draw at the box office teaching mrs tingle a black comedy that will leave a gaping void in his optimistic followers may put an end to his reign or perhaps it will encourage him to spend more time perfecting a script than to worry about his directing duties i still have my faith but i fear the name of kevin williamson may soon be a forgotten echo of the past the title character of his pet project is a vicious uncaring history teacher who is played deliciously by british actress helen mirren mrs tingle is basically every student's worst nightmare a heartless human being bent on distributing poor marks to even the most of her pupils the principal michael mckean is horrified of her and she is unanimously despised among her fellow staff members i enjoyed the fact that everyone in the hallway quickly steers out of her way mirren's performance is one of the very few delights in this distressingly hollow black comedy that goes down like a flat soft drink in other words it's a poor substitute for williamson's best work the plot is a big problem here material that could have been enjoyable is rendered totally ridiculous by poor handling on the part of the director the likable katie holmes plays leigh ann an hoping to get a college scholarship but typical mrs tingle says her history project which she worked on for countless hours is laughable later on while studying in the gymnasium a classmate barry watson offers her a duplicate of mrs tingle's final exam leigh ann's best friend marisa coughlan encourages her to use it alas the old hag herself finds the three scheming and snatches the test and prepares to talk to the principal in the morning in the morning how convenient the three students head to mrs tingle's house attempting to set the facts straight and clear leigh ann's name things get out of hand and the teacher gets knocked unconscious in a tussle the plan is to tie her to a bed and try to get some reasoning out of her of course not everything goes entirely to plan besides pointless involving the football coach jeffrey tambor horribly wasted there is little by way of actual progress there is no urgency to the situation little tension or laughs are involved the humor is completely inconsistent after many of the jokes the theater was so silent i could have heard a fly sneeze you continue to await some momentum in the story something that could possibly revive the slow pace a moment like that never arises williamson also does a handsome job of wasting some of the key supporting players including the talented mckean and larry sanders' vet tambor and the beautiful vivica a fox has one lifeless scene as a caring guidance counselor and then williamson disposes of her character entirely on the plus side holmes and coughlan are admirable with the latter giving a frighteningly believable exorcism impression and molly ringwald has an amusing cameo appearance as a substitute teacher while everything is pretty lifeless teaching mrs tingle remains watchable there are a few promising ideas that pop up now and again but anything remotely interesting is squandered by the inane script mirren is easily the best reason to keep watching she is convincingly evil and fun to watch but even her gifted delivery can't save individual scenes that flounder in boredom if there is one word for the movie surrounding her it would be basically kevin williamson is his worst enemy here his uneventful direction prevents any aspects of his screenplay to be appreciated not that his writing here is especially good we will see when rookie screenwriter ehren kruger writes the third installment in the scream franchise this christmas whether williamson is for real
negative	a film that means well but is too pushy in promoting its belabored point and too sentimental to be compelling as a drama it's jeroen krabb melodrama about a community of jews in antwerp in who can't forget their bitter past the heroine is an attractive carefree nonreligious chaja fraser who wants to forget her jewish roots by getting involved in student demonstrations screwing a student rebel leader and living with her gentile friends away from her nagging mother s gebrecht and her eccentric father schell her parents are survivors of the holocaust concentration camps and her home life is filled with angst her mother is in denial about the past always busying herself by cooking soup and baking cakes and complaining about everything while her father is more openly loving but has recently been absorbed in searching for two suitcases filled with mementos a family album silverware and his old violin he buried them in a garden during the war while fleeing the nazis but can't locate them now due to all the changes in the city out of frustration after quitting her job as a dishwasher and facing eviction from her apartment she reluctantly accepts a job as a nanny with an hasidic couple that an old man in her parents' apartment building mr apfelschnitt topol tells her about the hasidics are they don't go to the cinema or watch tv adhere to strict dress codes and strictly observe their religious laws chaja is at first put off by the way they expect her to follow their rules but soon finds the wife mrs kalman rossellini to be kind and she becomes attached to one of her children a named simcha monty who doesn't talk the stern mr kalman krabb is not friendly to her and considers her to be a whore because of the way she dresses to hammer home the point of how hasn't gone away there's a barrage of overdone and uninvolving scenes with a sneering concierge bradley who keeps making nasty remarks about jews and tries to make things inconvenient for them by preventing the jewish family from using the elevator the film is done in by its script as the story adapted from carl friedman's book the shovel and the loom goes from one false note to another until it gets lost in all the goo of its sentimentality it starts off telling chaja's story of how she's a lost jewess trying to find her identity then to her nanny role as she loves a mute child stuck in an insulated environment and then it makes it a story about the lingering effects of the bitter past that can't be forgotten the effort seemed as the film kept delivering too many obvious messages that it ponderously kept delivering through the stock characters the supporting cast consists of all wooden characters who give their roles a cartoonish flavoring chaja's parents are given no human shades while the janitor villain was a particularly annoying role that was and falsely acted the only ones who fought through the script and showed some feelings were fraser whose effervescent face was expressive of both the trying times she was going through and the joys she felt but most admirably showing how she could be so mistaken as to think that she could forget her roots while rossellini gave a warm performance of a woman suffering in silence but is strong in accepting her faith topol's reassuring performance as the wise man who says all the right things to fraser acts as the true voice of the filmmaker in explaining all the sufferings with common sense the film brazenly uses little simcha to get across its agenda of pointing out how the patriarchal world can be cruel when it can't love it starts out by showing how under chaja's loving care he's taken to the duck pond and soon starts jabbering away beginning by saying quack' and then going on to ask the four questions during a passover seder but by showing how the boy is so terrified of his strict father that he wets his pants in his presence refuses to speak because of his stern dad and eventually becomes the victim of a tragic accident the film thereby exploits the boy's sufferings and his story just becomes tiresome and not sincerely done i felt i didn't just see a movie but i attended a lecture for the whole minutes of this serious but unappetizing story it was the kind of movie that you hoped would somehow end soon as it seemed to be in the habit of rehashing its same viewpoint message it keeps sending was already received in the last shot where father and daughter are hopelessly digging for the lost luggage one has the impression that no one in the film learned anything about themselves or the past that seems strange since i thought that was what this film was supposed to be about unless i was mistaken and the film's real aim was to make us cry over simcha
negative	the tagline for this film is some houses are just born bad so i didn't expect too much from this but i had preserved a little spark of ope as i entered the theatre i thought liam neeson cathrine zeta jones and jan de bont i thought mabe it will be fun and in fact the beginning was rather intriguing but by the end of it i thought why liam neeson and cathrine zeta jones jan de bont these great actors are basically helpless with this muddled mess that defies any rationality here is the story in the monstrously mansion known as hill house visitors are tricked by an unknown doctor liam neeson into being guinea pigs in a fright experiment under the guise of an insomnia investigation among them is a sophisticated bisexual cathrine zeta jones a cynical dope owen wilson and a gentle and emotional lady lily taylor actually the doctor is researching the primordial fear reaction and intends to plant disturbing ideas in his subjects and watch what happens but he gets unexpected help from the house itself it rumbles hums and belches forth remarkable sights portals become veiny eyeballs a fireplace guarded by stone lions gapes like a sinister mouth filmy cherubic spirits take shape under sheets and billowy curtains but the computerized spooketeria rarely feels real placing an emotional wall between audience and screen the second half of the film is basically about the main heroine running back and forth from the sinister lamps and evil furniture is that exciting or what the worst thing about it is that it didn't have to be bad it's based on a great book haunting of hill house by shirley jackson a adaptation of the book was scary and intelligent it played with the greatest fears of our sub conscience the blair witch project that cost less than an old car managed to shock and terrify the audiences from their senses and with a mill budget de bont and screenwriter david self make hash out of a perfectly lovely piece of terror de bont has a style of filmmaking so out of line with the material that it is in itself frightening he is the master of the extravagant special effect and the big visual adrenaline rush but why give him a more serious material in the end haunting will only haunt its fledgling studio dream works skg and de bont's career as a director yet it wouldn't be fair to say that everything is bad the effects are truly impressive and the house is wonderfully decorated beautiful mysterious magical and spooky but this is where the good things end the music is blaring the floors moving the ceiling morphing and the pictures on the walls screaming and all of this every second every moment of screen time is absolutely without life it's nothing more than a special visually impressive but intellectually hollow thriller that simply doesn't engage at first you do not know what's going on is this part of the experiment are these hallucinations projections of the subconscience paranoia but in the end it shows out that this is actually happening the house is actually possessed it is at that point when all your hopes for a good entertainment disappears out of the window for ever i sat in anticipation for a decent climax and that's what i got i believe hichock once said that it's better to wait for a climax than to see one this may be true and it might actually work but there is only one problem jan de bont is not hichock and the things that he shows are not scary only stupid they are impossible to take seriously any paralells that you might have heard before linking this picture to kubrick's the shining are absolutely baseless shining had class style story acting but most of all talent and originality haunting has only special effects and art direction to boast of and those elements alone are not enough to make it a good film casting good actors for small pale parts only makes things worse but i guess that no matter what i or other critics say or write most of you will see this film anyway even if the tagline would say some films are just born stupid
negative	porter stoddard warren beatty is a successful architect married to successful fabric designer ellie diane keaton for years they and best friends mona goldie hawn and griffin garry shandling are about to face marital crises in a film most well known for its torturous path to the screen town and country town and country has a pedigree befitting it's title with an all star cast photographed by oscar nominated cinematographer william fraker and mouthing the words of screenwriter buck henry the graduate under the direction of peter chelsom funny bones after years of reports of budget overruns and reshoots and the racking up twelve different release dates the media has been prepped for beatty's next ishtar so is it that bad the answer is no but it's not very good either the major problem with town and country is that it's unstructured and random stoddard is immediately established as a philanderer having just bedded a flaky cellist nastassja kinski next scene finds him and ellie celebrating their anniversary in paris with mona and griffin then mona spies griffin hustling a redhead into a motel and begins divorce proceedings buck henry cameos as both couples' divorce lawyer ellie thinks she's overeacting but sends porter to support mona on a trip to check out her family's mississippi manse the two childhood friends end up in bed together making us wonder why they'd never become a couple to begin with back home their second coupling is interrupted by ellie bursting in to tell mona she thinks porter's cheating on her porter goes off on a trip with griffin to sun valley idaho to have more comic misadventures with wacky women as griffin attempts to tell him that he's gay the four friends along with every woman porter's dallied with all end up back in new york city somewhat happily ever after although the film begins promisingly resembling a woody allen take on new york city wasps too many strands drift off into nowhere the stoddard household is huge containing two adult children josh hartnett the virgin suicides and tricia vessey kiss the girls their colorful bedmates and a maid who's just imported her shirtless boyfriend from the rainforest back home after an amusing early scene that has porter overhearing three bouts of lovemaking while in search of a nocturnal snack the six supporting players are dropped except for an appearance by the formerly forgotten son porter's romantic misadventures with women other than mona are equally mishandled once the marital discord begins the film seems as if it was editted with a machete stopping and starting never regaining its rhythm while beatty gets off a few tart observations his character is mostly passive and bemused maybe we're supposed to feel sympathy for an adulterer who doesn't initiate his own sex romps keaton's ellie has a trusting nature that's a result of her own self involvement resulting in an unlikeable character hawn smartly recycles her mature sex kitten wives of the out of towners and the first wives' club while shandling's relegated to true second banana status kinski is bland and unmotivated andie macdowell takes a weirdly unappealing role and does what she can with the screenplay's most bizarre subplot which finds charlton heston as her rifle toting billionaire daddy and marian seldes as her alcoholic mother heston and seldes are fun as is jenna elfman as a sun valley bait and tackle salesgirl who brings porter and griffin to a halloween party oscar nominatored cinematographer william fraker gives the film a nice look but director chelsom shows none of the quirkily and blackly humorous depth he brought to films like hear my song and funny bones the script is this film's weakest link it's telling that most of the few laughs come from physical slapstick and the sight of beatty in a bear suit while town and country isn't exactly painful to sit through it mostly just lays there
negative	the following review contains spoilers please someone stop joel schumacher before he vomits into a film canister again and tries to pass it off as a movie chuck dowling the jacksonville film journal i wrote the above sentence in my review for batman and robin apparently no one heard my words oh how i wish you had heard them oh how i wish someone had stopped him because he's done it again the plot of is similar to the paul schrader film hardcore a surprisingly decent and engrossing tale in fact it was everything that is not in the opening minutes of we see private detective tom welles nicolas cage working on a case for a prestigious member of the u s government keep this fact in mind cage is trusted with an important case which he solves he returns home to his wife and new daughter and even finds time to rake his yard keep that in mind too it's important as well he's hired by a rich elderly woman to solve a mystery after her husband's death she comes across a film in his private safe it appears to be snuff film a sort of urban legend of the pornography industry in which someone is actually brutally murdered for the camera the woman wants welles to locate the young girl in the film hopefully to disprove that it is in fact a snuff film so he sets off on a journey into the sordid underworld of sleaze to discover the truth about the film the main problem with is that the whole film is completely pointless welles is actually selected for the case by the old woman's lawyer anthony heald an actor who always plays the same type of character that being a bad guy when you first see him your first instinct is that he's behind the whole thing the choice of casting does the film in then as welles begins his investigation at times we will see a shadowy figure following him the only person it could possibly be is the lawyer or someone sent by the lawyer because no one knows welles is even investigating anything yet so your first instinct has now been confirmed then when it is in fact revealed that the lawyer is a part of the whole thing he tells welles that he was chosen for the case because he was young and inexperienced in one of those ridiculous since we're going to kill you anyway why not tell you the whole thing moments but earlier when we see welles being hired for the case he's told that he was hired because he comes highly recommended huh also when the lawyer reveals himself to be a part of the whole thing his main goal is to get the film back so why did he give it up in the first place the lawyer had the film the whole time then gave it away to the private detective thinking that he would just give up on the case and return the film it's totally absurd and this is the screenwriter of seven late in the film there's a confrontation between all the main characters and after a struggle one of the character's guns ends up underneath a car cage who has been handcuffed to a bed is rapidly trying to get to his gun which is on a table james gandolfini's character goes for the gun under the car in what is supposed to be a scene of suspense you see the gun is just slightly out of reach from the side of the car he's trying to reach it from and so instead of going around the car to the other side where he can easily reach it he just keeps stretching go around to the other side of the car this goes on for minutes then after cage gets his gun gandolfini then decides it would be best to go around to the other side of the car boy schumacher is really really getting on my nerves i think the final straw would be when cage returns home devastated by everything that he's seen on this case and then is no longer able to rake his lawn we actually see a shot of him pathetically poking at leaves in his yard other things that bugged me about one would be the music if you can call it that whenever the score starts up it sounds like techno music and then this awful indian or middle eastern type music will accompany it awful decision there joel another is cage's performance at this point he's capable of a wide range of performances either good or bad for he delivers a very wooden one and only shines when he's interacting with joaquin phoenix who gives a great performance as a porn shop clerk with a heart of gold who helps cage with his case you're capable of much better mr cage now as for you mr schumacher i'm starting to doubt if you're capable of anything else besides urinating onto the institution of american cinema 
negative	there have been bad films in recent years magoo' was by far the worst ever made the spectacularly bad in the face' the horrible genuises' and now woke up early the day i died' it may not however be the worst movie made but it certainly ranks as one bad movie the film's acting if that's what you want to call it is well mediocre to me loaded with a sensational cast you would think that the cast would at least save the film a bit boy was i wrong after escaping from a mental institution thief' played by billy zane goes out in the real world and finds that it is pretty harsh and gritty he turns to burglary to survive robs a loan back kills the loan officer and runs with thousands a man hunt is on for him to catch him and bring him down he ends up in a cemetery where he puts his money in a coffin to keep it for later comes back and realizes that someone took it and put it somewhere now he is determined to kill all the visitors at the funeral earlier that day until he gets his money back ultimately leading to a finale that is less that satisfying a film which was based on a script by ed wood i have only one question no dialogue only music and movement where exactly is the point the film moves along at a rather slow pace but does have one advantage the soundtrack which is catchy and vibrant except the first song which can be offensive to some it opens with a fun innovative opening credits sequence and quickly goes downhill after that some of the low points are when thief' steals a woman's purse and then she faints sandra bernhard as a dancer and tippi hendren as a deaf woman whom thief' kills to the music of come on people get some new ideas already what's even worse is that the film has no plot at all well to a certain extent it does but who cares by the time the middle of the film arrives we're bored out of our mind and ready for something fun and exciting to happen woke up early the day i died' is a perfectly bad film it shows us how low filmmakers get sometimes just when desperate to make a movie even with the huge cast talent the film is a waste of my time and certainly a waste of yours
negative	it would be hard to choose the best american political thriller some people would probably pick the manchurian candidate and others myself included would pick seven days in may both those films were tense exercises in chills the two films came out within two years of each other and both were directed by the same man john frankenheimer but that was and respectively for most of the rest of his career frankenheimer has turned out some decent films but has shown little of the promise that those two thrillers showed each of those films had memorable characters and a tense plot they had almost nothing in the way of chases or gunplay the thrills all came from the plot ronin is like a film made by another man somewhere behind all the shooting and explosions and car chases there are the rudiments ofa plot but we see only tiny pieces of it we get a clue here and one there as to what is going on but j d zeik's screenplay is a bit obscure the film begins explaining that a ronin is a masterless samurai when a samurai has failed in the job of protecting his master from death he becomes a ronin much like a gunfighter in the american west if you miss the opening do not worry this film will explain again what a ronin is sam played by robert de niro is the modern equivalent of a ronin he is a free agent who seems to have really good instincts about how to stay alive the world of a professional killer he clearly was in a dangerous business at one time and now he seems to be drifting around on his own somewhere in france sam is recruited from a montmartre bar by dierdre natascha mcelhone of the truman show an irish woman to be part of an action to steal a mysterious metal case dierdre is very about what is in the case sam joins a team of four others vincent jean reno of the and mission impossible spence sean bean tv's richard sharpe and also patriot games and goldeneye and gregor stellan skarsgard of breaking the waves and good will hunting also along is larry skipp suddeth the group seems to know their business particularly sam but each is in his own way cold and professional with his own field of expertise their only human side seems to be in tensions among the members of the team the story is not very easy to follow it is never clear who is whom and who is working for whom somehow russians who may or may not be the russian mafia and irish radicals are involved trying to get their hands on a certain metal case some very good actors are involved in this film one wonders what they saw in the script the characters are mostly professional killers they know their work and seeing their thought patterns adds some interest to the film but for this group deep feeling between two people is teaming up with another killer so that neither is killed by the end of the film we never really got to know anybody maybe that is the secret of why such good actors took parts since these are not very demanding characters to create in addition to the above characters the film also features jonathan pryce and michael lonsdale the latter of moonraker and of the superior thriller the day of the jackal as a revival of a sort of action film that was popular in the i was hoping that there would be something here to grab onto and enjoy unfortunately there are no deep characters and little to make us care who eventually ends up with the metal case or why they want it i rate ronin a on the to scale and a on the to scale incidentally the tale of the ronin has been filmed multiple times usually under the title chushingura or as the ronin also one frequently sees in japanese art the image of a man breaking down a door with a huge mallet this is the first blow of the ronin
negative	the main problem with martin lawrence's pet project a thin line between love and hate like any fatal attraction variation where the protagonist is a man is that his character is an irresponsible jerk and if that is the case it doesn't seem to do anything except justify the woman's actions that is especially the case in lawrence's darnell wright he is one of those macho guys with women lined up a mile long now don't think i condone this just because i'm male my philosophy is if you are one of the few heterosexual males lucky enough to get your hands on a beautiful kind girl you should treat her like a princess and respect her darnell doesn't think like this he sleeps with these girls once and dumps them and by the period in the film he discovered that his newest target beautiful wealthy brandi web played nicely by whitfield who runs a successful real estate business is out to kill him for dumping her for his childdhood friend mia king i found myself thinking i'm supposed to feel sorry for this guy after all it is largely darnell's fault if he is lining up all these women you'd think he'd have enough common sense to think it would backfire on him one day as his mother says it does but he doesn't so you get the sense that he's not only irresponsible but also pretty dumb you especially get this sense that he's dumb after brandi tells him she killed her husband for allegedly abusing her i'd put my pants on in two seconds after that now brandi is a psycho bitch but it's hard not to agree with what she says to darnell during the finale about guys like him treating her like garbage one final flaw though is letting brandi fall for darnell to begin with brandi is a classy intelligent woman with an mba from harvard who initally resists darnell's immature play as she calls it as any woman like her would in real life but all of a sudden she says yes but when you listen to darnell's four letter word vocabulary watch his actions you wonder why such an intelligent woman would fall for a guy like darnell period much less have such an unhealthy obsession for him lawrence can be good when he wants to but in order to prove it he needs to let other people write and direct his movies look at this movie four writers as a result it's too long two hours when it could've easily worked at ninety minutes and it has a lot of subplots and characters that appear and disappear as quickly as they came which makes me think the writers didn't get along all of which isn't necessary there are some bright spots though whitfield regina king della reese and bobby brown all do what they can with lazily written parts and they help it out a lot and there are some funny parts like for example the scene where reese attempts to fight whitfeld for harrassing her son and damaging her property but they're just not enough to sustain the film
negative	capsule lesbianism examined in the same hushed and reverential tones reserved for a terminal illness potentially interesting idea made stagy and boring claire of the moon is such an impossibly serious and sober movie that i was waiting for someone to sneeze just to break the ice it's a perfect example of what my wife calls an s f e movie where s f e means so f ing earnest movies like this need wit and brashness to be absorbing claire is one strained speech after another written delivered with all of the energy and spontenaity of a dmv clerk claire takes two women claire and noel both writers and throws them together in the same cabin at a writer's retreat claire wrights light comedy while noel is a scholarly authority on porn and sexual behavior obviously the two of them are going to have plenty to talk about and for the entire one hundred and twelve insufferable minutes of this movie that's all they do talk the movie sets up its microscopic plot with obviousness the evening talks at the camp are chaired by a motherly type named maggie a lesbian and when noel owns up to also being a lesbian claire looks like she's been hit with a sockful of wet sand the movie then quickly degenerates into lots of scenes where noel glances at claire with significance and claire looks out over the water reflectively ugh the most amazing thing about the movie is how people so intelligent can talk so much and yet get so little through their thick heads all of this of course leads up to a scene of complete inevitability claire and noel in a scene that should have come an hour earlier because then the movie ends without even the benefit of reflection about what's just happened we never get a hint about how any of this has changed anyone only how they felt about things that didn't even happen yet the problem with claire is not lesbianism as such but the leaden way it's handled why is it that any serious a better word would be adult or at least thoughtful examination of sex in a movie almost always winds up producing a movie that's unwatchably boring the way this movie deals with lesbianism we might as well be watching an overheated docudrama about aids many other movies have used the same subject in ways that are a thousand times better more engaging more creative more intellectually and artistically interesting look at john sayles' lianna or the interesting and desert bloom both of them have more life and vibrancy than claire what this movie needed was a good swift kick in the pants
negative	the great actor james woods once said and i'm paraphrasing if sex isn't messy then you're not doing it right a truly profound statement and one that could be made for the entire mad slasher genre just replace sex with your mad slasher film for those uninformed souls the mad slasher genre or is a melding of horror and exploitation elements put to the service of a plot that follows an identical outline a usually masked but always crazed killer stalks and kills attractive teens a la halloween urban legend is a mad slasher flick but one that is so sanitary bloodless and nudity free that with its irony laden dialogue and beautiful though not overly talented cast it more closely resembles an overlong wb television special for film makers gore is one of the two weapons they have at their disposal in a stale horror movie as stephen king once said again paraphrasing if you can't scare your audience gross em' out if you can't do that make em' laugh alas urban legend succeeds only at the latter though not by intention i actually find the fact that this film became a minor success million domestic box office gross more frightening than anything in it it seems that audiences' tastes have been whittled down to such a degree that any movie even claiming to be scary is given the benefit of the doubt the promotion for urban legend sure promised thrills but how can anyone with a three digit iq argue that it provides them unfortunately these kinds of flicks will continue to be produced because people no longer have expectations one idiotic blockbuster flick after another has desensitized audiences to the point where films don't need to do anything more than promise a good time without the added pressure of delivering if anyone disagrees i would love for them to explain the box office successes of shit like batman and robin wild wild west and godzilla but forget all that it goes without saying that mad slasher films or any other exploitation will be made without an ounce of craft especially considering the sheer volume that are produced allow me to present you with the real fault of the mad slasher film the lack of enthusiastic exploitation these flicks aren't harnessed with any lofty aspirations so why not break free and give your audience a bloody good time sadly out of the literally hundreds made i would estimate that maybe three are at all worth while and urban legend would certainly not be included amongst those three despite its considerable production value and the absence of any boom mics slipping into frame it is just as awful as any no budget entry in the slasher sweepstakes as far as the possibility of some good natured exploitation urban legend's setting alone offers a myriad of promising possibilities it takes place on a college campus which is always an appropriate playground for the crazed killer you see the campus is a community made up almost entirely of young people all in the midst of strange hormonal surges percolating beneath the surface all those young people are growing up together going through all kinds of inexplicable emotional highs and lows so naturally some weirdness is expected all the better for that elusive crazed killer coupled with the copious amounts of scantily clad coeds running around and the introduction of a little exploitation into the proceedings should be a relatively easy task but alas urban legend is not only idiotic and clich full it's way too clean a slasher flick for the whole family with no nudity little gore and much stupidity this is the kind of movie where the killer drags dead victims from the scene of the crime for no reason other than i dunno exercise it's the kind of movie where the villain calmly purses a yet still manages to catch that prey through some really awful editing techniques it's the kind of movie where characters run into each other just as a loud clash reverberates on the soundtrack i really wish filmmakers would just retire that whole thing yes the audience jumps momentarily frightened but wouldn't anyone if a loud sonic boom suddenly infiltrated a quiet room i lost all hope for the possibility of any genuine scares in urban legend about ten minutes in when i caught a glimpse of the killer apparently filmmakers are running out of creative ways to disguise their mad slashers in scream it was a ghost mask scary enough in i know what you did last summer it was a fisher man's rain slicker in the middle of summer no less and in urban legend the disguise sinks to the level of mel brooks parody the villain wears an oversized parka with a fury hood ooh scary intended to conceal identity for urban legend i humbly suggest a donald duck costume though i must admit urban legend does have a winning premise for what could have been a somewhat entertaining exploitation film the film's killer slices and dices comely college students to the tune of famous urban legends you know like the babysitter gets threatening phone calls only to find that they're coming from inside the house i won't spoil the surprise as to what urban legends are used after all the film does offer fine am cable viewing if you happen to be intoxicated enough sad to say it doesn't include my favorite urban legend a fairly graphic antidote concerning richard gere and a very unhappy gerbil now that would be scary before i leave you i would like to bring to your attention the third most irritating thing about the film the first being the lack of craft the second the lack of exploitation its characters all of whom are just about the most annoying group of people i've ever spent an evening with only jared leto looking like a carbon copy of rob lowe from back in the day and alicia witt as the resilient heroine avoid vexatiousness the most annoying of the bunch is a tie between noxima girl rebecca gayheart and sitcom star michael rosenbaum as a supremely irritating lout so irritating i actually cheered his painful death and i am not a cruel person ironically those aggravating sacks of human waste provide the only entertainment in the film if viewed as a vicarious fantasy urban legend can be mildly entertaining after all this is a movie that features the kind of faux hipsters i can't stand getting slaughtered which is at least better than watching an entire film about people i can't stand not getting slaughtered
negative	the premise of turbulence is i'm sure very familiar to us all we've seen it before in passenger executive decision and countless other flicks that are good in there own way you know terrorists take over a plane ask the police on the ground for what they what and so on turbulence starts out with a convict ray liotta being accused of a crime you think there is no way he could have done it he's so open and kind he is taken in and is subsequently transported on a commerical plane to la this is already a problem there is no way that convicts would be transported on the same commercial flight that normal passangers would be on anyway it is christmas eve and everyone is waiting to get to la and spend christmas eve there well convict one manages to stop the flight in its proverbial tracks and liotta still as calm as ever takes the other convict out he also has eyes for lauren holly a flight attendent and seems to grow closer to her the plot stops here i didn't like this movie because it seemed to be a rip off of every other airplane movie i've ever seen at one point mr liotta looked exactly like jack nicholson in the shining i'm serious it was like they stole for every other movie down to a t the only reason i did not give this stars is because it had some okay stunts don't even bother
negative	a movie laced with a good blend of action comedy and a heavy dose of musical celebrity guest appearances sounds pretty gourmet but even the best ingredients can be thrown together in the wrong way creating a dismal and unsatisfactory product eighteen years after the blues brothers hit theaters blues brothers is being unleashed minus half of its original duo the late john belushi and nearly all of its original charm dan aykroyd reprises his role as well as his credit as elwood blues the sharp dressed con man who wreaked havoc on a mission from god along with his brother jake and their blues brothers band nearly eighteen years ago as we begin elwood is being released from a state penitentiary along with the news of his brother's death in prison years ago completely on his own elwood decides to trace his roots back to the orphanage where he spent his childhood only to discover that everyone he has ever known has passed away but elwood isn't completely without family it seems he has a of sorts not a real brother mind you just the illegitimate child of his bluesman curtis cab calloway from the first film who has also passed on despite inklings from mother superior mary stigmata kathleen freeman to do otherwise elwood seeks out his only remaining family in an effort to start up an all new blues brothers band working as a police commander cabel chamberlain joe morton has an immediate disliking for elwood who nonchalantly fills cab in on his mother's affair years ago and then goes on to steal his wallet following elwood around is the lonely orphan buster j evan bonifant who quickly learns to become a when bartender mighty mack mcteer john goodman joins the group the blues brothers band is complete and once again the group travels the country crashing cars blowing things up and obstructing peace with more than just solid blues rock meanwhile cab's personal vendetta against elwood leads him on an impassioned manhunt for his this point the movie turns into a series of music videos with a few bits of acting in between those hoping for an interesting funny yarn are given too many musical interludes while those heavily interested in the music are given too much of a story only the extremely avid blues fans should attempt getting thru these two hours for those people it may be worth it for luckily there is much more music than shoddy attempts at acting but when the story does intrude upon the festivities the film is heavily bogged down with unfunny jokes musicians turned stiff actors and the pointless old buster attempting to add some sort of home alone cuteness to the whole thing appearances by musical legends such as aretha franklin james brown eric clapton and a whole slew of others are the high points of the film but they also confirm why these people are musicians and not actors blues brothers is deserving of one whole star simply because if you really really love this kind of music you might kind of sort of like this movie many many scenes are nauseatingly unfunny and if you don't have a passion for very deep you'll be bored out of your skull much of this film seems nothing more than aykroyd's vanity project but no matter how much fun aykroyd may be having with this none of the excitement is passed on to the audience and seeing three guys in suits goofily dancing around with poker faces can only be funny for so long unfortunately those two seconds are over about fifteen minutes into the film
negative	if only austin powers the spy who shagged me had been just half as original zany silly and totally enjoyable as its predecessor it would have easily been one of this summer's biggest pleasures if only in fact the spy who shagged me is the exact opposite of the original instead of refreshing the audience with one clever parody after another the filmmakers bombard us with tired jokes taken directly from the first one take the scene where austin powers again played by mike myers but with only a fraction of the giddy enthusiasm he displayed previously confronts a henchmen on the side of a cliff after being pushed off the ravine the bad guy is of course assumed dead but suddenly we hear a pleading voice coming from down below he's only injured a similar scene played very well in the original international man of mystery but here i was insulted by it did the filmmakers really believe the audience would laugh at a apparently i overestimated the intelligence of the average considering that the film has pulled in over million in domestic theatrical grosses alone do i hear the sound of a franchise heading our way having said that though i still cannot deny the film its merits the basic plot was delightfully silly enough to sustain my interest somewhat dr evil mike myers in the second of his three roles having constructed a time machine goes back to the year in an attempt to snatch austin power's mojo don't you just love that word whilst he is cryogenically frozen when austin gets wind of this after a great intro explaining the absence of elizabeth hurley's vanessa kensington he too travels back in time to his sexual drive accompanied by the felicity shagwell played by heather graham this sounds stupid i know but in the movie it starts to make some kind of weird sense and it worked for me then there's verne troyer a petite clone of myer's dr evil exactly in size troyer's persona alone gains the film an extra contributing to one particularly hilarious scene where he attempts to nibble on his own bigglesworth just try to ignore the fact that at he would make dr evil's height rise to just over feet no matter however there are only about four hearty laughs throughout the entire hour and a half the most notable being the now infamous tent scene and that just isn't enough to warrant even a minor recommendation if there is in fact an austin powers they should just kill off secret agent powers and put the emphasis on dr evil and unconventional yes but there's no denying that it'd make for a better movie
negative	in the series of the erotic thrillers that flooded the videoshelves in the early came this by max fischer the movie is set in paris where its hero struggling american author david mirkine judd nelson at the time specialised in playing losers and people at the edge of sanity suffers a terrible writers bloc he manages to overcome crisis after beginning romantic relationship with beautiful model anabelle laurence treill unfortunately she hangs out in jet set circles which gradually makes mirkine pathologically jealous her connection with powerful david caravan pierce brosnan would make mirkine step the line between reason and sanity and put in motion whole series of violent and tragic events although few pseudoerotic scenes and some elements of the plot do indeed make this film an erotic thriller drama would probably be more appropriate genre label pacing of the film is simply too slow to thrill the viewers and those patient enough to sit through its entirety have to wait a long time between any interesting or significant developments low budget also becomes painfully visible and physical attributes of laurence treill are the only thing worth watching in this film unfortunately this film has too little of those supposedly erotic scenes so those who wanted to watch erotic thriller have all the reasons to feel disappointed instead they would have to settle with pointless slow scenes involving nelson brosnan and laurence treill's attempts of serious acting all of those definitely not worth spending hour and half of someone's precious time
negative	here i sit at my computer about to write my review of the recent action comedy bait starring jamie foxx and david morse this is a review i don't even want to write because i'd just be laying the same criticisms on it that i would with any other piece of hollywood fluff if they're not going to give us the audience just a little credit and put something together with half a brain why should i waste my time and mental energy criticising it last summer i took this same approach with my review of the mummy in that review i just quoted phrases my reviews of other movies i think i shall do the same thing here but with a few less quotes not all are applicable i hope this goes to show you what i think of bait and why you can find out all you need to know about it without having to take a wild guess it's genuinely unfunny i and the other audience members only laughed once during the entire two hours unoriginal and unthrilling it's not so bad to the point where it's fun to watch because of its badness and it's no so bad you absolute loathe it and are pained by watching it it's just such a cliche in and of itself that uhh lost my train of thought anyways here's those quotes enjoy getting an audience's attention right from the beginning plays a major role in how today's films work we want to have something exciting to watch not a slow of a story god forbid and this film plays right into the mainstream's hands review of armageddon it's clear the film doesn't want to waste time on reality and thus the attempt to establish plausability the most minimal amount necessary comes across as a effort supporting characters and shady are introduced but as is the case with films made up of a large cast of characters only a handful have any real significance there's a fine line separating homage from plagiarism review of godzilla unfortunately as is the case with most modern thrillers once the film showed potential for authenticity and intelligence the cliches and action sequences take over review of the jackal chad'z movie page is back after heavy renovation reviews of nearly all mainstream movies playing today get my reviews of everything playing at your local cineplex so you can better make an informed decision on what to see don't forget to vote on my poll and sign the guestbook
negative	tv's buffy finds herself on the other side of the supernatural spectrum in simply irresistible sarah michelle gellar that crusader against evil every tuesday night on the wb network here plays a chef suspected of dabbling in witchcraft after her flailing restaurant receives help in the form of magically scrumptious meals taste test results some vampire slaying though out of place would have really livened this excruciating movie up simply irresistible is actually quite easy to deny a disaster of culinary and other proportions pretty much from the opening on gellar's amanda finds herself falling for harried henri bendel exec tom sean patrick flannery of powder around the same time she discovers an uncanny ability to mystically manifest emotions in her cooking a secret ingredient that arouses both his interest in her and the public's in her tiny tribeca eatery all this love and sorcery have a lot to do with the telekinetic crab that also figures into the story a tale that at times plays like an american spin on mexican classic like water for chocolate several differences one like water didn't have a telekinetic crab and two like water was a good film simply irresistible on the other hand is about as challenging as an oven amateurishly staged scenes cancel each other out in their badness from an embarrassing seduction in a literal vanilla fog to an impromptu dance sequence where tom and amanda do their best fred and ginger though fred and ginger never took part in anything this garish the intrusive musical score distracts from the flat dialogue at regular intervals but it's not like you're were going to miss much in fact take away the few instances of salty language and this has channel written all over it but a majority of simply irresistible resistibility factor has less to do with the overkill than the bland leads tom and amanda are so thin and ambiguously defined that there's just no fun rooting for their inevitable happily ever after nor do the otherworldly powers that serve to bring them together make sense so we're left with a relationship based on enchanted eclairs it's not going to last long people perhaps sensing this the filmmakers have piled on weird supporting characters for acting vets like betty buckley dylan baker and patricia clarkson but they don't go anywhere either in fact nothing in simply irresistible goes anywhere save for gellar and she doesn't go somewhere so much as you wish she'd go like to a better movie already proving major talent with relatively few and roles she's the sole reason this overcooked souffle isn't completely fit for the garbage disposal looking smashing in her todd duds and investing much more in her perfunctory part than she ever gets in return it's certainly a dish best not served in it's current condition but one can only guess that without gellar simply irresistible would be strictly unwatchable
negative	the warrior reeks so badly of melodrama and poor acting that it carries a worst scent than a canine's least appetizing residue the best part of the film would be a close contest between the closing credits and a brief moment in the middle where the screen goes entirely white and you hope that the film has slipped and caught ablaze in the projector my vote goes for the ending credits where you can start trying to put the awful experience behind you ibn fahdlan antonio banderas is an important official who is banished from his home for sleeping with another man's wife he encounters a group of norse warriors who convince him to join them on a mysterious journey to be taken by men fahdlan is chosen as the and last warrior in a moment that is so desperately overacted and overdone that numerous persons at the screening i attended broke out into laughter the movie proves to be a new low point for banderas who's acting seems closer to that of his role as the lover and caretaker for a dying gay man in philadelphia than that of a warrior in the film's supposed pay off scene he exclaims i was wrong these are not men a line intended to be the most memorable quote of the production unfortunately banderas delivers it in a fashion that makes chevy chase's career look like oscar material the film based on michael crichton's best selling novel eaters of the dead was shot under that name some three years ago and after numerous rewrites not only does the dialogue seem completely phony but the plot is incredibly difficult to follow at the same time the warrior makes you think about numerous questions questions like why do the characters always have perfect lighting on them even when it is pitch dark why does no one ever have blood cover both sides of their face but rather just one side and finally will the manager give me a refund minutes into the minute film a man invites of the warriors come with me there is a woman who can help unfortunately there is nothing that could help this film the most appropriate ending would have been for the men to join hands form a chorus line and break into a rendition of springtime for hitler
negative	i've heard it called jaws with claws and that's a fair summation of the plot though that tag line does little to quantify quality director stephen hopkins blown away predator and screenwriter william goldman maverick misery would have you believe that this is an epic historical drama about man against nature based on what really happened in africa to the railroad workers trying to build a bridge to the century they've stacked the deck with two big stars val kilmer michael douglas a bigger production design beautiful photography by academy award winner vilmos zsigmond and a score so overblown that it makes the lion king soundtrack sound like chamber music the movie doesn't make a lick of sense though either as an epic or as your basic in fact some of the bits are so laughably ludicrous that you may think you've stumbled into the sequel to mystery science theater the movie how about the three guys with rifles who trap a lion and then can't even hit the damned thing or the acting of michael douglas who chews more scenery than the animals ever do or my favorite lions so agile that they can even climb onto rooftops
negative	billy crystal reappears in yet another high concept comedy he tries to infuse some life into it but it gets bogged down with sentimentality and a lack of sophistication sammy billy crystal is a struggling agent at the end of his ropes he's separated from his wife serena kathleen quinlan and down to his last serious client in a film shooting in romania but in a turn of bad luck sammy wrecks his car only to be mysteriously saved by a giant gheorghe muresan but this giant has a heart of gold he leads a solitary life helping out the monks at a local monastery his only longing is for his long lost love lilianna joanna pacula who has since moved to america sammy seeing a golden ticket convinces max to become an actor represented by sammy of course and come back to america and so sam and max bounce from pathetic job to pathetic job with sammy dangling a meeting with lilianna as a carrot before max's nose but slowly sammy's deceptions begin to haunt him but will he develop a conscience before the innocent max becomes disillusioned the humor in my giant isn't the world's greatest mostly it falls under the category of boy he's so big and that can only go so far no matter how hard the talent tries still its slightly amusing parts are longed for when the movie gets bogged down in sappy moments the film's best moment and that's not saying much is a bit part by steven seagal playing himself between executive decision and this all of seagal's best roles have been cameos maybe he should consider a change of work steven seagal the character actor gheorghe muresan isn't a natural actor at all and his thick accent certainly doesn't help in fact the only thing he adds to the role is his immense stature originally the concept was designed several years ago for andre the giant andre also had a hefty accent but he displayed a knack for comedy in the princess bride something muresan should have studied for some pointers why does billy crystal continually get caught in these pathetic comedies he's proven that he can be much funnier than these formulaic films allow him to be and yet like a glutton for punishment he keeps coming back that doesn't mean we have to
negative	movies can do the two big es very well educate and entertain in the best of all possible worlds they accomplish both on the red planet they fail entirely in the near future a manned mission is sent to mars to observe primitive plant growth this film does a remarkable job of demonstrating exactly how exciting watching algae grow would be after some about an ecological disaster on earth and an interminable wait to reach the fourth planet the ship falls apart almost as fast as the movie does the ground crew of people you couldn't care less about is trapped on the surface without food water or air and stalked by a deadly rogue cyberdog the one potentially interesting character moss spends her time alone in the orbiting ship talking to a computer attempting to graft esque space mysticism with terminator robot horror first time director antony hoffman can't seem to figure out what's going on neither can we didn't he have anyone who could step back from the shooting and make sure there was a coherent story couldn't he have used the money saved by only having to pay half a dozen actors to hire a scriptwriter there are so many every opportunity to create dynamic tension is thwarted by plot holes and lackluster direction why introduce the theme of faith vs science if the crewman who could comment on it disappears early only to die the audience begins the film waiting for something to happen two hours later they're still waiting despite our greatest hopes there is no life on the red planet
negative	capsule an insult a stupid and incompetent movie that doesn't even have the benefit of being trashily enjoyable weslely and woody would do well to leave this off their resumes money train is one of the worst movies i have ever seen it's not simply idiotic it's contemptuous of its audience it tries to make us swallow things that a better movie would be stopped cold by or just plain omit entirely it's a waste of wesley snipes and woody harrelson who are enjoyable actors in their own rights but are nauseating here it's not even fun as trash woody and wesley star maybe that's not the right word as new york city transit authority police they have a job which could actually be the core of a really interesting movie one of them plays drunk possum to attract and the other does lookout i had a whole headful of legal and ethical questions surrounding this raised by a documentary i'd seen on the subject once but the movie does not waste any time with being intelligent or see if you can follow this they chase a kid down the tunnel and into the station where the money train the heavily armored car that picks up all the cash from the token books is parked the guards on the train see this kid running at them lift their machine guns shout halt and then open fire when the kid doesn't stop running at them blam the kid's dead then woody and wesley show up and of course the other ta cops hate them why and a pushing match starts and someone gets decked and i covered my face i'd seen enough i've never seen a movie work so hard and in so little time to destroy systematically any chance of being credible or interesting fed up with the bs at their job most of it their own goddamned fault woody and wesley hatch this plot about how to rob the money train hence the title in case some of you all two of you didn't figure it out yet then there's this subplot about a maniac who torches token book clerks and a love story and a holdup no two holdups sorry easy to lose track in a movie this braindead and a mob boss who wants his money there wasn't a minute when i gave a horse's ass about any of it neither woody nor wesley play characters that are interesting for a single minute we do not care about them they are not interesting they are noisy loud stupid foolish jerks who whould have flunked out of the police academy they deserve to get shot or run over as the case may be they only exist to rehash the kind of dynamics that was written into a movie like white men can't jump and which simply does not exist here they are idiots and we're expected to root for them bullcrap the movie is completely schizophrenic in its tone and texture what exactly is this mess a cop movie police procedure is not given a moment's genuine thought anywhere a thriller the subplot with the token booth killer is inept a throwaway that should have been ditched in the rewrite a comedy the few jokes that do work are wasted a drama all dramatic tension between both principals is and there's not a moment in the movie where i felt like i was listening to genuine human beings talk it's all screenwriterese that bizarre analect where every sentence ends in a punchline and the primary mode of expression is the unique conjunctions of words actual dialogue excerpt fuck you what you heard me fuck you no fuck you look i'll be honest here i've tried writing screenplays and even i suspect that if i tried to pitch this mess i'd get laughed out of the office anyone interested in hearing my ideas for a few good movies can write me and hear my pitch because god knows i know i can do better i've weasted enough time on this piece of tripe
negative	alexander dumas' the three musketeers is one of the most literary works and for good reason the swashbuckler is a legend rather than just a story perhaps the musketeer a new film that reimagines the novel in the spirit and style of the matrix is one adaptation too many it's just awful spiritless silly and unforgivably boring transforming the timeless classic into a of clich s and incoherent repetitive action sequences this time d'artagnan is played by calvin klein model justin chambers who can't even pronounce his character's name as a boy he watched his father get killed by febre tim roth a lackey of cardinal richelieu he vowed to have vengeance after undergoing intense training under an expert swordsman he goes looking for his enemy on his quest he embroils himself in a struggle for control at the highest levels of the french government the royal musketeers have lost their gusto what with their jobs being taken over by the cardinal's own guards only a few loyal swashbuckers remain among them athos and portos who are only figureheads in this movie together with d'artagnan they fight to extricate the queen catherine deneuve from the traps that febre and richelieu are trying to plant oh and as an afterthought d'artagnan falls in love with the poor maid at the local inn mena suvari just thought i'd mention that now look i don't know whose idea this was but whoever is responsible deserves a severe i have nothing against modernizing classic works of literature at the very least they can inspire viewers to actually read the book but films as dull as this have no positive side effects director peter hyams known for such masterpieces of modern cinema as timecop and end of days has jettisoned everything that was great about dumas' masterwork the sense of excitement cause and camaraderie instead we get impressively choreographed but somehow vacuous uninvolving action sequences that emerge from emptiness and lead to nothing when the musketeers finally get to holler all for one and one for all i could have sworn that was dumas rolling in his grave that i felt maybe the reason for the utter lack of suspense here is the hyams's tone which is unreasonably dark and brooding when you consider the reader's digest condensed version of the story that he gives us it's as though anything that may have been construed as fun was purposely expunged from the production the joylessness of the proceedings from the oppressively shady lighting to the mechanical fight scenes can be felt in every frame chambers can't act suvari roth and deneuve can but aren't given the chance and when push comes to shove the use of stunt doubles is distractingly obvious though at least roth gets to play a villain without having to wear an ape suit some movies seem sloppy and careless clearly made for a quick buck with the musketeer we get the sense that it was meticulously crafted to be awful the film is intricate stylish and precise hitting the wrong note every single time
negative	in this of the japanese monster film godzilla is transformed into a jurassic park copy who swims from the south pacific to new york for no real reason and trashes the town although some of the destruction is entertaining for a while it gets old fast the film often makes no sense a foot tall beast hides in subway tunnels sports effects the baby godzillas seem to be one computer effect multiplied on the screen lame jokes mayor ebert and his assistant gene are never funny horrendous acting even matthew broderick is dull and an unbelievable love story why would anyone want to get back together with maria pitillo's character there are other elements of the film that fall flat but going on would just be a waste of good words only for creature feature fans this might be fun if you could check your brain at the door i couldn't michael redman has written this column for years and has seldom had a more disorienting cinematic experience than seeing both fear and loathing and godzilla in the same evening
negative	when i first saw the preview for cruel intentions i turned to my friend and said dangerous liaisons for kids it was clear to me that the film would be an obvious chunk of plagiarized nonsense owing everything it is to stephen frears' masterpiece imagine my surprise to see that roger kumble has given credit to his source material choderlos de laclos is recognized for his novel les liaisons dangereuses in the opening credits and i was impressed in fact i was much more impressed with this recognition than with the actual film which is an appalling excuse for a movie it's hackwork complete with earthy and i suppose this kind of movie was inevitable with all the teen angst movies coming out there was certainly room for a pretentious and laughable movie about a bunch of teenagers who think they're smarter and more beautiful than all the other people on earth combined cruel intentions is a mess in every possible way and it fails primarily in the way i expected it to i hated all the characters and i hate everything they do i also hate ryan phillippe so perhaps my opinion is not as objective as it could be phillippe plays check out this name sebastian valmont wow isn't that a memorable name i could just say it over and over again sebastian valmont it kind of rolls off the tongue in the spirit of phrases like sanguine vapors and velvet sandwich sebastian valmont is the coolest guy who ever walked the earth there is no woman he can't have no material object out of his reach he has all the money all the sex all at his fingertips and luckily his parents never enter into his life no in the world of cruel intentions adults don't really exist the ones who do are irritating sebastian valmont lives with his stepsister kathryn merteuil sarah michelle gellar the of the universe and also the woman every man wants since these two rich kids are so bored they only thing they can do is challenge each other with meaningless sexual liaisons kathryn wants sebastian valmont to cecile caldwell selma blair a naive who has somehow wronged kathryn but it's too easy for sebastian valmont he wants to nail annette hargrove reese witherspoon the paradigm of chastity and beauty so sebastian valmont and kathryn make a deal which is too explicit to state here but dear god sebastian valmont actually begins to fall for poor annette hargrove dangerous liaisons is a great movie because the characters are all believable and because of its masterful acting cruel intentions is bad for many reasons but it lacks both believable characters and masterful acting kathryn merteuil is simply a hateful witch a girl so loathsome that i would probably enjoy pouring hot lead on her she is supposed to be mean but glenn close gave the character some depth in dangerous liaisons gellar while aesthetically pleasing is and utterly repulsive witherspoon has a truly beautiful face but her character isn't the moral staple she's supposed to be sure she won't have sex until she's in love is this really a moral issue but she does some things in the last few scenes that are more than a little reprehensible but i can't forget mr phillippe who continues to exceed my expectations with his impenetrable invulnerable blandness i have to give him credit and say that he did in fact manage to change his facial expression about three times during the course of cruel intentions and there's one point in the film in which he shouts thereby defeating my hypothesis that he is vocally monotone true he is bad but it doesn't help that he has no character to work with kumble has drained all the interesting aspects from this character leaving us with a lunatic who is supposed to be sympathetic because he falls in love with a moral flower and shuns the wicked bitch the film fails in every other way too first of all nobody talks like this even the intellectuals i know don't bother with this kind of pointless and pretentious yammering for a while the movie looks like it might play itself for laughs but it ends up taking itself so seriously that there's no way we can join it cruel intentions also manages to come off as in more than one scene earlier i mentioned a this occurs between kathryn and sebastian valmont both of whom are intended to be hateful at this point in the movie so if we hate them then what's the point of an extended sex scene titillation of course it can't even work under the pretense of meaningful love scene because we hate the characters it's interesting to note some of the parallels between cruel intentions and dangerous liaisons kumble is clearly familiar with the earlier film many of the scenes have a similar tone and there are moments in frears' film that kumble imitates almost completely such as the last scene in which warning the antagonist is humiliated in front of her peers but kids don't act like this nobody acts like this in his translation roger kumble forgot character development and sympathy some pretty crucial elements the result is a picture of confounding badness a mess that thinks it's really deep and profound i'll give cruel intentions credit for realizing its influences but that doesn't change the fact that it's awful
negative	everyone knows that old rule work with children and animals in this latest horror flick mimic case it's work with children and genetically enhanced killer animals' instead as mimic features both of these and succeeds in doing nothing except mildly engaging the audience the film begins in new york where we see children dying from a mysterious disease which is being carried by cockroaches dr susan tyler sorvino creates a genetically enhanced bug the breed however which is designed to kill all cockroaches the bug does it's job the cockroaches all die and the terror is gone years later' appears on the screen and we discover that the judas breed is back bigger than ever and ready to kill the spin on this bug however is that it can mimic it's predator and in this case it's humans that should teach us for squishing all those bugs what should be a roller coaster ride with bugs everywhere tons of gory deaths and some massive set pieces instead turns out to be a rather subdued almost boring movie which plods along at a very slow pace perhaps the movie was trying to be thought provoking and trying to avoid the type movie it could easily have become if it is then the director and writers have made the wrong move because this is perfectly suited to be an all out action fest the director who bought us cronos a far superior film directs the film in a calm and frankly dull movie there are few exciting sequences instead just a lot of people talking if the dialogue was intelligent then it would be all right but it's sadly babbling nonsense in fact the script is embarrsingly weak and the characterizations not much better sorvino and company are as as characters come with the script not bothering to develop them there is some action in this film but it's directed in such an annoying way it's just infuriating to watch the camera cuts all over the place disoreitating the audience and instead of involving the audience in the action it merely alienates them the peformances are o k if slightly below average sorvino is o k although she's not very good at conveying terror or anything emotion really the supporting cast are all sterotypes with characters such as a big black security guard with a foul mouth a geeky scientist with spectacles and what could be the most stereotypical mexican timer' ever their reasonable good fun however mimic then may fail with it's story pacing and characters but the film does look good like dark city mimic is a definite case of style of content it may be a bit too gloomy for it's own good but the sets look nice and parts of the film are directed well but looks aren't good enough to save mimic from the depths of mediocre somewhere where it shouldn't really belong a good opportunity then wasted a shame overall review by david wilcock
negative	this movie tries to present itself as the sequel to jan de bont's debut as a director surprise hit speed but the only thing the two movies have in common is sandra bullock as the female lead annie sandra bullock is in the wrong place at the wrong time again she's going on a cruise with her new alex jason patric and of course it is her ship that is kidnapped by john geiger willem dafoe who has a bone to pick with the shipping line they sacked him after he got sick now he wants the diamonds stored in the ship's safe for compensation that actually is the whole storyline speed could do without dialogues the movie is all about images and remarkable sound i don't really know why this is called an action movie except for a few scenes that are vaguely reminiscent of speed this goes along the lines of the desaster movies of the first we are introduced to a number of people who are going to be important later on in the movie then desaster strikes sandra bullock was said to have been glad that she could take action this time around i looked for the action but couldn't find it most of the time she is part of the decoration the only time she is part of what happens is when she can have a shot at defusing a bomb and freeing some passengers trapped behind a fire door now we know that she can handle a chain saw we also know that fire doors on cruise ships can be cut apart in seconds the bomb defusal of course goes wrong but only the furniture is damaged not our heroes who still are needed jason patric alias alex spends most of his time flirting with annie helping other passengers and frolicking in the water his initial is suddenly gone because there are ship crew and passengers to be saved from evil geiger he does a pretty good job but i can't blame keanu reeves for declining this part then there's willem dafoe the villain who desperately tries to look as frightening as frankenstein's monster he doesn't succeed though an untidy appearance isn't enough to convince the viewer of his psychopath potential before he tries again to make us believe he is a dangerous man he should practise for a while in front of a mirror i can't really recommend speed you will probably like the movie if you like funny situations that aren't meant to be funny especially the showdown when the ship first runs into an oil tanker and then dissembles a whole village is a treat there you get to see the most superfluous scene in the movie in keeping with last year's desaster movie tradition a dog is miraculously saved from certain death a really funny and meant to be funny scene takes place on the oil tanker right before the collision some crew members watch two ships colliding in an old movie had they looked out the window they wouldn't have missed the huge ship racing toward them those of you who still want to see the movie should pick a theater with a large screen and a good sound system to enjoy the visual effects and the phantastic surround sound effects in an adequately equipped theater it's as if the explosion were going off all around you and you can feel the seats vibrate but the ilm special effects can't save the movie for all the money they could have done better
negative	it's tough to be an aspiring superhero in champion city just ask mr furious ben stiller the blue raja hank azaria and the shoveler william h macy they're trying to break into the biz but captain amazing greg kinnear the city's hero numero uno hogs all the action the good captain has his own problems because he's all but eliminated crime amazing's endorsement deals are falling through the public craves a major slugfest so amazing engineers the parole of his arch enemy casanova frankenstein geoffrey rush frankenstein succeeds beyond expectations he captures capt amazing before setting out on his scheme to destroy the city so no one is left to save the day but our superheroes but their abilities are more little league than justice league the raja hurls forks at foes the shoveler hits them with a shovel and mr furious just yells at people stiller is doing essentially the same character he played in a guest appearance on friends after a painful first strike the guys hold auditions for teammates and add the bowler janeane garofalo who carries her dead father's skull in her bowling ball invisible boy kel mitchell who can only use his powers when no one is looking at him the spleen paul reubens who blows devastating winds from his rear and the sphinx wes studi a mysterious figure who will teach them to fight mystery men boasts one of the most talented and eclectic casts ever assembled in addition to those already mentioned the credits include lena olin as frankenstein's evil shrink comedian eddie izzard and the fugees' prakazrel michel as thugs singer tom waits as an inventor of superhero weapons artie lange from mad tv as another thug claire forlani from meet joe black as a waitress mr furious is pursuing louise lasser from mary hartman mary hartman as the blue raja's mother and ricky jay as capt amazing's manager the cast includes four actors when i saw the list of players early last year i figured the result would be a comedy yet i must report disappointment the script is probably the worst of nearly every joke misfires the stabs at comic books are too obvious to be funny for example no one can recognize capt amazing in his secret identity because he's wearing glasses the fart jokes surrounding the spleen are surprisingly the only gags that work the cast tries hard especially hank azaria whose character adopts an effete british accent while in costume but the script is just too lame to run
negative	written by seven scribe andrew kevin walker has an interesting idea which is ruined by hollywood formula to become a bog standard murder mystery nicolas cage plays family man detective tom welles who is asked by upper class toff mrs christian myra carter to investigate an movie found in her recently deceased husbands safe the movie happens to be an mythical movie' where the girl featured in the film appears to get brutally slashed all mrs christian wants to know if the girl in the film was killed or not welles agrees and soon gets pulled into the seedy underworld of porn movies with video clerk max california phoenix as his guide although the industry hasn't really been examined in mainstream cinema still makes a rather plodding thriller which just seems to be a bit sicker than most the snuff movie within the movie is certainly disturbing although the jerky camera angles and grainy image takes some of the shock away has the problem of not wanting to shock too much and apart from a few moments most of the action in the film is nothing you haven't seen from another standard thriller the cast help towards the entertainment apart from an hideous performance by the increasingly lazy nicolas cage while he was fun and breezy in earlier films such as raising arizona ever since leaving las vegas cage has lost much of his acting talent and appears to be on autopilot such as in the terrible snake eyes here in he's boring uninteresting and has a dull monotonous voice and in this overlong thriller these virtues do not help keep the suspense up only when cage is onscreen with the excellent phoenix does the film start moving as phoenix is a true talent his performance is a great break away from the gloom and he's just purely enjoyable to watch catherine keener is completely wasted as cage's wife although she delivers a far better performance than her character deserves her character though is hugely underwritten one of the most wasted characters of the year also fun is fargo's peter stormare as the wildly over the top snuff film director as this film is written by the person behind seven is filled with doom and gloom and appears to know how to use an light switch unlike seven isn't too clever and the twist is pathetic and startlingly obvious when it arrives lacking the strong characters seven featured ultimately becomes uninvolving plot wise and relies on the graphic scenes to provide any entertainment but director joel schumacher the completely wrong guy for the job puts style over content and while the direction and look are good it's just not very disturbing schumacher also has no idea how to shock and audience and though we are meant to be looking at the belly' of the porn industry it doesn't exactly leave an haunting impression on the viewers mind which misses the point also the last minutes are so hackneyed so cliched it's amazing to think it's the same film you're watching is far from an success a opportunity with a boring lead character scenes that manage not to be controversial and a director obsessed with looks what could have been one of the most shocking films of the year is a dumb thriller ultimately is probably worth renting on home video unless your desperate to see what the snuff film within the film looks like and trust me the rest of the hours are not worth it
negative	your first clue that something isn't gonna be quite right with the movie you're about to see it's heavily and its release date is oh say at the end of february your second clue that something isn't gonna be quite right with the movie you're about to see charlize theron one of the movie's dubious stars makes an appearance on the daily show in which when asked if her new movie's any good she replies with the equivalent of a verbal sigh assuring us that yeah it sure is a movie all right and there's some scenes like those you'd expect to find in a movie and there's some action and there's other stuff too how to immediately grab my attention open your movie with five dead guys in santa claus suits then show a caption reading six days earlier ya know i was honestly interested to find out what killed all those poor santas how to immediately lose my attention follow your opening scene with a terminally dull scene write a line for the one of prisoners like i just want to go home and eat christmas dinner and watch some ball with my dad then have ben affleck actually say that line on film and forget to leave it on the cutting room floor for good measure throw in a poorly motivated prison riot and have affleck's best buddy stabbed aw and just two days before his release too already the cliches are piled on thick and when it rains it pours how to take my attention dash it violently against the rocks and make it so that i'm contemplating my strategy for calling shotgun about an hour before i know the credits will roll deny your characters the ability to think have ben affleck for some reason i'll never understand pretend he's his dead prison buddy so that he can get his girlfriend played by charlize theron have gary sinise show up and force the two of them to participate in a poorly planned casino heist the villains' big idea kidnap affleck because he used to be a security guard at the casino force him to tell you where all the doors in the place are then dress up in santa suits create some diversions and rob the place on paper it seems like the stuff of a potential caper comedy but veteran director john frankenheimer wrongly picks up that piece of paper and thinks he's looking at the makings for some sort of clever thriller it's not like the man isn't capable far from it he's the man responsible for classic political thrillers like the manchurian candidate and seven days in may he wowed me with some the most memorable car chases i've ever seen in last year's ronin but he's certainly guilty of churning out some certifiable losers put reindeer games on the shelf of shame with his version of the island of dr moreau step one in making your movie as easily forgotten as possible cast ben affleck in the role of the world's most generic hero he gets no good he doesn't get to shoot or implode anything in new and interesting ways and all we know about him is that he regrets his past as a car thief and wants a cup of hot chocolate and piece of pecan pie his name is rudy short for rudolph in all likelihood see it's called reindeer games get it get it shut up in the past affleck has been at his best as a supporting actor and reindeer games does nothing to further his viability as a leading man step two in making your movie as easily forgotten as possible gary sinise's villain dresses and looks like the most standard movie crook a filmmaker could have some up with he's dirty and he's got long scruffy hair and a goatee and i fully expected him to walk out of the casino carrying sacks with giant dollar signs on them he's also extremely inept at what he does he thinks garish cowboy costumes and santa suits make acceptable disguises and he trusts affleck's character to pull through even after time and time and time again he tricks him and lies to him and nearly kills him but instead of tapping into the comic possibilities of this role sinise seems to think he's playing some sort of tough smart and smooth criminal mastermind rather than the complete moron that was obviously written into the script a side note gary sinise wins this week's title award as he's the one who gets to awkwardly cram the name of the movie into one of his lines early in the proceedings last week's winner was natasha henstridge for the whole nine yards how to take your bad idea and make things worse include two or three plot twists that instead of making the apparently stupidity of the plan seem suddenly intelligent make the plan seem even more ridiculous and unlikely this is a bad movie and what's worse is that except for a few moments near the conclusion as the preposterous is replaced by the ludicrously preposterous reindeer games never really gives us the satisfaction of being laughably bad if they'd done that much at least i would have been entertained
negative	carry on at your convenience is all about the in the factory of a toilet manufacturer wc boggs kenneth williams once they have won an order to manufacture bidets in two months and charles coote charles hawtrey has designed a suitable model the factory employees set to work but are interrupted by union representative vic spanner kenneth cope and friend bernie hulke bernard bresslaw who call them out on strikes on the slightest pretext meanwhile chief foreman sid plummer sid james is growing tired of his wife beattie hattie jacques and her budgie he would much rather live next door with fellow boggs worker chloe moore joan sims but once he discovers that the budgie can predict the winners of horse races he is over the moon and flush with money his daughter myrtle plummer jacki piper is going out with wc's son lewis boggs richard o'callaghan and this causes conflict on the staff day out to the seaside when vic spanner vies for her attentions in the end if the strike does not cease boggs will have to close down his factory but the support of a group of women led by coote's and spanner's mother agatha spanner renee houston try to resolve the situation also sid realises that his budgie has caused him nothing but trouble since it started predicting horse race winners there are some good performances as usual from sid james and kenneth williams in their standard roles charles hawtrey is third billing but only appears in a few scenes his part is mildly amusing richard o'callaghan is appealing as bogg's son patsy rowlands is funny as miss withering bogg's assistant and renee houston is terrific in her small part as agatha however sole acting honours go to hattie jacques as beattie plummer although her character is not directly involved with the main storyline she manages to input a great deal of pathos and feeling into her character a marvellous performance from a marvellous actress the film suffers from annoying performances by bernard bresslaw and especially kenneth cope in his carry on debut cope overdoes his role as spanner making him so annoying as to be unfunny joan sims returns as the love interest instead of barbara windsor sims' part as the downtrodden wife was taken by hattie jacques additionally bill maynard as fred moore is very poor this carry on movie tries it best to entertain the viewer the locations and wealth of characters are appealing however the toilet humour becomes tiresome very quickly and some of the performances leave a lot to be desired this movie does not know where it is going it was made in and talbot rothwell the scriptwriter seems to be in two minds whether to go for jokes or to maintain the jokes success of most of its predecessors that is why this film suffers a minor carry on film whose major asset is the performance by hattie jacques the new such as o'callaghan and piper are not able to enliven the movie and the toilet humour becomes humourless after a while
negative	the tagline for this film is some houses are just born bad so i didn't expect too much from this but i had preserved a little spark of ope as i entered the theatre i thought liam neeson cathrine zeta jones and jan de bont i thought mabe it will be fun and in fact the beginning was rather intriguing but by the end of it i thought why liam neeson and cathrine zeta jones jan de bont these great actors are basically helpless with this muddled mess that defies any rationality here is the story in the monstrously mansion known as hill house visitors are tricked by an unknown doctor liam neeson into being guinea pigs in a fright experiment under the guise of an insomnia investigation among them is a sophisticated bisexual cathrine zeta jones a cynical dope owen wilson and a gentle and emotional lady lily taylor actually the doctor is researching the primordial fear reaction and intends to plant disturbing ideas in his subjects and watch what happens but he gets unexpected help from the house itself it rumbles hums and belches forth remarkable sights portals become veiny eyeballs a fireplace guarded by stone lions gapes like a sinister mouth filmy cherubic spirits take shape under sheets and billowy curtains but the computerized spooketeria rarely feels real placing an emotional wall between audience and screen the second half of the film is basically about the main heroine running back and forth from the sinister lamps and evil furniture is that exciting or what the worst thing about it is that it didn't have to be bad it's based on a great book haunting of hill house by shirley jackson a adaptation of the book was scary and intelligent it played with the greatest fears of our sub conscience the blair witch project that cost less than an old car managed to shock and terrify the audiences from their senses and with a mill budget de bont and screenwriter david self make hash out of a perfectly lovely piece of terror de bont has a style of filmmaking so out of line with the material that it is in itself frightening he is the master of the extravagant special effect and the big visual adrenaline rush but why give him a more serious material in the end haunting will only haunt its fledgling studio dream works skg and de bont's career as a director yet it wouldn't be fair to say that everything is bad the effects are truly impressive and the house is wonderfully decorated beautiful mysterious magical and spooky but this is where the good things end the music is blaring the floors moving the ceiling morphing and the pictures on the walls screaming and all of this every second every moment of screen time is absolutely without life it's nothing more than a special visually impressive but intellectually hollow thriller that simply doesn't engage at first you do not know what's going on is this part of the experiment are these hallucinations projections of the subconscience paranoia but in the end it shows out that this is actually happening the house is actually possessed it is at that point when all your hopes for a good entertainment disappears out of the window for ever i sat in anticipation for a decent climax and that's what i got i believe hichock once said that it's better to wait for a climax than to see one this may be true and it might actually work but there is only one problem jan de bont is not hichock and the things that he shows are not scary only stupid they are impossible to take seriously any paralells that you might have heard before linking this picture to kubrick's the shining are absolutely baseless shining had class style story acting but most of all talent and originality haunting has only special effects and art direction to boast of and those elements alone are not enough to make it a good film casting good actors for small pale parts only makes things worse but i guess that no matter what i or other critics say or write most of you will see this film anyway even if the tagline would say some films are just born stupid
negative	the title is taken from the writings of ralph waldo emerson describing the life of a traveler as but here there isn't one thing about this relationship melodrama that felt honest it relies on a contrived minor character to tell both mother and daughter what was obvious to do in order to straighten out their dysfunctional lives as for some reason they couldn't figure it out for themselves if the film looks familiar that is because the slums of beverly hills went over the same ground but was fortunate to be more comical and perceptive due to alan arkin and natasha lyonne performances in which they were fortunate to have a much sharper script to work with alvin sargent's script was weak and annoyingly claustral wayne wang's the joy luck club inept direction made a weak script even weaker by his inability to tell the story unfolding without the voiceover relating what the action couldn't convey pushy mother adele august susan sarandon forces her daughter ann natalie portman to leave a small midwestern burg to go with her to beverly hills the daughter resents her twice divorced unstable but exotic schoolteacher mother bullying her to be an actress as a means of escaping a humdrum life the daqughter doesn't even like the used gold mercedes mother buys to drive to lala land in and can't stand the beach boys records mom enjoys hearing on the car radio so it becomes a question of who knows best as the ladies fight it out between them until the predictable sweet ending comes in this yawner adele's dream of greener pastures in beverly hills soon doesn't look that good as she lands a job in a slum school has her precious car scratched by the unruly kids and settles into a job she hates in order to financially survive daughter pines for small town wisconsin and her friends there during one of many arguments with her mom they go for ice cream and while mother is being ticketed she runs away only to be chased down by friendly traffic cop michael milhoan who offers her wise counsel with the cop's zen wisdom passed onto the daughter she will survive living in many different addresses in beverly hills until she reaches and then she plans to get way from mom by using her good grades to go to brown university instead of ucla during their stay in beverly hills she grows from feeling awkward in beverly hills high to immediately having many high school girlfriends and even a high school rich boy a t s eliot corbin allred reader but the transition of her life into beverly hills had no feel of reality as everything seemed staged and unemotional when she learns her cousin benny shawn hatosy who happens to be her best friend dies in a traffic accident back in wisconsin she returns for the funeral and in those reunion scenes it wasn't clearly shown why she wants to stay there and for that matter it was never made clear why the mother wants to leave so badly the film is one big battle of wills between mother and daughter over their dreams i guess what the filmmaker is trying to say is that mom is a bad dreamer and the daughter is the observant one able to recognize mother's faults when not in growing pains and in need of parenting herself mother has a series of setbacks like being dumped by her dentist bochner she met on the beach and witnessing her daughter mimic her whiny optimistic sayings when trying out for an acting part but mother learns that her daughter has and is independent and that she has to stop living her life through her she learns this when the same wise cop who told ann what to do is about to ticket her and this time will remind the mother of the right thing to do this of course results in the corny ending showing that mom's heart was always in the right place only she went about it in the wrong way this was just one of those films where you want to be anywhere but in the theater where this film is showing
negative	tomb raider fun exciting challenging given the unprecedented popularity especially among teenage boys of the video game that sports an pistol packin' babe who raids well tombs you have to believe it's these three things and more lara croft tomb raider the big screen variant of said video game which features a angelina jolie the oscar winner for girl interrupted no less in the title role is however none of these things it isn't fun it isn't exciting and the only challenge is seeing how long you can stay in your seat i suffered through to the bitter bitter end the wife opted for barnes noble at the mark directed by simon west with the same subtlety he brought to con air tomb raider is an big budget bore the story borrows unintelligently from that mother of all turkeys hudson hawk the same hokum about planetary alignments and sacred stones that when brought together well who the heck cares and it makes super mario bros bob hoskins' career move look like rocco and his brothers that classic of italian i'll go out on a limb here and say i suspect there's actually more character development in the video game than the movie proper this is where the jolie game nuts jump in and say this movie isn't about character development it's about kicking serious butt or bum since ms croft hails from england's green and pleasant with lips breasts and biceps all inflated to the max lara croft is all about posturing and jolie has a hard time simply standing still without trying to look tough ok let's forget challenging shouldn't tomb raider be at the very least fun and exciting shouldn't our heroine also encompass the sophistication of say james bond with the wit of indiana jones there's no humor to be found anywhere in tomb raider even though it tries hard from time to time even the mummy returns didn't take itself too seriously the villain here is noticeably lacking the special effects are ridiculously overblown and unnecessarily complicated and the script is to liven things up perhaps jolie's live father jon voight puts in a few minutes as lara's dead father lord croft talk about a stretch one thing i hadn't expected from the film is that jolie affects a slightly better english accent than her pa although i suspect that moustache he's forced to wear gets in the way some unsuccessful not entirely if anything lara croft tomb raider makes you want to check out the video game itself to figure out exactly what all the fuss was about
negative	walt disney studios may have finally met its match with the lush animation in twentieth century fox's anastasia but judging by the latest efforts from the don bluth studios the visuals are the only thing fox has to brag about disney's recent classics have occasionally stretched credibility in such films as pocahontas the hunchback of notre dame and to a lesser extent hercules with anastasia fox has gone so far as to throw all facts completely out the window some may say so what it's just a kid's movie well if you have young kids beware as they may be noticeably frightened by the visuals of a rasputin zombie whose body parts continually fall off in a disconcertingly real way consider yourselves warned nevertheless the animation is quite stunning at times don bluth has used computer animation extensively throughout occasionally rivalling photographic quality and yet in other scenes the material seems of the tv crowd which leads me to wonder was this rushed to market to combat disney the plot as anyone who had read history before knows concerns the attempt to return anastasia to her royal family after she was lost in the overthrow of the romanovs in not that anastasia is much concerned with what really happened as for the plot go rent disney's candleshoe you'll see of anastasia there
negative	here's something to chew on what's the favorite food of big special effects monsters like the one lurking in the bowels of a luxury liner in deep rising the obvious answer to this question is cardboard because that's the depth of the most developed character in this painfully generic creature feature deep rising demonstrates all the originality and vitality of something scripted by a computer in fact considering the rigid adherence to the expected formulas perhaps it was the most astonishing thing about deep rising is the exceptionally high level of gore not since starship troopers have this many chunks of flesh both human and been scattered in all directions we learn some bloody trivia as well such as how a sea monster spraypaints in red it drinks a human being then spits out the liquefied remains and what it does with leftovers i suppose deep rising's gallery of grotesque images represents fun stuff for those who love the macabre but it doesn't do much for me on the surface and that's about the only level at which this film can be analyzed deep rising feels like tremors grafted onto titanic everyone else is citing the equally valid connection since james cameron directed both in going for the big disaster angle of titanic and the mayhem of tremors deep rising somehow misses both marks by a wide margin the film is not humorous tense or exciting in fact it's downright boring and despite being half the length of cameron's current champ deep rising feels like the longer movie is it really necessary to say anything about the plot probably not since it's easy to guess but i'll go ahead and oblige anyone who wants a synopsis the film opens by introducing us to a gang of bad guys on board a mercenary ship in addition to the usual cast of psychopaths and lunatics there's finnegan treat williams the boat's pilot who's supposed to be an indiana jones knockoff joey kevin j o'connor the inept sidekick who's supposed to be lovable and funny but is really just irritating and hanover wes studi the mastermind and i use that term lightly of the operation their goal attack a cruise ship clean out the safe then sink it using some torpedoes the problem is by the time they reach the argonautica the luxury liner has turned into the marie celeste aside from a beautiful jewel thief famke janssen and a couple of crew members there's no one on board the reason soon becomes obvious the ship has been taken over by a bad special effect that is supposed to resemble an octopus with teeth and more than eight tentacles the cast which is led by treat williams is primarily comprised of and two exceptions wes studi best known as the villain in the last of the mohicans and djimon hounsou amistad's cinque williams once a can't miss prospect in hollywood has fallen so far out of favor that the best he can do these days for a lead role is a film like deep rising and his inability to create a charismatic or interesting figure here may sink whatever is left of his sputtering career famke janssen who will forever be known as xenia onatopp from goldeneye is the perfect bland match for williams given her limited acting abilities it's likely that she was chosen for this part primarily on the basis of her physical attributes unfortunately a bra defeats the purpose of having her in a wet for half of the picture meanwhile kevin j o'connor who has entirely too much screen time exhibits all the appeal of fingernails scratching a blackboard these days audiences are becoming more difficult to impress with special effects this is a lesson that stephen sommers who previously helmed the jungle book needs to learn the days of jurassic park when viewers were astounded by the mere spectacle of seeing something big and imposing on screen are past now are looking for the sophistication of titanic visuals that are so that it's impossible to tell where they end and where reality begins in deep rising the monster like everything is artificial and unconvincing unfortunately the fundamental problem audiences are faced with here isn't so much the idiotic monotony of this individual picture but the poor quality of the entire bankrupt genre although to be fair deep rising is a particularly bad entry even once this film has sunk out of sight the knowledgeable viewer knows it won't be the last of its kind like the slimy slithering things that inhabit the air vents and pipes of these movies more are waiting just around the corner in ambush and that consideration unlike anything on screen is truly horrifying
negative	this is an adaptation of h g wells' acclaimed novel invisible man' the actors are kevin beacon and elizabeth shue the director is paul verhoven that plus a quick demonstration of the amazing special effects in the trailer should be enough to lure us into the theatre the problem is to keep us there i can't imagine anyone who would like to see this movie a second time working on a top secret military project sebastian caine kevin beacon an eccentric genius that calls himself god has discovered the secret to invisibility the first two faces are completed now it is time for the next logical step human caine volunteers for this risky experiment but when he is made invisible something goes wrong while his linda elisabeth shue desperately tries to find something to return him to normal he learns that invisibility is more of a prison than a superpower but that's not the bad thing an unexpected of the drug sends him careening into paranoid megalomania he is naturally given a couple of modest superpowers just enough for him to survive immolation from a flame thrower and an explosion of about a quart of nitroglycerine soon every sense of decency is forgotten the little intelligence that was left disappears as verhoven looses control and the film turns into an where caine is walking like a half finished terminator spooking scaring and killing everybody though it's based on a novel called invisible man' the title has been ironically changed to man' that sums up the film very nicely this is a very silly production laughable actually apparently verhoven's imagination doesn't stretch too far for him the only worthwhile reason to become invisible is so you can case the girls' locker room undetected it is this primitive schoolboy mentality that eventually kills the movie being invisible gives you the opportunity to be who you are to do what you want without being influenced by society in many ways it gives you an illusion of having a life without consequences the nature of man and his place in society is what the novel is truly about all that the depth and true horror of the book is gone and only special effects make you remain in your seat caine does use his power voyeuristically in hollow man but since this is a modernization in other words a dehumanization he doesn't stop there he becomes a rapist and then of course a murderer you'll start wondering why such actors as beacon and shue found themselves in such film in the first place shue's talent is barely seen josh brolin is underused and the rest of the cast suffer mostly for the lack of talent kevin beacon is the only one that performs gracefully his face is not seen for the most part of the film and the only way he exists is as a disembodied voice there are times when his presence actually saves the film from being completely embarrassing in the end the effects are the only reason to see this film in the first place being probably the best technical achievement since jurassic park they are absolutely amazing we observe the layers of skin muscle tissue and bone being peeled away as a body is slowly rendered invisible we see a beating heart inflating lungs and veins pulsing with blood there are a couple of inventive shots with smoke fire air and water but are a few scenes like that worth attending a movie for what is truly disturbing is that with a great book talented actors and a grand budget this could have been so much more pretty much like jan de bont twister haunting paul verhoven has never made anything extraordinary he was responsible for several good films basic instinct and starship troopers and some incredibly bad films showgirls total recall but he has never made anything that was great in a way hollow man fits perfectly in this collection it's not better or worse than verhoven's average film he proves once again that he is incapable of handling more complex issues and so instead of depth and chills verhoven inserts some of his trademarks stupid dialogue and lot's of dull action with blood and naked bodies he even throws in some of the worst of film clich s the slowly advancing fireball the villain who comes back from the dead etc etc and tops the whole thing off with one of the most ridiculous endings of the year you'll be screaming nooooo and attempt to run towards the exit in slow motion and all we can ask is why the answer is simple though hollywood is a movie producing machine the business of moviemaking has to be about something more than money it has to be about telling stories not marketing them it has to be about transporting us to a different place to dazzle us with magic and cleverness to make us care to make us think and feel verhoven has obviously missed that point and this film is a proof of that it's all flesh and bones but no soul a void where its imagination should be
negative	eddie murphy has a lot riding on harlem nights as the movie's writer director executive producer and star murphy will shoulder all of the blame if harlem nights fails but at the same time he'll receive all of the credit if it succeeds should you sacrifice your cash to support murphy's risky gamble well that depends on whom you trust more me or eddie murphy here's what murphy thinks i think the audience is expecting a good time they gonna get sexy they gonna get funny they gonna get drama they gonna get all of that i think it's the best movie i've done paramount radio network here's what i think harlem nights is charmless unoriginal disappointing and almost without question the worst film of the actor's career i haven't seen best defense and guess who's to blame the movie's problem is not murphy's direction harlem nights is a fairly good looking film no the project was probably doomed even before the cameras rolled murphy's awful script is the culprit let's count the mistakes he makes in his first attempt at screenwriting murphy shatters the record for the most profanity in a motion picture yes he even outdoes his own work in raw practically every line of dialogue in harlem nights contains at least one four letter word and after minutes it gets irritating murphy wastes the talents of his fine cast richard pryor redd foxx michael lerner and della reese face the impossible task of carving out credible characters from a script riddled with stereotypes each of them shines occasionally but basically what we have are good performers stuck in a bad vehicle the movie demeans women by depicting them solely as sexual objects and as pawns in power struggles between men murphy has admitted in interviews that he is weary of women in his private life which is really neither here nor there but when murphy puts his bitter feelings on movie screens across the country it's another matter altogether you're forced to swallow some pretty gruesome stuff for instance murphy punches della reese in the stomach and he shoots jasmine guy in the head this is a movie folks lovely newcomer lela rochon gets off easy in her role as a common whore but only because she doesn't have any scenes with murphy thank god he might have run her over with a bulldozer murphy has written for himself perhaps his blandest role to date the loveable eddie murphy charisma emerges only once or twice during the film murphy would rather give his character a spiffy wardrobe than a spiffy personality sometimes it seems as if murphy made harlem nights just so he could wear fancy suits and look debonair the plot is a shameless of the sting if you're going to make another sting movie you've got to do something original murphy's tale of warring nightclub owners in harlem circa fails to add anything new to the formula to get laughs murphy makes fun of stuttering you know a comedy is digging deep when it resorts to ridiculing the handicapped murphy's idea of drama is a scene in which his character apologizes for the first time in his life for what for shooting reese's little toe off needless to say murphy shows little if any promise or imagination as a screenwriter in all fairness however a few rays of sunshine do manage to break through the gloomy cloud surrounding the movie danny aiello is fun to watch as a dirty cop on the take aiello stands out in the large ensemble cast he obviously relishes the opportunity to play such a nasty character a racist detective with mob ties aiello's zesty performance gives harlem nights some much needed spice another bright spot is arsenio hall who has a hilarious cameo as a gangster hall virtually steals the spotlight from murphy in fact hall's ten minutes on screen are the funniest ten minutes in the movie unfortunately his character is completely irrelevant to the plot murphy should have given hall a much bigger role of course i've already mentioned that i didn't care for murphy's character but i have to admit that i did love his neckties they are simply worth the price of admission
negative	because no one demanded it david duchovny in a romantic comedy at last both his romantic magnetism and his comedic brilliance are mined for all their resources the choice of duchovny may have something to do with the plot which could be fodder for a valentine's day episode of the bob rueland david duchovny loses his wife elizabeth joely richardson in a car accident at the same time grace briggs minnie driver is in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant grace gets elizabeth's heart and it leads her to bob it's the romantic equivalent of all those horror films where someone gets a transplant from a serial killer and then is driven to slaughter people four writers are credited with contributing to the story that doesn't seem possible despite being a solid two hours long return to me adds little to the boy meets girl boy loses girl formula and as a result is terribly tedious and duchovny and driver seem unable to generate any sparks and i kept wishing for a button to move their scenes along since driver has managed to work well in romantic roles before i blame duchovny he's out of his element without the manufactured and static sexual tension of his tv series and i've always thought that the relationship between mulder and scully on the comes off more than there's something about duchovny that makes me uneasy regardless of the role he's playing he comes off as a weirdo the only redeeming quality of return to me is its hilarious supporting cast the circle of friends and relatives around bob and grace is constantly playing matchmaker and they generate the only laughs in the movie carroll o'connor is grace's grandfather marty o'reilly when bob comes into marty's restaurant after hours marty immediately begins quizzing bob about his marital status when marty discovers that bob is a widower he invites bob to join his poker game and introduces him with the declaration this is bob his wife is dead the poker buddies are just as desperate to find a mate for grace and greet bob enthusiastically when they hear the news also funny bonnie hunt as grace's best friend megan and james belushi as megan's husband joe married with children megan and joe provide a useful counterpoint by showing the mundane results of romance although it's rare to see him in a movie that premieres in a theater belushi delivers his lines with great comic skill rounding out the impressive supporting cast are david alan grier as bob's best friend and robert loggia as marty's angelo in only the lead actors lived up to the standards set by the rest of the cast bottom line if you are compelled to see this movie watch it on video so you can to scenes with carroll o'connor and james belushi
negative	i'm not sure if silvio horta wrote urban legend before or after the success of scream but i'm guessing after just because it seems he may not have had time to write a second draft seriously this psycho bumping off people in the style of urban a great one and i wish it could have been pulled off the first sign of trouble comes with the painfully insipid dialogue an example that must've been awful for everyone involved you can tell that the writer intended that something a little more airy was supposed to have been said just no one figured out what i know in slasher movies there isn't supposed to be a lot of great characterization and i myself don't mind cardboard cutouts but please don't let the cutouts be so damn bland one reason movies like scream star wars and diva have become so treasured is because they feature charismatic actors playing interesting characters aside from jared leto and joshua jackson who aren't on the screen long enough no one in urban legend makes the grade alicia witt shows none of the acerbity or wit she displayed on cybill rebecca gayheart actually looks unattractive not to mention as dumb as a post through of the film and robert englund just cruises on auto pilot good thing brad dourif is here but wait he's only in the movie for five minutes he's just redoing his stuttering character from one flew over the cuckoo's nest which brings me to another aspect of urban legend it's unoriginality the film most blatantly ripped off is scream another reason that makes me think silvio horta wrote this after craven's and williamson's great success urban legend tries to deconstruct folklore much the same way scream deconstructed slasher films but it doesn't quite succeed it's best stab at is poking fun at that girl in the noxzeema ad ie rebecca gayheart we also have another routine in urban legend and quick what movie is this exchange of dialogue from female protagonist why villain why why congratulations to those of you who answered scream urban legend like i said this movie could've been great if only silvio had worked or been allowed to work a little longer on the script still at least urban legend had some pretty cool death scenes and a somewhat realized whodunit angle which makes this slasher is waaaayyyyyy better than i know what you did last summer
negative	drew barrymore is beginning to corner the market on playing the girl outside the one who's the awkward klutz or the spunky the one who just doesn't fit in with the others she has perfected these characters in movies such as the wedding singer and most notably ever after now she's back starring in what could be called a cinderella fable never been kissed you know it's a fable because she plays a copy editor at a newspaper who has her own office as well as a secretary trust me on this one no copy editor has seen the inside of a private office since gutenberg and i don't mean steve invented the printing press the premise is simple barrymore's josie geller at the youngest copy editor ever to be hired by the chicago is assigned to go undercover and return to high school to do an expose on what today's teens are feeling and doing josie she says she was named after the cartoon character was a geek in high school so she jumps at the opportunity for a second chance this time she thinks she will get it right and be accepted by the now what kind of adult with a good job and a successful career would actually look forward to reliving the hell that was and is high school and adolescence these are among the many problems that plague never been kissed screenwriters abby kohn and marc silverstein cannot get a handle of josie their script has her capriciously switching from confident adult to ditzy blubbering at the least provocation and the fact that an adult would put so much stock into trying to become tight with the vapid airheads who are supposedly south glen high school's most popular girls leads you to question her maturity and mental stability ok so never been kissed is not a sociological expose of today's high school scene however certain rules should apply to film and one of those is consistency of character among the movie's problems is the conceit that josie would seriously strive to climb the high school food chain and in the process lose focus on her assignment any competent editor would have tossed her ass out the door quicker than you could say get me rewrite to be fair barrymore is very appealing but she is given very little to work with she tries valiantly to get a firm grip on her character but the script continually undermines her barrymore comes off best in the physical comedy aspects of the script in which she tries to walk talk and act like a cool hip high schooler otherwise she is left foundering on a cliched sea of stereotypes and situations never been kissed is entertaining and funny in fits and starts it lacks consistency and a firm grasp on what it wants to accomplish the movie's main bright spot is provided by leelee sobieski as aldys the outsider who befriends new student josie josie sees a lot of her former self in aldys yet still abandons her to hang out with the popular girls real mature and that is the main deficiency with never been kissed it's illogical unrealistic uneven and undemanding it has some warm and humorous spots but not enough to overcome its many obstacles
negative	come on silent bob we're going to hollywood starring jason mewes kevin smith will ferrell shannon elizabeth seann william scott chris rock jason lee ben affleck directed by kevin smith rated r jay and silent bob strike back is a dumb movie disguised in a smarmy interior kevin smith coming off the wonderful challenging dogma fills it with trip jokes and expects us to buy it because he's just but when a movie is so it becomes about nothing but itself we can hardly be expected to pay for admission jay and silent bob two new jersey stoners who hang out at the doorstep of convenience store selling pot have appeared in almost all of smith's movies but if i'm not mistaken have not starred in one until now they find out that there is a movie based on the comic book that is based on them being made in hollywood this presents two problems a they haven't received a penny in royalties and b nerds on the internet what's the internet are talking trash about them what is there to do except go to hollywood and stop this movie from being made on the way they're hitchhiking because who knew you needed tickets to take a bus they run into a group of hotties who pretend to be with an group but are really jewel thiefs who parade around in charlie's outfits of course they set jay and silent bob up to look like the thieves so that there is a massive manhunt going on during the second half of the film will ferrell who again proves himself incapable of doing anything but sketch comedy shows up as the wildlife marshal inspector who thinks the two have stolen a monkey the movie will probably please only smith's undiscerning fans everyone else will be critical of this stupid effort following some the sophisticated cinema that he churned out in years past any appeal the movie has will come from the in jokes most of which i think i understood but the movie is in to the point of absurdity there needs to be something holding it together other than its own smugness once jay and silent bob get to hollywood the movie abruptly switches gears from comedy to ridiculously broad hollywood satire countless hot movie stars and personalities make an appearance from smith veterans matt damon and ben affleck to wes craven but jay and silent bob strike back resorts to such gags as another scream sequel with a monkey as the killer get it they're so desperate for another movie they ran out of ideas and used a monkey a monkey as often happens with writers who are working below what they are actually capable of most of the really good lines are throwaways while the big painstaking gags mostly fall flat one of the funniest lines in the movie flies by when asked to comment on the clitoris don't ask jay responds the female clitoris kevin smith is a talented writer though i agree that his films would be better off if he'd let a real director take the helm and jay and silent bob strike back holds true to his promise to make a more facetious film unfortunately it's also shapeless pointless and largely unfunny smith's verbal trampoline as ben affleck once called his distinctive dialogue takes a back seat to his dubious instincts as a populist filmmaker this was supposed to be the movie that didn't offend anyone but it's offensive because it's terrible
negative	let me begin by saying that this is easily the worst movie in the entire official and even unofficial james bond series it is so full of and silly characters that you would almost believe you were watching a spoof an omen of what is to come is provided by the sequence a dull affair featuring a confrontation between a man it's difficult to give a better description since no mention of him is made elsewhere in the movie and the assassin of the title a song with woefully terrible lyrics follows and the rest of the movie is even worse the plot might have been a pleasant change from the usual so often found in the james bond movies of the but here we get a confused mismash about a fabled assassin francisco scaramanga christopher lee putting in a performance which is one of the rare saving graces of this movie who someone has apparently payed one million dollars to in order to remove roger moore's there is also a flimsy connection with the energy crisis and a missing solar cell with efficiency it's as much of a mess as it sounds bond is helped in his task by mary goodnight ekland whose character couldn't possibly be any closer to the stereotypical bimbo during the course of the movie she gets locked in both a closet and a car trunk blunders around a control room accidentally setting off a laser and serves no purpose in enhancing the plot whatsoever maud adams later to star in octopussy is a much more stronger and useful character but she hardly features in the movie scaramanga's lackey is a dwarf called who rather fittingly is also possibly the silliest henchman in the series serving up annoyance and weak dialogue in equal measures worse still is an almost total lack of action throughout the whole movie there is but one fight sequence about fifteen minutes in not counting a ludicrous scene where two teenage girls beat up several dozen trained martial artists another misguided attempt at humour the solitary car chase might have been a highlight but the action is interrupted on a frequent basis by a redneck sheriff j w pepper played by clifton james of live and let die fame yelling stupid comments out of the passenger window he is easily the most irritating character in a james bond movie even his presence could have been made bearable by one of the most impressive car stunts in cinematic history a degree twisting loop jump over a broken bridge could have been except somebody got the idea to dub a mocking whistle tone over the final print on top of that debacle the whole end of the film is an anticlimatic sequence in scaramanga's funhouse the only good thing that came out of this movie was that the producers had to make the next film in the series the infinitely superior the spy who loved me a great film in order for the bond franchise to survive
negative	since director steven zaillian previously wrote the powerful screenplay for steven spielberg drama schindler's list and directed intelligent searching for bobby fischer his new film a civil action should most likely be looked upon as an unfortunate misstep in an otherwise prosperous career what doesn't make sense is how such and superb actors as john travolta robert duvall william h macy and kathleen quinlan got involved in this project which is both dull and completely ineffective the film which involves a small community of children who mysteriously died of leukemia certainly contains the type of story to be but somehow all signs of feeling have been completely removed from the proceedings leaving us with nothing more than a courtroom drama based on a book by jonathan hart which was consequently based on a true account a civil action is set in in the town of woburn mass where personal injury lawyer jan schlictmann john travolta decides to take on the case of eight families who simply want an apology for their children's death from leukemia due to unknown causes jan originally decides to drop the case but when he stumbles across to corporate giants grace and beatrice foods who have plants located near the families' homes he sees all of the pieces suddenly fall into place the two companies have been leaking harmful chemicals into the nearby lake which thus goes into the city's drinking water suddenly after hearing about the families' heartbreak and personal stories he begins to care for them and becomes determined to get to the bottom of the mystery even though he is warned by his staff accountant william h macy that no money is coming in to them only going out also figuring into the story is jerome facher robert duvall beatrice foods' corporate counsel who finds himself in heated waters when jan will not accept his offer to settle the case coming from such a talented writer director and cast not to mention one of the most interesting film composers danny elfman a civil action is an astoundingly drama one that includes an intriguing story and somehow transforms it into an admittedly tiresome and occasionally even boring experience perhaps one of its major problems was that in its attempts to be a relatively uncommercial motion picture zaillian has misplaced its refreshing unconventional attitude with an absence of magnetism and even meaning watching the film i couldn't help but notice its similarities with far far superior film the sweet hereafter which dealt with a lawyer played brilliantly by ian holm investigating a school bus accident that killed a number of children in his attempts to find someone who may have been responsible for the accident holm interviews the grieving parents as well as the sole surviving passenger a teenage girl which starts to remind him of his own teenage daughter a young who has run away from home not only was the plotting similar to a civil action but it also had the same exact running time of minutes considering this it is amazing how fulfilling and truthful a sweet hereafter was not only concentrating on the school bus accident but delving deeply into ian holm's character and his own personal demons as well as the teenage girl in a civil action however i have no idea where the running time went since the film is virtually two hours of nothingness we do not get to know the parents very well nor any of the main characters through its whole duration i did not learn one one travolta's lawyer character jan schlictmann who doesn't appear to have any sort of life or purpose outside of his job every scene is tediously related directly to the premise and therefore there was no one for me to care about or root for you've got to work pretty hard actually to not get an audience to become involved in the parents' plight since their children are dead but that is exactly what a civil action does to be honest i would be fairly to state an aspect of the film that i actually liked aside from one flashback to when a man's young son died on the way to the doctor i remained unmoved and passive about what was going on in the scenes and more than once found my mind wandering i could say the performances were good but who's fooling who since every character is written no one's acting abilities are challenged in any way travolta plays a lawyer well enough but that's about all he does duvall virtually sleepwalks through his role apparently only appearing to give at every chance he gets and what in the world is kathy bates doing in the picture's final scene as a judge she appears unbilled since it is just a cameo but why did she even agree to do it in the first place finally when the conclusion arrived and the end credits began to role the film left me with another question what was the point abruptly ending without any susceptible momentum where none came before that to begin with a civil action seemed to me at least to be an example of how not to make a courtroom drama and it certainly did not do justice to the very serious subject matter the film deals with
negative	synopsis al simmons assasin with a guilty conscience dies in a fiery explosion and goes to hell making a pact with malebolgia a chief demon there simmons returns to earth years later reborn as spawn a general in hell's army donning a necroplasmic costume replete with knives chains and a morphing cape sullen wise cogliostro and flatulating wisecracking violator vy for spawn's attention comments when todd mcfarlane left marvel comics where he had made a name for himself as a comic book penciller on the titles to join the image comics a new comic book legend was born spawn mcfarlane's spawn immediately became a commercial and critical success and a defining comic book series of the mcfarlane created a hero who was not only original but visually intricate allowing mcfarlane to utilize his knack for artistic detail to the max the early spawn issues brilliantly capture mcfarlane's genius at illustration and show his early attempts at writing with the popularity of spawn and the success of the current warner bros batman film franchise a movie version of some sort seemed inevitable for spawn in the summer of hence new line cinema released spawn a film based on the groundbreaking series this topheavy exercise in violence and special effects unfortunately topples quickly and leaves fans of the comic book like me numbed by how much spawn misses the mark what happened why is spawn so bad todd mcfarlane himself executive produced this disappointing misfire and even appears in a cameo i don't think however that his presence necessarily hurt or helped the film i place the blame in part on the recent hollywood trend fueled by public demand apparently for special effects movies utilizing the latest computer technology these films focus upon the effects at the expense of everything else character plot dialogue etc spawn reflecting this trend shows the audience one gratuitous scene after another populated with morphing characters and filled with unnecessary pyrotechnics hardly a minute goes by in this film without fires explosions knives and chains appearing out of nowhere glowing eyes or constantly transforming demons a lot of it is visually interesting and technically solid don't get me wrong but because the script and cast aren't engaging spawn ultimately comes across like overwrought wallpaper the surface may capture the eye but nothing exists underneath spawn's translation of the comic book suffers the most at the storyline level mcfarlane's spawn was a tortured hero a mercenary by trade al simmons was nonetheless a warm man in love with the beautiful wanda having died and journeyed to hell he made a pact to return to earth to be with wanda simmons however discovers that his memories are fragmented his body a creepy mess and his wife married despite his sometimes violent nature readers couldn't help but feel sympathetic toward his plight as the spawn of the underworld spawn attempts to show all of this but does not spend nearly the time it should to do so when the characters are developed they seem absurd rather than touching the cartoonish dialogue and implausible subplot a general possesses the antidote to a supervirus called which he wishes to unleash to enslave the world do not help matters spawn in an apparent attempt to duplicate the success of batman also unwisely spends too much time on a villain the violator batman favored the joker over batman john leguizamo like jack nicholson in batman receives top billing in the cast as the violator michael jai white al simmons spawn is second i ordinarily find leguizamo an intensely annoying presence in films which seems to make him a perfect candidate for the violator the film however spends so much time on the violator's offensive antics that they grate on the nerves apparently meant to be the comic relief in the film as nicholson was in batman especially when contrasted with the sullen spawn the violator's lines are oftentimes grotesque and unfunny leaving the audience wishing he would leave leguizamo does a satisfactory job in the role but he is seen far too often in the film michael jai white a relative newcomer to theatrical releases seems to be an appealing actor and he handles his role adequately but we see little of him without various masks on more time needed to be spent on white's character before he became spawn for the movie to pull at the heartstrings a special note should be made about martin sheen as the obnoxious evil general wynn easily the hammiest performance in the movie it's hard to imagine how sheen mucked up his role so much after all he played a vietnam assasin brilliantly in the great apocalypse now sheen's excessive demeanor do not help the audience accept him as a mastermind villain and comes as a surprise considering his extensive career in film many other elements conspire with the disappointing script and abundant special effects to drag spawn down jerky editing is one of them flames for example roll across the screen sometimes to announce a shift in setting cogliostro unlikely wannabe guide for spawn serves as a poor narrator for the film he goofily tells the audience at one point that how much of humanity is left remains to be seen as if the audience really cares as one violent sequence leads to another the music finally assaults the audience as much as the manic violence and offensive dialogue loud and obnoxious hard rock fused with drum loops dominate some scenes to be fair however marilyn manson's long hard road out of hell effectively compliments spawn's return to earth while filter and the crystal method's can't you trip like i do proves a surprisingly fitting theme song for as good a comic book as it is spawn did not spawn a good movie spawn instead suffers from too much pomp and circumstance and too little plot and character development it receives two stars for its technically special effects many other films though have equal if not superior special effects and are much better rated spawn seems more violent than many movies and probably wouldn't be appropriate for the very young
negative	i can't recall a previous film experience where the fairly good time i was having turned as sour as quickly as it did during feeling minnesota for forty minutes or so i was lured into a loopy if occasionally romantic comedy and i was even giving keanu reeves the benefit of the doubt then rather suddenly i was clubbed over the head with a nasty bit of violence shortly thereafter i was whacked in the gut by another feeling minnesota is a film that made me feel violated as though i had trusted steven baigelman to bring me a cool glass of water and instead he threw acid in my face feeling minnesota tells the story of a topless dancer named freddie cameron diaz who finds herself in deep trouble when her boss red delroy lindo suspects her of stealing from him red's punishment is to force freddie to marry his bookkeeper sam clayton vincent d'onofrio who is far from the man of freddie's dreams enter jjaks keanu reeves sam's estranged younger brother who arrives at the wedding just in time to catch freddie's eye and have sex with her in the bathroom united in their mutual attraction and their mutual loathing of sam jjaks and freddie take off together but sam isn't ready to let them go without a fight freddie meanwhile isn't ready to let sam's money go without a fight and thus begins a series of violent confrontations there is both style and substance to the beginning of feeling minnesota as baigelman opens with an effective montage showing jjaks and sam's intense sibling rivalry as boys and their mother tuesday weld sending jjaks away to live with his father it does a great job of setting up jjaks' unstable life a life which has landed him in trouble for petty crimes and always trying to please his family reeves' wounded look is just right for jjaks the wedding sequence includes a number of nice moments most notably the aforementioned bathroom scene in which a simple question is given a very funny spin most important baigelman begins to establish the connection between freddie and jjaks with humor and economy as in a scene where they both spontaneously begin singing along to the replacements' i will dare on the car radio you would have every reason to expect that relationships both familial and romantic would be the focal point of feeling minnesota unfortunately you would be dead wrong i suppose i should have expected daisies and valentines after an early scene in which red threatens freddie as she tries to avoid the wedding but i certainly didn't expect what i got what i got was yet another in a long line of recent films trying to ride the tarantino wave by mixing gags and brutality or rather creating gags about brutality suddenly the story of romantic entanglements and family conflict becomes a story about a corpse and everything which had come before degenerates so completely that virtually nothing is recognizable the sibling rivalry not only becomes little more than an excuse for one round of beatings after another but there is no consistency to the characterizations vincent d'onofrio turns in a manic performance as sam whose jealousy competitiveness and apparent sense of inferiority seem far more in keeping with what we know about jjaks while reeves turns into a framed hero too reminiscent of chain reaction and both of them spend most of the second half of the film screaming and covered in blood there are films which have managed to employ a radical shift in tone successfully jonathan demme's something wild and neil jordan's the crying game come to mind but they didn't try to draw an audience with the promise of relatively innocuous entertainment i don't want to dismiss baigelman's successes out of hand he gets a fun performance out of dan aykroyd as a crooked cop and some comic moments and it is not his fault that fine line has chosen to promote feeling minnesota as a caper it his fault that he violates his own characters for the sake of shock value and that he can't make his two halves into a whole feeling minnesota left me feeling used and there's not much funny about that
negative	wolfgang petersen's latest the perfect storm is like a pineapple it only tastes good after arduous peeling and digging if you try to eat the fruit spikes and all it's going to hurt quite a bit ok maybe that was a confusing analogy so here's my main complaint about the latest man battles nature flick there isn't really much of a story to tell basically a massachusetts fishing crew goes out to sea on a small boat called the andrea gail and gets stuck in the middle of the storm of the century how much time does it take for petersen to tell this story not nearly enough so he spends the majority of the film developing pointless side stories which all eventually become superfluous audiences want to see the storm they want to see a fight for survival but what they get is a lot of cliched maudlin drivel the last quarter of the perfect storm is utterly perfect in every aspect but just try lasting the first i have yet to read sebastian junger's the perfect storm but from what i have heard it is an unforgettable tale based on a true story the book must have found some other way to introduce the characters because in the movie version the approach is weak using a wonderfully patriotic score by james horner petersen almost hides the banality right away the central characters are introduced the gritty determined captain george clooney the ingenue mark wahlberg torn between his job and his girlfriend diane lane the loving father john c reilly the comic relief who's always trying to get laid john hawkes the new guy william fichtner who immediately antagonizes a crewmate and the quiet french guy allen payne so many problems strike the opening segment of the film that the remaining portions directly suffer it is not the cast's fault just the characters designed for their portrayal allen payne's character never speaks in the entire movie not because he is mute but because he's never given any lines are we supposed to root for a guy whose face and voice we are never given a chance to interact with fichtner's character is terribly underdeveloped we don't know what he's doing there where he's from or who he's supposed to be the remaining four fishermen are all cardboard stereotypes hawkes says to a female stranger in one scene you know what would look good on you me ooooh real creative as the script advances and the andrea gail floats farther out into the waters the crew continues to not feel human only when the storm takes center stage does the movie jump out of its sleepwalk the images of gigantic waves crashing against a helpless boat are thunderously real i can only imagine if this was an imax film this city kid would surely never go in the water again this is loud jolting entertainment adjectives that completely negate the rest of the film the perfect storm was unfortunately a disappointment the maelstrom lived up to its potential but everything else failed to do so i guess i'll stick to that other survival spectacle you know the one on cbs
negative	synopsis valerie a high school junior who doesn't look a day under writes bad poetry complains about how much she hates school fantasizes about a young guy on trial for raping and murdering six women chooses him as a pen pal and plays hooky to see him in court after a jailbreak the killer puts on big sunglasses wears a jacket and uses his fatal charm to go after valerie comments alan smithee directed fatal charm which should have been more appropriately titled fatal bore or fatal crap if you find out that a film you're about to see is directed by alan smithee then you should seriously seriously seriously consider watching something anything else alan smithee is a pseudonym which a number of directors have used when they produce something really bad frankly i'd be embarrassed if i had directed this turkey so i think i understand why the director might have picked the alan smithee moniker for this film where to begin with this painfully poor thriller let's start with the acting it's pretty bad amanda peterson plays valerie and shows at least some talent the rest of the cast don't even though her performance isn't exactly stellar material she's also miscast she seems way too old to still have a year of high school to complete her scenes with valerie's mother played by mary frann are a joke the two look as though they're a couple of coworkers going out to lunch together rather than a daughter with her mother who just doesn't understand christopher atkins a handsome enough actor who plays the killer adam looks like a clown in the second half of fatal charm trying to appear malicious and dangerous he wears large sunglasses and a jacket if disney decided to do a zany comedy caper about the unabomber atkins would probably be a perfect candidate for the lead but he doesn't cut it here early on in the movie a number of scenes occurs in a courtroom outside of the laughably poor performances given by the actors portraying lawyers the people sitting in the benches provide the silliest effort at drama in the film they constantly shift and turn and arc their heads in mock interest in what has got to be one of the worst perfomances that a large group of people have given at one time ever fatal charm's storyline such as it is inspires more yawns than thrills the script belabors a red herring early on about a second suspect who may have committed the murders for which adam atkins is charged with this suspect however turns up strangled and drowned halfway through the film an obvious plot fault even for the idiots who didn't consider the movie's title as valerie and a blond newsreporter commented how innocent and charming the defendant seemed it becomes quite obvious that adam is dangerous when the other suspect washes up so the audience must wait if they haven't already stopped watching as the necessary details fall into place and the killer goes after the heroine in the finale the video box for this dud describes fatal charm as an erotic thriller a thriller it isn't and neither is it particularly erotic i can't imagine if someone were in the mood for something erotic that he'd be happy after watching this fluff a few erotic moments occur in the film they take place in a van with little lighting and are filmed out of focus see they're supposed to be valerie's fantasies how creative on a personal note i was disturbed by the ludicrous english literature class shown in this film which valerie had to suffer through it's no wonder why she hated high school so much as an instructor of english myself i have a hard time accepting the fact that in a course emphasizing great literature a teacher would stoop to reading a student's bad poetry of course it's valerie's about boyfriends out loud and then embarassing its author in front of class with questions about the poem's inspiration i guess the public school system is still setting dubious standards for its students fatal charm won't charm anyone unless there's someone that's charmed by boring lifeless insipid suspenseless thrillers if you happen upon this turkey just keep moving on
negative	a highly intelligent life form that is completely electronic in nature beams itself onto a russian science vessel well this is the point where the movie strays from becoming a decent and original movie and simply becomes a predictable thriller anyhow this life form takes control of the computers on the russian vessel then starts creating highly advanced robots to help it in its gruesome task of exterminating the virus' known as man the original crew of the russian vessel is all but exterminated and then a hapless crew on a tug discovers the derelict ship and tries to salvage it no more needs to be said as to what happens and where the conflict lies the movie is that predictable the story is full of very shallow characters that don't do much other than subsist the captain of the tug played by donald sutherland makes irrational choice after irrational choice leaving the audience wondering as to how he has survived long enough to reach his age looks to be in his to add to this we're shown this motley crew that at times seems to be highly skilled in specific fields and at others seems barely capable of basic tasks some of the supposed capabilities of the characters leads one to wonder what they are doing on a tug transporting cargo in the middle of the pacific in a typhoon no less none of the characters seem to work together at all they are always bickering and vying for some form of control this makes no sense what so ever and only takes away from the story a story that is full of holes and is extremely predictable all the flaws of the actual story are only helped along by the special effects the waves that are generated to be part of the typhoon make it look like boat was is small model sitting in a tub and someone is simply creating waves it looks genuinely fake granted trying to recreate a typhoon or hurricane cannot be easy by any stretch of the imagination but having the storm approach in a style similar to the huge wave of deep impact only ends up looking corny and amateurish also on the topic of flaws the robotics that the advanced life form creates seem to move extremely slowly why if this life form that is so advanced as to be able to create these robotics should it not be able to create them move faster regardless the special effects in this movie in many cases take away from the film rather than add to it as to the actual casting for the movie finally there is nothing to complain about the actors were superb but then again it is highly doubtful that chimpanzees would have had difficulty acting the roles having the cast that was present probably saved this movie from being an absolute catastrophe watching these actors act this story out made it bearable if barely the one saving grace of this movie is that it was highly action packed and there always seemed to be something happening so if you are going into this movie not expecting to see anything grand and are only going to kill some time and watch a mediocre thriller then you won't be too disappointed as the movie is but the latest in a genre that was originally created by aliens it does little more than try to cash in on that aspect this movie would be best left for video and even then you might be advised to simply wait for one of the major networks to air it on tv
negative	this movie is based off the wildly popular series of the same name before this film the game had a few which were ok but the idea of doing a movie is insane it should have been animated if it should have been done at all instead the people do the best they can with a talented cast yet it still fails the plot is completely different from the game's i'm not complaining about that the story involves the mario bros having a plumbing business in brooklyn and having to compete with a rival company eventually they find a construction site by their nemesis which happens to be enviromentally so due to luigi's john leguizamo girlfriend princess daisy they go and investigate they get transported to a blade world lead by king koopa dennis hopper somehow a plot dealing with all the dinosaurs being mutated and transported to an alternate futuristic jumbles in the plot is better than the movie deserves the acting is ok this seems to be more of a visual film the special effects are good especially on the robotic yoshi however the film drags and is no fun and it leaves itself open to a sequel which probably won't ever be made this movie begins sort of promising but ends up leaving a weird taste in your mouth so if you want to watch a sort of odd movie starring the excellent dennis hopper then watch super mario bros the movie you could do worse but you could definitely do better  street fighter the movie starring raul julia and jean claude this movie was based off of a series of never ending sequels to a game called street fighter it has all the characters from the game in a reasonable plot it is more like a movie than it should be yes it's watchable raul julia does a good job considering this was his final film while the game had fighting sequences this movie is a of action scenes and flashy sets and costumes while trying to show off a plot at the same time does it work sort of the plot involves the evil shadowloo organization run by m bison raul julia guile jean claude takes his troops to attack bison's main base in an attempt to liberate the innocent villages he has taken over in a short amount of time the movie introduces several characters well it catches your attention but it ultimately seems like a showcase for fans of the game so you can point out things like there's chun li or look at that ryu did at vega it hits the bases by presenting the characters in a plot with good sets but goes no further this movie needed more action in the first place the action scenes that are here are short and not very exciting if you like action flicks or if you liked the game watch this one it is even worth watching if you want to see raul julia's last performance or if you can't get enough of van damme other than that you could find better action flicks 
negative	studio attracted so many weird and bizarre people to its gates that it's a wonder why the film about the life and death of the studio centers itself on one very boring cliched individual not to mention an ensemble of people who wouldn't be at all fascinating unless they worked at the studio which they did according to this film are we supposed to believe that out of all the strange folk who populated the studio nightly that a character who is a bland ripoff of tony manero would really make a good protagonist for the film about it belongs in the elite group of films known as the big disappointments the films that attain so much hype so much potential in its creation that they come off worse than they are when they are finally finished i was heavily awaiting not the least because i've become fascinated with the infamous club which has been the subject of an engrossing documentary that's been running all summer on which is weirdly enough much more intriguing and engrossing than this edgy film perhaps more importantly is part of the blossoming subgenre the nostalgia film which has been picking up mighty steam what with boogie nights and the last days of disco coming out within the year and both being such damn good movies that not only captured the feel of a certain time period the late party and the early wakeup period but brought us interesting and real characters like scotty the tragically gay boom mike operator from boogie nights and charlotte the ironically clueless and bitchy from the last days of disco not to mention several others deals not so much with the timeline of the studio how it began how it was run how it ended that's all dealt with in the narrated opening and finale but more interested in the characters who populated it this is a definite plus here's a film that could have been a fascinating hour plus film about the tragic people who went there to party and had to wakeup in the when things like diseases economy problems and perhaps worst of all reagan all hit and forced everyone into a rude awakening the story of the studio is tragedy in itself let's look at how it all affected the people but this film doesn't let that happen it gives us a protagonist named shane o'shea ryan phillippe from i know what you did last summer who's chief character trait is the fact that he's from new jersey which also happens to be his chief character flaw i guess he's into being part of the scene and soon finds he's become a bit of a rave amongst the studio regulars a bit like saturday night fever no travolta and no real interest put into him poor poor phillippe struggles to make him interesting but all he is a character and not at all our ticket to the glimpse of the decadence going on inside the club that he could have been shane begins to hang out with some other denizens of the club like anita salma hayek a wannabe donna sommers and her young hubby greg randanzo breckin meyer from clueless who helps shane become a bartender and rise to a bit of fame although he begins to get somewhere when he sleeps with the foxy billie auster sela ward an exec of sorts he falls in lust with a soap star named julie black neve campbell and thus the boring romance subplot that's all too not necessarily important to anything else in the film and never really becomes interesting at any point in the film the film's sole point of interest and one major strongpoint is the necesary personage of steve rubell played by mike myers you heard me rubell the famous head of the studio acted as if he never stopped partying ever and is an easy metaphor for the life and times of his creation but the film thanks to a surprisingly strong performance by myers makes him out to be more than that notice the scenes sole shocking scene where he tries to get felatio from one of his male employees in turn for a promotion myers brings the humanity to rubell in this scene and a couple others that some of us who've only seen him on tv never saw and proves to be perhaps the one aspect of studio that this film actually nails first time feature director mark christopher proves that he's a better director than a writer though not too terribly much his story is trite and shallow as are his characters and his direction is shockingly flat especially for a film about this subject it's as if he had a great story to tell but instead opted for the easier route the studio's recreation is amazingly accurate though and very impressive but his direction is never captivating enough some people say that a film does its job if it makes you want to visit the locale it takes place in despite the film's tone i still want to go to rome and its many nightclubs after i saw fellini's la dolce vita and when i watched i didn't particularly want to stay
negative	in the past tim burton has taken cinema by storm with the action packed batman and the hilarious ed wood but lately his films just don't cut it sleepy hollow has some unique features but the script is a terrible mess for those who remember disney's fantastic adventures of ichabod crane it is actually superior to this disney's version was at least interesting while burton's film drags on far too long without any suspense or frights while the stories are similar the new version adds too much to the once likable story and throws in some weak dialogue to top it off ichabod crane johnny depp is now apparently a constable who was sent to new york to investigate suspicious murders the victims are headless and no traces of evidence were found until the murderer reveals himself hence the headless horseman now with the help of christina ricci and an orphaned boy they must stop the headless horseman from a killing spree that could destroy the whole town of sleepy hollow sure the headless horseman is an intriguing character but the story has so many holes that even he nor depp can save this disaster in the original the headless horseman was meant to be unstoppable no one could stop him not even ichabod by the end of the film it had audiences in deep thought burton however concentrates far too much on the atmosphere and how to make the main characters heroes he takes no risk what so ever and this is where he fails another pathetic element of the film was the script like i said earlier he just stuffed too much in at one time and made it look real sloppy kind of like the mess the headless horseman made with his victims he completely butchered the story to pieces thankfully there are a few factors that i particularly liked the acting by depp was quite notable he took the nerdy character of the cartoon and simply acted it out in a better manner if it wasn't for his quirky i doubt i could have remained awake because quite frankly i was getting sleepy just when i thought christina ricci was getting to be a good actress she winds up doing this it just goes to show no actress or actor can pass up a big blockbuster it's too tempting to let go even if the script is mush the atmosphere too was quite involving i should have just gazed at the sets and the eerie fog rather than actually pay attention to what was going on at least burton's films are eye candy even if they are trash the only real scenes of value were the tree full of heads and the fight between the horseman depp and casper van dien other than that i wish i could just fast forward through all the gaping holes in the film and just sit back and stare at the scenery by the end i can only think back and laugh at how bad sleepy hollow developed this is the biggest disappointment of the year especially when such a talented director like burton handles a project like this don't waste your time or money because your head will feel hollow
negative	plot a rich psychiatrist with a great home life gets his cute daughter kidnapped by some bad guys who want him to extract some information from the mind of one of his nutty patients of course the patient is not cooperative and the doctor only has a few hours to comply with their demands before they kill his daughter pretty good premise no critique if you're not a fan of movies packed with plot holes inconsistencies and yes even more plot holes heed my words and skip this hollow thriller and i don't like saying that either since this film actually had some potential and started off pretty well sure the story is basically just an amalgamation of ransom primal fear and nick of time pureed into one but the whole psychiatrist working against the clock thing actually had me engaged at first but it's at about the halfway mark of this movie that the bottom drops out and all that we're left with are a lot of questions and very few plausible answers we get the overly smart kid who manages to pull one over on the bad guys we get a weak woman with her leg in a cast beating the crap out of a tough bad guy we get douglas' character a new york uppedity psychiatrist suddenly turning into an action hero with moves and attitude to boot and what about the film's main plot point why would the bad guys still give a crap about this thing after years and even more so why would they only give the shrink until the day's end to do his part you waited years what's another few days or why not set up another heist instead i'll tell you why it's because we wouldn't have a bad movie otherwise that's why and many many more ugh whatever the case it was just about the time that douglas' character suddenly removed murphy's character from the mental home and how come she went with him so nicely i thought she didn't trust him that i turned to my buddy and asked when the movie had turned into a joke and a few bogus chase and action sequences later we were left with a ending that did little to answer any other questions i might've still had and actually brought up even more contradictions badly put together this movie features some decent acting some nice cinematography and an initially interesting premise but loses it all in a haze of plot miscues which ultimately leave you with little care for anyone in fact if it wasn't for brittany murphy's excellent portrayal of a traumatized teen jennifer esposito's embarrassing performance as a police woman yeah right watching her delivering lines was the funniest part of this but it wasn't supposed to be and michael douglas' cool regular guy part there would be little reason to remain seated until the end of this picture incidentally can anyone please give me one good reason why esposito's character was in this movie in the first place she was completely superfluous and on top of all that by the end of this flick the director seems to have realized how dumb the audience must be to have bought most of the garbage that he'd been shoveling out for the hour and a half prior and decides to add insult to injury by flashing back to an earlier character's death when one of the bad guys dies just so we know as an audience that the two are interrelated somehow ooooh thanks mr fleder i appreciate the dude yum yum but how about explaining every other plot point in your film that made no sense whatever either way i don't give a rat's ass because this movie is a dog and that's unfortunate because it actually did have some good points going for it see it if you like dumb thrillers incidentally if you appreciated along came a spider you will likely enjoy this film as well they both start off with interesting premises only to toss all logic and sense out the window about halfway through where's joblo coming from along came a spider girl interrupted kiss the girls primal fear seven
negative	i wish more films would take on issues of faith and morality in the modern world and i wish that would use commandments as a blueprint on how to do it daniel taplitz has created a bizarre conglomeration of satire and in this tale of seth warner aidan quinn a man of faith who runs into a streak of bad luck which usually inspires lyrics his pregnant wife drowns his home is destroyed by a tornado he loses his job and his dog is crippled by a bolt of lightning convinced that god has broken his half of the covenant seth decides to break his and sets out to turn every thou shalt not of the ten commandments into a thou shalt and vice versa his wife's sister rachel friends courteney cox wants to help seth rachel's selfish husband harry anthony lapaglia who tends to break a few commandments of his own thinks seth is a lunatic thus begins a film which picks the wrong tone for every occasion taplitz isn't interested in treating seth's tragedies as genuinely tragic making it impossible to sympathize with him composer joseph vitarelli provides a score full of whimsical woodwinds turning seth's sacrilegious mission into an amusing lark quinn's performance as seth is all fervor without any genuine pain the actual breaking of the commandments is almost treated as an afterthought with one through five dispatched in a montage the result is a character whose actions feel less like the authentic responses of an anguished man than the machinations of a movie plot it's not even entirely clear that commandments is about seth corporate attorney rachel is given a case which is supposed to soften a hard heart we see no indication she has while harry gets his comeuppance as part of seth's false witness only courteney cox strikes a note of reality in a solid performance she is sane center around which too equally troubled men revolve even she can't force taplitz to decide whose story this is or what we should have learned about dealing with the struggles in our lives and our relationship with the infinite by the time seth makes a singularly biblical reappearance late in the film it has become clear that taplitz is aiming for a fantastical fable which makes no connection with real human experience commandments is a bad comedy which could have been a decent drama if daniel taplitz had had the guts to take faith and the loss thereof at all seriously
negative	the high school comedy seems to be a hot genre of the moment with she's all that and varsity blues behind us and several more set for release later in the year the teen comedy seems to be experiencing its own renaissance however you wouldn't know it from the quality of the latest entry jawbreaker this shockingly bitter candy definitely has a sour center the most popular and most feared clique at reagan high school have an unexpected dilemma they have accidentally killed one of their own the teen dream liz purr charlotte roldan choked on a giant jawbreaker during a kidnapping prank for her birthday now the three surviving girls must decide what to do it takes little time at all for the group's leader courtney rose mcgowan to decide to cover it up the ditzy marcie julie benz is game to go along but the clique's final member julie rebecca gayheart has a guilty conscience to make things worse another student the hopelessly geeky fern mayo judy evans greer accidentally discovers the truth the girls' cover is surely blown not so fast thinking quickly courtney offers fern a chance after a quick makeover fern is transformed into vylette the beautiful new girl at school and a member of the popular crowd does this mean that popularity is the key to getting away with murder or will this finely honed plan crack over time jawbreaker is obviously attempting to be the heathers of its generation and failing miserably i might add it manages to capture the mix of murder and teen social observations but misses three crucial elements sharp dialogue witty characters and the humor it is possible that jawbreaker might have succeeded in being darkly humorous if it wasn't shackled to its plot the film's most innovative twist is the makeover of fern mayo at this point jawbreaker seems poised to spin wildly into the uncharted depths but then all of a sudden the innovation stops the film becomes mired in the plotting which quickly saps what little life and energy there was right out of the film in the film rose mcgowan fares the best as the manipulative clique leader she truly dominates every scene she's in not a difficult feat in a crowd such as this however it's a character crying out for a better movie or at least another decently drawn character with which to interact jawbreaker doesn't quite know how to handle its characters fern and julie either one could effectively end the movie at any time by simply revealing what she knows the lengths to which the film goes to prolong the plot have the unintentional effect of distancing us from these characters as their motives become murky and unclear the film finally falls to the point that it doesn't really matter who wins or loses since all sides have become equally detestable detestable is a good word to describe the film jawbreaker it's certain that like the murder weapon described in the film's title jawbreaker will be triggering more than one gag reflex in the audience
negative	capsule a wild jungle woman and an gorilla are discovered in tibet and taken to hong kong where the gorilla escapes and causes havoc this is a laughable rip off of king kong itself a production values are low and audiences seem to like the film mostly for derisive laughter high to directed by ho this film is provided to be a sort of laughing stock to finish the festival an earthquake uncovers an tall gorilla in the himalayas a hunter chosen because he just broke up with his girl and is at loose ends gets sent to find the ape and finds a sort of female tarzan who controls the ape evelyne kraft is the jungle girl in a leather bikini that she is pasted into so she always looks on the verge of bouncing out of gorilla actor has no idea how gorillas move and suit is terrible nice miniature effects however has almost a music video inside it of jungle girl playing with animals like the leopard several places there is narrative that is nearly incoherent as if there are missing scenes and the viewer has to guess what happened in the interim actual location shooting in mysore ape shown badly matted behind temple combining of images usually pretty bad incompetent matching of film stocks stock footage frequently used gorilla brought to hong kong by greedy entrepreneur who really abuses the ape before it escapes and tears things up real good
negative	bachelor' is one of the best terrible movies you will ever see wading through this gooey detestable sludge is quite the chore for even a dedicated romantic those hoping to find some genuine charm and feeling behind this chris o'donnell vehicle should wander elsewhere bachelor' is a painfully clumsy mess strung together with a few brief moments of surprising poignancy awaiting these moments by enduring the rest of the film is certainly not worth your time or money although he has not quite evolved out of the stereotypical cocoon chris o'donnell has an effortless charm as an actor most will recognize him as the robin from the two latest films but other abilities are evident behind his boyish smile can o'donnell carry the weight of a film on his shoulders perhaps if he found the proper vehicle but bachelor' falls far short of the requirements the actor just can't register with such a pathetic screenplay as the guiding light to success a few instances of adorable humor aside it becomes apparent that no one could save the festering mess that is bachelor' o'donnell plays jimmie a hopeless romantic in his late twenties who's progressing in a serious relationship with anne renee zellweger jimmie takes anne out for dinner to the restaurant specifically used for proposals and attempts to ask for her hand in marriage the problem is that his proposal sucks big time you can tell things aren't going pleasantly because jimmie gets the infamous look when anne questions his approach and then the plot along with the stupidity of the movie thickens jimmie's grandfather peter ustinov dies suddenly leaving a video will behind for his grandson who also happens to be his only living relative everybody is speechless when grandpa declares that he is passing down an inheritance in the amount of million dollars to jimmie of course there's a catch he must get married before his birthday stay joined with his bride for an entire decade and produce healthy children within the first five years the bad news is that jimmie's birthday is the following day with anne out of town he must find a willing bride to share his riches with and within a very limited time frame there are certainly a few worthwhile aspects of bachelor' for one the movie's approach is interesting and not dripping with clich another is the colorful cast o'donnell and zellweger are cute together and the supporting cast tries relentlessly to rescue the film from drowning in it's own mediocrity ustinov is enjoyable as the cranky grandfather figure and james cromwell is sincere and effective as a wise priest dragged through jimmie's marital adventures and now the cons the approach may be interesting but in trying an method director gary sinyor gives the film a synthetic feel the characters are drawn with obvious broad strokes and the plot is bogged down with everything humanly imaginable yes bachelor' is far more frustrating than cute the screenplay is lamely written and the subject matter poorly conceived the considerable charm of the two leads is thoughtlessly wasted along with whatever promise the film initially contained potential goes out the window early to suit sinyor's approach but not a minute of this hapless drivel seems accustomed to the director's wishes bachelor' becomes lost without a homing beacon to save it you've seen the tv spots haven't you o'donnell is madly rushing down a deserted street and the caption reads is this man running from in actuality he's fleeing from thousands of angry brides who want to marry him and inherit his fortune it's one of the few enjoyable sequences in the film after seeing the movie i believe that the approaching horde could be something else o'donnell could be running from his angry fans who have just endured bachelor' and are hunting him down for revenge
negative	topless women talk about their lives falls into that category that i mentioned in the devil's advocate movies that have a brilliant beginning but don't know how to end it begins by introducing us to a selection of characters who all know each other there is liz who oversleeps and so is running late for her appointment prue who is getting married geoff liz's boyfriend neil her previous boyfriend ant who has written a screenplay for the first hour we get to know these people through everyday activities as they talk on the phone go out to dinner hang clothes on the line the interactions seem so truthful and guileless that it is almost as if the hid cameras around the place and filmed these people unbeknownst to them at times the events border on the ridiculous like the screening of the film but they still seem in keeping with the characters and their lives this doesn't sound like a brilliant premise for a film we just follow a lot of people around who are vaguely related but it's the execution of the idea that makes topless women talk about their lives so engrossing unfortunately this level of honesty isn't maintained with about half an hour to go a sense of impending doom invades topless women talk about their lives and from there is descends into melodrama such a disappointment after such a brilliant start the actors are all quite good with ms danielle cormack as liz being particularly impressive the energy of her character is palpable and is a major reason the movie is so watchable a lot of the performances are a bit rough around the edges but this suits totally the documentary feel of the film it seems like these are real people we are watching rather than actors playing roles that is why the melodramatic turn of events comes as such a shock up till that point i was transported to this world where these real but mildly insane events were taking place while the final half hour is not beyond the realms of possibility it's unlikely in a way that is jarring to someone caught up in the world of the film not just the events but also the tone of some of the end is wrong clashing strongly with the sense of fun that has preceded it this is not to say that topless women talk about their lives is not a good film as stated above the first hour is superb and even the end is above average it just takes a turn which means that an otherwise brilliant movie loses some of its gloss
negative	beware of movies with the director's name in the title take john carpenter's ghosts of mars please if the carpenter brand name wasn't superglued to the title this embarrassment would surely have bypassed theaters entirely and gone straight to its proper home on the usa network and i would have been spared a headache the latest from the director of starman halloween and escape from new york is a lousy western all gussied up to look like a futuristic horror flick the production is set on mars in where humanity looks for relief from the overpopulation strangling their home world six hundred and forty thousand people in a matriarchal society live and work at outposts all over the red planet to make it more hospitable for future generations a matriarchal society  sounds pretty intriguing eh well don't get your hopes up
negative	august and september are a wasteland when it comes to children's films and october is a dumping ground for munchkin movies the studios don't want to see slaughtered against thanksgiving films last year the benevolent studio gods gave us digimon and this year they bestow max keeble's big move on delighted moviegoers across the country parents will be thrilled because they'll finally have something to drag little austin and kayla to see that doesn't smell nearly as much like ass as digimon did don't get me wrong keeble which is actually only a ment away from being a fetish film isn't that entertaining in fact you'd be better off waiting to blow your disposable income when the real kiddie pics monsters inc harry potter come out next month but if dubya dubya iii tells you to go out and spend money to stimulate the economy then you'd better do it because gassing up the minivan twice a week just isn't going to cut it we first see young max keeble alex d linz home alone as a superhero delivering newspapers with the pinpoint accuracy of a david beckham cross foiling the diabolical plans of the evil ice cream man jamie kennedy jay and silent bob strike back and landing the neighborhood honey brooke anne smith who by the way is the hottest chick in a disney film since emmanuelle chriqui played claire boner in snow day the scenario is of course a dream max is really a doofus and he wakes up on his first day of junior high school with a pessimistic attitude no luck with the ladies and only two friends both of whom can kindly be described as social outcasts and who were both in snow day the perpetually robed robe josh peck and a cutie named megan summer catch's zena grey who harbors secret feelings for max things don't get any better for max when he arrives at school he has to contend with among other things a science teacher amber valletta family man a pair of bullies noel fisher and orlando brown and an illiterate principal larry miller the princess diaries who's secretly diverting the school's last dime into the football program when max's father grownup nerd robert carradine unexpectedly announces the family is moving to a new town at the end of the week max decides this is the perfect time to exact revenge on everyone who pisses him off whoa don't worry parents he doesn't do it style it's all pretty tame stuff but max ends up in hot water when dad nixes the move leaving his son dangling in the wind like so many tampon strings director tim hill muppets from space adds a few nice touches like max's voiceover character introductions for the film's main characters and a flashback scene that's pretty funny but there isn't too much else happening here stylewise unless you count some farting a little puking and a couple of bizarre cameos from tony hawk and lil' romeo pg for some bullying and crude humor
negative	the event horizon is the boundary of a black hole and in the future it's also the name of a spaceship that vanished when it tried to go faster than the speed of light by traversing through its own portable black hole naturally this is the setup for the other event horizon the movie when the ship suddenly appears at the point that it vanished at just outside of neptune the crew of the ship called the lewis and clark has to go to investigate and dr william weir the creator of the event horizon gets to come along for the ride if you've glanced at a poster for this movie you know that supposedly what follows is infinite terror well i don't know about the terror part but infinite certainly seems to qualify event horizon is a gory sick excuse for a film it starts off as an alien and then degenerates into a pointlessly bloody slasher flick after about minutes at least for those first minutes it's an interesting of alien that's a lot more than can be said for the rest of them movie which seems to go on forever it not a scary monster movie nor is it a psychological thriller it is simply a movie which tries again and again to make the viewers feel sick to their stomach at the site of extreme gore you've seen this kind of movie before the hellraiser series had plenty of scenes containing this sensibility this is a kind of movie for which i have no respect a kind of movie which i had hoped died out years ago it is quite possible for a movie to frighten or shock its audience without resorting to nothing more than gore but event horizon takes the low road and the viewers pay the price there are many good respectable performances from fishburne and neill most noticably paul anderson's direction is impressive as it was in mortal kombat there are many nice special effects mostly dealing with numerous common objects floating around in the sets are beautiful to gaze upon and richard t jones' character cooper is hilarious and extremely likable more so than most characters i've seen in recent movies for the little screen time that he has and none of this can save the movie from being a level of film the idea of a ship that has some sort of life within its walls a life that knows the fears and inner skeletons of the human passengers is a promising one a haunted house story in space isn't such a bad idea but the final execution is extremely disappointing that's not to say that philip eisner here making his feature debut doesn't have talent for those first minutes he manages to make a tired premise interesting adding in aspects of unique flavor into a story and that's something that not too many writers can do he even has one scene that though it also tries to sicken the audience has a honestly tense feel to it the scene in question deals with one of the crew being in an airlock while others try to save him from floating into space he definitely has something of a gift but it's not fully on display here i certainly will look forward to seeing more from him and i hope that his future work fully explores his talent and the story possibilities of the premise but because of what this movie degenerates into i have little or no respect and got little or no enjoyment out of it if this is what we have to look forward to in the future of film then i agree with laurence fishburne's sentiment god help us
negative	there is a rule when it comes to movies a sequel is never as good as the original there are very few exceptions to this rule and texas chainsaw massacre the next generation is not one of them now if you also take into consideration that the original chainsaw massacre was a really bad movie and that this isn't even the first sequel to it you have a recipe for a very painful viewing experience don't be fooled by the presence of up and coming talents matthew mcconaughey a time to kill and renee zellweger jerry maguire they made this movie before they were stars judging by their performances they also made it before they took any acting lessons it's a wonder they ever worked in hollywood again after appearing in this turkey apparently the producers of this film realized just how bad it was because it sat unreleased for years until someone decided that they might be able to capitalize off the success of mcconaughey and zellweger apparently the two young stars were none too happy about this thing ever seeing the light of day and i don't blame them they would have been better off if this had been some sort of porno flick starring the two of them unfortunately for them it is a horror film in which zellweger plays your typically stupid horror film character while mcconaughey plays a guy who wears a mechanical brace on his leg that he controls with a television remote control hey don't say i didn't warn you to make matters worse leatherface the chainsaw wielding maniac who was never the scariest of psychopathic killers at the best of times has now become a full blown and spends the entire movie in drag there is a plot to this movie but it isn't worth mentioning let's just suffice to say that a group of teenagers are in the typical wrong place at the wrong time and are left to the mercy of remote control man mcconaughey and his lipstick wearing chainsaw revving sidekick man i can't get over just how bad this movie is this film has absolutely no redeeming qualities even the obligatory topless babe shot wasn't enough to hold my interest for more than seconds the writing is bad the direction is even worse but both of those things look good in comparison to the acting this is the sort of movie that they should make people in prison watch a guarantee you if criminals thought that they would be subjected to this film they would never break the law again
negative	as a defense attorney kevin lomax keanu reeves has a special talent for picking juries that will ultimately acquit his clients he is also an excellent judge of character knowing just which strings to pull to sway the jury while breaking down a potentially damaging witness's testimony and on top of that he's a damn good trial lawyer in the opening scene it is obvious that the defendant that he represents is guilty but it doesn't hamper lomax's desire to creatively squeeze his client through the doors of reasonable doubt thereby getting an acquittal his unblemished record of victories soon captures the attention of one of the most prestigious firms in the country headed by john milton al pacino he is brought to their headquarters in nyc where he immediately impresses milton and is subsequently offered a position as head of their criminal law division lomax is soon given the case of his life he must defend a real estate tycoon who has been charged with a triple homicide the draw of fame and his desire to prove just how good he really is begins to isolate him in his own hell he works late defends the guilty pledges his soul to his firm and begins to neglect his smart but fretful wife mary ann charlize theron but what starts off as a promising john story about lawyers takes an abrupt detour as supernatural forces begin to tinker with the story it begins like a typical parable where a boy makes it big but then has to balance his sense of self against the allure of money power and greed but milton is far more than just a corrupt partner of the firm quite literally he is the devil in disguise and as the movie progresses he reveals some uncanny talents that one could have only if he had sold his soul long ago freaky and frightening things begin to happen and after much of the film has elasped milton's horrifying intent is finally revealed the movie tries to give us two separate and distinct acts the first involves the comeuppance of lomax as a trial lawyer the second focuses on milton and his ulterior motive for employing lomax unfortunately the two never mix well into a cohesive story and what we get are two underdeveloped stories that rely too much on one shaky revelation to tie them together and an impressive production piece to give it an underlying atmosphere granted the film is very you'll enjoy the final scene where the wall mural seemingly comes to life during a heated speech given by pacino you'll also like the images of power and temptation expressed through the fleshy and flashy parties you'll also feel the loneliness and insanity that sets in with mary ann knowing that her husband is slowly drifting away this was one of the better storylines but unfortunately is only a as with all thing's involving the devil you can expect nothing but the worst in the first few scenes reeves anchors the film but then slowly drifts into the background his path from to is never fully explored his actions seem arbitrary and his reasons for them not fully known pacino's comical portrayal is spirited but the vanity of his character begins to shift the focus of the movie there is another plot or two that is introduced but never gets revisited the focus seemed inconsistent throughout and the final payoff seemed quick and cheap this movie tries to be horrifying thrilling and dramatic all at the same time however while the devil's advocate strives to get noticed ultimately it makes very little impression at all
negative	i'm not sure i should be writing a review of the witches of eastwick because i'm not sure just what the hell pardon the expression was going on in it however i can express the most important observation i made of it i e i didn't like it if i had to summarize this film i think i'd conclude it was an updating of one of those old new england folk tales of someone selling their souls to old scratch and how they try to get out of the deal that's the kernel of it anyway tossed into this are little bits and pieces that occasionally seem to be saying something about men and women feminism the role of the devil modern reformers and friendship unfortunately little or no effort is ever made to follow up and elucidate on these concepts they're simply thrown out and then left to rot while the film goes on apace actually i think that most of the audience was even more confused than i was they came in expecting some kind of supernatural comedy on the level of ghostbusters and were a bit confused to be getting a folk tale with philosophical overtones they laughed or tried to laugh at moments that were either barely funny or much more horrible than funny as if that could bend the film away from it's rather frightening direction three women cher susan sarandon and michelle pfieffer live in eastwick a small midwestern town one night while drinking late into the evening they begin wishing for the ideal man to drop into their lives in seeming answer to their idle daydreams a wealthy eccentric moves into a mansion on the hill and seduces each one by attempting to be everything they want him to be he soon shows evidence of and his devotion to the women's merest fantasies or wishes has dangerous overtones even worse when ignored his moods become ugly and he mistreats the women for spurning him anyway the problems all three female characters are fairly uninteresting and several are cardboard stereotypes especially sarandon's character we never get inside them never feel sympathetic to them because their dialogue and personalities seem pretty bland as for nicholson well even the devil needs a direction to go in and while darryl van horne is the most interesting character in the movie due to the grace of the screenwriter and more importantly nicholson's acting he still can't be yanked in one direction and then another without making him a little vague and then there's the special effects not in weren't that their overuse i was almost positive until i saw the credits that the witches of eastwick was either produced by alexander salkind who has turned out the slop named superman ii and iii and supergirl because of the big name actors in dopy stunts or stephen spielberg after the vomit scene and the stunt nope it's another bunch of guys and directed by george miller who has shown great skill with effects before the road warrior nightmare at feet episode of twilight zone the movie but apparently doesn't know when to turn off the wind machine and let his people act f'gawds sake guys this is jack nicholson let him loose let him grin demonically skip the splitting earth and fake lightning watching the scene where nicholson is tossed out of the car by the voodoo doll all i could think of was what a waste if you're going to use slapstick like that use it up on pee wee herman nicholson does what he can with the role and when he can find his bearings can be extremely good the scene in the church for instance but most of the time he seems a bit stiff as if he's not sure what he should be doing next and no wonder this script goes all over the map giving you the feeling that it'd just love to be allegory but it's not sure about maybe if you give it time it'll think of something so what is the witches of eastwick a horror movie a folk tale a comedy a statement about women an examination of the religious right or comparitive morality i tend to think of the image that seems to dominate the movie for me watching someone regurgitate bits of food and cherry pits all over rooms people the screen and ultimately the audience in other words a mess  if you like nicholson enough to watch him here maybe of his charm is able to make it through the logjams of others
negative	the most interesting thing about virus is that the title of the film does not refer to the clunky robotic animals that try to kill our heroes alas it refers to our heroes as it turns out the alien race that sends a computer virus to earth via the mir space station thinks of the human race as a virus perhaps even a cancer that needs to be eradicated before it spreads any further after all we have taken up this entire planet and if they let us live for another billion years or so we might advance beyond our solar system and into the next one but the human race doesn't have much to worry about after all there's a woman named foster jamie lee curtis out there stopping the computer virus she's the chief navigator on a sea vessel travelling with her is captain everton donald sutherland steve baker william baldwin woods marshall bell squeaky julio oscar mechoso and richie sherman augustus they're all sailing in a typhoon one lovely evening when they stumble across an enormous abandoned russian satellite ship in international waters lucky for us we already saw that the computer virus has taken over the ship and eliminated everyone on board the evil captain everton thinks he's going to take the ship in and get a reward he convinces his crew that there's going to be big money so they try to salvage the ship soon however when it's apparent that no one is on board and that the ship has no power they realize that something bad must have happened finally they meet nadia joanna pacula who explains their situation a computer virus has taken over the ship it's creating to eliminate the human race virus is a truly dumb action thriller one of negligible intelligence and innovation when considering the entire film you will realize that it lacks a single original scene it's a direct of nearly every james cameron film aliens the abyss and the terminator films are the most plagiarized more importantly it's basically the same movie as last year's deep rising i liked deep rising simply because it's funny it knows it's silly and derivative virus takes itself seriously and in the most serious manner possible it steals from every good and bad film of the genre showing you countless familiar scenes and sporting a plot that any film of the genre could fit with a little trimming but what is so amazing about virus is how poorly the whole thing has been thought out okay let me get this straight the alien race which is never really explained is basically sentient electricity they need to make themselves physical so they use a space station to get onto a ship which is surrounded by water but who cares about that on the ship they make a bunch of clunky immobile robots that somehow kill three hundred people after that they start using the dead people to create creatures that look like the terminator but are much worse at walking around the leader of course is a big creature every film like this has a big creature at the end but the big creature in virus is so big that it has to tear down the walls to move around virus is indeed a cliched film but the central flaw lies in the fact that the computer virus just isn't very threatening it's established that they can simply turn off the power to stop it but the virus has sealed the power room by the time our heroes get there on one level virus is almost passable fun it's really gory and a few of the scenes have interesting camp appeal the director john bruno worked on a lot of cameron's films there's also a nice array of actors even though none of them do any acting except for donald sutherland who does a lot of very bad acting the bottom line however is this virus is a bad movie it rips off a lot of good movies that are worth seeing in that order i recommend that you rent any one of the alien films simply to admire the qualities of a creature that actually threatens our heroes
negative	an american werewolf in paris is a failed attempt to recapture the humor and horror of john landis' feature an american werewolf in london where the original had comedy the sequel has the kind of revolting silliness that can be found in tv where the first installment had chills this one has sequences that are inappropriately unintentionally funny in short while an american werewolf in london has become something of a minor classic in its genre the woeful an american werewolf in paris seems destined for late nights on cinemax it even has the necessary gratuitous nudity the film opens with a trio of daredevil americans andy tom everett scott brad vince vieluf and chris phil buckman sneaking up to the top of the eiffel tower to drink wine and do a little bungee jumping soon they have company in the person of serafine julie delpy who has decided to end it all she jumps but andy with a bungee cord attached goes after her and manages to save her at the price of a major headache serafine disappears but a smitten andy seeks her out however once he learns his girlfriend's dark secret he wishes he hadn't she's a werewolf cursed to change into a hideous beast when the moon is full and to make matters worse he has suffered a nasty bite himself actress julie delpy is far too good for this movie she imbues serafine with spirit spunk and humanity which gives us an emotional stake in the character's fate this isn't necessarily a good thing since it prevents us from relaxing and enjoying an american werewolf in paris as a completely mindless campy entertainment experience delpy's injection of class into an otherwise classless production raises the specter of what this film could have been with a better script and a better cast surrounding her delpy's previous credits include such memorable ventures as krzysztof kieslowski's white and richard linklater's before sunrise she was radiant charismatic and effective in both given the nature and level of the material she has to work with here she gets as close as possible to those adjectives it could be argued that delpy is the only reason to see an american werewolf in paris but even her most devoted fans should consider giving this one a miss and if your primary objective is catching a glimpse of her in the buff check out either killing zoe or the passion of beatrice those movies have intelligible plots in addition to breasts the rest of the cast acts at a level considerably below that of delpy which is to say they give performances appropriate for the screenplay tom everett scott that thing you do plays the lead like he's in a movie it would be kind to call him bland actors vince vieluf and phil buckman as andy's friends are no more impressive julie bowen happy gilmore is suitably fetching as werewolf meat and respected french actor thierry lhermitte has a brief turn as another monster meal on the technical side it's all bad news the werewolves look painfully unreal the creatures would probably have been more believable had they been men in wolf suits repeated use is made of the werewolf cam an infrared wolf's approach that's interesting the first couple of times it's employed then becomes tedious and the soundtrack includes some alternative grunge rock tunes that clash violently with the action they're matched to director anthony waller who displayed a confident edgy style in mute witness stumbles with this material never being able to make the comedy and horror elements gel as a result we get the worst werewolf sequel since the howling ii your sister is a werewolf i will give waller credit for killing off a dog though something that's rarely seen in movies these days an american werewolf in paris is marginally entertaining in a bad movie sort of way but that's a dubious distinction ultimately it's an unfortunate effort for while it isn't unbearable to sit through it isn't a howl either
negative	depending on who you ask the original sin was either the eating of the apple the act of disobedience against god or the act of betrayal but in case you didn't know this don't bother remembering it the words original sin never come up in the movie of the same name let alone the concept of it the closest the film even gets to catholicism is in its narrative the story is told by angelina jolie to her priest while on death row in cuba circa regardless of its senseless title original sin does actually have a plot albeit one of the most mangled acts of screenwriting since the art of war based on the book waltz across darkness boy antionio banderas places personal ad sometime around searching for a wife since this is a century ago we narrowly dodge a remake of green card only to find that the girl jolie faked her photo and is actually beautiful skipping a few moderately useless sex scenes getting the question out of the way yes we get to see angelina jolie's breasts again the girl turns out to be a con artist swindles boy for his money and heads for the hills original sin then briefly tries to be a thriller we see boy go saying he wants to find girl and kill her but as soon as boy actually finds girl instead of following what might have been a promising or at least not completely fucking boring thriller the film degenerates into the worst dissection of the complex since milk money girl toys with the idea of reforming her past all the while avoiding the other man a lover that keeps making her start these scams in the first place add insult to injury with some of the worst stylistic choices in cinematic history literally half of the film is either in slow motion or uses a strobe effect and acting roughly the caliber of a b b gun and original sin is one of the most torturous films of the summer definitely front running to make my bottom ten of the year don't even bother with original sin but if you do go be honest with yourself and admit its pure sex appeal just keep in mind that although this film may not be the most original on the block it's much worse than a sin this is sacrilege
negative	wizards is an animated feature that begins with a narration of epic proportions over black and white drawings we are told that the earth is destroyed in an apocalyptic nuclear exchange sending the remnants of humanity through generations of mutation the original inhabitants of the earth fairies and elves return to populate the globe along with their evil mutant counterparts one day and i say one day not to be trite but because that's exactly how it happened no advance notice a fairy queen gives birth to twins one good and one evil the twins grow up to be powerful wizards the good one embracing magic and the bad one utilizing technology to attempt to expand his evil empire we are given the notion that an ultimate battle must occur between the forces of magic and those of technology as unoriginal as the premise is i was still somewhat interested in how this story would play itself out there's a lot you can do in an animated fantasy world after all i soon learned however that the fantasy was the expectation of a decent film once the transition was made from still art to color animation an entirely different feel takes precedence rather than the epic saga promised by the narration we get a world of a saturday morning cartoon not just the look mind you but all the zany sounds like boing for years blackwolf has lost his battles against the magical forces of good since his armies of ogres and other mutants would get dispirited or distracted soon after battle is joined however blackwolf now has a secret weapon nazis yup adolf hitler the luftwaffe and the wehrmacht okay not the real things but an archival film his minions dug up projected into the sky for all to see it inspires his own army while shocking the enemy into submission long enough for the ogres to hack them up before you know it there are dead elves everywhere this is just as well the characters are so bad that the viewer doesn't care about any of them they're either silly sappy or both the dialog gets much of the credit for this an example is when avatar nonchalantly says well looks like my brother and i begin our final battle not very formidable when he's also the guy who says this is the biggest bummer of a trip i've ever been on my favorite line was from a sideline fairy who is asked by her child why good can't fight back against the evil her response is they have weapons and technology we just have love suffice to say the characters are strictly and we therefore don't expect anything more than the obvious to happen which it does the only unexpected occurrence is the way the final battle between brothers is played out which is anticlimactic and disappointing please note that it is the action that is unexpected that it is disappointing is not the film couldn't settle on a particular mood it seems to move from dark to light with the cuts from scene to scene and even angle to angle scenes which are seemingly meant to contain deep meaning are ruined by acts of levity the dramatics which seem to occur at random are overly staged and overly acted detracting from any kind of value or even enjoyment which could otherwise be gleaned ralph bakshi the director makes an obvious attempt to get a message across in this film hitler and the nazis were bad so who doesn't know this already well maybe children okay so you might say that this is a movie for children it's not in the scenes where good fights evil there's a lot of violence and gore that children should not be seeing if they're watching a cartoon so is the film for adults if so we probably don't need to be bashed over the head to get the point why not have the bad guys be symbolic of the nazis instead of using old propaganda in a seriously disjointed attempt to show us something we already know wizards gives us a lot of footage of nazi tanks and airplanes and hitler giving speeches however we don't see any reason why they should be considered bad we see no atrocities being committed not even any real battle footage there is absolutely no connection made between the armies of evil and the third reich and we're not even given a cursory explanation as to why this stuff is inspiring in the first place this needed to be thought out much more thoroughly if a point were to be made since subject matter such as this deserves better treatment i'd like to assume that bakshi was trying to say that the same nationalist movement that drove the nazis could happen anywhere at any time and we must therefore be vigilant however i'm not sure if i want to give him that much credit
negative	inspired by the film house on haunted hill starring vincent price directed by william malone starring geoffrey rush famke janssen and chris kattan rated r contains violence profanity and brief nudity synopsis eccentric millionaire price offers to each of his guests who appear at a gathering at a former sanitarium the only catch is that they have to survive the night at the establishment an establishment haunted by its former staff and patients comments house on haunted hill is based upon the original film of the same title directed by william castle and starring vincent price in an obvious homage the millionaire's name is price and he sports a thin mustache like price used to have this is a pretty bad horror film yet bad horror films sometimes are very entertaining and house on haunted hill is just such a film it is surprisingly better than another recent haunted house remake the haunting a film which owes its basis to the classic horror novel by shirley jackson the haunting had literary pretensions and fell flat on it face house on haunted hill owes its lineage to a years old and makes no illusion that it's a crappy horror movie thus somehow it proves slightly more successful i can't think of another recent film which has had such an eclectic cast it is this cast which lifts this thriller into a borderline entertaining exercise in camp horror price the main character is played by geoffrey rush the winning actor of shine rush seems to be making a downward spiral in the movie industry a spiral reminiscent of ben ghandi schindler's list kingsley's ridiculous appearance in the camp classic species i don't know why but sometimes it's entertaining to see quality actors in bad movies more surprises rising star taye diggs plays a stereotypical african american sports figure rather lamely too and singer lisa loeb appears as a tv news reporter the highlight of the cast however has to be saturday night live member chris kattan kattan's comic sense provides several good humorous moments as he plays the hysterical proprietor of the former sanitarium while the first half of the film leaves the audience guessing as to what's exactly going on the second half dissolves into standard ghost story stuff and loses some of its suspense a disappointingly cheesy ending really mars this movie too house on haunted hill i suspect has just about left the theaters it's worth catching on cable next year if you get a chance if you have a choice pick this movie over the haunting it's the better of two evils you could say though more appropriately perhaps it'd be better to say that it's the better of two turkeys
negative	capsule liebes meets tod this was a film about sex and death a morgue attendant accidentally revives a dead woman through necrophilia and brings her into his world which is heavy on orgies this film says something obscure about the relationship of sex and death but imparts no insights to make matter worse this print was poorly subtitled into english from french to an attractive dies on a disco floor and gets sent to a morgue one of the attendants ben barr is so attracted by her that he attempts necrophilia we see him crawling away after a shock in the middle of sex the dead teen has come back to life the morgue attendant was just adding a new form of sex to his collection of kinks he was already part of a group that gets together for sex the revived teen teresa elodie bouchez joins them moral dilemma of teresa's father ben has abused his daughter's body but in doing so has saved her life part of this opaque allegory is a man saved from suicide who joins in the sexual hijinx also involved is a man in the final stages of dying of aids a close friend of the morgue attendant he does not get involved in the orgies the subtitles of our print were white often on a white background making them often hard to read but i don't think there was a whole lot of meaning there that was lost the title means don't let me die on a sunday
negative	you know that a movie has issues when most everyone in the audience comes out laughing and it's not a comedy and what a strange career path for director chuck russell he starts his career off with a decent take on the nightmare on elm street series with his debut as director on installment number three he follows that up with the blob the very next year but waits another six years to do his next piece a little film called the mask starring jim carrey and then one more star vehicle in eraser two years after that so then he thought let me wait another five years get a weak script jammed with cliches and hope that jimmy smits and kim basinger could pull it out of its ashes strange dude and one crappy flick plot a old girl is believed to be some kind of mysterious prophet sent down from god a satanic cult wants the girl to switch over to their side while the girl's aunt wants to well save her from those damn devil worshippers enter one occult expert agent plenty of bobo cops and lots of nuns praying and you've just about got the gist of things here critique with plot holes the size of my ass this movie barely squeezes any sense out of its clich plot with wasted talent cheezy effects bad dialogue and unintentional laughs to boot what's good about this movie well rufus sewell is pretty fun to watch as the head of a creepy runaway children's supreme with seriously wicked eyes and just enough ham in his performance to go with all of the cheese lying around the little girl is also pretty good but unfortunately her character doesn't really do all that much and believe it or not i was actually enjoying some of the film's first half hour which starts off with some promise but not before bonehead moves after bonehead moves from our protagonist basinger just drown the film's entire basis of believability for some reason it takes her more time than anyone to figure out that her niece is gifted and even longer to figure out that every move that she makes is a dumb one add that to the entire police force of incompetents save for jimmy smits whose talent agent advised him that playing the exact same cop character from nypd blue would be a good career move at least change the clothes jimmy zero scares zero thrills and even less actual drama and you've got yourself a pretty bad movie and why would respected actors like christina ricci and ian holm take bit parts in this movie did they owe the director a favor or something together they barely have five minutes of screen time but i suppose that ricci's hospital room scene might be worth a look for some of you the worst part about this movie is its hilariously unbelievable ending which features police officers coming up with the brilliant idea of sneaking up on a man's house who they know to be guilty of a crime uuuhmm how's about knocking on the door and arresting his sorry ass officers anyway i don't usually inscribe spoilers in my reviews but the stupidity of some of these characters is just too difficult to describe without validating it with solid idiotic proof and there was plenty to go around and did basinger lose some of her acting talent during her hiatus from the profession after her oscar win difficult to say if it was her lines that were really bad or if she just delivered them poorly either way little originality very obvious computer effects little thrills little drama and very little entertainment value certainly bestow the honor of one of the worst movies of the summer upon this film but if you really don't mind a rehashed gobbledygook of various satanic and kid thrillers and enjoy watching films that don't bring anything new to the table well drink some beers smoke some beans and rent this video because it may just be one of the funnier thrillers of the year
negative	adam sandler vehicles are never anything special but continue to make a load of money which really goes to show the sad state of cinema today while good comedies like rushmore to choose a recent example gets limited release and doesn't make a lot of money big daddy got a huge release and has made a lot of cash it's also nothing special and doesn't deserve the money it's making but i digress sandler plays sonny koufax a unemployed new yorker with a seemingly low mental age his girlfriend makes a ultimatum to him either wise up and get responsible or she's leaving him by a strange set of events koufax ends up with julian played by twins cole and dylan sprouse a five year old kid after a failed attempt to impress his girlfriend with the child koufax decides he wants to keep the child however social worker mr brooks mostel finds out that koufax isn't the real father and wants to take julian back koufax along with his new girlfriend layla lauren adams fight to keep the child big daddy really isn't that good many of the jokes revolve around toilet humour and supposedly we are meant to find julian and sonny peeing against a wall to be funny there's the occasional good one liner but these are usually strangely delivered wrong and lose most of the humour the film after all these silly gags then suddenly turns sentimental and this is where big daddy really goes from bad to hideous the court scene at the end of the film is useless and unbelievable and not helped by the soppy overacting it's a poor attempt to win over the audience adam sandler basically plays the same role he has in his last few films except the wedding singer joey lauren adams is much much better and deserves a far better film than this trash steve buscemi pops up in a funny cameo and his scenes are pretty funny rob schneider is also funny as a crazy delivery man the two twins who play julian are o k they start out rather well but then becoming annoying and brattish halfway through and finally turn american' wholesome goodness at the end of the film where the tear juice is turned up high big daddy is really nothing special and is not even worth it for a few chuckles although it is actually well put together with nice direction good production design and even some montages this professionalism can't help the fact that the script and characters are trash big daddy is for die hard fans of sandler and that's about it
negative	deserves recognition for making this relatively youthful critic feel extremely old and capsule review this is what family entertainment has morphed into in the an commercial disguised as an unnecessary remake in which the defining image is that of a grown man launching a volume of green protoplasmic goo out of his ass between this rocketman and george of the jungle disney has recently eclipsed longtime champion troma as the studio most likely to include a fart joke in a film as the professor who invents the titular goop a listless robin williams manages the difficult task of making original lead fred macmurray seem sprightly the only thing that made this film borderline tolerable for me is my but firm belief that john hughes is going to spend his eternal afterlife being conked in the noggin by all of the different blunt instruments he's used for comedic effect in films like this and the odious home alone series take your kids to see boogie nights instead
negative	any movie that kills emilio estevez off in the first fifteen minutes has something going for it unfortunately this and the familiar theme music are the only worthwhile things about mission impossible directed by brian depalma the first problem is that this film has absolutely no connection with the tv show whatsoever aside from the music the tv show was about an impossible mission force whose deft teamwork orchestrated by jim phelps allowed them to counfound evil dictators of mythic banana republics from inflicting their sordid schemes upon the world teamwork was the key this film is set up as a cross between james bond and depalma's blow out where the john travolta character was the victim of real and imagined conspiracies from all directions it was travolta's vulnerability that made that film so exciting and claustrophobic in this film tom cruise is basically omniscient believe that and so there's no fun going on here whatsoever the story is about as contrived as contrived gets and is full of holes there are basically two memorable sequences one involves breaking into a kubrickesque computer room a task that could have been made much easier had the characters a whit of common sense suffice it to say that the alarm system is disengaged when the computer operator is in the room the second involves a train a helicopter and the chunnel and does not have to be seen to be disbelieved the actors are all miscast especially emannuelle beart as jim phelps wife who cannot act and ving rhames as a computer hacker who looks lost and embarrased to be in this movie tom cruise is no james bond and jon voight looks more like bobby the brain heenan than jim phelps brian depalma's career has been bafflingly erratic at his best he beats hitchcock at his own game blow out carrie body double but this is not his best the screenplay was partly written by robert towne who wrote the best scenario of the seventies in chinatown but this script is perfunctory at best and terrrible at worst the cinematography has a comic book emphasis which is nice to look at but the suspense sequences are all telegraphed and this movie even features the old killer who talks too much before shooting thus giving the victim time to think of an escape trick please don't spend your money on this it'll only encourage hollywood to make more
negative	movies based on video games such as street fighter or mario bros have never generated much interest at the box office but when the first mortal kombat movie came out in it did surprisingly well with a simple story a pulsating soundtrack and lots of awesomely choreographed fight scenes the movie moved quickly and displayed lots of energy it got my vote for movie where i expected the least and got the most' and if you haven't had the opportunity i would definitely recommend that you see it on video in the world of mortal kombat based on the popular arcade game dark forces from outworld try to infiltrate earth's realm with the ulimate goal of total conquest and the destruction of humanity the mortal kombat refers to a competition fought by human mortals against outworld's minions which if won will guarantee earth's safety for another generation picks up almost immediately after the humans return victoriously from competition despite their victory however a gateway has somehow opened and outworld continues in its quest to conquer earth outworld's warriors include an impressive collection of fighters including shao kahn mintoro a centaur sheeva a ogre and sindel earth's mortal warriors under the leadership of the benevolent god lord rayden includes liu kang princess kitana sonya blade and jax who must fight against outworld's forces it's an easy enough premise but unfortunately very unfortunately the writers try to do too much with the movie it is only a video game after all but the version tries to go beyond it's comic book boundaries by adding depth a conceptualization of and worst of all a love story this becomes very awkward because all of the players are fighters and nothing more they are likable and impressive when they are showcasing their martial arts and fighting skills but look extremely awkward and uncomfortable when they are required to actually act this becomes embarrassingly apparent for example as the movie tries to develop a romantic bond between liu kang and princess kitana the original mk was smart in letting the players do what they do best they spoke little but fought a lot thus the movie was easy to digest however tries to give these players a certain amount of depth an element that was lacking in the first movie but the attempt here fails miserably this uneasy feeling is readily apparent for example whenever you hear lord rayden speak not only does he talk in riddles and offer enigmatic e g useless advice but he speaks so slowly as if to simulate infinite wisdom try reading this half as fast and you'll hear what i mean but the movie is not a complete fatality fight scenes are highlighted by terrific acrobatics and agility and players of the game will be rewarded with the inclusion of practically every character from the video game although their screen time amounts to nothing more than a cameo even if you're not familiar with the video game each fighter has their own costume and unique weaponry to easily differentiate themselves but it's just too little of what and especially fans of the game will expect oddly the inclusion of the human element actually pollutes the purity of the mortal kombat essence and the poor acting results in a muddled movie that offers the viewing audience little chance for survival i am now talking very slowly as if to simulate infinite wisdom rent the first one but the sequel is for kombat fans only
negative	if you don't think kevin kline in drag is funny wait til you see will smith in even less funny by the time jim west smith disguised himself as a belly dancer to bail his captured comrade artemus gordon kline from the clutches of evil dr loveless branagh i was unequivocally bored by wild wild west the new summer blockbuster from men in black director barry sonnenfeld is the old west really a breeding ground for high comedy anyway if your answer is no then you recall rustler's rhapsody or back to the future part iii if your answer is yes you're thinking of blazing saddles but that movie was a parody of the western genre not a nineteenth century romp jim west is a lawman who teams up with brainiac federal agent gordon under orders from president grant kline again whose impression for all we know is to apprehend legless loveless the mad inventor who is plotting to divvy up the united states and sell it back to britain and spain how will loveless accomplish this well by hulking around the desert in an enormous mechanical tarantula of course bosomy dance hall girl rita escobar hayek whose scientist father was kidnapped by loveless joins west and gordon on their train gordon first discovers rita in a cage waiting to be rescued racial politics obviously prevented the filmmakers from pairing dull rita romantically with west despite the movie's hip attitude toward the black thing west automatically shoots anyone who calls him a nigger before that person can finish speaking the word super at any rate i kept waiting for rita to say something humourous but she's a walking toy her single comic moment is also the best shot of the film she bashfully reveals bare bumcheeks through the flap of her pyjamas jim west is the role that finally stymied will smith whose comic timing has always been hit or miss as episodes of the fresh prince of demonstrate smith's a better reactor than actor which is why he was so thoroughly engaging in men in didn't start out a hero in wild wild west he's required to exude eastwood cool and amuse at the same time and from frame one a difficult feat i'm not sure any living performer could pull off smith is ill equipped for example to handle the moment in which jim west performs for some rednecks at his own hanging what attracted sonnenfeld to this material this isn't the first time he has adapted a tv show for the big screen the addams family anyone but it's the first big stinker of his career as a director wild wild west is bombast full of doa gags ted levine shows up as a general who uses a gramophone horn for a hearing aid levine played buffalo bill in the silence of the too intense to get an intentional laugh lousy special effects the bluescreening is are never proportionate to the backgrounds and frequent illogic to wit its ridiculous villain so badly wants jim west out of the way that he drops him onto a steel platform to do battle with some generic ugly henchmen instead of shooting him at point blank rage with one of the many guns on board the tarantula wild wild west's bright spots such as the cool opening credits sequence bai ling's appearance as a femme fatale or the brilliant his master's voice joke are all part of the film's first half which is more clever and enjoyable at least than its second when towards what seemed like the end of wild wild west gordon proposes the idea of building an airplane and west rejects it there was a collective groan among audience members it meant we were going to have to sit through another loud action sequence before gordon builds the glider the invention of which would inevitably lead to the proverbial finale
negative	if you have ever seen fox tv's special car chase programs you'll have a good idea about the content of ronin the new action thriller from director john frankenheimer the film involves a mysterious briefcase that several groups of terrorist want to get their hands on an irish women dierdre played by the truman show's natascha mcelhone hires a group of mercenaries to assist her in getting the briefcase among the people she hires are sam robert de niro vincent jean reno and gregor stellan skarsg rd from good will hunting dierdre's groups assignment is too seize the briefcase while the current owners are transporting it they accomplish this task but a traitor is in the bunch and the briefcase is soon on the run again the briefcase stays on the run as the movie leads the viewer through several plot twists that are badly executed the writer seemed to be attempting to make a smart action movie but failed to understand that just because there are surprises it doesn't add too the credibility of a senseless script the plot twists get no reaction because they come at a time where no one cares what is going on after the apparent climax of the film but to add to the excitement as i mentioned earlier there are endless car chase scenes they are unrealistic and fail to add anything to the story don't get me wrong i love car chases but they were overdone and too long here we never do find out what's in the briefcase but i doubt anyone cares by the time they finish sitting through this two hour long attempted thriller
negative	the happy bastard's quick movie review wild wild west a better name for this movie might've been wild wild waste warner bros in an attempt to get their own men in black style of movie had managed to lasso in some big names actor will smith and director barry sonnenfeld the duo behind mib's success in order to get their own fourth of july blockbuster a contemporary update to the classic series the wild wild west starring robert conrad but somehow they ran into a problem along the way they were so busy trying to fill specific roles that they forgot one in general that would've made all the a story writer wild wild west's story and script was compiled by six different people rather than just the one who put the brilliant touches on men in black ed solomon if warner bros had gotten him the movie would've possibly been five times better than what it is heck ten times as is however the story and screenplay is a mess filled with dead laughs enough racist and sex jokes to make even will cringe as he's performing them and a complete lack of chemistry that made the tv show work so well here's the story us army member james west will smith teams up with creative genius artemus gordon kevin kline to take on a ruthless villain by the name of arliss loveless kenneth branagh whose lower half was blown off during the civil war leaving him to roll around in a wheelchair they catch onto a plot of his involving a superweapon that can basically be considered an tarantula although it looks bigger than that hellbent on destroying anything in its path as i said the way the script unfolds is a complete mess but the acting doesn't help either kevin kline is miserable as gordon failing to display even a smidgeon of care as he did in the western silverado smith seems to be having a better time as west although he's not nearly as charming as he was in mib branagh goes excessively over the top as the villain perhaps to the point where we can't even stand to look at him or his strange beard and salma hayek is along for the ride to search for her missing father but mostly she exists just for sexual attention her acting is barely passable but what a breath of fresh ass director barry sonnenfeld isn't of great help either even though he shows some good creativity at some points his overall urgency for directing is lost it's as if he feels he's directing a tv movie a big when you're helming what's supposed to be a hit last but not least there are huge gaps of logic that are just plain unacceptable at one point smith defies gravity when first boarding kline's train he jumps on the back gets launched straight up in the air and somehow manages to land three cars ahead on the while it's still in motion also he seems to be strangely comfortable talking about racism in front of a lynch mob particularly considering the fact that his family was killed by the likes of such folks last but not least why is he still making kissing faces when he knows he's not kissing a woman as he's looking through a peephole at the enemy the only saving grace for wild wild west come mostly in the form of special effects the huge mechanical spider is a technical marvel very authentic looking and considerable to the creativity of the show there's also a good sequence involving metal magnet neckbraces and spinning saw blades but again a logic question comes into play regarding their polarity i would say sit back and have a good time with wild wild west but it really isn't possible if the racist and sex jokes don't bother you the performances will if the performances don't bother you the story will if the story doesn't bother you the racist and sex jokes will there's no end to the vicious circle go rent men in black instead and pretend smith and tommy lee jones are wearing cowboy hats you'll have a better time if you do go keep an eye out for robert conrad in a role as president grant i bet he wishes he were somewhere else
negative	old soldiers never die they just turn into cliches soldier a film review by michael redman copyright by michael redman the warrior and the lover are two personality aspects that find it difficult to exist in the same body jungian archetypes these two opposites need each other to create a whole but it's difficult to integrate both often we'll encounter lovers who think everything is just wonderful and with the help of jung's magician sit around imagining grand schemes without the drive to manifest their plans much less the wisdom to recognize the darkness all they have are dreams warriors on the other hand are ready to go to war at the drop of a hat and will do combat with every last bit of their energy they don't care enough about anything to know what's worth fighting for gladiators who live only for the battle this dichotomy not only describes individuals that we all know but can also illustrate societies america during the late sixties was a conflict between old style cold warriors and the new hippie lovers todd kurt russell is a living breathing archetype chosen from birth as a soldier he is raised by the government to be a killing machine his childhood is cruelty and competition he is indoctrinated with the big rules never question authority winning is everything strength beats knowledge a veteran of numerous intergalactic wars todd is and he's obsolete a new generation of genetically engineered soldiers are faster and stronger left for dead after a test battle with the best of the new killers caine jason scott lee he's unceremoniously dumped as trash on arcadia a garbage world obviously our hero is still alive he finds a group of shipwrecked settlers abandoned on the planet who nurse him back to health when the colonists get a good look at who todd is they are afraid of him and he is exiled to live by himself amid the junk on an environmentally hostile world they are the other good guys these lovers find that they need a warrior when the military coincidentally chooses this world to conduct exercises for their improved human weapons todd finds himself in the role of protector what could have been a fascinating look at the roles played in our culture and the fears of an wing future is ruined by turning the film into a cartoon the effects are mostly explosions or jerky slow motion the plot is old hat we don't get even a glimpse at the society that created the soldiers hardly anything makes sense the film's science fares badly with all the remarkable advances we've made in just years the film takes place in we're still stupid after conquering the stars for some reason we use vast amounts of energy to load up huge space ships with rubbish tote it to a landfill light years away even stranger the garbage barges appear to double as time machines virtually all the trash is vintage there is nothing in the story that is not predictable the first thing that todd sees after coming back to life is sandra connie nielsen the woman just a little too beautiful to be living in such harsh conditions who is taking care of him it doesn't take a genius to foresee that her husband isn't going to be around much longer is it a shock to find out that the film's climax is an unarmed battle between todd and caine who would you guess wins some of the scenes would work if this were a comedy todd's first awakening of human emotion comes when he glimpses connie's nipple poking through her thin blouse later as he sits by his lonely campfire a tear rolls down his dramatically lighted cheek in slow motion supposedly this clich isn't meant to be humorous dastardly col mekum jason isaacs with a mustache is as real as snidley whiplash responsible for last year's quirky and visually enticing but problematic the fifth element director paul anderson sees the film as shane in outer space maybe if shane were played by sylvester stallone in rambo mode the movie doesn't even work as an action film there is never a question as to the outcome somehow the new superior soldiers don't prove much of a match for todd the acting isn't anything to write home about nielsen almost comes across as a real person but is soon relegated to a background victim russell is and does a credible job but it's not much of a challenge uttering around words during the film mostly what todd does is hit things and stare grimly into space gary busey as todd's commanding officer is completely wasted in his role everything blows up and occasionally it looks cool sometimes the sets are impressive unfortunately occasionally and sometimes don't make a film most disappointing is that the screenplay is by david webb peoples who wrote blade runner possibly the best science fiction movie ever made viewers will notice a few obscure references to that film peoples says that this is not a blade runner sequel but a sidequel that takes place in the same universe although that may have been the intent in his original script the result is more like a bad television series that the blade runner replicants watch to pass time perhaps those artificial humans would find this entertaining michael redman has written this column for over years and wants to wish everyone an appropriate halloween whatever you'd like it to be
negative	what is this a homicide or a bad that is the prophetic question asked by one of the leads in one of the early scenes of this movie let me clear things up for you cupcake this isn't a bad it's a really bad so bad it's almost good almost but not quite the movie starts off in the with space aliens sending a botched experiment down to earth it is a bunch of creatures that kill people and take over their bodies the slugs' first and only victim in the fifties is cryogenically frozen where he is of no danger to anybody that is until two loser university students unfreeze him in he and the slugs inside him promptly begin wreaking havoc and turning more into slug zombies a slightly crazed cop tom atkins and the requisite girl with the face of an angel jill whitlow join these two geeky university students jason lively and steve marshall to do battle with the slugs it more or less falls on the four of them to make the world safe again from the evil slugs the acting is bad with a capital b the story is worse and the special effects are somewhere between an old rerun of star trek and what you see in a home movie the only saving grace was the requisite courtesy of jill whitlow it had absolutely nothing to do with the story but i liked it actually it was the high point of the movie for me of course that isn't really saying much the story moves around in a hap hazard fashion which gives it a leg up on some other horror films unlike most movies of this genre there actually is a story not a great one but it is there this is one in a long line of movies from the that were thrown together to capitalize off the success of the friday the halloween and nightmare on elm street movies you could randomly select a movie out of the horror section of you local video store and probably luck into something just as good if not better but night of the creeps might make a nice addition to a horror marathon just don't be too upset if you can't find it you really won't be missing that much
negative	there's a scene early on in jawbreaker where a character utters the unintentionally prophetic line that is so not funny how right she was this pathetic tale of three who accidentally kill their best friend in a birthday kidnapping prank gone horribly awry is never even remotely funny or fun or original not content with the heathers heisting the filmmakers proceed to lift freely from a staggering variety of sources including carrie bride of frankenstein blue velvet and even shaw's pygmalion itself recently remade as she's all that jawbreaker is a pastiche and not even an enjoyable one i find it extremely telling that the most engaging part of the film is the credit sequence a jawbreaker factory montage inexplicably backed by veruca salt's volcano girls serving as a blueprint for the rest of the film the song has absolutely nothing to do with the footage we're watching just close your eyes and pretend you're listening to an station you won't be missing anything the blame for a mess this big has to be spread around among the principals rebecca gayheart following roles in scream and urban legend should have known better than to take yet another role in yet another teen body count movie pam grier has totally wasted any credibility she might have gotten from her role in quentin tarantino's jackie brown and rose mcgowan should just quit acting she has no charisma no presence and no acting skills other than rolling her eyes and looking disaffected mcgowan manages to be upstaged by her boyfriend rocker marilyn manson whose fifteen second role here is far more interesting than anything any of the real actors are doing manson sans trademark makeup contact lenses and with an obviously fake moustache looks eerily like nicholas cage who woulda thunk it that crack about direction by committee wasn't merely a pithy stylistically thematically narratively jawbreaker is all over the map varying wildly in tone content from scene to scene though credited solely to darren stein one gets the feeling that no two scenes here were actually guided by the same hands if stein was indeed responsible for the whole of this atrocity someone needs to get the man some drugs pronto prozac lithium kava ritalin something anything he's quite obviously in desperate need of chemical help jawbreaker is a monumental waste of effort and resources and quite likely one of the single worst films i've ever seen to call jawbreaker garbage would be to insult garbage bad flicks for the rest of the year are safe i've already got my pick for worst film of jawbreaker runs approximately minutes though it feels longer than titanic and is rated r for language sexual situations and graphic violence not recommended for kids teens or anyone else
negative	can you say dated you can if you've seen rosemary's baby which like the exorcist was a thrilling horror film in its time but seems boring and laughable in the decades that have passed since its original release mystery science theater has skewered the bad films of the past but let me tell you it could do a number on the good ones too rosemary's baby stars mia farrow from the time she was actually as an innocent housewife and her husband john cassavettes an actor who takes an easy albeit evil road to success it all seems so harmless in the beginning mia and john move into an apartment where several past murders have been committed there's also a skull in the living room but it's only for decoration their elderly neighbors pop in for a housewarming all's well for about the first hour of this film until mia eats some of the neighbors' chocolate mousse and passes out when she comes to she finds herself in a darkened room with a bunch of people yelling and dancing like savages and a big evil man raping her a foreshadowing of her future life with woody allen it seems like a dream and when she finds herself pregnant she almost forgets about it and everyone's helping with the pregnancy the neighbors have some wonderful vitamin potions for her to drink a charm for her to wear around her neck and the name of an obstetrician who's been in the business years meanwhile mia begins having chronic stomach pains and losing a lot of weight before too long she looks just like the lead singer of the cranberries that's when you know your health's failing the only person in the movie who's the least bit suspicious of all this is an old friend maurice evans who calls mia up to give her the bad news and immediately falls into a coma by about the mark i felt the same way rosemary's baby is way too long and leads up to a payoff that's about as boring and laughable as the rest of the movie i guess someone put a spell on this movie
negative	the caliber killer has struck again starring john leguizamo mira sorvino adrian brody jennifer esposito michael rispoli bebe neuwirth rated r summer of sam will be remembered as a waste of spike lee's abilities lee is a great filmmaker often exhibiting kinetic visual flair on par with brian depalma and martin scorsese and a storytelling ability comparable to steven spielberg but here he gets himself into a bind his latest effort is a case of a director pretending he has something to say when in reality there is little of substance to absorb from his work the summer of was an unusual summer in new york city it was the hottest summer on record to boot new york's first serial killer was on the loose calling himself the son of sam david berkowitz killed people in the new york area and frightened the whole city population so it was understandable that when nyc was hit with a citywide blackout people went berserk causing billions of dollars in damage to the city the movie's focus is on a group of during that fateful summer vinny john leguizamo a adultrous hairdresser his benevolent wife dionna mira sorvino looking young ritchie adrian brody a punk who becomes an outcast as well as a son of sam suspect a gang of small time mobsters and a few more minor characters we follow them through their roller coaster lives thrown out of whack even more by the recent killings vinny and dionna have marital problems because vinny cheats and dionna tries to please him make him stay faithful to her ritchie gets shunned by his group of friends because he has started to become more and more eccentric and has degenerated to the point of dancing in gay night clubs and making porno films with his girlfriend tensions build and conflicts arise as the anniversary night of son of sam's first murder looms the night he promises he will strike again a local gang with too much time on its hands makes a list detailing all of the people that its members think might be suspects at the top of the list is ritchie vinny an unwilling part of the said group is called upon to set a trap for his friend as we watch these proceedings some of which are painfully graphic the dreaded so what question springs to mind from the way this movie is made i'd have guessed that spike lee was trying to tell us something but as i searched deeper it became clear that there is very little there to find lee touches on so much the media the punk scene the details of the actual killings as well as the characters' very personal dilemmas but he doesn't bring all of his topics together to form a coherent theme or make a discernible statement all is not lost if a movie turns out to be hollow it can be a saving grace for the film to be enjoyable too bad summer of sam doesn't get any help here frankly it's a bore a redundant and repetitive two hour and twenty minute film that doesn't entertain beyond its first half hour there is no suspense because the film refuses to be fully about the murders and little involving drama because the film is too muddled and its focus too vague leguizamo's turn as vinnie is annoying and whiny the script makes it clear that we're supposed to believe that his character is flawed but still a good guy you'd never guess from his performance adrian brody and especially mira sorvino fare better sorvino gives a riveting touching performance in a banal movie i'm tempted to think that i liked her because nearly everything else around her was inane her character is affecting and her emotions brody too paints an effective portrait of a young guy desperate for attention who gets a little more than he bargained for summer of sam has some superficial elements of a good film it looks great it has a few notable performances and i suppose it's pretty well directed in a purely technical way but it's also empty pretentious and boring like last year's the thin red line it's a movie by a director who doesn't know what he wants to say but goes ahead and says it anyway eugene
negative	wow a film without any redeeming qualities whatsoever i'm amazed that someone thought this was a story that must be told on screen many blacks in hollywood complain that they are not nominated for awards based on their race i think first they need to concentrate their energy on themselves and stop making movies which makes them look like nothing more than buffoons even i'm offended by it bill bellamy is a player which means he sleeps with a lot of women and lies to them what a pleasant main character one day his friends decide that they want to find out how to be a player why they decide this one day i have no idea how many years have they been friends and why all of a sudden would they want to learn anyway bellamy agrees to teach and his wonderful lesson to his friends consists of letting them ride in his car while he rides from house to house having sex with women this is the bulk of the film folks guys riding from house to house one keeps getting out to have sex while the others sit in the car since russell simmons is producer and since the official title of the film is def jam's how to be a player i was ready to be jumping up and down and stomping my feet and beating the person next to me because of the comedy amazingly aside from gilbert gottfried's seconds of screen time there was no comedy in the film for me to express myself in such a manner instead of jokes there's just an endless stream of profanity and naked breasts and naked breasts aren't so bad but naked breasts alone don't make a good movie be sure to bring along your ebonics to english dictionary as well gilbert gottfried's character serves as one in his very brief appearance asking for explanations as to what is being said they should have brought him along for the entire film 
negative	bob the happy bastard's quickie review the odd couple ii grumpy old men it ain't hell my fellow americans it ain't walter matthau and jack lemmon team up again for an even more worn out vehicle than any of their films over the past few years odd couple ii feels terribly generic where in the first movie made thirty one years ago feels like a wonderful tale that's like repackaging campbell's soup in a generic food can really how writer neil simon could've made such a horrible mistake in screen writing is beyond me throughout the movie i really didn't laugh once honestly i mean there were dumb situations yeah like the cropduster who let these old geezers have it without any notice but they just really didn't seem funny to me and that car rolling off the cliff the only way i would've seen humor in that is if they were still in it and the ending gets all too in the final twenty minutes or so lemmon meets a girl he thinks is the one then loses her matthau talks to his son a wasted jonathan silverman about his amrriage to lemmon's daughter and of course lemmon and matthau have another roomie situation on their hands ooh i really gave a lot away there i'm sure consider it a hospitable gester you won't waste your time renting this muck
negative	the summer of wasn't a very good one for devout cinephiles it offered no blair witches or sixth senses the best big budget hollywood could do was an efficient adaptation and a flawed but entertaining shaft update nurse betty signals the unofficial end of that dreadful summer movie season and the commencement of a potentially brighter fall movie season that at least for critics who have to sit through every piece o' shit that moseys into multiplexes time of year when all those oscar contenders read quality films compete for audiences alas betty has the dubious distinction of being the first overpraised junk heap of the new season it's also indie director neil labute's first attempt at something resembling a mainstream picture and i'm sad to report it's a resounding failure at least on this web site a mess that's as hopelessly saccharine as people have accused labute's previous films of being unrelentingly masochistic i went in expecting something decent for betty was gleefully praised it's screenplay even winning an award at cannes but i exited shaking my noggin in bewilderment are critics so desperate for something unique that they're blind to how derivative the particular brand of uniqueness betty dolls out is for the first time labute is working from a script he has not written and he seems unsure of how to handle the material betty tries to be hip like pulp fiction this is another flick featuring a pair of strangely bright and articulate hit men enchanting like the wizard of oz of which this film makes several allusions to and heartwarming like in your favorite loveable misfit but by the end it left me cold with its calculated desperation it's labute's half hearted attempt to make a crowd pleaser and he doesn't even seem to have half that heart in it nurse betty concerns a soap opera addict betty brilliantly played by renee zellweger who witnesses the killing of her husband del aaron eckhart playing the most casually loutish husband since richard benjamin in diary of a mad housewife by two hit men morgan freeman and chris rock she happens to have her most beloved soap on in the background and somehow merges the two realities she's blocked out her husband's death and thinks she's a character in her favorite soap a reason to love betty sets out on the road to la with some drugs unknowingly stashed in her car trunk searching for her soap boyfriend dr david ravell greg kinnear while the two bickering hit men follow in not so close pursuit the labute who birthed the extraordinary in the company of men slipped a bit but not much with his sophomore effort your friends and neighbors then fell straight on his ass with bash a play he penned that was recently aired on showtime the play demonstrated no forward movement as an artist only labute's persistence in wallowing in the horrid things average people do to each other usually with out realizing how horrid they themselves are in the play paul rudd as an obnoxious jock delivers a monologue detailing how he once followed a gay man into a bathroom and beat him maybe to death while his clueless girlfriend essentially regards his sadistic behaviors as something along the old maxim boys will be boys another character schlubby businessman reacts to the loss of his job by actually killing his own baby what was once so powerful about labute's work the casual nonchalant cruelty and selfishness often elements we all have in us amplified to a disgusting degree had become so over the top it was borderline comic obviously at this point labute could use a dose of some different kind of material before he pigeon holes himself further but nurse betty isn't it he clearly has little passion for what he's doing here instead replacing his mojo with strained quirks one of the hit men is a huge soap fan and the character of betty would be little more than a one joke gimmick if zelllweger hadn't managed to transcend that tailor made to appeal to the widest possible audience nearly every scene between chris rock and morgan freeman fatally slows the picture down as the two are made to enact dialogue they evince little chemistry with rock constantly in over the top rant mode acting more like an angry comic than any thing resembling a hit man an occupation that's represented far too frequently in movies nowadays i think rock is a great comic yet he hasn't been able to bring his feral intelligence to movies whenever he acts and no matter the part it's like he's doing the damn chris rock show surprisingly at least considering her work in me myself and irene renee zellweger gives a revelatory performance building on her baby faced apple pie looks that face and helium voiced earnestness suggests a little girl not fully grown into her body it's the best work she's ever done freeman is effective as always though his performance nonetheless suffers because it seems at odds with where the movie wants to take it the actor plays the role in his usual calm collected manner though the flick tries to insinuate a symbolic kinship between his character and betty's suggesting that both are controlled by their fantasies rather than reality that's interesting but the movie doesn't do anything with it other than crash land the into a labored speech in the midst of a badly staged gun battle the film has good moments many of the scenes involving a very good greg kinnear especially his confrontation with zellweger an almost soothing lyrical score and you know a movie's in trouble when the score sticks out as one of the best things about it but nothing jells it's parts good or bad are so disparate as to be opposing the film might have worked had it settled on being one type of film a mainstream female forrest gump or an oddball art film but as both if it falls as flat as diet coke betty's screenplay makes the mistake of relying too much on concurrence without which betty wouldn't make any progress in the film nurse betty is a film driven by coincidence rather than charter like how betty becomes a nurse in the film a job that she takes in order to get closer to her imaginary lover she happens to be at the hospital at the exact moment that a drive by shooting takes place and miraculously knows how to take care of the victim's wound because she happened to see how on tv which leads to her being offered a room with the victim's girlfriend who eventually gets betty into a party where she meets kinnear a little too tidy don'tcha think betty has an interesting theme though it doesn't even seem aware of this the current state of tv has been leaning towards reality television what with the enormous success of survivor and moderate success of big brother with more on the way this is a film about a women so deluded as to think that her favorite soap opera is reality ironically survivor sean kennif has taken a part as a doctor on the soap opera guiding light instead of exploring this timely matter in a way relating to the current tv craze since the film does largely appear to be a satire of television albeit one that would feel more appropriate in the than the the film simply uses betty's delusions as a plot device to get her from point a to b no progress is made and little is unearthed except that maybe labute could use a bit of rest and a lot of contemplation
negative	what do you get when you good movies like woody allen's bananas and martin scorsese's after hours you'd think you'd get the best of both films instead you get woo falling in somewhere between def jam's how to be a player which was awful and booty call which was ok woo is yet another in the embarassing genre of showing to be nothing more than sexual buffoons the whole film plays out as a black version of after hours as wild woman woo jada pinkett smith goes out on a blind date with tim tommy davidson mayhem follows them for some unknown reason read contrived screenplay davidson puts up with all of woo's antics for the entire night which include her destroying his bathroom mirror stealing things from his house violently questioning him accusing and belittling him actually about previous girlfriends causing a riot in an elegant restaurant and other various infuriating things that any normal person wouldn't tolerate but for the sake of this bad movie sure why not there are a few chuckles in the film the best being the scene swiped directly from bananas in this case davidson is running from thugs gets into a subway car as the doors are closing starts to taunt the thugs then the doors open back up again a good joke but a stolen one another chuckle is provided by billy dee williams' cameo as himself movies like woo are seemingly released every three months or so and not one of them has ever been a hit woo won't be one either so why was it made and more importantly isn't there anyone else besides me who thinks these films are offensive everyone involved should really reconsider their careers at this point 
negative	wild things is a way to steam up an otherwise dreary early spring day provided of course that you're the victim of a frontal lobotomy there is in fact no doubt about who this motion picture is aimed at in their late teens and early twenties the most lucrative target group this is film noir for the mtv generation slick flashy gleefully mindless and hollow to the core wild things is easily one of the five dumbest movies to arrive in theaters during the first eleven weeks of i've seen more convincing drama with nearly as much bare flesh on that pinnacle of narrative quality baywatch wild things wants to dupe viewers into thinking it's a thriller with a real story what it is however is a series of improbable and shockingly predictable plot twists everything in between those serpentine moments is filler a flash of a breast a spatter of blood and some of the most idiotic dialogue this side of a steven seagal movie the film tries so hard to surprise its audience that the twists end up being easy to guess just take a stab at the most unlikely thing to happen and that will probably be it using this approach i was right three times and wrong only once that's not a good average for a production that wants to keep viewers in the dark about what's around the next corner the ad campaign uses two things to sell this movie the hot young cast and the old standby sex both have an abundance of screen time although i'll admit that the film's erotic content is somewhat less impressive than i expected nothing about wild things is exceptionally risqu the sex sequences are generic and don't generate much heat the lesbian kisses can't hold a candle to those in bound theresa russell and denise richards have only token topless appearances neve campbell possessing an no nudity clause in her contract keeps her clothes more or less on the film's greatest curiosity is a full frontal shot of kevin bacon climbing out of the shower maybe a few girls will skip seeing a leonardo dicaprio for the thirteenth time in titanic to catch a glimpse of what kyra sedgwick mrs kevin bacon is familiar with the director of wild things is john mcnaughton whose last effort was the psychological thriller normal life that movie featured copious sex a pair of real characters and a powerful script it's difficult to believe that something this shallow could come from the same film maker but i suppose we all need to put food on the table mcnaughton appears to have completely lost his way here in what is obviously a stab at mainstream success his previous picture mad dog and glory was a disappointment quick cuts and pretty sunrises can't even begin to cover up this movie's flaws the main character and i use that term lightly since no one in wild things shows more than an occasional flash of personality is sam lombardo matt dillon a guidance counselor at florida's blue bay high school a student the deliciously curvaceous kelly van ryan denise richards has a crush on him one afternoon she comes to his house to wash his car and when she leaves her clothing is torn after confessing to her mother theresa russell that she was raped she goes to the police station where she tells her story to detectives ray duquette kevin bacon and gloria perez daphne they are skeptical about here claims until another girl suzie toller neve campbell comes forward with a similar tale meanwhile sam convinced that he's being set up goes to a shyster lawyer bill murray for help the acting in wild things isn't very good but none of the principals have much to work with this is definitely not a based motion picture not only does the ludicrous screenplay ignore the possibility that someone in the audience may have a i q but it doesn't bother to give any of the individuals even a hint of depth the men and women populating the picture are there to look nice but nothing more matt dillon is given plenty of opportunities to flex his biceps neve campbell gets to model the slutty look denise richards strikes a fetching pose in a bathing suit and nothing in the film gets a rise out of kevin bacon the only one who's even remotely interesting is bill murray and he seems to think he's in comedy not a thriller maybe he's got the right idea columbia pictures has specifically requested that critics not reveal the film's ending which prompts the question which ending do they want kept secret wild things has no less than three one occurs during the end credits so stay seated all of which are absurd a feat that joe eszterhas the writer of basic instinct and showgirls would be impressed by thanks to jeffrey kimball's polished kinetic cinematography wild things always looks great and george s clinton's score keeps it pulsing and throbbing but no matter how shiny the superficial sheen is this is still trash and like all garbage it stinks
negative	like a good action film should metro has action that keeps you involved some action films have action sequences that are so conventional our attention is detracted and diverted by other thoughts the ghost in the darkness which opened a few months ago is a film that s action was so bland and uninvolving it not only invited my thoughts to divert me it nearly put me asleep but metro is one of the best action films in a while it is hip sharp nifty and has nice little pieces of suspense and comedy eddie murphy was in bad shape for a while and this invites me to mention last year s the nutty professor which was his blessed revival back to the position at which he used to be metro happens to be a lot better than any film in the beverly hills cop series that is because metro takes itself seriously but doesn t prevent itself from having a little fun eddie murphy is at his best in the roles of responsible and controlled people the beverly hills cop movies all featured eddie as a reckless wild cop always crossing the line by just an inch in metro he plays a hostage negotiator so negotiation is his job not his hobby or his preferred way out of trouble his character in metro takes himself seriously eddie murphy s mischievous trademark grin is hardly anywhere to be found in metro and perhaps it is quite better off that way murphy plays scott roper and as i previously mentioned he is a san francisco hostage negotiator in the first tense situation in the film we are introduced to roper s kind of work as he tries to calm down a confused unkempt young criminal who has taken captive the entire capacity of the san francisco bank he is holding up murphy handles the scene seriously without his usual misfit humor the film develops when its villain is established and the villain here is the beguiling michael korda a jewel thief and murderer who likes to let cops know of his hostage fatalities by giving them the ear of the victim metro takes different twists and slight turns and there is one great virtuoso chase scene involving the a cable car cars flip cars crash cars turn over and it is done so good in this film i was reminded of speed and the speeding bus that couldn t go under fifty mile per hour for very significant reasons there are also some other good scenes in metro that a lot of films would rather choose not to have scenes like the one with roper and his new partner are at the horse track roper is a gambler who knows all the tricks and roper teaches his partner a few little methods of betting and winning of course the writers tried to disguise the scene as being insignificant by having roper draw parallels between hostage negotiation and gambling the scenes between roper and his girlfriend are nice too those are the scenes that make up metro which is mainly about eddie murphy s maturing as a personality the actor that i most enjoyed seeing in metro was michael rapaport who plays roper s new partner a genius and a master of observation it was not the actor s presence that pleased me as much as the role he was cast in the role of a proclaimed genius rapaport is an actor who i usually see in the role of the dimwit the really really dopey dimwit i hardly recognized him in metro and it was quite a joy to be able to see him in a role like this i feel that i respect him more there are two main types of villains in movies like this the ones that are part of the story and the ones that are devices the villain in metro is no more than a device but he is a darn good villain nonetheless he is played by michael wincott whose voice is pushed out in a abraded rasp as if he smokes a cigarette between every take wincott makes his villain korda as mean as could be the classic type of villain who would push an old lady down a flight of stairs just for kicks like richard widmark in kiss of death and in addition wincott s physical appearance and mannerisms in the film actually reminded my of an arrogant friend i use to have who is no longer on my good list i liked metro and i do not think would have worked with any other actor but eddie murphy his past roles were the great ones but they were also a precursor to the maturing that would later take place possibly from murphy s growing as a person now having a family metro is a movie it works as a buddy movie which it does not overplay it works as a dry comedy which it does not overplay it works as a suspense film which it does not overplay and it works as an action film where it does have a tendency to occasionally go but who cares it still remains serious and it does not overdo itself oh and there were plenty of explosions in metro as well how nice it was of the filmmakers to give us those if there is one major objection i had to metro it was the length an area where a lot of action films seem to wear out their welcomes metro is a film that lasted a little too long but it was still entertaining and it gave me something to do while i waited for it to end paul haynes
negative	capsule dumb dud of an entry in the body heat sweepstakes and now something of a landmark for having spawned a jillion clones basic instinct's worst crime is that it's not just a bad movie but in many ways an incompetent one as well it's stupid in itself and stupid to think its audience is as stupid as it is it's supposed to be a thriller but the plot is dead on its feet and ultimately arbitrary it's only put into the movie to jerk us around it's also supposed to be sexy but it's instead got the unpleasant rawness of a teenager showing younger kids his collections of dirty pictures it's a ripoff the story opens with a rock star being murdered while in the throes of orgasm the biggest suspect is an authoress catherine tramell sharon stone who wrote a novel in which the murder was eerily presaged or maybe it's the work of a copycat these and other plot threads get fed to the detective who's on the case michael douglas who has a few problems himself like we wonder if his elevator goes to the top floor we can measure with a stopwatch the time from them setting eyes on each other to the moment they are doing the mattress dance joe eszterhas has written the screenplay and he uses a device that he used before in the much better jagged edge the killer's identity is kept a secret until the movie's final shot this isn't in itself a problem the problem is that up until that point we've been given nothing to work with every clue in the movie every clue is ambiguous the whole thriller aspect of the movie is a shill red herrings dead plot threads violence and kinky sexuality litter the movie like potholes in manhattan streets they add up to zip because they're not happening to people we care about douglas's character is foulmouthed and bitter and that's it stone's character has an smile that never changes the rest are forgettable when we don't even have the luxury of giving a damn about anyone in the movie who cares what happens in it especially with an ending that is not only unsatisfying but in many ways inexplicable a friend of mine once came up with a rule of thumb about movie characters if no one in the movie behaves like anyone you know or would care to know just leave one of the nastier things about the movie is the way it treats lesbianism not as an integral part of someone's life but as a kind of kink something to thrill men with i despair whenever i encounter this kind of stupidity in mainstream entertainment are we still so culturally neanderthal that the only way to include something like that in a hollywood film is as a hefnerism
negative	capsule gal is a london cockney gangster who has retired to spain his old associates want him for one last job and send the vicious don to give him an offer he can't refuse a standout performance by ben kingsley as don cannot save what is essentially a set of cliches recycled from old westerns to roger ebert asks in his review of sexy beast who would have guessed that the most savage frothing gangster in recent movies would be played by ben kingsley my response would be that anyone who has seen alan arkin in wait until dark henry fonda in once upon a time in the west or anthony hopkins in the silence of the lambs should have guessed it they should know that the way for a film to create a really creepy sociopath is cast someone who generally plays mild sympathetic or even ineffectual character roles the same characteristics that make an actor seem gentle in most of his roles can work in his favor when a role calls for him to be fierce and vicious that is the principle that works for kingsley in sexy beast gary gal dove played by ray winstone has retired from a london career of crime and is living on a luxurious villa in spain life has become a routine of sunning himself and relaxing but his paradise is about to be shattered by a the first punch is a boulder that comes rolling down the hill next to the villa the second punch comes from gal's past back in london gang boss teddy bass ian mcshane tv's lovejoy is planning to break into a safety deposit room in a bank and he wants gal he sends his most rabid henchman don logan ben kingsley to fetch gal don will accept any decision gal makes from yes to certainly however if gal says no don will do whatever it takes to turn it into a yes including threatening guy's star wife deedee amanda redman in the meantime don knows just how to get under everybody's skin kingsley makes don a compact package of fury and nastiness there are some serious problems in louis mellis's and david scinto's script that should have been caught before filming when we see the actual crime we have no idea why gal was so important to its success beyond an ability to use gear no special talents are required of him any local hood could have done what gal is needed for additionally the crime involves digging from a swimming pool to the bank vault flooding the vault no only could they have let the water out of the pool and avoided the complication altogether but there is by far too much water to be accounted for by what was in the pool in spite of the provocative title the story is cliched and overly familiar i know i have seen all the plot elements of sexy beast in old westerns like the law and jake wade the story is usually of the reformed outlaw a robert taylor type who has hung up his guns and is trying for a life of peaceful respectability the old gang however wants to do one more job with their old buddy and sends a rabid richard widmark type to go and git im it is not a great plot in sexy beast even the plot twists have gray beards perhaps the film has a little more respectability because it was made not as a western but as a stylish british gangster film it is an old plot dressed up to look new if the plot is old at least the style is creative this is director jonathan glazer's first film but he has reputedly done some notable tv ads for guinness stout his style does have some unexpected touches including some very odd dream sequences cinematographer ivan bird uses a lot of half lit scenes we see one side of a person's faces but the other side fades into the darkness a sort of metaphor for the these characters half of everything that is happening is also kept hidden we yanks will have a hard time with some of the dialog at least in my theater it was difficult to make out the words with the quiet speaking the heavy accents and the cockney language sexy beast is a very and familiar minor plot lent respectability in the us by being done in what is here a still somewhat novel genre the london crime film the plot may be new to british crime films but it would be overly familiar as a western further respectability comes from ben kingsley's performance i give it a on the to scale and a on the to scale
negative	synopsis quarterback moxxon becomes starting quarterback midway through his senior year of high school even though he'd rather read slaughterhouse five than the playbook evil football coach kilmer throws away moxxon's book though while the evil team physician injects painkillers into the players in the meantime moxxon's kid brother forms a cult and a cheerleader smears whip cream on herself to seduce the new star quarterback comments since i usually review horror and science fiction films i feel a little out of my league discussing this teen football movie pun intended thank you varsity blues was produced by mtv and it really shows several extended scenes allow for a continual soundtrack of mediocre pop songs meant to appeal to the adolescent male audience this crap was intended for the teenagers all have reasons for their melodramatic angst the adults all have problems of course and as characters they are all fanatically obssessed with how their local high school football team performs yes this movie represents high school life in this is a land where your health teacher is also a stripper your ice cream store attendant girlfriend wears an egyptian ankh around her neck your kid brother forms a cute cult your football coach is an uncaring obssessive madman and your friends' lives consist of nothing but getting laid and driving around in cop cars naked all you as the main character want to do however is read slaughterhouse five and attend brown university in the fall well at least this is a little more realistic than mtv's the real world varsity blues stars james van der beek this week's teen tv star making the leap to the big screen he plays the hick moxxon adequately though some of his emotional dialogue will make people chuckle you dawn't own mah life who would want to jon voight the stock evil guy in countless other movies is surprise the stock evil guy here but is he really evil or is he a product of society after all everybody young and old in this movie has no life whatsoever and do nothing but obssess over high school football maybe the pressures of the screaming fans at the football field drove evil coach kilmer evil the film's screenplay never answers this burning question at times iliff's story does show glimmers of touching or humorous scenes but before the audience gets their hopes up that there might be something redeeming in this movie they get trashed with another lengthy party sequence or overwrought football game the movie's pacing is slow and the plot turns are mindnumbingly obvious from start to finish i suppose i'm being a little hard on varsity blues maybe i'm just a little miffed that i had to pay bucks to see it even though it was dollar night at the cinema something about a request from the studio made the theater charge more money i found the film oftentimes ludicrous and boring three guys in front of us smuggled beer into the the theater i wished i had thought of that alcohol lots of it may have helped the viewing experience
negative	susan granger's review of american outlaws warner bros thomas edison's the great train robbery was the first western ever made and jesse james under the black flag first introduced the outlaw folk hero now more than pictures later jesse james and his notorious gang of outlaws ride again in a banal mtv spin on an american legend the story begins as jesse charasmatic colin farrell and his brother frank gabriel macht cole and scott younger scott caan will mccormack and trusty comanche tom nathaniel arcand after four years of fighting for the rebs in the civil war return to liberty missouri only to discover union troops are occupying their hometown and an avaricious east coast railroad baron thaddeus rains harris yulin is forcing farmers to sell their land at less than true value aided by allan pinkerton timothy dalton and his infamous detectives who back then were just thugs who provided security but when ma james kathy bates becomes one of their victims jesse and the rest of the guys gregory smith ty o'neal joe stevens form the gang to wreak revenge by attacking the railroad's supply lines sabotaging track and robbing the banks where the payroll is kept plus there's romance between jesse and a spunky hometown gal lee mimms ali larter working from a clich sanitized and revisionist screenplay by roderick taylor and john rodgers director les mayfield keeps the action and goes for lightweight laughs when he can the choppy editing hurts but russell boyd's cinematography luke reichle's designer duds and trevor rabin's music lend authenticity on the granger movie gauge of to american outlaws is a galloping formulaic it's the wild west as a date movie
negative	dear god this is a fantastically bad film regardless of what i say about knock off you can't grasp its awfulness from my words you have to see it and experience it for yourself here's the kicker though i suggest that you do so yes this is a bad film easily one of the most incompetent films of the year but it has a certain misguided charm that makes it a unique kind of disaster to endure in fact i enjoyed myself for most of its brief running time despite the dreadful acting and a completely incomprehensible story don't get me wrong i'm not excusing knock off it reaches an unacceptable level of badness it's so incoherent that i wonder if it was hacked up worse than the avengers was it also features some truly terrible performances from lela rochon michael wong paul sorvino and of course van damme it does however have the entertaining presence of rob schneider and the excessively inventive and pretentious direction of tsui hark as i watched it i occasionally wondered if it was aware of its own awfulness now in retrospect it seems clear that it wasn't but it's still a fascinating kind of mess i don't like writing plot descriptions it is by far the most boring part of writing a review but in this case i'm off the hook there is no way i could write an accurate synopsis for knock off for the sake of comparison i had no trouble understanding the usual suspects during my first viewing i paid closer attention to knock off and the only thing i am able to say about it is that van damme plays a dude named ray and is accused by the cia i think of selling knock off products knock off products are of course products that look like materials but are generic and cheap i don't know what any of this has to do with martial arts but there are lots of martial arts in the film ray is good at martial arts so when he has to beat up bad guys there's no problem rob schneider plays his sidekick although i had no idea who he really was by the end of the film lela rochon is just some woman who accuses them of stuff while paul sorvino is both the good guy and the bad guy at once in fact every character goes through so many shifts from good to bad that the end provides absolutely no insight into what any of them really do in that order knock off is completely incoherent and makes absolutely no sense but what a strange mess it is it was written by stephen e de souza who also wrote die hard and hours can this be the same man i don't see how unless of course huge chunks of the film have been removed for the sake of running time knock off seems to have an interesting premise as far as action films go but there's no semblance here for instance van damme is introduced and then seconds later he's running a chariot race through the streets of hong kong why who knows what are the implications of this i have no idea most action films abandon depth in favor of action and this is normally a problem knock off however is the first film that i would have preferred to see with all of the talky sequences cut the acting is embarrassingly bad rochon in particular delivers each of her lines with stiff and talentless insincerity sorvino in addition deserves better than this van damme is bad but he's charming in that bad way and so i can't say that he's hard to watch although i rarely understood what he was saying the only exception is rob schneider who is actually quite funny a lot of the time tsui utilizes so many tricks that he makes john woo look tame by comparison they're all pointless gimmicks though such as shots of the of a knock off running shoe but his action scenes are never boring one particular piece inside of a fruit factory a fruit factory is lots of the scenes are pitched well to comedy such as our heroes' first encounter with the rochon character but did tsui know that his film is beyond ludicrous i hope he did for the alternative is a frightening thought knock off has the feel of a truly terrible exercise in camp mania if it were boring i'd give it zero stars but it's not boring it's loud and excessive and completely incoherent it's also funny even when it isn't meaning to be funny a bad film that succeeds as entertainment doesn't deserve to be fully lambasted i recognize knock off for its irrefutable badness but i can't deny it's zany useless charm oh i know they're just action scenes looking desperately for a real story but they're fun action scenes amongst a crowd of laughably inane concepts it's fun to admire the awfulness of a film like this but that doesn't excuse the fact that it is indeed awful
negative	welcome to your typical sequel it tries to be twice as big as it's predecessor yet ends up twice as shallow shallow hmm now there's an idea maybe if the cruise liner in this movie had struck a shallow reef early on things may have turned out better the first thing that struck me and surprised me was that the camera work for the opening sequence anyway was terrible looked like the cameramen were drunk and kept tripping on their own feet very different to the original movie the characters well not many of the characters actually had characters but here's a rundown annie who was the highlight of the the original must have seriously banged her head in the train crash at the end of the first movie why because something's got to account for her losing that many iq points even though annie wasn't exactly a rocket scientist in speed here some of her actions just make you want to beat your head against a wall for instance after successfully using a chainsaw to cut a hole in a door so that a group of people can escape noxious gases she stands in the middle of the opening for about five minutes till someone reminds her that the people can't get ut till she get's the chainsaw out of their faces bang bang bang in point of fact sandra's character is turned into little more than one of those scantly dressed extras from hercules who constantly has to be rescued jason patric all i can say is bring back keanu keanu reeves might have the emotional range of a tree stump but that's one more tree stump than jason has i don't think he changed facial expressions all movie jason smile for the cameras now frown i said frown oh you are bang bang bang wooden just doesn't describe this guys performance but it'll have to do the bad guy ahh william dafoe there's a bright move how can you go wrong with the star from that acknowledged classic body of evidence yes that is sarcasm his wide eyed maniac of a character doesn't start out too bad but goes steadily downhill as the movie progresses in the end he degenerates to chasing annie around for a hostage even though he already has the money and can escape bang bang though i'd like to give this movie a double thumbs down there were some nice sequences considering the movie cost over million dollars you'd hope there'd be at least a couple the real for me even though it was given away in the trailer bang bang was the sequence where the cruise liner sideswipes the oil tanker this looks terrific and i was very surprised to hear that the cruise liner in it was completely computer generated wow i don't think i've ever seen a cg model look so real before the sequence where jason patric in trying to disable the propellers from under the ship is also terrific and the only time during the entire movie where you get that feeling of speed this problem affects many sequences such as the oil tanker part it was oh no we're going to hit the oil tanker minutes later oh no we're going to hit the oil tanker min you get the point this movie failed simply because it didn't live up to it's name there was very little feeling of speed in the original movie the lead characters had to make split second decisions to survive in this movie it felt more like well people we're gonna run into that there island in a few hours i think i might stroll over to engineering and see if i can't turn off the engines i'm passing the cafeteria on the way can i get anybody anything the ending of this movie really is terrible even though it features what i've since found out is one of the most expensive sequences ever in a movie it just doesn't work at all the part where the liner crashes through the town looks very realistic but surprise surprise it just takes waaaaay too long it seemed to go for minutes before the ship finally stopped one thing that struck me as extremely poor scriptiing was that as the ship crashes through the harbour and town around people are killed by the ship and there's only or so people left on the ship so when it stops safe and sound and the characters are all cheering the audience is sitting back and thinking wait a sec this is a happy moment because bang bang then there was the dog i almost fell out of my seat when i saw the bit with the dog dodging the falling debris putting a dog in peril has become the ultimate hollywood cliche every movie seems to have a sequence volcano dante's peak independence day daylight twister lost world etc etc this movie is a perfect example of how not to make a sequel director jan de bont should try watching the orignal movie and this one and see if he realises where he went wrong
negative	synopsis the president of a company wants to test his successor who's psychotic and thinks it's a great idea to spend a week with him and their wives in an isolated cabin a hundred miles from civilization with no dependable transportation or means of communication after a heavy snowfall comments tracks of a killer had a couple of strikes against it before i even began watching it strike one was the fact that someone had scrawled the word garbage on the videotape's sticker in black marker not typically a good sign when you rent a film strike two came while the previews played did you ever get a sinking premonition about a movie's quality or lack thereof while watching the trailers that come before it well the cheesy films being advertised before tracks of a killer were films that no one has ever heard of starring people no one knows and they all looked bad definately not a good sign tracks of a killer itself completed the strikeout about the only positive thing this film had going for it was the fact that it sports some nice scenery to be fair the first or so promises at least a watchable thriller wolf larson who bears more than a passing resemblance to hugh grant adequately plays the underling obviously set up as the killer of the film's title james brolin and kelly lebrock seem equally adequate as the loving couple larson will later threaten brolin's character for some inexplicable reason thinks its a great idea to spend some time in a cabin practically isolated with lebrock and larson whom he's decided to test for the week before giving him full control of his company by the time the characters arrive at the cabin this film begins to become tedious apparently brolin's successor's test involves chopping wood for the fireplace and skiing which don't seem like attributes necessary to run a business in the city but then again what do i know about business i do think though that they should have invested in some better furniture for the cabin its beds and closets have a habit of just breaking at the slightest touch larson's character accidently kills his own wife rather than the couple he wants to kill this leaves the movie with an hour to go and only three characters which really isn't enough to sustain it the film's writer must have taken a cue from stephen king as scenes from tracks of a killer seem lifted out of misery and gerald's game larson and lebrock fight and torture each other the tables get turned a couple of times while brolin tramps around in the snow looking for help some old guy's around too just so the killer can add to his body count without killing the couple who everyone knows will be alive at the end of the film the old guy however miraculously survives his first death and appears later to be killed again by the killer in a scene so ludicrous it's worthy of a chuckle or two outside of that chuckle unfortunately tracks of a killer will just bore you as the obvious plot is drawn out ad infinitum and the actors for some reason become increasing obnoxious if you're in a video store and thinking about renting this turkey don't make tracks to a far superior suspense film like misery
negative	there should be a requirement that a potential viewer be under a certain film iq in order to see mission to mars there are probably quite a few people who are going to enjoy it and most of them will probably be those who have seen very few films of its kind but there are those who will not and those will most likely be people who have already seen one or more of the following movies a space odyssey armageddon apollo the abyss close encounters of the third kind e t the alien and aliens why because there is not one original idea in mission to mars all of it is cribbed from other films and in most cases better films if this is the sort of thing you don't mind you might like the film of course there are other reasons not to like mission to mars the main one being a script written by people who seem to assume their audience is filled with people who haven't used their brains in some time and who don't intend to start during the film's running time mission to mars manages to be both stupid and boring at the same time the plot cribbed greatly from concerns a team sent to mars the first manned trip ever made to the red planet luke graham don cheadle leads the team jointly formed of americans and russians the team encounters a mysterious monolith that emits a strange pulse this being nothing like the monolith in that one was on the moon but when they try to study it a giant sand tornado comes out of the top and swallows them all except luke who survives long enough to send a garbled message back to the rotating space station which looks strangely like the rotating space station in a rescue mission is planned with husband wife team woody blake tim robbins and terri fisher connie nielsen obligatory pilot with a troubled past jim mcconnell gary sinise and extra crew member phil ohlmyer jerry o'connell along for the ride after some dancing they run into problems when one of their engines is blown forcing them to attempt a desperate landing aboard a supply vessel now stranded on mars with minimal supplies the team must decide whether or not it can risk entering the monolith or if they should return home after all that monolith just might contain information about how life originated on earth mission to mars is one of those films that makes a critic wonder where to start when talking about all the things that are wrong with it so let's start with one of the things that does work director brian de palma manages to create some eerie tension in a few scenes during the middle of the film that's it everything else fails the failure isn't de palma's fault he's working from an atrocious script only during the sequence aboard the ship looking an awful lot like the jupiter vessel in where the rescue team's air begins running out and they must frantically search for the hole and patch it up does mission to mars come to life a scene where they attempt to save a comrade floating away into space also provides some tension until you realize that the entire rescue sequence has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film it's just a contrived way to generate thrilling scenes take it out and the plot isn't affected in any way the sequence also suffers from a few plot holes as does the rest of the film why is the ship's computer which sounds strangely like hal from uh able to detect a hole in the main chamber but not one in the engine why did tim robbins' character have to go outside the ship when the solution easily presented itself from inside shouldn't the astronauts be better trained to deal with a hull breach why are the characters such idiots because the script makes little attempt to properly develop them all the conflict is clumsily delivered in excruciatingly obvious exposition in the opening scene which rips off orson welles and robert altman by utilizing a long opening tracking shot during which the characters repeatedly tell each other about things all of them should already know jim it's too bad you can't go on this mission because you were determined inadequate' because your wife died right before you were to go on the mission together does anyone really talk like this can't we find out these things in a less grating matter like maybe in a flashback the whole film is like that the filmmakers are not content to merely show us something and assume we know what's going on they must tell us exactly what we're looking at every time sample dialogue from the film shot of mars astronaut a look there's mars astronaut b you sure that's mars astronaut a yeah that's mars all right astronaut c hey are you guys looking at mars that exchange isn't actually in mission to mars but i wouldn't be surprised if it were for all their cribbing from kubrick spielberg james cameron and even ron howard the makers of this film haven't learned to do something all those directors did very well show and don't tell de palma used to know how but seems to have forgotten this is filmmaking they assume the audience won't get what's going on so they explain everything five times over may appreciate this but more learned viewers will have their intelligence insulted the principal actors sleepwalk their way through mission to mars never managing to do away with an apparent i'm just here to get a paycheck attitude cheadle stumbles over his awkward lines armin manages to thoroughly embarrass himself in an unbilled cameo robbins puts his game face on and phones in his standard decent guy performance and sinise hams it up with wistful facial expressions while watching tapes of his dead wife played by kim delaney who only has one scene during which she still manages to deliver some ridiculous dialogue in a monologue about the meaning of life and especially during the a lollipop to whoever names them conclusion which combines endless obvious explanation and cgi effects with gagging sentimentality and is sure to alienate any viewers who had been enjoying the show up until then and of course these aliens from mars who facilitated the evolution of life on earth are entirely different from the aliens in who facilitated the evolution of life on earth those aliens were from an unknown world it could be said that fans of brainless action films might enjoy mission to mars but such a comment ignores the fact that the film is also incredibly leisurely pacing might have helped a film with a little more substance to it but all of the substance of mission to mars has been stolen from other films and those other films dealt with their ideas in a much more thoughtful fashion and generally contained more engaging characters supposedly we're intended to choke up when one character decides not to return home at the end of this one totally different from the ending of armageddon but i suspect most people will either be laughing or groaning me i alternated between the two there is only one good thing about the way mission to mars finally ends the fact that the movie is over
negative	underwater science fiction stays submerged sphere a film review by michael redman copyright by michael redman one of the most unpleasant experiences that can occur in a movie theater is when a cast of fine actors end up in a film that wastes their talents you keep thinking what they might have accomplished with the time they squandered psychologist norman goodman dustin hoffman is called to the middle of the pacific ocean to work with the survivors of a plane crash when he arrives at the site he discovers that there is no plane but rather an enormous spacecraft that has been sitting feet below the surface for almost years having written a paper for the bush administration on how to handle first contact he is chosen to head up the team of scientists investigating the ship his group as outlined in his report consists of beth halperin sharon stone a biochemist harry adams samuel l jackson a mathematician and ted fielding liev schreiber an astrophysicist unfortunately it turns out that the writing was a project for goodman who did it for the money and named his to the team after all he explains who reads government documents lead by harold barnes peter coyote a top secret federal operative the group descends to a mobile undersea headquarters set up next to the alien vessel once there they stroll over knock on the door and explore the ufo discovering the surprising origin of the ship and the crew finds an astonishing gigantic golden liquid metal sphere when adams enters the sphere the weirdness unfolds a storm rolls in on the surface and the team is forced to remain below just as an unseen presence begins to communicate through their computer my name is jerry i am happy flashes across the screen this is unsettling for the psychologist what happens if jerry gets mad he asks barnes is more pragmatic he needs a last name because he can't put in his report that they made contact with an alien named jerry then the situation turns bad deadly beasts appear from nowhere a gang of jellyfish kills one of the navy personnel lethal sea snakes attack goodman a giant squid batters the habitat just as adams is reading leagues under the sea the suspicious scientists turn against each other this has all the makings of a thinking man's science fiction film however even the finest ingredients don't go very far in the hands of a chief who doesn't seem to care about his product director barry levinson has churned out a that doesn't engage the audience beyond a few skillful suspense scenes the first of the film zooms by as the situation and players are introduced without any characterization or justification it's much like a novel and realizing that you missed the nuances it doesn't get any better when the action scenes begin while the actors do an adequate job with their limited roles the people are still flat oddly they hardly have reactions when deaths occur around them after adams experiences the interior of the sphere no one bothers to ask him what happened their history together is an intriguing plot device but is barely exploited even goodman and halperin's affair when she was his student is just mentioned in passing her psychotic tendencies are talked about but never convincing there's a truism that items shown early in a movie must be used before the ending but here they are far too obvious when an emergency is explained you know what's going to happen the movie affectations are nothing more than distracting chapter headings that divide the movie have no function the shaky camera work muddies already perplexing chaos much of what goes on is confusing and difficult to follow although some of the disorientation eventually is understandable a great deal of it isn't even a science fiction film must be internally consistent there's too much here that doesn't make sense are the manifestations real the jellyfish kill queen latifa in a role and the squid nearly destroys the outpost but the bites of the fatal snakes have no effect a scene in the sub suggests that it's illusion but earlier episodes indicate that it's not not everything has to be explained to death but there are major questions that the film never answers where the ship came from is clarified but how it ended up on the ocean floor in is merely alluded to even the enigmatic sphere is still mysterious when the credits roll the climax is followed by minutes of epilogue that does little but weaken the already labored tale after audience testing the actors were called back to the ending it's difficult to imagine how the original could have been worse following the recent tradition of lengthy films this weighs in at over two very long hours the weak scenes could have been cut but then there wouldn't have been much left the movie was supposedly held up by effects work but there's nothing special on the screen we never even see the monstrous squid or the menacing storm stealing from alien the abyss and the disastrous event horizon this film has learned nothing from them remarkably levinson and hoffman's other currently showing film is wag the dog a smart and entertaining piece of work this one could have been titled the same sans one word
negative	renowned hong kong action director tsui hark first teamed with van damme on the action star's pairing with dennis rodman and managed to make what initially appeared to be a disaster into a slick stylish and somewhat diverting action timekiller tsui continues to energetically pile on the visual razzle dazzle in his latest collaboration with the muscles from brussels but this time around style neither save a script that is at best ridiculous and at worst incomprehensible nor hide a host of truly lousy performances writer steven e desouza's fairly straightforward plotline isn't as outre as strange yarn involving a secret think but it makes about as much sense which is little van damme plays marcus ray a hong sales rep for a jeans company who stumbles upon a russian terrorist scheme to implant powerful bombs in hk product exports to the u s electronic equipment and yes jeans it's all part of some type of ransom scheme but all i remember i kid you on a cia computer screen showing a map of the world bombs detonating and an figure on the other side of the world bursting out into laughter which is what the crowd at the showing i attended spontaneously did throughout while all of van damme's films have its share of unintentional laughs mostly due to the stiff acting skills of the physically agile van damme delivers more than usual though not as many as van damme's embarrassing directorial effort a lot of the laughs are earned by some particularly painful lines by desouza i smoked that badass like a roman candle and entrepreneurship babycakes standing out among my favorites but it is indeed the pathetic performances that provide the bulk of laughs van damme is true to laughable form perhaps even worse than usual early scenes actually him to make funny with rob schneider improbably cast as a deep cover cia agent posing as marcus's business partner and the sight and sound of the van damme haplessly trying to drop punchlines is hilarious in the wrong way even typically good actors are not immune to the bad acting bug paul sorvino is unconvincing and terribly overwrought as schneider's cia superior and lela rochon playing an investigator for the jeans company spends the entire movie in perpetual snarl mode in rochon's defense though her role requires her to do little more than display her toned legs exquisite bone structure and perky bosoms the latter coming in handy for one key scene where she must fish for microbombs stuck in her ample cleavage tsui picks up where he left off visually in juicing up the proceedings with inventive camera work here though tsui's visual razzle dazzle borders on over kill coming off as desperate attempts to shield the inanity of the entire enterprise for each nifty trick tsui pulls off such as a recurring visual theme that has the camera literally going through the circuitry of electronic devices there are others that are completely superfluous this is especially disconcerting when the trick in question could be clever when used in the right context for instance one scene early on has marcus putting his hand in a box as he puts his hand in the same action is shown from an overhead camera angle in a rectangle at the corner of the screen it's undoubtedly an interesting visual but it would have been nice if its use actually amounted to something the test of a van damme movie boils down to the action sequences but surprisingly those in leave much to be desired tsui does what he can to make something of them employing freeze frames blurred motion and unconventional camera angles but there is nothing fundamentally special about the fairly generic chase and fight sequences written by desouza there isn't anything as preposterously amusing as the climactic mine fight in let alone anything remotely close to tsui's legendary hong kong works but that's a given going in if tsui has any hope of approaching his countryman john woo's stateside success he would do best to break free from van damme before it's too late if he continues his involvement with movies such as the respect he has from hk action fans will continue to diminish that is if it hasn't already disappeared entirely after this fiasco
negative	upon first viewing of this movie the phrases been there and done that come quickly to mind spy hard manages to steal almost every joke from the zucker brothers films the most popular of which are airplane and the naked gun series stealing stuff can be profitable in this industry but only when you steal the right stuff what little plot there is involves dick steele aka agent leslie nielsen trying to save the world from an almost deranged madman played by andy griffith along the way to it goal goal the film manages to spoof mainly the james bond type films but also manages to hit on films such as home alone and sister act the trick about spoofing is that you have to actually be funny or at the least satirical spy hard achieves neither as it borrows all of the wrong elements from the superior zucker brothers films the dick the world is in danger what is it well it's a big roundish ball floating in space around the sun i'm paraphrasing type of exchange is used at least four times in the opening ten minutes of the film each time getting progressively less funny what they should have stolen were the background sight gags which were so effective in the zucker brother's films while writing their own dialogue director rick friedberg focuses more on the mug shots of his actors especially nielsen who can do this quite well than on the delivery and context of their lines much of the time cutting the punchline short the whole film seems to be in a race with itself to be over as is evident in the final sequence where there is no comedic denouement after the climax as was usual in the zucker brothers films and in spy hard the end credits tend to replace this by being out of context one of the more amusing was captain of the enterprise james t kirk overall i thought this was a very weak effort while all of the right films to spoof were chosen they used none of the right spoofing methods next time they should spy a little bit harder excellent one of a kind must see entertaining worth the price of admission fair nothing much special what were they thinking
negative	first impressions critically a film but it has been doing and will continue to do great a film that sags and lags and oftentimes gets boring an orginal plot that grows old real fast one of the only minute films that i've gotten bored through men in black has defied the odds when i first saw that the flick was minutes long i thought maybe that this was a poor attempt at an independence day type film that just ran out of gas however i now realize that not only did men in black run out of gas but the film in minutes manages to show off a very original idea which summer audiences have embraced that becomes old about minutes into the movie tommy lee jones and will smith play two government agents who are responsible for keeping order in alien society the ridiculous plot begins when an alien bug played weirdly by vincent d'onofrio who was so great in full metal jacket lands on earth to retrieve a galaxy that's somewhere on orion's belt anyway the basic plot revolves around jones and smith to stop this bug from getting the galaxy or a higher power will blow up the earth the premise is ridulous but that is not why i didn't like this film i love original plots this one had an original one but director barry sonnenfeld did something to this film that ruined its plot he made the film drag and also put in unncessary elements in it that are found in romance films whenever i saw d'onofrio's bug stomp and eat people in the film it got terribly boring after a while while smith's did fill in the gaps it wasn't enough and also i cannot believe the screenwriters elected to have a where tommy lee jones missed his former lover because as an alien agent they can't have contact with any humans really and here i see jones at a satellite computer watching his lover plant the garden a sentimental moment in an alien movie nice try but i don't think so it doesn't work here it just makes the movie even more ridiculous and even more boring we don't only have aliens to worry about but now we have jones's conscience i came into the movie not wanting to see jones's conscience but wanting to see a real action movie that had lots of aliens in it maybe it's unfair that i partly judged this movie on what my expectations were nevertheless even though some parts are indeed funny the plot in this movie grew old and boring quick
negative	there are movies that pose a question in its first five minutes and spend the rest of the time trying to answer it then there are movies that spend the whole time posing questions and try to answer it all in the last five minutes john herzfeld's two days in the valley falls into the latter category weaving together a grabbag of seemingly unrelated characters herzfeld's tries very hard to keep the audience guessing with a altmanesque series of parallel stories hitmen lee james spader and his partner dosmo danny aiello pop a guy in bed while leaving his drugged wife becky fox teri hatcher lying next to him showing the audience where on her behind she got nicely pricked an understandeably shocked becky runs out of the house the next morning before hailing down a couple of vice cops jeff daniels and wes eric stoltz a murder is not vice territory flirting with asian prostitues is but wes would rather play inquisitive detective meanwhile director teddy paul mazursky is about to end his life but before he can do that he must find a good home for his dog enter nurse audrey marsha mason who takes the dog and teddy for a ride stuffy art dealer allan hopper greg cruttwell has kidney stones while struggling about his fancy house he switches between moaning in and dropping condescending hints about his loyal secretary's glenne headly plain appearance don't be surprised if you find yourself asking more than once just what the hell is going on you might like that feeling of cluelessness herzfeld does answer all the questions in the course of time and pieces it all rather neatly in the last five minutes the jigsaw puzzle assembled isn't stunning by any means though the characters lack the stature or moral complexity of altman's heroes in short cuts even though they are interesting and funny funny that is if you aren't comparing them to the likes of tarantino's pulp chcaracters the is tidy but nowhere near the squeaky clean resolution of director's name guy who also did last seduction red rock west two days isn't a bad movie but there isn't much else to it than the screenplay novelty of the linkage of seemingly unrelated characters it'll keep you guessing alright but you won't remember the answers five minutes after the credits the flying inkpot rating system wait for the broadcast a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
negative	warning may contain slight mild spoilers rated r for intense some strong sexuality and language starring arnold schwarzeneggar robin tunney rod stieger gabriel byrne running time minutes we go into a movie theater boom the lights go down our hearts race we go through ten minutes of preview and finally the movie we've been waiting to see for a long time comes on we sit there watch in disbelief that this movie is as bad as it is why shouldn't i have know what i was getting myself into again like this past summers hit stigmata end of days may be worse it's not like this is any kind of original idea it just throws in some rosemary's baby along with the devil's advocate a little exorcist and some stigmata here and there whala you have end of days a movie that is extremely disappointing and by the previews made it look terrific sadly but truly again like most recent films all the good parts are in the trailers the plot which is very confusing at times is also very ludicrous and the movie is destined to be a hit in the first weekend and flop in the next jericho cane arnold schwarzneggar in hit typical macho role is a cop who finds out that he is chosen to track down satan living in gabriel byrnes body and stop him from impregnating christine york robin tunney because if he does and she gives birth all existence as we know it will cease to exist he has to do this before it turns into the year and strangely he's trying to fight him minutes before comes he seeks help from the catholic church and help from rod stieger in a terrific role and tries to save this girl leading to an ending that's satisfying but turns into a typical action movie that's pretty much it on plot it does have the razzle and dazzle of a great action movie and with the dollar budget parts seem to show it parts you have to wonder where all the money went as for arnie good role ok performance i think since he is getting a little older he is held back a lot of his stunts the thing that disappointed me was the fact that there was nothing to the film in the trailers it looks like a good scary action film and ends up being a boring long and preposterous drama that leads into something else that leaves us with questions gabriel byrnes who ironically played a priest in stigmata here plays satan and gives a good performance but again seems held back and not into his character two years back al pacino gave a terrific performance in the fun the devil's advocate and here it seems like the idea of him is in the character also robin tunney great performance as always plays satan's main person whom he wants to impregnate to carry his child of course rod stieger gives another great performance which really isn't nothing new the direction by peter hyams is at times a bit overblown though not nearly as the visual style was in stigmata here we are given great camera work and some great scenes that are terrifically directed but sadly just don't work in this movie the script written by andrew marlowe has a few witty lines but again the movie is all style and no substance and by the ending finale climax i was ready to go home only a few things work here and those are a few of the performances the writing and visual style but the storyline and the finished product don't work as well the sad thing is that end of days had so many things going for it the plot could have been more organized the action scenes could have been more brainy and less at times it seems like armageddon and started to get old and tiresome hollywood is running out of ideas bad and like i've always said before needs new ones even with its budget end of days is less than pleasing in fact the dollar budget is at least over and easily could have had a budget maybe i sound crazy but i am really looking forward to the new exorcist film and hope that they make it as good as the original we need to get new ideas and stop recycling old ones just to make money at the we need to get more films like the blair witch project that could scare people to death while people thinking well what exactly is scaring them and how do i know that it is in fact the blair witch overblown effects stupid and thin good performances disappointing umm yup those pretty much describe end of days
negative	my name is jack carter and you don't want to know me says our brooding sylvester stallone take his advice to know this guy is as rewarding as being thrown over a terrace and to watch this film is almost as painful get carter is a gloomy looking unimaginative film that offers no joy jack carter is as tough as tough guys come he works out of vegas as a adjuster' explaining his duties he says people make promises and break them i help them remember he has a chiseled body full of tattoos he has the weathered look indicative of a man who has seen his share of hard times he speaks in a hushed but menacing tone of voice in other words this is sylvester stallone acting like sylvester stallone and like most of his previous roles his character is a shallow thug whose modus operandi is to talk tough hassle a few hapless people find out what he needs to know and then dispense his own kind of justice with the charisma of a pit bull being tough is all that jack carter knows yet even tough guys know when to put family first as the story begins we learn that jack's little brother has died in a car accident the police attribute it to heavy drinking however jack is suspicious believing that he was out' he takes a break from his vegas duties and tries to see if he can find the truth as he pokes around he runs into several lowlife characters they include a shady business partner a prostitute a dweebish millionaire molded after bill gates and an oily owner of a porn website any one of them may know something about his brother's death all of them have the means of carrying out the deed but don't expect an exercise in sleuthing where clues lead carter to the truth he's all brawn and no brains so there are no epiphanies during his investigation instead he uses intimidation to muscle his way forward cycling through this circle of suspects flustered with his lack of progress he cycles through them again and again this all gets tiring fairly quickly by the time the film launches into its final act we're numb from its pedestrian pace oddly as a thriller it starves us for action admittedly there is one nifty chase sequence but this is related to a tangential and needless plot carter's vegas ties send thugs to retrieve him the story also fails to generate any kind of emotion stallone has the personality of a slab of stone and the look and feel of the film is perpetually downcast the weather is constantly overcast or rainy meanwhile most shots take place at night in dimly lit rooms or in dark alleys it's just impossible to get stirred about that kind of atmosphere as a result get carter amounts to nothing more than a flat thriller bereft of clever moments and devoid of any excitement you're better off leaving this guy alone
negative	you would think that this film's dismal failure would be due to american filmmakers getting hold of a brilliant british comedy and americanizing it you'd be wrong since full blame can be placed on the very folks who wrote and created the series rowan atkinson robin driscoll and richard curtis should you ever happen to meet those chaps do me a favor grab them by the hair and yell really loudly in their ear what were you thinking have you ever heard the phrase it ain't broke don't fix it' then walk away the film concerns mr bean atkinson and his visit to america while escorting the painting of whistler's mother to an american buyer played by burt reynolds in the type of bit part that his success in boogie nights should hopefully do away with now how or why mr bean is sent on this trip makes no sense and i can't even describe how the film explains it the point is that mr bean comes to america and causes wacky trouble problems problems problems where to begin first the score music from the tv show has been completely replaced by score that is either at times one note away from the score from beetlejuice or one note away from the score from rob roy then the song choices are totally uninspired good vibrations i love l a wow don't put any thought into that guys also bean makes way too much noise in the film the character doesn't speak much but in the series you really only heard the laughter of the audience and maybe the occasional murmur from mr bean each episode was like a chaplin silent movie in the film bean is constantly moaning grunting whining etc it's annoying and just plain wrong for the character the main problem though is that it's just not funny with each episode of the series there would be dozens of really great laughs crammed into less than minutes multiply that running time by three however and the laughs steadily decrease they even have the gaul to repeat jokes from the series sad and creatively lazy as a series mr bean only ran for about episodes or so why on earth did atkinson and the gang decide it was time to completely rework everything episodes certainly hadn't exhausted all possible situations all i can say positively for the film at this point is that it's almost appropriate for all ages if it wasn't for a couple of scenes where it appears as though mr bean is having sex with things and even that isn't a very positive statement please guys go back to england and go back to television so you'll make me laugh again 
negative	robin williams has the rarest of gifts the ability to rise above the most inept material and suffuse it with his irreverent style overwhelmingly his worst films are pleasantly diverting at worst and enjoyable at best with the notable exception of flubber so when i the one person who has refused to abandon him despite patch adams tell you that not even williams can save his latest project you know it's in trouble jakob the liar is a confused muddled little movie a generically uplifting film with a fundamental contradiction the message it delivers is depressing as opposed to inspiring and the movie doesn't realize it williams plays jakob haim a jew imprisoned in a polish ghetto during world war ii one night he wanders outside after curfew and is promptly sent to the office of a german officer for his punishment jakob gets off easy and he gets to hear approximately seconds of a radio broadcast the announcement in english but punctuated by a triumphant heil hitler is that russian troops are only miles away from jakob's ghetto liberation he thinks the next day jakob tells the news to his closest friend a volatile prize fighter named misha liev schreiber who despite being sworn to secrecy passes the message along soon it is a common assumption in the ghetto that jakob has a radio hidden in his home a crime punishable by death this is absurdly false but the more jakob tells the people of the ghetto this the more convinced they become that he is abreast of the latest developments in the war that is to decide their fate the danger of course is that the germans allegedly have informants throughout the ghetto and rumors about the radio can get out and put jakob in great danger in a curiously irrelevant subplot jakob finds a old girl who has separated from her parents and decides to hide her in his small home apparently he is afraid that she will be discovered and goes to great length to make sure of that just why the idea frightens him is never made clear he and the girl build an uninvolving generic relationship that never goes anywhere and is as irrelevant at the end as it was in the beginning the moral of the story is that hope is the best medicine but jakob the liar forgets that the hope that jakob brings to his ghetto is false such hope inevitably leads to expectations of its realization and when those expectations aren't met the results are far worse than if there was no hope that's the film's biggest detriment it is based on a false assumption and thus comes off as painfully false it's never moving because it doesn't give us anything to be moved by jakob the liar fails to tug any heartstrings which destroys its purpose for existing robin williams doesn't inject the film with life as a matter of fact he seems a little out of it as if crippled by his fake accent he is stragely unenthusiastic his character is one who spreads hope but his performance is lifeless hopeless not since good will hunting has he abandoned his signature style to this extent this isn't the robin williams we know and love in good will hunting he became a serious actor and won an oscar for it here he is more of a wannabe serious actor an impostor jakob the liar will be compared with last year's life is beautiful because it is being marketed as a holocaust comedy it's not a comedy it tries sometimes but it rarely works is it a melodrama a war movie a character study no no and no jakob the liar is the kind of movie that can't be placed into a category not because it covers so many different genres but because it fails at just about every one it attempts
negative	say tell me if you've seen this before a crisis a commercial airliner causes a stewardess to have to fly and land the plane herself airport anyone ray liotta is a psychotic serial killer being transported from new york to california on christmas eve amazingly on what would seemingly be a busy day of travel on one of the most flown routes only about six other passengers are on the flight anyway they take off liotta escapes and kills all the police and the pilots and stewardess lauren holly locks herself in the cockpit to fly the plane the story is beyond routine the script is embarrassing at one point this jumbo jet is flying completely upside down the characters are worthless and the performances are annoying surprisingly steven e de souza actually wrote the first two die hard movies turbulence takes place at christmas time yet the film was released a few days after the holidays brilliant marketing as no one cares about anything having to do with christmas after december the studio knew they had a bomb and purposely dumped it out when the fewest number of people would see it 
negative	it should have been a classic a great cast of respected supporting actors an interesting premise of loser comic book characters however mystery men proved to be one of the great disappointments of the jokes were bland and hackneyed from talents who have previously made audiences laugh with their unique rituals the number of cliches and shallow characters made the film difficult to sit through seriously hurting its attempt of having a fast paced premise the script tried to deliver a series of small jokes throughout the film but without a big joke and mediocre small jokes it failed miserably at being entertaining at all the jokes were not funny for a number of reasons they had been used a number of times before in previous films the best ones which were mediocre to begin with were ruined in the trailer and the expectation of laughing at clever unique gags from clever unique comedians when there were none to laugh at greatly damaged the film mystery men might have worked if it was an ensemble cast of newcomers trying to break into the business but with veterans doing this kind of junk it really questioned whether their other work was as funny as originally thought thankfully most actors in this movie will appear in five other movies before the new year arrives to help viewers forget this little movie the film follows a band of wannabe superheroes living in a wannabe gotham city who are ridiculed by their fellow citizens and villains because of their clumsiness and failure to save they day and capture the bad guy the fact is these pathetic losers are not needed because their city already has a successful superhero captain amazing who has recently captured every in the city captain amazing played terribly by an uninspired greg kinnear because of his success in the past is worried that he will lose popularity after freeing one of the most notorious bad guys in the city geoffrey rush overacting just a bit too much to keep himself busy things get out of hand when captain amazing is captured it is up to the wannabe superheroes to save the day by the time this section of the plot is finished the interest for what happens if you haven't already figured it out is very low there are very few scenes which catch the viewers complete attention the first scene in the film which shows the wannabes trying to save the day feels like it was seriously edited down right when it was beginning to become slightly funny seeing these actors get humiliated at an old folk's home by some masked goons captain amazing comes in and saves the day or ruins the movie instead of editing this scene more editing should have been done in areas such as the unnecessary romance between mr furious ben stiller and monica a waitress claire forlani or the vast majority of the film which is the heroes talking at a coffee table about how their day was a simple rule more silly action is needed in order to make a silly action movie work another major problem with mystery men is that every actor in it seemed very uncomfortable and consequently gave terrible performances the film depended on its cast to work fluently together like a bunch of old friends working together in an amiable reunion however most characters seemed like they did not even want to be in this film or at least the script made it seem this way to pull one of the actors in this film randomly out of a hat paul reubens who disappeared from acting to everyone's joy returns here leaving very little to be impressed about as a wannabe who uses flatulence for a weapon all of his jokes must therefore be fart jokes fart jokes that have all been heard before and will inevitably be heard again in future films thanks to the success of american pie and there's something about mary mystery men drags on towards the end to a point where anything else in the world is more entertaining anyone with a brain knows each one of the heroes is going to be successful at their talent in the end and each one is going to contribute in a helpful way so why continue to watch this film is far from a worthy guilty pleasure mystery men indeed does this and every time a character succeeds another one congratulates him and says i knew you could do it mystery men fails in every category it attempts to pass what makes this film so bad is that it had the potential to be wonderful and unforgettable terrible acting terrible script and a terrible waste of time changes opinions about all of these actors i'm unpredictable an overexcited ben stiller shouts out no ben you're the complete opposite
negative	in my review of the spy who shagged me i postulated an unbreakable law of film physics every time a sequel is as good as or better than the previous film in the series it is followed by a third movie that is a bore the cause is probably complacency a studio sighs with relief when part lives up to expectations and figures part is a sure thing scream provides the latest proof of this rule in los angeles production has begun on stab return to woodsboro the most recent installment in the series of movies inspired by the murders surrounding sidney prescott neve campbell however life soon starts imitating art and stab cast members turn up stabbed smelling yet another book deal gale weathers courteney cox arquette comes to the set to investigate and finds her dewey riley david arquette acting as a technical consultant and getting chummy with jennifer parker posey the actress playing gale in stab elsewhere our heroine sidney is living in hiding under an assumed name   until she gets a phone call from a familiar evil voice the late randy meeks jamie kennedy makes a surprise guest appearance via video to explain the rules of a trilogy he notes the third chapter in a trilogy has an overabundance of exposition and a huge backstory to contend with indeed scream tries to link its murders back to the one that started it all the murder of sidney's mother maureen before the beginning of the original scream at the scene of each murder in scream the killer leaves a photo of sidney's mother maureen as a teenager in hollywood and even includes a note claiming to be her real killer to find out who the killer is our intrepid investigators have to uncover what happened during maureen's missing years when she was a starlet appearing in horror films even with that little information you can probably already guess what the killer's relationship to sidney is unlike its predecessors scream doesn't have the guts to even suggest that the central characters might be the killer the characters we do suspect are all undeveloped so that by the end we don't even care who the killer is the jaded detective patrick dempsey the kinky producer lance henriksen the driven young director scott foley the ingenue emily mortimer the character who turns out to be the killer seems to be selected at random wes craven supposedly filmed three different endings to keep the real one a secret so it's quite possible the one in the final cut was randomly chosen the series' trademark references to other horror films have become trite and obvious possibly it's the absence of screenwriter kevin williamson who penned the first two or maybe it's that the hip ironic stance eventually consumes itself and a series that parodies film cliches eventually becomes a cliche i groaned as an attack on sidney from the first scream was repeated in the hollywood set of her home at some point referencing becomes just a means to cover up a poverty of new ideas scream also continues the tradition of having an eclectic set of cameos and familiar faces in small roles look for jenny mccarthy carrie fisher patrick warburton puddy from seinfeld roger corman and jason mewes and kevin smith as jay and silent bob to walk through at some point all these bit players put forth more effort than the series' returning stars who are probably saving their energy for the long scream job search another prediction i made in a previous review has come to pass more movies are copying the blair witch project web strategy scream has three official websites that wink wink pretend that the events of the movie are real and provide additional backstory information not covered in the movie the sunrise studios site com has trailers for other sunrise releases as well as the latest news there's also a gail weathers official site galeweathers com and a sunrise sucks site that has more stab scandals the studio wants to cover up sunrisesucks com craven and company promise that this is the last installment in the scream series while i hope that's true i don't hold out much movie series are even harder to kill than their monsters there's a halloween in the works even though michael myers was beheaded in and a freddy vs jason has been talked about for awhile despite the fact that both characters were killed off there's bound to be a scream someday even if it starts over with a new set of wannabes bottom line they should have called this one yawn
negative	i want to be involved in show business one day and i refuse to do any sequels to any movie i may make because i believe they only get worse this movie proves it for me i was a little worried about the last batman film as i thought joel schumaccer taking over from tim burton would screw it up i also assumed val kilmer would screw up as bruce wayne they didn't kilmer did a good job and the cast was left to carry the movie which they did even jim carrey as the riddler and i can't stand jim carrey because schumaccer messed up the direction with his glitzy gotham and his awkward camera angles this film is different the cast is still impressive but here not only does schumaccer mess up with the direction he's one of those directors who's good with actors terrible with camera angles but writer akiva goldsmith doesn't really give an impressive cast anything to do the cast is impressive clooney is a surprisingly good o'donnell is a crafty robin as usual they could've casted somebody better as batgirl my friend likes neve campbell but silverstone is not bad and thurman is a good poison ivy the major problem is schwarzenegger who is a terrible freeze his accent is so heavy you can't understand what he says and the trouble with action stars like him is they cannot act and they know it but they figure that if they flex their muscles say a limited amount of stuff and kill a bunch of guys then they figure nobody'll notice that's the trouble with me i notice schwarzenegger does not deserve billing over clooney or as much money as he got for this but hollywood thinks he does patrick stewart was the person i'd heard that was considered to play freeze and he would've been so much better or sean connery but not arnold i'm not an actor but i play one in real life schwarzenegger i realize that you must be a star to play a major role in a batman film but it would've been nice if they'd casted a star that had talent for the role akiva goldsmith's screenplay avoids some stuff that happens in a normal batman film in a regular batman film they'd concentrate on the relationship with the girlfriend a little more but elle macpherson's julie madison is so limited here that we never get a real sense of who she is there is talk of a fifth batman movie my interest to see it is low but i hope it's better than this if you don't want to waste your time rent any of the other batman movies from blockbuster any other
negative	for a movie with such deep religious and spiritual undertones it is surprising to find the messenger the story of joan of arc such an ungodly mess in the early to mid there was little in the way of spiritual light to be found shining from the heart of a man or woman the church was a dismally dark and oppressive place france was involved in the hundred years war against england there was no strong political leadership in the country morale was low there being little hope for the future it was within this setting that a young french girl began hearing voices and seeing visions convinced that these were messages from god she brazenly demanded to see the dauphin in order to deliver the message directly to him the message if he would give her an army to command she would deliver to him the crown he does and she does then once seated on the throne he abandons her to her english captors director luc besson the fifth element may have the script but he never appeared to have a proper handle on the material the inconsistencies of the cast the confusing blur of the violent battle scenes the inappropriate musical score and the lack of a vibrant life force at the center of the film adds up to a largely disappointing end product which is oftentimes unintentionally laughable his biggest miscue was to cast his wife milla jovovich the fifth element in the title role ms jovovich looks spectacular as joan clad in battle armor astride a similarly protected horse if looks were enough to fully convey a character she would have been brilliant since it isn't she tried and failed to act the part her joan is unbalanced inspiring the troops merely by screaming stridently and waving her banner or sword over her head like a woman possessed john malkovich being john malkovich fares a bit better as the dauphin who joan would see on the throne as charles vii an easily manipulated man his weakness of character foreshadows the betrayal of joan which would lead to her death faye dunaway the thomas crown affair gives a strong performance in minimal screen time as the dauphin's and chief advisor the army under joan's command are comprised of comical figures more stooges than soldiers the one exception would be tcheky karyo la femme nikita as dunois the man who was leading the attack prior to joan's arrival trying to plan a systematic campaign he sees his leadership authority negated by joan's insistence on following her visions dustin hoffman sphere has a small inhuman role as joan's conscience which begins speaking to her while awaiting trial dressed like cloaked monk he leads her to doubt herself and her revelations as well she should scriptures do speak of revelation god via his gift of holy spirit is able to communicate to men three of the nine manifestations of holy spirit listed in corinthians deal with receiving revelation they are word of knowledge word of wisdom and discerning of spirits even the scriptures themselves are a result of god giving revelation to his holy men who spake as they were moved by holy spirit i e by revelation but the scriptures also caution us beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of god because many false prophets are gone out into the world john joan's end being burned at the stake at the age of the frenzy mob rule and blood lust her inspiration wrought and the death pain or suffering which followed her campaign all point to a devilish influence rather than a godly one while her conviction and intense believing remains an admirable quality she was as others have been before and since misled by the spiritual master of deception as a messenger she was quite effective she was just confused as to whose message she was carrying
negative	possibly the years the most anticipated film and finally it arrives here in the uk it smashed u s box office office records in it's opening weekend and will no doubt do the same here but is it any good in a word no i'll elaborate further the story is as follows apparently there were two islands with dinosaurs on one where the dinos lived untouched by mankind and the other a tourist attraction which failed before it even opened see jurrasic park imgen the company that funded jurrasic park want to reccover their losses by taking more dinos off the other island and move them to a new attraction in san diago realizing what a bad idea this is proffessor john hammond richard attenborough decides to send a team to document the dinosaurs so as to rally public support to preserve the island enter familiar mumbling man jeff goldblum who only agrees to go when told his girlfriend is already there so basically what you have is this two teams one sent to catch and move some dinosaurs to the mainland and the other trying to document them being forced to work together fighting for survival against the dinosaurs' firm intentions on eating them a fairly good idea however it's let down by one slight problem it's crap over two hours of chase scenes gets way too boring way too quiclky add to this a terrible script and some feeble attempts at some occasional characterisation and you end up very disinterested it becomes background noise while your mind starts concentrating on things like for tea and you cut the lawn later yes you should it's a shame then really that spielberg has lowered himself into making what essentially is a blatant cash in which adds practically nothing to the far superior jurrasic park with only a few creative and genuinely tense scenes and fabulous c g i dinosaurs the t rex's have to be seen to be believed there is nothing else to recommend the lost world a very dissapointing sequel indeed
negative	holy man boasts a sweet gentle comic performance from an unusually subdued eddie murphy and a few moderately funny skits unfortunately to get to the good stuff you have to sit through a painfully long loads of tedious filler interminable shots of jeff goldblum stammering and twitching a superfluous romantic subplot and quite possibly the most annoying performance of robert loggia's career if ever a movie screamed wait for video so you can through all the dull and annoying parts this is it eddie murphy plays g a robed nomadic pilgrim wandering the land enjoying the moment and spreading his spiritual message a chance meeting with ricky hayman goldblum a executive of a channel and kate newell kelly preston a media analyst results in physical injury to g quicker than you can say the odd couple g ends up rooming with an extremely leery ricky after some script gymnastics g appears live on the air at the good buy shopping network wreaking havoc on the cheesy product demonstrations enraging network owner mr mcbainbridge loggia and becoming a national media sensation holy man attempts to be several things at once it tries to satirize home shopping networks but it's difficult to effectively make fun of something that is already a the film attempts to teach us that collecting material possessions is merely a futile attempt to fill the spiritual holes in our hearts but that's common knowledge already holy man also tries to present a story of redemption as ricky hayman tries to decide whether to exploit g's good will to achieve financial security or do the right thing at the expense of his career anyone want to place a wager on his final decision the one genuine asset in holy man is eddie murphy who gives a charming performance sharing love good will and relevant advice to all those around him while beaming his million dollar smile at just the right moments murphy is delightful and the film takes off whenever he's onscreen unfortunately he's not onscreen enough jeff goldblum gets the lion's share of screen time and his tired storyline weighs the proceedings down as his potential love interest kelly preston tries to brighten things up but she transforms from an media shark to an empathic softy far too quickly and the abrupt change reeks of contrivance the other principal actor robert loggia wastes his talents in a turn as a ruthless screaming monster structurally unsound and way too long holy man is appealing when murphy is onscreen and dull when he isn't instead of dropping your money at the theater for this trifle wait until it hits video and past everything except the murphy scenes g suggests that we focus on enjoying the moment and that's the best way to do so
negative	it's actually not so bad that dreamworks decided to release the love letter at about the same time as star wars episode i the phantom menace because this way less people will have to sit through this dreadful little comedy and no i really don't feel guilty about wishing this movie death at the really i don't not at all the plot has been done before a mysterious unaddressed love letter shows up in a small town causing confusion for everyone who reads it the center of the ensuing disaster is bookstore owner helen kate capshaw and by the way what is it with bookstore owner main characters in the past year and a half we've seen them in life is beautiful you've got mail this movie and the upcoming notting hill who finds the letter in between couch cushions in the bookstore she immediately starts testing other people to see who it might be from and comes to the incorrect conclusion that the author of the note is a young employee played by tom everett scott he reading the letter himself assumes that she wrote it for him after a while they fall in love well duh kate feels guilty about getting in a relationship with someone more than twenty years younger than her and she also feels guilty because at the same time she is also involved with the town fireman tom selleck to add to her turmoil her mother shows up blythe danner who apparently must have had her daughter when she was about and her trusted bookstore manager deadpan ellen degeneres quits supporting characters aren't called supporting for nothing their purpose isn't just to move the plot along they're also supposed to give the storyline a backbone to do this they must exhibit at least marginal depth and must also be interesting rarely can a movie work if it puts an interesting protagonist in the middle and surrounds her with hackneyed dull cardboard secondary characters especially when at the core of the movie is the protagonist's various interactions with them this is the love letter's damning error capshaw's character is as good as i have seen present in recent romantic comedies but the people that surround her are all either underwritten or purely because of that the love letter is awkward and insincere even worse it's a bore i liked capshaw and her helen but everyone else is painfully fake undermining the little drama or sexual tension that has the potential to exist there is nothing particularly hilarious about all this either and besides degeneres' wisecracks there's little that is even a little amusing this is not a completely thoughtless film and director peter chan does a good job of portraying helen's yearnings and various subtle complexities but it's far from profound there isn't a common theme running through the proceedings thus the movie seems thoughtfully pointless really this is a harmless little movie it's far from an abomination and it's not torturous to sit through but bad it is awful it also is the love letter is a failure and an inane failure at that eugene
negative	surrounded by hype high hopes and the promise of an performance by clueless's brittany murphy don't say a word looked full of promise hell when i hear that i'll never tell whisper on the tv commercial goose bumps run up my spine alas word is filled with little but disappointment a kooky mix of girl interrupted and ransom with michael douglas and company collecting a paycheck to plod through a vapid and dull kidnapping thriller douglas stars as nathan conrad renowned new york psychologist devoted father of jessie conrad skye mccole bartusiak and loving husband to aggie conrad famke janssen after a gang of jewel thieves headed by sean bean's koster kidnaps his daughter nathan is forced to extract from his new patient the catatonic and violent elisabeth burrows murphy the location of some hidden bank job booty that her father hid from the koster gang a decade ago but with detective sandra cassidy jennifer esposito doing her best j lo impression tracking down koster and his gang of hoodlums the stakes are raised as nathan races against the clock to crack the mystery of elisabeth's head in order to get the goods inside the catch nathan only has until five o'clock to solve the puzzle whoa the suspense is almost too much don't say a word loses the audience inside of minutes murphy looks and acts like linda blair from the exorcist during the first part of the movie then turns around and reprises like her role from girl interrupted and the only real crazy to be found in the film is director gary fleder's things to do in denver when you're dead staggering use of flashback sequences oliver platt famke janssen and even sean bean are decent actors but the stuff they are given here such as a bedridden wife fighting off the token black guy with her crutch is insulting and demeaning additionally the use of the surveillance cameras and laptops to track nathan's every move is downright unbelievable how do fresh out of the big house afford all this equipment despite its flaws don't say a word is surprisingly some of the best mainstream film you'll find this month and audiences will lap it up americans love lukewarm thrillers starring big names and accompanied by cheap thrills someone get me my lithium
negative	some concepts seem patently hopeless from the beginning a version of mr magoo being a prime example the cartoon figure mr magoo the bumbling blind man can be quite funny but only in small doses and only within the confines of animated images if you think naked gun star leslie nielsen is a dubious choice to play the role of the short guy who runs into walls you are right but there is an even more astonishing selection for a director they tapped hong kong's stanley tong whose resume consists mainly of a handful of movies featuring martial arts expert jackie chan the story such that there is one is about a large stolen ruby which looks a woolworth reject mr magoo gets it and of course does not realize he has it mayhem then ensues as the bad and the good guys chase each other with mr magoo frequently oblivious to the fact that anyone is being chased like home alone but without any class mr magoo can only be described as painfully bad fifteen minutes of it feels like an eternity the movie's humor is pathetically lame and the pacing is way off when one is stuck in a theater for an hour and a half watching what claims to be a motion picture one looks for some solace mr magoo provides only three such moments the movie begins and ends with the classic cartoon version of the character who exudes his usual charm the only other saving grave in the movie itself is angus the sweet little bulldog angus demonstrates more genuine emotions and a wider acting range than any of the humans in the picture finally the ending credits contain outtakes of the movie which have some of the genuineness and spontaneity that the movie badly lacked rather than attempt to adapt mr magoo to a movie nielsen makes the strategic mistake of trying to literally be a human version of the cartoon he has trouble sustaining the squinting eyes and the affected voice and even when he does it comes off as awkwardly unfunny my wife managed to get some sleep during the movie but i was not so lucky hopefully this picture will force producers to think harder about which subjects have promise and which do not mr magoo runs it is rated pg for comic violence and would be acceptable for all ages my son jeffrey age said he thought the movie was good and really funny but recommends you not choose it if you want an action movie he said he liked home alone much more his friend maxim age said that he thought it was good but very silly and parts did not make sense his other friend nickolas age said he'd give the movie but that it was really silly
negative	breakdown is an moderately entertaining if underwhelming thriller kurt russell and kathleen quinlan play couple jeff and amy taylor taking the scenic route to california through redneck country however while in the middle of nowhere their jeep decides to break down leaving them stranded a friendly truck driver warren walsh offers to give them a lift to town although jeff rejects the offer he wants to stay with his car amy agrees hops into warren's lorry and promptly disappears jeff wonders where the hell she is and when he later catches up with warren and warren says he has never seen amy in his life the plot thickens and jeff goes on a chase to find his wife although comparisons can be made with this film to deliverance and the vanishing plot wise the latter two are far superior character and script wise kurt russell is o k as jeff although he can seemingly only pull of one expression which is angry throughout the whole film he looks angry or just pissed off quinlan is o k again but again she can only pull off one expression which is looking dorky throughout the whole film she looks dorky j t walsh who sadly recently passed away is fine as warren who we soon find out is a kidnapper although his actual character is pretty weak and not really menacing enough the supporting cast do their best aswell with rex linn as a doubting sheriff and the other kidnappers the story written by jonathan mostow who also directs is o k if surprisingly familiar and sometimes extraordinarily stupid some of the things the characters do in this movie is beyond the bounds of idiocy there are some flaws with the plot also as the characters do the complete opposite to logical presumably to keep the story and also the fact that the story just isn't strong enough to sustain the audience's attention the picture moves along very slowly also it almost threatens to drop dead the picture does pick up towards the end but by then it's too late mostow directs the action sequences well enough however the film doesn't really come to a satisfying conclusion either the ending tries to be bleak but just comes off annoying breakdown could of been a far more enjoyable picture had it had a stronger cast and director instead it just turns out to be merely average a missed opportunity overall review by david wilcock
negative	ugh that about sums this movie up just ugh the original godzilla movies are somewhat of a cult classic and when reviewing the previous films each film had a certain degree of intelligence and that was the reason they found such an enviable cult following in spite of bad special effects horrible dubbing and a man in a lizard suit they maintained a certain degree of how to put this dignity not quite the word i'm looking for you understand right and in years godzilla has maintained that degree of leave it to america to screw the whole thing up the that brought us independece day arguably the worst movie of all time to ruin whatever reputation godzilla had while they do bring us special effects that will amaze you they lost what was at the center of all the original godzilla movies a storyline summing up the movie is simple heck i can do it in one sentence giant lizard attacks a giant city and a bunch of nobodies stop it simple as that matthew broderick stumbles over his lines and it's hard to picture hank azaria in any role besides his classic character on the television show mad about you the dialogue seems to be improvized almost as if there was no rehearsel done at all i can see the scene on the set right now all right we spent all of this money making big special effects and we've gotta get this movie out by summer or it's going to bomb in our faces so you actors just say what ever comes to the top of your head all right make up something m'kay good roll film the special effects are enough to keep you interested through one viewing and some of the cinemtography is the scene with the black umbrellas comes to mind still an hour into it you will become antsy wondering how long they can drag it out and drag it out they do i have to laugh the slogan for the film is size does matter i think they cut this too short it should read size does matter acting does not
negative	ripe with explosions mass death and really weird hairdos tsui hark's double team must be the result of a tipsy hollywood power lunch that decided van damme needs another notch on his bad and nba superstar dennis rodman should have an acting career actually in double team neither's performance is all that bad i've always been the one critic to defend van damme he possesses a high charisma level that some genre stars namely steven seagal never aim for it's just that he's never made a movie so exuberantly witty since timecop and rodman well he's pretty much rodman he's extremely colorful and therefore he pretty much fits his role to a t even if the role is that of an weapons expert it's the story that needs some major work van damme plays operative jack quinn who teams up with arms dealer yaz rodman to rub out deadly gangster stavros mickey rourke all beefy and in an antwerp amusement park the job is botched when stavros' son gets killed in the gunfire and quinn is taken off to an island known as the colony a think tank for soldiers too valuable to kill but too dangerous to set free quinn escapes and tries to make it back home to his pregnant wife natacha lindinger but stavros is out for revenge and kidnaps her so what's a kickboxing mercenary to do quinn looks up yaz and the two travel to rome so they can rescue the woman kill stavros save the world and do whatever else the screenplay requires them to do with crazy often camera work by peter pau and rodman's lite brite locks double team should be a mildly enjoyable guilty pleasure but too much tries to happen in each frame and the result is a movie that leaves you exhausted rather than exhilarated the numerous action scenes are loud and and the frenetic pacing never slows down enough for us to care about what's going on in the movie and much of what's going on is just wacky there's a whole segment devoted to monks that i have yet to figure out and the climax finds quinn going with a tiger in the roman coliseum while yaz circles them on a motorcycle trying to avoid running over land mines and hold on to quinn's baby boy who's in a bomb equipped basket all this while stavros watches shirtless from the bleachers did i mention double team is strange when it all comes down this is just another rarely entertaining formula killathon albeit one that feels no need to indulge in gratuitous profanity rodman juices things up with his blatantly vibrant screen persona though leading up to a stunt where he kicks an opponent between the legs but we didn't need double team to tell us he could do that did we
negative	synopsis a man whose lover paris was murdered agrees to test out an experimental virtual reality home unit system the subject escapes from the real world and his current girlfriend laura and becomes addicted to virtual reality which due to a design flaw in his unit recreates the dead paris comments virtual seduction executive produced by roger corman and lance h robbins serves as a precursor to strange days a far superior film both movies deal with desperate men who have trouble relating to their current lovers because they are ab using technology to be with former lovers in strange days the technology utilized recorded dreams rather than virtual reality interestingly both films also take place a couple of years from now during the turn of the new millenium though strange days uses the setting far more effectively this exemplifies the problem with virtual seduction it's not bad for what it is science fiction concerning the psychological dangers of virtual reality unfortunately it's been done before and since in much better films a fact which ultimately leaves the fan bored by this movie virtual seduction has many faults one of them is the fact that the video inexplicably has its own trailer before it begins the film's script explores the possibilities of virtual reality interestingly at first but its treatment of the subject matter gets and wooden as the movie progresses many important scenes seem too dark the lighting could have been improved significantly the cast a collection of veteran actors and sitcom regulars do only a mediocre job in their roles jeff fahey of the original lawnmower man convincingly though unenergetically plays the lead character carrie genzel plays paris the vr lover but ami dolenz as the current love interest seems like a much more interesting and attractive character with a caring personality which doesn't lend credence to the film's premise meschach taylor of the once popular designing women sitcom adequately plays a scientist working on the project but his performance isn't something to write home about either virtual seduction is one of those harmless movies to which you could do some light manual labor and not mind having it on in the background in other words one could fold laundry while glancing up at it every now and then but it's rather boring to just sit and watch the movie is surprisingly not as violent as one expects from in this genre but it is still an adult film due to sexual situations and a suicide attempt this turkey ultimately isn't awful but it's not particularly interesting or unique either don't be seduced into watching this movie unless you've got several loads of laundry and nothing else to watch
negative	yeah yeah the advertisements didn't even try to conceal the fact that this movie had only one hook sex neve campbell and starship trooper's denise richards getting it on ok yeah it's a decent two minutes of film erotica but even if that's your main interest in this film there's plenty of cheeziness to sit thru in exchange for those two minutes wild things does have a lot more to think about than you might expect however nearly every single scene is a huge plot twist guaranteed to leave you guessing or at least curious to see the next turn throughout the entire movie but this turning of events doesn't leave much time to enjoy the surprises we start off in a california high school where every student resembles a supermodel in the making guidance counselor sam lombardo matt dillon seems to catch the eye of every student particularly kelly van ryan richards daughter of the locally prestigious family whose social status is about as high as their bank accounts right off the bat kelly is using every asset she has in an effort to seduce mr lombardo the car wash seems the opportune time particularly when you wash your guidance counselor's jeep in all white clothes and take plenty of precautions to insure you'll be soaked from head to toe when you're done on the weekend of the car wash kelly's attempts at seduction fall flat and when they do she concocts the tale that sam in fact raped her that day naturally sam is thrown into a state of panicked shock at these accusations but the otherwise unsubstantial fabrications soon lead to a criminal trial when a marijuana smoking student by the name of suzie toller campbell comes forth with a near identical story also involving her trusted guidance counselor pitting himself against the communities most respected names and authoritarians sam must prove his innocence thru the aid of his makeshift defense attorney ken bowden played by bill murray yes that bill murray sound like a good complete movie yes that alone could have been but this is just the beginning in fact the trial is over about fifteen or twenty minutes into the film it is merely used to launch the most twisted story of recent time by the time the movie finishes you will have gone thru every plot twist imaginable unfortunately with so much going on you're not given enough time in one predicament to be as effectively shocked when a new twist comes about this is just one way director john mcnaughton fails to make this movie as fun as it could've been the minutes fly by and although it never feels underdeveloped this pretzel of storytelling could've been much more richly realized had a slower pace been taken the acting is incredibly reminiscent of fox soap operas which no is not a good thing and it's not just campbell who happens to hail from the fox soap party of five but everyone suffers from heavily melodramatic overtones dillon who was so charming in his understated role in last year's in out gives the best performance and murray's surprising appearance adds some comedic flare to the film in fact if the whole movie had been promoted as a subtle comedy even if it was the exact same film i would actually give it a better grade that's how cheezy it comes off but aside from these two the rest offer nothing more than some good in the right hands wild things could've been a wickedly delightful scrumptiously twisted thriller but instead we get juvenile overuses of profanity and some very laughable displays of acting and what's up with these people passing as high school students i realize hollywood often casts older actors to play teenage roles but when i realized it wasn't supposed to be a college they were at i had to snicker i won't lie this is definitely a guilty pleasure as corny as it is it's got some interesting aspects and could deserve at least a b for effort but if you just want to admire denise richards go for last year's starship troopers which was every bit as campy but a million times better of course if seeing her breasts is your most important goal you'll be right at home with wild things perhaps the wildest thing of all is that somebody actually looked at this and thought it deserved to be in theaters
negative	i was recently told that in china their had been strong protests against the release of red corner and this is apparently because of the way it shows the injustice of many chinese laws but if you ask me the real truth of the matter is that the chinese critics association were determined not to punish the population into viewing richard gere running across rooftops in search for a fellow american or more the point anyone that allows him to bask in his own presence this is not an insult to gere as i consider him to be a rather talented actor but more the choice of character and responsibility of his role if a film is solely about one person the main actor must give a faultless performance in order for it to really work although performance is in no way poorly acted it is far from perfect and i look forward to seeing him star with other talented actors that can reduce the need for him to carry a film by himself this is where he truly belongs and if you are reluctant to believe me than look no further that primal fear with the sensational edward norton the jackal with bruce willis and pretty woman with the delightful julia roberts in red corner gere plays classy lawyer jack moore who is guilty of the same personality traits as his character martin vail in primal fear bold and up front who thinks he is three steps ahead of everybody else but is actually two steps behind it is with invulnerability of both mental and physical kind that the character of moore is portrayed which left me barracking for the chinese to haul his sorry ass into jail it take long from the beginning for jack charm to work on a pretty chinese lady and in no time they are in bed together in a hotel room drunk and cheerful yet instead of a hangover poor jack finds himself covered in blood and the chinese chick dead on a couch he is arrested and hauled into a chinese prison his cell food and rights all terrible now trapped in a foreign land without adequate aid from the american embassy lawyer shen yuelin bai ling defends his case by initially pleading guilty to the charge of murder jack and shen argue about their countries different laws shen stating that will shoot you in the back and charge the cost of the bullet to your family as the plot thickens scenes get progressively more ridiculous ranging from richard gere running over rooftops in search of the us embassy to a scooby doo ending where the least expected criminal is discovered red corner is one of those films where you sneer laugh or vomit way through all of its minutes what should have been a politically taunt thriller is little more than a pointless expedition to see how stressed out richard gere can act this is not to say that the film does not have its moments there are some tense court room scenes that are shrewdly created telling the tale of foreign injustice and government corruption but what they amount to spoils the effect of having them in the first place perhaps this is why red corner is so frustrating to watch if you look at the films overall concept fairly broadly the basic idea is quite tangible it is upon the execution where the diminutive plot twists and developments fail to impress or innovate the evidence that goes missing the high powered officials shielding the truth and intolerable love angles have all been done so many times before if that bad enough red dialogue is purely laughable on many occasions shen yuelin attempts to gain sympathy by reciting renaissance of a destitute relationship with her deceased father whilst jack moore is eager to talk about chinese musical instruments when he could have been working on a plan to free himself taking itself far too seriously red corner is not half the film it intends to be although it would have benefited from the help of a more valuable supporting cast the main fault is in the bizarre and often out of place way of unfolding a story which that meritorious anyway whilst richard gere still proves that has what it takes to be known as a decent actor i would think twice before going to see him attempt to manage such a serious yet hollow drama again martin are you
negative	not so long ago men by the names of peckinpah ford leone and eastwood made westerns real westerns these were some of the best films of the twentieth century those days are gone now we have crap like wild wild west to pass for the western and that record is not improved with the unbearable tale of american outlaws outlaws is yet another of the jesse james legend courtesy of king james g robinson producer of such classics as wrongfully accused and chill factor delayed since the spring this version stars the irish hunka hunka burning love colin farrell the best part of schumacher's tigerland as the jesse james alas any sense of his character has been left on the ranch leaving us with only cute chicks like ali larter minus the whipped cream to watch the spin this time around fresh from serving as southern militiamen in the civil war jesse james farrell his brother frank gabriel macht and his pal cole younger scott caan lay down their arms and head home to missouri to tend the family farms after the war has ended but trouble is brewing in their small town of liberty when evil railroad baron thaddeus rains harris yulin and his cronies rollin parker terry o'quinn and allan pinkerton timothy dalton demand the boys turn over their lands to the railroads the jameses and the youngers then join forces to fight the railroad by robbing banks up and down missouri thus cutting off the railroad's financial surplus and playing robin hood to the local people along the way the boys squabble over who's the cutest of the gang who's the most popular cowboy in the gang and who ought to go on mtv's total request live they rob numerous banks with identical interiors always with the kindest of hearts strutting in their grungy dusters as moby songs play in the background the witty banter they share could be plastered within a hallmark card the biggest disappointment here lies in the acting of colin farrell after a great job in tigerland farrell walks through this role easier then nicolas cage in gone in seconds and his american accent rivals richard gere's irish accent in the jackal combined with feeling like bonanza the teen years this homogenized production toned down to get the rating gives us an invincible jesse james that quickly grows tiresome and boring the unbearable villains courtesy of timothy dalton and thaddeus rains spend the entire film proclaiming that everyone should be hanged sucking out any energy left in the film not to mention the real story of jesse james and his gang bears no resemblance to the plot of american outlaws instead the movie is full of old outrageous tales about the wild west tales which went out of style in magazines about a century ago
negative	actually i'm fairly sure the experience of having my flesh torn and mutilated by barbed wire would have been more positive than watching this movie baywatch babe pamela anderson lee proves once and for all that she should keep her on the small screen at least there you don't have to pay to see her cleavage and for those viewers out there who would only lay down money for this movie in hopes of seeing pam topless hate to burst your bubble but there are no nude scenes in barb wire you wouldn't be reading this review right now if i had known that fact going in i can't go back in time and reverse my mistake but i can warn other horny teenage boys out there they do tease us a few times with scenes where you almost see her topless but if she is nude it's so quick you can't even tell for sure whether you're seeing her andersons or not a nipple hallucination sort of thing barb wire was adapted from a comic book interesting because pamela is probably the only woman who looks like a comic book character in real life even wearing leather to do office work businesswoman bondage wear and having unreal body proportions yes like the mona lisa pamela anderson is a beauty probably in more senses than one she is a definite beauty though and looking at her is never an unpleasant experience you'd just think the woman who began her career as a playboy playmate wouldn't have any reservations about appearing nude in the movie because it's obvious she wasn't pulling a sharon stone and trying to make people pay attention to her acting skills i mean she shows off more cleavage here than a jeweler's convention the movie is set in the year the worst year of my life pam says the worst movie of the year i say america is going through a second civil war and pamela is a nightclub owner in the only free city in the nation silicone valley i think she also hires herself out as a bounty hunter when the price is right posing as first a stripper and later as a prostitute but don't call her babe she hates that and reminds us of that fact way too many times imagine a woman who does a trapeze strip tease in a bar while having a hose sprayed on her being referred to in such a sexist demeaning term a liberated woman like pamela anderson shouldn't have to hear words like babe during a strip tease especially since that movie about the talking pig was such a success the plot revolves around a pair of contact lenses that allow their wearer to pass through the congressional directorate's retina scanners in the words of one of the characters they're more than meets the eye reminds me of the transformers cartoon and i sure wished the movie could somehow be transformed into something decent but that never happened no the movie just continued on its path of lame action scenes starring pamela kickboxer and her resistance accomplices axel tamuera morrison and cora victoria rowell thank god they didn't name her cora reef one bad character name is more than enough pamela originally doesn't take sides giving some speech about she's only loyal to the money they pay her but she changes her mind once the congressional bastards kill her blind brother jack noseworthy of bon jovi always video fame i still don't know if barb wire is a step up or step down for noseworthy but he definitely is nose worthy even if he isn't sponge worthy pam gets ready to avenge his death by grabbing up an armful of weapons and strapping an ammunitions belt to her chest it's not rambo it's bimbo mark my words barb wire will be all over the cinemax network in a year it's got all the elements of the releases featured on hbo's bastard cousin the cable channel i'd never watch if it didn't somehow come free it's got the scenes of voyeurism laughable flashbacks bad dialogue and action cliches out the wazzoo there's even a narrator at the beginning setting up the movie's premise while the words scroll up the screen someone needs to tell pamela the wookie this ain't star wars if you've seen any action flick of the past fifteen years you'll recognize plenty of lifted elements barb wire has the obligatory trucks flipping over car crashes explosions broken glass and shots of bodies falling hundreds of feet to their death this is one of those movies anyone could write or direct barb wire has only two things going for it and i think you know what those two things are
negative	part buddy comedy part story part nature tale meet the deedles is not nearly as interesting as any of those archetypes in fact it is an invitation you ought to disregard phil and stew deedle paul walker and steve van wormer are the twin sons of the famous millionaire elton deedle eric braeden founder of deedle enterprises elton wants his sons to be the perfect heirs to his fortune instead the two are careless hawaiian surf bums to set them straight he enrolls them into a strict wyoming boot camp to which the pair inevitably go after several misadventures in wyoming where the duo is stunned to discover there's no surf the brothers deedle stumble upon a routine mistaken identity plot they arrive at yellowstone national park where they are believed to be two new park ranger recruits rather than slinking back home and disappointing their dad the deedles play along phil actually has other motives the beautiful park ranger jesse a j langer who unfortunately happens to be the beloved stepdaughter of the overprotective park ranger captain douglas pine john ashton yellowstone has a problem it's only a week before the famous geyser old faithful celebrates its one billionth birthday and the park is being overrun with prairie dogs not just one or two thousands of them the deedles are assigned to eliminate the p dog menace not knowing that it all is part of a fiendish plan by disgraced former head ranger frank slater dennis hopper the brothers deedle aren't supposed to be stupid like the team from dumb and dumber or bill and ted instead their brains just operate in a different simpler realm a more accurate comparison would be with carrot top in chairman of the board a film which unfortunately this one resembles in several hideous ways the central problem with meet the deedles is that it simply just isn't funny there's a moment when phil utters the line insert laugh here which nearly sums up the entire meet the deedles experience the result isn't bad in a type of way instead it's merely bad in an excruciatingly boring sort of way the cast seems decent but they're never asked to do anything remotely interesting instead the film inundates the audience with countless shots of people cars rolling downhill in the forest and with constant annoying references to other disney films you'll have much better luck finding a good spot to surf in wyoming than finding entertainment in meet the deedles
negative	adam sandler isn't known for appearing in deep films but he's still a really funny guy most of his movies are successful not because of the film making behind them but because they let sandler do what he does best without a stupid plot to drown him out big daddy is the first film in which the story seems more important than sandler's comic performance and it's a miserable failure sandler plays a loser who gets attached to an orphaned young boy played by cole and dylan sprouse as one might expect from the synopsis director dennis dugan resorts to the usual bag of manipulative and sentimental sequences including a repulsive courtroom battle and a lot of teary scenes in which characters say to one another in addition there's a ridiculous amount of disgusting toilet humor urine and vomit both get more screen time than sandler himself there's a hilarious running joke featuring a female doctor who previously worked at hooters and the film features passable performances from sandler joey lauren adams as the love interest and the two young boys but the film on the whole is trite and disappointingly unfunny
negative	at the end of an action scene in lara croft tomb raider a wall collapses near the nubile warrior with her face on the floor she gazes into the rubble then grins abruptly and says oh my car keys i mention this scene because it was the only moment in the whole damned production that made me smile based on an incredibly popular video game lara croft tomb raider is a lousy movie the structure goes like this action sequence boring exposition action sequence boring exposition etc etc the end basically the film exists to showcase angelina jolie's puffy lips and enhanced tits are framed to include her million dollar bazooms running scenes highlight her bouncing breasts in vintage baywatch fashion there's even include a shower scene that offers a brief side view of them but the filmmakers are so inept they can't even flash the audience correctly the one extended display of nudity is of get ready for this a guy for no particular reason a muscular supporting character strolls around naked for about seconds with each shot composed to barely cover his package la austin powers now i enjoy a good looking male body as much as the next gay guy but what the hell is beefcake doing in a flick aimed at heterosexual males of course what else should one expect in a film that does virtually nothing right tomb raider sets up elaborate action set pieces then renders them incomprehensible with needless jump cut editing a promising dual bungee cord battle is ruined by excessive cuts it promises a series of exotic locales then delivers cavernous sets and grimy matte paintings with smoggy skies throw in some bargain basement computer graphics and you end up with the ugliest movie to come down the pike in many moons intended to be a rousing indiana jones style adventure tomb raider lacks any sense of tension the low point comes when lara is threatened by statues of monkey warriors and a giant shiva figure that come to life courtesy of cgi easily the lamest menaces i have ever seen the creatures move like snails and fall apart with a single shot from a gun if you ever have to be chased by monsters pray that you get the monkey warriors tomb raider tells a story sort of once every years the planets align a group of very bad men are out to find two halves of an object that if reassembled just as the planets align will give them control over time itself lara's goal is to stop them and rescue her poppa jon voight jolie's real life dad none of this matters though because stunning gaps in internal logic assure that the plot of lara croft tomb raider is as lame as ever other aspect of the film except angelina jolie's lips and breasts
negative	when robert forster found himself famous again after appearing in jackie brown he immediately signed up for a little film called american perfekt this was almost two years ago i waited patiently for the film to be released but it never was finally i forgot about it the other day though while i was perusing the selection of the local video store i stumbled upon you guessed it american perfekt i immediately rented it and with a certain amount of glee rushed home to view it having now seen the film i understand why it never saw theatrical release american perfekt is a jumbled mess the storyline is it took me half the movie just to figure out what was going on and at that point the only thing i really knew for sure was that the movie was never going to introduce a plot of some sort it wants to get by on quirkyness and charm alone and it just doesn't work robert forster plays a psychiatrist who picks up amanda plummer and they head off on the road together along the way to no discernable destination they run into all sorts of kooky and wacky characters i suppose this no plot style is supposed to give the film an element of danger and excitment but all it did was make me sleepy i'm all for trying new things within the realm of film but not at the expense of coherence nothing in this movie makes sense the actions of the characters go unexplained even when they're truly bizarre i'll give you an example without giving too much away david thewlis has a part as a drifting at one point through the movie he runs forster and plummer off the road with his car as he passes them we see that his face is covered in blood do you think we would get an explanation as to what happened to him you would think so wouldn't you american perfekt is a waste of time nothing is gained from watching this movie except maybe a migraine and if you do rent it don't bother trying to figure out what's going on in the hopes that everything will be resolved by the end this doesn't happen and no explanation is given for the misspelling of perfect either
negative	you'd think that after awhile hollywood would stop trying to make movies out of video games it hasn't worked so far street fighter super mario brothers wing commander mortal kombat not a watchable film in the bunch still i held out some hope for tomb raider after all the game's premise is heavily influenced by the indiana jones trilogy and all the mummy movies so there are cinematic elements imbedded in the concept however despite the potential of the project tomb raider proves to be yet another bomb the plot is a convoluted accumulation of nonsense probably borrowed from a dozen bad movies there's a alignment of planets coming up and the illuminati have to find both halves of an ancient triangle that controls time in order to take over the world of course the ancient folks who divided the triangle buried the halves in tombs on opposite sides of the world our heroine lady lara croft angelina jolie finds the key that opens the tombs in relics that her dead father jon voight dug up she figures that if she gets the triangle she can bring her dad back from the dead of course no one was expecting much of a plot from this movie anyway in both video games and action movies the plot is just an excuse for the action sequences however the action in tomb raider shows little style or originality there's lots of shooting and some kung fu fightin' but none of it progresses beyond the level of a cheap flick the other goofy archeologist flick of the summer the mummy returns was much better it had its flaws but its action was creative and since winning her academy award for girl interrupted jolie hasn't taken any projects that would display her acting talents tomb raider seems to be more interested in displaying her breasts so much attention is drawn to them that it's a shame there's no oscar for best performance by a wonderbra while we don't see much of her acting ability with the exception of a wonderful british accent we do get a hint of jolie's less savory side considering the rumors of incest that hang over jolie and her supposed obsession with death having lara be obsessed with resurrecting her dead father and uninterested in any of the living males around her seems a poor choice having jolie's real life father jon voight play the dead dad makes it even creepier i haven't decided what to make of director simon west yet his first feature was the disaster con air but my opinion of him improved with the general's daughter which was thick with sultry atmosphere now this train wreck i hope he improves again because his next project is the big screen version of the cult tv series the prisoner hollywood has already screwed up the avengers and the prisoner represents a chance for redemption by the way speaking of british tv red dwarf fans should look for chris rimmer barrie in his first major film role
negative	the last of offers plenty of blood and gore but beyond that nothing jack crow james woods is a professional vampire slayer that is secretly working for the vatican his and his men's mission is to clean the earth from vampires they have lost count of how many vampires they have slaughtered but one has always escaped them valek thomas ian griffith the dark messias and ruler of the undead that is older than time itself for all eternity the vampires have searched for their salvation the black cross with the cross in their possesion the vampires will be able to walk in the sunlight after that it is either the humans or the vampires who will dominate the earth i have never liked john carpenter and his style after seeing this film my opinions have not changed john carpenter remains john carpenter however because of the film's black humour and fascinating cinematography i would say that it is his greatest achievement in a long long time neither the synopses or carpenter's direction are original but there are some things that are interesting the director's negative view on the catholic church for instance at the end of the film it becomes clear that cardinal alba maximilian schell has simply used crow and his team to find valek so that he would gain eternal life otherwise the catholic priests are shown cool drinking smoking and breaking the rool of celibacy carpenter has created an interesting atmosphere set in new mexican dessert he switches between bright golden sunrises and bloody sundowns symbolically illustrating the good and the evil through light and darkness more than anything in this film this simple illustration shows the battle between good and evil the cinematography by gary b kibbe is probably the film's greatest achievement music composed by john carpenter himself is at times effective the special effects and makeup are likewise worth a notice when it comes to the cast in an intellectual film like this casting is the last problem everyone can scream and swing the axe but here james woods is suprisingly convincing he is macho and cool as the dedicated hunter who lost his family to the breed of evil woods is constantly overacting which really saves the film from falling into the trap of serious self importance daniel baldwin is also entertaining as crow's loyal partner the other cast members are struggling because the film doesn't take itself too seriously it stays afloat still it is like most a mediocre experience
negative	i'm not sure who the genius is who came up with the idea of comparing disturbing behavior with scream maybe it's because they're both horror films kinda both have hot young stars both have an annoying alternative soundtrack and both are aimed at the teenage crowd which i guess includes me but this is not the next in line with the scream flicks as well as the i know what you did last summer soon to be flicks it owes less to halloween and more to kafka and orwell which in my book makes for a more interesting feature and it should have been this is basically a rehash of the stepford wives the great film i never saw starring katherine ross and dealing as i've been told with a bunch of women who are programmed to be perfect housewives or something like that behavior starring katie holmes of dawson's creek deals with a bunch of teenagers deep in angst who are being programmed to be perfect teenagers  preppies it actually at least to me sounds like it would work and with scott rosenberg that witty penmen who has written stuff like beautiful girls and things to do in denver when you're dead as well as con air it actually sounds like it may be pulled off with the right amount of frights and satiric wit alas it's not and it plumets into that little group of movies known as the movies with potential that blow it i remember a film called white man's burden which dealt with a reversal of blacks and whites in society that did nothing with it's potentially brilliant premise here's another one it could be a brilliant satire on how teenagers need to go through teen angst in order to find themselves it's a stage and this film does in fact realize that it gets its message across and it does it effortlessly now it just needs to work as a film which it doesn't it's too sloppy and too contrived it paints a bleak portrait of high school life then lets it lie it brings us a bunch of scary monsters who are all a bunch of disgustingly icky who do food drives and hang out at a diner drinking milk shakes then gives it a cheap twist when they get horny they become homicidal isn't it scary enough that they're like this and can't the real terror in the town be that you could be next to be just like them not that you could be next to die the film introduces us two three different characters who in the beginning are considered outsiders because they're not yet part of this clique the new kid steve james marsden dull dull dull dull who's having trouble at home because he hasn't gotten over his brother's ethan embry in quick flashes so you don't recognize him i did suicide the renegade girl rachel katie holmes from dawson's creek who's chief personality trait is her prominent nose ring and by far the most interesting kid gavin nick stahl the kid from the man without a face who's the most interesting because he's the only character who's given some dimension in the film's best scene he introduces steve to every single clique nailing each one's fetishes and and it's the best scene in the movie because it's witty satirical and interesting something the rest of this film isn't gavin suspects there's something awry with the preppie kids known as the blue ribbons and in the tradition of all conspirators and even when he actually shows hard pure evidence to steve he's only treated as a typical raving conspiracy buff here we have another case of the idiot plot where not only could steve had done something about gavin and what happens to him but he may have saved this film from being the dreary dull film that it is without gavin who gives it life and humor the only other character is the school janitor played by william sadler as a retarded scary guy who may not be what he seems to be but really we don't care anyway i probably shouldn't mention that this was directed by david nutter who's works for the because that would probably tarnish his reputation like the show he's good at setting up weird conspiracies and creating a general creepy feel most of this film is shot at night and with dark eerie shadows for the maximum creepy effect and some of it works but what this film is not so good at is coming out with a good payoff he keeps too much inside so much that when the characters journey to a mental institution in the third act you wonder why they just don't get the hell out of there i think what happens to gavin is proof enough that there's something rotten in the state of teen angstdom what this film needs to be is a lot longer a lot more colorful and a lot creepier if the best villain they can come up with is a guidance counselor played by bruce greenwood an atom egoyan regular obviously just trying to pay the rent who still thinks he can get away with it even when most is revealed then they need to come up with a tougher smarter villain if he's so villainous then why could two dense teenagers who couldn't figure out there was something going on until it was way too late find information on him in a couple minutes the film which runs about or so minutes just needs to work on these things and become a lot less sloppy at such a short running time and with such lame boring characters as these it's pretty much obvious that leaving this film leaves a horribly unsatisfied taste in one's mouth especially mine
negative	in the interest of being generous i want to start this review with the scene that i liked in meet joe black sir anthony hopkins playing a media mogul has gathered his family around him for dinner his oldest daughter played by marcia gay harden from millers crossing who has been obsessively planning his sinfully extravagant birthday party presents him with three superbly decorated little cakes which are supposed to be scale models for his big birthday cake the daughter asks hopkins to pick the one he likes hopkins frustrated by the weight of planning for the whole elaborate affair does what any man in his position would do he punts whichever one you like dear he says and the daughter does exactly what any woman in her position would do she cries i liked that scene for two reasons first the cakes looked really cool second it was perhaps the only scene in the movie where people acted as you would expect people to act meet joe black is of odd performances people doing things for no discernible reason at all and doing them in slow motion over the course of three hours to boot it's easy to watch meet joe black for the abundant eye candy of the palatial homes and the beauteous claire forlani but it's even easier to sleep right through it two people on my row managed it quite nicely the difficult part of the movie is understanding the characters and their motivations and why someone thought three hours was an appropriate length for this overwrought mess i know my audience had problems with the movie because they thought it was a comedy case in point everyone should know by now that brad pitt plays the angel of death in this movie however the first we see of him is as a young lawyer in a coffee shop hitting on the glamorous claire forlani it's not clear from the movie whether you need a law degree to become the angel of death but it makes a certain kind of sense it shouldn't take long for the observant moviegoer to realize that bad things are about to happen to mr pitt and indeed they do after a hideously prolonged sequence where pitt looks over his shoulder at the retreating forlani and forlani looks over her shoulder at the retreating pitt because pitt walks into the road without looking and suddenly gets squished well when that happened the audience howled with laughter and continued to laugh at every comment that was remotely humorous so if you think that sudden violent death and sarcastic humor are funny i encourage you to go see meet joe black immediately anyway the deceased lawyer's body no worse the wear from its massive injuries is possessed by the angel of death and brad pitt takes over that role the idea is that death given the pen name of joe black so as not to disturb others wants to take a holiday and experience the world if this weren't hollywood we might get an interesting metaphysical discussion of life and death but since it is we get scene after scene of humor just as if death is george of the jungle or crocodile dundee or some other poor schmuck who's wandered in from the jungle or the outback or whatever and doesn't know how to act in our society it also doesn't help that the character of death is written so inconsistently he claims to be on vacation but he never does anything except hang around the seriously attractive claire forlani just try to get your travel agent to book that one he speaks very slow and halting english but perfectly fluent jamaican patois he knows everything about some characters nothing about others and as played by brad pitt he's not especially menacing or charming or glamorous or intriguing he's just there it's as if someone told pitt never mind about acting in this picture son just stand there and look pretty it's as if pitt is doing his keanu reeves impression throughout the movie i've used the phrase angel of death in this review very deliberately to contrast pitt's performance with this year's best angel performance nicolas cage's in city of angels where pitt is cold and unfeeling cage is as warm and empathetic as the situation allows where cage is genuinely curious about the nature of man pitt is aloof and arrogant cage struck instant chemical sparks with meg ryan where the chemistry between pitt and forlani is only understandable if you accept the notion that forlani's character is so shallow that she can't see beyond pitt's good looks the movie's other top name is a much better actor but that doesn't save meet joe black sir anthony hopkins isn't given much better material to work with unfortunately he plays one of these multimillionaire media moguls that only exist in hollywood one wonders what might have happened if they had made hopkins's character more realistically evil hopkins is marked for death due to a bad ticker but death steps in and grants him some extra time in exchange for being his guide in the world of course no one can be sure of how they will act when death taps on their shoulder but i have to wonder and in this movie you have a very long time to wonder how you or i would act in a similar situation especially if you or i were a multimillionaire hopkins pretty much goes to the office and the major subplot revolves around who will control the corporation fans of corporate intrigue will be fascinated i'm sure i stayed awake all the way through meet joe black and i'm asking myself why movies about death should encourage you to live life to the fullest which is what i'm going to do now go spend time with your family go volunteer for a local charity heck go take a nap don't go see meet joe black because all it will do is move you three long hours closer to death curtis edmonds no children have ever meddled with the republican party and lived to tell about it sideshow bob
negative	a cop with a troubled personal life a ruthless villain a friend of the cop a friend of the cop a quest for vengeance a new partner a romantic interest a chase scene a chase scene san a woman in peril a confrontation an explosion the end yawn yawn yawn the preceding has been the plot of approximately twelve thousand and six action films this one just happens to be called metro i have learned to expect little from films like metro and consequently i am bored by them more often than i am genuinely disappointed with eddie murphy on board however you hope for something extra some kind of spark when a film makes watching eddie murphy a tedious experience you know it is doing something terribly wrong murphy stars as scott roper a hostage negotiator for the san francisco police department who is exceedingly good at his job with his personal life he is considerably less successful facing an unhappy named veronica carmen ejogo a gambling problem and a mountain of debt then his professional life gets a jolt as well when a friend and colleague art evans is murdered while investigating suspected jewel thief michael korda michael wincott finding korda becomes very personal to scott and he joins with new partner kevin mccall michael rappaport to foil korda during an attempted heist but all is not well even with korda in jail as scott veronica and kevin all continue to face danger metro the title in case you are wondering means absolutely nothing is so badly put together that even the most casual viewer may notice the miserable pacing and stray plot threads in the first place korda's rage over being discovered before he can make his big score is rendered completely pointless when he proceeds to hit the target anyway and incidentally to screw it up a reference to payoffs in the police department followed by a conspicuous decision to keep scott off the korda case and a couple of pointed glances is dropped abruptly with no resolution after about minutes even the relationship between scott and new partner kevin is so perfunctory with kevin disappearing entirely after taking a bullet for scott that you may yearn for bickering buddies worst of all is a plot structure which places the main villain the always menacing michael wincott behind bars for far too long leaving a lot of time to kill with the tedious reconciliation of scott and veronica you can't blame murphy for being unable to muster any enthusiasm for the scenes with his bland leading lady but he should have known better than to take this role at all scott roper exists in an uncomfortable middle ground between the kind of murphy has built a career on and an actual character and murphy is never able to reconcile the two the script seems to have been doctored for him with a gambling problem turned into a bit of character color and his supposed inability to form relationships turned into a cause for gags rather than actual conflict yet there is still too little comedy for murphy to work with for much of the film he walks around with an intense frown and it is over minutes into metro before you hear that trademark laugh for the first time murphy is stranded with too few solid punch lines and nearly all of the ones he does have bounce of ejogo and fall to the ground limply i suppose i should give director thomas carter credit for taking the obligatory san francisco car chase how much do you want to bet on the likelihood of seeing a car soar over a hill and doing a few interesting things with it as vehicles are sent flying and passengers sent sprawling by a runaway cable car it is possible at least for a moment to take some pleasure in a goofy spin on a familiar situation carter does an even better job by taking that old suspense the medicine cabinet mirror which will close to reveal a killer standing behind someone and using it to defuse tension not once but the fact that carter was able to demonstrate even that much recognition of cliches and a willingness to subvert them makes his involvement in the rest of the disaster that is metro all the more puzzling an action film like this plods so relentlessly and obviously from point a to point b to point c that you might find yourself shouting out point c while they're still getting to point b or getting up with the rest of the audience after the big explosion which signals that nothing else of any consequence is going to happen
negative	can a horror movie truly be called a horror movie if it has no scares suspense or even eerie elements i think not but that's what children of the corn issac's return wants us to believe the sixth installment in the horrible worn out series is by far the worst to date unlike the other five chapters children of the corn is a confusing brainless thriller that takes the psychological horror route rather than slasher horror but either way none of these movies are the least bit scary the film follows hannah natalie ramsey a teen looking for her mother in gatlin nebraska on the eve of her birthday what starts out as a daughter in desperate search of her long lost mother turns into the story of hannah being the first daughter of the children of the corn who roam the cornfields looking for adults to murder that's about all that's understandable in the film as after we learn this much issac john franklin who led the children of the corn in a previous chapter now an older strange man is looking for hannah to fulfill his prophecy and this is supposed to make sense really from the start the film is unclear of where its going not developing any characters or throwing any concrete plot details across the table constantly introducing new characters without personalities or the slightest hint of an individuality and sub plots that have nothing to do with what seems to the main focus of the film the film runs at a short minutes but it seems to be more in the vicinity of two hours as the bleak slow pacing makes children of the corn issac's return excruciatingly boring plot holes are everywhere in tim sulka and john franklin's unbelievably horrible script as nothing is accomplished or clear when the film reaches its conclusion everyone and everything involved with children of the corn issac's return namely writers john franklin and tim sulka along with director kari skogland should crawl under a rock and hope no one sees their horrible work of trash the bottom line horrible horrible horrible another attempt to revive this worn out genre falls flat and what's with that title the devil has nothing to do whatsoever with this film let's pray that this is the finale in one of the worst current film series one of the worst horror films in years
negative	arnold schwarzenegger has been an icon for action enthusiasts since the late but lately his films have been very sloppy and the are getting worse it's hard seeing arnold as mr freeze in batman and robin especially when he says tons of ice jokes but hey he got million what's it matter to him once again arnold has signed to do another expensive blockbuster that can't compare with the likes of the terminator series true lies and even eraser in this so called dark thriller the devil gabriel byrne has come upon earth to impregnate a woman robin tunney which happens every years and basically destroy the world but apparently god has chosen one man and that one man is jericho cane arnold himself with the help of a trusty sidekick kevin pollack they will stop at nothing to let the devil take over the world parts of this are actually so absurd that they would fit right in with dogma yes the film is that weak but it's better than the other blockbuster right now sleepy hollow but it makes the world is not enough look like a star film anyway this definitely doesn't seem like an arnold movie it just wasn't the type of film you can see him doing sure he gave us a few chuckles with his well known but he seemed confused as to where his character and the film was going it's understandable especially when the ending had to be changed according to some sources aside form that he still walked through it much like he has in the past few films i'm sorry to say this arnold but maybe these are the end of your action days speaking of action where was it in this film there was hardly any explosions or fights the devil made a few places explode but arnold wasn't kicking some devil butt the ending was changed to make it more spiritual which undoubtedly ruined the film i was at least hoping for a cool ending if nothing else occurred but once again i was let down i also don't know why the film took so long and cost so much there was really no super affects at all unless you consider an invisible devil who was in it for minutes tops worth the overpriced budget the budget should have gone into a better script where at least audiences could be somewhat entertained instead of facing boredom it's pitiful to see how scripts like these get bought and made into a movie do they even read these things anymore it sure doesn't seem like it thankfully gabriel's performance gave some light to this poor film when he walks down the street searching for robin tunney you can't help but feel that he looked like a devil the guy is creepy looking anyway when it's all over you're just glad it's the end of the movie don't bother to see this if you're expecting a solid action flick because it's neither solid nor does it have action it's just another movie that we are suckered in to seeing due to a strategic marketing campaign save your money and see the world is not enough for an entertaining experience
negative	i still can't figure out why people went in droves to see this movie now before you go assuming i'm some sort of high brow snob who can't appreciate a little dumb humor let me say that i love cheap humor i thought there's something about mary was one of the funniest films that i have ever seen and it was certainly one of the best films of low brow adolescent humor can be a lot of fun the problem with the waterboy is that it is just low brow and adolescent there is no humor component i wanted to like the waterboy i really did i think i only laughed maybe or times throughout the entire movie actually i smiled a couple of more times on top of that not a great record for a film the problem with the waterboy is the same as most other adam sandler movies those responsible for this mess seem to think that the sheer fact that sandler walks around using a goofy voice and playing dumb the entire movie is a substitute for actual funny material nothing could be further from the truth as matter of fact sandler's idiot voice started to get on my nerves at points in this film it's really a shame too because this film had the potential to be very funny i personally believe that sandler is probably a very talented comedian it's just that so far he hasn't been able to find the right film to showcase his talents if his only talent is making goofy voices and playing morons my guess is that his career in the movies will go down the same road as the vast majority of the former stars of saturday night live most of whom are now happily no longer in the entertainment industry sandler plays a somewhat mentally challenged waterboy for a college football team the team's somewhat mentally disturbed coach henry winkler realizes that his waterboy has a great deal of rage which if harnessed properly would make him a force to be reckoned with on the football field you can figure out the rest from here sandler joins the team and this once lowly waterboy becomes a football star as i said the film had a great deal of potential the idea was a decent one but the main potential of this movie is a result of the cast all of whom are very good just hamstrung by really really lousy material even sandler annoying goofy voice and all has enough charisma and natural comedic ability to overcome some of his bad material even as unfunny as his character is i still found myself rooting for him throughout the film but it is the supporting cast that i feel most badly about if their material had been just a bit better this film could have been such a funny movie fairuza balk plays sandler's love interest and does a great job playing sleazy and sexy at the same time winkler is great as the coach who uses a coaching for dummies book to help him get through games the real standout though is kathy bates even with some of the worst material of her career to deal with she is still a treat to watch in her role as sandler's overprotective and overbearing mama even with the performances of bates and winkler there is absolutely no way i would recommend this movie although i get the distinct impression that without them this film would have ranked in negative numbers for me which is sad because i can't really put my finger on a particular element of the movie and single it out as the cause of the disaster that it became it's obvious that those involved specifically the actors tried very hard to make what they thought was going to be a funny movie it's just too bad that percent of all of the jokes fell flat
negative	gordie boggs arquette aptly cast as a moron as he is one and his best friend sean dawkins scott caan the son of james caan should not be reduced to garbage like this are two losers from wyoming with no jobs and no girlfriends who look up to world championship wrestling champion jimmy king a terribly casted oliver platt as he is everything they are not they finally get to see him live and he is screwed out of his title by the evil ruthless promoter titus sinclair a wasted palitaliano in a role originally meant for wcw president eric bischoff whose name was written all over the role gordie and sean track down king in atlanta and discover that he is not really the english king the wcw writers created for him but a drunken ignorant southerner who is as irritated by these two lunkheads as bob newhart was by larry darryl and darryl they sneak him back onto wcw tv after which sinclair agrees to book him in a steel cage match in las vegas at wcw's next against his rival diamond dallas page if he wins king gets his title and his career back plus one million dollars wcw president eric bischoff knowing his promotion was desperate with bad writing and ratings skyrocketing down thanks to the far superior world wrestling federation came up with the idea for this movie hoping it would save wcw he was then fired and rehired two months ago but by the time he'd left they had already been contracted to do the film and bischoff could not play sinclair which in itself is for the best as anybody who has seen him on wcw programming knows that bischoff is no actor the characters of gordie and sean show you exactly what eric bischoff thinks of his fans he thinks of them as young dumb pathetic idiots who will believe anything that will be put out in front of them is real that is why he doesn't take the fans into consideration when he books a nitro or a i have news for you eric no wrestling fan in this day and age is dumb enough to believe that professional wrestling isn't for show unless they are four years old this is you know not bischoff will try to cover up criticism like that by saying it is a comedy but i have no doubt in my mind that if this had been a dramatic film which it probably should have been professional wrestling is ridiculed enough as it is why should the first wrestling movie in ten years be a comedy gordie and sean would have been portrayed in the same light anybody who has seen the documentary wrestling with shadows documenting wwf owner vince mcmahon's of bret hart will probably realize via the reviews and previews of ready to rumble that it is basically a of that film's storyline with the poor man's wayne and garth thrown in for comedic affect you can tell titus sinclair is supposed to poke fun at vince but any wrestling fan knows that sinclair is more inspired by bischoff than vince and that vince did what he had to do to bret hart all of these aspects of the film needless to say seriously offended me as a wrestling fan another thing i found disturbing about the film was the romance between gordie and nitro girl sasha the lovely rose mcgowan wouldn't it have been easier to bring something new into the relationship rather than revealing she was only working on gordie at sinclair's insistance i hate that cliche the world wrestling federation would have made a better film they are the promotion everyone cares about they are winning the ratings they have better wrestlers and they take their fans into consideration and don't treat fans like morons so vince how about a movie
negative	when i arrived in paris in june i was surprised to find france plastered with posters twin peaks fire walk with me since the movie wasn't scheduled to open in the u s until late august happily the prequel to david lynch's cult television playing in a fancy thx theater unfortunately the theater was far more impressive than the movie which absolutely stinks much like a french lavatory worse actually fire walk with me directed by lynch will be completely incomprehensible to anyone who has not seen the tv series or read laura palmer's secret diary for twin peaks junkies like me the movie is only marginally improved the plot is jumbled and illogical not to mention excruciatingly sluggish the first minutes which have almost nothing to do with the main story line feature chris isaak and kiefer sutherland as fbi agents investigating a murder in portland oregon the movie then stops in philadelphia for a nonsensical cameo by david bowie and a brief appearance by kyle maclachlan as dale cooper lynch then drops this plot strand altogether and abruptly shifts the setting to twin peaks year later ah twin peaks familiar territory you think to yourself as angelo badalamenti's distinctive musical score chimes in wrong the movie proves that you really can't go home again or at least lynch can't only about a quarter of the characters from the tv series appear in the movie leland palmer bobby briggs james shelly leo the log lady and a few in meaningless cameos the rest of the twin peaks cast is nowhere to be seen and consequently lynch fails to recreate the spirit and flavor of tv's most enigmatic town cast members michael ontkean sherilyn fenn piper laurie and richard beymer are sorely missed not to mention lara flynn boyle who has been replaced by lackluster moira kelly in the crucial role of donna the movie concentrates solely on laura palmer sheryl lee as she suffers through drug abuse prostitution and incest during her miserable last seven days on earth the night of laura's death which is truly terrifying is the film's only remotely effective sequence we finally get to see exactly what happened to laura after she jumped off james' motorcycle and ran into the woods at that lonely traffic light in the middle of nowhere her murder unfolds just as agent cooper reconstructed it in the tv series which is gratifying for faithful twin peaks viewers but it's an awfully small reward for sitting through a painfully awful movie
negative	capsule this situation comedy from sweden tells the story of two close friends with romantic problems the script involves formerly taboo subjects like erotic toys and sexual enhancers but otherwise the writing is not a lot different from what is shown free on television the characters are and the interesting ideas purely this is a card to jalla jalla is basically an exuberant tv situation comedy written instead for the wide screen it tells the story of two park custodians and the problems they are finding on the path to true love the film is set in sweden where roro and mans fares fares and torkel petersson are custodians at a public park roro is from a tightly knit lebanese family who control him very closely mans is a swede from a much more liberal background they spend most of the day in the bushes at their park cleaning up after dogs roro and mans each have girlfriends but each has a problem roro nicknamed jalla is having family problems it seems that his family wants to arrange a marriage between him and a nice lebanese woman yasmin laleh pourkarim but he is already in love with lisa tuva novotny yasmin likes roro but does not want to get married either mans on the other hand has been having a problem of sexual impotence the two friends worry about their problems and discuss the problems with each other mans thinks the answer to his problem is to purchase sexual enhancers the one catch is that he is too shy to go in and buy them roro and yasmin decide to give themselves some time by telling the families that they want to marry each other but then plan to break up before the wedding not too surprisingly neither finds that his idea works out the way he quite expected the plot turns in several places are contrived one knows fairly quickly that if things are going to work our happily for everybody certain plot contrivances have to happen josef fares who wrote and directed is perhaps a better director than he is a writer when things start to get slow he just adds throws in another story for example halfway into the film mans innocently antagonizes some local toughs and a long chase is added to the film characterization is a little better with roro than it is with mans who does not seem to have a whole lot more personality beyond fear for losing a biological function we do see some of roro's family life and his concerns that may be because roro's background is a lot like that of the director while the story was entertaining i did not feel that i got anything worthwhile from the film it was just a way to pass about an hour and a half in my life one does not have to go to the movies to see entertainment like this i rate it a on the to scale and a on the to scale
negative	remember tom cruise and brian brown as rival bartenders juggling bottles of booze in cocktail remember how stupid that looked and remember the dancers of flashdance getting doused with buckets of water well coyote ugly does those films five better or six better if you count john goodman since here we have piper perado maria bello tyra banks melanie lynskey and izabella miko doing the absolut spinning and jiggling thing while pouring pitchers of perrier all over their torsos no goodman doesn't flip jim beams or wear anything particularly risqu in the film but he does get up on the bar and start gyrating with the rest of them and the central character's love interest played by an australian actor named adam garcia proves he can get up on that bar and start shimmying along with the rest of them too what seems to have started life as a victoria's secret photo shoot quickly deteriorates into one heck of an embarrassing movie violet perado is a south amboy hopeful who tries to make it big as a songwriter not a welder in new jack city as na ve as they come she's fobbed off by music producer's receptionists by the and has her apartment robbed hours after touching down in chinatown and like her mother before her she gets stage fright whenever she tries to do the open mike night thing when she sees a trio of barkeeps thumbing through a stack of in an diner violet simply has to check out this bar they call coyote ugly lil bello the owner agrees to give violet an audition but violet blows it still lil gives violet another chance a riot breaks out riots are the order of the day at since the staff are relentless in flaunting their sexual wares flambeeing the bar and soaking the patrons with diet is certifiable behavior in case i didn't mention it but violet successfully subdues the crowd by singing along to blondie's one way or another on the jukebox she's hired and cured since this little episode gives her the confidence to sing in an amateur talent contest where her dad goodman the junk toll collector comes to see her and is as proud as punch the end
negative	confucius once said governing a nation is like cooking a small fish don't overdo it his maxim might be easily applied to writing a comedy script for quantity over quality is one of the worst mistakes an amateur scribe can make granted mike judge of the workplace satire office space isn't exactly an amateur his most infamous work the mtv series beavis and was pure gold for its network but unfailingly judge manages to make some rather inexcusable mistakes in office space by spreading an iffy plot over too much ground the iffiness in judge's plot a group of coworkers plan the downfall of their despicable boss is not in its appeal in fact based on the popularity of scott adams' cartoon dilbert which will soon have its own television series a satirical view of the american workplace is a hot item in hollywood unfortunately the concept lends itself to sequences which would be more at home on the set of saturday night live rather than a feature the most convincing evidence of this are the trailers for office space which feature almost all of the movie's top content this leaves the actual picture appearing very deflated other evidence of office space's failure to work are its lack of good jokes the comedy is marginally funny at best but not enough to get a packed house of to laugh out loud the material in the movie is for an older demographic than judge is used to targeting and this could partially explain his work here however the movie is loaded with too many misfires including the token plot to allow for any excuse the plot centers around three or four cubicled engineers headed up by peter gibbons ron livingston at a company named initech after the movie elaborately establishes the miserable working conditions at initech the movie introduces us to two consultants john c mcginley and paul willson which are in charge of downsizing the company's payroll when peter and his gang learns of this as well as the reason behind it so their smooth talking boss bill lumbergh gary cole stock will go up they set about creating a plan to see his downfall the circumstances that follow were obviously intended to be hilarious but they come out as anything but a sympathetic cast and a muddled jennifer subplot are all that keep this one together but it's definitely missable in lieu of something more intelligent
negative	it seemed like the perfect concept what better for the farrelly brothers famous for writing and directing comedies with offensive subject matter than to make a movie about a guy with a split personality it's exactly the sort of thing the brothers relish poking fun at something serious in this case mental illness throwing all care to the wind to get a laugh jim carrey's signed on too even better the national alliance for the mentally ill even helped out by levying complaints against the brothers' new film before its opening claiming it was misrepresenting the condition of split personality labeling it incorrectly as schizophrenia and so forth such a protest seemed like just the sort of thing that would of course only add more fuel to the farrelly brothers' fire proving that some people just couldn't take a joke and that the farrellys would be helping the more enlightened viewers to yet another dose of their brilliantly subversive comedy yes it all seemed perfect but one thing went wrong their movie isn't funny it's not for lack of trying the farrellys utilize in me myself irene their most premise ever carrey plays charlie baileygaites a man who after being dumped by his wife for a midget limo driver decides to bury all his aggressive feelings deep down inside and never release them this of course means all his neighbors exploit his entirely nature making his job as a rhode island state trooper increasingly difficult soon enough charlie's repressed aggression manifests itself into a second independent personality named hank a boorish ogre unafraid of taking the assertive actions his predecessor had been unable to muster this guy isn't above crashing a car through the wall of the barber shop in which he's been insulted or holding a little girl's head underwater because she refused to stop in the street then things start getting lost in the most complicated plot the farrellys have ever attempted and the film runs off its tracks some have suggested that this isn't a problem because the farrelly brothers' brand of humor doesn't require plot to work they're wrong of course plot was greatly instrumental in building up the kind of rollicking comic energy that infused the farrellys' last effort there's something about mary outside providence was technically an earlier project the brothers' earlier film wasn't funny merely because it contained outrageous gags despite what some newsmagazine articles would have you believe but rather because its most outrageous gags were entirely unexpected in mary the farrellys managed several times to pull off a neat trick they'd have you thinking the story was going one way then reveal its real direction in delightfully surprising fashion me myself irene by contrast seems to have been made by folks who looked at mary and saw only the surface grossness missing all of the subtle machinations that really made it work having been produced by the same guys who made mary irene seems like an even bigger disappointment the brothers pile on the offensive humor taking shots at race midgets albinos mental illness and all manner of bathroom jokes but they haven't come up with a way to make any of it fresh most of me myself irene comes off as rote adolescent comedy the plot with carrey forced to drive alleged fugitive irene p waters renee zellweger who's in more trouble than anyone knows back to new york has an ending that's entirely predictable from the think charlie and irene will fall in love yeah me too the farrellys then introduce scores of different characters and none of them ever manage to do anything you haven't already expected them to do no matter how outrageous their actions might be compared to the curveballs the farrellys are used to throwing this stuff is almost entirely presenting an obvious problem when humor loses its shock value it's no longer funny merely gross the jokes that do work are milked over and over until their effectiveness runs dry take for example the subplot involving charlie's three black sons anthony anderson mongo brownlee jerod mixon the incongruity of it all is funny for a while with three burly black men discussing higher math in ghetto language and carrey mouthing said language with an entirely smile on his face but by the end of the film they're still doing the same schitck it hasn't been elevated to another funnier level and it hasn't been dropped either that's too bad because it ceases to be amusing about halfway through me myself irene reeks of wasted opportunities there ought to be more focus on how other people react to charlie's new personality and on how charlie deals with the consequences of hank's actions this doesn't really happen nearly every supporting character learns about charlie's condition early on so they don't have any opportunity to be surprised by it the film throws what looks like a patented farrelly curve in a scene towards the midway point involving an albino companion charlie and irene pick up called appropriately whitey but the script doesn't go anywhere with it instead leaving the thread twisting in the wind before awkwardly tying it up during the climax jim carrey is a gifted comedian both physically and vocally but he's left with nothing much to do here except contort himself in a manner similar to steve martin in all of me it's a great showcase of flexibility and but none of it is terribly funny carrey doesn't pull any stunts we don't expect him to pull and the farrellys' script doesn't give him anything else to pull the situations in which he must perform the aren't set up in any meaningful way perhaps carrey can take solace in the fact that his supporting actors fare no better zellweger's irene is not a strong female lead mary in mary may have been part adolescent fantasy but she was also intelligent and irene is nothing in particular as the film never makes clear whether she's ditzy clever or neither as such she gives us nothing to latch onto as the only sane person in the film chris cooper is stuck playing exactly one note as a corrupt fbi agent and his character is entirely too for a movie like this he like the others does absolutely nothing unexpected after viewing the shapeless mess that me myself irene eventually dissolved into i was stuck wondering whether or not the farrellys had outsmarted themselves maybe their kind of comedy can only work for so long until audiences get wise to it and stop being shocked but i don't believe it good filmmakers find ways of surprising their audiences even after people have grown attuned to their style if the farrellys are indeed good smart filmmakers and i still think they are they'll rebound just fine even after that happens though i'll still consider me myself irene to be a misfire
negative	there's a scene somewhere in this film where one of the characters reads the book screenwriting made easy this is funny the first time just it is but funnier as the film goes on since it's totally ironic since the screenwriters of this inane film probably read it outlined it and then wrote this film it's like they took the of the disaster pic which can be fun and hokey at the same time and then forgot one of the greatest parts of them the stupid eccentric characters yes the poseidon adventure is crap but it's fun of all the stupid eccentric characters and earthquake my god earthquake has got to be one of the worst movies of all time but at least they had the joke of having charlton heston sleeping with genevieve bujold volcano takes a yet stupendously inane plot a volcano no one knew about suddenly errupts one fine morning and then erupts again later then stops only it's in dare i say it l a and then puts no stupid stereotypical eccentric characters in it they're just stupid and the actors are all good ones tommy lee jones is great an oscar winner and a member of the men in black my vote for what should be the coolest movie of the summer anne heche is a good indy actress don cheadle stole the disappointing devil in a blue dress from denzel's feet and gaby's one of the few good teenage actors but they get nothing to do but act dumb and scream at what's going on they do their best god bless them but they're all lost in the fake magma only don cheadle gets an interesting part and he's the greatest part of the film there's no real suspense here you don't care about anyone i actually was rooting for gaby's character to get killed so tommy lee jones wouldn't have to keep saving her he did it like thirty times and there are no interesting sites in l a that we see get destroyed part of the fun of disaster films is watching sites get toppled or destroyed or whatever in independence day the best part other than judd hirsch was watching the white house and empire state building get blown up by the aliens that was cool watching really magma plow down the street is not okay so the film's not devoid of merit as i already stated don cheadle was great and the cast does their best and there's this really moronic scene which looks cool john carrol lynch norm from fargo goes on a subway car to save people but the lava comes and surrounds it he has one guy who's wounded and could make it he could throw the guy and jump and still survive but no he has to go and inanely jump and land right in the middle of the lava here's the cool sight he melts here's the dumb part of it he somehow manages to throw the man to safety as his legs are melting cool sight no logic but cool sight the volcano erupts twice and for some reason the film ends there they aren't worried about it eruting again they just go home to their toppled homes but to tell the truth i was glad they didn't go on i was hoping the film was over after the first eruption ended my god it was actually painful to sit through this little minute long film i haven't seen dante's peak but i've heard it's a masterpiece compared to this if you want to see a cool disaster flick that's inane but interesting rent the towering inferno with steve mcqueen paul newman and the schweppervescent o j simpson he saves a cat if you want to waste your time watching a boring stupid disaster flick literally it almost grossed half of its budget see this but i warned you
negative	the krippendorf's tribe is being marketed as a family comedy but buyer beware this movie can't make up its mind is it a family comedy with vulgar references to both the male and female bodies menstruation circumcision and sex that would make any parents squirm at the thought of having their child next to them or is it an adult comedy approached with such immaturity that only adolescents will appreciate the effort either way unbalanced is the word to stamp on this hit and miss and miss and miss effort the premise is catchy widowed anthropology professor james krippendorf richard dreyfuss has spent the past two years getting over the death of his wife neglecting key research and squandering grant money on personal living expenses now it's time to show what he's achieved in those two years and he has absolutely nothing to show for it with a fabricated tale of studying a previously undiscovered tribe in new guinea krippendorf petitions for new funds while hiding the fact that the previous grant was spent on trips to mcdonald's but when his discovery becomes the latest craze among colleagues the professor finds he must do more than talk about the tribe he must create it with the aid of his three children the headstrong teen shelly natasha lyonne of everyone says i love you the slightly younger mickey gregory smith and the edmund carl michael lindner the shelmikedmu tribe named from the first half of each child's name is born and videos quickly produced in krippendorf's backyard are passed off as stunning documentary footage of the newly found new guinea tribe despite the professor's wishes the buzz surrounding his discovery only grows due in greatest part to veronica micelli jenna elfman an overly vivacious and voluptuous anthropologist who barges her way into the discovery and basically deems herself krippendorf's main assistant hungry for recognition micelli sets up interviews lectures etc in an effort to make this the biggest sociological event in history a sure fire way to go down in the history books krippendorf on the other hand is seeing himself go down a jail cell corridor not in history books and with each new lecture he must come up with something impressive to unleash about the tribe mating habits domestic structure etc thru fumbling improvisation and often some quick thinking from his oldest son krippendorf makes it thru each new lecture but only creates more and more interest in the highly unique tribe on the opposing end is krippendorf's arch rival ruth allen lily tomlin an arrogant professor whose jealousy drives her on a mission to disprove the existance of the tribe it's a cute idea and approached with a more subtle and mature style krippendorf's tribe could've been a real winner sadly the toilet humor overly comical musical score by bruce broughton and sugar coated sentiments all the key ingredients of a family comedy just aren't the right tone for this film cut that crap out add some razor sharp dialogue and witty sociological perceptions and you've got a good start at the state it's in now you've got something along the lines of medicine man meets mrs doubtfire meets dumb dumber and that's not a concoction anyone should be overly anxious to try the overall product here is a highly forgettable cup of average with a few moments and a great big gap in between them most of the characters are surprisingly and the only one who seems to exhibit any real acting effort lyonne seems to go greatly unappreciated director todd holland has gone about making this film in all the wrong ways it's stuck in limbo between disney family fare jungle jungle and potentially hilarious adult comedy a fish called wanda it's this unbalanced structure that really knocks it down a grade and it's a brutal drop a strong warning to parents forget the impression given by advertisements do you want to take your kids to a film that has a woman asking a man if he finds her attractive merely because she's holding his penis yes it's put that bluntly just be warned this is merely one example of the many shocking subjects to be brought up in the film and others might not be as tame
negative	it's been hours since i returned from the much anticipated opus to mars' and i can still detect the reek of moldy cheddar why the movie is a shoddy cheesefest full of digital eye candy stapled carelessly onto a flimsy screenplay which somehow manages to leapfrog the great promise of a space opera instead shooting for the angle of a science fiction drama more akin to a space odyssey' i got the feeling that most of my fellow patrons were expecting another but no to mars' certainly isn't one large action sequence about colossal disaster this is a supposedly thoughtful space flick in which the apocalyptic excitement takes a back seat to visual elegance and uplifting drivel you have been warned of course crafting a tightly claustrophobic space drama is not impossible see for an excellent example but few directors possess the skill and craftsmanship to pull it off without seriously scarring their reputation brian de palma has enough directorial expertise and visual wizardry up his sleeve to pull it off when he gets his hands on an intelligent systematically practical script like untouchables' or impossible' the director has the ability to create a sound technical achievement although his overly indulgent style becomes bothersome more than occasionally of course there's also the inexcusable string of crap that has carried his name including eyes' and the notorious bomb bonfire of the vanities' all of which makes me want to call de palma the most talented hack in hollywood that term may be too harsh but if i were judging him solely on the perpetual waste of talent that is to mars' my choice of words would have been slightly less lenient if i were gary sinise i wouldn't touch de palma with a pole sinise is a wonderful wonderful actor but after appearing in eyes' and this sham i'm sure he wouldn't want to risk the embarrassment of a third collaboration the academy plays nasa astronaut jim mcconnell a man who recently lost his wife kim delaney and is apparently psychologically unfit for an upcoming space shuttle mission to mars oops forgot to mention the year after a barbecue for the astronauts we cut to luc goddard don cheadle and his team who are already taking measurements and calculations on the red planet suddenly a towering formation of rocks and soil probably best dubbed a tornado' appears and creates a whirlwind of suction for some reason the astronauts just stand there calmly to admire this as if it were a lovely piece of art the team is killed within seconds expect for luc who was able to send one final transmission and may still be alive immediately a second mission consisting of astronauts mcconnell husband and wife woody and terri blake tim robbins and connie nielsen and phil ohlmyer jerry o'connell are dispatched to rescue luc and discover the mysterious secret of planet mars let's put the on hold for now and discuss the trip there it is explained whether scientifically accurate or not probably not that a trip to mars takes roughly six months i'm not sure why the quartet of screenwriters behind didn't capitalize on this juicy opportunity of creating tension and claustrophobia instead we join the team during their final days aboard the ship what happened during the five months prior to this did they just play cards and tell dirty jokes still there are few nicely tense moments maybe the only in the movie during the involving a fuel leak depalma's direction is quite good in these scenes although the score by ennio morricone is largely inconsistent organ music in space c'mon there's a few good imaginative ideas in the landslide of cheese a sad realization that causes me to sigh out loud it's a colossal bummer that to mars' is poorly assembled and laughably written with a dubious and supremely silly finale that will only satisfy dedicated optimists as mentioned before anyone looking for some carnage is going to feel savagely disappointed maybe even cheated after the unbelievably hokey final shot with the words the end' somehow adding insult to injury a few audience members made the effort to boo and hiss at the screen others muttered obscenities shaking their heads in disbelief while mumbling that sucked okay it did suck but you have to show the actors some sympathetic mercy after all they do pretty well sinise is sincere and effective in many of his scenes robbins and nielsen wholeheartedly convince as a loving nasa couple and funnyman o'connell well he has a couple lines are actually amusing and intentionally so the digital effects accompanying the sand tornado sequence are quite impressive so by golly where did this go wrong looking back on the appalling experience i would say in practically every conduit and crevasse it could have while watching to mars' my suggestion would be to immediately abort or better yet don't even strap yourself in for
negative	despite its exceedingly visual effects original species was one big hunk of cheese from the writing to the feeble performances so coming from such roots its sequel's stunning ineptitude is not terribly surprising yet at the same time it is it would not have been difficult at all for the people behind species ii to top the hokey original yet they have somehow managed to fabricate something just as bad if not even worse something is clearly amiss when the back door left open for a sequel in sewer rat becomes not quite of this earth after eating a body part from the exploded hybrid never entered into perhaps that was left for species i'm not giving away anything when i say that this installment has an open back door of its own the alien fun and games begin this time when a astronaut crew returning from mars inadvertently carries within their soil samples deadly alien dna that eventually infects the mission captain patrick ross justin lazard late of cbs's soap of a few years back central park this alien dna is not identical to that which created the original film's sil but it's close enough and upon arrival on earth patrick is mating like crazy engaging in bloody sex with just about every woman he can find meanwhile scientist dr laura baker the returning marg helgenberger has created a clone of sil named eve natasha henstridge again for research purposes it doesn't take long for eve to sense another alien presence which send her libido into hyperdrive it's up to laura and her former partner bounty hunter press lennox michael madsen another returnee and patrick's uninfected shipmate dennis gamble mykelti williamson to find patrick before the eve does this isn't the goddammit exclaims one character in the early going in terms of quality he's absolutely right but he's also wrong the new alien first appears as an otherworldly oozing sludge that causes patrick's pupils to dilate once he's infected looks and sounds an awful lot like the black cancer to me but that's not the only source director peter medak and writer chris brancato steal from species was already a ripoff of alien but medak makes the cribbing much more blatant than the original's director roger donaldson did human patrick is given a tongue that also has a tongue within itself and his alien form more closely resembles the alien than eve's alien body which ironically was designed by alien designer h r giger a large alien hive that our heros douse with a substance fired from large guns aliens sans flamethrowers the visual effects were by far the best thing about species and the sequel's effects crew at steve johnson's xfx inc keeps that tradition alive no lost in space cgi here after the effects the original's best asset was the fresh presence of henstridge however medak and brancato have no idea what exactly to do with her for this installment at one point she's called on to play alien empath la forest whitaker in the original but for most of the duration she's holed up in a glass cell by the time the big breakout so prominently featured in the trailer actually takes place the film is well into its home stretch so the rest of the time we are treated to patrick played with little zest by lazard one problem with the first film was that the deadly horny but sil was too sympathetic no such problem with patrick who comes off as a cocky pretty boy before the alien takes control the rest of the cast also fails to add much but the writing can be faulted for that helgenberger and madsen go through the motions but they are already hampered by the clich d development that somewhere between the two films the laura and press stopped getting along williamson suffers the worst indignity he tries his best to enliven the token role but how can anyone recite insulting derivative lines such as i'm gonna get african on someone's ass and not appear ridiculous but species ii's worst crime is being a thoroughly uninteresting piece of work at least the original featured plenty to laugh awful performances by the otherwise fine actors ben kingsley and whitaker and the sight of helgenberger's character performing fellatio on madsen's for a start but the filmmakers do not display any discernable effort at all let alone the misguided effort that is required for something to reach the camp level for all the blood and gore nudity and sex thrown in species ii is quite simply a vapid bore
negative	the marvelous british actor derek jacobi stars in writer and director john maybury's love is the devil about the popular modern artist francis bacon as always jacobi's acting is impeccable but the movie tries hard and succeeds at being unentertaining and opaque the movie convincingly argues that francis played by jacobi was a completely despicable and vain individual but it never provides any insight into his work or any motivation for his attitude when interviewed by a fawning talk show host francis calls his style chance brushstrokes starting with a burglary of francis's flat the film uses loud sound effects that sound like they were lifted from a cheap horror movie the camera shots are heavy on the angles lots of and distorted shots filmed through reflections the director is much more interested in filmmaking style than in the substance of the story with the result being a sterile examination of a lonely and vain man daniel craig in a lifeless performance plays the burglar and boxer george dyer when francis lays eyes on him after the francis promises not to call the police if he'll stay for sex he stays for the entire movie but never respects the man with whom he shares a bed he thinks that francis's paintings have no bloody use and the movie presents no counterargument writer maybury barely outlines francis's character and george and the rest of the supporting cast remain a complete enigma we learn little of george other than francis's reason for liking him george's amorality and innocence francis's love of sadomasochism is shown early and often boxing is such a marvelous aperitif for sex he reflects to george on the way to watch a boxing match as the fighter's head is sliced open with a heavy blow the camera cuts to a gleeful francis whose own head is soaked by the flying blood francis appears to be in complete ecstasy another of francis's favorite activities is viewing old movies of atrocities as the carnage mounts we witness an orgasmically happy francis in the audience in a film that tries obsessively to shock one dream sequence portrays a family in a car accident francis's mind slowly examines every bloody limb of the mother the father and the boy sometimes the script throws us tidbits of francis's wisdom which illuminate little while merely sounding insightful i'm optimistic by nature i'm optimistic about nothing loneliness is my only true companion we learn more details about francis's makeup techniques than about the man himself he prefers shoe polish for his hair and sink cleaning powder for his teeth full of metaphorical interpretations the film's best scene occurs late one night when george has to get up to go to the bathroom mistaking francis's picture of a toilet for the genuine article he urinates on it and then crawls back into bed contentedly like a parody of a bad art house movie love is the devil has horrid characters filmed bizarrely and confusingly by a director who is much more interested in technique than storytelling by the end the audience hasn't learned any more than it could have in a sketch love is the devil runs the film is not rated but should be considered for violence profanity graphic sex nudity and sadomasochism and is unacceptable for most teenagers
negative	payback brian helgeland's inauspicious directing debut coincidentally he previously penned the screenplay for l a confidential is a wildly uneven and thoroughly unpleasant revenge thriller that takes one movie with violence death and runs with it or should i say barely manages to crawl away with it mel gibson in yet another disappointing picture conspiracy theory and lethal weapon anyone stars as the reprehensible porter a man who becomes determined to get his share of which he stole in a robbery back when his gregg henry and wife deborah kara unger him shoot him and leave him for dead porter is not dead by a long he quickly rehabilitates and along with his loyal prositute girlfriend rosie maria bello sets out to make everyone involved in the scam pay the tagline for payback is get ready to root for the bad guy and sure enough this is true as pretty much every significant character who appears is crooked in some way i wouldn't have a problem with this offbeat detail if the painfully thin story had been of any interest but it wasn't and therefore i found myself having an especially laborious time investing myself into a wide array of character that have absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever no attempt is made to flesh the roles into characters and there are no vacant signs that anyone has any sort of humanity in them just because the protagonist a bad guy is played by mel gibson doesn't mean i will root for him and i didn't quite the contrary every person in the movie deserved to die a gory death although some of them did anyway just to spice up the dull proceedings since none of the respectable actors in payback actually have human beings to play only one performance managed to stand out lucy alexis liu of t v ally mcbeal who plays a spicy dominatrix brightens up every scene she is in and has a definite flair for comedy something i would have liked to have seen more of since most of the humor fell with a resounding splat meanwhile gibson who is perfectly fine here sleepwalks through a role that is not the least bit challenging unger who made an impression in the game is surprisingly wasted and it is difficult to see why she took such a part since she disappears ten minutes in and only has two purproses to get high on heroin and because she plays a key part in an early flashback finally kris kristofferson appears in a throwaway role during the climax and this unnecessary plot development sticks out like a sore thumb tellingly he didn't appear in the original cut of the film but was cast when extensive reshoots took place months later like most action movies the star often takes a licking but keeps on ticking in the course of the running time of payback porter is shot three times in the back hit by a van beaten up and has his feet smashed with a sledgehammer and guess what not only does he survive the whole ordeal but he is in the penultimate sequence and can still walk even though he looks like he had recently substituted for a punching bag payback is not in any way an entertaining film even though i am sure the makers hoped it would be with all the graphic carnage that goes on but take away that violence and what you are basically left with is a blank screen perhaps director helgeland would have been smart to consider this so he could have at least added a few worthwhile elements like a fresh storyline and characters whom you could even remotely stand to be around for a few hours
negative	did i do something bad i must have because sitting through this movie was sheer punishment here's the plot ricky jeff goldblum is producer of the network one of those home shopping channels the new boss robert loggia plans to can ricky's behind if he doesn't turn the previous months' flat sales numbers around and to add to his problems ricky also has to work with kate kelly preston the ivy league wunderkind whom the boss has brought with him kate and ricky don't get along and don't have any great ideas until they meet g eddie murphy a spiritualist who sees something positive in everything his soothing voice and simple logic makes people feel good and it's this quality that will make g the new gbn television star and the key to the network's success the first problem is a flaw in the plot sure g makes people feel good sure we're told that most people feel guilty after buying an impulse item no matter how wealthy they might be and i'll even believe that g talks a talk that allows people to feel good about what they've bought but hey that's after they've bought it why do sales skyrocket the first time g is on camera far from trying to sell the product g instead blathers on about how you don't even need the thing someone please tell me how this is supposed to move merchandise in the first place you might say that people feel good about what they've bought so they come back and by more but due to the simple fact that the first round of sales in inexplicable i'm not convinced this is what the filmmakers had in mind the whole movie is therefore seriously undermined because the key point in the plot is never credible another problem is in the humor you know if you see that eddie murphy is in a movie i think it is not unreasonable for you to expect that the film is a comedy whoa partner are you in for a surprise holy man is not funny murphy the one asset you'd think this movie has remember how they brought him in at the last minute to save best defense then again maybe you don't is seriously reigned in the script gives him almost nothing to work with and it seems as though director stephen herek kept him toned down so that the other actors in the film wouldn't be left as window dressing there's only one moment in the film where murphy is allowed to let loose and it lasts for three shouted words which seem totally out of place as a result pathetic in all there are about three jokes that work in the entire picture and they're not even that great as a side note there are some cameo appearances such as dan marino pitching a contraption which allows you to cook off of your car engine and james brown introducing a device that shouts help me just like the hardest working man in show business at the push of a button but these never cause your personal to rise above the level of mild bemusement well you ask surely there must be some convincing performances to make up for the lack of humor think again buckwheat jeff goldblum disappoints kelly preston is flat but not like that robert loggia in the kind of role for which he has been virtually typecast can't do anything with it the script is part of the problem but these actors don't even look like they believe in the move they're making they look a lot like they're bored just like the audience so what do you have when the humor is absent from your comedy and the acting is like the siberian steppes a film that drags more than a dropped anchor but wait as if these problems don't make the film slow enough the screenplay's pacing makes the movie even slower it takes the entire first half hour to establish the movie's premise then more time as the film wades through a tortuous and seemingly mandatory romance between ricky and kate and a involving a conniving pr man eric mccormack who wants to discredit g and take over ricky's job as producer when the pr guy's plan is foiled the film is climaxes we're treated to that little epilogue and then we can all go home right wrong the movie goes on for another half hour continental drift is the indy compared to the pace of holy man the only thing holy about holy man will surely be the number of people exclaiming holy that movie was awful this one is for the truly pious
negative	plot something about a bunch of kids going into a haunted house and playing out parodies of other horror and movies oh yeah there's also something about a ghost possessing the mansion and shit but trust me you won't care much about the plot in this film critique parody movies either work or they don't and this one just doesn't work the laughs aren't as pronounced this time around the energy level the gags and all of the characters just seem to be going through the motions here it's like they were all in a hurry to finish the film or something wink wink and the scariest part of it all check out the number of screenwriters it took to pen this puppy seven i say again it took seven people to write worth of fart jokes stunts and spoofs of films other than horror now i'm not exactly sure if each of the writers wrote their own parts separately or just tossed funny sketch ideas out there while smoking the chronic themselves but the end result is a film that basically plays out like an extended skit on saturday night live there are a couple of funny but mostly just rehashed scenes a lot of dead silence and lame gags add to that the very unoriginal title and movie poster and you gotta start asking yourself if anybody was even trying here the film's website isn't even up yet what the f i do however have to give it up to james woods the man who opens up this movie with the funniest parody of them all the exorcist miss this and you've missed any reason to see the flick i especially liked his as he walked in to see the possessed woman's head turning very funny unfortunately the film plummets straight down after that with dumb parodies of many teen flicks that have nothing to do with horror such as save the last dance and dude where's my car and other action movies like charlie's angels and mission impossible now help me figure this one out will you isn't this supposed to be a parody film of horror movies or maybe that's just the title of the film with my head well i'm sorry to have to say this but the only horror in this film is its script the wayans brothers should have known better than to look towards the weinstein brothers money instead of the zucker brothers comedy for this sequel unfortunately for us all we're left with here is a skeleton of a film which might've been funny had it been worked over a few more times tightened up here and there and been injected with more solid laughs but as things stand now there is no doubt in my mind that the obvious greed to capitalize on the success of last year's film has led everyone down this path so screw them for not trying as hard critically speaking of course you should all be ashamed of yourselves for not putting enough real effort into this and for not providing your fans with the ultimate of your talents pooh on you that's telling joblo sheesh btw i'm allotting one point alone to actress kathleen robertson whose massive breasts and skanky had me chompin' at the bit you go girl everyone else stay where's joblo coming from airplane airplane ii galaxy quest hannibal the haunting mafia naked gun scary movie top secret
negative	the cartoon is way better that's the bottom line on disney's incredibly hyped live action version of its animated feature the alliance between disney and slapstick king john hughes has produced a frenetic home alone with puppies and not much else when production of this remake was announced the big question seemed to be why the original cartoon still works so what's the point the answer it appears is to give disney an excuse for yet another massive merchandising campaign the story for those of you who missed childhood is simple two dalmatians pongo and perdy fall in love at first sight they drag their human pets together and in a short time both couples marry the heavenly turn chaotic when pongo and perdy's pups are stolen their engineered by the evil cruella devil who wants them for their pelts everyone in the animal kingdom then joins in a frantic effort to save the puppies in the original movie the animated pooches had a broad range of facial expressions and distinct personalities we also could hear them talk which quickly established a crucial element to the charm of the film the dog's view of humans as their pets in the new version the dogs are mute and expressionless hughes attempts to give them character with repeated shots of the dalmatians draping their heads over each other and licking their faces and necks while he drew the desired aww they're so cute reaction from the audience it was quickly followed by several people whispering i wonder what kind of food they smeared on the dog's heads to get them licking like that the canines' lack of personality would be easier to take if the human beings had a little joely richardson and jeff daniels are stunningly bland in their lead roles in previous films daniels successfully played off his white bread persona in something wild he revealed the rebellious beneath his neutral demeanor in terms of endearment his hapless appearance masked a cold manipulative womanizer here he and richardson are so consistently bland that it's a wonder their images even stick to the film glenn close however has no problems establishing a distinct personality as the villainous icon cruella devil she tears up the screen in a deliciously performance close matches the intensity of the animated cruella by becoming a cartoon herself with a fright wig red gloves with long nails attached to the fingertips garish animal skin outfits and stiletto heels close bursts through her scenes like a force of nature she's clearly having a ball playing this monstrous icon and her wicked glee is infectious when she spits out lines like you've won the battle but i'm about to win the wardrobe the film comes briefly to life dalmatians is crammed with john hughes' typical approach to comedy after an ingenuous opening showing pongo's morning routine as he gets daniels prepared for the day the film quickly tumbles into lame slapstick as the pooch drags daniels on a careening trek through a city park a little slapstick goes a long way but hughes just keeps laying it on the second half of the film where local animals team up to rescue nondescript dalmatian puppies from devil and her henchmen is a tedious home alone clone with the bad guys enduring a variety of sadistic assaults worthy of an itchy scratchy cartoon including a thug getting his testicles fried on an electric fence dalmatians has cute puppies and a hoot of a performance from glenn close but not enough to warrant enduring third rate slapstick bland characters and unconvincing animatronic raccoons one another rent the cartoon
negative	spawn may be somewhat of an older film in fact it will probably be on video before anyone who hasn't seen it will finally get to see it that is if they see it but i managed to catch it before it made it's way out of theaters and into the world of rentals and god forbid video cassette purchasing it wasn't the worst film of year by any means it isn't even on the top of the worst films of the year but it did manage to top the bottom five of the bottom ten which in simpler terms means it comes in at number on my worst of list the only reason it doesn't come in lower is thanks to the special effects which might actually have been some of the best of the year performances however were either wooden or for the most part unforgivingly campy in fact this film shows no signs of attempting to avoid campiness even the editing seemed to boast a campy quality i don't know how to explain that one it wasn't exactly choppy but something about it seemed   well annoyingly unprofessional john leguizamo almost makes it as clown but not quite he is the only character who provides the audience with any laughs that can honestly be called intentional but the main problem i found with spawn as with most films that wind up on my worst of lists is that it was just plain boring i wouldn't even say there was a climax to the film sure it had the big battle scene at the end but the only excitement felt was that the movie might be nearing a conclusion never too soon the movie did conclude in a very simple disappointing way even though it's one of the shorter movies i've seen this year it's one that i would definitely not want to subject myself to sitting thru again like i said the special effects are the only reason that this film should have any sense of pride no matter how small i was impressed with the opening sequence so long as i didn't allow the melodramatic and lobotomizing editing to get to me and batman has nothing on the spectacular visuals spawn's outfit created but even the effects got tiresome during the final scenes which looked quite a bit like a modern video game who knows if spawn the video game wasn't part of the plan from the beginning keeping in mind that the film was based on a comic book makes it somewhat more approachable and in a very small amount makes up for the cheeziness of it all but none of this movie's saving graces can it make it something i'd recommend seeing no matter what the price of admission this movie is definitely not for young children which shouldn't really be a problem seeing as how only teenagers if anyone would likely find it appealing if you really want to catch a movie there are many better ones out there no matter what your tastes might be trust me spawn has very little to offer even the most avid moviegoers
negative	from a major league baseball radio broadcast featuring play man harry canary and color man whitey hashbrown with special guest commentator james berardinelli hc as we go to the top of the we're joined in the booth by film critic james berardinelli who's here fresh from seeing the new baseball movie major league back to the minors the third in the popular saga taking a lighter look at the majors nice to see you jim as a big baseball fan and a movie reviewer can you give us the scoop on the new flick jb my opinion the producers should have stopped while they were ahead and that was nine years ago one entry was definitely enough and i'm surprised there was a third after the anemic showing and low quality of major league this latest installment has all the earmarks of something that should have been released it's worse than a mediocre feature i should also mention that this movie likely won't play all that well in cleveland now that the real indians are perennial contenders they have been replaced by the minnesota twins as the cinematic sadsacks actually most of the action involves the twins' aaa minor league club the buzz rather than the actual major league franchise hc sorry to interrupt jim but we still have to do for the game on the field leading off this inning is john warren he steps into the batter's box and takes kent's pitch low for ball one wh so the story's strictly minor league right what's it about jb scott bakula the guy from quantum leap plays career minor league pitcher gus cantrell when twins owner roger dorn once again portrayed by corbin bernsen needs a new manager for his aaa team he offers the job to gus who is now faced with two daunting tasks turn the team around and groom hot prospect downtown anderson played by walt goggins for a promotion to the show with the help of former major leaguers pedro cerrano dennis haysbert rube baker eric bruskotter and isuro tanaka takaaki ishibashi gus gets the buzz on the right track in fact he is so successful that he earns the enmity of the jealous manager of the club leonard huff played with relish by ted mcginley soon dorn has arranged an exhibition game that pits gus' overachieving group against huff's overpaid bunch wh can we guess who wins jb the results have all the suspense of watching the videotape of a game when you've already seen the box score on top of that none of the are presented with much flair they're not just boring they're lackluster but the major league movies have never been about drama or tension they've been about using baseball situations to generate laughs hc warren fouls off a fastball and wh are there lots of yuks in this one jb not one from start to finish i enjoyed the first major league because it was reasonably fresh and funny okay a lot of the jokes were sophomoric but they made me laugh the two sequels haven't just been stale but their humor quotient has been abysmally low even bob uecker's have turned lame and they're the closest the film comes to being even vaguely amusing hc here's the pitch looooooong drive fair or foul foul ball the count goes to and wh does the film at least get the baseball details correct jb yes there aren't any glaring errors like there were in one of the baseball movies the natural but i'd gladly trade a technically accurate film for one with a good story believable characters or even a little genuine humor heck the naked gun is a better baseball comedy than major league back to the minors wh it's nice to see old friends one more time isn't it like cerrano tanaka and dorn jb depends on whether you really care that anyone is back there aren't any real characters here just an assortment of cliched oddballs yeah the voodoo hitter the catcher who can't throw back to the pitcher the japanese player and the conceited have all returned but who really cares they have no depth notable absences include tom berenger's veteran and charlie sheen's wild thing we don't really miss them though hc breaking ball low and outside and wh so you're saying that we should give this one a miss jb that's right to use baseball terminology it's a strikeout if you're looking for a good movie that involves baseball try popping the natural field of dreams bull durham or even the first major league into the vcr actually this is an release since baseball fans are likely to be spending more time in parks than in theaters even the minor league seasons are already underway don't bother with major league back to the minors it's a wretched waster wh thanks for the advice jb you're welcome hc and here's the pitch fouled back right into this booth hey jim heads up oops somebody better get him some ice for that he may be good at deflecting bad baseball movies but he needs to learn not to duck into foul balls odd how warren seemed to aim that ball right at him almost as if he has a grudge to settle anyway back to the action on the field
negative	it's time to take cover after a hiatus of about fifteen years the disaster movie has come back with renewed zest in early there were no less than three movies about volcanoes alone one on television and two in the theaters with dante's peak and volcano in heavy competition for the moviegoing dollar of the two i had heard that dante's peak was the better film so i decided to check it out when it was released on video the film begins with a slow motion scene of people in a third world country trying to evacuate their little town the town is being covered in ash and sulfuric water from what we presume is a volcanic eruption flaming rocks of various sizes also fall from the sky crushing homes and people we see people panicking people crying and even horses rearing it is a disaster of biblical proportions signified to us by one person dragging a cross down a road symbolism doesn't get much more blatant than that we learn that harry dalton pierce brosnan a volcanologist with the u s geological survey was there with his wife when the eruption occurred harry survived but his wife did not a few years later harry is sent to investigate some unusual seismic activity detected near the small town of dante's peak washington which we are told has been voted second most desirable place to live under by the readers of money magazine there harry meets rachel wando a single mother of two who serves as mayor of dante's peak and proprietor of a small coffee shop although the mayor doesn't seem to be alarmed by the presence of a man sent to determine if the mountain next to their town is going to blow up a few members of the city council are they are afraid that harry's presence is going to scare off an investor who has pledged to put millions of dollars into developing dante's peak they would rather have any news of possible stirrings within the neighboring dormant volcano swept under the rug however when an amorous young couple takes a in the local hot springs they turn up cooked by lava which bubbles up from a small fissure underneath thus begins a chain of events leading up to the inevitable eruption this film contains a number of cliches the amorous couple is one as soon as they doff their clothes you know they're going to die the town busybody and the abrasive make appearances as does the dog countless familiar scenarios only serve to make this film very predictable watching the movie i was able to not only anticipate each of the major plot elements but some of the dialogue as well unfortunate since much of the dialog is terrible for example harry's boss paul charles hallahan and a team from the u s geological survey join harry to assess the situation paul basically tells the townsfolk that harry's eruption predictions aren't cause for alarm this causes harry to leave in a fit of rage only to turn up the next day ready for work when paul asks harry why he stayed he says with grim determination cause this town's in trouble and i'm the best man you've got even better is when harry is trying to explain the need to jolt the residents into leaving he likens the situation to how a frog will jump out if dropped into a pot of boiling water if the frog is in cold water which is gradually heated up however the frog won't move and will allow itself to be cooked is that your recipe for frog soup asks one of the team members it's my recipe for disaster responds harry dante's peak has a singular talent for pointing out the obvious our heroes are in a boat in the middle of a lake which harry realizes the volcanic activity has turned to acid mayor wando demonstrates her brilliant powers of deduction by proclaiming in a very grave tone acid eats metal thanks for the tip when we first see the u s geological survey building there's a caption labeling it as such this wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that the caption is right above a sign on the building which reads in large letters u s geological survey i suppose the caption is for people who can't read signs although harry and mayor wando become an item by the end of the film the viewer has no idea why there is a severe lack of chemistry between the two characters and the relationship seems rushed because of this when they get close to kissing i was asking myself why do they want to kiss were they even attracted to each other if i were the mayor i would sure think twice about kissing a guy who doesn't even crack a smile through the whole movie trying to pull off the act who does he think he is james bond the eruption of the volcano feels similarly rushed there are several warning signs prior to the eruption itself but they are so lackluster and without suspense that we don't feel as if they are leading up to anything for example one of the survey team members makes his way down into the crater of the volcano in order to retrieve a remote controlled robot a tremor occurs does he plunge headlong to his death is he engulfed in lava which shoots up from below no a couple of rocks fall on him and break his leg the sole purpose of this scene seemed to be to set up the subsequent chopper rescue scene which i suppose was intended to be dramatic as well it wasn't one plot thread left noticeably hanging was the investment in the town of dante's peak in a disaster movie there's usually one guy who's greedy enough to cover up the possibility of and usually gets killed by the disaster it's okay of course because we all think he got what he deserved if you're going to be unoriginal you might as well go all the way in dante's peak the city councilmembers are concerned but they don't really try hard enough maybe the mayor's abrasive should have been the one for no apparent reason she snaps at harry for even positing that the volcano could erupt perhaps her ancestors invested in some pompeii real estate there are a couple of good things about this movie the first is the scenery there are panoramic shots of forests lakes and mountains that are absolutely beautiful the second is the special effects they are the closest i've ever seen to a real pyroclastic eruption but when elements which don't speak are going to be the best parts of your movie you'd probably better rewrite the script
negative	capsule a and morality play masquerading as entertainment so muddled it doesn't even know what it's really advocating if anything a time to kill has been hailed as the best of the grisham adaptations and it's easy to see why it presents a strong almost rancorously so story it is full of good actors samuel l jackson matthew mcconaughey sandra bullock kevin spacey charles dutton and it's ostensibly about some important social issue that we're all tangling with it is not however a good movie and all of the reasons i've listed above have something to do with why right from the beginning the movie is on stacking its deck as thoroughly and unrepentantly as possible a pair of redneck whites boozed and drugged out of their minds kidnap a young black girl abuse and rape her horribly and leave her for dead after their arrest their father jackson takes an assault rifle and guns them down on the way to trial mcconaughey is then drafted in as his lawyer and the rest is somehow strangely predictable courtoom movie dramatics the acting is not quite what it should be given the cast we have sandra bullock who is a good actress but not a serious one looks clueless spacey's accent switches itself on and off at random and he's given a totally thankless role to play as well a role without an iota of depth and mcconaughey's role is stamped from the cardboard back of a cereal box the most memorable role is donald sutherland's and his is a bit part i always consider it an index of a movie's desperation when it is able to present shocking and outlandish events and somehow not have them generate an ounce of impact there is one scene a riot outside the courtroom that should have created incredible tension but winds up playing out like a textbook exercise on how not to deploy a scene like this because the movie doesn't know what it's really about it can't generate any genuine tension and so it has to artifically inject tension through clumsy plotting one of the ways it does this is by throwing in a whole subplot about a bunch of vicious kkk which is tidied up so neatly that it borders on the nihilistic i was reminded of the despicable betrayed which tried to tart up a fundamentally empty story by injecting vile graphic acts of racism as little more than an the movie immolates an enormous amount of its potential by making a few critical mistakes first of all the jackson character is not hard to judge there's no tension in his dilemma he's guilty and should be sent to jail no matter how moral his crusade the old saw about how no court in the land would convict him if he was white is supposed to be the underlying theme of the movie but it's never developed into an organic component of the story it just sort of floats around on top while the movie grinds away furiously with its plot mechanics another mistake is in motivational logic by not having the two white thugs arraigned first or maybe tried and then dismissed from lack of evidence say we have that much less empathy for jackson's character i'm probably supposed to think that just because he had his daughter raped we are automatically supposed to feel empathy for him but that's precisely the kind of facile thinking that makes real justice impossible see the virgin spring for more on that note is jackson's character then simply insane that prospect isn't given terribly serious treatment either one of the most aggravating things about coutroom movies is how little they seem to know about how the law works or how lawyers get their information mcconaughey's character makes an important slipup late in the movie when one of his witnesses turns out to have been convicted of a capital offense how did the prosecution get this information how come he didn't get it the whole way these questions get handled are symptomatic of the movie's way of dealing with complex legal and moral questions in cheap screenwriterly fashion this is the biggest problem the movie isn't about jackson's character or his dilemma or this case or any of its frequently interesting despite the porcine writing and direction characters it's not ultimately about anything at all except its stupid plot which inches onwards in one unremarkable scene after another towards a totally contrived ending at two and a half hours the movie is overlong and drastically overwritten there's endless stuff about things which ultimately add up to nothing and no writing about the material that should really matter it's all handwaving the closing argument are also sneaky and underhanded and underscored my suspicion that the movie is manipulative and unfair it's not easy to make a movie about something the other day i saw kurosawa's phenomenal rashomon a movie that is really about the way people deal with truth and reality or don't a time to kill is as empty and ponderous a movie as i've seen in a long time
negative	deep rising gives you that sinking feeling both literally and figuratively not only does the movie take place on a cruise ship slowly being immersed into the middle of the ocean by a menace but the unfolding story is artificial silly and almost completely derivative of countless other and for the most part better films while dumb monster movies can at least be decent guilty pleasures take for example the schlocky mountain highs of last spring's anaconda deep rising has no tongue to put in its cheek folks we're only a month into the new year and already here's a candidate for one of its stinkiest releases most of the action takes place on the argonautica a luxury liner in the middle of its maiden voyage if these people had seen titanic then maybe they'd have known to stay home when it's attacked by a giant tentacled sea creature the only survivors are slinky jewel thief trilian famke janssen argonautica owner canton anthony heald and a few other crew members a mercenary team lead by resourceful captain john finnegan treat williams board the argonautica looking for assistance after their own boat breaks down nearby but what their search of the ship uncovers is something hungry and not very helpful the main problem with deep rising is its overt familiarity the movie makes absolutely no attempt to differentiate itself from most films in recent memory the concept is leviathan meets titanic with a dash of speed thrown in for good or is that bad measure this monster is equal parts leagues under the sea and the relic knows how to open doors like the raptors from jurassic park and even gets to expel a victim a neat effect admittedly a la the giant snake in anaconda some of the attack sequences are straight out of jaws and alien a scene where the remaining survivors have to travel under water to escape death is right out of alien resurrection there's even a jet ski chase like hard rain and the list goes on watching deep rising cast battle the beast is a murky chore in itself because none of them have characters nor do they seem to project even the slightest sense of fear when facing their enemy williams is affable enough but his finnegan just isn't believable an interesting supporting cast is thoroughly wasted pretty famke janssen best known as goldeneye killer thighs is trapped in a forced romantic interest with williams while kevin j o'connor as finnegan's mechanic provides comic relief with screechy manic shtick that gets old fast djimon honsou who received raves for his performance as a noble slave in december's amistad pops up in a brief part he needs to stay away from the water the movie's final shot is a groaner as is the regurgitation of a subplot involving an saboteur as if a cast deserving of their snack isn't bad enough when you taunt the monster you're really asking for it deep rising is a slow stupid slog through a story without a single bright spot and since we all know that the higher the casualty rate is the closer we are to the end of the movie rooting for this overgrown squid to swallow the whole ship isn't out of the question
negative	mandingo has traditionally been seen as one of two things either a revisionist look at slavery in the south or in the words of film critic leonard maltin a trashy potboiler that appeals only to the crowd actually i think mandingo is a strange combination of the two although it fails on both fronts it's too trashy to be good drama but too dramatic to be good trash the story takes place on a dilapidated louisiana plantation run by crotchety old warren maxwell james mason and his son hammond perry king one day in new orleans hammond comes across a slave trader selling a mandingo named mede heavyweight boxer ken norton although the movie never explains it a mandingo is simply the name for africans who come from the region of the upper niger river valley according to the movie mandingos were the rolls royce of african slaves hammond pays top price for mede and has to fight off others in order to get him hammond then spends his time training mede to be a fighter in money brawls with other slaves meanwhile hammond has married his cousin blanche susan george because she wants to escape her family and he is under pressure from his father to produce a grandchild hammond however is happier spending nights with his bed wench the derogatory name given to female slaves used by their masters for easy sex it is quickly apparent that hammond despite his overt racism is more in love with his bed wench a sensitive slave girl named ellen brenda sykes than he is with blanche hammond considers blanche tainted goods because he finds out on their wedding night that another man had pleasured her before he did of course it's fine that he's slept with numerous slave girls but the fact that his wife a white lady had been with another man out of wedlock destroys his capacity to care for her so blanche is usually left lonely and while hammond is sleeping with ellen blanche gets back at hammond by seducing the studly mede and bearing his child hammond and his father cannot stand the idea that blanche has given birth to a child although it's okay that ellen was pregnant by hammond so warren kills the child by letting it bleed to death after birth and hammond poisons blanche hammond then finds mede shoots him twice in the shoulder and pushes him into a giant cauldron of boiling water yes you read right the film ends with hammond getting his revenge by boiling mede alive judging only by the plot mandingo is pure sexploitation the main purpose of the film seems to be getting as many blacks and whites into bed together as possible with only the slightest commentary on what that would mean in century southern society when mandingo was released in it was still a bit of a shocker to see miscegenation on screen in such a graphic detail this way the movie could revise cinematic history while attracting large audiences of curious voyeurs dramatically mandingo is weak and unfocused and historically it's mostly confused if one were to judge history by this film it would be easy to walk away with the notion that the entire system of american slavery was based on sexuality not economics not once in the film do we see any of the slaves working except for a few house servants the men spend most of the time sitting around while the sole purpose of a female slave seems to be free sex for the owner there is historical basis in the notion that slave owners often slept with their female slaves but mandingo's overwhelming emphasis on this aspect of slavery gives the movie the unpleasant taste of a cheap sex flick although there's plenty of violence fights vicious beatings shootings and the aforementioned human boiling sequence thrown in for good measure some tried to write off mandingo as a blaxploitation film one of a number of films appealing to black sensibilities in the early seventies but it's not that easy mandingo was by paramount pictures and produced by dino de laurentiis the grandiose italian producer behind such notorious productions as the bible the remake of king kong and the dune the director was richard fleischer a veteran who was best known for several special action movies including leagues under the sea and fantastic voyage as well as such superior suspense films as the narrow margin the script based on the supermarket by ken ostott and the subsequent play by jack kirkland was penned by norman wexler who had been nominated for an oscar two years earlier for his work on serpico james mason perry king and susan george were and respected actors mason already had three oscar nominations under his belt and ken norton appeared to have a promising film career so why is mandingo so bad a number of reasons including the fact that all those experienced filmmakers behind and in front of the camera did a lousy job wexler's script is pure poor hokum bordering on the offensive it combines stereotyped yessuh massuh stereotyped southern white trash talk fer whut're you gittin' outta bed and stereotyped contemporary militant black talk if you see me hang you gonna know you killed a black brother fleischer's direction is clumsy especially during the fight scenes and all the actors give weak performances especially susan george whose constant shrieking finally becomes laughable nevertheless credit should be given where credit is due despite its exploitative nature mandingo was one of the first hollywood movies to take an alternative look at slavery until then there had been a kind of underlying racism in all hollywood films dealing with slavery even classics such as gone with the wind can be seen as inherently racist by its glossing over the subject matter mandingo reassessed the south and showed that it wasn't all beautiful plantations green fields and pretty sunsets but all this is constantly undermined by the film's negligible it claims to see things from the black perspective but the entire narrative focus is on the soap opera tales of the white owners with a little more maturity and different handling mandingo might have been an effective worthwhile film while it portrays many sensitive aspects of slavery it never deals with them the issues the movie brings up are worthwhile but wexler's script refuses to move them beyond a surface level of trashily vicarious viewing there is a great deal of potential in honestly exploring the nature of a sexual relationship between slave and owner but mandingo never does it steven spielberg touched on that same topic in schindler's list by looking at a nazi officer writhing in inner turmoil because of his feelings for a jewish maid the difference between that film and mandingo is that spielberg dealt with the situation in a fair unexploitive manner that focused on the inherent human dilemma mandingo is satisfied to simply show some skin and because of that its trashy potboiler nature overshadows any potential social good it might have accomplished
negative	the above is dialogue from this film taken almost completely in context and not jazzed up a bit to make it more inept than it is it is spoken between two of the protagonists somewhere in the film and basically serves as a perfect example of what this film is about especially if you realize that this exchange is meant to be taken seriously mr gregg araki the writer and director of this film wants to show how important teenagers are and wants to show how they feel in such a horrible horrible world and how does he show it by really cheap surrealism and moronic exchanges like this oh and it gets better a similar bit of dialogue is said in the middle of oh i dunno the fiftieth sex scene in this film i'm not counting the several masturbation scenes in it one of the protagonists is humping away on top of another and he says to her something along the lines of do you ever wonder what life is all about sorry man foreplay takes place before the act of coitus of course what do you expect the film was written and directed by a guy who can't even spell his first name right yes i know it's a cheap joke but it had to be done the doom generation is advertised as a road trip movie about people who go around killing others who attack them and also as another teen angst film one of the slogans is teen is a word hardy har har it's a film about two angsty teens amy blue rose macgowan who would later play the buxom tatum in scream and jordon white james duval who would go on to play randy quaid's son in independence day who pick up an angsty homicidal maniac xavier red jonathan schaech who would go on to play the angsty lead guitarist in that thing you do and by the way do you get the symbolism red white and blue huh huh and go on a road trip where three things happen in no order they have sex they run into weird people they kill them the film is basically a remix of a bunch of other far superior films gregg araki obviously has seen such films as easy rider natural born killers and kalifornia and tries to borrow elements from all these films and make something which is like a pop culture reference guide but what he forgets is these films either represented something that this film does not or that they dug deep into their subjects and brought something out of them to make them deeper the doom generation doesn't want to do this it just wants to show everything in a surreal manner for the sole reason that araki does not want to deal with them on any kind of real level he wants to show everything in a weird manner and forgets what the scenes are supposed to be about here's one scene an earlier scene in the film amy and jordan go into a mart type place to get food and other stuff amy is smoking and the clerk an asian man mind you i love how racist this film is i really do tells her to put it out she tells him to fuck off or something to that note he points a shotgun at her and she puts it out reluctantly jordan makes two hot dogs and takes them to the counter the cash register rings up oh and this symbolism doesn't stop here jordan checks for his wallet but it's really in the car he asks amy for it but she left her wallet in the car as well the clerk brings out his shotgun again and asks for the money they say they don't have it he gets ready to kill them but then xavier who they ditched in the middle of nowhere a scene before pops out of nowhere fights with the clerk and ends with him blowing the clerk's head clean off clean wound mind you the head is shown flying through the air and lands in a fryer where it begins to scream i don't really object to this kind of sick violence but this scene is in the film for one reason and one reason only to gross you out araki thinks that if he takes everything to the extreme he'll make some kind of art wrong it takes a kind of resistance to make gore art when george romero made dawn of the dead a very gory flick even for today he had control over everything and still was able to make everything sick same goes for peter jackson's disgustingly gory dead alive which features a minute long fest of blood guts dismemberments flesh chewing and other assorted stuff all ending with a guy with a lawn mower strapped to his body taking out all sorts of zombies it was sick but it was also satirical and controled a scene like this has no purpose in the film and it sticks out from everything else that happens here's a couple other scenes jordan and amy have sex in a bath tub and xavier watches masturbates and then licks the semen from his hand xavier and amy have sex and jordan watches from the window masturbates and falls backwards a man attacks the trio and is stabbed in the crotch by a giant sword put there just so this could happen a fast food employee stalks the trio and his arm is shot off by xavier and various other annoyances also look for about a million camoes from a wide assortment of people who probably didn't really know what they were getting into when they signed up to do it just like peter o'toole helen mirren malcolm macdowell and john gielgud probably didn't when they signed to be in caligula people such as indie actors parker posey and nicky katt alternative rock stars skinny puppy and perry farrel hollywood madam heidi fleiss christopher peter brady mcknight amanda bearse and margaret cho all grace the screen for a matter of seconds then disappear so that we can return to the annoying main plot line why are they here so that we can all point to them and say hey look it's fill in the blank wow gimme a break the film's meaning is pretty easy to detect that you know teens are so precious and the world is such a horrible place that when the two entities collide there's a giant explosion of horrific violence otherwise defined as teen angst or the belief that being a teenager is a horrible thing and that the world is too bad for you look i'm years old i went through a very brief teen angst thing which curiously lasted about as long as my taste in nirvana did i've since moved on to i don't really know what to do with my life phase but the teen angst phase is something which is so annoyingly sophomoric and ignorant that any film that thinks they're dealing with it on any kind of serious level is just beating the wrong horse part of being a teen is experimenting and testing the waters it's not whining about how awful parents are and purposely feeling dispondent this is what the characters in this film do and the film wants to show how they're these great people who are being punished by the world because they're teenagers and how they try to defend themselves but can't totally overcome them it's not their fault they kill people it's the world's what they really need is a reality check the world is a bad place and teenagers can be easily harmed because they are experimenting but part of it is taking everything that happens to you and learning from it the film thinks that teenagers are basically doomed and there's nothing they can do about it hence the title not only does it have bad fallacy but it can't even express this in an intelligent and coherent manner everything's overly surreal and all we get are scenes of graphic violence and graphic sex how does xavier licking semen off his hand express teen angst how does a talking decapitated head show that teens are dispondent because the world makes them this way and why does the film constantly go back to the teen angst issue of the film if araki had any kind of competence in writing or direction he'd show them for what they really are and if he didn't want the satirical approach he'd show the real problems with the world and if you still don't think that the doom generation is incompetent on every single possible level it could be take the acting rose macgowan is horrible yes she proved herself talented in scream but she's so bad in the doom generation that if i had not seen her in scream i would have christened her one of the worst actresses working in films today her entire performance is bitchy and the one scene where she cries over a dead animal is so forced that it's laughable equally bad is jonathan schaech who wants to be the slacker serial killer someone who doesn't have any remorse because emotions cause some kind of strain his performance is annoying as hell and granted he was better in that thing you do and then there's james duval let's just say he makes keanu reeves look like brando he has the same kind of slacker stuttering only much much much worse and every line he says is so bad that i have now deemed him least talented actor in the world i have seen lots of bad actors but james duval has got to be the worst or at least somewhere up there here's another example of a bad scene if you're still not convinced the film opens up in a club where they're playing nine inch nail's most banal song heresy example of the lines god is no one there is a see you there and as the song plays and red strobe lights show the patrons dancing the film pans over to amy just standing there looking dispondent the film closes in on her she looks right at the camera and says fuck no explanation of this should be necessary and finally a note to gregg grow up really move out of your parent's basement read something other than salinger and get a day job and don't quit it
negative	ladybugs is a typical comedy that relies on three supposed guarantees the pathetic team who beats the champs cross dressing and the presence of rodney dangerfield this picture doesn't play like a comedy for children so who is it aimed at and why is it told like a instead of a feature film rodney dangerfield stars as chester lee a total schmuck working at a huge corporation he obviously doesn't have a lot of self esteem and thinks he has to kiss up to get ahead which he does by volunteering to coach the company's girls' soccer team what a shock to learn chester and his assistant julie jackee know absolutely nothing about the game and the players seem to know even less i didn't laugh but for some reason it didn't annoy me that much chester's fiancee bess graff thinks he got a promotion in addition to the coaching position and of course she has a slacker for a son who is doing poorly in school and is kicked off the sports teams jonathon brandis is a nice surprise as matthew who agrees to dress up as a girl named martha to help out chester probably because the girl he has a crush on plays on the team what original story ideas what we get is just another retread of the underdog sports team mixed with some cross dressing unfortunately the film isn't smart enough to play upon the drag aspect in fact it downplays it so heavily it's totally unbelievable could it be any more obvious martha is a boy he only wears a girl's wig without any makeup and they don't even give him falsies brandis doesn't bother to mimic a girl's voice either then there is a pointless scene where chester and matthew shop for a dress but for what reason martha is only seen on the soccer field why would they buy a dress for her just when we think the martha character is going to be useful she disappears and the story wanders aimlessly looking for a new plot to pick up on when bess discovers what's really going on she breaks up with chester and the relationship is forgotten about and the film focuses on the soccer team and the tension between chester and his boss this film could've been less bad had it been the cliche sports comedy but it feels the need to go off on tangents that are completely unnecessary and bad at that there's just too much of a feel here especially during the serious moments and all the confusion between the characters i've seen worse movies than ladybugs but for some reason it contained some sort of bizarre charm so even when it turns sour it doesn't seem as bad as it is dangerfield finally gets his respect in the end but at what a price
negative	the happy bastard's quick movie review the concept of enjoying a stupid comedy is best realized as keeping it stupid really shift gears even once and the audience can be thrown miserably out of control sadly that is the case with kingpin a film directed by the farrelly brothers the duo that brought us there's something about mary and dumb and dumber since the duo directed and didn't write the script i can assume that's part of the problem the story seems good enough a pro bowler in the by the name of roy munson woody harrelson is sitting on top of the world his popularity has gone through the roof and he's getting his career off the ground then however he runs into ed mccracken bill murray a rival bowler with hardly any real consideration for well anything these two form an relationship that involves risky betting and before roy sees it coming ed's abandoned him and he's about to lose his hand in a bowling ball machine forward seventeen years later where roy has become quite the loser complete with mechanical hand car and of course the occasional knocking up of the landlord to avoid paying rent for a while however he finds a glimmer of a hope upon a visit to a local bowling alley where he runs into an amish kid named ishmael randy quaid who has quite the bowling arm with the kid's help he figures he can be known again particularly at the biggest bowling tournament rapidly approaching in reno nevada of course the amish kid needs some coaxing particularly when you consider well he's amish this leads to some of the best comic scenes in the film such as roy's process of removing horseshoes or milking the cow finally the duo get on the road and along the way pick up an additional a beautiful hustler played by the gorgeous vanessa angel the main problem i had with kingpin wasn't the fact it wasn't funny in fact it does have some rather hilarious scenes in it such as the aformentioned above and roy's explanation of not having children something involving a cheese grater but that's just scenes there's a couple of really serious scenes that throw off the entire momentum of the movie like the abuse angel takes from her hustler i mean was this really necessary couldn't have this been handled just a bit wackier i mean this is a comedy why throw ethics in particularly in a farrelly brothers vehicle where hair gel can be easily mistaken that really ruined it however and that's too bad the acting is top notch especially from angel and murray and the really funny scenes are worth noting still if you're going to think dumb think dumb all the way through ok at least the farrelly brothers got back on track with mary or i'd still be a little bit irked
negative	shagadellic groovy baby smashing adorn the page ad for this movie tabbed as the comedy in america as of may did we attend the same movie at minutes it seemed overlong like a snl skit on steroids and at any length it seemed unfunny yes the sets and costumes were an interesting exaggeration of pop frills and yes the concept dealing with a secret icon played by myers awakened from his cryogenic slumber to battle his arch enemy dr evil also played by myers in the present day had a great deal of potential fun costumes and scenery and potential do not a movie make so lets throw in a hefty dose of bathroom humor don't get me wrong i like a good bubbles in the bathtub joke as much as the next person but to have this type of humor be the funniest thing about your movie is a waste of yuor talent and my money but the way things work these days in the movie business all a film has to do is call itself the funniest and people will believe it i do give this film stars because of the sets costumes and sadly unmet potential
negative	robin williams this time without a beard returns to drama in this sloppy sickly sweet fantasy with few redeeming features apart from the incredible effects he plays chris nielsen who meets annie annabella sciora and promptly marries her they have two great kids who sadly die in a car crash just when it couldn't get any worse chris gets killed in a car crash and goes to heaven where he meets his guide albert gooding jnr annie can't take the grief anymore and kills herself all sounding like good fun so far the for suicide is to go to hell and chris goes on a mission to try and rescue her using the help of the traveller max von sydow based on a novel by twilight zone writer richard matheson what dreams may come is clunky manufactured material doused with a extra load of sugar this is the worse spielberg film spielberg never made everything is wrong about this movie the performances are forced and the audiences fail to relate to any of the characters williams puts on a convincing upset face but that's all it is a face there's no emotion behind it sciora's performance is lazy and bogs down the whole film she may look pretty but she can't act max von sydow is o k as the traveller if nothing special cuba gooding jnr thankfully adds some bounce to his performance and is certainly the best performer in the film it's a shame that his character is so flat and and offers no room for improvement all the performers have to work with a soppy script that tries it's best to get some emotion going but never takes off the ground there are scenes which could be real heartwarmers but the faceless characters don't help to get anything out of the performers while films like e t used great actors music and direction to pull of a masterful scene what dreams may come is haphazard expecting the emotion to come out of the scene automatically instead it's all rather boring sure the music is pretty by michael kamen and the cinematography isn't bad by eduardo serra but there's something lacking the script doesn't help filled with hopeless romantic clich s and dud speeches richard matheson can write some awesome science fiction stories sadly this novel would look embarrassed in a bargain bin let alone being converted into a million vehicle for robin williams despite being set in heaven what dreams may come is mightily depressing the film rushes a happy ending but everything before this is very very sad and black which just adds to make the ending even more hopeless and stupid but there's one redeeming feature about this failure of a movie the special effects heaven and hell are truly incredible places and the actors fit perfectly with the virtual sets but despite this what dreams may come proves to be nothing but the biggest disappointment of instead of raising questions about existence it raises boredom sadly i recommend you give this film a miss better luck next time robin a david wilcock review you know for kids norville barnes
negative	the catch phrase for disney's rocket man is one spoken by fred z randall harland williams the bumbling idiot computer programmer turned astronaut who continuously wreaks havoc everywhere he goes it wasn't me he proclaims over and over as the aftermath of his stupidity brings about looks of disgust from the others well when it comes to this movie being as horrible as it is williams can't take all the blame but he sure can't justify himself with his own simple tag line either fred has dreamed of space travel since he was a young boy turning the clothes dryer into a mock space shuttle and staring out at a poster of the earth as a fred hasn't grown up much but at least he's somewhat closer to his goal now designing astronaut software for nasa when an astronaut for an upcoming mission to mars becomes injured nasa calls on the person who knows the programming inside and out to fill the void   fred yes although he's an obviously klutzy moron nasa doesn't think twice about throwing him into a rigorous training program so he can assist one of the most important events the space program and time itself has ever known for the first part of the film we watch as fred takes on the training program much like an amusement park he laughs he screams but he never once breaks a sweat or views the preparation as anything more than child's play his passive approach to the program eventually leads to many feats much to the dismay of cocky counterpart mission commander captain overbeck william sadler who once held the records overbeck will regretfully accompany fred and two others to the red planet one being astronaut julie ford the stupids' jessica lundy and the other being a chimpanzee who is much more civilized than our antagonizing protagonist from here on out we are subjected to one lame gag after another dealing with snot laxatives and flatulence you know standard kid movie material almost sounding like a poor james stewart impressionist williams is awful in his first starring role we get the feeling that if jerry lewis and herman were related and produced an inbred offspring williams would be it while he's not as annoying as other actors who cater to zany stupid comedy he's just as unlikeable to say it more understandably jim carrey might annoy you more but this guy is even less funny why because while he possesses the stupidness needed to pull off such a role his performance is too understated and boring classic comedic dunces were generally oblivious to their own idiocy stan laurel for example was so innocent in all his that we were immediately fond of him peter sellers as inspector clouseau was so and confident that when he did something as simple as trip it was humor at it's best williams on the other hand can't garner the pity he needs to make us love him in all his as for the rest of the cast including some bigger names in smaller roles beau bridges and shelley duvall nobody is worth watching whatsoever this is just another example of the equivalent of cinema less than mediocre over priced and hard to stomach giving it stars is extremely generous but even i'll admit to laughing a few times the amazing thing is that even in a theater packed with little kids laughter was something rarely heard even from the children i must admit that it gave me more respect for the kids when they didn't crack up over every little thing then again maybe they were asleep some people might think critics are harsh on kid movies claiming adults aren't the targeted audience and therefore aren't meant to and won't enjoy them sadly it's also true that kids will enjoy almost anything if it's presented right a still shot of a dog with a cartoonish voice over could entertain a lot of toddlers out there but would that make it as artistic as beauty and the beast which could easily do the same thing and saying that a parent's perspective isn't important is quite a poor theory to have when they're the ones who take the kids to these films in the first place
negative	based on the novel set in by joseph conrad victory spins a tale of a pair of lovers heyst william dafoe and alma irene jacob who seek refuge on heyst's isolated island however their idyllic world begins to crumble upon the arrival of mr jones sam neil martin ricardo rufus sewell and their servant pedro graziano marcelli who have come to steal heyst's rumoured plunder while the novel is largely complex in characterization the film sadly transposes conrad's characters into lacklustre leads the most disappointing being heyst himself conrad's heyst adheres religiously to his late father's ways of detachment and isolation his ascetic lifestyle is thrown into question when he meets alma a helpless orchestra girl who charms him with her voice the struggle to embrace the arrival of alma into his solitude however is lost in mark peploe's director and writer diluted version of heyst without properly establishing the crucial details of heyst's character all that is left of conrad's main character is a very shallow treatment of his internal conflict between detachment and human involvement on the one hand actualizing the subtext is a mammoth task though not impossible but on the other hand dafoe's flat acting cannot be excused as an attempt at stoicism in the end we are supposed to witness heyst renounce his philosophy and finally come to an understanding of what it is to love another the final transformation while perceptible lacks the cathartic revelation which is undeniable in conrad's novel its absence in the film is unforgivable the film seems more concerned about moving the plot along when so much has yet to be said about the relationship between the two complete strangers alma is supposed to have overcome great emotional barriers in the relationship namely heyst's underlying philosophy of detachment which heyst himself grapples with the struggle against heyst's ignorance of true human involvement accounts for much of the greatness of alma's love for him jacob gentle and yet passionate handles the role with precision detailing nuances where possible unfortunately she is let down by a superficial script the couple's relationship develops too hastily leaving all subtlety effaced and replaced with a blatant approach all we know of the characters are mostly explained by their lines alone this is unsatisfactory when so much of the turmoil experienced by the two stem from their buried thoughts and emotions the sketchy handling of their relationship stands out as sorely as dafoe's american accent an inappropriate one since heyst spent most of his life in london the other characters such as schomberg jean yanne the owner of a hotel and mr jones sam neill also fall short of conrad's meticulous characterization while schomberg should have been more menacing and vindictive mr jones should have been portrayed as something more of an enigma sam neil's caricature of a slightly stout effeminate and nullifies the effect intended by conrad who describes mr jones as an insolent spectre on leave from hades endowed with skin and bones and a subtle power of terror poor characterization aside kudos goes to rufus sewell for his excellent portrayal of ricardo secretary to mr jones a reckless ruffian capable of murder sewell with his cockney accent and large expressive green eyes becomes the true terror of the unholy trinity masterminding deceitful plans behind jones' back at the same time we are entertained by the foolhardiness of his plans despite the authentic setting and marvellous cinematography by bruno de keyzer very few images are left behind for us to savour after the film has ended sourabaya and its surrounding islands and volcanoes may have their charm but mean nothing once the film fails to capture the essence of an epic which is what victory deserves to be the delicately complexities in the love story are lost to an inadequate production at the end of the film we are told that perhaps alma's victory was in teaching heyst how to love a hollow victory indeed the flying inkpot's rating system wait for the video a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
negative	a couple of criminals mario van peebles and loretta devine move into a rich family's house in hopes of conning them out of their jewels however someone else steals the jewels before they are able to get to them writer mario van peebles delivers a clever script with several unexpected plot twists but director mario van peebles undermines his own high points with haphazard camera work editing and pacing it felt as though the film should have been wrapping up at the hour mark but alas there was still more minutes to go daniel baldwin i can't believe i'm about to type this gives the best performance in the film outshining the other talented members of the cast 
negative	chill factor is a carbon copy of speed with one notable exception instead of a speeding bus we now have an ice cream truck the truck is driven by arlo cuba gooding jr and mason skeet ulrich who have been instructed by a dying scientist to transport a deadly chemical weapon to a military base by the name of fort mcgruder this particular weapon nicknamed must be kept below a temperature of degrees or else the shockwave will everything in a mile radius that would be pretty nasty the power of elvis is revealed in the opening scene as dr richard long david paymer conducts a test on an isolated tropical island long accidentally melts soldiers and defoliates virtually the entire island due to an enormously miscalculated safety distance the commanding officer general brynner peter firth is sentenced to years in prison for the murder of his troops upon his release the general is intent on tracking the good doctor down snatching elvis and selling the weapon to the highest international bidder protecting the fate of the world is a drifting hamburger flipper ulrich and a feisty ice cream delivery man gooding jr who must elude brynner's men and get elvis to safety at fort mcgruder all the while of course they must keep the weapon below degrees this proves to be tricky among the wild adventures arlo and mason partake in is a trip down a mountainside in a boat and a fist fight on top of a moving vehicle they also crack a few dozen witty retorts that we are supposed to find amusing to put it simply i'll use a clever pun chill factor should be put on ice director hugh johnson has mixed elements from speed broken arrow and the lethal weapon series to create a lifelessly bland cocktail of a chase movie when there is some occasional action the audience seems oddly detached from it perhaps that's because we've already waded through a pool of clich s and boring dialogue all material that's been used before and with a lot more spice take the villains for example they are typical stereotypes of every terrorist that has ever walked the silver screen they speak lines that have been recycled profusely from one movie to the next divulge important plot details while holding their enemies at gunpoint and act in very predictable ways the of gooding jr and ulrich sounds much more exciting than it is frankly i'm not sure i can accept cuba as an ice cream man i suppose it's better than him dressed like a giant hot dog selling jumbo frankfurters on a street corner gooding displays one single emotion in this movie which is frequently on display in lines like gonna get on yo ass like last year's underwear and the incessant sputtering of sh t this is virtually the same character he played in jerry maguire and as good as it gets but where gooding was once an exciting actor he now seems dull and endlessly monotonous at least he's a bit more captivating than ulrich who has all the film's worst dialogue but does nothing noticeable to enliven his character the supporting cast which includes every personality you expect to pop up is also wasted to be fair there are a few brief moments of serviceable action and i did chuckle a few times one example is when ulrich an employee at diner' is at the counter when brynner walks through the door own this place the general asks ulrich says call me darlene these little tidbits of humor are mainly welcome in this weak disappointing wreckage of an action film as a speed clone it could have benefited from a lot more suspense and perhaps god forbid even some decent writing sadly i walked away from chill factor only wondering how much fun it could have been
negative	warning the following review contains spoilers cast gary sinise don cheadle connie nielsen jerry o'connell kim delaney tim robbins elise neal jill teed jody thompson bill timoney written by jim thomas john thomas and graham yost directed by brian depalma running time minutes the first big event movie of turns out to be anything but gary sinise stars as an astronaut who is removed from a mars mission when his astronaut wife maggie kim delaney becomes ill and passes away don cheadle is then given the mission along with a russian couple and a young hotshot when a strange whirlwind shot from the top of a mars mountain range attacks the crew of the mission sinise and robbins convince their superior to let them neilsen and o'connell perform a rescue mission for whatever crew might be remaining what they discover on the surface of the planet will dramatically change their lives forever although no one watching the film will come away profoundly affected before i ever saw the film i was aware of the promotional campaign with dr pepper every time i would see a bottle of the soft drink the mission to mars logo was emblazoned upon it little did i know that the plot would be taking a back seat to the product placement of the drink and several other products dr pepper saves the day at one point and a dream features jerry o'connell shoving in our face these are but a couple of the ridiculous examples of product placement scattered throughout the film clich s are also the order of the day with mission to mars dialogue and character motivations are all lifted directly from countless other science fiction films that have all done it better and with more style even independence day which lifted all of it's premises from other films was better than this film and i don't like independence day films like a space odyssey the abyss and close encounters of the third kind are all blatantly stolen from and poorly at that there is even a sequence where a rover is traveling through a canyon and i couldn't help but whisper u'tinni to myself and wait for a jawa to quickly hide in the rocks before the rover could get a glimpse of it this film also features one of my least favorite movie clich s the he would have wanted you to have this moment where one character gives another a trinket that yet another character is established as constantly having and is usually made fun of by the character who ends up getting all sappy over it later on scenes like these always bother me when they come out of nowhere in regular films but in a film as clich ridden as this it is particularly irritating ennio morricone's music is usually considered to be some of the best stuff in the projects he works on but here it is dreadfully overbearing his music sounds like it came straight out of a vincent price movie in certain scenes at other times his music is unbearably one sequence involving a daring spacewalk rescue is given a particularly cheesy sting when it is discovered that the grappling hook device used for the rescue won't reach its intended target mission to mars is push button filmmaking to the greatest extreme events are set into motion that are obvious to anyone who has ever seen a movie and seem like they are just there to evoke an emotional response in the audience we are apparently supposed to be upset that tim robbins character removes his helmet in deep space and kills himself to save his wife but i felt extreme boredom coupled with a twinge of disinterest what makes it all worse is that fact that there is no real reason that robbins' character needs to turn himself into a popsicle except to invoke an emotional response i could think of at least one way to save him and the nasa clowns in this film are supposed to be smarter than i am during the finale when we are finally introduced to the translucent conehead aliens that we ostensibly sprung from we are presented with some of the most ridiculously cartoonish cgi ever put to film just slightly worse than the plane crash at the end of air force one or the hell scenes in spawn a brief history lesson about where we came from is proffered then sinise is whisked away to be with the rest of our people he does this because his late wife proclaims in a video he watches early on that this is a chance to step foot where no one else has the press i've been seeing this film receive it is apparent that mission to mars will be dying a quick death at the theater i'm sure the first weekend or two will be huge but once word gets out people will stop going let's just hope the upcoming red planet is better than this and isn't hurt by the negativity this film is generating i'd venture to say it won't be worse than this waste of time 
negative	retrospective city of the living dead a film review by mike watson copyright mike watson i once heard someone describe the films of italian schlock horror director lucio fulci as and by golly just about all other words fail me when confronted with a dog like city of the living dead although the late fulci managed some rather good thrillers in his career this is not one of them two points in the movie's favour the impressive camerawork of sergio salvati and occasionally evocative score by fabio frizzi keep things from falling totally into the abyss but by and large city of the living dead is a failure and like most cinematic failures it comes down to bad writing dumb performances and lousy direction the story starts in new york when during a seance a medium katherine mccoll sees a vision of a priest hanging himself in the town of dunwich massachusetts for reasons we won't go into here this opens the gates of hell which must be closed by all saints day or the dead will rise and walk the earth the medium apparently dies of fright during the seance but awakens in her coffin in the graveyard the next day and is rescued by a crusty old journalist christopher george that scene in itself is a howler why would you bust open a coffin with a large pick axe when you know someone is alive inside and don't cadavers have various things stuffed in them and drained out of them before they're buried anyway off the two of them go to dunwich to save the world where various grisly are already happening as all saints day approaches fulci's graphic gore is in evidence once again but here it only serves to further highlight the film's flimsy script and plodding direction the dialogue in all manner of speaking is unspeakable not bad in the quotable sense like an ed wood film but bad in its sheer dullness or blatantly obvious lets explain the plot type approach mccoll doesn't have a clue who her character is deadly serious one minute frivolous the next she at times is genuinely hard to watch and the geezer the actor's name escapes me who plays the town psychiatrist becomes even harder to stomach than mccoll as the film progresses christopher george's performance is salvageable but he gets his brains ripped out in the end by a zombie and we don't care in fact we don't care for anyone in city of the living dead though in other fulci films that hasn't mattered so much when he was on form as a stylist and an ideas man as he was in the beyond as a director some of fulci' idiosyncrasies are incredibly silly and annoying here he constantly uses extreme of people's eyes a ridiculous technique which suggests an attempt to convey the emotion that his dialogue and actors aren't capable of and despite some gruesome violence he barely manages a single scare in the entire film collaborator fabio frizzi talented but always erratic offers a patchy soundtrack that veers between eerie gothic death marches and woefully inappropriate that's quite frankly embarrassing fulci's other films of this period may be flawed house by the cemetery the beyond the black cat but they are nonetheless films with more inspiration atmosphere and better dialogue than this turkey for completists only
negative	you know the plot a dimwit with a shady past is seduced into committing a crime only to be by a fatal femme in palmetto the dimwit is harry barber woody harrelson a reporter who's just been released from prison he was framed by the gangsters and corrupt officials he was investigating enter la femme rhea malroux elisabeth shue the sexy young wife of the richest man in palmetto florida rolf hoppe she and her stepdaughter odette chlo sevigny have a plot to extort from the old man harry will kidnap odette after groping both women harry agrees as everyone except harry can see he's being set up as a fall guy sure enough before long harry has a dead body in his trunk and the cops on his tail his tom wright an assistant da has hired harry to be the press liaison for the case so harry gets a front row seat for his own manhunt and we get to watch him there are several plot twists of couple of them even took me by surprise apparently every woman in palmetto is a raving horndog and they're on harry like he's the only bone in the kennel shue vamps so broadly that i expected tex avery's wolf to show up her incredible performance in leaving las vegas seems to have been a fluke here she could easily be mistaken for melanie griffith shue's character is supposed to be a savvy schemer but she comes off as a brainless bimbo in addition to shue and sevigny the kennel includes gina gershon who filled the role in bound as harry's girlfriend nina when harry gets out of jail she licks his face now there's a horndog the parts are so overplayed that with a little push palmetto could have been an parody of film noir a la romeo is bleeding as it is it's best watched at on showtime the love scenes seem to have been written for one of that channel's soft porn programs anyway palmetto has a director volker schl ndorff who's best known for his adaptations of major literary works especially the tin drum i suppose he must have been drawn to this script by the same admiration for classic film noir that led scorsese to remake cape fear schl ndorff tries makes an interesting motif out of the ubiquitous palmetto nothing can freshen up this stale script
negative	the flick is a disaster alright directed by tony scott top gun it tells the story about an asteroid the size of texas caught on a collision course with earth and you thought that dinky little comet in deep impact was trouble jeez after a great opening in which an american spaceship plus the city of new york are completely destroyed by a comet shower nasa detects the said asteroid and go into a frenzy they hire the world's best oil driller bruce willis and send him and his crew up into space to fix our globel problem that's like sending a mouse into a cat carrier isn't it the action in armageddon are so over the top nonstop and too ludicrous for words i had to sigh and hit my head with my notebook a couple of times i was not alone plus to see a wonderful actor like billy bob thornton is a film like armageddon is a waste of the actor's talents the film is just a reel to show off a bunch of snazzy fx shots the only real reason for making this film was to somehow deep impact producer jerry bruckheimer fails with armageddon
negative	years ago robin williams made a brilliant achievement in special effects but a travesty on nearly every other level the same can be said for dreams may a boring illogical that left my senses numb don't get me wrong i love breathtaking special effects and imagery is on my personal top ten city of lost is a great film because of its outlandish scenarios i even love and year at being in the minority amidst my friends dreams may imagery aside has little daring thought to complement its imagery the daring thought it have is never fully realized it's idea of a plot is so lukewarm that it insults the bigger questions it raises it would have been better if the filmmakers rid the film of the live action sequences put on an electronica soundtrack and sell it as one of those popular videos robin williams plays chris nielsen who dies too only in the story but before we have a chance to really know and care for him the director vincent ward and the screenwriter ronald bass have chosen to tell his life story in flashbacks while having the foreground story focus on his experience with the afterlife big mistake it would have been far better to take the or so needed to tell his life story first ala a wonderful so that i can build up respect for him so i could know and possibly care for him his children and his wife played superbly by annabella sciorra instead the filmmakers insult my intelligence by rushing into the story expecting that the film to grow in depth as it progresses it doesn't so in the afterlife chris learns that a people still don't meet god b that our thoughts are reality and c time does not exist there hmm grant one of those silly giant ideas for the sake of the narrative the not meeting god part still irks at me but perhaps there was no possible way to film it and give it due respect that said this alternate reality still makes no possible sense read on chris' wife commits suicide since suicides go to hell chris would be separated from his wife forever the important question is is heaven really heaven if you are separated from the one you love good question and i like good questions i like it when the filmmakers deviate from the question i it when the filmmakers deviate from the question so that the film becomes a popular rescue film especially a rescue film which does not take its underlying premise seriously i loathe it when story is no longer run by logic but by special effects hey chris did you forget your thoughts are they are more than the physical world according to the screenplay so why you conjure up positive thoughts of annie and let that run wild and then she would appear before you and you two would live in happy bliss for eternity because there would be no movie why and albert the angel played by miscast cuba gooding jr says bluntly fantasy umm if your thoughts are more real than the physical then fantasy is not fantasy but real surely some eastern meditation specialist would be able to tell you that and if you happen to think that you are an unimaginative person and that your thoughts aren't big enough to sustain you for eternity well in all due respect that's why i don't subscribe to this theology all due respect another idea based on time pause does not exist here so chris spend your eternity with annie as she is on earth reliving your favorite memories or hang out with her when she was growing up got eternity perhaps you can hang around long enough and learn not to freak her out and forcing her to write i still exist in her diary imo is just too tacky there are many other ideas all of which are a hundred times better than unraveled in the plot the great aforementioned question is sidetracked into gimmicky subplots that have been done before and just come out stale most insulting is the subplot where important people in life appear in heaven differently than he expects so when they finally show themselves he realizes they were with him all along and when this happens the film runs in slow motion as if to build emotion me with a so the only things for me to like are effective performance who rises far above this mundane material and the special effects please note that while i enjoyed some of the visuals i did not enjoy of them some of the images looked like sandy duncan universe everybody floating up and down in invisible strings it sounds like a joke but really true i really tried to block out the dialogue and figure out what music would best work as an alternative soundtrack my vote goes to a rare cd called never say die from petra a christian rock group pretty good and they have a song about annie who commits suicide too late for gone away for so much we'd have told now we wish we too late melancholic yes depressing yes but far more entertaining so in case you know let me be straight  do no no no got it have to pay to hear this in an awful robin williams schmaltzfest
negative	the original was my favorite movie of a sleeper hit that transcended its target audience being a surprise commercial and critical success it had no marketing which limited its final take thus babe arrives with a budget greater than the money made in babe plush dolls vending machines hawking and macy's thanksgiving day balloons arrive for holiday too late this is a sad review to write because babe not only does live up to the original but it doesn't even come to a fraction of it i shouldn't expect that sequels to modern fairy tales to match their predecessors' magic but this film tries too hard and loses its charm consider a driver applying the accelerator with great intensity unaware that his car is in neutral imagine with me if you will jamie kennedy explaining the rules for sequels like babe there must be talking animals there must be slapstick comedy there must be songs for those mice to sing that's cute keep the story cards to break up the action that's cute too even though the pig gets wise made no sense given the context of that story partition there must be action however illogical that will conjure up pivotal scenes from the original the trademark song that nobody remembers the words to the secret code the that'll do pig that'll do now throw in the limitations a james cromwell now a hot commodity has limited time on the set or maybe he didn't approve of the script b christine cavanaugh the voice of the original babe demands more money considering the million budget out e g daily comes in with noticable results c george miller the director is more for his dark futuristic mad max films and his twilight zone segment not for kiddie fare and no he didn't direct that film in d the special effects are impressive babe talks but most of the time from a single shot repeated over and over again babe is center screen looking straight into the camera with a happy of whether he's happy or scared or tired season now with the original elements which as we will find out are straight from the bin i change the venue into the big city this has been praised as wildly original excuse me didn't do this several years ago how about the muppets even bad news travelled to tokyo sorry no dice side note to give the city a look george miller crafted a fantastical fantasyland that merges the landmarks of the world's great cities and yes it impressive but this too is repeating the same view over and again on multiple occasions and for the most part babe in the ii given the limitations of cromwell the human element is taken over by the boss' wife played by magda szubanski  she's not a lead she's not funny enough in her physical comedy and she's simply embarrassing in some of her pratfalls have her arrested falsely on drug charges have her accidentally incite a riot with biker dudes and scantily clad babes have her bounce around on a bungee cord at a prestigious benefit dinner i was hoping for a little smirk during these scenes but i felt sorry for the embarrassment that she put herself in i am restraining myself from talking about the dark nature of the film the violence the scene where a pit bull dangles from the bridge head submerged underwater even the best fairy tales have a bit of the macabre in it as the brothers grimm have demonstrated no my problem is with the story or lack thereof is sent out to save the hoggett farm but once in the city that story is forgotten being a pig in the midst of the cynicism of his environs is nice but other than rescue that aforementioned pit bull what did babe actually without giving the ending away the farm is saved from a quirk that had nothing to do with the pig speaking of pig or the word pig is so overused had they changed it to an expletive and had the pig be al pacino i could have been watching this is screenwriting further i cannot explain the deep gnaw at my gut in the many scenes where accidents happen to good people in fantastically elaborate setups had it been a cartoon and the victim be an equivalent of elmer fudd maybe my reaction would have been softened but to farmer hoggett his wife an elderly mickey rooney much too irreverent quick splice those singing mice into those scenes the film isn't a colossal failure i did like glenne headley's schmoozy chimpanzee i liked the pink poodle the dog on the cart who momentarily thinks he's in dog heaven and a weird looking guy who may have been as an airport employee and a judge but most of the time i was looking down in boredom or in embarrassment over the script them singing mice those chapter partitions the proficient acting of the none of these can compensate for a story let me spoil the final scene farmer hoggett looks at pig proud says that'll do pig that'll do that's it hope i didn't ruin it for you but tell me this what the heck did that pig
negative	at first i was intrigued by the strange cast and odd creatures on the galaxy quest trailer but that was before i saw the film now my view has completely changed it's time to embrace for impact because this is a very bumpy ride the story begins with the cast of galaxy quest including jason nesmith tim allen alexander dane alan rickman gwen demarco sigourney weaver signing autographs at a convention they meet fans who dress up in costumes fans who worship the ground they walk on and a group of aliens called thermians who believe that they are the ultimate saviors against the dreaded alien colony lead by sarris robin sachs of course they are unaware of this until they actually begin performing their duties and meet the ugly aliens themselves thus begins the long adventure to help save the thermians the movie plays like a really bad star trek episode in fact it's worse i don't even think trekkies will appreciate this weak spoof because quite frankly it's just not funny all the jokes are basically collected observations from the series one such continuous joke involves a simple crew member who believes he will die in space because no extra on the tv show ever lives as proven in the star trek series creative jokes like this may seem like a clever idea but not when they are used to death a person can only take so much we do not need to be tortured especially when you have to pay for it it's pretty bad when even tim allen is pitiful it's not like i expected an oscar worthy performance form him but a few laughs would have been helpful speaking of acting fine talents were wasted as well sigourney weaver was here to show cleavage well at least it worked it's pretty bad when the only entertaining value of the film is cleavage it just shows you how disgraceful the film really is alan rickman however was not so lucky after his last hit dogma he embarrasses himself by doing this sloppy mess it's just a shame to see talented actors and actresses throw their ability away when the film couldn't get any worse thankfully some nice special effects pop up like many big blockbusters armageddon the haunting to name a few they rely heavily on effects to help boost the film's box office results times it works but unfortunately we have to shell out hard earned money and suffer through this junk when will it stop i am getting tired of being suckered into seeing such trash it may look fine and dandy but we need to at least have a story is that too much to ask obviously it is when galaxy quest finally ends it literally crash lands aside from the impressive looking creatures from industrial light and magic it's an embarrassment to the cast and it's embarrassing to the science fiction genre it's not the least bit fun nor was it entertaining the only place where this movie belongs is to infinity and beyond
negative	the makers of spawn have created something almost as vacuous as this summer's other comic book adaptation batman and robin both films make the mistake of adapting for the screen not only the look of their graphic counterparts but also their monosyllabic dialogue and character motivations in morsels implausible plots and rambo dialogue are often overshadowed by the artwork but on thirty foot silver screens it's much more difficult to dismiss the shallowness behind the pretty pictures spawn is ostensibly about an assassin named simmons white who is framed by a corporate baddie played without irony by sheen then set on fire and left for dead though the movie skimps on the next few plot points here's what i could determine said assassin then becomes the leader of satan's army under the tutelage of a flatulating midget named clown leguizamo grating as always he is renamed for reasons unbeknownst spawn and granted a really cool costume that enables him to become something of a human chameleon but when spawn spies on a birthday party for his child he realizes that he can't be the evil superdemon he's expected to be and he sets about avenging his untimely death typical of summer blockbusters spawn is an ninety minute rock video while the visions of hell are laughably crude think the virtual reality sequences of the lawnmower man spawn's prehensile outfit and the action sequences are truly something to behold but the storytelling is completely lacking in emotion spawn longs for his wife but they don't have a single scene together before simmons' death conflict who will triumph is not anybody's guess and believability not that i expected it so many questions are left unanswered and i'm sure they won't be addressed in the inevitable sequel while last year's the crow city of angels suffered similar problems with its narrative which was lazy and somewhat incoherent it had atmosphere to spare and genuine moments of hypnotic power spawn is an screaming banshee of a film these guys know how to graft a comic book onto celluloid but they haven't the faintest idea how to make a movie
negative	phaedra cinema the distributor of such classics as soft toilet seats trailer the movie and the one armed boxer vs the flying guillotine has sneaked its latest release the sculptress into a few theaters this weekend hoping to cash in on a handful of halloween holidaygoers looking for a right good scare the sculptress is a scary proposition all right but not in the way its producers intended from the outset it's easy to see why some of the larger more reputable chains aren't carrying it the film looks like a release from the early that's been dusted off not very carefully and in theatrical format that staple of schlocky jeff fahey the lawnmower man plays a shakespearean actor lacking in some basic people skills when he's not reliving his glory days in his ramshackle nob hill apartment screaming hamlet soliloquies well into the night he's out and about on the streets of san francisco stalking loose women fahey's dobie sizes up his victims actually just one a peep show performer name of sylvie dressed like one of the guys from kraftwerk and approaches them in the ridiculous attire of a bavarian count replete with a cane dark glasses and a false beard just in time for halloween do you have a castle sylvie asks dobie seductively when he flashes the bulging contents of his wallet outside a coffee shop jah with ze many turrets is dobie's perplexing reply the real star of the film and i use that term extremely loosely is katie wright who plays the sculptress of the title sarah is new in town studying at the prestigious sf art institute under the mentorship of a genius frenchman played by the patrick bauchau that's convenient because sarah would one day like to live and work in paris you won't believe the film's final shot with its cheesy eiffel tower backdrop and rosemary's baby imagery bauchau's character criticizes sarah's work publicly her clay busts keep turning into she's possessed by an incubus but he still manages to talk her into dinner whereas wright does a decent english accent her talents pretty much end there on the other side of the wall dobie's troubled past is succinctly summarized in a scene in which he thumbs through an old scrapbook of newspaper clippings with headings like actor delivers a stunning macbeth actor courted by hollywood studio actor renounces hollywood for priesthood and prostitute fingers priest in sex scandal the film's plot could have been just as easily condensed artist moves in next door to shakespearean psychopath yawns ensue so dobie rants and raves and sarah chips away at large blocks of granite till way past their bedtimes late in the film their paths finally cross with results nobody else in the apartment complex appears to mind all the racket but one old dear does go ballistic when sarah's bathtub overflows no we don't see wright in the tub or fahey for that matter and the gore quotient is virtually nil so for a horror film the sculptress is surprisingly lacking the only thing worth looking at is san francisco and ian merrick manages to make even it look dreary windswept and deserted the sculptress isn't even bad enough to be fun luckily a limited release has made it easy to avoid
negative	here is a movie that sadly follows the hong of moviemaking and storytelling to the letter these kinds of movies are marked by an sequence that introduces us to the main characters a plot in which these characters become involved the inclusion of a host of inconsequential characters ridiculous subplots and henchmen that is not to say that i don't like hong kong influenced movies however it is quite obvious that these moviemakers haven't a clue that the american filmgoer needs more than thugs and stupid sight gags observe the opening sequence a band of hitmen are about to storm an apartment led by melvin mark wahlberg and cisco lou diamond phillips they are waiting for their partner to cut off the power so that they can storm the apartment with the help of infrared goggles however their partner is unsure of which cable to cut he is undecided this happens for about seconds the audience finds some humor in his foolishness the lights suddenly go out cisco is surprised and says whoa let's go and they storm the apartment in a very nicely executed sequence the big hit of the title refers to a kidnapping that happens a quarter of the way through the film needing cash cisco devises a plan to kidnap the daughter china chow of wealthy japanese industrialist jiro nishi however the daughter is also the of paris avery brooks who is cisco's and melvin's boss infuriated and insufferable paris commands cisco to uncover the mastermind of the kidnapping during his cisco singles out melvin as the ringleader and paris orders his capture and execution melvin must now find a way to stay alive by the way do you know how the investigation takes place cisco's partner makes the ransom phone call believing that his call will not be traced because of a trace buster that prevents tracing but mr nishi has a trace buster buster to counter that cisco's partner has a trace buster buster buster but nishi has a trace buster buster buster buster and so on there is no doubt that this is an interesting world in which they live and there are lots of issues that we'd like to know more about how does melvin justify his profession to his fiancee what goes on among this clique why is cisco at odds with melvin there is actually a lot of potential material that could have been explored but it seems that no effort is made to go in that direction and instead we are given a plot filled with silly sight gags extraneous and tomfoolery and i haven't even mentioned his financee's visiting parents who want them to separate nor melvin's mistress nor the video clerk demanding the return of an overdue video and on and on and on if the big hit signals the future of hong kong style movies that are made for american audiences then shoot me now
negative	after the huge success of the exorcist in a sequel was inevitable and sadly like most horror fims that make money the filmmakers decided to make a ridiculous sequel that makes absolutely no sense at all and to me was extremely pointless wasting linda blair and max von sydow completely needless dumb sequel flopped in the box office and never gained much success though it is voted as one of the worst sequels of all time to which i agree with to start the story it is four years later and regan is being tormented by memories of what used to be now a priest played by richard burton is trying to figure out why this demon tried to possess regan and now the demon somehow wants to possess her again maybe she was good or something now they must try to stop this demon from taking over regan's body before it is too late some of the bad things exorcist ii has in it is linda blair she had no need to revive her character and she is really terrible in this film she brings it down to a lull and in places it seems like it just stops in its place and doesn't go anywhere louise fletcher is alright for what it's worth but she could have done a lot better than this the direction by john boorman is that of a confused stylish nature that i really couldn't figure out in fact i had no idea what was going on in this film the script was jumbled the plot was jumbled and the ending is just laugh out loud hilariosly bad for those exorcist fans who haven't seen this one i recommend renting it i actually gave this one a high rating if it were any worse it would have deserved zero pumpkins i went easy on it however because of the fact that it has a bit of good direction but nothing else im not saying i like the film now so dont start going anywhere bad bad bad movie
negative	the people who populate the movie are shallow and in other words they perfectly mirror the era as well as the movie this feature depicts is the story of that new york disco studio the in the where anybody who was anybody went to be ogled photographed and pampered the difficulty with which was written and directed by mark christopher is that his script takes no point of view christopher neither condemns nor glorifies the legendary excesses that were studio hallmark he keeps an uninvolved distance thus keeping us from forming any emotional attachment with any of the protagonists the movie's one main asset is the surprising performance by mike myers as steve rubell the famous owner of the nightspot he is part rebel part dreamer part shrewd entrepreneur he's smart enough and childlike enough to pander to the dreams and desires of his clientele yet stupid enough to brag on tv about hiding profits from the irs myers in his first straight character part is in turn appealing and appalling at one moment he can try to pressure a male employee into a sexual situation then at the next moment apologize for his bad behavior and offer the young man a handful of cash the story is told by shane o'shea ryan phillippe a new jersey lad who dreams of crossing the river to the big apple shades of john travolta's tony in saturday night fever eventually shane does come to new york attracts rubell's eye and is admitted to the promised land his looks get him a job as a busboy and he is later promoted to the prestigious position of bartender where he mixes with and makes drinks for the rich and famous shane's dream is to meet soap star julie black neve campbell a fellow garden stater but both characters are so sketchily drawn that even when they do hook up it's no big deal the chemistry between shane and julie is nonexistent is a very cold uninvolving movie it's all strobe lights and glitz all substance it's sort of like the musical era it covers
negative	i've always been a kevin kline fan silverado fish called wanda pirates of penzance and even his hamlet on pbs' great performances the minute i saw the trailer for this film i resolved to see it besides the fact that kline starred it looked like a hilarious film i got sucker punched by the trailer to an extent however as i also thought wow if there's this much funny stuff in the trailer there must be a ton of laughs in the rest of the film oops i packed up the wife and headed to les cinemas del diablo my name for our local the film began the film concerns an teacher at a suburban high school named howard brackett he loves poetry and great literary works but his class is more interested in his famous former student played by matt dillon i'd put in his name but my wife won't let me take notes during a movie and i've forgotten it they continually interrupt his long poetic expositions with fawning questions about him brackett has been engaged to another teacher played by joan cusack for three years and has finally gotten up the gumption to marry her the wedding however becomes the big question mark of the film as this famous student of his says during the live oscar broadcast that brackett is a homosexual kline spends most of the first of the film frantically trying to convince everyone that he isn't the whole town begins to examine every detail of his life and begins to identifying all those things that confirm his sexual preference his closest friends don't help matters bringing nothing but barbara streisand laserdiscs to his stag party there are some genuinely hilarous moments one involving a tape geared towards helping men assert their masculinity kline is hounded by a gay reporter played by tom selleck who waxes poetic on the benefits of coming out while at the same time doing his best to exploit the situation for his own sleazy tabloid machinations the movie moves along fine and slowly builds to the climax of the wedding kline stands at the altar and is asked to take his vows if you want to be surprised don't read i am going to reveal the ending instead of saying i do in front of his parents and most of the town and even some cameras he says i'm gay this is where the movie in my opinion falls apart most of the humor in the film had come from kline's insistence that he was straight while at the same time loving poetry and being a senstivie guy dressing well and occaisionally acting prissy it reminded me of the effeminate heterosexual sketch from saturday night live it was funny it was sustainably funny and kline's performance made it doubly so however after the wedding the film drags on they should have attempted to come to a quick conclusion but it then gets into the serious side of what he's done he reconciles with his parents and his friends some of which had turned on him there are several scenes which seemed like a waste of time the scene with his mother and her friends which was hilarious seemed pointless and the scene with tom selleck in the bar with joan seemed pointless finally even though i am not catholic i found the scene with the priest to be condescending the preist cannot believe that a man was engaged for three years and had not consumated the relationship proclaiming to brackett in the third person he's gay it got a chuckle from the audience but i was distracted by it and began to tire of the film by the time the wedding had come and gone i found myself hoping it would be over soon much like this review you are saying overall if i have to quantify it i say rising action gets and climax and falling action gets see it in economy time
negative	a month ago i wrote that speed was the worst film i've ever reviewed on paper i didn't know at the time that i'd soon encounter and despise batman robin which has just overtaken speed as the picture least worthy of your attention this summer as directed by joel schumacher who now specializes in batman sequels and john grisham adaptations and isn't very good at either b r is one long excuse for a taco bell promotion the plot which has mr freeze and poison ivy uma thurman planning to take over gotham city and then the vorld as an oddly ineffective schwarzenegger states is weighted down by repetitive asides about the nature of trust partnership blah blah blah but morals are not the point of this each bloated confusing action scene with next one is the garish art direction and overlit cinematography make this picture oddly comparable to the trashy showgirls since when did gotham city become a giant las vegas hotel only george clooney comes out on top he underplays nicely and pretends like he's in a real movie
negative	call hush stop or my mom will kill or mommy fearest or the hand that robs the cradle call it whatever you want but certainly don't see it unless you're in desperate need of a bad chuckle hush scores so many unintentional guffaws that it almost qualifies as a guilty pleasure chalk its losses up to frequent stupidity lapses and apparent tinkering it was supposed to open about a year ago the latter of which appears to have given hush a that's downright infuriating it's too bad that hush is so laughable because the talent including the pairing of gwyneth paltrow and jessica lange is nothing to laugh at paltrow and johnathon schaech play helen and jackson a photogenic new york couple on their way to spend christmas vacation at his wealthy family's horse kilronan jackson's mother martha lange runs kilronan all by herself and her genteel southern hospitality makes helen feel welcome immediately even if her first meeting with martha takes place while helen is in the altogether caught after a bedroom romp with her but it seems that martha's friendly smile masks a much more threatening demeanor she's what you'd call someone who loves too much martha eagerly deviously wants a grandchild and then helen will be expendable as far as she's concerned if there's one reason to catch hush it's lange she treats the pedestrian screenplay better than it deserves to be treated injecting martha poorly written though she may be with a little empathy to level out the field when she delves into martha's dark side predictable cliches staring in mirrors praying in a confessional to a priest who isn't there poking a hole in helen's diaphragm so she'll become pregnant and she does abound but it's moderately entertaining junk because lange is such an interesting actress to watch veteran performer nina foch is smart and tart as jackson's paternal grandmother the rest of the cast looks ill and uncomfortable especially paltrow but can you really blame them the character relationships in hush hold a certain amount of promise at least until their psychological impact is blown out of the water by sheer stupidity idiotic situations martha yells at a nearby horse so it will bolt up and knock helen over compliment idiotic dialogue why did you yell helen yells back at martha and the film takes the form of one of the shoddier fill in the flicks ever made you can see through a great deal of martha's actions and lies from their conception why do people who have known this woman for years longer than we have never figure things out does nobody communicate or read the newspaper in this town if any of her potential victims thought acted or behaved like normal people hush would be a really short movie and then there's the climax and ending which abruptly come when helen starts having contractions after eating some pound cake spiked with a drug normally used on horses after a really weird chase scene martha calmly knits in a rocking chair while forcing helen to give birth in a bed all by herself i won't spoil what happens next except to say that it's contradictory illogical and probably since i'm no doctor medically impossible the final scene offers no closure no resolution no confrontation whatsoever it's just there dangling amidst silent displeasure no one should like this ending regardless of their feelings on the preceding material perhaps hush title is a plea to silence its audience's likely bitter word of mouth while exiting the theater
negative	a big busy boxing satire with a surprisingly paltry punch the great white hype stars samuel l jackson as a shameless boxing promoter whose plan to boost sagging revenues is to invent a white contender peter berg to challenge his black heavyweight champ damon wayans the logic is that people will pay more to see black vs white than black vs black he may be right in an absurdly accurate way but the film doesn't give us a reason to care as a scathing sports spoof hype is just that unfunny unfocused and at times just plain pointless as a commentary on race relations it's even less effective the dialogue is the best of this mess lines like jon lovitz exclaiming i cannot make caviar out of fish eggs writers tony hendra and ron shelton also do good on the street slang though we never hear enough of it the script isn't strong enough though to support the aggressive camera work of director reginald hudlin house party he comes across as absolute overkill the great white hype almost turns around at the end at the big match when hudlin attempts an extended gag of proportions with costumed dwarfs gangsta rappers and the champ dressed as death only then do we get a glimpse of the spoof that should've been
negative	i know there were times during this movie that i laughed pretty hard the problem is i can't remember them as i write this review that's not a good sign in booty call jamie foxx is bunz a character whom i can't really describe because i don't know that much about him i only know that he likes to shoot dice on the sidewalk and that he doesn't like relationships just booty calls at three in the morning no questions no commitment bunz has a best friend named rushon tommy davidson who seems to be bunz's direct opposite on the straight and narrow and currently in a commitment a whole seven weeks wow rushon wants to finally sleep with his girlfriend nikki tamala jones but for a reason which is not totally explained it's going to happen after a double date with bunz and nikki's friend lysterine vivica a fox who have never met to make a long story short the two couples pair off and spend the rest of the evening having their attempts to do the deed spoiled by nikki's obsession with safe sex first she wants condoms so bunz and rushon go out and get them oh no they have to be latex not lambskin back to the store now they've got to get dental dams or there'll be no foreplay why are both couples stopped each time nikki makes a demand nikki phones lysterine who lives across the hall and tells her she'd better be making these demands too talk about coitus interruptus booty call is a film that does not know whether it wants to be a regular comedy or one of those comedies the difference between the two is that in the latter things constantly happen which are so far removed from reality in this category for example you have ace ventura private eye on the mild side and airplane at the extreme there are times during booty call where the film steps out of its shell and tries for this status but then too often quickly retreats to the safety of convention it is disappointing and even worse distracting there are also instances where the screenplay by takashi bufford and bootsie parker are those real names does not live up to its potential as jokes are left unexploited or even ruined by bad writing for instance there is a scene where our main characters are in a chinese restaurant bunz goes up to an asian gangster and speaks to him in fluent cantonese much to everyone's surprise however when asked how he learned the language he goes into this explanation of how he started picking up words from films and soon gained mastery this negated the ludicrousness of the entire scene if on the other hand when asked how he learned to speak chinese bunz simply replied with movies and then moved on the joke would have been much more effective this is because it would have been totally unbelievable but funny because we know it is unbelievable by explaining the point and trying to make the ridiculous plausible the film is not giving its viewers enough credit the inconsistency and uncertain believability unfortunately also raise other questions why are two such disparate people like bunz and rushon best friends why do rushon and nikki fix up bunz and lysterine if nikki is so obsessed with safe sex why doesn't she have some condoms at her own apartment these questions are not answered by the screenplay but are overlooked for the sole reason of moving the plot forward a very noticeable quality of booty call is the prevalence of unnecessary foul language some movies use a lot of swear words but use them under very justifiable circumstances as when they are employed consistent with a character's pattern of speech other films such as the recent jackie brown use them in ways that almost parody themselves booty call just sticks them in to get laughs and it doesn't work they stick out like sore thumbs because there is almost no reason to use them half of the scenes seem to occur for no reason the chinese restaurant a holdup at a convenience store and a trip to the hospital seem to have nothing to do with the story and are in there for filler this is surprising considering that the film is less than eighty minutes long it's too bad that the core of the film isn't much better since it is comprised of sometimes funny but forgettable dialog i refer you to the first paragraph of this review
negative	retelling the classic story of joan of arc has been a popular trend this year earlier this may leelee sobieski played the passionate title role in the miniseries that debuted on cbs and now director luc besson has delivered his version of the sweeping epic about the teenage girl supposedly sent by god to rescue france from the clutches of their enemies starring milla jovovich who is predominantly unconvincing as the heavenly messenger accused of being a witch messenger the story of joan of arc' is a disjointed and overblown historical that prevails merely as a bloated mistreatment of the famous legend besson who's previous work includes the hyperactive fifth element' perhaps entrusted a bit too much faith in jovovich because in messenger' the actress is drowning in a pool of her own inexperience at first when reports were indicating that jovovich had been chosen for such a demanding role i was highly doubtful that her marginal talent could carry a film of such a caliber after seeing the rousing trailer my hesitant optimism suddenly skyrocketed milla jovovich looked superb with the hopeful propulsion of her stellar performance messenger' looked like a timeless epic in the making a timeless epic it is not besson is hesitant to abandon his unique and flashy style and the story behind messenger' is not entirely suited to his demands on the shoulders of besson's choppy and unexciting direction the film dissipates into an uninspiring hodgepodge of poorly executed battle sequences and bizarre imagery there is no human exploration into the character of joan or jeanne jovovich merely rambles on about the power of god when we have little or no insight into her visionary objective jovivich's unsatisfying portrayal only helps lead to the realization that besson sees jeanne as a piece of spiritual cardboard she is just another special effect in this continuous visual feast jovovich does have a few isolated moments of sheer power but mainly she looks lost quite frankly i don't know of any actress who could successfully navigate her way through messenger' without a major fumble the script is of laughable dialogue and unfortunate comedy as jeanne confronts the uncrowned king charles vii john malkovich and informs him of her heavenly intentions faye dunaway plays charles' overbearing and dustin hoffman appears over into the story as a character dubbed the conscience' all three actors juggle limited screen time although malkovich is uncharacteristically awful the battle scenes are extremely bloody but with the presence of such jittery camera work they capture none of the excitement or finesse of something like there's a particularly graphic and unsettling scene early on when jeanne as a young girl watches in horror from a closet as her older sister is murdered and then savagely raped by a bloodthirsty english soldier even his fellow troopers are petrified messenger' is also strictly a update on the classic story almost too it seems there's gratuitous use of the and a barrage of slang terms like nuts sprinkled throughout the screenplay i was jeanne to invite her homeys to come chill in her crib but it never happened there's also the familiar presence of bizarre besson humor but none of it comes even remotely close to functioning properly it seems terribly misplaced but in a catastrophe as jumbled and disjointed as messenger' almost everything does the musical score by erric serra is spectacular and the set and production designs are continuously impressive if it was visual excellence that besson was striving for then he achieves his goal but the only time the dramatics come alive in messenger' is during the closing trial in which jeanne is found guilty and burned at the stake during these moments the historical relevance and dramatic purpose of joan of arc reaches the audience albeit in a faint stream of light that provokes little power or meaning it's just too delayed for besson to revive his lifeless interpretation in which he is always concerned with the wrong aspects messenger the story of joan of arc' is an unlikely and unwelcome historical addition to the hollywood shelf anyone searching for an entertaining epic is going to be painfully slapped with an overblown and confusing film despite my original hopefulness milla jovovich is not going to have to worry about thanking the academy
negative	violence is bad violence is ugly violence breeds yet more violence kids don't try this at home this weighty message isn't the only barrier to enjoying brother but it's certainly one of the largest written directed by and starring the infamous takeshi kitano kikujiro sonatine brother is his first film made outside his familial japan bringing the yakuza tradition to los angeles yakuza translated for the average american is the japanese mafia if you piss a family member off or dishonor yourself in any way the usual punishment is public display of usually resulting in the loss of limbs a definition of dishonor can be anything from making a stupid decision to leaving one family for another it would be interesting to know more about where these and other customs come from unfortunately the film doesn't give too much of an explanation assuming its audience is aware of kitano's earlier work there are several shots that focus specifically on detailed tattoos that spread across the entire back of the yakuza members leading one to assume they would be symbolic of something but you never know what then there's a scene in which a man kills himself in front of a rival in exchange for that rival joining the family granted this is one of the best scenes in the movie but it doesn't make a lot of sense instead the two hours are basically spent watching the following people go out and shoot each other talk about it for minutes then go out and do it again the consistently repetitive discussion of territory during these moments involuntarily provokes yawning there are also plot details thrown in for no identifiable purpose all of the sudden yamamoto kitano has a girlfriend he barely speaks to her treats her like crap and then sends her away another missed opportunity considering it is such a big deal for kitano to bring his magic to the united states is the combination of cultures which rely too heavily on overused stereotypes though slow moving brother does have good elements the action scenes are well directed clearly defined and interesting to watch some of the violence is more hinted at than shown which produces the luscious squirm that one goes to see such films for the actors would be more enticing if they had more to do shirase's masaya kato loud sarcastic coolness set against yamamoto's quietly threatening attitude is truly an entertaining combination their moments together or apart steal the rest of the show also to its credit brother tackles the cause and effect of crime with realism a life of crime is easy to get sucked into with the first reward of quick cash sure people get rich but they can also lose just as easily it's a great moral with a great cast just not much substance to back it up
negative	there s nothing quite like a gory anime really and this is the truth no other genre in film gets away with such violence without a word being said in the media about it with anime a common shot is watching a body getting quickly cut in two and the rest of the insides falling out seconds afterword this is a standard practice in anime or at least the half dozen or so titles that i ve seen vampire hunter d is a gory gory film if they ever made a live version of the film it would be banned in several countries and given a rating somewhere below xxx it s not that it s gore is unique it s just like other gory animes but this one was supposed to stand out because of the complexity it s story characters animation etc it really didn t it was disgusting and gruesome which overshadowed the story what little of it there was it seems that in the not too distant future vampires and evil control the world because god knows that our local police force just can t seem to get a handle on vampires in the movies one evening a blond peasant girl drawn to look and innocent a foreshadow that we will see her naked i guessed early on it would be in the shower or in a rape scene is out fighting evil in her local forest preserve when she stumbles onto the private property of a ten thousand year old vampire insert strom thurmand joke here of course he never put a no trespassing sign on his yard so one can t really blame her but he s upset anyway and demands retribution she gets the obligatory bite on the neck aren t there other places to get blood from it seems like a bite in the elbow would do well enough if it's good enough for doctors to draw blood from then why do vampires stray from that sight to fight the spell she enlists the help of a mysteriously tall dark and handsome vampire hunter you guessed it his name is d the vampire hunter is torn between fighting vampires being attracted to the year old peasant girl and finding reasons not to talk too much you see like all heroes in these kinds of stories he s a brooder who s sole purpose in life is to remain really really silent when he speaks it s in cliches heroes like this are bad when they re live even worse when animated later the vampire hunter storms the castle to meet the big bad vampire who wants to marry the peasant girl because he s bored after years of living the only clever vampire insight made in the movie will vampire hunter d rush to save her in time will we see blood and intestines spattering on every place imaginable in it s defense the animation when focusing on being original rather than recycling anime slicing could at times be original the talking hand was clever and i think the inspiration for a logo and that s the best defense i can think of i understand that vampire hunter d is supposed to be a fave among anime fans but i really don t see it it s an excuse to watch blood dripping from teeth blood exploding out of eye sockets and horses necks and most importantly like all violent anime it is an excuse to see animated breasts why what is the point of that maybe i have to understand the genre and look past the obsessive gore and mysogny i m not a prude i just don t think it s warranted it puts itself so far out in front of the movie that everything else gets lost is there a neccesity in seeing a year old in the shower of course not it s done for shock it s tasteless and despicable
negative	lauded as a genius by many stanley kubrick commands a superlative filmography that includes such films as a space odyssey a clockwork orange lolita and dr strangelove or how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb now sadly he's added eyes wide shut to that impeccable body of work and his final film is the first and only blot on his copybook kubrick alas should have quit while he was ahead this with its star billing of marrieds tom cruise and nicole kidman is nothing more than one long hours long boring exercise that features kubrick operating with talent wide shut kubrick faithless to arthur schnitzler's novella dream story has confused eroticism with nudity he has confused intellectualism with talking slowly he has confused profundity with pretentiousness in addition the director has made some strange casting choices leaving sydney pollack in and leaving accomplished performers harvey keitel and jennifer jason leigh out pollack the director of such hits as tootsie and out of africa is normally solid in his occasional acting stints but here he's miserably out of his depth and there isn't much depth to begin with unhappily there's not likely to be a director's cut of this film to determine whether the decision to exorcise keitel and leigh was the right one in fact with the exception of the stark credits snatches of baroque music on the soundtrack and many many grainy tracking shots down corridors there's none of kubrick's trademark brilliance in this film it doesn't help that the story as delivered is ridiculous cruise and kidman who bring little more than marital torpor to the project play new yorkers bill and alice harford he's a doctor and she's an unemployed art gallery director and they share a central park west address at an opulent party hosted by their friend victor ziegler pollack alice gets a little tipsy and starts dancing with a jeremy hungarian who's singularly determined to get her in the sack bill too is seen with a couple of models before he's pulled away to deal with an overdoser back home bill and alice smoke a little pot before alice's aggressive jealousy kicks in as retribution she confesses to her husband that she once had deep feelings for a naval officer she eyeballed at a hotel where she and bill once stayed this hurtful admission sends bill into a tailspin he pounds the streets of the village in his heavy black overcoat struggling with images of alice in the grip of a horny midshipman it's all way too much for him for revenge bill almost has sex with a hooker he almost has feelings for a underage girl he sees in a costume store then he almost does the hooker's roommate and he's almost involved in an overblown rococo orgy when an old college chum of his tips him off to a mysterious party where everyone wears masks and the women are incredible i e naked this erotic set piece a bacchanal complete with chanting incense and lots of partygoers covering up the dirty might impress the likes of hugh hefner but it's a lot less shocking than it's intended to be what's the big deal bill doesn't exactly do anything other than throw his money and credentials around and alice only ever lusted in her heart  still they make up at the same agonizingly slow kubrick notorious for multiple takes paying them at an hourly rate even geniuses have their bad days eyes wide shut just happens to be kubrick's bad day an unerotic disappointing and altogether pointless end to an otherwise memorable career
negative	by starring in amy heckerling's clueless two summers ago alicia silverstone proved she wasn't just another pretty pouty ingenue showing a buoyant comedic craftiness that blew all previous jobs namely a stint as the aerosmith girl and a silly turn as the lethal lolita of the crush out of the water her only work since that gem has been in june's batman robin where she overcame the underwritten role of batgirl now she's the star and producer of excess baggage a hopelessly phony film that demonstrates how an story can drag an otherwise solid performer down to its level silverstone's emily t hope is stuck with a billionaire father jack thompson who neglects her emotionally in an outlandish plan to gain his affection she fakes her own kidnapping emily uses an electronically disguised voice to call her dad and set a pricey ransom ties her legs together and mouth shut with duct tape and locks herself in the trunk of her bmw but before the police can rescue her professional auto thief vincent roche benicio del toro jimmies the locks the engine and makes off with both the car and emily who's still trapped in the back when vincent discovers emily the two don't exactly hit it off she annoys him he annoys her and at the advice of his slimy car salesman partner harry connick jr he decides to drive her out to the middle of nowhere and leave her there along the way of course they get into a whole heap of trouble and come to realize that being together is the only way to get out of their sticky situation it doesn't help matters that emily and vincent are being trailed by cops crooks and even her shady uncle ray christopher walken who's wise to his niece's ploys for attention and has mafia connections for at least a excess baggage bounces along fast and efficiently during this time emily and vincent sport engaging personalities as well as a nice twist she's an awfully aggressive combative victim and he's quite the aloof seemingly vulnerable captor but once it's past its the situation suddenly becomes uninvolving as the story tries to be too many things at once a road movie a teen comedy a mob thriller a drama about family relationships you name the cliche and excess baggage likely covers its territory of course a romance develops between the two leads but it all seems forced and thus characterization is manipulated to cause the finally happy outcome do you like my tummy emily coos to vincent at one point in the film huh did i miss something the grrrl is suddenly gone and replaced with a pair of batting eyes then again excess baggage becomes so weak in so many areas that the personality transplant is not a complete surprise a supporting cast attempts to do what they can with colorful but empty secondary roles but the movie isn't game enough to use them all and therefore seems overcrowded motivations keep shifting resulting in an often confusing narrative scant existing story background confuses matters even worse and adds to the growing list of unanswered questions excess baggage has too many characters too much plot and juggles with one arm behind its back and a remaining shaky hand i loved silverstone's turn in clueless as an aloof pampered beverly hills matchmaker inspired by jane austen's emma looking back at the skill she displayed for comedy there it's simple to justify any high expectation or enthusiasm that i had mustered for excess baggage sadly however excess baggage is no clueless but on the other hand it is clueless
negative	because i'm a scientist that's what we do dr alexander mccabe bob gunton in response to why he created evil bats alright folks stop me if you've heard this one genetically altered animals wreak havoc on a town and a small band of locals assisted by a specialist in the particular animal's field must team up to stop the mutant creatures before they can multiply and spread across the earth oh yeah the military is on their way to bomb the town as well so they are running short on time sound familiar such is the plot of the destination films release of bats dina meyer stars as the bat specialist sheila who is pulled from her research along with her annoying sidekick played with irritating deftness by leon in order to help a small texas town figure out why some local citizens and animals have been chewed to death recently with the help of the local sheriff lou diamond phillips a cdc official carlos jacott and a scientist bob gunton sheila discovers it is indeed bats who have been genetically altered by gunton's character to be more aggressive and omnivorous in order to be used as a military weapon i have to say here that i knew exactly what i was getting into going into this film there's not a frame of promotional footage i have seen for the film that would have led me to believe it was going to be any good in this respect the film never disappointed me this film reaches a level that transcends the so bad it's good level and borders on the downright insane the effects are awful the script is contrived and for most of the feature i was laughing at things that were supposed to be taken seriously i think i challenge anyone to sit through the scene where a bat stalks a baby in a crib while another bat terrorizes a patron eating at a diner with a straight face thankfully the performances are as good as they can be considering the material the actors had to perform with dina meyer has always been the highlight of any of the films she has been in johnny mnemonic dragonheart and starship troopers the latter being the only film out of that batch with any actual merit and this one is no exception while one never really gets the impression that meyer's character could be a bat expert in reality one never really cares to doubt it either she gives as good a performance as could be expected plus she's nice to look at for an hour and a half lou diamond phillips is also serviceable here as the small town sheriff turned eventual hero although when we first meet his character he knows bats are the reason for what's going on in town for some reason later on he suddenly becomes amazed to learn that the actual cause of the deaths in town are because of bats the only bad performance in the film is that of leon's he is relegated to the i'm not sticking around here character and proceeds to repeat variations of that line for the majority of the film even though he stays anyone who can't immediately tell that bob gunton the bad guy in patch adams and countless other films is going to eventually turn on the gang and side with his creations before his eminent death will probably be surprised but i highly doubt it even if he hadn't been the villain in just about every film he's ever been in so many obvious hints are given to indicate the devious act that it holds no shock whatsoever in fact his death is welcome because it finally starts moving the plot towards the finale if the plot doesn't sound ridiculous to you yet then check out these little tidbits a multitude of bats inexplicably disperses when a police officer cocks his pistol an entire town disregards the sheriff and doctor's orders to stay indoors after a curfew is instigated causing mass hysteria when the bats come out in full force killing several townsfolk a government official blows off shelia's instructions to wait until dawn to install a cooling unit in the bats' cave that will kill all of them off by pulling a night job resulting in the death of an entire military unit a cavern full of bat feces never ignites when a phosphorus flare is lit right in the middle of it finally to top it all off this little texas town is showing nosferatu in it's single screen theater for reference our town has over a million people in it with nearly movie screens and we're lucky to even get kevin smith's dogma the most laughable part of the movie though comes from the bat puppets while the actual bat attack scenes are shot with rapid fire editing making the scenes nearly impossible to comprehend what's going on the scenes where a bat is called upon to interact with a live actor are usually shot more therefore we the audience get loving of the most unrealistic rubbery bat puppets ever committed to film being able to see the puppeteer's arms would be the only things that could have made these creations worse after all of this if you still decide bats might be the movie for you don't say you haven't been warned trust me when i say that it's a lot more fun to trash than it is to sit through i just wish that dina meyer would be cast in more roles or at least choose better films to appear in she's definitely a talent that is going to waste in films like these
negative	the word to describe sharon stone is wonder not that she a wonder but rather that i wonder how she can be so inconsistent she has a dynamic screen presence in basic instinct turns in a surprisingly fine acting job in casino but possesses neither of those here stone teams up with private school headmaster's wife isabelle adjani to kill adjani's thoroughly unlikable husband chazz palminteri in a comedy of errors and unexpected twists straight out of hitchcock as in to' steal from it turns out that someone saw them or he's not dead or maybe kathy bates turns in a credible if unspectacular performance as an investigative police detective her character is a bit dull but realistic although her actions at the end are puzzling adjani is more than satisfactory as the timid beaten spouse driven to desperation it's stone that is a disappointment among the actors how can she be the epitome of a femme fatale in previous films and come off as a blank in this one costumed in clothes and looking down her nose at everyone she is someone you would want to avoid because she is boring not enticingly dangerous even the threat or promise of a lesbian relationship between the conspirators is only half played out on the positive side there are enough unexpected plot developments to keep your interest alive that is if you can put up with stone's cardboard character and scenes directly lifted from hitch's movies
negative	the tagline on random hearts reads in a perfect world they never would have met in a perfect world i never would have seen this movie the biggest flaw is that minutes into this film kay chandler kristin scott thomas and dutch van den broeck harrison ford are the only two major characters alive resulting in little doubt that they will end up together at some point during the laborious production dutch is a sergeant in internal affairs at the district of columbia police department kay is a congresswoman from new hampshire although they both think they are happily married their spouses are cheating with each other behind their backs dutch and kay are soon widowed when a plane goes down carrying their partners they subsequently discover the affair the rest of the film is the pointless unrealistic and boring story of their researching the sexual relationship that they were blind to and getting to know each other in the process two sub plots are of little help to the already problematic film dutch is trying to arrest a fellow officer a task that seems rather ordinary for hollywood fare all the great stereotypes get pulled including my personal favorite of the key witness that makes bail and is murdered soon thereafter kay's distraction from the film's primary focus is her campaign for and attempts to shield her year old daughter from the truth about the father she put on a pedestal these sub plots could have made for points but the film seems afraid to explore politics or relations in depth and consequently suffers random hearts' two primary characters seem to live in shells although both kay and dutch are given their own sub plots they seem to never deal with anyone other than themselves or each other there is plenty of opportunity dutch having a partner and kay having close friends and her daughter but the movie shies away from exploring these relationships veteran actor and director of this film sydney pollack and critically acclaimed dylan baker both have cameo roles but be careful not to blink too much or you will miss them both other than its weak plot it is hard to criticize random hearts however it is also hard to compliment it had the film taken some small risks and more fully explored its extra characters and plots it may have tasted more like a well frosted cake rather than the dry one that equates to be
negative	in double jeopardy the stakes are high think of the plot as a rehash of sleeping with the enemy and then rearrange the details and the gender of the stalker the finished product although able to maintain the viewer's attention is a predictable and unexciting thriller with an idiotic script i'll take homicide for libby parsons ashley judd is a happily married mom leading a normal life one night her husband nick bruce greenwood takes her out for a romantic escape on a sailboat libby awakens in the middle of the night to find she is covered in blood and nick has strangely disappeared she follows a trail of bloody footprints up to the deck where she handles a fallen knife like any stupid character and is spotted by the coast guard who are responding to a distress signal sent earlier in the evening nick is presumed dead and although she pleads her innocence libby is tried and convicted for the murder of her husband now please don't think i'm spoiling any vital plot details because the informative trailer has already spilled most of the beans if you haven't seen this preview don't read any further but seriously the inane screenplay by douglas weisberg and douglas s cook is so elementary that the average viewer will be two or three steps ahead of the characters during the most vital scenes in the movie i was anticipating every twist or that eventually popped up on the screen i imagine the writers presume their core audience for double jeopardy is a very naive group of individuals most unfortunately will be too distracted by the moronic plot to appreciate the few positive aspects of the production one is tommy lee jones who plays travis lehman a parole officer given the tedious task of watching over libby after she serves her sentence in prison jones is always wonderful as an authority figure and he's certainly familiar with this sort of role as he played so well in the fugitive and us marshals judd as a likable heroin with gusto also has a chance to flex her acting abilities while emotionally unconvincing the actress is tremendously fun in her juvenile role perking up the movie like an injection of the actors and their relationship together present the punch that prevents double jeopardy from derailing itself entirely and now back to the plot while behind bars libby learns an interesting little bit of information a person can't be convicted of the same crime twice this law called jeopardy' could be her motive for hunting down her husband who may still be alive yes you heard right the movie degenerates into a chase where everything you expect to happen does the final scenes which could have redeemed the film are poorly handled by director bruce beresford whose previous work centers highly around drama driving miss daisy paradise road ironically it is those elements like the driving force of libby to reunite with her son that don't quite work here at least double jeopardy is paced well enough to satisfy diehard fans of the two stars unfortunately jones lacks some of the edge that he had as sam gerard in the fugitive and the real depth of his character is only skin deep but he and ashley judd are more than welcome considering the material and both have some memorable comic moments judd in particular has a hilarious scene in which she wards off an oncoming male by explaining she has to check in with her officer' hmmm perhaps this would have made a good comedy it is disappointing because there are the makings of a competent action film here it's nicely shot and choreographed in downtown vancouver and will entertain those who aren't turned off by the woeful tis a shame that double jeopardy is an adult thriller that wouldn't fool most children
negative	synopsis melissa a woman who likes to smoke seduces doug a baseball player who likes to study anatomy work on motorcycles and make out with his girlfriend in a public library when doug decides to stop seeing her melissa maliciously takes revenge on those around him including his girlfriend his mother and his cat comments malicious i suppose is an acceptable moview for what it is a cheap thriller which rips off dozens and dozens of films like fatal attraction hand that rocks the cradle etc etc that have come before it malicious however really doesn't provide very many particularly suspenseful moments the plot starts off energetically enough the main characters are introduced and the affair between doug and melissa begins and ends pretty early on in the film it starts to drag unfortunately after this melissa will obviously try to take her revenge on doug as always seems to happen in movies like these but she does so in unimaginative ways that have been done in other better thrillers before she drugs someone she kills a family pet and leaves it in the girlfriend's apartment and of course she stalks so we see a number of shots which are supposed to be suspenseful where she's spying on doug and his girlfriend i won't reveal the ludicrous ending to this turkey but i warn you that it's both painfully obvious and a real yawner john vernon does a remarkably good job at playing the baseball jock who initially gets swept away by melissa one of the script's faults is to try to pass off a character like this as a student the same cannot be said though for molly ringwald at times she can effectively pull off the obsessed lover routine especially during her silent scenes at other times however she just seems somehow goofy and out of place in one particular scene which i guess was supposed to be suspenseful she screeches you you and throws a phone she delivers the line so ridiculously that one can't help but laugh malicious certainly isn't the worst thriller of its kind out in the video racks a number of really fat turkies in this genre are out there but it isn't all that good or original either feel free to treat this film maliciously watch something else
negative	warner brothers rated mild violence sexual situations minutes director luis mandoki screenplay gerald di pego from the novel by nicholas sparks cast kevin costner robin paul newman illeana douglas robbie coltrane jesse james john savage review by geoff berkshire i'm not an overly cynical guy there have been many glossy hollywood romances that have carried me away with their romanticism over the years however i have my limits and i also have standards this brings us to the subject at hand message in a bottle the big ticket romance that warner brothers' unleashed upon the movie going public just in time for valentine's day the story what little of it that there is involves boring chicago tribune reporter theresa osborne robin dealing with her recent divorce and trying to raise her young son jason jesse james during a brief stay somewhere in new england she finds the titular message in a bottle while on a morning run by the ocean the letter written to a mystery woman named catherine instantly captivates her upon her return theresa shares it with her best friend lina illeana douglas her boss charlie robbie coltrane and the entire city of chicago the newspaper publishes an article about it it turns out that the message was written by grieving widower garret blake kevin costner and so theresa travels to north carolina and tracks him down he turns out to have a colorful father paul newman but is otherwise perfectly dull and overly obsessed with sailing this is somehow attractive to theresa and the two begin their awkward courtship of course she doesn't tell him that she found his letter she wants to but the rules of this type of film require him to find out later preferably right after they first make love this way garret can get very angry and the relationship can be threatened the discovery of the message and garret's discovery that theresa discovered the message are really the only two noteworthy events that happen during the nearly two and a quarter hour running time of this film there's a truly lame subplot about garret's relationship with his dead wife's family he gets into a bar fight with her brother played by john savage and then the necessary ending a fun way to pass the time is to take bets on exactly who will die although it becomes pretty clear by the second reel the actual death sequence is one of the most ridiculously forced and unintentionally humorous sequences filmed since well since costner's the postman message in a bottle is one slow moving film last year audiences were offered endurance tests such as the horse whisperer and meet joe black but both of those films resemble jerry bruckheimer productions next to this they also had redeeming qualities in the form of quality performances and some stand out technical work message in a bottle has a decent enough cast but they're fighting the material all the way and losing badly costner and especially are both likable and attractive enough to cheer for but their characters are simply too boring they also fail to generate any kind of real romantic chemistry the supporting players are given very little to do the reliable douglas is particularly wasted old pro newman gives his all and occasionally threatens to kick some life into this dead horse of a film a confrontational scene he has with costner near the end is especially well played however too frequently he just reminds us how unexciting our lead characters are the film is very polished on the technical side to be sure but it only works to undercut the story gabriel yared who previously set the romantic moods of the english patient and city of angels with his scores overdoes it a bit here caleb deschanel's camera makes everything look a little too beautiful do the offices of the chicago tribune really need to look heavenly the editing by steven weisberg is troubling not only considering all that could have been cut out but is also simply messy at times the real offender here is screenwriter gerald di pego working from a selling novel by nicholas sparks which i have not read but have been told is on the same literary level as the bridges of madison county di pego creates one of the most uninspired scripts of recent times its strict adherence to clich s brings to mind such disasters as i still know what you did last summer there simply isn't an original scene in this film the dialogue is rarely better than laughable and this is only accentuated by the excessively long pauses every character takes while speaking this is director mandoki's first film since when a man loves a woman the solid meg garcia romance he's simply going through the motions with this message in a bottle is easily the worst of the several romantic offerings available in theaters at the moment and vies with what dreams may come as one of the most misguided romances of the decade
negative	disconnect the phone line don't accept the charges do anything you can to avoid the wretched melodramatic sisterhood dramedy up' i figured i needed to get in touch with my feminine side and up' seemed like an ideal opportunity to do so the film features an incredible palate of female talent and the capability behind the camera brought to mind such sparkling gems as in seattle' and heroes' meg ryan diane keaton and lisa kudrow play a trio of sisters who once separated by career judgments over family ties must reunite when their father walter matthau is admitted into the hospital with alzheimer's disease while this may read like an optimum opportunity to rekindle their relationship and reflect with poignancy on the past the script by sisters delia and nora ephron is exasperating shapeless dreck teeming with emotional fakery up' has the overall effect of a pestering you for two hours while you don't have the option of doing as the title suggests for the first the ephron sisters use telephone conversations for a basis of character development this is an annoying and ineffective device ring every five minutes and everyone hurriedly rushes along leaving marginal time for the frustrated viewer to relate to the sisters' issues and problems if up' was an apple pie then i felt as if we were getting the mere crust of the story granted there are a few genuine and sincere moments in the film but they only help to establish that the remainder of the strained emotions are nothing but inferior dramatic muck the most outrageous strategy in up' is that after a series of largely unrealized attempts at character development we are expected to exhibit compassion and courtesy toward the sisters as they join for a melodramatic finale we are able to identify with eve ryan the most open and caring daughter because she is the one who stayed by her father's side as everyone else moved forward to pursue a impending career georgia keaton the eldest daughter is celebrating the fifth year anniversary of her magazine called  maddy kudrow the soap opera actress spends time either contemplating her possible path to stardom or nursing her dog ryan's convincing performance and diverting cuteness are two of the more agreeable aspects of up' kudrow so delightfully eccentric as the airhead phoebe in is totally wasted ditto for keaton who is serving a double shift as and director a time slot that can be a difficult priority juggle her frenzy is apparent for a chick flick there is a distressing lack of chuckles the reliable matthau is reduced to chaotic shtick that given his character's situation seems more depressing than amusing even so the peak form of humor in up' is represented by some of matthau's nasty quips and ryan's eternal battle to have the aforementioned pooch swallow a pill that about accounts for the three or four chuckles you will expel during the film my curiosity has suddenly been tweaked to discover how such a promising and approach could turn so viciously sour but really it's no mystery the predictable melodramatic filth that is up' is certainly not the fault of these actresses pin it on the screenplay which attempts to clear up vital issues in three or four minutes while spending the rest of the running time in an annoying flurry of phone conversations it's certainly a far cry from what one would label as a rewarding experience but up' should have at least been enjoyable  it's a wrong number from the beginning
negative	running time approximately reviewed by jack choo rating the movie starts with a rather opening sequence rather cool and sets the mood for things to come the story propels the audience into a somewhat very close to conscious reality but laced with weird tinges of blue and red existenz is actually the name of a new game supposedly vr games are highly popular as is considered a in this leigh is the ultimate game creator and introduces her ultimate in the form of existenz players are required to have embedded in their spine which plugs to a in order to enjoy the immersive experience during a secretive meeting for this new game an assassination attempt on life occurs and she runs off with fellow bodyguard law is more of a realists than anything else afraid that he'll lose reality if he begin to play these games but requires his help to immerse together with her into existenz to check if the program is still functioning properly after the assassination attempt as they soon discover they are transported between realities within existenz uncovering more than they initially expected existenz has all the that is expected of him even so this film is near his cult classics such as videodrome or scanners not even half as suspenseful as the commercially successful the fly existenz can probably be looked upon as his version of videodrome even so it is a poor while in most of his famed films his penchant for gore always hit the right note with theme of the film and plot in existenz the gory sequences are no more attached to spirit of the film and seem to be an act of than anything else jennifer jason leigh and jude law both commendable actors looked aloof and throughout the entire film the scripting and acting barely pulls the film out of the category it was obvious that cronenberg worked on a really and it seems that he handled that pretty well in the production design and values created for this film the opening sequence though probably formed a considerable portion of the budget which is actually quite good existenz is too predictable and cliched in these times years ago it would have been another classic for cronenberg cronenberg fans however those people who enjoy seeing friends getting queasy over mutilation on film should not give this film a miss as some form of appreciation can still be offered by you
negative	in china in i turned the tables on our national guide and asked him if he had any questions about america i guess i was expecting some sort of political question instead i was dumfounded by what was most on his mind in america do wives and their get along well he assured me in china that they did but i am certain if that were true he would not have asked even in china people seem to have problems relating to laws perhaps some of life's most difficult relationships arise when families are suddenly artificially joined by marriage a man trying to relate to his new prospective and could be the basis of a very strong comedy meet the parents does not demonstrate that fact however greg focker played by ben stiller has been dating and in love with pam byrnes teri polo for ten months and is now ready to propose to her he will do it during a weekend visit to meet debbie's family and to attend her sister's wedding from the beginning the relationship is awkward between greg and jack and dina byrnes robert deniro and blythe danner through no fault of his own the airline has lost greg's luggage and he has to ask to borrow clothing it is the beginning of a game of in which greg is nearly always as the games go on greg is more and more uncomfortable and uneasy which only contributes to the mistakes he makes greg is playing a game he does not understand in a league he is new to but perhaps along the way he will discover some unexpected secrets about his this film had potential in its tale of it has hit on a situation that many in the audience may find that has not been done overly frequently in films but the script by jim herzfeld and john hamburg is a little too contrived too many coincidences in the story work against greg the script could not decide if the main character was incompetent or simply unlucky certainly he does not help his situation by doing everything wrong he possibly could but even when he is trying to do the right things nature conspires against him there is an uneven mix of slapstick sequences and human comedy certainly the last part of the film feels awkwardly written the main reason to see meet the parents is to see robert deniro's performance deniro plays the suspicious and not a little fascistic father as tightly wound and threatening as he can the little judgmental expressions on his face are a show in themselves as greg digs himself deeper and deeper into his insecurities but we do not really see much of that digging ben stiller is an affable presence in the film but is not really stretching himself by playing the role as the nebbish to whom so many bad things happen it is nice to see blythe danner again on the screen but her character has a basic conflict between a basic decency and her love for her husband and the script should have given her more to do with that randy newman has written a playful score in the first few seconds of the film it does something creative i have never heard a film score do before there is a lot of source music that is popular music of the presumably that is what the upper class listens to at least in somebody's imagination humor is subjective and some this film has been getting some favorable comment but this is a comedy that works only occasionally for me i would have to rate it on the to scale and a on the to scale
negative	the fab of ronald reagan high are four girls played by rose mcgowan rebecca gayheart julie benz and charlotte roldan who overdress like posh spice wannabes their daily ritual is to parade up and down the school halls like royalty and their constant reflex action is to grab their compacts so they can check their and powder their cheeks under no circumstances will they ever let themselves be seen eating in public in writer and director darren stein's jawbreaker it isn't as funny as it sounds in fact it isn't funny at all stein has taken the black comedy of a teen movie like heathers and stripped it of any intelligence wit or charm his actresses toss off their lines so fast that they don't have time to add any emotion and all of his female characters have considerably more lipstick than brains the setup for the movie has one of the fab liz who is referred to as the princess di of reagan high be killed when a prank by the other goes wrong the princess di reference is in bad taste as is much of the movie granted bad taste can sometimes be funny but the mere presence of bad taste doesn't guarantee it liz's girlfriends stick a jawbreaker that is literally larger than a golf ball in her mouth tape her mouth shut and stick her bound body in the trunk of a car when they open the trunk later liz is dead they eventually put her blue and bruised body into a sexual position and make it look like liz was the victim of a brutal rape these realistic and disgusting scenes of a dead seminude teen have a pornographic feeling that is hard to forget and will likely turn the stomach of many a viewer the film's dialog not only isn't funny it's trite one nerdy young girl introduces herself with my name is fern mayo as in hold the mayo when fern discovers what has happened the fab make her an offer she can't refuse they cake it on her and welcome her to the clan the parents in the movie brag about learning parenting skills from watching oprah the teachers fare no better especially in the ridiculous lines they are given miss shayne please cover your bosom one young teacher who has been made up to look old and ugly says without any conviction this is a learning institution not a brothel besides the obvious question of why this movie was ever made there is one other question that i'd like to ask the director why do you have a phone number start with if you going to cover the rest of the number anyway in a cameo pam grier plays detective vera cruz who investigates liz's murder as she interrogates the other people she stares at them like they are all idiots proving that she is the only one that gets it i am sure that if the hard nosed detective cruz were to see this movie she'd walk out after about minutes and you'd be well advised to do the same if you should happen to find yourself in a theater showing it jawbreaker runs it is rated r for violence gore profanity and sex i would advise everyone to avoid it but if teenagers go they should be older and mature
negative	hollywood never fails to astound me every time i think those little buggers have hit rock bottom they come up with a new excavating tool i was truly convinced that wild wild west marked studio filmmaking at its most hapless but then along comes end of days to prove me wrong this big budget brain dead apocalyptic thriller bludgeons its audience with overwrought music grisly violence explosions galore and lots of cheesy special effects the result nothing but groans and yawns even the devil himself is unable to produce a decent scare in this festival of the inept at the very least end of days should have done us the courtesy of being but it can't even manage that it's just lousy arnold schwarzenegger still recovering from heart problems and batman robin plays an turned security agent or bodyguard or something along with his obligatory comic relief partner kevin pollak impersonating matthew perry's chandler character from friends he gets involved in some major league supernatural hoodoo it seems that satan gabriel byrne gets a shot at world domination only once every thousand years and here i thought he'd pulled it off with the republican landslide of if he has sex with old christine york robin tunney the chosen one their child will be the antichrist or at least a brat ah but this deal has more catches than a new year's eve pass from a halfway house the unholy union must take place on december you see is just turned upside down but only between p m and midnight no wonder this guy is so cranky and if the chosen one is given refuge in a church the devil won't know where she is because he can't see into the sanctuary you know it's kind of like superman's vision and lead walls only evil a group of guerrilla catholic priests decide the best way to stop the situation is by killing the girl arnold chooses to save the girl and kick the hell out of satan if you'll pardon the expression and kevin meets up with an exploding van and has to make some decisions of his own oh the anguish oh the humanity oh the writing andrew w marlowe's screenplay ladles implausibility upon implausibility from the preposterous otherworldly histrionics to his handling of jericho cane schwarzenegger's character cane starts the film a la mel gibson in the first lethal weapon preparing to put a gun in his mouth due to ongoing despondence over the murder of his wife and daughter twenty minutes later he's racing through the bowels of new york city deciphering clues that sherlock holmes and kreskin would find baffling when cane meets up with christine york he instantly switches to terminator father figure mode with the young woman serving as surrogate daughter in case anyone misses the connection the camera comes in for a close up of christine's music box which just happens to be identical to one owned by cane's daughter subtle marlowe subtle speaking of cameras director peter hyams is just the man to take marlowe's script and make it even more murky and annoying hyams' direction shows all the subtlety of a gwar video with cane running a gauntlet of ridiculous action set pieces punctuated with loads of big explosions eager to satisfy arnold's core audience he even throws in a few pairs of breasts as well what a guy had the film delivered some decent scares or even maintained a consistently ominous tone the bombastic clich s might have been tolerable but end of days is simply a flaccid special effects show the cast is just as ineffective in his early scenes gabriel byrne attempts to invest beelzebub with some panache but he all too soon turns into just another standard issue monster kevin pollak comes and goes quickly robin tunney comes off like a bargain basement winona ryder and as for arnold well he's a better actor than casper van dien that should count for something way back in the aftermath the exorcist and the omen supernatural swill like end of days might have passed muster as a but that was then and this is now the and buffy the vampire slayer deliver real scares on a weekly basis and if we want to see the devil all we have to do is flip on the club and take a gander at pat robertson's grinning maw after enduring end of days all i can say is get thee behind me satan and while you're at it get thee a better agent as well
negative	i have little against remakes and updates of older films and tv series if there's a will there's a way and i believe that anything no matter how great or revered can be effectively improved upon this is the reason that i responded so well to gus van sant's universally panned update of psycho i thought it to be not only an intriguing cinematic experience but also very with an original but i do have a big problem with remakes that are blatantly bad you see the point of a remake is or at least it should be to iron out the original's flaws and bring the work that much closer to greatness or even perfection but what if the source material on which the remake is based isn't any good to begin with that is the only cinematic question pondered by the bland actioner the mod squad i've only seen a couple episodes of the late tv series on which it is based and to be honest i didn't like it all that much it has a concept that and still is interesting a group of corrupt young adults all in their early are given a choice they either go to jail for the various crimes that they all have committed or they can become undercover cops helping the police get into places that they normally wouldn't be able to access obviously all opt for the latter option and become undercover policemen and policewomen the three main characters here are played by claire danes omar epps and giovanni ribisi of the three only danes has a real character ribisi's dumbass year old is played exclusively for laughs epps' slightly more intelligent one is used to create various chase scenes when the squad's superviser gets killed off and his reputation dirtied in death the three of them sure that their beloved master was framed go off and investigate on their own discovering corrupt cops lots and lots of expensive whores and very lucrative drug operations all kinds of good stuff the only times that the mod squad comes even close to working is in its comedic moments although ribisi is a trite actor and his characters repeat movie after movie his man here is really rather amusing when the script gives him a chance epps' straight man is effectively played against ribisi's clueless spontaneity but the rest of the film is dull boring and singularly uninteresting a action plot is no longer anything new not even with teenage action heroes and the way it's executed here it's also nowhere near exciting or suspenseful claire danes' character has potential but it is buried under heaps of cliches and her performance is too restrained she could have been a but instead director scott silver puts shackles on her and simply does not allow her to do anything really significant with her role epps and ribisi fare slightly better and do as well as can be expected although their characters aren't nearly as rich as danes' could have been the mod squad is a marketing plot of a film and teens will jump all over it it's full of bad dialogue scenes and concepts that make no sense and get this drug dealers that like to tango with other guys in their spare time nothing is remotely intriguing or worth paying for claire danes is no longer alluring mainly because she's got a horrible hairdo so that draw is out there are however cool explosions guns and chases which may lure a viewer into thinking that he or she is about to experience an exciting thriller of some sort do not be fooled some may call this escapist fare i call it fare
negative	when the mediums in question are video game and feature film has there ever been a respective transformation that achieved any ground higher than mediocrity super mario bros street fighter and mortal kombat were silly stinkers all and now the empty execrable wing commander joins their lowly ranks enduring this spectacularly bad bit of easily the worst of its kind is like watching someone futz around with a video game for minutes that is to say there's little fun to be had when you're not the one holding the joystick the movie then is a missed opportunity for director chris roberts who created the original groundbreaking pc incarnation of wing commander back in how an interactive brainchild so revered could end up such a cinematic pile of junk under the helm of the same guy is a wing commander story credited to roberts and screenwriter kevin droney is clueless chaos melding incoherent narrative and unoriginal ideas it rips off the finest films of its genre top gun and in one scene even those spiffy stereoscopic freeze gap commercials set in wing commander stars freddie prinze jr as a daredevil cosmos cowboy who hopes to be a great fighter pilot like his father before him along the way he plays with his stoic superior saffron burrows at the new galaxy hangout where he's posted comes to terms with bigots who resent him for his pilgrim heritage don't ask and goes on a mission involving the jump coordinates what no death star plans of a nasty alien race known as the kilrathi or something like that given the immensely confusing activity it's hard to tell on the other hand what's easy to see is that wing commander is a big old mess the lame dialogue strains filled with such original lines as don't you die on me battle stations and repeated and frequently unanswered calls for a medic action sequences fizzle the character conflict garners unintentional giggles the sole source of suspense here is what these kilrathi creeps look like as they're kept out of view until the concluding minutes imagine bearded siamese cats crossed with something from a roger corman cheapie and you've got a good idea little but happens for an hour and then it's as if wing commander tries to do too much at once when it appears as though the movie's about to show signs of a pulse it instead provides a hilarious touch of human drama culminating with a use for a bulldozer that has probably never been seen in this kind of space camp before matthew lillard featured prominently in said sequence is cast as prinze's hotshot partner and though the two are fine young actors recently paired in the hit she's all that they're fighting more than otherworldly evil here rumor has it that wing commander was slated as a release bumped up to capitalize off this hot casting coup as well as the premiere of the new star wars episode i trailer but in my audience there were no females present to make eyes at prinze or lillard and many a member exited after the sneak peek since most cineplexes won't be granting refunds to the latter contingency commander might rake in some dough but be warned the high wears off as soon as the coming attraction gives way to the feature presentation
negative	it's almost amusing to watch old christina ricci get drastically overshadowed in sally potter's to the tango lesson the man who cried the actress with her cold stare and big black eyes has appeared in an impressive range of films but she doesn't even come close to being the bold heroine the film set against the historical backdrop of world war requires her to be ricci whose character is shockingly silent and blank showing only the occasional smile or hint of concern shares most of her scenes with the astounding cate blanchett quite an amusing sight to behold blanchett's lola a paris dwelling dancer who befriends the aspiring singer suzie is bold interesting and layered everything our heroine lacks of the upcoming lord of the rings trilogy blanchett has a good seven inches on ricci sports twice the makeup and dons a flashy wardrobe the actress inhabits the role as she always so remarkably does with a fervor and life that makes you want her to hold the screen as the film's lead rather than her dull companion important historical events involving hitler and his nazis scatter themselves across the film these landmarks serve as the film's little conflict obviously the tables are turned in the life of suzie by these events whose jewish origin is unknown among her parisian colleagues the man who cried has many aspirations none of which come full circle by the film's close there are forced messages here and there go forward always go forward lola preaches to suzie there's romance between suzie and a fellow target of hitler's nazis the gypsy cesar johnny depp who like ricci barely gets to speak lola struggles with her character that desires above all things wealth and men who have it and at the core of all these devices lies suzie's desire to travel to america where her father journeyed after leaving her and her mother years ago the film's main problem is that potter isn't skilled enough to tell the story of suzie the time period's instability the conflicting social classes the prejudice against suzie from all those around her in her new life serving as both writer and director potter throws in some of each but hardly an inch of depth is to be found in any by the time the climax hits the believability and complete absence of focus leave one ready to leave the theater the film's falling action is weirdly unsatisfying and unlikely are we really meant to believe any of this could happen contrastingly in its moving final scene the man who cried strikes a note that is made effective in its ties to the emotional beginning of the film although it's apparent that potter can't grasp what she reaches i'm puzzled as to why she reaches for so much in the first place ricci's suzie is meant to be the film's core from the extended flashback at the film's beginning to the quickly drawn ending everything seen in the film in some way relates to her so why then does potter spend so much time on subplots involving other individuals the character of suzie is too present for the man who cried to work as an ensemble but not present enough for the film to be ricci's the almost constant lack of flow and tone with which potter depicts the man who cried are somewhat improved upon by sacha vierny's beautiful cinematography that renders the film's various locations wonderfully also worthy of note are lindy hemming's costumes that help to depict the area quite nicely and then there's the music from minute one to minute there's hardly a moment when the wavering skilled voice of an opera singer or the rhythms of the gypsy music don't undercut the action the notes stricken both overwhelm particularly john turturro portraying fictional opera singer dante dominio whose money and reputation catch lola's interest and accompany oftentimes the perfect chords are captured to undermine the state of the film's characters and reinforce that state potter obviously cares much about each and every musical note unfortunately the same effort isn't given towards almost everything else
negative	sandra bullock in high heels and wielding a chainsaw yup it's gotta be summer just when you thought the pointless sequel had gone the way of franchise films and releases into port slams speed cruise control the gloriously godawful to the sleeper about a bus rigged to explode if it slowed below a certain speed the gimmick this time is an ocean liner rigged to well crash into stuff sound exciting dennis hopper's disgruntled bomb squader the villain of the first film has given way to willem dafoe's disgruntled computer programmer a maniac whose main beef has something to do with having to use live leeches i kid you not as a for copper ing and said poisoning induced by prolonged exposure to magnetic fields no less calling dean edell so he overrides the boat's computer convinces the crew to abandon ship and sends the remaining passengers those who couldn't evacuate in time on a lision course with destiny oddly no one thinks to just jump off the back of the boat with keanu reeves electing not to perhaps he read the script the job of john mcclane goes to jason patric sleepers as the second la cop and swat team member that that bus drivin' babe annie bullock has dated what are the odds they're on this caribbean cruise for pleasure as are a handful of requisite stock characters including a deaf teenager who has a crush on the hero who also knows how to sign and you thought the raptor slam was a cool summer movie move wait till you see the feats that this little girl can do when stuck on a shipboard elevator bullock is her pesky perky self though she ends up with far less screen time than her top billing suggests those paying attention to her and tops probably won't complain however patric is the main man in motion and that's damn good when he stops to talk he's only slightly less monotone than his predecessor his first lol line is to ms bullock i'd like to boogie with you of course nobody in front of the camera embarrasses themselves quite the way that returning director jan de bont does he also produced this mess which is insulting even by the most lax summer standards con air buddy father's day romy and michelle's high school reunion murder at heads in a duffle bag anaconda vegas vacation meet wally sparks metro bevery hills ninja the relic all is forgiven worse he's spent a hundred mil on a premise that doesn't even live up to its title there's no motion of the ocean just two hours of shaky handheld camera work and a handful of exteriors all leading up to the big slam when the love boat sideswipes an oil tanker and then plows into a harbor town oh how far we've come in twenty years remember the simple fun of seeing a locomotive smash into railway station in the silver streak admittedly either of the aforementioned sequences is worth the price of admission it's just the rest of the the other hundred or so that's pure nonsense and wonderful nonsense at that i know he didn't intend to but de bont has done one thing right he's created the funniest film of the year so now allow to present a few more things that made me laugh o a box with a big label fiber optic converter o plain english computer instructions o an entire sequence devoted to opening a fire door o jason patric's character walks onto the bridge and immediately understands everything that's happening o a ships' navigator who speaks in a scottish accent and actually gets to say i canna override it o willem dafoe's amazing keyboard o two living breathing adults bullock's character and the first mate who have to be told step by step how to disconnect a trip wire from the pin of a hand grenade duh o no wait screams the ship's intercom o yet another damn dog in peril o fishing reel pontoon plane memories of weekend at bernie's
negative	how do films like mouse hunt get into theatres isn't there a law or something this diabolical load of claptrap from steven speilberg's dreamworks studio is hollywood family fare at its deadly worst mouse hunt takes the bare threads of a plot and tries to prop it up with overacting and stupid slapstick that makes comedies like jingle all the way look decent by comparison writer adam rifkin and director gore verbinski are the names chiefly responsible for this swill the plot for what its worth concerns two brothers nathan lane and an appalling lee evens who inherit a poorly run string factory and a seemingly worthless house from their eccentric father deciding to check out the house they soon learn that it's worth a fortune and set about selling it in auction to the highest bidder but battling them at every turn is a very smart mouse happy with his little abode and wanting it to stay that way the story alternates between unfunny scenes of the brothers bickering over what to do with their inheritance and endless action sequences as the two take on their increasingly determined furry foe whatever promise the film starts with soon deteriorates into boring dialogue terrible overacting and increasingly uninspired slapstick that becomes all sound and fury signifying nothing the script becomes so unspeakably bad that the best line poor lee evens can utter after another run in with the rodent is i hate that mouse oh cringe this is home alone all over again and ten times worse one touching scene early on is worth mentioning we follow the mouse through a maze of walls and pipes until he arrives at his makeshift abode somewhere in a wall he jumps into a tiny bed pulls up a makeshift sheet and snuggles up to sleep seemingly happy and just wanting to be left alone it's a magical little moment in an otherwise soulless film a message to speilberg if you want dreamworks to be associated with some kind of artistic credibility then either give all concerned in mouse hunt a swift kick up the arse or hire yourself some decent writers and directors this kind of rubbish will just not do at all
negative	miramax disinvited media from press screenings of scream they ostensibly feared that folks like me would write reviews and post them prior to the film's february release reasoning you see critics established enough to be on any sort of vip list are surely knows the difference between a member of the film critics society ofcs and the type of fanboy who posts spy reports at ain't it cool news no the mini major' was afraid we'd let a bigger cat out of the bag than whodunit that scream is a dismal conclusion to the beloved by this writer at least franchise something smells rotten in the state of california right from the cotton weary liev schrieber the former lover and killer of maureen prescott sidney's mother is juggling phone calls in his luxury car once considered a danger to society weary now hosts his own talk show cotton a clever if dated jab at american pop culture of course a new ghostface dials him up and with memories of scream's unbearably suspenseful prologue in mind we immediately wonder where is the killer the backseat the next car thrilling prospects to be sure but actually ghostface is at the weary residence waiting for cotton's girlfriend kelly rutheford to finishing showering what's missing from this sequence and indeed scream remaining frights most disappointingly the moment when an ingenue is forced to hide in a wardrobe room filled with ghostface costumes one of which might spring to life is an elaborate and attenuated payoff our other surviving regulars have become estranged sidney campbell is living a paranoid existence of electronic gates and locks while dewey arquette acts as technical advisor on the second sequel to scream stab and gale weathers cox arquette headlines a gossipy news program murder reunites them as ghostface stalks the set of stab imitating its sadistic own personal draft climaxes with sidney's death the appeal of ghostface's villainy is that could be your boyfriend your classmate your next door neighbour or a combination of people scream was the first of its kind a slasher mystery with the guessing game not only entailing who will be next but also who the perpetrator s and what motive ironic aside parts one and two stand out in a crowd that includes umpteen friday the and halloween flicks because there's at last articulate human beings behind the iconic costume with scream the novelty of ghostface's identity has worn off some but the character remains conceptually potent conceptually the execution of ghostface's master plan this time around is creaky because screenwriter ehren kruger has invented a new mythology for the world of sidney prescott far afield from what we'd come to understand in scream and scream the movie gets in the silly habit of saying all bets are off in reference to the rules of a trilogy's third act but there's a difference between rule breaking and cheating with the departure of kevin williamson who authored the previous screams as well as a tidy outline for scream that for reasons incomprehensible to me was ignored save the notion of stab kruger needed to be reined in tighter and by wes craven craven's direction of scream is lazy in most respects how else to explain the jay and silent bob cameo the slacker duo of kevin smith movies akin to seeing mickey mouse pop up in mulan and more distracting than funny it pains me to write this but scream comedy is generally laughless with the exception of performances by josh pais as a police detective possessed of the same personality he had as a persnickety teacher in craven's music of the heart jamie kennedy resurrecting film geek randy for the sendoff he was denied in scream and parker posey through sheer force of will as a the visuals are much weaker in part three as occasional sweeping gesture of peter deming's camera is a pale imitation of the stalking steadicam craven gave us twice before aside in the wake of columbine craven toned down the violence significantly for scream the sanctimony when scream and scream are still readily available on video store shelves finally marco beltrami's music cues the suspense too you recall the tense chase at the college radio station in scream it's mostly silent sting notes are a whole lot more effective if they spring from nowhere here they act as the crescendos of an incessantly score i look at scream as coming from an alternative universe the same place that birthed the godfather part iii and superman out of synch with its prequels scream is a nightmare instead of nightmarish and will likely put the horror genre back in mothballs the film unintentionally follows the unspoken rule of a trilogy to a t part three must disappoint'
negative	a backdrop of new year's eve in would seem to lend itself to a great party movie the decor possibilities are endless disco balls had yet to migrate into the dark corners of the attic big hair was worth its weight in aquanet and the louder the fashion the better the look but despite this setting these details and a soundtrack that includes some irresistible hits from the early days of the me decade something is inherently wrong with cigarettes a better title for this nostalgic mess would be missed opportunities what is it that makes this such a downer it's certainly not the cast which includes enough hot young talent for several movies there's courtney love cementing her reputation as a serious actress christina ricci hot off her turn in the opposite of sex paul rudd who gets even more appealing with every role kate hudson inheriting some fine acting genes from mom goldie hawn and affleck brothers ben and casey two of the best things about good will hunting perhaps the question is this what drew these and other immensely talented actors to such a dreary project maybe it looked good on paper cigarettes is composed of a series of vignettes as various characters make their way through new york's festively decorated east village to a holiday bash thrown by a jittery bundle of nerves named monica martha plimpton all dressed up in her best cyndi lauper among the potential guests are likeable cad kevin rudd and his best friend lucy love busy bickering over his recent and a clumsy but seemingly charming bartender ben affleck who opens his mouth only to spew forth bad lines more subplots more dot the big picture but those listed above are the only ones worth noting in a positive light all the other story tangents are as frazzled as a cokehead trying to solve a rubick's cube ricci and gaby hoffman grate as two ronkonkoma gals the kind that have trouble pronouncing hard consonants out to have a high time in the big city infamously acerbic comedienne janeane garofalo is wasted in what amounts to a cameo hudson as a klutz recently devirginized by a reprehensible ladies' man jay mohr trips pukes and gets smeared with dog poop are we laughing yet the film boils down to a mixture of the good the bad and the gaudy with the latter two overtaking the former game performances especially by love rudd and plimpton are almost shot down by the bizarrely colorful parts and a constantly roving focus here a combination that mostly sputters when it should crackle too many sidetracks rate as uninteresting and have little payoff until a lengthy final montage where we find out many of the performers served as one night stands for each other if this is cigarettes then get me nicotine patches
negative	the premise of the new james wong film final destination is that alex browning the protagonist prevents six of his friends from boarding a doomed airplane thereby cheating fate however fate is not so easily bested and alex's friends soon begin dying in unusual circumstances essentially this premise is a to make a without the slasher unfortunately this is practically the only clever thing about the film as far as teen horror flicks go final destination is better than many there is enough shocking death graphic gore and requisite black humor to provide the essential roller coaster type thrill at the heart of the average horror flick unfortunately this film also suffers from the worst characteristics of this genre the relationships between the main characters are tenuous and their motivations are meaningless except as excuse to the next death the scene where two of the characters break into a funeral home to view the body of their recently killed friend is suppose to be scary and dramatic but features some of the dumbest dialogue i have witnessed if you are looking for a saturday night thriller to scare your date this film might do the trick other than that wait until it goes into on cable
negative	there is a scene in patch adams in which patch is in the center of a courtroom surrounded by people who are giving him a lively standing ovation because of his attack on a group of stoic doctors when i noticed that the audience with whom i saw this film was reacting the same way i realized that i was going to have a hard time finding someone who agrees with me about the quality of the picture you see patch adams revolted me beyond all boundaries i hated this movie for every second that i sat watching it and i actively hate it now days later with the simpering superficial nauseatingly sentimental images forever plaguing my memories i hate every element of the film beginning with tom shadyac's shameless direction and all the way up to the misguided and mishandled themes that the screenplay wants so desperately to convey the badness of patch adams is stupefying it's confounding i can't believe a film can be this bad and yet it's based on a real man who probably has a good point to make in the film patch is played by the undefeatable and indefatigable robin williams in a performance of such insulting pathos and sledgehammer sympathy that i wonder now if he is even human in the beginning of the film patch commits himself to a mental institution because he doesn't want to kill himself while there he notices that the doctors don't care about the patients and that the best way to get through to the patients is to treat them like human beings so patch goes on a crusade to be a great doctor who actually talks to his patients he goes to medical school where he meets truman daniel london and convinces him that it's good to help people he also meets carin fischer monica potters the med student who just wants to go through the motions and be a successful doctor naturally the dean of the medical school bob gunton hates patch and wants to thwart his plans even though patch gets the highest scores on all of his exams so patch decides that he's going to build a free clinic in the middle of nowhere to help people with any problem they may have and that my friends is the synopsis for what is easily the most abhorrent picture of on a superficial level the film is not particularly bad i wouldn't say the cinematography bothered me and most of the performances seem to be exactly what shadyac was aiming for i actually liked potter's performance even if she is wasted but the film fails fundamentally in execution every scene swells with grand emotional music played at maximum volume just to get us all to cry real hard take for instance the first scene which shows patch sitting on a bus we don't know patch yet but there's sad music and it's supposed to make us really sad that he's sad later on patch makes a lot of progress he helps a dying patient peter coyote to enjoy the last days of his life and the music as patch is pushing the patient recklessly through the halls of the hospital is very lively and when that patient finally dies spoiler alert the music is very very sad but the problem with all of this is that the music should not be the center of the emotions real drama is you grow to like someone and then something bad happens and you feel it we don't ever grow to know the dying patient he's simply a vehicle for patch's greatness real drama doesn't seem forced or present just to make the audience cry that's why patch adams is not real drama it goes for every cheap tear imaginable wringing tired and overbearing sentimentality out of every scene even scenes that have very little impact on the overall film are drowning in marc shaiman's sickening musical score sentimentality like this is indeed bad but it's not as bad as simplistic themes you see patch is a really great student he aces his tests without studying and does it so effectively that people think he's cheating but patch doesn't think that memorizing facts is the way to become a good doctor why don't we see patients until the third year he bursts out every three seconds well patch that might have something to do with the fact that you need to learn something before you go treating patients not everyone has the capability of memorizing facts with no effort most of us have to study and a doctor who really wants to help but doesn't know a toe from a finger probably won't be too successful in preventing death oh wait i almost forgot the point of doctors is not just to prevent death but to improve the quality of life yes that is true and you can not do that without studying you can not do that without going to medical school what patch never seemed to understand was the possibility that maybe just maybe it is a good idea to study first and talk to patients later follow the rules bah who needs the rules only uptight doctors follow the rules the real saviors are the ones running around the hospitals with big red spheres on their faces and sporting baggy yellow pants and then there's the free clinic issue which i find shockingly frighteningly idealistic a free clinic in the middle of the forest where patients can be taken to be helped for free how will patients be transported to the free clinic will it have an emergency room or is it just for mental patients and who may i ask will pay for it the film does give some token attempts to question patch's motives i think another character asks him how he's going to pay for it in addition to a little bit of meaningless blather about hmos and medical insurance but they certainly don't explore or challenge patch's ideas to any meaningful extent reader please understand this i am not making any kind of judgment on the real patch adams i know nothing about him if his beliefs mirror those of this film character then i might like to have an intelligent discussion with him about them but regardless of what the real patch adams believes the themes put forth in this film are simplistic and phony and in the last scene the big obligatory courtroom scene that forced my lunch halfway up my esophagus patch does a lot of shouting actually robin williams does a lot of shouting he shouts a lot about helping people and a lot of people cry because they are moved by his words i won't tell you that you can't be moved by his words because i too was moved by his words i was moved in such a profoundly negative way that i was reminded of how cheap and phony a cinematic experience can be patch adams is the cheapest of them all
negative	i have a great idea for a movie one that can't miss see i've got coolio to do a song for the soundtrack and about fifty athletes and celebrities to do cameo appearances it's about professional basketball so i'll release it right around the nba finals to guarantee added publicity as for what the movie is actually about well that will all sort itself out eventually i figure it will be a comedy so i'll throw a writers at it and take the best of whatever they come up with maybe we'll put a gender spin on it see if we can get some women out to see it too eddie is one of those phenomenally lazy films that infuriates me more than any other kind twister as inane as the script might have been at least required some creative technicians mission impossible overwrought plot and all at least involved genuine effort eddie just sits there hawking up a formula story without any laughs and makes every possible bad decision when a decision is required whoopi goldberg plays eddie franklin a new york limo driver and knicks fan who is suffering through a dismal season for her beloved team coach john bailey dennis farina has lost control of his overpaid prima donnas and the losses are beginning to mount the dwindling attendance inspires new team owner wild bill burgess frank langella to try a publicity stunt in which a lucky fan will get to be an honorary coach of the team the winner surprise surprise is eddie who becomes a fan favorite and eventually the actual coach the knicks continue to lose but eddie has some sassy tricks up her sleeve to inspire her troops incidentally the knicks eventually start winning please raise your hand if that comes as a shock and i will invite you to my marathon of the bad news bears major league angels in the outfield the mighty ducks the big green cool runnings and little giants awful teams in sports comedies make miraculous turnarounds it's what they do those teams usually involve kids for a very sound comedic reason it's funnier when they screw up and they're more sympathetic those which involve kids usually have actual actors in the lead roles for another very sound comedic reason they generally have developed some sort of comic timing eddie was cast under the misguided premise that it's easier to make basketball players look like actors than it is to make actors look like basketball players this finds nba players like greg ostertag dwayne schintzius rick fox and malik sealy delivering punch lines as though they were reading them for the first time off a bazooka wrapper though sacramento kings center olden polynice has a nice moment describing a black hole to fellow players perhaps that all didn't matter to anyone because there are so few punch lines and because the whole film is one big casting gimmick steve rash directs the spiritless script as though waving a flag of surrender and screaming don't blame me i just work here perhaps it was patently obvious to him that eddie isn't a movie it's a cameo appearance that trips over a plot every once in a while among the notables who lend their faces to this travesty are donald trump new york mayor rudolph giulianni former new york mayor ed koch david letterman letterman regulars mujibur rahman and sirajul islam espn broadcaster chris berman and knicks announcer marv albert as well as dozens of nba players and several nba arenas and those are the real jokes in eddie nothing these individuals say or do is funny you are supposed to be laughing simply because you notice hey it's donald trump or hey it's mujibur and sirajul it's difficult to decide whether eddie is so bad because it was so shamelessly lacking in imagination or because it can't even get the cliches in a genre script right the knicks coach who is eddie's antagonist early in the film reappears at the end but he isn't given a chance to be the villain eddie desperately needs neither is frank langella and none of the have the ability to give whoopi goldberg anything to play off of that leaves her to do her miss thang routine but with no character no sharp lines and no help eddie isn't just a bad movie with a formulaic premise it's a movie that makes you feel cheated and offended because someone came up with a poster and a marketing plan to which they had to attach an actual movie and you had the nerve to believe it was going to be a comedy
negative	as any reasonable human being would i must admit that occasionally i am befuddled by certain things i am befuddled by fight club now sometimes our favorite films are panned by critics and do not achieve critical success until much later sometimes as much as ten or twenty years later perhaps it is because these films are way ahead of their time perhaps it is because they are so new and complex that only after years of allowing them to sink in do we truly appreciate and understand them fight club is either garbage or brilliant but at least right now i must lean toward the former maybe i am subconsciously affected by word of mouth that has been slowly leaking throughout the media for weeks that this film is pure gold but if it is i sure don t see it edward norton plays jack a field examiner for a major automobile manufacturer his insomnia coupled with his compulsive desires to fill his world with ikea furniture to complete himself make him a loser at the game of life but when all of his worldly possessions are blown out his story window he seeks comfort in a stranger tyler pitt whom he met on a flight home once jack is sucked into tyler s world he can t get out literally they begin fight club an organization based on brutal and bloody fistfights that signify nothing other than to provide those that join a sense of belonging as the fight club grows things get out of control and take on cult status beginning with one future soldier who proves his worth by standing still outside tyler s house for three days i dare not even begin to bring up the last quarter of the film since that contains the twist that explains the pointless journey suffice it to say i was truly disappointed in fincher who s previous two films and the game put him in a very slim category of truly brilliant young filmmakers of the next generation this is not to imply by any means that he is no longer a genius or capable of bringing more masterpieces to the table but with fight club he has allowed his unique talent for extraordinary vision to be distorted by silly digital experiments and film elements such as talking to the audience about what they are seeing telling them that the little blips in the right hand corner are signifiers that the projectionist is changing reels and that a slightly altered recurring line is good flashback humor now throughout the film s coarsely woven texture and plot lines fight club is obviously trying to make various social comments about the state of the world today advertisements politics corporations you name it it s addressed though the media are suspiciously absent from the institutions that are referenced all of them play an important role how so well i can kinda just tell i can t really put my finger on it to say that starbucks and barnes noble are taking over their respective markets and kicking out the small business owner is no big news is that bad for the world probably not much room for social commentary there we all know that politics are just that politics so what was the point of all this the film seems desperate to make a point or a number of points but i couldn t figure out what they were all i saw was a very bizarre social satire that was woven with strange film techniques a bleak visual design and some fine acting pitt carter norton all of them are good even meatloaf is good when you get to the end you will most likely be filled with questions many of which the filmmakers wanted you to ask of yourself not them because each of them would likely give you a different answer fight club means what you want it to mean i think fincher just gives you the stuff to think about but it couldn t be more bizarre and unappealing sure it had shock value but so did and the game and they were significantly stronger films
negative	staring george clooney arnold schwarzenegger chris o'donnell and uma thurman with alicia silverstone well to start this off i'd just like to say a couple things first is i miss michael keaton i miss tim burton and would much prefer to think that these last two batman films are all like a dallas dream sequence not even from the first film was batman really the though he was damn close in the first couple anyway in forever' and now in robin' he's almost pushed to being a bit player i can't really say if clooney who regardless was better than kilmer was a very good batman or not he's given next to nothing to do at all he might as well not have been there and it wouldn't have made much difference now joel schumacher has said that he refuses to bend to the masses that have hated his films and cheered for the return of buton that he wont make batman brooding and dark fine i mean granted returns' while being an awsome film was a bit to dark sometimes yet his bright neon campy style is just killing anything this series meant to me i'm usually very easy on films i loved air' and other films some critics have slammed granted that film really was paper thin cliche ridden except for one thing it was fun there is virtually no fun in this film at all i couldn't have cared less it'll thrill the little ones as theres no violence really none everyone comes out fine in the end like those old tv shows where it ends with everyone laughing schwarzenegger is awful i mean really really bad and this is coming from a regular fan of his work i love his movies most of the time and the basic reason is he never says much in any of them he talks all to often in this movie i would have much prefered to have seen patric stewart in the roll i believe to truely like a film you have to care about at least someone in a film i liked alfred but the reason behind it is a cheap shot
negative	even though i have the utmost respect for richard dreyfuss as an actor his presence in a motion picture does not guarantee any particular level of quality like everyone else dreyfuss has bills to pay so he occasionally accepts big paychecks for prominent roles in bad movies consequently while his career highlights include jaws close encounters of the third kind stakeout and tin men his resume is dotted with titles like moon over parador let it ride and now krippendorf's tribe let me start out by saying that krippendorf's tribe is occasionally funny although never riotously so but that's about its only asset the best word to describe this film is asinine the target audience would appear to be recent nursery school graduates if not for the numerous sexual innuendoes which are aimed at someone going through puberty krippendorf's tribe tries to be a zany comedy but the film makers have forgotten three important rules the first is that some minimal level of plot credibility has to exist the second is that viewers should be able to identify with or at least care about a character or two finally and most importantly more than of the jokes have to work once upon a time james krippendorf dreyfuss was a respected professor of anthropology at little bounderby college he and his wife obtained a grant to seek out a lost tribe somewhere in the wilds of new guinea a goal which they never accomplished shortly after their return from the failed trip krippendorf's wife died and he was left with the herculean task of raising three children shelly natasha lyonne mickey gregory smith and edmund carl michael linder on his own now over a year later the college wants to see the results of the money they gave krippendorf which he has spent not on research but on things for his family so they send a new member of their faculty professor veronica micelli jenna elfman to inform him that he has been scheduled to give a lecture on his findings when he arrives at the college for the momentous event rather than telling the truth and risking being sent to jail for misappropriating school funds he fabricates a tale about a mythical lost tribe the shelmikedmu to provide video footage he films his children dressed in native garb soon much to krippendorf's surprise the shelmikedmu are a national phenomenon but one disaffected professor lily tomlin is determined to prove that the tribe is a fraud the only way krippendorf's tribe works is if you assume that all of the characters not to mention the viewers are dumber than dirt unfortunately it's impossible to like or sympathize with a bunch of putzes like this director todd holland completely fails to develop any character into something more substantial than a device to implement various dubious gags meanwhile attempts at satirizing the shallowness of american culture i e how easily the public can be fooled into jumping on the bandwagon of the latest trend come across as feeble and derivative the acting in underwhelming dreyfuss has definitely not given his all to the role of james krippendorf alongside him jenna elfman the spunky of tv's dharma and greg radiates perkiness and little else this quality while fine for a television program quickly becomes irritating in the arena of a movie no one in the supporting cast lily tomlin david ogden stiers natasha lyonne woody allen's daughter in everyone says i love you excels i know that a movie's in trouble when it's half the length of titanic but seems much longer most of what comes on screen is generic level material the kind of slop that people will absorb while dozing off in their favorite easy chair in front of the television set if there's any upside it's that i don't see much support developing for this lame miscue krippendorf's tribe will quickly become extinct
negative	movies about teenagers and teenage culture rarely prove to be either interesting entertaining or convincing because of one fundamental reason movies are made by adults and not teenagers occasionally however films like say anything dazed and confused and the breakfast club will break the mold and offer genuine insight into the lives of those bizarre creatures which surround us called teenagers can't hardly wait however does not instead the team of harry elfont and deborah kaplan manages to take every clich found in the teenage genre strip it completely of perception intelligence and wit and turn it into one of the most nauseating cinematic experiences i have ever been subjected to can't hardly wait follows a group of characters as they attend a house party on the night of their high school graduation the main characters are such perfected stereotypes that no analysis needs to be provided to perfectly understand them there's the average male protagonist preston ethan embry prom queen and cheerleader amanda jennifer football star mike peter facinelli white rapper wannabe kenny seth green computer geek william charlie korsmo and brainy outsider denise lauren ambrose i couldn't stand any of those characters whether it was william getting drunk and signing along to heavy metal songs or kenny proclaiming yo i gotta have sex tonight all i could think of was how elfont and kaplan possibly managed to con columbia pictures out of ten million dollars to fund their film apparently can't hardly wait is supposed to be a comedy but it tends to fail in this respect because of the fact that it's not funny in all honesty elfont and kaplan should be forced by their employers to attend remedial classes in humour and when i say forced i mean it they should be strapped down to a chair and have their eyes wedged open in a similar fashion to alex in a clockwork orange this is how desperately they need to be educated about the concept of humour for instance can't hardly wait features a foreign exchange student who is instructed to repeat absurd statements such as i am a sex machine for some reason elfont and kaplan believe that if this character repeats it enough eventually it will be funny if only elfont and kaplan could recognise the irony that they actually got paid for making this junk now that's funny
negative	way of the gun is brimming with surprises some good most bad one of the good ones is ryan phillippe's surprisingly halfway decent performance after the actor gained much attention by posing and preening through teen swill like i know what you did last summer he hinted at a bit growth in last year's cruel intentions with his amusingly contemptuous john malkovich meets james spader performance though his acting in that film faltered around the third act mark precisely when the screenplay made his character grow a heart presumably to appeal to his training bra wearing fans and start bellyaching about how he'd fallen for his target it was a dramatic shift that neither phillippe nor the film's director could negotiate but he seems to be trying and that shouldn't be overlooked or probably over praised seeing as how at this point he really isn't required to do much but look pretty here phillippe has procured a five day growth of beard his hair askew and his affect altered to sound something like james cagney in all his look here see glory it's tough to believe a pretty boy like phillippe as a hard ass but his performance actually helps with the illusion unlike ben affleck's puppy dog approach in reindeer games phillippe is believable and not too bad at that as for the plot well that's one of the bad surprises phillippe and the great benicio del torro play two moronic and not even remotely likeable criminals introduced to us in the parking lot of a rave where they stupidly pick a fight with about twenty people who hatch a scheme to kidnap a surrogate mother juliette lewis after overhearing that she's carrying the baby of painter scott wilson a very well connected wealthy man the kidnapping devolves into a laborious shoot out where much damage is done and many are killed but the escape with the woman while an aging hit man james caan and two scheming bodyguards taye diggs and nicky katt remain in pursuit directed by christopher mcquarrie the screenwriter who won an oscar for his work on usual suspects an overrated piece of crime noir in many circles this one included way of the gun is a hodgepodge of crime thriller motifs that just oozes eye rolling familiarity unlike phillipe mcquarrie doesn't seem to be growing at all he fills his flick with a sprawling labyrinth of plot all snatched from movies i know i've seen before and worse it feels like it the film lacks even a fresh approach like what soderbergh did out of sight or the limey to its clich s all of which are spewed before us in a picture that tries so desperately to be hip and gritty without bothering to notice how common it is it features characters living by a code they seemed to have picked up in sam peckinpah rather than any thing resembling life even attempts at emotional weight feel strained like in preposterous scene where enemies james caan and benicio del torro stop in their tracks to have a cup of coffee and pontificate on life philosophy etc i didn't like the bit much when it first appeared in heat here it's even more self consciously dramatic usual suspects which also featured a bunch of low lives that seemed to live by a code they learned from the movies worked to some degree because of that astonishing twist ending nowadays an astonishing twist per ending is de rigeur never mind if it deems all that transpired before it completely inconsequential thus nearly every character in way comes with at least one dirty little secret most amateurishly projected before they appear and it too has an ironic little twist at the end nothing earth shattering like in the usual suspects but i admit i didn't see it coming and i smiled however most of the movie feels exactly like the interrogation scenes between palminteri and spacey in usual suspects a lot of faux huffing and puffing with no rhythm or reason or substance it's just as overplotted as suspects and often dull as any overplotted movie without interesting characters a distinctive style or a good script would be even the good stuff most of which involves james caan doing a fine job feels odd and out of place in a movie that thinks lines like karma is only justice with out the satisfaction are clever at one point caan laments need is the ultimate monkey a line so inexplicable he might as well have said love is like hippo ass i've seen porno with better dialogue and some with better plot lines too but rarely has porn offered up such a talented cast i mean can you even compare james caan to ron jeremy caan slips into this role with seeming ease he could do this kind of tough guy in a coma but he manages to give his character depth and weariness benicio del torro is always welcome though here he plays it fairly straight rather than another oddball character creation like the ones the actor gave us in usual suspects and excess baggage adopting a brad quizzical pout to go along with his heavy swaggering speaking of pitt his ex juliette lewis is a weak link either shouting her lines with ear shattering shrillness or waddling about like a silly goose nicky katt was brilliant in a brief role in the limey here his role is just as brief only he seems wasted he's only kept around for his cold presence taye diggs has a similar function cool as ever but never a character though the guy has one helluva death scene for the most part way is incessantly talky with no reason to give a hippo's ass about any thing that transpires since its characters are never more than simplistic pawns it's vaguely but in a bad truth and consequences nm way with phillippe in one scene leaping into a stupid rant about faggots migrating to los angeles you know the routine the final shoot out is pure bargain basement john woo who himself seems to be doing bargain basement john woo with interchangeable bad guys lining up to be shot at but those gun shots sure crack like thunder just the other day i was watching an old dirty harry movie on cable and was stunned to hear the weak elephant sound that emanated from harry's fetishized smith and wesson oh how far we've come
negative	when critics attack seemingly films like patch adams or more recently pay it forward as i am about to do their opinions are often greeted with a backlash of angry sometimes even mock death threats from those who i suppose like to be shamelessly manipulated by their entertainment even politicians tend to dismiss film critics as heartless cynics for occasionally dumping on films while praising filth like pulp fiction these in the derogatory term that you are comfortable tend to forget that a film critic's job is to review the movie not the message however sweet and endearing that message may be thusly patch adams isn't a bad film because it's about a doctor who cares for his patients it's a bad film because it's a calculated piece of brazen audience exploitation similarly while pay it forward may have its heart in the right place though i even doubt that stay tuned an explanation is forthcoming it's still an unpleasantly maudlin mess the picture is about an emotionally guarded grade history teacher a somewhat similarly guarded kevin spacey with a burn scared face and equally singed attitude who gives his class the seemingly impossible assignment of doing one thing over the course of the semester that will change the world year old trevor haley joel osmet a disneyfied do gooder who takes care of his alcoholic mother helen hunt comes up with the notion to pay it forward this entails a person doing one good deed call it an uber favor for three others then telling them to do the same for three others and before long we're all living in a frank capra movie meanwhile in a parallel story a weasely reporter jay mohr tracks the movement which has apparently begun to grow pay it forward has odd ideas about tone at certain points it hurls a smattering of unnecessary cynicism at us as if that would be the appropriate antidote to the unrelenting sappiness at its core it's as if director mimi leder didn't have the confidence to make pay it forward the way she intended and compromised out of fear that her film wasn't gutsy enough to earn the acclaim it has clearly been made for so the picture adds grit a child molester propositions trevor a homeless man returns to heroin after being saved a character is knifed while doing a good deed etc though it seems shallow incorporated into the proceedings because the film itself isn't quite sure if it's ready to buy into its own utopian blather pay it forward offers crowd pleasing elements for general audiences jay mohr's umpteenth variation on the waspy sleazeball angie dickinson's earthy alcoholic bag woman and the black hoodlum with a heart of gold coming on the heals of the black inmate embodied by gabriel casseus in bedazzled this may just be the beginnings of a brand new guilty white liberal clich hurray for hollywood who actually calls the mohr character a nigga and says things like can you feel me leave it to pay it forward to happily include a little minstrel act for our further enjoyment maybe spike's flick wasn't so misguided after all these scenes feel as if they belong in a dopey comedy with feel good aspirations rather than the irritatingly saccharine drama that you'll find yourself trapped in should you not heed my warnings while the filmmakers have stressed in interviews that they actually hope this is a film that could make the world a better place to me the final product has the oily feel of a cynical politician contemptuously reciting cookie fortune slogans to a hopeful audience it's a picture that looks to be tailor made for academy consideration with the main players all previous oscar winners or nominees given big emotional scenes that are practically variations on their most lauded turns one scene in which a slightly helen hunt here means that not only is she a fashion victim look is somewhere between goth queen and trailer park hunt's hair is also natty and badly bleached verbally castigates spacey feels right out of her as good as it gets oscar clip spacey of course responds in his cultured monotone that could be straight from his low key american beauty performance maybe the actor should get an award for coming off the least self consciously irritating though how can he not even when he's emoting spacey seems somehow shielded by a wry indifference the usually talented helen hunt is the worst offender in one atrocious touched by an angel moment hunt slaps osmet immediately covering her mouth with the guilty hand in that very same stroke and with said hand still on said mouth she actually begins convulsing dry heaving really then and i'm not making this up she scurries to the kitchen tearing the place apart in a frenzied search for alcohol the scene is so hokey it could very nearly be construed as a parody of hackneyed tv movie it's all very theatrical especially hunt's performance which feels like a pathetic plea to the academy for another oscar pay it forward has the dubious distinction of being a film that could be used as an argument for why actors shouldn't get academy awards the picture unknowingly affirms that oscars transform nuanced talent into overwrought expressionists even haley joel osemt the wunderkind who was nominated for an academy award for his unforced performance in sixth sense seems more divisive about his expressions and inflections his acting has become broader less intimate it's as if we can make out the little munchkin's thoughts boy this outta floor em naturally osmet is made to play one of those children a who cleans up after his mother lectures her on the ills of drinking and even fixes her up on a date with his intellectual teacher never mind that the two couldn't be more dissimilar his mother is trailer trash dopey and the teacher is one of those dennis intellectuals who hides his insecurities behind a vast vocabulary nevertheless this little nudnik goes out of his way to bring the pair together in a scene that recalls parent cornball antics but oh how we love bright articulate children who pick adults up by their bootstraps and guide them through life they're so adorable of course the blame can't all be hoisted onto the actors though with the exception of the little kid they probably should have known better instead the brunt of it should be passed on to mimi leder who directed one of the most thrilling episodes of er then went on to make two awful genre films in a row the first being the peacemaker a witless war george clooney vehicle and deep impact one of the two films of to squander the premise of earth's possible demise by a crazed meteorite the first flick was sunk by an over reliance on clich s and a complete absence of any kind of emotional involvement not aided by an ending which actually centered around the diffusing of a ticking time bomb complete with digital read out apparently present for an invisible audience deep impact has more in common with pay it forward it's a movie that treats earth's impending destruction in awfully simplistic terms completely ignoring the havoc that would so obviously take place if the world believed its planet would be a goner within days the film was full of inspirational speeches where people really said nothing though the sappy score swelled up to make it appear as if they were being profoundly touching in pay it forward leder continues in this vein with her intermittent dollops of cynicism seeming almost like a rebuttal see my movie isn't as na ve as you might think she seems to be saying no it's just horribly confused
negative	where do i begin okay how about with this starship troopers is one of the worst movies to hit theaters in a long time in fact it might even be the worst major release film to come out in years or even a decade this is bad beyond belief i would not suggest paying money to see this there's a good chance you'll regret it if you see it for free you could still want to walk out go right ahead the movie starts off with cheesy scenes set in the future world of buenos aires here we meet the group of horrendously bad actors and actresses playing obnoxious despise characters that have love triangles love rectangles and love hexagons screwing up their life before long they all go off and join the military primarily in the interest of having sex with the other youngsters that joined they train they strut around nude for no reason whatsoever after an hour of making the audience scream in agony they start fighting bugs the big bugs look nice even though their design is only okay unfortunately the fights are boring since we want all of the characters dead anyway cue more agony then some characters have sex then some more die who cares cue more agony the movie ends the audience runs out to their cars vomits over the pavement and attempts to drive home unfortunately after that torture they can't think straight don't pay attention to the road and many are in ugly car wrecks you remember how batman robin was bad well batman robin kicked this movie's sorry butt people starship troopers does not succeed as an action movie it does not succeed as a drama it does not succeed as a war movie it does not succeed as a comedy it does not succeed as a satire it does not succeed as a parody it succeeds as being horrible terrible bad i wanted to run away from that movie every minute but i paid my money and i owed it to others to see if the movie got any better so i stayed it never got better frequently it did the impossible and got worse the movie as written acted directed and basically just feels as a whole like it's about on the mental maturity level of a free willy the whole thing feels like a movie that only could enjoy except for the ridiculously gratuitous blood and gore and pointless nudity it's written for little children but children should definitely not go anywhere near it of course i recommend the same for everyone don't go anywhere near it verhoeven's got a streak going now his last movie was showgirls he seems to be trying to see how bad his movies can get before people finally stop coming showgirls was a failure but it appears that though it'll be lucky to make near its budget this movie will still do okay is it really all bad well no troopers has about four or five lines of humorous scenes that are actually funny mostly from the do you want to know more commercials that pop up throughout the story promoting the joys of the joining the troopers so that adds up to about seconds of entertainment and still about one hour minutes and seconds of miserable torture i'm totally confused as to the way that some people are really enjoying this movie but i do admit it so if you're willing to possibly put yourself through torture go ahead and see it and decide for yourself if you love it or hate it i don't know how anyone or any thing could love this movie but hey to each his own feel free to give it a shot of course in the interest of saving your souls i don't recommend it but guess what alien resurrection comes out november and having already seen some of it and having read the script i assure you that it will blow pretty much everyone away though opinion on starship troopers is reasonably split it'll be difficult to find someone that won't like alien resurrection when they've seen it this is possibly the year's best intense action film or at least one of the best if you really want to see alien warfare that's played out intelligently and seriously see alien resurrection please avoid this
negative	adam sandler turns up the charm in his latest romantic comedy the wedding singer unfortunately that also has the effect of softening his edge he's nowhere near his peak of happy gilmore not that it was much of one he's certainly not helped here by a rather frail plot the year is letting the whole film obsess with nostalgia adam sandler is nice guy robbie the titular wedding singer who entertains at the local reception hall by belting out his interpretations of classic hits robbie's life is thrown into turmoil when his fiancee linda angela featherstone leaves him at the altar however things are looking up when he meets julia drew barrymore a waitress at the hall she's the perfect woman but for one small flaw she's engaged to be married to a slick junk bond king glenn matthew glave so most of the film deals with the slow realization by robbie that he and julia are in love and his attempts to stop the wedding as far as plots go it's a pretty thin and tired one to fill the gaps the wedding singer delivers heaping spoonfuls of nostalgia from boy george to michael jackson from miami vice to dallas from the first cds to the last rubik's cubes this film revels in all the minutiae and then there's the music learning a lesson from the successful soundtracks to grosse pointe blank and romy and michele's high school reunion this film packs more songs in the film than the running time will allow as a result most songs get maybe a lyric or a half but you can almost see the bright gleam in the record executives' eyes the wedding singer vols and while the nonstop riffs get incredibly tiring at least they distract you from the plot at least last year's my best friend's wedding stirred up the standard keep your true love from marrying someone else plot by making the rival a nice person here glenn is such a lowly rat of a man that you never see what julia saw in him barrymore on the other hand is simply charming as julia which leaves us with adam sandler he's at his best in the film when his nice guy persona fades a little such as when he has a breakdown on stage during a wedding reception when he's in full mode he's more pathetic than endearing the film boasts several cameos most notably by steve buscemi and jon lovitz but none of them work well at all buscemi's role as a drunken best man simply fails to be humorous lovitz on the other hand as a rival wedding singer makes you long for his good old days on saturday night live where he was actually funny the only cameo which has some appeal is a guest appearance by a classic rocker during the film's finale surprisingly one of the only scenes which actually works adam sandler still has some work to do before he can become a dependable leading man while he attempts to change his image in the wedding singer the end result is no net gain
negative	arriving in a barrage of hype the blair witch project is one of the biggest box office success of the year however like the golden child although blair witch has made a lot of money it's not very good donahue williams and leonard play themselves as three students who set out to make a documentary about the blair witch myth the film is made up of the camcorder footage they recorded which means grainy footage and woozy camera angles although events start of normal they get weird pretty quickly while the threesome argue more and more as the journey goes on although an interesting premise the blair witch project amounts to nothing more than a missed opportunity the biggest mistake the film makes is to let three mediocre actors the chance to improvise most of the dialogue is and still manages to sound like a poor the eventually degenerates into shouting matches with the included a lot to sound like students there are breaks in these arguments where some creepy events occur but then it's back to the shouting and swearing which gets very tiresome very quickly if i wanted to see three people get lost in the woods shout a lot and swear i'd go on scout camp but no the audience is meant to get some entertainment factor out of this but i'm not quite sure how the supernatural parts of the film are actually interesting especially if close attention is paid to the story developing first twenty minutes with no music and no budget to work with the film has to depend on natural psychological scares which are sometimes well delivered sometimes not i never really felt truly scared during any part of the film although there is a small sense of fear underlying throughout the film however because the actors are so irritating the scares are lost when it eventually reverts back to heather saying the f ck is that a lot and mike giggling like a loony there's also the niggling fact that these student filmmakers do some really stupid things the main problem is the fact that even though these hapless bunch could be killed at any moment and are hopelessly lost heather still insists on filming it all the film gives a half hearted reason why she should want to do this but it isn't very convincing also the students have no idea how to survive in the woods such as following a large river flowing through the woods to civilisation there are also some parts where the camcorder footage is obviously staged heather's apology being a major one the blair witch project in the end just fails to deliver i suppose if you've been lost camping before the film may deliver some chills but this is no use for the other of the paying audience who haven't been lost in the woods apart from the final minutes the film is mind boggingly unscary and the shouting matches get hideously dull the spook scenes are short and far between and any other horror movie could probably achieve the same amount of fear that these scenes provide although a good idea it's not executed well enough to be a fun scary cinema experience it's a worrying fact when the website http blairwitch com is better than the film
negative	the u s army utilizes a number of books known as field manuals which stipulate the specific way in which almost every action imaginable must be done one particular field manual is known as the fm which among other things covers the practice of saluting under the saluting section is a which covers how a salute is rendered by a military work detail in the presence of a superior officer the salute is rendered by the individual present when the superior officer comes within six paces of the detail and is dropped when the officer passes six paces from the detail in any event the salute is rendered only by the man or woman in charge rather than by the whole group almost at the very beginning of the general's daughter we see a general's motorcade passing a work detail everyone salutes it looked impressive but it just wasn't right that little bit showed me that someone either didn't do the appropriate research or made the conscious decision to go with style over substance for the scene in fact this would serve as a metaphor for the rest of the picture as it seems director simon west tried so hard to craft a film with atmosphere and flash that he forgot a coherent story and good characterization are also crucial to a good movie what results is a film that looks good but like that one scene just isn't right the first fifteen minutes of the film is a good example paul brenner john travolta is an agent for the army's criminal investigation division undercover at a georgia army base to investigate an illegal arms sale prior to the transaction the buyer gets a whiff that brenner isn't the unscrupulous supply sergeant he's supposed to be and later that night attempts to kill him by shooting up the houseboat on which brenner is living so ensues a cat and mouse action sequence which ends like a certain scene in raiders of the lost ark we'll just say that it involves propellers brenner then receives new orders when the commanding general's daughter captain elisabeth campbell leslie stefanson is found naked bound and dead on one of the base's training ranges he is teamed with rape investigator sarah sunhill madeleine stowe to uncover the truth about the peculiarly gruesome murder what i want to know is why the whole action scene with the arms buyer was even necessary it gives no insight into brenner other than the fact that he's a little cocky does the arms subplot turn up later no so why add this extra running time to the film the answer it looked cool or how about the atmosphere the beginning of the general's daughter presents us with imagery of the deep south thick trees dirt roads sultry colors over water all backed up with bayouesque music nice immersion in the setting but it soon doesn't matter for when the film's plot shifts over to the murder investigation so does the entire mood no attention is paid to the location of the story and the music is altered to fit a very generic thriller theme did the filmmakers start out thinking they were making a different movie instead of creating a cohesive atmospheric theme for the entire film we get the distraction of one of theme followed by another just because the director thought he should show off some of the countryside the above examples also serve to illustrate that inconsistency is another problem with this movie as i've already mentioned an entire section of the film doesn't jibe with the rest and the characterization only adds to the difficulty brenner who comes across as a man with little respect for authority suddenly snaps to in the presence of general campbell james cromwell and utters some of the corniest yes sir s i've ever heard he even delivers an monologue about why he will work so hard to catch the person who killed the general's daughter even though he was totally flippant about the whole thing just a couple of minutes previous sunhill who initially comes across as a professional investigator utilizes a couple of blatantly illegal methods to obtain information and even revels in her ingenuity both characters are protagonists but it's hard to get behind them when their personalities are all over the place and in some cases simply unappealing i could imagine that during filming west would shoot a scene then take the actors aside and tell them let's do it again but this time i want more i say this because although travolta and stowe are normally very good in this film they overact in most of their scenes an even worse offender is clarence williams iii as the general's aide colonel fowler i swear the guy says all of his lines from the position of attention a far cry from his days as linc in the mod squad i can't help but think he was acting from west's direction a couple of side characters including a west point psychologist john beasly and a young female private ariyan a johnson make their scenes nearly impossible to bear the only two actors who seem to have escaped west's influence are james woods who provides a good performance as colonel moore elisabeth's mentor at the psychological operations unit and timothy hutton as colonel kent of the military police woods relishes the role of a man whose job is playing with people's minds and does so without ever taking it over the top hutton just kind of hangs around but at least he wasn't overacting i haven't read the nelson demille novel on which this movie was based but i'll bet more than a few dollars that the story was better in book form the movie version has got characters which come and go with little or nothing to do except fill up space or provide bits of information which seem to neither mean anything in terms of advancing the story nor reveal any significance once the whole story is finished every time we're presented with some new aspect to the case west gives us more of that flash by playing it up like it's the most momentous discovery ever but the information is not used by the investigators at all instead when conclusions are drawn they are such tremendous leaps of faith that you wonder if successful investigations are not based on facts but lucky guesses instead the army should have saved time by bringing in brennan and sunhill letting them play a game of twenty questions with the suspects then letting them guess who the killer was would've been over in a half hour the film finishes with a sort of bookend featuring the same style and southern scenery as the very beginning literally during the closing credits we get to see brennan get in his car and drive off then we get to see sunhill get in her car and drive off they both seem kind of happy maybe they were driving away from simon west
negative	i don't appreciate it when a thriller manipulates the viewer into thinking the plot is interesting when in fact it's ludicrous in the case of the general's daughter the plot is more than capable of intriguing you to a certain point but at this juncture in the story the movie begins to fall apart like a crumbling cookie this predictable summer thriller is only sporadically involving and that is unfortunately not enough to compensate for all of it's detailed flaws get past one moment early on where john travolta exercises his southern accent and you're likely to survive this entire movie travolta plays criminal investigations divisions officer paul brenner who's working undercover at a military base when another situation arises the apparent rape and murder of a young female officer leslie stefanson it turns out that the victim is the daughter of general joe campbell james cromwell let the investigation begin with the assistance of fellow cid investigator sarah sunhill played rather by madeleine stowe brenner uncovers what appears to be an intricate and bizarre homicide case things begin to get marginally engrossing when we meet colonel moore james woods a former commanding officer of the deceased who has a few secrets up his sleeve woods submits another performance here as he oozes authority surrounded by clouds of smoke emitted from his cigar with echoes of his supporting role in true crime in which he duked it out with clint eastwood in enjoyably profane verbal exchanges he makes every moment believable here though the intense dialogue comes care of confrontations with travolta as the two send mindful knowing glares across the room there are many scenes such as this in the general's daughter in which the veteran cast performs splendidly under pressure but the circumstances that tie these meetings together are difficult to absorb director simon west con air shows a watchful eye of delivering a stylish looking thriller but he fails miserably when it comes to the intellectual part of it the general's daughter is more often than not a predictable and unexciting mess it does not help matters that the plot is virtually actionless dragging it's heels all the way at a snails pace a few brief action scenes marvelously handled in the editing department show that the movie could have delivered such a more proficient package from a director who does such a great job of staging explosions and miraculous stunts i suggest west should stick with mindless action features and attempt to avoid future projects like this still the movie is certainly not without it's merits the acting is very good from the majority of the experienced cast the performances range from commanding travolta to electric woods to cromwell who doesn't show off his real talents here madeleine stowe manages to hold her own for a while but as the female lead in an she doesn't pull through sufficiently one of the problems with the execution is that it's very predictable minute one i had few doubts about the identity of the killer in question the script even unwillingly points him out for us using familiar techniques to hide his guilt until the unmasking toward the end in all fairness we've seen many of the devices used in the general's daughter put to greater effect in other films the secrets behind the girl's mysterious death are explained gradually but by the resolution we have tunneled through so much malarkey that it feels unnecessary and surprisingly silly the general's daughter is not a terrible movie and it is involving enough to sustain a viewer's attention span for a certain period of time but it just could have been so much better
negative	at one point in this movie there is a staging of an opera that goes completely wrong but one member of the crowd stands up and cheers thinking the performance was planned and applauding it for their efforts that's dirty work in a nutshell a very different kind of movie this is not a movie that i can easily review the critic in me analyzes the structure plot acting characters  and tells me this movie is terrible but the norm macdonald fan in me had me rolling on the floor laughing this movie plays more like an hbo sketch comedy than a movie it's a one note concept mitch and sam need in order to bribe a doctor to give their father a heart transplant before other more needy patients realizing they are very good at revenge plots they open a revenge for hire business eventually running afoul of a rich businessman played by christopher macdonald who after roles in happy gilmore and veronica's closet seems typcast in this role who sends them to destroy a building that mitch learns is the home of his girlfriend's grandmother thus leading them to plot against the rich businessman on the night of the grand opening of a new opera house first the critic in me the plot is the standard poor guy vs evil rich guy device where the main character meets the girl of his dreams along the way here's the catch none of the characters are sympathetic they're all selfish jerks who don't care who they hurt in their attempts to do whatever they want the jokes are juvenile crude appealing to the worst elements in people there's jokes about prostitutes the homeless beastiality anal sex there's even a subplot that's developed it seems only to make jokes about infidelity and incest and i loved watching it i was a huge fan of norm macdonald's sarcastic comedy on saturday night live and this movie is an hour and a half of it norm macdonald takes a joke strips it to the core and tells it like it is with a dry wit like the scene were he and his friend are learning the ropes at a new construction job the foreman goes over the basics which mitch and sam don't understand how do they get out of it by admiting they lied on their resumes and don't know a thing about construction and surprise they get fired the characters are incredibly there's a father who's loud and obnoxious a gambling addicted doctor played by chevy chase who tells sam of his father's condition by saying if i were a gambling man i'd put a lot of money on death the businessman cole who always has his dog spunky and does who knows what with it and then there's mitch and sam who thinking they can get by destroying a building ponder how their actions would ruin the lives of the residents too bad we have to do it mitch says here's a movie where every joke that is executed as it is set up where you see every punchline coming where every spot profanity could be used and then is used at least the film is honest and makes no mistake that it is anything more than idiotic but at least it isn't dull and it isn't predictable and that's the way it should be it's sketch comedy and if you're a fan of norm macdonald you'll love it the jokes are crude the characters are mean to the core the attitude of the movie is that it just doesn't care if you don't like norm macdonald or stupid movies then you probably won't like this one the jokes are crude the characters are mean to the core the attitude of the movie is that it just doesn't care so before seeing this one tune your mindset and prepare for a slew of norm macdonald humor gay animal sex prison rape jokes uncaring characters and one last performance from chris farley the critic in me says but i give it an i just couldn't stop laughing
negative	the new austin powers film continues a movie tradition begun in the eighties produce something anything that will get the high school and junior high kids in the theater because they buy more soda and popcorn than senior citizens the usual hallmarks of this filmmaking tradition are all here gross humor sex jokes silly sight gags more sex jokes and the film is a strong contender in the current race to be cruder grosser and more outrageous than that last film what the film is not however is funny the plot centers around the return of dr evil who goes back in time to steal austin powers' mojo a liquid with red stuff in it extracted from austin's pelvis which gives austin his sexual prowess and the charisma to defeat his enemies austin must go after him and returns to the swinging sixties where free love and sexy secret agents had their heyday i almost avoided this film because i did not like the original but the films premise sounded like an excellent comic vehicle and the film received many good reviews i wish i had stuck to my first impression myers is trying to be the jerry lewis of this generation and he has the talent to do it at least as an actor but the material he is working with here much of it his own falls short of anything resembling comic genius this movie tries to carry the day with sight gags about drinking distilled feces a fat man's butt crack and a barrage of sex jokes aimed at the level of the average year old after some of these scenes one has to wonder how gross the next generation of films will have to go to get an audiences attention the direction also helps the film achieve a new low point in cinematic humor for the most part i felt as if i was watching a saturday morning chalderns live action tv show there is no sense of comic timing or subtlety the director just throws the material at us giving us nothing except the hope that anyone with a camera could be a film director i am sure the film will have appeal to many of the under crowd at least the one's who have yet to discover literacy certainly the movie is directed towards the generation that prefers everything described as your face kick you in the teeth take no prisoners blah blah if you see the film and you find you're not laughing there is nothing wrong with you it just means you grew up since seventh grade
negative	to sum the entire film up in one sentence it would be watch a documentary instead seems like someone brought william faulkner into brought him into studio got him really drunk told him to write about it and then dumbed that down to be released to the public a sloppy version of almost stream of conciousness spirals down into an oblivion of the illusion of sex drugs and disco the narrator shane o'shae ryan phillippe works as a grease monkey in new jersey who of course on a whim decides to go into new york and try to get into studio phillippe gives a passable performance which could have been made by any young attractive actor with a six pack stomach he is let in by steve rubbell mike myers the infamous of studio because he is attractive he eventually becomes a bus boy and then a bartender   you expected more didn't you there isn't the film builds up from nothing and becomes nothing as it's climax isn't that an apt word for studio lands with a thud the glitz of the club and perpetually patrons are used in an to attempt to show the it's glamour for much of its target audience college age to early thirties it attempts to show celebrities mixing with normal people this even fails since the only two celebs truly introduced are andy warhol and truman capote you can be sure that half of the audience hasn't heard of them another quarter only know their names and the other quarter knew they were there already the humor if you can call it that is built on an eighty year old woman getting high and references like john travolta and olivia newton john making us laugh at how stupid we were back then the best performance in the film is given by mike myers as the perpetually high sexually ambivlaent very new york steve rubell he seems to play rubell better than rubell would if he was still alive he looks like rubell and sounds just like him while giving a subdued almost nostalgic performance when needed it reminds you of his saturday night live character linda richmond on coffee talk sans dress and wig the supporting cast of salma hayek breckin meyer and neve cambell are their only there to give added subplots which are introduced but lead absolutely nowhere the romance between phillippe and cambell as a soap opera star is completely implausable the two share about half as much screen time as there are shots of the eighty year old hooked on amphetimenes hayek's singer seems extremely forced and her husband greg meyer stands in as shane o'shae's surrogate best friend the subplots seemed forced and seem like they have been added just to make sure the film was over an hour and a half long overall tried to give a view of the brashness of the place where crack flowed like heroin which flowed like wine the film never leads to anything has no obserable point and covers up a lack of real plot with a veil of beautiful people in truth that reminded me of the eighies
negative	you know i never really wondered what the tarzan films would have been like had tarzan been an old man while watching instinct i couldn't help but acknowledge the way the film carelessly rehashes the themes of those earlier movies even beside the tarzan comparison instinct just isn't a very good film it's painfully idealistic manipulative and silly i didn't hate it it's simply impossible for me to hate any film starring anthony hopkins furthermore most of the acting is quite good but i can recognize instinct for what it is beyond my subjective admiration for the actors involved i can also recognize reasons for wanting to make instinct and it's pretty clear that this could have been a good film with a massive script overhaul and a director less interested in imitating movies like patch adams things start off in the predictable way as director jon turtletaub introduces us to our hero theo caulder cuba gooding jr an ambitious young psychiatrist under the supervision of an experienced old psychiatrist donald sutherland caulder soon finds himself involved in the case of his life the one he thinks will make him famous the subject is ethan powell hopkins an anthropologist who has been living among gorillas in africa for the past two years powell has been charged with the brutal murders of several men in africa and it's now caulder's job to find out of he's mentally competent enough to stand trial through a series of short sessions caulder tries to put together the complex psyche of powell even though it really is an old man version of tarzan much of this central idea is rather interesting as i said hopkins is captivating for every second he's on screen he has a way of convincing us that he's not acting that he's actually a man who has just spent two years of his life living with a family of wild gorillas the character himself isn't very interesting he's just an anthropologist who really likes gorillas but hopkins makes him interesting with subtleties both in speech and action gooding jr does strong work opposite hopkins playing caulder as an intelligent and flawed individual the screenplay written by gerald di pego and suggested by a novel by daniel quinn gives us no background information on caulder but that seems to be the point he has no time for friends because he's obsessed with his work nonetheless these two actors are essentially the entire list of things that are good about instinct unfortunately filmmaking this inept can mangle the effect of even the best acting turtletaub and di pego are both guilty of instinct's artistic failure for they work together to make the dumbest most environment in which their characters are to live and they do so by means of brainless subplots first we have the prison warden subplot the prison warden is evil and wants to stop caulder's progress at any cost if this means taking caulder off the powell case then that's fine there's also the prison guard subplot the prison guard is played by john ashton the prison guard seems to enjoy mercilessly beating upon the psychotics under his supervision and he's instrumental in helping the story along to its obvious conclusion then there's the daughter subplot in which maura tierney playing the daughter must look very upset a lot of the time after all she is the daughter of a deranged man if some of this stuff sounds familiar that's because they're all devices that have been used and reused in countless other films the evil doctor in patch adams is not unlike the evil warden here the offensive caricatures of mental patients lack the depth that the similar portrayals in one flew over the cuckoo's nest had ashton's evil prison guard pales in comparison to clancy brown's in the shawshank redemption hopkins' performance will undoubtedly remind audiences of his turn in the silence of the lambs and then there's the whole tarzan thing which is more than a little bit obvious through the entire film perhaps what irritates me most about instinct is the attempt at philosophical depth the message powell brings back from the wild is not a subtle one he thinks that humans are takers that they expand and kill and that we should all just live like gorillas i can sympathize with that but only when it's in a compelling film this is the kind of stupid movie just like patch adams in which a big group of characters psychotic inmates in this case rise against the evil forces oppressing them by tearing up playing cards what does any of this have to do with a man who has just spent two years of his life with gorillas if all the subplots of instinct had been left on the cutting room floor we would have had a movie far superior to the one that i watched today if the central idea had been developed beyond the old man tarzan premise then we would really have had something interesting a movie that doesn't rely on the strength of its actors
negative	in the finale of disney's mighty joe young a tall gorilla holds a frightened young boy in its clutches as it topples from a crippled ferris wheel and plummets to the ground upon impact rugged everyman and perennial bill paxton rushes in containing the emotional crowd with an earnest move along now folks there's nothing to see here ok so those aren't exactly the words he uses but it's probably one of the few clich s not uttered in this unnecessary remake of an unnecessary remake of that mother of all monster movies king kong mighty joe young was an update of that classic creature feature also based on merian c cooper's original story years after it appeared the world was ready for a new take on the beauty and the beast fable now some years later at least according to disney's way of thinking the world is ready for one more not so the i mean to see the version is for the special effects and these unfortunately run hot and cold today's joe young is designed and produced by whiz rick baker who has been wowing audiences with his effects since schlock which incidentally featured a gorilla joe is a combination of animatronic effects computer graphics and that old standard a man in a monkey suit while there are occasional flashes of had a lot of practice with simian effects after all including gorillas in the mist greystoke the legend of tarzan lord of the apes and the remake of king kong also some surprising cheesiness one of the film's most embarrassing moments is when paxton's band of african trackers first encounter and pursue the primate in a scene unashamedly ripped off from the lost world jurassic park paxton jubilantly extols the beast's majestic gait at the same exact moment as joe and the computer effects driving him stutter to a halt also if the film's producers had wanted us to focus our attentions on the titular ape they shouldn't have paraded female lead charlize theron trial error around in a wardrobe of tops even joe seems distracted at times the film piles on the clich s like there's no tomorrow including the predictable plot ship gigantic gorilla to l a where urban havoc is inevitably wrought predictable villain a lithuanian i think i overheard someplace predictable love story bill and and predictable denouement receipts that killed the beast kids raised on men in black effects also by baker are going to find ron tremors underwood's outing a little lame by comparison while certainly better than king kong lives itself a lousy sequel to a not particularly good remake mighty joe young proves how the mighty keep falling
negative	an attempt at florida film noir palmetto fails at the most fundamental levels it's slow moving uninvolving and plain just uninteresting harry barber woody harrelson is an man just out of jail after being framed for a crime his luck hasn't been the best but things are looking up when a mysterious woman rhea malroux elisabeth shue approaches him with a proposition she wants harry to help her and her stepdaughter odette chloe sevigny pull off a fake kidnapping scheme to get out of her stingy but rich husband felix rolf hoppe at first all harry is expected to do is provide a threatening voice on the phone and to collect the money of which he gets to keep but as the deed is carried out things are not what they seem and harry gets caught in the ensuing storm palmetto pulls out all the stops to achieve a film noir film but the effect never quite comes together it's got the sultry florida heat seductive women and even curvier plot twists but the whole thing smells of sure the right ingredients are there but the end result is much too artificial a lot of the problems lie with the script which though providing some genuine surprises is packed full of leaden dialogue and bland situations even the plot twists don't seem to flow well with the rest of the story some of them for example come from so far afield that they seemingly only make sense because the writer needed a twist for example harry's spontaneous job offer or the whole typewriter situation the characters are mostly lifeless played to type but not much more woody harrelson plays harry with such imbecilic that it's hard to even picture him as an elisabeth shue vamps it up but doesn't add anything special to the role chloe sevigny gives a terrible performance trying to be a sexy old but she just leaves a bad taste in your mouth some of the supporting cast notably gina gershon and michael rapaport give stronger but in the end meaningless performances and to top it off the pacing of the film is much too slow as the movie grinds to a halt you're given too much time to wonder why you're wasting it watching palmetto if you're in the mood for this type of movie you'd be much better off going out and renting some classic film noir
negative	this film is worth seeing for those who want to see what mick jagger looks like when sporting an abe lincoln beard the rock and roller is asked to carry the film as the action antihero of australian legend ned kelly the robin hood of the aussies but he fails to be convincing in my opinion he is better suited to play gene kelly than ned kelly the film opens to a prologue of ned kelly bravely going to his execution then it goes to technicolor and ned is seen in what goes for flashback coming home from jail after a sentence to see his mom and reacquaint himself with the large kelly family this scene is set in in the background we hear the booming voice of waylon jennings as he sings shel silverstein's lyrics which tells of ned's hatred for the british rule and hope for ireland to be a republic ned says a debt must be paid as he hears voices from his dead father his country and his conscience all telling him to get revenge so begins ned's romp through australia's outback seeking justice for all the wrongs his people have suffered he begins by stealing horses after complaining about the unfair tax law on horses that stray which favors the rich landowners when he's only he forms a gang causing him to hide the rest of his life from the police who put a price on his head of two thousand pounds when ned's mother clarissa kaye is jailed on a false charge of abetting criminals and sentenced to years ned offers to surrender in exchange for his mother's freedom when the authorities refuse the kelly brothers go on a robbing rampage burning mortgages of the poor found in postal vaults and murdering some soldiers rampaging through the outback they gather sympathy among the poor and lower classes who don't trust the traps police spoiler to follow in the next paragraph in the climax kelly and his gang plan to ambush a train with british police but someone kelly trusted tips the police on the train and kelly is trapped in a saloon and captured ned's brothers commit suicide rather than be taken alive but kelly's gang escapes as ned heroically has the police go after only him and his brothers as they become decoys this was a flat presentation hardly touching an emotional button on what all the fuss was about over ned kelly's call for justice jagger didn't have a prayer in succeeding in this dry script offered by ian jones and tony richardson the story failed to focus on australia seemingly a more british film than australian under richardson's lackluster direction all jagger seemed to do was proclaim his innocence and vow revenge which soon became a shrill cry if you want to see a better film about ned kelly catch mad dog morgan a much truer and more daring version with dennis hopper giving a much better characterization of ned kelly's madness something this film could only do in a manner
negative	i think we should as responsible citizens all get together and stop jim carrey from making another movie he's changing the cinema as we know for the worst i would willingly rewatch batman and robin rather then again sit through this miserable collection of filmic epilogues etc the premise a lawyer can't lie for a day ho ho normally a movie made from this premise would be carrey suceeds in making it unwatchable i laughed i was laughing at the sight of everyone else laughing grinding doesn't begin to describe it pounds on your head so forcefully and so unstoppably that if you are a normal person you leave feeling sick when it's not trying to be funny it's trying to be it's just annoying stupid and sappy at best this movie is intended to make people laugh yes not to be voted best picture of all time by sight and sound but it fails on every possible level it fails to be funny it fails to be insightful it fails to be suspensful it fails to be fun they should pay people to see it it suceeds on one makes me want to get down on the ground and start thanking orson welles for having lived if you go in with the intention of coming out alive please make sure that you are overly fond of boob fart pimple and fat you will go insane yes literally insane stark raving mad it is boring stupid melodramatic and in the end ugly i reccemond it strongly to ed wood
negative	the best thing in fact the only good thing i can say about dark city is that it made me want to go see l a confidential again or go rent body heat to see william hurt do some real noir or even god help me palmetto alex proyas's new movie screams atmosphere i screamed too get me out of this theater new line cinema spent millions of dollars creating the expressionistic film noir visuals and paying the actors and doesn't have any way to get it back i paid for a matinee screening and don't have any way to get my money back either you'll hear a lot from other critics about the look and feel of this movie i will admit that the cinematographers and costume designers and set artists and cgi graphics geeks all worked hard to create a stunning nightmarish future world where it's always a late night in complete with rotary phones and automats and fedoras i've got news for you fellows i don't care how hard you worked or how visually stunning this movie looks you wasted your time and mine working on a movie without a plot without a clear sense of direction of where it wanted to go without a soul or a reason to care the movie starts out john murdoch rufus sewell is lying in a bathtub in the sort of seedy hotel that in real life would have been boarded up long ago there is a dead mutilated prostitute in the other room a surprise as he has lost his memory the phone rings it's a man claiming to be his doctor telling him to flee for his life all well and good right wrong apparently someone decided that the audience was just a bit too dim to figure out the intricacies of the plot this is getting to be a popular assumption in hollywood so the actual beginning of the movie is not sewell running for his life rather it's a narration by the aforementioned doctor keifer sutherland explaining exactly what is going on and who is responsible it's as though sam the piano player had told us that rick and ilsa had been getting it on in paris in the first three minutes of casablanca no wait that's not fair to casablanca it's more like watching a new plotline at the first of the show or if you want to know how i really feel having an narrator explain that gilligan won't be getting off the island in this episode here the coherence of the plot goes down faster than insert monica lewinsky joke here the characters just wander around the city aimlessly and bump into each other for no apparent reason and that's what moves the plot what we're left with is a string of unanswered questions that don't make any sense we're given aliens with unlimited omnipotent powers yet they forget to use them at critical moments and get themselves killed we're given a hero who can tune into these same powers yet he only uses them when it's convenient to the plot we're given a whole long list of loose ends that go nowhere usually critics will say that an actor playing an underwritten part isn't given much to do in this movie no one is given anything to do sewell is given the impossible role of a man who doesn't remember anything and plays it like um a man who doesn't remember anything the aliens are tall and bald and wear long black cloaks and fedoras to remind us that they're evil and there's a child alien as well straight out of an anne rice novel sutherland is saddled with a limp a twitchy eye and a breathy accent to remind us that he's in league with the aliens to its credit dark city boasts two impressive bits of casting william hurt is perfectly cast as the inspector charged with catching the man who is murdering prostitutes all over the city jennifer connelly playing sewell's love interest is given two moments on screen as a lounge singer and turns in the sexiest performace this side of jessica rabbit but instead of the dogged policeman and the femme fatale given central treatment in the script the way they would be in any noir movie they're almost tangiential to the plot such as it is the problem with dark city is this it's a bad science fiction movie pretending to be film noir the essence of film noir isn't as proyas seems to beleive breathy dialogue or fedoras or tall bald evil villains who would make peter lorre curl up in a corner dark city has not one bit of intrigue moral ambiguity suspense or anything else that keeps us coming back to the noir classics dark city is like the intricately carved door that kate winslet floats on in titanic it's an exceptionlly and intricately designed piece of flotsam sailing around and around the middle of the ocean going nowhere
negative	you always have to be careful with the first official studio release out of the gate each year they're obviously films for which the studios have no great hopes having missed both the deadline for academy award eligibility and the big holiday season combine that with howie long's first starring action role and you've got a doozy of a movie that while not as bad as it could have been isn't a very good film howie stars as an ace smokejumper a firefighter who parachutes into forest fires unreachable from the ground in the slightly contrived opening scenes we witness his heroism in action as he and his mentor played by scott glenn attempt to rescue a small girl and her dog from an oncoming forest fire william forsythe plays the bad guy a mass murderer who has several million dollars tucked away to help fund his jailbreak he and five convict cohorts manages to get selected for firefighting duty when a woodland blaze just happens to ignite nearby his escape plan bets a lot on the laxity of the guards but since there must be a movie luck is with him soon the convicts are masquerading as canadian firefighters why canadian who knows eh along the way they pick up a pretty birdwatcher suzy amis to be their hostage enter howie long he's called in to help fight the blaze and when he spots the group of ground pounders apparently lost he parachutes in to help when he discovers their true identity he is the only thing standing between them and escape and the only hope of help for the hostage long's acting talents are above those of say steven seagal but not by much although his delivery is mostly flat and wooden he's a likeable hero and there are some hints here and there that he may get better the script doesn't help him out any however all too often it veers into the realm of the unintentionally funny the dialogue is strictly material and the plotting relies too heavily on coincidences to be believable long's are a mixed bag at least they're all comfortable in their respective roles forsythe has the villain down cold down cold and scott glenn is always enjoyable to watch even when he doesn't seem to be stretching his talents as is definitely the case here suzy amis plays peril pretty well but isn't given much more to do some of the nature and wildfire shots are interesting but many are rather bland you'd think that the director dean semler a former cinematographer would at least produce a film with interesting visuals that's not the case there's a lack of originality to nearly all the sequences we've seen this stuff before it's not the most auspicious start to but it could have been worse just think back to debut however after a month of pictures a movie like firestorm at least gives you some perspective on how good those movies really were in fact there's a good chance that some of them are still playing near you
negative	synopsis chainsmoking architect david encounters his homicidal first wife diedre five years after their divorce diedre easily cons david's new wife molly into believing she's a child psychologist so that she can influence molly and david's son michael diedre at the same time murders a bunch of people comments the ex is a very bad movie i haven't seen a turkey of this magnitude in quite a while i kept vacillating however between giving the ex one star for its sheer awfulness and three stars for its campy humor ultimately i decided to split the difference and give it two stars as summarized briefly in the synopsis this is yet another type movie i'm not sure how many films have been produced since fatal attraction which use this tired storyline but it seems like the ex however though following many of the standard cliches of this thriller subgenre differs slightly from the norm in that at least it doesn't take itself too seriously like so many other duds do malicious and stalked are two examples which come to mind those involved in the movie realize they're in a turkey apparently and turn in hammy performances which compliment the ludicrous dialogue contained within the script the ex's storyline as i said incorporates many cliches predominant in films of its nature however the plot is so overwrought and unbelievable that after a while the viewer must accept that logic does not operate in the realm of the movie diedre david's first wife kills and kills and kills for example without ever having to worry about police investigations and the like it's not as though she's bright enough not to leave fingerprints at the scene of the crime david and his new wife molly have an incredibly difficult time understanding why michael their son has emotional problems specifically his inability to control his anger though david smokes like tomorrow will never come and blows up at people every other minute in the movie the connection between him and his son is not made molly is easily swayed by diedre into believing she's a child psychologist and allows the demented woman to spend time with her son time and time again things do not add up in this movie if a viewer can't accept this fact then he will definately not like the ex if on the other hand he can appreciate the movie for its campiness then he'll probably like it much better i don't mean to necessarily suggest however that the ex is a memorable exercise in camp even when viewed from an angle this movie isn't all that successful the ex does have its moments though almost all of which involve yancy butler the psychotic diedre and nick mancuso david these two actors turn in decidedly hammy performances which oftentimes elicit chuckles from the audience the truly awful lines written for them help this humor along butler gets the larger portion of bad dialogue every time her character kills someone she has a punchline that's unbelievably inane when she murders a tenant of an apartment she wishes to use to spy on david for example diedre whacks the elderly lady with a crowbar and states i'm so sorry your lease is terminated or how about when diedre takes out her therapist in another ridiculous scene diedre's therapist wishes to have her recommitted so she decides to visit diedre alone in her new apartment never realizing of course that it's not her's therapists typically are catatonically in these movies having successfully snuffed the woman out diedre looks at the body and says what was it that you always said to me at the end of each session dr jones oh that's right sorry but your time is up this is what passes for humor in the film the audience doesn't necessarily laugh but groan the type of groan that suggests the audience can't believe they're watching this crap although watching it they are nick mancuso's chainsmoking character does not have the cheesy lines that butler's character delivers but his ridiculously overdone performance provides for some better comic relief in between drags off his cigarette for instance in one of the movie's best scenes david tries to explain to his lawyer what a creep his is in exaggerated exasperation he nearly shouts the woman is a trust me it is funny in context and so the movie continues until its painfully obvious conclusion i won't reveal the ending specifically though anyone remotely familiar with thrillers of this type could probably guess the ending just from this film review but i will say that the ex has one of the biggest fire hazards appearing recently in film molly and david own a cabin that becomes engulfed by flames in approximately three seconds molly at one point in the film observes after discovering diedre has moved into an apartment across from her family's to spy upon them that she's crazy you'd be pretty crazy too if you'd rented this turkey i'd avoid it unless it's on tv and you come across it if you do you may want to watch it groan at the bad punchlines and stupid plot and feel good that you didn't spend money renting it
negative	the blues brothers was a wonderful film a hilarious comedy packed with good music it cried out for a sequel but john belushi's untimely death seemed to eliminate the idea however eighteen years have passed and the long dormant sequel has finally emerged unfortunately it's a sequel not worthy of the original the film starts exactly eighteen years after the first one ended elwood blues dan aykroyd is just getting out of jail his brother jake having recently died as in the first film he first visits mother mary stigmata kathleen freeman and then sets about getting the band back together john belushi's absence leaves a terrible hole in the film and although three new characters are created to fill the void it is still very noticeable first there's cabel joe morton the illegitimate son of elwood's stepfather played by cab calloway in the first movie cabel is reluctant to join his destiny and spends most of the movie as an illinois sheriff chasing the blues brothers band next there's mighty mack john goodman a bartender who becomes the new lead singer of the band finally there's buster j evan bonifant a ten year old orphan who tags along with elwood and eventually joins the band the plotting of the film is hardly original it seems to be almost a clone of the original elwood has to go to reluctantly retrieve each member of the band they then travel while being pursued by the police and perform at several odd stops until they finally reach the big concert finale the first film had as the random element this time around the russian mafia and a militia group fill their role in fact the duplication of the plot is so ridiculously complete that certain scenes are practically identical to the original remember the classic performance at country bob's where they like both types of music country and western from the first movie well this movie has a performance at a country fair where the band is expected to play bluegrass music there's the massive police car pileup although this time the gag falls completely flat there's even an exact replica of the conversion scene in the church of reverend cleophus james brown there are plenty of recurring characters too in addition to mother stigmata and reverend cleophus aretha franklin reprises her role as mrs murphy frank oz a prison guard in the first film makes an appearance here as the prison warden as the stars the new blues brothers don't live up to their legacy aykroyd is more loquacious yet much flatter as elwood john goodman barely has a character as mighty mack joe morton has the deepest character but not a terribly interesting one as cab and what's the deal with the orphan it plays like a desperate gimmick that doesn't mesh at all with the rest of the film at least bonifant isn't as precocious as he could have been in the role but the true star and the only saving grace of the film is the music and the film is packed with it even during and after the ending credits although there are no brilliant mergers of comedy and song as in the original's by your man medley the music is very much enjoyable to top it off the film is packed to the gills with cameo musician appearances b b king blues traveler eric clapton travis tritt wilson pickett erykah badu bo diddley and steve winwood are just a sampling of the multitude of stars that make an appearance here and there unfortunately the music pauses here and there to allow in the familiar plot if simply copying the original blues brothers wasn't bad enough writers aykroyd and john landis dumb it down removing any memorable characters and replacing them with flashy but unbelievable magical gimmicks it's a shame buy the soundtrack and avoid the film better yet rewatch the original you'll have a much better time
negative	michael crichton has had a long career of writing novels many of which are science fiction the most profitable film adaptation of any novel was an adaptation of a michael crichton science fiction novel so in the logic of the film industry a good way to make a profitable film would be to make a adaptation of another crichton science fiction novel congo failed and i am afraid that sphere is probably not going to fare a whole lot better it a little better than just okay novel and it makes a film that is not even that good the film is expensive over one hundred million dollars is long minutes has a terrific cast including dustin hoffman samuel l jackson and sharon stone but has little that is really original and less that is exciting several years ago dr norman goodman played by dustin hoffman was asked to write up a set of procedures for the government to follow if an alien entity was actually encountered the plan he wrote was only but did explicitly define a team of experts who should investigate the alien now that team has been assembled by a mysterious team leader named barnes peter coyote to study a spacecraft almost a half mile in length that apparently dropped into the pacific ocean in the early suddenly norman's less than serious procedure has become an action plan for dealing with a real alien spacecraft included in the team to investigate are mathematician harry adams samuel l jackson biologist beth halperin sharon stone and astrophysicist ted fielding liev schreiber together they travel to the deep pacific spaceship to understand its secrets one major secret is the meaning of the huge sphere of liquid metal at the heart of this spaceship what is disappointing about this film is that it does not have really effective performances director barry levinson is at his best with good actors rather than good special effects the problem here is he is making a science fiction film it has some effects but the most intriguing effect he shows only as an outline on a radar screen the technique is to suggest rather than to show and let the actors and the viewer's imagination carry the film as robert wise did with the haunting that could be a reasonable approach in a film but that requires creating much more atmosphere than levinson can manage to muster it requires the actors to give really compelling performances and simply put they don't hoffman's acting seems muted jackson seems to laid back we do not feel for these characters and do not get inside their heads levinson paid big bucks for his actors and does not really get price performance and why we have queen latifah as a minor functionary on the expedition is anybody's guess a cast of unknowns could have delivered as much emotional impact at a fraction of the price look how much more powerful a film like alien was with only moderate actors most science fiction spectaculars these days have actors and special effects levinson tries effects and actors but never makes that exchange pay off for the viewer perhaps spectaculars are just not an actor's medium the result gets a on the to scale and on the to scale
negative	american pie is filled with laughs but they are mostly cheap ones built primarily upon sexual degradation and adolescent humor more fit for a locker room than a movie theater i'm no prude and i admit to laughing along with everyone else at the preview screening to this sequel to the hit comedy but the laughs are built on discomfort and embarrassment not on any intrinsic humor from within the story itself what separates american pie from its predecessor is heart of the original i noted it was a warm pleasant outing about the travails of growing up well the quartet of chums jim jason biggs oz chris klein kevin thomas ian nicholas and finch eddie kaye thomas have grown up at least they are a year older but don't seem any wiser fresh from their first year of college the quartet along with the obnoxious stifler seann william scott rent a summer house by the lake in order to attract girls in an attempt to score as usual nothing goes right until the last reel but what we are left with is five guys spending nearly two hours drooling over various young women and american pie is rather degrading to women for the most part they are not shown as individuals they are nothing more than potential recipients of raging hormones it is telling that the most normal couple oz and heather mena suvari spend the bulk of the film trying to have phone sex she's overseas on an exchange student program despite having been to college jim is still klutzy and awkward unsure of himself around the opposite sex most of the pratfalls and humiliations are heaped upon him including a painful episode involving an instant substance also uncomfortable to watch is a sequence involving three of the lads with two young women roommates whom the boys suspect of being lesbians it is offensive and plays upon outdated adolescent stereotypes to generate laughs the first film despite some raunchy moments had an innocent charm to it the sequel is more cynical it knows what its predominantly male audience members want and unabashedly gives it to them the many mentions of finch's encounter with stifler's mom becomes a tiresome running gag throughout as does eugene levy's return as jim's dad the only performer who is actually given some new fresh material is alyson hannigan as michelle the band geek from the original in the sequel she imbues her character with vulnerability wisdom and maturity american pie is a commodity that will earn several million at the box office it is a shame though that in its rush to rake in some bucks screenwriter adam herz who also penned the original could not have set his sights higher american pie is funny but it's still a comedown as well as a letdown
negative	well what are you going to expect it's a movie about a big snake that eats people that's what i should have been thinking when i viewed this film because maybe then i would have enjoyed myself more instead i ended up wishing a giant snake would come along and eat me too anaconda is about a documentary film crew sailing down a south american river led by anthropologists dr steven cale eric stolz and terri flores jennifer lopez the crew is attempting to locate a lost tribe of natives along the way they find poacher paul sarone jon voight and become unwillingly embroiled in his quest to capture the elusive anaconda to simply say that this is the world's largest snake wouldn't be doing it justice since the anaconda in this movie is at least two feet wide if this isn't a good reason to avoid picking up hitchhikers i don't know what is at the beginning of anaconda we find that flores and cale have had some kind of relationship in the past but that seems to be more or less over now i expected that fact to play a key part somewhere down the line but it ended up being a for nothing cale chokes on a deadly wasp don't ask me how that happens i don't know and is put out of action relegated to being the person whom the rest of the film crew must get back to civilization for medical help this minimally helps to add a sense of urgency for the plot since this goal now comes in direct conflict with sarone's plan to capture the snake however this is negated by the fact that cale seems to get better by himself about halfway through the film and in any event still results in zero payoff from the relationship angle most bad characters are either annoying or stupid in this movie they're both since this description applies to all the characters except sarone it's hard to find someone to root for you're supposed to back the good guys but you really end up cheering for sarone because he's smarter than everyone else or maybe he's just not as dumb as everyone else at times i almost found myself rooting for the snake there are no standout performances here everyone seems to be reciting lines written for stock characters even voight appears to be doing his best impression of christopher walken for some reason no matter as in most monster movies the snake is supposed to be the real star anyway in most of the scenes the snake is computer generated and the effects crew did a decent job of making it look real however the realism is thrown off by some pretty unrealistic occurrences sometimes for example the snake just moves too fast it catches a guy jumping off of a waterfall for crying out loud then there's another scene where the snake eats one of the characters and we see the snake's skin drawn so tightly over its prey that we can see the victim's pained expression from within the snake's belly absolutely ridiculous a testimony to the film's bad direction is the inclusion of a scene early on the in the film where we get to see just how dangerous the mighty anaconda is in a scene totally unrelated to anything else we are witness to the big snake winning a showdown with a panther the anaconda wraps itself around the powerful feline as if it were a stuffed animal and squeezes it so hard one of the panther's eyeballs pops out eeeewwwww above and beyond the sick factor however this scene surprised me because it actually showed the face of the snake before a quarter of the movie had even passed in films like these a sense of mystery surrounding the monster must be maintained if the characters are reacting to something they fear more than see we as an audience must experience that feeling along with them to show us the monster early on is to let us in on something the characters don't know about and therefore allow us to get used to the danger before the pivotal moment when man and beast have their climactic showdown in a case like that the showdown just ends up being a letdown when i saw the snake for the first time i decided to give the film the benefit of the doubt and assume that the snake i saw wasn't the real danger this one was just a decoy and there was actually a bigger snake waiting to make its appearance just when everyone thought they were safe no such luck okay maybe anaconda is actually a decoy and there's really a better movie waiting to make its debut
negative	this film is extraordinarily horrendous and i'm not going to waste any more words on it
negative	midway through anaconda documentary filmmaker terri flores jennifer lopez turns to a and says i thought this movie would be my first big break instead it's turned into a disaster truer words have never been spoken anaconda is a monster movie with a lousy monster it's a suspense film that is utterly predictable it's a mess the film does manage to drum up some scares but only in the most elementary way like a as you turn the crank you're totally aware that the damn clown is going to pop up but somehow it's still mildly startling when it happens the main difference between the giant snake in anaconda and the clown in a is that the clown is more realistic anaconda boasts some of the worst special effects to appear onscreen in years animatronic shots of the snake look as phony as any of those inducing robots you've endured at disney world but it's the computer animated scenes that truly expand the meaning of the word lame in one shot a character tries to flee from the monster by diving from a tree near a waterfall but the giant snake springs out and loops around its hapless victim in mid air the scene if done well would have been a dropper here the horribly bad digital effects look less convincing than a saturday morning cartoon what's really amazing is that the filmmaker's were so proud of this dreadful shot that they actually included it in the promotional trailers for the movie but enough about the phony snakes now it's time to talk about the lousy story heroic and very pale anthropologist eric stoltz leads a documentary film crew down a brazilian river in search of the shirishama indians a legendary tribe that supposedly lives in the boondocks of the rain forest stoltz tells his crew pray that you didn't forget your bug spray apparently the female crew members bathed in the stuff because they spend most of the film wearing skimpy tops and short shorts with no ill effect along the way the group rescues a lapsed priest jon voight who claims to know how to find the shirishama within minutes they throw away all their plans and follow voight down a tributary into the land of creepiness from that point on the film is a hodgepodge of scenes and shots ripped off from jaws and dead calm one of the oddest structural points of the film is the handling of eric stoltz early in the story his character gets knocked into a coma by a river insect and spends virtually the rest of the movie unconscious so why did they hire an actor of the caliber of stoltz for what amounts to a cameo appearance also why did stoltz who generally selects his roles with great care agree to appear in this crap ah the mysteries of hollywood the remaining crew members are basically just snake food waiting to happen jonathan hyde is mildly diverting as a pompous englishman hired to narrate the documentary but lopez and ice cube manage to rise above their cardboard characters lopez who starred in selena is an enormously appealing performer possessing a vibrancy that makes even the most trite lines seem credible ice cube has a special charisma an ability to look like a macho adult and a frightened boy simultaneously there's also a special twinkle in his eyes as if he's gently mocking his own posturing but the movie really centers around the outrageously hammy performance of jon voight obsessed with capturing one of the giant anacondas voight plays the villain in thick accent with a series of leers and hisses spouting the kind of dialogue usually heard only in episodes of jonny quest at one point he looms over the crew and says the anaconda is the perfect killing machine it strikes wraps around you holds you tighter than your true love and you get the privilege of hearing your bones break before the power of its embrace causes your veins to explode that moment is so that it almost made the film tolerable almost fans of the horror genre may be tempted to check out anaconda don't there are a lots of horror films scheduled for release this summer including another alien sequel wait for them rent jaws in the meantime and don't throw away your money and time on drivel like this
negative	if the nostalgia didn't make you feel old the nostalgia is bound to one of the latter set the wedding singer seems to be written by someone who did not experience the directly but only read about them in an article in parade magazine the wacky fashions are here   and the music   and references aplenty to celebrities and signs of the times but it all seems too for the chuckle the plot is standard romantic comedy with nothing original robbie adam sandler is a wedding singer julia drew barrymore waits tables at weddings both are engaged however robbie's fiance angela featherstone dumps him at the altar and julia's fiance matthew glave is a speculator in junk bonds robbie and julia go through the expected as they realize they were meant to be together i'll fess never found adam sandler funny whatever his appeal is i've missed it other comedians i don't get include pauly shore and pee wee your own judgments the stupidity and artificiality of the whole project is summarized in a cameo by billy idol as himself idol looks like hell and the ravages of his lifestyle are barely concealed by thick makeup he's mocked by a photo of his younger self on a rolling stone cover in the same scene we're not supposed to notice that and we're not supposed to notice how silly it is that billy idol suddenly appears to play fairy godmother to robbie other cameos by steve buscemi and jon lovitz provide the only real laughs in the movie lovitz is especially good playing a rival wedding singer plotting with the mania of a bond villain to take advantage of robbie's depression
negative	synopsis nice girl susanne has sex with her boyfriend daniel in his car visits daniel's rich family during thanksgiving at their mansion in the middle of nowhere and has sex with daniel again in the basement susanne and daniel must then decide where to hide from evil art thieves who shoot everyone else in the mansion to steal paintings brace yourself for one of those painfully obvious surprise endings comments thanksgiving for most it's a time to be with your loved ones and enjoy a good meal for the makers of body count however thanksgiving is a time for multiple murders violence profanity family dysfunction and sex boy do i feel all the more better having sat through this crap alyssa milano the former child star of who's the boss matures to sludge like this movie someone somewhere thought it'd be a great idea to pair her with rapper who has since in the series welcome to paradox this isn't exactly a winning combination outside of permanently ruining a holiday for me what else may be said for this turkey well it teaches us that beautiful attractive women who look strikingly like alyssa milano fall in love with nerds who drive down long winding roads with their eyes closed and complain about being english teachers it presents us with a heartwarming thanksgiving dinner attended by alcoholic rich white people waited on by black servants it shows us that old guys try not to laugh sit around and talk about the appeal of postmodernism during their free time and it proves that you can have sex in your parents' basement when they have a dozen or so guests over and no one will notice before i go any further if any young male reading this has hopes of seeing alyssa naked forget it the filmmakers cleverly shoot the simulated sex scenes in a manner that makes sure you don't see any of milano's attributes they do however inexplicably throw in a scene where whistles jingle bells after killing people for whatever that's worth this film was originally titled below utopia perhaps they should have renamed it hell avoid this clunker
negative	well lets see i'm not quite sure how to review this film based on its laughter factor well yeah i can it's not funny ok so i laughed one time which warranted the star but other than that i sat in my seat wondering when this pos would be over which at a running time of minutes seemed like forever in fact this could be the movie i've seen in a long time if not the let me be the first to say ready to rumble is a huge disappointment long time wrestling lovers david and scott dream of making it to the wcw and watching jimmy king wrestle that is their hero of course whom is kicked out of the wcw well here is where the plot thickens lol the two wish to rescue the king and put him back into the wcw but not that easily because they are being tampered with by many people who are out to get them while david's father wants him to become a police officer and scott is a loser who has to with the help of david clean out johnny on the spots what a plot eh ready to rumble is one of those films that tries to be funny but sadly fails miserably everything in the film is imcomprehinsable and even the trailer wasn't funny the actors are dull the script awful and the plot which there isn't much of really annoying i'm not quite sure how great actors like these and very funny actors too are given such a lame script and directed in such a childish manner that i wonder if hollywood is ever gonna make good films these days this review isn't going to be very long because of the fact that there isn't much going for the film if anything at all only one big laugh is in the film which isn't all that hilarious i sat in my chair wondering with this minute comedy was going to be over and sadly it went on forever i'm not sure if anything could have saved this film from being such a total waste but believe me you it is reviewed by brandon herring for more reviews please visit movie review central at http geocities html
negative	years ago national lampoon introduced us to a new family the griswolds in the griswolds embarked on a journey with the destination of wally world a theme park in california we laughed our heads off as we shared the wild and crazy mishaps the family endured two years later we watched again as they went to europe and four years after that we shared christmas with them now eight more years have passed and the laughs have done more than die they've been cremated vegas vacation brings back chevy chase as clark griswold the good intentioned but father of two the premise is basically the same clark has a wonderful idea to take his family on a bonding vacation this time to las vegas his wife ellen beverly d'angelo and teenage kids rusty and audrey always played by different actors this time around by ethan embry and marisol nichols respectively join him and they soon find themselves in sin city where casinos will make the backdrop for ninety minutes of slapstick of course a vacation movie wouldn't be complete without good ole eddie reprised by randy quaid the misfit cousin showing up at all the wrong times there isn't too much of a plot here when it comes right down to it it's really just a skit movie there are a couple of ways to define a skit movie which is not a real term as far as i know the first would be a movie that basically has one running gag for two hours therefore coming off like a two hour skit the second would be a movie that seems comprised of about twenty shorter skits each lasting about five minutes vegas vacation comes off like the first a good example of the latter would be last year's black sheep the problem with this format is that it becomes old fast and it doesn't really fit into a movie mold in these cases a plot which is generally very thin is used either as a shameless filler between scenes or to simply add convenience to the gags i e have a good vegas joke make a vegas movie such is the case with this movie's clark gets gambling fever and begins spending all of the griswold's money ellen is on the verge of an affair with wayne newton rusty has a fake id and is using it to his gambling advantage and audrey is desperate for fun and winds up joining her cousin vickie shae d'lyn as an exotic dancer the simple fact is this movie isn't funny at first i did find myself chuckling heartily at a couple of little jokes but when the movie got rolling my interest suddenly stopped chase plays clark griswold really well he made the character and he is the character d'angelo to be quite honest never was too impressive as ellen and this movie doesn't show any signs of redemption as for the two new griswold kids the word blah comes to mind the vacation series seems out to prove that anybody can play these two characters the simple reason being that there is nothing to them they're so generic you'll expect the credits to read girl as audrey griswold vegas vacation differs from the first three in the series by more than just laugh factor yes it's true that vegas vacation isn't even close to being close to being as funny as the others which were actually pretty fun in their own doofy ways but there are a couple of other things that set this one negatively apart first off why did they leave off the national lampoon's heading on the title i couldn't find any reasons why but maybe the fact is even national lampoon didn't want to be associated with such a lame film that's saying a lot especially when you look at what else the company has proudly presented loaded weapon pcu etc if they expected this to be another hit you would assume they'd be proud to tack on the notorious header but for reasons only we can guess at like the movie sucking they didn't there is another difference here that makes an obvious impact the first three films in the vacation series were written by john hughes a talented writer who is behind several popular films of the including mr mom sixteen candles the breakfast club weird science pretty in pink ferris bueller's day off planes trains and automobiles and uncle buck wowzers what a r sum looking at the names you'd think this guy wrote everything that now stands as a movie icon for the well that's not all this guy also brought us hits including the home alone series the remake of dalmatians dennis the menace and the current flubber vegas vacation however didn't have john hughes behind it and the loss is very obvious this time around the script is in the hands of elisa bell whose only credits thus far include four movies vegas vacation plays very much like one and it would actually work much better as a sequel if this sounds like a wild idea it's not revenge of the nerds third and fourth installments were both television movies and they seemed like it vegas vacation would fit in well on the fox network as a a m sunday morning movie but as a silver screen major motion picture it's quite out of place stephen kessler's jejune direction doesn't help things either he only makes the film even more each consecutive vacation movie has suffered a drop in directing power we started the series off with harold ramis who also directed caddyshack and groundhog day as well as ghostbusters not too bad then we had national lampoon's european vacation being directed by amy heckerling who would go on to direct the hits look who's talking and clueless as well as having already directed the infamous fast times at ridgemont high lastly we had national lampoon's christmas vacation directed by jeremiah s chechik who went on to direct the charming benny joon kessler so far has one title under his belt the short film birch street gym which received an oscar nomination in granted that this was his first attempt at a feature length film we can allow for some amateurish quality but instead we get a movie straight from the text book boring bland and deeply unoriginal if you loved the vacation movies and i know some of us did there still isn't anything here worth seeing if you loved them don't ruin your good impressions of the series by indulging in this tragic example of cinema ala carte if you never did like the series why the need to confirm why
negative	plunkett macleane marks the directing debut of jake scott brother of ridley and tony naturally this got me worried would jake's talent be inherited from ridley or tony if it was from ridley than the movie would be a thoughtful suspensor with action thrown in if it was from tony it would be wham bang drivel unfortunately the latter is true for this worthless picture with little charm carlyle and miller are the titular highwaymen plunkett carlyle who is poor and unruly and captain james macleane miller a clean cut gentleman as the tagline clearly wants to make known they rob the rich and nothing else the film basically follows the rowdy hold ups the two stage along with romantic interludes with lady rebecca tyler hot on both their tails is mr chance ken stott who wants to see them both dead plunkett macleane is an annoying little film that serves little purpose although undoubtedly slick and fast paced there's very little merit contained in the film carlyle and miller are fun enough as the foul mouthed pair although their characters are criminally undeveloped it appears that much of the money has been spent on the expensive looking sets and costumes but not on the script the five screenwriters three credited have produced an still born movie there's very little development in the story also major events such as mr cash finding out who plunkett and macleane really are are so rushed that they barely happened the story is a bit of a mess frankly the performances aren't bad carlyle and miller are typical lads but liv tyler is a huge disappointment as the love interest her irritable stilted performance sticks out like a sore thumb and i was quite unsure on what accent she was trying to put on she looks nice though more interesting is alan cummings as the campy lord rochester and although his character amounts to nothing more than a two dimensional comedy gay character he hams it up well ken stott is suitably evil as chance but again he is nothing but a flat character i didn't particularly care when the predictable death sequence arrived although a disappointment in writing and a minor success in acting the film certainly look lavish with good costumes and wonderful sets but production design alone can't save a movie especially a movie as bad as this mess jake scott would be more suited to directing a music video rather than this failed update of a period drama the only update seems to be the fact that everyone must talk dirty with ck this' and and f cking deliver' splattered all over the place the mtv editing and direction are flash enough but in the end decidedly empty plunkett macleane is a massive disappointment although somewhat enjoyable during parts it's so light it could float off the screen if it wasn't just images on a reel there's no thought no development no plot just a series of manic edits and quirky camera angles to make this film appeal to although it's a great idea update a period drama to the mtv generation it's execution is awful and would more likely bore than excite sloppy and occasionally off puttingly tasteless it's hard to recommend plunkett macleane as a movie but easy to recommend it as a overlong music video give it a miss
negative	capsule silly and inane adaptation of gibson's short story which is nowhere in sight gibson's script only adds insult to injury johnny mnemonic is an awesomely bad movie i say awesomely because it's one thing to fail but another thing entirely to fail so completely that even the chances for camp value are sabotaged keanur reeves who is terrible stars as johnny an information courier who can carry dozens of gigabytes of data in his head he is given one last job whenever you are in a movie and you hear those words run which involves him shoving so much data into his cranium that it could be lethal one of the neater touches that the movie brings in is that the only way he could make such an arrangement work was by ditching all of his childhood memories but it's only followed up on in a token fashion for his trouble johnny gets chased by the yakuza who seem to be the new bad guys in all the thrillers what's funny is that if you watch gangster movies made in japan there are whole gobs of details about genuine yakuza behavior and ethics but of course there's no room in this movie for any of that the yakuza are simply used to point guns wave swords flaunt tattoos and grimace menacingly i could go on about how gangsters and criminals of many other ethnicities have gotten thoughtful examinations in the movies bound by honor sugar hill and american me come to mind when asians remain perpetually stereotyped but that's another essay anyway johnny runs and eventually winds up in newark why newark maybe because it was cheaper to fake a future newark than a future new york that's why there he meets an assortment of odd characters dolph lundgren and henry rollins play a whole gallery of weirdos the script deals with them with all the depth of pieces of furniture it turns out what else that the data in johnny's head could save a lot of people but of course johnny only wants it out of his head so it doesn't kill him handled right this could have been absorbing but the script manages to mangle any chance of real sympathy for johnny at every opportunity the details about the look and feel of the future are all phoned in from other better movies blade runner and brazil come to mind everything looks and scummy everyone dresses like they're punk rockers and videophones are commonplace snore the only really interesting flourish is an extended depiction of the way the internet might work in the future complete with vr goggles and feedback gloves but i kept thinking that it was more like what some relatively fellow would think it would look and behave like a hacker of johnny's caliber would be blasting away with one function after another instead of wasting all this time twiddling with holograms but of course that's not cinematic whatever what went wrong with this movie gibson wrote his own screenplay which i guess is part of the problem what works as a short story doesn't work in a movie his ear for dialogue is terrible and the plot doesn't advance it convulses from the script on out it was probably all downhill renting the movie to make fun of it is sort of pointless there's no fun in kicking a wounded dog is there
negative	i didn't hate the big hit even though it is a stupefyingly terrible film for the entirety of its running time my eyes were attached to the screen and i never once got bored i found the film interesting because of its unique awfulness this is such a confused disaster of a film that it's entertaining to watch it in the same way that it's entertaining to witness a thirty car pileup on a freeway spaghetti bowl as a narrative the big hit is pure garbage never truly deciding its genre and constantly crossing all kinds of boundaries it reminded me a lot of grosse pointe blank which is a similar film that fails in a lot of the same ways it's fine to mix genres if the film makers know what they're doing unfortunately writer ben ramsey and director kirk wong don't seem to know how to handle the material and the result is an action film that wants to be a comedy the biggest problem with the amalgamation in this case is that the film is absurd and the comedy is out of place but it sure is a fascinating failure marky   er mark wahlberg stars as melvin surley a hitman he's a good hitman apparently although his tactics seem a bit rambunctious he doesn't snipe or make clean just kicks the door down and shoots everything he works with a few other lou diamond phillips crunch bokeem woodbine and vinnie antonio sabbato jr they're a nice bunch of muscular guys who stand around in the locker room after working out and compare masturbation to sex they all work for a man named paris avery brooks who is rich powerful and in constant need of four sloppy hitmen it is very important that they never go beyond their boss and do work on their own this of course is where the plot comes in they decide to kidnap a young japanese girl named keiko china chow who has a rich father when they do this it turns out she is paris'   goddaughter it's very bad to have paris against you the story is standard action film stuff it's nothing new and nothing particularly offensive but certainly not the slightest bit compelling clearly the major selling point of the big hit is that it's a john of action film mixed in with some really hip comedy it's true that a lot of the action sequences resemble recent films that go for the same idea such as and the replacement killers which are both far superior there are stunts that are fun to watch the opening sequence has melvin and two of his partners going in to kill some guy who has nothing to do with the story they use night vision goggles and really powerful handguns melvin is also very good at breakdancing and uses this talent to avoid bullets and knives like i said it's not boring most disasters aren't what makes it so bad is its madness it seems to start out as a action comedy as melvin is seen transporting bags of human remains then as soon as they go to their first hit it turns into a music video with bodies and bullets flying everywhere then somewhere in between it turns back into comedy keiko turns out to be a spunky little girl in one amusing scene she is forced to read a letter out loud indicating that she has been kidnapped but the letter is littered with grammatical errors that skew the meaning of the words and scenes like this work alone but wong applies this goofy tone to scenes that should be more serious or not be in the film at all one of the most irritating moments has paris ordering cisco to come up to his office after he learns that keiko has been kidnapped when cisco gets there paris and his men are standing around as if they knew cisco did it but they let him out of there telling him to find the perpetrator the scene is played for laughs but it isn't funny and since it doesn't quite work as a comedy it tries to fall back on the action which also fails this is a film where people fly fifteen feet backwards when shot with a handgun cars land on tree branches and are supported by them characters betray each other without a second thought grenades are thrown in tight places people jump out of tall buildings and survive people outrun tumbling cars and get out of the way of falling objects in small fractions of seconds most frustrating of all though is the film's definition of a hit man these guys are anything but subtle quiet and skilled individuals they're more like socially depraved militia men melvin has an extensive collection of firearms in his garage including missile launchers and machineguns the characters each have one trait that distinguishes them from the rest this obviously doesn't make for deep or interesting people to watch the acting is kind of fun is a good actor and his innocuous presence in this film is charming in a silly sort of way phillips certainly has fun with his psychotic character while christina applegate who plays melvin's fianc e is convincingly the big hit is an action film that unknowingly spoofs itself in trying to be funny the funniest parts are supplied by the actors and not by the numerous failed attempts at sight gags and it's a true disaster one that makes me believe that the goofy and unrealistic tone is completely unintentional despite all this though i must reiterate the entertainment value here you can cherish the awfulness of a film like this if you embrace the big hit for the catastrophe that it is you just might enjoy yourself
negative	when the film features richard lynch in the role of chief villain you know that you can expect nothing more than a b grade action movie however since this film also featured michael madsen more than capable character actor this time in the role of protagonist the author of this review decided to give the film some benefit of the doubt however the very first scenes show clear b grade action credentials madsen plays richard montana tough policeman who raids a drug warehouse and make life miserable for local crime lord mario gio played by lynch however the raid was only partially successful and montana is getting the rap so he begins his own private war against gio trying to penetrate his organisation pretending to be corrupt in the process he meets gio's mistress gina zamora played by rosie vela and starts relationship with her too although it doesn't stink like many of the similar films can inside edge is mostly forgettable b grade action routine nobody in this film actually puts much effort including madsen or lynch and this is especially case with uninspired screenwriter william tannen or director warren clarke the only not so forgettable element in this film is presence of former supermodel rosie vela who apart from showing her more than impressive looks shows some of the singing talent too however this isn't reason enough for viewers to spend hour and half watching a film that they would in most likelihood forget the next day
negative	what are the warning signs of a terrible movie making it's debut at the dollar theater locally chairman of the board did just that having the annoying prop comic scott thompson better known as carrot top in the lead role chairman of the board once again how about an overly exhausted paper thin plot approached with utter incompetence did somebody say chairman of the board that's right carrot top's long dreaded major motion picture debut at least for a starring role is poking up in a handful of theaters across the country chairman of the board stars the obnoxious king of redheaded standup comics as a lazy but creative inventive but uneventful generation er named edison living with a pair of surfer dudes in a small rented house edison bounces from job to job always squandering away the money on his eccentric to say the least inventions and ignoring crucial responsibilities such as rent this has the crabby landlady ms krubavitch estelle harris best known as george constanza's mother on seinfeld threatening an eviction if past due expenses aren't furnished post haste as luck would have it edison soon meets armand mcmillan jack warden an old surfer dude who just so happens to be president of the dollar mcmillan industries sharing a passion for more than just riding waves armand is deeply impacted by the young inventor's notebook of dreams and ideas and when the old man dies soon afterward edison learns he is named a benefactor in armand's will predictably edison acquires the entire corporation and has to maintain productivity with absolutely no knowledge of the business world predictably there is a bitter nephew larry miller whose lesser inheritance fuels resentment that will lead to an elaborate sabotage plot predictably there is an attractive employee courtney whose initial repulsion will transform into love for our doofy protagonist predictably the man who knows nothing will fight against the odds and give the company it's most profitable and successful turnaround ever all because he ran things by common sense and not greed it's as though writers turi meyer al septien and alex zamm meyer and septien also wrote leprechaun together pulled a plot out of a hat and worked carrot top into it the jokes the surprises the developments all of them run such a predictable path it may only be carrot top's signature brazen red hairdo that sets this one apart from the myriad of similar films a movie this bad speaks for itself what's left to say when every element the movie possesses is a shameful retread of movies past the script is recycled the direction is hokey and the acting is absolutely horrible it is only who seems to take her job seriously an accomplishment which surely deserves the medal of honor she certainly went beyond the call of duty she has to kiss carrot top barf bag please movies like this give the audience nothing to do but ponder just how many synonyms for bad there really are chairman of the board without a doubt deserves each and every one the only way this won't end up on everybody's bottom ten of the year list is if they were lucky enough never to have seen it just because you can't miss his outlandish fiery mane don't skimp on avoiding this abhorrent feature
negative	you don't look at a ren magritte painting and search for a deeper meaning you likewise don't look at one for minutes straight surrealist works are notable for their quirks and they are fun but looking at one quirk for an hour and a half is exhausting that was my experience with i woke up early the day i died a surrealistic hyperactive comedy with no dialogue it's not a silent movie there is lots of atmospheric music occasional screams and weird sound effects but nobody ever utters an audible word though the film is distinctive its unique style wore thin after about minutes and as it progressed watching became a chore the only reason the script ever got filmed is because it was written by the ed wood the man behind such classics as plan outer space and night of the ghouls the joke of course is that his films are so bad they're good so humorous in their inanity that they become hits i woke up early the day i died unfortunatly is so bad that it's really bad it stars billy zane titanic as a dangerous lunatic who overpowers a nurse escapes from a mental hospital and proceeds to wonder around stealing a car clothes and a load of money our thief reaches a cemetery where he witnesses a bizarre ritual he falls asleep and finds himself literally in a hole with his money gone for whatever reason he is bent on getting his cash back considering how easily he stole it the first time why didn't he just go steal some more he comes upon a list of the people who were at the mysterious ceremony and commences to seek out each of them and kill them if they don't have what he is looking for i don't think either director aris iliopulos nor ed wood realized that this would have made a glorious minute short the subject and the style seem to have been made for it unfortunately twenty minutes worth of material is stretched out to more than four times that length and the film simply overstays its already dubious welcome it grabbed my attention in the beginning and gradually lost it as it went on up to the point where halfway through i was already weary it might seem odd that a film as furiously paced as this one can be so tedious but the surprise will wear off when you consider how repetitive it is i woke up early the day i died is a comedy i guess though it could have fooled me unlike most ed wood films this one tries to be funny and fails instead of the other way around there's nothing inherently wrong with that in fact i think it would only make sense for someone who has been so good at making unintentional comedies to take a stab at a real one whether wood actually went for comedy in his script we'll never know but in either case this is a failure jonathan taylor thomas christina ricci summer phoenix john ritter and others show up for short and pointless cameos ricci for example plays a prostitute her role consists of dancing around with zane in his motel room and then being thrown out thomas is an astonished onlooker as a woman gets thrown off a cliff was the home improvement teen heartthrob really that desperate for work zane meanwhile occupies himself by making weird faces at the camera when he is not called upon to run around wildly and beat people up lack of dialogue makes him the ultimate caricature the carnival climax manages to demonstrate everything that is wrong with this production it's desperately unfunny but thinks it's the funniest thing since plan it's so spontaneously surrealistic it makes your head spin all while being confusing enough to make your head spin twice as fast in the other direction i hope another film is made from an ed wood screenplay for i woke up early the day i died is not a fitting eugene novikov
negative	well as i check my score card for what i've done this holiday weekend it reads good ideas and dumb ideas i don't know what i was thinking when i decided to watch this movie but in my defense i can only say that it was someone else who urged me to see this with him the film that i'm talking about is night at the roxbury one of those offerings based on a saturday night live skit wayne and garth these two are not rather we meet doug and steve butabi the actors' names are not worth mentioning two eternal partyers whose greatest ambitions in life seem to be finding a way to get into the hottest night club in the city the roxbury driving in their dad's bmw and donning metallic disco suits right out of miami vice they try to bribe the bouncer to get into the club you met my friend washington and his friend roosevelt they confidently say as they pull out spare pocket change their second greatest ambition seems to be oozing out as many silly lines as is humanly possible in order to start a conversation with a girl me see that label just as i thought made in heaven says one of the brothers and like the losers that they are they fail to do either for much of the film however as fate would have it an accidental meeting with richard grieco gives them the ticket to get in their sad lives take on a whole new direction they make an important contact with the club owner who believes that these two brothers have uncanny insight into the club scene and they are mistaken as rich swingers by two voluptuous young women but their newfound popularity does not impress their father who has other plans for them the unfortunate thing about this film is that this is a movie and the brothers are the joke actually there's about mintues worth of tolerable stuff alas too long for tv and way too short for a film thus there just isn't enough material to sustain the movie there's no plot to be found and everything that these two do seem to culminate in an opportunity to execute their trademark move of snapping their heads in unison to the funky beat of haddaway's europop song what is love i was amazed that none of the two suffered from whiplash to take up more film time there is a subplot involving the daughter of the businessman next door who wants to marry doug this creates not only friction between the brothers but their unlikely pairing will also agitate audience members as well she's educated and a forebearing witch meanwhile doug is a complete loser how did these two ever get together i suppose that if i can ever figure out the answer to that question i'll have figured out why i decided to go and see this movie if you're looking for entertainment you won't find it at the roxbury
negative	terrence malick made an excellent minute film adaptation of james jones' world war ii novel unfortunately he buried it within an overlong and overreaching long this is a shame because the film features an outstanding performance by nick nolte the best scene is when nick nolte's character lt col tall is forced to deal with the direct refusal by capt staros elias koteas to execute an order nolte's reaction and transformation may be the best work of his career had terrence malick concentrated on the great performances of nolte and koteas as well as those by sean penn woody harrelson and john cusack he could have made a truly great film instead malick saddled the film with plodding pacing unnecessary flashbacks and a narration all designed to telegraph the great philosophical underpinnings of the story the narration was especially annoying as much of it sounded like very bad high school poetry with a lot of editing the core story could be transformed into a truly classic war film hopefully the dvd version of this film will feature options to suppress the narration and perhaps will even provide for an alternate shorter version of the film i give this film
negative	i cried during i admit it the special effects the story the great dialogue were woven together so delicately and successfully that my mind lost track that this was a children's film much so that yes i got a little overly sentimental such my friend is the power of cinema when word came out that they were using this newly developed for a doctor dolittle update in which eddie murphy plays the title character and many great comic actors supply the voices my anticipation rose to great expectations they can't possibly drop the ball on this one can't miss can't possibly miss they missed what went wrong after much thought i supply three general rules don't let a television movie director near an urbanite script i e penny marshall's dreadful preacher's wife betty thomas worked wonders with the brady bunch movie but the same doesn't quite work here it's as if she lifted a generic sitcom and iced it with light doses of modern take away the black cast take away the atrocious soundtrack and you have the residue of some kirk cameron show the greater the cast the less the individual has to do i e con air it is great to have the comic voices of jenna elfman garry schandling john leguizimo ellen degeneres and gilbert godfried in your lineup but they have nothing to do but improvise their underdeveloped stereotyped characters it's even worse because sometimes their voices are so unrecognizable that you don't get the satisfaction of linking the voice to the comedian until the credits now there are three character actors who do get special treatment albert brooks brings dignity to nearly every project he's in and the scenes as a depressed tiger do resonate a certain poignancy norm mcdonald fares nearly as well as a stray dog who learns to bond with dolittle but there's little humor here that rests on the shoulders of chris rock sorely miscast and unfunny as the voice of their guinea pig even the mouth is don't let the special effects technicians walk away with the script there's a certain timing that's mandatory in comedy to have this timing usurped by the brilliancy of computer generated mouths or lifelike creations of jim henson's creature shop is a travesty this is not to say that special effects filled comedies or muppet movies aren't laughfests with the right director they can be and have here betty thomas is clearly over her head i wish i could commend the special effects but they're merely average count the number of times where the animal's mouth is turned away from the camera or too far to notice or this is less a babe and more of a look who's barking clone you may be wondering does eddie murphy fare well he came back with the exceptional nutty professor and i don't doubt he can come back again here he's tied into a straight man and given little to do the exceptions are when he fears he's going crazy a far cry from his expect routine that he's more adept at it's unfortunate that he is where richard pryor was ten years ago making lame comedies without the same bite he had given in his early years after all this what's left butt jokes a of butt jokes i guess for kids that may be funny but i was if there's a lesson the film may be telling us is that animals have feelings too and they care way too much for your butt
negative	saw an advanced screening of the movie sniper last night and i have to say i wasn't too impressed this film is about an expert marine sniper played by tom berenger who is teamed with a new partner to take out some and military strong men in panama sound cliche that's only the beginning billy zane memphis belle played the rookie and never seemed to get a handle on his character he was so contrary and in the beginning you just wanted to smack him then he goes crazy from the pressure but seems to immediately snap out of it i'm not sure if the blame should lie with the directing editing scriptwriting or acting but it didn't all come together i think berenger is a pretty good actor and he looked great in the part covered in camo face painted stalking through the jungle with his rifle but once again his character was given some pretty bad dialogue and didn't react too logically to many of the situations there was very little logical development in these characters my biggest problem with this film was it's tendency to put these two snipers in as many situations as possible they began to resemble g i joes the greatest american hero and of course their almost supernatural accuracy with their guns was called upon to get them out of far too many close calls now a lot of movies are stamped out of this mold in fact that's what made die hard so much fun the avenger type so some will enjoy the action hero heroics but i didn't think it fit with the nice tension that was built up in the earlier scenes and the real life feel of covert operations in panama a word must be said on the camera work much of it was very nice the jungles of panama or their in this case formed a very picturesque background and the drama of speeding bullets was captured using some nice trick photography many have seen the slowed down following the projectile to its target this was used well in the beginning to show the feverish nightmares berenger gets when remembering the moment of the kill it was dramatic when used in flashback but it seems the director liked the technique so much he started inserting these shots pardon the pun into the real time action then it just seemed silly all in all not a real dog there is some nice action good atmosphere and pretty photography but the plot is pretty lame the acting didn't form a cohesive whole and far too much thisclosefromdeath heroics
negative	an dragon is the star of this sword sorcery flick as voiced by sean connery draco is a surprisingly expressive creation who is of his minutes of screen time he walks talks flies fries and even fakes his own death all with the help of animators too bad that ilm industrial light and magic couldn't spare some special effects for dragonheart's human a bearded black hole exists where dennis quaid should be he's a loss as he growls glumly through his role of a disillusioned knight david thewlis' evil king has a high hiss factor hf though he's more of a mumbling oddity than anything else oh and there's some redhead in a wig who runs around either screaming or scowling depending upon if the particular scene has her playing the woman in peril or the put upon peasant the fringe flourishes include pete postlethwaite as a wandering monk with literary ambitions julie christie as the good queen mother a band of mercenaries that appear dressed for ye olde concert and believe or it not the speaking spirit of king arthur bring out your dead unfortunately when we add it all together draco fringe bits quaid thewlis the sum total amounts to zero dragonheart is well too much of too little director rob cohen dragon the bruce lee story has made a big expensive movie that while ambitiously plotted is both murky and predictable and overscored and and the list goes on i must ask did screenwriter charles edward pogue intend that every character be stabbed lanced or sliced at least once keep that man away from the knife drawer the last five minutes of this movie are the worst with some silly celestial nonsense that would be laughed out of any planetarium light show much less a summer movie save your money
negative	major league was a delightful surprise i didn't expect much of it when i decided to watch it on cable but it proved to be fresh and funny however when the appeal of a movie is its freshness the sequels are virtually guaranteed to be stale that's certainly true of major league ii and the most recent entry major league back to the minors the title is of course a contradiction shouldn't it be minor league that contradiction suggests the lengths to which john warren has gone to squeeze a third movie out of the formula established by the first movie original stars charlie sheen and tom berenger who returned for major league ii are not around leaving corbin bernsen the only original headliner to make the third movie the other veterans who return dennis haysbert as batter cerrano and takaaki ishibashi as tanaka who was introduced in league ii seem to be around just to lend legitimacy to the enterprise the only returning cast member who produces any laughs is bob uecker as radio announcer harry doyle inexplicably broadcasting the games of a minor league team far from his home turf the protagonist this time around is retiring pitcher gus cantrell scott bakula who is hired by minnesota twins owner roger dorn bernsen to manage the twins' aaa team the buzz you can write the movie from here he finds a group of misfits who need to learn how to play together as a team in order to win there's a future superstar whose ego keeps him from growing walton goggins an dancer kenneth johnson a old timer thom barry twin outfielders both named juan the difilippo triplets and a couple pitchers with throwing problems judson mills and peter mackenzie along the way gus picks up cerrano and tanaka gus is supposedly an old teammate of theirs even though he wasn't in either of the preceding films sum total none the entire enterprise is artificial and the cast is not ready for the hollywood majors gus' antagonist is twins manager leonard huff ted mcginley leonard is a slimy sniveling little egotist and the twins are lazy spoiled and full of themselves even watching the first movie i wondered why any team would lend itself to being caricatured in this manner gus challenges leonard to a match the buzz vs the twins wanna guess who wins back to the minors is a movie that has no reason to exist there's hardly a laugh in it the cast is weak and the first movie left no room for even one sequel
negative	the following review contains some harsh language but what did you expect when you clicked on this title  cast kristen holly smith danica sheridan alex boling michael dotson sonya hensley janet krajeski sabrina lu dionysius burbano calvin grant jeff b harmon written and directed by jeff b harmon running time minutes the thought of losing you makes me all vomity inside blatz balinski danica sheridan laments the fact that her lesbian lover april kristen holly smith has just received a telegram from her isle of lesbos is an incredibly offensive musical comedy about april pfferpot smith a resident of the small town of bumfuck arkansas who is about to get married to high school sweetheart and football hero dick dickson michael dotson when april gets extreme cold feet she runs home sticks a gun in her mouth and pulls the trigger instead of killing herself she is magically transported through her mirror into the isle of lesbos an alternate dimension where lesbians rule and no men are allowed except for lance the homosexual toilet april loves her new home and friends but dick and her parents are not so ready to give her up mr and ms pfferpot director jeff b harmon and janet krajeski decide they need medical help so they enlist the aid of dr sigmoid colon also jeff b harmon who claims he can cure homosexuality in actuality dr colon is homosexual as well and begins his special treatment on dick dickson unbeknownst to dick when april turns down dick's demand for her to return to bumfuck he decides to take matters in his own hands and attack the isle of lesbos instead of leveling the place he falls in love with lance alex boling and the two of them along with april and her lover blatz get married note to the filmmaker why did the character of lance make asides to the camera followed by silence that i'm assuming was inserted for the purpose of waiting until the laughter of the audience had subsided april's parents feeling like there is no recourse call in a favor to president clinton and send a nuclear bomb whose circuitry inexplicably is made up of a homosexual performer their way the bomb is a dud thanks to the work of the circuitry and they it and send it back to washington d c destroying it mr and ms pfferpot give up trying to get their daughter back and instead decide to join her as they have some alternative sexual practices of their own i'm not sure if jeff b harmon was purposely trying to offend people because he believes in some of the ideas his movie presents or if he was just going for cheap laughs either way he manages to present some of the most offensive material i have ever seen in a movie the film opens with a preacher running a small child out of town and then later moves on to the hanging of a michael jackson impersonator by the ku klux klan during a jaunty musical number preceded by remarks about gays and straights finally being able to put their differences behind them and work together to hate others such as the jews if harmon was merely trying to point out how idiotic society can be then i apologize for being so harsh on elements of his film but it is presented so mean spiritedly that i can't help but feel like he had some serious intent as for the entire central theme of the movie i'm afraid that it's one that i just don't get i tried to keep an open mind while watching it but the homosexual elements were just too prevalent for my tastes it was hard enough to watch them bash other races and sexes without them preaching about the virtues of being homosexual and accepted by society how does one expect to be accepted if they are just as guilty of i'm not prone to judging anyone and i believe that people should be free to explore whatever avenues they wish free from the scornful eye of society but don't force your particular rhetoric down my throat if you aren't going to show the same respect for my preferences that you wish from me again maybe i'm missing the satirical point that harmon is trying to make but if so i think it could have been handled a little more tactfully as far as musical comedies go isle of lesbos is no trey parker and matt stone musical but a good portion of the songs are maddeningly catchy despite the disturbing visuals mom and apple pie stuck with me for the rest of the day speaking of disturbing visuals wedding bells ain't ringing could have been a decent song but the accompanying visuals of spousal abuse are more harrowing than this film should be displaying i'm a lesbian which is touted in the press release as being particularly popular is also pretty good but a good portion of that could be due to the stellar singing voice of ms smith it's mainly on her excellent vocals that my rating of this film is based the other performers are decent save for the rosie o'donnell like performance given by danica sheridan i have no inherent problem with her character it is just her singing voice that leaves little to be desired one particular musical number lesbian rock was one of the lowest points i have ever experienced in my life thanks to a strained and lackluster vocal job by sheridan the film ends about twenty minutes before the credits actually roll the remainder of the running time is padded out with a few more songs lesbian rock included and the ridiculously presented message tacked on to the end for no reason other than to make it a feature length film once the isle of lesbos reprise was reached i felt the story had already been wrapped up well enough to end it all why was the film needlessly stretched out past its obvious end isle of lesbos is available on videocassette from www com the transfer is pretty clean and all the detail of the wrinkled cloth and paint backdrops are readily apparent and the film is letterboxed at approximately in many respects isle of lesbos has incredible cult potential like a rocky horror for the new millennium this film is by no means my cup of tea but i know there are those out there who will enjoy it if you think it might be for you then by all means seek it out i on the other hand will be cleansing my palette with a good action film like gladiator wait aren't gladiator films considered to be oh never mind
negative	one of the indicator of badness in film is the hype being remembered more than film itself such was the case with boxing helena directorial debut of jennifer chambers lynch daughter of the great david lynch made in the dying years of peaks lynch craze among movie snobs it was hyped as another warped twisted masterpiece of lynch clan kim basinger also provided extra publicity by quitting the lead role and being sued for the breech of contract but the result was extremely disappointing film which quickly sank into oblivion the movie protagonist is nick cavanaugh played by julian sands talented surgeon who is getting obsessed by helena sherilyn fenn beautiful woman who ditched him after brief affair cavanaugh stalks her and uses every opportunity for the pathetic attempts to the relationship during one of such occasions helena is hit by a car and nick quickly takes the role of her personal physician in order to have his way with her after she wakes up helena discovers not only that she is prisoner in cavanaugh's stylish residence but also that cavanaugh amputated her legs in order to prevent her from escaping she is still trying to escape so cavanaugh takes off her arms apart from casting sherilyn fenn audrey horne in twin peaks and small cameo in wild at heart and the use of twisted characters and their perverse fantasies this film by ms lynch hasn't got anything in common with the works of director's more talented father despite rather bizarre subject the style of this film is conventional and setting is light characters are beautiful but the result at the end is quite sterile and the film in the end looks too artificial for dark sexual fantasy it was supposed to portray jennifer lynch obviously lacks talents in directing and it becomes painfully obvious in the scenes that are supposed to erotic its banal artificiality is even bellow the standards of playboy videos the actors aren't good either julian sands is terribly miscast as emotionally disturbed man this actors is best either when he plays charismatic protagonists or villains being neurotic doesn't suit him bill paxton was better for this role but his presence was wasted in forgettable and unnecessary subplot dealing with helena's boyfriend sherilyn fenn contributed to this film mostly by her looks but even the her greater effort in acting couldn't help this film the screenplay on the other hand is awful at least for someone who had made with laura palmer's diary the events in this movie are implausible characters come and go without purpose and many unnecessary subplots only slow down the film and add to the total confusion one of those subplots involves character of cavanaugh's regular girlfriend played by betsy clarke the twist at the end although unpredictable is unbelievable and the viewers who had the stomach to endure entire film would feel cheated all in all boxing helena is disorganised mess of a movie that should be remembered as nothing more than one of the wiser decisions in kim basinger's career
negative	let's get this one over with as quickly as possible if there was a possibility to receive a refund this review would not be forthcoming but as it is godzilla is without a doubt the loudest longest and ultimately most amateurishly written film ever released through a major studio producer dean devlin and director roland emmerich should be ashamed of themselves and as penance be forced to return to film school to watch last year at merienbad until they can grasp the idea of content and plot no amount of hype no amount of money can hide the fact that these filmmakers are the equivalent to william beaudine billy the kid vs dracula godzilla opens with stock footage of the bikini atoll nuclear tests interspersed with footage of iguanas playfully swimming and nuzzling their eggs we are then introduced to the crew of a japanese fish canning ship a questionable enterprise considering that tuna processing is supposed to be supervised to eliminate the netting of dolphins well the ship is attacked and sunk by an unseen creature later a group of frenchmen led by philippe roache jean reno interview the sole survivor in a state of shock the only thing the man can utter is the word gojira the japanese name of the famed beast we are then introduced to dr nick tatopoulos matthew broderick with a moniker obviously taken from the effects designer of the film he is currently studying the effects that the chernobyl disaster has had on the local earthworm population he is immediately drafted by the u s military and taken to panama where he is shown the huge footprints of a creature in a short amount of time another fishing boat loaded with canned tuna from the u s and korea for some reason is found grounded in jamaica well it seems that whatever is eating these ships is headed for new york when the beast finally appears he tears up one building stomps a couple of trucks and makes life hell for the incumbent mayor ebert thumbs up for new york the military with dr tatopoulos's help have two tons of fresh fish dumped in the middle of new york to lure the beast out of its hiding place in the new york subway system it finally comes crashing through the city streets and has a cute face to face with dr tatopoulos who snaps the beast's picture the monster eats the fish the military starts shooting and the chase is on with the army causing of the ensuing damage working from a hunch as to why godzilla has decided to come to the big apple dr totopoulos buys a few home pregnancy kits from a local drugstore that has chosen to remain open even though new york has been evacuated well the test proves that the monster is a hermaphrodite and is pregnant needless to say no one believes the good doctor about his discovery so he must join up with the renegade french secret service agents and find the monster's nesting site and destroy the eggs before the mayor starts letting the populous back into the city even though the monster isn't dead yet i sincerely hope that i've completely spoiled any interest anyone might have of seeing this film i gave away the relevant plot so that i could spare those of you courageous or foolish enough to drop down an hour's wage on this tripe everything about godzilla reeks almost as bad as the piles of rotting fish used to trap the beast the script and let's be clear here by devlin and emmerich is so full of plot holes and non characters as to be sure to be the recipient of next years razzie award the dialogue between maria pitillo as audrey timmonds dr tatopoulos' estranged girlfriend and mr broderick is so adolescent it makes teenagers giggle in disbelief as happened during the screening i witnessed the film could be enjoyably campy if it didn't take itself so damn seriously but to what end as there is no commentary on humanities foibles against nature nor is there any reference about godzilla being some sort of retaliation against mankind no godzilla is just a big dummy that got knocked up by some french immigrants and decided to let the state of new york pay for it the film is bleak and ugly looking taking place at night during a rain storm the movie has little or no depth everything is ugly and dark new york has never looked so inhospitable since death wish in an attempt to give the film some color audrey timmonds carries a bright red umbrella which is unique in that everyone else in the film carries the standard gray issue the only moment of composition and color is during the brief scenes on jamaica where dr tatopoulos finds himself standing in a giant footprint the scene is nicely photographed but poorly set up you know from the outset that nick is standing in a footprint for a scientist this is very poor observation let's look at some of the more interesting plot holes in the film this activity is becoming almost as popular as the kevin bacon game why does the french nuclear tests only affect one clutch of iguana eggs and how do those eggs fuse into one beast why would a cold blooded creature choose a cold climate such as new york to nest i don't think iguana's have a habit of migrating how can godzilla crawl through the new york subway system slice a submarine in half yet be unable to extricate himself from some thin in comparison steel cable on the brooklyn bridge the brooklyn bridge is the only suspension bridge in existence that does not need it's suspension cables did godzilla carry all two hundred eggs in her belly if so then radioactive mutations surely are wondrous creatures note each egg is feet tall and almost as wide godzilla would have to be over feet tall to carry them all godzilla can crush ships and eat helicopters but new york cabs are made of stronger steel godzilla can out maneuver helicopters bullets torpedoes and missiles but can't catch you on foot taxis can out maneuver godzilla godzilla can burrow through the subway system but can't tear through the park avenue tunnel why was nothing else mutated by the nuclear test as quickly as godzilla maybe a giant hermit crab in the sequel galapagos iguana's actually live in the french polynesian islands why was dr tatopoulos brought in by the military if they were not going to listen to him anyway how did they evacuate new york island in less than a day and how did they convince those new yorkers to go to new jersey new york television stations use vhs tape for both filming and broadcasting new yorkers hate beta cam i could go on and on but that would only serve to make the film seem more enjoyable than it is don't be fooled this film has less gray matter than any episode of america's funniest home videos the performances in the film are singularly bland not one performance belays any awe or fear in the face of this two hundred foot tall terror the characters in the midst of the onslaught have time to stop and discuss the lack of good coffee failed relationships career choices the only common occurrence that doesn't take place here is having one of the characters have a bowel movement but then that would have made them believable godzilla for the most part is okay the design of the beast is funky if not very memorable one thing that comes to the major redirection of godzilla in this film is to remove his most familiar trademark namely his atomic breath now i for one can't quite fathom how you can call this monster godzilla without that little trait a good comparison would be to make a superman film and eliminate his ability to fly there is so much wrong with this film that i can't really recall anything recently that has left me this cold hearted except for my divorce any film that can have a two ton lizard slipping on gum balls has got to be envisioned under the influence of prozac the addition of the baby raptors ah i meant godzillas are nothing but a direct rip off of park but with none of that film's suspense or tension suffice to say that godzilla is without a doubt the most brain dead motion picture of the decade this is a film that needed the hype with the current level of writing and directing nothing else about the film succeeds if you've seen the trailers you've seen the best parts my only suggestion for mr d and mr e is that they could always go back to selling shoes this film could be the next rocky horror only it's not funny
negative	woody allen is one of the most successful in hollywood but he is becoming less and less reliable as a filmmaker in his early years of he mastered the simple comedy from there he went into a second phase and took risks experimenting with different approaches and styles some of these work better than others zelig and crimes and misdemeanors are the work of a creative and intelligent artist deconstructing harry goes to the other extreme and is a bizarre experiment demanding more of the viewer than it gives back harry block allen has in his life only two drives he wants to have sex with as many women as possible and when he makes a mess of his life and those of his lovers he wants to retreat into his writing the story of this static and highly unsympathetic character is told with a number of often clumsy stylistic experiments perhaps the most irritating device is to express the disjointedness of harry's life by editing harry's scenes putting in cuts in the middle as if to show missing time with something edited out as a writer harry puts his friends into his books in the thinnest of disguises the film dramatizes incidents from these supposed books and cuts between his real story line and fragments from harry's books with different actors playing the real and fictional people in harry's life these fragments are frustrating in their lack of completion but even more frustrating is the bringing of the characters out of the fragments into scenes with the real characters it is up to the viewer to keep track not just who is fictional and who is real but also to keep straight who is the fictional doppelganger of which real person if that sounds complicated it is then as another device in one of the stories an actor seems to have the peculiar property that he has gone out of focus and can only be seen in blurry image harry sees this as a metaphor for his own condition and himself goes blurry for a short time as if these touches did not create sufficient confusion the story is told out of chronological order if allen were giving the audience a story that was worth decoding any and all of these stylistic touches could be excusable but allen puts the audience through all of this to give us a portrait of harry block who is a selfish manipulator who is not worth the effort to understand deconstructing harry is set at a time when harry's old college the one that expelled him when he attended it wants now to honor him for a lifetime of writing achievement harry is searching among his friends to find one who will go with him just why someone who is so unwilling to commit to a relationship with anyone suddenly needs the support of someone else is unclear harry tries his current girl friend fay elizabeth shue only to find that she is about to marry harry's old friend larry billy crystal block would like his son hilly eric lloyd to accompany him but hilly's mother previously first harry's psychiatrist and more recently his wife refuses to let her son see his father another friend richard bob balaban would go but has health problems harry also considers bringing a prostitute cookie hazel goodman it is interesting that allen should introduce another likable prostitute so soon after mighty aphrodite but cookie is considerably and a lot brighter than mira sorvino's character in the previous film while the comedy sequences are never complete a few are elaborate and some quite funny the centerpiece of the film is a journey into hell with allen playing a sort of orpheus rescuing fay from the clutches of the devil who looks a lot like larry that story also is left uncompleted perhaps to show harry's unwillingness to commit even to telling a story the linchpin that was needed to tie together the stylistic quirks of this film was a central character who changes and who gives us something about which to care that character is patently not the one allen creates in harry block and not the characters around harry as seen through his acerbic eyes allen can do much better than deconstructing harry i rate it a on the to scale and a on the to scale
negative	here's a rarity a children's film that attempts to tackle a weighty subject is there a god done well it could have been a gem among the wasteland of modern children's cinema unfortunately it isn't with jumbled messages and an unclear audience wide awake was better left asleep fifth grader joshua beal joseph cross is in the middle of a moral crisis his beloved grandfather robert loggia has died and joshua has begun a quest he wants to find god to discover why bad things happen this religious quest is slightly disturbing for his parents dana delany and denis leary but they do their best to cope with their son as he explores different religious faiths at his catholic school his favorite teacher sister terry rosie o'donnell tries to give him guidance but this is a journey he must make on his own meanwhile he is having the most momentous year of his life he has several adventures with his daredevil best friend dave timothy reifsnyder he gets his first crush and begins to wake up to the world around him while he is on his spiritual journey it is somewhat confusing as to what the real audience for wide awake is expected to be on its surface it appears to be a kid's film however it deals with serious issues and is likely to be boring for today's kids and while it might seem heartening to see that someone is trying to produce something thoughtful for the kidvid audience wide awake asks serious questions but only delivers a cheap gimmick for an answer if there were a bit more meat in the story adults on a nostalgic bent might get a kick out of the movie the actors who might have created a great cast o'donnell leary and delany are wasted in roles that amount to little more than cameos the nostalgic elements best friend favorite teacher first crush etc have been done much better in other movies and actually seem more like filler here the film's strongest scenes are some touching flashbacks depicting joshua's relationship with his grandfather they show more depth than is present anywhere else in the movie maybe the film would have been better if instead of playing the relationship through flashbacks it were set entirely during joshua's last year with his grandpa it certainly would have been more entertaining wide awake can best be described as a failed experiment it starts out with noble aspirations but never delivers on its promise parents who do take their children to see this one ought to be prepared to answer some tough questions that is if their kids aren't bored to death first
negative	there's no reason to doubt that donnie brasco is based as its opening credits proclaim on a true story but if it's an accurate picture of life on america's mean streets than cinematic depictions of organised crime have had a much stronger basis in reality than i would have previously thought for from the film's outset when a group of hoods jocularly trade differing opinions on the merits of various automobiles not unlike a number of movie lowlifes who recently gave a madonna song a close reading donnie brasco resembles more than passingly a few gangster flicks once believed to be works of fiction our eponymous hero johnny depp is not the cheap crook he first appears to be brasco is joseph pistone an undercover fbi agent who has the task of to lefty al pacino a seasoned hood who tutors pistone in the art of being a wiseguy regrettably pistone learns his lessons all too well his concern for lefty who is burdened with a heroin addicted son exacerbates his own family troubles his children resent his lengthy absences and his wife fears that her husband's gangster persona is becoming a little too convincing true the focus on pistone's family life does deviate from the typical formula but this subplot never rises above its television drama origins the unhappy couple trade predictable lines and engage in domestic squabbles including an marriage guidance routine that slow the film down unnecessarily the biggest problem with donnie brasco however is that its wiseguy attitude and style lacks the flair of its many predecessors the awkward use of an occasional disco tune momentarily reminds us its the but not with the consistent and blindingly tacky style i loved those fluoro coloured suits of scorces' costume drama casino more importantly pacino's presence triggers memories of his earlier movie triumphs in which similar territory was covered far more effectively donnie brasco's take on american values for instance is feeble and obvious lefty rambles out dreams of material betterment to the accompaniment of grating inspirational music inexplicably lefty's horatio alger inspired gush is supposed to move us it doesn't any more than his family troubles do which are dealt in the same saccharine and obvious manner as pistone's just think a minute on how these themes were explored in the godfather movies and scarface in these pictures pacino's dedication to a peculiar and bloody was twisted and confronting while his dogged application of macho wiseguy procedure meant that his relations to friends and family was intriguingly dark neither were spared bloody retribution for breaching wiseguy regulations donnie brasco's tawdry little crime therefore isn't so much its repetition of familiar gangster themes but the shameless way in which it sanitises them oh and by the way i forgot to mention that the script also sports a startling subplot pipstone's superiors are obstructive incompetents who are infuriated by his constant insubordination is that a damn you mcbain i hear from springfield way so the movie is cliched big deal what do you expect from a well you expect quality action sequences and bravado performances in abundance if its going to be a decent example of the genre donnie brasco fails on both counts the action scenes never rise above the ordinary and depp's woeful performance tends to smother the of his comrades admittedly pacino does nothing new and michael madsen sonny simply smirks his way through the picture like a slightly subdued mr white but both possess an unmistakable sly charm depp usually exhibits a bit of class himself but regrettably being in the presence of one of his betters must have left him for he is completely on mimicking pacino's high style the consequences are painful to watch its no exaggeration to say that the film's credibility is seriously strained by the sight of the pistone family's uncanny ability to keep a straight face in front of their breadwinner's phony brooklyn accent perhaps we should take pity on the makers of donnie brasco maybe a scrupulous adherence to pinpoint accuracy demanded tiered dialogue and scenarios weakly reminiscent of classic gangster flicks if this is indeed the case surely the makers of donnie brasco could have explored the fascinating possibility that america's underworld is committed to emulating albeit in heavily attenuated form their movie namesakes depp could have poignantly played a simple cop who becomes a hideous parody once he is forced to mimic gangster greats who knows what insights into the criminal psyche could have arisen but then again perhaps donnie brasco isn't so true after all
negative	these days the lack of originality in hollywood reflects itself in the deluge of remakes but only a few years ago before wes craven publicly made fun of the practice sequels had been more popular among hollywood producers sequels also used to be popular among directors and movie stars whose careers went south the way to regain popularity and prestige they thought was the use the same formulas characters and story lines that brought them success in the first place one of such celebrity was eddie murphy black comedian of whose career was in big decline during the first part of this decade in order to return to the spotlight he chose to resurrect the franchise created by his most popular film beverly hills cop action comedy that had already spawned the sequel in seven years later for the third instalment he used the directorial service of john landis another fading star with whom he successfully collaborated twice in trading places and coming to america this time however third time wasn't the charm and beverly hills iii was failure eddie murphy had to wait few more years for real comeback eddie murphy here plays axel foley streetwise detroit policeman who raids illegal chop shop the routine police action ends in tragedy when the criminals kill foley's boss determined to bring the killers to justice foley realises that their leader is ellis de wald timothy carhart when it turns out that de wald happens to be security chief for wonderland theme park in los angeles foley goes back to los angeles there with the help of his old friend local policeman rosewood judge rheinhold foley would clash with money counterfeit ring ten years has passed since the original and times are definitely different in this decade the contrast between blue collar detroit and yuppie beverly hills which provided a lot of gags in film simply doesn't work screenwriter steven e de souza provides another conflict this time between the childish sillyness of the good guys and professionalism of the bad guys since foley belongs to the former his character had to watch his language and the tone of the film in general is more infantile unfortunately this film still belongs to action movie genre and there is too much violence for little children nice example is the humorous scene in the beginning which turns into standard ramboesque bloodbath unlike donner with the lethal weapon series landis simply can't balance the comedy with regular action and the result is a film that fails in both aspects action scenes are sometimes interesting but not too spectacular at the end scenery of wonderland is more fascinating than the action itself humour on the other hand falls flat to make even worse some minor characters from film gets unnecessary and sometimes irritating overexposure especially art expert turned into arms dealer played by bronson pinchot in the end although the film provided some entertainment viewers at least critical ones would probably be happy to know that there aren't any plans for beverly hills iv
negative	i have never been so confused after watching a movie meet joe black is probably one of the most visually satisfying films of this year with a cinematography music and cast that will dazzle most of us at the same time it is probably the most boring and ridiculous experience hat you will have this season at first you marvel at the elegant direction graceful cinematography and sensual musical score then you'll wait for something to happen for half an hour but when you finally understand what's going on you'll wonder what are actors such as anthony hopkins brad pitt and claire forlani are doing in a film like this the script is simply a silly and unresolved story which is artificially stretched into a three hour long motion picture it feels like an eternity most of the time it is a pompous soap opera filled with empty dialogue that the actors deliver in a high pitched voice and meaningful winks the film is based on alberto caesella's play death takes a holiday the story concentrates around bill anthony hopkins who lives a fulfilled life as a successful business man but sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and hears a voice that is saying yes soon he meets a young elegant gentlemen brad pitt who introduces himself as death it is bill's time but death has other plans it has come down to us simple mortals to find out what it means to be alive our bill is chosen to be death's guide and in exchange he gets time bill introduces death as joe black who immediately becomes the center of everyone's attention bill's business partners speculate about why joe is constantly at bill's side lives in his house and resides at his office that is not all however bill's youngest daughter susan claire forlani falls in love with the mysterious stranger and joe falls in love with her this relationship is bound to have some serious consequences it wouldn't be fair to say that this film didn't have some interesting moments such as the scene where joe is invited to join bill's family for dinner when joe starts enjoying peanut butter and later falls in love the experience is somewhat different it is obvious that a story like this story is very difficult to structure it's one thing to say wouldn't it be fun to have death take human form and come down to earth to create a motion picture out of this is another four screenwriters have worked on a script that lacks drive and logic it is overlong and too primitive to pass as a serious film on the other hand it demonstrates incredible performances and a very decent direction by martin brest scent of a woman hopkins looks great in any role and no matter how shallow or hollow it is he will complete it his talent and charisma are needed here more than any where else since it actually saves the film from a complete embarrassment but pitt is the one that got one of the most difficult roles of recent time how can you play death in human form to me it seems that death and life are not something that can be associated with earthly matters they are not creatures but phenomenas saying that death takes human form would be the same as to suggest that eternity would take human form handling such a ridiculous task is incredibly difficult and pitt deserves some credit for his work speaking in a calm soft voice portraying death as a lonely distant and powerful guy that is unfamiliar with practical earthly matters he looks and acts more like an angel of death rather than a demon or a executioner claire forlani and others are also fine stretching their stereotypical characters to their limits unfortunately their performances are not enough to rescue this film from its self inflicted misery in other words this is not what i expected from the director of scent of a woman it could and should be better with such cast and crew in the end it seems as if they have all been intensively working on a ravishingly looking soap opera
negative	this is crap but honestly what older american audience is going to be able to resist seeing jack lemmon and james garner as ing especially when their supporting players clude dan aykroyd as the current commander in chief lauren bacall as a former first lady and john heard as the dan vice president yup you're talkin' property here and for warner brothers the perfect fit into their grumpy old men holiday slot for the viewer my fellow americans is fine the raw star power alone will have audiences applauding this atrocious thriller they did in mine heaven help us for the rest of us the movie is immediately tiresome the tone is terrible and the banter is worse forget lemmon and garner merely exchange profanities through most of the movie has anyone counted the number of first penis references sure some of the bits are absurdly funny including a men's room macarena joke the appearance of an elvis impersonator on a trainload of tarheels and an all dorothy marching band performing over the rainbow at a gay men's march the get there from here though you have to submit to one of the most offensively overbearing musical scores of all time judas priest is there a single moment of silence in this film even the dialogue gets drowned out what a waste
negative	keep cool a chinese film directed by filmmaker yimou zhang was one of the kickoff films for this year's hawaii international film festival on the day it premiered lines of eager moviegoers stretched around the block some anticipants having queued up well in advance to get a good seat in the theater they need not have wasted their time the movie is billed as a comedy but is surprisingly bereft of humor there are noticeable attempts at laughs but very few tries actually click i wondered if there were jokes that i wasn't getting because i'm not from china but unfortunately my conclusion was that this lack of humor couldn't be attributed to the cultural barrier either keep cool just isn't very funny the prelude to the film was a visit by keep cool's producer who with the help of an interpreter regaled us of how in order to get the print to the festival in time an assistant hand carried it on the plane from china to hawaii although the print made it the assistant's luggage was lost too bad that story wasn't in the movie because it got a big laugh qu ying the film's female lead was also on hand to give a few comments however whereas the producer politely made regular pauses in his dialog so the interpreter could bring us up to speed ms ying saw fit to say everything she had to say in one incredibly long tirade it was dizzying good foreshadowing for the film you see keep cool is filmed almost totally with a camera handheld by a man with a bad case of the shakes at least that's the way it seems since the camera is constantly moving cinema verite is one thing but panning and shaking around until your audience has a headache is another although some might consider it a form which helps give the viewer an idea of the anarchic state into which chinese youth is slowly growing i found it thoroughly distracting and after a while quite annoying headache as i said the film is about a young bookseller wen jiang who is after a young woman qu ying they used to be romantically involved but the woman grew tired of him and left the relationship the first half of the film is about the young man's plan to win her back of course the thing is she doesn't want to be won back and has a nightclub owner friend of hers rough him up a bit in the fight the young man grabs a laptop computer belonging to a bystander and attempts to use it to fend off his attacker but only ends up smashing it against a lamppost we later find out that the laptop belongs to an older man who wishes to get his damaged computer replaced there is a funny scene the only one in the film where the young man tries to use some twisted logic in order to get the older man to seek out the nightclub owner baotian li in order to recoup his losses there is no sense to be made out of the young woman's behavior cold one minute caring the next so we feel no sympathy for her character the bookseller would be better off without her although the second half of the film causes us to lose a lot of sympathy for the young bookseller as well who is obsessed with chopping off the nightclub owner's hand as revenge for the beating he took it also offers us some nice interaction between the bookseller and the older man while the bookseller is blinded by his thirst for revenge the older man is the voice of reason and tries to rationalize each situation his quest to end the dispute peacefully and equitably is the one we identify with but it is frustrating to see that he seems to be talking to a brick wall half the time a friendship develops between the two men but it occurs too late in the film for the audience to appreciate although only an hour and a half in length keep cool contains extraneous material the whole plot of how the bookseller is after the young woman could have been taken out since we don't see her from the midpoint on a case of mistaken identity or some other device could have served as the point of conflict between the bookseller and the nightclub owner and would have saved us from the bookseller's boring pursuit during the first half but of course this would have shortened the movie to less than an hour there are a few things that keep cool does right as mentioned before the interaction between the bookseller and the older man is generally pretty good although it grows tiresome the reasoning with the unreasonable is a nice exercise in logic and represents the differences in thinking between generations in one scene for example the bookseller quotes confucius to get his point across but the older man claims the quote was misinterpreted and that it means something entirely different also effective is the way zhang sets up tension within a scene such as when the bookseller is getting ready to cut off the hand of the unwitting nightclub owner the nightclub owner is counting out money slapping each bundle of currency on the table with every shot of his hand we can hardly stand the interminable wait before the bookseller is going to pull out his cleaver and exact his revenge unfortunately these crumbs are not enough to overcome the rest of the film's shortcomings and weren't enough to prevent that headache from lingering after i left the theater
negative	although i had not been a viewer of the rugrats television series i went into their first animated feature film the rugrats movie with a positive attitude the trailer looked cute enough after all after seeing it i think the words in my recent antz review in which i stated that it was the worst film of its type since the pebble and the penguin were a bit premature the rugrats movie is children's fare at its worst and starts to make antz look good in comparison as in the show the rugrats movie is about a group of very little friends ranging from babies to a the head of the group tommy pickles e g daily becomes distraught when his mother has a newborn baby named dill get it dill pickles and is informed by his cousin anjelica cheryl chase that the new babies always take all of the attention away from the other children when the other children chuckie and twins lil and phil suggest taking dill back to the hospital tommy goes along with it but on their way there they crash in the forest and become lost running into wolves and circus monkeys among other things the rugrats movie judging from the idea of being lost in the woods could have been a potentially fun family film and there were many different things that could have been done with the story so what did the writers choose to do why they set up a protracted cliched scene where the children almost go over a waterfall of course for the youngest of children ages the rugrats movie may very well entertain them judging from the audience i saw this with of course if you looked around at all of the older kids and their parents they were all desperately struggling to stay awake and that included me for an adult the rugrats movie is a piece of garbage the plotline is unoriginal and the writing has absolutely no wit or charm there isn't one laugh to be had in the film nor is there any excitement if anything is even marginally good in the picture it is the bright animation style so it is especially unfortunate that it wasn't to service a more quality film the rugrats movie is doa from the start i am all for a worthwhile family movie but sometimes an animated film comes along that is simply awful as said before young children may like it but even they deserve better than this for adults it is a nearly unbearable excruciating chore to sit through as for me the rugrats movie is not the worst of the year nor is it the most deeply hated but it is the most boring parents do yourselves a favor and take your kids to see the rerelease of the wizard of oz that is a picture that contains a great deal of magic and wonder two things of which the rugrats movie is completely missing
negative	plunkett macleane is a period piece mired down by modern mtv pretentions i have nothing against the mtv approach to filmmaking used properly it can save a movie see stigmata but it ruins this one making a muddled incoherent mess out of a potentially interesting premise there are certain genres that just don't go together the film opens with a sequence that i still don't understand it involves some sort of prison outbreak a robbery and a gem that keeps being eaten in any case the caper whatever it may be brings together plunkett and macleane robert carlyle and johnny lee miller respectively two brits with no way to make a living they make a pact to steal money from the rich and give it to themselves until they earn enough money to buy a ticket to america their first heist involves a young debutante named lady rebecca liv tyler a woman macleane was especially friendly with at a party just earlier his decorum when stripping her of her valuables earns our two crooks the name gentleman highwaymen lady rebecca also happens to be the niece of the lord chief justice a glaringly arrogant man nearing the end of his political career he demands that the robbers be caught and punished immediately leaving the job in the hands of the devious chance ken stott who has a few more things on his mind than catching criminals meanwhile macleane falls in love with rebecca infuriating the businesslike plunkett who doesn't want his plans to be foiled by his partner's mindless romantic travails director jake scott son of ridley scott alien blade runner has his father's knack for setting up atmospheric shots but none of his skill in actually moving the camera most of the action scenes are filmed in such a rapid jerky way that it's impossible to comprehend what's going on the camerawork is even more nauseating than in the purposefully dizzying the blair witch project due to its lack of fluidity instead of utilizing panning shots to impress upon us the scope of the events scott uses edits he barely ever holds a shot for more than ten seconds and during the faster scenes it seems more like a couple frames between each cut the weird almost defiant lack of dialogue there are no no conversations lasting over say seconds undermines character definition and our two protagonists come off as ciphers rather than characters the love affair between macleane and rebecca is no different emotionless and unrealistic when the script calls for macleane to decide between going to america and going to meet his lover there is no reason for us to believe it would be worth it for him to abandon his goal he and rebecca barely even speak to each other throughout the film plunkett and macleane wants desperately to be a triumph of style over substance but since its style quite frankly blows the film has no hope of succeeding on any level i wanted to appreciate this movie on the basis of its admittedly kinetic pace but i couldn't it was so kinetic it gave me a headache
negative	this review contains spoilers as with most of her films director amy heckerling's latest loser seesaws between unpleasant and artificial and is sometimes both at once when she tackles big issues such as abortion in fast times at ridgemont high it's impossible to tell whether she's being or glib about them they carry an almost documentary starkness but whatever the case she continually refuses to comment politically such is the sitcom tendency of her work to jeopardize the innocence of her characters and then hit the reset button this fear of drama soured me on fast times look who's talking clueless and now loser in which ms heckerling also demonstrates for the first time zero affinity for the milieu has anyone for instance ever met a girl in the stylistic vein of mena suvari's dora attired in black thrift her eye shadow smeared to racoon chic and her bangy red hair barely contained by girlish clips she accepts the label of goth but no goth girl ever admitted to digging as dora does those geriatric rockers everclear nor willingly went anywhere with a fratboy stranger the mechanics of loser's tired old plot drive its protagonists into cultural so that they become even less than stereotypes they become walking wardrobes transplant paul a strangely static jason biggs our eponymous hero always wears his woolly hunter's cap with flaps covering the ears and beneath it rests a parted moptop that couldn't scream shemp the lame stooge wig louder he has three roommates the trio is not supposed to be brothers but they share similar facial features including and especially mouths and their fashion sense is incomprehensibly glam though they're not overtly transvestites heckerling seems to be equating flamboyance with villainy how very cruising of her the dormies conspire to evict paul and regularly molest women they have drugged dora ignorantly downs one of their date rape potions unfortunately either heckerling or the studio is too cowardly to admit if she was subsequently violated when paul rescues dora from said narcotic scare he learns that she is dating their unctuous european lit professor edward alcott superb greg kinnear although paul's already in love with dora by this point as is bound to happen to losers when pretty girls address them by name he gets altruistic and pretends the flowers he bought her are actually from alcott she's thrilled but nevertheless spends a few days at paul's to recuperate the two bond over emergency kitten surgery and a broadway play cabaret and just when paul's got in his head that she's starting to love him back in that way she decides to become alcott's girlfriend cue precious hommage to the graduate shots of paul drifting around aside simon garfunkel's parsley sage rosemary thyme should never have been allowed in another motion picture heckerling has a lot in common with nora you've got mail ephron the only other prominent chick directing comedies today in that neither has any use for women men continue to trod on dora until the bitter end in the final scene she gives paul a big smooch after he blurts out his feelings in what amounts to a creepy ultimatum and dora ultimately shrugs off being drugged against her hours after paul hints to her that she was poisoned she's cheerily redecorating his apartment heckerling is so about the issue in general that she reserves the comeuppance of the rapists for jokey epilogue titles goth veneer aside there are an awful lot of girls out there who behave as erratically as dora and enough angry young dude filmmakers to make movies about them heckerling misses her shot at having dora transform herself into a role model and while such arcs may not be heckerling's social responsibility it is a privilege i would have taken advantage of if i were in her shoes consider too that dora is the film's sole female principal not that loser is worth contemplating this knows heckerling didn't that is her hallmark for more dvd and reviews plus contests and the proverbial more visit freak central http net 
negative	fantastically over hyped godzila finally lumbers onto the big screen the film opens with footage of nuclear testing on the french polynesian islands then an attack on a boat from some beast and finally we join dr nick tatopoulos broderick looking about years old doing some research in chernobyl some shady u s government guys appear and ask him to come to an island where they have massive footprints from what looks like a giant lizard and what's more this beast is heading for new york gulp although godzilla should be a non stop roller coaster ride and at some points it is there is something curiously uninvolving and unexciting about this movie the main faults lie with the acting and writing common problems with blockbuster' movies broderick is pretty useless as the hero with no humour or a guy' image while emmerich's previous summer flick independence day had wisecracks and action from jeff goldblum and will smith this has neither also maria pitillo as broderick's former girlfriend is just as useless with a chronic disability in acting she's incapable of showing emotion speaks every line in the same way and basically she's total crap it's up to french actor jean reno to save the day and indeed he does turning in a campy performance as a french secret agent shame he has such little screen time in such a overlong film hank azaria also turns up as a crazy cameraman named and he adds a little life to the picture also making an appearance is harry shearer probably best know for doing voices in the simpsons as a slimy news reporter o k so the acting is not up to par but it never is in these movies but what about the script well that's not up to par either emmerich and screenwriting pal dean devlin seem so caught in the destruction of new york city that they forgot to write a script the dialogue is banal broderick looks at a lot of fish and utters a lot of fish and the character development is non existent reno plays the typical frenchman croissant broderick forever remains a geeky scientist also the film is seriously lacking a sense of humour the jokes that are uttered are pathetic and there's an running gag about siskel and ebert the mayor is mayor ebert and is assistant is called gene ha ha ha ha the plot is dire and in the end just rips off jurassic park by having lots of baby godzilla's i e velicorapters running around new york right so the script and acting suck but what about the special effects thankfully they're are quite good godzilla is an impressive piece of cgi although we don't see much of him because the movie is so dark the destruction of new york is pretty well done aswell but although they are impressive they can't save godzilla from being an hugely disappointing and boring movie the movie goes on for far too long aswell and it can't seem to decide on a ending and of course the ending itself leaves possibility for a sequel let's just hope one never arrives
negative	movie concepts are often pitched to producers with mathematical formulas involving successful films of the past so undoubtedly one day someone said it's plus in black' plus and so it is sum total none the alienbusting begins when a meteor lands in glen canyon arizona community college science profs ira kane david duchovny and harry block orlando jones take some samples from the meteor and discover that organisms from inside it are evolving rapidly doing in hours what took millions of years for life on earth just about the time i was wondering hey doesn't the government usually come in and take over the whole area in these movies the government came in and took over the whole area the leader of the pack gen woodman ted levine turns out to be an old nemesis of ira's and ira and harry are blocked from doing further research meanwhile the organisms continue to grow until they are large enough to start attacking people by this time ira and harry have gained a friend in dr allison reed julianne moore of the center for disease control a country club poolboy wayne green seann william scott has also attached himself to the merry band but can they find the means to stop the aliens in time director ivan reitman seems to be revisiting his biggest hit ghostbusters but evolution falls miserably short one reason is readily apparent ghostbusters had three really funny guys as its scientists bill murray dan aykroyd and harold ramis but evolution has one really funny guy orlando jones who can adlib and milk the comic potential of lines that prove useless in anyone else's hands for good measure ghostbusters had the comic talents of rick moranis evolution offers seann william scott who was much funnier in american pie and road trip than he is here scott has one amusing scene where he sings you are so beautiful to me to a alien to draw it into a trap other than that scott seems unable to make much of the thin material the writers gave him an actor in search of a forte david duchovny looked for his gritty action hero side in playing god and his romantic side in return to me now he wants to find his wacky comedic talent what we all find is that he doesn't have any look for him to be back on tv in five years or so another sad case is julianne moore who needs to be more selective about the offers she accepts she's a talented actress with an impressive list of credits and award nominations so why is she trying to do slapstick comedy her character has a tendency to trip over and bump into things but the trait comes off as a pathetic plea for laughs the sole saving grace of the film is jones he's at the center of the movie's funniest scene where an alien bug invades harry's body and has to be pulled out through his ass jones is the only cast member who can take the comedic ball and run with it but he can't carry the whole movie by himself he found himself in a similar situation in the replacements where he was also the only comic talent in an ensemble cast jones will eventually find the project that will make him a major comedy star but this isn't it
negative	well arnold has completed the seemingly impossible task he has made three consecutive unsatisfactory action films in a domain that he owns it is very surprising that this goliath of an action star can not tell a good action script from a bad one eraser back in was a confused film that made no attempt at all to make sense batman and robin in was the black sheep of the batman series with ridiculous acting idiotic action scenes and painfully flashy costumes now in end of days not the end of days is the third strike in a tough at bat for arnold is this the end of a powerful action star's career will arnold ever give us another unforgettable performance in another unforgettable classic like those in the past terminator terminator judgement day predator or an unforgettable performance in a great guilty pleasure like those in the past commando red sonja true lies it doesn't look that way end of days begins with the birth of a baby girl in who inexorably due to the formation of the stars on that night will be the carrier of satan's baby the hour before new year's of fortunately for the movie's sake the girl grows up and now resides in manhattan with skyscrapers subway trains in dark tunnels and a myriad of inept nypd officers it's an action film's dream come true when the director is given tons of cool stuff to blow up imagine if the girl had lived in anytown usa where the only thing to destroy is a dairy queen and a post office arnold schwarzenegger jericho cane in a series of boring events finds himself in the middle of a religious battle between the church who is trying to hide the girl or in some cases trying to kill her and satan gabriel byrne who is trying to make her pregnant if the devil is successful the world will no longer exist as we know it jericho feels it is his duty to protect the girl from everyone because he once had faith but no longer does and his wife and daughter were killed and he feels responsible for it jericho cane is your cliched hero right up to his name arnold fittingly plays the character as cliched as he can he shouts at everyone from cops to priests to the devil in one truly hilarious scene which was supposed to be the ultimate dramatic high point jericho screams to the devil you are a choir boy you are a choir boy those two lines marked the high points of this film a movie can still be enjoyable when the supporting cast is more effective than the main actor end of days fails to contain any memorable performances with the exception of gabriel byrne byrne playing a man who has been made the manifestation of the devil seems to be the only one who is having fun in this whole movie he wonderfully plays a manipulative villain with the power to control everyone at any time the annoying thing about his character however is that he has the power to kill any human with a simple punch in the face yet he finds it impossible to seriously hurt jericho i can not count the number of times he could have killed jericho and taken the girl from his custody the other actors in the film give very weak and unconvincing performances kevin pollak who plays the partner and close friend of jericho is the supposedly funny character in the film every action movie has one the one problem is that pollak does not deliver one funny line robin tunney plays the chosen mother of satan's baby with extreme annoyance she gets no sympathy from any of the characters in the film except arnold who pretends she is his wife and daughter or any of the viewers in the audience in one unnecessary scene tunney walks out of her room and takes her top off is this her job in the film the actors are not to blame entirely because the script is terrible you can tell a script is terrible when you are able to predict what will happen minutes before it does this little prediction game is a very fun exception to trying to sit through this nonsense of a movie in a last attempt to make this movie good special effects are used to try to entertain the audience but without a memorable action scene in the whole film the director has not done his job successfully this film would have gotten a if arnold stood in front of a camera and shouted you are a choir boy for two hours
negative	whether or not i would be considered a trekker probably depends on whom you would ask i have been a fan of both the original series and its recently retired as well as the numbered entries in the film series however i have never been one of those folks who store away trek minutiae and get into debates over the relative merits of spock vs data somewhere along the line the star trek film series began to seem more and more directed at those in the latter category and star trek generations may be the natural conclusion of this direction its production values may be high but the writing is frequently appalling and instead of a script has a collection of references and characters generations opens in the late century where members of the original enterprise crew including captain james t kirk william shatner are present for the christening of the latest ship to bear that name no sooner is it out on its maiden voyage than a distress signal brings them to the nexus a mysterious ribbon of energy among those rescued from the nexus is alien dr soran malcolm mcdowell but he is at being back in the real world years later soran is still trying to get back to the nexus and again encounters an enterprise this one led by captain picard patrick stewart soran's plan involves destroying a star with an inhabited planet and the only hope for saving million people is the historic meeting of two enterprise captains i don't think it is an insult to fans of star trek to suggest that to a certain extent the particulars of a plot are not really the most important elements in a trek film it's about a chance to visit with old friends and if they are involved in a truly interesting story it can be considered gravy but even that interpretation assumes that characterization has to be consistent and in generations that just doesn't happen data brent spiner is particularly victimized by this sloppy writing in the film's major data decides to use a chip which will give him human emotions a chip he has had in his possession for over a year what is his motivation for taking this drastic and perhaps dangerous step he doesn't get a joke once the chip is in place spiner gets to have a lot of fun with data's new emotions but the point is that he's no longer the data we know if the rest of the next generation cast fares any better it's only because they're on the screen so little that they're simply window dressing but then again this story isn't really about the new crew it's about kirk and picard the cowboy and the politician sharing the screen the huge surprise is that william shatner blows patrick stewart away perhaps because he knows this is his last in the part that made him a legend shatner looks like he's having the time of his life stewart on the other hand borders on the deferrential and is saddled with the same lackluster motivations as everyone else in the cast stewart's edginess is indicative of what may be a very bad sign for paramount's hopes to turn the new cast into the same kind of franchise the original cast was these are clearly the not ready for big screen players by contrast the prologue which features scotty james doohan and chekhov walter koenig is the highlight of the film these characters have become part of the popular mythology and when they take over the enterprise in a moment of distress it's a moment of high energy only thirty years of history can create a moment like that and that's time this new crew doesn't have it certainly doesn't help that the plot they are stuck in is so convoluted and badly constructed that you need to leave a trail of bread crumbs to find your way out again it's also loaded with little gags all aimed at those who are familiar enough with the series to turn to all their friends in a shared nudge of recognition i wonder whether anyone who is coming in cold to the trek universe at this point would be anything but baffled and bored by what is going on and what a waste of malcolm mcdowell who could have been a great monomanical villain but should have been given a much more compelling reason for his obsession there are plenty of details both scientific and of continuity to pick at but to do so would be to ignore generations' major flaws however i would like to make one recommendation seatbelts not just for the enterprise crew although you'd think by the century space travel wouldn't involve rolling around on the floor during a battle no i think the audience might need them more this journey is one bumpy ride
negative	they should have stuck to the promise emblazoned on the original movie's poster no sequel scary movie is nowhere near as funny as its predecessor and it is not because the wayans brothers shawn and marlon doing the writing and keenen ivory behind the camera don't try what defeats them is the genre they have chosen to spoof the first movie an outrageous savage satire of teen slasher flicks such as scream and i know what you did last summer succeeded because of its attitude toward a type of film that was in vogue familiar and popular in scary movie the filmmakers take on the haunted story format which if you look at the grosses for such recent lame offerings as the respective remakes of the haunting and house on haunted hill did not draw audiences nor enter the cultural psyche as did the various teen slasher series scary movie does start off promising with a wonderful spoof of the exorcist featuring james wood in the max von sydow role and veronica cartwright lampooning ellen burstyn of course split pea soup is the punch line an overabundant amount which offers the hope that the rest of the movie will be just as tasteless and excessive but this sequence has nothing at all to do with the main action which features the cast members from the original signing up to spend a weekend at a creepy haunted mansion as part of a university class project some of the jokes are as scatological and offensive as in the original but they lack that bite that raised scary movie to the heights of burlesque scary movie merely lurches from one lame sendup to another offering weak spoofs of that nike shoe ad in which everyone does acrobatics with a basketball and the films what lies beneath and hannibal features that only faired adequately at the box office john woo's mission impossible and charlie's angels it is as if the wayans and their team of writers at least seven are credited just threw ideas in a blender and hoped they'd coalesce they don't while the pace of the original left you breathless the sequel moves with the speed of an carrying two tons of concrete up a steep mountain road you can almost hear the reels panting scary movie tries very hard to live up to its original but it falls very short it's a dissatisfying spectacle a very weak sister of a very good movie the really scary aspect of this sequel is how disappointing it really is
negative	vikings v bears no this isn't the lineup for monday night football rather these are the two opposing forces that will battle to the death in the warrior a film that is as dramatically flat as it is gratuitously gory based on michael crichton's book eaters of the dead this viking saga tries to evoke the mysticism of fabled norsemen and the glorious battles that they fought their strength and honor would eventually etch their place in history among the greatest warriors that ever picked up a sword luckily for the vikings however their warring abilities were not as clumsy as this film antonio bandaras is ahmed a travelling ambassador accompanied by his friend omar shariff in a cameo they eventually come across a small viking village we see that the vikings are an extremely proud group whose greatest strength is their fortitude they laugh heartily revel in their arrogance and sing songs of battles won but their festivities are about to be halted when a messenger boy arrives to tell the village leader that a great evil is threatening their land help is needed quickly an elderly witch arrives after a brief incantation she proclaims that warriors and one more not of norse blood are needed to ensure victory personally i always wonder why people believe these oracles when they look so haggardly and on the brink of insanity nonetheless men eagerly accept their place while ahmed becomes the pivotal the group then sets out to do the greatest battle of their lives of course during their ride ahmed becomes the target of fun for the other burly viking warriors but he ably shows that it's not the size of the dog in the fight but rather the size of the fight in the dog he is able to overcome the proud arrogance of the vikings but will his skills and that of the group be enough to defeat whatever evil is menacing the countryside it does not look promising these creatures resembling bears are strong and have high morale they are fearless and display a desire for decapitating the heads of their enemies they attack by the hundreds and the next strike will come soon the warriors prepare their defenses and pray to their gods they are ready to sacrifice their lives this is a good way to die says one of the fallen warriors despite the battle sequences i was unmoved by the entire experience at many points i was even confused for example somewhere in the middle of the film a creeps up involving the prince of the threatened land he seems to have an agenda to elevate himself to greater power during this crisis however the never fully materializes and we are left scratching our heads as to the purpose of its inclusion there are other questions that i had but the real problem was that the story little of it that there was offered no characters to love or hate the leader of the viking warriors had the most charisma however banderas's role is completely underwritten and it is unclear why being the warrior makes him so special an entire rewrite of the ahmed character is in order also much of the action takes place during torrential downpours or at night which made battles very difficult to follow i would have preferred more time looking at the viking culture and how their beliefs shaped their decision to do battle against the enemy as it stands the film manages more confusion than intensity it would make thor cry
negative	apparently when crap calls jim carrey answers here he is mugging it up in countless unfunny ways for the fifth time his second in the role of pet detective ace ventura that means more talking penis jokes and cries of then it all adds up to a sequel that makes the original resemble schindler's list in terms of dramatic merit or lack of granted there are a few laughs amid the constant barrage of humor but anyone who appreciates good comedy will bang their head against the wall ten times for every minor chuckle it's a painful experience for anyone with a brain ace is distraught after accidentally dropping a racoon into a canyon in a parody of the opening scene of sylvester stallone's cliffhanger jim carrey being the only person who can make stallone look like a college professor in terms of intellect or lack of and decides to retire to the mountains of tibet to gain a higher level of consciousness or in his case a level of consciousness but he is pulled out of retirement to the tune of to retrieve a sacred white bat for an african tribe why africa so carrey can disguise himself nude inside a fake rhino and later climb out the rear end as a tourist family watches look the rhino's about to give birth if that seems like humor to you by all means see the movie if not claim your place in human civilization with the rest of us obviously there are quite a few nonmembers of civilization who made this movie like the first ace ventura film i use the word film only because it was filmed not because there's any level of artistic merit a huge success in fact carrey only has a career because of the decline of intelligence in our culture you may say to me but andrew look at jerry lewis he was born with a negative i q and look how popular he was thirty years ago maybe but i still say jerry lewis is a notch or two up on the comedic ladder because he never actually did an impression in a movie of a rabid bulldog biting off a man's testicles lewis at least had the dignity to save that performance for when company came over
negative	one of my favorite songs by the stranglers includes the lyric you'd better watch out for the skin deep i'd like to extend the same warning watch out for skin deep but whatever you do don't watch skin deep skin deep is a tedious and uneven comedy written and directed by blake edwards john ritter stars as zach a dried up writer and insatiable womanizer with a drinking problem i never saw edwards' comedy the man who loved women but i have to wonder whether skin deep is a remake you see to put it mildly zach goes to bed with just about each and every woman he meets as the movie opens zach's wife alex catches him with not only his mistress but also his mistress' hairdresser like any sensible wife alex kicks zach out of the house and divorces him in response zach goes on a spiritual journey of drinking womanizing psychotherapy and if you're turned on by the idea of watching ritter drink get arrested have sex drink crash his mercedes have more sex drink get arrested again drink and sing horrendously at the piano then skin deep should be right up your alley skin deep makes the fatal mistake of inflicting on us unbelievable and unsympathetic characters zach is a rich l a version of ritter's jack tripper character from three's company like jack zach is clumsy and inept he's the type of guy whose bad aim makes him accidently squirt breath freshener into his eye zach is supposed to be charming and charismatic but i failed to see even one redeeming virtue in him consequently i never felt the least bit of sympathy or pity for the philandering alcoholic during his moments of crisis in fact when zach crashes his wedding in a desperate attempt to stop her from remarrying i actually rooted for her to go through with the ceremony to add insult to injury edwards gives his large supporting cast nothing but stereotypes with which to work for instance vincent gardenia's talents are wasted in his role as the fatherly bartender of all the women in the there are reed alone stands out as zach's wife reed brings intelligence and sensitivity to the role because we don't care the slightest bit about anyone in skin deep the film's few feeble attempts at drama inevitably fail the comedy in skin deep doesn't fare much better most of the jokes are dumb predictable and sitcomish about every ten minutes however edwards does manage to come up with a good line or a novel the most effective of which involves a pair of dueling condoms overall the laughs in skin deep are just too infrequent and the characters just too shallow for the film to stay afloat my final criticism of the film lies in its glamorous depiction of alcohol and alcoholism zach's excessive drinking is clearly ruining his life but nevertheless it seems to give him more pleasure than pain zach's drinking binges never have any truly serious or lasting consequences if he crashes his mercedes he gets a new one if he gets arrested his lawyer bails him out of jail if his wife leaves him she will eventually decide to give him a second chance if he'll clean up his act the tone in skin deep is all wrong edwards treats a very serious issue far too lightly making a joke out of a problem that is no joking matter perhaps edwards should have studied dudley moore in arthur or better yet michael keaton in clean and sober before making skin deep
negative	this movie about two dysfunctional families never really gets off the ground despite some good performances from a basically competent cast eddie sean penn and maureen robin wright penn are a married couple down on their luck living in rented rooms in the seedier part of an unnamed city they spend what little income they have at the local bar owned by shorty stanton eddie's best friend and his wife georgie mazar maureen and eddie share an odd relationship marked by eddie's frequent disappearances on his return he promises her the world and professes his undying love their manic reunions all too soon lead to new lows as eddie disappears again like a junky craving the next high maureen suffers through the lows to reach the next high their relationship is further complicated by maureen's pregnancy she wants the baby and the father but deep down seems to sense the inevitability of losing the latter during one of eddie's absences maureen is attacked by kiefer her neighbor who gets her drunk with her cooperation and then insists on intimacy she leaves badly bruised and in fear of what eddie might do not to her but to kiefer she lies about what happens to ensure that no harm will come to eddie as the result of his inevitable rage he lashes out as she expects and ends up in an institution for what he believes to be months but in reality is years during this decade maureen divorces eddie and remarries a more solid and reliable individual joey travolta in a small role her life falls apart again when eddie is released from the institution and comes to find her joey insists on bringing eddie into his home and making his wife choose between her husband and father of two children and stability joey makes a good living drives a cadillac and they live in a large house in the suburbs and the love of her previous life she chooses her past and sacrifices not only her new life but her old by giving up her and eddie's daughter to joey but the eddie that she knew is gone replaced by a mere shell of the man he was maureen is herself a mere shell more an automaton than a woman as if she had gone through whatever therapy and treatment eddie was given along with him perhaps these two really do need each other and can find happiness or maybe the lack of sadness together but the movie's denouement was not convincing
negative	michael richards leaves his spot as kramer on the infamous seinfeld tv sitcom for a stint as a lanky goofy best friend to jeff daniels' lawyer character in this and unfunny comedy plot richard the actor richards has to take the place of charles the lawyer daniels in a real court case after charles is left unintelligible from a night of heavy drinking at his bachelor party the film follows the antics of the two men as they try to get away with their tomfoolery critique this movie did not make me laugh once perhaps it was because i was tired when i watched it perhaps perhaps it was because i had seen richards perform most of the same schtick a thousand times on seinfeld perhaps perhaps it was because the movie just wasn't funny absolutely the lack of humour wasn't the only issue that i had with this film either the movie attempts to weave a couple of love stories through its vision but unfortunately they are also lacking in conviction believability and credibility they are contrived and appear to be placed into the story for convenience sake the actors were all adequate enough in their roles but the problem didn't lie in the acting i wish i could find one good reason for you to see this waste of time but i can't unless of course you need something playing on your tv set while you waste some time around the house overall this movie stinks on the good side charlize theron is darn cute and the movie is no longer then minutes on the bad side this movie is not funny interesting or enjoyable in any which way possible a person wouldn't even enjoy his nachos while watching this emptiness please skip it little known facts jonathan lynn earned a degree in law from cambridge before becoming an charlize theron grew up on a farm outside benoni south africa as the only child at the age of her mother made her go to los angeles to try a career in the movie industry she came to la without knowing anyone in the city but after two weeks when she was standing in line on hollywood boulevard an agent gave her his card after eight months in la she got her first part since then she has taken acting lessons and her career has skyrocketed specifically in devil's advocate charlize was narrowly beat out by elizabeth berkley for the lead role in the movie showgirls she was quoted as saying it was like i had some guardian angel
negative	jackie chan kicks his way into van damme territory with twin dragons an embarrassingly bland action comedy of mistaken identities chan plays boomer and john ma whose drastically different paths aw forget the plot description it's not even worth the space but let's face it no one goes to jackie chan movies for the plot anyway the scenes where nothing happens in chan's films have always been little more than glue thriftily spread to hold the action sequences together in the case of twin dragons however the tiresome scenes fritter away so much of the movie that you almost want to shout at the risk of demeaning the artistic value of cinema get to the good part already most of the film is devoted to showing the brothers' efforts to hide the other's existence from their own acquaintances why it is necessary to do this is not satisfactorily explained but neither are a lot of aspects of the plot the twins' love interests demure barbara regular maggie cheung and lusty tammy nina li chi get disoriented in all the brouhaha yet strangely seem not to mind that they are not sure which brother they are in love with the scenes describing the boys' bumbling antics get stretched so thin we stop caring who chan is supposed to be in any given shot in several shots in fact even the and hair people seem to forget which brother is which even chan's humor is in this outing some of the gags are so carefully innocuous they're annoying a case in point whenever anyone sees the brothers together they fall to the ground in a dead faint are we laughing yet as usual the final showdown is the film's jewel a tour de force display of chan' s agility and grace never mind that it's not clear how the brothers end up fighting suited bad guys inside an automobile facility it's all good fun but too little too late perhaps chan's next movie should just be a collection of the last fight sequences of all of his movies they could call it jackie chan's the final fight scenes and everybody would go home happy reviewed april at loews theaters white marsh white marsh md
negative	the general's daughter will probably be the cleverest stupid film we'll see this year or perhaps the stupidest clever film it's confusing to a critic when so much knuckleheaded plotting and ostentatious direction shares the screen with so much snappy dialogue and crisp character interaction that however is what happens when legendary screenwriter william goldman takes a pass at an otherwise brutally predictable conspiracy thriller the punch lines are ever on the verge of convincing you the general's daughter has a brain in its head even as the remaining of the narrative punches you in the face with its lack of common sense our hero is warrant officer paul brenner a brash investigator for the u s army's criminal investigation division his latest case is the murder of captain elisabeth campbell leslie stefanson at a georgia base the victim found tied to the ground after an apparent sexual assault and strangulation complicating the case is the fact that capt campbell is the daughter of general joe campbell james cromwell a war hero and potential nominee general campbell wants to keep the case out of the press which gives brenner only the hours before the fbi steps in teamed with rape investigator sarah sunhill madeleine stowe who coincidentally enough once had a romantic relationship with brenner brenner begins uncovering dark secrets from the late captain's past that make the case ever more sordid if only the sordidness were the worst of the general's daughter's problems scenes of sexual degredation do linger much longer than necessary their negligible dramatic value overwhelmed by sleaze director simon west likely thinks he's covered himself by juxtaposing these images of violence with sweet flowers but all he does is prove himself dependent on visual cliches which is the film's fatal flaw it's a trend he continues for two hours taking the story's few virtues and slapping a coat of obviousness over them characters who may wink wink turn out to be villains are photographed in ominous shadow cutaway inserts of the captain campbell's face after the corpse is uncovered insure against attention spans west just can't help himself from overdirecting every minute of the general's daughter he even turns a scene of footage shown on cnn into an excuse for edits bubbling up from this overcooked stew are enough tasty lines to distract you from its smell the slickest scene finds brenner squaring off with captain campbell's mentor a psychological warfare expert named moore james woods there's something invigorating about watching two smart actors playing smart characters firing honesty at one another indeed travolta gets to sink his teeth into dozens of choice lines based on his delight at provoking authority figures to the local sheriff of the georgia county shouldn't you be out the colored folk even the lame device of brenner and sunhill's sexual history provides a few winning zingers goldman's dialogue can serve up a bigger laugh than you'll find in most comedies dialogue unfortunately just isn't enough to make a quality script it's difficult to take a movie about a criminal investigation seriously when the investigators are both too stupid to solve it sooner an idiotic inability to recognize the nature of the crime scene and too lucky for it to last any longer not one but two occasions where brenner catches a vital piece of evidence out of the corner of his eye by the time the general's daughter wanders towards its finale west's heavy hand has obliterated most of what made the film occasionally fun it's silly and pretentious but at least it provides a giggle or five goldman should tear the decent pages out of this script and turn them into a routine
negative	cradle will rock is the latest effort from tim robbins while he may have had an oscar worthy film back in dead man walking he gets a little overconfident and sloppy here the story is confusing and filled with many subplots so i'll try my best and explain it as simply as possible the film is based on a mostly true story about a federal theater in the that produced a play the cradle will rock that apparently was offensive to some so the government shuts it down it's during the time of the depression and all this theater wants to do is entertain and cheer up those who do not have jobs or are poor between this conflict lies what seems like subplots about those who work in theater or those associated also along the way are some other messages mashed together to create an even more overwhelming experience tim robbin's just keeps piling on political views and characters that we just give up on the film or in some cases walk out for robbin's it may be a nice achievement but to me it seemed more like a friendly get together with slightly more sophisticated dialogue and fancy outfits i thought the main reason for seeing the film would be for the outstanding cast unfortunately are all uninteresting except for a few let me recap what each important character does so please bear with me it's the least you can do especially if you were considering seeing this i'll begin with those involved with the play there's orson welles angus macfadyen who of course is the director of the play the producer john houseman cary elwes marc blitzstein hank azaria the writer of the play emily watson a woman who gets her break by playing the main part in cradle will rock outside the play there's the ventriloquist bill murray who wants a relationship with a federal theater clerk joan cusack another subplot involving a painter diego rivera ruben blades who's unhappy that his painting is too be destroyed by nelson rockefeller because he feels it to be an outrage john cusack there's a few other actresses and actors who have their own stories susan sarandon philip baker hall too name a few but those that i mentioned were the most significant to the story anyway most of these talented hollywood stars were completely wasted except for emily watson who does another great job and one of my personal favorite actors john cusack who always delivers through thick and thin now although most of the film was weak to say the least there were some nice moments and some involving subjects but all this is overblown sure the free speech segment was a nice feature but not when it becomes repetitive the whole film is like this and it's basically nothing but a headache on the brighter side tim robbin's direction was masterful his camera direction seemed reminiscent to the works of paul thomas anderson's latest magnolia only smoother in my opinion but even that can't make a movie that much better although it has it's moments not many of them but they're there cradle will rock stays true to it's title because the cradle rocked too far and tipped over
negative	disillusioned and trying to find the spice of life richard leonardo dicaprio sets off for thailand there he a meets crazed man by the name of daffy robert carlyle who gives him a map to a beach a secret utopia then commits suicide richard sets off for this beach with his neighbors from this hotel tienne guillaume canet and fran oise virginie ledoyen once they get there the three discover a secret society existing on this beach there richard falls for fran oise this covers about half to two thirds of the movie and aside from the romantic element which is solely a creation of hollywood seems to hold to the original novel the cinematography and general beauty of this part of the movie is breathtaking i don't think anyone can argue that this movie is visually stunning but that is were many things go wrong darius khondji has totally outdone himself in doing the cinematography though the script and the interpretation of the novel are quite lacking the plot of the movie moves along at a decent pace for about half of the movie or there abouts this is where the movie has some great potential then the three travelers get the island and there is a turn for the better yes folks i said better now up to about two thirds of this movie its actually pretty good nothing spectacular aside from the cinematography but it still has promise this is where things start to degenerate to something that becomes almost there is even a game' style sequence that borders on the disgusting it doesn't make sense for the movie and just looks dumb in my opinion and i am hoping many other peoples i am hoping that in my little rant i've made it abundantly clear that the movie is lacking quite seriously in plot and uneven pacing so if you go see it and you don't like it because of this don't blame me the character development was not up to par either i found the character of richard to be nothing more than a spoiled child although there is a feeble attempt to make this whole story profound it fails and richard leo's character comes off as a wannabe philosopher the character seems to be underdeveloped from the get go and seems to just do things for no apparent reason granted some people are like this myself included but i nor anyone i know that is fairly random would ever do things of the sort this character does the next point is that some of the really interesting characters are simply not developed enough richard is obviously obsessed by fran oise at the early stages of the story yet there is actually very little development along this story line this i am sure contributes to the movie's lack of core plot and being unfocused now i shall move onto something a little better about the movie for all you cynics out there the movie did have a few good things about it the cast and acting was passable at the very least and i think that leonardo dicaprio actually did pretty well in the role of richard mind you i think the rest of the cast that had some which had reasonably sized roles did equally well if not better which begs the question why is leonardo paid so much i think this is a topic all on its own so i won't get into it but i like the fact that there was an international cast used had only and american cast been used i can see this movie being horrible the international flavor added a more global feel to the movie that made it that much more bearable not to mention the movie is set in thailand and a global cast makes more sense when all is said and done i liked the movie for the most part but the gaping inadequacies of the plot are unforgivable i would not recommend this movie to anyone the fact that i liked it has a lot to do with the cinematography and the sheer beauty of the movie not its plot or story as it is the story tries to be much too philosophical and fails at its attempt if you do end up going to see this movie be forewarned about its shortcomings
negative	kate jennifer aniston is having some problems it appears the year old is not happy with her slow progression up the company ladder and her love life apparently leaves something to be desired she learns that her problems are related as the owner of her advertising agency mr mercer kevin dunn explains to her that her single status does not bode well with the company her freedom would make her more likely to leave the company taking clients with her a solution presents itself in nick jay mohr a wedding videographer who kate meets through a coincidence and gets photographed with kate's boss darcy illeana douglas uses the photograph to fabricate a wedding engagement between kate and nick kate is at first repulsed by the idea but after getting immediate positive results she pursues it her first task is to convince nick to go along with her plan the actual plan consists of nick pretending to be her fianc at a dinner with kate's bosses he will provoke a fight and they will break up she meets nick to propose the plan he accepts kate's new status brings unexpected results in other areas the office bad boy sam kevin bacon who wouldn't give kate the time of day now does now that she is engaged he pursues an affair with her as doing so would destroy her good girl image hence sam's sudden interest things start to fall apart for kate as it becomes apparent that nick really likes her and does not wish to break up with her after some provoking nick does oblige but problems continue for kate it appears sam is no longer interested now that she is available or maybe kate does like nick but reconciliation will force her to admit her lies to her employer adding to her mess is the constant prying of her mother olympia dukakis who wants her to get married and settle down there is a scene in this movie where jennifer aniston is from the waist up only wearing a bra it made me chuckle because it is the only time in the movie when she actually wears one there is enough cleavage in this movie to satisfy russ meyer it's like the director said we know the story is formulaic and the performances aren't that great so what the heck let's show jennifer's assets as often and as uncovered as humanly possible to keep the pg rating quite frankly it's insulting i don't think aniston is a competent enough actress to carry a movie she did a decent enough job in ed burns' she's the one because it was a smaller and supporting role and she just doesn't deliver the goods effectively in this movie her performance was not convincing unfortunately as far as romantic comedies go this movie adds nothing new to the standard formula for these types of movies the film is similar to my best friends wedding in a sense that the leading female character is actually quite vindictive and due her actions gets no sympathy from me when things go awry i didn't care for how quickly kate puts down nick's profession by explaining that videotaping weddings wasn't glamorous enough for her at least my best friends wedding changed the formula a bit and had a somewhat surprise ending no such luck with picture perfect every plot occurrence can be spotted a mile away including a couple that really made no sense after everything kate had done to prove her loyalty to her company why would she blindly throw it all away when she should have made sure that nick would even talk to her first let alone consider a relationship was quitting her job a prerequisite to making amends with nick throw in the fact that i don't think nick and kate spent enough time together to even warrant that rash of a decision i believe that kate liked him but liked him so intensely that she was willing to throw her career away i doubt it and what of the ending scene at a wedding where the entire congregation feels it necessary to stop everything and stare at the couple are mass groups of people simultaneously that interested in total strangers well i guess of the congregation consists of movie extras and the strangers are the movies two lead stars then that would make sense picture perfect directed by glenn gordon caron kate jennifer aniston nick jay mohr sam kevin bacon mercer kevin dunn darcy illeana douglas rita olympia dukakis written by randy turgeon february visit my movie reviews www xtdl
negative	this review contains spoilers but believe me i don't say anything you can't guess minutes into the movie i did go into this one with high expectations i had been exposed to media reports that this film would signify a departure from the slasher flicks i sort of expected another exorcist or the shining i even put aside my general rule of not seeing this type of film boy was i wrong another garbage slasher flick the only difference being that this one has a story the story you ask well a scumball buys a chinese puzzle from a guy in an arab souk he takes it home somehow getting it past customs and starts fiddling with it in his attic lo and behold after he takes it apart three demons appear and start taking him apart but with meat hooks when they're finished his gizzards are hanging from the ceiling they botch up their cleanup job however and manage to leave his heart or some gland i didn't really recognize the organ under a floorboard the guy's brother and his brother's wife appear at the door soon after and decide to move in they throw away scumball's belongings and set up house turns out that wife is a bit of a nympho and screwed around with scumball right before her marriage she starts having some wild hallucinations later hubby spills some blood on the attic floorboards special effects of the buckets of blood hitting the from the tiny cut on his hand said blood is eagerly sucked up by scumball's organ the organ grows into a thing that requires yet more blood in order to complete the regeneration into a really ugly thing it establishes mind contact with wife who agrees to help him get more blood because she really wants to be screwed again so she helps him kill three businessmen scumball at this time gradually gets his strength back and grows all his organs back problem is he doesn't have any skin and even after three or four corpses still doesn't get any skin he finally gets some though but strangely enough he ends up looking like his brother guess they couldn't get the original actor back who knows scumball whose name is frank is not a nice guy he describes his torture by the demons fondly as the ultimate pleasure and pain since at that level there is no difference between the two somehow i don't see getting torn apart by and a lot of fun this guy is so bad how bad is he so bad that the rats cower in a corner in fear for good reason too he crucifies two of them for fun and carves a third while the nympho's horsing around with hubby anyway hubby's daughter who if course is not wife's daughter starts to suspect something is wrong after she sees wife going into the attic with one of her johns and the ensuing screams the dumb bimbo meets scumball and is not impressed she manages to escape with the chinese puzzle and brings out the demons at any rate the demons are pissed off that they screwed up their cleanup they're normally quite meticulous about that type of thing the story boils down to the demons trying to correct their mistake the demons are not however the good guys the dumb bimbo's the good guy she somehow not only gets them to take care of frank but also banishes them to hell or oblivion we're not too sure which not too shabby for someone with iq this is basically a bad jinn story it is an awful movie awful acting bad focus in the photography many scenes of skin being penetrated by meathooks which is really unrealistic and looks like the latex that it is continuity who cares acting terrible script horrible sounds canned unrealistic story is but the impact is lost long long before the film ends i do think the rat acting was quite good i have never seen rats look afraid they should get nominated for an award really good acting there the best in the movie the envelope for best furry rodent please a rating would be far too generous a rating or in the to rating system is far more accurate this movie is so bad that people in the audience were laughing chortling at the bad acting and crummy dialog i can see this film turning into the next rocky horror picture show people were getting so fed up they were yelling warnings up to the characters on the screen had to have something to do dumb dumb dumb movie i was embarrassed that i spent money to see it it goes without saying that i disagree with the other reviews on the board that attempt to review the film for itself lots of slime and corn syrup does not constitute horror in my opinion
negative	have you ever heard the one about a movie so bad that it made a guy run out of the theatre screaming obviously the producers at columbia tristar did not think that we suffered enough from the first installment and so to finish us utterly they have now released urban legends final cut this is another scream feature consisting merely from the recycled materials of from the most pointless movies of all time amy jennifer morrison is a film student who is attending a film school filled with uninspired film students who do not have a clue about what to do but just as she reaches the halfway mark of her final semester at prestigious university's film program where each year's best thesis production takes the coveted hitchcock prize a virtual ticket to hollywood success she has a chance encounter with campus security guard reese loretta devine whose tale of a series of murders based on urban legends at another university inspires amy to try her hand at a fictional thriller organized along similar lines soon enough fake and real blood starts to flow and amy is being chased around by scary killer while her cast and crew get slain one by one is the culprit the original urban legends murderer just some random psycho a member of the faculty one of her competitors for the hitchcock or is there something even more stupid going on this is another one of those tiring pointless teen slasher flicks neither scary funny or interesting it simply lacks the ability and the story to entertain the body counts and screams continue to grow as the weak level of intelligence sinks rapidly in fact watching films like that after having watched scary movie is impossible keeping a serious face several times i tried to prevent myself from laughing without succeeding and then i realized that practically the whole theatre was laughing it's the same thing that has been told and told and told over and over again as if it was the revelation of the century how many times must we tolerate the same clich s that have haunted the slasher genre since its birth it has been so many films about masked killers that most of us have developed an allergy for them they are the most stupid meaningless predictable and soulless films in existence however director john ottman manages to make urban legends final cut into one of the worst achievements of this godforsaken genre what was done with a sense of redemption for past failures and irony in scream ottman takes seriously for that reason alone it is worth a look just to realize how bad a movie can be it's tough to find comparisons for such an achievement and we have to dig in ancient history to find a movie that would match its intellect even movies like lost in space and mission to mars seem spectacular in its shadow we have not seen such waste of t ime and resources since showgirls no matter how hard i tried to find positive elements in this so called production i came up with nothing except the way the killer was dressed here i feel that i have to compliment the costume designers trysha bakker and deveu that have wisely replaced the well known with a very elegant fencing mask jennifer morrison stir of echoes is all right and the other actors' best achievement is keeping a straight face when pronouncing the words from the script in fact the only thing that is terrifying about this film with the exception of its screenplay is its portray of film schools if these graduates will be the directors of the future then hollywood's golden days are over rumors are already spreading through the internet that columbia tristar is already developing a third installment let's just hope and pray that it's just an urban legend
negative	we are grateful that we have the songs of grace chan to comfort us starring lee yang directed by tsai written by tsai and yang cinematography by liao taiwan the millenium approaches an incessant downpour batters an unnamed city sectors of the city are being sealed quarantined due to the onset of a mysterious virus the virus causes people to act like insects they crawl about on all fours hide from bright lights huddle in damp corners the water supply to the quarantined zones will be cut off in a week's time residents are advised to evacuate the area asap this by way of the background for the hole which could have been a great movie but sadly ends up as a waste of good ideas the quick sketch above suggests a dark absurd hallucinatory parable of life in the late century in execution however it is nothing like that the virus the evacuation the visual possiblities of the deluge these are all relegated to the background instead the hole focuses on the want of a better a man lee and a woman yang who live in the same apartment building and who have no personalities the entire movie taks place in settings that are uniformly ugly and sterile the charmless rooms and corridors of a apartment complex photographed to look as dim and dingy as possible it's a vivid setting but an unappealing one especially with the monotonous hiss of falling rain and the gurgle of drainage pipes in the background the man lives in the apartment directly above the woman's one day a repairman investigating a leak leaves a small hole in the floor of the man's living room opening into the ceiling of the woman's living room this of the solitary opening in the character's lonely compartmented them to interact in unusual and mostly ways example the man suffering from the onset of the virus or so i is obscure in this movie vomits through the hole the woman wandering around in the dark accidentally puts her hand on his vomit and then cleans it up this is what passes for meaningful communication and they say romance is dead much of the film does not even focus on their interactions such as they are there is almost no dialogue and we learn next to nothing about these people they are ciphers instead we are treated to long takes in which we witness their miserable lives we watch for instance as the woman boils some water pours it onto some noodles then eats the noodles this is as fascinating as it sounds offered as perhaps these dreary sequences are a series of musical numbers fantasies in which the woman to pop songs by grace chan popular so i'm told in china she prances around in grimy hallways and grungy stairwells incronguously lit by cheerfully bright spotlights sometimes in these fantasies she is joined by the man these scenes are presumably intended to be bright and fanciful sharply contrasting the dreariness of reality but they fail when the man and the woman dance it seems and listless astaire and rogers this is not even in imagination these people are numb weary boring the hole is part of the series a group of films commissioned by french tv station la sept arte on the subject of the millenium others include canada's last night brazil's midnight and american hal hartley's the book of life the book of life is the only other one that i have seen and it is infinitely superior to the taiwanese entry witty energetic humane it makes the the hole seem ahem empty american movies with nothing to say try to disguise their lack of content with flashy movements quick cuts superficial emotions foreign movies with nothing to say do what the hole does they point the camera at something of minimal interest for unbelievably long periods of time and call it art the hole is a film about alienation and perhaps director tsai wants the audience to share in his characters' alienation if so he succeeds perhaps it is a challenge he dares us to enjoy this movie despite his best attempts to ensure that we don't if it was a challenge i wasn't up for it
negative	what happens when you put martin lawrence in a fat suit in real life you get martin lawrence in a coma the comedian thought he was getting fat so he put on numerous layers of heavy clothing and went jogging in degree heat ending up in a coma so what happens when you put martin lawrence in a fat suit in the movies you get an audience in a coma in big momma's house lawrence plays a fbi agent who's a master of disguises when a naughty naughty man escapes from jail and seeks out his former girlfriend the very sexy nia long the only thing worth looking at in this movie she flees to georgia to stay with her rather large southern aunt big momma ella mitchell the fbi follows her in order to recover the large sum of money stolen in the bank robbery that sent the naughty man to jail however big momma is called away on an emergency sensing that they could lose their only chance to capture the criminal lawrence goes undercover as big momma and let the comedy begin big momma's house is the definition of a gimmick movie if there ever was one the plot can basically be summed up as martin lawrence dresses up as a fat woman and even that description is too wordy you can just see this script plotted out on a chalkboard with martin woman in the middle of the board with a big circle around it and all sorts of clich d humorous situations pointing to it fat woman plays basketball fat woman takes a dump fat woman kung fu well they left one off the board movie critic slips into coma paul giamatti private parts the negotiator plays lawrence's partner and as much as i enjoy his work even he can't inject life into this lifeless comedy hell the greatest performers on the planet couldn't make this material work it's just that awful
negative	blatantly borrowing elements from like water for chocolate and the butcher's wife simply irresistible attempts to be a whimsical romantic comedy but more often than not comes off as laughable leaving you to wonder why rising star sarah michelle gellar t v buffy the vampire slayer would choose such an obviously inept film project to waste her time on things get off to a bad start right from the onset as amanda sarah michelle gellar a young woman who runs her late family's struggling new york restaurant runs into a mystery man who forces a bushel of crabs on her and then vansihes into thin air while out shopping she also meets tom sean patrick flanery a charming handsome man who happens to be planning a ritzy restaurant for the department store he works for and later when he decides to drop by her dive called southern cross for lunch she somehow makes a delicious crab dish for him even though she is known to not be a very good chef suddenly amanda finds her restaurant on the edge of foreclosure rejuvenate to life as customer begin to swarm for her food which strangely causes everyone immediate jubilation when it hits their mouths are amanda and tom destined to be together and is it not just because of the magical food but because they really truly like each other and what exactly is going on with the food she is making does it have anything to do with that pesky crab she got that sits on the shelf in the kitchen somehow assisting her in her food preparation simply irresistible is a ridiculous and just plain goofy romantic fantasy that's as flimsy as a slice of bologna it takes one people who eat the food are taken aback by it in most unusual recycles it over and over again until the film has reached an appropriate running time of minutes add in a music montage every ten minutes these are actually the best scenes in the movie which certainly tells you something about the film itself and what you've got is an utterly empty if not necessarily boring excursion the cast of simply irresistible is fairly good but it is the supporting characters who are the most interesting patricia clarkson high art in which she played a lesbian is a standout as tom's colleague and is thankfully given a few funny lines of dialogue also of note is larry gilliard jr as amanda's cooking assistant and buddy who is allowed to create a seemingly full character out of only a handful of scenes of the main stars sarah michelle gellar is fine but really does often look like she's struggling through the unmistakably clumsy material and if sean patrick flanery plans on keeping a film career in the future he has certainly got to pick better projects than this the bottom line is that simply irresistible is the exact opposite of its deprophesized title and when the movie got to the point where the characters began to float in an unamusing plot device that was repeated in the stupid last scene my mind checked out from the characters and the romance when i think about it in hindsight i should have checked out in the very first scene where the point of the action was for gellar to crawl under tables looking for a runaway mechanical crab now that certainly is what i'd call magical
negative	i even pretend that i have seen the other alien films i saw glimpses of alien and aliens and fragments of alien but i have by no means actually sat down and watched any of them so take my opinion from an unbiased and impartial perspective alien resurrection is not worth the large bag of lollies i was munching into after a hard work i just dislike it so much because the plot was awful most of the acting was very average or the special effects got tiresome after minutes of painful viewing but also the fact that every tedious ingredient thrown in attempts to give this pointless dribble some meaning sigourney weaver role in alien earned her an academy award nomination plays the character of who died fighting against extraterrestrial scum in alien years later use a sample of blood found at the site of her death to recreate ripley including the alien that was stuck inside her in no time they remove the alien from her body and separate the two yet ripley is now not completely human possessing strange amounts of strength and being able to withhold greater pain than a normal being sure someone can explain exactly why this is so but for now just ignore it and move on why you ask would ripley and the alien inside her be recreated well the smart little lab researchers believed that they would be able to discover many advancements in science from studying the alien creature these were the same people who said they could control the alien and that their was no danger in their research they yawn were wrong it take a genius to figure out that the rest of the film is a continuous cat and mouse chase between the humans who die off one by one and the aliens who open their mouths on every possible occasion to show off their frightfully scary teeth a little saying that goes something like this going to make a bad film do it well i have seen plenty of disappointing and underachieving movies but they are not the ones that really bother me alien resurrection a good example of a film that really gets up my nose is not so much a discouraging experience but an off putting one there is no way to describe why the australian ma rating was given to this film other than unnecessary and repulsive gore which attempts to distract us from the plot in one scene my stomach churned as i witnessed a mawkish looking alien put its hand on a characters head and literally ripped most of his face off another one featured ripley sticking a knife through her hand just to impress someone she was talking to fair enough if it were in a horror film or even if it bared any significance to the story but this is unfortunately not the case and this sort of bizarre gore is inexcusable if you think struggling to find one good aspect about the film then you thought right one exciting scene is a credit and the only part remotely worth seeing to the film in which an alien chases two men one a cripple up a tall ladder with interesting results but of course after that thrilling scene alien resurrection had no problem in returning to its pathetically low standard and ends up crashing into the shores of movie dullness more often than japanese kamikaze jet fighters fall off their skis so in a film where the one liners come as bad as man what a shit and the primary means for one mans strategic attack is to bounce bullets off walls to hit an opponent its no wonder why alien resurrection turned out to be as off putting and clumsy as it is oh and in case wondering about my bag of lollies the less i enjoy a film the more i eat so all the lollies were gone in minutes but however empty the bag turned out to be it was still a long way ahead of the
negative	synopsis lifelong friends rafe affleck and danny hartnett join the us air force and are stationed at pearl harbor hawaii rafe goes to england to fight alongside british pilots and is seemingly killed in action danny falls in love with rafe's girlfriend evelyn beckinsale but rafe survives and returns to confront his former friend meanwhile the japanese sneak attack is imminent review pearl harbor is a perfect example of movies as product rather than as art it is little more than a attempt to woo the masses enticing them with big stars big effects and a big setting but no heart it is difficult to criticise the actors because they do everything the movie demands of them sadly this amounts to barely more than reciting dialogue of such sheer banality that it makes one eager to see the script randall wallace wrote with his right hand at the same time as he was writing pearl harbor with his left the plot here is pure cliche and the wartime setting simply a convenient backdrop there is no genuine exploration of what pearl harbor meant to the united states and no insight into its vital role in inciting that country to join world war ii instead there is just an love triangle some empty patriotic rhetoric and a laughable attempt to placate japanese viewers via the inclusion of some reticent imperial commanders when one intones i fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant i nearly fell out of my seat to the movie's credit it does include a fantastic portrayal of the attack itself an exciting and dizzying hour which plunges viewers into the war if only the remaining two hours had been crafted with such skill perhaps this memorial day would have been worth watching
negative	this is a film that i was inclined to like at the outset the two main characters had been involved with the fine television drama st elsewhere for several years and i had understood that the had written for the show on occasion also i am sorry to report that the results were not up to my expectations nor were they satisfactory if i had to list a reason why but that would be getting ahead of myself besides it's not immediately clear as there are so many problems with the film adam arkin plays a teacher who is sardonic cynical and somewhat abrasive but a good teacher he spends his lunches playing basketball by himself on a nearby court one day he meets a drifter david morse who plays jack morrison on st elsewhere in the park and inveigles him in a game of basketball morse turns out to be good and a friendship slowly develops between the two as their respective professions progress on the teaching and morse's selling of paper flowers to passing motorists so far my major complaint would be the lack of dialogue and the constant intrusion of the musical soundtrack good music to be sure but it doesn't replace the dialogue for setting the mood or telling the makes the film somewhat minimalistic a technique i rarely admire suddenly their friendship is interrupted by morse's introduction to a fellow teacher of arkin's a woman arkin has long admired from afar but it too reticent to approach it appears that she begins to admire morse who enjoys here attentions but isn't sure what to do about doesn't realize that he is a drifter and knows nothing about his past and this causes friction between arkin and almost everyone else until then i had only a vague dissatisfaction with the film the conclusion is where it begins to evolve into a failure the woman at least to me appeared to be fairly shallow i didn't realize how shallow until her final scene with arkin where she reveals that she has been trying to make arkin jealous by her attentions to morse somehow this is made to appear as if it is arkin's fault and it is left with him feeling somehow victorious that he's gotten such a find of girlfriend frankly dropping her on the spot would have seemed the most civilized action arkin could make punching her in the mouth not the least after this the childish confrontation between morse and arkin at the end seems almost natural if i had to summarize a major gripe it's that this is a story spread too thin that creates characters at the outset and then suddenly jerks them into being at the last moment it might be with some people but that doesn't mean i have to like it i don't  avoid
negative	i love movies i really do every time i watch great movies like goodfellas or raiders of the lost ark a tear comes to my eye due to the awesome talent skill and entertainment that is on display even lower grade films such as the naked gun or ghostbusters ii while not exactly brilliantly well made are certainly not a waste of celluloid and present entertainment value then there's my favourite martian the exact opposite of what a movie should be a hurried poorly written and acted movie with one goal to make money disney ever since the lion king have lost their magic touch but this dross just shows how far disney have sunk christopher lloyd plays a martian who crash lands in front of t v reporter's tim o'hara car daniels and soon tim finds the martian in his home trying to recover and fix his spaceship along with his spacesuit voiced by wayne knight must fix his spaceship before it explodes and also try to stop his identity being revealed to the public firstly by o'hara but later by rival t v presenter brace channing hurley by calling himself tim's martin is supposed to arise from the events but never does many bad films have good intentions but my favourite martian doesn't appear to try to provide any entertainment filled to the brim with wham bang special effects my favourite martian offers little more than some nice eye candy christopher lloyd mugs his way through the entire movie i've never seen a man pull a face for minutes until now jeff daniels plays nice guy' and his role is useless his performance is incredibly lazy although his paperthin character doesn't deserve more than the performance he gives darryl hannah looks as pretty as ever but her role is somewhat erm limited hurley mistakes for and looking like a twit' and wins the david wilcock award for irritating godawful performance in a moving picture way to go liz for the supporting cast disney manage to assemble every character actor out there during the film i was going was the guy in ah er before finally giving up and switching off another major setback is the staple sidekick unfortunately the writers sherri stoner and deanna oliver if anyone cares forget that a comedy sidekick needs to be instead they deliver zoot the martians deeply unfunny sidekick although meant to be a manic character no doubt every line that comes out of his is a dud a real dud citizen kane delivers more laughs a minute than his hell spawn piece of polyester even the kids in the audience were insulted by this character not one child even bothered to smirk it's a nice special effect though another problems with this comedy are the gags themselves or rather the lack of them my favourite martian reaches a new level of toilet humour it goes past the bowl down the pipe and into the sewer now toilet humour can be funny as dumb and dumber humorously showed but here characters farting belching and almost getting crapped on literally is not it's insulting there's one good gag right before the credits but it appears the guy who wrote that gag tragically died and his unfunny twin continued either that or they were hoping that easy to please six year olds wouldn't mind the fact that his movie is beaten by men at work in the funny stakes yes men at work yowza the fact that a lot of money was pumped into this film and that they actually got people to agree to be in this film just depresses me even more there are thousands of brilliant films out there that can't get distribution yet trash like this gets released with ease thankfully as soon as it makes it's money it will never be seen again and my favourite martian will end up where the two lead characters do near the end of the movie down the toilet
negative	i looked at the internet movie database awards section for this film and found that this was nominated for a golden globe for best picture drama anyone who's seen this film can back me up on this this is the worst of the great disaster films and that's not really saying a lot for this film earthquake is basically notable because it originally included some theatre thing where the theatre shook when the big earthquake occured on video it's a bland and film which gives us a bunch of different characters the disaster film requisite then brings them together in the struggle against the big disaster while this worked in say the towering inferno it doesn't here for one single reason we don't care about any of the characters the film gives us charlton heston in one of many crap films he made including skyjacked and that classic soylent green as a rich man married to ava gardner who is having a little affair with a young single mom genieveve bujold a renegade police officer on suspension george kennedy in his least humored performance in the second weirdest subplot a motorcycle stuntman richard roundtree right after his shaft thing whose big stunt is he goes on a little track that goes upside down yea snore and the weirdest subplot a military boy at a grocery store who has a little thing for buxom victoria principal and eventually gets vengeance on those guys who made fun of his hair in smaller subplots there's a pointless bit about people who are flying over l a the city in the film by the way one who's playing cards and married to a boring husband you think this one can go nowhere guess again he gets interested in the final frames there's genieveve bujold's moron son who has a little adventure with wires and for some comedy there's walter matthau billed as walter mutha the only laugh in the film as a wild drunkard who's big moment is a dance he does at a critical time as for the actual earthquake it's rather a there's a full hour of none of which is interesting then about minutes of shaking crumbling and a bit where a house almost falls on bujold narrowly missing this film needed that whole they needed to wake everybody up because they were so bored there's little suspense following the quake although this film tries for it there's an adventure in a crumbling office building the wires with the kid and the movement of people who are all injured but none of these are suspenseful the finale with the love triangle is ended in a basic bit which brings out a big and there's no real finale even volcano ended nicely and that movie really sucked not only is it hokey but you don't care about any character who cares if heston dies who cares if he choses bujold or gardner although i would have chosen gardner mainly on the basis that she can actually act who cares if richard roundtree makes money on his stupid stunt who cares if that idiot kid falls to his death on some wires and who cares about that whole plane spiel if anything earthquake is worth a viewing for the same reason glen or glenda is i mean i laughed at this more than i did at bio dome but that's another story and review in short earthquake gives disaster pics a bad name
negative	the formula is simple trap a varied group of people on an isolated location then pop in a seemingly unstoppable monster to kill them one by one these have been the successful ingredients for many good films the thing alien aliens and tremors to name a few so why is it that so many films following this recipe end up pathetically bad see the relic for a particularly putrid example perhaps it is simply too easy to forget the necessary binding ingredient effort and ideas deep rising meets these two requirements part way but not enough to salvage the film treat williams is finnegan the leader of a small boat crew who hire out their services and their boat for any activity no questions asked this time however they may have gone too far their passengers led by the ominous wes studi are the type of terrorist squads usually only seen in die hard films and their cargo let's just say it has very high explosive potential what is the target of these thieves why the argonauticus of course a high tech luxury cruise yacht on its maiden voyage but something else is hunting the argonauticus something ancient and deadly by the time the thieves arrive nearly everyone on board the ship has been killed and now the creature senses fresh meat so you have the thieves and their mercenary boat crew joining forces with the surviving passengers including the ship owner canton anthony heald and a thief with less lofty goals trillian famke janssen against the terror from the deep and the monster gets to pick them off one by one fortunately for the creature this particular band of criminals happens to be the dumbest the world can offer why else would they indulge in petty squabbling while they watch their friends become fish food if there's a more clarion call for unity i don't know what it might be it's pretty easy to guess who will get killed off when there are no surprises in that the most interesting characters seem to last until the end for the most part the watery tentacles seem to be acting on the audience's impulses to get rid of the most boring characters first although i wonder if the filmmakers might have extended djimon hounsou's life a bit if they knew this would be released so soon after his acclaim for amistad treat williams is a passable hero and famke janssen does her best julia roberts impersonation but while wes studi and anthony heald are particularly slimy very little of the rest of the company stand out in any way the biggest treat in the film however has to be pantucci kevin j o'connor's whining under finnegan's employ his constant quips may be a bit but they manage to capture the same vein of humor that bill paxton delivered as hudson in aliens or todd graff as hippie in the abyss for that matter it's just a stock part the character but it almost makes this tired alien clone bearable as far as the monster goes although the cgi is done well the creature has no logical consistency think back to the great or even just good movie monsters they all had a set of rules about what they could do and how and why they would do it part of the joy of those films was slowly discovering along with the heroes just what those rules are the tentacle monster in deep rising doesn't have a set of rules or if it does not a very good one it merely eats or drinks as the case may be and there is no rhyme or reason for what it does in order to do so the film never explains why the argonauticus is attacked in the first place it simply happens the action scenes are decent but few are noteworthy the film definitely does suffer from its proximity to titanic deep rising's peril in the water scenes pale next to cameron's but can you really blame them unfortunately deep rising's efforts are more on par with speed on the plus side however the film's closing image shows some promise for a potentially interesting but unlikely sequel perhaps you'd be better off waiting for that one
negative	the thirteenth floor is a bland obligatory exercise in genre if i hadn't recently watched the matrix and open your eyes both of which are similar but far superior i might have been a little nicer to this picture craig bierko makes an adequate hero as douglas hall the rich of a perfect human world simulation who is suddenly blamed for the murder of his boss armin everything that was subtle and smart about the previously mentioned films is battered over our heads in this one and characters stare at each other for periods of time and refuse to communicate on any realistic level the acting is okay but the film suffers from every logical flaw one could think of and features a script by director josef rusnak loaded with cliches and stock characters there are individual scenes and ideas that work i like the thought of a sentient computer program but none of the film's strengths are recognized to any meaningful degree producer roland emmerich based on this and his previous directorial efforts seems on bringing us the ultimate standard in mediocre
negative	my giant begins with a monologue that's more funny than not and a distinctive bride medieval feel i was pleasantly surprised how sharp the comedy was with very funny scenes occurring on a movie set in romania where talent agent sammy billy crystal is visiting a client and in the monastery where sammy ends up after being mysteriously saved when he accidentally plunges his car into a stream and when sammy meets max his giant mysterious savior played by gheorghe muresan there is magic in the air albeit it a bit goofy i loved every minute of it the film of course plays on the size difference between the two and at times you would almost swear it must be special effects i particularly enjoyed a shot of sammy dangling his legs from a chair as the two face each over an enormous table and eat from oversized bowls and spoons i also liked jere burns' from tv's so right' performance as the director of the film in romania at this point the primary flaw in the film is that gheorghe muresan is incredibly hard to understand particularly during his first scene it is unfortunate that the script required him to speak quickly right out of the gate as i did understand him more as the film continued and i became accustomed to his speech however about the time muresan becomes coherent the characters head to new york and the film takes a dive off the high board suddenly we are expected to believe sammy is a slime ball up until this point he was pursuing his own interests to be sure but he didn't come off as a desperate jerk if he had the first scenes could never have been so lighthearted and magical but now in new york we are further introduced to his neglected wife and son and his character is desperate enough to involve max in a disturbing giant vs midgets wrestling match which i found quite unpleasant and jarring within the framework of the film indeed many scenes stuck out of this film like incorrectly placed puzzle pieces this includes the scenes featuring steven seagal when sammy gets max a role in a big hollywood movie filming in las vegas while i enjoyed seeing seagal poke fun at himself the scenes appeared to exist solely because of his participation rather than because the film demanded it and the audience is required to take a huge leap to believe that max would win the role based on his quotations of shakespeare at this point i found myself thinking supposed to believe that someone would cast this guy in a film then i realized he was and i was watching it in the final third the film undergoes another transformation this time to unbridled sentimentality note major plot points are revealed in this and the final paragraph max went to america because sammy promised to reunited him with his childhood love lillianna who hasn't seen him since he was a kid her refusal to see max unbeknownst to him leads us to an awkward justify the means' scene as sammy's wife serena played nicely by kathleen quinlan poses as lillianna i found this scene offensive not only did it rely on deception to induce warm fuzzy feelings from the audience it reduced max to someone we should pity and coddle which i thought was quite undeserved i think max could have handled the truth gratuitous illness and all late in the film we learn max and in fact all giants have a heart condition which shortens their lives considerably this could be an enlightening revelation but the film seemingly presents it only to justify sammy's transformation into a caring sensitive guy and hey a great dad and husband too giant' suffers from a poorly constructed story line and undeveloped characters whose actions are determined by plot points rather than their own internal persuasions a stronger story with more room for character growth might have been possible if the focus was on max's struggle to be accepted and cast in movies instead of sammy's struggles to get money and become a better person in this scenario max's illness could have been a integral part of the film not a story motivator sentiment and emotion would have followed naturally instead we're apparently not supposed to like sammy until the end but we're not allowed to focus on max crystal and muresan give adequate and at times enjoyable performances but in the end giant' left me feeling like i'd been fed gruel from a giant spoon
negative	alexandre dumas meets hong kong action with newcomer justin chambers reprising the character of dashing swordsman d'artagnon in director peter hyam's adventure the musketeer for some reason that i may figure out later i don't know why the time money and effort were put into the making of the musketeer it may be that someone had the clever idea of combining the dumas characters and story with the current enamor with the action work of hong kong imports like this film's xiong once upon a time in china and yuen from crouching tiger hidden dragon the result is a mix of genres that don't mesh well elements of the ritz comedy for those few who remember that comedic troupe from the the three musketeers the man with no name from a fistful of dollars d'artagnan demands that the bad guys apologize to his horse in a direct ref to the clint eastwood spaghetti western and hong kong action choreography are all utilized in the original script by gene quintano the result is an action flick that bears little resemblance to its source material while it makes contemporary that material in an effort to grab the matrix crowd alexandre dumas may well be rolling in his grave if he knows what was done to his classic oeuvre and characters the real problem with the the musketeer lies in the casting of the two lead romantically intertwined characters d'artagnan and francesca mena suvari chambers has the boyishly handsome good looks for the character a la chris o'donnell but lacks any onscreen charisma suvari has the pretty looks as the chambermaid who has the ear of the queen but she too does not have the chemistry to command the screen if the musketeer makes them any money they should invest in acting lessons stronger performers may have helped to raise the bar on this one the supporting cast is on the surface impressive catherine denueve plays the queen of france and lends her character an air of royalty dignity and humor especially when she plays off of d'artagnan's mentor planchet castaldi who reminds of andre the giant in the princess bride stephen rea looks good in the part of the conniving usurper cardinal richelieu but is given very little to help flesh out his character tim roth is the kind of bad guy you love to hate as the cardinal's chief henchman febre he is so bad he makes simon legree look like a boy scout the rest of the players particularly the three musketeers aramis nick moran lock stock and two smoking barrels porthos steve spiers and athos jan gregor kremp are background fodder whose role is to come to d'artagnan's aid when needed peter hyam's does double duty as director and cinematography and may be too stretched to do both well a stronger hand at the helm could have helped the mediocre performances of the leads and better utilized his veteran thesps photography is straightforward action fare that goes through all the appropriate action flick motions d'artagnan takes on a tavern full of thugs and bests them he fights a gang of febre's henchmen aboard a speeding coach to protect the queen with the obligatory branches hanging over the road he goes one on one with his lifelong enemy febre who murdered d'artagnan's folks years before it is all routine stuff the renowned wire work developed by the hong kong action masters is used to artificial effect as the players leap defying gravity up walls and from horse to horse it works in a film like the matrix or in a classical fantasy like crouching tiger hidden dragon but just calls attention to itself in the musketeer at one point i could swear i saw the stunt wire being used it did not make me a believer and i am very disappointed with a run time of minutes it should have been more like and i give it a d
negative	i think maybe it's time for the batman series to be put to rest not only has the first two films' unsettling insight into what it would really take for someone to make himself into a superhero been abandoned but this one throws any lingering realism out the window and goes for camp with few traces of the restraint of the relatively third installment let me give you an example in the first scene of the movie batman george clooney and robin chris o'donnell are summoned to a museum that has been literally turned to ice by mr freeze arnold schwarzenegger in an attempt to steal a diamond mr freeze's thugs are armed with none other than hockey sticks but this is no problem for our heroes automatic skates shoot out of their shoes at which point robin manages to get hold of a hockey stick grabs the diamond and it through the museum i might have expected this from an farce but i don't think that's what this movie is supposed to be after all the previous three batman movies were actually fairly realistic by the standards of the genre and kept the corny stunts to a minimum while playing the obligatory cheesiness with at least some amount of irony not any more the list goes on and on in this one robin holds onto the outside of a flying rocket ship feet high in the atmosphere climbing in the door to save batman mr freeze and poison ivy uma thurman leap from a skyscraper and survive by landing in a small pond a world dominating mad scientist lives in a fortress that seems to have been stolen from the old cartoons my very favorite example is the scene in which batgirl alicia silverstone gets in a race with motorcycle thugs during which they come up with the clever notion of dousing the road with gasoline and setting it on fire to distract her not bad but wouldn't the police or maybe batman notice if the road was on fire i knew gotham city was this crazy anarchic place but    it also seems that the creators of the batman movies are obeying some unwritten rule that there have to be more main characters and plot lines in each successive installment as if three protagonists and two villains weren't enough batman and robin further weighs itself down with an underdeveloped side story of the failing health of bruce wayne's butler alfred michael gough which might have seemed poignant if it wasn't surrounded by so much silliness as well as several scenes with elle macpherson as bruce's girlfriend which serve no purpose other than to remind us that she is in the movie all this might be if the story were interesting and entertaining but it isn't in fact it's kind of boring mr freeze and poison ivy pale in comparison as villains to past baddies such as jack nicholson's joker and danny devito's penguin their evil plot is as predictable schwarzenegger actually pronounces the words today gotham city tomorrow the world as it is didn't it ever occur to poison ivy that freezing the entire world would kill her precious plants too and robin's constant challenging of batman mostly just makes him look and stupid and makes us wonder why batman ever would have taken him on as a partner in the first place strip away the stars the fancy set design and the status as a batman movie and all you have here is another barely passable summer action flick
negative	in my opinion a movie reviewer's most important task is to offer an explanation for his opinion but with soul survivors i'm so full of critical rage that this review is liable to turn into a venomous uncontrollable rant obligations damned however protocol forces me to do otherwise soul survivors tells the story of four friends cassandra melissa sagemiller is sweet and innocent party girl annabel eliza dushku of bring it on is dating harvard student matt wes bentley matt still has feelings for cassie who is now dating sean casey affleck driving back from a creepy gothic party the quartet gets into a horrific car crash sean dies leaving cassie crestfallen and guilty made worse because sean saw matt kiss cassie just minutes after sean revealed his love for her as cassie mopes through her classes she sees the ghost of sean all over the place urging her to follow him along with being plagued by other ghastly visions cassie is also followed by thugs from that strange party annabel and matt try calming her down but no one shares cass's visions she has to figure out this purgatory all by herself rarely have i seen a director so thoroughly mishandle material in his directorial debut steve carpenter does nothing to provoke the audience into feeling any emotion when the movie's camerawork isn't pedestrian it's clich d carpenter's need for his camera following sagemiller from behind drain the movie of any anticipation we already know what to look for so why should we be surprised and the sense of scary atmosphere which was recently done so well in the others is nowhere to be found here carpenter's script relies on random twists and turns with a minimum of logic and loads of laziness this is a movie where the ending features one character providing an explanation about the plot to another character which is one of the lamest screenwriting devices around the second lamest device of course is the oh it was all a dream resolution and guess what this movie has both not that the main body of the film which has sagemiller constantly running in fear or having a nervous breakdown is anything worthwhile since there's no captivating dialogue no character chemistry exists anywhere that's a huge problem since the four main characters are supposed to be couples carpenter can't even get the smutty scenes right which are becoming more prevalent in movies like bring it on and get over it film was recently from an r rating to get more kids in the seats  when sagemiller and dushku dance together at a club he rarely shows them in a full shot and he never keeps the camera on them for longer than a second before relating to some michael quick cuts and when sagemiller and dushku take a shower together after getting covered in paint they're fully clothed regardless any sexiness in that scene is undercut by its stupidity why wouldn't they wash the clothes in the sink or in the washing machine why would they shower in their clothes what if they weren't covered in latex paint the cast which will see better material in the future would be wise to leave this one off their resumes i felt sorry for affleck who i've liked in other movies and bentley who was great in american beauty dushku who possesses an alluring femme fetale quality has got to stop taking roles belonging to rose mcgowan as for sagemiller star of the aforementioned get over it i want to see her in a movie where she plays a person and not an object for gawking and i'm not even getting into luke wilson's role as a priest at least he's friends with wes anderson bottom line soul survivors is so awful i feel compelled to knock on doors and warn people about it
negative	reading the cast and director for the new mobster comedy analyze this i asked myself how could this miss robert de niro taxi driver raging bull billy crystal city slickers lisa kudrow the opposite of sex and director harold ramis national lampoon's vacation these are usually reliable filmmakers well okay crystal has been in a sizable slump lately and tellingly the first of analyze this was very funny unfortunately as the running time ticked away i began to think that the first thirty minutes had unbeknownst to me been rewound and were being replayed another times the film has obtained a clever premise but does not have any idea what to do with it as it progressively becomes more and more repetitive until i finally stopped enjoying or caring about what was happening on the screen psychoanalyst ben sobel's billy crystal life is finally going very well although he has never gotten along with his own uncaring parents especially his father who is also a psychiatrist ben has an teenage son kyle sabihy and is about to travel down to miami to get married to his tv news reporter girlfriend laura lisa kudrow in little but a flash however ben suddenly sees his plans ruined when he accidentally hits the car of the mob and subsequently gets paid a visit from famed mafia guy paul vitti robert de niro who desperately wants counseling even though he himself won't even admit to having anxiety attacks ben tries to help paul mostly so he will get him off his back but the plot gets more complicated when paul follows ben to his wedding which ends with a man dropping eight stories to his death it seems to ben that no matter what he does paul vitti will not go away and the more they become involved the more ben's potentially happy life gets into danger analyze this has a few laughs sprinkled throughout mostly in the first half but i always had the nagging thought that what director ramis and writers peter tolan ramis and kenneth lonergan had done was thought of one joke robert de niro lightly spoofing his serious past mafia roles while terrorizing and becoming buddies with comic billy crystal and then tiresomely recycled it for the duration of the running time admittedly de niro is very funny here and i can't remember the last time you could use that adjective to describe him and crystal is in but the whole movie is weighed down directly on their shoulders with nothing else to support them including a substantial plotline since analyze this bills not one not two but three writers you'd think that they would have been able to work together to fix the noticably large flaws but they must have all been on one of the most disappointing and wasted opportunities in the film is the way the movie deals with the supporting characters all of which have next to nothing to do and aren't even given characters to attempt to develop coming off of her work in two of last year's best films clockwatchers and the opposite of sex lisa kudrow's throwaway girlfriend role is an incredible step down sure kudrow's fellow friend jennifer aniston did the same thing two weeks ago in office space but at least we got to spend a little time with aniston kudrow meanwhile mostly just stands around no doubt wondering why she agreed to appear in this film in the first place chazz palminteri as rival gangster primo fares even worse in a role that plays more like an afterthought than an actual character finally molly shannon rising film star and cast member on saturday night live has a rousingly hilarious cameo right at the beginning as one of crystal's patients and then completely disappears too bad considering that the supporting actors surely have proven that they have the abilities to support de niro and crystal once analyze this approached its second wedding scene leaving kudrow's laura standing alone at the altar once again i had become thoroughly annoyed by where the story had gone and had mostly lost respect for the character we were supposed to sympathize with the most ben afterwards the climactic scene with ben posing as a fellow mob boss in place of the depressed paul became a real losing its last remaining comic punches analyze this proves that talent can certainly help any film out but when the written material isn't up to their level what we are virtually left with is a vacuum of thin air
negative	as we see the terrible events that unfold before our eyes in the middle east at the moment hollywood doesn't loose the oppertunity to get involved by telling stories and expressing opinions this film centers on a relationship forged throughout the adult lifetimes of two marine colonels hays hodges tommy lee jones and terry childers samuel l jackson they fought side by side in vietnam where childers saved hodges' life by shooting an unarmed pow that's against the rules of war but understandable in this story anyway under the specific circumstances certainly hodges is not complaining years pass hodges whose wounds make him unfit for action gets a law degree and becomes a marine lawyer childers is now a respected and hero that has served his country with his life and sould because of his excellent record childers is sent to yemen to rescue the american ambassador ben kingsley cowering in the embassy under assault from violent demonstrators and snipers blasting from rooftops childers does what he has to do evacuate the family and protect the men under his command after three marines die and the colonel thinks he sees ground fire he orders his troops to shoot into the firing crowd more than yemeni men women and children are mowed down childers is immediately accused of ordering his men to fire on a crowd and murder of unarmed civilians he persuades his old friend hodges to represent him in the courtroom drama that occupies the second half of the film did childers violate authorized u s military rules of engagement or are there simply no rules in war the answers to these stereotypical questions are obvious but the inconsistent plot immediately raises all sorts of other questions the murder of innocent civilians has to result into something greater than a simple trial in the u s where is the accusations from the arab leaders where is the u n the film ends without even telling the most interesting story what happens on the international arena this film in a way akin to films such as a few good men has already been accused of breaking the rules of morality and ethics and even of racism these accusations are pretty heavy but also unfair what director william friedklin truly broke was the rules of decent filmmaking one of the earliest apparent problems with of engagement' is its lack of credibility the entire operation in yemen may remind us about what happens in the middle east right now but is overdone contrived and unrealistic as if a chain of events had to happen in a particular manner in order for the plot to proceed a lot of it is so cheesy that no one could possibly accept it as reality that is precisely why it's not offensive it is completely unobjective many stories are started and never finished many questions are asked but never answered a lot of parallels are referring to nothing it seems that neither the director producers or the screenwriter can make up their minds about the contents of their film is it about arab mentality america's foreign policies america's role in the world corruption in the higher circles it goes on and on it consists of countless stories but not a definable plot it tries to be everything for everyone and ends up being nothing for no one i think that it is ironic because director william friedkin's probably most acclaimed film was the exorcist which had a silly story but became a rather effective film in this case you have a strong story with many possibilities and the result is a silly film though several scenes bare the mark of professionalism such as the impressive battle scenes his latest film does simply not engage i believe that friedklin is a director that is absolutely depended on great scripts and talented producers in order to succeed it's obvious that he has neither and the result is therefore a catastrophe the characters feel designed unreal merely shadows with no life outside the conflict even the actors can not save this film from going under though both jackson and jones act admirably with performances that are as good as you get with a script like this it is not something that these great actors can boast of they have roles that they could play blindfolded with their hand on the back jackson is gray and jones uninteresting the rest of the cast including ben kingsly blair underwood and guy pearce are simply waiting for their paychecks the time has come for the verdict on the charges of complete lack of objectivity i find this film guilty on the charges of breaking the rules of reasonable filmmaking i find it guilty but on the charges of racism i find this film not guilty because of it's inconclusive and often silly plot that lacks objectivity everywhere not only when concerning the arab population i must admit that the film is dangerously near the line of being racially offensive and i do think that screenwriter stephen gaghan went a bit too far portraying the yemeni people almost as stereotypical hollywood this is very sad since in a time like this it is crucial to not lose objectivity and proclaim the truth however it is absolutely necessary to remember that the muslim terrorists are responsible for most of the terrorist activity in and outside the united states and that it's not a coincidence that u s residents in the middle east including yemen are on constant maximum alert
negative	from dusk till dawn robert rodriguez screenwriters quentin kurtzman story cinematographer guillermo navarro cast quentin tarantino richie gecko george clooney seth gecko juliette lewis kate fuller harvey keitel jacob fuller ernest liu scott fuller salma hayek santanico pandemonium tom savini sex machine fred williamson frost cheech marin border michael parks texas ranger brenda hillhouse hostage gloria runtime dimension films reviewed by dennis schwartz it's a love it or hate it film i simply hated it on its menu for fun is a violent feast served up as charm and done in a manner it's a serial film farce of nonstop action and sleaze involving decapitations vampires biker fights extended gun play and an array of gore that has to be seen to be believed a film that regales in its vulgarity and campiness for as it goes out of its way to gloss over the clich s of the conventional it's geared only for the cult film crowd and will make its mark there one way or the other the plot involves two psychopath brothers the older professional bank robber and killer seth gecko clooney and the perverted psychopath killer richie tarantino who kills for pleasure and is also a rapist they escape jail and go on a killing spree in wichita and then flee to a liquor store in a small texas border town they have just robbed a bank and killed a number of cops they have also taken a bank teller as a hostage in the liquor store they kill a texas ranger and the store clerk and burn down the store stopping off in a motel richie rapes and slaughters the hostage these scenes are all done with an eye for comedy and parody if that's possible on the tv news it says they have killed so far and most are texas rangers the brothers plan to get to mexico and meet carlos cheech who will give them a place of sanctuary for thirty percent of their illegal take with road blocks and car searches at the border the brothers commandeer a motor home of a vacationing family who stopped at their motel so that the father could sleep in a real bed there is the father jacob fuller keitel who just resigned as a minister because he lost faith ever since his wife died in a car accident his sexy innocent daughter kate lewis and her shy brother scott liu it's not explained how he happens to be chinese the story really becomes bizarre when they get across the border and get ready to meet carlos in a for truckers and bikers called the titty twister the place is open from dawn to dusk thus the film's title here's where rodriguez has a chance to throw convention out the window and have some absurd fun as the place turns out to be a vampire hangout it sells sex to its patrons and has exotic stripper santanico pandemonium hayek do her alluring strip before turning into a vampire the brothers and their hostages have to fight their way out of the place as the vampires keep coming and the killings become the film's staple this supposedly clever script did nothing but turn me off though there were a few funny moments in a film that was dripping with special effects and spent most of its script in finding novel ways to showcase its killings i'll take a pass on this one it's just not my style of a film the characters were as empty as the story and the film was an easy one to forget
negative	plot a little boy born in east germany named hansel loves the american music one day he gets the opportunity to meet and marry an american g i but first he must get a sex change enter hedwig once married the two move to the states but quickly thereafter get a divorce at that point hedwig starts writing music and meets another confused boy who soon turns into a star that boy also turns his back on hedwig and it isn't long before hedwig puts together own band and tours the states via seafood restaurants this is the story of life told via flashbacks and musical numbers critique an musical with great songs and a superb performance by john cameron mitchell doesn't really come together as a whole with symbolism incoherence and too much pretension to retain my interest all the whole way through in fact this isn't so much of a realistic articulate look at the rise of a rock roll star as it is an ambiguous overly poetic and incomprehensible struggle of a man his sexuality and his identity as a whole person on this planet i guess that i was expecting the former going in the film is somewhat interesting to a point but i was personally never able to involve myself too much as the basic symbolic and incongruent nature of the film left me feeling cold and distant but it is definitely tuned to a certain type of audience chances are that if you are a fan of the wall the rocky horror picture show or even priscilla queen of the desert the elements tangled in this movie will likely strike your fancy some of the characters in this film even ask the audience to sing along at some point and provide the lyrics of their song well i personally don't care for those films and didn't really get into the whole show atmosphere of this movie either i guess i might've looked at it all too literally but like i said earlier i just didn't care enough about the characters to delve into the so the butterfly represents his freedom side of things all i know is that the film left me with many questions unanswered and didn't make me feel any more fulfilled what was hedwig's relationship with that other member of his band with the beard what happened with hedwig and tommy gnosis at the end of the movie was that an actual sequence or a fantasy what ever happened to the lawsuit and more all of which were part of the film and interested me somewhat if the only idea behind the film was for the main character to uncover sexuality then that's one thing but as many of the relationships and situations presented themselves in this movie i wanted some resolution to those pieces as well i didn't get it the film's humor also didn't tickle my funny bone either then again i've seen many a film in these theatres in which patrons are rolling down the aisles with laughter while all i see is a tiny bit of whimsy on the screen some of these films are also better enjoyed with the added atmosphere of a plant called marijuana and i can certainly see how this movie ingrains within itself some nifty visual elements in order to jazz up that experience but being sober as i was and expecting a coherent funny musical with a transsexual twist i didn't leave the theater very satisfied i came out having watched an existential story of a confused man caught up in a musical lifestyle wrapped in metaphors dramatics and more questions than answers i will on the other hand definitely hand some props out to the lead in this film john cameron mitchell who is also the man who wrote directed and created the play on which this movie is based and the tunes which will likely be enjoyed by anyone who digs the sex pistols david bowie and the whole scene note btw it seems as though pretty much every single mainstream critic in the united states loved this movie from top to bottom and thought that it was really funny to boot so you might want to take that into consideration yourself but having said that the main reason that i started this dinky website in the first place was because films like this would sometimes be uniformly applauded by the official critics while i a regular joblo in the audience just wouldn't get what all the fuss was about this movie is a perfect example of why i continue to write movie reviews where's joblo coming from moulin rouge grease everyone says i love you the opposite of sex dancer in the dark o brother where art thou love's labour's lost
negative	is not going to enlighten your day it's a dark grimy and disturbing portrait of underworld snuff films and filled with excessive violence not only do you need the stomach to make it through this bloated mess you'll require a lot of patience as well nicolas cage seems to be doing quite a bit of overacting as of late he wore a bizarre and did a lot of yelling in the terminally awful snake eyes and here he attempts a performance that can relate to someone completely losing their grip on reality cage plays private investigator tom welles praised for his secrecy and reliability at home welles is a family man with a wife catherine keener and a small daughter to take care of his new assignment is a bizarre one the wife of a formally deceased millionaire has hired him to solve a mystery regarding a film found in her husband's safe the film appears to be some kind of cheap pornography involving a teenage girl and a masked man until the girl is brutally murdered or so it seems welles of course begins to burrow deeper and deeper to uncover the truth and the more he becomes involved in this disturbing case the more he gets in over his head he hires an adult book store clerk named max california joaquin phoenix to be his guide through the ugly underworld of pornography max knows what welles is getting himself into and explains dance with the devil the devil don't change the devil changes you these turn out to be very wise words has a premise that begs for a better execution the is slick and well played as cage uncovers the identity of the girl and travels to hollywood to locate her this is where everything goes awry although director joel schumacher succeeds in frightening us with his grotesque portrait of the world' he forgot to inject any interest or excitement to the formula everything about the movie becomes dull and lifeless repelling the viewer like the effect of bug spray to insects although it had enormous potential the third act of is a total bust leaving intrigued audiences in a baffling state of extreme disappointment as the proceedings spiral out of control cage is the film's sole flame of energy his performance is actually believable but soon the director's demands start to weigh heavily on his shoulder and he begins stumbling along in desperation still you've got to give him credit for holding this project together as long as he did for that is no easy feat when you consider the problems at hand welles' trail soon leads him to a bizarre filmmaker played convincingly by peter stormare who is notorious for the snuff films in the industry this is where cage goes over the edge into a serial phase in which he must take revenge on all those who murdered the innocent girl in the film he tracks down the masked man responsible for the killing chris bauer and they have a bloody brawl in the local cemetery a fight sequence that would look more at home in a schwarzenegger movie written by andrew kevin walker dissipates into a poor man's seven with all the violence but little of the effectiveness that made the latter such a chilling masterpiece furthermore what has become of joel schumacher the director has recently experienced a major drought slumming in the depths of dismal flop after flop batman and robin anyone this putrid thriller is certainly not going to revive his career so perhaps schumacher should start exploring his lighter side
negative	synopsis original jurassic park survivor alan grant neill is tricked by paul and amanda kirby macy and leoni into leading an expedition to an island overrun by dinosaur to rescue their stranded son grant's team is picked off one by one as they encounter dinosaurs both new and familiar and grant grows to realise that some breeds are more intelligent than he previously thought review there is one reason why jurassic park iii is better than its immediate predecessor the lost world jurassic park the latter wasted minutes of my life the former only the first park was a marvellous film full of sights interesting characters and genuine thrills its two successors have been pale imitations amounting to horror movies at least this third entry realises it whereas the lost world tried to justify its existence with a ludicrous and overextended plot jurassic park iii simply sticks its characters on an island with a bunch of dinosaurs and lets the mayhem begin there is a desperate sense of deja vu presiding over this movie the dinos are no longer novel or exciting and even the presence of aerial lizards scarcely improves the situation remember that wondrous first trolley ride through the park in the original movie nothing in this rehash even comes close add in execrable dialogue from screenwriters buchman payne and taylor and performances by the normally capable macy and leoni and it is difficult to recommend the film to anyone but dino enthusiasts at least neill makes some effort to retain the dignity of his character and there is much less gore than in the lost world making this installment more suitable for children
negative	the characters in jonathan lynn's the whole nine yards yet another in an endless recent string of mob comedies analyze this and mickey blue eyes gun shy are rarely ever written as real people but merely as caricatures when an added layer to one of their personalities is revealed it is not to service the character development or to naturally offer up instinctive characterizations but to accommodate the convoluted plot in a lightweight comedy you might say it is not required to have perfectly realized figures just as long as they get the job done unfortunately for a comedy to work it has to at least succeed at being funny and if there was a available i'd guess that it briefly ascended around of the time for me suffice to say the comedy in the whole nine yards works about as well as the lawnmower in my backyard and when a giggle surprisingly arises every twenty to thirty minutes it is by sheer luck nicholas oz oseransky matthew perry is an amateur dentist living in the quiet suburbs of quebec trapped in a hateful marriage with the conniving sophie rosanna arquette delightfully hamming it up with a clearly artificial accent one day oz sees that someone is moving into the house walking over to greet him he is horrified to discover it is jimmy the tulip tudeski bruce willis a former contract killer for the mafia who has just been released from prison once getting to know him and becoming his friend oz is more comfortable with his identity but for sophie it means a possible hitman to do away with oz in her scheme sophie sends oz to chicago to cash in by informing his old mob boss kevin pollak about jimmy's whereabouts but in the process he falls in love with jimmy's wife cynthia natasha henstridge who is being held hostage upon return to quebec and with one contrivance after the next oz's dental assistant jill amanda peet is overjoyed to discover that he lives beside the tulip and forces him to set up a meeting since jill's dream in life turns out being a contract killer herself have you got all that because there is more much much more and this is a movie that without credits is little over minutes and feels only like an hour the whole nine yards is an ultimately unsatisfying and excursion into terrain already set by far superior pictures how the cast most of which are respectable actors got caught up in such a cliched deficient film remains a mystery unless they thought it might aspire to match the congenial screwball zaniness of director lynn's comedy classic clue the movie going into the theater preliminary comparisons between the two movies were unavoidable but by the mark when i had chuckled once and laughed nary a single time it was clear this production was in serious trouble since the entire running time depends on the mechanisms of the plot and the screenplay inauspiciously written by mitchell kapner collapses with every failing comedy bit the film is an inevitable dead zone in the way of substance and frequently entertainment value the whole nine yards is neither facetious nor aside from the subplot about jill's shocking eagerness to become a professional hitwoman inventive and more often than not just lies there the film spinning drearily around and around in the projector but never igniting any sort of spark a few select actors do what they can with the material while others make no impact at all on the mediocre side are actually those playing the two central characters matthew perry and bruce willis perry innocuously enjoyable on tv's friends plays the same exact character in all of his movies from fools rush in to three to tango and it has become a crushing bore meanwhile willis makes next to no impression and because of the limited guise of his jimmy the tulip tudeski oftentimes disappears into the background their three female counterparts fare noticeably better best of all is natasha henstridge far more radiant than in the exploitative species movies who adds unanticipated depth and emotion to cynthia henstridge has the talent for sure to break out of these countless throwaway roles but first she must fire her agent amanda peet has a lot of fun as the quirkily straightforward and giddy jill and seems to know more about the art of comedic payoff than even perry who thus far has strived on a career based solely on comedy it is too bad then that peet is unnecessarily asked to disrobe in a climactic scene with the obvious sole purpose being to show off her breasts finally rosanna arquette is awful as sophie but something tells me that was her purpose and her clear overacting only aids in brightening up her limited screen time also popping up is michael clarke duncan fresh off an oscar nomination for his role in the green mile as jimmy's largely built friend and fellow killer frankie figs when the whole nine yards eventually sputters to its underwhelming conclusion one is left pondering how such a film ever got greenlit a great deal of movies of this type have been made in the past and this one is nothing but a duplication of better films so what was the point without a passable screenplay or any notable technical accomplishments the whole nine yards rests solely on the presumed charm of the cast and half of the actors are not charming at all now what does that tell you
negative	take two old and dying men a lifetime of regrets a house full of sins a thoroughly despicable man enough lies insecurities and other character defects to keep a team of psychiatrists gainfully employed then add a inexplicable meteorological and phenomenon and you will have summed up magnolia the newest film from paul thomas anderson boogie nights the movie tells multiple stories weaving them together or overlapping them during the course of its three hour running time would that the stories were worth the telling earl partridge jason robards a thousand acres is dying of cancer bedridden in much pain it is obvious that his time is growing short his much younger wife played by julianne moore an ideal husband is surprised to find herself struggling with his impending death having married for money she discovers that she has actually fallen in love with the old guy and regrets having cheated and lied earl regrets having cheated on his first wife and estranging himself from his only son tom cruise eyes wide shut now a misogynist guru who teaches men how to seduce and destroy his sexual and vulgar perspective on relationships is so as to be utterly unbelievable meanwhile jimmy gator philip baker hall the insider is also dying of cancer not as physically incapacitated as earl jimmy is still able to perform his duties as the lovable host of a quiz show which pits adults against children the current is stanley spector jeremy blackman in his film debut who is tired of the pressure of performing and is willing to call it quits on the other hand quiz kid donnie smith william macy mystery men would like nothing more than to return to the spotlight when he was a somebody his pathetic life is souring as he can no longer capitalize on his brief minutes of fame which stanley is all too eager to relinquish jimmy has his own family crisis as his daughter melora walters boogie nights refuses to have anything to do with him for reasons which are not disclosed to us until the end of the film grabbing at one last attempt at happiness she reaches out to a softhearted cop john c reilly never been kissed even as she tries to push herself away from him because she deems herself not worthy of his affection this dysfunctional group carries on for what seems to be an interminable of the movie and then it gets worse literally raining frogs yes frogs assuming it to be an intended device it is an ineffective one because it doesn't seem to faze the characters much oh they may step gingerly around the splattered frog corpses littering the streets but otherwise the frog shower didn't seem to change their behavior or pattern of living or dying there is simply too much going on in this movie and most of it is distasteful to watch mr anderson further obscures the film by incorporating a loud and intrusive sound track that often drowned out the dialogue a character who apparently rapped a significant clue to a plot development which was completely unintelligble and a heavy handed segment of historical occurances containing ironic twists which set up absolutely nothing one of the recurring themes is found in a line donnie quotes we may be done with the past but the past is not done with us this is an absolute lie god is in the forgiveness business in fact as we humbly ask for forgiveness and repent or change our offending mindset god's word says that he not only forgives he also forgets i even i am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins isaiah the spiritual one who keeps bringing up our unrighteous past is the same one who wants to keep us in a state of condemnation don't let him next time your spiritual adversary reminds you of your past take great pleasure in reminding him of his future he hates that
negative	so much for sweet returns after smart horror films were starting to be made again after the exploitative slasher movies starting with scream and followed by scream urban legend and the original i know what you did last summer a film like i still know what you did last summer was bound to be made sooner or late it is a perfect example of the exact reason why horror films temporarily burned out and that is because they reached for the in filmmaking favoring deaths and gore for suspense and trading in fleshed out likable characters for nitwits it has been exactly one year since julie james jennifer love hewitt suffered through the ordeal of being terrorized by ben willis a psychopathic fisherman whom her friends and she accidentally hit in the middle of the road and then thinking he was dead dumped him into the ocean since then julie has relocated to boston university and although often paranoid and haunted by bad dreams she has been able to put her life back together when julie's friend karla brandy is called up by a radio station and answers correctly what the capital of brazil is she wins a vacation to the bahamas for four people which also includes karla's horny boyfriend tyrell mekhi phifer and will matthew settle who karla sets julie up with after her own boyfriend ray freddie prinze jr also returning from the original doesn't show up when they reach the secluded island they discover it is the last day of the open season and will be stranded there for the of july weekend with a few employees to fend off a violent storm headed for them of course julie her friends and the workers aren't the only ones there as the murderous ben willis dressed in fisherman garb returns to seek revenge on julie once and for all it is a sad state of affairs when a movie like i still know what you did last summer is made i am a very big fan of horror movies and so it is especially disheartening to find out that this sequel to ikwydls which i am a fan of is almost an exact replica of a friday the movie while the original focused more on the story and characters as well as genuinely suspenseful moments thanks to the screenplay by kevin williamson who didn't return to write the sequel and it shows i still know has no story to speak of and is so vacuous of ideas that the filmmakers were forced to have a murder occur every five minutes just to keep the audience interested also gone are any signs of character development and since every single character died before i got to know them all i was left with was to stare at the screen indifferent to what was going on while i cared about the fates of the characters in the original it made no difference to me in this sequel who lived and died they were all and pointless except to become victims to the lethal hook of the fisherman another element that made the original so memorable were some superbly crafted like the store sequence with sarah michelle gellar but there are none to speak of in this sequel although they do come close at one moment with brandy since so many people were killed every couple minutes the suspense and scares evaporated faster than salt in water also of note is the mystery of the second killer and accomplice to ben but it is obvious from the first frame who it is and so i couldn't even have fun at that like i did in the scream movies and urban legend it figures that just as slasher films were starting to get some recognition again a film would come along and ruin it for everyone else maybe the people who made i still know what you did last summer should have realized that in order to make a good movie you must have a at least one that isn't such a black hole for thoughts and ideas the ending of the film inevitably leaves the door wide open for a third part but judging from this amazingly lackluster first sequel everyone involved should have quit while they were still ahead
negative	around the end of a japanese cartoon came to the usa television and really wasn't that big in fact not many people even knew what pokemon was but in it hit big with kids and adults alike and became one of the biggest franchises and merchandise seller of all time in fact it even spawned a big screen adventure pokemon the first movie which for what it was wasn't all that bad it grossed million in its opening weekend and went on to make almost million fans thought it was great and now is a second movie in the pokemon craze pokemon the movie which is far inferior to the original animated movie first up is the plot which there really isn't much of in fact the plot what there is a bad guy trying to destroy the ancient never before seen pokemon lugia is about it except the fact that ash kethcum the worlds best pokemon trainer must try and stop him before he destroys this one pokemon forever well there you go of course ash is followed by his friends misty brock gary and his pokemon friends pikachu squirtle charizard the usual even though the first movie wasn't a great film it was definately an enjoyable movie with an actual thin storyline this new movie however is nothing but garbage there is nothing good to it storywise and its only good thing comes from some plush animation and colors compared to the first film this movie is awfully bland from its opening titles to the end titles it tries its best to work but fails miserably at every corner the characters are the story thin as chicken broth and the writing very lame even the so called action scenes are extremely lame and falls before it even gets a chance to go the voices even aren't that good and almost feels like the stars don't want to be there like they can tell that this is an extremel bad movie which it certainly is the film has one thing going for it and that is the animation although not up to disney standards it is still very good with some interesting cgi's and very colorful animation the colors jump out at you very fast and seem very nicely put on film why a film this bad got such a good treatment with its animation is still a question to be answered hopefully pokemon next year will be much better than this trash for now watch the first one its much much better
negative	its a stupid little movie that trys to be clever and sophisticated yet trys a bit too hard with the voices of woody allen gene hackman jennifer lopez sylvester stallone and sharon stone this think toy story filled with used merchandising is one for the the main story is the independence of a worker named z allen he wants more to life than just digging away underground for the colony when he finds out about a mythical place where all insects can run free z along with his colony's princess stone journey out into the world to find a meaning for life about minutes into the picture i began to wonder what the point of the film was halfway through i still didn't have an answer by the end credits i just gave up and ran out antz is a mindless mess of poor writing and even poorer allen is nonchalant while i would have guessed if i hadn't seen her in the mighty and basic instinct stone can't act even in a cartoon this film is one for the bugs unfunny and extremely dull hey a bug's life may have a good time doing antz in
negative	godzilla is a nuclear freak he is a lizard that has been mutated over the years and has become a new species one that has a foot as long as this bus and a claw as long as this sign this aquatic creature made its first attack in the pacific islands he tore up a ship that carried dozens of japanese men one survived only he was left to recount the terror that he had seen he was merely able to repeat the words godzilla godzilla godzilla the film then introduces us to matthew broderick a biologist who has been studying the fascinating growth of chernobyl earthworms they're larger than they used to be he proclaims the u s military pulls him off this three year project and assigns him to figure out what godzilla is and boy does he find out and boy does godzilla suck i hate to use such a word in a review something that is supposed to inform my audience but i really need to drive this one home and i refuse to use explitives it is unbelieveable to me how the producers of this movie saw the final cut and said ok it's great let's show this puppy roland emmerich needs a good horse whipping his latest piece of trash makes look like a masterpiece of modern american cinema and if steven spielberg had never made the jurassic park films emmerich and his team of imbeciles would never have had a clue as to how the creature should look let me give you a few examples of this terrible attempt at filmmaking i plan on giving some things away here belive me godzilla holds no surprises for anyone with an iq higher than their shoe size so no worries however if you are looking for that first time thrill and you refuse to let me do you this favor by all means stop reading now a godzilla makes his first ever attack in the pacific islands he next strikes in new york city um anyone have a map handy b the mayor of new york city is a heavy set individual with parted gray hair and thick glasses his name is mayor ebert his assistant is named gene gene gives ebert a thumbs down at the end of the film i couldn't make this up if i tried folks c stay with me on this one ok godzilla can out run torpedoes hank azaria can out run godzilla babies which look more like jurassic park raptors than the jurassic park raptors d the u s military upon realization that godzilla has disappeared after running rampant through the city decides that he might be hiding in a building e oh yeah i can go all the way to e godzilla strikes at manhattan manhattan an island approximately the size of san francisco holds three million people they evactuate to new jersey in about one day no problem f early on they bait godzilla with fish he likes fish you know the thing is on an island the atlantic ocean is three steps east but pile a whole bunch of grouper on fifth and oh he's gonna come running g you know what i'll stop with the list now the alphabet isn't big enough anyway the dialogue makes me wonder if producer dean devlin had his five year old do a the kid is good he must have said maria pitillo is looking to become a name in hollywood by starring in this potential blockbuster bad move maria acting doesn't get much worse than her turn as broderick's matthew broderick is a good actor but you'd never give him a chance if godzilla were the only film of his you'd seen jean reno needs to pick his american films a bit more carefully at times godzilla seems to be headed toward a zucker abrahams zucker film airplane naked gun the jokes are indeed that bad but just when you think the filmmakers are having fun with you they take themselves seriously how dare they godzilla would have been better if it had only thrown in visual sight gags and fart jokes at least then we would know we were supposed to laugh each and every character in godzilla is beyond stupid and i was really pulling for the beast to kill more of them emmerich did do one thing though and i've no idea if it was intentional he made me sympathize with godzilla his attackers were so damn dumb that i felt sorry for him being pelted with bullets and missles but what made me feel even sorrier for him was that his famous name will always be attatched to one of the worst films hollywood has ever produced
negative	after the recent animated debacles of a rugrats movie and a bug's life i am seriously considering raising my highly negative rating on dreamworks' other insect film from october antz i hated that movie and yet it is so much better than these latest two excursions a bug's life is the second animated insect film in the last two months and i hoped for the best considering it was done in the wonderful style of pixar's last film toy story but in no way does a bug's life even remotely match up to that flik david foley an ant who along with his many comrades has the job every year of gathering up the seasonal harvest only to have to give half of it away to the dominating grasshoppers led by hopper kevin spacey flik however feels all alone and unwanted in the world especially after he accidentally loses all of their food and the ants are threated by hopper to gather up a whole other season's load by the time the last summer leaf falls from the trees banished from ant island flik leaves the colony in search of some strong reinforcement to help out but through a misunderstanding returns with a handful of helpless circus bugs including a walking stick david hyde pierce a dung beetle brad garrett a gypsy moth madeline kahn a male ladybug denis leary and a caterpillar joe ranft a bug's life has one thing going for it only one thing with its glorious bright colors the animation is a spectacle to look at the film itself unfortunately is a lifeless unamusing contraption without any of the flair or excitement of toy story the characters in a bug's life are an assortment of either unlikable or dull insects without any charm or personality other than to stand around and recite arbitrary and thoroughly unfunny the thin story was also stretched out to a nearly unbearable minutes and it often felt as if they ran out of ideas throughout and so they made up pointless scenes to pass as after giving such scathing reviews to the animated films from this year i was beginning to think that i had simply outgrown them but then i realized this is just not so i still adore almost all of the older disney films and many of the newer ones such as the little mermaid beauty and the beast the nightmare before christmas and yes toy story maybe this has just been a bad year for children's films and hopefully the upcoming the prince of egypt will not be a disappointment as for a bug's life i did not enjoy anything about it not the story not the characters and not even the voiceover work which was far more lively in antz a bug's life goes down as yet another failure for disney and it is a sad state of affairs when their best film in the last two years has been the minor jonathan taylor thomas picture i'll be home for christmas
negative	once upon a time van damme was a decent action hero the muscles from brussels bursted into the hollywood market with mindless adventure films boasting his spectacular ability some of these excursions were fun but now it seems like watching a van damme movie has become a painful chore with no rewards but the virtually guaranteed helping of action and when the action goes sour what is there left to enjoy i'll explain knock off is about a pair of counterfeit jeans salesmen working out of an office in hong kong marcus ray van damme a and stylish dresser heads up the company with an annoying weasel of a partner rob schneider they become part of a plot involving microbombs implanted in counterfeit jeans seemingly by a mole in the business i'm going to reveal about everything in the next paragraph so if you want a review devoid of spoilers skip onto the next one i'm not quite sure who gives a crap but i'll issue a warning anyhow tommy is really working with the cia his boss a very hammy and flat paul sorvino is the mole and he wants to cause carnage with these tiny but immensely powerful super weapons he even stoops so low to put them into children's toys if you thought this plot outline sounded intriguing then you probably will enjoy knock off if you think that this ridiculous couldn't even fill five minutes of screen time without causing you to roll over laughing this might not be your cup of tea knock off sucks it stoops to ridiculous levels that most individuals could only conjure up in horrific nightmares it amazes me how far these producers will go to sell something simply because van damme is the star the plot is pathetic garbage strung together by inane action sequences that will baffle your mind the performances are so wooden you could use them to row a canoe and the action itself is an absolute catastrophe director tsui hark who teamed with van damme in the superior but still double team is at the helm and he would rather attempt to dazzle us with fantastic camera angles than engage us with the plot i suppose i enjoyed some of the camera work but the incessant desperation of it all made me rather nauseous the picture freezes in the middle of an action sequence speeds are altered consistently and the camera tricks mostly apply to traveling up gun barrels as the weapons are fired it all sounds very cool trust me it isn't as much as it scars me to say this har har van damme is terrible sure he does lots of fancy kickboxing moves and dodges giant crates with the greatest of ease he looks like he's doing a bad impersonation of jackie chan and his performance is stiff and tired i hate to say it but perhaps it's time for mr van damme to give up his day job it's really a test of endurance watching knock off i suppose there's some enjoyment derived from schneider's character who is extremely annoying but provides the film's better moments and what is the beautiful lela rochon doing in this movie hopefully she grabbed her paycheck and then fled the premises like an olympic sprinter knock off doesn't even stand strong as a mindless but entertaining action film like a handful of van damme's others no this movie is an embarrassment to the entire action genre of modern filmmaking and considering how low hollywood has stooped as of late in that department that is certainly not saying much note to self avoid universal soldier the return upon release in august
negative	the year is barely a week old and there is already a candidate for the worst of relic a chiller that's more successful at making the audience laugh than scream in this ridiculous film from uberhack peter hyams whose last two pictures were dreadful van damme vehicles a creature that feeds on the hypothalamuses hypothalamii of humans and animals goes on a killing spree in a chicago museum how did this creature come into existence and why does it feed on hormones the scientific explanation cooked up by the screenwriters amy holden jones john raffo rick jaffa and amanda silver takes suspension of disbelief to new heights even by monster movie standards but as cockamamie as the science is in the film it isn't quite as hard to swallow as the casting of the clueless penelope ann miller as a brilliant molecular biologist who specializes in evolutionary genetics miller acts as if she wants an oscar nomination turning every scene that requires the slightest display of emotion into an overblown oscar clip complete with piercing wails and glycerine tears give it up a on the flip side tom sizemore just phones in his performance as a police lieutenant but his role is so thankless that it's hard to imagine it being played any more effectively it's quite funny to see a film indulge with the straightest of faces in all those cheesy horror movie cliches that wes craven lampooned so well and so recently in scream for example in one early scene a museum security guard goes into a bathroom stall late at night ok we all know what's coming but as if we didn't need any more confirmation he pulls out a joint and starts puffing away everyone knows what happens to people who do drugs in a scary movie and later miller frantically runs out of a museum exhibit after she hears some suspicious heavy breathing does she make a beeline for the front door of course runs into the ladies room and cowers in a stall with all the cliches it is only fitting the film's climax offers what is perhaps the most overused one in recent film that of someone outrunning a fireball if the relic is truly the next evolution in terror as the poster states then the horror in even worse shape than we thought
negative	susan granger's review of two can play that game screen gems since the success of waiting to exhale there have been several romantic comedies about professionals this female revenge fantasy vivica a fox plays shante smith a stunning ad exec who seems to have reached the pinnacle of success a mansion a sporty car and an idyllic relationship with a hunky lawyer morris chestnut she's at a point in her life when she dispenses advice to her grateful mo'nique wendy racquel robinson tamala jones when your man messes up no matter how small it is she smugly decrees yuh gots to punish him so when she catches her hot man dancing at a bar with a smart and sexy rival gabrielle union she devises her own version of the rules a tough love emotionally punishing plan to get him back unfortunately mark brown how to be a player breaks the cardinal rule of romantic comedy you have to like the protagonist and shrill shante smith is a smirking superficial spiteful shrew who doesn't realize that rational rules cannot always be applied to love having her talk directly into the camera gets stale very quickly and the day one day two device underscores the tedium comic anthony anderson scores as chestnut's boisterous and singer bobby brown does a cameo as a scuzzy mechanic who's given a smooth makeover by ms robinson but the over the closing credits contain more humor than the film itself on the granger movie gauge of to two can play that game is smarmy if slick filled with misogynistic attitude and blatant product placements miller genuine draft but little else in this for explicit sexual language battle of the sexes the audience loses
negative	susan granger's review of glitter there's less here than meets the eye or put it this way if you thought madonna was awful in shanghai surprise mariah carey's worse in this reworking of a star is born she plays billie frank who despite being abandoned by her mother valerie pettiford believes she's destined for greatness because everyone tells her she is you've got this amazing gift and you gotta use it her roommate says your voice it's incredible says another singer i ain't never met anyone like you proclaims julian dice black max beesley the hot new york dj who becomes her problem is her signature song i didn't mean to turn you on is wretched and when she fumes out of filming her first music video because the director wants to exploit her by having her wear a bikini the audience bursts into laughter exploit mariah carey who chooses to wear as little as the law will allow come on writer kate lanier's script is fatuous and director vondie doesn't have a clue how to handle the glitzy pop diva and as a result of their incompetence ms carey seems to be embarrassed she almost cringes when the camera comes in for a pursing her lips and averting her glassy eyes talented british musician max beesley appears equally inept and as cinematographer geoffrey simpson pans around the manhattan skyline there's an audible audience groan when the twin towers of the world trade center come into view perhaps one of the reasons ms carey suffered her nervous breakdown this summer is because she saw a preview of this clunker on the granger movie gauge of to glitter is a pathetic right now it's tops on my list of the worst of
negative	the ads make hanging up seem like an upbeat comedy about a rascally father and his three daughters anyone who went to the movie expecting that left disappointed all of the movie's funny scenes were included in the ad so what do we get eve marks meg ryan just put her father lou mozell walter matthau into a hospital once upon a time lou was a hollywood screenwriter who collaborated with his wife his one great moment in life was writing a film for john wayne who gave him a giant trophy now lou is senile and deteriorating rapidly eve tries to convince her sisters georgia diane keaton and maddy lisa kudrow that their father is dying and needs them both are slow to show concern so devoted eve stands vigil over her father who constantly asks for his favorite daughter georgia while running her own business planning special events and caring for her son jesse james some comic relief comes when maddy also drops off her ailing st bernard for eve to care for the tension builds until all three sisters are finally in one room at one of eve's events where georgia is the keynote speaker there's a superficial resemblance to shakespeare's king lear senile king with three daughters one devoted saint and two selfish bitches but the material is apparently drawn from life sister screenwriters delia and nora ephron had parents who were a successful hollywood writing team henry and phoebe ephron collaborated on screenplays including desk set and there's no business like show business delia's novel the basis for the film is dedicated to henry surprisingly the script is as thin as an anorexic's wet dream the virtue of a project would seem to be the wealth of material available yet the ephrons provide only the barest minimum of information about their characters also the spaces they inhabit seem artificial eve lives in a house that looks like a magazine layout no matter how she is we can't feel sorry for anyone whose house is so pristine on any given day georgia is a famous magazine editor and in her brief scenes while she chats on a cell phone with eve seem like the photo spread for a profile when we first meet maddy she's fishing at a picturesque mountain stream i expected to see the credit cinematography by fair and yes diane keaton is literally old enough to be lisa kudrow's mother to her credit though she looks young enough to pull it off the one redeeming aspect of hanging up is that at its core is a truth about siblings there's always one on which everyone else in the family relies freeing the others to be selfish and emotionally distant my wife is the reliable child in her family for better or worse my brother has the role in mine being selfish and emotionally distant may not be fulfilling but it is a lot less work if you have nothing better to do than watch this movie look for a powerful cameo by cloris leachman as the sisters' mother pat in a devastating scene eve discovers that her mother doesn't love her although leachman is best known for comedies like young frankenstein and the mary tyler moore show her performance here reminded me of the considerable dramatic talent she displayed in the last picture show bottom line everyone involved has lived in hollywood so long they don't recognize real life anymore
negative	this is the worst movie i've seen since the so bad i walked out on it jingle all the way it is crap on toast made of crap baked in a an oven fueled by crap it is crap through and through nothing works in this film as to be expected from joel schumacher who has made only one watchable film in his entire career that being cousins here's a man who admits he's a medicore director a rather charmingly statement but truth be told he is much worse than mediocre not all scorn should be heaped on schumacher though akiva goldsman should not be allowed to write ever again there is no plot anywhere and the dialogue is unrelentingly shallow preposterous and boring they set up mr freeze as a tragic figure trying to cure his cryogenically frozen wife then completely sabotage his character by giving him the lamest it turns him into a stock maniacal villain who thoroughly enjoys his villainy instead of a brooding scientist who has spent much of his life to bringing his wife from the brink of death but that's par for course nothing in this film makes any sense including half of arnold schwarzenegger's lines as mr freeze arnold is given way too much dialogue to spit out at once this is the same problem he had in jingle all the way and it seems that his austrian accent is getting thicker and more unintelligible as the days pass personally i think that he has more pull with the directors and doesn't retake scenes to make him understandable compare his dialogue in the terminator series to the load of nonsense that streams forth in batman robin apparently james cameron knows how to get a competent performance out of arnold uma thurman is not as bad but nothing resembling good either her poison ivy vamps around terribly chewing up scenery left and right and her pamela isley scenes are marred by standard acting as if she's reading off cue cards and is about to laugh at any given moment given the script it's a wonder it didn't happen more frequently there is no redeeming feature in this film not george clooney as batman chris o'donnell as robin nor alicia silverstone as batgirl michael gough is eerily sickly looking as alfred as if the conceit of his illness was prompted by his cadaverous appearance in fact there was something unsettling about his appearance which seems to have been accomplished without any tricks looking as if it were scenes from a documentary about a dying man unfortunately every scene about alfred's sickness is bungled with such incompetence that there is absolutely no emotional resonance they just go through the motions losing whatever impact the scenes were supposed to impart the movie is rife with poorly choreographed fights scenes that never give any sense of a big battle you know there's a bunch of people but instead of a melee schumacher decided to focus on a foot or a fist there's never a moment of awe wonder or mayhem the only interesting part of the battles scenes are the freezing effects which are impressive and probably expensive even then the fights are so full of camp and stupidity that they become unwatchable the hockey team from hell not even the tv series got that stupid at least not on the grand scale of stupidity that batman robin showcases frustrating too are the various supporting characters that walk on and off with nothing to say or do blink and you'll miss elle macpherson as julie madison vivica fox as a why is she even in the film vamp in freeze's lair with all of two lines and pat hingle as the most ineffectual commissioner gordan the batman series ever had and in what almost seems like an effort to save on costs vendela kirsebom has no lines as mrs fries she isn't even filmed well enough to look good trust me she's quite attractive outside of this dreck and as if the film weren't bad enough to limp along with bad direction bad dialogue bad performances and bad fight scenes there are inconsistencies and illogic galore i know it's to ask where the hundreds of feet of cable are stored in the batarangs why the character's arms aren't ripped out of their sockets when they accomplish a batarang save after falling hundreds of feet while holding on to another person no less or where the moisture comes from when freeze's weapon creates tons if ice that's all traditional comic book stuff but why does batman spring a trap for freeze at a public charity event that endanger the lives of hundreds of why is there a big switch clearly marked heat in mr freeze's lair why do countless bumbling police officers even try to take on mr freeze hand to hand why does alfred encourage silverstone to become batgirl and even go so far as to have a suit made for her why do batman robin take minutes to bicker before leaving the batcave in response to an emergency and since it established early on that ivy is using pheromones why don't they wear masks to filter it out i could go on and on batman robin is a braindead pointless garish loud film that should still reign as the worst film of the year by the time rolls along note to warner bros if you're going to make another batman film please replace schumacher with nearly anyone because it could actually get worse than this what schumacher does not understand is that comic book doesn't automatically equal unbearable idiocy the true equation seems to be schumacher batman unbearable idiocy
negative	when i ponder childhood memories past one of the things that always springs immediately to mind is watching the inspector gadget tv show with my older brother truth be told we were rabid fanatics our version of cowboys and indians was chasing each other around our coffee table to the theme tune alternating who would get to be gadget and who would be stuck playing the part of dr claw the inspector's arch nemesis i was never a biggie on nostalgia but you just can't help but have fond memories of something like that sometimes i even find myself up at watching of my favorite episodes trying to recapture some of that sense of wonder i felt as a kid at the very least i was expecting the new film version of the classic television series to have at least some kind of similar effect on me despite how horrid a film may be the simple task of rekindling even a slight feeling of nostalgia is pretty tough to screw up so back i sat with minimum expectations of what the movie would deliver let's face it exactly how good can a disney film really be i was wise enough to steer clear from the likes of mr magoo and george of the jungle two previous disney adaptations and i wish to god that i had been sharp enough to skip gadget as well rarely has a movie left me with such an utter feeling of emptiness as everyone else was getting up to exit the screening room after the movie had completed its assault on mankind i was left sitting there absolutely speechless and totally dumbfounded at what i had just seen can something this awful truly exist in such an evolved world right from the beginning i knew i was in trouble in the opening scenes each character is introduced as if their sole purpose is to just be to simply serve as duplicates of their cartoon clones when referring to them people almost yell in fear that the audience will not catch on as to who a certain character is supposed to be oh hi penny is brain with you creating replicas is one thing having mere names take the place of them is quite another the plot shall we call it stays fairly in tune with the original series matthew broderick stars as john brown how creative is that a security guard who is horribly injured by a pack of ruthless businessmen headed by scolex why rupert everett for the love of god why who himself is transformed into claw by an unfortunate chain of events brown is then rescued and used as a prototype for a new technology wherein he's joined with various machine parts and some nifty gadgets to form drumroll please inspector gadget here on out the movie becomes a hodgepodge of stupid dialog and confusing situations although to be fair my confusion could have been caused by the virtual concussion the film was inflicting upon my fragile mind there's something about an evil gadget taking over the city his first crime must have been swiping matt dillon's dentures from there's something about mary and it all ends with what else a bunch of nonsense and a cameo by don adams himself to be honest i wasn't much paying attention to these treats i was just glad that it was over
negative	perhaps if the impostors didn't have so much going for it it wouldn't have been such a tremendous disappointment written directed and produced by one of its two stars stanley tucci whose last picture was the indie smash hit big night the impostors almost never catches fire sputtering like a old campfire the story plays like an sketch that was never polished or completed the film's other star oliver platt was hilarious as the senator's aide in bulworth the bloated supporting cast is a veritable cornucopia of acting talent including woody allen steve buscemi hope davis alfred molina campbell scott lili taylor and tony shalhoub all are wasted save allen who plays a theatrical director who stares in disbelief at the bad acting before his eyes the audience will easily identify with allen's sentiments with the exception of a single original joke involving subtitles the movie engenders little genuine laughter the stale humor is so embarrassingly bad that you will find yourself laughing sporadically at the picture rather than with it the plot for the movie involves two starving actors maurice oliver platt and arthur stanley tucci who accidentally end up on a cruise ship in order to escape an angry shakespearean actor alfred molina who is chasing them they dress up as ship's stewards the script has the subtlety of a sledgehammer when the leads hide from their pursuers arthur covers maurice's mouth as he suffers an unending sneeze at other times we have the typical zany comedy routine where everyone chases everyone else while darting in and out of staterooms with the film's chapters introduced like placards at a vaudeville stage it is clear the movie wants to be taken as farce the press notes describes how everyone that came on the set remarked at what a good time all of the actors were having too bad they weren't more concerned with the audience's potential enjoyment the jokes frequently framed in silence fall like stones with such intensity that one can almost hear them hitting the ground one wonders if anyone ever viewed the film's dailies surely if they had they would have realized what leaden results they were producing it is tricky having good actors play bad ones but if they couldn't pull it off they should have just given up the show is over for this fella steve buscemi's character says towards the end the mystery is why they didn't all give up in the beginning there must have been a better script somewhere for such a wonderful cast the impostors runs it is rated r for a little profanity and would be fine for kids around and up
negative	this was the last carry on movie if you discount on columbus' as a carry on movie and was made by a new production company based in central london this movie is about the attempts by emmanuelle prevert suzanne danielle to bed her husband emile the french ambassador kenneth williams when he seems unwilling she is given his permission to bed anyone she likes such as the prime minister and the u s ambassador her antics get her into trouble and the british press spread these rumours all over their front pages she is invited to talk on television to set the record straight but only confirms the rumours instead meanwhile theodore valentine larry dann is in love with emmannuelle after a chance encounter in the toilet of the concorde and is determined to marry her however she is only interested in restoring her husband's ardour which seems a little difficult after emile's accident with a church spire this film is the second worst carry on movie the worst being on england' it is embarassing to see some of the remaining regulars struggle through this diabolical script by lance peters and try to pull off some of the crude and tasteless jokes that he has written newcomers suzanne danielle and beryl reid as mrs valentine are mildly funny but larry dann as theodore is excruciatingly bad kenneth williams only appears in a few scenes and his lacklustre performance is warranted given the script the small parts for jack douglas as lyons the butler joan sims as mrs dangle kenneth connor as leyland the chauffeur and peter butterworth as richmond are worthless and embarassing in fact all four parts are surplus to requirements however the only humourous scene in the film is when the four of them and emmannuelle talk about their most amourous escapades an awful script a terrible collection of jokes very poor production values especially the scene where emmannuelle takes her clothes off at st james palace a ludicrous and cringeworthy musical score and a plot or storyline its just a succession of awful set pieces about who emmannuelle will bed next jack douglas is not so annoying but is more boring joan sims and peter butterworth are wasted and kenneth connor and kenneth williams put in some poor performances as leyland and emile a complete waste of time this movie was trying to catch up with the new sexually permissive seventies it was a certificate film but by there was little interest in this kind of film and it flopped at the box office and was only given its premiere on uk terrestrial television in april avoid at all costs
negative	if you're debating whether or not to see ask yourself one simple question do you want to see nick nolte in lingerie the only people who would get much enjoyment from alan rudolph's chaotic adaptation of the kurt vonnegut novel is the of the population with the unhealthy urge to see that unpleasant sight everyone i'm hoping that's most be wise to steer clear of this excrutiatingly unfunny mess actually though the sight of nolte in high heels is one of the more amusing things about this muddle which focuses dwayne hoover bruce willis the owner of dwayne hoover's exit motor village in midland city not only is he a huge success as a businessman he's also something of a celebrity his face made recognizable by an ongoing series of television commercials with a nice home and family to boot dwayne appears to have it all the ingredients to be he's not his wife celia barbara hershey is perpetually in a haze his son george lukas haas is a flamboyant lounge singer who goes by the stage name bunny not only that the environmental protection agency is on dwayne's ass over a building development project it's enough to send dwayne on a nervous is if he doesn't succeed in blowing his brains out first meanwhile midland city is about to host a fine arts festival and the guest of honor is one kilgore trout albert finney a writer who is far from the renowned author the festival's organizer buck henry was led to fact he's a penniless hack who writes that appears in porn magazines his trek to midland city is also a spiritual journey one that reaches its apex after meeting dwayne who for some reason thinks that trout will hold for him all of life's answers the above is already a longer plot synopsis than i usually give in my reviews but ironically i have barely scratched the surface i haven't yet mentioned wayne hoobler omar epps an with an obsessive admiration for the dwayne then there's the matter of francine glenne headly dwayne's devoted secretary not to mention dwayne's employee and old friend harry lesabre nolte the one with the secret penchant for and so on the film is essentially dwayne's story but too often rudolph goes on distracting tangents with the eccentric peripheral players that one often wonders what the point is rudolph does arrive at a point more on that later but it's blunted and obscured by his hyperactive approach to the material the surreal visual style complete with printed words flying through the air and into dwayne's ears is obviously meant to convey a sense of madness but its bludgeoning nature is likely to make viewers mad the actors are called on to act accordingly resulting in some of the worst most overdone work all of them have ever turned in willis fares best of that's because his frozen expression of befuddled bewilderment mirrors that of the audience with such an aggressively outrageous atmosphere for nearly all of its running time it comes as a shock when things suddenly turn serious and rudolph tries to make a statement unlike a film that resembles in more than a few ways to its great detriment there isn't any palpably earnest undercurrent that would prepare the audience for the big shift as such the cartoony characters fail to win a sympathy that needs to be earned and the film attempts to no avail to reach a profundity that it doesn't deserve vonnegut's original novel is considered a classic but it had been called same that was said of hunter s thompson's which was disastrously committed to film last year by terry gilliam with the similar failure of will hollywood ever learn that books labeled unfilmable inevitably results in a film that is unwatchable likely not
negative	suicide is pointless everyone should know that so what's this movie like you guessed it pointless the virgin suicides focuses on the lives of the five lisbon sisters from the perspective of the teenage boys who are fascinated by them when the youngest lisbon sister commits suicide it sets in motion a series of events that will change the lives of many people forever that's what the press materials for the film probably say now here's what i say the virgin suicides is a huge waste of time boring arty pretentious junk that is about as entertaining as well as committing suicide the movie lost me early on immediately following the scene where the younger daughter jumps to her death from her bedroom window the girl's father james woods holds her lifeless body in his arms as their horrified family looks on then as the scene ends the lawn sprinklers come on is that a joke is that supposed to be amusing in some way from then on the movie failed to draw me back in performances are the only saving grace of the virgin suicides woods plays the only character who would actually interest me when he came onscreen but the performance of kirsten dunst as the next youngest daughter lux is worth mentioning as well dunst has the potential to be a big star if she chooses her projects well and while this film is awful she manages to come away from it virtually unscathed there are also a few cameos in the film here and there which only frustrate the audience as they leave you wanting more as a result they all seem rather pointless although there's a brief role given to michael pare from eddie and the cruisers which turns out to be his best role since well since eddie and the cruisers perhaps the virgin suicides would have worked had the story not been told from the point of view of people who had very little access to the main characters we never get any significant insight into the girls and why they might be feeling what they're feeling all we really know is that mrs lisbon kathleen turner is strict and keeps them on a short leash what mother doesn't it's certainly no reason to commit suicide with the godfather part iii sofia coppola proved that she had no business being in front of the camera with the virgin suicides she proves she has no business behind it either having family connections doesn't entitle you to be allowed to make movies so attention film directors stop letting your daughters pout their way into the industry just because they share your dna doesn't mean they share your talent 
negative	the realm of science fiction has always been an allegory of political and or moral sensibilities the best tales of the genre deal with mankind's struggle for survival or knowledge such popular and noteworthy tomes as stranger in a strange land by robert heinlein childhood's end by arthur c clarke and man in the high castle and do androids dream of electric sheep by philip k dick all deal with man's need for identity and struggle for self worth hollywood has regularly adapted the milieu if not the message of science fiction since it's beginnings most films just created fancy pulp tales with no more thought that the escapism they achieved it really wasn't until producer george pal took charge of robert heinlein's novel rocketship galileo and crafted the film destination moon that as it is commonly referred to came into it's own from there such diverse filmmakers as roger corman to stanley kubrick have sought to express ideas through the medium of the genre with the release of touchstone pictures mission to mars we have an unabashedly nonchalant film for those who read the national enquirer and the globe the film opens on a summer barbecue as phil ohlmyer jerry o'connell woos a young female with his tales of space glory and the upcoming mission woody blake tim robbins and his wife terri connie nielsen commit to his coming authority on the mission and luc goddard don cheadle consoles his son entering the party is jim mcconnell gary sinise who gave up command of the mission due to the untimely death of his wife maggie kim delaney luc consoles jim with woody's assistance the three men are friends and carry a fine bond of trust and caring between them but jim still longs to set foot on the red planet the mission is in earnest as luc and his team land in the cydonia region of mars they send out the rover to investigate the area and discover what seems to be water or ice under the surface going out to investigate luc and his team approach the famed on mars' a strange noise emanates from the rock as the team tries to scan through the rock with radar a violent wind storm erupts creating a vortex that kills all members of the team save for luc back on the space station orbiting earth woody and jim receive the information that the mars landing team is missing luc's interference laden emergency message urges the two men to attempt a second mission to the red planet in the hopes of rescuing the previous team the second journey to the martian world is fraught with danger meteorite showers explosions and rescues all come into play as the intrepid heroes make there way to the planet's surface the big question is is there now or has there ever been intelligent life on mars and if so what is its relationship with us now for the bad news the entire plot of mission to mars is based almost wholeheartedly on outdated and preposterous national enquirer type martian civilization tripe the famed on mars' becomes the centerpiece of the film revealing some of the most harebrained pabulum the screen has witnessed borrowing ideas from such films as robinson crusoe on mars quatermass and the pit a space odyssey and even mario bava's planet of the vampires nello spazio' mission to mars is a hodgepodge of ideas that don't add up to a satisfying whole while some sequences are wonderfully handled and executed the film remains flat and so much time is giving to establishing the lead characters in the film but to no good use the performances are all workmen like with only don cheadle as luc carrying any sort of real chemistry gary sinise is wasted in role that requires him to look as if he is experiencing sleep depravation and the mistaken idea of having jerry o'connell as phil ohlmyer play his part for comic relief is just too painful to excuse and the less said about tim robbins called in from home performance the better he's just having too much fun here to give a damn the script has a few lapses namely that after discovering several breaches in the hull of the ship caused by a meteorite shower no one thinks of checking the fuel tanks or the remainder of the ship for damage this of course leads to our heroes having to abandon their rescue ship also when one character sacrifices himself the character takes on a religious demeanor that is completely at odds with the situation but the biggest offence in the film is the horrid intrusive score by ennio morricone subtlety is here in fact in some scenes the music becomes so extravagant that dialogue is almost drowned out the only sequence in which the score almost works is during the protracted meteorite shower the pacing of the film is very leisurely after the opening introduction of the characters which lasts a full minutes we are finally dropped onto the martian surface then there is another long pause in the plot for more character development including an elaborate dance sequence in zero gravity the film could lose about minutes and actually gain some momentum there are so many scenes of talking heads discussing what we already know is going to happen that it drags the film to a dead stop the good news is that the film is absolutely sumptuous to look at the vistas of the planet mars are majestic and awe inspiring the design of the numerous spacecraft and suits are all expertly drafted with a level of realism that hasn't been seen since a space odyssey the visual effects are just stunning from the space walk sequences to the visualization of evolution on earth the only fault come with the martians themselves which look more like something out of a plastic model kit than something from another world director de palma stages some wonderfully creative scenes through out the film the opening sequence alone in a seemingly cut lasting almost minutes an homage' to hitchcock's rope as we are introduced to all of the characters scenes in the rescue ship with its rotating centrifuge are just amazing in their execution but the nagging question is the final explanation worth all of this sturm und drang sadly it is not director brian de palma has crafted an extravagant production the set design and visual effects are all arresting but it's the comic strip denouncement that ruin what might have been a fine return to good adventurous thought provoking science fiction a disappointing film but one that might still entertain if you can settle for the visuals
negative	back in february at the monthly los angeles comic book and science fiction convention new line cinema put on a lavish presentation for its update of the cult tv show lost in space complete with appearances by cast members mimi rogers matt leblanc lacey chabert jack johnson and even gary oldman that should have set off my warning last time such an extravagant film presentation took place at the convention was nearly five years ago when none other than arnold schwarzenegger made an cameo to peddle last action hero but no like millions of others i bought into the hype and got lost if only i had gotten the way to theatre and spared myself the tedium of this sloppily blockbuster wannabe you may find yourself wondering if director stephen hopkins and screenwriter akiva goldsman were lost themselves when they made the film at the convention goldsman claimed to be a rabid fan of the original television series and if that really is the case i'd hate to see what he does with concepts he only has mild interest in to say that his script lacks narrative cohesion is to imply that there is a narrative to begin there most certainly is not after the setup in which the robinson john william hurt looking and sounding as spaced out as he does in interviews mother maureen rogers wasted daughters judy heather graham ditto and penny a heavily chabert looking like a junior version of neve campbell in wild things and son will young newcomer johnson making the best of it pilot don west leblanc doing a bad han solo impression find themselves lost in space after their ship is sabotaged by evil stowaway dr smith a but oldman cashing a paycheck and loving every minute the script's stream of events becomes so fragmented and random that it seems to be made up as it goes hopkins does little to make what does go on the slightest bit interesting they encounter another ship they board it alien spiders attack them they return to their ship the other one explodes they land on a deserted planet and so on an attempt at a plot involving time travel occurs in the third act but goldsman doesn't seem to understand the rules that come with using such a story device when one character's past self dies the future incarnation inexplicably lives on the look and effects should be lost in space's but hopkins even manages to botch that for a film the visual effects are incredibly shoddy in one composite background shot i could see the blue outline around oldman the various digital effects for the space battle scenes look like digital effects but nothing in those shots is as unconvincing as blawp a space creature that becomes penny's pet entirely and every inch showing it blawp looks like it was lifted directly from a sony playstation game apparently hopkins thought the same and tried desperately to hide it how else can one explain the graininess of blawp's composite shots with the human actors but in doing so the seams are that much more obvious you have to be severely visually impaired to not be distracted when a grainy shot of penny and blawp is immediately followed by a solo reaction shot of judy new line is hoping lost in space will become a big franchise much like the star trek cash cow at paramount i don't think so in a few years the lost in space movie will likely live on not as a series but as the obscure answer to a trivia question what film ended titanic's reign at the top of the weekend box office
negative	the working title for no looking back was long time nothing new and rarely has there been a more apt name for a motion picture even though this movie clocks in at a relatively skinny minutes it seems to run long enough to engulf two titanics edward burns has trotted out a hackneyed storyline the trajectory of which will be instantly recognizable to anyone who hasn't spent their life in seclusion instead of tweaking the formula a little to invigorate the proceedings burns is content to allow the film to ramble aimlessly towards its irritatingly predictable conclusion offering precious few momentary pleasures along the way no looking back is dominated by three very dislikable characters whose constant presence on the screen is painful the most appropriate ending would have been a triple suicide and the sooner the better alas that's not the case and those who stick with this film for its entire length will be forced to endure the prolonged company of this wretched trio and to further depress audiences burns has shot the entire film on cold rainy days in a gray new york state beach town peeks of sunshine are few and far between no wonder the characters are all so miserable first of all we have charlie burns a generation x slacker who abandoned his girlfriend three years ago after she had an abortion then spent some time bumming around in california before deciding to come home that girlfriend is claudia lauren holly and after picking up the pieces of her life following charlie's departure she has moved on shacking up with one of charlie's old school buddies mike jon bon jovi the two have a comfortable relationship but it's apparent to even a blind person that they're not right for each other claudia years for some spice in her life mike wants to settle down and have children then charlie the mix so who if anyone will claudia end up with who cares no looking back goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure that we're not especially interested in the outcome of the romantic triangle so what if no one finds happiness these characters don't deserve it anyway especially after wasting minutes of our time they aren't real people they're a writer's construct stumbling through a storyline they should know the ending as well as we do and burns should have given his audience more credit and presented them with a plot that at least offered a surprise or two another frustrating thing about no looking back is that burns has populated the film with a group of supporting characters blythe danner is solid as claudia's housebound mother connie britton is suitably as claudia's neurotic sister and jennifer esposito is as a bartender in search of a little romance sadly all we get is quick glimpses into their lives although a movie about any of them would have been far more intriguing than the story burns has chosen to tell none of the lead performers are going to wow critics with their thespian attributes edward burns is pushing the edge of his limited range here jon bon jovi shows more acting ability than one might reasonably expect from a singer branching into a different career but he could still use a little polish the worst case is lauren holly who presents a completely bland claudia as portrayed here she's hardly the kind of woman who would inspire even a moment's interest not to mention undying love burns' ex the monumentally untalented maxine bahns would have been to do a less inspired job when he released the brothers mcmullen edward burns was revered as the wunderkind of the sundance film festival robert redford has apparently stuck with him the aging executive produced this mess two films and three short years later the luster has faded some movie makers have only one good film in them with duds like she's the one and no looking back to follow the delightful brothers burns is beginning to look like a member of that undistinguished club
negative	the job of the film critic is to see a movie and write a review of it that tells you what it's about and why it's good or bad i feel kind of embarrassed to admit this but i after having seen get carter i really can't tell you what it's about although i could go on and on about how and why it's a bad movie get carter falls into that category of movies that continue to be made for reasons unknown to anyone outside of a hollywood executive board room you might call them the steven van snipes school of mediocre thrillers you know the potboilers that are heavy on fistfights and car chases but really light on plot and character development they have stories where the hero just keeps running into characters who have some connection to one of the other characters who are all antagonists without a reason for being in the movie other than to give the protagonist someone to fight chase or shoot at sylvester stallone stars as jack carter a las mob enforcer who returns home for his brother's funeral he believes his brother richie was taken out and didn't die from a dwi accident carter's one of the most cliche ever captured on celluloid his face alone is pretty intimidating and there's quite a few scenes in which he leans on both regular citizens and criminal lowlives simply by staring them down and speaking with confidence in his voice stallone's performance in this movie is so forced and unnatural he doesn't realize he's mocking himself the actual story involves carter's investigation into his brother richie's death he's in a town that's not his but somehow the local top dogs know him very well mickey rourke as one of these characters a sort of crime boss who has something to do with running a porno web site and blackmailing a young internet tycoon played by alan cummings looking and acting a lot like pee wee herman there's also another plot involving richie's mistress a secret with some convicting and disturbing evidence on it and something terrible involving one of carter's relatives i'm rolling my eyes just thinking about trying to critique all this in a way that could be remotely comprehendible i could just rip the screenplay to shreds plus the direction or the editing or the production values but that would require discussion of nearly every scene in order to explain it all i don't like to put spoliers in my reviews either intentionally or accidentally yes get carter is just that complicated and complex and what's worse is that it's not this intricate to make it seem smart like the usual suspects for example just the opposite you get the feeling whoever wrote this script did it in short intervals spaced far apart and they probably didn't remember what had already happened and didn't figure out how each scene would lead in to the next one or how the major plot points would work towards the climax all you really need to know is that most of the film is just scenes of carter tracking down one scumbag or supposed witness after another asking them what they know getting information and then realizing that if he wasn't a complete idiot he could have figured it out in the first five minutes although the supporting characters are equally stupid themselves since they tell him everything which comes back to haunt them in one violent way or another making a movie entirely about criminals doesn't necessarily mean they have to be unlikable and cliche cutout characters mel gibson starred in payback a few years ago that had a story not unlike this one but had such a good screenplay you couldn't help but like him even though he was just as bad a guy as jack carter so ultimately get carter fails for pretty much every selling point it has carter is not a likable character and you really don't care if he gets revenge or not the action sequences are not at all exciting or original the enemies and their massive conspiracy are not threatening at all c'mon you know who's going to win every brawl and and car chase in the end you don't feel nearly satisfied with the results the filmmakers did a good job in doing everything as unoriginal as possible the city is never mentioned by name but i assume it's seattle since all the cars have washington license plates and it's always raining
negative	i've got to admit it i'm a huge jim carrey fan i loved the first ace ventura as well as the mask and dumb and even in batman forever which was a pretty awful movie carrey was one of the few people to come off looking reasonably good until i saw ace ventura i had no idea how people could find the guy annoying sadly ace ventura shows just how irritating and annoying carrey can be carrey goes through the same schtick he went through in the first ace movie but this time it is no longer is just a rehash of many of the same jokes used in ace i the plot sees pet detective ace ventura retiring after failing to save a raccoon in a reasonable cliffhanger spoof soon he is called out of retirement to find a bat which was kidnapped and if not returned in four days will cause two warring african tribes to destroy each other once again it's up to ace to save the day using his uncanny detective skills those who have been disappointed by carrey's more restrained roles in the films following the first ace ventura may be glad to see him to the best of his ability but some may be disappointed by the fact that this sequel doesn't capture the feel of the original the original benefited from what looked to be carrey's constant improv sequences which were hysterically funny here however the tighter script which is reminiscent of the old disney telemovies takes the improvised material from the first and shamelessly recycles it in the new movie giving carrey little chance to improvise instead his extremely funny manner has been reduced to just walking around stupidly but one of the biggest problems i had was with the character of ventura himself in the first movie he was always cool and one step ahead of every one for carrey's approach but here ventura is made to look a lot stupider and is often made out as the straight role which is definitely not carrey's style there are definitely some very funny moments but they are few and far between they are also nowhere near as funny as anything carrey did in the first ace ventura or even dumb and dumber
negative	for about twenty minutes into mission impossible director john woo the killer hard boiled face off appears to have made an exciting elegant charming spy thriller kind of a post millennium james bond adventure with a strapping american read unsophisticated hero more willing to drop kick villains than out fox them sadly as the picture progresses the final product begins to bear a closer resemblance to a souped up long episode of magyuver and not a particularly good one at that what went wrong begins flashily enough that initial flash leading us to believe that it'll soon give way to something of a plot but it only gives way to more flash then digresses further into a presumably unintentional parody of itself with much slo mo posturing and countless action set pieces wherein bad guys seem to deliberately leap into the way of tom cruise's firing gun just so they can die really cool early on during a car chase between soon to be lovers ethan hunt tom cruise and nyah thandie newton woo works some of his trademark magic in one hypnotic though completely inexplicable sequence the director slows the action down to a languid as cruise and his stunning opponent stare into one and other's eyes with come hither sexuality just as their respective cars smash and spin in accordance coming ever so close to toppling over a neighboring cliff prior to this we see the famed trailer opener of cruise climbing a steep mountain sans scaffolding then leaping from one jagged rock formation to another why i haven't the foggiest i doubt even john woo could provide you with a logical reply with woo has become a slave to the summer movie machine the one that jettisons logic for gravity defying effects and story for more gravity defying effects it's possible that these spies could be adrenaline junkies climbing mountains and crashing into each other as means to get off though of course this is never explored the scenes i've described are really only included to titillate not to give any insight into character god forbid woo certainly knows how to make each set piece energetic but they remain individual set pieces never connecting to form anything more than splices of beer visuals still in terms of crackerjack eye candy the opening has much to cherish cruise and newton first meet during a vigorous flamenco dance featuring several welcome woo devices the graceful slow mo artistry of synchronized movement juxtaposed against the stage romance of two attractive individuals discovering how attractive the other is between the frantic dancing woo trains his camera on cruise and newton as they make with some sensuous eye contact the scene is a little over the top in a bon jovi music video circa kind of way yet it has style and something of soul and woo casts a bit of a spell on us sure it's all smoke and mirrors but we can see that there happens to be a talented maestro behind this particular product thandie and cruise later meet in a bathtub in a scene that's about half as playfully charming as the jennifer lopez george cloony trunk meeting in out of sight they flirt and exchange obvious double entendres newton bats her eyes flirtatiously cruise grins a little too slyly the cruise character ethan hunt has been drastically altered since the first film here cruise plays him more as a hip sexual dynamo than the square jawed robot he impersonated in part he's cool and dashing which is precisely the kind of role we want to see cruise in after watching him sleep walk through eyes wide shut which might just be the longest episode of red show diaries ever committed to film and blustered his way through magnolia quite possibly the most overrated performance of the sadly as the film progresses we see less of cruise's initial i'm the man charm and more of his preening mug falls apart on nearly every level during its repetitious third act which is essentially one hour long action sequence that just won't stop the whole thing commences with an utterly generic gun battle the first gun fight in the film which really should be unheard of in a john woo film but alas this particular battle could've been staged by anyone from renny harlin to joseph merhi of course excepting the symbolic pigeons who seem to find their way into every john woo picture we've all seen guys slide across the floor in slo mo while firing a gun in each hand it isn't done any differently here the action is pure hard target broken arrow theatrics with nothing to propel it but the apparent need to see tom cruise drop kick face less villains while his hair whips stylishly in the wind he's cool for sure but he's made to be as empty as the movie the actor isn't used so much for his boyish appeal as for his chiseled looks he smiles narcissistically into the camera at literally any moment be it during a gunfight before one or after one when he's not beaming away he's staring into the lens with cold eyes trying to look mad as hell but woo's editing seriously undermines the effort he fetishizes cruise's angular face with such glee that it turns into a naked gun style spoof i half expected cruise to peel off his facemask and reveal that he's really austin powers in a classic woo action moment ethan hunt struts past a fiery doorway glaring at the baddies within its frame like a boy angel of death the gunfight turns into a daring escape which turns into a reckless mission which turns into a motorcycle attack in which bad guys seem to angle directly for cruise to kill them like some kind of mass suicide ritual one dumb bastard even jumps his bike over the gun toting cruise basically inviting our handsome hero to shoot him in mid air which he does the lead bad guy played by the appropriately british dougray scott and cruise face off in a mentally deficient game of chicken on motorcycles though instead of jumping off to the side at the last moment the two grown men leap directly into the other giving each other a mid air bear hug only to fly about a hundred feet still in bear hug position land on a beach below and begin a fist fight that ends with the bad guy pulling a so you thought i was dead not to worry cruise takes care of the problem without even breaking a sweat what a hero you may have noticed that i opted not to describe an iota of plot my reasoning is simple i'm not sure of any good it would do the film itself has absolutely no concern with story only with hurtling forth to the next special effect i wasn't kidding when i told a friend of mine that has less plot than the average aerosmith video nobody will go to this for the plot and if they do they'll surely regret it as summer movies evolve or devolve character and plot have become increasingly whittled down to nearly nothing in mi the plot seemed to be built around brian de palma's that film's director stylistic flourishes while in the plot only serves to give us an intermittent breather from woo's masturbatory pandemonium it's irrelevant in every sense as is character all that ultimately matters are those pesky smoke and mirrors
negative	every now and then reviewers are faced with the films that are hard to be properly reviewed most of the time it happens with films that leave so overwhelming impact either good or bad that in the end reviewers must work hard to express his thoughts or feelings but sometimes it can happen for rather trivial reasons i love trouble happened to be one of such occasions for the author of this review the impression left by the film wasn't overwhelming on the contrary there were hardly any impression at all since i had real trouble keeping myself awake while watching it which surprise me to this day because the movie theatre was full i was close to sound speakers the show wasn't late and i didn't lack sleep before the show such things happen very rarely to me and after many years the closest thing to solution to this mystery is probably the quality of the film itself the plot revolves around two rival chicago reporters old peter brackett nick nolte and young aspiring sabrina peterson julia roberts two of them are assigned to cover the train collision as soon as they meet they start scooping each other but during the process they both discover sinister plot involving cancerogenic milk and also the romantic feelings they have for each other the plot in this film is rather secondary to its real raison d' tre romantic pairing reminiscent of classical screwball comedies starring spencer tracy and katharine hepburn movie author director and screenwriter charles shyer who had some experiences with turning the screwball spirit into modern setting with father of the bride tries again this time pairing old nick nolte with young julia roberts however although there is some chemistry between the two soon it stops to arouse any interest it probably happens due to poorly executed genre mix that collides romantic comedy with rather uninteresting plot suitable to pure action thrillers shyer as director fails to make the proper transition between the two and fails in both areas making the story cliched and predictable the end result is rather forgettable effort which convinced me not to watch movie again i'll give it the benefit of the doubt though
negative	the only two really good things that i can say about tarzan and the lost city are as follows jane march was very cute as jane and the movie was thankfully under minutes in length if you haven't already figured it out i didn't like this movie very much the plot was boring and contrived to the extreme tarzan casper van dien has now left the jungle and living in civilized society he is just days away from his impending marriage to jane played by the aptly named jane march back in his former home of africa a group of looters has found the key to locating a lost city mind you i never really figured out why they actually wanted to find this city anyway tarzan's old jungle friend appears to him in a vision tarzan realizes that he must return to africa to help stop the bad guys from finding the lost city he leaves jane his first mistake in my opinion and travels to africa of course jane is hot on her ape man's heals the two of them are reunited in africa where they do battle with the bad guys sound like a dumb explanation of the plot it's actually an improvement over the real thing the acting is just plain awful i'm not quite sure what casper van dien was doing in this film but it wasn't acting jane march wasn't a heck of a lot better but at least she is easy on the eyes compounding the bad acting was the fact that in many places the dialogue had obviously been and i've seen better dubbing in some old bruce lee movies added to the sound problems was the cinematography this film was filled with beautiful african scenery but the panoramic scenery shots looked overexposed to me quite frankly i think you could probably do a better job capturing the beauty of africa with a camcorder than this bunch did with professional film equipment then we have the special effects special effects in a tarzan movie you are no doubt asking yourself yes friends the writers injected some very out of place supernatural elements into the story probably for the sake of using cgi since it did nothing but hurt the story in most parts they weren't bad just nothing special but they were more than a little on the hokey side except of course when we got to the ridiculous climax of this movie the grand finale's special effects went right into the toilet at that point it almost looked like they had run out of money these effects were of noticeably lower quality than those in the rest of the film and looked like something in an amateur video production i took one lesson away from watching tarzan and the lost city ape men and bones that morph into skeletal warriors don't mix stay far away from this version of tarzan
negative	silly performances and some huge gaps in logic mar an otherwise interesting tale of an eclectic group of people stranded at the last stop cafe and motel due to heavy snowfall one of the stranded is a colorado state highway patrolman adam beach who discovers a murder scene and a bag full of cash from a recent bank robbery someone amongst the group of strangers is a bank robber and a murderer but is it the same person or are there multiple criminals adam beach unfortunately was the wrong choice for the lead in this film he doesn't play the role with enough seriousness to be believable or enough goofiness for it to be funny his performance is stuck somewhere in the middle and this film really needed it to be on one side or the other rose mcgowan is cold and unpleasant to the eye as always and jurgen prochnow what on earth is he doing in this best performance comes from william s taylor as a cheesy yet still somehow cool and confident wayne newton drifter type the last stop is available on dvd from sterling home entertainment as usual with sterling they've filled out this dvd with extra features the disc contains the film in its original aspect ratio of a choice of dolby surround sound or dolby digital surround sound a full length audio commentary track with director mark malone interviews with the cast and crew the original trailer and the usual cast and crew biographies the film itself might not be the greatest but sterling's effort of adding decent extra features while keeping the price affordable suggested retail of makes this dvd worth the money 
negative	so i went and saw this film right it was called battlefield earth i was never interested in the previews and never too terribly interested in the book nor do i find scientology interesting but after reading advanced reviews of how bad this film really is i had that weird urge just to watch it well let me be the first to say and so far in my view it's safe to say battlefield earth might be the worst film i have ever seen yes even worse than mr magoo blue in the face or jaws the revenge roger christianson whos credits include set direction and art direction for such great films as alien and star wars directs this film with such amateurism that the film looks and feels and in fact sounds so dumb that it's quite depressing the look of the film is dark and drabby at times but then bright and happy at other times the sound is terrible and has the worst surround sound effects i've heard the acting is nothing the dialogue poor and the effects hideous here's the plot earth man is a endangered species while aliens from the planet psychlo the aliens are named psychlo i wonder why are invading earth destined to put an end to those to an end and destroy earth once and for all of course we have our typical hero played terrible by barry pepper who was great in a small role in the green mile who is destined to go out and save his planet one thing he has to go up against terl the chief of security psychlo who is played frankly quite bad by john travolta whom with dreadlocks a big head and green eyes just doesn't work of course the sidekick to terl is played by lol forest whitaker who looks like a deformed werewolf of some kind our friendly human johnny barry pepper looks just as bad as well with long scraggly hair i'm not really sure how to quite explain the badness of this film except just to say it's terrible everything in this film is imcomprehinsable from the effects which by the way aren't good to the phony looking special effects everything in this film is faulted in fact i don't remember one part in this entire movie where i was having a good time or enjoying myself in fact there is no part in the movie that i liked or enjoyed throughout the entire minute running time i was dying constantly looking at my watch and hoping maybe the projectioner would blow a bulb or something sadly it didn't my advice to hollywood get new scripts new acting classes better directors and damnit make films like american beauty more
negative	by phil curtolo madonna antonio banderas jonathan price in an alan parker film with music from andrew lloyd weber and lyrics by tim rice evita now i have to admit the trailer for this motion picture is almost for some the soundtrack is wonderful to listen to so why wouldn't the movie be wonderful to see simple a little over hours of constant singing can almost drive you insane the story of eva duarte madonna evita is full of drama that's trapped inside by all the notes and chords she was an orphaned child who ends up becoming a hooker then goes into the field of acting and finally meets juan peron price the first president of argentina they fall in love and eventually marry sounds pretty good doesn't it well the story gets better as eva goes on the rainbow tour across europe trying to win respect eva duarte was a wonderful lady however all of the moments above were never understood because the actors and actresses sang to fast to be understood i went into theater at magic cinemas with the attitude that evita was going to be terribly boring and i left with happy because i was right they only thing that kept me awake during the movie was the loud bangs of the drums and strums of the guitar although it did come off as dull the beautiful cinematography is as was madonna's performance as the spiritual leader of argentina madonna would have definitely been an had she spoken a single line but her chance was taken away with the stubbornness of making an exact replica of the broadway musical a film don't get me wrong and don't look at my grade i am not a big fan of musicals on the big screen if you're going to pay to see a movie you want to see a movie now i have to admit it's a lot cheaper to pay than plus to see the play but that's what did me in all this review contains is my opinion and my grade was set before i even saw the movie now you may be saying what kind of critic is he and you're right as a critic i should have given the movie a chance but as a old quentin tarantino fan it was way too hard 
negative	i have never seen a man so in love with himself than george lucas with the overt success of the three original star wars films lucas has become not necessarily a filmmaker but the head cheeze at a huge toy company with the phantom menace the new product on the shelve only this toy was made for million but every kid wants it and like all other expensive toys falls apart within an hour after playing with it the product in question star wars episode the phantom menace jeez is pure and simple its about the money baby no one in their right mind would create such a fiasco if they knew it wouldn't make a ton of money before its fourth week of release i come to the sw franchise as a stranger since i have absolutely no idea why the sw movies are so popular i find them rather boring and full of nothing but eye candy phantom menace is like the first sw minus nothing in the whole concept is remotely enjoyable even the special effects seem rather bland the story in this new one is a mindless mess the acting wooden and the action sequences like something out of a video game sw phantom menace is one of the worst films of the year so far with a title like sw tpm lucas has one big head on those shoulders i thought chris carter did for releasing an movie although that movie adaptation was an excellent way to spend two hours pm is one long headache
negative	an affluent horse breeder's past comes up to haunt him an ages old and blackmail comes back to haunt him at the hands of one of his accomplices that's pretty much the essence of the movie and i have to say that it becomes quite boring at times and is very slow that aside the story was well presented and probably quite close and representative of its source the acting in particular i found very good the character development was also quite interesting but alas the story simply did not hold my interest enough for me to get into the movie a few things about the story didn't sit very well with me for example the original scam and heavily involved the character played by sharon stone yet in the end her character played a relatively small role and it seems she should have been utilized more to further the story along better on the flip side the character played by catherine keener i found to be very interesting and i thought that it was developed very well and helped the story a lot the character's aside this movie had some interesting merits but in the end it lacked in story and pacing as far as the acting and casting for this movie is concerned i have to say that the choices of nick nolte and jeff bridges were great as well as that of catherine keener all these people acted their parts admirably as for the part that sharon stone played she played it well but the part was not utilized enough the directing for this movie is something that i have to comment on because for once in a long while you see a director actually add a very distinctive flavor to a movie this is one of those occasions matthew warchus in my opinion added an interesting touch and spin to the movie and i think he tackled a touch subject i myself wouldn't be able to look at horseracing and make a movie out of it there is a certain flavor about this movie and i think that the direction of the movie is the reason for this the one flaw that i do have to comment on is the pacing the subject matter in my opinion wasn't interesting enough on its own to have this kind of flavoring and directorial touch about it i certainly hope that the director makes more movies as this does show promise even if i myself don't like it all in all i found this movie boring and very slow the acting was good but the story just didn't evolve enough and wasn't captivating enough to make simpatico an enjoyable movie to watch although there is much going for the movie i didn't find it good even though i see the merits and style used and can compliment the movie on them i wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone but if you are a horse fanatic or a racing fanatic then you will most likely enjoy this movie
negative	a fullyloaded entertainment review website coming soon hunter s thompson's fear and loathing in las vegas written in is already an american classic not merely because it was an unadulterated journey through the of the but also because it ushered in a new form of journalism known as gonzo soon after the book was written hunter s thomspon became the basis for a character in doonesbury known as uncle duke and that is the problem with fear and loathing in las vegas the movie although the book is one of my favorites i now agree with thompson's own assessment of the novel as unfilmable the main problem is that the book although detailing wild drug use and adventures was not written on the road it was written and edited by hunter s thomspons relatively sober at his home so although the book depicts drug use and still more drug use it is told with a sense of aloofness and some humor hunter s thomspon the narrator while always drugged out still has a grip on reality and can still tell with journalistic ability what is going on around him not so with the characters in fear and loathing in las vegas despite name changes and one minor scene from the book dropped the movie is an exact duplicate of the book in terms of dialouge unfortunately this can get annoying in the form of johnny depp's who plays thompson excessive narration and the characters while having vivid personalities are played as characers on the screen dr raoul duke johnny depp the name raoul duke was an alias of thompson's and his riding companion dr gonzo benicio del toro who is a large samoan lawyer have no personalities or emotions at all save for stoned the film is very faithful to the plot what there is of the book in that dr raoul duke is sent by sports illustrated to cover the mint and takes along not only his samoan lawyer but also car trunk full of drugs from there one set of stoned adventures after another happens including one of the few good scenes in which depp high on acid watches all the people in the bar around him turn into literally lounge lizards while the movie has its moments few it is almost unwatchable at parts especially towards the end despite a lot of celebrity cameos the stars never get off the ground the set decoration and costumes are great and probably deserve an oscar nomination however as we all know it's not sets or effects that make a movie its the characters and quite frankly these characters are no good
negative	filmmakers will use all manner of tricks to flesh out and brighten up a dull dreary and overused idea doug liman swingers director of the and severely dark comedy go is an example of just such a filmmaker in his latest he gives the viewers a raucous backdrop as cinematographer and points the audience down a path of misadventure as director but he fails to come up with any parallel structure in his movie and he fails to connect with the audience on any level bringing the worth of his efforts to nil and the value of go to about the same his movie is produced telling the same story from multiple three points of view much as an author might write a serial novel consistent with this ethic liman and screenwriter john august provide a bit of an overlap at the beginning of each narrative and insert brief connections to other narratives the thread that laces the three stories together is a drug deal and the events thereafter in story a we have checkout clerk ronna sarah polley looking to score some rent money and turning to drug trafficking to do it in story b we have regular drug dealer simon desmond askew gone to las vegas giving ronna her opportunity and in story c we have gay soap actors zack jay mohr and adam scott wolf working undercover for the police to bust said drug deal neither of the three stories have much substance and the movie has the feel of a campfire story albeit a rather strange one that could be told in five to ten minutes in fact the movie was originally a short film entitled x expanded to feature length the early april release date is too mistimed to capitalize on the movie's christmas setting and the los vegas nightlife is something too far from the mainstream for most to attach themselves to the characters are shallow to the point of prerequisite and performances from players like polley askew and taye diggs don't help or hurt the roles in fact even bigger names like mohr wolf and katie holmes don't have enough time to make substantial success although that's almost expected for lack of continuous screen time the success in the picture should come from a thread that binds the stories go doesn't have this and it suffers because of it as far as teen movies are concerned go represents the absolute bottom for its constant stream of indecipherable light and sound mean nothing without some sort of common theme the following do not count as common themes drug deals people attempting to have romantic interludes with drug dealers people resorting to drug deals for alterior motives or people not involved in drug deals stumbling into them at times the humor in go is sickly funny and on a low night almost watchable but for the majority of its running time and for most viewers this movie will best be left to teens at blockbuster on a saturday night
negative	i feel sorry for the financial backers of waterworld which is supposedly the most expensive film ever made at million and is also one of the stupidest boy did they get ripped off in fact this film is not really a movie but more of an amusement park ride with a plot it's not even just another case of cliches strung together well it is that too it's something that's painful to watch because it relishes in its flaws kevin costner stars as a man who is some kind of mutant half fish he is an on an alternate earth that is completely covered by water because the polar ice caps melted he's referred to as the mariner but they the meaner would have been a more appropriate title because he's cold rigid and strict and he's supposed the be the good guy he docks at a small floating village of sorts he trades dirt for money and this introduces us to the other important characters first we meet one of the villains then the heroine a child prodigy a wacky inventor and a group of primitive people that somehow have some of the technology we have today but also some of the tools used by pirates and vikings immediately the film's biggest flaw is apparent are these people primitive or highly advanced it doesn't seem like anyone can read yet they have and airplanes how are these things powered and if they have airplanes couldn't they just keep flying until they reached dry land also if the planet is completely covered in water where did they get the materials to make these things i'm sorry i'm all for checking your brain at the door when going to the movies but elements like these cannot go unnoticed because they draw our attention away from the story and confuse us there was potential here for a good pirate story set in medieval times before modern technology so why mix the two together it doesn't make any sense there really isn't much of a plot here because the story moves so quickly it never takes time to explain anything the only thing we learn is that the prodigy child enola mojorino has a tattoo on her back that is supposedly a map to dryland who put the tattoo there and how come it has taken them this long to figure this out we never get an answer just a stupid action movie about whoever can get the girl will be the victor of sorts if they reach dryland to make a long boring stupid and just plain bad story short the mariner escapes with a woman named helen tripplehorn and enola they sail for a long time encountering some strange people in the process and fight off the smokers as lead by the idiot villain deacon hopper who kidnaps enola the story becomes a overly grand adventure with the mariner taking on an army of goons rescuing enola and bringing them all to salvation how original even with all its special effects action and adventure this film is boring not a single character is likable therefore neither is the plot dennis hopper completely rips off jack nicholson's joker while costner just plain rips still waterworld is professionally made with a good production design and an original idea but no substance to it i just hope they don't make a sequel
negative	to watch earth' is to wallow in misery it is one of the most ludicrously conceived efforts in recent history it has a clumsily told story insipid dialogue shallow characterizations ugly scene transitions no evidence of dramatic arc sound effects and a resolution that is completely implausible worse there's the promise of a sequel why save your money some films go quickly to video this one however should go straight to the channel's science theatre in the year man has become an endangered species most of humanity called was destroyed generations ago in a battle against a race of plundering aliens called psychlos survivors have either taken up shelter in caves or were enslaved to mine earth's resources for the rest of their lives the aliens are a menacing looking humanoid species that stand tall who resemble inbred klingons dimwitted as they are tall their culture is predicated on power extortion and getting leverage travolta the star plays terl the conniving security chief that oversees the mining facility on earth much of the movie is spent showing us examples of terl's petty machinations he routinely employs deception and then punctuates his statements with maniacal laughter but one thing is certain he hates being stationed on earth when the home planet informs him that he will be spending the rest of his life on this planet he begins to devise his latest plan he will select a group of slaves to secretly mine out a gold ore site it's not clear how this benefits terl except that it makes him richer in a place where he has no use for it the scrappy jonnie goodboy tyler barry peppers is selected as the slave group's leader a psychlo knowledge machine gives him the mining but the machine also teaches him other things such as the psychlo language the principles of our founding fathers euclidean geometry and the location of fort knox this enlightenment just doesn't prepare him for the mining assignment it also prepares him to organize and stage a massive revolt against their captors going to blow up their home world he says first we need a few more supplies in days he and his comrades evolve from cave dwelling loincloth wearing rat eating slaves to fighter pilots and nuclear weapons experts by now the audience is laughing as maniacally as terl the media have been working overtime to let the public know that john travolta's labor of love is a piece of drivel numerous journals have called it an idea stemming from blind hubris arrogance and poor planning and after watching this movie you'll wholeheartedly agree this is a terrible film that is illogically constructed tediously acted and frequently begs the question why was this ever made at a price tag of million this film will be remembered as a gigantic folly assuredly becoming avengers' of this summer both films were unforgivable and this promises to suffer the same speedy fate and subsequent indignity in addition to the universally pejorative reviews there's another bizarre element to the saga this film would never have been made if not for the star power of travolta who for over a decade had been trying to persuade studios to bring the story to the big screen the controversy is that travolta is a scientologist and is based on a novel by l ron hubbard the religion's late founder this led some to believe that earth' would amount to scientologist dogma laden with subliminal messages but the story is so poorly told that any message subliminal or otherwise is totally undetectable if the audience got anything out of this film it was this we are not too unlike the psychlo leader like terl the audience felt imprisoned dreaded their situation and looked for any opportunity to leave could that be the scientology message
negative	you can't have any of this it's all mine a twisted priest charles huevelman hordes his tasty fried chicken while dana angela zimmerly looks on uninterested an evil presence appropriately named the presence dj vivona rules over an alternate dimension where neither angels nor demons can touch him for kicks the presence likes to trick a human into rounding up five of his or her friends so they can all be sent to his dimension and be systematically slaughtered when something goes wrong and one of the presence's recent victims escapes the angels and demons are alerted to his existence and feel he is a threat that needs to be stopped they enlist the help of alison ramona midgett a recent suicide victim to return to the flesh and follow the six new enlistees through the ice wall that surrounds the the her mission is to melt away the ice barrier and allow the angels and demons access by reminding the presence of who he once was an ancient court jester named abraham who lost his job when his king and queen were killed the king's sorcerer amblyn who also lost his job decided to take abraham under his wing as an apprentice during the downtime in his unemployment amblyn decided to create a new dimension where sorcery evil and torture ruled abraham wished to follow his master into this new realm so he was asked to show his devotion to the evil wizard by murdering his one true love in this new realm amblyn would allow abraham to pursue the sport of hunting and destroying the humans that would be brought to this realm after each murder abraham would become stronger until his power surpassed that of amblyn's because of the that allowed the recent escape abraham was able to destroy his master and take control of the realm himself as alison quests to find abraham and show him the errors of his ways the six new hapless humans are allowed to live out their worst nightmares and then be brutally murdered if there's one thing i can't stand when i see a film it's when the film is pretentious and arty just for the sake of being pretentious and arty films like eraserhead and begotten are two of the worst examples of this and now ice from the sun can be added to this list this film is essentially an minute film following the dante's inferno idea that your hell corresponds to how you lived your life or any one of the plots to nightmare on elm street through intercut with almost minutes of strange and supposedly haunting images many of which serve more to confuse than to further the plot if there aren't bizarre images floating past the screen then we get pointless shots of a suicidal alison staring at her breakfast for minutes at a time or contemplating whether or not she should answer her phone compelling but ultimately not the opening credits sequence is designed like a music video for some unknown industrial band featuring various random images from the film interspersed with other random images the credits run the entire length of the song which is almost five minutes and the actual cast listing and other credit information doesn't pop up until near the end of the sequence when the opening credits began i thought my vcr had accidentally cut off and a interstitial from had found its way to my tv at least the music in the film is pretty decent made up of mostly industrial and hard rock music and even features a song by ramona midgett at the beginning of the film it is established that the presence possesses supernatural powers like shooting bullets out of the palms of his hands and decapitating people by waving his hand in front of them and he talks like a darth vader clone without the heavy breathing for some reason though he delegates all of his main stalkings to what seems like the supporting cast of deliverance one cretin handles the presence's gravedigging and likes to chop peoples heads off with his shovel then there's an inbred father dwight spurgin and his two inbred children mark kettler and jennifer that take care of a young woman who has been transformed into a half human mix with a shotgun and of course a big truck driving guy that likes to tie people up naked to the back of his vehicle and drag them across stone roads before pouring salt all over their wounds why would you want to give responsibilities to a bunch of rednecks when you yourself had all of these cool powers and how is it that the fellow that screws over all of his buddies is able to round up exactly five friends to complete the number of people required to enter the realm at exactly the same time i can barely get more than two together all at once at any given moment the most ridiculous segment though comes right before the aforementioned sequence the character in question dana angela zimmely has her turn up to be killed and is standing at the front of a movie theater in which the presence is seated a priest holding two naked dirty humans on leashes walks in and sits down next to a large platter of fried chicken he picks up the entire platter and starts to enjoy the chicken taunting dana as she looks on with no interest whatsoever when she starts to leave the priest chides her for going before the performance starts and then something that looks like a either a creature from a gwar show or a terry gilliam animation from monty python come to life walks out and makes like it wants to be crucified by her the presence starts to clap annoyingly which continues for the rest of the sequence until dana takes off with the strange creature following her when it finally catches up to her she stabs it in its giant eyeball and is covered in slimy glop that spurts from the ruptured organ the box for the film claims because of the horrifying nature of the motion picture parental discretion is advised for persons under the age of contains nudity and graphic violence while both is certainly true there doesn't seem to be much of either in any large amounts besides a loving close up of a spurting neck stump a scene and two instances of head trauma one run over and one melting most of the gore is just of the spraying blood or bloody wound covered body variety as for nudity it is very sparse but at least we get to see angela zimmerly far and away the most attractive cast member before her body is bruised torn and bloodied by the dragging incident ice from the sun has been released on vhs by www com it has been presented in in only and the transfer for a film shot a good deal in is pretty decent besides the decent soundtrack which is also available from www com a video is also available called on thin ice i haven't had the opportunity to see the documentary but i actually would have been interested to see what the set was like while all of the shots were being filmed if only to see how director eric stanze director of a similar cult film called savage harvest conducted the atmosphere on set
negative	an old woman jumps enthusiastically on her couch wearing leather as she cheers on her favorite tv wrestler by calling his opponent a two men messily eat fast food as their septic truck leaks raw sewage directly behind them and roughly people are booted in the crotch welcome to to rumble' judging from the fact that adam sandler is the reigning comedy champion you realize albeit while shaking your head that yes there is an audience for this sort of thing ladies and gentlemen i weep for society mind you when executed with style and comic ingenuity jokes like an alarming bodily fluid mistaken for hair gel something about mary' and a attack of explosive diarrhea and dumber' can be extremely funny unfortunately to rumble' is not being helmed by the farrelly brothers nor is it bolstered by a script that accommodates the viewer with anything even remotely clever or inspired to rumble' is built around the dedicated of professional wrestling which in fact sounded like a fine concept for a goofball comedy but director brian robbins and screenwriter steven brill handcuff themselves and limited to a stampede of asinine humdrum bathroom humor basically the only thing they manage is to evoke memories of pauly shore and dome' gordie boggs david arquette and sean dawkins scott caan take pride in being hardcore wcw wrestling fanatics by day they transport raw sewage by night particularly on nitro' monday they pay homage to their personal hero and savior jimmy king oliver platt the undisputed leader of the professional wrestling community with two tickets to an upcoming nitro performance gordie and sean are psyched about witnessing the king defend his title but unscrupulous boxing kingpin titus sinclair joe pantoliano sporting long hair and cowboy boots has other plans sinclair is plotting to have diamond dallas page playing himself pummel the king into the tarp thereby dethroning the dignified wrestler and embarrassing him in front of a bewildered auditorium full of fans gordie and sean are shocked rioting madly while arguing isn't even a view event they take it upon themselves to track the king down and supply the encouragement essential for their fallen idol to make a attempt along the way you can expect a lot of jokes as well you may find something to like in to rumble' if a you are a rasslin' aficionado yourself or b you are a dedicated fan of the lowest of comedies i welcome humor with open arms that is if its fresh and resourceful is nothing but a sloppy frightfully unfunny swamp land of misbegotten retardation the first is the ultimate test of patience luckily the events pick up steam particularly with the wrestling action director robbins showed a knack for capturing the brutality and excitement of football in blues' and when in the ring he does professional work but the violence is too excessive having the fake soap opera of wcw wrestling turn into a bloody skirmish brings back unfortunate memories of owen hart's tragic accident just last year especially with one character's dive during a cage match this is not something you want a comedy to be reminiscent of outside the wrestling action the lewd jokes and puerile sight gags bring new meaning to the term scattershot' while the dialogue fluctuates in on the vulgarity scale of to with brill's extensive vocabulary ranging from to and so on the final tally i chuckled a few times groaned a lot and indulged in one spirited belly laugh involving martin landau as a geriatric wrestling coach who fights pretty impressively for to rumble' is an odd duck oliver platt as a champion wrestling figure he's perhaps a bit chunky but fellow wrestlers acknowledge this in the ring by calling him which dampens the blow i suppose rose mcgowan is fully disposable as a sultry wcw cheerleader of the nitro girls proclaims gordie but extra pep is added with appearances by wrestlers goldberg man' randy savage and sting among others wcw fans are sure to appreciate these others well won't i found merit in david arquette's bountiful energy as gordie which brings me to my finishing ahhh for the film in to rumble' i have discovered something even more annoying than arquette's television commercials now there's a low blow for you
negative	it's a rare treat when a quality horror film is released in the theater and unfortunately with man's best friend we'll be waiting a while longer the film stars ally sheedy and lance henrikson in a tale of gone wrong sheedy plays a nosy reporter whose need for a good story provokes her to snoop inside of emax a poorly guarded million dollar that she finds herself effortlessly intruding the result she unleashes the experimental wonder dog named max a german shepherd with genetic recombination allowing it to swallow like a snake camouflage like a chameleon climb trees like a leopard and attack with the strength of tiger max takes a liking to sheedy and she finds herself protecting the animal from the cruel technological realm of emax owned by henrikson well it doesn't take long before the hormonally unstable biohazard unleashes his jowls upon the unsuspecting suburban landscape which offers max juicy leg of mailman etc sheedy is a boring on the screen tripping through the enormous plot chasms neglected by the i apologize for a lack of credits i suppose i was eager to leave the theater and in my rush forgot to take note of the director writer producer etc henrikson offered the only relief from the contrived narration of the script giving his character as much development as he could considering the flat dialogue plaguing the film the movie depends upon it's ability to impress the audience with animal special effects but all it presents is a dog that can growl open door handles with his paw sit roll over play dead and sick the rest of the special effects were so poor i found them offensive the film attains an unambitious film at best horror fans might find that cujo offers a better bite
negative	joe versus the volcano is really one of the worse movies made in very recent memory the strangest thing is that you would think nothing would go wrong with it it has a solid cast with tom hanks meg ryan as the lead roles but you can never judge a movie by its cast if there is one good thing about joe vs the volcano it is that the plot is original unfortunately it is also incredibly stupid the movie begins with joe tom hanks going to work this opening sequence is very boring and slow it shows joe walking to his office but on the way he has to wait in a long line passing by strange and slightly depressing scenery with obnoxious lighting a sequence like this should take minutes here it takes over it is obvious that joe hates his job at his office one of his is meg ryan oddly enough she plays different roles in this movie joe leaves to go to a doctor's appointment his doctor informs him that he has a brain cloud this means that in a few months he will die so what does joe do quit his job of course when he arrives home joe meets an old man named graynamore lloyd bridges graynamore tells joe that in order to get some important mineral for his company from an island the natives need someone to sacrifice to their volcano to please their fire god by a startling coincidence the boat trip to the island takes a few months by the time he reaches the island he will almost be dead from the brain cloud anyway so joe agrees graynamore gives joe a credit card to buy everything he needs to go on this great adventure joe goes on a date with meg ryan his the day before the boat trip joe meets one of graynamore's daughters she is also surprise meg ryan except she looks more hippyish they both have dinner and the next day joe gets driven over to his boat the lady that sails the boat is another one of graynamore's daughters and wonder of wonders she is also played by meg ryan as they sail to the island meg ryan tells joe that the natives of the island have a craving for orange soda after some stupid talking scenes they also deduce that graynamore had his doctor be the one that joe went to and that the brain cloud thing was made up they do plently of cheap special effects on the boat voyage joe goes fishing and catches a hammerhead shark this is a cheap gag that has been pulled off many times but to top it off the shark is obviously rubber and fake one night there is a storm a lightning bolt strikes the boat and everything is cast overboard fortunately joe and meg ryan manage to find some of the luggage that joe brought to sail by pure luck they get to the island since the natives like orange soda they wear soda cans as attire stupid or what before joe leaps in the volcano he gets fed right before he jumps meg ryan pleads him not to when joe decides to she goes in with him because she loves him now this is where the movie should end but unfortunately the cheesy ending bug comes in the volcano blows the couple out and into the ocean where they land on joe's luggage they float to another part of the island as they watch lava pouring out of the volcano towards the villagers i give this movie a see it only if you're a film buff that enjoys a bad movie every now and then or if you really like tom hanks or meg ryan
negative	be gentle urges natasha henstridge to matthew perry in the whole nine yards i haven't made love in five years neither have i rebuts perry i'm married if jonathan lynn's latest comedy relied simply on jokes of that it certainly it'd be an innocuous if rather obvious little film instead its failings go much deeper first off who hasn't had enough of the tough wiseguy intimidates the timid wise guy genre if you want to make a pretty penny or two in hollywood nowadays simply write a comedy which pairs a robert de willis type with a billy perry type and wait for the royalties to roll in who's next jack nicholson and martin short it certainly doesn't have to be funny the whole nine yards is not a particularly funny film but it is borderline offensive offensive in the way it continues a trend of poking fun at career criminals who wouldn't think twice about pushing your off the brooklyn bridge with her feet encased in concrete that might sound like a funny sight gag but the problem is these films have long since lost sight of the fact that taking a human life isn't all that funny to begin with when the corpse is placed in a car doused with gasoline set ablaze and referred to as barbecue it makes you wonder when all this playing killing for laughs is going to end the whole nine yards is also offensive in so much as its three central female characters are portrayed as nothing more than sex objects rosanna arquette plays a slutty french canadian who's married to matthew perry's dentist it's an unflattering role made all the more so by the unflattering unflattering which arquette is thrust then there's natasha henstridge species i and ii who plays the wife of contract killer bruce willis she gets involved with perry's character when he comes to chicago hoping to negotiate a finder's fee with mob boss yanni gogolack kevin pollack transposing his vs with his ws after willis' jimmy the tulip tudeski moves in next door henstridge and perry's characters hitting it off is about as likely as bruce and demi getting back together perry might have the charm but he doesn't have the physical attributes of a traditional leading man especially in most objectified of the bunch is amanda peet who turns in a performance as perry's dental assistant with it transpires questionable career goals peet's gratuitous nude scene proves how low this movie will stoop to keep its audience from dropping off when my cousin vinny is the highpoint of a directorial career including such forgettable films as clue greedy and sgt bilko you have to wonder if lynn chose the wrong career path perry's pratfalling goofiness coupled with willis' likable hardness could have had some potential but with no script to work with and a director who seems to be watching from the wings their characters run out of gas quickly
negative	flubber is the second best example of how to take all the life out of a film remake an adaptation and hysterically enough both were distributed by disney it's the kind of film that may be slightly entertaining to tiny kids but anyone else will feel left out as it's boring slow and incredibly lifeless what could be a film with cinematic magic is instead dead in the water and it's a shame because it could have been a great film hypothetically i mean flubber as you probably know is a remake of the disney classic i never saw the absent minded professor where a well absent minded professor played by fred mcmurray created an erratic substance known as flubber you know flying rubber the new one keeps the basic plot but appears to have added a lot else like more on the part of the proffessor some more villains and several moments like a big rumba with the flubber and some more elaborate setups none which really make it any better but instead make it worse the basic plot revolves around a college professor philip brainerd robin williams who creates lots and lots of inventions but is sadly absent minded in fact he's forgotten his wedding to the college's president sara jean reynolds indie actress marcia gay harden two times before he forgets it again at the beginning doesn't this warrant some kind of mental treatment anyway on his wedding day the third one he invents the flubber which not only bounces off of everything like a super ball on speed but can also change shape like the aliens in water form in the abyss philip believes that this invention once fully realized will save his college which is in threat of being shut down by a millionaire chester hoenicker raymond j barry which is ironically enough the same college his brat son will wheaton thought he was dead goes to through a plot twist hoenicker's goons named smith and wesson ha ha what a great sense of humor this film has who are played by clancy brown and ted levine both who needed the pay check discover it the hard way and try to steal for hoenicker who wants it just he's evil enough a involves philip's attempts to win back sara who's angry at him and with good reason but who is being seduced by who is basically philip's belloq wilson croft christopher mcdonald playing the hysterically asswhole once again and in another subplot philip's robot weebo voiced by the jodi benson falls in love with him  what's most pathetic about this film is how dull it is you don't need to be a cynical college student to be able to see right through this film which is another in a long line of cheap attempts at making a quick buck by disney who have essentially become the puff daddy of the film industry classics or for distribution to the general public who sadly eats it all up earlier in they released jungle jungle an adaptation of a really awful french film un indien dans la ville which yeah improved over the original but not by much disney's in about as bad shape as warner brothers right now only creatively in the rush to ship out a film for distribution disney has forgotten to give this film a little thing called magic such scenes as dancing flubber a flying car a basketball team that pretty much sucks flying all around thanks to some carefully placed flubber and an elaborate ending all fail to amaze delight or even cause people to laugh i sat there the entire film stone faced chuckling perhaps twice and shaking my head at all the bad jokes who could really laugh at a scene where philip enters the wrong classroom and starts teaching chemistry didn't think so it doesn't help that our protagonist is essentially unfunny or even really respectable philip is not a lovable absent minded professory just a really dumb man being played by robin williams williams is a brilliant comic actor okay a brilliant actor in general but here he's given very little to do but occasionally get hyper over something and other times act sad those times he's not bad but what are we supposed to think of a man who's forgotten his wedding thrice maybe it was funny respectable in the i like disney and i usually enjoy their films not only animated but live action and their recent films save for hercules which was good but not great have been worse than lackluster they've been pathetic jungle jungle is probably the worst film i saw last year flubber probably second what do they need to do perhaps create something new get writers who can write something that's universally entertaining films like the parent trap and mary poppins are films that are live action or in the latter case a mix of both but even i can still watch them because they're not only written to be magical to children but to be fun to adults what's more torturous that taking a child to a film that insults you and annoys you at every turn and my god couldn't they have done something else with edie mcclurg
negative	i'm going to start this review off with a hypothetical question let's say you've just been in a car accident and the driver of the other vehicle is unconscious your friends have left to go get help and you're waiting to see if the victim wakes up a comes along and the driver hops out of the truck to see what's going on he then proceeds to kill the unconscious victim by snapping his neck do you a run away screaming for your life staying away from the main road b run away but not too fast and stay on the main road even when the madman in the truck starts following you stop to catch your breath try to negotiate with the psycho and when that fails start running away again all the while staying on the main road if you answered a you are far more intelligent than the screenwriter of texas chainsaw massacre the next generation and will likely hate this movie however if you answered b prepare to enjoy a film made with idiots like you in mind texas chainsaw massacre the next generation is being called a sequel but it's really more of a remake of the original there's a few changes here and there but it's essentially the same even the infamous meathook scene has been the story opens with four teenagers hitting the road on the night of their prom and somehow ending up in the middle of nowhere needless to say they soon encounter leatherface and his nutty family much carnage ensues to call this movie inept would be putting it mildly in addition to the laughably idiotic situation i mentioned in my hypothetical question there is a moment towards the end of the film where one of the baddies is killed by an airplane that literally comes out of nowhere it just swoops down and kills him with its wheel no explantion is given as to who was flying it or why is going around killing people with the planes wheel the dialogue is even more atrocious zellwegger who is kidnapped by the family early on keeps trying to have normal conversations with these people when you're surrounded by maniacs wielding chainsaws and dead corpses i would think that rationality would go out the window speaking of going out the window there is a scene in which zellwegger jumps out a window apparently the stunt double had a little trouble because she visibly gets stuck in the window the director quickly cuts to a wide shot where the stunt double doesn't get caught in the window this was one of many glaring inconsistencies there are so many in fact that if i were to name them all this review would be several pages long the only reason i am giving this movie one star instead of no stars is because of matthew mcconaughey he plays a member of the family with a hydraulic leg i might add and is so completely you can't help but be amazed by his performance he obviously had a lot of fun with this part and it really shows he makes jack nicholson's portrayal of the psychotic inn keeper in the shining look restrained in comparison for a horror movie texas chainsaw massacre the next generation contains surprisingly little gore in fact in contains none there's a little blood here and there but that's as far as it goes which leads me to believe that the budget must have been astonishingly low and it shows everything about the movie looks cheap from the sets to the costumes especially leatherface once frightening and nightmare inducing he's now as terrifying as dame edna do yourself a favor and take a pass at this remake check out the far superior original instead
negative	susan granger's review of session usa films sometimes you just get more than your bargained for like when hazmat elimination run by scottish actor peter mullan and his trusty assistant david caruso assures a town engineer paul guilifoyle that they can remove insidious asbestos fibers from a victorian hospital facility in a week erected in deserted and decomposing since the danvers mental hospital is one of the most malevolent locations ever chosen for a film the structure is so massive with its labyrinth of corridors collapsing floors stagnant pools of water isolation cells and ominous surgical chambers where experimental lobotomies were performed that their task seems impossible within that time frame and each member of their inexperienced crew stephan gevedon brandon sexton iii and josh lucas is coping with his own personal demons as one by one their minds seem to be affected by the grim areas in which they're working the film's title is derived from salvaged sessions involving the demonic possession of a young woman who is suffering from multiple personalities by the time session occurs so do dreadful disasters filmmaker brad anderson obviously envisioned this as a gruesome ghost story but the script lacks structure and isn't particularly scary the conclusion is more ludicrous than convincing on the granger movie gauge of to session is a dark gloomy silly me at first i thought that the original name of the danvers lunatic asylum bore some reference to mrs danvers the creepy housekeeper played by judith anderson in alfred hitchcock's truly terrifying rebecca that also involved a cavernous mansion called manderley
negative	by the time dennis quaid the ostensible star of switchback makes his first appearance at about the mark you may find yourself wondering why he bothered after all jeb stuart has already set up a fairly promising pair of parallel story lines the first finds amarillo texas sheriff buck olmstead r lee ermey facing a election battle just as a brutal double homicide is discovered at a motel in his jurisdiction as olmstead begins his investigation we also meet the two men who come to be our prime suspects lane dixon jared leto is an enigmatic young hitchhiker bob goodall danny glover is the jovial motorist who offers lane a ride from texas to his utah destination all the necessary conflicts seem to be in place the internal struggle of olmstead over the clash between good politics and good police work and the external struggle as one of the two travelers eventually becomes villain to the other's protagonist but then quaid shows up as grimly determined fbi agent frank lacrosse lacrosse is certain that the amarillo murders are the work of a serial killer he has been tracking for nearly two years he's not supposed to be tracking him any more according to the bureau they've got their man but lacrosse has a very important reason for believing otherwise two months earlier lacrosse's own son was kidnapped by the killer and the boy has yet to turn up anywhere lacrosse knows his killer's work and he knows that the man is still out there somewhere trying to continue their game it wouldn't be fair to reduce everything that's wrong with switchback to quaid's presence but it's a pretty good place to start there's a reason lacrosse feels like an intruder in the narrative instead of its vital center as a dramatic actor dennis quaid possesses exactly one facial expression and one vocal intonation we can tell lacrosse is determined because his face is a perpetual sourpuss pucker we can tell he's grim because every word comes out in an rasp a more flexible performer might have given weight to the character pulling the audience into his haunted intensity making switchback film quaid merely looks annoyed and slightly constipated it's tough to become emotionally invested in a character's turmoil when it looks like all he really needs is a big bowl of bran flakes even without quaid it doesn't appear that switchback would have stayed on course the early scenes between leto and glover have a lively energy building our curiosity over which man the taciturn kid or his gregarious benefactor is the real threat unfortunately stuart tips his hand far too early in the game both through the pitch of the individual performances and the facts he chooses to reveal once the mystery of the killer's identity is dispatched the interaction between leto and glover becomes stale and predictable in fact stale and predictable describes the direction that switchback takes in general falling back on hollywood devices like cats jumping out of nowhere a climactic fistfight on board a freight train and edgy law enforcement agents it's too bad stuart wasn't willing to spend more time with sheriff olmstead far and away the most interesting and appealing character in the film played with atypical restraint by r lee ermey he's a wonderful unconventional hero who seems genuinely comfortable accepting the consequences of acting on his convictions a film focusing on the olmstead would have signaled a willing to take a few risks with his casting and instead stuart places his trust in a name star who can't carry the material maybe next time he'll throw away that one crucial page in the script the one where the grimly determined fbi agent wanders onto the scene to muck up a perfectly good story
negative	gregg araki's the doom generation was possibly the very worst film ever made so why did i see his latest teen bisexual angst opus first of all some of the reviews were fairly positive also the cast consisting of cameos from dozens of washed up ex tv stars including christopher knight eve plumb shannen doherty and david leisure was promising last of all i wanted to give arraki one more chance i mean the guy can't be that untalented can he the answer to that question is three letters long nowhere follows the character dark on his wild and odd journey through los angeles since arraki doesn't know how to make anything coherent it's hard to describe the plot let's just say that dark spends the bulk of the movie whining that his girlfriend won't make a commitment to him and jealous because she sleeps around with other guys and girls the only remotely compelling storyline involves sarah lassez as a teen who has a chance encounter with a famous tv star he turns out to be a nice guy who doesn't care for fame and wishes he could walk down the street without being mobbed by fans this story has a shocking twist and a tragic end that i did not see coming it is the first time i ever felt any compassion for a character created by arraki and this can be attributed to the appealing performance of lassez i thought maybe arraki was improving in his craft he works better with the camera this time around especially in the early scenes halfway through the film i didn't necessarily find myself enjoying the film but it seemed like a considerable improvement on the doom generation then as the movie went on arraki loses all sensibility and introduces us to exploding heads twisted sex games and alien abductions it's sad because he almost actually had some decent material here but he ruined it with his usual in your face i'm such a renegade maverick filmmaker look what i can do attitude the performances are generally better than in the doom generation which isn't saying much at least we don't have to suffer jonathan i am the most hideous man in america schaech we are however treated to another round of james i'm more wooden than keanu duval sarah lassez gives the best performance in the film and kathleen robertson formerly of and now arraki's wife and rachel true are talented actresses caught up in this mess of the tv star cameos john ritter is the most interesting as a deranged right wing tv evangelist if i prefer nowhere to the doom generation it is only in the way that i would prefer being assassinated than receive constant physical torture maybe greg arraki doesn't want you to like his characters maybe he wants to laugh and make fun of those of us who try to care about them maybe he just wanted to piss me off if so he was successful
negative	sometimes when i decide to write a short story or a poem i think of a title first and then think of a subject to go with it it seems that the makers of disturbing behavior had a similar train of thought when it came to the title sequence i wouldn't be surprised if a couple of guys got together and created the opening credits and then someone saw it and made up a story to go along with it the title sequence is so good so ominous and original that it had me engrossed before the picture even began of course my attention dwindled shortly into the film disturbing behavior like so many thrillers starts off interesting and ends up laughably ridiculous it's a teen horror film with no interesting violence or sex it's a suspense film with no suspense it's an evil small town story with no story to speak of it's a disaster a listless and uninspired disaster that just barely misses because of a few good sequences a mercifully short running time and one terrific set of opening credits our main man is a fellow named steve clark blandly played by jimmy marsden he moves to a small town with his family after tragically his brother shoots himself steve is very upset about the untimely death of his brother we learn this through strange like nightmares that he has occasionally the big trial for steve is of course to fit in at school and make new friends marsden looks like your stereotypical jock down to the last detail so he seems a poor casting choice for a social reject as a social reject he falls in with some pretentious philosophers gavin nick stahl and rachel katie holmes gavin informs steve that the local group of jocks known as the blue ribboners are actually a bunch of zombies assimilating new members into their group while sporadically killing innocent people so it's up to our group of mismatched protagonists to solve the mystery and do something about it by the end of it all something has happened and things have been explained but the film still doesn't make any sense disturbing behavior was written by scott rosenberg i've seen his name around recently he was one of the on the armageddon script and i imagine that for the most part he knows what he's doing when it comes to screenwriting he did however have a complete lapse in judgement when he got the idea for this film and then decided to actually take the time to write it out evil small town films are pretty common the last one phantoms is also a dismal failure but it takes a lot of skill to make the formula work rosenberg's script is a complete mess lacking in even the most basic attempts at characterization and it makes no sense nor is their any purpose when things are finally explained there is supposed to be an element of surprise when we see what is happening to the jocks but the film never explains exactly what is happening they get strapped to chairs a microchip is inserted into their eyes and poof they become superviolent creatures the doctor responsible for all this dr caldicott bruce greenwood must be pretty nuts for thinking that this kind of behavior is a step up from the way high school jocks actually behave or perhaps this is the only realistic element in the film much of the writing is simply bad and rosenberg has no intuition when it comes to the way high school kids act in one terrible scene gavin explains to steve all of the high school cliques while pointing them out in the cafeteria up front i should say that in four years of high school i did not eat in the cafeteria even once that aside the various social groups he points out are general uninteresting and for instance he points to the nerds who are all wearing glasses and playing with their laptops it's such an obvious cliche that i can't believe rosenberg even bothered most of the dialogue is forced no one says bite me anymore and none of the scenes have any degree of wit this picture is not inspired and most scenes flop from one to the other with no sense of momentum or energy the blame for this can be placed on director david nutter who apparently likes his films dry horror films should at least exploit violence but this one is shockingly timid there are a few good scenes though such as an interesting trip through an insane asylum this is however the most forced scene in the film for how our heroes get there or why they bother are things we never learn i also liked the school janitor character played by william sadler he has a few lines that are surprisingly the acting is largely a waste of talent marsden is as i said bland thought not particularly bad bruce greenwood is shamelessly wasted stahl and holmes both show they have talent but the direction isn't good enough to hone in on their skills stahl's performance seems more like a parody of high school potheads none of these characters expand beyond their one dimension and frankly watching cardboard of human beings run down hallways while screaming just isn't all that cool disturbing behavior is a wreck of a film and it started out a wreck before shooting even began i'm surprised there were producers who read this script and thought that it would make a good film or that it would make a lot of money at the box office it's not boring or even blatantly awful but it's an uninspired lump of a film it sure starts off nicely but the regression into total absurdity is so consistent that the very last scene is outright laughable so if you go to see this film take my advice appreciate the credit sequence and pray it never ends
negative	written by david j schow and john shirley based on the comic book series and comic book strip by james o'barr cast brandon lee ernie hudson michael wincott david patrick kelly rochelle davis and jon polito mpaa rating r presumably for rape language and violence running time minutes looks like he zigged when he should've zagged ernie hudson as a police officer commenting on a suspicious death comic book translations are notorious anyone up for a of the punisher and captain america and the crow proves no exception despite a gross of good intentions brandon lee's final film doesn't fly very high the story opens on halloween eve better known as devil's night is in flames and the police are tending to at least one murder young eric draven lee found on a sidewalk below the apartment he was thrown from the cops are also upstairs administering aid to his fiance who was assaulted and raped and not necessarily in that order she dies the perps escape and exactly one year later draven rises from the grave to wreak revenge sound familiar unlike charles bronson whose only known superpower involves an inability to refrain from filming death wish sequels lee's character has supernatural strength and amazing agility and can even reheal from gunshot wounds faster than robert patrick in terminator by his side is his crow the presumable source of his powers as related in the narration wearing what appears to be alice cooper's leftover lee is plopped into an underlit urban landscape that was obviously modeled after batman and blade runner but no number of streets can compensate for cheap fx that make the crow seem closer to darkman than batman the glaring miniatures should show better on video though  a nod to darkman is an insult to sam raimi though because alex proyas can't film a decent action scene to save his life his two best some banzai butchery and a cool roof sword are also undercut by the awful editing of dov hoenig and scott smith blame said editors for the film's frightful flashbacks as well but the pace is quick thank god and every is over before it begins the cast is better than it should be ernie hudson is a good choice as a friendly policeman and he gets off most of the film's funnier lines newcomer rochelle davis does well as both the narrator and draven's scrappy ward jon polito has a small succulent role as pungent pawnbroker and michael wincott makes a distinct impression as a mr big whose collection of makes him seem like he walked into the film from the trailer to highlander iii there can be only one finally there's brandon lee son of bruce lee and a who was fatally shot during shooting lee had four films to his kung fu the movie laser mission showdown in little toyko and rapid and the crow would've been a nice feather in his belt and that's about it there's nothing great from him just a good performance that owes as much to presence as ability when the echo of that gunshot finally fades watching the crow should prove an even less remarkable experience despite a healthy dose of humor and some surprising sincerity the crow is still just a couple notches above its brethren for now maybe it's an appropriate eulogy to an actor who could only get better
negative	synopsis sullen julie james still haunted by nightmares of the killer ben willis from i know what you did last summer perks up when her new best friend karla wilson wins a trip for four to the bahamas arriving at the start of the hurricane season julie and karla run around in very tight clothing and realize they've walked into a trap set by the rainslickered slasher with a huge hook for a hand comments i may be showing some pop culture illiteracy here but i have never seen an episode of the fox tv series party of five i am only vaguely aware of the show's premise and my knowledge of it comes from brief commercials i attention to while watching the tube party of five i do know however seems to be the starting ground for actresses in the teen horror genre neve campbell scream queen of the and star of scream scream and the craft is a regular of the show so too is jennifer love hewitt lo and behold following in the footsteps of campbell hewitt now has a horror franchise of her own the i know what you did last summer line though the original film released last year was watchable enough this insipid sequel had me looking at the theater's glowing red exit sign longingly throughout jennifer love hewitt is a very young leading lady however unlike neve campbell hewitt struggles with acting she just isn't convincing in this film and she wasn't in the original either this puts many young males including myself in a paradoxical quandary she's very attractive but the annoying spoiled valley character she tries to play here is annoying to the extreme and ruins many of the scenes which emphasize exploitatively her figure add to the mix the equally pleasant yet irritating brandy another rising teen tv star and you get one frustrated male audience i've spent so much time on hewitt and brandy for a reason i still know what you did last summer though cashing in on the success of the original ultimately serves as a vehicle for these two young actresses nothing else here is original or interesting this movie in fact makes other recent horror films like urban legend and john carpenter's vampires seem like stunning works of high art i still know relies heavily on tired slasher film cliches an isolated location a storm parentless teenagers false alarm nightmares lots of darkness scenes a garbed slasher who walks around in the background without the characters seeing him knives and other sharp instruments lying around everywhere etc you get the picture the entire audience knows all the secondary characters introduced in the film are going to receive the business end of the killer's hook they may as well have huge targets painted on them like scream and its numerous knockoffs these secondary characters are supposed to serve as comic relief unfortunately i still know's characters aren't all that funny in particular one character a guy is obnoxiously annoying and certainly doesn't die soon enough the death scenes by the way are relatively violent for a theatrically released horror film several of them are uncomfortable to watch and they reminded me of the sickening gore scenes in hellraiser bloodline a truly sadistic movie this too did not help the supposed humor i still know was shooting for and what is the deal with the slasher himself i know that the slasher film is not a particularly intelligent genre but ben willis has got to go down as one of the most silly slashers in mainstream horror come on the guy looks like the gorton's fisherman and his gruff voice makes him sound like a disney pirate though his appearances ellicited laughter in the theater his appearance borders on the absurd in the horror film and that's really saying something so all that's left to talk about here is jennifer love hewitt and brandy both prance about in tightfitting revealing outfits or in various states of undress yet neither of them ever actually do a nude scene hewitt however does do a scene in which her thin bathrobe is quite  titillating this scene alone made this turkey earn two stars under my rating system otherwise hewitt and brandy both grate on the nerves early in the film for instance brandy wins the trip to the bahamas she and hewitt jump around and scream and screech for what seems like forever i needed tylenol after that part oh and the film's conclusion talk about repetitive people who saw i know what you did last summer will predict i still know's ending at least minutes before it happens boring i saw this movie with my brother at the local downtown movie theater admission is only one dollar on wednesdays and we often go see bad movies on these days just to ridicule them it's usually a fun thing to do along with the rest of the audience who don't seem to mind participating in a mass mystery science theater viewing i still know what you did last summer however produced several lengthy uncomfortable silences from the audience underscoring how bad it really is if it weren't for the main actresses' revealing wardrobes i'd have had a very very hard time sitting through this lame sequel i can't imagine trying to watch it on video horror films seem times better in a theater because they rely heavily on audience participation and wouldn't recommend it to people unless they're horror film fanatics or huge fans of hewitt and brandy i read on a website somewhere that another sequel is already in the works what a depressing thought hewitt apparently needs to spend more time on tv figuring out how to act rated r this film contains lots of violence several gory scenes and a couple nubile horny the sex act itself is always thwarted i'd say this is unsuitable for kids but teens wouldn't have a problem sitting through it especially since they obviously compose the film's target audience
negative	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned to assess alex cox's film the winner as a loser would be so indolent it would be derisive it would be glib it would be dismissive it would be entirely accurate rarely have i seen a film as excruciatingly annoying as the winner a comedy which quickly proves to be tedious unfunny and unengaging the film attempts to be fresh and quirky utilising a myriad of colourful characters to weave its absurd tale but appears to overlook the fact that nobody in the film is remotely interesting and that all of the characters are essentially preposterous the film is set in las vegas and the focus in the winner is on philip vincent d'onofrio an aloof naive young man blessed with the odd gift of luck he virtually cannot lose at the tables despite this prodigious talent philip is perpetually mournful and quite indifferent about his gambling fortunes neither taking joy in his winnings nor having the foresight to mask his abilities consequently he becomes an easy target for those who would ride upon his coattails and take advantage of his talent louise rebecca demornay a sultry lounge singer insinuates herself into philip's life for the purpose of swindling him while philip's estranged brother and conveniently louise's johnny michael madsen arrives on the scene to add some colour johnny also happens to be toting their father's corpse sans one hand meanwhile philip is also befriended by a trio of opportunists frank whaley billy bob thornton and richard edson who have every intention of taking advantage of their new buddy's gift with the dice serenely overlooking the chaos from behind the scenes is the casino owner delroy lindo it is probably not giving away much to reveal that his role in the winner is essentially that alluded to at the end of the flashy sequence in martin scorsese's casino which details the organization hierarchy of a casino's operations he is the eye in the sky it could be maddening to endure a film whose central protagonist is so oblivious of the ongoing blatant manipulation but fortunately this is not the case in the winner if only because our sadsack hero is such a sap not even remotely sympathetic or compelling it becomes impossible to root for philip or even care about his fate and the swindlers of philip's fortunes are all drawn out as such ludicrous transparent buffoons with entirely unimaginative and uninteresting schemes that one watches the winner with a complete sense of disinterest it is a shame as the winner features a talented cast mr d'onofrio is an underrated and gifted actor with a huge range mr lindo has a remarkable screen presence which infiltrates every film in which he appears mr madsen ms demornay and mr whaley have all done good work in the past none of the actors in the winner are in top form here and this film won't likely be a prized addition to their respective resumes director alex cox does what he can with wendy riss' screenplay and it is to his credit that this film at no point feels like an adaptation of a stage play i was startled to learn that the winner was in fact based upon one while tedious the film is and does not meander but it would be task for mr cox or for that matter virtually any other director that comes to mind to overcome the film's widespread shortcomings in plot and characterization to his credit my understanding is that he has chosen to distance himself from the project in acknowledgement of its deficiencies i caught the winner at its world premiere at the toronto international film festival in september and in fairness it is entirely possible that the film has been extensively revamped since then due to the lacklustre audience reaction generated there were more walkouts on this film than any of the others i screened to be honest though i couldn't begin to isolate what could be done to this film to improve it i assume that throwing the whole thing out and starting over is out of the question the winner has apparently played on cable television in the united states and is beginning a limited theatrical release at the time of this writing the film has a nice upbeat score by pray for rain but i am honestly not being facetious when i state that the thing i treasured most about my screening of the winner was the bag of popcorn upon which i was munching
negative	what's to like about the world of extremely violent trash the garbage known as snuff films nothing right what's to like about a film chronicling the world of violent trash pornography well nothing so why make it hollywood there's no reason why the average sane will be interested in such a topic no one is going to enrich their life or have a good time by watching material such as this the lack of quality filmmaking in from technical to acting stands out even more when you consider the star writer and supporting reputable but joel schumacher and his brand of unlikable filmmaking strikes again like paul schrader schumacher has his moments but they're few and far far between basically this picture is crap and no one should pay to see it why not walk out well this wouldn't be a thorough review about a thoroughly bad movie here's why you should spend your money on dog food or gum instead of first you don't heed my advice then understand what you're about to see before you even think about paying good money for this crud it's not easy to watch i didn't know the details of the story beforehand but at least my ignorance can help others now the ha plot revolves around tom welles nicolas cage as a surveillance expert and private investigator a rich old woman discovers a snuff film in her late husband's safe she calls welles and hires him to try and find out if the young girl it had to be a young girl didn't it schumacher who appears to be murdered in the film really is dead she's horrified that her husband would have owned such a film in of course and just wants welles to snoop around without police interference to see what he can find welles agrees against better judgement or any concrete leads even after cringing and grimacing at the sight of the grotesque murder let me backtrack for a moment see snuff films are pornos with a violent are tortured in very sick ways and end up dead however the deaths are often staged and in those cases special effects and good acting make all the difference very sick people enjoy and pay top dollar for these movies the thought of this industry makes me want to throw my computer out the window and stop this review but i'll swallow my bile and move on welles follows clues to hollywood and the porn industry you'd think he's sherlock holmes the way clues drop so easily for him he comes across smut clerk max joaquin phoenix who knows everyone and everything in the underground business of sleaze after a lot of digging and bribing welles finds the men who are responsible for making this and other snuff films skip ahead skip ahead skip ahead led by dino velvet peter stormare in an uncharacteristically terrible performance and machine christopher bauer they have a big showdown with welles where death and mayhem ensue the movie doesn't end there unfortunately because welles has to do what all heroes in schumacher films a vigilante this film doesn't draw you in it keeps you about miles away from it and who in their right mind would want to get close it is possible to like a film that focuses on grime and sick behaviour ie but it takes a large measure of restraint schumacher has none and a larger amount of talent schumacher has little by those jabs i'm not only referring to his stylish destruction of the batman franchise but a time to kill was an immensely overrated disappointment for a guy who gets so much studio money his track record of making rather bad movies is unparalleled a good screenwriter and a good director can make you hypnotically watch even disgusting subject matter writer andrew kevin walker didn't recapture the smarts of the fascinating script he authored for twisted thriller director schumacher doesn't have that innate ability to make you watch things you don't really want to see like better directors are capable of doing he must not have believed hitchcock who espoused the theory that what we don't see is more frightening than what we do especially when it's a scene where young girl is supposed to be murdered however gratuitous is joel's middle name he must think that not flaunting a act of violent sex is showing plenty of tactful restraint no he doesn't go that far but we see enough unpleasantness he doesn't leave much to the imagination it's manipulating to hurt or kill young girls just to get the audience on the side of a murderous vigilante the script and acting should be what gets us to believe in these characters yet schumacher has no subtlety in his ha ha craft case in point a shot of a christian fellowship bus good right drives away to reveal one of the villains bad right see no subtlety does joel think we're stupid or that we need to be held by the hand to comprehend the contrasting imagery who do we root for in this mess is there anybody out there it's not all the director's fault though why did the actors sign up for this nicolas cage is an for cryin' out loud if he claims to do films to challenge himself and for the artistic merit rather than the money what was he smoking when this script dropped on his veranda what is cage supposed to be in this whispering batman without the charisma and pointed ears villainous peter stormare is five steps past hammy and what is james gandolfini doing in this trash he was so solid as a concerned father in a civil action i guess ol' nic pete and jim were promised a mountain of money or they're suckers or they just don't care there are moments albeit brief ones where this rises above the wasteland catherine keener is good although too quick to threaten divorce as mrs wells baby cindy is obviously cute and wells' devout love of his daughter is sweet the mother amy norton of the girl in the infamous film is not too bad as a woman dealing with the uncertain loss of her runaway daughter this film has an appropriate look like payback which was a much better movie the editing is okay in scenes of no dialogue but at other times it's rough during some conversations and wide shots are not cut very well making it look to be editted by someone whose instincts aren't good and whose timing was a off such a technical error indeed stands out speaking of standing out don't believe the misleading trailers there's not much action here occasionally yes but not as often as your tv will have you believe after seeing i may not be interested in ever watching any kind of porn again is that a positive well if making me almost ill at the thought of glimpsing a dirty movie again is their motive they've done a swell job here it'll be a long time before i give a schumacher film another i lose my mind and become seriously depraved but today i'm not depraved so i ask why does this film preach that this garbage is out there and that society should be worried about it i'm sure that somewhere right now there's some pretty sick crap going on but that doesn't mean i need to know about it yes mr walker your script tells us that there are some folks out there yes mr walker the proverbial monster doesn't look like we expect him to you said all that in move on this film serves no purpose it doesn't entertain it doesn't teach us anything it doesn't make a statement beyond the obvious this stuff is bad approach only if this film awakens the authorities to find a way to abolish these types of horrors would it ever do someting truly worthwhile that's not likely to happen though so is indeed a scummy waste of money orson welles said years ago in a tribute to film to movies to good movies if only joel schumacher and the producers had listened and told andrew kevin walker to bury this crud deep in a hole like snuff films should never have been made now excuse me while i go try to forget i ever saw it useless schumacher loves the vigilante theme he used it in batman forever in batman robin in a time to kill in falling down and it's rumoured that joel himself will play the vigilante at his breakfast table tomorrow
negative	in the james bond film diamonds are forever tiffany case asks whether he prefers brunettes to redheads bond's response is that it doesn't really matter as long as collars and cuffs match well collars and cuffs don't match in the real blonde what might have sounded good on paper ends up as a largely unfunny meandering comedy on screen the film supposedly a satire of the superficiality of soap operas and the modeling business is wafer thin it plays like an ally mcbeal episode dragged out to the nth degree replete with a few unnecessary fantasy sequences tom dicillo manages the material as if poking fun at daytime dramas is a fresh idea it isn't the only surprise here is that the talented dicillo could make familiar terrain so dreary matthew modine plays joe a struggling actor waiting tables in order to pay the rent he's with no agent and no credits since he's too proud to take on roles in commercials or soap operas that's not really acting he tells his girlfriend of six years mary catherine keener with whom he bickers constantly about sex but they need the money so joe finally agrees to take a part in a madonna video but it's not really madonna starring in the video but a lookalike played by elizabeth berkley still trying to her career after showgirls this points out how artificial this whole business is one supposes dicillo has referred to the real blonde as but an interesting combination of all sorts of stuff the film which wanders all over the place without getting anywhere is remarkably on and with perhaps the single exception of the modine who's not afraid to stand around in a very unattractive bathing suit surrounded by hunks the entire cast is vague and uninteresting catherine keener who's appeared in dicillo's previous three films including the brilliant living in oblivion is at her most annoying in the real blonde look at her closely she really can't act at all her reactions are all wrong almost always out of sync with her she reacts too soon or too late to lines and situations she moves her eyes or her mouth far too much she frowns she yells she blows chunks maxwell caulfield plays joe's buddy bob the one obsessed with dating a natural blonde bob's personality not to mention caulfield's acting ability parallels that of the character he plays on the soap opera passion crest and uninteresting maybe that's the point daryl hannah is dim and uninteresting as the real blonde of the title a soap dish who beds bob both and hannah looks about fifty in this movie she's only why is that almost all the women in the film wear tops that show their nipples why is that marlo thomas plays an uninteresting fashion photographer kathleen turner plays an uninteresting talent agent buck henry plays an uninteresting shrink christopher lloyd plays an uninteresting caterer and so on the best parts of the the real blonde are the beginning and the end brief scenes of an elderly woman losing and then finding her dog there's more depth and sincerity in a single of her expressive face than in the entire film while this contrast is supposedly meant to highlight the shallowness of the other characters' lives the only thing that makes shallow and superficial interesting is if it's funny
negative	if i were to plot a graph of year against for hollywood movies you'll probably see a line with constant gradient now if i were to plot that same graph for the movies that the michael bruckheimer has made over the last years that line would be exponential in growth the team started out with the will smith vehicle bad boys which was no more than a long nevertheless entertaining then came the rock where audiences flocked to see nicholas cage team up with sean connery against some terrorizing general fighting over some stupid cause was ridiculousy dumb in its premise but it did have fun moments and who can forget the nursery rhyme sang by that psycho killer played by steve buscemi while these movies worked because there was something better to the dirt armageddon does not very much like deep impact a meteor is heading towards earth and they didn't realize it until days from impact deep impact settled with the modest meteor size as large as the city of new york but armageddon just had to be bigger well about the size of texas that kinda meteor whould probably knock earth out of its orbit the panic of this sighting spurs the idea of landing people on the meteor drill it then nuke it sounds familiar and who better to do such a job than harry stamper bruce willis your very own extraordinaire and his team of nursing the tagline ain't nothin' on this planet that harry can't drill in that days harry's group was split into teams trained for flight and finally blasted into space in with special drilling vehicles on new space shuttles the main relationship drama of armageddon is formed within the relationship of harry a j and grace to give you an idea a j works for harry and loves grace harry's daughter the problem is harry hates to see his daughter hanging around some scruffy grunt like himself for the rest of her life so while a j and harry struts it out grace is place in a position where she is unable to take sides so she remains seated in the nasa control tower crying over both of them in about of the movie the human elements this movie tries to inject proves to be nothing more than just an excuse for more and photography the anguish of the world is potrayed with scenes of people praying running for their lives or just sitting still staring at the sky sounds fine right i know but it looks too out of place on screen too staged if you were to ask yourself the difference between armageddon and a music video you'd probably just said music not surprising since michael bay is a child of that industry and has actually managed to transpose his mtv skills to screen successfully his foray into armageddon just proves that he doesn't when to stop well there's really nothing much to sum up here the of hollywood movies have projected their into ridiculity beyond the plane believability where people still accept even if they didn't believe deep impact was ridiculous in most aspects and i believe the makers know this the thing is they decided to shroud myth and fantasy with a purely believable human tale of suffering and coming in terms with ones problems which ultimately brought it above the ashes which it had initially put itself in armageddon is an overcrowded loud messy preposterously manipulative waste of money and deserves to remain in that same pile of ash if you have planned to watched this over deep impact because of liv tyler bruce willis or the tagline from the makers of rock' please catch deep impact before it finishes its run it may be the only meteor worth watching in time if you have to see it please bring and some aspirins for the vertigo expect armageddon ld's to retail at at carrefour come release time gee even that's not worth it
negative	tina fetch me the axe a favourite book of mine called the golden turkey awards relates the story that when mommie dearest was unleashed upon unsuspecting audiences back in paramount soon realised they had a problem on their hands it wasn't just the film's disappointing box office performance indeed in the coming years some people would be going back to see it two three even six times no the main problem was that what was intended as a serious biopic of screen queen joan crawford was turning into the laugh riot of the year in a desperate attempt to capitalise on this unexpected turn of events some publicity hacks dreamed up outrageous print advertisements screaming mommie dearest the biggest mommie of them all executives at paramount were appalled and soon had the ads withdrawn but it was all too late mommie dearest was already cementing its place in camp cinema history unfortunately faye dunaway's energetic at times ridiculously performance is about the film's only redeeming feature based on daughter christina crawford's trashy biography mommie dearest chronicles a series of mainly private events in the life of her moviestar mother if you believe this movie it was a life was racked by obsession lonliness child abuse and rampant egomania the film begins with crawford adopting two children and concludes in the office of her lawyer where her now daughter and son find out they have been left out of their mother's will joan always wanted her kids to be able to fend for themselves you see but that's about the only thread in the narrative that manages to survive to the film's end the script laboured over by four writers a bad sign in itself is a poorly connected series of episodes that builds little dramatic momentum frank perry's direction is no more than competent and dunaway's bitchy lines aside the dialogue is flat and uninvolving in fairness the film's second half ditches some of the cartoon hysterics and does develop a degree empathy for its characters when the adult christina moves out of home into her own modest dwelling joan visits and keeps in touch not helping her financially but encouraging christina's own acting and career ambitions crawford does seem to care about her daughter but you can sense the emotional distance and feel some of their pain you also get glimpses of what the film could have been in the hands of better writers ah but there is dunaway's performance and what a delicious piece of campery it often is having just been sacked by her studio after a run of box office duds crawford storms home late at night and proceeds to go ballistic in the garden she has the maid drag the kids out of bed to come down and clean up the mess she's making spotting a young tree she doesn't like the look of she turns to the trembling christina and utters the immortal line tina fetch me the axe with which she proceeds to enthusiastically dismember the poor sapling in the film's most outrageous scene joan realises that some of her daughter's clothes are hanging on wire coat hangers oh dear sounds like the perfect excuse for another temper tantrum doesn't it this time she gives her daughter a horrible beating while delivering another classic outburst no wire hangers ever and later when the board of her late husband's company pepsi cola tries to divest her of her directorship she displays a superb grasp of business etiquette by jumping to her feet and roaring don't fuck with me fellas oh joy something of a camp classic then but if that's not you're cup of tea then mommie dearest doesn't have too much to recommend it better you see the real crawford in the women mildred pierce or whatever happened to baby jane great films distinguished by great performances and a far more eloquent testament to this great woman than frank perry's shrieking piece of tabloid froth
negative	phil radmar jao has a hairy problem his beard is growing so rapidly that he has to shave every hour he recently met the author of a book on lycanthropy also referred to in the movie as werewolfism and phil now believes that his problem is that he has become a werewolf using enough chains and handcuffs to be a hit at a sadomasochists convention he ties himself in at night lest his urges overcome him and phil is just one of the many quirky characters that inhabit shopping for fangs made on a pittance the film features an almost exclusively cast as directed by quentin lee and justin lin the movie is so amateurishly bad that it could almost be a parody of indie films jeanne chin plays katherine a meek and wife who worries that her husband is unhappy with her because she is not giving him enough sex we know this through the endless scenes of her confessing her sins real and imagined to her therapist as her husband jim clint jung plays a muscle man with a macho crudeness the picture is filled with stereotypes there's a mysterious waitress with a big platinum blonde wig who brags to everyone she meets that she's a lesbian she spends most of the movie putting the moves on her favorite customer a gay guy and the lone white with a major role the author on werewolfism has wildly unkempt orangey blonde curly hair from its opening scene of an attempted rape at knifepoint to its easy to guess ending twist the script rarely has anything to offer the story is so minimally developed that it feels almost like the actors were one can only hope that the directors' next film will have some substance and some credible acting shopping for fangs runs it is rated r for sex violence and profanity and would be fine for older teenagers
negative	lawrence kasdan had a hand in penning some of the biggest film successes of the yes that's right he raiders of the lost ark the empire strikes back and return of the jedi now with this film it looks as though he has decided to test his skills at mediocre screenwriting and bland directing and guess what he succeeds once again plot a man with a shady and regrettable past decides to run away and into a small american town where he pretends to be a licensed psychologist to an swarm of people with problems it isn't long before he befriends the billionaire folks become suspicious and he falls for one of his own patients critique this film is not a comedy it is a drama i say this right up front because from the looks of the trailer you would think that this film secures its base in humor but unfortunately for us it does not it is a serious film seriously flawed if you ask me but i digress which offers a couple of witty quips to keep you awake but overall just sits there now on to my review this movie sucks because it was slow and boring starred an uninteresting protagonist with an unbelievable past included extremely dull patients whose problems left me indifferent at best and pissed at worst and certified it all with many a predictable ending i have no idea what lawrence kasdan was trying to accomplish with this picture but whatever it was he missed anyone without his name could never have made this film because it is an extremely generic which on a good day might be described as predictably digestible it's no wonder that the studio is trying to sell it as a comedy it sucks as a drama and bored my movie cohort right to sleep i've given it four points on four extremely shallow yet distinguishable marks first of all i couldn't help but think about how much the lead actor loren dean looked like a young charles grodin he even acted like him save for the dry sardonic wit this kept me interested in watching him at least number two and this one is really shallow seemed to be geared that way as well there were quite a few titshots as they would say back in high school and god help me if i can't get enough of those in an aimless drama and three and this one surprised me the most actor ted danson's cameo yes he will always be sam malone to us real fans was the best part about this movie and actually made me see him as a different person a different asshole but a different person nonetheless if ever you rent this movie one day promise you won't throw away your money at the theaters wait for his scene because it's actually pretty good other than that drab drab drab and drab even jason lee a personal favorite of mine was left out to dry with lame dialogue and one of the phoniest romances to hit the big screen in a while well at least he finally came out and did some real skateboarding in this movie oh yeah and i guess that's the fourth point in my rating anyway if you enjoy watching boring patients babble on about their boring problems to an uninteresting psychologist this film's your bag otherwise skip it and see analyze this again now there's a great shrink movie little known facts about this film and its stars three's company fans alert terri from the tv show also known as actress priscilla barnes plays a small but pivotal part as the landlady in this film the scene is actually a fantasy sequence and does feature cleavage so stay tuned kids also it is to note that the actress was once named penthouse pet of the month in march of she was known as one joann witty back then she's originally from jersey who the hell is loren dean the dude who plays mumford in this film you got me but all i know is that he was born in las vegas in and played the character of billy bathgate in the film of the same name jason lee was born in the state of california in the year of he was a professional skateboarder before his acting career took off after mallrats and even owns his own skateboarding company called stereo manufacturing corp he's been in every kevin smith film except for clerks listen closely and you will hear the pharmacist in this film the ballooning actor formerly known as pruit taylor vince make a reference to the lost ark which is obviously an considering that it is the of this film lawrence kasdan who raiders of the lost ark kasdan also played the part of dr green in as good as it gets ted danson also played the role of lawyer peter lowenstein in kasdan's directorial debut body heat starring a sexy kathleen turner and william hurt
negative	ladies and gentlemen payback is the most expensive episode of the equalizer i've ever seen gibson plays porter a burglar shot and left for dead by his wife deborah kara unger in an cameo and partner henry after a successful heist as a morgue attendant sets about removing the bullets from porter's back porter miraculously springs back to life he makes it his mission as a walking dead man without a conscience to exact revenge on those who screwed him and reclaim his share of the loot in a running gag porter demands but everybody mishears him and assumes he's after the entire haul in his travels or travails porter encounters several other villainous cretins like fairfax james coburn as a millionaire thief and carter kristofferson as a millionaire kingpin of the obligatory operation helgeland's film which was recut by mel the producer is devoid of an imperative dime store charm the novelty of seeing a big movie star mercilessly dispatching criminals wears off quickly a because the bad guys can only be differentiated by their coifs and b because mel's schtick doesn't evolve from act the terminator stranded in a plot without a hook to keep us interested after the initial sadistic thrill is gone payback should have been called playback it's a loop of the same short sequence mel i want my money anonymous villain no mel shoots gun anonymous villain dies mel meets up with his hooker friend bello second verse same as the first it's not porter's that robs the film of snap crackle and pop as a character who has already died once he has nothing to lose and so much to gain the movie lacks danger the only thing porter is in jeopardy of is putting the audience to sleep payback has a gritty metallic look to it that also becomes monotonous its cinematography would be more appropriate in one of those bleak urban psychodramas that come out of england every couple of months director of photography ericson core should have been fired early on for lighting bello so in permanant midnight to look like a potato in a gregg allman wig to analyze such mediocrity is to grant payback far more attention than it deserves perhaps only someone as experienced with as what he did with the similar tale reservoir have pulled off this material a loose remake of john boorman's point blank the movie presents us with the conventions of pulp fiction all women are femme fatales even the cops are in on it etc and crosses them with the conventions of cheesy tv crime melodramas death is never in the cards for the main character etc but transcends neither
negative	when you've run out of old tv shows to turn into movies i guess you try video games why did i go to see mortal kombat annihilation the quest to seek an answer to this query may prove a better movie that the one i just saw this film was a bunch of fighting yelling special effects and bad acting set to an oppressive techno music soundtrack the plot is fairly simple a portal has opened between our world and the outworld allowing evil forces commanded by shao kahn brian thompson to wreak havoc and attempt to destroy humanity the good guys led by sorcerer rayden james remar and human mortal liu kang robin shou must take the fight to outworld where the fate of both worlds will be determined here's the catch they must reunite princess katana talia soto who's on the good side with her resurrected mother queen sindel musetta vander who's on the bad side for their love for each other will close the portal and ensure humanity's safety for another generation how this is supposed to work i still have no idea but i liked katana's line i knew love would keep us together since that captain and tennille song ran through my head and i got a good laugh there are some seriously stupid things in this movie take for example a transportation system which utilizes the inner winds generated by earth's magma flows you get in this metal ball which transports you through underground tunnels really fast how fast as katana says you will be moving so fast it will be as if you are not moving at all what later sonya blade sandra hess goes to find jax lynn red williams otherwise known as saber on tv's american gladiators at a medical research facility on the island of oahu how do we know this is where she went there's a sign on the facility's perimeter fence that reads medical research facility oahu hawaii remember this is not a caption but an actual sign i guess the location is on there for all those medical researchers who keep forgetting where they are there's a lot of major flipping action too the first encounter between good and evil shows kahn and rayden swiftly arching though the air toward one another do they land and immediately get into the fighting does one of them land first and catch the other off guard do they collide in no apparently they flip toward each other so they can talk without having to yell from far away why did they need those metal balls to travel everyone could have just flipped from point a to point b i have to admit the fight scenes are pretty good although you can tell they are heavily enhanced by digital effects and fly wires allowing the characters to surpass the limits of the human body and the laws of physics the movie's thrills are derived from these scenes and most of the audience responses are on the visceral level when someone gets trashed really badly ouch was the most common expletive heard when i screened this one you could tell that the filmmakers knew in advance that fights not plot would be the main draw since dialog is apparently in the film just to get from one fight to the next it seems that's all there is in this movie maybe it is as i had mentioned the acting is bad there's not one solid performance in the film although williams as jax was pretty funny after a fight between sonya and one of the bad guys degenerates into female mud wrestling jax says you look good in mud no really you do remar plays rayden with an inconsistency which makes it hard to take his character seriously and shou is relatively emotionless as liu kang brian thompson who has played good guys bad guys and even an alien on tv's the but always some behemoth is your average evil but it's more the script's fault than his own that he doesn't have anything original to say the one really impressive thing about this movie is that there is not one swear word in the whole hour and a half another thing which should be noted is that for all its punching and kicking blood only appears in one scene all in all mortal kombat annihilation is loud violent shallow and marketed toward kids hey just like the video game
negative	the swooping shots across darkened rooftops suggest a very tim burton movie but alas no caped crusader descends to save this film instead it's a skeletal housemaid julia roberts who must bear witness to this unfortunate retelling of dr jekyll and mr hyde for a few fleeting maddening moments director stephen frears dangerous liaisons gets everything just the tone the colors the characters all the ingredients to make a potion out of valerie martin's novel yet it fizzles too quickly the volatile mixture losing potency from the very first scene casting is a large part of the problem the story all but ses around ms she doesn't have the range for this kind of drama her accent also comes and goes though it's nowhere near as glaring as the total lack of chemistry between her and john malkovich he looks the same in both of his an incredible fact that's missed by everyone in the story the very british supporting including michael gambon and george gives credibility to the smaller parts glenn close also appears as a madam that the good doctor calls upon her performance is as close to intentional camp as the movie ever gets as a offers a likely peek at her upcoming cruella de ville in the dalmantions the biggest botch in mary reilly is suspense there is none no terror no tension nothing without any weight wit or wonder to propel the story the viewer is left with little more to do than pay attention to the period detail a few buckets of blood and stuart craig's fabulously dreary production design all of which gets old after about an hour at which point i recommend leaving the pacing in the is especially abominable if you do stick it through your sole reward is a special effect depicting the infamous transformation mr frears reportedly recut his film several times missing several release dates in the process obviously no one advised him to throw up his hands and just turn the whole damned thing over to mel brooks blucher mary reilly is the second robert louis stevenson story of the month after muppet treasure island perhaps mr frears should consult with brian henson on future projects i daresay that even ms piggy is a better choice for a certain roles than julia roberts and she does have a great chop
negative	guilt guilt is something i felt while watching basic instinct for the ninth time the penultimate t a thriller basic instinct made my last few teenage years worth living but i know so well that it's a terrible film made by a terrible director incapable of feeling guilt verhoeven went on to make the even more offensive showgirls and on november seventh unleashed starship troopers to innocent moviegoers like me who cannot control the urge to see giant bug movies the pic begins with the most unintentional laugh of the year a simple white on black title card reads starship troopers friends and i speculated that the night before the prints were shipped verhoeven realized he forgot the credits is this how a hundred million dollar movie should open were the rest of the film that subdued starship troopers is about a group of white himbos and bimbos who all have spanish last names they graduate high school join the military and then rather curiously decide to travel to an alien planet and destroy all lifeforms on that planet the story is so incomprehensible and told so bombastically it's akin to minutes of someone screaming punishments at you in a foreign tongue aside club lovers will be happy to know that dance music hasn't changed in the future one plus starship troopers contains some very funny sequences specifically the newsreels of the future hysterically funny actually but the cynicism of these reports left me curious as to whether verhoeven felt pessimistic about the story in between the storytelling lacks focus to say the least the politics of the film are scary the actions of the major female characters are dictated by their libidos there's even a creepy sex scene the lovely dina meyer makes out nude with the sickening van dien while half her face is covered by her opaque sweater just the way he seems to like it i use the term sickening because van dien is the least appealing actor i've encountered in a big budget picture all chiseled features and machismo he even barks a eulogy at a funeral like military orders of course verhoeven's probably the one to blame and perhaps i'm jealous because i'm so disgusting at any rate a movie called starship troopers shouldn't be about sex exactly ten years ago verhoeven made robocop which was about nothing but skillfully made and oddly moving and despite its goofy premise maybe it's asking too much for verhoeven to make a a master of insipid violence however ten year old boys would adore starship troopers if they could see it
negative	what's your favorite new york moment this one's climbing the charts starring john cusack kate beckinsale eugene levy molly shannon directed by peter chelsom rated there's no doubt that of romantic comedies follow a distinct pattern guy sees girl guy wants girl guy goes through unreasonable obstacles to get girl guy gets girl in rare cases the genders are flipped predictability is a given rarely though is a romantic comedy as cheap as obvious or as pointless as serendipity a film that uses its theme as an excuse for its plot contrivances lightweight doesn't begin to describe it this is like it begins in a new york city bloomingdale's a product placement that rivals cast away's fedex for sheer blatancy jonathan trager john cusack and sara thomas kate beckinsale both go for the same pair of gloves after going through the perfunctory motions jonathan gets to keep the gloves and the two of them go out for ice cream followed by ice skating jonathan falls hard and sara is charmed when she writes her name and number down on a piece of paper a truck rumbles by and blows it out of her hand she takes this as a sign from fate that they shouldn't be together jonathan is flabbergasted to pacify him she comes up with an idea jonathan will write his number on a dollar bill which she will promptly spend when she gets home she will write her name and number inside a book love in the time of cholera and sell it to a used bookstore if the bill gets back to her or the book to him it will mean that they are meant to be together three years later both sara and jonathan are now engaged to other love interests both realize they aren't content both go looking for the other what happens now is so absurd that i'm almost tempted to recommend the film for the sake of seeing it the two of them run circles around each other in a set of incredible coincidences that i would describe as contrivances if it weren't for the film dismissing that criticism by building its plot around serendipity of course since the movie is about fate the screenwriter can do anything he damn well pleases i'm not buying it there's no suspense in any of this because we know exactly what's going to happen but serendipity insists on drilling its purportedly adorable into our heads instead of will they meet the question we're asking is when will they meet already to make matters worse every coincidence is telegraphed from a mile away by the last reel i was bored enough to actively look for signs that something else incredible was going to happen cusack is fine and beckinsale at least isn't saddled with another lumbering clunky screenplay she's had bad luck what with brokedown palace and pearl harbor on her resume just an inanely pointless one serendipity also relieves the tedium with the amazing eugene levy who plays a snarky bloomingdale's salesman what's the interest in watching a movie that spirals around and around a predestined no pun intended conclusion serendipity wants to tug at the heartstrings but it only tests our patience
negative	i didn't come into city of angels expecting greatness i've never seen wim wenders' wings of desire the classic movie upon which city is loosely based then again i have seen enough stories which are based upon a similar plot device with the little mermaid both the disney version and the original folktale being among them that i had some high expectations about the possible power such a story of impossible love can hold unfortunately city of angels ended up fulfilling few of them the plot for those that couldn't tell from the previews revolves around the angel seth played with an almost creepy intensity by nicolas cage who in the midst of his angelic duties falls in love with a heart surgeon named maggie meg ryan in her most endearing performance since when harry met sally of course his being an angel prevents him from doing much about his love except appearing at random times to talk to her watch her buy groceries only to disappear in the blink of an eye their love must remain unrequited unless seth decides to make the ultimate sacrifice and become human using this framework as a point the movie attempts to veer through some heavy philosophical ruminations on the nature of desire the joys of being human and the definition of perfection the first half of the movie succeeds on most points cage excellently plays the eminently difficult role of an angel who doesn't know feelings so can't really express preventing the character of seth from getting boring despite his limited repertoire of intent looks and expressions unfortunately cage takes the intensity too far sometimes and then seth comes across as more creepy than sensitive as maggie ryan manages to be convincing as a heart surgeon who has trouble coming to terms with her having lost a patient on the operating table despite having done everything right her beauty unlike her unbearable cuteness in french kiss is mature intelligent and winning likewise some interesting ideas float around at the beginning of the film when the camera pans through traffic jams and libraries and we get to hear the thoughts of the random people who flash across the screen the audience experiences a little of what it must be like to be an angel the beautiful camera work shooting down onto the hectic world of los angeles from the improbable perches of the angels also gives us a sense of the unique wonder angels feel the film begins to lose its way though when the focus tightens more and more on seth and maggie the grand angelic perspective gets lost except for some idly tossed lines about the incredible beauty of the world through an angel's eyes the movie devolves into an examination of how seth can't feel the world or more importantly he can't feel maggie he can't smell her hair feel her touch or taste the pears she eats this change in focus attempts to capture the audience in seth's intense longing but in doing so the conflict disappears if he wants maggie so badly then why doesn't her just make the leap and become human after all what's so great about being an angel sure you get to sit on marlboro signs but what's that compared to getting to be with meg ryan and from there once the yearning has been established and the romantic denouement must occur it's all downhill the philosophy becomes the dialogue pedestrian when it tries to be deep and the plot twists simply attempt to yank a few more tears into the audience's hankie it's the last thirty minutes of the movie then that wrecks the film i feel like the writer by pulling out all the melodramatic stops has robbed me of what could have been a genuinely powerful movie experience on both the romantic and the philosophical level i came out feeling robbed seeing so much possibility in a film becoming nothing i could go on longer but i don't want to ruin the end by revealing any of the cheap plot devices the film relies on city of angels then is a paradox it's a particularly look for dennis franz cutting against as a fallen angel and based on a wonderful idea all these possibilities though are what make the film so unredeemable when the closing credits come up
negative	plot summary the year is the ozone layer has long since gone and the earth is now protected from radiation by a shield invented by connor mccleod the shield although saving lives has made the atmosphere hot and humid connor is a mortal and a tired old man who has given up hope on returning from the opera one night connor is accosted by the leader of a terrorist organisation they have tried to find out what the company that now runs the shield unit are covering up connor is then attacked by two assassins sent by katana from the planet zeist like it they fail and connor becomes immortal again by chopping their heads off he then brings ramirez back to life in glencoe in scotland both ramirez and connor are rebel leaders back on zeist and have been sent to earth as punishment connor now has the option to return being the last one but opts to stay with his new found immortality and fight to find out about the company and the shield katana meanwhile fearing connor would return sets out himself to kill the highlander if you have never seen it being a fan of highlander and mr connery i was in the cinema as soon as i could to see highlander ii the quickening i wish it had been quicker i feel whatever else you can say about a film bad script bad music etc if you sit just plain bored through most of it then nothing much else needs to be said the film was short but in my opinion only twelve minutes or so the time mr connery is on the screen for is worth watching the plot sounds a little ridiculous but i was willing to give it a chance maybe they could pull it off instead i find that the characters have completely changed from those in the first film it's as if they are different people with the same names witness connor jumping into bed with the leader of the resistance where is the attitude of who wants to live forever when love must die gone to the love must have had footage cut out the highlander and ramirez both seemed aware of powers they had never mentioned before putting our heroes in deadly situations and then having them walk away because of some new power is very annoying i still want to know why connor's coat becomes flame proof when he is immortal we are not given enough time on zeist to believe in it nor are we told why advanced aliens still use swords to kill why not dynamite or laser saws or just plain bullets followed by a quick chop to the neck i know the head needs to come off but you could at least immobilise your opponent with laser rifles first to be fair one assassin tried this but he must be the world's worst shot meanwhile connor develops powers of laser beam deflection as for bad guys we see a rebellion on zeist crushed easier than a grape and then the rest of the plot depends on katana being obsessed with killing mccleod in case he returns to zeist two assassins are sent presumably they are meant to be good at killing but an aged connor kills them both with no problems no more assassins are sent katana supposedly a very powerful man goes himself to kill connor has he no more assassins has he no better why was the rebellion crushed so easily then michael ironside is totally unconvincing bring back the kurgan he seems like a cartoon character and really isn't that evil just stupid and violent we see the hollywood trick of the chief nasty threatening a child again and killing lots of innocents yet he still seems like no threat perhaps because he seems too stupid to threaten connor or maybe because his two best assassins wouldn't have been amiss with larry curly and mo so much for plot and characters the music is atrocious it is at best intrusive and at worst annoying bring back queen there was an audible sigh of relief when connor played a queen track in a juke box i believe this at least is to be corrected for the american release the acting is at best flat except for mr connery lambert is uninteresting and when he delivered there can be only one this time around it just made me wish there had only been one highlander michael ironside is unconvincing sorry michael i usually like you and everyone else was incredibly forgetable so why visually the film is interesting at all times it has a blade runner feel to it and some of the special effects are quite stunning add to this an irrepressible sean connery who smiles throughout the whole film or is he smirking to himself his lines and delivery might make the film worthwhile had it not been so obvious that he cannot take the whole thing seriously at all but hey i'd have done it for million oh and i agree with a previous reviewer she does look like sharon stone but i believe it is her first film incidentally there is a line producer credited and i hear rumours of highlander iii the wizard
negative	cigarettes takes place on new year's eve monica played by martha plimpton is having a huge new year's party everyone in town is trying to get there but some are caught up in other things this is the basic plot of cigarettes as we meet the characters headed towards the party we are sent into many subplots which are unoriginal and not interesting at all this disappointed me greatly the film should have been more about the party than the people trying to get there in my opinion lucy played by courtney love is with kevin played by paul rudd the two are in a relationship that is more of a friendship but starts to blossom into something more than that this subplot is extremely boring and dull and i am getting quite sick of plots like that janeane garofalo is involved in another subplot dealing with kevin she plays ellie an of kevin's this subplot is completely a waste of garofalo's talent there was no point to it at all and it was hardly even in the movie when lucy runs into a bartender played by ben affleck another subplot is formed the bartender is invited by lucy to come to monica's party at the bar he runs into two more girls the girls are played by angela featherstone and nicole parker but unfortunately due to the terrible acting of both of them i don't even remember their characters names ben affleck is a good actor but his character doesn't go anywhere so he doesn't have much screen time to give a good performance featherstone and parker are horrible in their roles and they are part of the reason the film is so bad christina ricci plays val and gaby hoffman plays stephie the two girls are trying to get to the party but are extremely lost they meet some guys and end up going around with them all night this subplot was alright but it was quite annoying with stephie's accent hoffman did an okay job of acting but ricci did good she was underused considering she is such a wonderful actress another subplot in the film is the relationship between cindy played by goldie hawn's daughter and jack played by jay mohr jack is an actor who doesn't care about the girls he goes out with he just likes dates for one night and the next day he doesn't kate hudson is a huge klutz she gets herself into very funny situations that are the funniest parts in the entire movie they are probably the only funny parts in the entire movie as well this subplot could have been used more mainly due to hudson's performance mohr wasn't good but he wasn't bad he was just alright which i didn't find acceptable there is not much to say about the performances in the film none of the characters are developed or shown enough to really tell if the acting is good or not the only performances that i can judge are christina ricci's as always good performance kate hudson's funny role courtney love's mediocre performance and paul rudd's annoying and overused performance i was hoping for a little more out of jaw mohr ben affleck casey affleck gaby hoffman dave chapelle and especially out of janeane garofalo the two strongest things in the film were the great soundtrack and the original costumes martha plimpton and christina ricci had very different and original outfits which made me feel like i was in the year the soundtrack is full of tunes ranging from i want candy to tainted love the songs in the movie also helped create the feel that you were back in the during the film i often found myself asking the questions is there a reason to this is there any moral story is there a point are any of the events going on in the film necessary do i care what lucy and kevin are going through the movie is extremely boring and by the time they reached one hour before midnight i could not wait for the movie to be over the plot is okay but the subplots make it terrible maybe if the film was about the party not about the people at the party it could have been a lot better the bottom line just like a slasher movie this comedy is just one too many
negative	i'll bet right now you're just lounging by the pool humming i will always love you and wistfully recalling your candlelight dinners with success it isn't necessarily over for you i say you still have enough charm that you could avoid starring in kevin for at least a few more years begin by scribbling the star that burns twice as bright burns half as long somewhere you'll always see it perhaps on the fridge door or on a bedroom mirror with lipstick you had a heck of a thing going there until you agreed to star in robin hood prince of thieves where you were not only upstaged by powerhouses morgan freeman and alan rickman but christian slater several dozen tall trees bows arrows and a canoe too after dances with wolves and jfk you decided the world needed more three hour movies expensive three hour movies so you starred in and produced wyatt earp wyatt earp the man was a boring idiot who made the history books solely due to a general lack of famous wyatts wyatt earp was so dull a cowboy that he died of natural causes tombstone was a vastly superior movie based on the same legend and that featured kurt russell as earp and dana delaney as his girlfriend she was played by joanna going in your know the character known best in wyatt earp as jew whore what were you and lawrence kasdan thinking now you're suffering the demise of yet another of your epics the postman a film so financially disastrous that it all but eradicated the memory waterworld's and tin cup's mildly lucrative box office takes the postman is not the worst movie ever in hollywood are quick to forget movies like howard the duck whenever the next bomb comes along yet it is a ridiculous movie i suspect you thought you had another braveheart on your else line up two armies on horesback all prepared for battle for the climax of your film mailheart the postman is not i can think of some more appropriate alternate titles post encounters of the worst kind farewell my salary howard the postman the postman's never watched twice what a brown movie i hate brown you love brown dances with wolves was golden and looked like an eggo commercial the postman had me running for a glass of water every two minutes would the world look this maddeningly bland and dry what exactly happened to this desert world anyway did we all become so stupid that we didn't immediately begin rebuilding homes restaurants and most importantly shopping malls after the war why did you choose to drive the movie's plot with a dumb group of terrorists who well terrorize townfolk across america why is it only they have ammunition anyway was it really appropriate to cast your daughter as a girl who has a sweet crush on you the why cast english actress olivia williams as an american don't you realize that european women can only deliver their big emotional scenes in their native accent take a look at the performances of an nicole kidman or an minnie driver who could give a damn whether you lived or died at the end of this movie if it came down to a fight for leadership between you and the leader of the terrorists why didn't you do that halfway through the film and save us all a lot of headaches why cast will patton as the bad guy because you worked with him in no way out sure he's a suitably creepy villain know why because he's creepy in everything including armageddon in which he plays a heroic astronaut who practically slithers into his space suit why heroize the most demonic institution in america the u s postal system was tom petty supposed to be playing tom petty if so why didn't he look more skeletal he should have been around years old why oh why do i have so many questions i could ask plenty more shouldn't a three hour running time have provided you enough space to answer everything you have one great line in this film and you deliver it to a mule the things i like about my ass i had to wonder actually i enjoyed the tone of the opening scenes a relaxed cynicism if you'll accept such clunky bad you couldn't resist the temptation to film yet another love letter to your country ultimately i'm saying relax there is no quota no need for you to make a picture a year settle down really question future screenplays before you commit to them feel free to write back i know how much you like letters
negative	i seem to have glued myself to myself starring jason biggs seann william scott chris klein thomas ian nichols allyson hannigan shannon elizabeth natasha lyonne tara reid mena suvari eugene levy jennifer coolidge directed by j b rogers rated r american pie reunites the cast members from american pie in a different setting instead of being high school seniors looking to score before they graduate they are now past their first year of college and have gathered in a beach house to enjoy the summer of their lives jim jason biggs is still an insecure geek looking to improve his performance oz chris klein is still the sweetest guy on the block having sickeningly saccharine phone conversations with his girlfriend stifler seann william scott is still a horny stoner kevin thomas ian nichols still has no personality and finch eddie kaye thomas still longs for stifler's mom have i missed anyone so obviously not much has changed this is not a problem provided that the movie boasts the hilarity and unexpectedly true sentiment of the original but american pie is the very definition of sequelitis it's coarser yes and it pushes the envelope even more but its heart isn't in it it's easy cash to capitalize off the first film's success but it would have been a worthier investment to prolong the franchise by coming up with something original part of the reason why the film doesn't work i think is that while in the original the kids' quest for sex was a stepping stone as much as an outlet for their horniness here everything has been cheapened they behave like those idiot frat boys who kill themselves drinking they have no motivation except for sex sex beer and sex that's not to say that you can't make a decent comedy from that premise but it is one of american pie undoings missing too is the sweetness that permeated american pie the quality of the main players here the characters are too aware of themselves as icons and they're even more stifler and finch are now caricatures while jim oz and kevin are forced to make awkward at arbitrary moments none of them betraying what the writers think the audiences want to see and then there's the scene where jim superglues himself to himself which perfectly demonstrates yet another of the film's ailments one that also permeated say it isn't so director j b rodgers' debut there's a fine line between comedy and abject humiliation and american pie is on the wrong side of it it's hard to laugh at the characters when you are profoundly embarrassed for them i shielded my eyes watching this more than i have watching any horror movie if there's one redeeming factor to american pie it's the inimitable eugene levy as jim's dad who pops in on jim as he's about to score and utters lines like your mother and i have been known to get frisky not so much anymore but and then when the girl's parents walk in blurts out this must be your daughter i didn't get her name but hopefully my son did if only the rest of the movie had the wit and wisdom of levy's performance this is an unworthy sequel to a that brought back the raunchy teen comedy the of this onw should keep the genre going strong which is disappointing the genre needs a hiatus filmmakers are getting lazy
negative	i'll be the first to admit it when you mention the book great expectations i immediately begin experiencing flashbacks to junior high english class where i was confronted with a torturously boring book filled with people with such nonsensical names as pip and magwitch yes it's a classic of literature but it was a rather dry one shoved down my young throat like a spoonful of bitter medicine certainly the experience wasn't truly that bad but to quote ethan hawke in the latest movie adaptation of said book i'm not going to tell the story the way it happened i'll gonna tell it the way i remember it anyway to return from nostalgia lane and get back to the present hollywood in it's trendy attempt to modernize the classics now presents an updated film version of great expectations instead of pip this time the central character is named finn played as a boy by jeremy kissner and by ethan hawke as an adult finn is an orphan being raised by his unfaithful sister maggie or should that be mrs joe kim dickens and her boorish fisherman husband joe chris cooper the setting is the florida coast during the finn is a blooming artist and spends his time running around the beach drawing fish one of his two favorite subjects during one of these escapades he literally stumbles upon an escaped criminal robert deniro borrowing a page from the superhuman max cady deniro's criminal has a seemingly limitless lung capacity and favors hiding on the ocean floor ok maybe that's an exaggeration but he certainly beats any of houdini's records in the opening scenes of the film and that's nothing next to the fuel efficiency of finn's motorboat but i digress anyway finn does the convict a good deed just to show that he's a really swell guy and then the plot moves on enter miss havisham or ms dinsmoor here anne bancroft abandoned at the altar some years ago ms dinsmoor is the epitome of the crazy rich old maid with bizarre clothing eccentric mannerisms and a few pounds of makeup anne bancroft seriously overacts in this role although she ends up nowhere near a believable character she does add some humor to the film joe is hired to help with the gardening at her unkempt manner but the insane ms dinsmoor soon hires finn to be a plaything for her niece estella raquel beaudene as a young girl gwyneth paltrow as an adult for no apparent reason other than to provide the main plot of the film finn is instantly stricken for the estella perhaps it's her snooty attitude or her utter disdain for his person or maybe finn has simply never met a girl before in any case neither as children nor adults chemistry simply doesn't exist between the two and yet finn spends the remainder of the film pining for her even when as an adult finn arrives in new york at the behest of a mysterious benefactor reacquaints himself with estella and draws her portrait in the nude there's nothing in fact there is more sexual tension between helen hunt and greg kinnear's gay artist during a similar scene in as good as it gets at this point the audience has grown as cold and detached as estella's character and couldn't care less about the two characters the bulk of the blame here falls upon gwyneth paltrow she fails to imbue estella a remote character in the book with even the vaguest traces of humanity there's obviously something wrong when watching the film you're more interested with how big her nose looks in silhouette than you are about her character without a strong estella finn's obsession seems baseless you wish he would just stop whining let estella marry his rival walter plane an oddly subdued hank azaria and just get on with his life in fact the two relationships that work in the film are purely tangential to the main plot finn's relationship with his joe is interesting if a bit stereotypical what's more fascinating are his interactions with deniro although it's only a bit part it goes to show how much vitality a strong actor can create it is apparent that director alfonso cuarsn put a lot of work in creating the imagery of the film some of the shots work but others are too obviously staged for example both of the water fountain scenes to have any impact finn's art actually the creations of italian painter francesco clemente is used throughout the film but it mostly fails to have the intended effect we never see why finn would generate this style of art which is simultaneously crude and insightful as a result it ends up as distant as the rest of the film modernizing the classics is currently in vogue just see william shakespeare's simply update the action to a modern setting and apply plenty of modern rock but such adornments do little to perk up great expectations as much as i dreaded the novel when i first read it you'd probably be better off suffering though a reading than watching this romanceless film
negative	you damn dirty apes that's just one of the inadvertenty hilarious lines from planet of the apes that's taken on a comedic context over time no one back then seemed to realize how top charlton heston's acting style was but it shows now particularly in this mystery science theater wannabe that was taken for a film masterpiece in its time actually winning one oscar for makeup no less and being nominated for a couple others it also spawned multiple sequels like beneath the planet of the apes escape from the planet of the apes return of the planet of the apes beneath the escape from the return of the planet of the apes planet of the apes the next generation police academy of the apes the list goes on heston is an american astronaut who spends a few thousand light years in space with his three companions and ends up on a planet not too dissimilar from earth the thing is on this planet humans can't talk or think and the guys in the gorilla masks are the dominant species heston's companions are killed or turned into vegetables by the apon is imprisoned he surprises them all with his gift of speech making two primate scientists roddy mcdowall and kim hunter believe heston is the missing link between ape and man believe me we movie critics have been thinking the same thing for years when the two apes present the idea before a judicial counsel the head ape being shakespearean actor maurice evans it is received as heresy for all good monkeys know god created ape in his image but heston has already seen a cave that contains evidence that humans were originally the dominant species before apes ever gained the ability to speak and run for president and he takes them there holding up a baby doll and yelling if humans couldn't speak then how do you account for this talking doll and how do you account for your acting ability mr heston the absolute most laughable scene comes with the movie's surprise conclusion i won't reveal the details except to say it involves heston falling to his knees on a beach and yelling god damn you all to hell several times in succession the movie is atrocious and should only be viewed by those members of society who like to watch bad movies and laugh at them what makes planet of the apes even more amusing is that it was supposed to function as some sort of social irony a condemnation of fundamentals who reject the theories of evolution but let me tell you if darwin could see the ape masks and hear the rotten dialogue exchanges heston female may i kiss you before i go ape but you're so ugly he'd convert to creationism on the spot luckily for us movies have evolved over time to the point at which some of them are actually good
negative	new address same old attitude don't forget to recommend a film read the journal or send me some of that nasty hate mail starring bruce willis billy bob thornton liv tyler ben affleck written by jonathan hensleigh and j j abrams directed by michael bay it lots of rocks fly at us or from us in slow or fast motion at several points in the film they seem like dangerous rocks because they kind of twirl through the air instead of just propelling forward and when they in a while when we need a break from the space cause damage enough to destroy the chrysler building and the like nary a mention of these apocalyptic events is made after they occur they also just might be the most interesting element of armageddon a steroid user's answer to deep impact bruce willis stars as harry stamper a famed commissioned by the white house and nasa to stop a giant asteroid before it travels beyond zero barrier and destroys our planet why an oil driller they require someone experienced with mining to plant a nuclear missile into said asteroid in one unintentionally hilarious sequence nasa asks harry to inspect a driller they built based on his own blueprints it is poorly criticizes almost every aspect of it we trust nasa to build space shuttles that can land on twirling asteroids harry assembles the obligatory ragtag bunch of cowboys including a blond guy a fat guy a black guy a wiseass and the man who is sleeping with his daughter affleck once they reach space we experience sequence after sequence of something going the fact that they sent a bunch of nincompoops into outer space has something to do with it i cannot count the number of times they almost fail the mission on all my fingers and toes whether or not they save the day i will not reveal nor will you care i will say this you know you're in trouble when deep impact dwarfs your asteroid movie in terms of emotion and scope willis has barely a chance to come alive ditto for affleck their big scenes are mostly reserved for the third act in a last to inject warmth into the material steve buscemi's exceptionally problematic rockhound as he's called is sarcastic and foolish so they tape him to a chair where he spends most of the film so why did they bring him up there to begin with rather why write him into the film his to serious willis who scowls and mopes and demonstrates psychotic tendencies at one point he chases after affleck with his shotgun for screwing his daughter firing often and causing significant damage to his oil rig i'm guessing he qualifies under nasa guidelines as someone unfit for space travel at least in my world where the sky is blue liv tyler is pretty and humourless as always suspiciously four of her father's band's aerosmith songs grace the soundtrack director michael bay lays the visual and sound effects on thick like ketchup eventually drowning the movie the middle hour is a pyrotechnic assault on the average primate's brain whenever someone dies in this movie a crew member inevitably yells out we lost insert dead person's last name here i must admit that not once could i distinguish a dead from a live one and of the corpses' faces beneath cracked helmets provided little assistance as their skin was often covered in fake blood armageddon is not as terrible movie as godzilla it looks nicer and has fewer within its equally ludicrous framework it has a vivid soundmix but at almost hours i could not believe how little actually happened over the course of the story the love story has been played up in the ads perhaps hoping to catch people before they recover from bollocks the lovers in the film are miles apart all thoughts of nude sketching or and replace them with obligatory shots of liv tyler tearing up while ben affleck dicks around in a remember a little film called jaws in this film three men suddenly found themselves on a fishing boat in pursuit of a deadly shark they didn't much like each other at first eventually they started to respect one another one of jaws' great scenes involved the drinking and singing songs and telling stories this is the sort of foreign to bay or his producer jerry bruckheimer who throw too many characters into the mix and expect we'll care about them on the grounds that the world is about to end not once do we get the feeling that these characters are even be surprised if these actors bothered to introduce themselves to one another before action was called a male friend who loved the film suggested to me that perhaps i cannot relate to a bunch of men who don't bare their souls who believe in dying macho concepts like heroism and a kind of bravery to this i will respond that the boys in armageddon are neither heroic nor brave nor smart even this team couldn't build a birdhouse and if i get no respect for disliking a movie with all the synthetic feeling of a trailer for a movie written by a team of and greeting card never been a prouder wimp my whole life
negative	the one question that eats at me after seeing corky romano is why touchstone spent so much money marketing this throwaway film since june i haven't been able to turn on the tv or go to the movies without getting hit by some ad depicting chris kattan as the spastic corky shrieking out take on me in his yellow miata why would disney sink so much cash into the corky hype machine honestly i was hoping that all the goofball ads were actually a front for a decently funny movie man was i wrong corky romano is one of those throwaway clich vehicles built upon the most rickety of plots fortunately for chris kattan's precariously positioned career corky does have some good laughs even if most of them are of the variety kattan plays the title character the unsinkable assistant veterinarian corky who has a penchant for sunshiny tunes bright ties and banal coffee mug slogans you don't have to be crazy to work here but it sure helps when his mob boss dad peter falk is about to be put away on murder charges his bungling lughead brothers peter berg and chris penn rope in innocent black sheep corky to infiltrate the fbi as an agent and steal the evidence predictably hijinks ensue if the basic plot sounds bad wait until you get into the of this clunker the writers will amaze you with the depth of their inanity corky's fbi agent identity is named corky pissant that's pronounced it's french he becomes a agent by accidentally stumbling mr onto the proper clues and talking his way in and out of situations which plays like something out of a sitcom and not a good sitcom i mean the romano family brothers even insult each other by farting in each other's face and in a scene taken straight from there's something about mary corky gives a dachshund resuscitation but it's not a complete disaster the manic kattan does occasionally rescue some comic moments including a bit featuring a cat in a fat suit named jesus and another involving schoolchildren a german shephard and a kilo of cocaine plus berg whose career has obviously gone downhill since the last seduction and chicago hope gives a great turn as the illiterate brother paulie and it's nice to see that richard roundtree of shaft fame is getting work unfortunately for those out there who can't truly appreciate animal or fart jokes corky won't have much to offer you so the next time one of those pesky ads appears on your tv asking who is corky you can simply reply who cares
negative	kids today they don't just want to see heartthrob and master thespian freddie prinze jr loving on the ladies no they want to see him doing something that takes a little more in the acting department namely playing baseball through a series of drippy voiceovers we are informed that there's no better proving ground for major league baseball than the cape cod summer baseball leagues where college and hopeful dropouts go to play in the hopes of attracting big league attention our man freddie has landed a spot as a pitcher on the prestigious chatham a's where he is hoping for his big break it's only after he is given ample time to show off his abs and scamper about in a woman's thong don't ask that we learn what the real story of summer catch will be that prinze is a poor townie named ryan dunne struggling to make a name for himself that neither his father fred ward nor brother jason gedrick pulled themselves out of their blue collar jobs and resent anyone who tries and that the local beauty tenley tenley jessica biel is so far out of his league that he probably shouldn't even bother but of course he makes a play for her summer catch also makes an abortive stab at another half a dozen subplots the jealousy of fellow townie and brazen slut dee dee brittany murphy the alienation felt by ryan's playing best friend gabriel mann or the fat chick fetish of fellow player miles marc blucas worst of these is a ludicrous bit involving that show's wilmer valderrama and beverly d'angelo both of whom appear in the film simply to provide a nutty mrs substory and to remind you of how much better done that was in bull durham in fact virtually all of summer catch feels like it's been done better somewhere else for starters the film has a major question of identity it's definitely not a sports movie and it fails pretty miserably at being a romance the worst part is the amateurish script by an writing alumnus and a guy that starred in leprechaun of phony emotion by the end it all becomes a platform for each character to deliver a soliloquy to ryan that he must take to heart dad is on hand to give fatherly yet drunken advice coach brian dennehy just loving the fact that he's got some work on the big screen is on hand to give the curmudgeonly counterpoint ryan's catcher matthew lillard playing himself again is on hand to tell ryan to play catch with him and make fun of the fat fetish guy ryan's stoner best friend is on hand to give the talk and the girlfriend is on hand to give counsel before long you start to wonder is freddy prinze jr is capable of having a thought of his own don't answer that the only real joy in the film is found in biel's character and not just because of the skimpy outfits which are also usually wet she's the only one in the movie that is able to do much with her role taking the character to at least a passing grade when she's on screen the time flies by when she's not you realize that for some ungodly reason this movie is almost two hours long for a teen romance despite sexual innuendo one has to ask warner brothers what were you thinking for her part biel has fallen so far from her heaven roots that she has almost become denise richards hollywood is either about to eat her alive or vice versa either way good luck jessica as for freddie if he keeps pumping teen romances out at the rate of two a year prinze's next summer catch is liable to be a venereal disease
negative	plot two sister witches have to live with a curse placed upon their family which prevents them from ever enjoying a full life with a lover the hex invokes the eventual demise of their loved one when one of their past loves comes back to haunt them they have to figure a way out of their eternal dilemma critique i've been waiting for a good witch movie for a while now but hold on to your brooms and incantations cause this puppy is far from being it for a film that has the word magic in its title this movie contains very few moments of magic or humor for that matter drama suspense or romance well actually there is some manufactured romance within a plot that is so muddled it never lets you in on whether it's a comedy a drama a horror show or a murder mystery or maybe it's a romance eh it doesn't really matter cause the characters in the film are so boring and uninteresting that you have absolutely no basis on which to care for them or the film as a whole if only the filmmakers had spent as much time on the plot as they did the sinfully obvious soundtrack this film might've had a chance to be more than what it is now which is an unentertaining crappy film that uses the witch angle as a diversionary tactic to weave us away from its of stupid overdone songs melodramatic romance undeveloped story and uneven acting i only wish that i could make that one hour and minutes of my life but alas it is lost in the spiritual world of interesting ideas gone wildly awry little known facts about this film and its stars this film is based on the novel written by alice hoffman akiva goldsman also wrote the screenplay for batman robin director griffin dunne is known mainly as an actor in such films as an american werewolf in london and after hours
negative	rated r language sexual situations violence minutes director and writer darren stein cast rose mcgowan rebecca gayheart judy greer julie benz chad christ ethan erickson carol kane pam grier tatyana m ali review by geoff berkshire jawbreaker is the very definition of a this uninspired teen comedy takes equal parts carrie heathers and clueless and mixes in all the necessary teen movie clich s along the way darren stein forgets to give the film a life of its own the film opens with a voice over from geeky fern mayo judy greer about the four most popular girls at reagan high courtney shayne rose mcgowan who can basically be summed up as satan in heels julie freeman rebecca gayheart a good girl with the face of a supermodel marcie fox julie benz a blonde who demands that people call her foxy and liz purr charlotte roldan an angel in disguise liz is everyone's favorite because she's both beautiful and kind liz is about to turn and as a prank courtney convinces the other girls to help her in kidnapping liz on her birthday morning in order to keep liz from making any noise courtney stuffs a jawbreaker into her mouth before they gag her they then stuff liz in the trunk of courtney's car but when they open it later polaroid camera waiting to capture the moment their lives will never be the same poor liz has swallowed the jawbreaker and choked to death with it lodged in her throat the audience is treated to a few too many graphic looks at liz's dead body courtney thinking fast decides to pass the death off as a and marcie and a reluctant julie assist her things get complicated when fern discovers what the three girls are up to in order to keep her quiet courtney comes up with another plan and transforms geeky fern into vylette hoping that she will also help to replace liz in the minds of the devastated students up until about this point the film is effective enough however an investigation begins into liz's death and the film becomes excessively dull the recently rediscovered talents of pam grier are thoroughly wasted in the role of detective vera cruz and the film is downright insipid in its treatment of both the characters and the audience during this long middle stretch courtney's plan to frame a sleazy guy marilyn manson in a brief cameo is never believable for a second meanwhile the audience is stuck watching a string of random events which fail to develop the characters or add anything of interest to the plot julie leaves the group and begins a lame romance with aspiring actor zack chad christ he apparently gives her the courage to turn on courtney but the way things develop only make julie look stupid fern's rise to popularity is equally lame we do get the best scene in the film the only one with a spark of originality during this section it's a smart and subversive bit where courtney gets the high school's resident jock stud dane ethan erickson to demonstrate using a popsicle exactly what he would like for her to do to him it at least provides us with a look at courtney's personality but the way the scene finishes doesn't make any sense stein is very conscious of the teen movie tradition he is working in and not only freely borrows major plot elements but also includes direct acknowledgment of this with some stunt casting william katt and p j soles students in carrie are liz's distraught parents jeff conaway from grease is julie's creepy single dad and carol kane the frightened babysitter in when a stranger calls camps it up as principal miss sherman at times jawbreaker feels simply like teen cinema's greatest hits but the audience is cheated with watered down interpretations of the best this genre has to offer the only notable aspect of jawbreaker is the incredibly stylish look the costume design by vickie brinkford and the production design by jerry fleming are both bright and vivid they were apparently instructed to work from the color palette of a jawbreaker and the screen is always splashed with bits of vibrant color director of photography amy vicent who beautifully lensed eve's bayou does a remarkable job here as well shot composition and camera movement is consistently impressive performances are mostly with mcgowan providing only a few good moments compared with her excellent work in the doom generation and scream and gayheart making the biggest impression due to the sweet nature of her character and her obvious beauty none of the actors look as if they have set foot inside a high school within the last five years with the exception of tatyana ali who has a small role as a cheerleader the male cast all resemble male models and are credited with names like auto stud college stud and high school stud the soundtrack is decent and imperial teen's catchy yoo hoo makes a bigger impression than any other aspect of the film
negative	with all that education you should know what happiness is starring sylvia chang teresa hu hsu ming li lieh mao directed by edward yang written by yang and wu cinematography by christopher doyle and chang every country has eventually its new wave france had its nouvelle vague brazil its cinema novo china its fifth generation and on and on some waves just take longer than others before they wash over us cleansing us with the balm of discovery taiwan's new wave came in the in the work of directors like hou wan jen and edward yang that day on the first central it created a new language for young taiwanese directors even if the first attempts to speak that language were hesitant and faltering later works refined the techniques that yang first explored here giving taiwan a distinctive international presence that day itself is long and frustrating the document of a nation's attempt to find a voice it does not lack ambition it anatomizes urban life in modern taiwan in the manner of antonioni elaborating the alienation that the westernized feel as their lives are shaped by career men loyal they find unfulfilling sylvia chang is the focus but the film brings others into its husband her brother friends from her college it charts her discontents no one is happy married her husband at a young age at the time her brother had been urged into an arranged marriage despite his affection for another woman and so marriage seemed in comparison a good one she chose of her own free will they loved each other but it goes wrong that day dutifully presents all the clich s becomes absorbed in his career indulges in an affair with a feels restless and trapped bound by a choice she made while young but which no longer seems wise the film never redeems these clich s by conveying the feel of authentic experience the intensity of lived pain and much of it seems trite and belaboured it unfolds awkwardly as a series of flashbacks told during a luncheon in vienna where meets her brother's old flame teresa hu now a concert pianist whom she has not seen since college both women seem rather sad and resigned to their sadness their circumstances and those of brother and a college friend suggest not so much that they have made the wrong the wrong man chosen the wrong career path etc rather that the choices available to them were inadequate it is not that married the wrong man she didn't the problem is that she needed to marry at that if she did not marry she would still be just as unhappy for a woman in modern taiwan that day tells us the cards are stacked the dice are loaded she can play the game but the house always wins the film's sympathetic feminist implications are presumably the reason it caused such controversy upon its release in taiwan seen now it does not seem provocative indeed it's hard to imagine anyone having felt passionate enough about the film to generate any controversy it may be ambitious it may be innovative but it is also terribly terribly dull and what was new for taiwan was not necessarily new for the rest of us yang adopts methods established years before by antonioni and others and his use of those methods is fumbling uncertain undisciplined nor does he bring anything than the the material there are moments when that day takes on some of the emotional richness it strives a young couple's first kiss in the awkward meeting of a woman and her husband's they are brief too often yang devotes needless time to mundane shopping which nothing happens little is said no emotion imparted perhaps if the film were content to focus on such reflective inward moments leaving us to guess at thoughts and feelings it might have been ambiguous suggestive insinuating but and her disaffected companions do not only brood in silence they talk about their problems at length in detail redundantly and eliminate all subtleties at two hours and minutes it all seems exorbitantly long indulgently consider the defining moment for the titular day on the beach the thrust of the whole film explains easily enough what we are to think of that moment what it means when she walks away from a particular situation even so the film has not one but two characters explain it for us verbally in case we may have missed the point needless time is devoted to expressing what should have remained unexpressed and that is the problem throughout the look of the film is as tedious as the narrative it was the first feature shot by christopher least it's his name in the is now rightly regarded as one of the world's leading cinematographers in the freewheeling expressionism of his work with directors like chen kaige and wong he seems incapable of fashioning a boring image you would never know it from watching that day which due either to doyle's inexperience or yang's humdrum direction is almost perverse in its insistence on making the physical environment seem as drab and banal as possible in scrutinizing the long decay of a marriage that day manages to capture the ennui of the experience but none of the damage none of the heartbreak
negative	the first in a very long list of things wrong with i still know what you did last summer is the title think about it for a second if the last movie was called i know what you did last summer wouldn't the next movie have to be i still know what you did two summers ago if anyone working on this movie had an i q greater than five would have thought about it logically and said hey wait a minute but alas the people behind this film are obviously idiots so i won't hold them to that what i will hold them to is the fact that they have a pretty bad movie on their hands even for a teenage slasher flick i guess i'm one of the few critics who actually kind of liked the original film emphasis on the kind of it wasn't great or anything and maybe not even necessarily good but at least it didn't have me glancing at my watch every minute or so like it's sequel did there are just so many problems with this movie that it's hard trying to figure out where to start first of all i guess is the setting the movie offers no rational reason why the film had to take place in the bahamas other than the fact that the producers wanted a seaside setting exactly why does the fisherman want to go through all the trouble of faking a radio contest to get julie james jennifer love hewitt one of the only survivors of the first film and her new college buddies out to the islands before he hacks them up the movie suffers from this kind of logic all the way through in one scene julie is in a tanning booth at a deserted gym when the hooked fisherman with the slicker comes in and seals up the booth so the damsel in distress can't get out no matter how hard she tries when julie discovers she's going to slowly fry to death she screams for help and her friends come to her rescue now this is all fine and dandy except for one thing instead of spending five minutes trying to bust open the booth why not just turn the freakin' thing off in another scene one of the characters after having their significant other all but decapitated by the man in the slicker says to julie just don't tell anybody it rained the whole time oh yeah i've just been terrorized by a hook wielding sociopath and had some of my best friends gruesomely slaughtered but hey i'll crack jokes anyway after all it is in the script the film's only saving graces are a few suspense sequences and a really cool cameo by the himself jeffrey combs he brings some good comic relief and life to an otherwise limp movie way to go jeffrey i have a hunch that the reason this film fizzles while the first one at least kept it's head above water is the recent absence of writer kevin williamson with scream and even it's sequel he displayed a real talent as a screenwriter his ear for dialogue and the terrific endings he puts on all his films make him a standout from all the rest of the horror writers and i think i still know has really suffered by not having him on board the cool atmosphere is still there this time around but i just didn't like the characters or the writing as much as i did in the first one even though the movie doesn't have williamson it still has a hacky ending trying to do what kevin did with the first two scream s by some may consider this a spoiler but if you have seen any horror movies whatsoever then you should be able to guess the identity of the madman within twenty minutes having two killers and this time having one of them being a family member to the other i think someone in the audience put it best when after the movie had ended with another the killer is back cliffhanger he said who is this time the grandma all in all i still know tries to be as successful as the first the film was but really fails in the attempt i mean it's okay when slasher movies each other but when they start copying themselves
negative	there's nothing new under the sun is a phrase often used when the speaker actually means let's find something to copy of course there are very few completely original ideas even concepts are built upon the vast body of human experience there is after all no need to the wheel time after time recently it seems that hollywood doesn't feel the need to even the script my understanding of the word sequel is a continuation of the story the film industry has defined the word to mean reshooting the original with minor changes have an overwhelming desire to see an inferior version of brian depalma's adaptation of the steven king novel this is your dream come true rachel emily bergl a high school outcast is beginning to notice weird things happening around her doors slam shut by themselves glass globes blow up her mother has severe mental problems and her father is absent a popular boy unexpectedly asks her out the conspires to embarrass her at a public event any of this sound familiar once the audience catches on that this is the same story as carrie there's little to do but wait for the inevitable ending the effects are a bit better this time around but the film doesn't work nearly as well there are a couple of minor plot differences rachel lives with foster parents because her mother is institutionalized the boys at her school are portrayed as even more evil than in the original they keep score of their scoring with points given for each conquest and uh there must be other story changes but none stand out one nice touch is the casting of amy irving again as sue snell over years ago she was the one girl who tried to help carrie now a high school counselor she befriends rachel but her character's potential is squandered there's too much about sue that doesn't make sense after the slaughter when carrie kills most of her classmates sue is driven mad and spends time in the institution that rachel's mother is in still living in the same small town the woman with a history of mental problems is hired as a high school counselor sue tells rachel that her telekinesis is a genetic disease this may be the one original idea in the film but the reasoning behind describing psychic powers as a disease is never explained sue's eventual fate is an admission by director katt shea and writer rafael moreu that they had an interesting character but couldn't figure out what to do with her blink and you'll miss it some of the events are filmed in black and white but the rationale for this is unknown it doesn't add anything and the choice of scenes appears somewhat random the rage retains some of the trappings of carrie without the meaning in the first film the color red was a motif connected to carrie's onset of powers at the same time she began menstruating here there's an abundance of red but for no apparent purpose the casting of high school jocks and cheerleaders as villains is beginning to wear thin one might be lead to suspect that most filmmakers were unpopular in school and the history of teenage films is an extended cinematic revenge of the nerds the biggest mistake the film makes is including clips of the original seeing sissy spacek on the screen only points to the quality of that film and the flaws in this one
negative	plot outline wendy samantha press a jazz singer loves mack hugo race a criminal and wanna be rock singer who's planning a bank heist mack is also being tailed by a couple of cops one an inexperienced rookie dominic sweeney the other john flaus a worn out veteran who frequents wendy's jazz club they're tailing mack because he has an audiotape that may show evidence of governmental corruption meanwhile wendy's sexually awakener fifteen year old sister rebecca elmaloglou has moved in with her and is secretly watching mack and wendy's late night love trysts much zaniness ensues the review main problem first about of rood rock star to actor conversions in filmdom ever really work unfortunately trying to cast hugo race as a violent sexy criminal falls into the what the hell where they thinking category that takes up of the rest but hell it's not as if he's the only problem in this but ultimately below average aussie thriller leads race and samantha press are wooden and dull hampered by some unfortunate attempts at sexy dialogue early on though they do manage some heat later in their love scenes helped no doubt by them keeping their mouths shut the film suffers every time the story shifts back to these two which is unfortunately the other main story isn't any great shakes either the second part concerning two cops political corruption and that elusive tape is incredibly muddled at many points during the movie i had no idea what was going on a situation that didn't improve on repeated viewing there is no doubt that this film's achilles heel is its script as for the rest of the cast it's a mixed bag john flaus one of australia's most criminally underused actors is in top form as the withering alcoholic jazz fan cop who may or may not have sold out to the highest bidder although he falters at one point when the script calls for him to get up on stage and deliver a drunken beat sermon but believe me they way it was written no one could have pulled it off dominic sweeney is fine though he seems to be uneasy in front of the lens but he really isn't given a whole lot to do pre home and away elmaloglou is pretty good as the inquisitive jojo but her character seems extraneous to the story well at least until the final scenes i must admit in too deep does have some impressive qualities not the least of which is it visual element cinematographers mark gilfedder peter zakharov have achieved the almost impossible by making melbourne look like a sweat drenched tropic city which is akin to turning london into san paolo the bar is an oppressive red like all of it's patrons are being baked while they drink outside it hazy orange by day and cool blue by night if only deborah parson's script could have supported this idea better having two director's colin south john tatoulis doesn't help either the most glaring example of which is the final scene where for some reason the camera pulls away from the onscreen action and more importantly it doesn't pull away to anything else it just stays static as the fight happens in the distance it has no reason to it it's just bad direction and ultimately that is what sums up in too deep it's tries to be good and you want it to work but it's just lacking the talent behind it that it needs to succeed
negative	the scene at the end of poets society when robin williams' english students stand up on their desk and say my captain gets me every time unfortunately the court room scene near the end of robin's newest film adams doesn't have anywhere near the same impact from the surface adams' looks very promising it's a story about a not so young man patch adams robin williams who finds meaning in his life through helping sick people when the film opens we find patch depressed and suicidal checking himself into a mental hospital in a few scenes strongly reminiscent of flew over the cuckoo's nest he ends up helping the patients through their problems and it's here that he finds how much he loves working with people so he checks himself out of the hospital and heads straight to medical school right from the start patch uses comedy to help make the patient more comfortable he continuously breaks medical tradition and makes the dean of the school angry shortly after joining medical school he meets and falls in love with carin monica potter they along with patch's dork friend truman daniel london start a medical clinic for uninsured people once the dean catches wind of the clinic he tells patch he can't graduate and kicks him out of school patch like what any true american would do takes the school to court it's here where the not so climatic court room battle takes place over whether or not patch can become a real doctor i have never seen a movie with some potential just completely blow it it seems more like a series of short sketches rather than a movie considering it runs almost two hours much too long for such a light film it could have flowed much smoother not to mention the fact of how serious the film takes itself and manages to cover all the cliches of bad melodrama robin williams saves the film from being abysmal with several comic scenes that elevate the movie to entertaining and worthwhile levels but those moments are rare and in the end adams' is barely average
negative	the real blonde r a woman's face an arm some pectorals blond hair a man's sad face slender legs a random hand here and there as the opening credits of tom dicillo's the real blonde unfold these scattered fractured glimpses eventually come together to form the image of a bikini man on his knees clinging to a nurturing woman his head concealing her unclothed breasts if only the rest of this formless aimless ensemble comedy assembled so coherently joe matthew modine is a actor too proud to take gigs in commercials or soap operas he's feeling somewhat dissatisfied with his relationship with his love mary catherine keener who holds some subconscious hostility toward the male gender mary a makeup artist regularly works on model sahara bridgette wilson who is obsessed with the underlying messages in disney's the little mermaid the bottle blonde has a turbulent relationship with bob maxwell caulfield a soap actor who yearns for the taste of a real blonde which he finds in kelly daryl hannah as the film unspools a variety of other characters pass through fashion photographer blair marlo thomas mary's shrink buck henry and instructor denis leary joe's casting agent kathleen turner and hardass boss christopher lloyd and a mystery woman elizabeth berkley who keeps on crossing joe's path where exactly does all this go that's a question best posed to dicillo who doesn't appear to have the slightest clue himself his meandering largely unfunny script and direction are like hopelessly lost drivers turning into narrative streets only to reverse course and hit another creative and another and another at one point bob frustrated with the soap scripts complains to the head writer jim fyfe that his and kelly's characters keep on going in circles with no hint of development or growth that is most certainly the case here joe gets a job and ultimately botches things he and mary bicker they make up only to have the pattern repeat itself unhappy with his bottle blonde bob gets his real blonde but is unsatisfied he returns to the faux and is still unsatisfied if there is a point to all of this dicillo dances around it spending his time on apparent digressions that as it turns out aren't digressions at all the real blonde is not without some amusements it does have the occasional funny line and situation leary henry lloyd steve buscemi and dave chappelle shine in their small roles keener is a likable refreshingly earthy lead berkley's appearance is mercifully brief she receives outrageously prominent billing and ad placement for a role and there is the irony of having caulfield play a wildly popular soap star who makes the ratings skyrocket last year the actor was fired from the daytime drama all my children after a scant six to lack of viewer interest but on the whole the real blonde is a frustrating sit that lives up to the stereotypes of its may be glossy on the surface but there's nothing going on inside opens february
negative	jack frost is one of those dumb corny concoctions that attempts to be a heartwarming family film but is too muddled in its own cliches and predictability to be the least bit touching this does not come as a surprise since the studio that made it is warner brothers who is on a current streak of one bad film after the other jack frost michael keaton is a struggling rock musician who loves his wife gabby kelly preston and son charlie joseph cross but doesn't spend nearly enough time with them when he receives a call from a music label that wants to hear him play he has to cancel his planned family outing up in the mountains for christmas halfway there jack has second thoughts but on his way back home is in a car accident and dies switch forward a year christmas is approaching once again and charlie and gabby are still having a difficult time coming to terms with jack's death when charlie begins to play the harmonica his father gave him the night before he died the snowman outside the house is taken over by jack's spirit jack wants to spend some time with his son before the upcoming warm front melts him but charlie desperately tries to prevent his melting demise frosty the snowman is a classic cartoon and the idea of a snowman that is alive works splendidly when animated but as a film it doesn't work at all after a somewhat promising prologue in which the frost family is established jack frost quickly goes downhill especially once the snowman comes into play since jack has been deceased for a whole year you would think there would be many questions to ask him such as what happens after you die or how does it feel to be a snowman but instead the film focuses on a snowball fight subplot and an inevitably oversentimental climax that could be telegraphed before i even sat down to watch the movie the performances are respectable enough but no one deserves to be punished by appearing in a silly film like this michael keaton at least got off easy since he disappears after the first twenty minutes but what exactly does he think he is doing with his career here i have always liked kelly preston she is clearly a talented charismatic actress but has never been given a good role in her life usually having to settle for a supporting character as in nothing to lose and addicted to love joseph cross was probably the highlight in the cast since he believably portrayed a boy suffering the loss of a parent in one of the only subplots that actually works due to its wittiness henry rollins is highly amusing as a hockey coach who becomes terrified and paranoid after seeing the live snowman this brief hint of cleverness is pushed to the side however by the main plot at hand which is the sappy story of a father and son since i knew what was going to happen by the time the conclusion came around i had no choice but to sit there and listen to painfully insipid lines of dialogue some of my favorites was an interaction between the son and father you da man says charlie no i da snowman replies jack or how about this little zinger coming from a school bully that miraculously becomes friendly towards charlie and tries to help him out snowdad is better than no dad do people really get paid in hollywood for writing pieces of trash like this the snowman created by john henson's creature shop is more believable than the snowman from last year's unintentionally hilarious horror flick also called jack frost but it still was difficult to tell if it was a person in a suit or computer effects either way it was an awful lot of work to go through just to come up with a final product as featherbrained as this project as a seasonal holiday picture jack frost is pretty much a clunker a better christmas film from this year is i'll be home for christmas better yet my suggestion would be to stay home and watch a quality film such as it's a wonderful life a christmas story or prancer jack frost is an earnest but severely misguided film and children as well as adults deserve better i doubt they would want to see a movie about the death of a parent anyway
negative	some movies require you to turn off your brain in order to watch then there are movies that require you to accept that everyone in the movie has turned off their brains the real mccoy is both it's charmless and so full of genuinely stupid people that the film commission of atlanta where the real mccoy is set might well consider some sort of ritual suicide for their complicity in this humiliation the real mccoy opens with bank robber karen mccoy kim basinger being arrested in the middle of a job six years later karen is out on parole and looking to stay straight she soon bumps into j t barker val kilmer a hapless thief who idolizes karen j t also has ties to jack schmidt terence stamp the man who blew the whistle on karen six years earlier for refusing to work with him schmidt who is in cahoots with karen's sleazy parole officer gailard sartain again wants karen to help him stage a robbery this time he has some leverage karen's kidnapped son just when she thought she was out they keep pulling her back in contrivances and sloppy plotting fly off the screen so fast and furiously you have to duck to avoid being hit by them leading the list is the jack schmidt character who through unexplained but presumably foul mains is already extremely wealthy when our story begins there is no reason given why he should need or want to get involved in another crime let alone why he would actually participate in the karen's initial encounter with j t during a botched convenience store also strains the limits of credibility it would have been simple enough to have them somehow entangled at that point but instead they run into each other the next day because they're leaving their parole officers at exactly the same moment small world eh then there's the convenient car trouble during an attempted escape and pet tigers which through the power of the laws of bad cinema must inevitably confront someone who has blundered into their cage however the buffoon prize goes to the atlanta police who come off like the keystone kops on a bad day but the fun doesn't end there in the shambles of a script by william davies and william osborne there is also the absence of a single solitary interesting character karen is earnest and in her motherly devotion but lacking any kind of edge which would make her a convincing criminal and basinger is not a thespian adept at fleshing out flimsy material schmidt is a flaccid villain the parole officer is a complete blank and karen's son and might as well be furniture only kilmer's j t is remotely appealing but his one potentially intriguing quality his ineptitude is never developed in fact kilmer disappears during the middle of the film just when his admiration for karen could have made for an interesting i might have been more forgiving if the pacing had been more appropriate to a caper comedy but the real mccoy goes nowhere fast various scenes of sneaking and skulking seem to take forever and some end with no reason evident why they didn't end up on the cutting room floor even the reasonably clever climactic falls victim to this syndrome including a scene of one of the thieves drilling open a vault which lasts i kid you not four minutes there is no tension in the scene just tedium russell mulcahy highlander is a director with some style and indeed the real mccoy looks reasonably good but he completely stumbles in the editing room there are so many big problems with the real mccoy that i'm tempted to overlook the little ones like karen disarming one of schmidt's henchmen and throwing his gun into the middle of a park where her son is playing like a fountain crushed when a van runs into it reappearing in one piece a few moments later tempted but i'm pretty good at resisting temptation
negative	you think that these people only exist in the movies but trust me they're as real as life i once talked to a guy who thought the united states government was putting satellites into orbit which could fry an individual person's brain with microwaves then i sat in a room full of people who believed that the government rigged state elections i even listened to a man who swore that nicotine was an additive that cigarette companies put in their products for the specific goal of getting people addicted these people had what are known as conspiracy theories ideas about how unseen forces work to deceive and control the public a little imagination goes a long way in richard donner's conspiracy theory jerry fletcher mel gibson is a new york city cab driver who seems to have a conspiracy theory about everything his latest that nasa is trying to kill the president by causing an earthquake from the space shuttle might sound outrageous to us but is all in a day's work for him he combs the newspaper looking for tidbits that leave telltale warnings about the behind the scenes and from there jerry draws his conclusions upstanding citizen that he is he tries to convince alice sutton julia roberts of the justice department that the president must be warned lucky gal alice who met jerry when he saved her from a couple of muggers and has had to listen to his theories during the six months since what she doesn't know is that jerry's interest in her is far more than well professional he goes to great lengths to follow her around and watch her in her own apartment but when some secret government types seem to take an interest in jerry's ideas and his conspiracy theory newsletter he finds himself in danger and in real need of alice's help one of the problems with conspiracy theory is that it tries to pass itself off as an when it seems to have neither a whole lot of action nor a significant number of thrills part of this is a result of the film's slow pace it takes forever to set up the relationship between jerry and alice and even once that is over with the rest of the film seems to be a lot of boredom that every once in a while stops to take a break for excitement at over two hours this film could have been significantly condensed and had it's running time shortened by twenty minutes to half an hour but even then the action scenes would not be able to save the film instead of truly exciting and engaging set pieces we're treated to a few of the generic scenes with the requisite black elements black helicopter men in black action suits and body armor black vehicles you know the drill they come on down with all kinds of neat gadgets and weapons but for some reason a guy with just a bunch of theories and some chick with no training somehow manage to elude them every time big deal we've seen it all before watching the film i wished donner had at least tried to use a little imagination but i was out of luck now when i say it took forever to set up the relationship between jerry and alice i completely mean what one person is relative to the other and not romantic involvement oh donner and screenwriter brian helgeland would like you to believe that by the end of the movie the two main characters will end up falling hopelessly in love with each other but there seems to be no evidence of that ever occurring you see there were more sparks between gibson and danny glover in the lethal weapon movies also directed by donner than between gibson and roberts in conspiracy theory the two just don't click and when you throw in a number of happenings that would cause alice to reject jerry altogether like finding out he's been stalking her the subsequent attraction is absolutely forced the script in general also seems forced like someone sat helgeland down and forced him to write it then took it and forced it upon us dialog is undistinguished and rather unmemorable to the point that i almost stopped listening even gibson's usual gift for ad lib couldn't punch up the film sufficiently to raise my interest although one of jerry's theories about oliver stone was mildly amusing unfortunately much of what's discussed in the film is not inherently important to what's going on but instead filler that starts out with potential but ends up just being extraneous because it's never followed through for example jerry professes that a man found drowned in his swimming pool was actually murdered by the government in a new york subway station he even goes so far as to explain that the station was flooded at the time due to a water main break hence the water in a subway station and that the coroner should check the man's lungs for chlorine this is convincing enough to alice that she seems to believe him you know what happens then nothing zip nada no whatsoever so what's the significance okay here's another one a couple of well known real life assassins were found to have possessed copies of the j d salinger novel the catcher in the rye jerry also has a bunch of copies whenever he goes into a bookstore he has to buy one leaving out the question of whether or not this makes jerry an assassin we're never given a reason to believe why this would make him an assassin not when we find out about his salinger collection not when he goes to the bookstore not later on when we get the answer to our first question the point becomes totally extraneous oh did i mention that patrick stewart is in this film yeah he plays this government psychiatrist named dr jonas who may or may not be a bad guy that's about it for all the presence this usually marvelous actor has he's nearly forgettable in conspiracy theory you can just lump him in with the supporting players with the exception of cylk cozart who plays agent lowry of the fbi this guy was really likable and i wish he and his character had gotten more screen time okay here's my theory this really started out as a great film but some of its jokes were actually true the government came in and forced donner to make edits for the sake of national security and this was what was left over
negative	my son and i share a perverse predilection for bad movies we are amused and entertained by the cheap thrills the corny dialog the ludicrous premises and the bad acting since other family members aspire to higher forms of entertainment we usually wind up indulging our proclivity together i can't remember when we disagreed on the relative merits of a clunker until species came along he was not amused i on the other hand was able to easily suspend the applicable requirements in the usual manner and declare myself suitably entertained perhaps the evident skills that were brought to the process of producing a bad product was what prevented him from extracting fun out of mediocrity i on the other hand appreciated the fact that the producers and director knew exactly what they were doing insulting my intelligence and brought adequate skills to the project a movie does not have to be good to be well made at least in terms of the craft the movie could have been better if it were not so brusque this movie slaps you with conception pregnancy delivery and young childhood in consecutive frames without pausing for infancy the producers of nescafe have nothing on this alien race in which a woman's womb balloons immediately after the male orgasm and a few seconds later a young child tears its way out of her abdomen in a sloppy and gory version of an cesarean an autopsy scene in which a buzz saw cuts through the cranium was not the kind of indulgence that i condone to say nothing of the fact that it was scientifically incorrect in a real autopsy the saw does not cut through the scalp it is used only after the skull has been exposed the opening sequences of exploration of mars were very good the writers showed excellent skills for ceremonial speech writing but the spontaneous dialogue would qualify for a subtitle bad as it gets' as the movie progressed i vowed to remember the lines that made me cringe but only one stuck eve natasha henstridge was cloned from sil the original alien sexual predator but her mating instinct was artificially attenuated which was all that was needed to turn her into a noble and cooperative prisoner in a wistful display of resignation and understanding she tells her friend and jailer marg helgenberger think of all the places that i will never see and all the people that i will never meet it's enough to melt the most callous heart at another point she protests human too you know she is only half right peter medak the director knows his business justin lazard as the doomed astronaut does nothing to enhance his hollywood credentials james cromwell his father is perfect in a short role marg heldenberger the dna scientist is pleasant and beautiful natasha is an exquisite ornament george dzunza knew and delivered what was expected of him as the dumb general that messes things up michael madsen was there black buddies do not usually survive in this type of movie but mykelti williamson manages to stay around for the final credits which is more that we can say for lazard
negative	it seemed like the perfect concept what better for the farrelly brothers famous for writing and directing comedies with offensive subject matter than to make a movie about a guy with a split personality it's exactly the sort of thing the brothers relish poking fun at something serious in this case mental illness throwing all care to the wind to get a laugh jim carrey's signed on too even better the national alliance for the mentally ill even helped out by levying complaints against the brothers' new film before its opening claiming it was misrepresenting the condition of split personality labeling it incorrectly as schizophrenia and so forth such a protest seemed like just the sort of thing that would of course only add more fuel to the farrelly brothers' fire proving that some people just couldn't take a joke and that the farrellys would be helping the more enlightened viewers to yet another dose of their brilliantly subversive comedy yes it all seemed perfect but one thing went wrong their movie isn't funny it's not for lack of trying the farrellys utilize in me myself irene their most premise ever carrey plays charlie baileygaites a man who after being dumped by his wife for a midget limo driver decides to bury all his aggressive feelings deep down inside and never release them this of course means all his neighbors exploit his entirely nature making his job as a rhode island state trooper increasingly difficult soon enough charlie's repressed aggression manifests itself into a second independent personality named hank a boorish ogre unafraid of taking the assertive actions his predecessor had been unable to muster this guy isn't above crashing a car through the wall of the barber shop in which he's been insulted or holding a little girl's head underwater because she refused to stop in the street then things start getting lost in the most complicated plot the farrellys have ever attempted and the film runs off its tracks some have suggested that this isn't a problem because the farrelly brothers' brand of humor doesn't require plot to work they're wrong of course plot was greatly instrumental in building up the kind of rollicking comic energy that infused the farrellys' last effort there's something about mary outside providence was technically an earlier project the brothers' earlier film wasn't funny merely because it contained outrageous gags despite what some newsmagazine articles would have you believe but rather because its most outrageous gags were entirely unexpected in mary the farrellys managed several times to pull off a neat trick they'd have you thinking the story was going one way then reveal its real direction in delightfully surprising fashion me myself irene by contrast seems to have been made by folks who looked at mary and saw only the surface grossness missing all of the subtle machinations that really made it work having been produced by the same guys who made mary irene seems like an even bigger disappointment the brothers pile on the offensive humor taking shots at race midgets albinos mental illness and all manner of bathroom jokes but they haven't come up with a way to make any of it fresh most of me myself irene comes off as rote adolescent comedy the plot with carrey forced to drive alleged fugitive irene p waters renee zellweger who's in more trouble than anyone knows back to new york has an ending that's entirely predictable from the think charlie and irene will fall in love yeah me too the farrellys then introduce scores of different characters and none of them ever manage to do anything you haven't already expected them to do no matter how outrageous their actions might be compared to the curveballs the farrellys are used to throwing this stuff is almost entirely presenting an obvious problem when humor loses its shock value it's no longer funny merely gross the jokes that do work are milked over and over until their effectiveness runs dry take for example the subplot involving charlie's three black sons anthony anderson mongo brownlee jerod mixon the incongruity of it all is funny for a while with three burly black men discussing higher math in ghetto language and carrey mouthing said language with an entirely smile on his face but by the end of the film they're still doing the same schitck it hasn't been elevated to another funnier level and it hasn't been dropped either that's too bad because it ceases to be amusing about halfway through me myself irene reeks of wasted opportunities there ought to be more focus on how other people react to charlie's new personality and on how charlie deals with the consequences of hank's actions this doesn't really happen nearly every supporting character learns about charlie's condition early on so they don't have any opportunity to be surprised by it the film throws what looks like a patented farrelly curve in a scene towards the midway point involving an albino companion charlie and irene pick up called appropriately whitey but the script doesn't go anywhere with it instead leaving the thread twisting in the wind before awkwardly tying it up during the climax jim carrey is a gifted comedian both physically and vocally but he's left with nothing much to do here except contort himself in a manner similar to steve martin in all of me it's a great showcase of flexibility and but none of it is terribly funny carrey doesn't pull any stunts we don't expect him to pull and the farrellys' script doesn't give him anything else to pull the situations in which he must perform the aren't set up in any meaningful way perhaps carrey can take solace in the fact that his supporting actors fare no better zellweger's irene is not a strong female lead mary in mary may have been part adolescent fantasy but she was also intelligent and irene is nothing in particular as the film never makes clear whether she's ditzy clever or neither as such she gives us nothing to latch onto as the only sane person in the film chris cooper is stuck playing exactly one note as a corrupt fbi agent and his character is entirely too for a movie like this he like the others does absolutely nothing unexpected after viewing the shapeless mess that me myself irene eventually dissolved into i was stuck wondering whether or not the farrellys had outsmarted themselves maybe their kind of comedy can only work for so long until audiences get wise to it and stop being shocked but i don't believe it good filmmakers find ways of surprising their audiences even after people have grown attuned to their style if the farrellys are indeed good smart filmmakers and i still think they are they'll rebound just fine even after that happens though i'll still consider me myself irene to be a misfire
negative	wesley snipes is a master of selecting bad action roles murder at u s marshals money train drop zone boiling point and the ultimate camp film passenger the art of war is another entry in this very ugly and unique category ultimately it is little more than a ridiculous action film with a plot as believable as the warren report ugly violence that would have made peckinpah cringe and terrible acting by actors like michael biehn and anne archer oddly it feels like the undiscovered sequel to another snipes masterpiece rising sun the movie revolves around the convenient story of a special un operative caught up in a secret murder conspiracy involving a chinese ambassador the chinese triad brotherhood a rich chinese businessman played by that bad guy from rising sun tagawa a chinese un interpreter and inexplicably donald sutherland the film ends with more confusion than a boatload of chinese immigrants trying to register at ellis island or should i say the film ends with the most blatant ripoff of both the matrix and all of john woo's hong kong films combined i am really at a loss to figure out why wesley snipes had the gumption to not only star in this action dud but also act as one of the producers of the film i usually enjoy snipes' movies though his dramatic roles better show off his creativity as an actor than the flashiness of his action films simply i am amazed by the how inane the script was filled with terrible cliches and extremely violent action sequences director christian duguay screamers has a strange attraction to the viciousness of violent acts showing splattering brains people impaled with broken shards of glass and lots of gargling and gagging as blood sprays everywhere it also sickens me to know that oliver stone one of the greatest directors working today had his hand in producing this monstrosity i guess snipes sold stone on the conspiracy angle and stone chose not to read the script watch the dailies be involved in casting or anything else or else he'd be filing a court order to remove his name from the credits it's also seems evident that with the russkies as our new bosom buddies and the middle eastern terrorist angle being beaten to death in the last couple of years that the new international enemies in hollywood are the communist chinese i'm sure over the next couple of months even more chinese action flicks are going to be popping up in your local multiplex hopefully they won't include wesley snipes
negative	senseless is a prime example of what can happen when you try to push a concept a bit too far director penelope spheeris is no stranger to this having subjected audiences before to such tortures as the beverly hillbillies marlon wayans stars as darryl witherspoon a college senior vying for a lucrative job at a prominent brokerage however he lacks the advantages of his chief opposition scott thorpe david spade in the smarmy sort of role he can deliver in his sleep an athletic record sponsorship by a fraternity and most of all a wealthy family to back him up in fact darryl has to work at four jobs simply to make ends meet but there may be a light at the end of that tunnel he signs up as a human guinea pig in a neurological experiment run by the university's dr wheedon brad dourif as a result his senses are magnified tenfold using his newfound abilities he sets himself in complete pursuit of the job unaware that there may be some disadvantageous to having super senses naturally marlon wayans plays this comedy at full throttle giving jim amounts of physical humor the problem is aside from a few genuinely inspired bits there's not much that's funny here the film has it's one central gag and pads out the rest of its length with rather obvious lowbrow humor there obviously wasn't much thought put into the plot the entire job selection process is completely ridiculous i mean why the emphasis on activities if the entire job is going to come down to a quiz anyhow and is this the only job being offered to economics majors this semester to give it credit senseless does try to create a secondary joke with darryl's roommate tim laflour matthew lillard apparently he is supposed to be faddish but the film never does anything with him leaving him in a piercing phase throughout the movie his intervention scenes with darryl however do provide a rare and welcome laugh and then there's the love interest which is always pathetically tacked onto comedies like this one in this case the object of darryl's amor is janice tamara taylor a fellow student who won't have anything to do with darryl until he gains his needless to say the romance is completely extraneous and adds little to the film this is a film that desperately needed something else be that a good plot more jokes or simply funnier ones or a strong character or two anything would have helped senseless get off the ground as it is all the manic exuberant mugging in the world can't help marlon wayans get this one off the ground
negative	i came to an epiphany while watching the bachelor an romantic comedy it's not the sort of film in which one would expect to achieve any moment of clarity but there it was nonetheless i sat there watching this marshmallow of a movie unfold when suddenly i realized what is so ridiculously wrong with the entire romantic comedy genre circa in a word it's the same thing that's wrong with so many movies circa writing more to the point it's the refusal to acknowledge that characterizations matter when you're telling a story about a relationship the bachelor is merely the latest in a long line of films where we're expected to get over any pairing of attractive pleasant people just because they're attractive and pleasant in this particular case attractive and pleasant exhibit a is jimmy shannon chris o'donnell a single guy who has been watching his friends slowly but surely sucked into marriage it's a scary notion for jimmy even though he dearly loves attractive and pleasant exhibit b anne renee zellweger his girlfriend of three years convinced despite his reservations that it's time to sh t or get off the pot jimmy proposes to anne very badly anne refuses which leaves jimmy in a very odd position when his eccentric grandfather peter ustinov dies and leaves a very specific video will jimmy stands to inhereit million if he is married by p m on his birthday stays married for years and produces a child there are only a couple of minor problems jimmy's birthday is the next day anne is nowhere to be found meaning jimmy has to find another willing bride from among his many it's a wacky brewster's premise acknowledged as such in one of the film's better more lines of dialogue the kind where a shallow and materialistic guy learns what really matters at least that would be the case if jimmy weren't already a altruist screenwriter steve cohen slides into the story an even more draconian condition in the will if jimmy doesn't get married not only will he lose all the money but the family billiard table buisness will be sold out from under him costing hudreds of jobs from the outset jimmy's motivation isn't cash it's the livelihoods of his devoted employees it's almost embarrassing for his marital misgivings to play a role in the bachelor's plot development by any human standard the guy is impossibly selfless and that's the essence of the gutlessness endemic to films like the bachelor the fear of giving the characters flaws to overcome on their way to happiness there's never any tension between the two lovers because there's no sense that anything remotely significant is at stake the blandly nice o'donnell couldn't pull off a randy cad if he tried so the filmmakers don't even let him zellweger's anne may have issues with her sickeningly affectionate parents as an impossible standard to live up to but no one dares make her anything but the woman lightly wronged and forget about seeing enough of jimmy and anne together to feel invested in their potential reconciliation the parade of set pieces had better be damned funny since they're all that stands between us and a blissfully sweet foregone conclusion i'll admit a couple of those set pieces are amusing including ustinov's rantings about procreation and a restaurant with men popping questions and champagne corks far more of them are either tedious or downright ghastly like the sight of brooke shields as an icy or the hideous collection of stereotypes when hundreds of potential brides gather in a church you're never going to get too many raucous belly laughs from a film like the bachelor but that's not the real problem nor is it the real problem that you know exactly the kind of conclusion it's leading up to the problem are a beginning and middle that are equally there's no spark no energy no humanity it's an emotional pudding guaranteed not to offend any consumer's digestions we've reached a point where our proxies for cinematic romantic wish fulfillment don't even have a pulse the bachelor is love among the mannequins
negative	are you like me do you get annoyed seeing people talk on their cellulars in public places shouting out loud not giving a ratt's ass about anyone around them and basically just wallowing in their own well if you are than you will most likely agree with my rating of this film since it basically features a trio of annoying ladies bickering away on the phone for an hour and a half only to make up and hug in the end aaaaaaaahhhh plot three sisters living their own separate lives begin to their communication lines when their dear old dad falls ill critique this would be a good movie if it wasn't for the fact that it's got very little to say features uncaring people sharing annoying phone conversations is chockfull of bad acting moments and provides less emotional satisfaction than any special and i'm being nice how junk like this gets made is beyond me but happy am i that the ephron sisters will finally be dealt a professional blow considering the regurgitation level of their material had just about reached its limit the only true emotional moment demonstrated between meg ryan's character and her dad in this film is when he hugs her and swings her around at a christmas tree lot wow how deep of course the same christmas tune that's played in every ephron flick chimes out in the background while characters continue to build bonds among one another by making reference to old quaint movies or movie stars stop me i'm gonna cry again this film is a mess the characters are boring and irritating to watch the plot has something to do with three selfish sisters talking on the phone a whole lot kind of liking their father but not really and then finally realizing the error of their ways while sharing an emotional moment about movie stars from the admittedly i was not expecting much from a film whose television trailer features meg ryan screaming every two seconds and a big dog rolling its eyes but even i was surprised at the level of ineptitude when it came to some of the acting efforts put forth in this film meg did fine as the sister who cries a lot looking as adorable as ever but someone please put lisa kudrow inside a permanent home of limited range cause this woman basically is that very same character that she plays in every single show that she's in enough already and diane keaton must've spent more time thinking about her role behind the camera in this one cause her acting was amateurish at best neither one convinced in emotional scenes granted they gave walter matthau the best lines in the film and that's probably where my rating of three points comes from all in all this movie is not funny unless you're one to chuckle at train wrecks provides zero drama unless you consider loud phone conversations moving generates absolutely no emotion although i did tear up when meg hugged a coffee machine and ends on a perfectly pretentious note oh no please don't get any flour on my donna karan dress ugh i suggest that all ladies take their to see this movie if they are pissed off at them about something that'll teach to mess with you oh and incidentally mrs joblo also likened this movie to a piece of cow dung flailing in the wind so there then again maybe you'll like it 
negative	i have a confession even though i am a movie saw eye of the beholder and yet i still watch never seen any of the original godzillas note that godzilla is not a sequel to the u s godzilla released in it's the american release of a godzilla flick called gojira mireniamu so part of me was excited as i drove to the local multiplex to see godzilla latest entry in an almost old franchise this was a treat i was expecting a goofy good time complete with bad dubbing science fair level sets and a ludicrous plot line the last thing i expected was for the movie to be so boring i can only imagine what the theatre full of kids i saw this with felt you do get all of the so bad they're good traits so normally associated with the franchise but you have to sit through a snoozer plot that has the organization of a rorschach blot it's a deal i wasn't willing to accept hiroshi kashiwabara and waturu mimura's script crams in way too many details and in many cases fails to follow up on them the maneuver is not only disconcerting but gives the movie a permanent logy weighty feel godzilla starts off destroying power plants and then just stops was it a whim a bold political statement i don't know its foe an ancient meteor that looks like prudential's logo doesn't just fight the beast from the far east no it's got to have powers a plot to erase the data from japan a desire to clone and the ability to become a spaceship and then some kind of tentacled space creature there's a battle between the head of the godzilla prediction unit takehiro murata and a slimy government official hiroshi abe over the handling of godzilla and personal issues and then there's the plucky news photographer and blah blah blah it's like watching magnolia all over without the good writing keen sociological insight and aimee mann songs what a waste when the talking and the plot points stop hurtling at you godzilla does the entertaining and goes down easy the action scenes are cheesy in their grandeur though a little sluggish the dubbing is nice and awful with murata sounding like he's in constant need of a cough drop as for the dialogue one line summarizes the goofiness factor did anyone see that flying rock go by this movie also marked the first time since the three stooges that i've heard the word imbecile used in casual conversation though the summer movie season is drying up and godzilla has its moments i wouldn't take kids to see it they'll probably end up asking more questions than charlie rose
negative	capsule five friends at a stag party are involved in the accidental killing of a prostitute the attempt becomes a monster that eats up the friends two wives and several innocent bystanders this was a real audience pleaser at toronto but it did not do much for me low to directed by peter berg who acted in the last seduction and copland five buddies go on a stag outing to las vegas while cameron diaz works through the logistics of her upcoming wedding to one of them one of the buddies accidentally kills a prostitute several people with no moral compass they started out with a simple innocent little cocaine party and by accident look what happened they have one moral person among them daniel stern and one totally amoral person christian slater it is more selfish to let the amoral lead so they do this film is strange but not really funny or biting black comedy should actually be funny as well as strange there should be some element of satire the satire is missing here i did not find myself laughing here either what we have is a strange crime tale one just does not care what happens to these people the same idea of people just getting themselves in deeper and deeper has been done frequently if this film is popular it is just bringing a familiar plot to a new generation it begins like diner particularly with daniel stern and ends up like an extended comic book there are several logical holes in script if a security man goes to investigate a complaint and disappears wouldn't the guests he was investigating be the first suspects someone framed for a crime in the way shown would be judged innocent after minimal forensic detective work i am desperately trying to avoid making this a spoiler popular and situation ethics get a real slamming some acting of grief is hammy and overdone more yelling than humor
negative	what hath kevin williamson wrought while the horror movie revival spurred on by his has yielded a few decent entries in the and must be noted that williamson himself had a hand in the writing of those films those efforts among them and the recent have been frightening all insultingly add to that list which takes a promising premise and runs it through a predictable meat grinder of idiocy the influence of williamson on screenwriter silvio horta is clear in two key areas first the opening sequence like that of is an extended set piece detailing the singular murder that gets the proverbial ball rolling this sequence in which pendleton college coed michelle mancini natasha gregson wagner is decapitated while driving also reveals the other obviously touch the killer's look dressed in a large hooded parka wielding an axe the killer bears more than a passing resemblance to the sans the hook one thing horta does not borrow from williamson however is the intriguing premise students at pendleton are being killed by way of urban contemporary bits of mythology passed from person to person group to group year to year that become so embedded in the social consciousness it hardly matters if they are true or not such as the tall tale that mikey from the life cereal commercials died from a fatal combination of pop rocks and pepsi he didn't michelle slain by the killer lurking in the backseat of lore is but the first to fall prey to an urban legend come true as the body count rises fellow pendleton student natalie alicia witt suspects not only a link between the murders but a personal link to her past as well the setup shows promise but the story never takes off due in large part to horta and the director the aptly named jamie blanks who fires round afer round of his namesake in terms of suspense and scares too many of the shocks are fakeouts reliant on bombastic music cues and the film's chase scenes are riddled with the cliches that tried to subvert like screaming damsels knowingly running themselves into dead ends when they out the front door but that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cliches there's also the climactic villain confession in which a contrived and motive is revealed not to mention the credit card opening up the locked door trick which is a cliche in any film genre banks and horta's intentional attempts at humor are also lame the fact that the best gags are lazy references to the other credits of joshua jackson and rebecca gayheart says a lot about the imagination of their humor some laughs are also had when the rather predictable identity of the killer is revealed but i'm not so sure if some of the more hilarious things about it were meant to be so the filmmakers don't get much help from their onscreen talent i was far from a fan of bland starlet jennifer love hewitt but i'd talke her any day ove the dreadfully stiff and uncharismatic witt whose inept attempts at emoting were often met with laughter witt has a pefect foil in her equally leading man jared leto star jackson mugs his way thorugh a glorified cameo gayheart displays all the depth and range of well a noxzema spokeswoman and robert englund lends the film little more than his freddy krueger pedigree as a folklore professor granted the cast is hampered by their material loretta devine who has done some fine work in films such as is saddled with the ridiculous role of a pam campus security guard the recently resuscitated horror genre cannot rely on the efforts one kevin stay alive if other filmmakers continue to make such shoddy product as the genre looks to once again go the way of screen slashers' many victims
negative	warner brothers has scored another marketing coup the punch was started in the summer with the release of batman forever trailers for ace ventura were bundled with the bat ensuring that every jim carrey fan in the free world would know about the impending sequel carrey went on to win raves as the riddler and the warner chose halloween as the release date for the video at a mere two weeks before carrey's return in this marketwise but misfired comedy ace ventura when nature calls is a painful reminder of just how grating the comic can be when allowed to perform within an uncontrolled environment he may have been brilliant under the direction of joel schumacher in batman forever but here left to his own devices carrey quickly wears out his welcome the opening sequence is by far the amusing spoof of cliffhanger with ace performing a mountain rescue of a stranded raccoon you can guess what happens to mr paws hint it sounds like splat the plot quickly shifts to a temple in the himalayas and then to africa where ace is on the case of a missing white bat with his hair and limbs both wildly askew carrey flies through his routine in about thirty minutes the rest of the film is just more of the same sure the plot's linear and the production values solid but where is the scripted humor to support carrey's sloppy slathering writer and director steve oderkerk provides precious few instead carrey just mugs away playing for the camera even when most of it isn't funny the better gags have been shown in the ads though a bit with ace emerging from the backside of a mechanical rhino is something to see though an arguable improvement over the original ace ventura when nature calls is still a snooze for anyone over the age of ten the script is virtually devoid of wit tribal mask jokes jerry lewis cameos forget it if anything the inexplicable presence of simon callow four weddings and a funeral and bob gunton the shawshank redemption suggests that working with carrey is the classical actor's ultimate challenge just how long can they keep a straight face
negative	synopsis wealthy cuban landowner luis banderas gets more than he bargained for when he sends away for an american bride not only does his new wife turn out to be the beautiful julia jolie she also harbours a secret past of dubious merit soon julia has absconded with both luis' fortune and his heart and as he pursues his wife through the cuban underworld luis begins to realise that for him there is no turning back review given the absurdism of its plot it's unlikely that original sin could have been turned into a reputable piece of filmmaking regardless of writer director or stars this is at its heart junk a lurid melodrama which appeals to neither the brain nor the heart but to the nether regions that said original sin could at least have become enjoyable junk had the filmmakers embraced its trashiness and indulged in it instead cristofer seems to have mistaken this for a serious production and directs it as such the result is a vapid uninteresting morass of obvious crosses and double crosses as likely to incite a yawn as a thrill consider the initial sex scene between banderas and jolie and mostly filmed from above it looks like an excerpt from an amateur soft porn show cristofer doesn't even manage to capture the allure of cuba instead of portraying his setting as a steamy sensuous island paradise it appears bland and lifeless at least banderas and jolie manage to inspire some interest there are hints at times that they want to have more fun with the script but aren't being given the chance the same cannot be said of jane whose billy is nebbish and transparent also unwise is the jolie framing sequence which practically gives away the film's denouement
negative	when a pair of films from the same director gets released just three weeks apart it could mean one of two things that the recently overworked individual is due for a rest or that either of these movies has been sitting in a studio safe for a while and the timing is merely a coincidence the latter's the case with john mctiernan and the thirteenth warrior which finally hits theatres a year and counting after its original spring opening and fast on the heels of mctiernan's the thomas crown affair remake a flick that got good reviews you don't have to believe superstitions to wager a guess that thirteenth won't be so lucky reportedly shelved following skirmishes between mctiernan and producer michael crichton whose eaters of the dead novel provides warrior source and its initial title this messy melange of drama and brutal warfare feels empty and sluggish sorta like braveheart without any of the passion but the bloodshed certainly remains there's enough carnage on display here to satisfy those in search of purely visceral thrills though please note that the admittedly pungent battle sequences containing all this death and dismemberment alternate with talky passages interminable in their dullness these century clashes involve a roving band of cannibalistic creatures capable of decapitating opponents with their bare hands and a dozen norse soldiers out to stop them from terrorizing the viking countryside the good guys are loud crude often unintelligible and judging from their highly icky hygiene habits pretty smelly to boot which makes them perfect foils for the dignified arab ambassador antonio banderas who tags along quite reluctantly they're also so hard to tell apart that it hardly matters when a few of them meet violent demises you'll wince you'll groan you'll grouse haven't we seen this guy killed twice before banderas stands confused amidst the chaos partaking mostly from a distance as savages in darth maul facepaint and draped in the latest fashion run amok he's not the hero his soulful eyes and lean build don't exactly herald a champion of shwarzenegger proportions and the thirteenth warrior wisely doesn't pretend he is allowing his foreign and physically imposing to step into the spotlight when the going gets rough let the characters interaction sans swords and shields however and there's still a struggle for the audience to follow or even care about the story it isn't the end until audiences have witnessed a romance murky political intrigue veteran actor omar sharif funny girl dropping by in a cameo role and a climactic indiana jones and the temple of doom chase through the villains' underground lair all this clutter receives stunning visual treatment courtesy of cinematographer peter menzies jr but the collaboration between die hard mctiernan and jurrasic park crichton should have yielded more than sumptuous sights graphic action and unintentionally telling moments heard during the thirteenth warrior final scene a dog whimpering how appropriate
negative	the red violin is a cold sterile feature that leaves you uninvolved and detached it's a movie that seems almost clinical as it traces the history of the legendary musical instrument of the title opening in the century the story shows how nicolo bussotti created the instrument as a gift for his unborn son but when tragedy strikes the violin becomes the personification of its maker's grief from there the violin comes into the hands of an orphaned child prodigy at an austrian monastery again tragedy strikes as the child is struck down at the moment of his triumph we follow the violin through the centuries as it finds a home in england and in mao's communist china before being discovered by expert charles morritz samuel l jackson who mounts a painstaking investigation to prove its authenticity the violin becomes morritz's obsession just as it is for all those who converge on a montreal auction house to bid on it morritz however is the only one who knows the secret of the instrument and can understand and appreciate its creator's intention the red violin could have been a touching inspirational story as soaring as a beethoven symphony however director francois girard fails to make any emotional connection with the viewer here is a story that could have made use of various camera angles and lighting to heighten its impact girard for some unknown reason uses mostly master shots keeping his camera and thus us at a distance we get no feel for the miracle that is the violin it's resonance its purity of sound are not emphasized enough to make an impression nor are any of the performances memorable it's as if girard wanted all his actors to play second fiddle to his violin the red violin promises much but delivers little it is dull at times a bit pretentious and a might murky the movie's music soars over its story and performers and that is its only saving grace
negative	there have been costume dramas with more of a pulse than the mod squad a hip cinematic rendering of the old tv series still looked upon fondly by so many well said squad certainly won't be a pleasant viewing experience for them or anybody else maybe even the teen target audience the movie has been geared towards a contemporary take on this decidedly show doesn't exactly seem unwarranted but one wonders if the mold it accumulated while waiting on the shelf didn't transform into a case of botulism how curious that the film begins by defining both mod and squad insisting that the latter is a group of people working together and then contradicting this definition by keeping its titular trio apart for a sizeable chunk of the running time they are julie pete and linc reformed delinquents working undercover for the lapd exposition put out of the way so fast that you're likely to be lost from the opening moments on and they are respectively played by claire danes giovanni ribisi and omar epps talented actors each deserving of better than this their plight involves standard stuff as our protagonists catch wind of an internal after their superior reliable dennis farina one of the best things here and gone so quickly gets killed and framed for drug trafficking they pout a lot and eventually get cracking to expose this convoluted conspiracy using surveillance tactics that would impress the hardy boys and linda tripp but few others when you're supposed to be asking what's going to happen next you'll instead entertain thoughts like who are these people and why should i care or aren't thrillers supposed to contain thrills not that danes epps and ribisi don't give it a shot danes can do the troubled teen thing in her sleep as evidenced by my life but she's saddled with a josh brolin subplot so you begin to seriously question her intelligence ditto for ribisi's saving private ryan looney loose cannon though at least he performs with a vigor that occasionally demands attention but epps poor epps epps higher learning is so he's reduced to literally waiting around for a bad guy to chase him all this sloppiness can be attributed to the screenwriters one of whom scott silver is also the director they must think that if they dress up their stupid story in such spiffy trappings the look of the film is really quite impressive it'll somehow pay off but this mod squad plods anyway characters are present are just some young things modeling cool levis and cooler attitudes plot hardly escapes confusing convention and the one genre element you'd think would be show up in generous portions a few nifty explosions some fights any kind of action whatsoever only rarely makes it to this dull gabfest all those quick to put down last month's inept but serviceable my favorite martian update need to take a step back here's a translation that really should've stayed in its former incarnation mod or not
negative	ready to rumble is not a masterpiece in film i have a problem even regarding it as a film it's more of a show a big commercial for ted turner's world championship wrestling wcw the movie is almost entirely about and fully showcases the wrestlers of the wcw like diamond dallas page goldberg and sting the story is very minimal and basic there are these two guys gordy david arquette and sean scott caan they are two wrestling fans from wyoming when they go to a live event for the big match up there favorite wrestler jimmy king oliver platt is defeated and his career is announced to be over by the mean commissioner titus joe pantoliano gordy and sean decide to go on a quest to find jimmy and bring him back to the top and defeat the evil titus' plans on the way they meet some people have some fun and clean up some sounds great huh well it's not the movie makes many attempts at humor only a few of them work the jokes that make you laugh however do not outnumber the film's many duds there is a funny repertoire between arquette and a convenience store cashier played by ahmet zappa the cashier is very mean to arquette so arquette dreams of ways to get him back i especially enjoyed one version in which they have a wrestling match and arquette's tag team partner is man' randy savage they wrestle between the aisles knocking over cans and getting body slammed on the floor the other good part of the film is the sexual confrontation between arquette and rose mcgowan mcgowan plays sasha the head nitro girl the cheerleaders of the wcw she becomes attracted to gordy and they have some nice funny scenes together especially one scene in which arquette calls mcgowan's breasts foreign objects than punches her directly into the face now what didn't work in this movie that would be the rest of it the flick was filled with stupid potty humor about farts and toilets the two lead characters work for a cleaning company and when they crash the truck the excrements spill all over the road it's not funny it's pathetic and brainless the film is giving homage to how blindly faithful of their wrestlers but not all wrestling fans are that way i watch it for entertainment and i would think some people would take offense to what is said throughout the movie the main characters in the film actually get to wrestle like that would happen to any fan especially to that stalk a wrestler and sneak him back onto set also i wondered how they got into the backstage so easily they just walked right in i like wrestling i watch it at home and laugh it's continuously funny and has great characters otherwise i wouldn't watch it this movie wasn't even funny or fun to watch like the wrestling on tv the only fun i had in the movie was pointing out the wrestlers i knew the funny thing was that many of the wcw featured wrestlers like saturn and chris benoit have left wcw for more money but are still featured in the film prominently the movie was too to be funny it is possibly the most useless and film ever a recent film in this genre of fans would be the kiss fan film detroit rock city that movie was interesting well done and continuously funny unlike this film the acting was good plus the jokes had humor and made you laugh now that the scream trilogy is over arquette has nothing else to do so he has to do crap like this and be a spokesman in those dumb ads at least he has a hot wife in courtney cox he's in the funny parts of the film but there aren't enough to make him look good the music was bad also feature such overplayed tunes as kid rock's bawitdaba and cowboy martin landau has a great cameo as a classic wrestling trainer named sal that whips the king back into shape to regain his throne script is important to a film but this piece of crap could have been made with a couple of scribblings on a napkin a fan of the wrestlers who are featured in the film probably wrote it at times the movie even tries to show wrestling as real the wrestlers form alliances go to people's houses and beat them up it's utterly ridiculous the whole film was a wasteful dumfounding experience the movie was made to pay homage to the fans telling them things that made wrestling not the wrestlers the wrestlers are making more money to make a movie to thank the fans for begin fans by paying dollars to see a movie the wcw sucks and this movie is just a pathetic commercial to watch it if you're going to watch wrestling watch wwf it's actually entertaining the wrestling is betters they're funnier more diverse and have better entrance themes oh and the girls are hotter is this what movies have become commercials that you have to pay to see don't waste your money
negative	wyatt earp details years in the life of same from around to after seeing the movie speed twice recently i kept thinking that i was seeing wyatt's life pass before my eyes in real time this movie was boring slow boring and slow there were a few scenes that tried to be great scenes that tried too hard and just fell flat the script happily but also tries to sound like an movie they cannot have it both ways i now pronounce you husband and wife sure they said that in the entrepreneur sure every bit of dialogue that wyatt's third wife speaks to him made me sick to listen to it oh the script was written by two men no kidding the movie is torture to sit through the scenery is boring the fades were either awkward or cliche or to self important can you say poor editing everyone looks ugly in this movie when you shoot people from under their chins they look like they have double chins kevin costner has never looked worse he should sue he looks like he gained the pounds that dennis quaid lost dennis quaid is marvelous if you have to see this movie just for his performance go into the theatre at the movie's halfway mark doc holliday quaid's character shows up at about the mark gene hackman is very good is he in the credits i don't remember seeing his name mare winningham makes the best of a small role as wyatt's second wife annabeth gish is good as wyatt's first wife i though that jamie gertz played wyatt's third wife but i later heard that her name is joanna going she looks great but her dialogue sucks she also seems way to young for costner costner seems way to old for of this movie in his first scene he is supposed to be about years old yeah right catherine o'hara and jobeth williams are always good and totally wasted here this is the worst movie that i have seen in years the last action hero was better that this go see maverick if you want to see a western bullets for dennis quaid's performance only
negative	david schwimmer from the television series friends stars as a sensitive and slightly neurotic single guy who gets more than he expected from the grieving mother barbara hershey of a classmate he can't remember hello mrs robinson though quite cute as a romantic comedy the pallbearer is paced like a funeral march the characters act react and interact at making for one excruciatingly long sit and what's with the dreary lighting matt reeves brings some snap to the story's midsection the film briefly comes to life when our hero attempts to resolve his feelings for another classmate a very appealing gwyneth paltrow by this time though most viewers will have either fled or fallen asleep those tough souls who stay with it can marvel at the schwimmer a hound dog with a head cold who can go for over an hour without ever changing his expression
negative	saving silverman is a good example of a good comedy gone bad as a love story it is good however as a comedy it falls flat on it's face i think throughout the short minutes i laughed a total of seven times and those were just chuckles at the most the movie doesn't have the oomph to make it a great movie and doesn't have the script to make it a funny movie wayne lefessier steven zahn j d mcnugent jack black and darren silverman jason biggs have grown up all their lives together they have been best friends forever and vow to stay close till the end while in a bar after doing a show with their band based on their love of neil diamond darren meets a young woman named judith amanda peet whom he instantly falls for wayne and j d however think differently and when judith tells darren that he can never see his friends again it's up to wayne and j d to try and begin saving silverman the performances are topnotch and surprisingly they are what keep the movie afloat jason biggs right off the flop loser does an ok job playing silverman but he is stale and flat at times steve zahn is perfect in the role of wayne lefessier and even though the movie is about silverman lefessier is really the main character and the narrator of the movie itself jack black is well jack black and he does an all right job as j d but he isn't as funny as he has been in the past amanda peet plays the ultimate bitch as judith and neil diamond plays neil diamond he's better at singing than acting anyway the performances in the film are good but it's too bad the script isn't speaking of script hank nelkan's choppy script is not only badly written but not funny enough even for an episode of sesame street the trailer for the movie as with most movies gives away everything that happens in the movie especially the funniest parts somewhere saving silverman was meant to be a good movie and it could have been but alas in the end it wasn't dennis dugan's direction is all right he adds a few directorial touches here and there nothing special being a simple comedy saving silverman is a perfectly bad movie in more ways than one it has a great cast a good director and a sweet story it's just too bad it has a bad script and is all together a bad movie
negative	one of my brother's favorite movies is h b halicki's cult flick gone is sixty seconds one of the best products of the genre that provided fare during the chase pics had more tire squeals than dialogue but they had a strong visceral appeal although it boasts a bigger budget and familiar stars the remake of gone in sixty seconds is relatively weak and dull randall memphis raines nicolas cage is a retired car thief who runs a track he got out of crime so that his younger brother kip giovanni ribisi would not take up boosting cars however kip became a thief anyway and now he's in big trouble kip promised to deliver fifty luxury and sports cars to gangster raymond calitri christopher eccleston by the end of the week calitri expects memphis to fulfill kip's bargain if he doesn't come through kip dies memphis gathers his old crew angelina jolie robert duvall will patton chi mcbride and vinnie jones and kip brings his boys t j cross william lee scott scott caan and james duval as if calitri breathing down their necks wasn't bad enough the team is pursued by a cop delroy lindo who's still ticked off that he never busted memphis and by a rival gangster rap star master p who wants to take over calitri's clients watching gone i discovered that stealing fifty cars is not any more interesting than stealing one maybe that's why the first are fairly easy and the thrills are saved for eleanor a shelby gto a model that has always eluded memphis but the big chase doesn't live up to the long wait i had high hopes for gone because it is director dominic sena's second film kalifornia his debut was a brilliant study in the relationship between violence and its audience in that movie sena took a simple thriller plot a couple gives a serial killer a ride and successfully endowed it with deeper significance in gone he seems to be aiming for a drama about two brothers who can't communicate with each other but that goal just doesn't mesh with this plot gone either takes itself too seriously or not seriously enough it's not light enough to be fun or mean enough to be intense this chaser has more dialogue than tire squeals but is none the better for it the lack of action is a waste of the premise which should have challenged the filmmakers to create the most spectacular car chases ever the weak script is a waste of a talented cast in a newsweek interview last year sean penn blasted his old pal nic cage for making bad movies much as i like cage for every good picture he does leaving las vegas bringing out the dead there are two major stinkers snake eyes con air city of angels that ratio is probably better than what a lot of his peers can boast but cage has real talent it's a shame to waste it in glitzy superficial tripe like gone in seconds
negative	steve martin is one of the funniest men alive if you can take that as a true statement then your disappointment at this film will equal mine martin can be hilarious creating some of the best experiences that have ever taken place in movie theaters you won't find any of them here the old television series that this is based on has its moments of humor and wit bilko and the name isn't an accident is the head of an army motor pool group but his passion is his schemes every episode involves the sergeant and his men in one or another plan to get rich quick while outwitting the officers of the base mchale's navy granddaddy that's the idea behind this movie too but the difference is that as and usually goofy as the television series was it was funny there is not one laugh in the film the retains the goofiness but not the entertainment everything is just too clean it was obviously made on a hollywood back lot and looks every bit like it it all looks brand new even the old stuff martin is remarkably small in what should have been a bigger than life role in the original phil silvers played the huckster with a heart of gold and more than a touch of sleaziness martin's bilko is a pale imitation the only spot is phil hartman as bilko's it's not saying much considering martin's lackluster character but hartman leaves him in the dust
negative	have you ever been in an automobile accident where you've miraculously walked away with only a few scratches yet the car has been obliterated into an unrecognizable mangled wreck well that has never actually happened to me and i hope that none of us will ever experience this situation but after watching this inane exercise of a movie i certainly feel that i've miraculously walked away unscathed after a ride that mercilessly careens back and forth before finally plummeting into an icy pond oddly of the beholder which is a starts off promisingly enough when the opening sequence introduces us to a british intelligence agent called the eye ewan mcgregor working in washington dc in the humorous opening scene he eyes a top lawyer across the street in his office with his pants down using an array of surveillance and communications equipment he proceeds to transmit pictures of the bared lawyer to pc screens and fax machines in his office the law firm's employees get a good chuckle the audience gets a good chuckle the eye is later given an assignment where he encounters a beautiful woman ashley judd there is something compelling about this mysterious woman despite her glamorous looks however we learn that she is a psychopath with a propensity to kill men that get too close to her after the murders she sobs while singing the christmas tune bluebirds' and laments about being abandoned by her father long ago after each killing she puts on a different wig assumes a new name and then makes her way to another state the eye has witnessed all her murderous transgressions but he does not alert the authorities he somehow empathizes with her sense of loss the eye it turns out also is haunted by his past his daughter was taken away from him and he anguishes this loss every day of his life his tormented psyche creates a image of his daughter with which he engages in conversation she becomes a sort of spectral adviser and one thing that the ghostly daughter says is that he must help the woman he now diverts his energies into trying to help her find some kind of salvation it doesn't matter that he has witnessed all of her murders and it doesn't matter that the eye is abnormally reticent hiding his entire life behind computer screens he follows her to a dozen different locales and shadows her every move to keep her out of trouble when a crazed druggie jason priestley attacks her he shows up for some quick butt kicking when the police are closing in to arrest her he provides a distraction so that she can escape all the while the woman has no idea who her guardian angel is and the eye stays just out of sight peculiar how bad is this movie i refer you to my quote source' litmus test just take a look at the ad in the newspaper and see where they are pulling quotes for this movie they are from magazines called and no doubt they were impressed with judd's series of catwalks and disguise changes the major problem with of the beholder' is that the film jerks forward always unsure of its ultimate destination if it was a thriller there was little to keep us entranced if it was a love story there was absolutely no emotional pull completely disjointed in structure it's only saving grace was its stylish look which reminded me of my favorite car commercial the one where the on the tachometer dissolves into a winding road and a passenger rail car dissolves into a small miniature on a child's train set i am also still hopeful that ashley judd will find a serious role to showcase her potential talents beyond that the film is hopelessly and is in need of seriously better traction and handling
negative	bad bad bad that one word seems to pretty much sums up beyond the valley of the dolls if that summary isn't enough for you how about still haven't got the point other than director russ meyer's predilection for casting attractive large breasted women who ultimately expose the anatomical areas there is really only one other reason to recommend even taking a look at this movie that is the fact that it was by famed film critic roger ebert who also was responsible for the screenplay after watching this movie you will never be able to sit through another one of his reviews where he gives a movie a thumbs down for bad writing with a straight face this movie stinks out loud quite frankly this movie deserves a but there are parts of it that are so bad they are almost funny so i'm giving it a and maybe that is too generous right from the opening credits i knew that i had a bomb on my hands not only are the way the credits actually shot distracting but the first scene you see includes a big breasted young woman being chased by a guy in a nazi uniform i had absolutely no idea why the hell that was happening it does get explained later and as soon as the first scene is over we cut to a completely unrelated scene to be honest as i sat through this movie mesmerized by just how incredibly awful it was i actually forgot about the seemingly out of place opening until it popped up again later in the film with the quality of the writing during the rest of the film it wouldn't have surprised me if the opening had never been explained so what is this movie about you ask like it really matters ok here goes this band headed by kelly macnamara dolly reed and her friends go to hollywood to try to gain a foothold in the music industry once there they do manage to find success due as much to their hooters as anything else it sure wasn't for their brutally bad singing voices and the movie chronicles how their lives change for the worse as the pressures of fame get to them everything from big egos to booze and drugs to free flowing sex sends them on a downward spiral there are a couple of other idiotic subplots thrown in for good measure but the fame is the one that pretty much sums up this thing a creative standpoint there is nothing redeeming here other than the obsession with big knockers that russ meyer seemed to have the dialogue is so incredibly bad that it literally is funny in parts mr ebert has generously thrown in helpings of hey man dig and my all time favorite this is my happening and it freaks me out now i ask you with lines like that how can you go wrong ebert had tried to inject as many big words as possible into the dialogue maybe he thought it would make the movie seem smarter i don't know but all the big words in the world wouldn't be able to disguise the bad writing and even worse acting but the wretched dialogue goes along well with the wretched quality of everything else in this movie i've seen home movies directed better than meyer managed with this turkey in fact there is one scene the one in which they are in a van driving to hollywood to make their fortunes during which i really had to question if meyer or his editors had just suffered serious head injuries add to the directing and writing the music in this movie i almost got up to check my sound system to see if it was broken there was such a pile of crap emanating from the speakers then we have the cast first lets start david gurian who played harris the manager of the band this has got to be the goofiest looking guy that has ever set foot in front of a motion picture camera sadly his acting doesn't come close to making up for his looks if you have been following along up to this point this shouldn't surprise you meyer's stable of well endowed girls also have the benefit of being fairly attractive to go along with their other assets dolly reed plays kelly the leader of the band and no surprise here she was cast for her cup size not her talents and yes she does loose the shirt a few times and display her impressive talents sadly her ass is almost as large as her chest hey it a sexist movie so i'm writing a sexist review then we have former playboy playmate cynthia myers in a fairly small role as casey one of the other band members this goes along with the rest of the idiotic thinking in the movie meyer casts a gorgeous playmate with a rack to kill for and who obviously has no acting talent at all but her nude scenes are the biggest disappointment of all sure russ now is the time to get artsy and throw in some well placed shadows on the up side she does have a fun lesbo scene i sound like i'm writing a review in a porn magazine but hey i'll admit it the only reason that i actually managed to sit through this damn movie was to catch a look at cynthia myers naked and since that was a huge disappointment i pretty much wasted two hours of my life on this turkey the only thing that i can say about this movie is that you should stay away from it unless of course you want to feel good about yourself by knowing that even a pulitzer prize winning film critic like roger ebert has screwed up at least once in his life too and if you are thinking of checking it out for the double d's you are better off just downloading nude cynthia myers pictures off the internet this is a movie that should be avoided at all costs an even better idea might be to require video stores to place a warning on the box of beyond the valley of the dolls beware this movie is extremely hazardous to your common sense proceed with extreme caution
negative	a film which introduces characters situations dilemmas and developments that we've seen before in a parade of other films a film which can easily be guessed out by the end of frame number one a film which is packed to the cap with predictability leading to very little tension excitement suspense or interest on the part of its paying audience in short a clich formula film welcome to my review of the general's daughter plot an undercover army detective and a rape counselor find themselves locked inside an investigation into some bigwig general daughter's rape torture and murder they must delve through all of the unspoken army rules and the to figure out the conspiracy behind the shocking murder critique by the numbers see above this film is just there it sits there on the big screen for a couple of hours floats around goes away hopefully never to be heard from again it is so predictable that even a blind man could see its plot points coming a mile away it's as suspenseful as a leaf dropping from a tree it's as as a canadian curling tournament get the picture i sure did it's too bad that it took my friend and i less than two minutes to figure out the entire plot and to break down each scene before it was even completed easy as pie it's unfortunate because james woods and john travolta actually have one extremely enjoyable scene together near the beginning of the film but alas t'was not to be that scene alone scored two of my four points allotted woods chews it up in the few scenes that he's in travolta passes the test cromwell plays well cromwell and stowe is window dressing with a smile mia since monkeys it seems and this predictability isn't reserved only to those who have seen films like courage under fire or a few good men it runs deep inside every one of us who knows to suspect someone as soon as they see their obvious guilty mug on the big screen it's like riding a bike other scenarios which sponge out any tension suspense or interest from this film include every single character eventually breaking down to the investigators without much reason given a ridiculously placed background relationship between two of the lead characters as much action as my grandparents bedroom nightly and a directorial style that can only reward director simon west with a solid nomination for the best poor man's michael bay doing his best poor man's impression of tony scott add two scenes with sunlight shining through some shades for grit and integrity and an rainfall for the finale for further chaos and you're a great director yawn yeah whatever tony i mean simon and aren't we all sick of hearing about these army bad boys and their overdone code of silence enough already next subject please see it on video if you wanna fall asleep after seeing a much better movie like an officer and a gentleman otherwise save yourself the trouble and go take a crap instead you'll feel much better afterwards trust me little known facts about this film and its stars ironically john travolta turned down the lead role in an officer and a gentleman which eventually went to little dickie gere ironically on james woods' part he completed one of his earliest acting roles on tv's welcome back kotter starring none other than john travolta actor james woods recently confirmed reports of his big dick on howard stern's radio program unlike rocker tommy lee woods is also alleged to have an iq of he apparently scored a perfect on his verbal sats and a on the math section what a man john travolta is married to actress kelly preston and they have a son named jett travolta loves them planes word on the street is that the kid was apparently conceived during a weekend at demi moore and bruce willis' home director simon west's first film was the jerry bruckheimer produced con air before that he directed tv commercials including the budweiser ad with the dancing ants yippee veteran director john frankenheimer ronin the manchurian candidate portrays the character of general sonnenberg in this film the imdb reports that when senator robert kennedy was shot at the ambassador hotel in los angeles on june it was his good friend john frankenheimer who had personally driven him there that day clarence williams iii who plays colonel fowler in this film is known to some from his role as linc in the original mod squad tv series younger folk may remember him as prince's father in purple rain
negative	who knew that in years eddie murphy who made such a brash raucous splash in would become cuddly the disconcerting trend begun in this summer's cutesy largely continues with this dramedy although he is here murphy is merely support for jeff goldblum who plays ricky hayman the programming director at a home shopping network sales are way down and ricky's job hangs by a thread until he meets g murphy a mysterious spiritual guru whom a desperate ricky puts on the air while sales skyrocket and g becomes an overnight sensation the reinvigorated ricky's greed grows endangering his budding romance with a goodhearted media research consultant kelly preston writer tom schulman has some promising ideas satirizing home shopping and infomercials and the nature of instant celebrity but these ideas would have more bite if stephen herek had invested any energy into the direction of the film the sluggishly paced is not only slow and overlong minutes but an unfunny bore and murphy can do little to juice up the proceedings cleansed of both the attitude comic sensibility that made him a star g is for the most part a straight man he is a curiously lifeless presence goldblum is actually quite good but it's hard for the audience to sustain much interest in his character and spiritual journey when the director doesn't seem to be much interested either
negative	pokemon the movie has a lot of bad things in it first of all it's a plot heavy mess that has bad voice talents badly written script and fantastic animation the first film came out the end of and was a huge hit grossing almost million domestically a sequel soon followed and even made million warner has released their third movie based on the immensely popular video game and tv series and its a waste of time and celluloid this time ash ketchum and his friends are on their way to the johto battles which my little brother told me the new spinoff is pokemon the johto journeys so go figure anyway he comes in contact with a young girl who's father has disappeared after trying to discover the unown they are small pokemon with a powerful punch and have great psychic abilities the unown bring together their psychic abilities and create entei a powerful legendary pokemon who barriers young molly's house and creates every wish she wants now it's up to ash and his friends to stop this pokemon entei and show him to be a good pokemon rather than a bad one too bad really that this is a bad movie surprisingly the first movie was entertaining and somewhat absorbing the second was a piece of trash and this one is almost in between it has some good qualities animation message in the end but the flaws seem to overpower the goods i'm still not sure what the big thing is about pokemon they are ugly little animals who speak their own name for their language besides meowth my personal favorite and you don't understand what they are saying my little brother just thought the movie was amazing and i kept leaning over and asking him happened or what pokemon that was his response was a big lecture of how this is that and that is this he sure did put me in my place with the second and third movie being bad i have a feeling pokemon the movie might be a total bust as well pokemon the movie has some redeeming qualities for the kids and the pokemon fans will dig every minute of this film for those parents brothers and sisters who have to sit through this bring a pillow
negative	he doesn't have a accent he doesn't always speak in a monotone and his face doesn't always wear the same impassive expression in short the former nfl player turned fox sportscaster turned actor is too good to be bad but too bad to be good unfortunately the same cannot be said of his first star vehicle firestorm which is just plain awful one of the most glaring problems with long who made his acting debut in john woo's broken arrow is that he's so mediocre that he often blends in with the scenery as ace firefighter jesse graves long is supposed to be playing a action hero the kind of man who will crash through a flaming door to save a child or parachute into a burning clearing to rescue some stupid campers unfortunately despite the best efforts of director dean semler to photograph long using heroic shots that make kevin costner's work in the postman look stark jesse turns out to be a pretty boring good guy to put it kindly this is not a motion picture firestorm is a collection of howlingly bad lines set against a backdrop of disaster movie clich s which taken together form something that requires a level of viewer inebriation to be recognized as a plot the only reason this film is getting one star instead of something lower is that most of the fire sequences are realistic and i was fascinated by the meticulous planning that must have been necessary to stage them effectively we're introduced to our big burly hero one afternoon when he and some colleagues jump into the midst of a forest fire to save a group of people during this sequence our big burly hero proves that he's also a sensitive guy by risking his life to save a little girl and her dog yes the dog lives from being broiled alive a year now our big burly hero is taking over as chief of his smokejumpers association replacing outgoing honcho wynt perkins real actor scott glenn but this day our big burly hero's first in charge isn't going to be a group of nasty escaped criminals have set a wyoming forest alight to aid their flight to freedom led by randy earl shaye william forsythe the sadistic creep who must be killed twice to really die they pose as canadian firefighters who somehow got lost across the border along the way they meet and take hostage the damsel in distress suzy amis eventually our big burly hero is placed in a position where he has to fight the fire rescue the damsel in distress defeat the sadistic creep who must be killed twice to really die and restore order to the galaxy firestorm's director dean semler is a former cinematographer he won an academy award for his work on dances with wolves so it's no surprise that the film looks good unfortunately that's firestorm's lone asset and it falters near the end when special effects fill up the screen these are of about equal quality to what you might observe on a nintendo video game the action sequences which include a variety of chases are occasionally interesting but never invigorating everyone including long appears to be going through the motions there isn't a memorable performance to be found from beginning to end unless you count the forest fire which generates some heat as the sadistic creep who must be killed twice to really die william forsythe lacks panache he's worse than a generic bad guy he's a boring generic bad guy who doesn't have any snappy to hurl at our big burly hero my advice to scott glenn absolute power and suzy amis titanic is to accidentally forget this film the next time they're making out a resume there's some small comfort in knowing this early in the year that i already have one entry for my bottom list at least i hope there aren't worse films than this and i know i wasn't the only one who really disliked this movie as the audience was filing out of the screening i loitered in the theater lobby to catch a few comments the general consensus seemed to be that although the movie sucked the promotional key ring was cool the problem is that fox won't be giving out key rings to regular so that nixes any reason to see firestorm
negative	seen at amc old pasadena pasadena ca in sdds paul verhoeven's last movie showgirls had a bad script bad acting and a plot i use the word in its loosest possible sense that served only to allow lots of sex and nudity it stank starship troopers has a bad script bad acting and a plot that serves only to allow lots of violence and gore it stinks nobody will watch this movie for the plot but here's a brief synopsis anyway some friends straight out of high school sign up for the federal reserve armed forces at a time when evil bugs from the planet klendathu are sending meteors towards earth from the other side of the galaxy after one slips through the defences and destroys buenos aires the home city of the main characters war is declared this involves sending the grunts who include johnny rico van dien and dizzy meyer down to the surface of the bugs' planet much carnage ensues the troops are withdrawn and sent to another planet to answer a distress call more carnage ensues after being rescued their plans are changed to capture a brain bug which is believed to be controlling the aliens' battle plans look i didn't write this ok yet more carnage ensues get the picture interspersed throughout all this are brief ads from the federal network which present the picture of a state much like in verhoeven's robocop there are many problems with starship troopers the plot where one exists to drive the movie onwards is silly harris star of tv's doogie howser md is presented with a psychic ability to talk to his ferret early on in the movie apparently so we will accept his ability to with a brain bug later on in addition the first thirty minutes of the movie until the characters sign up for service drag on like a bad episode of beverly hills the characters are so much so that when dizzy is killed she says it's ok because she got to sleep with rico i had hoped that verhoeven's use of a cast would allow him to kill off several of the lead characters to surprise the audience but such an idea appears to have escaped him the dialogue is embarassing and isn't helped by the frequently terrible delivery i almost burst out laughing when harris delivered his speech about the need to sacrifice a few hundred people for the good of the species finally the fake ads become a nuisance although they evoke the propaganda of the movietone reels as presumably they are meant to their complete lack of subtlety blunts their effect some people will say all of that's irrelevant the movie hinges on the battle scenes so what about those battle scenes well i admit the effects are good the bugs move about quite convincingly especially when they have been deprived of a few of their limbs and people have their brains blown out their limbs cut off and their bodies ripped in two in quite impressive ways but this is my problem the entertainment value of the film rests almost entirely on its graphic portrayal of gore and its continous attempt to gross us out starting early on when richards' character vomits verhoeven appears to be trying to make a movie employing the elements that made a robocop a success but fails spectacularly while robocop had a message about the importance of being human and gave the bad guys some motivation starship troopers lacks even these simple features when the brain bug sucks out a character's brain near the end of the film it's merely an analogy for what the film has done to us this film is full of graphic violence and is not suitable for children under
negative	often similar to a little boy lost in a park that he had no right venturing into the call of the oboe o toque do oboe is a disappointing film that seems to have wandered astray many elements of the film are solid and have potential far greater than director claudio macdowell will ever know but they simply don't convert into a solid work although a setting is never established it becomes apparent the film takes place somewhere in a latin american village in present day the community is a dull one where every day is a downhill slide from the last over time the people have taken to themselves the town cinema is closed no tourist has passed through in years and the daily funeral processions are accompanied by no one other than the grave digger so what happens when a tourist paolo betti does arrive one day he sends this routine and dull town into mayhem and shock it is revealed that he is a musician who plays the oboe as a hobby when he sits down in the park one day to give a solo performance the entire community gathers around for their first bit of entertainment in countless years it is from that that the musician meets some of the villagers and agrees to play at the local cinema in accompaniment to a silent film thus opening the theatre for the first time in ages the woman that talks him into this witty task is the cinema owner leticia vota who also happens to be engaged to the town's police inspector a figure who soon becomes suspicious of his fiance's involvement with this musician the rest of the plot closely resembles a freak show gone horribly astray it features a character who literally rises from his grave a woman who has a phone conversation with god and the aforementioned inspector who goes from an intriguing and serious character to an almost humorous drunk technically this film is a nightmare the music score is poorly edited into the film so it is often choppy rough and abrupt the lighting is poor at best which makes it increasingly difficult to focus on many scenes and the english subtitles are full of misspelled words and are often absent presumably on the assumption that the audience will be able to understand some simple portuguese and spanish phrases this translation flaw is best highlighted at the beginning of the film when what seems to be a relevant fight is filled with dialogue but the subtitles are limited to fewer than words in addition the pace of the film seems uneven it opens with a series of long panoramic shots that alone can test one's patience the film then moves into a faster pace that again slows towards the end as the director seems determined to reach the two hour mark there was however potential for this film it is a piece exploring the beauty of cinema and music and the of people these are all topics that could easily fill a movie perhaps if there were no freak show and the technical aspects were to improve there might just be a thing of beauty at the end most importantly though the director would have to patch up the plot and make it flow better so that the two hours aren't such a bore until then there seems to be little more hope for this piece than that boy has by simply crying out mommy while he wanders astray in a park
negative	a friend invites you to a movie this film would evade the explosions and special effects of standard summer fare and be grounded in reality the plot is as follows after a terrifying incident a mother and her independent daughter separate from the father and move away from the city they need fresh air to get some perspective maybe to start over romance begins to brew however as one of the locals played by an international superstar in rugged clothing sparks things up especially at a slow dance it stars a rising young starlet helms a good cast and is directed by one of the better in hollywood you accept you jump at the opportunity to see what you believe to be horse but poor moviegoer you have been conned alas you find yourself watching incredulously oh woe your hope has sunk why was this movie made why was it released it is a travesty on nearly every level and has the authority to sink the careers of nearly everyone involved at the hands of a better script the film could have been a gem but it is clueless as to what it is about and only succeeds in transferring same cluelessness to us poor viewers stars sandra bullock as birdy who after discovering her husband has been cheating on her with her best friend on national television no less takes her daughter and drives back to her home helmed by a countryish bumpkin eccentric played by gena rowlands she decorates with stuffed wildlife birdy's nephew travis played by it to cameron finley is under her custody and in one of the film's many failed is always seen wearing a different halloween costume what is the point of this does it make any sense is it supposed to be funny the point of the film is to show that the family is eccentric but i was convinced that the grandma should have been locked up for endangering the mental welfare of a child all of this undercuts the plot of which there is none there are only many scenes that are supposed to register emotion there's the scene where birdy who used to be the prom queen is humbled by approaching a peer she once mocked for a job there's the scene where birdy dances with her father in the hospital for alzheimer's and then there's the sentimental scenes with justin played by harry connick jr who is taking a liking to her again showing her a beautiful pad that he built from scratch and during each of these scenes i was sidetracked by my earlier question what sort of eccentric grandmother go through such great pains as to provide a dog costume a kermit costume a cowboy costume with whip and a full furred barney costume for her grandson to wear during dinner what sort of warped ramifications would this lead for the rest of his life outside of this there are other sure signs of screenwriters block when the daughter stands up to the bully at school when birdy almost loses her job when the family pulls in a goofy to cheer someone up when someone dies when the daughter cries no wails in exasperation that her father is not coming back in a movie like this you notice the strings being pushed and you sit there comatose hoping it will end who can survive such a debacle i worry for bullock's career which has been running on for the last few years she has an attitude a solid perkiness and can drive a she can't handle the emotional scenes much less hold a southern accent harry connick jr is with singing or get some acting lessons please gena rowlands is the best part of the film but she's such a good actress that it staggers the mind that she's weighed down by such lukewarm material here it would be a severe tragedy if the recurring star of john cassavettes' great films is known for this film two notes to forest whittaker cut the sequences there are twelve times where you undercut your own direction by such a failed trick have you done so you could have shaved off of this almost unbearable debacle you've had to know something was wrong if your cinematographer's filter makes the candlelight appear like little x s you're not a bad director but you can't change a terrible script there's a recurring scene where birdy working at the neighborhood fotomat finds the machine go wrong and image after destroyed warped dark image appear think about it a succession of destroyed images may have been more entertaining than this movie
negative	any remake of an alfred hitchcock film is at best an uncertain project as a perfect murder illustrates frankly dial m for murder is not one of the master director's greatest efforts so there is ample room for improvement unfortunately instead of updating the script ironing out some of the faults and speeding up the pace a little a perfect murder has inexplicably managed to eliminate almost everything that was worthwhile about dial m for murder leaving behind the unwatchable wreckage of a thriller almost all suspense films are loaded with plot implausibilities the best thrillers keep viewers involved enough in what's going on so that these flaws in logic don't become apparent until long after the final credits have rolled unfortunately in a perfect murder the faults are often so overt that we become aware of them as they're happening this is a very bad sign not only do such occurrences shatter any suspension of disbelief but they have the astute viewer looking for the next such blunder of course in the case of a perfect murder at least that gives an audience member something to do besides concentrating on the inane plot and the lifeless cardboard characters a perfect murder isn't a strict remake of dial m for murder but it does borrow heavily from frederick knott's play which was also the source material for hitchcock's version as well as a retelling emily hayes gwyneth paltrow is the wealthy wife of powerful wall street steven hayes michael douglas their marriage isn't going well emily resents steven's controlling instincts and as a form of rebellion she is having an affair with a penniless painter david shaw viggo mortensen when steven learns of the relationship he decides to confront david but his approach isn't that of a typical cuckolded husband instead of yelling or threatening steven offers david a proposal that's too good to resist for in cash before the rest after he is to break into steven's new york apartment and kill emily of course after getting the first payment david never bothers to ask how he's supposed to get the rest ultimately i'm not sure which of the three main characters we're supposed to be sympathetic to the husband who wants his wife dead so he can get his hands on her fortune her mercenary lover who is willing to do the deed for or the woman who is happily carrying on an extramarital affair not only are these individuals all profoundly dislikable but they're not interesting it's possible to make a good movie with detestable characters see reservoir dogs but there has to be something compelling about them which in this case there isn't steven emily and david are all lifted directly from the screenwriting text book on stereotypes the actors in this film are obviously just on hand to get their paychecks michael douglas is playing the kind of heartless tycoon that he can do in his sleep he's gordon gekko with an unfaithful wife gwyneth paltrow who was recently delightful and appealing in sliding doors is simply awful here she now has the dubious distinction of have starred in two of worst thrillers the other being hush at least viggo mortensen g i jane has a little fun with his part but then he usually does interesting things even in bad movies the thin supporting cast includes david suchet the star of poirot as a police inspector and sarita choudhury kama sutra as emily's best friend a perfect murder is a plodding production that generates almost no suspense from beginning to end there aren't many twists and turns in the unexpectedly linear script which makes the ending inevitable almost from the start it's surprising to see director andrew davis the man behind the fugitive involved in this mess but like his stars he too needs to earn a living it's just that remaking hitchcock and doing it so badly hardly seems to be an honorable way to go about getting the dough
negative	steve martin shines but sgt bilko fails to impress based on the popular sitcom sgt bilko follows the string of conversion fever remember the brady bunch movie or the beverly hillbillies released sometime back brady bunch was a moderate hit in in the us while hillbillies flopped i do not really know whether the hollywood minds are running out of good ideas or just being plain lazy but the are hitting our screens like wildfire sad to say with mixed success such movies are mostly targeted at us viewers since they are usually followings of such series over there and the larger the following the more likely the sitcom will be made into a movie sgt bilko frankly i have not seen any its original tv version even with the charm and wild antics of funnymen steve martin and dan akroyd failed to entertain sgt ernest bilko is the man behind the motor pool place of vehicle storage and repair of fort baxter though totally unskilled in the field of work that he is supposed to be in charge of he has an almost superhuman ability and zeal to sniff out opportunities from running a gambling den in the military garage to pools though materialistic in mind bilko's methods has thoughtfully the lives of the men of fort baxter providing them with some form of real recreation within the camp and the people love him for that colonel hall runs the entire fort and thanks to his inborn state bilko has managed to hide his operation though nearly every living person in the fort knows about it bilko's state of ascent is suddenly when the pentagon sends major thorn a tough cookie on army regulations to check on the progress on the million hovertank project a new weapon under development within the fort's grounds to add to his problems thorn is determined to bring bilko down in retalliation of a major done on him by bilko during their younger army days director jonathan lynn who directed my cousin vinny in which marisa tomei won an oscar for actress managed to pull sgt bilko through with suitable pacing and some exceptional moments of laughter but that is about it there are really not enough in sgt bilko to fully entertain the average still steve martin's sgt bilko is played with finesse and by the renowned comedian without him sgt bilko would have just fell flat on its face sgt bilko did moderately well in the us box office early this year but i doubt it will earn much elsewhere around the world the current trend in mixed successes in such may be a blessing in disguise really at least it will force hollywood to any of its initial intentions to turn another into a movie or at the very least approach those ideas with more creativity unless you are a fan of the or love to watch steve martin in action you can skip this one when deciding which movie to catch in the local theatres i'm sure there are better ones around
negative	look the new version of psycho came out and the world didn't end i guess gus van sant really isn't the bringer of the apocalypse unfortunately though that psycho didn't end the world as we know is the best thing that can be said for it van sant's controversial of alfred hitchcock's classic film has polarized filmgoers everywhere even before it premiered without benefit of an actual viewing many have said that the film will at best suck being an almost good critic i waited until i actually saw it to decide that the film at best sucked and that concludes the use of the word suck and hopefully the thoughts that i am a orangutan director gus van sant took the original hitchcock film and refilmed it using the same exact script with a few minor alterations the inherent challenge was in making the film suspenseful and scary even though a large group of the audience will know exactly what will happen at the exact time suspense probably could have been attained if the actors had been able to create something new or different than the original sadly that did not occur it is hard to be overshadowed by vera miles and john gavin from the original psycho but that is what exactly happened to julianne moore and viggo mortensen in moore's case the film would have been helped if the files gillian anderson had been cast instead especially since moore goes through the entire film doing a scully impression from the cold demeanor and expressions to her rigid way of forming a sentence moore is scully mortensen who i liked in g i jane opts to play sam loomis as a which would have been nice if he had gone past that starting point sam has a twang and a cowboy hat but that's about it mortensen turns in one of the most uptight performance in recent memory anne heche in the janet leigh role does a few good things in her brief time on screen at least her marion crane has a little life in her which can't be said for most of the rest of the cast the best work though comes from vince vaughn as the demented mama's boy norman bates he's not going to make anyone forget anthony perkins but he is effective both in being naughty and nice the best part of the film is the dinner scene heche and vaughn where they simply talk there is some solid acting there something that is not carried through the rest of the film van sant has made a boring film all the camera tricks that hitchcock so eloquently used in aren't as now what passed for brilliance then has been copied so many times by so many directors that they don't impress or excite van sant in what i assume is a grasp at originality decided to put some images into a few famous scenes was that a lamb in the middle of the road these images included with some questionable editing choices took away from the scenes themselves and caused at first bewilderment and later laughter definitely not hitchcock's intention at least danny elfman had the good sense to not mess with bernard herrmann's original famous and terrific score if a film like psycho does not frighten then what's the point aside from norman the characters are thinly drawn people who leave no connection with the audience there are things van sant and company could have done to at least make their recreation interesting in the end however the new psycho is a noble attempt but alas a dismal failure
negative	an american werewolf in london is john landis' groundbreaking feature about an american tourist who gets himself bitten by a werewolf in jolly old england the groundbreaking part of the movie is the special effects more specifically the makeup used for the transformation of a man into a werewolf and for the ghosts that haunt the main character even twenty years after its release that part of the movie is still impressive although i would have to say that it really is the only part of the movie that could be considered impressive the rest of the movie is a run of the mill werewolf flick with some extra gore thrown in for good measure if it weren't for the cutting edge makeup effects used in the werewolf transformation it is most likely that this is a film that would have gone largely unnoticed when it was released back in and with good reason the acting isn't great and neither is the writing well ok we don't actually expect either of those things to be great in a horror film but one other important element is lacking here too it isn't scary with no exception you know what is going to happen before it happens you don't even need the obligatory scary music to give you a hint i will give director john landis credit for this being one of the best looking horror films that i have ever seen but john it just wasn't scary i didn't know if this was intended to be some sort of romantic drama and the whole werewolf thing was just thrown in to get people to come to the theater to see it but it didn't work for me actually it was intended as a sort of a spoof on horror films but the mix of the comedic moments with the melodrama was so bad the intended humor was lost on me it's never a good sign that you don't realize a movie is supposed to be funny until after the movie is long over and you read it in the background material call me crazy but you shouldn't have to do research on a movie to enjoy it i'm not even going to get into the plot of the movie that much since the title pretty well sums the whole thing up werewolf bites boy david naughton boy ends up in hospital where he is tended to and eventually falls for pretty nurse jenny agutter and then strange things begin to happen to boy including and i must admit this is a very nice touch visits from his friend who was killed in the same werewolf attack that ended up with him in the hospital the neat thing here is that his buddy is a rapidly deteriorating corpse i know it sounds strange but it actually works the scenes between david naughton and the dead buddy griffin dunne are really the best parts of the movie as i said probably the only reason that this film was a hit was because of the special effects while they are still impressive today they aren't impressive enough or plentiful enough to warrant watching this film and since they are more or less the highlight of the film there are far better choices out there if you want a scary movie to curl up with your sweetheart to watch actually the sequel an american werewolf in paris is more entertaining since it doesn't take itself as seriously and actually provides a few more laughs along the way
negative	capsule annoyingly unentertaining obvious and movie presence of director michael bay shows none of the talent he demonstrated in the rock i've seen this movie already i said as i looked at the box art no i haven't even seen a trailer for the movie i don't even know what it's about but i can look at the way they're promoting it and i know i've seen it already i thought it's about these two cops and they're buddies sort of they're at each other's throats a lot but they really do like each other and everyone else in their department hates them they're and they have some kind of diametric opposition in their relationship and one day they're in the middle of cop business as usual when they get mixed up in this plot that involves a really sadistic bad guy with lots of henchmen who can never hit anything with the billions of rounds of ammo they are always carrying and the bad guy is a drug lord and there's a witness and she's this sexy thing who rubs both of them the wrong way and their supervisor wants their badges for breakfast when they blow up half the town bringing this guy down i only missed the bit about the badges the rest i got and i hadn't even left the video store yet the cops in this movie are will smith and martin lawrence and the bad guy is the immensely underutilized tcheky karyo smith plays a cop who has a trust fund and is thus not a cop for the money martin l is a family man shades of the lethal weapon dynamic here whose wife and he are at total odds this leads to some strained scenes about lawrence's not getting any and some totally unneccesary bits with him skulking around his own house thinking his partner is now his wife's back door man not funny tiresome bad boys gets some of its incredibly meager selling points from the presence of will smith and martin lawrence will smith is a natural and i'm happy to see him in movies like six degrees and men in black he's funny and charming without trying to be he really does seem to be enjoying himself martin lawrence is a different story he's so uptight and verbally constipated that sitting through his improvised riffs are a trial movies like this are not about originality i know this they are about style and energy and synergy between actors i know this too and yet while watching bad boys which its glamorous photography and impossibly exact stunt choreography i felt fed up i'd seen con air which despite being completely implausible was still great fun because it tried however feebly to put some new life into the mix bad boys is a dry run and overlong too clocking in at just over two hours with a lot more than i felt could be justified i could write this movie you could write this movie many people have many people will continue to write this movie over and over again other people will buy it from them and make it and we will pay money to see it more the fools we all in a terrifyingly prescient line from his book a scanner darkly phil k dick once mused that the mcdonaldburger as he called it would eventually eclipse money as the token of cultural and financial exchange one day we will all just sit in our living rooms and sell the same burger back and forth to each other the same could be said about this movie i have the sinking feeling we're going to see it again soon
negative	in the first death wish movie new york architect paul kersey played by charles bronson was avenging the death of his wife in the second he was avenging his daughter in the third he instigated small war in order to avenge the old friend fourth movie on the other hand begins with kersey doubting the point of his violent crusades and living the quiet life with his girlfriend karen played by kay lenz however since this is death wish movie we know that sooner or later something bad is going to happen to the people kersey cares for this time karen's teenage daughter dies of a crack overdose and kersey is forced to return to his old vigilante ways kersey's new targets unlike the previous movies aren't the ordinary street punks but rich heavily armed and drug dealers even such unstoppable killing machine like kersey needs some support and it comes from the publisher nathan white john p ryan determined to avenge the death of his own daughter white's plan is to make kersey kill major players in two rival drug dealing organisations and thus instigate the war between them the plan begins to take shape but kersey's actions bring attention of two police detectives reiner george dickerson and nozaki soon fourth and unfortunately not the final installment in the death wish series will probably remembered as the typical movie of cannon group production company responsible for some of the worst cinematic trash of the last decade however although some critics might argue death wish the crackdown represents slight improvement over the death wish paul kersey one of the most intriguing and potentially controversial characters of the is still being dumbed down by mediocre script and charles bronson really doesn't feel the need to put much effort in his acting however the hand of a veteran director j lee thompson seems more capable of michael winner's and the action scenes seem slightly less surreal although they still look cheap and repetitive and downright boring there are some attempts for the movie to have a plot between the numerous scenes of violence and one of such attempts is a potentially interesting plot twist at the end the script even tries to fake some social conscience through criminally underused kay lenz's character and predates the war on drugs campaign that would inspire many hollywood products in next few years there are even some attempts of humour both intentional and unintentional like in a scene where kersey assassinates mob figures by a wine bottle but the quality of this movie is still far away from bronson's classics special note to mith pilleggi the actor who plays ad skinner in the files could be seen in a small role of cannery lab foreman
negative	i've never written a review for a movie i haven't watched all the way through but i had to make an exception with powder i was about minutes into this one at a friend's house when he and his brother got into a huge shouting match that would have ended in violence had we not left the house so i never got to finish the movie and i'm sure as hell not going to pay three more bucks to watch half of a bad movie but i can at least get a partial review out of it because i saw enough to know this one wasn't worth finishing in the first place the movie centers around a freaky teenager who's spent his entire life living in the cellar of his grandparents' house when grandpa dies taking his department store down with him social worker mary steenburgen has to take powder first and middle names gold bond to a state home where we find out he's a different from the other kids actually we find out he's different when we first see him because he's the most pale individual we've ever seen and moreover he has no body hair whatsoever when powder is born in the opening minutes of the movie the father takes one look at him and says he's not my son obviously all i want to know is where the pillsbury dough boy was nine months ago so the freak leaves his neverland ranch for the state home and faces the ridicule of other kids that is until they try to haze him during his first cafeteria lunch by making him wear his spoon you can either wear it on your nose or up your ass decisions decisions and he uses telepathic powers to draw all the silverware in the room into a giant pile in the middle of the table so if his father is the pillsbury dough boy his mother must be sissy spacek's carrie character and you have to factor in two more things from the subsequent scenes as we find out powder has some sort of your i q test went straight off the chart and attracts electrical power this first shows up as powder visits the world of high school if he's such a genius already why would he need a high school education and sits through a demonstration in jeff goldblum's science class goldblum plugs in a jacob's ladder device that shows current running up two wires and immediately the current flows across the room and into powder's chest but goldblum just stands there for about thirty seconds watching instead of just unplugging the damn thing i guess he was too busy contemplating why he was appearing in his third bad movie in a row following hideaway and nine months that's about all i saw before the big fight began and let me tell you that was twice as interesting as the movie itself but like i said i saw enough to know this would be one of those terrible melodramas about the isolation of people who have superior abilities and how hard it is for those people to assimilate themselves into mainstream civilization none of these movies ever handle the subject properly instead introducing the feeble beauty and the beast copout of having a beautiful woman fall in love with the guy's personality overlooking his personal appearance i already had the female character picked out the girl who was sitting next to him in the back of the room during the electrocution scene but i guess i'll never know for sure what happened from com mon jun edt article of rec arts movies reviews path nntphub cb att com from com andrew hicks newsgroups rec arts movies reviews rec arts sf reviews subject review powder rec arts movies rec arts sf movies date jun gmt organization university of missouri columbia lines sender att com evelyn c leeper approved att com com andrew hicks mt lucent com summary r a m r keywords originator xref nntphub cb att com rec arts movies reviews rec arts sf reviews status ro powder a film review by andrew hicks copyright andrew hicks fatboy productions i've never written a review for a movie i haven't watched all the way through but i had to make an exception with powder i was about minutes into this one at a friend's house when he and his brother got into a huge shouting match that would have ended in violence had we not left the house so i never got to finish the movie and i'm sure as hell not going to pay three more bucks to watch half of a bad movie but i can at least get a partial review out of it because i saw enough to know this one wasn't worth finishing in the first place the movie centers around a freaky teenager who's spent his entire life living in the cellar of his grandparents' house when grandpa dies taking his department store down with him social worker mary steenburgen has to take powder first and middle names gold bond to a state home where we find out he's a different from the other kids actually we find out he's different when we first see him because he's the most pale individual we've ever seen and moreover he has no body hair whatsoever when powder is born in the opening minutes of the movie the father takes one look at him and says he's not my son obviously all i want to know is where the pillsbury dough boy was nine months ago so the freak leaves his neverland ranch for the state home and faces the ridicule of other kids that is until they try to haze him during his first cafeteria lunch by making him wear his spoon you can either wear it on your nose or up your ass decisions decisions and he uses telepathic powers to draw all the silverware in the room into a giant pile in the middle of the table so if his father is the pillsbury dough boy his mother must be sissy spacek's carrie character and you have to factor in two more things from the subsequent scenes as we find out powder has some sort of your i q test went straight off the chart and attracts electrical power this first shows up as powder visits the world of high school if he's such a genius already why would he need a high school education and sits through a demonstration in jeff goldblum's science class goldblum plugs in a jacob's ladder device that shows current running up two wires and immediately the current flows across the room and into powder's chest but goldblum just stands there for about thirty seconds watching instead of just unplugging the damn thing i guess he was too busy contemplating why he was appearing in his third bad movie in a row following hideaway and nine months that's about all i saw before the big fight began and let me tell you that was twice as interesting as the movie itself but like i said i saw enough to know this would be one of those terrible melodramas about the isolation of people who have superior abilities and how hard it is for those people to assimilate themselves into mainstream civilization none of these movies ever handle the subject properly instead introducing the feeble beauty and the beast copout of having a beautiful woman fall in love with the guy's personality overlooking his personal appearance i already had the female character picked out the girl who was sitting next to him in the back of the room during the electrocution scene but i guess i'll never know for sure what happened
negative	this is the movie that could bring mystery science theater out of cancellation it's one of those movies that's so bad it's absolutely hilarious due in no small part to its big star supermodel cindy crawford if you only remember one thing about fair game it should be that it singlehandedly proves crawford should stick to the sports illustrated swimsuit issues if you thought kathy ireland was laughable in alien from l a you'll change your mind when you see fair game ireland would win handfuls of oscars if this was her only competition in a real casting coup crawford plays a lawyer in a jogging bra of course we all know this is a stretch the only legal opinion crawford has ever put forth being that she favors the death penalty for anyone who wears white after labor day nonetheless someone out there thought she'd make a good lawyer but we're reminded of her true function in the movie when she takes two showers in a period of twenty minutes and for you horny teenage boys out there you actually get to see her topless for two seconds in the dark come to think of it that may have been a body double cindy crawford isn't black is she like i said crawford is a lawyer with a bunch of russians after her billy baldwin or is it stephen alec adam kim basinger is the police detective who has to save her life time after time chase after chase explosion after explosion there's absolutely nothing original about this movie it's every cop show of the mixed with every action thriller of the and every exploitation movie of the three decades of crap all in one place driven further into the ground by crawford's complete lack of acting talent and it's all completely predictable you know the mistakes baldwin and crawford are going to make before they make them you know when the sexual tension will finally end up in them consummating the relationship you know when the villains will capture crawford so baldwin has to rescue her in the climax and you know the movie's going to suck from the first scene the plot isn't really explained until the end all we know is these russians have every detail about crawford in their computer in the words of one of the villains we even know what size pantyhose she wears yeah you and every boy in america he goes on to add we know more about her than she does i find very easy to believe i hope you enjoyed those two sample dialogue quotes because i wrote down plenty of other bad ones if it weren't for me you'd still be pulling bananas out of your ass in cuba because you see fair game is not only a showcase for recycled action cliches and terrible acting but also some seriously bad dialogue it all adds up to a really terrible movie that made me laugh in plenty of places i wasn't supposed to and grimace in places i was supposed to laugh one more thing fair game has against it is some awful comic relief would you laugh at a scene where crawford tortures a computer nerd with double entendres like i'm very interested in and other crap about playing with his joystick i wouldn't but not because i'm a computer nerd it's just not funny crawford's only contribution to the information age are a few gif files floating around with her head on a nude traci lords' body or was it jack lord's body i'll leave you with the final line of dialogue in the movie the boat with all the russians has just blown up and baldwin and crawford are floating on a life raft crawford says woodenly that was my client's boat you just blew up i'm filing a lawsuit against you you're in big trouble or something to that effect and baldwin replies smugly what do i have to do to get out of it they of course begin making out and the credits roll i'm not going to talk about how stupid the line is or how if they'd really wanted to go for a bad closing line they would have had baldwin say you think i could settle out of court but i will tell you that if anyone ever suggests you watch fair game with him or her you quote the final line of the movie to that person what do i have to do to get out of it serving america for over of a century
negative	attention moviegoers you are about to enter a zone should the sound system malfunction during your viewing of cigarettes do not panic the film will work just as well as a silent movie chronicling the meaningless lives of vain yuppie types the movie covers the same ground as the wilt stillman films last days of disco barcelona and metropolitan but without any of his acerbic wit and the inviting style of his writing writer shana larsen makes the mistake of creating a couple of dozen characters and not giving any of them any depth there isn't one of these characters worth caring about the movie features such a cornucopia of hot young stars that it looks like a celluloid version of people magazine among others the movie features ben affleck casey affleck david chappelle janeane garofalo gaby hoffmann catherine kellner courtney love jay mohr martha plimpton christina ricci and paul rudd and unlike people magazine the people speak not that they have anything interesting to say it's new year's eve in and monica martha plimpton is preparing her big party structured as a series of relatively unrelated stories about her guests on the way to the party director risa bramon garcia flits back and forth among her stars monica's apartment is in noho an area that one of the guests describes as so cool all of the poor people live there typical of the shallow couples in the movie are kevin paul rudd and his friend and sexual partner lucy courtney love they argue about whether lucy is a slut or not since she sleeps with everyone except him of course she dares him to go immediately to a bathroom stall and have sex with her which turns out to be neither erotic funny or successful rather like the rest of the story the movie gets its title from the carton of cigarettes that lucy gives kevin for his new year's eve birthday cigarettes are a shield against emotional interaction with other people kevin later tells lucy in a snippet of dialog that sounds profound only outside the context of the movie another character played by jay mohr has a problem with his sexual triumphs every woman he beds falls deeply in love with him by the next morning when his latest conquest tells him of her affection for him his response is i like a lot of people as the movie finally draws to a close the characters awaken from their game of musical beds some have passed out early from alcohol abuse and remember little while others actually have some clue as to what happened the movie itself is so forgettable that by the time you reach your car in the parking lot all trace of the film will have vanished from your mind which is probably the best thing that can be said about the movie cigarettes runs it is rated r for profanity sex and one dope smoking scene and would be acceptable for older teenagers
negative	i have nothing against unabashedly romantic films when done right with at least slightly evident restraint they can be engaging sweeping appealing but it's a hell of a shame when someone botches it as badly as nora ephron botched sleepless in seattle a hollow boring romance that should appeal only to the most gullible of viewers the ones willing to buy into ephron's whiny views of life and romance tom hanks and meg ryan two of hollywood's most likeable stars play sam baldwin and annie reed repectively baldwin's wife recently died and he moved to seattle with his son jonah seeking to get away from the familiar surroundings which remind him of his late spouse jonah senses tension and calls a talk radio show to tell the world about their problems sam seems ready to strangle his son for calling the show but when he gets on the phone he begins pouring his heart out ephron has him do this so that annie reed meg ryan can hear it annie is a happy woman she is engaged to walter an working man and seems to be perfectly content but after hearing sam the widower on the radio show she becomes convinced that he is her destiny and is willing to risk her engagement for it five years after this movie hit theaters hanks ryan and ephron would team up again in the far better although still romantic comedy you've got mail which is about people who hate each other in real life falling in love on the internet at least that movie had a sense of spontaneity here it seems that the first one hundred minutes exist solely to set up for the last five the fact that sam and annie will finally meet is so excruciatingly obvious that everything else is perfunctory sleepless in seattle is full of wonderful performers from its two leads to supporting stars like bill pullman and rosie o'donnell but none of them can save the film from being a bore its characters are dull and empty its script isn't funny or particularly charming the script has a fundamental problem annie gives up for little reason her life with walter to pursue sleepless in seattle whom she has never even seen it's the kind of life decision that real people don't make and its a major unforgivable plausibility sacrifice in essence this movie's purpose is to head towards a goal that shouldn't even exist it's a ten minute short film with minutes of filler if you were to show me sleepless in seattle and i didn't have to review it you could just call me asleep in philadelphia eugene
negative	if you've seen the trailers or commercials it's rather difficult to really figure out what this movie has in store well it's hard to tell after watching the movie as well bruce willis is a resident of the future and it is a rather bleak future the world's population had disintigrated into a mere and is no longer ruled by humans but animals the reason in an organization called the army of the monkeys contaminated the world with a pure virus thus wiping out practically the world's population in a mere month bruce willis' character is one of the surviving few but is enslaved by scientists as are most of last living humans they barter his freedom by sending him on an assignment and having him do the ultimate task go into the past find the leader of the army of the monkeys and kill him well this explanation didn't come easy although the movie is very thought provoking of us as a people our future and the evilo in the world as a story it is very confusing and dragging i know a movie isn''t keeping my interest when i fidget in my seat or feel the need to look at my watch only to find that it's only been an hour passed terry gilliam has a certain style that i realize many appreciate and i haven't watched his previous work brazil but this movie felt like it took too long to tell and yet when one realizes the end is near because it is very easy to figure out you wish it were more complex and not to mention that the movie is depressing is the only reason why it did invoke emotion from me
negative	house on haunted hill starring taye diggs geoffrey rush ali larter famke janssen peter gallagher bridgette wilson max perlich lisa loeb james marsters and chris kattan directed by william malone written by dick beebe house on haunted hill initializes itself to the audience with a scene involving mental patients attacking and murdering doctors in the goriest ways possible one doctor is killed instantly after having a pencil rammed completely through his neck a nurse has her head forced into a barrel of water these mobs of zombies presented are like those in previous flicks with grunting noises and cadaverous movements except this time at the end of the millenium the film is given the power to show exactly how horrific these creatures can be in past horror films the actual murder scenes are left out or not shown forcing the viewer to assume their own nasty bloody deaths for the hapless victims house on haunted hill doesn't want their audience to have an imagination everything is provided for them to watch and squirm not think this nonsense violence thrown out of nowhere is unfortunately the most refreshing part about this film house on haunted hill which is based on the film of the same title introduces a handful of characters as quickly as it can following the opening blood fest the film has no intention of providing character development or a laudable plot the aim here is to scare the audience with chilling unexpected shots of blood guts and mayhem however the film is neither scary nor unpredictable the plot involves five people who are dared to spend the night in a haunted house for one million dollars by an amusement park owner geoffrey rush each character is a failure in the external world and acknowledges that they would do anything for that money since the characters are immediately generalized as either greedy or caring the expectations of who will survive or not is killed five minutes after you meet them the problem is that every character is not likable the two who come closest to being civilized are a womanizer taye diggs who should be doing films a lot better than this with all of his talent and a businesswoman who accepts being womanized ali larter the characters presented are so annoying and pathetic that it is hard to cheer for them or scream them the worst character in this film or maybe in any film released this year is chris kattan's watson pritchett he spends the whole film whining about the spooky house in a tone so irritating and inappropriate that he unintentionally begins to seem more evil than the house itself waiting for pritchett to die was a strenuously difficult act to sit through the most humorous actor of the bunch is geoffrey rush playing steven price an homage to victor price who starred in the original playing the rich man who supposedly organized the party he plays the role perfectly in a twisted way where it is obvious that he is up to something just by the expressions on his face however rush is pretty much wasted in a confusing subplot involving a hateful marriage with evelyn price played by famke janssen the main problem is that house on haunted hill is not scary to top off that huge disappointment every actor was wasted and the script was completely ludicrous if the annoying characters and hilariously bad dialogue were intentionally underdeveloped similar to deep blue sea the goal for creating a creepy suspenseful action film was completely missed
negative	fit for a ghoul's night out fat girl stands cast iron firm with the simplistic fatuous excuse that its woman director is baring the harsh sexual realities of adolescent girls being a boy i might not understand female behavior and am unequipped to analyze this particular story fair enough i'll pretend to ignore the mannered posturing and health class this is a dialogue when older teenage boy coaxes younger teenage girl to let him fuck her up the ass speaking variations on it won't hurt for a scene that seems to last at least ten minutes this is done almost entirely in an unbroken master shot that suggests unimaginative camerawork more than unblinking voyeurism they dare you to look away without possessing the courage of allowing the children to actually sound like children they're mouthpieces for catherine breillat's clinical politics rather than show an evaluation of the rigors of hormonal change breillat previously responsible for the unwatchable romance wants to indulge in her hour of hate life is pain highness get used to it she'd find keen bedfellows in neil labute and todd solondz other sultans of misanthropy who lack the balls to be earnest or honest for children dealing with trauma and pain is complicated to bury that in sarcasm and academic theory feels cheap these auteurs more like hauteurs haven't earned the right to display suffering because they don't layer it in emotional truth as mike leigh does throughout naked and david lynch in several key scenes of blue velvet of course there i go again comparing her to all these better male directors i don't care gender be damned she's borderline inept braced for a reaction from the art house crowd mortified shock or compulsory applause will suffice catherine breillat may well accomplish her mission to get a rise out of people don't be fooled this grotesque oversimplification of awkward forays into passion may be quickly forgotten remembered only as cold boring philosophically arid and incompetently photographed the hyperviolent climactic sequence proves so extraordinarily misguided that i honestly wondered whether breillat had thrown in an impromptu dream sequence twelve years old a bundle of dough with a sour pout the superb ana s reboux plays the titular fat girl with a thousand yard stare and a frumpy insouciance her character is also named ana s sitting at the table morosely slurping down a banana split her presence is grounded and heartbreaking it's a pity breillat never finds anything for her to do other than get defensive against her evil storybook sister old elena roxane mesquida for bringing a transitory boyfriend home to their shared room in this summer cottage ana s has no escape from her position as stoic bedside observer to elena's depressing confusion of cheap sex with romance the boy in question a smug italian college kid named fernando libero de rienzo is a real piece of work claiming that the experience is a declaration of love while begging for a blowjob ana s doesn't receive any warmth from her largely absent parents who join elena in making fun of her hefty girth she finds pleasure in wandering the beach alone singing songs to herself and swimming in the pool kissing the metal railing and pretending that it's her paramour reboux commands the screen but there's only so much a child actress can do recounting pretentious monologues to herself if one is inspired to rescue this young performer and place her in a better movie at least she fares better than the other young talent asked to perform in intense love scenes that might feel justified if they weren't so dramatically misguided this vignette is something of a horror show but breillat saves her nastiest poison for the very end on the long ride home punctuated by an uncomfortable silence between family members gigantic trucks swerve by as the hour grows late will mommy fall asleep at the wheel perhaps or maybe there's something deadlier around the corner lying in wait to pounce upon the unsuspecting fat girl what's more she might even like it with the intent of being unfair and unpredictable placing her heroine in the most diabolical of corners in order to face up to impending adulthood breillat's extreme flourish of sadistic tawdriness reveals her as a master purveyor of contempt fat girl is a bitter pill indeed aka ma soeur screened at the new york film festival feature coming soon
negative	marie couldn't talk paulie the parrot star of his own movie tells us about the daughter in his original family dad couldn't listen and mom couldn't cope so they got rid of me paulie the autobiography of a talking not merely a mimicking parrot has jay mohr in the lead role of the bird the voice not the body and as the minor character of benny a crook who uses paulie to pull off small scams like stealing twenties from atms as the parrot mohr is delightful when director john roberts allows him to cut up benny on the other hand is a character you've seen a thousand times before and mohr brings nothing new to that role roberts's deliberately slow pacing of laurie craig's script lends a subtle sweetness to its humor but creates some definite problems when a kids' movie wants to mosey along watch out if the material is not crisp and perfectly composed beauty can sometimes dissolve into tedium so it is with paulie when they let their bird do his comedy routines the show hums and the audience roars too often however a sleepy silence ensues among the viewers as they wait for the story to pickup again tony shalhoub the chef from big night plays misha a recent russian immigrant to the u s he had been a teacher of literature at home but now he makes his living as a janitor in the animal research lab to which paulie has been taken for study although misha gets a few nice lines i'm russian i like long stories his somber part seems designed only to elicit our sympathy besides paulie the only character worth noting other than cute small parts played by cheech marin and gina rowlands is the marie played in a precious performance by cinematic newcomer hallie kate eisenberg naturally enchanting she gives the picture genuine heart the bad news is that her part is confined to the first half the best scenes have the bird dancing and strutting to show off his comedic skills when marie's family gets a cat for example the bird who hasn't wanted to learn how to fly until then takes an instant interest in soaring tricking the cat while insulting him at the same time paulie calls him a stupid hairball their rapid physical antics add to the humor of the situation it's good quality sitcom material but performed by animals when one of the humans without much of a voice begins to sing paulie cringes i'm a bird he explains with his frequently subtle humor i have a small brain and it's about to explode the movie contains rich doses of john debney's dreamy music with heavy use of a solo violin he keeps reinforcing the film's themes and when paulie finally takes off in flight the orchestra comes up loud and strong with cymbals clashing it's a long story says paulie it's the only kind he knows reflects misha and the motion picture which runs the standard length for a kids' movie still feels too long the best parts are enthralling but then there are all of those dead spots paulie is a movie that never quite lives up to its promise but manages to charm nevertheless paulie runs it is raged pg for a few mild profanities and would be fine for all ages my son jeffrey age gave the movie with his biggest complaint being that there wasn't enough action he thought paulie was funny and the actress that played marie was quite good his friend sam almost thought the movie was awesome excellent and gave it he thought paulie was good but he didn't believe the way marie's speech impediment was acted
negative	well here's a distasteful thoroughly amateurish item that surprisingly was actually a hit at the time of its release after just viewing the film for the first time my primary question is how did anyone with an iq north of enjoy this movie it is cheap idiotic unfunny and not nearly as raunchy as i had heard it was at least some smut would have livened things up a bit porky's tells the story if you can call it that of four clueless high school buddies pee wee dan monahan billy mark herrier tommy wyatt knight and mickey roger wilson whom desperately want to get laid women for the most part are a mystery to them and in this movie they are to the audience as well since all of them are written and acted as if they are aliens from a different planet their plan is sidetracked however when they venture out to a smarmy strip bar named porky's which they are able to get into using fake id's after they pay the manager bucks for three hookers they are played a trick on and find themselves being dumped into the swamp below the building for these four teenage guys this means war on porky's porky's ultimately manages to fail on almost every possible level as a teenage it is not wild or amusing enough as a comedy all of the jokes are predictable and fall flat as a look back at the it is something i suspect most people from that era would want to bury deep in a grave and as a revenge movie it is a crushing bore one of the most offensive things about porky's is how inaccurate the film is about teenagers the four main characters are not even attempted to be developed as characters and we learn very little about them except that they are horny and would probably feel more comfortable in a preschool that sure is revealing information the female characters fare even worse under the inaudacious screenplay and direction by bob clark the women are all treated as objects or comedy props rather than real people for example the two gym teachers mrs balbricker nancy parsons and honeywell kim cattrall only have one purpose and that is to be made fun of mrs balbricker is a gruff overwight woman who will not stand for any foolishness and in one particularly embarrassing scene for all involved honeywell has sex with a coach and barks like a dog there is no way to tell if parsons or cattrall are servicable actresses even though i have the suspicion they are not but one thing is for sure they are asked to do things in this film that are not at all funny only humiliating to prove how this comedy is compare it to other more serious films about teenagers and it looks even worse in comaprison any of the john hughes pictures such as sixteen candles or the breakfast club put porky's at an even greater shame those films actually dealt with serious teen matters but remained a great deal funnier thanks to their bright and truthful writing and heck if porky's wanted to be a teenage sex movie i'd take fast times at ridgemont high or the last american virgin over this any day of the week director bob clark is not a bad director two years after he made porky's he directed the nostalgic holiday classic a christmas story i would forgive him for this misfire in fact if it wasn't for the fact that he also wrote the screenplay just the thought that someone would actually sit down to write such a piece of garbage and think that it was actually a film worth releasing unto the unsuspecting world is actually a whole lot funnier than anything in porky's
negative	okay i just don't know why but i seem to be getting this diversion to actors movies as well as acting tim allen movies i couldn't even make it through the santa clause so why did i even see this just to make an idle point i did like toy story but that was good also i have this aversion to bad french farces and if they remake them into american films well this is my excuse it was prom night i'm not a prom person my best friend and i impulsively went to the where they were playing grosse pointe blank wouldn't mind seeing it again but i had to suffer through this first i agreed to go ugh in all fairness i can say that at least this inane plot wasn't dreamed by an american it was originally a french film released in america under the pseudonym of little indian big city french title un indien dans la ville i stayed away from it like it was limburgher and according to roger ebert that was a good idea but i can only imagine how bad that must be if this is an improvement the stupid plot concerns a father who just learns he has a son from his current marriage let me clarify his wife jobeth williams left him years ago and i mean years around or so and went to an island in the carribean or something he goes to her to finally get the divorce papers signed so he can remarry this thing played with an emphasis on by lolita davidovitch who is usually good she tells him he has a son as his boatman goes off he meets him he has a weird name mimi seku i think or as the bad joke goes mitsubishi laugh track cue he knows english they fish more bad jokes pirhanna joke the kid has a pet spider he makes a promise to take him to the statue of liberty you know the drill now this is where the plot complicates well complicates for this one at least the joke switches from tim allen on an island to his island son in new york city tim is a stock broker and his coffee profits are plunging because his laptop died and he wasn't able to communicate with his assistant or whatever he is martin short a russian mob is tossed into the plot somewhere how come in every hokey french import there is a mob tim learns a lesson of life from his son and we discover that cellular phones can operate on an island even though there are no sockets to recharge the batteries the story is crap the jokes are hokey and not really funny and the actors have to struggle to make it interesting but the material is so fowl that even a rewrite by quentin tarantino couldn't help it the whole time i kept thinking that a grown person had to think this up and several more grown people had to do this at the end of filming did they all scream out we've made a great movie guys i sure hope not big question to get from this film why would someone want to remake what was billed as one of the worst films of all time if they're just going to do it the exact same way huh my for some of the actors' names and a joke or two that made me chuckle i guess okay so i really feel bad for it so i only gave it one star
negative	the beach is a structurally confusing film that i can only describe has having multiple personality disorder every forty minutes of this film begins with a new theme virtually discarding what has been set up in the preceding act it starts off purposefully as a film about an innocent man seeking new thrills in a dangerous environment but then in the second act the mood of the film abruptly changes and it becomes a story about a love triangle on an idyllic island paradise that evokes visions of blue lagoon forty minutes later the mood changes once more and it becomes a dumbed down version of lord of the flies where an isolated community is discovered where their moral code touts maintaining a sense of bliss at all costs by the time it's over you can only scratch your head and wonder what this film was really meant to be about the main character of the beach is richard leonardo dicaprio he travels to the netherworld of bangkok where back alley merchants push their wares upon unsuspecting tourists and scantily clad women brazenly ask if you're looking for a good time richard's tells the audience that he has come to this place because he is bored with his life and feels that one way to reinvigorate himself is to let go of the familiar and to enter into a world of the unknown this seedy environment is just what richard is looking for he checks into a fleabag hotel where he meets the crazed daffy robert carlisle he seems like a raving lunatic obviously high from heavy drug use and looking as if he is afflicted with some sort of psychosis though his jagged behavior would distress most of us richard listens to him as he speaks of a mysterious island that contains the most perfect beach that anyone has ever seen moreover the island itself flourishes with enough hemp plants that can make a small city high for life captivated by the idea he asks two other hotel guests to join him on his journey they are worldly etienne and the alluring francoise who have also come to thailand for reasons similar to richard's once they finally arrive at this paradise however the mood of the story shifts to richard's growing desire for francoise this particular plot point is weak at best because there is absolutely no question in my mind that francoise will wind up with richard etienne is about as exciting as fluffy white sand it's odd that etienne never sees this coming but paradise has a way of hiding potential threats just out of view and once the three stumble across the hidden community mood shift imminent more events transpire that depict its hidden dangers for example there are marijuana fields close by patrolled by armed guards and the lagoon in which they swim invites the occasional shark there are several ideas that are introduced in the beach and each one could merit its own film there's the man vs nature angle the love triangle angle and the angle but the film meanders so tremendously that its entire purpose becomes blurred dicaprio as a result has an almost impossible time of trying to embody the different states of mind that he and the film goes through consequently the audience has an equally difficult time trying to keep up
negative	the most absurd remake of it's a toss up between gus van sant's psycho and mighty joe young the new disney picture based on the old rko picture i knew i was in trouble when a polished version of that famous rko logo appeared before the head credits there is no great demand for another giant ape that ape movie period witness the quick deaths of buddy born to be wild and congo and while this latest entry is inoffensive and watchable it's also an assembly line product through and through lacking the charm and unpredictability of the jungle serials that partly inspired it theron is jill young as a young girl in the wilds of africa she befriended a baby gorilla after both their mothers were slain by poachers that baby gorilla nicknamed joe grows to immense proportions and adult jill basically bides her time looking after him playing hide and seek with him and guarding him against poachers enter conservationist greg paxton who convinces jill to move with joe to california where they can protect him better in a controlled environment joe is restless at first no sooner does he finally settle in to the new place than those nasty poachers show up in l a plotting joe's demise suffice it to say the movie could have been called joe ape in the city theron so good in devil's advocate and paxton so good in the recent a simple plan are fine actors but not fine enough to transcend the material a script from the hack writers of superman iv and mercury rising the plot arguably borrows more from steven spielberg's the lost world than the original with the mean havoc on the busy streets for an encore the storytelling becomes especially lazy during this final third with jill shouting look joe's headed for the movie theatre followed by a shot of joe scaling mann's chinese theater a moment later jill shouts again something like look joe's headed for an amusement park and what do you know there's joe at the pallisades carnival scaring the bejesus out of innocent thrillseekers the seams of edits to mighty joe young scenes are patched together with quick dissolves the movie sure feels uneven regardless act two is underdeveloped while a little of joe smashing cars in act three goes a long long way underwood tremors speechless was perhaps not the director for the job even the plentiful untamed landscape looks dull in his hands capturing the beauty of nature requires more than his point and shoot style i did enjoy certain sequences especially the demoliton of a dinner sequence and the prologue however implausible is touching as a tyke joe acts just like e t rick baker's effects and puppetry are outstanding the real star of the for all its technical flawlessness the creature remains too grumpy and homicidal to love his facial expressions are variations on a scowl to be fair i saw mighty joe young in a cinema packed with wailing a wonder i was able to decipher the dialogue it's certainly not a film for very young fighting scenes may scare them while any time joe's not on camera may bore them to tears note older boys are more likely to be dazzled by theron's colourful array of tank tops i suspect bland mighty joe young is passable entertainment for a family outing but they sure don't make em like they used to
negative	in the surprise success an unheralded little movie called ghost instantly rescued the moribund careers of its trio of stars patrick swayze demi moore and whoopi goldberg eight years later moore and goldberg's careers aren't exactly thriving but they have had their share of screen successes since the same can't be said of swayze who has just added yet another turkey to his resume with the aptly named black dog forget the mortal kombat trucksploitation flick is the closest the movies has come to video games good truck driver jack crews swayze must drive a cargo of illegal firearms from atlanta to new jersey along the way jack and his crew of three run into a number of as a highway weigh station evil truckers and deadly motorcyclists every so often like at the end of a video game level or stage the main baddie pops up red meat loaf fresh from the triumph of spice world who wants to steal the cache of guns just in case you forget his name or have trouble keeping track of who's driving what all of red's vehicles be it a pickup or a big rig are guessed i could go into more of the plot specifics such as jack's dream of having a nice home with his family the past trauma that sent him to prison and cost him his trucking license the crew tracking the cargo but they are of little importance all that matters to director kevin hooks and writers william mickelberry and dan vining are the obstacles jack confronts in his drive from point a to point b but they fail at even this modest goal for none of the highway chaos as credibly staged as it is is terribly interesting let alone exciting once you've seen a couple of trucks bang against each other or a big rig explode the first time you've seen it every time as dreary as black dog is as an entertainment the saddest part about the film has nothing to do with what shows up onscreen it's that swayze has to reduce himself to such work while far from the best of actors he is certainly not horrible and he is a charismatic presence i don't know if it's his judgment or the dearth of quality job offers that leads him to involve himself with bombs such as black dog regardless if he continues on this career track could a tv series be far behind
negative	these days we are witnessing the deluge of films based on old cult tv shows most of the times the fans of these shows shudder thinking what could hollywood hacks of the present do with the memories of their past but some five or six years ago there weren't that many movies and the trend didn't look that depressing so the people who like the author of this review grew up watching flintstones popular animated series about modern stone age family weren't particularly worried when the word came about live action remake after all the producer behind the project was steven spielberg and if anything else at least the special effects would be good the plot revolves about flintstones family set in fictious stone age town of bedrock whose members enjoy the lifestyle of middle class america fred flinstone john goodman works in the quarry and one day he helps his best friend and neighbour barney rubble rick moranis and his wife betty rosie o'donnell to adopt a baby to return the favour barney switches his results of aptitude test with fred and based on that fred gets job in management but of course this is just a sham corrupt official cliff vandercave kyle maclachlan and his sultry secretary sharon stone halle berry need a scapegoat for their embezzlement scheme in the meantime fred's wife wilma elizabeth perkins must face her mother elizabeth taylor who can't stand fred on the superficial level the flintstones did the excellent job in bringing the animated series to life computer effects are flawless and the costumes settings and other details are authentic for all the fans of the show unfortunately problems with this film start with inadequate casting rick moranis is too thin for the role of barney while the cartoon betty used to be much skinnier than rosie o'donnell but the greatest problem of all is plot or to be precise the lack of plot some thirty six screenwriters made sure that the plot of the film is lame original characters and many elements of the story like embezzlement and politics totally incomprehensible for the little children the main targeted audience of this film result is almost unwatchable mess occasionally saved mostly by excellent acting elizabeth perkins was right on mark as wilma and one of the classic example of mortal hollywood disease known as high concept after great hype movie quickly sank into oblivion and the fans of the show returned to the animated version all in all film isn't that bad but only the hard core fans and nostalgics can find more than guilty pleasure in it
negative	after falling down i hoped that joel schumacher would mature into a great director since then he has offered us two adaptations of john grisham novels the client and a time to kill and two batman movies that lowered the standards of that franchise although these disappointments dampened my enthusiasm for schumacher's potential the publicity for his latest release raised new hope it promised to be something unusual it wasn't the plot goes like this tom welles nicolas cage is a private eye who is hired by a wealthy woman allegorically named mrs christian myra carter to investigate an movie found among her late husband's belongings the movie appears to be a snuff film in which a teenage girl is raped and murdered by a man in a leather mask who reminds me of bane in schumacher's batman robin because murders can be realistically simulated in movies mrs christian wants tom to discover if the girl is alive or dead by combing through missing persons reports tom finds the girl's name and tracks her to los angeles with the aid of max california joaquin phoenix a video store clerk and another symbolic name tom wanders through the underworld of pornography in search of snuff the plot bears an obvious resemblance to paul schrader's hardcore in which a father goes deeper and deeper into the industries of porn and sex to find his missing daughter both films are modeled on dante's the inferno of course makes that connection overly obvious by casting max as virgil and having him constantly tell tom that they were heading toward a meeting with the devil hardcore is a much more subtle and meaningful film had a lot of promise in its better moments it's an examination of violence as entertainment and of the beast within even a nice guy like tom one moment of the first sort when we first meet max he's reading truman capote's in cold blood underneath the cover of a porn novel in cold blood was the father of the genre which is the literary equivalent of snuff films max promises that we will see examples of the second theme when he tells tom dance with the devil and the devil don't change the devil changes you tom does let you discover the specifics for not permanently schumacher and screenwriter andrew kevin walker didn't have the guts to take tom so far down the dark tunnel that he couldn't come back walker's seven did a much better job on that theme by refusing to compromise cage tries hard to pull it off but the script doesn't give him enough to work with phoenix walks away with the smart charming and funny other cast members include fargo peter stormare camping it up as porn auteur dino velvet and the sopranos james gandolfini as a soulless porn merchant who pushes tom too far in the last analysis since falls short of its pretensions and its promise its just another private eye story in the raymond macdonald tradition of having the detective uncover the depravity behind the glossy facade of wealth and privilege however unlike other predictable fare in the year's twilight for is especially disappointing because it could have been much more than it is
negative	i think of i know what you did last summer as the movie that scream and scream could have been mind you though i mean this in the worst possible way i know what you did last summer is a typical slasher flic without the smarts of the scream's as a result it's even worse than some of your better campy horror pictures see nightmare on elm street because it thinks it's about thirty times smarter than it is based on a teen book of the same name and disappointingly adapted by scream scribe kevin williamson i know what you did last summer begins with appropriately angsty modern rock music combined with some startling cinematography of a cliff along the ocean and an angsty sort sitting at the top the appropriate mood being set this is for the we cut over to the july parade in a small north carolina town from there we see the blond female protagonist helen shivers woodenly played by sarah michelle geller getting crowned croaker queen as the blond male hero barry cox woodenly played by ryan phillipe and matched brunette pair of protagonists julie james and ray bronson woodenly played by party of five's jennifer love hewitt and freddie prinze jr respectively cheer her on after getting drunk at a party going to a beach to wittily discuss urban legend and indulge in some foreshadowing and having some meaningful sex if you believe what the characters say the four run down some guy crossing the windy cliff road at night his face is mangled so they can't tell who it is and they come to the decision to dump him in the ocean so as to not ruin any of their future chances for success in the world cut to one year later the lives of our protagonists have gone from annoying to bad main brunette female the bright one of the bunch has been plagued with guilt and almost failed out of college blond female has forfeited her dreams of starring on guiding light and now works at the family store in town brunette male is a fisherman living off the land blond male has become a complete jerk and quarterback on some college football team then predictably their past comes back to haunt them it all begins with an irrational murder followed by some taunting of protagonists by the mysterious killer bad acting by a good actress anne heche an improbable plot bad acting by the main bad actors some more killing concluding in a climactic scene mostly climactic in the relief at the end of the movie all the while the actors and actresses spout off bad lines and main brunette male does his best keanu reeves imitation not that the movie was without pleasure count the illogical plot twists and bad lines for some fun mostly though note the costumes of main females and how trendily unattractive they make the otherwise pair look
negative	nothing more than a high budget masturbation fantasy showgirls contains graphic nudity profanity sexual situations and violence some people however keep their clothes on you do not watch porn films for their intellectual values nor do you write reviews on them that's why this review will be short it seems that this film will end up in the porn section when it hits the video stores there is no story script point or acting only naked bodies which is exactly the point here is the so called plot nomi the with a dark past as a hooker has hitchhiked from somewhere back east to perform in a show where a dancer doesn't wear much more than a light coating of powder and a big fake smile no one is twisting nomi's arm no one is holding her grandmother hostage she wants to do this and that is what she is doing till the end credits so what's the problem then what's the point what's the film about is there anyone whose aspirations could inspire less sympathy this film can be described in one sentence obscene level of incompetence excessive stupidity in the story line gross negligence of the viewer's intelligence a prurient interest in the quick buck believe me after an hour with these characters acting and script you'll start hoping for someone to kill somebody elizabeth berkley makes a laughable try as the heroine of this film that is bad even for eszterhas' script her character is the only one that is at least half written and she could really have done better her character denies the fact that she is a whore for the industry selling her body to the hungry eyes of the horny public i am not a whore i am a dancer she screams but does it in such an over dramatized way that you'll start laughing in fact the acting in showgirls brings terrible to a new and previously unknown level not one single achievement besides the conventional cinematography is worth mentioning it is a total waste of time and money there is not a single moment of what you might call intelligence the dialogue is structured of ancient stereotypes and cliches lined up one after another its attempt to even imagine to have half a brain results in a catastrophe in my films writes director paul verhoeven instinct' recall' i hold the mirror up to life well excuse me his attempt to go behind the scenes of las vegas and as he put it show the naked truth is simplified and unreal occasionally between his collection of mistakes and logical irrationalities screenwriter joe eszterhas the creator of some of the worst screenplays in hollywood history inserts some lines of deep morality that sound something like this hey i see you i see that you're hiding from what from you yes and even the only decent line in this film nomi is what las vegas is all about can't save from going under it's a strange phenomena it's not erotic because it lacks sensuality not dramatic because it lacks the acting and not intelligent because it lacks a story it is simply verhoven's bad excuse for making pornography you want to see naked women bare breasts full frontals it's nothing wrong with that but in that case i suggest that you rent a porn film in your local video store and not waste time surviving through eszterhas' pathetic dialogue b qualities while it's only a high budget
negative	one of the most unwelcome thriller trends returns from the grave it's the from hell movie starting in the early nineties we were subjected to nearly every conceivable combination of there were boyfriends from hell friendly neighborhood cops from hell nannies from hell and even secretaries from hell but hush has found an old standby that somehow was forgotten in the rush the from hell the in question is martha played by jessica lange she has been running the family horse farm kilronan her son jackson johnathon schaech and his girlfriend helen gwyneth paltrow live in new york and have no intention to move back down south to the rural kilronan but those intentions are about to change you see martha lives by manipulation she has used it in years past to breed many championship horses now she believes she can use it to breed herself a grandson though at first helen finds martha charming soon she is caught in the domineering martha's web of deception it's hard to understand why nobody ever wises up to martha' schemes as written most of the characters in the film must be very slow witted but then the film even treats the audience like idiots it tries to get away with things like leaving a critical piece of evidence in a rather unlikely place without even batting an eye then again an audience which accepts characters as shallow as these isn't one that's likely to question details jessica lange's martha is the only character in the film and she applies her talents to redeem it as much as she can a character that could have been simply awful is merely gwyneth paltrow doesn't have much to build upon as helen's only character trait seems to be still she fares better than johnathon schaech whose character is so nonexistent he's inexplicably missing for much of the film still there have been much worse from hell films even with its characters and ludicrous setups hush manages to create a few thrills in a fashion you know what's coming but occasionally the film will deliver a shock or two the old formulas are around for a reason but that doesn't mean they taste fresh
negative	mugshot matt mahurin cast belinda becker stella michael williams rumor robert knepper robert walker random willie lassic young brother of rumor maxine joiner rumor's mother runtime mortal films reviewed by dennis schwartz a bleak indie film about a stolen identity there's not much more to this visually stylish film than what meets the eye as it relies on shock to tell its story of a prolonged vicious mugging it falls into the category of being a pretentious film leaving a bitter taste in one's mouth as it stereotypes its characters and unintentionally further inflames the racial issues it tries to make a point about disenfranchised black youths trapped by their environment with their only way out being crime but the story is so filled with violence and its nyc setting looks like hell that it's hard to enjoy this film and to follow what the logic in the story is supposed to mean the relationship between the black mugger and his white victim is a cloudy one which the film never determines what it wants to say about it matt mahurin is virtual crew in putting this film together who is a still photographer in his day job the film works best as a visually challenging piece as each shot looks like a photograph carefully telling the story unfolding a white photographer robert knepper is mugged by a black gang while he's on a freelance assignment to take a photo shoot of harlem at night he becomes a victim of amnesia and his head is bloodied as he's left in a deserted harlem building as the gang leaves him for dead but one of the muggers rumor michael williams comes back and pretends to help him he's a photographer who keeps a scrapbook entitled mugshots in the project apartment he shares with his mother and younger brother keeping his victim in the dark about who he is by calling him joe and not telling him what's happening he becomes the photographer for a few days he enters the photographer's stylish greenwich village apartment and steals his expensive camera and decides to hold the mugging vic for ransom when he finds out he has a black girlfriend stella belinda becker she's the only one in the film who could act the film is stuck with a clumsy dialogue and an overuse of symbolism as it ends with nothing more to tell after the shock and the violent situation it created except to beat it into the ground it could only be commended for how appealing the film looks as if it's a scrapbook of still photos put together to celebrate a mugging
negative	i can imagine how good krippendorf's tribe must have looked on paper it does not surprise me in the least that a group of extremely talented actors led by the great richard dreyfuss and a good director todd holland all wanted to make this film in fact it is only the expertise by which this excruciatingly bad script has been executed that keeps me from suggesting that you stay as far away from krippendorf's tribe as possible in retrospect i can imagine how bad this film could have been i shudder at the possibilities of awfulness had it starred an actor less able than dreyfuss dreyfuss plays james krippendorf an anthropologist who is granted by his university to find an undiscovered tribe in new guinea halfway into his expedition his wife apparently dies i say apparently because when or how she dies is never truly established later we find out that much of the grant money was spent on tvs and other such pleasures so when krippendorf finds out what happens to professors who do not use their grant money wisely he decides to construct an elaborate lie he makes his own tribe using his three children as actors in a video he simply makes up certain incredible facts about this tribe which he calls the shelmickedmu audiences at krippendorf's lectures are amazed by his findings that the shelmickedmu practice circumcision and proof that the typical family unit is led by a single father is truly amazing to the anthropological community like all films like this the lie becomes more and more complex and the suspense is generated with us wondering at what point it is all going to fall out from under our hero dreyfuss is a funny talented man and he is funny in this film he has lots of positive energy and unlike most comical actors really manages to play people like this realistically this film also requires a lot of physical humor that i've never seen dreyfuss perform and he does a great job jenna elfman who plays veronica mecilli a scientist who wants in on krippendorf's work is also very funny and appealing here and the kid actors are great as well but we're talking about the script from hell this is one of those stories that requires such extreme suspension of disbelief that they might as well have established that the story just takes place in an alternate universe where things like this can happen but the ridiculousness of the story is not really what is so bad about it all the cliches and the irritating plot devices could have easily been overcome by dreyfuss and crew no the script is plagued with so many clueless stereotypes and characters that i was in disbelief as i watched furthermore the manor in which all of this material is covered up is truly shameless take for instance the scene in which krippendorf gets veronica drunk so he can tape them having sex they get all decked out in the tribe getup complete with paint to darken their skin krippendorf does this because he needs footage of the mating rituals of his tribe now i saw this scene coming from a mile away but i said to myself no that would be far too tasteless there's no way they'll do that oh god they did do it it's there i was almost more appalled by the fact that this didn't bother the other audience members with whom i saw this film i found it deplorable and when krippendorf is forced to admit that he did it he simply apologizes without the slightest hint of conviction in his voice the film is filled with scenes like these they not only insult the audience but they insult the types of people that the film portrays it would take some truly professional work to create videos convincing enough to fool an entire community of scientists yet krippendorf does it easily in an afternoon and watching dreyfuss stumble over a completely unprepared speech is funny and entertaining but i think that most members of the audience would be able to see that he is making everything up as he goes if i were an anthropologist this film would insult me immensely moving right along the film plays off every stereotype our culture has ever learned regarding african tribes sure dreyfuss dressing up like a chief is really funny and it allows for some entertaining scenes but the heart of this material is deeply clueless as to the themes and thoughts that it provokes it is because of dreyfuss as an actor that i was able to watch this film his character here is not a good subject for a film because he is a shameless liar and never once does he show any kind of penance for what he does i suppose it was interesting to see the formula defied in this case but for the purposes of good taste i would have expected something no this man sets a terrible example for his kids and colleagues and the writer of the film charlie peters didn't include a single scene in which krippendorf takes his kids aside and tells them that what he is doing is very bad in fact it's his eldest daughter that frequently tells him that he is doing the wrong thing and he continually shrugs off her warnings i suppose it's important to admit that this is a funny film dreyfuss and elfman and many of the contrived and insulting scenes add up to a picture that is anything but boring and if you're less serious than i you probably will enjoy it i however can't get past these elements krippendorf's tribe is being marketed as a family comedy but this is the kind of film that teaches the kids of our society faulty lessons that they shouldn't be learning with a little more insight into its story and themes this could have been a good movie
negative	after a marketing windup of striking visuals and the promise of star caliber actors mission to mars ends up throwing a whiffleball fiercely unoriginal director depalma cobbles together a film by borrowing heavily from what has gone before him there are aliens similar to those in close encounters of the third kind the stranded astronaut theme is reminiscent of robinson crusoe on mars the astronauts encounter space flight difficulties that smack of apollo interior spacecraft visuals are redolent of a space odyssey instead of using these components as a launching pad to create his own movie de palma stops right there refusing to infuse the film with anything even remotely resembling cleverness or heart mission to mars takes it's first wobbly steps at a barbeque in which the perfunctory character introductions are done during these surface scans of the characters we learn that jim mcconnell sinise has lost his wife it's a plot point revisted throughout the film with jackhammer subtlety the rest of the crew exhibit a bland affability there is no contentiousness no friction to add the the dramatic tension of these men and women being confined to close quarters for an extended length of time maybe depalma was going for the comraderie of the right stuff but in that movie the astronauts had embers of personality to warm us through the technical aspects it's the year and this is nasa's first manned excursion to the red planet a crew led by luke graham cheadle arrives on mars and quickly discovers an anomaly which they investigate with tragic results graham is able to transmit a garbled distress call back to earth in response earth sends a rescue team comprised of mcconnell woody blake robbins wife terri fisher nielsen and phil ohlmyer o'connell obstacles are put in the crew's way and and they factly go about solving them i should say mcconnell goes about solving them time and again mcconnell is presented as some kind of wunderkind which wouldn't be so bad if the rest of the crew didn't come across as so aggressivelly unremarkable mention should be made of the misogynistic handling of fisher in a situation where the entire crew's mission and life is in mortal danger on a team of professionals she is portrayed as an emotion directed weak link women serve no purpose in the movie other than to serve as a reflection of a male character's personality trait by the time they land on mars and try to solve the mystery of what occurred mission to mars starts laying on the cliches and stilted dialogue with a heavy brush there is an adage in film to show don't tell mission to mars does both repeatedly characters obsessively explain the obvious explain their actions as they are doing them explain to fellow astronauts facts which should be fundamental knowledge to them the film's conclusion is momumentally derivative and unsatisying as i walked out i wondered who the target audience might be for this film the best i could come up with is age boys but in this media saturated era this film's components would have been old hat even for them i have to think what attracted such talent to this film was the lure of making a good modern day the key to such a venture is a certain depth and sincerity towards the material i felt no such earnestness
negative	some movies ask you to leave your brain at the door some movies ask you to believe in the impossible to really have a good time playing god asks just one simple eensy teensy thing so it can fully entertain you it's accomplished in just four easy to follow steps crack open your skull scoop out your brain squish it under your foot several times and reverse steps two and one congratulations you now have all the necessary requirements to fully enjoy a whole lot of nothing some movies fail at the box office but you manage to see why the producers thought it could have been a good movie others are simply good ideas that are badly executed then there's playing god which enters the esteemed category of movies which seem to have grown from the union of a drunk director actors satisfied in the knowledge that this horrible flick will have no lasting impact on their careers and a bunch of or homages as they like to call it from other better movies that end up looking like an unflushed toilet harsh maybe justified hell yes this is a movie that is not just satisfied in ripping off other movies but feels the need to remind us of that fact every ten minutes for example a gunman bursts into a garden with the two guns in his hands firing away this does look moderately kool but the camera lingers on the actor for so long you can almost hear the director yelling oooh look look john woo two guns blazing slooooow motion and if that wasn't enough you can also hear the script grunting under the effort it must take to try and make every single line of dialogue sound like something deep and meaningful like in a tarantino movie poor timothy hutton gets to deliver most of the corny lines you have to admire the effort he puts into it this guy deserves better unlike most movies this one does not suffer from stupid bad guy syndrome just to make things a little different this time we get stupid heroes example duchovny manages to distract a bad guy by making him go into the bathroom to get some bandages now the bad guy is like stoned man so he leaves his shotgun next to our hero term used as loosely as possible survival instincts and a good dose of common sense seems to suggest grabbing the shotgun which our hero does but only after contemplating it for about thirty seconds even when he does grab it he seems unsure how to hold it going so far as to actually wonder if he should place a finger near the trigger mind you i've never fired a shotgun in my life but believe you me that the bad guy would be missing most of his vital organs be he stoned or not some will argue that our hero does not have a killer instinct the hell with that two fbi guys have just been shot in front me along with one bad guy and the other looks like he might go ballistic at any second solution boom i'll take the time to feel sorry about it later thank you very much another prime example of the idiot hero syndrome our boy duchovny needs to reach his girl before something bad happens to her he knows the head bad guy has her on the tenth floor of a building and that he might be running into a room full of people with itchy trigger fingers he still has his shotgun bring it along you say no thanks i'll just ditch it in the back of my car and the real kicker is this when he reaches the room and people start shooting at him he has the nerve to look surprised while we are on the subject of getting shot why in hades were those fbi guys sitting with their backs to the door i've got no formal training but even i know you never sit with your back to the door ask mr wild bill the first and only time he did not sit with his back to a wall cost him his life this is the major problem with this movie any mook could have thought of a hundred ways to make it better is it so much to ask that hollywood actually put a little common sense into their characters for instance our heroes hide at duchovny's summer home now the bad guys could come knocking at any moment ok this time our hero does get himself a gun and has it at his side most of the time but see our hero is a drug addict and guess what he chooses now to go clean and suffer through dt oh sure he'll be really impressive when the bad guys come calling going clean is really honorable of him but i would have waited until i did not need to be conscious or being able to fire a gun for an enjoyable performance by timothy hutton plot holes the size of godzilla getting our intelligence insulted and several oh come on moments
negative	preposterous religious action film produced by the trinity broadcasting network about a code hidden within the text of the bible that when deciphered will lead to the end of the world nice of those bible authors to put a doomsday code into the most read book ever eh michael york plays a millionaire diplomat who breaks the code and sets out to become god on earth and fulfill the doomsday prophecies while casper van dien terribly miscast and giving an awful performance as a result plays the atheist motivational speaker who must stop him michael ironside great as always despite the silly film surrounding him plays a fallen priest and right hand man to michael york's character here's some subtle character development you may have missed pertaining to ironside's character now despite the fact that we see him murder a man in the opening scene the filmmakers aren't quite sure if their audience will understand that he is evil how do they fix that make specific efforts to show that his character is the only one in the film who smokes there are lots of ominous shots of michael ironside smoking oooooo scary but even that wasn't enough for the filmmakers apparently as they later have to infer that ironside's character is gay it comes out of nowhere and just makes no sense my main problem with this film is that despite the silly story which could have been pulled off anything can be made believable if executed correctly the events of the film aren't shown with any sense of urgency or importance for example at one point york's character is declared chancellor of the world or something and we see one brief cheesy news report about it the movie keeps telling us that the apocalypse is coming but it never seems that way there's no world reaction to anything the omega code is available on dvd from goodtimes home video it contains the film in the original theatrical aspect ratio of and includes the original theatrical trailer a documentary on the making of the film production notes and cast and crew information the documentary runs about minutes and is actually surprisingly good it looks as though it was made for broadcast on tbn and it does a comprehensive job of interviewing practically everyone in the cast and crew with the exception of michael ironside unfortunately the best thing about it is that whenever crew members are interviewed they do an excellent job of explaining their profession and exactly what it is they do on a movie set most documentaries tend to overlook this doomsday expert hal lindsey is even interviewed you'll remember his documentary from the called the late great planet earth where lindsey speculated that jimmy carter might actually be the antichrist however at the very beginning of the documentary the producers of the film managed to get on my bad side when interviewed they actually have the nerve to say ever see raiders of the lost ark well our film is like that no it isn't not by a long shot 
negative	america's sweethearts has an intriguing premise and a great cast but it isn't nearly as edgy or funny as it should be almost all the problems with the project can be traced back to writer billy crystal who shows the same lack of discipline with the screenplay that he typically displays while comic relief charity shows with robin williams and whoopi goldberg two other paragons of crystal ignores a simple but crucial rule for a screwball comedy to work the characters must be placed into a rigid social setting because only in that context will their unorthodox antics be humorous america's sweethearts takes place at a press junket where decorum must be maintained in front of the reporters it's a promising but the screenplay quickly blows off the rules thus dissipating the tension of the situation by the end of the film all the lead performers participate in a huge fight with a room full of journalists looking on but their outbursts are only mildly amusing because the structure has been destroyed john cusack and catherine play eddie thomas and gwen harrison a beloved acting duo whose marriage hit the skids when gwen began seeing hector hank azaria a spanish actor with an ego almost as pronounced as his lisp of the last nine films eddie and gwen made together six crossed the million mark but the prospects for their final effort a space opus titled time over time are far from rosy while eddie has spent many months in a new age rest clinic fretting over the breakup gwen's solo films have tanked to make matter worse the director of the movie christopher walken a visionary who purchased the unabomber's cabin and had it moved to his backyard is withholding the film from the studio insisting that the first screening be held at the junket desperate to win over the press the studio elects to hire lee billy crystal a recently fired publicist to salvage the situation lee hopes to turn lemons into lemonade by convincing eddie and gwen to pretend to be on the road to reconciliation he enlists the help of kiki julia roberts gwen's sister personal assistant and whipping girl what lee doesn't know is that kiki is in love with eddie a fact that could temper her effectiveness press junkets are a haven for control freaks studios fly journalists in from around the world and put them up in a plush hotel with food and drink always at hand generally on the evening of their arrival writers are bussed to see the featured film then ferreted straight back to the hotel the next day writers go to the studio suites and assemble in groups of five or six for roundtable interviews every minutes or so a producer director writer or actor is brought into the room for a few minutes of questions with a publicist hovering in the corner to keep an eye on things the atmosphere is one of cordial oppression writers are free to ask what they want but understand that if the studio dislikes a question they may not be invited to future junkets representatives from tv stations face even more restrictions they get roughly five minutes to interview each member of the cast and crew with the studio filming the exchanges the reporters are notorious for tossing softball questions as they suck up to the stars but to play it safe the studios stand ready to erase the tapes if anything unpleasant occurs placing two spoiled actors in a setting where image is everything is inspired but the screenplay undermines the conceit the junket is moved from the handsome but highly confining four seasons hotel to a plush resort near las vegas for most of the film the movie stars run around the sprawling grounds completely safe from the eyes of the press when they do deal with journalists the it is imperative that you be on your best behavior in front of the reporters premise is gwen and eddie insult each other while the tv cameras roll they scream at each other in a restaurant filled with the media and at the screening of the movie everyone connected with the film goes nuts all without any repercussions lee certainly isn't bothered by any of the infantile outbursts in fact he makes arrangements for footage of even more inappropriate behavior to be delivered to the tabloids is the studio angry about his handling of the combative actors hell no they feel lee is a genius for garnering so much publicity for the movie all of which underscores how billy crystal and peter tolan screwed up their own premise the comedy in america's sweethearts is based on people trying to contain themselves in the presence of reporters except that it doesn't matter because any publicity is good publicity and thus the very for the film implodes leaving smoke and dust in place of laughter so what about the cast julia roberts at her best playing the underdog is utterly charming here although i could have lived without flashbacks that exist solely as an excuse to show her in a fat suit and not a very convincing one by the way catherine makes a believable brat and john cusack fleshes out his obsessed character enough to make him vaguely sympathetic by casting himself as the publicist billy crystal allows himself to do roughly the same thing he does on comic relief stay on the sidelines of the action while tossing off cornball jokes and snarky remarks in supporting roles hank azaria wears out his welcome fast with broad gestures and a spanish accent that speedy gonzales would have deemed too broad seth green is amusing as a toadie stanley tucci is very good as a ruthless studio head and christopher walken plays the eccentric director with suitable flair though he has little to work with come to think of it little to work with is the operative phrase for this movie as a hollywood satire america's sweethearts is toothless as a romance it is at best a minor pleasure such a good cast such a waste of their efforts had it not been taken long ago a better title for the film would have been much ado about nothing
negative	do the folks at disney have no common decency they have resurrected yet another cartoon and turned it into a live action hodgepodge of expensive special effects embarrassing writing and slapstick wasn't mr magoo enough people obviously not inspector gadget is not what i would call ideal family entertainment younger viewers will likely be taken in by the abounding goofiness but their adult companions may feel a wave of nausea sweeping over them as they attempt to endure this appalling exercise in glaring stupidity the movie is poorly edited grossly manipulative and the finished product resembles somewhat of a failed jigsaw puzzle all the elements are there but the manner in which director david kellogg pieces them together is laughable and trite as a huge fan of the animated tv show the first thing i must express is my anger toward the treatment of the main villain in the cartoon dr claw was a frightening presence who remained a total mystery to the viewer we never saw his face he simply sat back in his watching surveillance cameras and gently stroking his loyal cat as a child i always imagined what dr claw would appear as and this curiosity kept me watching for many years with the release of the movie the face of this once intriguing villain has been unrightfully exposed it's rupert everett only now dr claw is simply known as claw word he explains madonna' he sports a shiny clamp instead of the steel glove and seems far less interesting than the animated version it helps that the dashing everett is enthusiastic but he overplays the role entirely too far when all is said and done this wasn't a very wise move on the part of the screenwriters the infamous dr claw has been turned into a wisecracking game show host who makes cheap attempts at being suave and cool he does still have his cat though in the title role matthew broderick looks lost the actor while usually downright charming doesn't know exactly where to take his character a fault that again can be blamed on the hapless writers broderick first plays a friendly naive security guard named john brown who dreams of becoming a cop and upholding the law for the good of the people he has a mad crush on pretty scientist brenda joely fisher who has stumbled upon a new wave of technology involving the interaction of human tissue and electronics but one fateful night her lab is destroyed and her experiment is stolen by a fiendish millionaire everett who wants to take over the world john courageously pursues the limousine from the scene of the crime but loses the chase when his vehicle bursts into flames in a full body cast he is chosen to be the first human prototype for brenda's work a revolutionary crime fighting tool with numerous fancy gadgets to dispatch bad guys and so is born inspector gadget as bad as this movie is it does have a certain charm in isolated scenes broderick actually fares better playing robo gadget an evil and destructive clone that claw has set loose on the city and there are about two or three amusing punch lines the funniest being when robo gadget impersonates a rampaging monster with shadow puppets on a brick wall and a japanese man flees the scene while screaming is why i left tokyo alas the hit ratio of the ongoing gags is about to in favor of not even cracking a slight giggle there are so many tired plot additions gadget's talking car voiced by d l hughley is the same type of character as zoot the suit from my favorite martian both are wisecracking additions designed to coax laughter from smaller children well it just doesn't work in fact zoot functioned marvelously in comparison to this and don't even get me started about the villains i didn't mind everett's performance but his bumbling assistants will make every adult cringe with disgust the characters from the cartoon have been reduced to thankless supporting roles penny michelle trachtenberg and brain the dog now have little to do with the action and chief quimby dabney coleman has lost considerable appeal in the transition of animation to live action the special effects are everywhere but not so annoying they will cause your eyes to peel over the problem here lies solely in the script perhaps the next time disney attempts a remake like this they will invest more in the screenplay than the visuals here is one critic crossing his fingers anyway
negative	if you haven't plunked down your money yet for wild wild west the latest summer holiday offering from will smith let me say right now that your money will be better spent on a starbuck's frappacino or on a ben jerry's sundae these treats are great relief from the summer heat in contrast this film made me simmer in disappointment i can accept the fact that summer movies tend to put more weight into special effects and that good stories and flavorful characters usually take a back seat this was true of star wars episode i but at least in that film the story and the characters were still in the back seat in this film they are no where to be found what remains are hundreds of male extras costumed as gunslingers and foppish aristocrats lots of female extras who look like dancers and a clunky tall instrument of destruction that resembles a mechanical tarantula two men are asked to stop this threat one is artemus gordon kevin kline an inventor who uses his intellect and array of disguises to best his opponents among his creations are false breasts and the bulletproof vest the other man is jim west will smith who prefers the method of investigating although their individual talents must be combined to achieve success their interaction with one another merely seemed like a second rate vaudevillian act for example there is a scene where west being more debonair than the reserved gordon notes that the fake breasts should be filled with water rather than buckwheat which is what it is currently filled with now touch my breast west says gordon does so and then softly coos his approval i found myself groaning at this kind of silliness the script fails to generate any sense of drama humor or fun for that matter i did enjoy kline's reserved performance but was surprised at how much latitude they gave to smith could it be that will smith is just so bankable that he's not even required to act it was as if the director was yelling will smith do your own thing and action here's an example in this scene will smith is about to be hanged by a group of angry white people he must endear himself to the crowd to escape the director yells will smith do your own thing and action in another scene he has to masquerade as a belly dancer in order to save his comrades will smith do your own thing and action worse still the final battle scene aboard the mechanical tarantula is a horrid mess there are cogs spinning and pulleys pulling and levers going up and down everywhere you look there's actually a lot of imagination at work in this film there are some genuinely clever inventions and gizmos introduced but all of this imagination is wasted in a film that is visually cluttered and dramatically flat and that's too bad because if there was more focus on the story rather than will smith just doing his this film might have been palatable as it turns out wild wild west is the wild wild worst and receives my vote for biggest disappointment of the year
negative	synopsis two con artists find the perfect patsy in harry woody harrelson an inept former journalist who trips and bumps his head into a post tries to slap a girl and gets poked in the eye has fits of coughing and fails at everything he does the story is told from harry's point of view harry always carries around a shot of whiskey although he swears he doesn't drink one day harry is approached by the con girl rhea elisabeth shue who is similar to harry in that she carries around a cigarette but swears she doesn't smoke seduced harry agrees to participate in a scheme involving faking the kidnapping of odette chloe sevigny the teenage daughter of a rich man turns out it's all part of a needless very puzzling extremely elaborate and convoluted scheme it involves hiring special impersonators by two cons in order to fool harry a hero who barely has the intellectual capacity of a wooden post when the odette is found dead the clues point to harry as the and the police are hot on harry's trail harry suddenly realizes he has been framed while others have taken the ransom money can he get out of this mess opinion palmetto is a long uninteresting film with all the wrong feel hero harry is an inept bungler who trips up often and consistently overestimates his own intelligence this farcical kind of character works best in an entertaining naked gun action comedy or dragnet spoof but palmetto is played like a dark serious detective noir drama and watching harry's bumbling confidence amounts to an irritating distraction there's a lapse in concentration in the middle of the movie as the camera goes wild on breasts buttocks short skirts colored painted nails and women's legs even when the focus is supposedly on harry and his dilema you can always notice the side of elizabeth shue's breast forming a prominent foreground towards the end palmetto on plot for the grand finale a confusing explanation involving impersonators with woody harrelson handcuffed and suspended over a tub of acid as he hears the criminals' confession if you can imagine from the three stooges playing the detective hero of an hbo suspense' thriller that's how out of synch this movie feels
negative	starring arnold schwarzenegger danny devito emma thompson frank langella the only thing that you can say about junior is that it is a disappointment and a big one at that junior brings together arnold schwarzenegger and danny devito with director ivan reitman these are the same men that brought us the very funny twins so foolish me i was hoping for something that would at least come close to the level of quality of twins so much for hopes schwarzenegger and devito play two scientists doctors hesse and arbogast who are working on a new drug that will reduce the possibility of miscarriage in pregnancy unfortunately due to circumstances beyond their control they are denied permission to test this new drug on humans and subsequently lose their funding still believing that their drug will work they decide to test it anyway on hesse so dr hesse schwarzenegger artificially inseminates himself and begins taking the drug their theory is that if the drug can prevent a man from miscarrying surely it will work on a woman does the thought of arnold schwarzenegger pregnant sound funny or humorous to you well it must have to the producers of junior admittedly schwarzenegger has the comedic talent to pull it off perhaps if it had been done differently it might have actually been funny but it wasn't schwarzenegger pregnant is goofy at best the sight of schwarzenegger running around going through the hormone imbalances that come with pregnancy and the accompanying emotional swings is not funny schwarzenegger comes very close to embarrassing himself with these antics i kept thinking to myself with the time arnold wasted making this turkey he could have been making an action picture better yet with schwarzenegger devito and reitman all in the same place at the same time why didn't they make a sequel to twins anything would have been better than this mess danny devito is wasted in this movie his part could have been played by any joker they pulled in off the street after seeing the movie if i was devito i probably would have wished they had pulled someone in off the street emma thompson is wasted here as well while thompson is best known for her jane austin adaptations she is also a fine comedian too bad she didn't get to use any of that talent here am i being too hard on this film i don't think so schwarzenegger and devito are two of my favorite actors in film today and ivan reitman is one of the more talented directors in hollywood with a supporting cast of emma thompson and frank langella the filmmakers really have to be trying hard to make a bad film they certainly managed here maybe it was well intentioned but unfortunately this is a movie that never should have been made if you are tempted to see this film do yourself a favor and go rent twins a film that truly takes advantage of arnold schwarzenegger and danny devito's comedic talents
negative	there are scenes in the big hit that are so awful they simply defy description the movie is infected with the same kind of blunderheaded idiocy and misplaced confidence that made last action hero such a chore to sit through presumably the big hit is an a difficult but not impossible genre to pull off movies of this sort require a fine balance and careful tone and the comedy is usually meant to work as catharsis for the violence lethal weapon is a perfect example of an action thriller that was also very very funny unfortunately in the big hit it seems that comedy is the main motive and the violence is only intended to punctuate the laughs unfortunately there are no laughs the movie resembles some of the goofy throwaway ridiculousness of early jackie chan films but it doesn't benefit from chan's incredible stunts and goofy charismatic presence instead we are left with a lot of digital effects and mark wahlberg who must have considered himself invincible after his performance in last year's boogie nights however if he wants to maintain a decent career he had better start selecting his projects more carefully movies like this are a recipe for a long career in the market wahlberg plays melvin smiley an amiable guy who also happens to be a professional hitman see grosse pointe blank for the same character much better developed the movie wants us to think gee how clever and ironic a guy who can kill without any moral implications and yet he can't stand for anyone not to like him the fact is melvin is so desperate to keep people from not liking him that he puts up with both an obnoxious fiancee christina applegate with a horrendous new york accent and an abusive girlfriend lela rochon who is only using him for his money his constant bending over backwards to please people makes him a complete patsy at best and a thoroughly unbelievable character at worst melvin is employed exclusively by a crime boss named paris avery brooks as part of a team of hitmen which also includes cisco lou diamond phillips and crunch bokeem woodbine one day melvin agrees to do some moonlighting with cisco by kidnapping the teenage daughter of a rich japanese mogul named jiro nishi sab shimono for a million dollar ransom however not only has jiro nishi lost all his money producing a big hollywood movie inside joke get it but his kidnapped daughter keiko china chow also happens to be paris' goddaughter so when paris finds out she's been kidnapped he takes it personally and becomes determined to find out who did it not knowing the cisco is actually behind the whole scheme paris puts him in charge of rooting out the kidnapper of course cisco blames the whole thing on poor innocent melvin along the way there are several obligatory gunfights explosions and car chases plus a literal cliffhanger inspired by jurassic park and a completely unconvincing romance between melvin and keiko who looks like she's barely pushing fifteen what the movie passes off as humor resorts to thoroughly unfunny jokes about overweight jewish mothers drinking problems leaking body bags and a running gag about how crunch has recently discovered the pleasures of masturbation and now spends all his time doing hand exercises not to mention the pimply video store clerk who is always calling melvin and screeching about how he needs to return his copy of king kong lives which is two weeks overdue this mess of a movie was helmed by wong the latest hong kong director imported by john woo who also served as executive producer woo needs to stop acting as a conduit for other directors and start making more of his own films wong who directed such films as rock'n'roll cop back in hong kong is completely tone deaf when it comes to comedy maybe jokes about vexatious video clerks and vomiting on other people are funny across the ocean but they're not here at least in the manner wong handles them many of the problems can be traced back to the script which was penned by obvious freshman writer ben ramsey in addition to his vague characterizations and uninspired action sequences ramsey's script assaults the audience with his attempts to copy the vulgar poetic rhythms of tarantino or dialogue what he comes out with is just a lot of annoying blather most of which spews from the lips of lou diamond phillips whose favorite phrase is it's all love and robin dunne who plays cisco's stuttering assistant the irritation factor of phillips and dunne combined is almost off the scale which can pretty much describe the film as a whole
negative	well i guess it's that time of the year again the one time of the year where movie craftors are exonerated from the need to even try writing a script that has more dialogue than explosions it's also the best time for the handful of existing bigtime hollywood mr action heroes to dust off their miniscule vocabularies pull on their black vests and charge onto our screens tersely expirating what they hope will become memorable catchphrases in america they call this time summer and it happens once every year and maybe it's the exposure to all that nasty sun that does it but in the process normally weak insipid lines like consider this a divorce hasta la vista baby and you're the disease i'm the cure actually do end up being repeated more often then the phrases from my book of biblical proverbs this is not entirely a bad thing of course what am i talking about i'm talking about the summer blockbusters the action thrillers the explosions gas threats flying saucers and special effects in the rash of my what big guns you have but wait mine are bigger movies there are also the usual movies or whale whatever and this year the odd crop of threats offerings i'm talking about the three batmans the speeds the terminators etc this year i'm talking about twister independence day the arrival the rock mission impossible and of course eraser here in singapore as our local movie critics like to whine we seem to get the pick of the crop of my explosion is more than yours movies but nothing else mission impossible opened in our theatres almost as soon as it did in the us the same goes for eraser which is unfortunate for arnold schwarzenegger because coming so soon after what time magazine recently called mission unavoidable on account of its worldwide blitz eraser seems like a cheaper less thoughtful imitation that's saying a lot because mi the movie was already a cheap thoughtless imitation of its tv originator of the in eraser arnie is a us federal marshall who relocates trial witnesses whose testimonies place their lives in danger he does this by destroying all evidence of their present existence and them with new identities his new case is lee cullen played by vanessa williams who unlike all the other scumbags he's ever relocated is an actual real life honest person because she's so good and has such nice legs arnold spends the whole movie trying to protect her and only uses the opening movie sequence to save robert pastorelli from his killers lee obtains evidence that the weapons company she works for is secretly selling sophisticated arms to people with foreign accents and stringy hair of course as the formula goes her revealing this information will destroy the system as we know it because heck there are people in high places who will go down with this because yes this is the biggest conspiracy in the history of the world that is america since watergate in protecting lee arnold is framed by the robert deguerin nicely played by james caan and ends up having to prove that he isn't the one killing the programme's witnesses in addition to making sure lee isn't accidentally to death by the new green guns his enemies all have it's around this time that people in the theatre with me starting humming the mission impossible theme because arnie's mission includes breaking into a building to run a disk i guess i should tell you more about the particular gun everyone in this movie is so antsy about it's an pulse gun thing which fires aluminium missiles and which can see through walls it has some sort of vision so its user can target the victim's heart even from great distances despite this which i figure is a pretty cool feature in a gun though i'm certainly no expert however arnold whose own heart is targeted a number of times never goes flying feet backwards with a missile through his chest like all the others who get shot by this gun instead he outruns and outsmarts his trackers each time giving eery and ironic resonance to that terminator line that practically made him famous i'll be back like everyone else in the theater i left the movie feeling that the trailers had duped me because they made me want to watch this movie voluntarily although there is a lot of violence in this movie not to mention mutilation and some bloody tussles with alligators i recommend this movie to most who need some therapeutic mindless action to get over the weirdness of fargo or the hangover effect of leaving las vegas review's rating system wait for the video a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
negative	the formula that worked so well in airplane the police squad television series top secret three naked gun films and two hot shots movies has finally reached a desperate with spy hard even ezio gregio's the silence of the hams is arguably funnier than this and spoof leslie nielsen stars as secret agent who returns from retirement to battle his old nemesis general rancor a cackling andy griffith the jokes fly in every direction and with hardly a hint of restraint timing or tact most the movie is comprised of recycled airplane and naked gun gags recreated movie sequences and soggy star cameos yeah maybe we do need ray charles driving an l a bus bound for a speed bump but did mr t hulk hogan and dr joyce brothers also have to appear in the same movie leslie nielsen plays it straight with his usual dopey flair there is something oddly inspiring about the sight of nielsen wearing a nun's habit even the resulting sister act spoof is silly as are the bits directly lifted from home alone pulp fiction true lies etc etc adolescent males might enjoy this mess tho the butt shots breast peeks penis pokes flatulence gags and related innuendo are right up beavis and butthead's alley beyond the hilarious title sequence with weird al yankovich performing the theme song spy hard is barely the stock that it's printed on my recommendation duck in while you're waiting for another movie to start stay long enough to see the camera dart inside of weird al's nostril and then leave you won't miss a thing
negative	tim burton has now completed his evolution from the brilliant director of macabre stories about outcast individuals yearning for acceptance and into a studio monkey whose name is used as part of marketing materials for crap movies and here he hits rock bottom with planet of the apes i didn't expect much from this latest interpretation of pierre boulle's classic novel planet of the apes i mean how could you top the force and impact of the original film intelligently by rod serling of twilight zone fame combined with the overbearing chuck heston growling and yelling at those damn dirty apes in one of his best roles of his career sadly i sat down to watch burton's version of planet of the apes and within the first minutes i was checking my watch and my girlfriend a big fan of the original film started to nod off this time around the story plays out like a cross between enemy mine braveheart and project x marky mark wahlberg who was enjoyable in boogie nights and the corrupter plays leo davidson a hot shot u s air force pilot leo and his crew are in search of some mysterious magnetic storms no real explanation given in the film and leo sends one of his genetically altered smart chimps into the storms to collect data leo and his crew lose communication with the chimp leo hops in another ship to find the monkey and then he's thrown through some type of wormhole which crashes lands on the twentieth century fox studio backlot all mocked up to look like the amazon jungle leo ends up getting captured by a group of talking apes and is sold to a slave trader named limbo paul giamatti who in turn sells leo to a chimpanzee named ari helena bonham carter the kind ari then helps leo and his fellow humans escape to the mountains to find leo's ship along the way monkeys played by tim roth overacting his role of a vicious general named thade and michael clarke duncan who further enhances his career by playing another heavy in a bad action movie strive out to hunt down leo and his band of human savages just like battlefield earth in the end it all culminates into another braveheart human versus ape battle scene while rick baker's makeup work is amazing the script is a pathetic hodgepodge courtesy of three writers the acting is horrible and the surprise ending feels like a swing from a hammer into the temple wahlberg does not have the physical or mental presence of a chuck heston to carry the film or any of its action sequences this remake or as tim burton has proclaimed it is an insult to the intelligence and wit of the original film the ethical arguments about the equality of species fascism and military buildup have been replaced by tremendous amounts of ridiculous dialogue an unimaginative narrative structure and a romance between a monkey and a human even chuck heston's tirade in the de rigeur cameo seems shallow and jokey but the main element missing from this tim burton film is tim burton even though his name is plastered across every billboard in america john badham could have directed this film even joel schumacher could have directed this film he probably should have burton's predominant themes of rejection isolation and the search for one's place in the universe as seen in ed wood edward scissorshands and big adventure are completely absent in this planet i suppose that's what happen when a great director gets sucked through a wormhole
negative	the premise of this movie is well pretty tom berenger plays shale a mercenary who is temporarily out of work those fools at the cia have denied his existence just because he and his buddies botched a job in cuba fortunately his girl friend diane venora a teacher at christopher columbus high school in miami gets her knee cap broken by a disgruntled student creating a job opening for shale as a substitute teacher not telling his girl friend who might object on pedagogical grounds he creates a number of fake higher degrees for himself from yale harvard princeton et al and begins his tenure as a high school teacher the students junkies drug dealers gang members sleazy sluts wielders you get the picture don't really take to him right away so he hits one in the face with a can and breaks a few fingers this gets their attention to a certain extent so he tells them the story of the vietnam war see some homeboys from the north tried to muscle in on the turf of the homeboys from the south oh yeah now they can dig it the problem is just that nobody ever explained it properly before but wait there are drugs being dealt in the school itself and behind the whole scheme in cahoots with the head gang the kod no not cod but knights of destruction really is none other than the upright principal played by the forgotten ghostbuster ernie hudson so shale does what any good teacher would do he gets his buddies together they gather together a bunch of bazookas and other major weapons explosives and cool stuff like that and they have a big showdown against the drug dealers and kod at the high school ok so the premise is not just it's downright dumb if this were a hong kong action comedy we might just accept it but it takes itself far too seriously to be truly fun oh it has its moments how one can truly hate a movie in which huge really huge amounts of cocaine are delivered in school busses and to be fair it is almost never really boring as the action is interrupted by only short sequences of actual story but over all this is pretty much a movie with more and bigger explosions and more foul language in fact it reminded me of miami vice without the production values babes in skimpy bikinis and pastels if you can sneak into the theater without paying go for it otherwise wait for video the flying inkpot rating system wait for the broadcast a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
negative	chris tucker is one of those guys you immediately get a reaction from you either find his helium voice crazy eyes and jerky mannerisms funny or annoying i think i fall into the former category i'm one of the few who thought his turn in the fifth element as a prancing deejay was complete inspired lunacy and not the least bit aggravating but his new vehicle money talks just doesn't do him service tucker is good in the movie and this is the kind of film that if people see it could make him a big star but he's also really the only thing good about the movie in fact if you see money talks it should shock you beyond recognition that two of toy story writers penned the sloppy script tucker's role here is that of franklin hatchett a petty los angeles con artist whose carwash scams get him dogged by investigative reporter james russell charlie sheen after being busted on the job for some illegal business involving counterfeit passports franklin finds himself on a bus to the county jail and handcuffed to slick international jewel smuggler raymond villard gerard ismael but villard's thugs blow up the bus in an attempt to free their leader never mind that the explosion could have instead killed him and because he and franklin are joined at the wrist franklin is allowed to escape as well but not before overhearing some important information regarding a diamond stash that for some reason or another is being hidden in a vintage roadster waiting to be auctioned off at an upcoming auto expo the local media mistakenly puts the prison blame on franklin which is where james comes back into the picture he makes a deal to protect franklin if in turn franklin gives him an exclusive interview this means james must present his new friend in the stickiest of situations a formal dinner party for he and fiancee grace heather locklear also attended by her parents veronica cartwright and nicely game paul sorvino and of course the bad guys track franklin down and try to knock him off all the while he spars and forms an unlikely bond with james this ain't no buddy movie claim the print ads yeah right actually for the better part of oh minutes it appears money talks has the momentum to cover entertaining ground and this is mostly due to the presence of spastic motormouth tucker this is tucker's first leading role and if you imagine a slightly lankier jim carrey with a reliance on wild raunch rather than physical comedy you have a good idea of the conviction with which he assaults the role but you realize all too quickly that tucker's overstated liveliness is the only thing money talks has going for it and a lively actor alone does not a successful movie make it's all too easy to pick out everything wrong with money talks the plot is recycled tripe that seemed overused even when nothing to lose employed it last month everything is especially the los angeles coliseum finale which finds not one not two but three separate enemy factions firing at franklin as they pursue him through the bleachers the villains as many as there are are dull certain story elements are too coincidental and too much of the film's dramatic agenda is played too straight a scene where grace confronts james after learning franklin's true identity you brought a killer into my parents' house is extremely silly you get the picture obviously i did not have a pleasant experience at money talks but the people around me appeared to be having a good time one gentleman several rows behind me chortled with such expressive conviction i began fearing for his health but tucker at least for me is a pretty funny guy and aces the movie's best scene where franklin passes himself off as vic damone's son at james and grace's engagement bash and toasts the couple with barry white lyrics tucker's audience and he does have one will probably like money talks those who he irritates however will have a more productive day staying home and scraping the gook out from under their toenails
negative	soldier by director paul anderson is a film in which any presence of originality is fleeting the best moments of the film are in the opning scenes where kurt russel's character todd is shown growing up under strict military supervision brutality through the eyes of the innocent and stripped of it every single day growing up is something that has a lot of emotional potential power behind it and the opening scenes tap into it a little then it goes nowhere with that idea there is perhaps one rather fleeting scene afterwards that deals with the potential trauma of this dehumanization and the rest of the film is just some of the biggest action movie cliches i've ever seen the whole idea of the inhuman character gaining some degree of humanity by defending a potential female love interest and family from his evil counterpart out to kill her is done and it's been done much better i was able to predict the plot of the story which wouldn't be so bad if other aspect of the film somewhat interesting between the action sequences it tries to deal with the aforementioned issues of humanity through the performance of mr russel in the film and the tiny little window to his soul that is his eyes since his dialog is extremely limited his performance in that way isn't all that bad but certainly is not enough to carry this film other performances in this film are really not worth much mention at all and they generally are about as weak as their characters but enough of this stuff about plot and character right isn't the most important part of an action film well the action even in this aspect the film is a disappointment in mortal kombat director paul anderson proved that truly engaging use and choreography of action in a film can override problems with plot and produce something entertaining however he fails to repeat that in this film the combat scenes particularly the big one at the end is incredibly unimaginatve fighting and combat scenes are supposed to bring about thrills in this type of movie a point which even an otherwise unimpressive film like starship troopers seemed to realize but instead of reaching for something truly interesting to end the film with it goes for the old up one guy vs an army type of cinema that i thought died with the military action films of the if the film went with some of the ideas it opened up with the introduction more seriously it could have been a rather engaging science fiction film however it utterly failed to go in any new directions after that making the film a big disappointment
negative	the first scene of operation condor has jackie chan preparing for a secret mission he attempts to pop a couple of pieces of chewing gum into his mouth but misses after they ricochet off his face he says not a good start as it turns out this line not only gives foreshadowing to the opening sequence but to the rest of the movie as well in this the latest of the jackie chan movies to be released in america after first runs in hong kong chan plays an international operative codenamed condor and is tasked by the united nations with finding a stash of gold hidden at a secret base by the nazi's during their retreat across the saharan desert during the second world war for some reason condor is given his mission at the u s embassy in spain i think this may have been done so that in a chase scene they could honor the time old tradition of knocking over a fruit cart watch for it in any chase scene set in a foreign country most notably in europe the chase will take itself through a marketplace and a fruit cart will be overturned it's almost a guarantee anyway condor is given a key which is supposed to unlock a giant vault in which the gold is hidden the problem is that the key has insulators integrated into it which may mean a booby trap might be electronically triggered if the key is used improperly to help him figure out where the gold is hidden and how to use the key correctly condor is accompanied by a desert expert carol cheng and the granddaughter of the captain who was in charge of hiding the gold eva cobo there aren't supposed to be any relatives of the nazi captain living in spain but condor finds the granddaughter by looking her up in the phone book or something although these two women are supposed to be integral parts of the mission they prove no help at all except to get in trouble and provide an excuse for chan to jump into his martial arts in fact most of the scenes are so ridiculously contrived that it seems everything is just a way to set up a fight i suppose this isn't so bad since chan's action is really the best part of the movie and the only reason you go to see one of his films anyway if you've never seen a jackie chan movie don't expect a great plot but do expect to be entertained by his moves they are so well choreographed and often so amazing that you wonder if this guy is human knowing that he does his own stunts and knowing that this is the real stuff no bungee cords here makes the action sequences all the more exciting you've got to hand it to a guy who's probably broken every bone in his body for the sake of his art also of note in this as in any jackie chan movie is the humor as far as i know none of his films take themselves too seriously and even the dramatic parts have a certain quality about them what is almost masterful is the way that humor is even integrated into the fight scenes unlike a martial arts film such as anything with jean claude van damme where the fights get you on the visceral level fight scenes in chan's movies are simply entertaining you marvel at both his moves and at the way he employs them in such a way to make you laugh unfortunately even chan's mastery can't save this film the plot and characters are so weak that they don't hold the movie together at all and the acting is terrible carol cheng has apparently won best actress honors at the hong kong movie awards in the past but since operation condor is a dubbed movie it kind of takes all bets off this combined with an obviously low production value made we want to turn away from the screen until i heard those kicks start flying
negative	cashing in on the success of white men can't jump and the failure of most of their solo vehicles including the cowboy way and drop zone wesley snipes and woody harrelson have reteamed hoping that they can strike up the same success sadly if this dismal cliche ridden and boring action pic is anything to go by they haven't got a chance in hell of even coming close this time out the duo play foster brothers who are transit cops following several with their tyrannical boss robert blake who is obsessed with the money train train which carries all the subway's will let nothing stop it now there's an original plot device harrelson's character decides to try and take off with the cash along the way both of them fall in love with the same transit cop who also hates her boss this leads to the typical sibling rivalry crap that you usually find in a film of this standard were always the better brother' etc etc etc and doesn't help to add anything to the film given a better script better performers in supporting roles and a shorter running time the film almost went for two did it just feel like it this film might and i mean might have turned out okay but as it is it is stocked with the worst action film cliches whose only purpose appears to be to pad the film out to its painfully long running time robert blake who plays the evil boss has got to be the most pathetic bad guy in film history he sounds like wayne newton and appears to think the best way to appear evil is to have your eyes bulging as though they are about to burst out of their sockets but this is only one of money train's problems if you look at the script as if it was an action film it lacks originality and suspense but if you try to look at it as if it were a heist film it is even worse the final robbery sequence is almost trivialised and the characters definitely ain't butch and sundance the film isn't all bad though snipes and harrelson when they aren't using the dumb cliches that the script gives them make an agreeable duo and some of the is indeed excellent but good cannot save a action movie if you're a really undemanding action freak there's a chance you'll like this but if you're looking for something original or suspenseful try somewhere doubt you'll find it here
negative	girl is in a word a mess i was never able to determine what spike lee was trying to accomplish with this film there was no sense of where the film was going or any kind of coherent narrative if there was a point to the film i missed it girl by the way is the way theresa randle's character is addressed in the phone sex workplace all the girls are known by their numbers the plot such as it is theresa randle is a struggling n y actress and eventually takes a job as a operator she begins to lose contact with reality as her job consumes her also she must deal with the advances of her isiah washington he is an con thief and she tries to keep him away while at the same time it's clear that she still harbors feelings for him her neighbor jimmy spike lee functions as the observer mediating between the husband and girl he also functions as a point of stability as he watches her become seduced by the lurid world of phone sex the soundtrack consisting of songs by prince was jarring it kept taking my attention from the film not altogether a bad thing i'll grant you as what was transpiring onscreen wasn't that riveting for parts of the middle of the film the music stayed blissfully in the background in the opening sequence and one scene later in the film however the music was particularly loud and distracting of course i've never really cared for prince's or tafkap if you like music prince fans might love the soundtrack but it will probably be distracting even to fans of the performances the only one that stood out was spike lee's buddy character jimmy he was excellent as the neighbor of girl he should have stuck to acting in this film there are several sequences that gave me the impression that he'd like to be oliver stone when he grows up there are scenes shot with different types of film which are purposely grainy and reminiscent of some of the scenes in oliver stone's natural born killers in that film they worked to propel the narrative in this film they just made me more confused there are some amusing moments and a few insights into the lives of the women who use their voices to make the industry the dollar industry that it has become other than that though nothing much happens there are a few intense moments as when one caller becomes frightening but even that is rather lackluster i'm not the biggest fan of spike lee though i'd agree that he has done some very good work in the past in girl though he seems to be floundering he had an interesting idea a fairly good setup and seemed to wander aimlessly from there girl earns a grade of d
negative	back in chuck norris used to be synonym for the action films he couldn't of course top the success and fame of big action names like sylvester stallone or arnold schwarzenegger but sheer quantity of his films guaranteed that he was household name among shoot'em up and beat'em up genre aficionados that quantity was mostly provided by cannon group prolific production company that dominated the market in previous decade by flooding it with cheap formulaic and more often than not unwatchable genre products the hitman action thriller directed by chuck's brother aaron is one of the last among them chuck norris here plays seattle cop betrayed shot and left for dead by his partner which shouldn't surprise anyone considering the fact that the partner is being played by michael parks specialised for roles of usually very mean characters surviving the shooting cop is pronounced dead and hired as deep undercover agent he infiltrates the underworld circles in seattle and becomes their top hitman using his abilities to start brutal war between three major crime organisations italians french canadians and iranians since it is rather absurd to expect great acting ability from chuck norris at least not in this kind of movie the biggest attraction of this film should have been action well the action in this film falls flat it is boring repetitive and not at all exciting it is nothing more than monotonous series of scenes that contains violence too brutal even for this type of films we know very little about norris' character while on the other hand gangsters are portrayed with more human dimension in the end we almost feel sorry for them since they are shown totally powerless against norris and his unstoppable and bloody crusade during the film somebody obviously became aware of that problem so the screenwriter introduced the subplot dealing with the black boy who gets adopted by norris that caused another problem any questions about nature of that relationship had to be quashed with another subplot this one dealing with lady lawyer who sleeps with the hero and gets killed after fulfilling that screenplay obligation the photography in this film is dark setting is depressive and this forgettable piece of style cinema leaves viewers without any reason to justify the hour and half spent in watching it
negative	as forgetful as some people may be it is doubtful that anyone could forget their wedding especially three times but alas professor brainard somehow manages to accomplish this feat twice before the momentous night that he actually creates flubber it's amazing that he is able to remember any of the processes he uses to make anything the whole point here is how could a man be so blatantly forgetful this is not absent minded this is almost mindless and he is a professor well this is the case for about the first half of the movie then things begin to settle into what might truly be considered absent minded along the way to becoming absent minded from absent of mind the professor stumbles onto flubber thankfully or there would be no movie or any amusement for the audience the flubber is supposed to be flying rubber but it seems to have a life of its own this is there strictly for the kids the properties of the flubber provide some antics for the audience when flubber coated golfballs and bowling balls assail two would be thugs although amusing this is not original what so ever and brings back haunting memories of home alone the poor professor has to save the university where he teaches at get his fiancee back finally stop the plotting of an evil millionaire and do all this in the funniest way possible admittedly there are funny moments but the movie is rather shallow and does not compare very well to the original the absent minded professor the whole scene with the basketball game was just atrocious and totally unbelievable the basketball players stereotypically unqualified for the sport somehow manage to bounce fly and dribble their way back to being close to winning this just sounds too bad to be true the least that could have been done was keep semi close to the original movie to give this film a chance as for innovations and new ideas there is but two good ones in this movie giving life to the flubber which is so poorly executed that it's best forgotten and prof brainard's flying robot weebo giving life to the flubber would have worked beautifully if it wasn't for scenes of the sort where you have the flubber dancing around on tables and books for no real reason other than to put in a bit of music and extend the length of the movie the life of the flubber had brief and rather whimsical moments where it might have been used well but it wasn't and in the end might have done the movie more harm than good now weebo is a totally different story it's a robot that prof brainard created but forgot how and gave something of a life too this is a really original idea well maybe not but it is an idea that is well executed and in the end makes the poor robot the most developed and real character in the movie yes folks the little yellow robot has more emotion and character than the characters the film lacks the emotional punch to pull the audience in at all the acting by robin williams prof brainard seems to be half hearted for most of the movie and in many cases quite forced most of the acting in the movie was so convincing as to fool only the part of the audience that had not quite yet reached the age to people when stood up at the altar don't usually give third chances or for that matter talk to the fiancee afterwards but what can be expected this is a children's movie flubber as a movie does little original and is nothing special in any respect with the best character in the movie being something of a prop i doubt that many people will find it all that great it does have its amusing moments and it is a good story in the end but it does not wash up to the original kids should find this movie amusing and fun and they'll probably enjoy the whole movie as a movie it's just a kids movie and not the best of ones at that
negative	how do you judge a film that is so bad but intentionally so in spiceworld the highly popular singing group the spice girls accomplish their major goal mocking themselves with a purposely cheezy film and having a lot of fun doing it if that was their goal they did a fantastic job so is it fair to give it such a low grade when it wasn't really meant to be much better than this honestly i'd rather see this film before many others i gave higher grades so does that mean i graded it inaccurately truth be known i don't really think i can answer this question to understand spiceworld you have to understand the spice girls unless you're very very young or fairly older you probably have at least heard of them they're a group of five busty british babes who've had hit singles and whose debut album sold millions they're primarily adored by girls who hope someday the contents of their training bras might match those of ginger spice's real name geri haliwell wonderbra all five of the girls have these spicy names for which they are better known than their real names there is the aforementioned ginger spice as well as sporty spice melanie chisholm or mel c scary spice melanie brown or mel b baby spice emma bunton and posh spice victoria addams and all of them to some degree or another resemble their stage names the spice girls took the world by storm and spiceworld is actually a humored spoof of all that transpired during their quick rise to fame it's quite nice to see what good sports the girls are and not just the one dubbed sporty about poking fun at themselves they don't take themselves too seriously and that's probably the best thing about them it's also surprising how natural they seem in front of the camera acting and not just singing and dancing they're not flawless by any means but for the most part they deliver their lines without feeling staged and like them or not we get the sense the five are very at home within their characters which seems reasonable since they portray themselves what makes the film bad is that extreme fans of the spice girls won't get enough of their music while the rest of us don't get enough of a movie the real point of this is to look at the spice girls for over ninety straight minutes most of the film is very blas but several parts are downright boring and then they have those sporadic moments that actually make us laugh out loud if you're a big fan of the group you probably won't get enough of what you want and if you're not a big fan you get too much time devoted to nothing more than look at us moments for the right crowd the music video sequences will be the highlights of the film but for others they will serve as lulls in a storyline other key actors include richard e grant as clifford the spice girls' manager alan cumming as the piers who attempts to make a documentary of the group george wendt as martin barnfield a producer who constantly works on pitching a spice girls movie and roger moore in a small role all provide relatively good performances keeping in mind once again that this film wasn't meant to be acted seriously even meat loaf shows up as dennis the bus driver and seems to have fun with it while this film is continuously compared to the beatles' a hard day's night i think that is an unjust comparison it is supposedly the movie studio that first mad the comparison by way of press kits but i don't think drector bob spiers nor the spice girls intended it to be so i think the studios were just trying to boost hype and interest in the film and have instead come off rather pretentious i don't think this film is trying to be anything more than a fun satirical look at a group that got so big a movie seemed the next likely step and what could've been better than a yet mocking approach probably nothing and so it is spiceworld is a movie i thought would be embarrassing to enjoy but now instead i find myself wanting to defend a movie i didn't even give a good review it's bad but it succeeds in every way it intended it gives the spice girls a chance to play while allowing all those obsessive fans out there to indulge in every brainless moment perhaps the group is nothing more than a gimmick if that's the case the movie's gimmick is that it is such a gimmick you might be saying a spice girls movie come on but when it comes down to it i think that's the point
negative	we could paraphrase michelle pfieffer's character in dangerous minds and say that beyond rangoon starts with an a that's fair enough all movies like all school children should be given the benefit of the doubt the chance to succeed after all we like to think that the right combination of talent and effort can do wonders mountains can be moved and good movies can be made yeah right children fail as do films as does director john boorman's latest the success of beyond rangoon hinges on the believability of patricia arquette ed wood true romance as the busty wandering about burma without a passport though we can stomach the mild plot contrivances that get her there it's a tougher task to overlook the actress she's a lightweight as the first scene with narration demonstrates she doesn't have nearly enough range for the emotions that her mother fleeing the memories of a murdered husband and supposed to show she may give a stronger performance than say keanu reeves in a walk in the clouds by not by much beyond rangoon is a very physically appealing film thanks to the practiced craftsmanship of john boorman deliverance excalibur hope and glory he keeps the narrative moving no matter how muddy the the why he chose arquette remains a mystery though maybe he was thinking that the dramatic weight of the story would overcome any casting deficiencies but even after an hour of political statements and murky mass killings we still don't know enough of what's happening in this country to feel distressed for the characters or their situations empty exoticism the technical credits in beyond rangoon are a curious mix combining lush jungle photography with bad work also odd is the obvious dubbing done to make some of the foreign characters sound less foreign and is it my mistake or do the same extras keep reappearing as different soldiers doo doo doo doo twilight zone theme or opinion of movie you be the judge
negative	i think that saying that the is one of this summer's most anticipated films is safe for five years the television show has developed a dedicated fan culture whose rabid devotion to the series rivals that of star trek fans the premise of both the movie and the television series is two fbi agents who investigate the paranormal fox mulder david duchovny is the avid believer whose quest to find the truth about extraterrestrial life borders on the paranoid and dana scully gillian anderson is the scientific skeptic trying to find a rational explanation to mulder's flights of fancy outlining the plot of the movie is virtually impossible since to be general would result in confusion yet to be specific would give too much away nevertheless i will try the black ooze and extraterrestrial substance is threatening earth a shadow government is aware of this but tries to the alien existence mulder and scully know the truth is out there and so try to expose both the invasion and the there are three central questions i have heard asked about this movie will those who don't watch the series be able to understand the movie yes isolated as an individual text the can stand alone they have given enough background for anyone familiar with the show or not to understand the movie although some of the secondary characters' histories may confuse the uninitiated those characters are not essential to the film this is a major problem they trot out token secondary characters from the series out for an appearance and then disappear just as quickly why bring superintendent skinner into the picture in the first place and then have him sat silently on an fbi internal affairs committee why bring in the lone gunmen three computer geek conspiracy theorists for an even briefer appearance these characters are recurrent on the series and their appearance in the film was met with whoops from the audience suggesting their popularity among fans actually most of the audience could pass for the lone gunmen still then they vanish just as quickly the television show never gives us any answers will the movie actually explain some things yes in the we get a fairly complete history of the black ooze what it is and what it wants we finally get some understanding of the motivations behind the shadow government there are even some subtle with contemporary including the greys and the roswell crash of is the movie any good no the is a dreadful movie and shows some fundamental problems with chris carter's talents and the relationship between cinema and television first off the screenplay by series creator chris carter is sloppy and cliched after approximately minutes the length of a television episode minus the commercials the pace drops to a snail's crawl not long after that point when carter attempts to answer some questions we have had about the series we wish he had not the explanations are so trite and ridiculous that one would have preferred it had carter not explained quite so much i am willing to suspend my disbelief a fair bit but the absurdity carter wants me to swallow was just too much breaking the suspension of disbelief destroys the movie and listening to other fans leave the cinema maybe the series too the explanations are not only absurd they are tired and unoriginal the extraterrestrials breed and gestate like those from the alien series and their craft looks like a leftover set piece from independence day note that the alien movies and the are all from fox a studio that is beginning to cannibalize itself i think the is noteworthy for being the only movie based on a television series to be produced while the series was still running in comparing the movie and television series certain aspects of the respective media emerge the avoidance of the series to answer the questions it raised annoyed and frustrated many people however i rather liked that about the series television allows you to impose as much or as little meaning on a show as you want it is the proverbial blank screen which we project our minds on meaning on television is open and ambiguous it is the nature of the medium cinema on the other hand is the opposite it projects onto us the filmmakers mind we can in some films fill the textual gaps ourselves but that almost never happens in an american film meaning in cinema needs to be and determined so when the made that jump from small to big screen carter needed to take into consideration the differences in the medium as well he did not by making explicit what the television show left implicit carter reveals the limits of his creativity and skill when they say that fans make a tv show it is not far from the truth on television fan culture must impose its meanings on the text because there is nothing there how true that is when we see the explicit there is nothing there the following was printed in the st john's express st john's newfoundland canada all views are the authors but copyright is held by  movie review by mikel j koven i think that saying that the is one of this summer's most anticipated films is safe for five years the television show has developed a dedicated fan culture whose rabid devotion to the series rivals that of star trek fans the premise of both the movie and the television series is two fbi agents who investigate the paranormal fox mulder david duchovny is the avid believer whose quest to find the truth about extraterrestrial life borders on the paranoid and dana scully gillian anderson is the scientific skeptic trying to find a rational explanation to mulder's flights of fancy outlining the plot of the movie is virtually impossible since to be general would result in confusion yet to be specific would give too much away nevertheless i will try the black ooze and extraterrestrial substance is threatening earth a shadow government is aware of this but tries to the alien existence mulder and scully know the truth is out there and so try to expose both the invasion and the there are three central questions i have heard asked about this movie will those who don't watch the series be able to understand the movie yes isolated as an individual text the can stand alone they have given enough background for anyone familiar with the show or not to understand the movie although some of the secondary characters' histories may confuse the uninitiated those characters are not essential to the film this is a major problem they trot out token secondary characters from the series out for an appearance and then disappear just as quickly why bring superintendent skinner into the picture in the first place and then have him sat silently on an fbi internal affairs committee why bring in the lone gunmen three computer geek conspiracy theorists for an even briefer appearance these characters are recurrent on the series and their appearance in the film was met with whoops from the audience suggesting their popularity among fans actually most of the audience could pass for the lone gunmen still then they vanish just as quickly  the television show never gives us any answers will the movie actually explain some things yes in the we get a fairly complete history of the black ooze what it is and what it wants we finally get some understanding of the motivations behind the shadow government there are even some subtle with contemporary including the greys and the roswell crash of  is the movie any good no the is a dreadful movie and shows some fundamental problems with chris carter's talents and the relationship between cinema and television first off the screenplay by series creator chris carter is sloppy and cliched after approximately minutes the length of a television episode minus the commercials the pace drops to a snail's crawl not long after that point when carter attempts to answer some questions we have had about the series we wish he had not the explanations are so trite and ridiculous that one would have preferred it had carter not explained quite so much i am willing to suspend my disbelief a fair bit but the absurdity carter wants me to swallow was just too much breaking the suspension of disbelief destroys the movie and listening to other fans leave the cinema maybe the series too the explanations are not only absurd they are tired and unoriginal the extraterrestrials breed and gestate like those from the alien series and their craft looks like a leftover set piece from independence day note that the alien movies and the are all from fox a studio that is beginning to cannibalize itself i think the is noteworthy for being the only movie based on a television series to be produced while the series was still running in comparing the movie and television series certain aspects of the respective media emerge the avoidance of the series to answer the questions it raised annoyed and frustrated many people however i rather liked that about the series television allows you to impose as much or as little meaning on a show as you want it is the proverbial blank screen which we project our minds on meaning on television is open and ambiguous it is the nature of the medium cinema on the other hand is the opposite it projects onto us the filmmakers mind we can in some films fill the textual gaps ourselves but that almost never happens in an american film meaning in cinema needs to be and determined so when the made that jump from small to big screen carter needed to take into consideration the differences in the medium as well he did not by making explicit what the television show left implicit carter reveals the limits of his creativity and skill when they say that fans make a tv show it is not far from the truth on television fan culture must impose its meanings on the text because there is nothing there how true that is when we see the explicit there is nothing there
negative	contrary to popular belief not every single foregin film released to an american market is a masterpiece some of them aren't even good some examples of this principle are the aboslutely dreadful un indien dans la ville presented as little indian big city and remade into that crap tim allen flick and this what could have been a clever little sex comedy turns into one mess of a french flick french twist the cool american title not the real one which was gazon maudit literally meaning twisted ground or something like that deals with a married couple with kids and the intrusion of a stranger who kinda screws things up for them loli and alain chabat victoria abril and alain chabat are not exactly happily married always on business trips alain chabat more than once cheats on her and she eventually finds out and one day she meets a butch mechanic marijo the josiane balasko and they two kinda hit it off so she decides she will get back at alain chabat by doing the obvious sleeping with marijo but she soons starts to not only fall in love with marijo but she's also realizes she's still in love with alain chabat so of course she does the obvious from that she decides to keep them both she'll be and sleep with each of them for days each then on sunday she'll rest by herself after all she needs it if she's gonna have more sex than sylvia kristel the film goes on for over an hour and a half through stupidity after stupidity moronic twist after moronic twist and soon there's the little ironic ending i know it's a completely different culture and i'm quite familiar with the french and their cinema but this is just bad none of the characters are more intelligent than peter stormare in fargo a movie where stupid characters were backed up to make a point and any action they do is pretty much just to get a hopeful chuckle from the audience what's shocking is this was not only one of france's biggest hits but it was nominated for a lot of cesars french equivalent of oscars the writing and directing is really the big problem with it josiane balasko does a good acting job with her role but her little sex comedy isn't very humerous entertaining or even deep at all even woody allen's a midsummer night's sex comedy is intelligent and possesses some depth this is shallow unfunny and pretty annoying to watch the film moves at the pace of a snail and is painful to watch thank god for the fast forward button the acting however isn't bad at all the actors do the best they can with the bad material and victoria abril is pretty likable despite the script and the fact that she's stupid enough to try to divide herself over two people when she has kids and alain chabat has some funny moments as the neurotic husband but french twist is just pretty lame it's not overly horrible and has a couple very very very brief moments but it's just a really crap film and an example of an distribution of a foreign film
negative	i can see a decent sports movie struggling to break free of oliver stone's given sunday' it's an entertaining movie that offers both insight and excitement into the profession of pro football unfortunately the director seems to have only one priority on his mind sprucing up the film with an assortment of fancy camera maneuvers in altering each frame with photography and dizzying editing stone appears to have completely ignored the matter of plausible character development and football politics we see glimpses of greatness but given sunday' has its agenda all tangled in technical it grows tiresome and monotonous yes stone has pulled a brian depalma matters of importance are pushed aside right from the tony d'amato al pacino coach of the struggling miami sharks finds his team stuck in a losing rut aging quarterback cap rooney dennis quaid appears to be losing his touch and d'amato can't seem to ignite any passion in his squad when cap is injured on the field and after a patch of unlikely events occur qb willie beaman jamie foxx is brought into the game once in the huddle and this becomes an ritual beaman horks all over the field nerves you see eventually though the ancy youngster wins the game for his teammates sparking his rise to fame in the football world the endorsements the music videos etc and stone straps us in for the jolting ride of stress and fury that the business is apparently like and i believe it there is some intriguing insight posed but in the big scheme of things stone fumbles the ball the problem with the director's visual approach is this he uses extravagant editing devices when a more conventional approach would have been appropriate football is an exciting game to watch but stone seems to think dizzying the audience with an assault on the senses will only add to the adrenaline rush i guess he is mistaken given sunday' is a visual kaleidoscope that leaves the audience in a frustrated stupor more frequently than it excites them many football fans including one i attended with are liable to be disappointed with the way stone has decided to present the game in return a film becomes unfortunately degraded due to the director's tampering in welcome scenes when the visual pummeling comes to a break this actually shows decent character development and interaction for instance heated returns between d'amato and feisty young owner christina pagniacci cameron diaz are enjoyable to watch there is also a solid performance from jamie foxx who experiments with great success in his first trek into dramatic territory the stellar supporting cast includes matthew modine aaron eckhart lauren holly and charlton heston in an extraordinarily brief appearance unfortunately too many big names are wasted a typical demise for a film with such a large and experienced cast pacino makes some interesting progress with his character you begin to identify with coach d'amato and the morals he is striving for but i often felt he was just another play thing stone could weave in and out of his editing dynamics given sunday' is a watchable but disappointing sports film in which plot and characters take a back seat to excessive filmmaking technique and a very distant back seat at that
negative	this but ultra sugary film is not for everyone and i include myself as one of those who found it too sappy for my digestion joseph cross joshua beal is a who is saddened by the recent loss of his grandfather loggia to bone marrow cancer loggia is wonderful in relating to the child in such a wholesome manner it almost saves this film from drowning in syrup the beals are like a sitcom idyllic family where everyone is just so nice and affluent and properly religious without being fanatical the beals the father denis leary and his wife dana delany are both successful doctors julia stiles plays joshua's older sister needling her younger brother but also showing that she really cares about him this is a family seemingly conceived in heaven but living in south philadelphia sending their children to a catholic school joshua the protagonist and the narrator of this yarn is a handsome sweet intelligent friendly and endearing child who does well in school relates to the nuns and priests and talks politely to his parents all this mawkish interplay makes it almost too nauseating to watch the plot arises when joseph has a problem coping with the death of his beloved grandfather who promised to be with him forever his answer is to search for god pretty heady stuff for a youngster his age to do but that's just the way it is sometimes this search for god takes us nowhere because as his friend david reifsnyder says where can you look for him if he doesn't exist now that's a smart kid but joseph looks for him in the usual places and what better place than to start in the parochial school he attends one of his teachers is the sister terry rosie o'donnell who wears a philly baseball hat and equates the jesus stories with baseball making him the hitter and in my opinion if she wasn't a big tv star would have a vocation as a parochial school teacher she is that convincing throughout the film she is saved from answering any tough sic question about god by the bell as it rings to end the class nothing much happens in the search for god there is no parody of the catholic school though a visiting cardinal is found by the boy not to be able to talk to god but this is gentle stuff no real criticism or search for god is attempted what comes next into play is some hollywood hokum which is designed not to upset anyone as joseph has a reassuring encounter with a real live angel a blond little boy his own age and dressed like him in the catholic school uniform who wears the innocuous smile of a the film ends as this angel tells him his grandfather is all right his quest is ended as apparently angels don't have wings and are approachable and god well maybe that's for another film down the road this part of the film was the final straw for me i couldn't swallow any more goo as this film flopped commercially his next one the sixth sense pared down the schmaltz and came up smelling like a rose though if you look through the cleverness of both scripts this director is loaded with hokum all he has learned how to do is hide the hokum better well god bless him if he can do that this is a nice family picture and there is room for it in hollywood it's just too bad that it had nothing relevent or even truthful to say about death children in a parochial elementary school or for that matter about god and that family of his they're too good for words yet the film meant well and its benign message had its heart in the right place for those who want to see something soft without a bite to it this is the one
negative	battlefield earth is the best comedy of the year it has to be the other prospect is just too horrifying to consider bad movie syndrome struck me again so after witnessing how much battlefield earth has been proclaimed a train wreck in both critical and popular circles i felt the masochistic urge to see the disaster is it as bad as advertised oh yes very much so the plot is incomprehensible the acting is atrocious the special effects are mediocre the action is dull the implausibilities are legion the dialogue is the whole package is funny when it wants to be serious and irritating when it wants to be funny i don't even want to continue reviewing this movie i'd like to purge the atrocity from my mind as soon as possible but you probably want to read my thrashing in all its sarcastic glory so here it is the premise is basically a of planet of the apes only minus the apes and philosophical discussion and plus a race of evil aliens from the planet psychlo the year is the psychlos have conquered earth and the human population has been enslaved only a handful of humans escaped to areas to escape the aliens they live out their lives in fear one man johnny goodboy i know i know tyler barry pepper ventures to the outworld and is captured by the psychlos there he confronts the psychlo head of security a big ugly creature called terl john travolta pressed into slavery johnny vows to lead a revolution and take the planet back meanwhile terl is faced with his own problems he has recently learned that he's stuck living on earth which he hates for the rest of his career because he pissed off his boss by sleeping with the big man's daughter he decides to give johnny knowledge of the psychlo language and technology this is where the plot gets ridiculous   so the can lead a mining expedition into places the psychlos can't go terl then plans to keep the mined gold for himself of course his plan doesn't work so many things wrong with this movie where to begin how about with travolta whose hollywood clout brought about this the cinematic version of scientology guru l ron hubbard's novel early previews for battlefield earth with constant shots of a travolta cackling like lex luthor had me and several audience members remarking what the hell is travolta thinking the movie did nothing to stem such remarks all that ridiculous cackling he did in the trailers is in full force here terl cackles after nearly every line and so does every other psychlo of course this makes every scene hilariously overwrought no more so than when the script clumsily stumbles into political commentary the psychlos are probably supposed to be some kind of satire of corporate america but ceos generally don't laugh maniacally after denying pay raises to their employees you were going to be promoted but now you're not fwahahahahahahahaha it's no big surprise terl loses to the humans he's an idiot he breaks every kind of supervillain rule in the book he underestimates his enemies assuming he'll win just because he's smarter he uses the word leverage like some sort of scientologist mantra not content to go the james bond villain route of explaining his plans to the hero he hooks him up to a machine that gives him knowledge of all the psychlos' language and technology why this machine is even around in the first place is beyond me he then appears shocked that johnny points a gun at him no wonder this guy never got his promotion the plot inconsistencies are too numerous to mention why do the psychlos build an earth base in which both they and the human slaves must wear little breathing apparatuses to survive how come the psychlos are wasting their time mining for gold when the doors of fort knox are wide open how in the world did all those fighter jets survive sitting in a hangar for years and how do all these previously cavemen learn to fly them so quickly there's a whole lot more to scratch one's head about in battlefield earth bring a scorecard to track the plot holes director roger christian shoots battlefield earth in the most distracting way possible tilting nearly every shot sideways for no discernible reason all the characters appear to be standing on the walls and it's awfully difficult to watch a movie when you must tilt your head just to watch ordinary passages of dialogue the action sequences are atrociously edited every one turned into an endless parade that drains all potential excitement are these things really so hard to construct my respect for supposed lightweight action directors has grown by leaps and bounds after witnessing in battlefield earth how badly an action sequence can be shot this movie is an absolute headache it's not just the shot selection and editing the movie quite frankly makes no sense for most of battlefield earth's running time i just didn't know what was happening it didn't have anything to do with me finding the events stupid or illogical though they certainly are i really had no idea what the hell was going on when i pieced the plot together later it didn't look any better here's how much of a disaster this is battlefield earth is already the worst movie of the year and it's going to take something really really inept to top it the only thing we can take comfort in about the film is that no one will be suckered into joining the church of scientology because of it in fact i'd think that hubbard's cult would want to distance themselves from this bomb as fast as possible that'll teach me to give into bad movie syndrome again
negative	long time buddies and neil diamond tribute band members wayne steve zahn happy texas and j d jack black high fidelity watch in horror as third mate darren silverman jason biggs american pie disappears under the thumb of his new fiance judith amanda peet the whole nine yards a controlling psychiatrist they're doubly troubled when the return of darren's and only love' sandy perkins amanda detmer final destination returns to their home town but doesn't cause a ripple in darren's devotion to judith there's only one thing wayne and j d can think of doing they kidnap judith and fake her death in saving silverman written by hank nelken and greg depaul after seeing a friend engaged to the wrong woman saving silverman is directed by comedy director' dennis dugan of such films as big daddy brain donors and problem child it's a dismal farrelly brothers rip off that attempts to milk humor from such inspired bits of whimsy as having darren's love interest come from a family of circus freaks and be about to become a nun gross out gags include a visualization of darren getting butt cheek implants saving silverman is almost saved by stars zahn and black these two are so comically talented they can take bad material and still deliver the goods they're in animal house mode while the rest of the film trawls along and comes up empty jason biggs can attribute his entire career to the luck of having been cast in the smash hit american pie peet shows some physical moves but no flair for comedy here while detmer slaps a brave sweet smile onto her face and soldiers through r lee ermey full metal jacket is one note in an embarrassing performance as a psychopathic coach neil diamond appears at the film's climax as himself and miraculously enlivens the proceedings by belting out some of his old standards
negative	well if you are up for stellar effects then this is the movie for you because thats all that there really is i found that after watching this movie it had many many gaps and flaws in simple logic in the plot for one thing a white leading actor who has a black daughter does leave some curiosity i am not saying that this isn't possible but it does leave one to wonder i know i did another thing is that this movie has sections which are painfully stretched out and certain scenes are repeated essentially but with slight variations there was one scene that should have been short but it was horribly stretched and somewhere in the middle of it i found myself thinking ok enough already get on with it there are also times where you have to wonder why things happen the way they do things just magically happen and there is no prelude or anything of the sort another thing that i noticed towards the end was that some characters just vanished without a trace but they were fairly major through most of the beginning this movie is also very predictable you can almost tell the final story somewhere in the middle and you definitely know what will happen at a given moment granted this is hard to omit but here its just blatant it sits there and stares at you also some of the things that happen are a little too predictable and several cliques are repeated it gets boring at times to tell you the truth even though there is still action going on another little point i might add is that the main character is supposed to be a quiet chaos mathematician not some shoot them up type of hero some of the characters are not proper for their roles the acting is fine but the characters just don't seem to add up if i was to base my review totally on the plot then i wouldn't rate this movie too highly but that's just the thing this movie isn't just the plot its the whole package and this package is really well done the whole movie is really well done and looks really good and if one was to overlook the flaws in the plot and characters then this is really a movie the special effects are just amazing you can't tell that the dinosaurs are created it looks like they were there live in a few instances of course you know its fake but there are other times that you just wouldn't be able to say that the creature wasn't there during filming extinct or not another thing is the destruction scenes wow those were masterpieces well some of them were they were well choreographed and along with the dino's make this one of the reasons to see this movie this movie is fairly long but it is action packed so it should do well in the box office unfortunately it will take away from fifth element but alas what can we do i may be too cynical for my age but this movie is only worth seeing for the effects and for it few funny moments go see it in a matinee if you really must see it its not worth full price if you ask me one little side note although my opinion of this movie may not have been the best the way that this movie was marketed and how many theaters it was shown in toronto this opening weekend is nothing short of stupid there were theater movie theaters that were playing this movie around the clock i think that some people really want money badly and i think that this type of activity hurts the movie industry let the other movies also have a chance you know any movie with that much play would succeed even if it was the worst movie ever made i thought i'd put this here to deflate the movie hype about this flick its not that bad a movie but its not that great either hope you people realize this
negative	when a film is produced on a shoestring budget by a couple of hardworking filmmakers and when it tells the story of a genuine tragedy the easy path for a reviewer who hated the movie is to give it a pass toss out your usual objectivity ignore how many times you checked your watch while viewing it forget how unbearable it was to sit through and find some meaningless way to compliment it this of course will be of no service to your readers but at least you'll avoid the hate mail from the movie's fans thus it is with a heavy heart that i review the movie paulina not to be confused with the recent movie paulie about a talking parrot directed by vicky funari as a labor of intense love she spent the last one third of her life on film the movie blends documentary footage with historic and fanciful recreations to relate the bitterly sad and true story of paulina cruz suarez paulina was a maid in vicky's household when vicky was young i got to learn the film's background when i attended a screening in which the two women who made it were present for those without such context the reaction to the film may be that it is a parody of a bad indie film the acting is amateurish the story is maudlin and it has all the visual appeal of a bad home movie grainy and overexposed the movie shot on film and videotape has little to recommend it confusingly composed the movie jumps about jarringly as it tells its story quite bloody at times the story full of horrific images seems designed to shock and repulse us why else would you include a scene with a completely nude and bloody paulina another scene has a teenage paulina being fondled on a bus by the man sitting next to her in retaliation she bites off part of his finger this covers the both of them in a bucket of blood the passengers on the bus then view the girl in their minds as everything from saint to sinner one for example sees her as an aztec priestess holding out a large heart that she had just cut from a body the lugubrious tale has paulina being raped and beaten certainly she had to endure a miserable life but that does not guarantee that a movie about her will necessarily being good i felt trapped in the theater watching it only the opportunity to talk with the filmmakers afterwards made the movie bearable paulina runs the film is in spanish with english subtitles it is not rated but would be an r for violence and nudity and would be acceptable for older teenagers
negative	in this year's summer movie preview issue of theresa connelly described her debut as a child that did not quite become the child i thought it would one wonders what exactly she originally had in mind for this jumbled film a that appears doomed at its most basic elements the family at the center of is the pzoniaks which consists of mother jadzia lena olin father bolek gabriel byrne sole daughter hala claire danes and four sons of varying degrees of facelessness it's a large family but there's not a sympathetic one in the whole bunch certainly not in the primary trio jadzia takes pride in building and maintaining a home and family but she's kind of a hypocrite since she's carrying on an affair with a businessman rade serbedzija her excuse for her affair is neglect from bolek who is such a passive wimp that one cannot connect with his sadness and frustration also how could he possibly pay so little attention to the saucy sexy jadzia hala is a spoiled high school dropout whose reckless sexual experimentation predictably leads to pregnancy with such an unappealing set of characters it's no surprise that plot complications are far from involving naturally jadzia and bolek would like hala to marry the young cop russell schuster adam trese who fathered the child but he refuses to make such a commitment  another complication involving the decidedly hala being selected to crown a statue of the virgin mary is first played for laughs and then inexplicably as a profound statement in the film's ironically is funnier than any of the film's lame attempts at humor such as a painfully labored slapstick attempt where jadzia leads her sons in a charge to beat up russell that scene is but one in a number of writing miscues by connelly the conflict is resolved in an overly pat way not unfamiliar to sitcom viewers the conflict isn't resolved in as contrived a manner but their ultimate resolution will leave viewers wondering if they had missed something and then there's some atrocious dialogue which i am sure was not supposed to be as ridiculous as they sound look at all these pickles just looking at them gives me such great sadness as misguided as is the affair is something of a letdown considering the strong performances by byrne danes and especially the fiery olin they obviously believed in connelly and her faith that audiences will be to share
negative	several days after having seen this movie i'm still trying to determine what director christopher guest a man whose sense of humor i usually appreciate found funny in either the concept or the execution of almost heroes this is a dreadful motion picture a lowbrow example of period piece comedy with terrible production values and an exceptionally poor ratio there's a kind of desperation in the movie's approach to humor that reveals the film makers' uncertainty about how entertaining the material is the manic style betrays itself as a attempt to hide the flaws of a failed script the premise doesn't sound especially amusing to begin with almost heroes tells the tale of two explorers the effeminate leslie edwards matthew perry and the uncouth bartholomew hunt chris farley who are racing lewis and clark on the trip to the american northwest edwards and hunt are accompanied by the kinds of weirdoes we find in road movies albeit of the century variety including a frenchman named guy fontenot who claims to speak hundreds of languages none of which prove to be useful a pretty indian maiden who turns into the obligatory love interest and a bizarre man who suffers a series of debilitating injuries along the way the intrepid explorers encounter bears bald eagles aging native american warriors and a conquistador named hildago kevin dunn who raves about his beautiful hair the explorers' trek takes them through forests across the rocky mountains and over a waterfall this setup leads to a lot of shouting a great deal of lunacy and very few laughs farley engages in his usual shtick of falling down and bellowing but aside from an momentarily diverting confrontation with an eagle his heart doesn't seem to be in it matthew perry one of the stars of tv's friends who had some modest success in the romantic comedy fools rush in is badly miscast as a foil for farley and an antidote to his runaway energy perry lacks the necessary edge of the proverbial straight man i'm not a big fan of david spade and i didn't like tommy boy but at least he and farley worked well together as far as the supporting players go none of them makes more than a fleeting impression eugene levy is wasted and kevin dunn is about as interesting here as he is in godzilla frankly it's a disappointment to see something this dumb and ugly come from christopher guest the brilliant comic force behind such films as this is spinal tap the big picture and waiting for guffman although guest gets the costumes right this success is no substitute for the weak script and unfunny execution the special effects such as they are are execrable for an example of some really poor blue screen work look at the scenes where the characters are shooting the rapids they're obviously getting buckets of water thrown on them and where farley is being carried off by an eagle even though farley didn't have the most stellar of acting careers he doesn't deserve the kind of unfortunate epitaph offered by almost heroes while some of the more outrageous attempts at humor may coax a few guffaws from old boys the level of comedy in almost heroes falls far below the level of sophomoric farley fans who see this film as a way to say goodbye should be commended for their loyalty since it takes real stamina to stay seated for the full running length of this cinematic torture session
negative	when i was nine i started buying the coolest toy figures in my local department store masters of the universe was the pinnacle of what i was after for action figures they combined science fiction and fantasy had cool names like mekanek and stinkor and each came with its own little comic book to read of course the animated series produced by filmation remains one of the most wildly successful television products in world history given the tremendous success of the toys and the cartoon not to mention its moderately successful princess of power it was inevitable that a production company would put two and two together come with the result of trillions and make a masters movie let's be blunt masters of the universe is a very bad movie the story is painfully dull and cliched hands up who wouldn't guess and skeletor take their fight into the real world and is acted out by either incredibly untalented actors dolph lundgren as for one or good actors james tolkan meg foster given such awful characters and dialogue that they can't help but seem terrible it is extremely clear that someone making the movie wanted it to be as good as star wars we have the alien bounty hunters the desert skif technology stormtrooper lookalikes and a musical score so reminiscent of john williams that deja vu is too polite a term to use in describing it blatant uninspired ripoff would appear more appropriate tv fans might want to check out courtney cox monica in friends and robert duncan mcneill lt paris in star trek voyager very early in their careers and not doing to well in them either so in the face of such mindless is there anything to make masters of the universe worth watching at all yes there is one incredible good reason his name is frank langella langella has always been one of the underrated actors of hollywood appearing in countless films over the years here he plays skeletor the villain of the piece dressed in opulent black velvet robes and bearing a skull for a face he is one part darth vader one part emperor and two parts grim reaper given this character langella falls right into it with style and precision skeletor is believable interesting and manages to tread the fine line between being a homage to the past and startlingly original in his own right masters of the universe i remember loving it when i was eleven at twenty one it's difficult to see why but as i said it is blessed with a superlative villain who makes the entire thing worth the tedium of the remainder besides this year marks the film's anniversary watch it with some friends for a good laugh and celebrate
negative	in gia angelina jolie plays the titular character the first supermodel and right there you have the biggest hurdle this movie had to overcome in my eyes anyway i just don't see how the life of a model is worthy of a two hour film despite this i kept an open mind when i began watching the movie sadly though my fears were realized it's just not possible to make an interesting film about a person who spends their days wearing different clothes the movie follows the rise and fall of gia no last name a tumultuous woman who doesn't particularly enjoy the world of fashion she becomes famous more quickly than she can handle and finds herself hooked on drugs and on a woman she cannot have the last hour of the film is just one scene after another of gia getting high losing a job and going into rehab this formula is repeated several times and i really got tired of it in general i tend to dislike movies featuring heavy drug use no because it offends me or anything like that it just bores me quite frankly i don't see the appeal so when a director shows me a shot of a junkie complete with tipsy camera angles and echoing voices i am left somewhat unimpressed the first hour of the film though was actually quite engaging we see gia as she is discovered and moves to new york with her boyfriend these early scenes were interesting we're shown the fashion world through a newcomers eyes and it was a perspective i hadn't seen before the movie begins to go downhill however once gia becomes an established model that point i lost all interest in the movie and was counting the minutes before it would end it all seemed so excessive fine so gia had a drug problem does this really need to dominate the film couldn't the same effect have been had with a five or ten minute montage of scenes featuring gia experimenting with drugs or perhaps this film is meant to be a warning to aspiring models not to get into the drug world quite possibly although since i have no desire to become a model this warning is lost on me as i stated at the beginning of this review i simply don't see how the life of a model is worthy of a motion picture what do they do that warrants a movie strut their stuff for thousands of dollars an hour i suppose the same could be said about making movies about baseball players for example but at least somebody like lou gehrig led an interesting life gia did not and by the end of the film all i knew about gia for sure was that she hated modelling was and was heavily into drugs not exactly a meaningful contribution to society as far as i'm concerned
negative	talk about beating a dead horse when home alone was released in it was a breath of fresh air and the final box office tally indicated how much audiences appreciated a family film the unexpectedly high gross guaranteed a sequel so two years later we were subjected to home alone which might as well have been called clone alone for all of the originality it exhibited for john hughes two home alone movies weren't enough he began recycling the same kinds of villains and situations in almost every movie he was involved with including a pathetic box office bomb called baby's day out last year's dalmatians and this year's flubber now inexplicably hughes has exhumed not only these plot elements but the home alone name as well the result worst sequel edging out speed and batman and robin home alone by changing the characters hughes who wrote and the film along with his director raja gosnell has attempted to inject new life into a series that is way past the point of cardiac arrest the new kid alex pruitt is played by alex d linz one fine day and the only thing he has going for him is terminal cuteness he's not half as interesting as macaulay culkin once was the villains pale copies of joe pesci and daniel stern are even less engaging than the pair of idiots in flubber in home alone there are four of them olek krupa david thornton lenny von dohlen and rya kihlstedt but all that means is an opportunity for twice as many pratfalls this time the kid isn't left home alone because his parents have gone on a trip instead he has developed a bad case of chicken pox so he can't go to school his dad kevin kilner is away on business and his mom haviland morris has to run errands so for the most part he's all by himself during the day through a series of coincidences too irritating to relate a top secret u s air force integrated circuit comes into his possession it's wanted by a gang of four international crooks who intend to break into alex's home to retrieve it the year old who is wise beyond his years booby traps the house with all sorts of rube devices designed to humiliate and incapacitate the villains the movie's climax takes place during a raging snowstorm only none of the falling flakes looks remotely believable previously the most snow effects i can remember were in star trek iii these are far worse in fact the production values are so shoddy that there are some scenes in the midst of this when a shining sun can be seen if it's a wonderful life could generate looking snow back in the why can't home alone which has a significantly larger budget and technology at its disposal there has been an ongoing debate regarding the appropriateness of cartoon violence for young children home alone will add fuel to the fire it's one thing to see wyle e coyote flattened by a ton acme weight but quite another to watch a running lawn mower fall on lenny von dohlen adults and even older children will recognize that this is obviously fake and intended to be humorous but what about five and olds the level of violence in home alone is extreme many of alex's schemes are nasty enough to kill but because this is a family film no one dies despite being electrocuted falling thirty feet and getting smacked on the head by a barbell not only is home alone unnecessary but it's offensive it's an exercise in tediousness and there isn't a genuine laugh to be found from the beginning to the end unless by some strange quirk of fate you have missed every movie associated with john hughes and thus haven't seen this stuff before i can't imagine anyone with a reasonable attention span being more than momentarily distracted by this pointless adventure maybe that's why the only ones laughing at the screening i attended were still in their years
negative	conventional wisdom among collectibles retailers is that children's items begin to dramatically escalate in price about or thirty years after the item was made that's when the kids of that time have jobs disposable income and a desire to the awe and wonderment of childhood that has disappeared from their lives check out the prices of toys from the late sixties and you'll find that yogi bear lunch boxes are demanding big bucks there's a heavy nostalgia nowadays for the late sixties and early seventies and nowhere is it more apparent than on the big screen boomers are now mostly in their forties and fifties and have lived in the world for a long time they'd like to some of that fun they remember from days of yore hollywood seems more than eager to churn out product to help them directors are zealous to put their stamp on icons from that time and for the most part they're messing it up mission impossible lost in space godzilla zorro none of these successfully capture the originals none of these are even good films you can now add the avengers to the list the british television series began in super secret agent john steed macnee and his third partner emma peel rigg are the pair that the american audience fell for surrealistic and witty the series fit the mood of the times the rigg probably didn't hurt the ratings either after all it's not a coincidence that you can't pronounce her character's name without appeal now we're in the nineties steed fiennes and peel thurman are battling evil genius sir august de wynter sean connery who is screwing with england's weather that's about as much of a plot as we have there's some footage about a lot of other things that either don't make sense or make even less sense we get betrayal for some unknown reason evil clones appear and vanish and have no connection to the film remarkably ineffective giant flying robot wasps with machine guns in their belly come from nowhere for no good reason there's a high tech hot air balloon but i have no idea why anyone's in it the spy agency is run by a man called mother who is in a wheelchair and a woman named father who is blind at least in some scenes there's probably a reason for all of this but we'll never know it macnee makes an appearance of sorts he is the voice for an invisible man whose character goes nowhere in a scene that does nothing a group of villains sits around a table all clad in huge teddy bear outfits at first it's humorous to watch the teddies waddle around but then it becomes goofy the movie is a medley of clutter confusion and wrong decisions around every corner it feels like major portions of the film are missing the storyline jumps rather than flows reportedly the film was several times this is one of those times where the whole is less than the sum of the parts especially since some of the parts appear to be missing there's one good point where peel is running from one room to another in a house designed by escher other than that the effects are the weather threat is old hat as are the scenes of huge tornadoes thurman almost makes an adequate emma peel but it doesn't work she looks good dresses in all the right fetish outfits but there's no spark fiennes fares even less well macnee's steed was a witty man of the world with a sense of humor fiennes' agent comes across as a dour kid in clothes who has never been out of his home town even connery one of the greatest living actors doesn't have much of a presence outside of a few fiery scenes the action scenes are difficult to follow director jeremiah chechik responsible for the atrocious remake of diabolique somehow manages to put the camera exactly where it shouldn't be things happen people move around but even if with the utmost effort you were able to care about any of it the scenes are bewildering the primary allure of the original was the interaction between the two leads witty banter and an underplayed sexual tension were a winning combination admittedly there are a few humorous sexual puns in the film but there's no chemistry and the repartee is anything but clever one of emma peel's first lines of dialog is rules are made to be broken it doesn't get any better advance word alone should have been enough to scare off anyone the release date was changed several times connery refuses to promote the film there was no screening for critics which may have been a good choice for warner brothers at least this way they get something of an audience for the first weekend before the news gets out admittedly i haven't seen an episode of the television series for a couple of decades my guess is that it would be severely dated now no matter how antiquated it might be there's no doubt that it holds up better than this film is at first viewing there's no reason to waste any part of the last few days of summer inside watching this movie no reason at all
negative	the following review encompasses two versions of dune dune the theatrical version runtime minutes capsule review cut down to just over two hours by nervous studio executives the theatrical version of dune is a spectacular mess and may be incomprehensible to those unfamiliar with the book the film's visual splendour mystical beauty and impressive action scenes only partly compensate for gaping holes in the narrative dune the extended version runtime minutes capsule review a bit of a assembled by mca tv special projects for cable television it was disowned by director david lynch but it's considerably closer to his original vision by virtue of its improved characterisation and clearer storyline quality dubs of this version from the japanese laserdisc release are available from various dealers on the world wide web the review released in and made on a then mammoth budget of million the film of frank herbert's cult novel dune was eagerly awaited by fans director david lynch blue velvet eraserhead twin peaks was working on his biggest production to date a mammoth undertaking filmed under trying conditions on location in mexico the screenplay was lynch's own chosen after the script submitted by original author herbert was rejected dune is set in a universe ruled by powerful families overseen by a successive line of emperors the key to cosmic power is the planet arrakis dune a windswept desert planet that's home to giant sandworms and the precious spice melange the spice is the most valuable commodity in the universe it extends the life and expands the consciousness of those who consume it most importantly it allows the navigators of the spacing guild once human but now hideously mutated to fold space and navigate their spacecraft across mammoth distances instantaneously enabling interstellar commerce and trade to flourish lynch's film by necessity excises parts of the book while retaining the story's two main strands one is the rivalry between two families houses atreides and house harkonnen and their battle for lucrative mining rights on arrakis the second strand is the emergence of young paul atreides as the reluctant messiah by the natives of arrakis the fremen the deeply religious fremen want control over their homeworld and young paul may be the fulfilment of their prophecy that a man would come from the outer worlds and lead them to freedom unfortunately this epic story unfolds in a confusing and haphazard manner in the theatrical cut of the film which runs to minutes shorter than what lynch originally intended the thinking among universal's money men was that films over two hours in duration were not popular with audiences at the time and would not do well at the box office with lynch's initial cut running at closer to three or more hours the studio demanded that further cuts be made what a great idea why not trim down an already complex film so as to make it almost incomprehensible the most glaring consequence of this stupidity is a hopelessly jumpy narrative leaving us with badly underdeveloped characters thus their personalities are vague their motivations unclear and in the case of paul's father duke leto their demise rather meaningless the end result is a distinct chill we can't warm to most of the cast and we don't care much for them and it hardly helps that the narration is sparse and that the language and terminology sounds like so much gobbledegook to those unfamiliar with the book dune is also a very serous film the constant by various characters makes it so serious and at times that you may find it hard not to wince with embarrassment the overall impression is a world full of people so intense that no one is allowed a joke lest the universe come crashing down around them humour or at least a gentle kind of humour as distinct from the harkonnen's mad sadistic kind is hard to find you may balk at the comparison but as a writer lynch could well have done with some lessons from george lucus' star wars trilogy the theatrical version is still some way from being a complete disaster however it still possesses enough of lynch's stylistic quirks and enough visual invention to sustain the interest of viewers with a taste for imaginative special effects whiz carlo rambaldi's giant sandworms are an awesome sight both the production design anthony masters and costume design bob ringwood are striking and original and the magnificent score by toto and brian eno is one of the most underrated soundtracks of the last twenty years with these elements in place and the benefit of freddie francis' lush cinematography the film is at least a feast for the senses see it in the widescreen format if you can and despite all the cuts several cast members still make a strong impression most notably kenneth mcmillan as the supremely nasty baron vladimir harkonnen sian phillips also registers strongly as the reverend mother gaius helen mohiam leader of the bene gesserit religious order who's secret aim is to manipulate paul's destiny for its own shadowy ends as paul atreides the young kyle maclachlan starts off somewhat shakily but as his character grows in strength so does his performance and he emerges as a credible leader of the fremen crusade the conclusion any assessment of this film must take into account that frank herbert's original novel is a complex piece of work and presents a tough challenge for any filmmaker david lynch took a brave stab at it and partly due to forces beyond his control ended up with an officially released version that fails in several key respects dune certainly confused and frustrated a lot of people on its release many chose to stay away altogether as the film's disastrous box office showing attests the extended version however is a rather different beast in lynch stated his intention to release his own special edition director's cut of the film on home video a clear indication of his dissatisfaction with the version that ended up in the theatres but alas he failed to do so choosing to move on to other projects in a way then it is partly lynch's own fault that what appeared instead was an unauthorised extended version put together in by mca tv special projects for airing on cable networks in the usa stung into action lynch successfully petitioned the director's guild to take his name off the credits and replace it with allen smithee the standard pseudonym for directors who wish to disown their own work he also had the screenwriting credit changed to the anonymous judas booth certainly looking at the results of mca's handiwork there's at least half a dozen instances that for sheer technical sloppiness are good enough reasons for the director to object but these gripes must be considered in light of the improvements that the extended cut of dune offers in several crucial areas most of the changes involve the restoration or extension of cut scenes and the addition of extra narration both of which fill many holes in the original version's storyline paul's relationship with his father and associates is more intimate with moments of humour and warmth lacking previously the political skulduggery involving the emperor the spacing guild the bene gesserits and the two warring houses is far better explained paul's initiation into the fremen way of life on arrakis is also fleshed out considerably and as further background a new prologue has been added featuring narration and painted stills to give us a brief history of the dune universe as a piece of storytelling then mca tv's version of dune is clearly superior as a piece of editing however it is at times surprisingly inept the use of painted stills in the new prologue works well enough but their occasional appearance once the action begins is inappropriate there's some sloppy cutting too and in a few instances shots even appear out of order and the use of repeated footage to fabricate certain scenes eg ships coming and going soldiers coming and going is at times clearly this is the kind of thing to which lynch objected and rightly so it should also be noted that several questionable scenes and shots from the theatrical version were deleted to satisfy the censorship demands of u s television but the most notable omission is a gratuitous piece of nonsense from lynch that wasn't even in herbert's book the scene features baron harkonnen killing a beautiful young man in front of his slobbering henchmen by pulling out his heart plug its a surreal and disturbing episode that's very but adds nothing to what we already know the baron is a nasty piece of work despite its own peculiar flaws then the extended version of dune is a generally superior film all up it contains minutes of restored footage and approximately another minutes of either altered fabricated or newly created sequences unless the idiosyncratic lynch has a sudden change of heart the alan smithee version remains the closest we'll get to what the movie should have been on repeated viewings one suspects it is closer than what lynch would be prepared to admit still as one of this century's great novels some fans and perhaps the late herbert himself would argue that dune deserved a better fate in its transfer to the screen with rumours circulating of a new six hour planned by production company new amsterdam entertainment in it is unlikely that we have heard the last of the dune saga
negative	in many european intellectuals especially those on the left political hemisphere became obsessed with the rise of fascism which wasn't so hard to expect because the social turmoil of and economic decline of seemed to be the breeding ground for many dangerous ideologies in such times when political involvement could be associated with noble passion many filmmakers tried to warn the present generations of dangers that lurk ahead by giving the look of europe and circumstances that led to phenomena like fascist italy and nazi germany of course there were authors who jumped on the bandwagon for other less noble reasons for them moral depravity of fascism could be explained to the audience by explicitly showing sexual depravity of those era which naturally made some of those films very popular among teen audience one of such filmmakers was italian director tinto brass who later made career shooting expensive stylish soft porn salon kitty his film is very losely based on the novel by peter nordern book that deals with bizarre yet true story that took place in the first years of in walter schellenberg one of the heads of nazi intelligence service has set up the elite exclusive brothel in berlin with clientele comprised of top nazi officials and foreign diplomats none of the customers knew that the girls were all nazi agents and that all the rooms happened to be bugged the most bizarre thing is the fact that not even kitty nominal madame of the brothel didn't know the real purpose of that enterprise screenplay by tinto brass of course simplifies the story and changes few names schellenberg is now wallenberg helmut berger ambitious nazi official who wants to use the brothel in order to blackmail his way to the top kitty kellerman ingrid thulin apart from being madam has a second job as a cabaret singer caught in the net of depravity is sweet innocent girl margerithe theresa ann savoy thrown into brothel there she falls in love with customer hans reiter bekim fehmiu disenchanted pilot of luftwaffe when margerithe discovers that her lover had been executed for defeatist speeches he made in the brothel she finds out that the place is bugged she informs the madam of the real situation and both women decide to confront wallenberg those who tend to bash benigni for exploiting holocaust as the topic of comedy would probably go bananas watching this film that uses the darkest pages of european history for cheap sexploitation but although salon kitty doesn't happen to be anything more than rather more stylish and expensive soft porn although not very successful some of supposedly erotic scenes are quite unappealing it does try to have more multidimensional characters and even something resembling dramatic conflict this time between and scruples wallenberg and hedonistic womanhood symbolised by kitty unfortunately brass seems to overuse other cinematical references probably thinking that he could repeat the successful interaction of berger and thulin in luchino visconti's the damned but the most noticeable and irritating is ingrid thulin's unsuccessful attempt to imitate lisa minelli's musical numbers from cabaret all in all salon kitty is failure although with some very interesting moments
negative	dr dolittle century fox running time hour minutes starring eddie murphy directed by betty thomas riding high on the success of the nutty professor murphy returns in this abysmal comedy he plays doctor john dolittle who as a child had the ability to understand animals however after being he loses this ability and we fast forward to see dolittle in a crummy job surrounding by crummy people most notably dr mark weller played by oliver platt however with a bonk on the head his ability to understand animals returns and is ready and waiting to happen except comedy never does happen doctor dolittle even with the excellent premise rarely manages to raise a laugh poor old murphy looks bored stiff throughout the whole movie and his performance suffers the manic murphy we saw in the is gone his more mature and more boring twin appears to be getting all the work in the the voices of the animals which include albert brooks chris rock the eddie murphy and norm mcdonald as the dog are marginally better and at least they put enthusiasm in the movie sadly most of their lines are pretty dumb and they're not dumb like dumb dumber but just boring dumb the film even succumbs to fart jokes halfway through in a desperate attempt to raise some laughs there are a few good jokes in the script but they are few and far between if i had to choose a favourite performance it would probably be albert brooks tiger who has a certain charm about him sadly he's barely in the movie and rock's really annoying hamster is given far too much screen time joke wise we are thankfully spared the mocking and insulting type of jokes that featured heavily in the nutty professor the director betty thomas has well done better films she bought us private parts and the brady bunch movie which were sadly much better than this the scenes lack any charm she just gets the job done the animals themselves are reasonable realistic although most of them are obviously puppets there's an impressive looking tiger however and the lip sync is pretty good you'd have no problem guessing that most of the close up's are puppets however with their jilted movement i was hoping jim hensons workshop who created the furry friends would have done a better job doctor dolittle in the end is a disappointment for everyone involved murphy has done much better movies i e trading places the director has seen better days and even the creatures aren't that good the target audience aged between who are undemanding will probably like it however thanks to it's dumbed down humour everyone else however should give doctor dolittle a miss
negative	the general's daughter is a heartless absurd film a movie so hopelessly dedicated to its inane plot that it forgets entirely about its own characters director simon west treats issues like rape and sexual fetish with obscenity creating a film that banks almost entirely on exploitation and offensive what's worse is that the movie is haphazardly glued together by two characters who are neither interesting nor sympathetic the ridiculous story requires them to do unbelievable things in the interest of reaching a dark conclusion in a sudden rain storm john travolta finds himself in the middle of the mess playing warrant officer paul brenner brenner is assigned to find the murderer and rape of captain elizabeth campbell leslie stefanson daughter of general joe campbell james cromwell brenner is teamed up with sarah sunderland madeline stowe and they check out all the suspects on the base including elizabeth's mentor colonel moore james woods soon it becomes apparent that elizabeth was into kinky sexual stuff but the question comes down to why and of course who ebert's law of the economy of characters can be applied here one interesting thing i noted is that not only are all the characters suspects at some point including the two protagonists but almost all of them end up directly intertwined with the story perhaps i should have issued a spoiler alert before mentioning that but it's painfully obvious from the beginning that everyone in the film is hiding something on a story level the general's daughter is ineptly constructed the film adapted by christopher bertolini and william goldman from nelson demille's novel which was apparently based on a true story plods along to its conclusion filling in the blanks with stale unrealistic dialogue and shocking plot developments having not read the novel it's difficult to determine if these problems are the fault of the adapters or the original author but i suppose they all are guilty to some degree scene after scene stumbles with pointless insincerity minutes after finding the dead young woman brenner and sunderland engage in sarcastic dialogue which includes endless strings of forced lines sunderland actually asks brenner why was she killed to which i would have answered if i knew then the movie would already be over only after we've spent twenty minutes or so with these characters do we learn that they have a sordid history together this angle though apparently present to develop their characters is never explored not that it really matters since the characters consistently do ludicrous things for no other reason than to drive the plot in one scene sunderland is attacked by a man in a mask she sees one of his rings and she and brenner find the man later that day based on the ring instead of questioning him like as they would a real suspect they take him to brenner's houseboat beat him up and pour hot coffee in his lap this scene really pushed me over the edge not because it's gratuitous and but because it illustrates the film's complete disregard for the characters and the audience it was impossible for me to feel anything for these people beyond this scene mostly because nothing they do comes as a surprise i realized that these constructs on screen aren't actually characters but devices present only to serve the story this would have been bad enough without the west's need to hose his movie down in tasteless images of rape and sexual misconduct compelling films about sexual crimes don't spend a lot of time on rape flashbacks and they certainly don't show as much skin and sweat as a typical pornographic picture these scenes are not the least bit powerful on the contrary they're intended simply to provide the audience with the necessary resentment for the villain whomever that may turn out to be in addition the movie treats sexual fetishes and sadomasochism in particular as if it's a perversion of everything we know to be pure this standpoint is certainly allowed but only in accompaniment with themes to back it up as it is the film forgets that a lot of people have sexual fetishes and that putting on a pair of handcuffs does not make a person insane perhaps the only positive elements in the general's daughter are a couple of the performances james woods has a few terrific scenes and plays his role with sharp witty subtlety i also liked james cromwell mostly because he comes across as slightly sympathetic despite the obvious intent of west to make him villainous nonetheless these performances are undermined entirely by the dreary obligatory atmosphere and the senseless neglect of characterization the general's daughter is the worst kind of hollywood film it pretends to have a soul to be of strict moral code when in fact it has nothing more than a group of cardboard the audience a toxic landfill of plot contrivances and moral judgments
negative	disney's air bud tells a story with a twist the pooch is quite an accomplished basketball player granted for a family comedy it's not a very funny or successful idea to begin with but it doesn't seem to matter air bud is surprisingly solemn save for occasional moments of forced slapstick the movie wags its tale with a straight face not a very enjoyable approach if air bud had realized its own absurdity then it possibly could have been better here we're actually asked to cheer a moment when the dog marches out to save the big game clad in two pairs of sneakers and even a jersey its number  yeah whatever the movie opens as golden retriever buddy as himself escapes from his current owner abusive norm snively michael jeter he ends up in fernwell washington where mopey josh kevin zegers is trying to cope with the move and the recent death of his father buddy kevin kevin buddy once the dog proves his prowess kevin's rockets they both win places in the school's basketball team with the animal as their mascot but before they can make it to the finals snively surfaces to reclaim buddy everything plays out just as one would think heavy on predictability light on an actual story the movie follows a calculated chain of events kevin's gloom fades snively gets his comeuppance and buddy contracts rabies and must be executed old okay that last one's a lie but at least it would have been a quicker than air bud courtroom climax no joke there's even a musical montage where a reluctant buddy gets to splish splash paint cans are spilled and newspapers are buried all in the name of formula the end credits note that no special visual effects were used in the basketball sequences of this motion picture that very well may be true and although to see a dog sink shots is quite a sight a movie cannot exist on feat alone but air bud doesn't seem to be interested in anything else a friend of mine insists he saw buddy a while back on a segment of david letterman's stupid pet tricks i can't think of a more appropriate connection this movie is a stupid pet trick
negative	a few months before the release of star wars episode the phantom menace century fox decides to release another space film that is a complete rip off of star wars what is the point of this i do not know but i wish it hadn't been done considering wing commander is definitely the year's worst film so far to attract people to this horrible movie they attached the full trailer for the phantom menace wing commander will draw large crowds because this is the only film where you can find the phantom menace full trailer attached at this time the trailer for the phantom menace was certainly the best part of the movie experience i had tonight many people do not know that wing commander is based on a star wars computer game i found this very interesting considering this fact almost says that wing commander is a star wars movie it is nowhere near the level of the star wars films though freddie prinze jr stars in the film as christopher blair wing commander was a huge mistake for freddie this was definitely his worst performance to date after january's she's all that i actually saw a good actor in freddie but now all those visions have been crushed for now anyway christopher blair is a pilot who is a part of the battle to stop the kilrathi a group that is trying to destroy the earth blair's parents also fought in the space battles and also died there his parents were pilgrims so many people disrespect him because of this blair is under the command of angel played by saffron burrows and he is friends with another pilot todd maniac marshall played by matthew lillard matthew lillard seems to play the same role in every movie and he does in this one too his character as stu in scream was a great one but now it seems like that same role is being played again only in a space movie the three are just a small part of a large group trying to stop the kilrathi before they take over earth this plot is very flimsy and doesn't give a whole lot to work with at all this explains why wing commander drags on seeming like there is no point to any of the events that are going on the acting is horrible in wing commander many lines seem out of place and are completely meaningless the acting and dialogue was so terrible i even found myself laughing at it the other things which are very bad about wing commander are the special effects and the music the special effects are very unrealistic when looking at two ships flying side by side it is simple to tell they are hanging and a blue screen is behind them the explosions look very unrealistic as well a ship will be blown up but there will only be fire present four about one half of a second this is very unrealistic music pretty much accompanies the film the entire time the music also felt like video game music and it was very corny and annoying sounding after we are given the plot the film repeats itself for another hour without any plot twists interesting scenes or anything important to the film blair is forced to make jumps over other planets and he must also fight against the kilrathi aircraft for the entire length of the movie it takes place in space it is truly like you are in a video game because you are just watching people shoot at each other in ships for a long extended period of time it's not much fun to watch at all if i wanted to watch people shoot at each other in ships i would go watch star wars at home at least star wars pays attention to people myth feelings and has some real plot to it the bottom bring on the phantom menace century fox
negative	bad movies described as a swift descent into sinful pleasure decay and debauchery are hard to watch bad movies that resemble bad films are even harder to watch shadow hours falls into the latter category a train wreck of actors including michael dorn aka star trek's worf an uninteresting plot vain attempts at capitalizing on the underground scenes of seedy los angeles and really really bad directing and horrendous music ballistic editing that was taught to me in film school right before i decided to drop out the film revolves around the life of michael holloway balthazar getty who is trying to restart his life with his wife chloe rebecca gayheart after a nasty bout of drug and alcohol addictions michael takes a job of working the graveyard shift at the local gas station and is bombarded by the ugliness and weirdness of the nightlife of l a one night he meets a strange gent named stuart mr buckaroo banzai peter weller he drives a porsche smokes french cigarettes and drones on about life eventually coaxing mike into exploring the underbelly of l a together a tour of punk bars clubs and fights the film then throws in a murder mystery with a cop played peter greene acting like he wants to get the chance at a reprisal of his role in the mask the film then simply dissolves into a cheap of dante's inferno mixed with an old stephen j cannell television pilot the pace of the film is jarring and utterly without focus other horrors include the endless montages of people pumping gas and the charlie sheen johnny depp richard acting of balthazar getty peter weller clearly knows his career is completely gone and doesn't give two shits about it and after the cheap exploitation of bondage clubs dance clubs and brothels damn isn't anyone safe any more from the ugly eye of hollywood way back in a great but crazy director named abel ferrara made his worse film and called it fear city shadow hours reminds me of an almost perfect sequel isaac eaton producers peter alevey andrea mia shon greenblatt balthazar getty starring balthazar getty peter weller rebecca gayheart peter greene frederic forrest brad douriff michael dorn
negative	bruce willis needs to stay away from straightforward action pictures mercury rising adds to a growing list including such stinkers as the jackal last man standing striking distance and the last boy scout of stale actioners he has headlined and though mercury rising tries to spice things up by throwing an autistic kid in the mix it is every bit as stale art jeffries bruce willis is your typical tormented fbi agent you know the type haunted by his job yet so good at what he does that even physically assaulting another agent merely gets him a slap on the wrist enter simon miko hughes an autistic boy who like rain man and all other autistic people is a savant he can merely gaze at a message and while little computer beeps go off in his head he can understand what it says naturally this talent has brought him to the attention of the federal government lt col nicholas kudrow alec baldwin an nsa official bubbling over with evil has spent countless time and money implementing the newest unbreakable code mercury however when two of his underlings robert stanton and bodhi pine elfman publish a message in a puzzle magazine as a final test of its effectiveness simon cracks the code naturally this infuriates kudrow who sends a hitman l l ginter to eliminate the security hazard and that's where art jeffries comes in for some reason that's never explained in the film the fbi is called in to help and through a series of intricate machinations art becomes the sole protector of the young autistic boy in a few unrealistic sequences he enlists the aid of a stranger stacey kim dickens to help out but she is given very little to do overall the central concept behind mercury rising is ludicrous why bother trying to kill the kid i mean who would know it's not like the kid or anyone else for that matter knew he was cracking a government and even if he is eliminated what does that help he's already proven that mercury can be broken there's always the chance that someone else would crack it but i guess without a kid in jeopardy there's not much of a movie here for all its faults the film actually starts relatively well once you pass the painfully familiar teaser the film flirts with developing real characters and a semblance of a plot then mr terminator the hitman appears and everything begins going downhill quickly miko hughes does a decent job for his age at creating a touching performance however don't go to this film looking for any new insights into autism not that many people will instead he merely becomes the latest unique partner in a routine movie think cop and a half with a twist willis and baldwin are just overplaying to type rather than creating a nuanced character baldwin simply oozes sliminess and for willis' part he simply recycles the stock role of the loner agent which he has honed in the die hard series as almost an afterthought about halfway through the film carelessly gives him a character trait an addiction and then drops it in the next scene but the biggest problem with mercury rising is the screenplay this film wasn't well thought out at all the film goes to extraordinary lengths to pad in as many convenient coincidences as possible the carbon paper scene alone is unworthy of the most gullible audience member at first the bad scenes just trickle in but by the gruesomely bad finale they're a veritable flood the film's few decent moments come in the form of bad jokes mainly from the geeks who developed the supercode but they're not nearly enough to make the film worthwhile mercury rising is a thriller that you're more likely to groan at than cheer
negative	capsule godawful comedy that's amazingly shabby and and rather bereft of laughs i was having a bad week in my life when i saw austin powers international man of mystery i desperately needed something to cheer me up or at least distract me so i could get a clear head get some perspective even dumb movies can do that for me sometimes i tried hard not to let my dejection affect my judgment but i am certain now that austin powers would have also sucked rocks through bamboo shoots on the day i won the lottery michael myers has taken a character that would barely have supported a sketch on saturday night live and stretched it to the length of a feature film padding it out with toilet jokes and the sort of gags that benny hill got tired of fifteen years ago the plot what little there is of it back in the swinging mod hep sixties i don't think i'm doing a disservice to the movie's attempted early look and feel by describing it that way sexy british secret agent austin powers tangled with his nemesis dr evil evil launched himself into orbit and cryogenically forze himself to return decades later when powers was out of the picture powers also had himself frozen and he wakes up to find the nineties a very hard time to deal with the basic gag that of powers' total inability to cope with the nineties is not so much exhausted during the course of the movie as never even really dealt with the bulk of the movie is taken up with dumb jokes of several basic rubrics james bond gags of which this movie has no end right down to the silly character names inept slapstick toilet humor and strategically placed props the movie's amazingly bereft of ideas come to think of it with a couple of bright exceptions one is dr evil's son there is a sidesplitting scene where father and son go to an encounter group chaired by carrie fisher and the other is a throwaway gag where austin mimics various forms of transportation from behind a couch it's a visual gag hard to describe and hard to recommend seeing the movie for a lot of sixties kitsch has been resurrected and thrown on the screen for this movie but it's desperate rather than clever instead of skewering the whole thing it's a rather bloodless and unfunny tribute myers himself is also desperate he's given an idea to play not a character plus the attempts to make the character work by giving him a relationship with another sexy albeit nineties agent are a waste of time i wanted to have the movie end with him trying yet again to get it on with her only to have her deck him one with a couple of exceptions the movie misses all of its own best moments the movie even looks cheesy and not in a good way i kept wondering if it had been transferred down from video or something so grainy was the film stock in a good many scenes the whole thing has the air of being done on the cheap my definition of comedy is simply did it make me laugh the few times that i laughed in austin powers were completely offset by the time i spent cringing and wanting out the most damning thing i could say about the movie is that wayne and garth would most likely have shoved it into mike tyson's shorts and sent it sailing
negative	battlefield earth is the worst film of and i guarantee you that nothing else this year will even come close in fact i'll be surprised if i see anything this bad in the next ten years based on the novel by scientology guru l ron hubbard battlefield earth begins and we immediately find out two pieces of key information it's the year and an alien race called the psychlos which sounds like a tag team of mexican wrestlers conquered our planet in nine minutes ok we are all of seconds in and i have a zillion questions racing through my mind when were we conquered the audience is led to believe that this happened about years earlier and if that is the case then we're going to get into a whole bunch of problems later trust me keep reading also why don't we get to see earth get conquered how the hell do you make a popcorn flick and not deliver the goods on the one event that sets up the film humans now live as cavemen or slave labor and for the film's first act we focus on one particular cavemen group outside of denver colorado they grunt and groan and babble about monsters so when the psychlos conquered earth were the only humans not captured a herd of newborn babies that crawled their way to safety in the hills none of these characters have any knowledge of the planet being conquered whenever that was this is definitely not the way to start an film one of the humans wanders out into the wilderness and stumbles across what he thinks is a monster and he begins to fight it the monster turns out to be a dinosaur from an old miniature golf course he turns around and sees all sorts of other characters from the golf course with some shrubs growing over them so in years this stupid little golf course has stood the test of time with only a few weeds growing over it anyway some of the humans are captured by the psychlos led by terl john travolta a smarmy and opportunistic alien planning on stealing a recently discovered gold deposit the cavemen led by barry pepper are forced to do their bidding or whatever but eventually they gain the upper hand and reclaim the planet or something so these cavemen are able to do what earth failed to do years earlier and we're supposed to believe that earth was conquered in nine minutes by a group of buffoonish aliens who can't even handle a few cavemen one of the ways the humans reclaim the planet is by taking control of abandoned air force jets and using them to fight the psychlos so jets left unattended for years are still able to fly please if i leave my car unattended for two weeks i have to replace every fluid and hose under the hood why did the psychlos leave jets around anyway shouldn't they have destroyed military installations during their massive nine minute campaign against us the psychlos refer to humans as man animals but yet dogs are still dogs why aren't they dog animals the psychlos are after mining earth's precious resources but for years are unaware of fort knox why do i even care at this point i'm a fan of travolta's and i'm glad to see he's back on the in hollywood despite the fact that he occasionally puts out crowd pleasing dreck like michael and phenomenon but how did he possibly think this was a good movie and how did he think he was giving a good performance here he's more than capable of making a menacing villain see broken arrow and but whenever his character came on screen i couldn't hold back my laughter now despite the different facial features members of this alien race seem to have travolta just looks like travolta all of the other aliens have weird foreheads or other pointy bones on their face but travolta just has a goatee also travolta's acts with a sort of phony snooty accent and constantly whines about bureaucratic nonsense back on his home world ooooo scary villain as a producer he should know better and as an actor he should definitely know better you can make a dumb but good film i love independence day for example but there is absolutely nothing entertaining about battlefield earth i did everything i possibly could to stay awake during the screening i cleaned my glasses walked around the theater made a grocery list chose my lottery numbers for the week replayed super bowl xxv in my head with commercials and still was compelled to scrutinize the insides of my eyelids by the time we actually reach the year people should still be avoiding this film folks save your cash don't go see it don't rent it and don't buy it you'd be more entertained by taking the money you'd use for this movie and just throwing it into the wind watching it sail away hell send it to us here at the jacksonville film journal we'll entertain you plenty with that kind of money unless of course you're just captivated by countless slow motion shots of barry pepper running which is just about all you'll come away with from this movie that and a headache note for some reason though the day after my screening i converted to scientology i'm not sure why something just made me feel compelled make the choice
negative	jet li busted onto the american action movie scene when he stole the show in lethal weapon with his wicked looks his nasty moves and his undeniable charisma it only took another two years for joel silver to set him up in an movie primed to take over some of the empty seats left by alleged van damme and that pudgy guy named steven seagal would this film take li past his rival asian action counterparts namely chow and jackie chan let's find out plot rival chinese and black gangster organizations fall further out of favor from one another when members of their respective families start turning up dead that's when badass jet li blasts into the picture to find out who the men were behind his brother's death and to exact some of his own style of revenge critique three words not enough action simple enough not enough hong kong kickass jet li action to compensate for a horribly predictable screenplay bad actors crappy dialogue and many melodramatic moments and a romance angle why one must ask why i love fight scenes and i really dig jet li too but this little ditty barely contained three memorable action sequences and jet well the poor dude was barely in the movie and i thought this was supposed to be his big break how giving the slickster some more opportunities to show us his fighting chops slap him in a few more scenes and give him more chances to practice his abilities what a letdown even black mask was more entertaining than this glossed up empty shell of a film in fact i am sure that more time was spent gathering the hits for the soundtrack of this film than were on the screenplay i felt like i was watching a soundtrack rather than a movie most of the time the sad part about the bad script is that it wouldn't matter so much if the film actually had some decent actors spouting out the tacky lines but no save lindo and aaliyah who weren't too shabby i thought the rest of the cast was picked primarily from their inability to deliver lines convincingly and what was the deal with the whole nfl franchise deal run by some old looking guy acting like he's the overlord of a drug ring what a mess then again i don't want it to seem like i'm complaining solely about the story which was completely foreseeable since we all go to see these movies for the action anyway not the story well i guess that's what disappointed me the most out of this film there were a couple of cool fight scenes with li but simply not enough to satisfy my overall craving also as much as i love the way they incorporate wires and special effects in some of their stunts a couple of the exaggerated fight scenes were simply too obvious a stunt it should be seamless fellas not necessarily against the laws of gravity the one cool thing that was original in the movie was the way in which the director showed us some of the inside cracklings of the human body when penetrated by a blow but that simple creative touch couldn't save the rest of this film's uninteresting plot movements i'm disappointed for jet li that this film didn't give him the real opportunity to star in a good story with many great action scenes hopefully the next time will be a charm for this charismatic actor for now i just hope that for his sake the film's title isn't a premonition of the movie's ultimate fate at the
negative	one night during a torrential downpour that flooded the streets we went to see what else hard rain so are we all going to die the sheriff randy quaid asks in the story's opening line as he evacuates his flooded town the answer is pretty much yes but not nearly soon enough and to add insult to injury the supposedly dead regretfully often turn out not to be so populating this bad material are a host of talented actors one can only hope they were rewarded handsomely for acting in this hopelessly muddled picture besides the obvious hardships of acting most scenes while dog paddling in the water they will all receive black marks on their records for appearing in this dismal movie graham yost's script serves up one cliche after another for the actors who thankfully managed to mumble quite a few of the lines director mikael salomon's staging is so confusing that you may have trouble figuring out what is happening the befuddled presentation is exacerbated by peter menzies jr dark and ugly cinematography the plot concerns an armored car that gets stuck in the raging water onboard are guards tom and his uncle charlie christian slater who is much better in his tender roles as in untamed heart plays tom edward asner drops by briefly to take on the role of the soon to be dead charlie coming to their rescue is a gang headed by jim played on autopilot by the great actor morgan freeman he views the loot three million dollars worth as his retirement plan the entire movie is one big watery chase with the sheriff and his posse tracking jim and his gang who are in turn after tom along the way tom picks up a love interest in the person of a wielding woman named karen played in a totally wasted performance by minnie driver the action sequences are repetitive and without much interest they do feature lots of explosions and gunfire to keep you awake christopher young's emotionless score for the film has a single trait loudness the plot holes are as big as the ones in the dam that breaks submerging the town the characters have an infinite number of bullets and rarely do they have to bother reloading their guns the weapons and the ammunition spend most of the time under water or being rained on but always fire perfectly when one of the bad guys drops a gun into the water it stays in the same place until much later when tom swims to get it even though the swift water is so strong it is uprooting large trees counting these improbabilities is one of the more enjoyable ways to spend your time as you wait for the characters to kill each other the show has a single but unprintable good line betty white plays an incessantly bossy wife and when her husband finally told her off our audience roared with laughter the show concludes with a sickening set of twists the best that can be said of the picture is that it is merely stupefyingly awful as opposed to laughably bad hard rain runs it is rated r for violence and would be fine for teenagers the two families behind us shockingly had a preschoolers among them
negative	it was with a huge lack of something to do that i decided to watch this on good old upn on sunday afternoon when the only good things on tv are the movies they show some are good they showed total recall before this one if you know me i think seagal is probably the most boring action star to ever live and this includes keanu reeves what do i hate about seagal i hate how he uses one facial expression for every single threatening and situation the squint i hate those scenes in every movie where he goes around bullying people up saying stupid lines with a brooklyn accent more fake than burt reynold's hairpiece in boogie nights i despise how he never gets a bruise in any of his fights i hate how every single plot twist leads to just a melodramatic fight between he and the chief villain i hate his messages in the beginning of this one he slaps on a quote from arthur miller which has nothing to do with the film except it's about brooklyn where this film takes place and i hate how he's so narcissistic that he thinks that he can actually fucking sing during the end credits he has a good old hill billy rock tune sung and penned by him sure the guy's probably a nice guy in person i actually found him very when he was on letterman not too long ago but the guy makes worse films than reagan did so what's the plot of this well something about him trying to catch a crook william forsythe who shot and killed his partner in broad daylight i couldn't believe how bad this scene was the guy was conveniently with his family so we get the maximum emotional effect ahem and forsythe even said some stupid lines to him before he took off i'm sorry did anyone ever hear of concealing one's self so in comes seagal who dedicates his life to catching this guy and i just wished he had caught him in the beginning then ended the film but noooo this drags on as he bullies forsythe's family members including a stupid and none other than gina gershon as his other sister and forsythe more than once threatens his family at one point he actually comes to their house and stalks them like a nicholson in the shining complete with them all hiding in the bathroom but with an added bonus of one girl conveniently loosing her cool and screaming to give them away seagal paints himself as a lovable person with a son and a fiancee he even shows him hanging with his son checking up on his homework and then about to take him out for a bit of catch when he's conveniently called away on assignment i dunno about you but playing catch with seagal was one of my childhood nightmares he also shows him as that he wants to be with scenes of him bullying crooks around and taking out people who are stupid enough to attack him even after he's unarmed a chinese guy swinging bats with a pool cue serves them right this film as some of his do has an interesting supporting cast of actors who are actually talented but don't appear to be in this film i already mentioned gina gershon who's pretty horrible in this one as well as william forsythe who terribly i know this guy can act he was awesome in raising arizona as goodman's partner in crime but he's just awful here jerry orbach gives the only credible performance in the film as the police chief who checks up on segal after things have gone down why is he the only one who gives a good performance well because his role is small enough and sporadic enough to not tarnish his credibility he seems to be in here just to give it a cool law and order feeling even if it's not a cool feeling and in cameos are stars shannon whirry as terry malloy which is more of a bad joke than a clever one and athena massey oh and er julliana margiulles has two scenes out for justice just proves once again that american action films just suck i know that there's such a good thing as good action he's called john woo but if you're in the mood for some good old action don't bother watching this it's so stupid that it's boring
negative	vampires starts out almost in the style of a spaghetti western with an attack on a small homestead in new mexico the house has a nest of vampires and jack crow james woods is leading a team of vampire hunters in to clean them out while the initial imagery is a little it gives way to what is a fairly decent action sequence that is enough action to last us a while and we could director john carpenter would let us get to a story line but it is not very long and there is not much plot until the next big action scene then there is only a bit more of plot before the next action scene after that the plot is kept to a minimum and the interesting ideas in the plot really get the short end and that is something of a pity because the film based on the book by john steakley gives us a myth for the origins of vampires and explains why vampires are so intertwined with religious imagery this could be an interesting departure from the standard vampire film but carpenter decides to tell us about it rather than to show it what carpenter saves his serious screen time for a sequence of spectacular fights between hunters and vampires there is a lot of fighting and lots of gore anything intriguing is kept to a minimum to so it does not get in the way of pleasing the action film fans this has not always been carpenter's style his version of the thing has action but also challenges the viewer to do a little thinking about the film's central science fictional question jack crow heads a vampire swat team cleaning up nests of vampires with spears and crossbows in the early part of the film his team is wiped out by a particularly mean vampire valek thomas ian griffith who has been tipped off to who crow is now crow team is gone and he is down to himself and his sidekick tony montoya daniel baldwin to make matters worse he does not know the people on his own side tony and his backers he can trust meanwhile jack is sure the vampires are looking for something that must be hidden somewhere here in new mexico if this is sounding like a very tired police corruption plot with a few obvious substitutions that's exactly what it is the same story looks just as well with two partner cops looking for a gang of hood who are themselves looking for a packet of heroin but carpenter goes against a familiar principle of film show people don't tell them just about everything in the plot other than the fights we are told about in the dialog and not shown fundamental questions in the plot like where does crow get his funding why are the vampires in new do they want and why do they want it what is the connection of the vampires and the catholic church how did crow come to be a vampire hunter and why devote his life to it the answers to any of these questions could have been dramatized but instead are revealed through dialog now if all this was not bad enough carpenter misuses the james wood persona woods plays a particular sort of cool lowlife very well but carpenter leads off the film by having woods do some style mythic posturing while his crew prepares for an attack he stands staring fixedly through shades at the house that will be his target woods does not work as a larger than life mythic hero that is not his style and it just does not work very well there are some simple things that carpenter should be looking for as director that he misses in one scene we are looking at a motel room with dead people on the floor one female corpse is on the floor in front of a chair so that there is about an inch of daylight between her and the chair as the actress breathes the gap widening and narrowing makes it obvious her arm is moving up and down one also wonders how the existence of vampires is kept secret these vampires do not maintain a low profile there are arguably logical flaws in the film there is some question in my mind whether carpenter has a consistent policy on what effect bullets have on vampires it would take some rationalization to explain why in some scenes sunlight has a dramatic effect on vampires yet in a scene toward the end a vampire can walk under a burned roof that lets him be swept by beams of sunlight i suspect that the book on which this film was based was better thought out while i might recommend this film to an action audience i would say that what i look for in a vampire film vampires rates a on the to scale and a on the to scale perhaps i will read the book
negative	when considering david fincher's latest film the game four words come to mind don't believe the hype this michael douglas vehicle from the director of seven isn't nearly as clever or innovatively suspenseful as it would have us believe the film draws us in with an intriguing concept aided no doubt by the riveting trailer where a jaded millionaire douglas is presented with the opportunity to enter into a living fantasy this isn't simply virtual reality this is real life with a deadly twist on his birthday nicholas van orton douglas is invited to dinner by his underachieving younger brother conrad sean penn conrad has a special birthday present for his brother he hands nicholas a gift certificate and tells him to contact a company called consumer recreation services they make your life fun conrad tells him nicholas humors his brother telling him he'll call but it's clear he has no time for any foolish fantasy as he calls it then for reasons that are never really made clear nicholas decides to go to crs and see what they're all about he ends up spending a whole day going through their screening process which to me made no sense considering the tight schedule he keeps claiming to have nevertheless when it seems nicholas has been rejected as a crs client the weird things start happening of course when we've only covered about minutes of screen time what else should we expect douglas has built his modern career around playing powerful violent and unlikable men being manipulated by unseen hands one of those films basic instinct came from the creative minds of writer joe eszterhas and director paul verhoeven the premise of the game is not unlike the concept of another verhoeven film total recall in that case the premise was implanting someone else's memories as a way to enhance one's own life through a dream vacation yet in both films the real goal is to create a vicarious bond with the audience we live the adventure along with the protagonist reacting to each twist and turn in theory the key to the suspense is not being to tell what is real and what isn't all we can do is hang on until the end of the ride when the truth is finally revealed now for those of you who forgot let me say this again don't believe the hype the game is not a thrilling roller coaster ride as a it doesn't do much but spin in circles by the third reel i was fighting back sleep and checking my watch as i endured the predictable plot is it any wonder douglas won't be able to resist the charms of a mysterious potentially blonde ever heard of glenn close no well how about sharon stone thought so if anything in this film surprises you at all i would guess you haven't seen that many films there is no suspense here trust me i looked hard to find some i had to settle for contrived gimmicks and ridiculously implausible situations fincher aim's for hitchcock but lands somewhere just north of joe eszterhas there are those that might say the game is not intended to be viewed literally i would submit that is exactly the way i tried to view the film the film simply does not have the teeth to bite into any real psychological issues there is a moment early in the film where van orton realizing his game has begun smiles as he walks through the airport trying to figure out who's in on the whole thing he is charged by his paranoia he is looking at the world through new eyes it is the last moment in the film from there on the director only wants to stay a step ahead of us any significant archetype that is set up in the beginning of the film is simply turned into a plot device at the outset we're told each game is tailored to the individual ultimately this game is supposed to work like a crucible trying this obscenely wealthy and emotionally detached aristocrat by fire proving his soul yet as douglas endures his personal gauntlet we're given very few pieces of the puzzle to illuminate us on who this man really is i wanted to like this film more than i did i look at it as just anothergreat idea poorly realized i can think of at least two other superior films where watching the film didn't mean we were seeing what was really happening bryan singer's the usual suspects for one a film that was truly unique in its ability to get you lost in the details before pulling back to show you the full masterpiece on the canvas also there is the underrated jacob's ladder with tim robbins a film that really has to be watched twice before you recognize the significance of all its symbolism here are two examples of films that don't simply manipulate for manipulations' sake there are films that use their labyrinth structure to lead us to a meaningful place one major issue that comes up in the game is whether or not the whole illusion is just a highly sophisticated con game well i can tell you right now after you've spent your dollars you may be asking yourself the same thing
negative	weighed down by tired plot lines and spielberg's reliance on formulas private is a mediocre film which nods in the direction of realism before descending into an abyss of cliches there ought to be a law against steven spielberg making movies about truly serious topics spielberg's greatest strength as a director is the polished formulaic way in which every aspect of the film falls carefully into place to make a perfect story but for a topic of such weight as combat in the second world war or the holocaust this technique backfires for it creates coherent comprehensible and redemptive narratives out of events whose size complexity and evil are utterly beyond the reach of human ken in this way spielberg trivializes the awesome evil of the stories he films private tells the story of eight men who have been detailed on a pr mission to pull a young man ryan whose three other brothers were just killed in fighting elsewhere out of combat on the normandy front just after ryan is a paratrooper who dropped behind enemy lines the night before the landings and became separated from his fellow soldiers the search for him takes the eight soldiers across the hellish terrain of world war ii combat in france there's no denying spielberg came within shouting distance of making a great war movie the equipment uniforms and weapons are superbly done the opening sequence in which captain miller tom hanks leads his men onto omaha beach is quite possibly the closest anyone has come to actually capturing the unendurably savage intensity of modern infantry combat another pleasing aspect of the film is spielberg's brave depiction of scenes largely unknown to american audiences such as the shooting of prisoners by allied soldiers the banality of death in combat the routine in the execution of the war and the cynicism of the troops the technical side of the film is peerless as always the camera work is magnificent the pacing perfect the sets convincing the directing without flaw hanks will no doubt be nominated for an oscar for his performance which was utterly convincing and the supporting cast was excellent though ted danson seems a mite out of place as a paratroop colonel yet the attempt at a realistic depiction of combat falls flat on its face because realism is not something which can be represented by single instances or events it has to thoroughly permeate the context at every level of the film or the story fails to convince throughout the movie spielberg repeatedly showed only single examples of the grotesque wounds produced by modern mechanized devices exception men are shown burning to death with relative frequency for example we see only one man with guts spilled out on the ground here and there men lose limbs in one scene miller is pulling a man to safety there's an explosion and miller looks back to see he is only pulling half a man but the rest of the corpses are remarkably intact there are no shoes with only feet in them no limbs scattered everywhere no torsos without limbs no charred corpses and most importantly all corpses have heads in fairness there are a smattering of wicked head wounds the relentless dehumanization of the war in which even corpses failed to retain any indentity is in the film ultimately private bows to both hollywood convention and the unwritten rules of wartime photography in its portrayal of wounds and death in war rather than saying private is realistic it would be better to describe it as having realistic moments another aspect of the hollywoodization of the war is the lack of realistic dialogue and in particular the lack of swearing anyone familiar with the literature on the behavior of the men during the war such as fussell's superb understanding and behavior in the second world which has an extensive discussion on swearing knows that the troops swore fluently and without letup who is this private ryan that we have to die for him asks one infantrymen in the group of eight rendered in wartime demotic that should have been expressed as who is this little pecker that we have to get our dicks shot off for him or some variant thereof conversations should have been literally sprinkled with the f word and largely about the search for food and sex this is all the more inexplicable because the movie already had an r rating due to violence so swearing could not possibly have been eliminated to make it a family film however the most troubling aspect of the film is the spielbergization of the topic the most intense hell humans have ever created for themselves is not emotionally wrenching enough for steven spielberg he cannot just cede control to the material he has to be bigger than it as if afraid to let the viewer find their own perhaps unsettled and not entirely clear emotional foothold in the material spielberg has to package it in hallmark moments to give the war a meaning and coherence it never had the opening and closing scenes of ryan and his family in the war cemetary reminscent of the closing scene from list the saccharine exchange between ryan and his wife at the close every bit as bad as schindler's monologue about how his car tiepin or ring could have saved another jew quotes from abraham lincoln and emerson captain miller's last words to private ryan and an unbelievable storyline in which a prisoner whom they free earlier in the movie comes back to kill the captain that particular subplot is so hokey so predictable it nigh on ruins the film nowhere in the film is there a resolute depiction of the meaninglessness stupidity and waste which characterized the experience of war to the men who actually fought in combat imagine if miller had been killed by friendly fire or collateral damage because of its failure to mine deeply into the terrible realities of world war ii private can only pan for small truths in the shallows 
negative	if you're going to make a hollywood why bother releasing it to the general public if you're going to create a film that will appeal primarily to actors and people who know woody allen then why waste the time of the rest of us peons by playing it in theaters while watching celebrity i realized that allen had only marginal interest in creating a story about real people what he really wanted to do was continue on his recent kick of conceited celebrity is yet another film in which allen tells a story about himself living in a world that he's familiar with dealing with people like the ones he actually knows allen recruited poor kenneth branagh to bumble through this picture in an imitation of allen so perfect that it almost made me like the film more branagh plays lee simon a who divorces his wife robin judy davis shacks up with some hot women famke janssen charlize theron winona ryder and goes about trying to get big stars melanie griffith leonardo dicaprio to read his script about an armored car robbery the usual elements of recent allen films are all here including the sexual insecurity of the main character lots of women and a tiring continuum of episodes that are only loosely related to one another unless you work in the film industry or know woody allen personally it's not likely that you'll find a whole lot of interest in celebrity aside from all the the story falls far short of compelling and the characters are all empty and lifeless branagh proves once again that he's a superb performer nailing his imitation of allen flawlessly the problem is that he's the same character allen always plays a character who's getting more than a little dull to watch i mean come on how many times have you seen this guy he hates his work and he can't be satisfied by any one woman and at the end of the movie nothing has been solved he brings all of his problems upon himself crashing his car because he's receiving fellatio and other such stunts so it's pretty hard to care about him in addition isn't allen capable of creating characters who aren't just like him i know he is but he didn't do it in celebrity the vacant emotional attachment with the main character is not recaptured in the supporting performances davis playing the same woman with low that she played in deconstructing harry has a few touching moments but ends up the same despicable that fills the rest of the movie some of the actresses are saved because of their beauty theron and ryder especially but they're not likable people only famke janssen as a book editor interested in simon's new novel has any life the men in the picture don't do much better joe mantegna is pretty dull as the man who remarries robin while dicaprio as a christian spoiled young actor is funny but disengaging what's really insulting about celebrity is how dull and standard its themes are allen seems to think that he's making an insightful movie about the way normal people look at celebrities the main problem with this is that the character with whom we're supposed to identify simon is not a normal guy he's just as entrenched in the hollywood image as the rest of the characters the other problem is that the image we get of these celebrities is no more enlightening than the view the media gives us none of them register as realistic interesting characters they mostly just function as set pieces for boring dialogue in addition allen decides he needs a scene in which the theme is expressed explicitly robin in this scene says something like it's interesting to see the way we all look at the people we celebrate celebrity is arguably allen's biggest misfire to date it does have a few good scenes theron's model character is kind of funny and the last scene might have been moving had the rest of the film shown us a character or two but celebrity is a failure at the core unless allen's point was to make a movie about himself and his friends if he wanted to make his audience feel like they were on the outside of a big joke then he succeeded in that i for one don't enjoy feeling like an outsider
negative	it used to be that not just anyone could become a vampire usually you had to be an aristocrat a count such as dracula or karnstein to qualify you'd have to have a modicum of sophistication so you'd at least look cool or suave when biting into some young damsel's throat but today in our overly politically correct world any unshaven lout or any harridans can put the bite on you by the same token to be a vampire hunter one had to have some sort of medical training and knowledge of the occult or maybe perhaps be some sort of professional soldier or at least one who retired with honors not in these times all you need are some sharp weapons some bullets forged from silver and any yahoo can be a buffy or a blade without sounding elitist the fear of vampires has greatly diminished because of this lack of exclusivity which brings us to blade the latest in a long line of vampire movies in which it seems half the population is putting the bite on the other half not only are there thousands of vampires but they seem to move from city to city pay off police departments and most importantly establish their own exclusive raves in which the highlight is the sprinkler system going off and dousing all the occupants in a blood shower with all that blood you wonder why they have to hunt for victims you also wonder when they get the time to get their clothes and why no cleaner ever complains about all the bloodstains blade which is based on a marvel comic book character is like a comic book all visual the plot is basically blade repetitiously slashing his way through the vampire army seeking their leader deacon frost it's all hokum and nonsense of course but the filmmakers play it straight unfortunately at least at the advance screening i attended the audience didn't see it that way and laughed through much of the proceedings you know a movie is in trouble when the scenes of blood and gore that should elicit screams of fright instead evoke peels of laughter another sign is when the audience seems to be admiring the hero's costume more than the hero also it seems it's not enough for today's vampire merely to have fangs he must also be proficient in the martial arts why a supernatural being one of the undead needs such skills is beyond me of course this concept dates to the hammer run shaw production of legend of the seven golden vampires in which dracula is defeated by seven siblings wesley snipes is buff as blade he growls his lines few he has and spends most of the time glowering as if he was suffering from indigestion or having second thoughts about starring in and this turkey blade is just another example of how the vampire film a once honorable member of the horror family has gone downhill this dud mostly makes you yearn for those quaint old days when christopher lee could be stopped just by dangling a crucifix in his face today's vampires lack the panache the style of a bela lugosi or a christopher lee they are not even worthy enough to carry those great bloodsuckers' capes they are more farcical than frightful this whole enterprise is one dull blade that could have used lots of sharpening
negative	hav plenty as we are told in the beginning and reminded during the film is a true story life itself is a series of true stories but most are not movie material as scripted directed and acted by cinematic newcomer christopher scott cherot hav plenty limps along at best its dialog is so stilted you know what they say women no cry that the actors are content to read the screenplay rather than invest much energy in trying to act it in the story lee plenty cherot is a author and teaching assistant the movie which happens mainly over the new year's holiday consists of a series of incidents in which various single and married women try to kiss lee or take him to bed since he consistently refuses caroline gooden tammi katherine jones figures that he must be gay eventually he and havilland hav savage chenoa maxwell get together proving that he wasn't gay after all just picky sexy women can sit on his lap and ask him to go to bed with them but he will not even kiss them he's a man who knows his mind which he frequently shares directly with the audience in a series of trite and overly cute monologues filled with wealthy the story is closest in tone to love jones which was better hav plenty's story doesn't go anywhere at the end it subjects us to lee plenty's new film which is a movie of the movie we've just seen but with even worse acting remember folks that as outrageous as this all seems this is a true story hav tells the camera but the problem is that it's not outrageous at all or even the least bit interesting hav plenty isn't so much a bad film as it is a total waste of the audience's time hav plenty runs it is rated r for profanity and would be fine for most teenagers
negative	it seems that i've stopped enjoying movies that should be fun to watch take payback for example a movie that most people seem to like however it's horrible schlock straight out of hollywood's vast talent for sucking creativity out of movies it was written and directed by a guy who should have done better however maybe he did do better after all percent of the movie isn't his own mel gibson that hollywood zombie decided he didn't like the ending and had another director reshoot it what a crock if you sign on to do a movie then do it the way the script calls for why film a movie and then look at it later and say no i changed my mind i don't like the ending you're fired let's get someone else to do it i suppose honor is dead in hollywood the end of the film is of course hollywoodized which is to say that it's happy and the guy you root for beats impossible odds to win his prize in this case as is most victories in hollywood movies gibson's prize is a blond and money i miss originality in film i really do i think audiences are so starved for it that they'll flop down a lot of money in hopes that a movie will be original payback's tagline get ready to root for the bad guy promised an original idea but it was far from the truth while gibson's character certainly broke the law he was a character that had honor odd that gibson himself seems to have very little of it wouldn't kill in front of children and protects his blond woman there's nothing bad about him he's a hollywood character a person who could never exist in real life and gibson knows it he spends his time trying to act like a bad guy and instead comes off as pretentious and arrogant the story involves gibson being by his partner who is a real bad guy which made me wish that we could root for him over gibson recovers from multiple gunshots is pissed naturally and will do whatever it takes to get the exact amount of money back no more no less he makes a point of it that it's strictly grand a real bad guy would have made his pay interest this idea is completely stretched out gibson ends up going after his partner and the chicago mafia that his partner is affiliated with what i didn't understand this is the chicago mafia is like spare change to them they'd probably just pay the guy rather than go through the trouble of dealing with him i think they'd respect a guy going through this much trouble for a simple maybe i'm being too hard on the movie perhaps the filmmakers were just trying to make a simple popcorn movie i read roger ebert's review and he liked gibson in the role because he is a comic at heart playing a bad guy that's why we're allowed to root for him and it's true gibson walks the movie as if he's smiling at a joke he just heard but he's wrong here i wanted a lee marvin or clint eastwood or somebody who wasn't a comic just an ass kicker as a side note i've just checked the internet movie database and discovered that i am the person to post a newsgroup review of payback after this many reviews why would anyone want to read this really i don't care i'm just trying to gain membership into the film critics society by posting as many reviews as i can
negative	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned quick robin the repellant adam west in the batman feature film casually kicking at a rubber shark attached to his leg i had never thought that an entry in the modern incarnation of the batman feature film would approach this level of campiness but in many instances batman and robin nears and at some point even exceeds this standard this is a disasterously bad film easily the worst in the series to date and fairly epitomizes a cinematic definition of the word excessive it's loud garish and obnoxious with pointless gratuitous action sequences and set pieces which clutter up the screen with elaborate production design to the point of overkill batman and robin features the caped crusaders george clooney debuting as batman with chris o'donnell returing as robin squaring off against another bevy of villains the nefarious mr freeze arnold schwarzenegger armed with a weapon which freezes everything in its sights and the slinky poison ivy uma thurman who has the ability to blow powerful love dust into the faces of men in order so that they will fall helplessly in love with her not that the dust is really necessary to accomplish this result but whatever and then dispatch them with a poisoned kiss by ivy's side is the giant steroid monster bane jeep swanson a grunting hulk of a beast the villains' goals are noble ones freeze steals diamonds to power his climate suit in order to keep his body temperature at zero degrees so that he can survive in order to devise a cure for his beloved wife vendela dying of a degenerative disease and frozen in suspended animation and ivy's intent is to restore the dominance of plant life on earth albeit by destroying all human life meanwhile on the homefront life at wayne manor is thrown into upheaval by the illness of butler alfred pennyworth michael gough and the arrival of his niece barbara alicia silverstone akiva goldsman's screenplay for the film is ridiculous and laughably bad with astonishingly terrible dialogue lame jokes and an awful plot which simply coasts along and fails to generate any genuine excitement it makes goldsman's screenplay of batman forever which i thought was dreadful look positively inspired in comparison i am still astonished that a cheesy plot device which i'd seen used in no joke an episode of gilligan's island somehow make its way into a multimillion dollar blockbuster production joel schumacher's direction of batman and robin is horrific with a terrible balance of flashiness over substance there is a clear conceit towards neon in this film even moreso than with his previous batman forever with the revamped batcave helpfully sporting gigantic glowing emblems for the dynamic duo just in case i suppose if they ever happen to forget that the batcave is the headquarters of batman and robin and with neon prominently figuring in an fight sequence with bane and a street gang over ivy's chosen new abode another action sequence which fails to serve any useful point other than to chew up five minutes of screentime involves an incredibly uninvolving motorcycle race with barbara and some gotham goons mr schumacher's focus for batman and robin appears to be to make the film as visually striking as possible to the detriment of the story there are drastic shifts in the tone of the film between camp and heartfelt drama with the latter completely unconvincing and ineffective it is perhaps not the most promising of signs when the group i was with burst out laughing within twenty seconds of the film's opening even before a single line of dialogue had been uttered is batman and robin supposed to be campy i think it is it's hard to imagine that the filmmakers could have intended many parts of the film to be taken at all seriously one of my favourites was when bane helpfully grunted bomb each time he laid down an explosive device in the gotham observatory is it supposed to be as overly campy as it turned out to be i somehow doubt it the subplot involving afred is delivered so solemnly and with such graveness that the impression is made that the film isn't attempting to be the utter farce which it is arnold schwarzenegger is in the film as the villainous mr freeze and is bland and uninteresting perhaps the worst thing that a villain can be mr schwarzenegger's attempts to be menacing are laughable and his attempts at conveying pathos are laughable frankly everything he does onscreen is laughable by the end of the film i was stifling a chuckle every time he simply appeared onscreen the bulk of his performance consists of uttering puns and featuring every possible permutation of cool in the least inventive way george clooney has been given very little to do in batman and robin being overshadowed by the villains and consequently he looks rather uncomfortable in the film his batman is hardly an imposing figure chris o'donnell is unimpressive in a performance while alicia silverstone lackadasically fails to make any impression at all the film's one saving grace undoubtably uma thurman's entertaining performance as sexy villainess poison ivy her work in batman and robin is certainly but in a controlled fashion which works splendidly within the tone of the film ms thurman's comic timing is impeccable and reminds us that it takes skilled performers to make campiness work successfully i'm already starting to positively reassess jim carrey's performance in batman forever her amusing poison ivy is the most entertaining character in the film and when she's offscreen the film greatly suffers i figure that if one has to die being kissed to death by uma thurman isn't a way to go while batman and robin was hardly a ride of excitement i must admit that i was not bored watching it although i did glance at my watch repeatedly through the screening my attention was kept through anticipation of the utterance of yet another terrible pun or and by awaiting yet another scene to fall flat it's been a long time since i've laughed so much at a movie at of course is the operative word
negative	everything about this ninth trek movie seems on the cheap from the roger special effects to its highly derivative and ugly ad campaign the poster is nearly identical to that of star trek vi the undiscovered country but piller's screenplay should ultimately claim responsibility for insurrection's failure i'm about to give the same advice to rick berman and co as i've given to the financiers of james bond movies it's time to breathe life into this workhorse by hiring solid genre writers and a real director while we're at it put that visor back on laforge for three hundred years the ba'ku species who look just like humans have lived on a that might as well be called the fountain of youth six hundred of them occupy the briar patch the area affected by metaphasic radition a positive energy that reverses the aging process in the elderly but evil ru'afo this is probably abraham's last stop before performing amadeus at a dinner theatre near you leader of the son'a who look just like burn victims after reconstructive surgery wants to relocate the ba'ku and movie his people onto the briar patch in their place in order to replenish his dying breed the federation is all for this but picard feels this is a direct violation of the prime directive to not interfere with the development of an alien race never mind that the ba'ku didn't exactly went wandering in the universe one day and stumbled upon the magic world every time frakes gives an interview lately he seems to top whatever ludicrous statement he last gave regarding this installment he has called it a comedy a thinking man's picture a throwback to the old series and most grievously he has likened it to a john ford western i presume that's some john ford he went to school with not the director of the searchers he has also gone on record as saying paramount recut the film from his version that's no generated this footage muddy cinematography and sitcom sets are the least of its problems star trek insurrection appears to have been beamed in from the planet plotholia consider such curiosities picard's love interest anij donna murphy can slow things down by staring at them such as a waterfall or falling rocks scientific explanation for this don't ask worf gets a pimple he's klingon puberty thanks to the atmosphere laforge regains his eyesight trust me levar burton's real eyes are scarier than those electronic lenses he wore in first contact and troi brags about her firm boobs but picard remains as bald as an android's butt most suspiciously what exactly is the problem with letting this endangered race have a little fun in the sun the filmmakers cloud the issue with some nonsense about a family feud of sorts and they also turn ru'afo into a completely superfreak just so the characters will have something to do in the climax and if you've seen return of the jedi you've seen the ending of this movie didn't picard himself previously disobey the prime directive when he prevented the borg from assimilating millions frakes lucked out with first contact and repeat viewings of that film reveal the seeds of what went wrong in his direction of insurrection he has no sense of comic timing and he mines for acting chemistry where none exists take a look at the painful troi gets drunk scene in fc and you'll get the general idea of insurrection's unsuccessfully jokey and hollow tone even the worst shatner and co treks like the final frontier maintained a watchability thanks to the effortless charming comaraderie between kirk spock and bones neither first contact nor insurrection has any idea what to do with crusher gates mcfadden whom i must say maintains a fabulous physique troi or laforge and all three next generation films spend too much time on data who is the franchise's answer to urkel need a cheap laugh have data say something sexual or start singing or lift up a four hundred pound boulder as if it's the hunk of styrofoam it really is here's my proposed title for number data star data trek data data data data data in this movie data will become preoccupied with learning to blow his nose while crusher and troi watch silently from yards away and laforge points his sinister gaze at the android in doubly robotic observation star trek insurrection had one nice eerie silent moment that hints at a better darker film i'm not saying all of them should be star trek ii the wrath of khan but this one boldly went where no movie should go again
negative	this is one of the worst film experiences i've had for a while with this film plus and instinct' paul verhoeven has stamped himself as currently one of the worst blockbuster directors his celebrated film recall' was i admit successfully scripted but it nonetheless contained directorial flaws obviously nobody wanted to invest too much money in a production from someone like verhoeven the result being that much of the special effects in seemed fake but not everything bad in the film was the director's fault even though he was one of the guys who employed the actors it is surprising that none of the actors received nominations for the razzie awards i expected five for the acting categories casserole vanity devoid dense ribald dingy miasma and jackass bushy are in serious need of acting school no they have to pass primary school drama classes first while was written well is purely pathetic all right it is supposed to be a entertainment film and you're supposed to turn off your intellect completely and enjoy the action sequences and special effects that is guts and gore as a matter of fact i found the activity incredibly boring a complete waste of more than two hours half of the film was a bad episode of hills dina meyer was in beverly hills while another quarter was simply nothing things like presenting irrelevant information in an irritating way on the web and the rest was a display of humans fighting images the battles were all the same jumping around shoot or get stabbed and on barren planets that only had giant insects there weren't even any stunts which i consider slightly more exciting than pictures running around i wonder what the insects eat if there's nothing but them on the planets there is so much laughable treatment in this film and it is frankly not amusing when jokes are intended this type of story is obviously aimed at who can't see it anyway because of the violence and some sexuality but then there are always who have that frame of mind the pointless plot begins when johnny's vanity devoid girlfriend carmen richards decides that she wants to join the troopers to fight the insects who are throwing asteroids at earth johnny then signs up as a trooper also after an overacted argument with his parents but there is another girl dizzy meyer who likes johnny and then there is another boy who likes carmen which results in a love quadrangle which isn't better because it means augmented soap opera increased bitchiness and more bad beverly hills melrose and the result of this love quadrangle at the end is also rather stupid anyway getting back to the thing you might call plot johnny is too stupid to be a pilot and has to join the infantry while his girl and the other dude are in the same league dizzy comes chasing johnny and joins the infantry also they then start training which contains what roger ebert calls ips idiot plot syndrome moments when only an idiot would have made such obvious mistakes then real combat and guess what that's about as complex as it gets oh and one of their friends carl neil patrick harris a k a doogie howser m d becomes involved in war intelligence and his abilities at the end are really corny and make me want to spray insecticide on someone for it he's my fifth nom for a razzie the troopers fight fall in love die kill and try to act naturally they win or sort of of course in between and at the end there are soldiers chatting and smiling while carrying grievous wounds caused by bug legs the bugs also suffer from ips why would you release hold of your captive before killing it isn't it also amazing that earthlings haven't invented better weapons by then the only question that remains is why i gave it one star instead of zero well maybe of a star for the originality of the shower scene and the very brief moments of suspense another quarter for copying and letting the good guys the bugs win and half a star for the of the brain of one of those people who call themselves actors but there should have been more the troopers deserved to die
negative	phew what a mess for his fifth collaboration with director ard donner lethal weapon maverick mel gibson plays a motormouth maybe mentally ill new york city cabbie jerry whose wild conspiracy theories are all but ignored by alice julia roberts acting all serious the justice department employee that he has a crush on she not interested but another person is a cia psychiatrist patrick stewart who promptly kidnaps him is one of jerry's conjectures correct is the metal strip in the new bill being used to track your movements is oliver stone still alive because he cut a deal with george bush to spread dis information is this movie really about any of the crazed cabbie's theories no no and no as it turns out there's some other nonsense going on here involving and revolving around jerry's background hint pay attention to an early scene where jerry blacks out and flashes back in quick succession to images of an interrogation room hypodermic needles and ms roberts herself the initial premise is pretty good and is played for a while at a delightfully dizzying clip mel is that we've ever seen him and if his character's relationship with roberts' initially strains credibility their combined star power is blissfully intoxicating the highest wattage of the summer perhaps even when the plot contrivances begin to intrude the two remain a randy dandy screen pair there's a great scene in jerry's fortress er apartment with alice trying to act casual as her hyperactive host tries to remember the combination to a locked coffee bean container which he stores in another locked tainer his fridge other hilarious moments of which there are many include a trio of memorable where alice ditches a tail jerry someone and later eludes a foot pursuit each in a uproariously unexpected fashion that's donner's own ladyhawke playing in the theater btw let's see other pleasures include a brilliant title sequence a jazzy score from carter burwell and the sight of roberts pumping lead into one bad guy and slamming another's head into a wall oh pretty woman getting to the latter however requires slogging through an increasingly overburdened and ultimately unappealing story the last hour of conspiracy theory devolves from tolerable to torturous to almost unwatchable more stuff happens of the stupid shit variety than is worth mentioning here except perhaps for a late sequence that has alice locating jerry in an abandoned wing of a mental hospital by hearing his voice carrying through the air ducts and here i thought it was wabbit season good god who rewrites these movies and do they arrive in nondescript black vehicles
negative	in french the phrase film noir literally means black film webster defines it as a type of crime film featuring cynical malevolent characters in a sleazy setting and an ominous atmosphere that is conveyed by shadowy photography and foreboding background music classic film noir including such memorable fare as the big sleep the original cape fear and orson welles' striking a touch of evil employed black and white photography to emphasize the long shadows associated with the genre color came into play with films like chinatown and blade runner l a confidential easily the best film of is a wonderful piece of contemporary filmmaking for a textbook example of how to take all the elements of and create an absolute mess there's palmetto based on just another sucker a short story written by british author rene raymond under the pseudonym james hadley chase palmetto shows what happens when a filmmaker puts style ahead of substance director volker schlondorff tin drum the handmaid's tale stated we weren't even sure for a long time if it was going to be a thriller or a comedy it shows palmetto is too preposterous too be taken seriously as a thriller and too ponderous to work as a comedy the story begins when journalist harry barber woody harrelson is released from prison someone turned state's witness and revealed that harry was framed a reward for blowing the lid on corruption in the small florida town of palmetto bitter and broke harry plans to hitchhike to miami and start his life over but nina gina gershon appears to return him to palmetto while hanging out at a bar he notices that a beautiful woman has left her purse in a phone booth harry pockets her cash only to have the woman reappear and catch him with her money in his pocket no problem though the radiant blonde is rhea malroux elisabeth shue the young wife of a very rich older man with heart problems and she has a proposition for harry rhea needs a threatening voice and someone to collect the ransom for the staged kidnapping of her teenage stepdaughter odette chloe sevigny the girls want to bilk a dollar ransom from the old man and will happily give harry for helping with the scam things go wrong of course odette is found dead leaving harry frantically trying to dispose of the corpse and cover his tracks in an ironic twist harry is asked to work for the local d a office they need a press liaison to field questions about odette's kidnapping and feel that harry is the perfect man for the job not a bad for a noir film if only schlondorff knew how to handle the material but he never settles on a consistent tone the actors don't know what to do with their characters either muddling the proceedings even further as if that wasn't enough the story suffers from major problems in logic woody harrelson is a talented actor with an admirable willingness to take on risky parts but he's lost here presented as a crusading journalist who was horribly wronged it makes no sense that harry would be stupid and dishonest enough to get caught up in this scheme harrelson clearly doesn't know what to do with harry's character so he spends most of the film glowering sweating and generally acting miserable meanwhile elisabeth shue gives a goofy performance behaving like a vamp on nitrous oxide as the stepdaughter chloe sevigny lays on so many slurpy quirks that she comes off like juliette lewis jr despite a number of steamy scenes there's no chemistry between harrelson and the women to make matters worse schlondorff badly dubs in dialogue while the character's lips are running over each others bodies two particularly bad scenes highlight the film's problems while driving with a body in his trunk harry has a minor car wreck and a cop shows up the officer wants to help change harry's flat tire and asks him to open the trunk harry's pathetic attempts to keep the trunk closed might have worked if played as comedy but under schlondorff's grim direction the scene is just embarrassing the film's nadir comes when a bad guy prepares to kill harry and nina we're supposed to be horrified watching our hero dangling over a bathtub filled with acid but by this point the film has foundered so badly that the scene is merely reminiscent of when jessica and roger rabbit were suspended over a vat of dip had palmetto been played with tongue firmly in cheek it might have been an entertaining shaggy dog story but under the harsh direction of schlondorff the film is just a sluggish exercise in noir cluelessness avoid this nonsense and go see l a confidential instead
negative	plot lara croft is british rich and kicks a lot of ass she also likes to raid tombs but when the illuminata discover that all nine planets are about to stand in alignment for the first time in years and that lara holds the key to time well needless to say they want to nab it from her oh yeah lara also likes to sport a lot of tight shirts critique angelina jolie was great in this movie there were also about three action scenes that were pretty cool to look at in this film uhhhhhm unfortunately the rest of the movie sucked bad dialogue generic sidekicks and bad guys a lame mystery moments with being sprouted about and even some crappy cgi near the end all in all this movie wasn't the horror show that some of the early reviews had warned us about especially since every other scene does feature jolie's torpedoes begging to burst out of her lucky shirts but it was quite the letdown nonetheless especially when you consider the major opportunity that the filmmakers had here to create a cool hip woman hero based on a popular video game i don't know i guess you have to put most of the blame on director simon west who didn't really tie the whole movie together all that well the film lacked energy a consistent pace and well a fun time i felt kinda depressed while watching this movie all that father crap was horrible and the dialogue given to poor john voight to recite was just plain embarrassing and i'm not even gonna mention his moustache hehehe why have this shite in the movie at all i especially hated the scenes in which some figure friend or child would ramble on about lara croft's father while all the time i'm not giving one ounce of crap as to what they're talking about i guess that's called lack of character development right that's when a movie builds enough background into the characters on the screen so that we could actually get into it and care about them i didn't care about anyone in this movie and was bored during most of its let's explain why we're doing all this gobbledygook moments and even though i thought that jolie kicked some mighty ass damn did she look sexy blasting those guns or what everybody else around her was so goddamn boring her butler was a throwaway with no personality her was supposed to be funny but just annoyed me every time he said the word bugger and he says it a lot trust me and all of the bad guys just spewed they had no spark no energy amongst them and even though a few of the action scenes in the movie were cool see the trailer and you'll know which ones i'm talking about the overall picture was lame and the dialogue and mystical just buried it even further also for a movie that's supposed to be about all of these exotic locations i wasn't necessarily impressed by any of its exterior shots and even less so with its interiors which all looked like they were shot in the same room mind you i won't go as far as to say that it's the worst movie of the year remember that i actually have to go see freddie prinze jr movies also but it's definitely the worst film that i've seen during this summer movie season of course it's still early and i'm sure there are a few more garbage heaps coming down the pike skip this one altogether and rent any of the indiana jones movies instead trust me you'll miss the boobs but end your night with some porn and it's all good where's joblo coming from raiders of the lost ark the mummy lost in space the mummy returns the general's daughter romancing the stone wild wild west mission impossible
negative	it happens every year the days get longer the weather gets warmer and the studios start releasing their blockbusters this year's crop already seems inferior to that of past summers even lackluster trio of batman robin the fifth element and the lost world the marketing blitz in has been centered on godzilla heeere which doesn't make me optimistic about future summers godzilla is of course based on a series of cult movies translation really bad movies only a few people can tolerate from japan that turn up really late at night on ted cable stations that this remake won't rise above its roots is fairly obvious the credits show us the origin of godzilla in five words nuclear explosion creates giant lizard sounds like an enquirer headline doesn't it the mushroom cloud is followed by the inevitable discovery sequence this time a japanese guy is eating noodles with chopsticks while watching sumo wrestling if that ain't a stereotype when he discovers the telltale radar blip people die cut to our protagonist played by matthew broderick he makes his first appearance wearing headphones warbling along to singin' in the rain it's a sign that he wishes he were in a classier movie no dice bueller from the beginning poor matthew has to do embarassing things like fondle giant earthworms and stand in godzilla's enormous footprint every disaster movie has to have a scientist and this time broderick is it as the world's leading expert on radiated earthworms and wouldn't you love to have that printed on your business card broderick is invaluable to the government he immediately dispels vicki lewis' theory that godzilla is a dinosaur because hey you can't take seriously the intellectual arguments of newsradio cast members broderick instead hits the nail on the head announcing godzilla is a radiated lizard the radiation isn't an anamoly he announces and lightning strikes i believe this is a mutated abberation he continues and lightning strikes again it's vocabulary lightning you see activated by words of four syllables or more meanwhile we're introduced to our new york cast headed by an ambitious broadcast journalist maria patillo broderick's former love gee what are the odds their paths will cross again at a dramatically important time poor patillo has been trying to get ahead in the news business for years but has been held down by heartless anchorman harry shearer italian cameraman hank azaria tells her she's not ruthless enough nice doesn't get you anywhere in this town it's dog eat dog actually it's lizard eat city as godzilla emerges from the atlantic to begin a rampage on the big apple's core the filmmakers provide us with a drunk fisherman who hooks godzilla i think i've got a bite he announces as a gigantic tidal wave begins rushing toward him you can guess what happens next similar reactions spring forth as the monster prowls the city hearing the rumble of approaching footsteps one new yorker remarks please don't tell me that's another parade please don't tell me that's the best line you could come up with mayor ebert is not pleased played by the principal from head of the class he continually makes the wrong decision when given an option and bickers with his assistant gene i guess the filmmakers knew they'd be getting two thumbs down from the critics and didn't even bother to kiss ass the problem is if you're going to attack siskel and ebert you should at least make it funny dialogue like didn't we agree that we weren't going to have any sweets until after the election followed by back off gene just doesn't work for me other lame running jokes include everyone mispronouncing the broderick character's last name and frenchman jean reno's inability to find a good cup of coffee in new york there's even more fun to be had as godzilla progresses as the beast heads back into hiding broderick suggests the military lure it out with food cue twelve dump trucks all dropping fish into a new york intersection broderick that's a lot of fish that ambush fails but broderick soon figures out why godzilla came to new york by buying worth of home pregnancy tests and running lizard blood through them yep godzilla's with children which makes you wonder just what kind of creature would be horny enough to have sex with godzilla that's until broderick explains that godzilla reproduces asexually like linda tripp godzilla comes to us from the makers of independence day so it has a lot of dumb action scenes destructive special effects and shallow subplots look no further than patillo's betrayal of broderick patillo what have i done animal what have i become and the climactic godzilla's nest sequence in madison square garden the main difference is independence day was about the experience it had a real global patriotic element to it and some genuinely fun characters godzilla has lots of rain and lightning reptilian action ripped off from jurassic park and endless product placement from the likes of kodak blockbuster juicy fruit swatch sprint and bumble bee tuna yes bumble bee actually paid to be known as the official tuna of godzilla that fact alone is twice as interesting as anything in the movie
negative	i heard actor skeet ulrich discussing this film in a couple of interviews and in both instances he felt the strange compulsion to compare it a little series of films called lethal weapon now i personally remember those films as a starring a major motion picture star b being funny c having great action sequences d great chemistry e decent character development hmmm okay now on to my review of chill factor plot a graveyard shift regular working joe and ice cream truck driver fall onto a malicious plan by an general to propose a nuclear device to international prospects when the device suddenly falls into their reluctant laps they must keep it cool on ice and rush it over to an army base before the contraption ticks over degrees fahrenheit and kills millions of people critique speed on an truck is probably the pitch that was used to sell this movie to its backers but unfortunately the only way that anyone could compare this film to that original two hours of cinema is in its distinct honor of being the complete opposite of what that film and the lethal weapon movies stood for this film is seasoned in cliches with plenty of badly written dialogue over the top acting from cuba gooding jr zero chemistry between the two leads and horribly tacky bad guys tossed in to complete an overall bad movie recipe my friend and i enjoyed watching this movie to a certain extent because some of the lines in it were so bad and obviously written that we just had to crack up that and the formula for the film's script which followed the proverbial and you guessed it scenario and what about all those catchy hip names to get us to relate to the characters elvis and nighshift oh what talent lies in the minds of these screenwriters and yes it actually took two guys to come up with this regurgitated drivel it is unfathomable to me as to how actors skeet ulrich and cuba gooding jr got involved in this project did they actually think that it would boost their careers or did they know that the script sucked but discounted any fall from grace knowing full well that the stack of cash in their back pockets would pad their fall most probably the latter have you seen either fled or bulletproof well despite the slight differences in plot the essentials are basically the same here you get a black guy and a white guy being chased by a bunch of people having no choice but to work together to get somewhere hating each other at first but over time learning to respect one another as individuals yawn add to that the fact that our film actually has bad guys who are all dressed in black drive black cars and black vans and run around with all kinds of telecommunicative devices sprinkled around their head not too conspicuous eh call me a but as much as i like a nice cheezy movie as much as the next guy this film just doesn't even try to do anything original or reasonably entertaining one cool scene with a boat careening down a mountainside and another with a nuclear device obliterating everything on an island do not a fun flick make show cuba the money everybody  little known facts about this film and its stars this is not a little known fact or anything but damn is it just me or does skeet ulrich look an awful lot like actor johnny depp skeet's nicknames include chester skeeter and mosquito he stands was born in north carolina and got married in to that actress from clay pigeons georgina cates they own a farm together in virginia and seven dogs skeet has a long scar on his chest from surgery done when he was to correct a ventricle defect actor cuba gooding jr was born in the bronx new york in he during the closing ceremonies of the olympic games in los angeles he stands actress hudson leick who plays one of the bad in his movie is better known from her role as callisto on the popular tv series xena princess warrior this film reportedly had a budget of million i'm not exactly sure where all this money went but it certainly did not register onscreen interestingly enough director hugh johnson who makes his big screen debut with this film was the cinematographer on the film white squall and the demi moore vehicle g i jane
negative	it is with some sad irony that i screened fright night part on the day that one of it's stars roddy mcdowall passed away at the age of mcdowall was one of the most talented and prolific actors in hollywood having a career that spanned over years and appearing in more than films fright night part probably will not be counted among his more memorable roles this is really sad considering how good the first fright night film was william ragsdale and roddy mcdowall both reprised their roles as the somewhat reluctant vampire killers who seem to be the only ones that realize that vampires walk among us at least in the movies anyway it has been several years since charlie brewster ragsdale and actor turned late night horror film host peter vincent mcdowall came face to face with a real live vampire who just happened to be charlie's next door neighbor charlie and peter won that battle but apparently even vampires have relatives who get pissed if you kill members of their family apparently charlie's former bloodsucking next door neighbor had a sister who was none too pleased to find out that some kid and an aging actor staked her sibling so she decides to exact a little bit of revenge this ends up forcing charlie and peter to battle the forces of darkness yet again one of the things that made fright night such a success was chris sarandon who played charlie's stylish next door neighbor with a taste for blood fright night part tries to duplicate that modern style but it falls sort while they are stylish the vamps in this film just don't have the personality of the undead in the first film with the exception of a werewolf who adds some much needed comic relief to a few of the scenes one bright spot speaking from a strictly sexist point of view is traci lin who plays charlie's very skeptical girlfriend it's really a shame that her career hasn't been better since she made this film ragsdale does a fair job in this film but doesn't give nearly the performance that he did in the original roddy mcdowall makes the most with what he is given which unfortunately isn't much which is a shame because his character was a lot of fun in the original movie i guess i would have to say that the first film was a superior product in every way the original always left you feeling danger was lurking right around the corner part had more of the feel of a music video never a good thing for a horror film another minus for part was the traditional scenes that leave the audience on the edge of their seats waiting for something to jump out of a shadow where very rare for that matter they were almost nonexistent if i was going to watch a horror film this would be far from my first choice the first fright night on the other hand would be right up near the top of my list if i was in the mood for a roddy mcdowall film i'd probably head to the science fiction section of my local video store and rent planet of the apes either way fright night part would most likely not enter into the equation
negative	sometimes a stellar cast can compensate for a lot of things and pushing tin certainly features some name stars who are going places billy bob thornton cate blanchett angelina jolie and oh yes john cusack who might not realize it at first but he's actually the veteran among this quartet of people sometimes a terrific cast like this can compensate for a lackluster screen treatment of an idea that has hip comedy written all over it compensate for workmanlike but uninspired direction compensate for an obnoxious score that would have anyone but the tone deaf screaming for the exits compensate for clich d characterizations compensate for embarrassing you have to be joking situations etc in pushing tin thornton blanchett jolie and cusack don't have an earthly from the opening sequence the film is in big trouble squiggly quirky credits passenger planes circling new york and anne dudley's music making us wonder how she ever got that best original score nomination for the full monty let alone won it but i for one wasn't ready to walk just yet so quickly we descend into a air traffic controllers montage which screams to us in large capital letters these people have a difficult job yes what with their frantic instructional personas juggling planes and passenger's lives like some huge real video game hip cool demonic auctioneer nick the zone falzone cusack is the best in the biz of course until some hipper cooler flyboy assist in the guise of russell bell thornton shows up to challenge falzone's finite air space boys will be boys and some heavy duty testosterone starts exuding then the macho begins it doesn't stop with seeing who can juggle three within a cat's whisker of each other oh no there are some broken hoop dreams some and then the ultimate showdown was that my wife i saw you with last night director mike newell four weddings and a funeral must have read a different draft of this script because the one that's being acted out up there between newark jfk and la guardia doesn't have an ounce of subtlety and newell has made some awfully before the antics of these air traffic controllers will make you cringe they'll make you frown in disbelief they'll have you constantly looking at your watch but wait there's still minutes to go the film's only saving grace is blanchett whose connie falzone is a spunky brash long island housewife who wants to better herself by taking art classes this is a wonderful accomplishment for the fine actress who has previously played a australian gambler oscar and lucinda and a tempestuous british monarch elizabeth but she's not enough to save the picture thornton looks terrific and performs solidly but his character is a joke jolie as russell's knock dead wife isn't bad but the actress disappoints by allowing herself to be displayed like a plaything cusack cracks gum dons shades and acts hip throughout but like everything else in the film his performance is forced in the last ten minutes or so for some inexplicable reason things start coming together and you begin to get a sense of how this film might have been like the trailer teases but it's too little too late a fine cast aside pushing tin is nothing more than an embarrassment
negative	the most depressing thing about the depressingly pedestrian james bond film the world is not enough is its final frame white letters on a black background proclaiming james bond will return oh i certainly hope not with pierce brosnan in his third and reportedly last as james bond the world is not enough is the best example to date that is enough in this the chapter in the franchise featuring ian fleming's debonair british secret agent who likes his his not stirred the screenwriters have chosen to rehash all of the setups stunts and sexy encounters of the previous bond flicks rather than coming up with anything the slightest bit original we've got speedboat chases ski chases and sticky situations aboard nuclear submarines we've got a couple of babes without an ounce of acting ability between them we've got a war megalomaniac bent on world domination slash destruction here played by a skinheaded robert carlyle with mean lean panache and as has been the case since the spy who loved me we've got a plot that has nothing whatsoever to do with anything conceived by mr fleming we've also got a main title song by garbage to which with very little effort you can fit the lyrics to both songs from tomorrow never dies while originality was never the series' strong suit the films were almost always fun with at least some thought going into the nonstop stunts i can't think of one memorable in the very the world is not enough in addition michael apted yes the respected director of such films as coal miner's daughter nell and the documentary series takes embarrassing advantage of the full range of bond clich s you get the talking killer plot know the scenario the bad guy has the good guy at his mercy yet waxes poetic just long enough to die of old age and you get a slew of assassins who can't hit a barn door at paces in the film's opening minutes of an endless bond chases a sultry sniper along the thames and the lovely fails to hit bond's fishing boat with a bazooka when he pulls within a few feet of her later she takes off in a hot air balloon with bond dangling from a guy rope beneath her but is still unable to take him out these reliable absurdities are more frustrating than usual since there are no distractions other than occasional ads for luxury automobiles vodka or credit cards in and among the rampant product placements brosnan grapples with carlyle braveheart sophie marceau as former kidnap victim slash heiress elektra king she's terrible wild things denise richards as a nuclear physicist lord help me she's laughable and judi dench as m dame judi brings the only shred of dignity to a series that has long since jettisoned its about the time roger moore inherited bond's walther ppk brosnan goes through the motions with the grace and charm you'd expect of the former remington steele star but even he has to be thinking there's more to life than an easy paycheck he's given plenty of wiseacre asides to deliver but only one of i don't know any doctor jokes me chuckle although i thought christmas only comes once a year is more in keeping with the series' penchant for puns
negative	when walt disney pictures announced a feature based on the cartoon series of mr magoo special interests groups representing the let out a cry of dismay mr magoo they claimed would be an insult to the men and women they represented in fact they were wrong mr magoo is not just an insult to the blind and it's an insult to every human being who has the misfortune to suffer through this dreadfully unfunny minute atrocity it's stating the obvious to remark that disney appears to have run out of original ideas look at their roster of and releases and you'll see a shocking list of retreads including dalmatians george of the jungle that darn cat flubber and now mr magoo the best of these george of the jungle was mildly entertaining the worst mr magoo exposes just how painful a bad movie experience can be the first problem with mr magoo is the script despite the collaboration of naked gun scribe pat proft mr magoo is comically barren from beginning to end there's not a laugh to be found every attempt at humor and there are lots of them falls flat with an audible thud you'd think that out of the dozens of gags jammed into this film at least a few would work but that's not the case i've had more laughs during ingmar bergman pictures then there's leslie nielsen who looks sounds and acts absolutely nothing like the animated character memorably voiced by jim backus in the past nielsen has proven his comic aptitude with roles in movies like airplane and the naked gun lately however he has been getting lazy taking parts in the likes of dracula dead and loving it spy hard and mr magoo even if nielsen was in top form it would take an incredible stretch of imagination to see him as magoo especially since we're reminded of the original by the short cartoon segments that open and close the film but top form is not a phrase i would use to describe his performance here this is strictly a run operation the story which like many disney stories can be described in one long sentence magoo is the only witness to the theft of a rare jewel from a museum and as he is trying to apprehend the thieves on his own the police mistake him for the robber the cops are played by ernie hudson and stephen tobolowsky who take their lumps early and often the bad guys are kelly lynch who does a lot of martial kicking nick chinlund and malcolm mcdowell who has the good sense to look embarrassed matt keeslar portrays one of magoo's sidekicks his nephew waldo the bumbling man's other more interesting companion is a dog named angus most of mr magoo's humor comes in the form of failed slapstick the cartoon violence level in this film doesn't approach that of home alone or flubber but it's still pretty acute with characters getting hit on the head with sledgehammers and knocked off snowy precipices there's a bit with magoo preparing a chicken dinner that could have been funny if it was handled better but compared to mr bean's recent similar misadventure it doesn't hold up well then there is the series of lame jokes that result from magoo's near blindness such as the occasion when he mistakes a wild animal for a baby i'm willing to cut director stanley tong a little slack tong a hong kong film maker trying to break into the hollywood market has helmed several jackie chan movies including first strike rumble in the bronx and supercop his chief talent that of choreographing martial arts fights is wasted here despite some high kicking by kelly lynch like john woo hard target and ringo lam maximum risk before him it appears that tong has been consigned to the purgatory of making a bad movie as his entry into the american mainstream it is worth noting that unlike many disney films which hold a perverse appeal for the crowd while driving parents to distraction mr magoo appears to bore viewers of all ages the screening i attended was kids and for the most part they didn't seem to be enjoying themselves when the film was over i asked one little girl what she thought of it her pained expression confirmed the adage that a picture can indeed be worth a thousand words mr magoo is the kind of movie that should be rejected by any potential viewer sight unseen
negative	david spade has a snide sarcastic sense of humor that works perfectly on the tv sitcom just shoot me it also served as a good showcase for him when he opposite the late chris farley in tommy boy and black sheep lost and found marks the comedian's first attempt at going solo in a movie and it also reveals that when spade doesn't have a reliable system his brand of humor seems more desperate than one may expect david spade is not the problem with lost and found he plays dylan ramsey the sweet main character to the best of his abilities the story revolves around dylan's obsessions with his beautiful new neighbour lila dubois sophie marceau from braveheart and her terrier named jack dylan believes that the best way to a woman's heart is through her dog and so he kidnaps jack planning to stage a fake rescue in hope to win lila over there are three good things about lost and found the first is spade the second is sophie marceau a lovely actress who's been planted into the wrong movie lastly there's the dog who is used here in a similar context to puffy from there's something about mary unfortunately director jeff pollack finds more humor in putting jack through a cycle in the drier than he does with simply making him look cute this kind of physical humor is dead pollack does everything but beat the poor pooch with a baseball bat to get laughs and this procedure is cheap unfunny and resoundingly cruel this is where i start to get fuzzy also in this unusual blend is apparently a love story between dylan and lila given the comedy that the movie is obviously striving for i found this hard to swallow and why does dylan even deserve someone like lila after kidnapping her precious dog and putting it through such pain predictably lost and found opts for a happy ending one that feels so sentimental gooey and rings so false that it sets off a siren in your head that makes you feel a bit cheated david spade who also the movie tries hard so very hard to make this project amusing there are some choice scenes that are quite funny but the movie is only sporadically funny patrick bruel plays the stock character of rene the pompous jerk who also wants to win lila over with his good looks and money jon lovitz and martin sheen are welcome additions in two tiny supporting roles despite a few positive attributes lost and found just doesn't work if you're searching for an enjoyable you could do far better than this obvious misguided failure that shows a blatant disregard for what it's trying to present
negative	its pathetic attempt at improving on a shakespeare classic its just another piece of teen fluff kids in high school are not that witty the wittiness is not witty enough the comedy is not funny the acting is poor the music the poster its worse than she's all that classic classic than average crap classic
negative	sometimes i wonder just what the censors are thinking take this film naked killer among it's ingredients are heavy doses of violence rape sequences straight and lesbian sex scenes and what our system calls coarse language but what do those intelligent people at the censorship bureau choose to remove in case someone will get offended one word penis that's it in spite of everything else in the movie the one thing that the censors decide is too much is penis it really restores you're faith in the system huh anyway that's just a side point when naked killer was released in the local independent cinemas around melbourne it was advertised ad nausuem as a hip cool controversial thriller what they forgot to mention was that it isn't very good the plot involves male cop tinam simon yam investigating a series of brutal murders while getting a haircut he meets and finds himself attracted to a girl named kitty chingmy yau who after extracting revenge on the man who killed her father falls in with professional killer sister cindy svenwara madoka realising kitty has potential cindy decides to train kitty in several unusual and ridiculous ways and gives her a new identity however in the course of his investigation tinam who believed kitty had disappeared runs into her again but isn't quite sure if it's her to complicate matters the actual serial killlers princess and baby who a former students of cindy and have been told to kill their old master and her new student from then the action ensues all in all this is not a well done movie the script is awful the direction all over the place the editing is jerky and confusing and the subtitling is surprisingly poor however the are a few stand alone pieces that do entertain the shoot out in the car park is almost in adrenaline the fight scenes are energetic and i guess it must get a few points for trying something a little different let me put this way if you like action get something else if you like strong women in movies get something else if you have do decide between this and black cat for your hong kong female action don't get either even for curiosity value it just isn't worth it let's face it if ever the was a movie that became popular on it's subject alone this is it
negative	after seeing blaze and driving miss daisy i was ready for some mindless maybe something like tango cash maybe not mindless fun is one thing but slop is another matter altogether tango cash has lowest common denominator written all over it the movie stars sylvester stallone and kurt russell as rival undercover cops in l a russell plays cash a reckless slob who dresses in jeans and tee shirts stallone plays tango a wealthy investor who works on the force strictly for the thrill of it he doesn't need the money in an effort to change his image stallone goes for a yuppie gq look in the film wearing spectacles and three piece suits the two detectives reluctantly become partners after they are framed for murder and have to break out of prison to clear their names tango cash is unbearably noisy for starters there's harold faltermeyer's annoying synthesized score which gets old after four notes to make matters worse the filmmakers seem to think that when it comes to loud explosions and screeching cars the more the merrier in fact the movie begins with not one but two car chases there's nothing like a good old car chase to introduce the characters in a movie screenwriter randy feldman's brain must have gone to mush from watching too many cop shows on tv his shockingly stupid screenplay undermines anything and everything the movie has going for it such as stallone's efforts to convince you that tango is an intellectual in a movie with the iq level of an amoeba even a great actor is going to have trouble looking stallone is no lawrence olivier it's hard to imagine anyone reading feldman's script and thinking i want to be in this movie the film's plot doesn't have one original bone in its body have to point your finger at the screenwriting feldman's story line succumbs to every crime thriller cliche in the book making tango cash altogether generic and predictable they simply could have called it action movie every character every twist and turn is stolen from television or from other movies adding insult to injury tango cash is about as believable as a road runner cartoon action movies don't have to be realistic but they should absorb you enough so that you're not thinking about the lack of realism the only artistic aspect of tango cash is the cinematography there are some spectacular shots especially during the rainy nighttime prison break in which tango and cash slide to safety on electrical wires the film's main draw is the chemistry between stallone and russell unfortunately their relationship rarely progresses past macho competition as they endlessly bicker about who packs more meat in his pants the dialogue consists of nothing but and consequently the attempts at character development are embarrassing it's a shame because with a workable screenplay russell and stallone could have turned tango cash into a charming lethal weaponesque adventure tango cash tries to maintain a light tone and you do laugh about once every five minutes seeing russell in drag is the movie's funniest moment but you probably already have seen it in the commercials furthermore the light tone does not sit well against the relentlessly brutal violence machine guns and torture generally don't mix well with comedy jack palance appears in tango cash doing what he does best playing a sleazy conniving villain his character however is except for his strange obsession with mice like many movie villains palance likes to play games in fact he sets a ridiculously elaborate trap for tango and cash a trap which sends the two detectives to prison so they can be beaten and electrocuted by some meanies in the boiler room you have to wonder why palance doesn't just shoot the detectives in the head the story would crumble if any of the characters were to do anything intelligent teri hatcher plays stallone's sister and russell's and she is just as pretty as can be but regrettably hatcher's acting is not on par with her exceptional beauty every time she opens her mouth you cringe corny dialogue and atrocious acting are always a fatal combination there's really very little if anything to recommend in the film and more to the point tango definitely isn't worth a penny of your don't bother
negative	in the warrior arab poet ahmed ibn fahdlan antonio banderas finds himself kicked out of baghdad for feeling up the king's old lady with his translator screen legend omar sharif in a small role ahmed heads north to act as ambassador to the northmen vikings he finds a group of warriors mourning the loss of their king a messenger soon arrives from another kingdom requesting assistance a soothsayer says that thirteen warriors must answer the summons twelve northmen and one outsider thus ahmed becomes the warrior on the trip ahmed manages to learn the vikings' language by listening to their fireside conversations a bit it's true but we have to swallow it if this flick is going to manage a few lines of dialogue amidst the grunting ahmed who's called ibn by the vikings forms friendships with herger the joyous dennis storh i and the viking leader buliwyf vladimir kulich when they arrive in the other kingdom the thirteen warriors discover that they're facing an army of supernatural cannibals that live up in the caves hereafter most of the movie is battle scenes the cannibals attack the vikings the vikings attack the cannibals the cannibals attack the   well you get the idea just to add some action there's also a viking vs viking duel other movies insert scenes between the fights these scenes are called character development i suspect that the warrior had a better script at one time and that it fell through the cracks because of the direction the movie started off in the hands of john mctiernan you'll notice a lot of similarities between warrior and mctiernan's predator including the chittering jungle sounds somewhere along the line mctiernan bailed and michael crichton took over crichton whose novel eaters of the dead is the basis for warrior has directed a small assortment of goofy thrillers westworld coma looker runaway their result of their consecutive efforts is a murky and pointless movie perhaps what the warrior needs more than anything else is a villain the eaters of the dead are a faceless mob in blackface they have no personality and by the end they don't even seem particularly threatening the audience has no target toward which to channel its aggression mctiernan should know about the importance of an interesting villain it was his die hard that made villains seem fun and attracted stars to the evil roles in action films the warrior suffers from a lack of vision it wants to be predator meets braveheart meets the magnificent seven meets dances with wolves with so many competing goals all it can do is echo what it might have been it might have been a satisfying action film it might have been a medieval epic it might have been a examination of the meeting of cultures what a shame it turned out to be nothing in particular bottom line if you want to see antonio swing his sword rent the mask of zorro
negative	there isn't much good about this movie not much i can say about the acting directing or writing that would make you consider seeing this movie so i'll get my one good comment out of the way at least joel schuemacher batman robin didn't direct it or it would be titled technicolor city in fact there is nothing colorful about this movie its dark and depressingly gloomy right down to the bitter end the plot has a tendency to be interesting but all that passes while your laughing at the ridiculous things thrown into what could have been a fascinating movie the plot is impossible to explain due to how senseless it gets so i will just touch on the bare minimum john murdoch rufus sewell awakes in the bathtub of a cheap hotel only to find out he has forgotten everything john must find out who he is before the strangers a k a mind erasing aliens find him and use him for their own evil conspiracy during the film some interesting points are raised about human individuality and the existence of inherently evil people any of these points however are completely erased from your mind as you watch the actors stumble through the dreadful script as i mentioned earlier nothing but the atmosphere is right in this film the acting is bland and since there is virtually no character development no one seems to care the special effects are low budget and some even hilariously fake a sign of a true the direction is poor and there is little continuity not that you would expect it in a movie switching realities constantly lastly the script is weak and has no concept of reality and doesn't deserve to have the word science in if i haven't got my point across i'll say it more plainly this is a bad movie lets hope the next movie by alex i wish i was tim burton proyas is at least tolerable
negative	varsity blues is the best film of thus far unfortunately it is also the first film i have seen from it is another one of those sports movies that involves a flawed but it is another one of those sports movies that involves a flawed but protagonist a rough and meanspirited coach and the big game by the end will the underdog overcome great odds and triumph will everyone in the town turn against the coach will the team win the climactic game do cats bathe themselves regularly the hero in question is john moxin james van der beek a senior at west canaan high school who plays for the varsity football team but is really just hoping to get a scholarship at brown university so that he can get out of the town at least he's got the right idea since west canaan texas is portrayed in the film as frankly pathetic with the whole town treating the weekly football games as the second coming heck in one scene the front page of the town's newspaper is proclaiming about the west canaan badgers' big win the night before when the team's star quarterback is severely injured tearing the ligaments in his leg john finds himself taking over as the team's leader but his few minutes of glory do not last long as he begins to have problems with his girlfriend amy smart when she discovers he spent an evening with another girl ali larter and after staying out all night with his drinking buddies at a strip joint all of the teenagers in the film are portrayed as raging alcoholics the team loses their game putting john at feuds with the coach jon voight who like gary oldman is overstaying his welcome in the typecasted role as the bad guy worse yet the coach is threatening to ruin john's scholarship chances if the badgers don't win their final game the plotting of varsity blues is as old as the hills and contains every cliche in the book admittedly i was never exactly bored while i was watching it but i hasten to add that i was rarely ever entertained throughout all i could really think of is how virtually the same exact story had been filmed with a great deal more thoughtfulness and maturity in all the right moves one of the biggest problems i had with the film is how little of interest any of the characters actually were least of all certainly not john who played by van der beek of tv's dawson's creek is pretty much a bore without any engaging qualities while i probably shouldn't blame this on van der beek since the inauspicious and screenplay by w peter iliff isn't of any help he is still certainly not in the league of tom cruise in all the right moves the story revolving around john meanwhile is extemely thin throughout particularly for its running time and it alternates between uninspired comic relief as in when the students see their sex education teacher working as a stripper at the club and melodrama the romance between john and his girlfriend had the potential to be an adequate subplot but we also learned very little about her which is unfortunate since amy smart whom i don't think i've seen before in past films is probably the only character written with any sort of intelligence smart does not allow her character to become the passive girlfriend instead coming off as a young woman with her own ideas and opinions it's too bad the camera didn't linger on her long enough so we could hear some of those thoughts the adult characters probably fare the worse of any since they all must play residents of a town that cares about nothing but football john's relationship with his parents can also be telegraphed far in advance his father is set on him becoming a football player at a university but john doesn't want any part of that his mother stands beside her big strong husband and is a passive female finally jon voight plays the stock bully coach character and he does nothing to make the thankless role any more than saving varsity blues from being a total washout are a few amusing sequences including one set in the sex education class which did get a laugh out of me the scenes of playing football were and thankfully didn't overstay their welcome as many sports films fall victim to but leaving the theater the question i had in my mind was why did this film need to be made i seem to be asking this question quite a lot lately since the same old stories seem to be cranking out of hollywood do we really need another sports film no we don't and certainly not one of this which felt like a job of spare parts from much better but similar films varsity blues no doubt is the first one however to include an earnest scene in which one of the characters is only wearing whipped cream on their private parts
negative	for a film touted as exploring relationships and black sexuality trois is surprisingly tame despite it's lurid subject matter and it's passing nod to fatal attraction it moves along with flat uninspired dialogue as it sets up a surprising climax that tries mightily to overthrow the considerable dead weight of the rest of the film freshly moved to atlanta jermaine dourdan and his wife jasmine moore have the trappings of a perfect life they have a beautiful house in suburbia jermaine is a lawyer on the fast track at his firm jasmine is his supportive wife who is finishing up her college degree in an opening montage via a home video of the pair we see the unremarkable story of their marriage and early marital triumphs this is a couple that has it all into this eden slithers the lure of lust despite his outward appearance jermaine reveals himself as selfish and covetous of his wife more as a possession than a person a glimmer of his true nature peeks out during an early sex scene with his wife as he goes about his business oblivious to jasmine's concerns we also find that he has been relentlessly asking jasmine to participate in a much to jasmine's dismay as jermaine puts it don't you want to be sexually free jermaine shares his desire with terrence smith who obligingly sets jermaine up with a woman who might be interested in just such an encounter the woman jade palmer is a direct counterpoint to jasmine jade at one point was a college student too unlike jasmine she found herself pregnant dropped out of school and now struggles to make ends meet to further reinforce their differences it's revealed that jade is involved in a custody battle over her son inevitably through liquor and a touch of duplicity on jermaine's part the forbidden act is consummated the aftermath of the encounter sidesteps into fatal attraction territory as acts of violence are perpetrated upon jermaine's property with the hint that the violence may escalate by this point trois shows itself to be a soap opera without the requisite melodrama a fatal attraction without the social significance the exploration of relationships is strictly superficial and stereotypical jermaine comes off as insincere sexually driven and selfish jasmine is bland and subservient jade comes off a bit sympathetically but that is negated by her moral bankruptcy yet another tale of a sexually aggressive dog of a man who imposes his will upon his accommodating innocent mate the last minutes will undoubtly throw you a curve but by this point will you even care if the rest of the movie was as dynamic as the ending perhaps there could have been some freshness to it as it stands trois is pretty standard fare
negative	mission to mars is one of those annoying movies where in the middle of the movie you get the sneaking suspicion that the reason the trailer looks so good is because they showcased all the best parts of the movie all five minutes of it mission does give you payoff but when it does come it's too little too late mission has some good ideas but they get lost in the unbearably boring delivery dialogue and spate of good actors wasted in roles i'm sure the director and writers were very proud of each hallmark moment they came up with so they stretch each dramatic moment out like silly putty until it loses all its charm glances don't communicate any deeper emotions just because you draw them out for five hours on end the film spends an hour on this kind of stuff building to its climax a lot of it is a cliched glorification of family relationships marriage friendship unite we stand divided we fall kind of crap there are some spectacular special effects sequences in this film and i give it points for trying to stay true to the science i know trying is the key word here the sequence with the martian demonstrating their history is oddly beautiful and touching but as mentioned by then we're so sick of the goddamn thing we want the movie to be over great design good intentions but no cigar if you're not a die hard fx or jerry o'connell fan his character is the only one who has some semblance of character don't waste your eight bucks on this and what the hell tim robbins died halfway through the movie in a stupid way too that's just unforgiveable
negative	my friend here in film school just made a two film for one of his classes that includes a staged anal rape scene done by two guys and shot on the shadow of the incident with a banana being used as the instrument of penetration as sick as this all is watching it is one of the most admittingly hysterical moments i've ever witnessed sure it may be in bad taste but what the hell is bad taste other than something that may be offensive to some but is riotously amusing to the rest then there's caligula this film features incest necrophilia beastuality anal rape homosexual felatio of both sexes elaborate and lengthy orgies a fist forced up a man's rear wine poured down a man who's had his urinary tracts tied off a penis chopped off and fed to hungry dogs etc etc etc this could very well be a respectable film and if could have been had the following not occurred a the events were graphically shot in clear view b the tone was not that of trying to shock comically but to well show historical accuracy c the film was a million dollar production with lavish sets a rather impressive cast and a whopping hour running time produced and funded by none other than bob guccione owner of penthouse magazine caligula comes across as the most hysterical dramatic picture since plan from outer space because underneath there's a sense that everything this film is doing is not only accurate and justified but also brilliantly entertaining after all it's not really the fact that this film features the aforementioned disgusting moments but that it actually believes in them as dramatic weaponry no film should be discarded because its content because film is never about what it's about it's about how it's about as the old cliche goes those who bash this film for content are glancing over the biggest and most obvious problem with caligula and that's that it's nothing but overdramaticized bullshit from start to finish without a second of credibility in its mammoth running time caligula allegedly tells the true story of the evil roman emporer of the same name a man who was so insanely decadent that his assasination came as a blessing or so i guess even though almost every single roman emporer was assasinated as well and for much the same reasons the film opens on the wrong note of course with a quote from mark appearing before any image graces the screen using the passage what shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world an dlose his own soul depite the fact that the opening scene of the film is of the emporer before he was an emporer fucking around with his own sister in a field i suppose if one has to lose their soul one has to have a soul in the first place the plot is so incomprehensibly done that all i or anyone else can make out of it is that caligula disastrously played by the great malcom mcdowell a performance that does the opposite that his performance in a clockwork orange did is next in line for the throne but can't wait for the current emporer tiberius peter o' toole ditto only for his performance in lawrence of arabia his grandfather to die so he kills him and ascends to the throne then he abuses his position marries a woman helen mirren who retains her dignity as an actor by not exactly acting so he doesn't just have to sleep with his sister a dreadful teresa ann savoy there to be pretty naked and willing to hop in the sack with mac or anyone he asks her to hop in with abuses his position a little more a little more and a little more and then i believe invades england then is killed off the filler instead of recounting his life is supposed to be as guccione claims the ultimate portrait of decadent pagan rome complete with orgies vicious deaths and lots of nudity but instead of being the historical accurate film it really really wants to be it instead becomes guccione's twisted masturbatory image of what it could be like oh isn't it great that they just loved having sex and that they killed people so disgustingly and wouldn't it be great if i could make a couple bucks by selling this shit off as accuracy even though it's so blatantly real bad porn that i've completely convinced myself that it's not i mean why not just show a roman orgy when i can spend a good ten minutes examining every single facet that makes it up and it's not just that it's disgusting or vile or whatever adjective you want to use to describe this film it's that in a film where the entire feel it's going for isn't felt it's also the sloppiest expensive movie of all time the sets are lavish but so blatantly innacurate that i wonder if no historian wanting to have his name on this film explains this but that doesn't matter since the cinematography is so dark that you wonder if a light meter was used at all making this not only dark and ugly but just plain dark the camera operation is also the worst i've ever seen in my entire life not only does this film hold the record for the most unnecessary zooms in one single shot ever but often the camera will lose its subjects and pan around till they find them then have them out of focus the editing is so sloppy that some scenes are absolutely impossible to follow there is no writer to speak of what the hell does it mean that it's adapted from an original screenplay by gore vidal but nevertheless the dialogue is shit so laughably bad that i can't in good faith believe that anyone with an iq over could say them with a straight face my favorite being the line when caligula inquires the doctor about the health of the dying tiberius he could go at any moment but with care he could last a year or so the music in this film is mostly prokofiev and khachaturian they use his gorgeous adagio of spartacus and phrygia ad nauseum used in an attempt to give the film some emotion but instead feels as if it was shipped in from elsewhere the orgy scenes and one infamous lesbo scene between penthouse pets lori wagner and aneeka dilorenzo are the result of reshoots by guccione himself which are so obviously removed from everything else in this film that it only adds to the embrassment every five seconds or so the film cuts to random nudity as if it was afraid its audience would forget this film is rated x john gielgud represents the only voice of sanity walking around in his brief role as if he was constantly the mantra i'm going to kill my agent i'm going to kill my agent and so on and so on for over hours making caligula about as exciting and enriching as a three hour college lecture class and twice as deliriously annoying guccione in his pursuit of historical accuracy has instead made a film that is such a painstaking arduous task to watch in its entirety that i doubt anyone can sit through an hour of it without irreversible psychological damage throughout the entire film the presence of guccione is easily felt as if he were standing there at the edge of the screen pretentiously looking down upon us saying look what i can get away with and if you don't like this then you're a prig and worse than that you know nothing about history uh huh there's a clear difference between historical accuracy and doing something that's artistically good a film which showed roman decadence as something that was perhaps liberating for some but could not last that would probably make for a good film but using historical accuracy as a licence to get away with any kind of acts is total total bullshit and all i can say is that guccione and the makers of this film have lost any kind of touch with either entertainment or eroticism and have developed a pathetic and sadistic taste for both judging from this film there's a film that came out in called the cook the thief his wife and her lover a magnifcent film by legendary cult director peter greenaway also starring helen mirren which deals with graphic sex heartstopping violence and gore and even a little cannibalism for good measure that film not only never patronized its viewers but also handled them in a way that was shocking yes but also in a bizarre way entertaining and totally involving there were real characters there in a real situation and best of all passion and just the right amount of restraint as not to get off on the fact that it's going to be offensive to many that film achieved everything it wanted to do and has since retained a status as one of those cult films that is not only popular but actualy good and it's everything caligula might have been but alas wasn't
negative	remember back in the mid when crime and macabre movies were all the rage pulp fiction and fargo both managed to get oscar nominations for the best picture and not surprisingly a slew of followed in the years thereafter that fad seems to be over but here comes christopher mcquarrie writing and directing the way of the gun that at first glance looks like another of those but upon closer inspection doesn't look like anything comprehendable it's a crime story so wrapped up in its own little world it has a claustrophobic atmosphere a film that won't allow the story much room to expand outside its handful of characters and somehow still manages to turn a simple premise into something so complex its ridiculous complexity should come as no surprise to anyone who's familiar with mcquarrie he wrote the usual suspects which has become a cult favorite despite little critical acclaim that film had a great story and was well directed but had such an elaborate confusing screenplay it leaves many viewers scratching their heads after repeated viewings you have to wonder if mcquarrie really had everything mapped out or if he was going for the hollywood idea that if it's really confusing and about criminals and cops that makes it fascinating with the way of the gun mcquarrie seems to be capitalizing on the same idea but this time the story is far less commercial a shame because maybe that would have helped the film tells the story of two drifters with no ambition and barely a reason to live but aren't on death either played by ryan phillipie and benecio del toro they get lucky when they hear about a scheme between a exec guy and his trophy wife who are going to have a baby through in vitro fertilization they figure they can kidnap the surrogate mother played by juliette lewis and get a nice ransom along the way we continually learn of the shady dealings between the exec his wife their hired goons and the bag man played by james caan the only actor in the film who looks like he knows what he's doing the exec is some kind of money launderer so he obviously can't call the authorities for help his goons and the bag man are on the kidnappers' trail and each make different offers to get the mother back the exec's son is a doctor who also gets pulled into the fray and wants to make sure his patient is all right meanwhile each of these characters has something hidden up their collective sleeves and the secret love affairs and torrid pasts come as no surprise even though little of it has any relevance at all mcquarrie doesn't know the meaning of the word simple he seems to be more interested in showing us how clever he is than making a good movie everything has to be complicated and confusing so much so that it's to the point of surrealism nothing is what it seems in this reality it's one of those movies where you get dropped right into the middle of the criminal world and are expected to know most of the industry's rules and regulations every scene with caan's character exemplifies this perfectly the kidnappers already know who he is and even chat with him getting into conversations about the business and how it works and we're hardly given a clue as to what they're talking about these characters are probably supposed to be great criminal sketches but they're more like ideas from sketches found in david mamet's trash no one here really acts like a real person and the story is even further removed from reality it's like a dream without any appeal take the opening scene for example the phillipe and del toro characters are in a parking lot across the street from a bar or a club counting their money and stuff they sit on a mercedes and the car alarm goes off the owner is waiting in line and yells at them to get away from his car but they don't move the guy and his girlfriend and about other people cross the street and gang up on them you'd think phillipe and del toro are going to pull out guns and scare them away but they don't instead phillipe throws one punch and the two get beat down by a mob there's a lot of things i didn't understand about this scene first of all the owner of the mercedes isn't some yuppie or old rich snob he's like a hippie straight out of the secondly the two main characters seem to believe that they can actually take on the mob unarmed lastly it serves no purpose in the long run because later in the film the two are packing more artillery than a small country's army if they were suicidal they wouldn't have gone on the kidnapping job in the first place and where they get all those guns is never explained either there's a lot more i could pick apart about this film but that would be an exercise in futility what it all comes down to is that nothing here is what it seems which would be great if this movie were about pretty much any other story than what it is absolutely none of the characters are likable or believable and it's all coated with a thin layer of black comedy which is good for a chuckle here and there but this film is definitely not a black comedy and its use of such seems like a desperate attempt to kill screen time with any film you see whether you like it or not you can at least understand what the appeal was to it why someone would want to make it and why someone would want to see it i can't say either for the way of the gun because it has very little going for it and i can't imagine anyone intelligently defending it
negative	has a premise of deliciously potential mitch weaver norm macdonald and his lifelong best friend sam mckenna artie lange are losers in life they were constantly picked on in school and now they cannot hold regular jobs but as the trailer goes there is one thing mitch weaver is good so he and sam parlay their unmatched skill in schemes into a marketable business called dirty work inc this should be the groundwork for a wonderfully wicked black comedy but for a film called what ensues is rather clean of spirit in fact what makes mitch and sam start up their business is not a giddy desire to give bullies a taste of their own medicine but rather a more sappy reason sam's father jack warden needs a heart transplant and in order for him to move at the top of the recipient list his compulsively betting doctor chevy chase asks the guys for to pay off his bookie so for all the scheming that goes on beneath every underhanded plot heart which undercuts the inherent nastiness of the premise not that there isn't a lot of nastiness on is but of a different sort there are frequent sexual references most prominently in the form of prostitutes and sam's impotent father's ongoing lust for them and for a film rated director bob saget yes that bob saget of and fame and writers frank sebastiano fred wolf and macdonald himself stretch the boundaries of good taste rather a bit too much so was not one but two separate instances of sodomy between animals really necessary but the issue of course is not so much of taste as it is in is it funny or not the answer is a resounding no it's not that macdonald isn't a funny guy he was one of the more consistently funny performers on before his firing and his dry brand of smartass wit translates well to the big screen it also doesn't hurt that he's a natural likable screen presence he is able to give some of his lines a nice acid touch but for the most part the oneliners as written are flat and the broad slapstick gags just don't work one running gag has him being literally tossed out of real riot still macdonald's few shining moments are just about the only moments the film has the late chris farley as hysterical as he ever was is amusing in a cameo role but as a whole the supporting players are amateurish and seemingly free from any directorial guidance saget tries to juice up the proceedings with kitschy cameos by gary coleman adam sandler and john goodman but their minimal novelty value cannot prevent from sputtering to the end of its brief running time the film closes on a sad note of desperation an indulgent reel of outtakes from which only those involved in the production would derive any amusement come to think of it i cannot imagine anyone but those involved in the production to find much amusement in the entirety of
negative	america's favorite homicidal plaything takes a wicked wife in bride of chucky and their unholy matrimony is something old nothing new the burning question on the minds of most moviegoers however has nothing to do with nuptial specifics or even how the movie stacks up but rather whether or not the duo gets down and dirty on their honeymoon the answer is a yes and viewers are treated to a shadowy glimpse of some or at least singe it lovin' guess they're anatomically correct chucky again voiced by brad dourif of course is the star of the child's play series a my doll possessed by the spirit of a slain serial killer in bride the plot heh picks up with his girlfriend tiffany jennifer tilly resurrecting chucky's remains he was blown up at the end of child's play with the help of a black arts manual called voodoo for dummies silly mortal before long she's also been reduced to figurine status and the plastic incarnations of these lunatic lovebirds hit the road to scope out some potential new human bodies the rest of this rocky horror puppet show plays out as tiff and the chuckster stalk a young couple nick stabile and katherine heigl with conjugal plans of their own leading them towards a new jersey grave where a magical amulet allegedly lies in wait along the way our murderous barbie and ken go through motions similar to any given pair of newlyweds bicker argue kiss and make up but when they squabble over who's going to do the dishes watch out hey even faux people have got to work through their problems director ronny yu keeps the mayhem flashy and stages an inventive scene or two but not even visual flair can make up for the fact that these creepy kewpies are neither scary nor menacing when one of them charges it's nothing a good forward punt couldn't take care of and when a climactic chase scene is needed one of the protagonists must so the demonic toy can force his hostage to run at gunpoint throw in some silly casualties and a ridiculous ending will son of chucky be next and this is a bizarrely bad at the movies as is the thing to do in scream slasher cinema don mancini's screenplay slathers on the and but little of the humor succeeds proving can be completely worthless when it lacks bite to be fair though most of bride of chucky is on so it's not quite right to single out one misfired aspect of the film similarly shaky the acting ranges from screeching camp to boring bland the effects aren't that special and the story is one big groaner here's hoping chucky and his entire clan past present and future rest in peace
negative	this is the first film in what would become the most successful series of horror films of all time a fair warning to those of you who might be inclined to watch this movie for the first appearance of everyone's favorite homicidal maniac jason the guy who single handedly controlled the overpopulation problem around the crystal lake area doesn't start his quest to find the most interesting household item with which to kill someone until the sequel while he does have a small role in this film we the audience have to depend on another blood thirsty maniac to rack up the body count the plot like every other friday the movie goes something like this crazed killer murders as many unsuspecting teenagers as possibly can in the space of a minute movie the reasons that the afore mentioned unsuspecting teenagers come into contact with the bloodthirsty killer are usually of little importance to the story but for those of you out there that might actually care about such trivial matters in a movie such as a plot here are the basics a bunch of unsuspecting teens get a summer job at a long closed summer camp they are days away from the arrival of the kids and they are spending their time fixing the place up and making sure it is ready for the kids sadly they start being butchered one by one by the bloodthirsty killer at this point i would usually say something about the quality of acting directing or maybe something about the high quality of the production since i'm not going to do that feel free to assume that if i did it wouldn't be positive i will say that this movie looks as if it was made for about a hundred bucks and that includes the actors' salaries if you are used to recent horror films like scream you are in for a bit of a surprise the only saving grace for friday the is that it was really the first of its kind with the killer taking real pride in their work using as many methods of murder as they could none of this single murder weapon stuff life that unimaginative leatherface in chainsaw massacre or the creatively stifled imagination of halloween's michael myers who just used brute force or a really big kitchen knife nope in the friday the movies you can always count on the killer taking great pride in his work one fun fact about this movie is that the cast includes a very young kevin bacon although after this movie it is a wonder he ever worked again the main reason to see friday the is if you want to watch all of the series from the beginning if not stick with the later films with jason everyone's favorite hockey fan friday the is the sort of movie that is fun to sit down and get a couple of scares from just don't sit down expecting a whole lot
negative	there's a good and timely story trapped deep within the excess of murder in the first a new movie about the abuses of our prison system with a country wrapped up in feverish debate over the crime issue and the rights of the accused and the incarcerated in jeopardy this expose would offer something rare to recent american point of view but director marc rocco makes it clear from the beginning that pretentious often nauseating camera movements and slick style lighting and editing are far more important there's not a moment in the picture where he surrenders technique for pure storytelling and everything suffers christian slater and kevin bacon star as defense attorney and alcatraz inmate respectively after spending an unprecedented amount of time in an isolated cell for attempting to escape bacon murders another prisoner and faces trial his young lawyer slater is fresh out of law school but determined to put alcatraz on trial for the abuses of it warden gary oldman the result is the usual courtroom imagine a stanley kramer production shot by hyperactive film school students there's very little to praise here outside of kevin bacon's earnest overacting and the appropriate story there's a lot of overacting from know you're in trouble right away when r lee ermey the drill sergeant in full metal jacket is cast as a judge the center of reason and moderation slater has never been convincing and certainly isn't here and oldman is on a bad streak of hammy performances but the worst feeling you get while watching murder in the first is that the man behind the camera could care less about telling a good story there are long exchanges of dialogue where the camera is not even moving near the characters let alone with them how frustrating it must be for actors to work under these conditions if there's anything that has alway distinguished american films over the rest of the world it is our ability to tell a good story have we forgotten
negative	this is the worst movie i've viewed so far in the avengers silly man dressed in a bowler hat woman wearing tight leathers evil scientists dressed in teddy bear suits greater evil sir august de wynter wearing kilt the question is what could have gone wrong with a potentially great idea with big name cast the same question was probably asked of last year's stinker batman and robin i feel the production got a little too smug the script a little to smart and direction was somehow lost in the chaos of random events that collided together to form a movie my greatest criticism rests on the fact that there was no chemistry between emma peel and john steed thurman and fiennes something that was a vital element of the tv serial of the same name the dialogue goes on and on about tea and other finer british perks but does not allow much room for character development and interaction except to perhaps grate on the viewer's nerves one wonders why the dynamic pair bother kissing in the end except for pure english formality connery as sir august does not fair better than thurman or fiennes his dialogue is as erratic as stormy weather mostly embarrassing and poor quality if there is a movie you would prefer never to see i believe the avengers would be a good choice for one thing you will not have to witness a product that is far inferior to the three high profile names that is associated with the title i cannot understand how something so poorly produced could have been released but i put it down to one of those freak happenings in nature like lightning you can't see it coming until it hits you
negative	synopsis and sculptress britt gets really mad at her grad student boyfriend because he spends too much time on his experiments instead of her art showings elderly evil scientist everett longstreet switches minds with britt's boy in the meantime and goes completely mental comments naked souls opens with a naked woman and the movie makes no illusion that it's a vehicle designed to show pamela anderson's um talents if you are really interested in seeing anderson's talents however i suggest you skip over this dud and watch the infamous pam and tommy lee honeymoon sex tape now available on home video at least with that movie you don't have to go through the painful experience of watching pamela try to pronounce multiple syllable words like eclectic a premise does exist in the movie basically while anderson wears skimpy clothes which barely contain her talents she practices her art brilliantly slapping plaster of paris on naked women her boyfriend meanwhile spends hours a day in a morgue trying to view the memories of dead prison inmates because this will make a difference to humanity whatever the movie fails to explain how these two hooked up be grateful after we meet the evil everett longstreet lots of technobabble and mystical get tossed about pammy has sex replete with cheesy music and minds get transferred never fear though pammy uses her sharp mental abilities ahem to save her boyfriend in the end unfortunately no one saves the movie avoid this thriller unless you're in for a good laugh or two
negative	mr bean a bumbling security guard from england is sent to la to help with the grandiose homecoming of a masterpiece american painting the first two words should have said enough to let you know what occurs during bean's trip to la but if they didn't look out because you are in for a rather interesting if not odd ride heck depending on your humor you might end up laughing through the whole flick either way look out america bean is coming well what can really be said about this movie there is very little discernible plot that much is not hard to grapple with for it is a slapstick comedy it achieves that goal rather admirably but because it is that the plot is just screaming for help the whole premise that the movie is based on is to say the least flawed the movie had its funny moments but there was no real story line other than something that could be thought up on a whim and carried through and in many causes as you went don't go into this movie expecting and theatrical masterpiece but if this form of humor floats your boat then you will truly enjoy this movie even if you don't like slapstick style humor you will end up laughing because something's are just so stupid the movie goes out and accomplishes what it aims or so it seems now when you look at the acting in this movie you have to think about two things first was there any real acting and how hard is it to act in the slapstick manner well there was no real acting in this movie but some of the slapstick wasn't the easiest i am sure i have to concede that mr atkinson's acting in this movie is well done although the role isn't too demanding the slapstick is i think that the character could have had a bit more dialogue it would have added quite a bit to the overall effect of the movie now the rest of the actors in the movie bad acting and poor casting i think that the role opposite bean could have been better just seemed wrong for the movie a different actor might have done a better job of it but i wont presume that wasn't what was trying to be achieved one thing that i must say simply to get if off my chest is that i think transferring a sitcom to tv usually produces rather disastrous results tv shows should do just that stay on tv it will probably save some producers from getting ulcers i can only think of a couple examples of tv going to the big screen effectively the best known of those would have to be star trek bean seriously fails to accomplish anything close to what that series gone movie achieved now another thing that i have to state again is this movie has narrowed its target audience fairly tightly the form of humor in this movie will not be liked by most people these people will think like i did that this movie is stupid and pointless but if you like the tv show you might actually like this movie but to be on the safe side i am opting to recommend you save your money and not go to see this movie there are many movies that are truly worth seeing unlike this one
negative	wonderland is a rather sugary romance film that is as subtle as a ton of bricks falling on you you can see its plot developing from a mile away you are lured into its benign story of a single girl looking for a soul mate in boston as that city is depicted as a for singles this is a star oriented film and the star who carries the film is erin hope davis that this is a dating film about singles who for reasons of fate or luck or whatnot have not had a successful match and are now putting most of their energy into fulfilling their careers is nothing new this type of film has been done often and better many times in contemporary films the fictionalized documentary unmade beds did it more provocatively and with more of a sense of urgency than this film the main quirk in the plot here is that hope's pushy mother hollan visits her in boston sees her daughter's relationship with a radical protester hoffman breakup and decides to put a personal ad in the newspaper for her harvard medical school daughter who works as a nurse this is done without her knowledge it is cornball sitcom stuff but at least it is handled as best it could be by the actors and director it is easy to like erin she is bright caring and attractively blonde it is equally easy to care for the soul mate she keeps missing contact with the financially strapped ruggedly handsome intelligent alan alan who no longer wants to work with his father as a plumber but is doing volunteer work at the aquarium and attending college to be a marine biologist of course he comes across as being so good though he does kill some fish in the aquarium that it is hard to believe he's for real or just some cardboard shining knight put into the story to give it an ideal to shoot for the contrived story revolves around their near misses in meeting each other in such spots as the subway at a restaurant or on the phone alan's brother answers erin's ad with a few of his pals as they each try to respond to her ad in a phony way making a bet that the first who gets to tongue kiss her that the others witness will win the bet this was as obnoxious to see take place as it is to hear told that we have to see erin go through several dates to prove the point how ego sick these guys are each one more annoying than the other culminating in the most obnoxious one of all that brazilian lover jose who is about as charming as a salesman who is actually the one she nearly flies away with for a holiday in brazil was not only incredulous but downright contrary to the rich presentation of her character that was the heart of the story anyway as expected all's well that ends well for this watchable piece of fluff that comes over on screen better than it does when relating its the dialogue was actually not bad those dating erin or trying to flirt with her seemed to be uttering authentic things they would actually say in their situation and oh by the way wonderland refers to the stop on the boston metro it is where greyhound racing takes place
negative	be warned brit love story in the offing effeminate karl is about to take a beatng from a bunch of ruffians at school as he bathes himself under a shower his genitals tucked between his legs in the manner of a posing transvestite he is only just saved by prentice who appears in all respects barring his protective attitude towards karl to be your average the ensuing scene ends up with both boys being ridiculed and then unfairly expelled from the school they do not see each other for another eighteen yeas in that time prentice has matured into a somewhat loveable if brash and goon who screws up his jobs and relationships while gamely clinging onto perennial adolescence via lether jackets motorcycles and punk rock music karl on the other hand has grown up to become kim a drabby insecure woman who works as a verse writer for a greeting card company chance brings the two together and love such as will inevitably blossom in your quirky british romantic comedy is what this skewed little story is largely about if at this point you think you're going to get any cheap laughs with that theme see the birdcage to wong foo priscilla queen of the desert you can just go home and brood on your own maladjusted sexuality you deadbeat kim is a transsexual thank you very much a woman for all purposes with confusions and sensitivities that deserve treatment with a touch of delicacy personally give me those cheap laughs any day i'd rather enjoy obvious camp than endure the shallow exploration of a hearted transsexual love story different for girls comes up with a promising enough proposition but does nothing that surpasses the merely workmanlike with it by refusing to make the audience really uncomfortable with the notion of kim and prentice's ship or at the very least feel uncomfortable for them prentice for example doesn't seem to give hiself all that much grief when he becomes attracted to kim despite being a macho kind of guy and kim for all her insecurities and fears is always saved any truly disturbing victimisation in the film and instead drawing them into a basically wimpy love story the film manages to lobotomise itself lightweight comedy as it's doomed to be it could've still have hacked it with the requisitive endearing couple but this doesn't either since even mrs doubtfire is sexier than steven mackintosh's kim foyle and as either sex he's just plainly a simpering wanker nobody should like prentice does though and that's never explained but then rupert graves gives us so heroic performance as prentice the guy who never grew up and if there is a bafta prize for most convincing portrayal of a rabid fan at a buzzcocks' concert he should win that too that i guess there's no reason to explain why he's so screwed up if oddly enough you grow to like this show you'll be wanting your happy ending and the film won't fail you there either snide underling at kim's office gets her misogynistic police officer who beats up prentice gets his the couple prevail against a disagreeable society and come together in kim's apartment kim's sister and her impotent husband kiss and make up after a tiff tv movie with incidental juxtaposition and best of all kim sheds her insecurities and learns how to ride the motorcycle and wear leathers making prentice ride pilion awwww terrific closure happy ending but just what is it that's differnt for girls anyway if you figure that one out let me know the flying inkpot rating system wait for the broadcast a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
negative	a silly film that tries to be a black comedy but plays more like lightweight comedy with its main asset being a beautiful film location along spain's mountainous coastline howard pigeon jeff goldblum is a mineral water salesman who is married for years to a wife constantly nagging him elizabeth mimi rogers after a surprise birthday party for him where his wife bawls him out for coming late to his surprise party he confides to his best friend that he can't stand it anymore and then tells him his plan to kill her while vacationing in the same barcelona hotel where they spent their honeymoon jeff is going through a severe crises worried that he looks older than his age he incessantly talks to himself mostly agonizing over his bitter marriage and chastising himself why he went out with elizabeth for a second time and then why he married her just because she laughed at his jokes and was attractive he stutters and acts like a man who has lost his confidence things change on their vacation as elizabeth makes an effort to be nice while jeff now becomes the grouch he nervously rehearses his murder plan in the hotel room by accident the gun goes off and into the pillow where he imagined elizabeth would be sitting when other hotel guests and staff come to check about the gunshot he nervously explains that it was the tv realizing how unworkable his plan is he places the gun in the shattered pillow and throws it into the ocean while he waits for elizabeth but elizabeth found his behavior odd during the entire trip and when after a great deal of effort to get a reservation at the hotel's star restaurant he insists on eating in the room she decides she had enough of him and checks out without telling him as a result he goes to the police to report her missing while with the police a telegram comes from his wife saying she left him and is going away because she wants to be alone his boss and all those he works with are sympathetic to him and he gets a job promotion but soon the pillow with the gun is fished out of the water giving the police cause to arrest him and search his home there they find letters he has written incriminating him to the murder the police also find out from the hotel staff about the gunshot heard in his room in jail things look bad for him no one believes him including his friends and lawyer his boss fires him and the papers have a field day with the headline story pigeon a jailbird out on bail he realizes that his only hope is to track down his wife through a call placed on his credit card he tracks her down to a mountain resort once there he learns that she took a hike up the steep mountain and he gets a priest to be his mountain guide after telling him the true story the film is watchable just for the antics of the jeff goldblum comic performance he is someone coming apart by the seams while mimi rogers is his perfect foil it was mostly pantomine humor with the comedy charged in the changing facial expressions of the characters and the absurdity of the situation a very minor farce that might appeal to the sitcom crowd the film just didn't take its situation seriously and the story had many gaps in it so it had no chance for black humor to develop it instead played its of the henpecked husband acting out his fantasy strictly for entertainment value to see how many chuckles it could draw
negative	be warned the following review contains some harsh language the blair witch project quite possibly the least scariest movie of all time if you want to see real terror on the big screen go back and watch any scene with jar jar binks in the phantom menace because this movie is not scary or even remotely creepy my colleague and friend chuck dowling wrote that if less is more then the blair witch filmmakers must have thought that nothing is more and this worked for him well i'm sorry but nothing is nothing nothing is not more it's nothiiiiiinggggggggggg i do not pay dollars to see nothing nothing is free available all around the world at a location near you i am absolutely in amazement that some people find this movie scary i could just discount them and say well i guess they are just pansy chicken shits who are probably scared of their own shadow but i have intelligent friends who like this movie and so that doesn't hold water there must be some other reason then again maybe my first thought is correct i think i'll try pointing their shadow out to them one day and test their reaction when i hear people praising this film i never hear them talking about what makes up about of this movie three kids bickering with each other about being lost they only talk about what might make up possibly to minutes of screen time this being a few very short night scenes where the kids hear some unscary sounds and another where they shout josh over and over this film should not be called the blair witch project it should more accurately be called three dumb and pisspoor filmmakers get lost and argue with each other oh ladies and gentlemen you will be so scared when you hear them shouting josh and if you thought that was scary wait till you see a pile of rocks and then some tinkertoy lincoln logs oh my dear lord you will be pissing in your pants with fear oh yeah and some goo on one of their backpacks you've never seen terror like this folks and you don't want to the chevy hawn comedy foul play is creepier than this film for current films i highly recommend the sixth sense or a stir of echoes for a creepy filmgoing experience this film is an example of marketing with no substance the marketing was brilliant and the whole nation is in awe of just the premise for the film they want this film to be good and i think they are reaching and praising the wrong movie because they don't have anything else to praise that wonderful film that rejuvenates the horror genre may come along but this is not it this film could have been so much better just think if maybe there had been only minutes of arguing about being lost and minutes of nighttime stuff i saw this movie with a girl who was extremely pumped for it she was sold on this film and then at one point during it she turned to me and asked are we supposed to be scared by this i've heard one opinion that you have to use your imagination to create the fear in this movie well i thought that was what the filmmakers were supposed to do use their imagination and create a good movie i mean anyone can use their imagination and not pay bucks for it but even if you like this idea then what are you imagining an entity called the blair witch some rednecks fucking with these kids are either of these things really scary when you think about it i've heard several people say that this movie makes them recall how scary it can be to be out in the woods and hear something well sure thats scary in real life but there are a lot of things that are scary in real life that are not scary in a movie nor even interesting you could sit in your house and see a snake or a spider and it could be scary but in a film it wouldn't be and no a movie does not need a big budget or cgi special effects to be scary or creepy actually the less the better see the equally awful remake of the haunting but you have to do something you cant just count on us all having nostalgic memories of how something like this could be scary if it were real and by the way about the shakycam filming in blair witch aren't these supposed to be filmmakers who should know how to point a camera and shoot something without shaking the camera constantly i'm not even talking about the couple scenes where they are terrified that's justified i'm talking about the other minutes of the movie where they can't seem to shoot anything smoothly at all minor quibble there there is a feeling in me that the people that like this movie are suckers that the filmmakers are just laughing their asses off all the way to the bank and i think there is a good chance they will see this film again and say to themselves what was i thinking but if they don't then thats fine if it works for them then that's okay i guess i just lament that by making this movie a hit we are going to be subjected to more of the nothing is more approach pretty soon we're going to get some movies like this just a still shot of a prison jail cell for minutes and we'll have to use our imagination and think to ourselves my god wouldn't it be scary to spend life in prison this movie is the scariest movie of all time or a shot of a coffin with some funeral directors arguing with each other man do you know how scary it would be to die now this is the scariest movie of all time 
negative	there were four movies that earned jamie lee curtis the title of scream queen in the early two of them were halloween movies but the other two prom night and terror train were the uninspired knockoffs that came directly after the success of halloween the same god i'm scared there's some guy in a mask coming after me routine she did in john carpenter's classic jamie lee copies here with none of the urgency or suspense terror train takes place on where else a train charted by some students finishing their first four years of higher education most of them won't make it to med school though and it's obvious from the foreshadowing done when the conductor complains i wish to hell they'd put a radio on that train the conductor character probably has the most lines of anyone even jamie lee from the beginning he's talking his head off he tells one of his think on this when's the last time someone built a shopping mall next to a train station as if it makes any kind of sense and it only gets better as he engages himself in an argument about the benefits of railroad over recreational vehicles of course the loudmouth conductor is the first person to find a bloody body which is then gone when he brings a skeptical trainman back to view it i forgot to mention the prologue it's a party three years earlier with the same group of students two of them play a trick on a geeky frat pledge promising him he's going to get laid they send jamie lee up to stand behind the bed and talk to the geek as he comes in noticing a form on the bed she says kiss me kenny and he kisses the body on the bed which happens to be a cadaver oh my god they killed kenny you bastards it's a sick trick and one jamie lee wasn't let in on she still hasn't forgiven the guy as they board the terror train you asshole you can't have a good time without hurting somebody the killing starts before the train even leaves the station since it's new year's everyone's wearing disguises a convenient plot device we've seen before and someone stabs the guy in the groucho mask when no one's looking at least one of the characters says it's a groucho mask when the killer dons it and steps aboard it looks like gene shalit who by the way would make a great killer in a slasher movie speaking of dorks who still persist on the entertainment scene one of terror train's most famous gimmicks is the appearance of david copperfield as the magician who regails those aboard with illusions set to disco music then there's his greatest trick getting laid with hair that looks like that for all its attempts at visual style and substance terror train is more lionel than amtrak more prom night than halloween and nothing really worth watching only fans of jamie lee curtis and david copperfield if he truly has any fans should even attempt to watch it and it makes me wonder if a horror movie set in an rv could be much worse i mean when was the last time someone built a shopping mall next to a train station anyway terror train is definitely the cinematic equivalent of a sleeper car
negative	according to hitchcock and various other filmmakers isolated motels diners gas stations and similar establishments in american southwest can be rather dangerous place for weary travellers at the beginning of eye of the storm american thriller directed by yuri zeltser one of such places becomes deadly for their owners who get murdered during the stick up ten years later their son steven played by bradley gregg who was blinded during the incident still runs motel together with his older brother ray played by craig sheffer hardly anything happens there until alcoholic and abusive william gladstone played by dennis hopper gets stranded there with his attractive wife sandra played by lara flynn boyle their unexpected presence creates the chain of the events that would end in bloodshed yuri zeltser author of this film was obviously inspired by hitchcock's psycho but he chose to add some new and potentially interesting elements to the original plot instead of norman bates we have two brothers one of them traumatised physically another mentally sexual tension between beautiful female patron and shy motel clerk is heightened with the presence of alcoholic husband eye of the storm is impressive in visual sense with photography by karl walter lindenlaub providing a lot of claustrophobic atmosphere the acting is fine hopper gregg and boyle are comfortable with their roles but sheffer at times overacts his psycho routine unfortunately eye of the storm which was supposed to be intense psychological drama deteriorates into cheap and predictable slasher flick during melodramatic finale in the end this film reminds us that original approach can't prevent filmmakers from wasting too many opportunities special note to the profiler fans ally walker appears in the beginning of the film in the small role of killer's girlfriend
negative	if you've been following william fichtner's career and there's absolutely no reason why you should have you might have noticed that he's played some rather similar roles over the years like sully in the perfect storm gruff and a little bit scary or law in albino alligator gruff and little bit scarier or colonel william sharp in armageddon or dwayne engelman in strange days or even his brief appearance towards the beginning of pearl harbor as the abusive father of is an actor who gravitates towards tough gruff roles which is why his performance in what's the worst that could happen is such a shock such a delight in the film fichtner plays a blonde haired meticulously dressed overtly effeminate detective as alex tardio fichtner's performance borders on caricature but goes beyond it it borders on offensive but doesn't really manage it and it borders on clich d stereotype but doesn't quite succumb to that definition either in a role so diametrically opposed to what the actor has played before we should have seen it coming fichtner isn't can see him struggling a little at times concentrating a little too hard on the look as he swishes his hand through the air or nuzzles a coiffed canine up close and he's pretty damned good and silly and without question the best thing in the film in fact had it not been for fitchner's sudden and bizarre appearance and his jarring screen presence thereafter i would have walked out for what's the worst that could happen is mesmerizing in its awfulness a poorly written haphazardly edited and totally unfunny yes it stars martin lawrence and danny devito so how could that be possible moviegoing experience fichtner's performance doesn't exactly save the film and it's not like i'm recommending what's the worst that could happen solely on the strength of the actor's dramatic turnaround but his contributions do raise the film's rating from no stars to thumbs up to fichtner then and thumbs way everyone else involved in this sorry mess a movie so dull and pedestrian and nonsensical it doesn't even warrant discussion
negative	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned it's rather easy to start tuning out after about twenty minutes of finn taylor's first feature film dream with the fishes when the plodding tedious opening sequence finally pays off with a potentially provocative setup any hopeful expectations however are soon vanquished as the film settles upon being an uninvolving movie which is rarely as funny as it aspires to be nor nearly as affecting as it eventually strives to be in the film's latter half the film's central characters are terry david arquette a depressed lonely voyeur who claims to be despondent since the death of his wife in an automobile accident and nick brad hunt a carefree young street tough later revealed to be terminally ill nick lives in the apartment building across from terry who spies on the trysts between nick and girlfriend liz kathryn erbe with his trusty set of binoculars but the two young men first formally meet at the bay bridge where a terry precariously teeters upon the edge unconvincingly vowing suicide nick casually asks for terry's wristwatch and eventually cons terry into a trade the watch for a bottle of pills of course terry finds that the pills do not end up having the presumed lethal effects and he angrily sets out to find nick in order to retrieve his watch learning of nick's condition he only has a handful of weeks left terry's compassion kicks in and the two eventually come to a distinctly peculiar arrangement terry will agree to bankroll the dying nick's lifelong fantasies and nick will fulfill terry's death wish by killing him this is a promising premise and mr taylor's film could have gone any number of ambitious ways from this point but he instead chooses to capitalise upon the obvious inversion of the characters terry is a repessed mournful character who wants to die while nick is a free spirit with a joie de vivre who is dying but wants to live and takes the easy route out by turning dream with the fishes into a typical lark where the two characters engage in a series of generally dull exploits and where the character learns to enjoy and ppreciate life when hooked up with a quirky character this is plotting buddy movie redux however dream with the fishes is most hampered not by its uninspired storyline but by the characters which carry the story it helps in such a film to have at least one of the protagonists be at least somewhat empathetic if not likeable unfortunately that is not the case here where both of the film's leading characters are thorougly uninteresting and annoying giving the audience very little to sympathise with their respective plights and even less reason to want to follow their onscreen exploits far from a romp this fatal flaw makes dream with fishes more like a chore to endure than a playful jaunt and undermines the attempts at emotional resonance in the latter stages of the film as the two men begin to bond mr taylor's dialogue sporadically falls flat in dream with the fishes while attempting to capture a quirky and clever tone it too often comes across instead as hopelessly contrived witness such lines as you should have asked something more interesting like you enjoy the pain see that's provocative leaves room for further questions the film enjoys a few inspired moments the urn scene a session of nude bowling the policeman joining in on terry and nick's acid trip but unfortunatetely these instances are few and far between and for the most part the humour in dream with the fishes registers more as attempts rather than actual successes this occurs particularly often during the film's opening sequence as terry is wrestling the bedridden nick for his watch in the hospital i'm realising that this is intended to be funny although nary a smile crept upon my lips which is probably due to the obvious fact that it's painfully clear to the audience from the outset that terry is going to be thwarted in his initial suicide attempts sapping any element of surprise or amusement from nick's scheme of tricking him this is not a film which has the wherewithal to kill off its leading star in the opening ten minutes the entire sequence is then clearly an exercise for character exposition with attempts at humour terribly diminished by utter predictability among the cast coming off best is david arquette the current master in the portrayal of meek squirming stammering characters he would have been terrific as the lead for george huang's swimming with sharks who gets to apply his adeptness for timidity as terry mr taylor ambitiously employs an interesting visual technique where the portions of the film set in an urban environment have been processed to appear extremely grainy and heavily saturated as opposed to a bright crisp look for the smalltown scenes the charge of dream with the fishes's protagonists being wholly unempathetic is a bit of an odd one coming from me i seem to have a predilection for films with unlikeable characters and indeed in many cases have i been in the minority supporting films which have been condemned as interminable due to the difficult nature of their characters for dream with the fishes though i did find myself on the flip side of coin often hoping that the film would quickly conclude and that the nick character would just hurry up and die
negative	for his directoral debut gary oldman chose a highly personal family drama about a violent alcoholic husband and father and the various lives he affects but while the characters places and events may have special meaning to the the audience is left in the dark the center of this tale is the abusive raymond ray winstone and the film focuses on him and the people who orbit around him he spends his days hanging out with his friends at pubs and girlie bars then he returns home to his pregnant wife valerie kathy burke and their daughter raymond demonstrates his violent tendencies and his paranoid delusions early on when he accuses valerie's brother billy charlie of stealing raymond then proceed to beat and bite him to a bloody wreck but these are the least of billy's problems billy is a heroin addict on the downturn and it doesn't seem that he'll last much longer billy and valerie's mother janet laila morse is raymond's nemesis she disapproves of him and he of her but is powerless to do anything about it she merely struggles on hoping her children will survive their respective torments if this description seems bleak i haven't told the half of it this is not a cheery movie and most of the time it's downright depressing while at times it is interesting to watch to see just what makes raymond tick and why no one ever simply calls the cops on him in the end it's not quite worth it there are too many scenes which randomly dot the picture with little or no purpose take for example the extended sequence where one of billy's scuzzy friends defends a stray puppy the film is filled with these character moments that never really achieve anything granted there are a few genuinely powerful and sickening moments in the film but their expression seems to be more of a catharsis for the creator than us the actors do a fine job particularly in the central roles the good thing about an actor turned writer is that oldman knows how to write good scenes and the actors in nil by mouth have some meat they can tear into the bad thing about an actor turned director is that there's no one to restrain oldman from making poor choices a good character drama should mean something to those involved in making the film and the audience oldman got it about half right
negative	my first exposure to the nightmare on elm street series of films was not this one but in fact the third installment it was the first to gain a national theatrical release i didn't see the first film until much later so looking back the original didn't hold a lot of great memories for me since i didn't think too much of it when i initially saw it watching it now for a second time confirmed that it's an overrated horror film that ultimately makes no sense whatsoever you all know the story by now child murderer freddy krueger robert englund returns from the grave by haunting the dreams of the children of those who burned him alive years before this first installment does an adequate job with it's low budget but there's some absurd dialogue and conceptual problems with the story plus the movie's ending understandably the result of the studio wanting the end of the film to have a hook for a sequel renders the rest of the film pointless and does anyone understand what happens to nancy's mother at the end of this film don't get me wrong though it's not as if a new generation of horror films have spurned me away from the classics most horror movies released today are just as inane as this film is horror is a difficult genre to pull off credibly and a nightmare on elm street just doesn't cut it a nightmare on elm street is available on dvd from new line home video it is available both as a single disc and as part of the nightmare on elm street collection box set the film is presented in both pan and scan and it's original theatrical aspect ratio of although on the disc that comes in the box set only a widescreen transfer is provided the film has been digitally remastered and includes two options for audio a mono mix and a new dolby digital mix also included on the dvd is a audio commentary track with wes craven stars john saxon and heather langenkamp and the film's director of photography other extras include the jump to a nightmare feature i'm sure you can figure that one out the usual cast and crew bios which are from the film's original press release kit and notably leave out robert englund and johnny depp and the film's original theatrical trailer some features are also included but since i don't have capabilities i can't really get into that the commentary track is entertaining and informative but nothing spectacular the first thing of note is that it's the same commentary track that was on the special edition laserdisc from a few years ago i'm not saying that's a negative thing just pointing it out everyone seems enthusiastic about being there with the possible exception of john saxon who just doesn't say much at all most of the time you'll forget he's even there everyone else talks really quietly though for some reason as if because they're commenting on a scary movie that they need to stay as quiet as possible the bonus disc with the boxed set called the nightmare series encyclopedia features about minutes worth of interviews relating to the first film of the series also included is the original theatrical trailer and two alternate endings to the film however you can only access one easily the other is hidden in what's called the labyrinth which might possibly be the most annoying feature of a dvd ever created basically it's an interactive game of sorts where you wander through different nightmare locations looking at objects which give you access to extra little snippets of footage interviews etc somewhere in the labyrinth is the second alternate ending to the film finding it though is both a chore and a bore 
negative	in tim burton took the legendary comic book figure of batman and turned him into a huge box office hit with an atmospheric little film that created an utterly distinct feeling somewhere between film noir and the godfather was it deep nope however it was a perfect entertainment and the audience ate it up it was natural that roger ebert trashed it writing that it was without the comic book uplift of the indiana jones and superman pictures which was true if what you were looking for was the tale of a heroic man's escadapes and adventures you were looking in the wrong place if those films were tom sawyer then batman was huckleberry finn some critics glenn lovell of the san jose mercury news and peter travers of rolling stone realized that it was something special mr lovell gave it and wrote that this is batman as batman should be mr travers called it one of the ten best films of the year the praise was deserved from start to finish the film was enthralling exciting and superb in every respect there was no doubt that there would be a sequel directed by burton the result was batman returns which forgets that it wants to be fun within the first five minutes the villains the hideous penguin and seductive catwoman take over and our epectations are always left unfulfilled when we wanted the penguin to bite off batman's nose he simply gets mad and when we want catwoman to slither over batman's body she gets pushed off a building i admire mr burton for trying to do more then entertain but the result is a mess nothing works out as planned it fails both to entertain and to enlighten hints are made to the audience that this film could be a blast alas these are only hints there are don't misunderstand me several moments of cinematic genuis contained catwoman and batman understand eachother perfectly without a word on the subject being said christopher lloyd is trapped by the penguin within a giant cage a small basket is dropped into a large river but nothing is drawn together and burton is unable to make the film work on any regular basis a weak followup both career and sequel wise batman returns is sometimes dazzling but to often dissapointing
negative	and i thought stigmata would be the worst thriller released this year turns out i was wrong because while stigmata was merely boring and end of days is completely inept on all fronts it's a silly incomprehensible endlessly stupid mess for a guy like me who grew up watching arnold schwarzenegger at his best it's extremely disconcerting to see where the big man has ended up for the first time in recent memory an arnold action movie and batman robin doesn't count is no fun at all end of days is a major stinker the movie opens in vatican city some catholic priests have observed an ancient prophecy which says that a girl will be born on that night that satan will have targeted for impregnation if he impregnates her between and midnight on december the world will be destroyed the pope orders protection of this girl though some priests believe she ought to be killed in new york that very night a girl is born to fulfill the prophecy twenty years later we meet jericho cane schwarzenegger a suicidal with a drinking problem now working as a security guard for hire he is protecting a local businessman gabriel byrne who is actually possessed by the devil an assassination attempt on the businessman by a crazed former priest leads him to the girl satan is after christine york robin tunney recognizing elements of his own murdered daughter in christine including ownership of the same music box apparently jericho swears to protect her against the devil and the faction of priests looking to kill her there are so many problems with this film it's hard to know where to begin but how about starting with the concept casting arnold in a role like this was a mistake to begin with schwarzenegger is a persona not an actor so putting him in a role that contradicts his usual strong personality is a bad idea arnold has neither the dramatic range nor the speaking ability to pull off a character tormented by conflicting emotions in other words trying to give him dimension was a mistake harrison ford mel gibson or even bruce willis could have played this role they've all played noble and flawed heroes but not schwarzenegger there are several scenes that attempt to establish jericho's character one has him contemplating suicide another crying over the loss of his wife and daughter and even one in which the devil tries to tempt him into revealing christine's location by offering him his old life back none of these scenes really work because arnie isn't up to the task the filmmakers would have been better off making jericho a strong confident character like the terminator for example the likes of which schwarzenegger has excelled in before this one isn't at all believable the way arnold plays him the supporting cast tries their hardest and only gabriel byrne makes any impact at all as the prince of darkness he's suave and confident he acts like one would expect the devil to act the problem is that the script has him doing things that make no sense more on that later and that undermines him as a powerful villain byrne arnold in every scene they have together including the aforementioned temptation bit but this is problematic when it causes the audience to start doing the unthinkable root for the devil byrne's speech about the bible being overrated actually starts to make sense mainly because arnold's attempts at refuting it mostly of the not variety are feeble at best the only problem is arnold has to win so in the end nobody really cares kevin pollack plays jericho's security guard sidekick and tries to liven things up with some comic asides but like most bad action movie sidekicks he disappears after about an hour robin tunney isn't given much to do except look scared in fact all of the supporting players are good actors but none save for byrne is given anything interesting to do performances aside it would be really hard to enjoy this film no matter who starred in it this being an action blockbuster it's no surprise that the worst thing about it is the script which starts off totally confusing and when some of it is explained and not much of it is it's utterly ridiculous why is the devil coming on new year's eve because it's exactly years after the year of the devil which isn't it turns out some nutty priest accidentally read it upside down so the real year is so just add a to the beginning and you've got if you don't buy this explanation you're not alone it's convoluted and silly at the same time the method by which jericho locates christine york is equally ludicrous she's christine see and she lives in new york see  and if that weren't bad enough there's plenty of bothersome stuff in this film that isn't explained at all why can satan kill everyone he passes on the street but when it comes to snuffing out one drunk he's powerless is he impervious to only one kind of bullet how come he can't control jericho or christine and how did those gregorian monks deal with time zones in their prophecies a clumsy attempt at a joke is made about this but it's never actually explained usually this sort of thing wouldn't matter in a schwarzenegger flick i mean don't get me started on the time paradoxes offered up by the terminator movies but this time the plot inconsistencies stand out even more than usual because the action is rarely exciting there are several predictable horror film clich s present in end of days complete with the old black cat hiding in a cabinet bit not that we ever find out what the cat was doing in there it gets so formulaic that it's possible for those uninterested in being scared to close their eyes at the precise moment a boo will come their predictions will rarely be wrong the more grandiose action sequences are utterly charmless partially because we don't care about these characters due to the script's pathetic attempts at characterization and setup and also because they too don't make any sense there's a scene where schwarzenegger gets thrown around a room by a little old lady it's good for a few chuckles but not much else supposedly we're to believe she now has super strength by virtue of being controlled by satan but the script never sets that up so the scene is merely silly none of this is terribly exciting because all the action sequences are so badly framed that it's often hard to tell why it's happening in the first place not to mention that they're edited in incomprehensible mtv style most of them had me scratching my head rather than saying wow cool end of days is not only silly and confusing but it's also distinctly unpleasant to watch the devil apparently doesn't operate in the more subtle fashion outlined in the bible but instead enjoys killing people gruesomely in broad daylight this doesn't only make him an awfully predictable sort but it also means that not a single scene in end of days goes by without unnecessarily graphic violence or the odd kinky sexual encounter yet another bit that had me scratching my head if violence is supposed to be shocking it's not a good idea to throw so much of it into a movie that the audience goes numb scenes aren't connected through any reasonable means so a lot of the time stuff gets blown up or people get killed and i had no idea why reasons to hell with reasons let's just blow stuff up isn't it cool nope not by a long shot this film is thoroughly unwatchable it's dull interminable and unrelenting in its stupidity perhaps arnold needs to make some movies with james cameron to revive his career because it's not happening with hack peter hyams here end of days might have had camp value if only it didn't top itself off with an overly pious ending that nobody's going to buy if the movie is going to be serious the filmmakers should have come up with a decent script if it's going to be campy arnold shouldn't be taking himself so damn seriously i didn't actually see him put up on a cross did i and his character shouldn't be such a sad sack as it stands end of days is just a bad movie and an awfully gloomy one at that
negative	stephen please post if appropriate mafia crime isn't a funny business by homer yen c on a particular night when i found myself having some free time i had a chance to either go to sleep early or to see mafia a spoof of mafia and crime films such as the godfather goodfellas and casino at minutes in length i thought that i could enjoy a few laughs before getting a good nights sleep but by my account i think that my only registered a few grins one giggle and maybe one chortle i suppose that you could justify your time as homage to the venerable hollywood star lloyd bridges who just recently passed away and whose last performance was in this film mafia chronicles vincenzo cortino's lloyd bridges life separated from his family when he was young he escapes to america and tries to live an honest life but as fate would have it vincenzo grows up to be a powerful and klutzy crime lord following in his footsteps are his two sons joey billy burke and anthony jay mohr like all siblings in powerful crime families they squabble over power the future of the family fortune and women mafia is by jim abrahams who also contributed to some funny spoofs such as airplane and the naked gun but these previous movies were funny because the jokes seemed more universally understood and there was more of a manic silliness at work as i write this i also wonder how many people have actually seen the movies on which this spoof is based crime movies in general contain a lot of profanity and violence it's a tough genre to parody i was kind of hoping that they could somehow spoof the profanity used in all of those crime movies maybe by having all of the tough crime lords say please as they decide which sector to take over but this opportunity was never explored there were one or two moments that made me smile such as the scene where vincenzo is dancing with his newly wed a gunman shoots him several times the impact of the bullets cause him to make these wild contortions that force the wedding band to change music styles to keep up with him from the samba to disco to the macarena i think that i just gave away the best part of the film oh well that just means that you can go to sleep a little earlier
negative	die hard is an altogether unfortunate fiasco inferior to the original in every respect place the blame squarely on the shoulders of steven de souza and doug richardson who wrote the film's pathetic screenplay every line of dialogue reeks of either smarmy sap or forced humor the plot is altogether implausible the convoluted story line involves a band of terrorists who take over dulles airport and shut down the control tower leaving a dozen planes stranded in the air waiting to land the film has zero credibility and all of the characters come off as cliched cardboard so much for the script how about the action well let's put it this way director renny harlin could learn a few things from john mctiernan who directed the original as well as the hunt for red october and standouts for their suspense by contrast harlin doesn't have a clue when it comes to choreographing action and consequently die hard never picks up steam die harder is impossible to take seriously even for a minute in fact the movie often seems deliberately campy and it almost reaches the threshold of being so bad it's good you do laugh but you laugh at the film not with it die hard should have never been cleared for takeoff
negative	i admit it i thought arnold schwarzenegger had a knack for comedy when he made twins and true lies watching him in jingle all the way i wondered why anyone ever thought he could carry such a lame movie targeted at susceptible kids it was one thing to scare the crap out of kids with the kindergarten cop but parents who let small children see this movie will have to explain themes of violence alcohol consumption burglary racism and child molestation and you know they'll burst out in tears when arnold punches one of santa's elves he later decks a reindeer hey man why don't you just kick the easter bunny in the nuts while you're at it jingle all the way is formula crap that follows the if someone falls on his ass it must be funny school of thought arnold sinbad and phil hartman crash to the ground more times in this movie than a special olympics hockey team and the movie dredges up more cliche and less believability with each successive scene what can you expect from a movie whose entire premise is that two parents can't find a rare toy on christmas eve and will do anything to get one arnold is of course one of the parents a crack salesman who is never there for his son he races from the office to his son's karate game only to find out he missed it and his kid distrusts him because he's never around gee we haven't seen that in a movie before arnold the absentee father becomes convinced that the only way to buy back his son's affection is to get him a turboman doll which his wife rita wilson who will never be the breadwinner of the hanks household choosing roles like this told him to get weeks ago so arnold sets out to find a turboman which turns out to be more rare than the tickle me elmo was when jingle all the way came out let me back up for a minute here arnold's kid is totally obsessed with this turboman character which is unhealthy beyond belief watches the show eats the cereal sleeps on the freakin' turboman sheets i'd try to discourage any further obsession myself lest any kid seeing this movie think it's a wonderful thing to con your dad into racing out to buy you any toy you want but nooooo the climax of jingle all the way has arnold dressed up as turboman in a parade exonerating himself of all wrongdoing in the eyes of wife and son who don't recognize him until the last minute this is a sad movie all the way through but it only gets worse after the opening scenes of arnold and mailman sinbad stampeding through a store racing off to the mall and hooking up with a santa jim belushi who runs a bootleg toy factory most painful to watch is a scene at a radio station where sinbad holds off the cops with a letter bomb after beating up the deejay an embarrassed martin mull who said he was giving away a turboman doll capitalism has produced some pretty evil things chia pets but this ode to excess and violent consumerism is one of the most shameful never mind the subplot with perfect neighbor phil hartman trying to seduce wilson while arnold is off shopping your cookies are incredible it's the main plot of the movie that sends the message that it's okay to do whatever it takes to get your hands on what you want maybe that's what christmas is like at the schwarzenegger house but not at mine
negative	when the haunting arrived in theaters all i kept hearing about was the overdone special effects and the fact that very often the unseen bumps in the night in a horror film are far scarier than those that you can put a face to courtesy of special effects while i agree that this remake of the haunting goes a bit overboard in the visual effects department i don't think that they are completely to blame for this movie's failure it appears that some people have failed to take into account that the original haunting had the unseen terrors and it was about as scary as a dust bunny so special effects or not if the story isn't the least bit scary you aren't going to end up with a very frightening movie the thing that interested me most about this movie was the caretaker of this building played by bruce dern dern is always great and even though he may have had only about minutes of screen time he was still the most interesting element of the movie as i sat through the seemingly endless albeit fairly impressive special effects i kept wishing that this movie was about dern's caretaker and not the one dimensional characters that populated the cast never a good sign when a bit player is the best part of the movie liam neeson plays a scientist who is conducting experiments on fear he decides the best way to get results is to trick a group of fairly unstable individuals to spend a few days in a haunted mansion he tricks them into participating by letting on that he is conducting an experiment on insomnia and he also fails to mention that the mansion has a reputation for strange catherine lili taylor and owen wilson play his subjects like the original taylor's character is the star of the movie but since she doesn't quite have the marquee power of liam neeson and ms their parts did seem to be a big larger than in the original and let's face it probably half the people who see this movie will do so because of i'll admit that i would have never seen this thing if she weren't in it but the real stars here is the special effects combined with the fairly overdone sets they take over the movie as the supernatural elements of the house start to interact with our hapless insomnia patients there really isn't much of a story here just endless setups so director jan de bont can showcase all the nifty special effects that he got to play with and the special effects are great in many cases they are as good as you are likely to see anywhere in other cases they are overdone and obviously thrown in just for the sake of hitting the cool shots quota at no point in the movie do any of these things ever come close to being scary funny maybe but not scary then we have the set when i first saw the house i was very impressed with the very cool gothic look about it but it only took a short tour by the characters around the place to see that the set designers obviously had as much money to burn as the visual effects people did and decided to take the idiotically overdone route this included a flooded hallway with books as stepping stones and a mirrored circular room that revolves what part did these rooms play in the story absolutely none they were just there to take our minds off the fact that there was neither a descent story nor a single scare in the entire movie then we have the actors lili taylor has never been one of my favorites and when the fact that her character is mousy and pathetic is factored in she comes in around the average or slightly below mark i have no idea why liam neeson took this role he basically reminded me of the ringmaster at an out of control circus his character was in charge of this farce but it quickly got away from him i have no doubt that liam will want to lock all prints of this movie in a very secure vault along with all copies of darkman was cast because she is too hot for words the fact that her character is is just icing on the cake all catherine has to do in this movie is look good fortunately that is something she does very well while she does have a fairly good size part it is obvious that her only purpose in the movie was as it's too bad someone of her talents wasted them here any random supermodel pulled out of a fashion show could have easily filled her role the haunting is the antithesis of another of horror movies the blair witch project the haunting had a seemingly limitless effects budget while blair witch relies on piles of rocks for its scares both prove quite nicely that special effects are irrelevant to a horror film if the story sucks it's all downhill from there my advice if you are looking for special effects go rent star wars if it's scares you want rent halloween either way it's probably in your best interests to skip the haunting
negative	plot set in the future a courier has uploaded some data into a hard drive that resides in his head and must now escape the bad guys who are after that very important information since he overloaded his hard drive he's also racing against the clock before the information seeps into his brain and kills him critique incoherent boring drivel with no suspense horribly unbelievable futuristic environment bad dialogue bad acting by keanu reeves and a hilarious ending it's too bad because the premise of the film was interesting but unfortunately for my friends and i this movie turned out to be just as bad as everyone had warned us it's one of those films that makes you start laughing through when you realize that most of the actors in it suck the location shots are filmed in dark junkyard type areas which they would like to have us believe to be futuristic whatever and all the sets look like well sets there is also absolutely no arc to this story it basically starts off with keanu uploading info into his brain and then a bunch of folks chasing him from place to place until a laughable ending puts a stop to the former uneventful proceedings gibson should stick to writing novels and episodes since his segue into the paranormal tv series was much more entertaining than any of this garbage some other hilarities of this film include dolph lundgren as some futuristic jesus character whose supposed to kick ass henry rollins as a or something and as some kind of a hobo dude with paint all over his face don't ask the ending is the funniest with some robot dolphin and a stupid from inside the computer doing some stuff that no one really cares about by that point i'm ashamed to say this film was shot in my hometown of montreal canada but sadly enough for us all it was some of the special effects were okay hence the but overall it's one of those bad movies that's just funny to watch and cringe at thankfully for keanu he redeemed his career with the matrix it's too bad that he has yet to redeem his lack of acting talent little known facts about this film and its stars as of director robert longo never directed another film hmmm now isn't that odd writer william gibson immigrated from the us to canada in after being rejected for the draft he lived in toronto at first but since has made vancouver his home his novel neuromancer and its sequels count zero and mona lisa overdrive are generally considered to be the definitive works of the cyberpunk this film garnered keanu reeves a nomination in the worst actor category in the razzie awards
negative	i am a steven seagal fan i only say this now because mufti splenetik isn't my real name and because i probably need to explain why i went into this film expecting great things any proud seagal fan worth his beans will tell you that the seagal formula is something you can depend on seagal films can always be counted on for minimal dialogue heaps of expendable baddies with extemely crunchable bones which we'll always hear when seagal does his thing rarely a female in sight unless it's a who hasn't worked since weird science and usually the worst possible titles you can imagine not to mention very straightforward plots generally bad dialogue and mr implacable himself in that same black outfit he's been in since nico doing his my hands are sharp nimble knives thing seagal the stoic sir petrified ponytail duke of dull in the glimmer man seagal breaks out of this formula he gets a sidekick attempts to banter and puts on a new vest he's also put on quite a lot of weight small potatoes you may say a man should be able to accessorize and banter if he wants to but damnit if it ain't broke why fix it more on this disappointed person's dashed expectations later as jack cole seagal is a homicide detective with a questionable past while he and his partner played by keenen ivory wayans are investigating a series of ritual killings cole himself becomes a suspect especially when a background check run by campbell reveals practically nothing on cole it turns out that cole is a former trained government assassin you just can't trust these homicide detectives someone whom victims used to catch just a glimpse of in the jungle before he pounced on them and hence well you know that glimmer man thing an increasingly fishy homicide investigation in the present soon leads to the gradual uncovering of a larger more threatening conspiracy that involves a crooked businessman bob gunton cole's former cia boss brian cox and deals involving chemical weapons the glimmer man plot is pretty standard stuff drawing as with his other films elements from the hotter films of the year eg it's the other changes that disappoint for example although there's a fair amount of violence in this movie there's also the disastrous pairing of seagal with keenen ivory wayans probably the best known of the wayans tribe how many are there exactly from television's in living colour wayans plays whiney straightman to seagal's and cole keeping up his are you crazy part of the dialogue with wasted zest as campbell wayans confines himself to bemoaning his new partner's eccentric habits but the chemistry between the two is minimal and seagal's wooden comebacks make for painful watching a cook in under seige seagal is now a buddhist who speaks chinese and wears prayer beads and intricate silk jackets over his normal black ensemble he chants refuses to fight unless truly provoked and introduces campbell to powdered deer penis to cure his allergies again a benign if trite plot device except for the fact that these new character traits require seagal to speak more than usual heck he has to deliver punchlines and carry a steady conversation with someone other than himself for a large part of the film is that a lot to ask of the seague too much seagal's best characteristic used to be that he knew his purpose in this already complicated world of movies to crunchily snap off bad guy appendages and to do it silently and alone not for seagal the snappy of arnold and stallone nor the attempts to show that he can act much less think no kindergarten cop no oscar just simple unadulterated deathblows that's really how it must have started fans who knew what they wanted streamed in to watch the seague do his thing knowing that never in the seagal universe would they ever have to see him do anything else we trusted him we got to know him now betrayal i don't know if i can watch another seagal movie without that little niggling doubt that he's going to try to be funny again i'll try but it won't be easy if you haven't watched the glimmer man yet you might want to wait for the video to come out it's easier to just fast forward the dialogue parts and linger on the action sequences after all if we can't depend on our fantasies what can we depend on the flying inkpot rating system wait for the broadcast a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice mufti spelenetik is still a steven seagal fan everybody makes mistakes once in awhile
negative	the warrior comes at the end of as summer where we've already experienced man eating sharks deep blue sea man eating crocodiles lake placid and even a man hunting witch the blair witch project now the warrior presents a tribe of flesh eating men who believe that they are bears the story if that's what you want to call it follows ahmed ibn fahdlan antonio banderas an arabian poet who falls in love with his king's wife and is banished from his home land he then travels to the land of the vikings and becomes an ambassador to them eventually the vikings are called upon to protect the people of the village who are being hunted by the flesh eating men thirteen warriors are chosen to go on the mission and as you guessed it ahmed is chosen as the thirteenth he's not a warrior and at first not well accepted by the vikings but as the movie advances he'll have to prove himself both on and off the battlefield that's basically the entire plot there is also a romantic subplot that has been so badly mishandled and one assumes drastically cut that you begin to wonder why the filmmakers didn't just edit out all of the scenes attaining to that part of the story instead they chose to leave just enough of those scenes in to annoy the viewer the film is basically stop action and when it pauses and tries to develop a story it becomes a laughing stock the battle scenes although well choreographed are not involving and not the least bit exciting we don't get to know any of the characters and so we don't care who lives and who dies the film which wants to be beowolf comes across more as a failed story aspiring to epic proportions but not achieving it on any levels it was directed by john mctiernan who's the thomas crown affair is also playing in theaters currently and it's not that mctiernan worked simultaneously on both films but that the warrior was placed on the shelf for so long with the studio just waiting for a time to dump it on audiences it belongs back on the shelf
negative	when i watch a movie like mike nichols' what planet are you from i can't help but feel like everyone is looking at me it's as if all the audience is gazing at the back of my head in the darkness eyes shooting daggers quietly blaming me for the fact that they paid money to spend their time watching this this thing i shift uncomfortably in my seat i'm reminded of how i feel when i see a pair of or celebrities engaging in a teleprompted funny conversation to introduce the next blockbuster award it's not my fault i know it's not my fault but dammit someone's gotta be embarrassed because it doesn't look like anyone on the screen is ready to take the blame i'm about to give you a list of names of people who are gonna make a movie together garry shandling annette bening john goodman greg kinnear mike nichols do any of these names make you instantly shudder the answer i would have come up with before today is no this is quite a list of talented individuals we've got here granted john goodman was in the flintstones and greg kinnear has turned in some leading man performances in certified failures like a smile like yours but even so they've got proven power as excellent supporting players garry shandling has two television classics under his belt his ingenious little it's garry shandling's show and the larry sanders show and for god's sake mike nichols directed the graduate and annette bening is just walking away from american beauty so explain this this thing what planet are you from purports to be a comedy exploring the relationship between men and women satirizing the whole phenomenon but what this movie winds up being is a collection of unfunny moments coupled with uninsightful moments the end result is unsurprisingly an unfunny uninsightful thoroughly icky embarrassment garry shandling plays an alien from a planet populated by technologically advanced but emotionally vacant males they reproduce through cloning of course his leaders put a select group of males through a series of tests designed to determine which one is most fit to fly off to earth find a female of the species and impregnate her they're taught how to pretend that they're listening by nodding and saying and how to compliment shoes imagine my delighted surprise when oh heavens all their carefully practiced tactics turn out to fail miserably producing comedic results the lucky winner is fitted with a penis since theirs after generations of disuse have long since shrunk out of existence i will restrain myself from mentioning the implausibility of such a scenario since the population has stopped evolving due to the fact that they're all just clones whoops too late the penis when aroused tends to make a humming noise the writers when frequently strapped for ideas tend to turn to this as a source of comedy it isn't funny the first time it isn't funny the eighth time it isn't funny the eighteenth time if anything it made me feel vaguely garry meets up with a coworker at a bank played by greg kinnear who turns out to be a generic unlikable scumbag he's meant to fill the part of unfortunate role model for shandling's alien character but he's so flatly drawn that even the writers quickly give up and toss him aside kinnear's scumbagginess is demonstrated by the fact that he claims other peoples' work as his own to worm his way into a vice presidents' position and goes to aa meetings to pick up chicks wow what a magnificent bastard nearly every man in the movie in fact is played as the same sort of slimeball when kinnear's wife walks into the office there isn't a single guy who doesn't trip bump into a wall or otherwise pratfall as if they'd never seen a woman before the few guys that aren't particularly slimeballs such as john goodman's detective character are simply uncommunicative workaholics shandling meets up with annette bening who will inevitably prove to be the love he never knew existed at one of kinnear's aa meetings shandling's mission is to have a baby and when he reveals his desires to her bening instantly falls for him and the next day they get married yup the next day cuz ya see it turns out she wants a baby too bening's character perhaps was the most difficult to watch especially after seeing her come apart at the seams so effectively in american beauty if her character here is supposed to be representing the female of the species as a whole then woe i say to the species she's unfathomably insecure and succumbs so easily to all of shandling's lines and lies that it borders on tragic there's a point where after thinking she may not be able to bear children she learns that she is indeed pregnant when garry comes home after nearly cheating on her she strolls into the kitchen and sings high hopes you know the uplifting ant and the rubber tree plant song to deliver the news and then says to him now you can't leave me we're supposed to empathize with shandling's discovery of the feeling of guilt but instead i wanted to weep for bening that she was placing her entire life and soul firmly in the lap of a great big nothing and eventually shandling falls in love with her for real i suppose though i'm not sure exactly what prompted it what's the message i derive from all this men are liars inherently empty creatures but if you hang around long enough well maybe something will click ha ha ha i'm thankful such broad cynicism isn't frequently allowed to run so rampant let's all join hands and pray that the planet these folks are from is not this one there's also a subplot involving john goodman as an airline incident investigator that wades in the bog of stupidity goodman through a series of astoundingly implausible realizations puts together the fact that shandling is a being from another world with a magic vibrating penis it has all the makings for a subplot of having shandling be discovered that thankfully never comes to the inevitable hackneyed fruition instead it just dangles limply on the branch for a while withers and falls away further proof that goodman should just stick to doing coen brothers movies but let's not dwell on this any longer i've already wasted plenty of your time and my own let's move on forget about what we've seen here and get on with our lives and to help us out let's end things on a happy note congratuations go out to annette bening winner of this week's title award for delivering the awkward line of dialog containing the movie's name
negative	it seems like i'm reviewing cheeseball horror movies on a monthly basis now scream revitalized a genre the studios are now intent on burying into the ground serial killers in these new slasher movies have nothing on sony and miramax in the relentless department i still know what you did last summer is a terrible film in many respects but in the wake of the stupefyingly bad urban legend it's citizen hook jennifer reprises her role as buxom teenager julie apparently escaped certain doom at the end of the last movie by waking up she lives in fear of ben willis the vengeful of a hit and run by julie and her pals paranoid and beat she accepts a free trip to the bahamas from her friend karla norwood winner of the local radio station's of july getaway giveaway julie invites boyfriend ray prinze jr here's the movie's biggest her down but changes his mind and plans to surprise her before until he gets a roadside visit from captain himself that is unaware of this and feeling shunned julie goes on vacation anyway with karla karla's boyfriend pfeiffer and will matthew settle a real type who's sweet on julie to make a long story can't believe it took a paragraph to describe the for this gratuitous trip is a disaster not only is it storm season not only is the desk clerk the frighteners' jeffrey combs a jerk not only are the few island residents and our heroic vacationers getting picked off by the resourceful willis but the karaoke machine isn't working properly you think killing is hard try reprogramming a laserdisc so that gloria gaynor's i will survive now contains the lyric i still know what you did last summer all is not is on his way to save the day and a helpful witch doctor is saying little prayers for julie and co this picture is really about breasts two of them julie like a good horror heroine never does up her shirt to the collar always wears white in the rain and keeps sexy underwear on in case of a sudden desire to tan based on the hormonal charge i got out of the movie i can't imagine what it was doing to the ten year old boy who sat next to gets jennifer and my generation got heather langenkamp lucky bastard i didn't like i know what you did last summer and i can't say i liked this continuation any more or less the pacing in both films is is it that so much time passes with neither murder nor character development i still know what you did last summer has a better sense of humour than the first one though and at least it explains away willis's random selection of victims i don't think the hotel maid or the stoner dude had the slightest idea what julie did last summer director cannon judge dredd is a competent filmmaker but not a particularly imaginative there is a part three what on earth would they call it and the fun denouement suggests there will be here's my suggestion hire a filmmaker with flair someone who can really energize this stillborn who won't rely on so many shock notes and let that person run wild with the camera aside if blandy must appear in the next one try to keep the number of times she says baby to a minimum thanks in advance
negative	we're back in blade runner territory with this one conceptual artist robert longo's vision of a william future where information is the commodity to kill for front and center is johnny keanu reeves a who smuggles data via a implant he's ready to quit the biz and get a portion of his memory restored but first he has to finish one last dangerous job the pressing problem in johnny mnemonic is that keanu reeves seems to have forgotten how to play an action hero since his stint on speed he's walking wood in a forest of stiffs that includes henry rollins and dina meyer dolph lundgren's street preacher is in an acting category all its own without a believable performance between them all we can do is sit back and watch the atmosphere which is pretty good in places the vr sequences are way cool but the physical as miniatures and a lot to be desired watch out for those bad we wouldn't mind a minute of johnny mnemonic if the action played better too bad the debut director isn't very strong in this partment his big finale is a sloppy silly mess that runs twenty minutes too long which is way past the time that most of our wired processors have already shut down bottom line yatf yet another tortured future skip it
negative	ok i admit find camp amusement with the spice girls yes the same spice girls of the gimmicky individual identities they of the annoyingly infectious bubblegum pop hooks and cheesy unifying mantra of girl power but not even their guilty pleasure appeal isn't enough to carry their big screen debut a junky mess which would be more aptly named shite world than spice world the film begins amusingly enough with a cheeky title sequence in which the british scary melanie brown baby emma bunton sporty melanie chisolm ginger geri halliwell and posh victoria adams introduced one by one to much to my surprise excited and only slightly mocking cheers from the press audience as they croon the silky ballad too much a tune that would sound right at home in an actual james bond film a few minutes and an elton john cameo later comes an introductory tour of the numerous plotlines that run through the film the spicy ones go on a european publicity tour leading up to their first live concert at london's royal albert hall a film producer george wendt and a screenwriter mark mckinney pitch various film ideas to the girls' manager clifford richard e grant a documentary film crew follows the girls a pregnant mate naoki mori of the group rapidly approaches her due date and a tabloid publisher barry humphries attempts to destroy the group with the help of a sneaky shutterbug richard o'brien capped off by a live rendition of the girls' bouncy hit say you'll be there a wealth of laughs and merriment is sure to follow right wrong it's all downhill from there as spice world collapses into a series of misfired comedy sketches i must give the girls credit for their refreshing willingness to make fun of themselves but writer kim fuller and director bob spiers can barely come up with a funny joke between them much less a organized framework for all the wacky spice world jumps from vignette to vignette subplot to subplot with no direction and little sense at one minute having the girls meet with aliens no joke and at another having them stage a daring rescue of two young fans who fall into the water during a boat ride while a decent joke slips through the cracks here and a dance bootcamp scene the girls sing the lyric we know how we got this and courage and a wonderbra of the material is not even funny on the chuckle level some gags are just plain pointless such as roger moore's recurring role as the mysterious chief who dispenses cryptic advice to clifford the only reason why i can think anyone would find that funny is the fact that moore once played james bond ha ha as weak as the script is i think there's one insurmountable problem with even attempting to make a spice girls movie and that is the girls themselves the point is not that they can't act and for the record they really but that their individual personas which works as a gimmick over the span of a music video are too thin to survive outside of the truncated video bite mtv world posh who garnered the most enthusiastic cheers during the introductions comes off best by default because her persona rich bitch most easily translates into character in a film baby's persona young innocent to a lesser extent also works but the remaining girls' identities are a little harder to flesh out there really isn't much to do with sporty besides having her exercise every so often which is what fuller and spiers do and after all what exactly entails being ginger or scary apparently just their wardrobes spice world manages to pick up some steam in the late going following a flashback performance of the spices' signature hit wannabe the song is as grating as ever but the energy of the number gives the proceedings a shot in the arm setting the stage for a wave of humor stemmed from the screenwriters' film ideas the film almost mirrors robert altman's the player in the way the film snails into itself this section of the film involving all manner of involving a speeding bus is perhaps its most effective but it also points up how all the other storylines the publisher the documentary crew lack a satisfactory payoff spice world is harmless entertainment suitable for the entire family and it will please the spice faithful but this sloppy enterprise surely won't win them any new fans which is what the group sorely needs to bolster its rapidly waning girl power in the states once the hype disappears spice world will likely serve as the the spices' final hurrah in america
negative	sylvester stallone has made some crap films in his lifetime but this has got to be one of the worst a totally dull story that thinks it can use various explosions to make it interesting the specialist is about as exciting as an episode of dragnet and about as well acted even some attempts at film noir mood are destroyed by a sappy script stupid and unlikable characters and just plain nothingness who knew a big explosion could be so boring and unless you saw blown away the specliast of the title is none other than action star sylvester stallone in comeback i think who plays a quiet bomber who was once a bomb expert with the army or something but who suffered a change of heart when he and his assistant james woods who shows us exactly what is other than another bad sly film accidentally killed some innocent people during a job his credo is killing bad people not innocents and that's why he makes big bombs so anyway into his life steps the seductive sharon stone who is basically the of the stupid son eric roberts of a kingpin rod steiger in an indecipherable accent which is sometimes cuban sometimes brando sometimes scottish etc turns out sharon is actually using her boyfriend so she can kill him since he killed her parents when she was young so she calls sly leaves messages with him sends him etc about planting a bomb to kill roberts which sly listens to obsessively and while he works out naked yea also into his life though again comes woods who has been tipped off by stone to catch sly using the cops he tries to set up traps none which really work so when sly calls him he goes ballisitic on his ass over the phone getting so worked up by saying his speeches that he seems to pop the vein in his head wide open these are the most exciting scenes in the film and woods becomes the only ounce of entertainment in the film the film tries to offer us a moody film noir except with explosions but comes up completely it's just a pretend film noir making it a big waste of time and for action buffs the action scenes are pretty lame with some really special effects a penthouse being blown off of a hotel looks like a piece of cardboard falling into a tub then there's the sex scene between sly and stone which are about as mispaired a couple as rachel and ross on friends their sex scene is more nauseating then sexy because it shows us more of sly than stone now let's guess who we'd rather see naked okay stone's small but perky breasts which we've seen more times than harvey keitel's dick or stallone's veiny ass which isn't usually shown for a very good reason i know i can't really judge it as a flaw of the film but come on the worst flaw of the film is this it's boring i mean i was on caffeine when watching it but my friend fell asleep only to be woken up by james woods ranting but a good movie does not james woods going nuts make if you're in for some fun action rent sly's earlier demolition man which sucks too but in a much more entertaining fashion skip this dull film unless you want to see woods or make fun of steiger's accent or see stone's breasts again
negative	skulls' is a laughably bad thriller a doppelganger of firm' so blazingly ridiculous that it caused me to drift into a hypnotic stupor certain moments are so preposterous that i nearly herniated myself in an attempt to stifle laughter i chuckled incessantly all the way home let me share the skulls is a secret society conceived inside the walls of yale designed i'm sure to mirror the actual skull bones from the same college luke mcnamara joshua jackson a townie and local varsity rowing championship victor for the third consecutive year highlights the latest skull scouting report despite some anxiety and caution from others luke accepts entry into the organization soon after he finds himself surrounded by beautiful women driving a new car and marveling at the that somehow surfaced in his bank account yeah dude pretty good deal eh but luke soon learns that the membership is somewhat suffocating when circumstances become extreme there is no way he can leave the society except maybe as a drooling vegetable the premise although lacking in originality certainly offers its share of potential intrigue and suspense unfortunately skulls' is neither intriguing nor suspenseful nor anything else you would associate with fresh or exciting it's just another abysmal teen prototype that has the soundtrack the stars but not the script skulls' is so bad it attains a certain level of entertainment value with the screenplay by jon pogue immediately becoming the basis for a slew of unintentional howlers first off upon their initiation into the skulls each new member has to have a skull branded onto their arm afterward they are supplied with a wristwatch that conveniently covers up the scar will they never take this watch off and what if they forget it by their bedside perhaps their secret' society was being a little too conspicuous when they decided to brand new members like cattle on an area of the body that is easily exposed on top of this they are each given a rulebook and a key to headquarters gee why not member but my favorite bit is this the voting committee for the skulls does not bother with individual agree' or disagree' notions when making collective decisions they are given official skull paddles when flipped to one side they indicate the member agrees with the proposal facing the opposite way means a disagreement wouldn't they merely express themselves verbally hell no they have to retrieve the paddles for a proper vote and maybe afterward they can play i'm still chuckling about these ludicrous details but the humiliating dialogue is enough to send one into arrest the cast meanwhile combines a pinch of veteran talent with a dash of the creek' crowd and fuses the two together ensuring that the embarrassment will be a mutually shared union throughout but not entirely accomplished actors like craig t nelson as skulls chairman judge litten mandrake and william peterson as fellow board member senator levritt are dealt pathetic villain caricatures and look suitably embarrassed handling them and then there's christopher mcdonald who has the capacity to be a fun exciting actor mcdonald's charisma is totally diminished here as he sleepwalks through another perfunctory bad guy role yes pogue makes it a i pray it was a exercise for all these actors the young troupe of performers involved fair moderately better let's cut the talented canadian lad joshua jackson some slack for maintaining believability within the confines of his character paul walker the strapping quarterback from blues' is bland but passable as caleb mandrake the judge's son walker preserves a straight face even when dealt the silliest dialogue in the movie i just killed a guy in the ritual room some actual spark is generated by leslie bibb who plays luke's longtime chum chloe and manages to successfully pull off some convincing dramatics it really boils down to the actors attempting to puncture the surrounding plastic bubble of absurdity that cages them from minute one or maybe not minute one thanks to a decent from director rob cohen who films early sequences with a sense of atmosphere and style it makes you wonder why he didn't flee indefinitely from the project because while enjoyable cheese like and the moderate stallone thriller aren't superior cinema they belong on the afi top list when compared to this degrading trash aside from unintentionally humoring the audience skulls' gets little accomplished the thrills and action are lazy and mechanical the story is stuffed with ridiculous formulaic plotting that sheepishly overlooks the cool potential of a secret underground society flick instead of gaining knowledge about the skulls as an organization we are thrust into a lame video surveillance conspiracy that has developed barnacles from excessive usage we've seen it all before and better skulls' is a feeble little circus of stupidity so miscalculated that while it would serve as a clever pun a term like boneheaded' seems just too generous
negative	it's difficult to expect much from a director whose greatest accomplishments to date are a handful of tv commercials as is the case with bubble boy director blair hayes that said hayes's feature film debut lives up to expectations coming off mainly as equal parts offensive and moronic but occasionally bubble boy transcends its substandard roots with glimmers of humor and scathing social commentary those moments of intelligence are delivered mostly by the film's two stars jake gyllenhall as the jimmy and swoosie kurtz as his hyper religious mother gyllenhall's delivery of jimmy's hilariously na ve narration serves as the backbone for an otherwise flimsy story jimmy is a bubble boy a kid born without immunity who could die if he comes in contact with a single germ a plight explored more seriously in the john travolta tv movie boy in the plastic bubble and less so on seinfeld his mom jimmy filling his head with wildly twisted conservative propaganda and messages until he's befriended by chloe marley shelton the beautiful girl next door jimmy falls in love with chloe but is afraid that his love will literally kill him as evidenced in a scene when she drunkenly tries to enter his bubble for a kiss but when chloe decides to marry her high school boyfriend jimmy builds a bubble suit and embarks on a voyage to stop the wedding by professing his love the offensive bits have little to do with jimmy's rare handicap regardless of what the film's protesters would have you believe but instead center on outrageous racial stereotypes including a screaming chinese strip club owner and a devout east indian hindi but even if you find stereotype humor funny it's hard to muster more than a giggle for these shallow gags they even manage to bungle some potentially great moments with a group of carnival freaks but a few of the harsh jabs manage to work especially in the case of kurtz who very bluntly shows the dark hypocritical side of the religious right and a wacky of a cult called bright shiny led by the inimitable fabio unfortunately a few giggles can't make bubble boy the riotous comedy it so desperately wants to be honestly it's a mystery how on earth this movie was ever made and i'm not just saying that because it's so mediocre how odd for disney to take a gamble on a film with an unknown director starring virtually unknown actors that doesn't seem to appeal to any particular demographic and has the potential to offend so many and now that the studio is suffering through a very public protest against the film by the parents of bubble boy david philip vetter maybe disney's wondering the same thing hope the opening box office take makes it worthwhile
negative	bats is this year's camp flick with the world's worst dialogue cheesiest premise and stupidest editor this one should be heaven for those who enjoy films humorous in their inanity as for the rest of us well i'd say skip it but looking at the box office figures for this one it seems as though most of america is following that advice anyway follow their lead and you'll spare yourself minutes of your life and bucks to boot i love alfred hitchcock's the birds almost as much as i love the short story on which it is based it saddens me even more then to see that american treasure ripped off so blatantly by wannabe such as bats when mysterious bat attacks occur in a small texas town the authorities call in a batologist dina meyer to investigate it turns out that a creepy scientist bob gunton has genetically enhanced a couple bats that escaped from his lab making them smarter and more vicious why has he done this you ask because you see it is apparently a scientist's job to make things a little better even if that means the death of all mankind so the batologist her wisecracking sidekick and the town sheriff lou diamond phillips have to kill all the bats and save the world of course that can't happen before they wallow in some guamo bat shit for the uninitiated get up close and personal with some truly repulsive flying mammals and survive some of the dumbest situations ever seen in a professionally produced motion picture consider for example a scene where two people are in a bat cave the bats are all sleeping but the humans are afraid they might wake up before they can get out what do they do do they get the hell out of there as fast as they can nope they stand there for a while transfixed by the thousands of bats opening their eyes what keeps bats from being scary or creepy is the hyperactive editing in most of the attack scenes we don't even get to see what's going on the screen becomes a mush because the cuts are so quick all we know is that bats are attacking how they are attacking and what exactly is happening remains a mystery a little technical proficiency does wonders for horror movies and bats sure could use some of course director louis morneau tries to liven things up with some intentional humor but it is so conventional it doesn't really go anywhere most of the ocmic relief comes courtesy of the batologist's wisecracking sidekick leon who takes every opportunity to sputter ingenious lines like i hate bats some of these are so bad that they take on a double quality they may inspire a smirk by their very nature and a roaring laugh because they are so inept i hate characters who exist for the sole purpose of spouting lame playing such characters does not help actors' careers still i suppose that if you're looking for a movie that is so bad it's good you could do worse than bats it does have a tremendous amount of camp value i'm not recommending the movie because quite frankly it sucks and i know that this might convince some people to go out and see it more power to them
negative	starring shawnee smith donovan leitch ricky paull goldin kevin dillon billy beck the blob is the remake of the classic a term that i use very loosely to define the original about a really mean glob of goop that takes out anything that gets in its way now the original version has the virtue of cheesy special effects which give it a kind of nostalgic campy feel the fact that steve mcqueen was the star of the film doesn't exactly hurt it either fast forward to the late steve mcqueen isn't in the remake this might have something to do with the fact that he had been pushing up daisies for years nor is there any hollywood heavy hitters in the lead role that is unless you count matt dillon's brother kevin as a hollywood heavy hitter the other thing that works against this new blob is that special effects technology has improved dramatically since the original the only things you need now to have great special effects in a movie are deep pockets it looks as if the produces of the new blob had a couple of holes in their pockets the special effects in this movie are cheesy like the original's unlike the original they don't look campy they just look cheap one bright spot in the movie from a purely sexist point of view is shawnee smith she is very attractive and can actually act which is more than i can say about some of her costars in terms of plot a little ball of pink goop falls from the sky seems this goop was an experiment that was being housed up on a satellite anyway the pink stuff has a taste for humans the more people it absorbs the bigger it gets and it isn't the friendliest goop on the block either anyway it attacks this little town and it's up to the attractive local teenage population to stop it not really but that is how it seems this version attempts to recapture the camp of the original as i've already said this new version of the blob comes off more as cheap badly acted and badly written than campy in the years since this film was made none of the cast have gone on to greatness although star shawnee smith had a very tiny role in armageddon the reason that we have never heard of any of them again is quite simple they all stunk out loud although some of the film's smaller roles are filled with some actors that while not big stars are doubtless people that you will recognize from their supporting roles in other movies and tv shows it also appears that the producers of the blob tried to compensate for the lack of a special effects budget by making the scenes in which the blob makes meals of the townsfolk as gory as possible sadly it doesn't work very well if you want to see a big ball of goop terrorize a town then i would say that you should skip the remake and rent the original although that isn't so hot either this newest version is seriously lacking in any redeeming qualities
negative	toward the bottom of the action movie barrel lies action jackson the only movie in hollywood history to show sharon stone and vanity topless within a span of ten minutes this carl apollo creed weathers vehicle features the traditional cop vs evil establishment crook and relies on all the trappings from the token heroin addict who needs a fix to the shouting superior officer somewhere in between come the explosions and boobs although there is a curious lack of exploding boobs weathers is action jackson a detroit cop known for all sorts of crazy vigilante techniques speaking of one past criminal apprehension jackson's superior yells you tore his arm off jackson replies he had a spare jackson has been busted down to a desk job because of past problems with auto manufacturer dellaplane craig t nelson and now has to act as department liaison to a dinner honoring nelson after hearing what jackson thinks of him stone says i take it you're not one of dellaplane's friends not unless they changed the definition jackson glowers and of course it turns out stone is mrs dellaplane faux pas jackson not everything is happy in motown people are being killed and dellaplane has evil plans for the awa it's all up to jackson to stop it and his only lead lies in vanity not his own wherever she left off with prince in terms of exchanging sexual favors for career advancement she picks up in action jackson she plays the heroin addict and chanteuse in dellaplane's nightclub after singing one particularly sultry number for him she saunters over and complains i expected a standing ovation he responds you're getting one and it's damn clever because he's sitting down at the time prince wouldn't even let out an innuendo that lame and he's the king of the horndogs or at least the prince it's a testament to the that sharon stone is killed off within the first minutes but vanity survives the whole movie action jackson is another variation on the unlikely partners buddy action flick with jackson lugging junkie vanity around this leads to some of the worst paired acting of the me decade and with the dialogue they're given there's not much room for improvement my favorite is when vanity feeling the effects of drug withdrawal says i feel like my teeth are hollow my gums are made of dry rubber and someone's trying to start a bonfire in the back of my bloody head jackson's response is i think i felt that way once they called it love you'll understand when i say watch this at your own risk serving the world for nearly of a century
negative	if anyone had been able in to forsee a cable show hosted by gilbert gottfried showcasing some of the worst films of the they'd agree d c cab is the quintessential usa up all nite movie it's one of those childish movies that kids would love but can't see until it's edited for tv it's also one of those pointless almost plotless movies with hardly any laughs and strike three it pairs mr t with gary busey i heard gilbert say d c cab had an cast but i'm still hoping there was some degree of facetiousness in that statement when goes to a appearance by famed flashdancer irene cara as herself you can't say a damn thing about casts likewise for token appearances by marsha roz warfield paul rodriguez and politically incorrect host bill maher before he was somebody appearing in d c cab pretty much had the opposite effect on everyone else especially irene i'm gonna live forever cara d c cab is an ensemble comedy from joel schumacher who would go on to direct batman forever about a bunch of misfits who drive cabs you get the feeling if the police academy cadets had made a different career choice this would be the result except here you have such interesting characters as the token white guy busey who wants to get in tight with the blacks now before they take over the world the token jive talker named tyrone charlie barnett who wears his hair in rollers and uses the word honkey as much as possible the tough guy with the mohawk and gold chains mr t a real stretch for him the aspiring musician waiting for his big break maher the mexican gigolo rodriguez the woman who actually wants to drive cabs for a living warfield and the guy who wants to own a cab company for a living adam baldwin we've all seen dozens of bad comedies from the some are fun to watch and some are actually funny this one is more or less neither you'd think plenty of comedic sparks would fly from the assemblage of talent whatever but d c cab more or less falls flat on a continual basis culminating in the usual contrived hollywood finale as baldwin is kidnapped and the other cabbies have to go to rescue him it's a shame no one was able to rescue this movie from the depths of stale jokes and unoriginality d c cab has rightly earned its position on usa up all nite
negative	written by alex cox tod davies terry gilliam and tony grisoni directed by terry gilliam i've always preferred mushrooms to blotter acid dropping acid is like riding a roller coaster blindfolded you have no idea where the peaks and valleys are no idea when the next terrifying decent will send your stomach into your throat and no idea how long the ride will last then there's the hard knot in your gut and the clenched teeth that come with ingesting a dose mushrooms on the other hand offer the psychedelic equivalent of a leisurely ride on a ferris wheel a steady reassuring assent a short period of thrilling motion and color and then a smooth landing acid is for daredevils mushrooms are for refined seekers of joy my point is that in fear and loathing in las vegas director terry gilliam has made an acid movie when i wish he would have made a mushroom movie full of shocking sight gags aggressive images and grotesque comic performances the film certainly offers something for those fans of hunter s thompson's book who want to experience its twisted pharmacological from the inside out but for those of us who just want to enjoy a film gilliam has produced a mixed bag fear and loathing tells the ostensibly true story of how gonzo journalist hunter s thompson johnny depp and hispanic activist attorney oscar zeta actosta benicio del toro came to las vegas to cover a motorcycle race and found themselves trapped in the middle of a district attorney's convention while ingesting every conceivable drug available to a man of means in operating under the pseudonyms of raoul duke and dr gonzo the two men careen into vegas on an acid and mescaline bender then hole up in a hotel suite to binge on amyl nitrite cocaine tequila and a rainbow of uppers and downers they terrorize every one they meet mostly because every one they meet terrifies them duke hallucinates giant bats on the way into town then is attacked by horrifying lizards in the casino lounge dr gonzo becomes enamored of a hunting knife and begs duke to throw the tape player into the bathtub with him just as jefferson airplane's white rabbit reaches its climax and these guys don't just trash hotel rooms they rape them humiliate them and leave them for dead that neither of them ends up dead or in jail is testament to blind luck or providence depending on your point of view thompson's book besides being a hilarious read has stood the test of time as an important historical document it simultaneously exposed the drug culture for the sham that it was and exposed las vegas as the place where the american dream came to die pontificate all you want about how the film illustrates thompson's message but the truth is that stripped to its bare essentials what gilliam has wrought is a drug comedy it's a cheech and chong movie you're there to watch depp and del toro ingest a lot of chemicals and then laugh at the results see johnny take drugs see johnny fall down there's nothing wrong with this concept but gilliam tries too hard this is a frantic movie all sweaty lenses dutch tilts and lighting schemes there are times when gilliam really does put a convincing representation of an acid trip on the screen but to what end much of the dialogue comes verbatim from thompson's book and there are some priceless comic observations but you're hard pressed to hear or digest them amidst all the jumbled camera work this brings us to the performances which strike me as all wrong depp plays thompson as groucho marks filtered through george c scott in patton a gimmicky performance which works against the biting satire of thompson's dialogue in between his several puking scenes del toro fares better as dr gonzo but he also mumbles and sputters so many of his lines that their weight is lost watching these two made me wish that the movie had been made twenty years ago with dan akroyd and john belushi as the leads now that would have been something to see it's interesting to note that alex cox credited as a on the screenplay was originally slated to direct before gilliam took over as much of a fan as i am of gilliam's work cox would have been the better choice sid and nancy cox's best work covered essentially the same subject matter but cox was able to pull back and allow the characters of sid vicious and nancy spungen to carry the film gilliam commits the compound sin of his film while being uncertain of his purpose what kind of movie was he trying to make anyway it doesn't try to be a cautionary tale and it doesn't work as broad comedy if he had considered more carefully his purpose the result would have been a much more interesting film but i don't want to be too hard on it there are some truly funny moments and if you're in a good enough mood you might get a kick out of it i do however recommend watching fear and loathing in las vegas under the influence of your favorite controlled substance i guarantee it will enhance the effect
negative	the best thing about lake placid is that it's only minutes long and when it's over you're glad that you didn't waste more than an hour and a half of your time it's nothing more than a bad of jaws and i think that's being kind it was written by david e kelly ally mcbeal as a but fails at both miserably i was never scared and i think that i only laughed once the crocodile even fails in comparison to the snake in anaconda the plot begins when a man is eaten in half by the giant crocodile in black lake in maine that brings the local sheriff brendan gleeson and a warden bill pulman to investigate also a paleontologist bridget fonda from new york is sent to look at a tooth and an eccentric lover oliver platt flies in because he wants to swim beside the beast soon there is tension between everybody because half the people want to kill the croc and the other half want to save it there's also an eccentric old lady betty white who lives by the lake and has a few secrets as i mentioned before kelley and director steve minor don't go for a serious approach towards the material but they also don't have anything sly or satirical or witty to say either the betty white character is completely unfunny and none of the other characters are really that interesting they're all basically idiots if they had any brains the croc wouldn't have been that much of a challenge to catch and they wouldn't have put themselves in half of the situations that they did but then again if they were smart there wouldn't be a movie basically lake placid is best undiscovered
negative	that is unless you're one of those people who have seen the preview a thousand times on tv or in the theaters i can tell you one thing now they gave the entire movie away why someone would want to base an entire movie on one premise and then give that crucial detail away in the trailers is beyond me however if they hadn't given it away the film would've still been suprisingly devoid of suspense given its subject matter obviously the producers thought they could remake the deep end of the ocean throw in tommy lee jones and a couple of cliches and call it an action drama double jeopardy offers solid acting from ashley judd and tommy lee jones who got first billing even though he didn't see to be on screen half as much as judd did it also offers some genuinely funny clever or moments my favorite judd waking up in the coffin but none of that can salvage the film from its insanely predictable plot half the time i'm wondering whether i'm watching one of those overhyped tv miniseries which always turn out to be less exciting than advertised judging by the beginning end and a huge chunk of the middle i might have been watching a special hallmark presentation too the movie's stretching for an almost two hour long film with only minutes worth of material implausible material no less loose interpretation of one of the amendments aside too many times in the movie i thought that is not possible that kind of stuff is excusable in popcorn movies but not one like double jeopardy that tries to pass itself off as serious drama everything seems dragged out overplayed when they should've kept us in the dark they let the cat out of the bag too early
negative	i had an epiphany today it occurred to me while i was watching house on haunted hill it is as follows if a trailer makes the film it's advertising look like a trashy stupid movie well guess what chances are there is truth in advertising too bad i didn't trust my own instincts when possessed me to see this movie i blame it on my sudden craving for a scare and my anticipation of sleepy hollow that and dogma started too late in the afternoon for my schedule an hour of angel or buffy is scarier than this doozy that tries to be scary and shtick but falls flat on its face i wish i'd seen it when it was halloween at least i would have been forgiving hey tis the season the movie was scary albeit very confusing dizzying and nauseating at first but soon the horror got repetitive and downright laughable because the film obviously wasn't going anywhere now i truly appreciate films like scream halloween or any old hitchcock film where the scariness stems from situations that are at least somewhat realistic that's what spooks people out the fact that it could happen to them or someone they know there has to be a logical precedent for the situations they want to scare us with sure utterly unpredictable is good too but that's different from utterly nonsensical hohh house on haunted hill on the other hand   well let's just say i about fell off my chair laughing when they revealed that everyone who got invited to the party was related to the psycho doctors who died in the house a couple of decades ago riiiiight y'know that just sends chills down my spine yeah just like i wet my pants when they told me the house is evil ooooooo hint blood and guts only work a few times sooner or later people start to tell themselves that it's just ketchup and props and you've got to come up with something better than that there were just too many things in this movie that we've all seen before from the inevitable plot developments of strangers unwittingly trapped together strangers turning against each other the evil manifesting itself the dead coming back for a last scare each was more predictable than the last why didn't these fools just stay together in one place anyways sheesh was i grossed out yes did i get spooked a few times yes but why i get really disturbed when there is no why when there weren't random scares that were there for no other reason than for the visual effect which wasn't that good either trust me and the scare the film was filled with drab laughable dialogue the characters were incredibly flat and cliched not to mention downright annoying you've got a bunch of people going nowhere in their lives of course they're dumb enough to go to a party some stranger invited them to provided they win a million dollars if they survive the night jeez i thought no one fell for those you may already be a winner things anymore and of course all three gals are babes i wonder how on earth the geoffrey rush of shine ended up in this movie keep that up geoff and you'll qualify for the next batman venture the only single person i enjoyed was chris kattan because well he just cracks me up and famke jansen sp because she reminds me of the delectable brosnan pierce brosnan hey i willingly endured dante's peak three times for him all right i concede there were a couple of things i enjoyed that perverted little amusement park at the beginning i probably won't ride a rollercoaster for a while and the machine they used to drive geoffrey's character mad see i don't even remember their names the machine not that stupid fishtank with naked wimmin in it i kept waiting and waiting for that inevitable twist at the end of the movie it wouldn't have redeemed the film but at least it would have made me feel better but no they opted for the beautiful sunrise ending thank god they didn't add a kiss at the end or i would have puked god there is no hope
negative	director andrew davis reworks his fugitive formula and the results are about as exciting as his last the dreadful comedy steal big steal was funny keanu i'd rather play music than play another action hero reeves is the grad student on the run who along with his superfluous sidekick rachel weisz has been framed for a sabotaged science experiment that vaporized eight chicago city blocks the explosion is a and easily the best part of the movie or as one audience member succinctly summed it up whoa false information implicates their involvement and boy and girl are soon on the run fleeing over open drawbridges across icy lakes and through the corridors of power at a underground energy facility aiding and abetting is the team's shady mentor played in an what performance by morgan freeman brit brian cox is also about as the bad guy he has some fun fiddling with a southern accent unfunny overscored and without a single shred of suspense chain reaction is the summer movie to walk out on if you make it to the end a mess of involving another imminent explosion you'll hear somebody say i guess it's time to go heed that warning
negative	one of the most blatantly obvious signs that director sidney lumet's gloria a remake of the john cassavetes film had absolutely no effect on me occurred when i was driving home from the theatre suddenly i realized that since i had stood up from my theatre seat five minutes before i had not thought once about the film i had just invested nearly two hours of my life in when a movie is over aren't we supposed to think about it for a while and have a conversation about it with the acquaintances we have just watched it with i thought so but for one i saw this particular picture by myself and even if i had been with someone there wouldn't have been anything to talk about in the first place to be sure gloria begins with a stirring rather poignant prologue in which a boy's family is brutally gunned down by mobsters in search of a disc his father had with incriminating evidence on it right before the men broke in of course his father gave him the disc to escape with eventually the boy named nicky nunez figueroa is caught by the mobsters and taken back to their apartment meanwhile gloria sharon stone has just gotten out of prison for a crime she didn't commit and returns to her jeremy northam to recieve the money he promised her for covering up his crime when he refuses to give it to her and then hears the group of men talking about killing nicky she leaves with him in order to save his life but not before holding the men at gunpoint stealing all of their money and forcing them to strip nude gloria is the type of new yorker who always seems to get involved with the wrong people and she never expected to be stuck with a kid but she has a heart of gold don't they always in this type of movie and is only trying to protect the boy whom she quickly begins to form a close bond with the previous incarnation of gloria by cassavetes and starring the luminous gena rowlands remains unseen by me but was no doubt superior even though i can't really imagine how this considerably dull story could be transformed into an entertaining one regardless of the director or stars there is no doubt in my mind that director lumet has stuck closely to the original but the film itself is simply lifeless with only an occasional laugh popping up here and there so that it isn't completely unbearable to watch i liked for example a very funny climactic sequence where gloria is deciding whether to leave the school she has left the boy at and keeps turning the car around then driving a little ways then slamming on the brakes and turning around again these bright moments however appear long and far between and the majority of the film deals with the budding relationship between nicky and gloria which is both painfully predictable and throughout my mind was repeatedly asking the question who really cares as gloria sharon stone has adopted an brooklyn accent that honestly doesn't sound realistic at all in the beginning in fact i was amazed at how amateurish stone's performance was but as the film progressed she got better although not one of her better turns stone does have a comic flare that refuses to be ignored figeroa was fine as nicky and a little more natural than the usual child actors who are so precocious they make you want to gag all other actors who appeared were considerably wasted none more than cathy moriarty an entertaining actress in her own right who is billed fourth and has all of one scene as gloria's friend whom she turns to for help sony the studio that released gloria obviously does not have any faith in the film and i don't blame them they declined to screen the picture for critics which is never a good sign particularly with the people involved although how much money a movie makes does not determine how good it is just look at the spectacular in dreams which failed to even make the top last week i have a suspicion gloria is going to vanish from theaters faster than ishtar judging from the opening night p m showing i saw it at where there were about ten to fifteen people present counting myself although stone can be an impressive actress just watch her in casino or last dance if you don't believe me and sidney lumet can be a respectable director there is no reasoning for why they thought the cliched story of gloria was worth remaking or for that matter why columbia pictures agreed to finance it when they could have been making a picture that actually looked like it might have an inkling of a chance to be successful
negative	note seeing as the only concern of body shots is sex i will be forced to refer to that particular act innumerable times throughout the duration of this review because of this i will try to vary word descriptions of sex meaning if you are offended by pejorative terms and or your name is jerry falwell you are kindly invited to hit the x up on the left corner of your screen so if there happens to be a word you come across and cannot comprehend fret not it's most likely just another way of referring to sex i think we'd all agree that any word used incessantly becomes a bit monotonous so i hope you appreciate my attempt to liven up what could potentially be a very boring review though not as boring as the movie which makes steve forbes flat tax plan seem as lively as watching a naked mathew mconaughy play the bongos while high on god knows what body shots is a film so frightened of coitus that scenes of copulation are filmed ominously in the way you'd normally expect to see a violent attack it's about people who think about screwing seek it out and talk about it these are things we all do sometimes the characters in this film spend every waking moment pondering the simplicities of sexual acts their lives center around the next sexual encounter but they seemed depressed it's as if fucking is all they have to look forward to after a busy workweek at its core body shots is a message movie the kind of thing i could picture really progressive church groups showing to middle schoolers in order to turn them off coition michael cristoffer who directed gia another film that treated bumping uglies as if it where evil is a moralist with nothing new to say his characters don't communicate anything of interest to each other so cristoffer gives them an opportunity to let out their inner thoughts by speaking directly into the camera they voice simplistic platitudes like i like to come or sex without love equals violence huh and yes that is as complex as this movie's observations get the characters are stupid and shallow with not one registering as anything more the plot concerns vapid over sexed twentysomethings on an all night hunt for carnal pleasure then the after math the morning after of such events we meet the characters as they speak directly to us confiding in us with their idiotic ruminations on intimacy i would normally go into the characters and the actors who play them giving you the pros and cons but for this film i cannot i'm not trying to be clever or witty but i honestly hardly remember anything that would set them apart from the others with the exception of trent played by ron livingston as a bargain basement patrick bateman the rest fade into each a patchwork of fake breasts defined abs pearly white teeth and creamy flawless skin i vaguely recall brad rowe as the sensitive one only because his character gets the worst lines sex without love equals violence in between all the confessionals cristoffer films everything like a headache commercial with blurry slo mos and dramatic head turning the fact that this director at one point won a pulitzer prize completely baffles me this film is made without one iota of intelligence or insight into the generation that its tag line claims to be defining if body shots is meant to say that all twentysometyhings are idiotic and f fine i don't have any problem with a film that tries to persuade me to think a certain way but cristoffer only gives us one side additionally that one side isn't even entertaining the characters indulge in buggery without an ounce of sexiness or realism one sexual encounter takes place outside a club on a chain link fence between the two most sensitive characters they suddenly have vigorous intercourse with each other for no apparent reason other than that they both happen to be standing next to each other alas if it could only be that easy kidding of course then not only isn't it erotic it isn't real it doesn't feel like an authentic sexual encounter every f k scene in this film and there are many is treated in the same unsexy manner body shots makes fornication dirtier than the most scummy porno film it shows us none of the pleasure that should go along with it and most of all it fails to show us why its characters love making it so much if they seem to hate the act of actually doing it the resulting search for nookie and you can take that cookie over one night leaves us with several tedious plot lines to follow the main concern is much ado over a rape that may or may not have occurred the film shows us two separate versions of the possible rape one where it is consensual the other where it is not and in both versions the young actress playing the possible victim gets her shirt torn off this is a topic that could be interestingly explored if done intelligently and if memory serves me i can't think of one film that has done so and yes i saw the accused which may be one of the most overrated movies of the next to wall street unfortunately nobody gives us reason to care not the writer the director or the actors nearly all of whom seem to have wandered off the set of a noxious spin off paul thomas anderson approached boogie nights in a manner similar to what cristoffer does here though boogie nights succeeded it was similarly moralistic but it gave us two different viewpoints it showed us how the lifestyle of porn enticed its characters and it showed us the possible of such a decision the characters in boogie nights were as idiotic as the characters are here but anderson seemed to care about them he gave them heart cristoffer gives them nothing but raging hormones he preaches to us by using his characters to preach to us this is not the way to get any message across why not just direct a public service announcement on the perils of hittin' skins cristofer kind of does that though without an ounce of insight and with a helping of leering exploitation
negative	i'm guessing and from the available evidence it's not a great guess that burn hollywood burn began life as an insider satire of hollywood excess stupidity ego and if so the film that ended up on the screen ranks as one of the most spectacularly ironic unintentional jokes in film history it has already been that the original title an alan smithee film became a problem when miserable test screenings forced against the will of director arthur hiller prompting hiller himself to opt for the directors' pseudonym of alan smithee that left a film satire in the hands of writer joe eszterhas as humorless a hack as ever put finger to word processor and you could just smell the disaster brewing if you're unfortunate enough to sit through burn hollywood burn you'll still be smelling that disaster long after the lights come up ostensibly it's a account of a director named alan smithee eric idle who loses control of a action film called trio starring sylvester stallone whoopi goldberg and jackie chan all of whom appear as themselves when the only recourse available to him is abandoning the project to be called an alan smithee film which of course it already is smithee steals the negative of the film and threatens to destroy it among the parties interviewed are the film's producer james edmunds ryan o'neal and studio boss jerry glover richard jeni who spend virtually the entire film narrating the story while painfully unfunny things go on around them it's bad enough that burn hollywood burn has literally not a single laugh for its entire blissfully brief minutes what makes it even worse is eszterhas' insistence upon telling every bad joke not once but twice or even three times michael ovitz references showgirls references oral sex references whoopi danson references all show up multiple times with all the subtlety that is eszterhas' the reduncancy even manages to turn actively offensive with some frequency notably with the hilarious use of the word feminist as an identifying caption for every single female character in the film by the time coolio and chuck d show up as black independent the brothers brothers cleverly identified as bad and badder among other unprintable things you may be ready to walk out of the theater with your coat over your head to avoid being identified those documentary captions for all their leaden obviousness allow the best insight into what's so hideously wrong with burn hollywood burn not content to stick any hollywood type with only one jab from his rapier wit eszterhas fills the screen with bullet points every time a new character appears the producer is a liar who slept in the white house the media are maggots and leeches working for publications like the new york slimes and newsleak with the camera zooming in on the altered title to make sure you don't miss the joke it doesn't even matter that eszterhas tags penile implant after his own name when he makes a cameo because it seems like such a desperate attempt to feign this is a petulant schoolboy's idea of satire pictures of hollywood insiders to which eszterhas has taken a pen to draw little moustaches and black out the teeth the last straw comes when burn hollywood burn closes with over the closing credits the kind that show the audience how much fun everyone was having making the film that just sucked an hour and a half of your life away perhaps it was just a final desperate attempt by eszterhas to convince himself there was some purpose behind the film or to convince everyone involved that a few blown lines warranted threatening to blow their whole career pity everyone involved with this excessive satire of excess and ego it's too bad that only directors can remove their names from noxious material like this otherwise you might have seen credits for burn hollywood burn overflowing with alan smithees
negative	meg ryan is irresistible in the comedy that celebrates sisterhood screams the television ads for hanging up disastrously written by sisters delia and nora ephron and sloppily directed by diane keaton make me laugh again not only is hanging up misadvertised since the film wholeheartedly focuses on middle sister meg ryan and gives her two lisa kudrow and diane keaton little more than extended cameos but they don't actually come together until the final ten to fifteen minutes and we are supposed to believe their strong bond and smile in the last scene when they rekindle their rocky relationship despite them being apart for the majority of the running time excuse me again while i almost bust a gut at that truly delusional notion eve marks meg ryan is the middle mozzell sister still living in the california town where she grew up and with a husband adam arkin and son jesse james her elderly wisecracking father lou walter matthau in his brightest performance in years has just recently been put into the hospital in the final stages of what i assume is alzheimer's even though the film never enlightens us on exactly what is wrong with him while eve's relationship with her mother cloris leachman is nearly nonexistent since she ran out on lou and her children years ago she has had her fair share of up's and down's with lou who used to be an alcoholic her older sister is georgia diane keaton an editor for the magazine georgia while maddy lisa kudrow is the youngest a soap opera actress interestingly their professions are given but we not once ever see them working at their jobs or for that matter learn much of anything about them maddy georgia and eve do not see each other much anymore their adult lives gradually causing them to drift apart but they do manage to consistently talk on the phone to one another and they talk and talk and talk in fact the telephone is the major star of the film even more so than ryan as it appears in virtually every scene of this interminable catastrophe that feels like its three hours long if you are able to get through the opening in which phones ring so much you feel like jumping through the screen and taking a sledgehammer to them you will surely survive the rest the question is who would want to subject themselves to this resolutely irritating how could a that has the of meg ryan lisa kudrow and diane keaton be so very bad in so many different ways issues from the past involving the possible jealousy each has had for one of the others is fleetingly brought up but the film isn't mature enough to deal with such a thing in a thoughtful manner and since we learn next to nothing about their childhood it is a lost cause that comes off as nothing more than an afterthought also it is expected that the viewer quickly catch on to the tricky dynamic that the three sisters have with one another but no dynamic metamorphosizes and when they do reunite in the finale their whole consanguinity is reduced to a repulsively annoying scene in which they argue like little children you can see the impending death coming a mile away and it conveniently occurs in the next scene so that the three can quickly come to terms with themselves and with each other you think to yourself the only thing left for them to do is have a playful and like clockwork it also occurs by the end credits meg ryan is a versatile actress look no further than hurlyburly or when a man loves a woman despite her various detractors who stubbornly believe all she can do is romantic comedies with hanging up the only thing she needs to do is completely sever her filmmaking ties with nora ephron a who shouldn't be allowed to work in hollywood again after this debacle even if she knew what she was making was not exactly up to par in the quality department she nonetheless is very good and the two scenes that work flashbacks to christmas when she had a heartbreaking with her mother and to halloween when lou crashed her son's birthday party in a drunken stupor are effective because of the realism ryan brings to the situations diane keaton as georgia is better as an actress than a director here but that is a wildly feeble compliment what is more than a little is that keaton is distinctly older than ryan and kudrow although in the very brief glimpses we get at them as children she is no more than five years ryan's senior yeah right lastly poor lisa kudrow has been wasted once again in a venture after her even more thin role in analyze this kudrow isn't given enough time to create a full personality with maddy so it isn't her fault she doesn't register until a few quiet moments sprinkled throughout where she is actually blessed with being given dialogue if anything though kudrow is a real talent and i anxiously await the next time she is given a role more deserving of her time as in her brilliantly nuanced work in the opposite of sex if you are a fan of kudrow's and who isn't do yourself a favor and rent this gem that puts more good use to kudrow in sixty seconds than hanging up does in its entirety as eve's hardworking husband adam arkin is predictably squandered with a role that gives him next to nothing to do until a subplot reveals itself midway through only to never be mentioned again cloris leachman as with ryan and matthau makes a small but noticeable impression with her albeit very brief appearance while edie mcclurg as a woman lou had an affair with in the christmas flashback manages one of the few laughs in this otherwise joyless production nearly all the emotions displayed within hanging up are patently manufactured and despite the movie wanting the viewer to care about the characters aside from eve why would you want to when they are all spoiled brats if for some bizarre twilight zone of reason you find yourself in a movie theater showing this film my suggestion would be to hang up on it before the opening credits are over saying it is a waste of time is an understatement of epic proportions
negative	under any other circumstances i would not be discussing the ending of a film to the extent that i will in this particular review however in order to fully explain exactly how and why this movie is so awful a minute dissection of the ending is necessary even though i will not reveal the details of the last scenes do proceed at your own risk the movie opens quite poorly i might add as child psychologist malcolm crowe bruce willis looking like he was dragged out of his trailer at the wee hours of the morning to shoot each scene and his wife are intruded upon by one of malcolm's past patients distraught the suicidal man a cameo by new kid on the block donnie wahlberg shoots malcolm and then turns the gun on himself cut to the next fall as we find the good doctor quietly observing his latest case a trouble young man named cole haley joel osment one of the only child actors in a while i didn't want to bludgeoned over the head with a blunt instrument after about minutes of seemingly unrelated freak occurrences we learn that cole has the sixth sense the gift of being able to communicate with the dead and this as they say is where the healing begins the sixth sense and its unexpected popularity is founded upon a twist ending that i knew going into the film one of roger ebert's colleges was kind enough to give it away on a recent segment of siskel and ebert although i was at first enraged that an established film critic could so callously ruin a film for thousands of patrons i soon realized that this turn of events could in fact have been a blessing in disguise i've always been a sucker for surprise endings my favorite movie is the usual suspects and rarely dislike a film that sports one here since i knew the major plot twist that was coming at the film's conclusion the possibly of being bamboozled into loving a bad movie solely because of its ending something i've fallen victim to in the past was eliminated and indeed my viewing of the sixth sense did prove to be quite an enlightening experiment stripped of the element of surprise the film was put to the task of showing what it really had instead of simply hiding behind a shocking conclusion after seeing its true colors i came to the conclusion that the sixth sense is despite what the many champions of the movie may say void of any real power it's a neat concept but not one that justifies being made into a movie in fact the sixth sense relies so strongly on its finale that the rest of the film develops as a sort of prelude to the supposedly revelation that is yet to come and when the final moments do come it's a huge letdown the end makes no sense at all it stupefied me with the heights of its ineptitude and is completely idiotic on a fundamental and very rare level i won't go into any details but suffice to say that as far as i can tell it negates to rest of the movie to such an extent that anyone who buys it even for a second must be suffering from a very acute case of attention deficit disorder now in all fairness i cannot say for sure that i would have guessed the ending however stupid it may be had it not been revealed to me before hand however i feel very confident that i as well as anyone who had seen a few twilight zone episodes would have seen it coming a mile away the fact that nation wide are surprised by the ending still has me stumped ironically to fully appreciate the best scene that of cole and malcolm attending a little girl's funeral the viewer is required to be aware of a very rare psychological disorder called munchausen syndrome by proxy i wouldn't have even known about this mental disease if i hadn't by pure dumb luck caught dateline nbc the other week when they did a feature story on it despite being blessed with some really amazing cinematography and a brauva performance from osment where was this kid when casting calls were going out for the phantom menace in the end the sixth sense is too of contradictions and just isn't plausible enough to warrant even a slight recommendation
negative	brian de palma's snake eyes stars nicolas cage's evil twin who confusingly uses the same stage name as his talented brother like a foreign tourist who screams his lines in english to ensure that he will be understood cage yells with the ferocity of a man with a bad case of caffeine overload de palma whose last great film the untouchables was crafted over a decade ago seems to have lost his magic in snake eyes he manages to elicit some of the worst performances possible out of a skilled cast only gary sinise rises slightly above the hackneyed material the rest of the actors become caricatures in this thriller ryuichi sakamoto's atmospheric and melodramatic music dominates almost every scene heavy on the long violin notes its rhythm is punctuated by thunder the script by de palma and lost world's david koepp sets the action during a hurricane in an attempt to pump up the adrenaline level and the noise only the latter is achieved cage plays rick santoro a corrupt atlantic city cop who shakes down criminals to get betting money the movie takes place over a single evening when a world championship fight is being held with a flashy bad wardrobe and a gold cell phone rick is an obnoxious cop who doesn't know when to shut up spouting cliched and ridiculous dialog he screams such lines as i was made for the sewer baby actually the line is more apropos for the movie as a whole sinise plays kevin dunne a naval officer who is in charge of the security for the secretary of the navy who has come to watch the fight but most people in the film are not who they seem to be and the thin script makes all of them easy to guess the plot which is told in endless flashbacks concerns the assassination of the secretary through a scheme set up by some malevolent businessmen that adjective is of course redundant in hollywood thrillers the flashbacks become repetitious with the same scene shown again and again sometimes from a different perspective and sometimes not although a brian de palma film requires a certain amount of gratuitous violence this one is remarkably tame for the man who became famous when he made carrie the movie's outline has some promise but the movie itself is leaden the film takes itself all too seriously at best it is a b movie a little humor would have helped the script some but a complete rewrite would have been better and although i hate to say it a different director would have been the biggest improvement snake eyes runs it is rated r for violence and would be acceptable for teenagers
negative	a disappointing biography about the homosexual relationship of two famous century french poets the film managed to remove all the poetry from the poets and instead concentrated on their abrasive personalities the result is merely an academic exercise leaving an emotional vacuum that it couldn't build on to show them as the poets they were on paper this shouldn't have been so terrible it had a talented director in agnieszka holland the secret garden a proven screenwriter in christopher hampton dangerous liaisons and a capable cast but the film was done in by its inept script the unappealing way the film was directed and the miscasting of leonardo dicaprio as rimbaud i found his performance to be the most risible one in the film with him acting more like a teenage brat than a young genius spouting obsenities without giving a hint that a true poet lies behind that facade he especially looked bad because david thewlis as paul verlaine looked so good despite the turgid dialogue that was thrust upon him and how thin a character he was forced to be but when the two of them were together it looked like a mismatch leonardo's rimbaud only made the young poet look petulant and crude yet we know from rimbaud's poetry that he must have had something going for him because his poetry was awe inspiring the film opens in france in the rimbaud has sent the established symbolist poet verlaine a letter with his poems he accepts verlaine's praises and invitation to be a house guest in his splendid paris home and rimbaud leaves his sullen farm in rural charleville once there rimbaud is disappointed in the bourgeoisie household has an immediate conflict with verlaine's busty wife mathilde romane and finds to his regret that the drunken verlaine loves his rich wife for her body and that he lives off her family's money even though he has nothing else in common with her when verlaine states poets can learn from one another rimbaud replies in a haughty tone only if they're bad poets he will continue to treat the older poet like dirt for the rest of their relationship verlaine proves to be beating his wife regularly and plays just as despicable a character as rimbaud when mathilde's father kicks rimbaud out of the house verlaine finds him in a rooming house and the two become lovers it's a real downer to watch this story unfold into a series of obnoxious behavior patterns on the part of the two poets which leads them to traveling together and mathilde asking for a divorce in brussels verlaine gets arrested for sodomy and spends two years in jail while rimbaud becomes angered at the literary world and never writes another poem after he becomes he instead goes to north africa and becomes an adventurer and a and after ten years there comes home with a tumor on his knee and dies a changed man at the age of the hopeless relationship between the two is what the picture covers in detail and that was not very satisfying the film ends on a whimper with verlaine talking with rimbaud's sister about her brother and the poems of his he still possesses which the sister wants destroyed so as not to embarrass the family or ruin the name of her deceased brother if published this film was especially annoying because rimbaud's poems are filled with a visionary tenseness that are not even approached in this film as the film only manages to skim the surface of the lives of these poets and completely ignores the value of their poetry i have no idea what the filmmaker was trying to say in this film but whatever it was it just didn't work it certainly didn't bring any light into understanding what rimbaud meant to modern poetry and why he earned the reputation as the father of modern poetry
negative	in our time in our modern world where the cool rule it's hard to imagine that shakespeare is becoming man' and yet film after film after film is based on his everlasting magic in warner brothers' latest production shakespeare is kicking ass to a rap beat while his magic and intelligence slowly fades away though the producers of the matrix have vaguely based their picture on william shakespeare's and juliet' its title sequence with a frightening rap song and a black limo making its way through the dark streets of new york is very hard to associate with shakespeare's poetry the film takes place during a silent war between the two major mafia families in the city the afro americans against the chinese the youngest son of a chinese mafia chieftain is found murdered the are immediately suspected but a peace treaty is signed between the two godfathers it is at this point that han the romeo of the story finds out about his brother's death escaping from a prison in china he returns to united states to avenge his brother's fate but before he can restore justice with his kung fu kicks he falls in love with a mysterious beauty the only problem is that she is the daughter of his enemy there's only a weak echo of shakespeare's talent in this disappointing production and there are more problems besides its title of course we don't call it a deformation of a great masterpiece we call it it seems that the producers fear that the audience will not respond to lyrics without any car chases and gun fights this lack of respect for the audience i find very disturbing kenneth brannagh has already proven that shakespeare doesn't need to be updated because his tales are grounded in the basics of life and human nature and as long as love hate honesty and corruption do exist everyone will understand and embrace shakespeare i must admit that i found must die' very confusing i can forgive andrzej bartkowiak since it is his first attempt at directing he manages to create an incredible atmosphere and directs with a firm precision unfortunately he completely forgot about and story developments his latest picture is therefore visually impressive but intellectually hollow the love story between han jet li and trish aalyah and the mafia intrigues are undeveloped and simplified jet li is one of the most amazing fighters to ever hit the silver screen and aalyah has a magical voice their achievement save this film from being completely braindead but they are not actors and therefore can not act they are nothing more than two celebrities put together the other actors including isaiah washington russell wong henry o and dmx all give the standard mediocre performances delroy lindo is the only one that projects a coherent image of reality but there's more than acting to worry about even with li's incredible skills in martial arts the action scenes though technically excellent are too long and story updates simply embarrassing to make a long story short must die' is not intelligent enough to be a thriller not sensual enough to be a love story and too serious to be a fun action film it is certain that bartkowiak would be much better off with o this embarrassing and completely unnecessary parallel to and juliet' so the film is completely stuck not sure of what to be and in the end it's nothing there are no performances worthy of notice no interesting or story surprises so again the only good thing about it is its technical achievement this film can boast of great sound fast paced editing solid cinematography and some very well coordinated action sequences the music is another factor that prevents you from leaving the theatre it is mostly provided by aalyah's enchanting voice and several carefully inserted rap songs by various artists that create a kind of feel' to it but when i think back it's not much i remember from this as in almost every summer movie there are some interesting scenes but most of the moments that i remember are associated with massive special effects it is not a film that will get any attention for its artistic qualities simply because it doesn't have any for someone who has never read shakespeare it's another popcorn film for those of us who has it's a waste of money time and brain cells
negative	isn't it the ultimate sign of a movie's cinematic ineptitude when you can't think of much to say about it other than it sucks one of the first official year releases supernova is such a movie i can't seem to get past adjectives with this one although boring stupid and absurd doesn't amount to much of a review a shame i would have been able to save myself the chore of desperately trying to elaborate but c'est la vie here goes nothing i'll keep it short i suppose the first bad omen for supernova came when director walter hill hours removed his name from the movie requesting that it be replaced with the pseudonym thomas lee the film's fate was sealed in many minds when struggling studio mgm declined to screen it for the press an event usually signifying a studio's lack of confidence in a particular movie hill's and mgm's actions were prudent when the captain of medical space vessel nightingale dies in a tragic hyperjump accident a reformed drug addict who is also the first officer for some reason james spader is forced to take command the ship picks up a distress call from a nearby planet and on arrival picks up one survivor from an apparent accident in an abandoned mining colony one of the crew members angela bassett knows this passenger who is played by peter facinelli and has some bad feelings about it and we all know what that means this intergalactic hitchhiker is carrying some mysterious cargo a jellylike substance the purpose of which is unknown though it seems to bring some form of pleasure to whoever touches it another one of the crew members experiences this first hand after spending a few minutes partially inside this glob of goo he does some impressive handstand pushups evidently touching this enigmatic thingie makes you younger and stronger how why the movie never bothers to explain soon enough though spader and bassett are running around the ship like mad being chased by the facinelli to be honest i don't even remember exactly why i just remember that i didn't care supernova's plot suggested some more or less interesting ideas such as the ball of goo being an intergalactic time bomb but they are all dropped before they have a chance to develop into anything truly intriguing in fact everything is dropped just so the actors can have some fun running around what looks like an elaborate set well the effects are good though there's hardly a studio movie with bad special effects these days so i'm not sure whether that's so remarkable an accomplishment the performances are hardly worth talking about i'm not even sure i can call what's here performances though angela bassett sure is good at giving people the finger james spader is not a bad actor but he proves to be one of the blandest action stars i've seen in a while mostly because he isn't given a character with a personality the action scenes are just as bland since they're pretty much just rehashes of action elements that weren't particularly entertaining the first time around and since the action scenes are everything to this movie it's pretty much dead in the water and for the life of me i can't figure out why it's called supernova
negative	idle hands is distasteful crass and derivative if an original thought found its way into this it would die of loneliness plus you have to question the judgment and sensitivity of studio executives who would green light the release of a movie dealing with the slaughter of innocent the week after the tragedy in littleton colo the movie is insulting to horror film fans and the plot what little there is deals with anton devon sawa a slacker who's hand goes on a murderous rampage after becoming possessed along the way the hand kills anton's parents and his two best friends the friends also slackers are so lazy that they return from the dead because the walk into the light was too far for them that is the level of this's atrocity's humor the movie treats death as a joke idle hands is gruesome and morbid the performances are stereotypical and cartoonish i realize this is supposed to pass for comedy but recent events have surpassed what is on the screen it is not the fault of the filmmakers that real life has overtaken reel life and i can only presume that the writers of idle hands terri hughes and ron milbauer were trying to make some statement about today's young people and their values in a satiric vein however it's hard to laugh at death these days especially ones involving young people with the real horrors of the world put before us on television a stale pastry such as idle hands should be held from release for a few weeks or months to give us time to catch our collective breaths idle hands is bad no matter the circumstances in the world outside but the context of recent events only heightens its shortcomings the time is not right for this type of movie and as far as idle hands goes the time may never be right this is a movie that shoud be consigned to the trash bin of cinema
negative	a movie about divorce and custody in seems about as timely as a movie about mood rings family breakups have been an all too familiar part of the american landscape for nearly thirty years and countless dramas have told stories of acrimonious court battles in detail still i can't recall a comedy about the subject before bye bye love and after it i still can't bye bye love is rarely funny more often a weak and melodramatic retread of common fare only a few moments which have nothing to do with the film's main premise offer big laughs instead of cliched emotion bye bye love follows one weekend in the lives of three divorced fathers who get weekend custody of their children dave matthew modine a father of two is an inveterate womanizer having difficulty staying faithful to his latest girlfriend vic randy quaid is a father of three about to go on a rare date donny paul reiser pines for his and has trouble relating to his teenage daughter emma eliza dushku over the course of the weekend the three men face various crises including vic's blind date from hell janeane garofolo and donny's growing estrangement from emma the three lead actors form a rather unlikely combo and the quality of their performances is of widely varying quality randy quaid is the best of the three bitter without being irritating gleefully spiteful without being frightening his with is lindsey crouse are a bit though and his confrontation with a pompous radio psychologist rob reiner is gimmicky and implausible he does get bye bye love's best a hilarious dinner date with a gloriously demented janeane garofolo and he does a great slow burn paul reiser really has only one character his slightly befuddled uptight nice guy mad about you persona but he does it well as a personality he is appealing but as a character he becomes pretty boring here matthew modine is quite simply terrible this isn't a performance good enough to be called he even forgot to put a stamp on it modine lacks any charm in an appallingly role looks bored most of the time and gets stuck with a trite little speech about how it's all his father's fault he's such a cad carolco's executives whose entire future is resting on modine's bankability for the upcoming cutthroat island must be sweating buckets right now bye bye love basically comes off as a very confused movie because it spends far too much of its time on the new relationships of its main characters instead of on the relationships between the fathers and their kids making it just another dating in the movie when the movie does deal with the children at all it is to have one of them scream out an accusation cry perhaps to be resolved later by a sensitive talk and a hug perhaps not even more confusing is a featuring the late ed flanders as a widower who goes to work and a mcdonald's and befriends a troubled youth it is a sad end to flanders' career getting caught up in a truly annoying of mcdonald's as a location a plot device and apparently a major advertiser even if bye bye love had decided to spend its time focusing exclusively on the relationships it still would have been pretty difficult to pull off because ultimately there is very little humor one can wring from family and their effects on children any way you slice it it is a bad situation for kids and the makers of bye bye love mostly go for the heartstrings when dealing with the single parenting issue it is left to the dads' romantic fumblings to probide what little humor there is and it isn't enough there have been comparisons between bye bye love and parenthood but parenthood was both genuinely funny and genuinely touching bye bye love is a genuine shame
negative	according to the publicity material with this movie the directors hope to restore good bowling to its rightful place in the mainstream of american consciousness hmm you never know they just might be on to something what with the rise of geek chic lounge music and seventies fashion the kids of the nineties might just latch on to bowling as another terminally unhip bastion of tackyana to claim as their own but then i doubt if kingpin will have anything to do with it it's cheesy all right but connoisseurs of bad taste will find this film exudes that bland smell of stale jokes rather than the invigorating stink of true kitsch that's a shame because in the first ten minutes or so the film promises to be a lot more woody harrelson plays the hotshot bowler on the rise roy munson the movie opens in the fifties with roy's dad dishing out the reader's wisdom in scoopfuls shifting to the for a hilarious spoof of saturday night fever the sardonic tone of the proceedings is much enhanced by the presence of bill murray as the delectably slimy big ern mcracken it's thanks to murray that the first quarter of kingpin seems so good he gives the wry derisive edge to this otherwise rather unfocused comedy mccracken dupes munson into a hustling job then abandons him to an angry mob who mangle roy's hand then it's fast forward years later when munson is a fat balding loser with a prosthetic rubber hand he's hopeless until he meets ishmael randy quaid an amish amateur bowler that munson takes on as protege so together they set out for the million dollar bowling tournament in reno picking up pretty hustler claudia vanessa angel on the way with the exit of bill murray the filmmakers seem to have only one direction to go and that's dumb and dumber yes indeed kingpin is brought to you by those modern proponents of laxative humour peter and bobby farrelly the directors of the aforementioned jim carrey vehicle so prepare for much slaparound comedy with flying rubber hands distended nipples ridiculous hair and bull semen get set for stock situations when roy puts on a beard and tries to blend in with the amish community or when suaku straitlaced ishmael takes on smoking striptease and unchristian now don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with cheap humour and i had my fair share of lavatorial laughs with woody and randy the trouble is that these jokes aren't bold or funny enough to drive a movie that bumbles along without much sense of direction it lurches from sports movie to to to sentimental melodrama pausing for a broadside spoof of indecent proposal and many shameless plugs for the accompanying pop soundtrack never quite getting it all together some gags fall flat from a lack of while there are bits and pieces in the movie that simply don't do anything why the long unfunny fight in the car park why two of these why does that guy wear mascara or that guy have a glass bowling ball with a rose in it the film is full of these ideas that give the impression of any old gaffer grip or makeup artist throwing in random stuff and saying wouldn't that be funny well no actually the actors don't do the movie much favours either woody harrelson comes off okay plausibly acting dumb smart cynical or innocent when the implausible script calls for it but randy quaid is a ceaseless ham and vanessa angel has no talent like schwarzenegger she seems more convincing playing a than a human take the tv series weird science please  even murray hams it up when he reappears in the movie's climax all in all a fairly useless attempt at comedy and a certified at kickstarting the bowling renaissance we'll have to look to a reinspired john waters or perhaps somebody from down under strictly bowling anyone for the definitive bowling comedy the flying inkpot's rating system wait for the video a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
negative	starring kiefer sutherland reese witherspoon bokeem woodbine i used to think that the conversation was the worse film i had ever seen freeway is giving me second thoughts freeway is a modern retelling of little red riding hood only in the nineties little red riding hood is a juvenile delinquent played by reese witherspoon and the big bad wolf is a serial killer keifer sutherland to top that pathetic premise off reese goes to visit granny and you'll never guess who's waiting under the cover's in granny's bed keifer sutherland is one of hollywoods most talented yet underrated actors and reese witherspoon is exceptionally talented and will most likely become a major star so what are they doing in this movie after seeing the end result undoubtedly they are both asking themselves the same question you might be asking yourself why this is such a short review the answer is quite simple i dont want to waste any more of my time writing or thinking about this movie than absolutely necessary i wasted enough of my time just sitting through it note to keifer you wonder why you aren't a bigger star in hollywood because you keep making movies like this note to reese you were great in fear what happened this time note to both don't worry about it too much no one saw this movie anyway bottom line i'm still shaking my head don't waste your time on this turkey if you want to see a great keifer sutherland movie go rent flatliners or young guns reese witherspoon's abundant acting talents are used to their full potential in fear a great thriller do yourself a favor and rent one of these movies but stay as far away from freeway as you possibly can
negative	synopsis in sooner than you think america the future of law enforcement resides in blade squad a ragtag group of culturally diverse rollerblading cops with jetpacks strapped on their backs a dangerous criminal however attempts to destroy blade squad after his brother dies while being chased by them comments so what do an turned insubordinate traffic cop a former prostitute with a substance abuse problem and a junkie turned dennis rodman wannabe turned cop who crashed four police cruisers all have in common why they're all members of blade squad an elite new crimefighting unit wearing black uniforms rollerblades and jetpacks they also carry video cameras so they can communicate with one another a la the marines in james cameron's aliens yes it's blade squad the fox network's wednesday night movie of the week this movie marking its dubious world premiere today curiously has a number of guest stars how can a movie have guest stars you may ask well blade squad is not really a movie so to speak but a hour pilot for a possible tv series packaged as a movie blade squad is dumb blade squad is loud blade squad is obnoxious blade squad will probably be a ratings hit and spawn a tv series why not after all television has given its audience crimefighters with talking cars knight rider fast helicopters airwolf and super fast motorcycles street hawk and viewers have eaten it up in the past so why not crimefighters with roller blades to be honest as a presentation blade squad is at least watchable the film has a relatively large cast of characters a surprisingly intelligible albeit predictable script and enough action sequences to keep one i'd imagine adolescent males probably the target audience of this turkey would get a kick out of it i tried to keep that in mind when i watched blade squad i can remember liking airwolf and street hawk when i was or and although this isn't saying much blade squad is leaps and bounds better than the last fox network movie i had the displeasure of wasting time on the insipidly awful generation x a huge disappointment considering the comic book's terrific beginning but i digress despite its limited appeal blade squad has a lot of kinks to work out if the movie is to become a tv series one it suffers from mtv syndrome a lot of quick shots and weird angles continuously jar the viewer's senses while a near nonstop generic rock soundtrack blares incessantly in the background oh yeah dylan's knockin' on heaven's door and bowie's i'm afraid of americans are used here in rather poor taste two blade squad needs a new crew for the sound the substandard sound editing irritated me to no end characters' dialogue at times sounded choppy and unintelligible during one important scene a song played loudly in the background when a character spoke the song's volume dropped but did not disappear as soon as that character finished speaking the song's volume immediately returned to its original level until the next character spoke this sounds trivial i'm sure but it distracted me immensely finally this is commercial television foul language is not allowed typically on commercial television thus don't use foul language in a production because that foul language has to be censored in some manner in an early scene of the film for example the lead good guy and bad guy have a minor confrontation in the streets when the good guy spouts out a bad word a driver conveniently honks his car's horn to muffle the word out in a seinfeld episode this technique proved funny here it seemed goofy and cut the dramatic tension considerably perhaps future writers if a show is spun out of the movie could take a cue from marvel comics' series of comics make up a bunch of new bad words for the future this way you don't need a bunch of honking horns or other silly devices to cover up foul language compared to the usual crap broadcast tv networks have to offer in terms of movies blade squad is a suitable exercise in camp when compared to say a movie studio film blade squad has a lot in common with a term which shares its initials bs review written august
negative	what a contrast in the space of two days i saw shakespeare in love and hurlyburly i'm not sure you could get two more different movies while the former was all over the top telegraphing everything shoving its philosophy of life down our throats hurlyburly was the complete opposite wound so tight and with so much buried in its script one could spend weeks thinking about it this is one interesting movie it's very much in a similar vein to one of my favourite movies of in the company of men although not quite so nasty there's lots of talking and some scary insights into the world of men hurlyburly doens't contain much plot we just follow eddie sean penn around as he tries to make sense of his life and the people around him his big question is does it all pertain to him and if it does how is he supposed to feel about it all it means everything television friends events that happen i guess it could be summed up more crudely as what's it all about this is not a movie for answers donna anna paquin gives some but they're not really satisfying they just lead to more questions that's what makes this movie stay on your mind these are the sorts of questions that occupy our time even when we push them to the background however we resolve these questions influences everything we do the performances are all superb in hurlyburly i haven't seen sean penn in much before in fact i can't remember seeing him in anything but he is brilliant in this eddie isn't a likeable character but sean penn makes him understandable i don't want to be his friend but i'd like to help him chazz palminteri is also great as phil making him an awful person i'd never want to know phil but still i understand why eddie wants to be his friend everyone in this film nails their performances making this world real it's a nasty world it's a sexist world unlike shakespeare in love which is unfailingly politically correct hurlyburly is a man's world seen unapologetically through the eyes of men i find this fascinating and on two counts depressing first it's depressing that such a world exists a large part of hurlyburly's success is that it convinces me that such people are real and that this sort of environment exists every day in hollywood that there are a large number of men out there who believe women to be completely peripheral to their world toys playthings sure everyone is background to everyone else but in this world women are a long way in the background second these are the movies that are being made stories about men's world where are the stories about women's world not the soap operas and the chick flicks that are meant to satisfy women but the real stories that touch on the essence of life like hurlyburly does for men hurlyburly is based on a stage play and that is evident from the moment the film starts it's very talkative intelligent and static while this can make the film drag a bit and people sometimes sound like they're quoting textbooks mostly this is a good thing not all films have to be filled with special effects and sweeping panoramas not all films have to underestimate the intelligence of their audience all it means is that hurlyburly is probably just as effective on video as it is on the large screen it also means that you have to pay attention
negative	capsule the running gag pair of characters from all of kevin smith's films gets their own movie the gags are sporadically funny it is more than occasionally funny for teens who are fond of scatological humor and jokes the plot is weak and the leads are not a particularly funny comic team the little inside jokes and digs at other entertainment and particularly at kevin smith films are the best features of the film sadly for me they were just not funny enough to make the film worth watching this feels like the high school skit that that the principal would not let the kids do on talent night and it turns out he had very good reasons low to a film needs a plot it needs characters for empathy value it needs a story and an emotional center if a film is just a chain of jokes it can only be so good and any entertainment value will succeed or fail based on how funny the jokes are kevin smith has now made two satisfying films clerks and chasing amy with dogma he tried to make a philosophical religious comedy and mixed with a madcap romp peter cook and dudley moore did that very successfully with their bedazzled but getting the combination to work is very hard to do right and kevin smith's fecal monsters in dogma were not the way to do it his remaining two films mallrats and his new jay and silent bob strike back are aimed squarely at a teenage audience jay and silent bob strike back is a compendium of gay jokes penis jokes flatulence jokes film pastiches and how funny the jokes are will be a subjective call for me the vast majority of the jokes were just not very funny there was not enough cleverness or variety it is funny at most once or twice to accuse someone of being gay penis jokes work only so many times showing up as minor characters in every kevin smith film jay and silent bob were a clever pair of human running gags they were sort of the modern equivalents of naunton wayne and basil radford the comic duo who showed up satirizing the english middle class in several good british films including dead of night the lady vanishes and passport to pimlico jay and silent bob were originally supposedly typical generation x stoners as the series wore on they had larger and larger parts in jay and silent bob strike back they are the leads jay and silent bob played by jason mewes and kevin smith are chased away from the front of the convenience store where they were dealing drugs in clerks this leaves them at loose ends they are not sure what would be worthwhile to do with their lives when they hear that a comic book with characters visually modeled on them will be adapted into a movie they decide to devote their lives to wrecking the movie or getting some of that big movie industry cash so it is off to hollywood to shake down the movie company and having adventures along the way the film is mostly about their adventures on the road and when they get to hollywood the problem with this comedy team is that neither really pulls his weight to make the film funny silent bob being silent can only contribute to the comedy by reacting with that very expressive face of his this makes his piece of the comedy even less than a straight man like a dean martin or bud abbott would have jay has to be the comic he could carry the load for both if he were extremely inventive the problem is that he is not sufficiently funny he is too bland to be the comic half and his lines just do not show any comic flair so jay and silent bob are a long way from being a successful comic team their starring roles and the low humor make this a comedy for those young at mind and for people who can laugh at gags they have seen just minutes before like dogma before it but definitely not like chasing amy this film feels more like an amateurish skit than a real movie certainly neither the plot nor the characters are at all involving they are excuses for gags many of which still fall flat it is dogma without any of the humorous theological content the film does not offer much to an adult audience i rate it on the to scale and a low on the to scale
negative	the previews for the movie are pretty good they show a little plot all the characters and the emotional highlights all spliced together to give a general impression of the script unfortunately the full movie adds nothing but minutes the residents of mystery love hockey mystery and hockey go together like texas and high school football the townsfolk love hockey so much that they even acquit a player who's guilty of shooting another man yes that's one of the movie's jokes every saturday the best players pair off for a game and the whole town comes to watch the town's prodigal son charlie hank azaria wrote an article on the weekly game for sports illustrated mystery's national fame has the town abuzz a week later charlie actually shows up in person and he brings with him an offer from the nhl the new york rangers will come to mystery to play the locals the mysterians see this as both good and bad on the one hand they'd love to have the fame and the money of such an exhibition on the other hand they don't want to turn up as the butt of leno and letterman jokes the movie follows a handful of lives that are affected by the proposition biebe russell crowe has just been retired from the team and is asked to coach the boys including his new replacement he's already resentful and to top it off charlie has been making eyes at his wife crowe is not given a lot of room to act in this film so he's just kind of stuck with constantly brooding charlie meanwhile is resentful of having born in a town where hockey is the only measure of a man's worth his gift of the feature story and of the new york rangers was his way of compensating for not being a better skater he hoped it would earn him some respect and merit but the townspeople find reasons to continue disliking him burt reynolds could have been interesting as walter the judge whose courtroom was befouled by a moronic jury of hockey fans walter actually has some experience with collegiate hockey but he actively tries to put it behind him he wants his son to take the game more seriously but he wants his community to just get over it reynolds could have been good but sloppy writing editing keep walter in the corner and so reynolds never really gets to pull his performance all together one character actually was interesting biebe's wife mary mccormack like the judge understood that there was more to life than hockey but unlike him she has come to accept the skewed view of the community she chose the town and her husband with her eyes wide open her unique insight is verbalized once and it lasts only a scene before it is gone but her performance carries the hint of some deeper wisdom mysterty alaska follows a handful of other characters but none are well developed or worth mentioning the biggest problem with this movie is that there is no real heart to the story no underlying thing that the movie is really about instead roach and screenwriters david e kelley and sean o'byrne try to cram the entire human condition into this sports comedy they try to make you laugh and cry to feel outrage and pride they present the framing and cadence for jokes but there's nothing truly funny they show appropriately staged scenes of sadness but they give you nothing to be really sad about as columnist molly ivins would say it's all hat no cattle the perfect opportunity arises for roach to say what this movie is really about there is a funeral scene played with appropriate gravity and somber music it is a chance for the characters to reflect on their lives and decide what's truly important russell crowe steps forward to speak about to spell out the movie's metaphor for us he says that what really matters in life is community then adds and hockey i guess these mysterians really are as shallow as they appear only mildly bad mystery alaska probably deserves stars i even laughed out loud genuine laughs in places but i docked it an extra half star when mike myers a friend of roach turned up in a role that didn't suit him myers is a comic character actor he puts on masks becomes an outrageous caricature and is funny he's great as austin powers dr evil or any of his scottish characters nobody else in mysterty alaska is a comic caricature all the other people have the feel of dramatic characters in roles for roach to bring in myers for a few cheap laughs shows incredible contempt toward the rest of his cast toward his audience and indeed toward the film itself it's an acknowledgment by the director that the film is not worth taking seriously
negative	a suave cool collected rich uptight bad guy cliche a clumsy criminal oaf to add to the laughs cliche a bad guy who owns a wild animal cliche a crooked chauvinistic law enforcer type cliche at an intense moment our main character tries to get away but the car has trouble starting cliche complaining about cliches cliche ok ok so we always hear about cliches but if there was ever to be a prime example the real mccoy is it not one uttered word not one frame of film not one character in this whole movie isn't a cut and paste example of everything we've ever seen they might as well use this as a training film how to make a bank robbery film in the karen mccoy kim basinger is a bank robber who just got out on parole after a stay at the state prison she wants to make things right and go straight especially with the fact that she has a old son out there who doesn't even know she's alive aware of mccoy's bank robbing expertise sniveling bad guy jack schmidt terence stamp uses the same old to coerce mccoy into returning to her past he wants mccoy to pull off an elaborate heist of million dollars at the same bank she got caught trying to rob six years earlier which by the way is somehow due to schmidt and if she refuses who knows what he'll do to the kid cue sinister laughter this movie is so pathetically pitiful that it's hard to know where to begin the aforementioned cliches are brutally abundant i can't stress enough how every single element whether it be a character the dialogue a plot twist etc is so damn generic that you'll wonder if anyone is working behind the scenes let alone in front of the camera basinger is absolutely vacant and where do they get off trying to make us emotionally attached to her here's someone that spent their time robbing banks and now as she heads onto the street we're supposed to feel sorry for her as she confronts her son who doesn't even know who she is are we supposed to break into tears especially when neither basinger nor zach english who plays the kid has any depth or whatsoever i suppose i should mention val kilmer yeah that's right he's in it quite sadly too seeing as how i can discuss everything about the movie and never mention his name and he got second billing to be fair i will admit that kilmer had potential in his role as the bumbling criminal wannabe j t barker unfortunately the script doesn't allow much room for improvement and when his character is used like bookends he never shows up in the middle of the film we have no time to appreciate what he might have brought to this project the real mccoy just can't keep it's head above water and soon very soon sinks into a cliched mess of movie the actors are like dummies being moved about by an unenthusiastic puppeteer and the dialogue particularly schmidt's trite dialogue falls like the niagra this is definitely one to avoid folks the real mccoy is anything but
negative	ironically one of the themes of cigarettes is that you should try to make the best of every moment in life unfortunately i will no longer be able to say that i lived every moment of my life to the fullest because i spent otherwise perfectly good minutes watching this sad excuse for a movie actually smoking cigarettes in the same minutes couldn't be any worse for you than it is to watch the movie not only is it a pathetically bad film overall but cigarettes actually has no redeeming qualities whatsoever the plot is scattered thin and predictable the acting is monumentally bad and the style of film making resembles a home video it is december and the big party is at monica's martha plimpton house but no one has arrived yet her invited guests and several people that they have picked throughout the evening are wandering the streets of new york city in various groups some of them know each other through their common bond of having slept with monica and some are total strangers but they all are to face their own personal neuroses before night's end those who are invited are the ones that have the issues it is up to those who aren't to help them come to terms first there is eric brian mccardie who is a former boyfriend of monica's and is just getting over the heartbreak of their relationship terminating prematurely because of his sexual performance or lack thereof he is one of the most bland characters in a film full of dullness because he is so utterly predictable and stereotypical a common trait of this poor production bridget nicole parker and caitlyn angela featherstone who are both extremely sensuous young women looking for someone to handle their desires on new year's eve and tag along to the party with them they stumble across a nameless bartender ben affleck who is the one truly perfect character in a film of imperfections he is nether sexually deprived nor uncertain about his future as he is in law school his lack of flaws is both boring unrealistic and painful to watch as bridget and caitlyn make passes at him you are neither entertained nor humored by the comedy moving on there is val christina ricci and stephie gabby hoffman teenage girls with fake identification and very different thoughts val is monica's cousin and a true fan of the new york scene on the other hand stephie is convinced that she is vulnerable to crime when the two venture out of their usual locations in search of the party that they just can't find paradoxically it is punks that they meet at a bar actually they attempt to flee from their presence but aren't successful who guide them through their fears and force a level of relaxation upon their warped minds of all the insanely dull and uninteresting couples only one approaches a level of decency in both acting and plot wisely the movie's creators have put heavy emphasis on lucy courtney love and kevin paul rudd who are best friends and share the common bond of being dateless paul has just broken up with long time steady ellie janeane garofalo and is starting to come to terms with his loss when lucy informs him that ellie had been sleeping around during their relationship however the only complexity to these two characters is that they seem to want to be more than friends and that is reiterated when they attempt sexual intercourse in a bathroom stall on more than one occasion during this strange evening finally there are the two worst performances and worst of the film jack jay mohr and cindy kate hudson have been going out for a short period of time and jack just learned that he took cindy's virginity the night before while she attempts to play this down and be her usual self he is a predictably self loathing male as he attempts to deal with a string of one night stands that includes the recently deflowered cindy very often when a film is as putrid as this production there will at least be a decent quality of film making to reveal an occasional moment of glory however this film has neither the quality of cinematography nor the moments of glory to be highlighted instead what you get is a collection of rough and inconsistent cuts bad continuity and inaccuracies first and most noticeable is that as the film goes from one subplot to another there is no apparent order that it follows and it is also weekened by unnecessarily edgy edits from scene to scene and shot to shot at other times objects seem to get up and move and hairstyles and costumes change from shot to shot there are also at least scenes in a taxi cab that go from start to finish not in a single one of them does anybody pay the driver and yet no matter how miserable this film may be and no matter how poor the acting is all around there was a ray of a hope for these many bad plots perhaps if the makers had just decided to concentrate on one or two or perhaps even three there might have been the time and opportunity for some character development or quality acting or even a decent plot payoff at the end but it didn't happen that way the cast of quality name actors was forced into roles that not even one of them could convert into a mediocre performance and every story line crashed and burned quicker than it takes for the ball to drop at midnight
negative	would remembered as the era of binary movie events in hollywood two movies dealing with the same subject or to be precise same high concept in summer that high concept was mad bomber action thriller in few weeks thrillride of the summer actionfest speed was followed by rather action thriller blown away so disappointing that most of the people these days associate the title with the thriller in which nicole eggert did few nude scenes the movie begins in the prison in northern ireland where gaerity tommy lee jones ira terrorist with the great talent to make lethal explosive devices from almost any material escapes from prison he comes to boston where he accidentally notices jimmy dove jeff bridges dedicated bomb disposal expert within boston police few people except gaerity know the dove's violent past when he used to be ira terrorist before becoming sick with violence betraying gaerity and emigrating to america where he changed the name and started using his experience for good purpose gaerity holds dove personally responsible for his captivity and begins the campaign of bombing terror directed specifically at dove's colleagues friends and relatives dove who is just going to retire and start family now must confront the mad bomber while speed doesn't even try to bother with plot and characters using them only as an excuse for long and spectacular action scenes blown away tries to be more conventional and provide the action with some back story and that is the main reason why it is inferior to speed badly written plot and badly written characters are sometimes worse than no plot and no characters at all screenplay by john bateer and john rice barely touches the complicated issues of northern ireland using the tragedy only as the cheap backstory for even cheaper drama the plot is of course full of implausibilities the main one is the fact that movie fails to explain how the single individual no matter how brilliant he is can produce thousands of deadly devices and hold entire city at bay those questions same as in the case of speed could be forgotten while the action goes on but the pauses between action scenes are filled with cliched and predictable situation that should provide some background to the characters because of them movie seems a little bit too long and boring at times the most annoying element of the film however is tommy lee jones in the role of mad bomber his acting is so that potentially fascinating villain turns into pathetic caricature of himself this role is in painful contrast with the strong performance given by that same actor in fugitive the film have few bright points though some of the action scenes are fine which should be credited to director stephen hopkins predator ii judgement night and forrest whitaker really shines in minor role of dove's colleague but all in all blown away is a film that was justifiably shadowed by its more famous yet hardly unforgettable competitor
negative	don't get me wrong i tend to appreciate besson's naive unashamedly romantic worldview an artsy european sensibility gone thoroughly hollywood his leon is exciting and absurdly moving thanks mainly to the interplay between jean reno and a young natalie portman and the fifth element is a goofy paean to love that's even more of a hoot on repeated viewings but his joan of arc is a mess despite some stirring battle scenes and the mostly knockout presence of a milla jovovich as the maiden herself jovovich besson's own personal muse through the making of his last two films though they've since separated is magnetic and energetic enough to play a credible joan as long as you believe joan was not just a warrior but also a fabulous babe and besson remains a servicable action film director though not an especially facile one leading her army against the seemingly impenetrable fortresses of the english joan's struggle against great odds is undeniably stirring and besson helps you understand how the french could believe fervently that god is on her side besson's big mistake i think is trying to dramatize the interior life of his subject yes joan had visions but i guarantee that whatever image a sympathetic audience conjures in its collective mind will be more compelling than the christ figure on display in besson's hallucinatory dream sequences the whole conceit turns into a disaster right about the time dustin hoffman billed as the conscience shows up spouting platitudes and sending poor milla running around her cell babbling like ally mcbeal that's kind of a shame since she does quite well up to that point charging into battle with a banshee wail that suggests the eruption of a sublimated bloodthirstiness that darkly attractive aspect of her character that she's as likely a charismatic madwoman as the vessel of the lord is more or less betrayed by the final reels in which the conscience browbeats her over the killing she's overseen and joan starts to look like little more than a very confused young lady who's about to take a fall as the story winds down with joan condemned to a horrible death by fire besson is aiming for tragedy and psychological significance trouble is he's chosen a lurid often jokey tone for the balance of the picture including some blithe cgi bloodshed in the battle scenes and it's impossible to shake the feeling that this particular vision of the middle ages is to a great extent nothing more than a this glib version of such a great story makes me all the more grateful for dreyer's the passion of joan of arc a film whose dialogue is drawn from the actual transcripts of joan's trial and which stands as one of the most harrowing experiences in all of cinema compared to that film the messenger plays as a crime against history directed by luc besson written by besson and andrew birkin cinematography by thierry arbogast music by eric serra starring milla jovovich theatrical aspect ratio
negative	delicatessen directors marc jeunet screenwriters gilles caro cinematographer darius khondji editor herve schneid cast dominique pinon louison dougnac julie clapet dreyfus butcher karin viard mademoiselle plusse ticky holgado marcel tapioca pisani madame tapioca jacques mathou roger rufus robert kube howard vernon frog man edith ker granny boban janevski young rascal mikael todde young rascal chick ortega postman silvie laguna aurore interligator howard vernon frog man runtime premiere reviewed by dennis schwartz a black comedy set in the near future in a boarding house run by a depraved butcher the comedy is played more in comic strip style for entertaining value than for deeper satire as it features mostly zany sophomoric sight gags and relies heavily on special effects the world has fallen on hard times and there are food shortages which include no meat so the butcher serves up meat from human flesh to customers who pay with grain almost as valued a commodity that's the big joke in the film and the novelty of that cannibalism idea wears thin mighty fast as the characters are too absurd and sketched too thinly for us to care about them this tasteless postapocalyptic french comedy is a first feature for the marc jeunet it failed to reach my funny bone and instead left me mostly annoyed at its slight story and its dark projections for the future an clown named louison dominique pinon the film's hero answers an ad for work as a handyman for clapet dreyfus and the butcher and landlord offers him room and board in his house the butcher's clumsy and daughter julie dougnac falls in love with the skinny weird looking clown and the two make some music together with her playing the cello and him a saw they are the innocents surrounded by a boarding house of misfits suffering from fear and watched over by her overbearing father who has lured into his tenement the clown as he has his past innocent victims so that he can put his cleaver to him and then sell him as meat which he intends to do as soon as the clown fixes up the tenement the entire film takes place in the shabby tenement and the tenants are an odd lot of bizarre malcontents who do not trust each other there are two youngsters boban janevski mikael todde who do any kind of mischief they can a frog man howard vernon who lives with water on the floor so he can raise his frogs and snails that he eats two brothers mathou kube who create little novelty toys a man holgado who sells a bullshit detector to the butcher for his piece of meat a slutty woman karin viard who lives with the butcher and only wants his meat the aristocratic woman silvie laguna who tries numerous times to commit suicide but is too inept to do it right the tenants are too afraid to come out at night because they know what the butcher is up to so they are forced to communicate with each other through a pipe that runs through the building in one scene they are all in musical harmony to the lovemaking of the butcher and his gal as their bedsprings squeak there is also a postman chick ortega who lusts for the butcher's daughter and carries a gun while delivering the mail there is also an underdeveloped subplot about a band of incompetent underground veggie fanatics called trogolodistes who have been summoned to rescue the clown and steal some grain the directors overloaded the film with too many eccentrics as the comedy seemed forced while the surreal look of the film added no dramatic intensity delicatessen could have some appeal to the cult film crowd who like their meat sliced thin monty python fans and those who liked terry gilliam's brazil a film similar in spirit
negative	it's a shame the execution of this concept falls very short of its premise the movie is lacking and most unsatisfying osmosis jones is crude gross disgusting and was directed by the farrelly brothers the twisted siblings behind there's something about mary me myself and irene and a couple of other movies in which the humor is mostly targeted below the belt not that there's anything wrong with scatology i bet even cavemen appreciated bathroom humor such as it was it's merely that with osmosis jones the farrellys humor is too juvenile too predictable you can almost foresee the puns just by viewing the part of the inner anatomy a sequence is drawn osmosis jones looks like one of those old health class movies gone psycho the trouble is the animation may please the very young but the jokes may be over their heads while the audience may find it too tame for their tastes adults well let's just say most will find it unappetizing osmosis jones plays like a infomercial for the eat healthy foods lobby the live action sequences revolve around frank bill murray who seems to be the grungiest human being in the universe he continually looks as if he needs a shave and a shower frank much to the consternation of his daughter is a addict eating anything and everything that can kill you he works at a zoo where the animals look cleaner and presumably smell better than he does frank's body is invaded by thrax a lethal virus after frank eats a egg that had fallen to the ground it's not gross enough that frank picks the egg up from the dirt and plops it into his mouth nope the farrellys pile it on by first having frank wrestle a chimp for the egg wresting it from the primate's mouth like i said the gross meter tips the scales on this one after ingesting the egg the movie begins its animated sequences here osmosis jones voiced by chris rock a renegade white blood cell is teamed with drix voiced by frasier's david hyde pierce a painkiller cold capsule to battle thrax smoothly voiced by laurence fishburne basically what we have is a cliched movie rife with all the clich s of that genre and this is why osmosis jones doesn't click it merely falls back on tired familiar conventions instead of creating new and exciting situations the jokes and puns are lame osmosis searches out a snitch a former flu virus after pumping him for information drix tells osmosis funny he doesn't look fluish and the jokes don't rise above that level the live action scenes are no better frank is such a slob so unappealing that it is difficult to fathom how he ever married or even sired a child he's almost a bigger cartoon than the animated characters osmosis jones is a movie that may be too violent for young children as thrax burns and dissolves blood cells right and left the animation is rather and flat it lacks scope and depth it is an unappealing movie that will leave you scratching your head and maybe leaning toward a shower after you walk out of the theater
negative	has hollywood run out of interesting characters and suspense thrillers that we must spend two hours watching will smith and a gritty gene hackman exchange obtuse dialogue and run around dodging fireballs in enemy of the state that is exactly right a few parts the net and a few parts conspiracy theory enemy is about as exciting as watching smith talk to cgi aliens in lame brained men in black will this guy ever get a real role he has the bruce willis syndrome the plot is bascially smith playing a lawyer getting into hot water with some high government murderers who assassinated a powerful political figure earlier in the movie when a tape of the killing gets into his hands he inlists the help of an old conspirator hackman and at the end er you know enemy was one of the worst films of last year not only was it sloppy in telling its story and getting its facts straight the acting was mediocre when it should have been energy driven and i didn't like how smith always magically the badies when all the other extra characters seeming more intelligent than smith somehow got run over by a truck enemy came out around the same time as the superior star trek insurrection i know these two films are different in well everything but the fact that enemy outgrossed insurrection just baffels me somehow quality can't overshadow quantity
negative	vegas vacation is the fourth film starring chevy chase and beverly d'angelo as the heads of the hapless griswold family as with the other three films their two children rusty and audrey are played by a revolving series of actors this time ethan embry and marisol nichols fill the roles also back is cousin eddie randy quaid the slob relative who seems to bring problems wherever he goes in vegas vacation clark griswold chase decides to take the family on vacation to las vegas so that he and wife ellen d'angelo can renew their wedding vows it is at this point when comedy is supposed to ensue apparently the filmmakers thought that putting the griswolds into las vegas would be so funny on its own that they wouldn't bother to write any jokes into the script at least that's the way it looks when watching this turkey about half way through vegas vacation i began to have serious doubts as to whether there would actually be a single laugh in the entire film since there had been none up to that point by the end of the movie i had actually snickered a couple of times and i had smiled at a couple of gags i might add that none of the funny and i use the term loosely moments came as a result of anything chase d'angelo or quaid were involved in they might as well have stayed home for as much as they contributed to this film the two best things in this movie were ethan embry and marisol nichols as the griswold kids who manage to have a couple of their own adventures rusty becomes a vegas high roller providing most of the film's best moments every time chase and quaid were involved in a gag it just made it more and more apparent that they should have stopped this series after the third film which brings me to the best moment of the film the griswolds are driving down the highway and holiday road the theme from the original vacation begins to play christie brinkley and her red ferrari also from the first movie drive by it was a cute moment but all it really did was remind me just how funny the first film had been and just how far that this series has fallen too bad
negative	burnt money is the perfect festival film it will show once or twice and then no one thankfully will ever have to hear from it again this film from the seattle international film festival emerging masters series is easily one of the year's worst billed as a gay and clyde' this gritty film from director marcelo pi eyro has its only highlight in a title sequence two gay lovers get involved in a bank robbery that makes a gang leader whose plan they screwed up angry this causes the gang leader to send his boys out to get the gay guys one of whom may not actually be gay hiding out in a prostitute's apartment the two men must fight off police and gang members in a very long showdown for the movie's conclusion if caught they risk losing all the money and their love as an added emotional bonus one of the gay men is dying or something like that everything that happens is so quick and confusing i was completely lost clarity isn't exactly this movie's striving virtue so it was a little hard to pick up not much could have really happened though the main events in this long film are explicit homosexual and heterosexual sex graphic drug use extreme violence and strong language lots of explicit material is never a bad thing when there's a reason but there's no purpose to anything in this film most of the sex and violence scenes come off as silly while the heavy drug use comes off as ridiculous and depressing it appears pi eyro who with marcelo figueras from a novel by ricardo piglia purposefully adds more blood and lovemaking for his own amusement he makes the actors as sweaty and dirty as possible makes them snort cocaine gives them guns and condoms and lets them go burnt money is pointless the performances are bad it tries to thrill and shock but only causes boredom god forbid it will ever get a distributor another disappointing film from this year's emerging masters series pass on by
negative	claire danes giovanni ribisi and omar epps make a likable trio of protagonists but they're just about the only palatable element of the mod squad a version of the tv show the story has all the originality of a block of wood well it would if you could decipher it the characters are all blank slates and scott silver's perfunctory action sequences are as cliched as they come by sheer force of talent the three actors wring marginal enjoyment from the proceedings whenever they're on screen but the mod squad is just a action picture with a cast
negative	the haunting a film so confusing that it forgets the true meaning of a horror film to scare us if you've ever seen a movie which you probably have considering you are on this website you should know about all of the trivia they post before a movie they have things like illustrations and you have to guess the movie or facts about the film but the one i always like are the other joke that try and rename a particular film for instance the one playing before the haunting had different titles for the film small soldiers they had titles like little infantry and can i get those fatigues in a smaller size well after seeing the haunting i had a few particular names for it as well unfortunately i can only post one of them otherwise i'd be getting some pretty angry from overprotective mothers that title would be the confusing ok that is a pretty bad title but it fits this film perfectly it basically serves up no purpose and combined with dry dialogue and a boring and confusing plot it completes the formula for a cinematic bomb liam neeson once again gets wrapped up in a film without any depth but at least the phantom menace was exciting and had some depth the haunting is nothing but trash but unfortunately will still make a boatload of money before i rant and rave about how bad this film is let me point out the few and i stress the word few bright spots in this film first the house is looking it looks beautiful but this is also a dark spot it looks so great that it is hard to be frightened by it this is something that rears its ugly head at all points of the film things look so great that you are looking on in awe instead of being scared straight haunted house films have to contain one element to even be slightly successful and that is being eerie the hill house is not eerie it is beautiful but not the least bit frightening ever heard of lili taylor before this film i did not but i am glad that i do now she gives the only satisfactory performance in the film despite the dry dialogue and concept she manages to light up the screen every time she appears but unfortunately her are usually following right behind owen wilson who plays luke is the only other cast member even close to giving an admirable performance other then taylor he is basically there for the comic relief and his character development is poor in all other areas all of the characters are desperately underdeveloped wilson had potential as luke but it seems they just needed him to add a few laughs liam neeson and catherine suffer from the dialogue and plot and should not have been in this film their characters must suffer from wicked mood swings because in each scene they turn from ruthless to compassionate to scared to brave and whatnot they just are not believable and this is the final nail in the haunting's coffin the plot is terrible the opening scene of the film is very important but the director makes it too obvious by getting of all the things that will play a major role in the end of the film as i sat through the film i kept wondering what this film was trying to accomplish nell lili taylor's character goes from the hunted to the savior it makes no sense and the director gives the audience no reasoning for the ridiculous changes that take place in the film he forces the viewer to make various assumptions and does not give any information for instance the beginning of the film gives us a sense of why nell is getting involved in the program but we get zilch for the other four plus two of them get wiped out in the first ten minutes and the worst part most horror films have killings for some reason they kill off luke at the end of the film no reason whatsoever just off with his head literally overall the haunting is the epitome of a bad movie bad plot confusing storyline and a waste of good talent hopefully liam neeson can rebound and get into a good film and be used to his full potential hopefully lili taylor will be recognized for doing such a great job in such a bad film and hopefully other horror films such as the blair witch project and the haunting of hill house will not be as bad as this one
negative	in director edward zwick began his career with the powerful civil war drama glory but since then he has made continuous disappointments to me at least with legends of the fall and courage under fire those two films weren't bad just not very good but with zwick's latest film the siege he has finally made one the siege is a that focuses on terrorism that is sweeping through new york city investigating the matter is fbi agents anthony hubbard denzel washington and frank haddad tony shalhoub who are first hit by the ordeal when a city bus explodes with several innocent people on it later a bomb goes off in a broadway theater killing even more they soon meet cia operative elise kraft annette bening who may very well hold the key to the identity of the arab terrorist there are some movies that simply don't need to be made and the siege may very well be one of them oh sure zwick thinks he is making a meaningful action film since he has added lots of exposition scenes in which the audience is basically lectured on the horrors of terrorism but what he really has made is actually no more substantial than say die hard which also starred bruce willis this time willis is horribly wasted as a general of the u s army who puts a state of martial law over nyc during the climax whatever points the siege earnestly tried to make were obviously lost in the translation from page to screen or maybe zwick never really had anything serious to say in the first place the role of the arab community is offensively stereotypical just as women were in the recent john caprenter's vampires by placing them all in the category of bad guys the siege contains three fine bening and washington is stuck with a character that contains not an ounce of even remote development bening has slightly more to do and has an intriguing character to work with while shalhoub pretty much steals the show even though again he has no real character by the climax of the siege with washington giving a sermon to willis on the message of the story i felt like i had wandered into a sequel to on deadly ground in which steven seagal gave a speech at the end about preserving the environment the siege is constantly not entertaining or insightful and just goes to prove that not even the best actors can save a film that lacks a satisfactory screenplay
negative	i guess that if a very wild bachelor party had gone really bad there would be broken furniture traces of smack and cocaine on the floor and a dead prostitute in the bathroom i guess that if a movie had also gone really bad there might be the same elements present coincidence poor kyle a meek looking jon favreau he is about to marry his radiant fiancee laura cameron diaz but before he exchanges his vows he embarks to las vegas with his friends for one last blowout but this bachelor party has gone about as bad as it could possibly get the prostitute has met a horrible though accidental death and drugs are everywhere the five friends agree that there is enough bad evidence here that will send them to jail for a very long time a surprisingly calm robert boyd christian slater who looks like he was groomed to make nefarious decisions ponders their dilemma for a few minutes before deciding that the best thing to do is to bury the body in the desert where she'll never be found although they stomach the gruesome deed of getting rid of the body which also disturbingly involves dismantling the body using power saws in order to stuff it into suitcases when they return from their trip guilt and paranoia begins to set in which slowly consumes some of the five friends one is adam daniel stern he grows increasingly agitated whenever people look at his van or whenever a cop glances his way his blood pressure increases or that just may be because of his dysfunctional family another is michael who was actually responsible for her death he tries to bury his feelings but the burden of guilt begins to affect his judgment as well boyd is the doer' of the group seemingly suffering from a long psychosis when he feels as if his secret is about to be exposed he is apt to take extreme measures to cover up his tracks kyle just hopes that his wedding will live up to laura's demanding expectations then there's moore leland orser who speaks lines and walks around with a puzzled look on his face the problem with this reprehensible movie is that it wants to be a cruel comedy but it presents things in a manner that just aren't funny drugs mutilation and killing your own friends isn't something to be laughed at as a straight psychological drama i could see how it might have worked as each one tried to maneuver and overcome the weight of their own guilt in their own ways but this movie insults us by assuming that we could simply discard our values for hours if you do like this movie i don't think that i want to know you i did find slater a convincing leader who sways his friends to choose not the right thing but the smart play and diaz adds some brightness to this film as a fiancee but her talents are essentially wasted here it's obvious that the film maker is trying to strike a certain tone but the way that he chooses to do it is tasteless do not make a very bad decision by seeing this film
negative	i had been looking forward to this film since i heard about it early last year when matthew perry had just signed on i'm big fan of perry's subtle sense of humor and in addition i think chris farley's extreme acting was a riot so naturally when the trailer for almost heroes hit theaters i almost jumped up and down a soda in hand the lights dimming i was ready to be blown away by farley's final starring role and what was supposed to be matthew perry's big breakthrough i was ready to be just amazed for this to be among farley's best in spite of david spade's absence i was ready to be laughing my head off the minute the credits ran sadly none of this came to pass the humor is spotty at best with good moments and laughable few and far between perry and farley have no chemistry the role that perry was cast in seems obviously written for spade for it's his type of humor and not at all what perry is associated with and the movie tries to be smart a subject best left alone when it's a farley flick the movie is a major dissapointment with only a few scenes worth a first look let alone a second perry delivers not one humorous line the whole movie and not surprisingly the only reason the movie made the top ten grossing list opening week was because it was advertised with farley and farley's classic humor is widespread too almost heroes almost works but misses the by quite a longshot guys let's leave the exploring to lewis and clark huh stick to tommy boy and we'll all be friends
negative	the original babe gets my vote as the best family film since the princess bride and it's sequel has been getting rave reviews from most internet critics both siskel and ebert sighting it more than a month ago as one of the year's finest films so naturally when i entered the screening room that was to be showing the movie and there was nary another viewer to be found this notion left me puzzled it is a rare thing for a children's movie to be praised this highly so wouldn't you think that every parent in the entire city would be flocking with their kids to see this supposedly magical piece of work a tad bewildered but pleased to not have to worry about screaming kids and other disruptions that commonly go along with family films i sat back for minutes and watched intently and with a very open mind having great expectations for the film looking back i should have taken the hint and left right when i entered the theater believe me i wanted to like babe pig in the city the plot seemed interesting enough after the events that took place in the original babe the has become a legitimate national phenomenon but after a fateful encounter with a water well arthur hogget james cromwell who the movie could have used alot more of has been rendered for a number of weeks and the farm begins to go under financially the only solution that his wife magda szubanski going from delightfully charming to downright annoying can come up with is to make an appearance with their new celebrity pet at a national fair i think and to use the money they earn to pay off the bank set aside for the moment the fact that they could get more than enough cash from donations if they just made their case known to the public problem is the fair is being held in the middle of the dreaded city a completely foreign place to both the pig and his companion setting the main plot in motion mrs hogget and babe travel to the unnamed city and shack up with a sweet lady who just happens to love to help animals despite the law that you cannot keep them in hotels it is here that we meet an array of eccentric characters the most memorable being the family of chimps led by steven wright here is where the film took a wrong turn up until this point i had being having a rather enjoyable experience the beginning featured some smart writing and funny situations involving the farm animals from the first one and even an inspired moment at the airport where mrs hogget is accused of smuggling drugs unfortunately the story wears thin as we are introduced to a new set of animals that reside at the hotel none of them being even as interesting as the characters from the previous babe the main topic of discussion surrounding babe pig in the city is the question of whether or not it is to dark and disturbing for small children and i believe it is at one point a dog is hung from his neck and slowly starts to drown at other times we are treated to surrealistic to mrs hogget's full cavity search at the airport in fact the overall tone of the movie is rather bleak and depressing however that is as they say neither here nor there because kids will probably not like the movie anyway the animal characters and their plights were simply not intriguing enough to sustain my interest for an hour and a half let alone entertain a child another problem i found with the film was it's sudden change of pacing and tone near the end of the story if you're going to make a darker and more sinister sequel fine it may not be my cup of tea but at least it is a noble ambition but to go from the downbeat feel of the rest of the movie and all of a sudden have slapstick finale with mrs hogget swinging from of a ballroom in elastic overalls it just didn't feel right and was more painful to watch than it was funny or entertaining and the same goes for the rest of the movie
negative	to put it bluntly ed wood would have been proud of this a totally ridiculous plot is encompassed with bad humor hokey drama zero logic and a crap screenplay also a beautifully ending not to say it didn't look intriguing when i saw the previews so much for truth in advertising roland emmerich who's later independence day would look like the blows compared to this and directed this inane film which uses the cliche of there being some connection between eqypt and aliens in a useless opening sequence men find a stone in with hieroglyphics on it it wouldn't be till present day till they would actually figure it out they're decipherer a scientist nice twist dr dan jackson james spader doing his best outside of erotic thrillers and some indy fare who's life sucks so much that people walk out of his lectures after the third word why do they use him to decipher what no one else could so there is a hokey ending duh he figures it out in about a minute yea and then they get a suicidal colonel or something jack o'neill kurt russel with his wyat earp locks in the beginning then a that would make howie long snap into a fetal position why a suicidal colonel for the ending you'll get the hang of this they open the stargate a bunch of them go through it with a bomb to blow it up if they find anything bad after an overdone special effects thing they're inside a goddam pyramid so they went to egypt right wrong they're on another planet that was filmed in egypt they discover a cilvilization ruled by ra the sun god the androginous jaye davidson with a voice modifier to make him sound like barry white with asthma and there are fights explosions and a kiss between two people yea also melodrama stupidity hokey scenes and a bizarre language an ending ends with stupid lines say hello to king tut asswhole the quintessential line lemme tell ya and some convenient development by the end you just wanna go home and watch i don't know the outer limits or something the script's terrible the special effects are okay but nothing great the story's so weak that it's almost opaque the whole experience just isn't worth it unless you're so bored that you'd consider watching a full house marathon or this i'd pick this obviously but still it's just not fun at all and i can't wait for it to premier on
negative	i wonder if budget is at all a criterion for whether or not a movie can be considered an exploitation flick take the professional for example it boasts extremely glossy cinematography a couple of recognizable name actors and a couple of fairly impressive explosions it's also basically about violence and cheap titilation and features a central relationship between a man and a girl with a decidedly ambiguous sexual dimension the professional is all over the map and its pretensions of being about anything more than its most unpleasant elements simply make it all the more unpleasant the professional of the title is a new york hit man named leon jean reno brutally efficient but also very isolated one day he is forced to let someone into his life when a girl from his apartment building knocks on his door her name is matilda natalie portman and the rest of her family has just been killed by crooked and very wired d e a agent norman stansfield gary oldman after matilda's father tried to rip him off leon reluctantly takes matilda in then begins to teach her his profession when she says that she wants to avenge the murder of her young brother the two become closer which makes them all the more vulnerable when stansfield learns that they know too much and sets out to eliminate them both luc besson has gone this route before with his popular french import la femme nikita a slick potboiler about a female assassin there is no question that besson can make a great looking film with the assistance of cinematographer thierry arbogast he has created a film chock full of moody and evocative lighting but beneath the shiny wrapper there isn't nearly as much going on as besson would like us to believe the relationship between leon and matilda never clicks because neither one is given a character to develop leon is mostly a collection of quirky traits all intended to show us that for a hired killer he's really not so bad a guy he drinks lots of milk takes meticulous care of a potted plant and enjoys gene kelly movies jean reno succeeds at giving leon a haunted and desperate quality but he never makes an emotional connection to matilda natalie portman is all wrong for a part that called for a much grittier quality but she doesn't have too much to work with either besson would have been better served spending more time trying to bring his characters to life and less on feeble attempts at humor which are often embarrassing a silly game between leon and matilda involving celebrity impersonations is completely out of place as is a scene where matilda shocks a hotel manager by announcing that leon is her lover character is thoroughly sacrificed for a cheap gag gary oldman's entire part is something of a cheap gag and way over the top but at least he is interesting to watch there isn't a real person to be found anywhere in the professional which isn't always a problem in an action thriller except that this one is trying to pass itself off as something more a more disconcerting problem with the professional is that it plays around with the sexuality of a in a really distasteful way there were only two real choices for dealing with that component of leon and matilda's relationship confront it head on or ignore it entirely but besson flirts and teases the audience with the idea that he's going to show them a forbidden love story while choosing simply to focus his camera on portman's rear end and dress her in skimpy clothing this is to say nothing of the questionable decision to make it look like quality paternal time when leon is teaching a child to load a pistol or the blood which is spilled aplenty a great deal of the time the professional is just plain sleazy and all the soft filters in the world can't disguise that fact
negative	one of these days i'll make good on my promise never to rent another abel ferrara movie king of new york and body snatchers notwithstanding and bad lieutenant is only fit for a single emotive viewing his exploitation flicks have fallen into a rut of hoary trappings it's a visit to the seedy pornography shop where beautiful models no hookers no courtesans usher you through the silk curtains ferrara's only consistently smart move has been casting christopher walken over and over again since walken can make a good movie great and a loathsome movie durable whenever he's onscreen his scene in the addiction is the saving grace of that otherwise abysmal unwatchable and pretentious failure when he starts talking about his vampiric bowel movements or questions whether lili taylor has ever read naked lunch there's a dose of humor in an otherwise terminally unfunny affair you know those gothic club kids who are too cool to smile and let you know they're actually having fun the addiction is that movie walken sadly does not appear in the blackout the central role of matty a junkie film star whose lightning paced hollywood life among the beautiful people is inevitably leading to his destruction is played by matthew modine who takes what he can get after cutthroat island much like the protagonists of michelangelo antonioni's terminally bored cultural elite matty is involved in a bitter pill relationship with high fashioned model annie at least i think she's a model matty's lady is played by french actress b atrice dalle arrested twice for cocaine possession during filming of the blackout not that you needed to know that but it lends credence to the idea that ferrara's entire oeuvre has been filmed in a fucking blackout no kidding requiem for a dream has nothing on the junkie presentations seen in ferrara's movies and his controversial urban lifestyle matty and annie struggle over her decision to have an abortion without consulting him no doubt he was off chasing the dragon in his despair matty indulges in a chemical induced weekend of debauchery tooling around the streets of miami with video filmmaker mickey wayne dennis hopper in full dirty ol' man mold smacking models on the ass and telling them to spread their legs wider toward the end of the night they pick up a teenage waitress also named annie sarah lassez start shooting a hastily improvised sexual scene then matty thankfully blacks out something happened that night which haunts him throughout the rest of the movie and it's exactly what you think it was suffice to say there's some confusion over whether he killed annie one or annie two or anyone at all the blackout is typical ferrara no plot to speak of plenty of raunch and horribly vogue images of matthew modine downing a bottle of jack daniels and a beer while wrapping himself in a curtain in his hotel room by the sea by the sea by the beautiful sea cinematographer ken kelsch finds inconsistent glory in alternating gorgeous painterly sunsets with sleaze and we're back to dennis hopper leering at girls in bathing suits yeah yeah arrrghhh says mr hopper dirty old sod it's compulsive viewing in a tacky sort of way leading to a ridiculous climax where modine seizes control of his destiny how's that for cryptic never fear ferrara finds time for some female full frontal nudity to remind us what he's all about i can picture it now take off yer clothes kid it's essential to depict the inner maelstrom of my central protagonist and you're his visual id you're the soul the heart the bloodstream of the picture take it off take it all off ha ha ha friggin' vampire yeah you ferrara a final word about matthew modine he's actually a fine actor when properly cast but there's something too in his demeanor he's ideally suited for sarcastic men in tightly controlled situations such as his private joker in full metal jacket or the nebbish in short cuts who is every bit as superb as julianne moore in that famous scene though no one seems to notice him was in that scene  here he's asked to let it all hang out sporting a stubble and oily bangs he throws around furniture like stanley kowalski but it's somehow lacking modine lacks the feral intensity of brando entirely miscast in ferrara's flesh fair better luck next time matt someday you'll be forgiven for cutthroat island which wasn't really your fault in the first place maybe atom egoyan will find a place for you somewhere and all will once again be well in your world
negative	making your first feature film ain't easy assemble a decent if not strong cast as robert moresco has done with one eyed king and you're already ahead of the game but rehash old plot lines tired dialogue and standard clich s and a effort such as this one could jeopardize your chance at a second feature film how many more movies do we need about a rough neighborhood full of lifelong friends hopelessly turned to crime or worse the enormous catalog of such movies might dissuade a filmmaker from making yet another but here we have it again five irish kids in nyc's hell's kitchen make an overemotional pact over some stolen rings on an anonymous rooftop with teary music and slow motion in the film's first scene the kids grow up to be fairly worthless adults unable or unwilling to make their way out of the heat of the kitchen leading the clueless pack is william baldwin as a guy who watches out for his buddies and is in tight with local mob head armand assante i'd like to say that his character gets involved over his head in some sort of blah blah blah but all we seem to get are little tastes of possible plot points he's concerned about buddy jason gedrick's heroin abuse he sticks up for jim breuer after he impregnates baldwin's character's sister he looks into who might be pushing the most counterfeit cash ever made a genuinely funny touch but none of this ever really amounts to anything it seems that moresco's greater concern is to provide that intangible slice of life that flavor of the neighborhood that everyone's been trying to evoke since scorsese's early work so we get the drunk guys hugging and singing together at the local bar to prove to us that they really love each other do people actually do this we get a lot of tough street talk usually mumbled for effect and a whole lot of the whether it sounds like it fits or not we also get a handful of good actors in small roles that seem to lack purpose bruno kirby chazz palminteri you know guys you've seen in movies just like this one before assante is intelligent casting as the man that everyone fears and baldwin's performance is adequate but most of the rest of the cast jump into the tough guy persona so thoroughly that it's almost funny moresco a theater guy and sometimes tv writer including the series falcone obviously labored over this one as anyone might a first child but the content is probably too personal as a result the movie's style is in need of a considerable amount of toning down nearly every time an action by the grown up gang recalls something they did as kids moresco reminds us boy does he remind us with slow dissolves to the earlier scene running in slow motion complete with dialogue from the present just in case we don't comprehend the link to the past moresco needs to either trust his audience's intelligence or have more faith in his own presentation rather than beat us over the head with it his next project should have a little more personal distance and a lot more subtlety if he actually gets that chance reviewed as part of our boston film festival coverage feature story coming soon
negative	whenever u s government starts meddling into other countries' affairs under the pretext of supporting human rights or preventing political religious or ethnic persecution the other side is ready to use mantra that says look who's talking what have you done to the indians however even the americans themselves are ready to use that dark chapter of their own national history when it suits their purposes hollywood is just another example with its revisionist westerns made in early those movies tried to exploit the emerging wave of political correctness coinciding with the anniversary of columbus' discovery of america one of such examples is geronimo an american legend western directed by walter hill film that deals with one of the last conflicts between american natives and white settlers the hero of the film is geronimo played by wes studi leader of apaches fierce warrior tribe that used to give hard time to white settlers during the second half of century when the movie begins in geronimo and his apaches made peace with u s government and try to live peacefully in arizona reservation however broken promises injustice and violence against his people would make geronimo restless with not more or so of his followers he escapes reservation and begins guerrilla campaign general crook gene hackman commander of u s army forces respects geronimo and knows that even his force isn't enough to catch geronimo in the great spaces of the american southwest instead he turns to people who are more experienced with apaches lt charles gatewood jason patric and indian hunter al sieber robert duvall together with young lt britton davis matt damon they would begin mission aimed at capturing geronimo geronimo an american legend like many movies made under the shadow of political correctness try to tell the tale about oppressed minorities but instead the real subject is the bad conscience of the oppressors so the story about geronimo is told from the perspective of his enemies almost all of them happen to be his greatest admirers and use every opportunity to express how sorry they feel for having to fight him and his people although such elements of john millius' screenplay do indeed have some basis in history they harm the story of geronimo to be honest walter hill does try to make geronimo the real hero of the film but the movie segments that deal with the plight of apaches and the uprising are given too little time instead they turn out to be nothing more than the back story for rather uninteresting adventure story of gatewood and his band to make even worse hill has some real problems with pacing and style and in the end we have impression that we are watching two films badly edited into one story about geronimo and story about his pursuers the movie should have been better if it turned to geronimo's life before and after his last uprising in many ways more interesting than the story about gatewood the difference between those segments could be observed through the different quality of acting wes studi cherokee actor who was so impressive as magua in the last of the mohicans was perfect choice for geronimo not only because he resembles geronimo but because he induces a lot of passion in his role contrary to him we have disinterested actors who sleepwalk through the roles of his white enemies while this could be expected from someone like jason patric it is shame when we have veterans like gene hackman or robert duvall even hill's directing is bellow expectations battle scenes are too short and like in many of his late films force viewers to ask what had happened to the great action director of even his old associate music composer ry cooder disappoints with the score that shifts between indian motives and classic on the other hand photography by lloyd ahern ii with the use of red lenses gives somewhat dreamy atmosphere ideal for this movie that was supposed to be melancholic epic all in all compared with some of the hollywood's examples of political correctness this film isn't so bad but we are left with the unpleasant impression that it could have been better
negative	aspiring broadway composer robert aaron williams secretly carries a torch for his best friend struggling actor marc michael shawn lucas the problem is marc only has eyes for perfect which the geeky insecure robert certainly is not meanwhile marc's spoiled hetero female roommate cynthia mara hobel spends her days lying about their apartment and harrassing magazine editor tina brown victor mignatti's very romantic comedy as the ad campaign states is supposed to be pardon the pun a gay ol' romp but it's hard to have much fun with these annoying characters and their shallow personal problems marc and cynthia have domestic crises such as trying to kill hilarious robert and marc go to acting class how riveting the zaftig cynthia goes on eating binges how original but more than anything else the three whine constantly marc whines about his turbulent romance with an apparent david hugh panaro the hunky musician from across the way robert whines about not being able to find the right guy cynthia whines about having to find a job horrors the terrible trio whine their way to a happy ending that is wholly undeserved add in overly broad performances and some laughable lipsynching by panaro and you're left with one astonishing piece of cinematic damage
negative	easely one of the worst films of the year with the millenium just around the corner hollywood is playing with our insecurities concerning the biggest event of this century this time it is arnold schwartzenegger against the powers of evil the result is somewhat predictable i didn't have high hopes about arnold's much anticipated return to the big screen schwarzenegger fans will probably be pleased action lovers won't be bored and the catholic league will be angry everyone else will see of days' for what it is a deliciously bad motion picture think of it as hollywood's own bug did you know that if you turn the three diabolical numbers you'll get as in yes you better believe it satan is here on earth working on his latest project the end of days this time it is gabriel burne who gets the privilege to play lucifer and although not al pacino he is fun to behold he coolly strolls through manhattan in the borrowed body of an investment banker wreaking as they say havoc the way it works is he smirks and something explodes before the stroke of the new millennium he's got to find and impregnate a certain woman in order to climb out from under a heavenly curse as spelled out in the book of revelations only schwarzenegger's cop attached to an unit can stop him films like this has one serious weakness logic no matter how you twist the plot you'll find it incredibly stupid even for a schwartzenegger movie the incredible fact is that such directors never learn after thousands of headless productions this theme has become one big clich here the devil looks more like a sex addicted maniac that has just got out of a mental institution he is walking around n y blowing everything up and killing everyone that gets in a meter radius all he wants is the girl that is somehow special but schwartzenegger is more clever than he looks he has hidden her in a church where satan dare not enter so the evil one is forced to seduce the good cop in order to get the valuable information you can have your wife and daughter back i can give you happiness that you can only dream of just give me the address indeed with a script like that you could make a wonderful parody but unfortunately the director is taking this subject very seriously attempting to create a provoking an dramatic thriller and for you who have awaited arnold swartzenegger's comeback will not be very satisfied we've not seen him in a while that's because he didn't have a worthy opponent he has battled nuclear terrorists on earth and power mad conspirators on mars he has taken on alien predators in the darkest reaches of the jungle and morphing cyberkillers that seemingly nothing can stop so after all those fights what's left for arnold schwarzenegger how about satan in my opinion he has never quite overcome his first role as the deadly robot in cameron's terminator and that is schwartzenegger's strength muscles and no emotions here he tries to achieve an artistic level moving towards the oscar this is called an adult turn if successful and a flop if unsuccessful make a wild guess his character has lost his wife and daughter and has serious drinking problems this requires at least some acting skills regrettably the only thing convincing about old arnold is his muscles the rest of the cast are struggling with their so called characters the movie is otherwise technically impressive with a solid cinematography and fine lighting but the movie doesn't serve neither as a serious thriller because of its stupidity nor as comic entertainment because of its serious tone the only real comic relief in this film is when swartzenegger tries to cry the action sequences are all recycled and the effects are everything but spectacular so i really have a hard time recommending this film to somebody unless you are a schwartzenegger fan stay away as for schwarzenegger he'll be back
negative	these days people have rather short attention span and hardly anything can satisfy them for the long run nostalgia is already wearing off and now people are becoming more and more interested in few years in the future early are going to be regarded as next golden age of nostalgia however i doubt that people are going to be very nostalgic about the hollywood products of that period one of the reason would surely be films like national lampoon's loaded weapon that in many ways symbolise the biggest problem of contemporary american film industry lack of originality and ideas being made as some kind of parody on lethal weapon series this film pairs two l a policemen jack colt emilio estevez alcoholic cop on the edge and wes luger samuel l jackson policeman days away from retirement two of them following the murder of luger's partner must confront evil general mortars william shatner crime lord who is going to flood the market with cocaine stashed in wilderness girl cookies the authors of this films whose director gene quintano worked on such projects like third and fourth sequel of police academy lacked any original idea before they undertook the projects and that reflects in the lack plot characters and even original lines the plot or what goes for the plot in this movie is nothing more than a series of gags that make laugh of some popular films made in previous few years apart from lethal weapon series this film borrows its female lead from basic instinct the best gags are same as with many other similar movies shown in the trailers the rest simply doesn't work only those who used to watch a lot of hollywood products in that period would laugh others would probably wince at the lameness of humour some would be entertained by celebrity cameos that pop up every once in a while but at the end spending hour and half in front of this disorganised mess of a movie is simply not worth the effort the film was sometimes criticised for being the parody of a series that already had strong comic overtones the authors of lethal weapon returned the favour by using the loaded weapon joke in their fourth sequel
negative	paul verhoeven the dutch auteur who dragged his violent sexually aggressive aesthetic into american film has never been what i'd consider a thoughtful director though some of his films notably starship troopers have been lauded as artistic achievements but he is the kind of hollywood film maker who's managed to no matter what the budget make his films distinctive and even sometimes smuggle stimulating themes into the lavish high concepts on which he toils starship troopers was essentially a movie remake of his enthralling dutch war film soldier of orange a great film that's nearly impossible to find on video yet showgirls is everywhere in which he cast a troop of stunningly attractive mannequins the square jawed casper van dien and denise richards who may actually be silicone in what feels like an american propaganda picture set to monotonous scenes of graphic carnage it's not a completely successful film but as a failure it's certainly an interesting and mostly entertaining one my favorite verhoeven films were the ones he made before he hit our shores spetters a dark near pornographic coming of age film set within the of drag racing and the aforementioned soldier of orange haven't yet gotten around to seeing the man or turkish delight i believe his best hollywood film to be robocop a bleak satire with a robotic hero that's as touching as schwarzenegger's in that movie was violent but not in the overdone cartoonish manner of more recent verhoeven pics its violence seemed to be there for a purpose namely to create an atmosphere of unpredictable dread not to simply titillate an attention deprived audience there's a scene within the first ten minutes of robocop wherein the lead villain toys with a cop before snuffing him he tortures the officer by taking glee in his victim's every fearful tic it's a startling moment of barbaric maddening violence that effectively sets the tone for the film that could be designated as splatter in hollow man kevin bacon brutally slays a dog because it just won't shut up he impales a drowns another and so on but why his character is introduced as a smug genius the kind who's always impeccably dressed and races a sports car while generic rock tunes blare from his stereo for the world to hear sort of like a scheming uber villain from dallas or melrose place though once the character becomes invisible this film has him pull a shift into a psychotic movie monster the kind who just won't die hollow man's protagonists are the completely bland but beautiful scientist linda elizabeth shue acting as if she were rebecca of sunnybrook farm and her lover a hunk of beef scientist played by josh brolin who's saddled with the film's worst lines i've lost cohesion again they're a typical aaron spelling couple but as vacant as george w bush's republican national convention speech i e bush referring to clinton so much promise but to what end to what end this actually got applause suddenly warren beatty doesn't look so absurd the rest of the film's characters are all well past thirty though act like annoying high school party animals insulting one and other with a series of strained is it just me or have labored insults become big budget hollywood's new character developing technique ahh what a cynical time we live in as the picture opens we meet cain kevin bacon an egocentric scientist working with the crew of aforementioned irritating scientists on a top secret so top secret the government has only provided them with a dilapidated warehouse in which to perform their extensive experimentation's project with the goal to make invisibility a possibility for what purpose is never hinted at they've performed several experiments on animals and have nearly solved the quandary causing caine in a twist worthy of the film's late show origins to impulsively experiment on himself caine neglects to let the pentagon in on his plans and somehow gets two of his to lie for him so the rest of the crew will think the pentagon gave the go ahead our mad scientist is turned invisible after several complications then he inexplicably it's hinted that the process of invisibility has made the animals into more savage creatures but this is never explored and if that was the case why the hell would anyone be stupid enough to test this out on a human begins raping assaulting and murdering anyone he pleases always with a lame wisecrack ready a la freddy krueger it grows abundantly clear with each new release that it's verhoeven's films that have become hollow like the rest this one is cold heartless and full of contempt for humanity but in addition to all that it lacks any trace of wit insight and makes no statement other than audiences will pay for anything these days it's an affront to anyone looking for something stimulating on an intellectual level or even those hoping to spend a saturday night with a fun ride verhoeven has instead served up an utterly routine mad slasher flick with nobody to root for and no reason to care the previews make hollow man look like an irresistible flick how can one not have a good time at a film that utilizes state of the art fx to illustrate an invisible man getting down and dirty with his bad self a couple weeks ago after seeing the trailer a bunch of friends and i got into a long discussion of how invisible man flicks never go so far as to have the invisible individual indulging in their newfound ability hollow man looked like the first film to do so and whoa in a serious manner to boot but oh yeah it is directed by paul verhoven not atom egoyan or peter greenway verhoeven delivers the sleazy goods but not in a watchable or thrillingly disturbing manner here it just feels icky and uncomfortable the director keeps his camera trained at his nubile actresses caressing their breasts with his lens all while music strains in the background it's plainly obvious that verhoeven isn't exploring voyeurism like in the classic peeping tom but exploiting it and not even doing that very well it's funny that with all the technology million can get you verhoven is stuck at trying to figure out how to show a woman's naked breast manipulated by an invisible hand most vexing is that the invisibility aspect is used simply as gimmick in yet another slasher movie wherein characters do stupid things just so the villain can pop up for more attacks in fact it's largely irrelevant that bacon is invisible since by the end most of his potential victims don glasses that track his body heat as in every mad slasher film we get the killers pov a scene where he spies on his neighbor while she undresses triggered unpleasant memories of slumber party massacre and lots of scenes where people are unknowingly stalked the film only provides one moment that i found genuinely creepy it happens when a lab assistant kim dickens who looks like she stepped out of playboy in the middle of a chit chat with an invisible bacon suddenly pauses are you looking at me she queries obviously haunted it's a little moment in a big film with nothing to offer but ground breaking special effects set to a plot that should have run its course by the apex of the mad slasher craze those special effects are so stunning they alone keep this from being as bad as urban legend or i still know what you did last summer and they're the only reason to check out hollow man preferably as a bargain rental you've been warned but you probably won't listen will you tis' a pity
negative	fact that charles bronson represents one of the most important movie icons of the represents one of the biggest and almost tragic ironies of that decade tragedy lies in the fact that the icon status was earned less by quality of his work in movies but the quantity most of those movies were produced by cannon group company led by israeli producers menahem golan and yoram globus those two men probably thought that they could be the next roger corman movie mentors of future hollywood legends unfortunately that didn't happened and when cannon finally went bankrupt at the end of the decade behind it stood the huge pile of cinematic garbage that would require at least few centuries before it reaches the camp appeal sadly for bronson that garbage also contained numerous movies in which that capable character actor and action hero of the tried to raise their worth simply by being the main lead and lowering his own reputation in process on the other hand bronson could take comfort in a fact that those movies were extremely popular especially among the audience or times younger than bronson himself one of such movies that seriously marred bronson's reputation is death wish third sequel in the series which began with death wish in in the original movie bronson played paul kersey new york architect who turns into deadly street vigilante after his family fell victim to urban violence that movie was far from masterpiece yet in it the director michael winner was skillfully offering the cinematic remedy for very real disease of growing crime rates of the time on the same lines like siegel in dirty harry unfortunately six years later cannon group got rights to the character of paul kersey and began destroying it by pumping out sequels even the presence of its original director didn't stop the rapid decline of the quality death wish begins when kersey comes to visit an old friend living in the urban wasteland of east new york populated by young criminals and people too old or too poor to move out before the reunion kersey's friend falls victim to the street gang led by evil fraker played by gavan o'herlihy probably the only noteworthy role in the film kersey decides to avenge his death and slowly prepares for his crusade while the police inspector shriker ed lauter ants to use him as a secret weapon in his losing war against the urban crime bronson the main asset in this movie plays the character who is nothing more than an efficient killing machine although bronson's charisma does help in overcoming some implausibilities single man in his and armed with a single pistol manages to wipe out dozens of opponents with superior firepower the lack of emotions or bronson's own commitment could be seen in a very few lines spoken in a film the movie authors were somewhat aware of that emotional shallowness so they added romantic interest for their hero public defender played by deborah raffin and conveniently terminated in order to give some more motives for kersey's crusade on the other hand emotions are much better played by confronting yet ethnically stereotyped citizens with their daily nemesis of street punks ruthless enough to exercise their reign of terror on the entire city blocks and stupid enough to be killed in droves by kersey unfortunately michael winner doesn't know how to work out the plot and after torturing the viewers with mostly uninteresting characters and cliched and formulaic situations ends this movie with a bang the big showdown at the end that turns east new york into the battle zone is probably the worst part of the movie because of the poor editing and the cheap sets and props that give away the low budget in short this movie could be recommended only to the most fanatical charles bronson fans or for the people who are already desperate for nostalgia special note for trekkies marina sirtis the actress who played counsellor deanna troi in star trek the next generation could be spotted in a small role of portorican wife
negative	overblown remake of the robert wise film of the same name based on shirley jackson's novel the haunting of hill house stars lili taylor as one of three lab rats that participate in a supposed insomnia study being initiated by liam neeson he is actually conducting a study on the causes of fear and why the human mind is still affected by it he drags the test subjects out to a foreboding mansion where all types of creepy cgi effects scare the cast and try the audience's patience i know this question has been posed before but why do people keep remaking good movies the original was a great psychological horror film this new version is dull and very decidedly not scary in fact i feel it is downright impossible to make a modern day horror movie that is scary unless you find obvious computer generated special effects frightening then there's nothing in this film that will raise hackles i nearly fell asleep twice during the film and probably would have if they guy two rows behind me didn't seem to have such a personal relationship with the characters that he felt he needed to discuss every decision they made with them as the film progressed it's sad to see such an amazing cast wasted so badly owen wilson spends most of the film wandering the halls of the house and the script does no justice to his wonderful comic ability catherine always nice to look at is given the woefully underwritten role of a insomniac that gets to run out of her bedroom perplexed every time some strange noise occurs liam neeson pops in from time to time to talk into his tape recorder and attempt to convince the others that he has as much knowledge about what's going on as the rest of them do finally poor lili taylor the center of the film gets the brunt of the cgi effects thrown at her while everyone else gets to scream and try to rescue her apparently a subplot involving a tryst between and taylor's characters was filmed but removed that's too bad because it might have lent some better characterization to the narrative this is jan de bont's second straight misfire speed cruise control being the first when is he going to learn that bigger is not always necessarily better robert wise knew that when he made the original and the makes of the blair witch project also knew that one should not approach a haunted house movie with a twister mindset if de bont and screenwriter david self had let our minds fill in the blanks as to what was happening instead of showing us everything it would have served to make the film terrifying what our mind fashions on it's own can be a thousand times more frightening than having having it completely led towards everything apparently yet another version of this story is being filmed under it's original title i certainly hope that this newer rendition will not be hurt by the insanity of jan de bont's version and that it will retain the psychological impact that the original release had 
negative	tarzan and the lost city is one of the most anemic movies to come out in quite a while not only it is poorly written badly acted and generally incompetent in all cinematic areas it is thoroughly uninspired and insipid unfortunately it's not bad in the way great colossal misfires like heaven's gate or ishtar were bad instead it literally drips off the screen like a movie nobody wanted to be associated with which begs the question of why it was made in the first place with all the good scripts lying around hollywood how does needless drek like this make its way to the big screen of course tarzan is one of the most filmed characters in all of motion picture history he has appeared in over forty films which have ranged from the very good greystoke the legend of tarzan lord of the apes down to the really bad tarzan the ape man with bo derek most of these films were just cheapie made in the thirties and forties starring athletes and a lot of cutsie chimps therefore if another tarzan movie is to be made one might assume that it would have something new to offer a different angle an original storyline anything to set it apart from all the others greystoke added a level of realism to the pulpy tale and even tarzan the ape man at least had the audacity to sexualize the story as a vehicle for bo derek's bare breasts tarzan and the lost city on the other hand has absolutely nothing to offer but a bunch of recycled storylines and bad dialogue the script by bayard johnson and j anderson black is about as formulaic and generic as they come comic books have better plots than this the movie is so bad in fact that it retains that ridiculous tarzan call that was so tirelessly mocked in last summer's comedy george of the jungle didn't the producers think to leave that back in the old weissmuller pictures where it belongs the story starts with the legend of tarzan already firmly established a quick opening narration tells of tarzan casper van dien being found in the jungle after having been raised by apes and his return to england where he assumes his greystoke heritage when the movie starts in he is a civilized english gentleman without an english accent and he is to marry jane jane march in less than a week however when a wicked named nigel ravens steve waddington begins hunting for the fabled lost city of opar one of africa's last great secrets the witch doctor of an ancient african tribe summons tarzan back to the jungle at first jane refuses to go pouting about how it will interfere with their wedding but after tarzan leaves she changes her mind and tracks him down therefore assuring lots of lame smooch scenes between her and her once the film gets going in its own sluggish way it delves into a series of jungle adventures as tarzan jane and the natives attempt the thwart ravens and his crew from discovering the city most of the adventures are cheesy predictable and unexciting with no pace tension or action to speak of there are sequences stolen from innumerable recent adventure movies ranging from raiders of the lost ark to the goonies when the movie is running short on action it includes a few scenes of tarzan freeing caged animals releasing a baby elephant from a trap and throwing ivory tusks into the river the movie is also lacking even a remote hint of reality for instance when tarzan who was raised in the jungle is bit by a cobra he doesn't even attempt to suck the venom out like any weekend backpacker would do instead he ties a tourniquet around his arm and stumbles off into the jungle with no plan for survival of course one can't help but notice how fundamentally misleading the title is not to ruin the ending or anything but there is no lost city there is however a lost pyramid which i suppose is all the fx department could come up with the special effects are not worthy of a movie which also brings up the question of why the treasure hunters had to slog through numerous underground caverns to get to the lost pyramid when it's sitting right out in the middle of an open field strictly speaking tarzan and the lost city isn't even bad enough to have camp quality although casper van dien's laughably stiff performance comes real close this movie proves what starship troopers only hinted at he cannot act but he sure looks even in the deepest heart of the african jungle van dien is much too much of a to be an effective tarzan he's a calvin klein model in a loin cloth i also wondered what the department was thinking when it outfitted him with that awful steve perry haircut waddington makes a decent villain although he's like a charmless version of belloq from raiders of the lost ark as jane the jane march has little to do but smile and look pretty next to tarzan she does fire off a gun at the evil treasure hunters a time or two but whenever a snake comes into the picture she is reduced to a hysterical mess however amidst all this complaining i do have one piece of good news tarzan and the lost city is so lacking in ideas both new and old that it is unable to fill even an hour and a half of celluloid so we can say this much for it at least it had the decency to be short
negative	everything in the phantom you have seen many times before and there is nothing new presented here wincer displays absolutely no skill in setting up an exciting action sequence billy zane is wooden as the hero kristy swanson is given very little to do and does very little with it treat williams looking like rhett butler but sounding like mickey mouse is one of the worst villains i have ever seen in a movie only catherine zeta jones as one of williams cohorts turns in a good performance she has energy and spunk which the movie needed much more of oh yeah the phantom also has a secret identity but this is so poorly played out you won't even care about the only things i can recommend are a good performance by jones and some colorful scenery however if youre looking for a fun family movie go watch the underrated flipper this is not a good movie
negative	a life less ordinary r while the extremely peculiar a life less ordinary does live up to its title a more appropriate moniker would be a movie more misguided for this confused confusing attempt at romantic comedy is a most disarming disaster from the talented trainspotting team of director danny boyle producer andrew macdonald and screenwriter john hodge at the core of this strange film is a fairly yes after robert boyle regular ewan mcgregor an aspiring writer of trashy novels is fired from his janitorial job at the naville corporation he kidnaps naville's ian holm spoiled daughter celine cameron diaz and holds her for ransom the joke here is that celine is a willing father threatened to cut her off financially so she wants that she soon becomes not only an accomplice but the brains behind the scheme teaching the inept robert a thing or two about kidnapping and ultimately didn't we see this one coming love so far so mediocre but mediocre is better than dreadful which this film is thanks in no small part to the hodge's contextual frame for the romance it turns out that god is displeased with the divorce and romantic breakup rate on earth so the chief of heaven's police gabriel dan hedaya dispatches two angels o'reilly holly hunter and jackson delroy lindo to earth to hook up celine and lose their angel status this conceit might have worked if the angel dimension played an integral role in the entire picture but it could have easily been cut without any clear loss to the film as it stands it is simply a waste of time that distracts from the romance at hand not that there is much of a romance to begin with try as diaz and mcgregor may celine and robert are too to become very endearing characters celine is rich bitch robert is a dullard as such it is quite hard for the audience to really connect with these again they never seem to really connect with each other when celine and robert start to overtly act on their feelings it comes off more like something scripted than anything natural but i am not exactly sure if boyle and company's point was romance honestly i am not exactly sure what they were trying to accomplish boyle juices up the visuals with his characteristic razzmatazz but it remains just not energy in service of a story or even acting the cast seems lost especially hunter whose performance is so adrift as to be baffling and then there are the many eccentricities splattered onto the film some violent confrontations involving the angels who are not exactly fact they end up staging their own ransom scheme some mystical hokum in the climax and a cutesy claymation epilogue watching much of a life less ordinary is like being trapped in indie hipster hell stockpiling quirks in the name of cool instead the film just gives quirky a bad name my best guess as to what the filmmakers wanted to accomplish is an atmosphere of warped womantic yes misspelling intended whimsy which comes through in only one scene an extended musical number where celine and robert sing beyond the sea at a karaoke bar after a verse or two the couple are magically dolled up in snazzy outfits and hairdos and engage in a spirited dance routine on the counter the scene works not only because of its relative simplicity but also because it does not try too hard just relying on the innate charm of the leads allowing them to build a romantic rapport alas not nearly enough is built for this moment comes to an abrupt end i applaud any attempt to bring something fresh and unique to movie houses but sometimes even cleverness can reach overkill a life less ordinary certainly delivers something different but by the time the film was over i was clamoring for a life more ordinary i can accept failure everyone fails at something but i can't accept not trying it doesn't matter if you win as long as you give everything in your heart jordan
negative	how could a disney film based on meg cabot's novel the princess diaries be anything but cute harmless fun easy take all the cute harmless fun out of it and while you're at it make it that's what director garry marshall screenwriter gina wendkos and not to be outdone producer whitney houston have done with the disney film the princess diaries you couldn't tell it from the audience though a braintree mass of growing glowing girls and the odd parental popcorn perched about their persons who positively cheered when the end credits rolled ah the film had struck a lovely nerve with them but not with old me well i might have cheered that the utter tripe was now well and truly over but that would have been too obvious too obvious is the least of the problems with marshall's film garry made a couple of other princess pretty woman and runaway bride this one's way without julia roberts so maybe that's its problem in addition to being predictable as molasses the princess diaries has hardly got a laugh in it it's a comedy could bore the pants off an abyssinian for long long stretches and is so sloppily edited the principals refer to scenes we haven't even seen yet and probably never will except perhaps in the dvd edition marshall should take virtually all of the blame here since he's been at this for some time and should know when a scene or two isn't working and hardly any of the princess diaries works works alas implies cleverness and there's none of that here either newcomer anne hathaway stars as mia thermopolis a bright but socially invisible san franciscan teen who learns that her single mom a wacky artist played by the likable caroline goodall had a bit of a fling with some royal member of some miniscule european country nobody ever heard of the filmmakers go out of their way not to call it serbia which is pretty much what all miniscule european countries are called in the movies mark my words and now she mia is next in line to rule genovia hence the combo in the print ads julie andrews with the luminous factor cranked to plays mia's grandmother aka queen clarisse renaldi who shows up out of the royal blue and lends mia much advice and direction in the eating talking and looking like a princess department although mia's big makeover simply transforms her from ugly duckling to ugly swan does queen julie lose her dignity for the sake of a good laugh not really consuming a corn dog is about the worst that it gets also on stereotypical hand are a brainless jock an evil cheerleader a best friend welcome to the dollhouse heather matarazzo a sensitive auto and marshall mainstay hector elizondo as joe the driver imparting wit and wisdom from the front seat of mia's limousine at every intersection a movie is a rarity these days but the rating here reflects the fact that all the guts all the good stuff has been exorcised from the finished product lame labored and lamentable the princess diaries is recommended for year olds of the feminine persuasion only all others would do well to avoid it like potholes the plague and the perfect storm
negative	the corruptor is a big silly mess of an action movie complete with pointless plot turns and gratuitous violence it's not abhorrent or even blatantly unlikable but it doesn't make a shred of sense and whose idea was it to have the director of glengarry glen ross direct an action film james foley knows a lot about characters and acting and those are the strengths of the corruptor but the quiet scenes clash with the ludicrous action nonsense and the result is less like a movie and more like a derailed train at least we have chow in the lead role chow plays nick chen a chinatown cop he's a good cop as the first few scenes establish and he's very familiar with chinatown that's probably why the decide to team him up with a rookie named danny wallace mark wahlberg nick and danny begin by stepping on each other's toes but finally end up liking each other once they both get a chance to save the other one's life what happens after that is kind of a mystery to me i'm fairly certain that the villains are all part of the fukienese dragons led by a young chinese psycho named bobby vu byron mann i'm also pretty sure that nick is on the payroll of henry lee ric young a gangster dealing in prostitutes and other neat stuff i'm not quite sure why henry lee decides to employ danny although this makes for some ridiculous albeit unpredictable plot twists along the way there's also an interesting subplot revolving around danny's father brian cox but it doesn't have much to do with the main story one of the problems as i said is that the movie doesn't make any sense i don't blame this entirely on foley because he's obviously a good director i'm more inclined to point my finger at robert pucci's script which doesn't seem to be in tune to the way normal people act one scene early on had me particularly annoyed nick confronts his boss because he's angry about his new white partner he's shouting and pointing his finger and stepping on the furniture and i was thinking that i would have fired him if he had done that to me in addition the film takes a bite into issues and never develops them at all there are a lot of scenes like this one and none of them are very coherent there's also a considerable language barrier given that chow and some of the other actors have thick chinese accents the plot itself never straightens out i'm not sure who or what the fukienese dragons are or why henry lee is associated with them or what they do as a group the corruptor is an action movie and so all these weird plot developments are decorated with loud and violent action sequences the sequences aren't bad but they're not new how many car chases through chinatown have you seen on that note how many chinatown cop movies have you seen one too many i'd imagine foley's strength is clearly in characterization and he does a pretty good job here the scenes between nick and danny are very good and i actually got a feel for their characters a bond forms between them that holds parts of the film together chow and wahlberg are both good actors chow is a pro and can do this kind of stuff in his sleep wahlberg seems less at home in this atmosphere but he's still fun to watch i also liked the subplot involving danny's father brian cox's performance is powerful and his character makes a compelling moral compass for danny but the film ultimately fails mostly at the hands of insane incoherence and action scenes a complicated plot can be successful but the story needs to make sense when it's over the corruptor never manages to make any sense it just keeps spinning out of control until finally there's nothing left to hold on to
negative	return to horror high wants to be a couple different types of movies at once the film tells the story of a horror movie being filmed at the crippen high a school where a group of serial murders took place five years before but what the cast and crew don't know is that a real killer maybe the same one that was never apprehended is going into action again on one level return to horror high is a slasher movie and it is at this level that it works the best on watching the film which was made in i couldn't help but take notice that the killer's costume was almost identital to that of the ghostface in scream and scream on another level the film wants to be a slapstick comedy and there are many hints of this throughout unfortunately most of these jokes fall flat and the last thing the film wants to be is a look at an exploitation film being made the only problem is that while much of it is supposed to be from the movie itself being made no cameras are shown filming it thus making it far more confusing than it had to be and to top it all off the twist ending makes very little to no sense whatsoever and so we are basically left with feeling as if we wasted our time there are story developments that are beyond ludicrous and plot holes you could drive a winnebago through if you see the film or have seen it you'll know what i mean the premise of return to horror high is admittedly pretty crafty and i liked the atmosphere of the school which is where the whole thing takes place but director froehlich judging from this movie is an incompetent director except for being able to film the seldom suspeneful scene well come to think of it there is only one scene that is actually scary and it has to do with two actors being locked in a room as the killer tries to break in but other than that distraction return to horror high is certainly no great shake note look for george clooney in a supporting role as one of the actors on the film and strangely enough he is the first character to get the ax literally
negative	the art of woo attempts to be one of those films like breakfast at tiffany's in which the audience is rooting for some sweet vulnerable irresistible woman to work out her problems and to find happiness the problem is that helen lee who writes and directs seems to have written alessa woo played by lee as neither sweet nor vulnerable and she is quite resistible alessa is a young woman who happens to be a brilliant art dealer in the toronto art scene this is some sort of alternate world art scene where people pay tens of thousands of dollars for paintings by talented beginners and dealers in these paintings fly back and forth to places like switzerland one of the most knowledgeable of the art dealers is alessa she also happens to be the center of adulation of her friends and every party has suitors camped outside her window next door to alessa moves struggling genius artist and native american ben crowchild adam beach he sees that behind the facade that there is really a sad little girl within alessa who really will not be happy with the rich art collector she is dating ben gets emotionally involved with alessa as alessa so delicately puts it we were bosom buddies now we're fuck buddies but alessa will have to decide whether she wants love with ben or wealth with her rich suitor the real problem with the film seems to be helen lee's inability to decide what she wants to be saying she undercuts nearly everything she wants us to believe about alessa alessa is looking for financial security but she makes decisions about large sums of money for her clients this appears to be a high profile and job we are supposed to care about alessa's feelings but she coldly refuses to visit her own ailing father alessa cannot be portrayed as sweet and vulnerable if at an art auction she turns into our man flint this is a charmless romantic comedy that bets everything it has on the appeal of its main character and comes up i rate it a on the to scale and a on the to scale
negative	capsule a science fiction allegory at the millennium a lethal contagious virus has hit taiwan officials have cut off water and other services to the center of contagion life there devolves and degenerates a man in an apartment has a hole in his floor and with it harasses his downstairs neighbor a slow but harrowing film to be missed if possible low to the taiwan virus is ravaging taiwan and the part of the city that is the center of the contagion has been evacuated of anyone who will go one apartment building still houses people a woman formerly an office worker yang is tormented by her upstairs neighbor lee who has a hole cut by a plumber in the floor and is using it as a drain neighbor runs a small failing grocery store to make things more depressing it is constantly raining hard upstairs neighbor vomits through pours water etc a small and almost entirely war starts allegory about callousness and selfishness woman is living on a pile of rolls of toilet tissue incongruous songs added to show downstairs neighbors dreams these are the songs of popular taiwanese singer grace chang apartment is falling apart wallpaper is separating from walls plumbing is failing boredom shown by long cuts in which nothing happens a lot of film seems to be used up this story might have been done much better as a animated film stars are considered to be great dramatic actors by one reviewer this film seems longer at minutes most films
negative	seen december at p m at the glenwood movieplex cinemas oneida ny theater by myself for free free pass rating good seats sound and there are many philosophies as to why we are so fascinated with cartoons they provide a method of total escapism in which anything will work within their context from the outrageous slapstick of looney tunes to the intensity of japanimation watching flubber really clinched this idea for me because it's just a live action cartoon that presents itself as a regular comedy it proves how painfully unfunny all those gags and slapstick would be in reality and how important it is to actually have a story the film wastes no time in establishing its lighthearted cartoony atmosphere we meet medfield college chemistry professor phillip brainard williams the typical supposedly likable mad scientist within the first minutes we get at least a half dozen jokes about how forgetful he is phillip's memory loss seems less like a cartoony gag and more like a real case of alzhiemer's disease isn't this rather lowbrow comedy he starts teaching chemistry after walking in on a nude figure drawing class an inappropriate joke for a kids' movie if i ever saw one we learn he has stood his up fiancee sara harden twice at the altar simply because he's forgotten sara claims to love him but says if he forgets the wedding again she'll stop loving him a sign of childish attitude the film denies it has but even cartoons must have conflicts to resolve and it's no surprise the major conflicts here are related christopher mcdonald does and even worse version of his usual villain shtick as wilson croft a scientist who not only wants to steal phillip's ideas but his woman too what's worse is that sara actually seems interested in him wilson works for a rival college that wants to buy out medfield which is going broke unless phillip can invent something to save the day one of the first rules of filmmaking is to make sure the title has something to do with the film the flubber is played for gags after it is introduced but is all but forgotten about thereafter it's obvious phillip is going to accidentally invent flubber a flying rubber compound that yields tremendous energy and the promotions make the flubber look realistic and funny unfortunately the flubber like all the special effects in this film looks very fake and unconvincing flubber also seems to have intelligence and a personality and by the time it performs a song and dance routine you give up wondering how life could spontaneously come to an inanimate object most of the film wanders aimlessly as it relies on the flubber to make for the comedy since phillip's is forgotten about and somehow push the story along but it's clear how weak this premise is from the and the film just gets worse all the jokes involve people getting hit by objects including bowling balls flying cars that don't fly well and a basketball team capable of jumping feet into the air it's all presented with complete logic and no one believes flubber exists even when they see it with their own eyes during the basketball scene the coach for the rival team actually says i think they might be cheating to which the referee replies there's no rules about jumping too high predictable doesn't begin to describe the motions the film goes through especially after the halfway point and it's not how terribly contrived the plot is it's the way it's broken down with absolutely no transition not only that but all the actors here especially williams seem bored to tears i'd say percent of all the scenes were shot with a bluescreen so it's almost forgivable when you realize they're talking to nothing and interacting with nothing it's safe to say everything that could be bad about flubber is the only original element the film has is the world's first romance between a machine and a human but this aspect is quite twisted if you think about it and like the rest of the film you won't
negative	plot a girl moves in with some models and falls in love with a guy from across the street aaaaaaaaah then one day she sees him knock a woman upside the head with a baseball bat ooooooooh she must then join together with her to find out whether or not this guy is really or a psycho killer aaaaaaaaah critique completely idiotic okay so maybe i'm being a little too nice this movie starts off dumb moves into the ridiculous and eventually graduates to idiocy there that's more like it and how you may ask well it's simple really four of the dumbest stereotypical models in the world oh my god i just found out that the actresses playing the parts are models in real life yipes join monica potter in a role which can only be described as an obvious cry for help and freddie prinze jr not the actor but the character better known as freddie prinze jr in a plot so stupid and that you have to wonder once more how crap like this gets by the hollywood bigwigs this thing stinks to it's just plain embarrassing for everyone involved i even felt my iq dip below its usual low as toilet humor somehow worked its way into this movie ugh what a pile of dung hey i'm actually starting to sound a little like harry knowles here but i guess i could see where his frustration comes from time to time it's sad really a movie which actually had quite a few people in my audience laughing at its idiocy including the folks hiding in the bathroom while someone else comes in to take a crap and fart gag and how about that dumb blonde model who keeps running into things pure hilarity or maybe i'm just too jaded too much of a critic not relaxed enough to enjoy this uuuhhmmm naaaaah this movie sucks the big one it's chockfull of stupid characters delivering inane dialogue fitting snuggly into a preposterous plot this is the kind of movie that has one character inserting another character into a car headfirst to the floor only because well it's supposed to be funny see you see that person then has their legs swinging in the other person's face as they drive and that distracts the driver see and well that's kinda funny no harumph yeah well you get the picture anyhoo freddie prinze jr nuff said monica potter a bad career move but we might forgive you if you keep up the julia roberts bit the rest of the model girls well thanks for being there so i had something to look at but please apologize to the entire modeling community as a whole for making them all out to be complete imbeciles so why the three points out of ten you may ask well it's simple really one point goes to the russian model girl and that cool accent don't ask me why but it actually turned me on one point goes out to all of the model girls for being in the movie nice window decoration natch and one last point goes out to the makers of this film who spared us any long sorted story and made sure to give us the opportunity of leaving the theatre after only minutes of manufactured garbage so that we could run out as fast as we can grab the next person that we see walking down the street and warn them of the devil that is freddie prinze jr i mean head over heels you've been warned good people ps didja notice how i didn't even mention rear window once in my entire review i didn't want to taint the memory of the classic flick by having it uttered alongside this thing but then again i just did mention it but i guess it doesn't count in the ps section or does it ooooh whatever i have a headache i think my brain is coming back to life where's joblo coming from things i hate about you coyote ugly down to you save the last dance she's all that the wedding planner you've got mail
negative	for those interested in the true spirit of moviemaking or what's left of it in mainstream hollywood movie which are star vehicles are terrible things as a rule the ignore general principles of cinema because they are not made to advance the media but rather to advance the career of a particular actor an actor might be chosen on the to give him exposure or he might be chosen on the way down to hand him a paycheck generally though the actor doesn't matter and soldier the latest from the beleaguered warner brothers exemplifies this the picture lacks pizazz the star for the vehicle in this case is kurt russell otherwise known as the man of thirty words or less russell plays todd a human trained from birth in the ways of waging war and becoming emotionally distanced from the carnage he has wrought the movie lets us see this degenerate process but by the time the real plot starts we're into todd's later years he's about to be replaced by a new breed of soldiers ones who instead of being trained from birth are genetically selected before birth the pride of this class caine jason scott lee will be our villain and you know he's the villain because he has a staring contest with our hero near the movie's start between the two leads less than a full typed page of dialogue is spoken and it's possible to imagine a script which is ninety percent stage direction director paul anderson who helmed last year's icy thriller event horizon doesn't show any inventiveness here and instead is content to let the actions play out on screen ad nauseam todd upon being replaced is left to die on a garbage planet but in order to stretch the running time out the villains return to the garbage planet on a routine patrol and set the stage for the final firefight events are predictable from the time that the setups are made and neither anderson nor scriptwriter david peoples attempts to show any creativeness here the most annoying plot facet is the reason that the whole of the movie comes to be todd fails to show physical superiority against caine in fact not even todd and two of his companions can best the baddie but near the end of the movie he shows remarkable prowess with automatic weaponry it's not as though todd undergoes any significant character changes throughout the plot of the story and so the plot has a very canned feeling about it the best route through this disaster is to take it lighthearted in spirit and treat it as a parody of typical action fare like universal soldier a strict interpretation however reveals an unmistakeable and unforgiveable lack of style class or substance and by next year a large percentage of the people who have seen this will have taped it off of network television
negative	director doug ellin's kissing a fool released earlier this year is an aptly titled comedy about two plastic couples housed in an artificial story like a sitcom with jokes so lame that it would be impossible to overlay a laugh track on it the movie meanders along insulting the viewers' intelligence in almost every frame the script by james frey and the director is filled with vapid actors who read meaningless lines you've heard before i'm not wearing any underwear the bimbo tells the famous sportscaster max in what she assumes will be a line max chicago's biggest playboy decides to get married after a whirlwind love affair with sam short for samantha max and sam possess two irritating personalities and they hold little chemistry for each other or the audience max is played without any style by david schwimmer schwimmer whose acting talent is playing characters devoid of personality makes an unlikely lover his costar mili avital as sam is cut from the same cloth so they can be argued to be a matched pair after all people of the same intelligence are naturally drawn to each other ditto for similar looks so why shouldn't the be attracted the implausible plot has max asking his best friend jay jason lee to hit on sam as a test jay is supposed to try to get her to sleep with him but stop short of the actual act max being promiscuous by nature worries that his future bride may have the same need to sleep around as he does the idea of flirting with the beautiful sam makes jay so sick that he becomes unable to eat or work neither the script nor the actors make this test believable the question is how do you know you're with the wrong person so you can avoid wreaking havoc on major parts of your life jay asks in one of the unsuccessful attempts at adding some seriousness to the film finally there is the film's attempt at physical comedy jay's natasha vanessa angel becomes infatuated with jay again once she thinks he is going out with someone else natasha rips jay's shirt open after pushing him down onto the sofa as she throws her hair on his bare chest she demands he pull it this is supposed to be funny most films have some saving grace some bit part was done especially well or some scene managed to be funny even if the rest of the picture wasn't kissing a fool on the other hand has nothing to recommend it kissing a fool runs it is rated r for profanity and sexuality and would be acceptable for most teenagers
negative	i am continually amazed at movies like this that some producer would waste an abundance of talent and money on a script as abysmal as this one is but it seems to happen a lot nowadays wild wild west is a beautifully filmed well acted and well directed piece of garbage and its insipid screenplay is completely at fault in short this movie is a comedy without laughs so many jokes fall flat that it borderlines surreal the high production values keep it from being a total fiasco but it's still pretty boring will smith stars as jim west an old western variation of the james bond character west is teamed up with artemus gordon kevin kline and they're pretty much polar oppisites west prefers to solve his problems with an array of bullets gordon traditionally favors a more pacifistic approach talk about deeply developed characters at any rate this leads to the inevitable conflicts between methodologies none of which are funny the year is several top scientists have been abducted and the suspected culprit is a disgruntled former confederate general bloodbath mcgrath ted levine president grant sends west and gordon to investigate there's evidence that mcgrath is attending some sort of confederate reunion in louisiana west and gordon show up and learn that mcgrath is actually working for dr arliss loveless kenneth branagh another disgruntled former confederate as it turns out loveless plans to use the combined knowledge of the scientests to create the ultimate super weapon which he will use to conquer the united states i'd go further with the plot but there isn't any point this film's narrative is little more than a jumbled unfunny mess i only laughed at a couple of jokes and then only lightly there isn't one truly uprorously funny moment in this film and that's pretty disasterous when you consider that it's primarily a comedy as i said the fault is totally that of the script when you consider their respective roles will smith and kevil kline do as good as they could have possibly done the leads could've been played samuel l jackson and robert de niro and the film still would've been awful no one and i mean no one can make a line like bye bye mr knife guy sound good still this film has a lot going for it visually the set design is fantastic maybe even oscar worthy the cinematogrophy by michael ballhaus who was also behind camera in martin scorsese's brilliant goodfellas is absolutely stunning he lends the film a much needed exciting comic bookish look i won't fault barry sonnenfeld either he does a fine job of directing the proceedings but like the rest of the people involved with the film there really isn't anything that he can do to correct its one major flaw despite being beautifully made wild wild west becomes quite boring after the point the appeal of the visuals ends long before the film does if wild wild west didn't look so good it would be almost insufferable as it is it's somewhat tolerable but not very entertaining it hurts to give such a well made movie a score this low but there isn't anything much worse than an unfunny comedy
negative	this talky thriller stars alec baldwin as dave robicheaux an orleans cop who gets ensnared in a mystery after a crashes into the bayou beside his fishing boat he and his wife annie kelly lynch rescue a little salvadorian girl samantha lagpacan from the wreckage and that's when the trouble begins the other major players include a local drug lord eric roberts his scheming wife teri hatcher a soused stripper mary stuart masterson and a shady dea agent vondie curtis hall everyone knows everyone else and it makes for a collective that's curious but never compelling based on the book by james lee burke heaven's prisoners is so badly plotted that entire scenes seem to be missing early on we have no idea of why dave and annie keep the child to themselves nor how they eluded both the coast guard and the faa later dave is reunited with a who appears seemingly clean and sober and without any explanation huh the whole movie is like this perhaps the result of some unkind cuts that happened during the eighteen months that the film sat on the shelf whatever the reason somebody should tell director phil joanou final analysis to recut this mess in its present form heaven's prisoners runs only two hours plus change but it feels like four
negative	spoiled rich kid kelley morse chris klein receives a new mercedes for a graduation present he and his buddies take it for a joyride to a small nearby town where he proceeds to torment the locals simply because he's rich and they're not he ends up provoking jasper josh hartnett into a race and as a result the local gas station and diner are destroyed when they crash into it kelley is sentenced to rebuild the diner and has to live with jasper in a spare room over his family's barn jasper's girlfriend sam leelee sobieski soon takes a liking to kelley however despite the fact that it was her family's diner that was destroyed and b all kelley does is sit around sulk and smart off to the townspeople but when she sees him sweaty and shirtless that's apparently all she needs to lose her feelings for jasper whose only fault seems to be a perpetual case of hat hair so sobieski soon falls in love with kelley especially after the day she follows him through the woods and hears him giving his graduation speech which he was unable to deliver because he caused the destruction of property and nearly killed dozens of people in the speech kelley quotes a poem by robert frost which just so happens to be sam's favorite poem as well awwwww soon they're frolicking around in the fields and for some reason waste no time letting people in town especially jasper's best friend see them together kelley continues to make an ass of himself in town especially when he shows up at the town dance drunk and steaming because sam went with jasper kelley runs off and decides to leave town sam catches up to him at the bus station and he asks her to come to boston with him jasper shows up and tearfully confesses to sam just how much he loves her and sam without even breaking stride basically says see ya and takes off to boston with kelley here on earth goes in so many wrong directions from the start that by the time its fairly decent ending comes around its completely worthless chris klein and leelee sobieski are two of my current favorite young performers and it's because of their presence that i watched this film in the first place however not long into the proceedings i wanted to just reach into the film and strangle them both i shouldn't have such feelings towards people i like but their characters are so infuriating that well trust me you'll feel the same way even though both of the lead male characters are usually in the wrong kelley is hands down the more unlikable of the two simply because his jerkish actions are calculated he intends to be a jackass each and every time he does it jasper on the other hand only reacts to kelley's provocations and afterwards comes across as being truly sorry for his impulsive actions but as in life nice guys finish last for the entire film we watch sam fall in love with the guy no one likes while the film's only sympathetic character gets completely crushed then a cancer subplot comes into play where things get even more infuriating if you can imagine that what things weren't depressing enough for you mr screenwriter who greenlit this project who on earth thought this would entertain anyone perhaps if the film had been structured where kelley perhaps felt some remorse after he caused the destruction of property and nearly killed dozens of people but even after he's destroyed these people's lives he continues to be a snob to them and ruins one more for good measure here on earth is available on dvd from fox home entertainment it contains the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of and is enhanced for televisions extras include jessica simpson's music video for where you are a commercial for the film's soundtrack which by the way is the only good thing about the film the original theatrical trailer and five tv spots trailers for other fox releases anna and the king anywhere but here the beach drive me crazy ever after romeo juliet simply irresistible as well as that new fox promo touting their upcoming dvd releases that i really enjoy the picture and sound quality on the disc are fine nothing that will challenge anyone's systems of course fans of this movie if any exist should enjoy the dvd release here on earth is not entertaining nor is it compelling no joy or entertainment value can be derived from any of the events of the film it is merely a waste of time money and talent
negative	some movies' buzz is so insistent on their high oscar potential that when they're finally released everyone just goes along with it thus sometimes films unworthy of any award sans the razzie become oscar hopefuls and some even score nominations last year it was the thin red line this year's winner is the hurricane pure unadulterated tripe that is all of a sudden being received with critical plaudits and votes in the office oscar pool acclaimed director norman jewison's biopic retreads all the conventions of courtroom movies without any of the fun and that's supposed to be ok because see it's a true story it's about rubin hurricane carter denzel washington a legendary african american prizefighted who is unjustly convicted of triple homicide with the help of a ghastly racist detective dan hedaya who's had it in for the hurricane ever since he arrested him for stabbing a white man with a knife in but who cares right when rubin was only ten he is to serve three life sentences with no possibility of parole most of the film takes place when he is in his year in prison to the rescue lesra martin vicellous reon shannon and his team of detectives lesra is an african american teenager taken in by three canadian white people hanna unger schreiber to get an education lesra and his buddies go to a book sale where lesra picks out his very first book the sixteenth round rubin's autobiography immediately thereafter schreiber's character tells lesra sometimes we don't pick the books we read they pick us hmmm after a few visits to the prison they become convinced of rubin's innocence and launch their own investigation even though two juries have convicted him they meticulously go through all the files and revisit all the old witnesses i wonder if any of them might be cranky old women who slam the door in their faces and in the course of their relentlessy tedious sleuthing uncover obvious evidence confirming the hurricane's innocence that was either ignored or never seeked out during the first two proceedings of course we're already told that he's innocent a movie like this is especially frustrating because we're not being shown everything significant that happened to carter during this period in his life all too obviously we're getting the hollywood down version that would be ok except that the parts we are getting is milked for every single drop of melodrama that the filmmakers could possibly squeeze out of it it's almost cruel the melodrama isn't of the entertaining kind either it's the hokey variety where every emotion is exaggerated to the point of absurdity witness the villain ferociously grinding his teeth at the final trial or the constant of our four protagonists the hurricane is your basic courtroom movie except it's a courtroom movie it's formula stripped to the bare necessities you have your wrongly accused black man you have your melodramatic final courtroom scene but there's nothing else you'd expect some sort of involving investigation but that's not necessary since we're implicitly informed of his innocence thus the whole middle portion of the movie is reduced to the protagonist brooding brooding to himself brooding to other inmates brooding to lesra brooding to lesra's canadian friends brooding in letters i don't think i'll ever look at brooding the same way again it wasn't long before i got tired of hearing the hurricane's exceedingly deep meditations on his condition i wanted something to happen as for washington's performance in the title role i figured i'd have to address it sooner or later considering the amount of attention it's received he is top notch though still boring how is that possible well he does what jewison wanted him to do perfectly unfortunately what jewison asked him to do is a load of crap what a waste of a great performer speaking of wastes why the hell did john hannah agree to do this he's an extremely talented actor and i love him dearly but what is he doing here to call his character along with schreiber's and unger's a stick figure would be a gross understatement all three of them come off as veritable mother theresas as benevolent as come if they're to play a major part in this movie why not make them real people with real feelings and emotions look if you're going to make a formula movie don't undermine the formula courtroom dramas can be fun but this is ridiculous not only is it trite it's boring
negative	all feature film directors who cut their teeth on music videos please raise your hands thank you for identifying yourselves now would you all please go away your influence has to rank as one of the most annoying trends in filmmaking in the last decade and it shows no sign of abating any time soon it isn't just the strobe light quality of your editing or the numbing of popular music artists on the soundtracks which makes me suspicious of any film advertised featuring the music of no it is a kind of cynicism you have perfected banking on the idea that no one will care about the lack of a story if you include enough bells and whistles welcome to the club scott kalvert your adaptation of the basketball diaries is loud and serving only as the vehicle for a performance by leonardo dicaprio that is better in pieces than it is as a whole dicaprio stars as jim carroll the new york performer on whose autobiographical writings the film is based as the film opens jim is a budding high school basketball star given to petty thievery and getting drunk with buddies mickey mark wahlberg pedro james madio and neutron patrick mcgaw one night jim graduates from inhalants to cocaine and shortly thereafter to heroin jim's addiction to the drug starts him on a downhill spiral as he is kicked off the basketball team by his coach bruno kirby kicked out of his home by his mother lorraine bracco and drops out of school along with mickey and pedro jim becomes a victim of the street living from fix to fix and sinking lower and lower the basketball diaries has been bouncing around as a project for years but the sticking point has always been that jim carroll as a character was too unsympathetic and too much a loner screenwriter bryan goluboff created the three characters who act as carroll's posse resulting in a jim carroll who is just as unsympathetic but now with equally unsympathetic friends as a film the basketball diaries may be intended primarily as a cautionary tale a minute long just say no public service announcement but as drama it is monumentally ineffective because it is impossible to care much about anyone in the movie jim is sort of a jerk even before he becomes a junkie but i suppose that his poetry and his devotion to his terminally ill friend are intended to balance that out perhaps we are expected to see jim as one of those good kids who falls in with the wrong crowd that every parent believes his or her troubled child to be i saw him simply as part of the bad crowd without a character who changes in any appreciable way the basketball diaries rapidly degenerates into a collection of crimes committed by jim and his cohorts all choreographed to an oppressively loud soundtrack director scott kalvert doesn't have many scenes with intrinsic dramatic impact with which to work so he substitutes silly photography funky camera angles and choppy editing on only one occasion when a steady pan around a room where jim is trying to detox makes it appear that the walls are closing in are any of the gimmicks effective mostly they just draw attention to how hollow the story is they also don't allow leonardo dicaprio's performance to be as strong as it could have been for every impressive moment like his desperate attempt to get his mother to give him money there is a scene where kalvert pulls too much of the focus to his own camera theatrics dicaprio is most effective when he is playing off other actors particularly a fine sequence featuring ernie hudson as an who tries to help jim straighten out but kalvert won't let character interaction define this story he wants to turn dicaprio into a rock star shooting him in dramatic fashion but denying him the opportunity to do much acting at isolate moments the basketball diaries is a fine showcase for dicaprio's talents far more frequently it looks like kalvert is trying to imagine what a long form velvet underground video might have looked like
negative	depending on your degree of cinematic acumen last man standing is either a a remake of akira kurosawa's classic yojimbo b a remake of sergio leone's classic a fistful of dollars c a action drama with a completely original new line is certainly counting on the fact that there are far more potential viewers in category c than in the other two combined much as the recent remakes of diabolique and the vanishing counted on avoiding such comparisons the fact is that there is yet another way of looking at last man standing which is as the first film version of the story which nods to the source material the dashiell hammett novel it also shows that kurosawa and leone knew better what to do with that material than hammett himself this time around the man with no name is played by bruce willis a fellow with a shady history of an undefined nature who rolls into the texas border town of jericho one day on his way to mexico by all appearances jericho is well on its way to becoming a ghost town with the few remaining inhabitants generally belonging to one of two bootlegging operations fighting for control of liquor coming over the border one is headed by an irishman named doyle david patrick kelly the other is run by italian mobster strozzi ned eisenberg calling himself john smith the man decides that there is money to be made from the conflict and hires himself out as an enforcer to doyle's side but smith's allegiance is as uncertain as his name and he begins to play the two sides against each other while trying to stay one step ahead of both of them viewers familiar with both previous incarnations of this story will find virtually nothing radically changed from a plotting standpoint and that alone should make last man standing somewhat more respectable than other recent hollywood there is the happily ineffectual lawman bruce dern the unhappily detained object of one of the bosses' affections karina lombard the barkeep who becomes our only friend william sanderson suspicious lieutenants christopher walken and michael imperioli to question the bosses' trust in smith a brutal beating and a big fire director walter hill gives the proceedings his usual injection of steroids including a pair of guns for willis which have the ability to propel an assailant backward with sufficient thrust to achieve escape velocity but at least he doesn't try to turn the story into a slasher film or a buddy picture what he do is nearly as big a mistake and that is to provide a running narration by willis which rings of the standard style of pulp detective fiction yes that narration is full of cliches but those are are not particularly troubling the problem is that both yojimbo and a fistful of dollars succeeded largely on the inscrutability of their lead characters they were a mystery to the other characters in the film and to the audience their motives never entirely clear even after they have acted and that quality contributed to their almost mythical status with john smith's voice chattering on in the background and allowing us into his every thought he becomes more mundane just another tough guy trying to stay alive it feels like a hammett novel all right and hill can plead faithfulness to his text for his choice but it simply doesn't work the narration allows the man with no name to take us into his confidence and the man with no name takes into his confidence even if you walk into last man standing as a blank slate i can't imagine it being much more than a heavily armed minor distraction willis tones down his macho swagger as the taciturn smith but there is still a level on which he always seems like he is counting on being tougher than everyone else rather than smarter than everyone else christopher walken plays doyle's brutal henchman as a slight variation on his gallery of psychos and there isn't another single character whom makes even the slightest impression with no compelling antagonist for smith there is no towards the expected showdown and when it does come that showdown is over so quickly you wonder what all the fuss was about cinematographer lloyd ahern who also did the only noteworthy work on hill's flop wild bill creates some nifty sunburned vistas but his work is only to keep the eye distracted between the spurts of gunfire and the next bit of narration sometimes when someone sees a lackluster remake of a revered original they'll wonder what all the talk was about in the case of last man standing it is those who know the originals who will wonder what all that talking was about
negative	okay bear with me y'all cause first off i have to get this off my chest what the hell is up with that damn crab whew okay cause that same clip shown over and over again was beginning to get on my nerves towards the end as cute as the crab maybe even i know that you need more footage than that and that wasn't the only thing getting on my nerves the cutesy gimmicks saccharine sweet score soundtrack and the pretty young faces of sarah michelle gellar as amanda and sean patrick flannery as tom might have held some appeal during oh say the first minutes of the movie at first the movie moves along at a quick interesting pace it is speedily established that something magical is about to happen to amanda when she encounters a totally random fairy godfather type person on the street whose aforementioned crab follows her everywhere and just doesn't die a ridiculous concept yes but at this point i'm willing to accept it because i'm willing to accept that this is how amanda's life is changed how her powers are received later on the movie can't seem to decide whether these powers come from this fairy godfather or from amanda falling in with tom and this is why the clips of the crab were annoying they weren't just repetitive they were out of place and unnecessary the plot stumbles along at an uneven speed sometimes dwelling too long on a particular development amanda suddenly becoming a great chef her falling in love with tom etc sometimes moving on too quickly for its own good some places the plot just doesn't make sense sometimes it's way too contrived the crab bit for example and sometimes too corny peaches emitting dry ice can't beat that all in all the plot seemed fragmented unconnected not romantic at all and only funny in some places so okay do the magic powers come from the crab or the fairy godfather she can float now too and all of a sudden instead of just making dry ice come out of peaches she can put her emotions into her food tom all of a sudden just accepts amanda's witchcraft in the end would people really dine in a restaurant that resembles life after death in tupac's video what the hell is up with that damn crab it is unfortunate because i liked the basic premise of the movie until it became too fantastical and tiresome the film seemed to skirt around a serious theme or at least a theme for a while but towards the end it resolved to show us long flashback clips and minutes of people crying at their tables the humor was good in some places nolan gets the funniest bits including that incomprehensible totally random thing with the dolls gellar and flannery are qualified actors and gellar has a particular charm but i much prefer her playing the saucy buffy or even annette in the upcoming cruel intentions than this sorry excuse for a character it's almost funny sometimes to see these two trying so hard to make the dialogue sound better than it is or trying to make the relationship seem more plausible the supporting character nolan was a highlight though he reminded me a bit of kevin in you've got mail see footnotes and as always typical of a chick flick romantic comedy there's a seemingly endless romantic soundtrack in the background cued up at all the right places this sort of got on the nerves after a while too simply irresistible is not hard to understand light funny in some places and generally disappointing because it can't draw the line between romance and protracted sap between humor and tired slapstick and how could i refrain from making a pun    simply irresistible is all too easy to resist first viewing did anyone else think this was a tad bit similar to you've got mail or the shop around the corner business rivals fall in love female counterpart's business is in danger of being shut down female as like figure guiding her the annoying hysterical i like sarah michelle gellar's wardrobe
negative	i went to blair witch project book of shadows with the highest of hopes the original film released last summer was genuinely scary and terrifying i hoped that this movie would live up to its predecessor unfortunately my hopes were soon dashed as the movie opens the audience is shown clips of burkittsville maryland residents being interviewed about the sudden tourist influx to their town as a result of the original blair witch project movie it's a mostly humorous poke at the media hype and hysteria surrounding the first film during this segment we are introduced to the protagonist a young man who sells blair memorabilia from his website the movie then cuts to a title that informs us that what we are about to see occurred one year previously we see the same young man that was selling blair witch paraphernalia but now he is confined in a mental institution the sort of which one only finds in bad horror movies we see him having some sort of disgusting white goo unconvincingly forced down his nose while a doctor luridly leers above him we see him throwing himself wildly around a padded room we see him cowering naked in a shower stall as a fire hose is turned on him no explanation is provided for why he is in the mental institution in fact these scenes are barely referred to again i had a sinking feeling during these opening scenes generally a hospital scene that is set with poor lighting filthy interiors and evil doctors is a sure sign that you are in the throes of a truly horrible movie the movie cuts again this time to the present the young man whose name is jeffrey played by jeffrey donovan as in the first movie the character names are identical to the actors' names although this movie admits up front that it is fictional so there's no reason for the practice this time around is rounding up a group of people that he will be leading into the woods that weekend for the blair witch hunt which is a promotional gimmick he came up with and sells on his website we meet tristen and steven a young couple who are writing a book about the blair witch experience steven is a skeptic believing the whole thing to be the result of mass hysteria tristen on the other hand believes that there may be some truth to the rumors of supernatural occurrence she is wan and she complains that the radio is playing too loudly she also complains that she feels nauseated i knew immediately that the character was pregnant and my intuition was confirmed a few scenes later when kim psychomagically susses it out how did i know because in bad movies nauseated women are always pregnant the fourth member of their party is erica a wiccan with flowing hair and wide eyes who wants to prove that the blair witch was a good witch not evil they pick up the fifth and final team member in a cemetery kim is dressed completely in black has extreme makeup on and occasionally displays seemingly psychic abilities but otherwise seems to be the most intelligent and reasonable person out of the entire bunch presumably she wanted to be picked up in the cemetery just for dramatic effect it's never explained the party of five heads off into the woods as promised they reach the crumbling ruins of the foundation of rustin parr's house and set up camp complete with extensive video equipment with which to record the night's events there is a brief encounter with a rival blair witch tour group who had planned to camp at that site as well but after a few words are exchanged the rival group huffs off and makes camp elsewhere the movie veers off at this point to spend many long long minutes showing the drinking party that ensues after the sun goes down sexual innuendoes are tossed around much hard liquor beer and pot is consumed and nothing much else happens this would be a great point to get up and go to the bathroom if necessary the next day the team wakes up and discovers that their camera equipment has been completely trashed and that steven and tristen's manuscript paper is fluttering down from the sky in shreds like snow the videotapes are missing but thanks to a psychic intuition from kim they discover the videotapes buried underneath the foundation of the house right where the original blair witch tapes were found ooh spooky the team goes back to jeffrey's house a creepy old civil warehouse in the heart of the woods to regroup and review the tapes they soon discover that the tapes mysteriously skip five hours of the night wacky hijinks ensue tristen starts having weird dreams in which she is the blair witch everybody starts finding these weird burn marks on their bodies steven and erica have some highly disturbing mutual hallucinations and everything pretty much goes to hell in a handbasket throughout the entire ordeal jeffrey and the others continue to scrutinize the videotapes which seem to have some kind of weird images on them at about the point that the time jumps eventually tristen wanders in mutters something about reverse and from this they somehow realize that they have to play the tapes backwards when they do this they discover what really happened during the five lost hours one of the things they see on the videotape is footage of themselves burying the videotapes okay if the videotapes were being buried then how were they recording themselves oh nevermind this movie was awful simply awful the characters are caricatures that are never allowed any depth or development erica is the wiccan tristen is the weak and sympathetic woman steven is the overbearing asshole kim is the antisocial goth girl old tired cliches were used to illustrate these caricatures how do we know tristen is weak and sympathetic because she's pregnant how do we know kim is an antisocial goth girl because she wears a lot of eye makeup how do we know the local sheriff is a bad guy because he has jagged teeth and talks like he's straight out of deliverance this is weak storytelling at its worst rather than taking the time to flesh out the characters and make them truly sympathetic the writer chose to give each one a few stereotypical characteristics in an attempt to use some cinematic shorthand and thereby skip straight to the action it didn't work on top of being poorly developed most of the characters were either seriously unlikable or patently stupid honey you just had a miscarriage out in the woods and got medical attention at a hospital that looks like it belongs in a bad slasher movie let's get on a plane home no i am having these bizarre nightmares and seeing strange visions and i want to find out what's going on ok frankly by the end of the movie i was rooting for the witch i also felt that there was simply too much blood gore in this film the first movie worked by never showing us the horror the witch was a palpable presence in that movie but we never saw it we never saw anything in fact the horror was all and thus our imaginations worked overtime to envision what it might possibly be this is the hallmark of a truly creepy and disturbing horror movie blair witch dispensed with such niceties and went straight for the this was evident from the opening scenes of the mad doctors forcing white goo down jeffrey's throat and continued throughout the film as the audience is treated to occasional confusing and disorienting footage of what appears to be a ritual massacre of some sort knives plunge into flesh bloody fingers trail off into the darkness and none of it is explained until the very end when it was too late for me to care this movie didn't stop with showing us the gore either it went for broke and showed us everything by the end of the movie there are no questions remaining about the missing five hours it is all explained in fact it is all shown in loving detail i confess to being someone who prefers horror movies in which you never see the monster or see only brief glimpses mere suggestions of what the monster is it is not because i find the monster so terrifying but because i find the absence of the monster to be infinitely more terrifying i have seen interviews with the director in which he suggested that there is no monster that all of the evil was perpetrated only by the human mind i found this to be a miserably poor explanation if it was in fact the director's intent then he needs to have some words with the writer because it was not made clear at all i know a lot of people who like to go to parties and get drunk and stoned out of their minds none of them has ever gone on a murderous rampage and then experienced mass hallucinations with a group of other people for the next week or so and if there was no witch then what about the vanishing tree the snowfall of manuscript paper hm blair witch book of shadows was a horrible movie from the characters to the implausible story to the plot inconsistencies to the shots it was a bad effort through and through
negative	i'm giving this stinker normally the worst that i would ever rate a movie would be but the total waste of time that is blazing saddles is compounded by the fact that this movie is incredibly offensive helped me come to the big goose egg i'm not sure what the hell mel brooks was thinking when he made this thing or if he was even thinking at all maybe in mel's little mind a horse being knocked unconscious because of a punch to the face is funny in mine it's not or maybe mel graduated from the spike lee school of filmmaking because only the lee uses the more often in his films than brooks did in this one at least lee has the smarts to realize that nobody is going to find that term amusing brooks bandies it about like he figures the audience will be rolling in the aisles every time they hear it wrong mel i would call you a boob mel but that insults breasts everywhere this idiotic attempt at a comedy centers on the evil lieutenant governor's harvey korman attempts to clear out a town so he can buy up the land cheap and sell it to the railroad he sends his goons to run the townsfolk out but the town appeals to the governor mel brooks in one of many uninspired and unfunny roles to send them a new sheriff to protect them the governor pawns the task off to korman's character hedley lamarr i can tell you are rolling off your chairs right now just thinking of all the humor in that name lamarr decides to send the town a black sheriff gasp in the hopes that the town will be so disgusted at the prospect of a black man living among them that they will all just leave hold on i've got to stop while these gales of laughter pass it's just too funny racism passing as humor gosh why didn't anybody ever think of that one before oh wait i think somebody might have they are called the kkk i'm not calling brooks a racist but i am calling him an insensitive bastard who wouldn't know what was funny if it hit him over the head but i digress anyway the black sheriff rides into town amid a flurry of townsfolk using the golly will the hilarity just never end he ends up joining forces with a drunk gene wilder who happens to be the former fastest gun in the west together they save the day from evil not one person in this movie gives a decent performance wilder looks like he is recovering from a head injury for most of the movie and korman looks embarrassed to be a part of the movie ok he really didn't but he should have the films star cleavon little goes along with the black jokes as if they were discussing the time of day i did not laugh once during this whole sorry experience i admit to starting to snicker on a couple of occasions actually the end started to look as if it was going to have some promise but alas it ended up being as crappy as the rest of the movie i can say with full confidence that blazing saddles has no redeeming qualities whatsoever mel brooks would be doing the world a favor if he burned every last copy of this film
negative	days in the valley is more or less a pulp fiction knock off it basically involves how a bunch of quirky characters in the los angeles area end up having their lives become intertwined in some very unusual ways i'm not going into much greater detail than that since it would take forever to explain and quite frankly i'm not willing to spend any more time on it than the hours that i've already wasted while it tries very hard to be pulp fiction days in the valley falls way short this is quite a condemnation considering the cast includes danny aiello james spader and jeff daniels while the story isn't much and the dialogue and characters rate only marginally better days in the valley does have a couple of bright spots james spader's character while not much better than the rest is at least fun to watch in a sick sort of way and we do get to see a nice cat fight between uber babes teri hatcher and charlize theron in her first role you know a movie isn't that good when the highlight is a brawl between two women even if they are both gorgeous i will give the writers some credit for the fairly clever ways in which they managed to intersect the lives of this group of characters that would have otherwise never interacted but marveling at that ingenuity is a far cry from actually enjoying the result while some of the characters and their respective stories are fairly interesting they inevitably are brought down as they intersect with the other half of the characters that i really cared absolutely nothing about if i were to put a number on it only about half of the story and half the characters in this movie were particularly interesting or otherwise enjoyable to watch this is the sort of movie that only a huge fan of one or more of the cast members should rent and even then prepare for disappointment not even charlize theron being naked would get me to sit through this movie again or at least not all of it anyway
negative	what would inspire someone who cannot write or act to pen and star in a movie a better question what would inspire a studio to produce said movie if you have an answer let me know foolish the new movie written by and starring master p is a horrible film one with no redeeming value socially cinematically or otherwise comedically it has some potential but only in its comedy moments which i can turn on comedy central for master p stars as fifty dollah' beat that as a mobster i think who is trying to start a comedy with his little brother foolish eddie griffin but the two of them have to deal with an angry mob boss played by andrew dice clay for the very first time entertaining a stubborn club owner and family problems the latter in foolish is a perfect example of roger ebert's idiot plot if everyone here wasn't an idiot there would be no problem so what does foolish have to offer beside a bunch of idiotic character names not a hell of a lot as i have mentioned master p cannot act or write he acts like the rapper that he is the occasional despair that his script requires him to exhibit is excruciatingly forced as are his warm and fuzzy scenes with his little bro as for his script well i suppose he delivers what one would expect from a musical artist with no previous screenwriting experience if you haven't yet figured it out that is not saying much eddie griffin really the star of the show is quite a different story the fact of the matter is that griffin whose most significant screen outing to date is probably the mildly successful tv show malcolm and eddie on the fledgling upn network is an extremely talented comedian and otherwise he has much in common with chris tucker rush hour money talks in how quickly and effortlessly his speech flows from his lips he spouts profanity with impressive dexterity to the extent which that can be done and while i hope that does not become his trademark it works in a few scenes in this movie and indeed i laughed at a few scenes here but from a movie i expect more foolish provided me with no reason to care for these characters every scene which has any potential for dramatic impact is effectively diffused by either a stupid joke in a scene where tension escalates between the two brothers foolish blurts out towards his sibling you lay one hand on me and this cemetary is going to be a gold rush or something even more idiotic such as foolish smashing his own car to which i said a bit too loudly for the occasion huh after getting slightly upset with his wife believe me when i say that there is nothing in foolish that warrants parting with your you'll get more laughs from watching minutes of comedy central or any virtually any sitcom if you don't have cable eddie griffin fans may enjoy this derivative although offensive yarn but everyone else should stay the hell away 
negative	synopsis a novelist struggling with his latest work buys a weird brain with a protruding eyeball encased in a jar the brain exerts its evil influence upon the novelist and his secretary while his wife disapproves meanwhile a loan shark in need of a shave tries to leave his profession comments why is this movie called possessed by the night it's hard to speculate most of this film takes place during the day and the only thing possessing anyone is an icky pulsating bubbling brain thingie in a jar in case you haven't picked up on this yet possessed by the night is a thriller i use the term thriller loosely here which is really cheap and bad the plot which sounds like a cheesy pulp science fiction story from the actually serves one purpose to exploit nude women as often as possible writing a movie review for a film like this proves oddly challenging there's really not much to say the acting is lousy although occasionally the attempts at acting are so absurd that they garner a chuckle or two from the audience most humorous is frank sivero who plays murray the novelist's agent he is so horrible in this role that one can't help but be amused the plot sucks nearly half the film is devoted to a loser loan shark who wants out of the profession even though he has only limited relevance to the movie as a whole the dialogue stinks a loan shark for instance tells another how much he loves bimbos which is something the audience really doesn't need to know everything about possessed by the night is second rate even the film credits as the names of the film crew scrolled by at the end joseph scales came up credited as being assistsant to foley artist someone could have used an editor to be honest the film is basically an excuse to flash frontal nudity and show some sex scenes playboy playmate shannon tweed after all is the star here i suppose that if one wanted this sort of thing he would like this movie why did i give this turkey two stars and not one as a bad movie it is unintentionally funny enough to keep someone passingly interested in the film if you feel possessed to see possessed by the night however i'd recommend you exorcise this impulse and watch something else
negative	okay okay maybe i wasn't in the mood to watch a mindless action movie i am the same person that liked lethal weapon iii even while admitting that it wasn't as good as the others howewer the latest segal picture didn't look that bad and since none of my friends would go see a woody allen movie even if i paid them i went to see it expecting a mild die hard rehash boy was i wrong in the first half of the movie we are already assaulted with segal's acting he is not simply wooden he is like a wall gratuitous violence an incredible plot sexist and even more gratuitous nudity and bad lines that obviously were meant as jokes by the end it is obvious that hundreds of navy men are no match for thirty armed special forces soldiers not once in the movie did segal appear worried or undecided which did not do much for increasing the unexistent suspense of course in movies like these there must be a sidekick and a love interest in these one we are given a two for one package in the form of a playboy model in the movie which only functions as a supposed comic relief by the way of extremely stupid unfunny lines and to have watering eyes and look away every time something bad happens in the movie oh of course she appears naked from the waist up and of course segal kisses her at the end after no development of their relationship they did not even seem to be interested in each other i have never seen so little chemistry between two people in a movie often the villain saves the movie unfortunately the villains here are cartoonish stupid and unfunny unmenacing how many movies have psycho forces bad guys too many i was able to predict the action all throughout the movie including the moment where the sidekick saves the hero from certain death the scene where the bad guy can kill the hero but proceeds to explain his plan to him the scene where we are shown the hero's superiors are stupid the scene where the bad guy loses his gun and has to fight the hero hand to hand etc simply said this is by the numbers boring and potentially offensive in going for the lowest common denominator of the audience my recommendation if you go see it bring a watch you'll be looking at it for most of the movie my rent die hard read a book stare at the sky do not waste your time on this worthless piece of celluloid the real sad thing is that there are a lot of movies out that i would rather have seen once again dragged in by my friends which by the way liked the movie halfheartedly they probably like wrestling too
negative	in life eddie murphy and martin lawrence play two young men wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison after about an hour of watching this movie you begin to realize how their characters feel fortunately for audience members there's a chance to escape the nearest exit this undoubtedly is eddie murphy's worst movie and that's an accomplishment remember the golden child harlem nights compared to life they look like citizen kane life is long predictable and only intermittently funny its running time feels like years robert ramsey and matthew stone's script basically consist of murphy and lawrence referring to everyone around them as motherf s or n s you lose count how many times both those obnoxious offensive words are used and if that all it takes to write a script than any illiterate jackass can sit at a word processor and compose a movie but like life it will probably stink to be honest the screening audience surrounding me in the theater yucked it up but these were the same people who howled at all the flatulence and fat jokes as well life is as sophisticated as a belch it's crude and stereotypical years ago movies stereotypically portrayed blacks subservient people good for being only maids and servants for the most part the lot of blacks and other racial groups have improved but a new more insidious stereotype is creeping into movies in many recent films through actors such as murphy and chris tuckers blacks are presented as conniving scam artists or youths both sets of caricatures are demeaning and the fault does not rest with the actors they have to eat too it is with the people who write the scripts the studios who the projects and the audiences who accept these portrayals without protest life's only redeeming virtue is the artistry of makeup legend rick baker who flawlessly ages murphy and lawrence into year olds otherwise life is an embarrassment a blot on the resumes of those associated with it see it at your own risk
negative	there may not be a critic alive who harbors as much affection for shlock monster movies as i do i delighted in the entertainment of ron underwood's yarn tremors i even giggled at last year's yarn anaconda something about these films causes me to lower my inhibitions and return to the saturday afternoons of my youth spent in the company of ghidrah the creature from the black lagoon and the blob deep rising a yarn doesn't quite pass the test sure enough all the modern monster movie ingredients are in place a conspicuously collection of bait excuse me characters an isolated location here a derelict cruise ship in the south china sea some comic relief a few and at least one big explosion there are elements like a sleazy shipping magnate anthony heald who also appears to have a doctorate in marine biology or a slinky international jewel thief famke janssen whose white cotton tank top hides a heart of gold as it happens deep rising is noteworthy primarily for the mechanical manner in which it spits out all those ingredients a terrorist crew led by mercenary hanover wes studi and piloted by boat captain finnegan treat williams shows up to loot the cruise ship the sea monsters show up to eat the mercenary crew a few survivors make it to the closing credits and up go the lights it's hard to work up much enthusiasm for this sort of joyless especially when a monster moview should make you laugh every time it makes you scream here the laughs are provided almost entirely by kevin j o'connor generally amusing as the crew's mechanic stephen sommers seems most concerned with creating a tone of menace something with skeletons something where the gunfire and special effects are taken a bit too seriously deep rising is missing that one unmistakable cue that we're expected to have a ridiculous good time not hide our eyes case it point comparing deep rising to its recent cousin anaconda in deep rising one of the creature's victims is regurgitated back into view partially digested and still alive he shrieks in horror at his freakish appearance and pain in a moment a bit too disturbing to be laughable in anaconda we also see a regurgitated victim partially digested and still alive he looks at another character and winks make no mistake deep rising has anaconda beat all to heck when it comes to technical proficiency and pacing it's also gloomy uninspired and not nearly enough fun i don't ask much of my monster movies but i do ask that they act like monster movies you don't have to show me a fantastically impressive massive beast with tentacles just show me the massive beast burping and i'll figure you get the point
negative	renee zellweger stars as sonia a young jewish wife and mother frustrated by the constraints of her hasidic community in brooklyn her husband glenn fitzgerald is a religious scholar whose attitude on sex fails to tame the fire she feels within as so she confesses to the rebbe after hearing her fiery confession the rebbe suddenly gets frisky with his pleasantly surprised dies the next morning sensing her frustration her husband's brother christopher eccleston gives her a job in his jewelry brokering business in exchange for raw passionless sex that just fans sonia's flame on the job sonia befriends ramon allen payne a cool blast of hunky puerto rican water who does his own jewelry designs when not working as a grunt in an upscale jewelry store can be far be that far behind for the sonia just about everything in boaz yakin's rings false starting with the improbably cast zellweger who does an adequate enough acting job but simply looks too waspy for the role a better fit would have been julianna margulies who outshines zellweger as sonia's some of sonia's baby steps toward liberation such as indulging in a egg roll in chinatown come off as silly yakin attempts to spice up the proceedings with a touch of magical the form of the recurring presence of sonia's brother's the story feel even more trite than it already is i didn't know what to expect it's like something you chase for so long but then you don't know how to react when you get it i still don't know how to react jordan on winning his first nba championship in or my thoughts after meeting him on november
negative	there're so many things to criticize about i don't know where to start recommendation turn off your brain don't be like me decreasing the rating everyday because i think about it too much a comet is about to strike earth causing a catastrophe similar to the extinction level event e l e that wiped out the dinosaurs what follows is the story of a president's bid to think for the good of his people a rising reporter the love story of two teenagers one of whom discovered the comet and a team of astronauts on the ship to save the world firstly there is nothing outstandingly inferior about the making of the film nor is there anything outstandingly good about it but the plot holes make the film corny and stupid to be honest i was more moved by the trailer than the film itself which isn't saying much mimi leder's to peacemaker' is equally incompetent with all the big stars wasted perhaps i'm just annoyed that the release of peacemaker' in the us overshadowed a far superior thriller assignment' it is very obvious that the title not only represents the big boom that will result from the collision but also connotes the heavy impact on human lives however the film simply fails on that note the effects are the substandard screenplay limited the acting and the director continued her sad run in terms of credentials she's still making good money though t a leoni's unfortunate character the news reporter is the foundation of the story and of the cast but the film suffers from too many characters that do not need to be explored robert duvall's aging astronaut is lifeless and morgan freeman's president is restricted to well a righteous president which means he's not interesting at all leoni's character is the only appealing one and is played with reasonable conviction but a rather peculiar showing when reporting for msnbc but was definitely undervalued by the director and screenwriters warning spoilers included but a lot of it is irrelevant and predictable anyway plot holes plot holes plot holes now e l e is threatening to exterminate more than of the human race and they send eight puny little nuclear bombs up there where's the logic leder could have at least made it plausible with and then it turns out that only a few percent of the world population actually perish and those less selfish ones the ones that stayed at home were the victims the film was almost mocking them telling them they had died for nothing i also fail to see how two teenagers carrying a baby would be the first to climb up the even with a motorbike for a it's unlikely that the dust will take just two years to settle but that doesn't really matter building caves was a strategy mentioned in strangelove' which proposed that people lived underground for one hundred or so years now that is a more practical use for caves what is the point of living in caves there is no unlike strangelove' any radioactivity outside to restrict exposure how do plants grow if humans have the technology to keep plants alive in caves there's no reason why they can't do it in the open the president disclosed that other countries have been preparing their own caves obviously this means that the other countries were informed a long time ago and you can't be serious to say that nobody leaked the news to the media in an important mission like that of the for that matter any mission it is impossible that isn't sufficient fuel for an extra couple of hundred metres needless to say tens of kilometres this is not deep impact it's a frivolous cheap impact but even with all that some overacting and a rating it's still watchable just don't think about it okay
negative	don't let this movie fool you into believing the romantic noirs of william shakespeare no one will truly understand the heart and soul of this man except through his work and this movie makes a vain attempt at that any moves to glamorise' his life which hollywood has an annoying tendency to do will only subtract from his achievement rather than expound on his greatness this movie about his life although well written puts too much on a man whose life was probably more pork and potatoes rather than lobster and champagne oh well let's fantasise onwards an assume that he was a bit of a flirtatious who falls in love with a beautiful woman gwyneth paltrow and from her inspiration several plays develop romeo and juliet' and the twelfth night' it is easier for me to believe that he had a wet dream and that's how all his plays develop but please spare me all of this unnecessary melodrama but i guess my version probably wouldn't draw a crowd or make a dollar on screen so is there any justification in romanticising the man shakespeare when all we need to do is read his work in order to find his soul i think not as for the oscars were they deserved by this movie i think not in many aspects private ryan' and life is beautiful' were far superior movies but one should never assume that this should be a criteria for winning an oscar as time and again for reasons unexplained an undeserving movie will win the accolade another sore point is the fact that gwyneth won the best female lead over a more polished cate but i guess if you go on enough about your grandfather dying and your nephew being hospitalised people will start feeling sorry for you
negative	it's a good thing most animated movies come from japan because titan a e is proof that hollywood doesn't have a clue how to do it i don't know what this film is supposed to be about from what i can tell it's about a young man named kale who's one of the last survivors of earth in the early century who unknowingly possesses the key to saving and what is left of the human race that's a fine premise for an animated movie but there's no payoff the story takes the main characters all over the galaxy in their search for a legendary ship that the evil dredge aliens want to destroy for no apparent reason so in the process we get a lot of spaceship fights fistfights blaster fights and more than you can shake a stick at there's so much pointless banter it's too much to take the galaxy here is a total of the star wars universe the creators don't bother filling in the basic details which makes the story confusing the characters unmotivated and superficial and the plot just plain boring despite the fantastic animation and special effects it's just not an interesting movie
negative	in the year captain leo davidson mark wahlberg boogie nights is training chimp pericles to pilot a pod from the usaf oberon space station when an electromagnetic storm is encountered and pericles' pod is lost davidson sets out unauthorized and lands thousands of years in the future on the planet of the apes maybe if century fox had set the proverbial chimps in front of typewriters they would have gotten a better results than this adaptation of the pierre boulle novel by william broyles jr cast away and lawrence konner mark d rosenthal mighty joe young director tim burton's unique look and style are nowhere to be found in this silly pointless remake davidson no sooner lands than he finds himself being swarmed by savages running in terror whom he wisely joins however he's rounded up with the lot of them by the apes which rule this plant and handed over to slave trader limbo paul giamatti duets ari helena bonham carter fight club daughter of the illustrious senator sandar david warner titanic and simian bleeding heart believes humans should live with apes on equal standing an unpopular notion she takes a liking to leo who she deems general thade tim roth lucky numbers is of the opposite opinion wishing for declaration of martial law that will allow him to annihilate the race he's sweet on ari it's relatively easy to see where this story is going from the onset yet its ultimate revelation has gaping logic holes the much ballyhooed ending is a nonsensical let down an attempt at a love triangle conveyed by ari and the human daena estella warren driven giving each other off' looks over leo fails because he never develops a relationship with either of them the lone sex scene is some hilarious foreplay between elder orangutan senator nado glenn shadix and his trophy wife nova burton's squeeze lisa marie guffaws will also likely greet charlton heston's cameo as thade's father the one ape harboring a firearm who sputters some very familiar lines before dying the only real success of the planet of the apes is rick baker's makeup and even that's an iffy affair no attempt was made to change the human whiteness of the actors' eyes a real distraction amidst some otherwise impressive work roth warner and michael clarke duncan as thade's right hand man attar are given the most impressive makeovers giamatti looks more like a skull than an ape and the female apes are too humanized to be given sexual appeal tim roth delivers the most impressive acting job by getting the body language right his nasty chimpanzee character leaps about most spectacularly when mounting his steed but even's he's undone by some obvious wire work bonham carter delivers a goodly range of emotion from behind a stiff prosthetic but is undone in turn by the silliness of the writing most of the film has a set bound look which no amount of mist can cover the ape's city resembles a dank complex of tree houses the apes' military costumes colleen atwood sleepy hollow as well as their field tents are reminiscent of eiko ishioka's work on coppola's dracula that oriental flavor is also found in danny elfman's tribal percussive score planet of the apes was the last blockbuster hope for the summer of a dismal movie season that's going to the dogs
negative	writing a screenplay for a thriller is hard harder than pouring concrete under the texas sun harder than building a bridge over troubled waters and incidentally a whole heck of a lot harder than writing a movie review thrillers are all variations on a theme you have a smart resourceful and powerful bad guy who has a goal he has to meet you have a noble and brave good guy who has to protect the innocent kill the bad guy and not get killed himself in the process the trick of thriller writing is doing all of this in an interesting and novel manner this simple formula can lead to classic movies like north by northwest high noon or silence of the lambs or big summer blockbusters like men in black the fugitive or air force one or it can lead to utter dreck like masterminds event horizon kull the conqueror is anyone else getting depressed here point is it's not enough to follow the formula you've got to throw in something extra something good and new and better than the last version something to surprise and move all of us people who buy the tickets and the popcorn and the happy meals this is a hard thing to do but it is absolutely necessary in every way without that something extra whether it's a great plot or a screenplay or great special effects or great locations or great casting or great performances or great big hungry dinosaurs the movie fails that's why the jackal with all its starpower with all its budget with all its hype gets a big fat f bruce willis is the bad guy the jackal a legendary killer for hire richard gere is the good guy a former ira assassin with a vendetta against the jackal the jackal is trying to kill someone gere is trying to stop him will gere be able to stop the assassination in time and kill the jackal i'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count there are no surprises awaiting the audience in the jackal no moment when you say to yourself i wonder what happens next the script for the jackal isn't ripped straight from today's headlines it's ripped off straight from an episode of millennium throughout the movie we learn what the jackal's plans are and how he intends to accomplish them no surprise the fun of a movie like this should come from richard gere figuring out what the jackal's plan is and developing a clever plan to foil the bad guy instead we get two count two scenes where gere is sitting in an fbi conference room somewhere and instantly divines the jackal's plan just as if he's frank black or more likely just as if he's been handed a copy of the script and we never get more than a superficial clue as to why gere has had this flash of insight it's like gere's character is psychic but neither he nor the fbi or the screenwriters seem to know it and just like in millennium the bad guy has an overwhelming need to go after the people the good guy cares about whether or not they are important to what he's trying to do or not what's more in the last half of the movie the jackal supposedly a professional terrorist who never makes a mistake comes down with a major case of the stupids as for the performances bruce willis manages to get through the whole movie without a wisecrack which is a major achievement but not enough reason to see the movie his disguises are good but not as good or as interesting as val kilmer's in the saint richard gere is made to talk the entire movie in an irish accent which detracts from his otherwise lifeless and dull performance sidney poitier is probably the most disappointing element in a overwhelmingly disappointing movie not that his performance is bad or anything it's not but it is sad that hollywood won't use this talented actor in any part other than an fbi agent shoot to kill sneakers writing a good plot and a good screenplay like i said is hard but it can be done it wasn't done here it is our job as consumers to reward good screenplays and to denounce bad and uninteresting ones do not go see this movie you'll only encourage the producers to make more just like it instead stay home and rent day of the jackal or in the line of fire or a fire safety video for crying out loud anything other than the jackal which lives up to its name by gnawing the dead bones of other better movies
negative	all right all right we get the point despite all similarities to the story speechless is not based on the romance between presidential campaign rivals james carville and mary matalin in fact the script was in development well before still the comparisons are inevitable until one realizes a critical difference no it's not that the speechless twosome are speech writers not campaign managers it's that carville and matalin's story is actually interesting speechless is a limp poorly structured romantic comedy speechless is set during a new mexico senatorial campaign where kevin vallick michael keaton and julia mann geena davis meet and get romantic one night when neither one can sleep what neither one realizes is that they are on opposite sides of the campaign kevin is a writer brought in to punch up the republican candidate's speeches while julia is the chief speech writer for the democratic candidate at first each one believes that the other has an ulterior motive for the relationship but eventually they let down their guard and become closer but there are plent of obstacles in the way including julia's fiance christopher reeve and a series of stunts which continue to prove that all's fair in love and politics the standard formula for a movie like speechless would have the two principles starting out as antagonists and realizing only at the end that they're crazy about each other screenwriter robert king completely subverts expectations by throwing kevin and julia into each other's arms in the first fifteen minutes then developing the antagonism it's a noble attempt to shake things up but unfortunately it just doesn't work part of the fun of watching sparring in a romantic comedy comes from recognizing the chemistry even before the characters do but in speechless they already know they're attracted to each other and we're left with waiting for the campaign to end so they'll admit that they love each other already there is such a feel to the constant bickering and making up that even king's sharp dialogue can't prevent speechless from becoming repetitive after about half an hour inconsistency is also the defining characteristic of the performances of geena davis and michael keaton and with those performances most of their scenes together the problems begin with their initial courtship which does virtually nothing to establish julia's character and merely establishes that kevin is a davis is radiantly beautiful and keaton is generally entertaining but these characters are so plastic that nothing that happens to them seems to matter one bit in a couple of scenes like a quiet moment sitting at a fountain they actually achieve some measure of connection for the most part however they're just actors spouting lines you keep waiting for a little spark and it never happens perhaps most disappointing is that king and director ron underwood completely waste their premise by removing all the punch from speechless's politics the setting seems perfect for a energy battle of the sexes with partisanship thrown into the mix but that's never the tone that underwood is going for he wants a warm fuzzy romance compatible with marc shaiman's musical score and the campaign which should have defined the conflict between kevin and julia fades into the background it might as well have been a story about rival grocers and every single character is about as uninspired as he or she could possibly be i was about the only reviewer in the civilized world who seemed to enjoy robert king's previous screenplay the dana carvey flop clean slate so i had some hopes for speechless but while there is wit in the words this is a script which was probably much better on paper on screen it's still paper thin
negative	teenagers have a lot of power in hollywood every year countless films will be made targeting that audience in particular and rely on the entire teenage population to turn out on friday and saturday nights wallets in hand the formula is very simple you make a film with a big name young actor or actress with sex appeal you add a high school environment that features everyone from prom queens to math club nerds and then a very simple relationship conflict that can be worked out in minutes the typical teenage attention span the response is enormous as this part of the population will waste money on almost any film set in an environment they can relate to and most importantly they care to judge quality so any piece of trash will due that is just what never been kissed the latest film from director raja gosnell is trash josie geller drew barrymore is the youngest copy editor in the history of the chicago sun times she has her own personal assistant unlimited supplies and her own office but she is very much dismayed with her position in life there is nothing she wants more than to be a reporter and go out into the field where she can play a more active role in the chicago media so when an assignment is quite literally thrown at her out of nowhere she jumps at it with elation constantly smothering josie in the work place is her friend anita molly shannon and her amicable superior gus john c reilly the two of them are both stricken with horror upon hearing the news of her first assignment as they both deem her to be an office worker and not a reporter however since this film is aimed at a teenage audience with little patience for character conflict this otherwise interesting scenario is resolved within two minutes and josie is headed for the field obviously the field assignment involves a high school specifically she is to become an undercover reporter at a high school by enrolling in the senior class and becoming one of them i think that i need to even begin to explain all the impossibilities of this situation ever occurring so i the movie develops into josie trying to find the life that she never led in high school interwoven flashback scenes show us just how much of a dork she truly was and she appears to be heading down that road again fortunately for this lame production other characters do appear that make some of these high school scenes both humorous and remotely interesting they include the predictable love stories between both a student jeremy jordan and a teacher michael vartan to show that josie is really two people in one body also her younger brother and opposite rob david arquette comes into her new found life and even causes a rare scene that is mildly provocative the humor found in this film is actually quite amusing typical for teenage films it is chalk full of sexual innuendoes and condom humor one scene in particular features a certain classroom activity involving bananas and latex that is absolutely hysterical most of the other jokes are straight forward high school humor that anyone who has ever been to high school can appreciate and will enjoy but those still recover for the total lack of quality in this movie following this trend of high school movie rules comes the general acting it is even worse than the trend of overplaying a scenario from film to film in this case drew barrymore is absolutely painful to watch she is required to play her character on two levels having some very black and white transitions and although some scenes are written to be particular shades of gray she seems to hold that color throughout all of her screen time at one point she is alone with an obvious love interest on a ferris wheel and is expected to him on an adult level since he is one her teacher but she never seems to get out of the gray area and in doing so she makes a mockery out of his otherwise good performance following barrymore is the pitiful molly shannon saturday night live she seems to be limited to playing an ecstatic character that no one can relate to and draws the attention of an audience as simply unrealistic it is these qualities that prevent the aforementioned condom scene from being one of the few decent luckily there is one great performance to emerge out of this otherwise bleak film david arquette scream takes home the prize for being able to stand out in an ensemble performance that is absolutely pathetic and not have his brilliant acting ruined and as a central character he gets to take on his own which is one of the few well done parts of never been kissed in a dazzling type piece of work he does an absolutely hilarious tom cruise impression from the hit risky business never been kissed is a mediocre film at best the predictable plot has become so overplayed in hollywood that it is sickening to watch time and again and this film is no exception the acting is just as bad but there is the one positive presence of david arquette to add some light unfortunately the bottom line is that the movie will be a success because teenagers will pay to see any trash
negative	walken stars as a mobster who is kidnapped and held for ransom by four bratty rich kids it seems that a woman has also been is the sister of one of them e t henry thomas and the girlfriend of another flannery the asking price is million which said snots are unable to cough up alone they even cut off walken's finger to show they mean business because they are desperate to save the woman's life suicide kings is a terrible film walken aside there isn't a single appealing cast member o'fallon creates characters that are functional types without any resonance in an amusingly unironic scene walken plays poker with the foursome and describes each of their personalities to a as if he was reading the summary sheet for a casting director the plot is another issue entirely o'fallon is someone whom i'm betting has seen reservoir dogs and the usual suspects too many times for not only does his story veer off on bizarre tangents from whence they never return do we really need the scene where dennis leary beats up an abusive father with a toaster which is entirely unrelated to both the story and leary's character or the numerous anecdotal sequences but the central plot itself is a serpentine mess filled with crosses and double crosses and triple crosses by the fourth big i had completely tuned out wondering what on earth attracted these actors to the material recently a peer a fellow young filmmaker informed me that he had an idea for a movie about four guys the mob and the fbi it occurred to me then what's wrong with indies like suicide kings i suspect o'fallon has never met a mobster is not a rich man doesn't deliver endless clever monologues to his friends about his favourite types of boots in short these guys are just riffing on other movies and in doing that making the same film over and over and over again tarantino found his niche and now hundreds of genxers with movie cameras are trying to find tarantino's niche instead of carving their own at the toronto international film festival
negative	writer and director darren stein comes jawbreaker the poorly told tale of what can happen when an innocent birthday prank goes wrong at reagan high four girls are sitting on top of the world courtney shane played by rose mcgowan holds the title of meanest most disrespectful soul in the school everyone hates her but everyone envies her due to her popularity courtney is the leader of her clique which also includes julie played by rebecca gayheart liz purr played by charlotte roldan and marcie played by julie benz are the other three in the group it is liz's seventeenth birthday and julie courtney and marcie concur that they will play a seemingly innocent prank on her but the prank results in the death of liz just like stupid teens in any teen directed film such as this one the foursome decide to cover up the death to make it look like a murder committed by someone else and also just like in other teen directed movies one of the four don't agree with hiding it this time that character being julie and finally just like in other teen movies there is a witness outside the group trying to hide the truth this time that character being fern mayo judy greer who is subject to many cracks from courtney's group as well as the entire school here jawbreaker turns into a predictable tale of revenge bad morals and at least trying to do the right thing not only is the script weak on a whole the acting is horrid thanks to a large amount of the main cast judy greer is undeniably awful as her one dimensional annoying character as she overacts every line she has also on the bad side of acting is julie benz almost falling to the annoying factor that greer delivers on the positive side of acting rose mcgowan performs well here but doesn't match her wickedly clever performance as tatum in scream mcgowan's role is annoying but this only adds to the film she is wickedly mean and even though she a character you downright hate her faring even better than mcgowan is rebecca gayheart who is always exceptionally believable as her roles when the script feeds her a one or two dimensional character she turns it into three always putting strong emotion and power into her roles gayheart isn't given as much to do here as she was in urban legend but you can still get a strong taste of her acting skills in jawbreaker jawbreaker drifts and mianders different sub plots throughout hardly throwing anything for the viewer to get absorbed in we get way off of the topic of the jawbreaker incident and get into things that don't have anything to do with the actual film the beginning and ending are strong it's just the middle that needs a lot of help during the body of the movie it is undeniably repetitive never progressing towards a conclusion nothing to grab the viewer's interest is around and the same extremely annoying song plays over and over again jawbreaker tries to get off on the same time of humor used in the film clueless but falls flat the few gags that actually work die off quickly and die off with a bang all in all a horrible disappointment the bottom line the tagline reads even the sweetest candies are sour as death inside yes that is too true no matter how good this film may have looked it fails to deliver
negative	well there goes another one sadly this like other movies this year wasn't good this one being almost as bad as omega code' but not quite from the opening credits i had a good feeling this would be bad and well i guess i was right with bad excuses for acting a horrible screenplay and bad direction bachelor' is a terribly unfunny movie that doesn't work on any levels accept that fact that rene zellwegar who does give a good performance the two cameos by brooke shields and mariah carey are also good with brooke being the best the movie is troubled from the start because chris o'donnell is hugely miscast and gives one of the worst performances to date here is the stupid plot chris o'donnell plays jimmie shelton a man who has just broken up with his girlfriend he meets anne rene zellwegar they instantly hit it off and are together for three years jimmie decides that he wants to bring their relationship a little bit up he really doesn't realize that anne thinks he wants to marry her what he wants i never did catch so he proposes in a really bad way and she shoots him down and is very mad he of course tries to apologize but nothing seems to help any then his grandfather dies and he learns that he has left jimmie million dollars as long as he marries before the next day at pm now jimmie must find anne and try to marry her to get the money and because he loves her or get married to someone else to get the money itself leading to an and predictable ending that leaves a bad taste in our mouths ok so maybe this could be one of the dumbest cliched silliest romantic comedy to date that has no real big laughs even the supporting roles of artie lange hal holbrook and ed anser aren't even good the plot was a good idea but the script would have to have been written in less than five minutes and by a five year old the choppy dialogue and bad directing don't help things any even though chris o'donnell gave an ok performance in the two batman movies he does not give even a remotely good or funny performance here and i wanted to boo and throw my pop at the screen to get rid of him rene zelweggar is a different story and gave a charming sweet and likable performance as usual and really was the only thing that saved this confused movie from being a total huge washout her sister played by marley shelton is also good and the two have good chemistry onscreen brooke shields showed up in a funny little performance as a mogul who after a while became routine and old one really can't help but think that we have seen this stuff before it's not like this is an original idea and in the end everyone knows what is going to happen due do its cliches and typicalness bachelor' works on no good levels and in fact doesn't work at all ed anser and hal holbrook were wasted in terrible roles and mariah carey can not act to save her soul and this could be the only film of her movie career dispite her terrific music career chris o'donnell is not as bad an actor as casper van dien but that is not saying a great deal he seems held back and really doesn't get into his character much and after even the first minutes gets annoying and old artie lange just to me seems like he is trying to another chris farley and was completely unfunny and why the filmmakers would want to waste such a cast in such a bad movie with such bad acting and dialogue is a question only they will know maybe they thought it would become a hit or a critical success and sometimes i don't agree with other critics on movies even from the trailers for this film they made it look bad and showed all the mildly funny parts its based on the silent film chances' which i am sure is very better than this mess even though some may think of this as a good date movie most who see this will want to pull out thier hair and scream for thier money back besides being a terrible movie bachelor' is well a terrible movie it has nothing worth recommending therefore i really can't recommend this movie i did not have a good time and i laughed only three times the running time of the movie is minutes which is wayyyy over time and needs to be shortened at least thirty minutes parts of it seems to go on forever and parts of seem to not last enough time being one of the worst movies of the year we can be sure that i hope they will not make anymore stupid unfunny romantic comedies and if they do they i give up on filmmakers
negative	my inner flag was at last year when nick at nite pulled dragnet reruns off the air sure i'd seen them all at least once but i could always count on at least a few inadvertent laughs from jack webb when there was nothing else on tv even though dragnet is out of circulation at the moment we webb still have the d i a propaganda piece for the military that is almost as hilarious as the famous blue boy episode of dragnet for anyone like me who got laughs out of webb's speeches and seriousness think of the d i as what would happen if sgt joe friday ever enlisted because he plays exactly the same character here a old fart who looks with disdain at the younger generation and loves to give winded melodramatic speeches on any topic in this election year i'm more convinced than ever that webb and bob dole were separated at birth the movie opens in characteristic fashion as one recruit after another knocks on webb's office door and enters he gives each one a different series of cranky criticisms before the credits come up the produced and directed by jack webb card pretty much goes without saying this is his movie all the way and after the first twenty minutes of him chewing out his recruits for no reason i was wondering if there would even be a plot i certainly would have been entertained by an hour and a half of trademark webb rants but the d i gives us more much more webb's mission is to make a man out of private owens the local the captain gives webb three days to convert owens into marine material or the captain will personally cut the lace off his panties and ship him out myself whether the lace panties part refers to webb or owens remains unanswered this of course gives webb an excuse to focus all his crotchety energy on making owens' life a living hell for those of you who haven't been indoctrinated into the pleasures of webb watching here's a reprint of a typical monologue of his i can't duplicate his hilarious delivery on paper but the words should at least partially convey what i'm talking about now you listen to me youngster someday you'll wake up fighting on a beach and you'll pray to god somebody doesn't get killed because of your foolishness i've got a headline for you every time you make one of those little mistakes of yours you're gonna turn around and i'll be standing right there i couldn't write down all the reprintable dialogue from the d i nearly all of it belongs in the bad movie hall of fame but i tried to include some of the more noteworthy lines like one from the scene where webb unwinds from a hard day's work by going to the local bar where he orders a tomato juice he meets a woman who coincidentally also orders tomato juice but walks away from a conversation with webb to flirt with his another marine d i webb marches over to the table gets up in her face and says just what kind of a dame do you think you are bogart he ain't the other d i gets one of the few memorable lines when he confesses to the girl he's a damn good d i  i guess i'm just a little jealous join the club we're all jealous of jack webb's way with women which is showcased even more amusingly in a later scene as webb finds his way to the woman's place of employment a lingerie store and stands around looking incredibly flustered at the negligees on display you expect me to talk to you in he exclaims no doubt intimidated by the barrage of bras the woman goes off to help a customer leaving webb to fend for himself once again in this palace of estrogen a little girl spots him in the store and demands what are you doing in here you're a man aren't you he doesn't reply but you know he's thinking in his head what an odd species of human so small must be one of those children everyone's been talking about this poor girl scarred for life by her early encounter with jack webb would later swear off the male gender entirely just one of the many lesbian conversions he's responsible for the movie doesn't focus too closely on webb's romance it also continues the owens subplot with probably the most memorable scene in the entire movie where webb forces his platoon to spend the entire night searching the ground for a flea owens killed during one of their drills after two privates hatch a scheme to present webb with the wrong dead flea webb asks owens was that flea you killed a male or female owens replies a male sir webb yells to the platoon this ain't the one that such a scene along with the rest of the movie was intended to be taken seriously defies comment but we know it was all presented with the utmost seriousness when a title card at the end thanks the marines not only for their cooperation in the making of the d i but for iwo jima guadalcanal and every other major battle of the first half of the century webb held the military in such high esteem that all the soldiers in the movie with the exception of owens were played by actual marines someone wanting to parody this movie couldn't do a more comical job than webb did it makes it all the more ironic like raeeyain on your wedding day that the man had no sense of humor himself there's a scene in the movie where the guys are on their break time discussing something and one of them breaks into laughter webb bursts in the room and shouts what did i tell you about laughing to which the private replies sir only girls laugh sir and let me tell you i was as happy as a old girl while watching this movie
negative	frank detorri's bill murray a single dad who lives on beer and junk food with no apparent understanding of sanitation or hygiene much to the dismay of his preteen daughter shane elena franklin when he uses the second rule' to retrieve a hard boiled egg from a chimp's cage at the zoo and downs it he introduces a lethal bacteria into his system inside his skin the city of frank is in turmoil thanks to the of mayor phlegmming voice of william shatner so it's up to one frank pd white blood cell voice of chris rock to save the day in peter and bobby farrelly's osmosis jones the city of frank is a brightly animated animation directed by piet kroon and tom sito cellular municipality where osmosis jones is a typical rogue cop looking for another chance he's inadvertently teamed up with drix voice of david hyde pierce tv's frasier a cold capsule with hours worth of painkillers to dispense this quarrelling duo are about to go on a fantastic voyage in order to hunt down thrax voice of laurence fishburne the virus intent on shutting down frank while the animation is certainly colorful to look at osmosis jones' story is a hackneyed one the story cries out for puny puns but we only get occasional sprinklings of wit or bodily humor drix graduated phi beta capsule he departs on a bus headed for bladder neither the hero or villain is particularly interesting thrax looks like an animated predator although hyde pierce is a delightful sidekick adults can desperately keep their eyes peeled for small amusements the animators dot along the landscape meanwhile back in live action land bill murray is reduced to nothing more than a walking joke there's no particular enjoyment to be found watching him vomit on molly shannon she plays shane's teacher mrs boyd or hoisting his ingrown toenail onto a restaurant table one must wonder how the climatic flatlining of a child's father will play to the family audience as well rest assured the whole enchilada is wrapped up with a fart joke while far less offensive than the farrelly's last effort me myself and irene that film at least spiked some comic highs with jim carrey's hijinx osmosis jones will probably be ok for the kids but the farrellys playing for the family audience is like watching marilyn manson croon a phil collins tune
negative	woof too bad that leap of faith was the title of a comedy starring steve martin and debra winger because that's what's required to watch this incredulous howler starring bruce willis all psychologist not since the reagan administration has there been an acting stretch of such magnitude alas mickey rourke we hardly knew ye story opens with a campy is treating a patient who abruptly steps out of the window to take the best flying leap since charles durning dove in the hudsucker proxy she goes splat he goes ugh and his character spends the rest of the film colorblind really the good doctor then moves to sunny l a where he rooms with an old college chum scott bakula a therapist who's getting death threats from someone in his monday evening group buddy bites it in the second reel no surprise there and willis agrees to take over both the group and the death threats for his troubles as therapy man willis gets to share some love scenes with the lover's jane march while dodging nails cars and rattlesnakes why'd it have to be snakes color of night is the worst movie of the year period forget north clifford or heaven help us even on deadly ground here is a movie misfire so audaciously awful that you can't help but wonder how the actors all kept straight faces while filming for starters the group is a collection of mixed nuts better suited to bob newhart than bruce willis these are realistic portrayals of the mentally unhealthy playing a prissy cuckoos nest alumni brad dourif alone may set the psychology profession back ten years the plot's a wreck with laughable dialogue pointless pov shifts and the one big secret solvable in the first fifteen minutes director richard rush who once helmed freebie and the bean doesn't seem to mind unfazed by the nincompoop plot and cuckoo characterizations he overfills the film with enough canny camera shots and zany to make the effort almost worth watching his token freeway chase is ok but the director has more fun with a vertiginous ending ala most recently fatal analysis acting credits are awful willis can be forgiven because he's filming die hard as we speak but what about ruben blades insulting presence as the cop or lesley ann warren's stereotypical sex addict or worst offender jane march as a shudder bottom line how they all kept straight faces i'll never know
negative	there's only one presidential election every four years but it seems like every few months we get another presidential conspiracy movie painted as thriller of the year in we've had absolute power air force one shadow conspiracy and murder at this one is about as lame duck as old gerald ford trying to bring us a complex plot of and intrigue but copping out over and over again with rehashes of action flick standbys here's what happens this time it's night at the white house a secretary is having sex with some unidentified guy with a cute butt the next day she's dead and hotshot detective wesley snipes is called in how do we know he's a hotshot we've seen the traditional action flick opener the clever hostage negotiation scene it's not so clever this time consisting of snipes disarming a suicidal employee holding a gun to his head in the middle of the street snipes is off to the white house where he finds the secret service head the shiny bald head of daniel benzali won't cooperate with him at all in fact if not for the intervention of national security adviser alan alda snipes wouldn't have been allowed in the white house at all alda helps snipes out further assigning a sexy secret service agent diane lane to act as his liaison a very dangerous liaison well not really i just wanted to say that almost immediately a suspect is found an eccentric night janitor seen flirting with the deceased on one of the security videos snipes doesn't buy it and launches into an independent investigation of his own one that reveals planted evidence and romantic involvement by the president's son snipes' partner an wisecracking dennis miller calls him up every once in awhile with more news and lane who at first doesn't believe snipes eventually and predictably comes around and risks her ass to break into social security storage and break out some classified information for the first hour or so murder at looks like it could be going somewhere interesting sure we have to sit through the lame opening sequence and plenty more lame scenes after that but the whole murder in the white house thing makes for an interesting premise that is never quite delivered upon snipes and lane don't make for a bad action team but with nothing to work with they're just cogs in the bad movie machine dennis miller might as well not even be in the movie they waste his talents more in murder at than they did in bordello of blood and that's saying a lot when you get to the last the movie has descended metaphorically and literally into a wet sewer busting out the old underground climax and when they finally reveal who killed the woman and why you'll wish you never sat through this movie at all the in the movie's title doesn't represent an address it represents the number of satisfied customers worldwide serving the world for nearly of a century
negative	ah and was going along so well too she's all that has the dubious distinction of being the worst movie i've seen so far this year and quite frankly i doubt i'll see anything equally bad at least i hope i don't see anything equally bad she's all that tells the story of the most popular guy in school played by freddie prinze jr who accepts a bet to transform the geekiest girl in school rachel leigh cook into the most popular that right there is problem how many times have we seen this storyline as cook comments near the end of the film it's kind of like pretty woman except without the prostitution of course had the filmmakers attempted to try something new with this material the storyline would have been a device to propell the movie forward as it is though she's all that relies completely on the lame and overused formula to push it ahead there's not one original or interesting character in the film either and if that wasn't bad enough there's not one good performance featured the star of the movie rachel leigh cook is simply horrible i usually don't like to get so personal but in this case i think it needs to be said cook wears the same expression throughout the flick and looks to be having as miserable a time as i was i was never convinced that she was a nerd and her transformation was unconvincing and unnecessary the movie seems to be saying it's better to be popular than to be who you are as for freddie prinze jr an actor i ordinarily enjoy he too is quite bad here he coasts through the film on charm and never establishes a real character kieren culkin is here too as the brother of cook and for some indiscernable reason he's got hearing aids no explanation is given and they're never brought up were we supposed to feel sorry for him just because he wore hearing aids i don't think so that single element of the film was one of the most offensive things i've seen in a movie in a long time she's all that sucks that's what it boils down to it's not entertaining and it's not even a good time passer the hour and a half running time goes by slower than a minute system informercial and what's worse it sends out a bad message to teens it appears to be telling them hey it doesn't matter if you're happy the way you are that's unimportant if you want to truly be happy dress in the latest fashions and act like a moron ugh
negative	michael robbins' hardball is quite the cinematic achievement in about two hours we get a glancing examination of ghetto life a funeral with a heartfelt eulogy speeches about never giving up a cache of cute kids including a fat one with asthma a gambler who finds salvation in a good woman and a climactic big game where the underdogs prove to have a bigger bite than anyone ever imagined all that's needed is a guy getting hit in the nuts and a food fight to have the first film solely based on cinematic clich s i can't wait to see the deleted scenes when it comes out on dvd obviously hardball is a strikeout of a movie that never gets the bat anywhere near the ball it stars keanu reeves as the aforementioned gambler who seems to owe every bookie in chicago an amount of money that rivals the gross national product of guam out of solutions he begs his successful corporate friend the always welcome mike mcglone to lend him instead mcglone offers reeves the chance to help him coach a youth baseball team from the projects for a nice weekly stipend reeves who wants to keep his fingers accepts the offer but discovers mcglone is only too happy to let him handle the team entirely the protagonist must teach the sassy inner city kids the baseball basics in a life of absentee parents and merciless gangs and maybe just maybe they'll play in the big championship game one of the glorious surprises in the screenplay by john gatins summer catch adapted from daniel coyle's book is that there aren't any the movie coasts from heartfelt moment to heartfelt moment like a zombie that wouldn't be so bad if the characters had an ounce of subtlety or humanity to them most of the kids' time is spent yelling at each other talking in slang and acting surprised there's little that's naturally amusing about them as they all seem to know the cameras are rolling the worst of the lot is a younger player dewayne warren whose sole purpose as the movie unfolds is being an emotional pawn a tactic so utterly despicable i can't find the right words to express myself the adults also don't fare well reeves is impressively uninspiring as the loser the character is poorly written but reeves gives another performance every time he speaks he sounds like he just got up from a long nap and is gradually waking up kids are supposed to rally around this guy diane lane who as reeves' obligatory love interest remains a glowing screen presence see my dog skip for better proof it's too bad that her role here consists of uttering lines like these kids trust you and they don't trust anyone then there's d b sweeney as an evil rival coach and john hawkes as reeves' scummy betting buddy and other unoriginal characters you've seen before and hope never to see again i wanted hardball to be good robbins' varsity blues was a funny and alternately taut tale of texas high school football that had ali larter smothered in whipped cream and jon voight sneering at everything that moved i haven't seen robbins' goofy ready to rumble in its entirety but i am intrigued that macho man randy savage and martin landau can exist in the same movie without there being serious worldwide repercussions robbins obviously needs to go back to his forte making sports movies for guys and not cutesy cuddly pap such as hardball which also manages to annoy and insult the audience here's hoping that happens in the immediate future
negative	you know something christmas is not about presents it's about holiday films with lots of merchandising and product at least that would seem to be the message of the grinch which has been advertised since last christmas and whose logo is currently plastered all over stores hollywood expects us to ignore this cynical greed as the movie scolds us about losing the true spirit of the season you know the plot there's this evil furry green guy called the grinch jim carrey who lives on a mountain overlooking whoville down below all the whos are preparing for their whobilation but the grinch is determined to steal their christmas the movie is of course a version of the beloved children's book which was previously adapted into a tv special by looney tunes animator chuck jones it's rare that a big budget hollywood release is shamed by a cartoon but that's the case when jones' version is compared to ron howard's the tv grinch hit all the right notes boris karloff's soft deep narration thurl ravenscroft singing mr grinch max the dog weighed down by the gigantic antler tied to his head and the grinch's wide toothless grin by contrast the movie hits one sour note after another first there are the numerous bad choices that jeffrey price and peter seaman made in padding out the short book into a movie young cindy lou who taylor momsen is depressed about the misplaced priorities of her parents bill irwin and molly shannon during the holiday season she begins to sympathize with the grinch who turns out to be surprisingly sympathetic cindy lou discovers that the grinch turned tearfully away from whoville in grammar school when he was publicly humiliated while expressing his love for the prettiest girl in the class martha may whovier played as an adult by christine baranski are we expected to like the grinch hate the whos and want him to steal christmas the grinch isn't even the villain here that role is filled by the corrupt mayor of whoville jeffrey tambor who was the grinch's rival for martha's affection not only are the characters needlessly complex but the plot becomes so convoluted that the actual theft of christmas seems like an afterthought the casting choices aren't any better than the screenwriting decisions jim carrey seems woefully miscast while his face is so supple that the rubber seems superfluous carrey brings nothing else to the role his accent keeps changing i assume he was shooting for karloff but he ends up sounding like a weird slurry of richard nixon sean connery and cartman from south park not knowing what else to do during his many scenes alone in the grinch's home carrey falls back on his comedy and clowns around ace needless to say his antics don't quite fit the character of the grinch who is an embittered loner filled with hate little taylor momsen brings little to role of cindy lou except big eyes and a cute smile she would have been fine if cindy lou was limited to her original purpose in the seuss story finding santa in her living room stealing the tree however the expanded script makes cindy as important as the grinch and momsen is not up to the challenge bottom line when you're stealing christmas movies leave this one behind
negative	in the following the splendid debut in hugh hudson's greystoke and relative success of first highlander film it looked like christopher lambert's acting career might go somewhere but it wasn't meant to be which became obvious following highlander ii in this decade christopher lambert became associated with films with low budgets and even lower quality very often such films were science fiction which meant that the fans of that genre learned the hard way what to evade anything starring christopher lambert whether it was because of real lack of talent terrible miscasting or simple bad luck isn't important the end result was almost always horrible the same can be said for fortress science fiction film directed by stuart gordon director who created cult following with his horror gorefests like reanimator and from beyond the movie is set in for some undisclosed reason usa introduced strict population control and couples are barred from having more than one child jake christopher lambert and karen brennick lori laughlin broke that law and are caught by authorities on the border sentenced to years in prison they are both thrown into fortress privately owned correctional facility equiped with futuristic technology and run by computer called zed although equiped with gismos that regulate every aspect of inmates' lives and make any escape impossible prison authorities often use violence jake survives many ordeals and earns respect of some inmates which would help him when he begins planing the escape such escape should become necessity because the warden poe kurtwood smith begins showing unhealthy interest in karen after rather intriguing beginning and some interesting special effects that depict the futuristic settings of prison this film soon starts sinking into mediocrity the reason is in the screenplay that quickly degenerates into whole series of prison movie clich s and situations that are painfully predictable by the time brennick begins his escape from fortress those situations not only begin to look predictable but utterly implausible too of course film never tried to explain why the country that lacks resources to support its present population happens to spend bucketloads of money on supertechnology with sole intention of keeping alive most useless and dangerous members of the society the initially interesting plot is done even more wrong by stereotyped characters played by not too interested or talented actors lori laughlin although physically attractive shows the acting ability of sequoia kurtwood smith as prison warden is rather uninspired capable of solid yet forgettable performance lambert's performance is also good but even the bigger talent couldn't help this film destined to end in oblivion
negative	susan granger's review of the musketeer universal pictures hollywood launches another assault on classic literature with this million adaptation of alexandre dumas's novel that's strong on action but weak on drama fusing hong kong martial arts with century swordplay the story chronicles the adventures of the dashing d'artagnan justin chambers as he leaves his village of gascogne headed for paris to join king louis xiii's elite guard the royal musketeers and to search for the man who killed his parents years earlier this puts him in conflict with the formidable febre tim roth vicious henchman for conniving cardinal richelieu stephen rea the traditional musketeer trio aramis nick moran athos jan gregor kremp and porthos steve speirs don't offer much help so he turns to the feisty francesca mena suvari chambermaid to the queen of france catherine deneuve scripter gene quintano and peter hyams are primarily interested in the as evidenced by choreographer xiong's elaborate but not original stunts including a stagecoach chase a tavern brawl on rolling barrels acrobatics with the combatants dangling from ropes and a sequence filmed in southern france the scenery sets and costumes are spectacular but the lighting is too dark and editing is filled with choppy restless mtv'ish cuts as the swashbuckling d'artagnan bland calvin klein model justin chambers buckles where he should be swashing totally lacking charisma not to mention acting skill mena suvari so impressive in american beauty seems like a contemporary interloper in the royal court on the granger movie gauge of to the musketeer is a cinematic but shallow all for one and one for all not this time
negative	note some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers be forewarned at the end of the day those reflecting upon the debacle that is the avengers would do well to take note that warning clouds loomed on the horizon for the project well before warner bros made the contentious decision to abandon preview press screenings and scrapped plans for a gala premiere this film rendition of the cult television show was originally slotted for an early june opening where it would have gone against the rival studios' heavy hitters its eventual demotion to a less potent opening was an obvious early indication of the studio's lack of confidence with the picture and with good reason this is a joyless exercise of a film held together by a barely coherent plot and lacking any semblance of excitement thrills or wit remarkable in its banality and brutally uninvolving the avengers is a catastrophic mess which immediately invites comparisons to last year's case study in style over substance joel schumacher's batman robin indeed both films even feature appalling ridiculous sequences which find central characters dressed up in fuzzy oversized costumes uma thurman who takes on the salacious role of the emma peel immortalized by diana rigg was the only bright spot in the aforementioned schumacher disaster imbuing her poison ivy with a dose of sassiness and sly wit that gave audiences something to smile at amidst the cinematic carnage unfortunately the same can't be said here where she and cohort ralph fiennes our new john steed taking over for patrick macnee demonstrate no appreciable chemistry whatsoever fatally crippling the picture as they volley fizzling repartee back and forth and trade with all the enthusiasm of two actors painfully aware that they're on board a sinking ship at this rate actor mr fiennes may never make the transition from arthouse apollo to mainstream leading man his tepid turn here will make as much of an inroad as his commendably seedy performance in the kathyrn bigelow film strange days the duo look the part and admittedly the avengers is more than most heavily dependent upon style but they're no fun to watch and i found myself growing increasingly distant and annoyed by the lack of spark between the two cheekily ironic characters as they navigated through the picture's plot when not checking my wristwatch or shifting restlessly in my seat i began to alleviate the boredom by considering how this all might have played out had the filmmakers chose to go instead with that erstwhile emma as our mrs peel no not kate beckinsale although the notion now intrigues me but gwyneth paltrow who was originally in the running for the part and can veritably handle a english accent if nothing else it'd at least be highly entertaining for the incongruous sight of the vaguely twiggish young actress kicking butt the story such as it is involves the tandem of steed and peel combating the malevolent sir august de wynter sean connery an eccentric aristocrat threatening the safety of the nation with his contraption they also sip a lot of tea overlooking some goofy cloning nonsense and quirky hijinx involving our protagonists' superiors it sounds far better than it plays and is rendered almost indecipherable by blatant tinkering it's clearly evident that the picture has been cut to shreds the avengers was never about gripping drama and our heroes accordingly never take villainous sir august very seriously but given the lack of cohesion in the plot and the lack of menace conveyed by the buffoonish maniac it's all decidedly uncompelling mr connery who's onscreen barely long enough to register an impression approaches the role like a man fulfilling a contractual obligation simultaneously chewing the scenery while unable to hide his disinterest at least it all looks good this is a genuinely handsome production with fine costume design by anthony powell and crisply shot by roger pratt in particular the gleaming production design by stuart craig commands attention adeptly drawing elements both old and new in order to depict this great britain there are a handful of striking visual moments in the film including an attack by a swarm of giant robotic bees and a nice shot of steed and peel finding a way to walk on water but the film is so unremittingly dull that even these instances fail to stir interest or raise pulse rates by the time the film's climax had arrived my interest was not with the sight of steed and sir august slugging it out amidst crashing waves and thundering rain but with the quickest escape route from the theatre not coincidentally the enticing bits of visual bravura were the shots assembled into the movie's remarkable trailer a savvy piece of work which ironically is infinitely more appealing that the feature film itself the first promo which made the rounds in early spring is probably my favourite studio trailer so far this year it's everything that the avengers is not saucy clever engaging and entertaining a crushing disappointment the film is one of the worst outings of the year too drearily awful to be savoured as gleefully bad too polished to overlook its deficiencies there may be upcoming pictures that are even more lifeless than the avengers but i sure hope not
negative	stallone attempts to in this cop drama the film is set in a neighbourhood pratically built by kietal who's nephew played by michael rappaport is involved in a car crash and killing of two black youths keital dosen't really want to get involved in anything gets rid of rappaport and stallone and de niro try to work out what the hell is going on this film should be brilliant it sounds like a great plot the actors are first grade and the supporting cast is good aswell and stallone is attempting to deliver a good performance however it can't hold up although the acting is fantastic even stallone isn't bad the directing and story is dull and long winded some scenes go on for too long with nothing really happening in them in fact the only scenes that do work are action scenes which i suspect stallone was trying to avoid in this film serious means dull the dialogue is warbling and basically just repeats the same points over and over no matter who is delivering them the plot which has potential is wasted again just being cliched after a while in fact the only thing that does keep the film going is kietal and de niro both delivering their usual good performances however stallone although not given much to say gives a good performance however it's not all that bad as said above the action scenes are well done theres also a very good ending which uses the cinemas sound system well in fact the last minutes of this hour film are one of the best endings of if only the rest of the film was as good as the ending cop land then turns out not to be a power house film but a rather dull and not every exciting film hugely disappointing and i can't really recommend it
negative	the first species was a science fiction yarn that diverted audiences with some nifty special effects a few paced action sequences and frequent views of natasha henstridge sans clothing however it was definitely not a movie that cried out for a sequel and considering the quality of species it's obvious that mgm should have stopped while they were ahead the only thing that distinguishes species is how awful it is if you throw away the plot which is characterized by a blatant disregard for intelligence logic coherence and consistency species actually has a few things to recommend it to a select audience of course that audience is primarily comprised of teenage boys who at least in theory shouldn't be able to get into an r film and connoisseurs of bad movies there's enough blood gore simulated sex and bare flesh in species to prevent it from ever becoming boring this is a grade z exploitation flick that's ripe for the mystery science theater treatment somewhere someplace i recall hearing species described as erotic i would love to know who used with that adjective for this movie because he or she has a peculiar notion of eroticism sure there's a lot of sex and nudity but it's almost always accompanied by the ripping open of a woman's abdomen as an alien baby claws its way free splattering blood and gore in all directions anyone turned on by that is not someone i would care to be sitting next to in a theater i suppose the main attraction in species is natasha henstridge and to get the obvious question out of the way yes she does remove her top but only once and only briefly although the character she played in the original species is dead government scientists still have the dna and out of what can only be described as a suicidal impulse they decide to create another clone this creature dubbed eve by its creator dr laura baker played by marg helgenberger reprising her role is genetically engineered to be kinder and more docile meanwhile man has finally set foot on mars a team of three led by patrick ross justin lazard has traveled to the red planet but when they return to earth they bring something with them ross has become a hybrid and he's soon mating like crazy collecting the children that are the result of each sex session his intention is obviously world domination standing in his way is that indomitable soldier of fortune from the first film preston lennox michael madsen and one of patrick's fellow astronauts dennis gamble mykelti williamson but when patrick learns about eve a female of his kind there's no damping his ardor i'm not sure what the budget for species was but a significant portion of it must have gone into paying handsome salaries to several recognizable actors as opposed to being diverted into the special effects michael madsen and marg helgenberger both back for a second round are clearly on hand to do as little as they can grab the money and run ditto for james cromwell who plays patrick's father underused is too kind a word to describe his involvement invisible would be more like it george dzundza gets to do a little chewing as an general meanwhile justin lazard's performance as patrick is so flat that he makes natasha henstridge's limited abilities look good by comparison the only one in the whole production with any energy is mykelti williamson who is cast in the part of the wisecracking black sidekick complete with cheesy special effects bare breasts around every narrative corner and dialogue capable of producing howls of laughter species has been dumped into the marketplace without advance screenings for critics director peter medak a journeyman film maker with a significant list of mediocre movies on his resume has added another forgettable title but at least he appears to have had fun doing it which is more than can be said of anyone trying to take this film with even a scintilla of seriousness do i recommend the movie absolutely not but i will admit that species is dopey enough that it didn't try my patience to the degree that some bad movies do here's hoping there's no species
negative	a number of critics have decided that it's open season on freddie prize jr slamming the young actor as an utterly talentless pretty boy on career cruise control in disposable teen fluff like head over heels boys and girls down to you and she's all that while the prinze oeuvre is hard to defend his talent is not i first saw him in the independent dark comedy the house of yes where he gave a subtle impressive performance as the younger brother in one of america's freakiest families prinze has the acting chops he just needs to take a few supporting roles in some movies to show the that he has what it takes summer catch certainly won't help his case inoffensive but utterly generic the romantic comedy does little more than kill time the story deals with the love affair between tenley jessica biel a wealthy cape cod girl and ryan prinze a local boy from a working class family who dreams of becoming a baseball star ryan's preoccupation with his new drives her elitist father bruce davison crazy and endangers his position as pitcher with a cape cod summer league team it's a wonder the kid has any time to pitch as his time is occupied with making out with tenley fighting with her dad bonding with his own dad fred ward who deserves better than this fighting with his brother jason gedrick and carousing at a neighborhood bar with his teammates the filmmakers desperately want to make a quirky baseball movie like bull durham but haven't got a clue how to get there and so they glide from one clich to the next for minutes the only bit of originality comes from marc blucas in a minor role as a from texas in an early barroom scene blucas best known as riley finn from buffy the vampire slayer hears a young woman compliment a guy on his ass then turns to teammate matthew lillard and states he does have a nice ass a bubble butt when lillard gives him an are you insane look blucas calmly says it's nothing sexual then goes on to evaluate the of some other players including lillard's speaking of asses prinze does not bare his in the movie the actor has a no nudity clause in his contract so two were employed for a couple of shots blucas whose character secretly dates a large woman throughout the story gets another unique moment late in the film sick of hearing teammates make fat chick jokes he climbs on top of a table and loudly declares his love of ladies while his speech still ends up objectifying women it remains a nice change of pace in a numbingly ordinary movie trivial tidbit summer catch marks a scooby doo summit marc blucas appears in jay and silent bob strike back as fred from the scooby doo gang while freddie prinze jr plays the same character in the upcoming big budget film version of the old cartoon
negative	everybody in this film's thinking of alicia no this is not a documentary on those of us after we first saw the cryin' video this is one of those erotic thrillers but not like one starring shannon whirry or shannon tweed first off there's zero sex almost no nudity and it's not as as one of those tweed flicks well anyway the plot alicia plays well the babysitter who is taking care of some kids one night while the parents j t walsh and lee garlington go out to a party the film trying to be like one of those introspective erotic thrillers shows every characters' thoughts except alicia's the thing is alicia's in most of them in most cases and the thoughts aren't too kosher first off there's her boyfriend jeremy london who gave one of the lousy performances in mallrats and is only a notch better here who's a dorky kid who hangs out with a kind of bully played by nicky katt from suburbia who shows he's got that quiet creepiness down pat once again they decide they want to crash her babysitting job looking for the typical babysitting somethine like that the film intercuts between the subplots alicia babysitting nicky and jeremy the party and each characters' thoughts we get to see jeremy and nicky's dreams of doing a little threeway with alicia j t thinking of coming home to find alicia naked in the bathtub she has it all covered up the little tease and worst of all lee garlington dreaming of that hunk george segal it even shows them in bed together yea i so wanted to see george and lee garlington in bed though i guess i'm used to george after seeing her and mary tyler moore fooling around in flirting with disaster the ending is some kind of big tragedy thing but come on like we care about any of the characters the only interesting one is alicia mainly because she's alicia and we mostly see her in the fantasies so i guess she's some kind of mystery or something but she is never explored further so basically this film is just a series of mastabatory images sometimes featuring a alicia once again sadly sometimes featuring a george segal once again sadly i watched this on one of those free previews of showtime or cinemax one night and let me tell you it is the only way to watch this film i mean there's a reason they put these kinds of films on late at night they're just as good as sleeping pills and this one is one big fat waste of time even for an alicia film
negative	star wars episode i the phantom menace director george lucas cast liam neeson ewan mcgregor natalie portman jake lloyd ian mcdiarmid samuel l jackson oliver ford davies terence stamp pernilla august frank oz ahmed best kenny baker anthony daniels screenplay george lucas producers rick mccallum runtime min us distribution century fox rated pg mild violence thematic elements copyright nathaniel r atcheson a fellow critic once stated his belief that a reviewer should not speak of himself in his own review i've attempted to obey this rule in recent months but to do so would be impossible in this case the fact is nearly every person who goes to see the phantom menace brings baggage in with them the original star wars trilogy means so much to so many people for me they calibrated my creativity as a child they are masterful original works of art that mix moving stories with what were astonishing special effects at the time and they still hold up pretty darn well i am too young to have seen star wars in the theater during its original release but that doesn't make me any less dedicated to it on the contrary the star wars trilogy and the empire strikes back in particular are three items on a very short list of why i love movies when i heard that george lucas would be making the first trilogy in the series i got exited when i first saw screenshots from the film well over a year ago i embarked on a drool of anticipation and when the first previews were released last thanksgiving i was ready to see the film but then there was the hype the insane marketing campaign and lucasfilm's secretive snobbery over the picture in the last weeks before the picture opened while multitudes of fans waited outside of theaters and stood in the boiling sun days in advance just to be the first ones in the theater i was tired of hearing about it i was tired of seeing cardboard of the characters whenever i went to kfc or taco bell i just wanted to see the movie reader do not misunderstand i did not have an reaction the hype was unavoidable i understand and accept the hype it's just what happens when the prequel to the most widely beloved films of all time get released five minutes into the phantom menace i knew there was a problem who are these jedi knights i asked why are they churning out stale dialogue with rapidity why aren't these characters being developed before their adventures why is there a special effects shot in nearly every frame of the entire film these were just some of my questions early on later i asked where's the magic of the first three films and why am i looking at my watch every fifteen minutes by the end of the film i was tired maddened and depressed george lucas has funneled his own wonderful movies into a pointless mindless summer blockbuster the phantom menace is no star wars film take away the title and the jedi talk and the force and you're left with what is easily one of the most vacuous special effects movies of all time it's an embarrassment i looked desperately for a scene in which a character is explored or a new theme is examined or a special effects shot isn't used there are a few of each but they're all token attempts the fact is george lucas has created what is simultaneously an abysmally bad excuse for a movie and a pretty good showcase for digital effects this is not what i wanted to see i didn't want to leave the phantom menace with a headache and a bitter taste in my mouth but i did the story centers mostly around jinn liam neeson looking lost and confused and his apprentice kenobi ewan mcgregor who scarcely has a line in the film and their attempts to liberate the people of the planet naboo naboo is the victim of a bureaucratic war with the trade federation their contact on naboo is queen amidala natalie portman the teenage ruler who truly cares for her people after picking up jar jar binks a completely cgi character voiced by ahmed best they head to tatooine where they meet young anakin skywalker jake lloyd and his mother pernilla august knows that the force is strong with young anakin and so the jedi knights take the boy with them on their journeys the bad guys are darth maul and darth sidious neither of whom have enough lines to register as characters there isn't anything particularly wrong with this story when looking at it in synopsis form the way lucas has handled it however it unsatisfactory first of all we don't learn one single thing about jinn not one thing what was his life like before this film well i imagine he didn't have one that's why he feels like a plot device this probably explains why neeson looks so hopeless in the role and why he's recently retired from film i don't blame him honestly a character i was really looking forward to learning more about is even less interesting mcgregor has just a few lines so anyone hoping to see the engaging young actor in a great performance is urged to look elsewhere since these two men are the focus of the phantom menace lucas has served us a big emotional void as the centerpiece of his movie things start to pick up when our characters reach tatooine young anakin is perhaps the only truly character in the film and lloyd does a thoughtful job with the role i was also hugely impressed with the sand speeder scene rarely is an action sequence so fast and so exciting and when anakin says goodbye to his mother i found it moving also fairly good is portman and she manages to give a little depth to a character where no depth has been written jar jar binks is one of the most annoying characters i've ever had to endure but he's more interesting than most of the humans as soon as the segment on tatooine is over it's back to the special effects and depthless action scenes i've seen many movies that qualify as special effects extravaganzas but the phantom menace is the first one i've seen that had me sick of the special effects fifteen minutes into the movie the reason is obvious george lucas has no restraint i can't say that i didn't find the effects original because i did the final battle between darth maul and is visually exceptional as is most of the film but i also found the effects deadening and tiresome my breaking point was near the end of the picture as anakin is getting questioned by yoda and the other jedi masters in the background we see hundreds of digital spaceships flying around through a digital sky and i wanted that to go away can't we have one stinking scene that isn't bursting at the seems with a special effects shot i got so sick of looking at the cgi characters and spaceships and planets and backgrounds that i really just wanted to go outside and look at a physical landscape for a few hours and then there's the question of magic what was lost in the sixteen years between the phantom menace and return of the jedi i have a feeling that lucas was so focused on how his movie looked that he forgot entirely the way it should feel john williams' familiar score is no help nor is lucas' direction i think it comes right down to characters there are none here i longed for the magnetic presence of han luke and leia but i got no such thing and what about the ridiculous expectations mine weren't that high i simply wanted a film that showed me the roots of the films that i grew up loving a story that had a few characters and a few great special effects instead i got two hours and fifteen minutes of a lifeless and imaginative computer graphics show i don't hate the phantom menace as much as i resent it i'd like to forget that it exists and yet i can't it's here to stay i can only hope that episodes ii and iii have something of substance in them because if they don't then lucas will have pulled off the impossible task of destroying his own indestructible series
negative	the lives of older people in the twilight of their years attempting to come to grips with their shared histories and possible futures is a fascinating topic finding an cast for such a film is a stroke of genius combining all that with a director robert benton of kramer vs kramer and creating a decidedly mediocre movie is the stuff of disappointment in yet another noir mystery set in hollywood how many of these have we seen during the past few years the atmosphere is moody the actors enjoyable to watch and the story goes nowhere harry ross paul newman is a washed up man friday trying to figure out how to live what remains of his life he's screwed up things pretty well i had a wife and daughter now i'm a drunk and is at a crossroads a couple of years ago he traveled to mexico to bring back mel reese witherspoon the daughter of jack gene hackman and catherine susan sarandon ames and now lives with them the ames are former movie stars past their prime and the three have become fast friends one gets the impression that ross is just hanging out waiting for something to wake him up to fill his time he does odd jobs for jack and falls in love with catherine jack is in even worse shape than harry he's dying of cancer with only a year to live things do turn more exciting when jack asks harry to drop off a sealed manila envelope for him instead of the routine errand that ross expects he walks into a barrage of bullets from the gun of another who is himself full of bloody holes this unsettling event gives the former detective a project to throw himself into and launches an investigation that revolves around the mysterious disappearance of catherine's first husband years before through a series of very complex and convoluted plot devices that involve murder blackmail guns mel's mexico traveling partner and his parole officer ross's former cop buddies and sidekick the tale finally ends up exactly where everyone expects it to it's a film noir tradition that the story twists and turns down side roads for an unexpected finale but here the journey meanders towards an ending that no one cares about the only surprises are exactly whose face fits which role in the scenario by the time they show you it doesn't matter the storyline gets goofier and goofier exemplified in ross's relationship with rubin giancarlo esposito a partner wannabe these scenes are obviously designed to be comic relief however they are neither rubin and ross have some past relationship but either it's not explained or i didn't care enough at that point to remember a running joke about where harry was supposedly shot while in mexico is probably meant to mirror his questions about whether he is still able to perform it's also not funny doesn't connect and keeps on showing up long after it has run its course on the positive side it's often enjoyable to watch the seasoned actors on the screen the three leads all have academy awards and turn in accomplished if not extraordinary jobs newman is a grand actor but doesn't seem quite suited to the dark film style he is a bit too clean and understated to come across as desperate and down and out hackman also is believable but lacks sparkle sarandon comes across well as an sultry older babe although she is the actors do what they can with lame dialog but they can't pull the film out of the hole it's dug for itself james garner who plays ross's old buddy raymond hope is always a treat but even he struggles through lines like i'm glad they didn't shoot your pecker off the best part of the film is the look at old friends how their relationships change over the years and the difficult choices they must make the genuinely easy and casual interactions among the actors hint that being on the set was much more interesting than what ended up on the screen the film doesn't run very long before the audience realizes that it's hopeless the only reason for watching is the actors it reminds me of disaster movies such as towering inferno where the star power is supposed to make everyone ignore the film's problems in a better world there would have been actors in this movie and the ones here would have been saved for something better of course we don't live in that better world but you could make yours a little nicer by choosing a different movie
negative	martial arts master steven seagal not to mention director has built a career out of playing an allegedly fictitious martial arts superman who never gets hurt in fights talks in a hushed tone and squints at any sign of danger he's also the most consistent individual in hollywood today since all his movies suck they basically represent his egotisitical tendencies about his art that is martial art i'm sure the guy's good and he seems like a nice guy on talk shows although a tad haughty but these movies he makes are all the same a guy who is basically indestructable is maybe wounded supposedly mortally then comes back with a vengeance and goes buddha on all the baddies asses although i kinda liked under siege of course this one as a change has a message that is drilled into our mind of course after he blows up a lot of stuff and kills a bunch of people so why do i watch his crap i usually don't i will never and you can hold me to this i will never pay to see this man's movies unless and only unless he's in a supporting role i e executive decision and i'd definitely pay if he dies i e executive decision but this one has a special place in my heart this doesn't mean it's good or that i even liked it this was the last movie i watched with my deceased uncle and we had one hell of a time ripping it apart a la mystery science theatre and this was a couple years before i had heard of mystery science theatre in this one seagal plays a worker for a mining factory set in alaska and run by the typical shallow villain this time played by an to give the movie some more clout michael caine it seems that caine wants to do something with his oil factory that includes him dumping oil all over inuit land around the minute point seagal speaks up to him in what seems to be the typical speech to all the vain entrepeneurs what with his new fire down below another message film and caine has him bumped off or does he seagal is rescued by some inuits and falls in love with one of them played by joan chen who can act hypothetically but for some reason not here one of caine's cliched henchmen played here with a lot of overacting by john c mcginley shoots the cheif of the inuit clan and chen and seagal go on a voyage to take down the oil factory literally of course at one point seagal gives a wonderfully hysterical speech about how he doesn't have any options but blow stuff up he even goes as far as to say i don't want to kill someone and in the same breath he asks some guy where the arsenal is i have no problem with violence i'm a huge john woo fan but he paints his films with suspense skill style depth characterization and just plain cool violence in the films of seagal the suspense mainly consists of the baddie attacking him stupidly and him either wounding or killing them at some points they use the cliche of the talking villain where the villain has the advantage can shoot seagal but begins talking by either telling him his big secret plan or saying a corny line to which seagal says something hokey back and has had enough time to devise of a way to do away with them and does this would be okay if there were any suspense or if it didn't take itself seriously at all like in the case of this summer's con air but seagal is serious about his skill and of course his message i wouldn't mind if this was a message film in the way that they present it to you with evidence but seagal has no idea how to present a film where the message is subtle not pounded into the viewer's mind the villain is totally shallow and cartoonish thus we can't take him and his motives seriously and while seagal talks about being kind to the environment he also goes ahead and blows up a square mile of rig and kills some workers who were just doing his job then at the end he spends a good minutes giving a speech just in case you didn't get the message from the trailers what seagal doesn't realize is that no one takes his films seriously although maybe a couple do and any message he has is no only redundant but doesn't comfortably fit in his film which is filled to the brim with hokey violence crap suspense stupid melodrama and characters who have about as much emotional depth as a petri dish as far as seagal and his acting he's rather boring he squints he kills period nothing else oh yeah there's corny i'm gonna reach out and touch someone of course he's the star and we're supposed to root for him and all so he makes all the villains unbelievably stupid and a bunch of jerks michael caine who's a great actor is just supposed to yell and look cold he does it well i guess but this is no alfie of coure no one was expecting that caliber of performance from him his big henchman john c mcginley is kinda boring as well but is not horrible and we even get a small performance from that god of drill sergeants on celluloid r lee ermey from full metal jacket as a hired assasin squad leader who gets to say the obligatory speech about how dangerous seagal is just for the movie trailers and for seagal's ego and also look for billy bob thornton as one of ermey's assasins anyway to conclude this all to judge one of seagal's movies is to judge all of them except for under siege and executive decision though the latter is not really a seagal movie they all have this same formula they all have the same action same villain same plot but this one has that message which makes it more excrucitating to watch i mean if you do rent it and i don't reccomend you do make sure you just skip the last minutes but i have to put it to seagal for creating a film so bad that the last film i viewed with my uncle was a pleasurable one my extra star for the fun it is to watch and mock
negative	arye cross and courteney cox star as a pair of bostonians who meet in a bar go to the movies fall in love move in together etc review well if you haven't seen when harry met sally or he said she said or if you don't watch love war on television you might think this is the most inventive film to come along in ages however if you've seen any of these than you have seen most of this film this of course doesn't mean its bad some of it is amusing but overall i just had to ask what's the point arye cross is the stereotypical single male who falls in love kevin pollack is the stereotypical best friend who make a lot of rather sexist and vulgar jokes most if which weren't very funny couteney cox is the stereotypical woman who falls in love julie brown is the stereotypical bizarre best friend of said woman notice the frequent use of the word stereotypical this film uses a lot of formula the plot is basically known from the opening credits so what is good about the movie well as i said there are a few amusing moments surprisingly julie brown who i usually find just plain goofy was the best thing in the film also there are several very funny sequences involving analysis of the human mating ritual gee this is really short not much to say about the film really it is just kind of there watching it on video might not be a complete waste of time but i wouldn't recommend hiring a baby sitter or spending a lot of money to see it at the theatre
negative	is hands down one of the worst movies a person could ever have to sit through that doesn't have jean claude van damme in it i could liken it to the cheese that was the hollywood back in the early but that would be too much of a compliment if there is a movie theater in hell this film is playing there hours a day the story such that there is revolves around todd kurt russell an automaton of a man who has been raised from birth to be a merciless soldier in a future is there any other kind after years of desensitization at a military academy full of other boys just like him todd becomes a ground fighter in a series of wars all over the galaxy who the enemies in these wars are is never revealed but the few glimpses of todd in battle show that it doesn't matter because innocent hostages are wiped out as indifferently as the bad guys after ten minutes of this nihilistic trash yes folks there's more we see todd as a buff scarred adult now so accustomed to the carnage that no confrontation at all causes him to break a sweat there's a new wrinkle though todd and his brethren are declared obsolete and a new batch of soldiers takes their place after losing a sanctioned battle with jason scott lee the seemingly dead todd is dumped by a flying tray well that's what is looked like on a remote garbage planet if you predict that todd meets a bunch of outcast settlers on this planet and that they band together to fight a bunch of bad guys coming to destroy them you're way ahead of the game the renegade society on this trash heap is so clich you tina turner and master blaster to come strolling into frame any minute it's surprising that is the of david webb peoples unlike that classic this film contains just barely enough dialogue to fill about three pages add into the mix the paul anderson inept direction and it's easy to see how turned out so bad and the special effects remember the flying steam irons in hardware wars gary busey is in this movie said is proof that hollywood still has plenty of bad ideas sitting in its script vaults that this sad film made it to the silver screen should encourage plenty of aspiring screenwriters out there that there is hope after all now if you'll excuse me i have to go weep for the future
negative	it's a sad state of affairs when the back box blurb is more exciting than the movie contained within it such is the case for the paul mayersberg film last though the blurb alludes to a jungle filled with political intrigue uneasy alliances and murderous enemies at every turn the story of the movie is actually quite simple and prosaic a japanese businessman named endo played by john fujioka and his assistant both of whom have samurai aspirations travel to africa in search of his ancestor who went to bring buddhism to africa he hires the services of vietnam veteran pilot johnny congo the redoubtable lance henriksen and his girlfriend arabella holzbog and travels to the camp of an john saxon and his wife lisa eilbacher they are all kidnapped by an african revolutionary guerilla with aspirations to conceal a arms deal which subsequently falls through congo escapes finds endo's ancestor's sword and comes back guns blazing to free the rest of them and endo kills the revolutionary with the sword the end last is one of those movies that is neither bad enough nor good enough to be enjoyable it is merely the murky plot is filled with subtexts that are never elaborated subplots that are never explained and many scenes that make very little sense at all the film is shot through with all the tired old inscrutable japanese samurai and zen stereotypes that are to be expected from an american movie it is quite with only a bit of action near the end and the final duel between endo and the terrorist is quite anticlimactic most of the acting is fair with the possible exception of congo's girlfriend lance henriksen is his usual self and is one of few possible reasons anyone might conceivably have for seeing this movie the only other bright spot is the sweeping african scenery i paid for this film from the discount rack at best buy and halfway suspect i overpaid for it if you are in the mood for samurai read a clavell novel or watch a kurusawa movie skip last unless you are a henriksen fan
negative	birthdays often cause individuals to access their lives are we doing what we want to be doing what happened to our dreams with the new millennium our collective big birthday just around the corner some people are sensing a certain dissatisfaction with their existence the old standbys of traditional religion and science aren't doing it for many anymore and they're looking for something else we'll be seeing more and more films with a metaphysical theme over the next few years ricky hayman jeff goldblum is having a career crisis the programming director for the good buy home shopping network he's going to be fired unless sales increase dramatically new producer kate newell kelly preston is supposed to whip things into shape when the two are fixing a flat they almost run down new age pilgrim g murphy g wanders onto the television set and connects with the viewers by telling them that they don't really want all that commercial crap in some unexplained manner this causes sales to sour ricky is saved the movie tries to be too much at once and fails at it all it's not an comedy or a message of humanity it a of poorly directed scenes made even worse by insipid dialog i am willing to put up with preaching from a film but the messages here are old hat you should take time to smell the roses selling your soul for cash is a bad idea golly i'm glad i saw the movie i never would have thought of these the opportunity to poke fun at the goofy products is mostly missed when g takes a chainsaw to the set there's an obvious chance for murphy to be hilarious it doesn't happen the bits are so subdued and that there's only a hint of laughter from the audience murphy has changed his roles in recent years and not for the better there are hints of promise in this one the only time the film picks up even a little is when his character in the long flowing white caftan shows up on screen the others are horrendous goldblum has episodes of brilliance in his career but here he seems to have been replaced with a lifeless pod from his invasion of the body snatchers his relationship with kate makes no sense they move from antagonism to love somewhere off screen preston is as uninteresting as she could possibly be somewhere hidden deep inside of this film is about ten minutes of value an attempt to satirize stupid television we get a instead
negative	m the sequel to mission impossible is a james bond wannabe film but it fails to even come close to that film in wit humor and entertainment value it tries to be a movie but without any suspense the film just looks like it's an extended commercial for dudes who think they look cool in throwaway sunglasses it is a film that prefers techie gadgets to anything human the coolest thing about this movie was all the holes it had in its story and the most trite thing about the movie was the usage of doves throughout as peace symbols the film plays as if it was a wet fantasy dream about techie violence except for the choreographed action sequences the film was dull for of its time filled with too many dead spots in its story to garner concern about its wooden characters or the superficial romance that developed as for the action scenes they might look good to those who are converts to violence in their films but their advertisement for sadistic responses is nothing short of mindless cartoon violence which makes it very difficult to sit back and applaud without feeling put off by the gratuitous cruelty seen m opens and closes with action scenes but it is hard to get past the middle part which just drags on in banal dialogue the film looks as if it had been invaded by a computer virus at that point the only thing that kept me awake was the horrible music composed by hans zimmer that became very loud at any of the film's supposedly momentous action scenes and seemed to make an uninteresting scene even more noticeable in the wrong way it's a film adapted from a popular gadgetry tv series but its artistic success is an impossible task to accomplish because it hired the wrong director and actors to star in it and it failed to produce a story that had any substance john woo broken arrow is good at doing car chases choreographed fights with midair flips and kicks shots of two guns blazing and of fire explosions but he just can't seem to handle dialogue and suspense the star of the film and tom cruise and his romantic interest thandie newton are miscast cruise is no james bond and looks more like a yuppie than a superhero in his stylish long hair and innocuous smile as he tries to carry off this macho role while thandie is not an girl and seems like a in this one their romance didn't work not only was it tepid and not sexy but it wasn't convincing the film opens with dizzying speed perhaps with the hope that a befuddled audience is its best bet for success we will be in three different locations instantaneously sydney the american southwest and seville first we are in sydney australia where a scientist with a muffled russian accent dr nekhorvich rade mentions that he created a deadly killer virus called chimera and an antidote for it he also mentions that every hero needs a worthy villain which explains the film's mythic theme as we enter the world of comic book myths on good and evil the one who played the villain dougray scott does so in a gruff tone which did not distinguish him in that role at least if the film got the villain part right it might have had some fun with this nonsense soon the diabolical scientist is on a plane talking to someone he trusts called dimitri but then the plane is taken over by terrorists who set it on automatic pilot and crash it into the rocky mountains before they crash the plane and parachute out of it the one who was posing as dimitri turns out to be sean ambrose scott a rogue member of the imf which is a clone he steals the package with the antidote peels off a latex mask which is a replica of the hero of the story ethan hunt cruise who had posed as dimitri to the scientist before and had thereby gained his trust sean and his group of terrorists carry out this attack because they plan a virus plague on the world and then to sell the victims the antidote at marked up prices we already saw the gimmick of peeling masks used in and in the original mission impossible which as convoluted a plot as that film had it was still a superior film to this sequel woo has run this peeling mask routine into the ground as it is used so often in this film by both sides so much so that it blurs any ethical character differences between good guy or villain it makes it seem as if anyone could be another character which distorts the reality of the film and makes it impossible for the film to make much sense next we are in a mountain range in the american southwest and ethan is on vacation hanging by his fingertips while climbing and looking cool when a helicopter with his boss anthony hopkins aboard delivers via a rocket launcher a pair of talking sunglasses hunt learns his next mission is to retrieve the chimera package and he is allowed to pick two regular imf agents to help billy baird john polson and luther stickell ving rhames with luther running a computer but he also must get a jewel thief named nyah hall thandie to join his team he is told as an incentive to recruit her all her criminal charges will be dropped hopkins then signs off with the tag line this message will in five seconds actually with the departure of hopkins it was this disposable film that actually at this point in seville hunt recruits nyah into the team in the middle of a jewel heist and a subsequent car chase where he nearly runs her audi sports car over the side of a mountain road he also falls for her when this was only supposed to be a business deal and learns that she is valuable because her was sean ambrose and that he still wants to f ck her the imf team then inject a location tracer chip into her to spot sean so she can go f ck him as she leads them to his in the seaside of australia in which he shares with his sneering villainous cohort the south african hugh stamp richard roxburgh robert towne the screenwriter who contributed to the first mission who is noted for doing chinatown writes a colorless pedestrian script one that fails even to be funny in a camp way the terrorists who aim to rule the world are interested in owning percent in a biotech company and in getting stock options as they plan to infect sydney with the virus and have their company sell the antidote insuring that they will make billions on the stock ethan comes to the rescue of the world and of nyah with his only conflict being who is more important to save first ethan does this rescue against all odds as he finds a way to penetrate a security tight biotech company fight it out with sean and the other terrorists and rescue nyah who injected herself with the virus to hinder sean's getting it as the only way to transport the virus is through another person or from the vaccine needle ethan rescues her by doing stunt riding on a motorcycle using winning a shootout throwing a full john wayne supply of grenades at the terrorists making some more use out of that peeling mask bit and by being completely fearless and larger than life while he kick's everyone's ass if i was only entertained by this i could have lived with it but this film was so badly made that it was like watching a highlight film of a basketball game seeing only the but with the game itself being excluded from the telecast in any case this is a film and will in all probability do well in the box office as it was made to appeal to all the demographics who find commercial ventures like this one easy to buy into
negative	soldier luc has to battle a group of engineered fighters gone bad the review van damme has a early on in universal soldier the return his latest attempt to remain relevant that sums up this entire movie he says been there done that no film critic could possibly sum up van damme's recent film choices any better while other ageing action stars have wisely moved into other film genres schwarzenegger makes as many family comedies as he does action films van damme stubbornly persists in sticking with what used to work for him martial arts and guns this unwillingness or perhaps inability to move into new genres has caused van damme to enter the straight to video world with legionnaire never seeing the inside of a multiplex he joins fellow martial star steven seagal as they watch their film careers rapidly fizzle away universal soldier the return is truly poor the plot is a complete copy of several action films from this decade specifically terminator judgement day and the similarly named soldier soldier's kurt russell was an older model sent off to retirement when circumstances forced him to battle his successors for the good of a planet schwarzenegger's terminator in tried to save john connor from a newer model killing machine the and a former universal soldier has to save the planet from the rampage of a group of you guessed it newer model soldiers considering the poor box office performance of soldier it's amazing that this project was ever given the luc devereaux van damme was the sole remaining universal soldier or unisol for short until he was returned to a normal if muscular human form in this sequel technically the fourth film in the series following two duds that were ignored here luc is now a human of sorts for the unisol program working with dylan cotner xander berkeley who interestingly also appeared in the unisol program has engineered a tougher fiercer fighting force with the help of seth unfortunately upon hearing that the program has been axed by the government seth takes control of his soldiers killing everyone in the building except for luc his partner maggie his daughter hillary and erin a reporter trapped inside the rest of the film involves luc trying to keep them all alive while beating up a group of soldiers most notably romeo popular wrestler goldberg there are lots of fights gun battles lame plot developments and a noticeable lack of plausibility there are so many clich s in this film that it is almost painful to watch luc gets saddled with the task of saving erin the reporter early on and in the course of a single night they go from bickering to falling for each other to kissing erin is a character people are getting brutally gunned down all around her and yet not only does this not seem to frighten her but she finds time to remind luc that she isn't leaving without her story whatever other laughable moments include a luc going to a strip club to get internet access what and b a group of rangers who after having been given good advice luc tells them that their weapons are useless and shows them a specific gun which should work better choose to go into battle with their useless weapons anyway guess who wins the battle not one single scene in universal soldier the return has any originality to it when fuelled by don davis' loud driving music score the film's many fights become almost passable but mostly are full of the same ol' moves director mic rodgers a former stunt keeps the action coming at a rapid pace with only a few token serious moments to be found his past work is evident in the many moments when characters are thrown through windows tossed off of buildings or sent flying through the air thanks to an explosion if only weren't getting so old and slow compared to younger martial arts film actors like jet li rodgers could probably have made a decent action film to place the blame squarely at van damme's feet however is an injustice i'm not sure that anyone not even robert deniro or edward norton could make writers william malone and john fasano's script sound good one particularly painful scene is when erin asks luc how he is so sure that the aforementioned strip club will have internet access he cringes looks down and mutters uh uhm they all do i saw it on minutes eh he he he the script's and indeed the entire film's only saving grace is goldberg he chews up every scene he is in obviously enjoying his role immensely he even gives the film a few laughs as he mutters things like i really don't like that guy every time he fails to kill luc sadly his presence is not enough to turn universal soldier the return into anything better than a action film that truly deserves to have joined its fellow sequels by going
negative	the plot of big momma's house is martin lawrence in a fat suit and a dress that's not just the premise it's the plot such an emphasis is not in the world of hollywood summer entertainment one need merely look back to last summer when the plot of big daddy was adam sandler being an incompetent surrogate parent the trap inherent in such an approach is that the plot idea better be pretty or rest on the shoulders of an extremely talented performer because you can bet there will be nothing else worth a second of your time not a developed character not a provocative theme not a witty twist you will get minutes of martin lawrence in a fat suit and a dress nothing more nothing less those who find martin lawrence more than an occasionally amusing screen presence may have a shot at enjoying the dud that is big momma's house others will simply stare mouth agape at its sheer unapologetic laziness lawrence plays fbi agent malcolm turner an undercover expert on a stakeout assignment with his partner john paul giamatti dangerous convicted bank robber and murderer lester vesco terrence howard has escaped from prison and the feds think he's headed for his former girlfriend and accomplice sherry nia long sherry however has fled with her son trent jascha washington possibly to visit her grandmother hattie mae ella mitchell better known as big momma indeed sherry appears to be on her way but big momma is headed out of town without knowing sherry is coming that leaves master of disguise malcolm to go under very heavy cover as big momma and find out what sherry knows big momma's house's bloodlines are certainly traceable to mrs doubtfire director raja gosnell edited that film and the makeup effects were similarly created by greg cannom but there's just as strong a whiff of tootsie in the main character's attempt to use his alternate identity to get closer to a woman unfortunately big momma's house makes a ridiculous decision neither of those other films made instead of having the protagonist pose as a completely manufactured character unfamiliar to anyone elses it places malcolm in the position of playing a friend and family member to several other characters suspension of disbelief in big momma's house requires you to believe every other person in the film is blind stupid since no one notices that one big momma looks or sounds absolutely nothing like the other of course laughs trumps logic every time and big momma's house probably still would have worked in spite of its utter disdain for common sense if it had just managed to be funny and it misses its best possible opportunity for some great farce by ignoring the simple fact that the real big momma is set up as a beast while malcolm has to be nurturing in order to get the information he wants out of sherry unfortunately no one involved appears to have the faintest idea how to deal with the comic gold mine involved in one real person pretending to be another very different real person so they fall back on an endless parade of sight gags malcolm reacting violently to big momma's explosive diarrhea attack schooling a pair of cocky teens in basketball malcolm trying to avoid detection as various prostheses give way at inopportune moments malcolm delivering a baby because big momma is the town midwife one of the few sequences that works martin lawrence can be likeable enough at times but there's no reason to care a whit about his budding romance with sherry because malcolm is never an independently significant character he's just big momma without the makeup on i won't waste time commenting on how ineptly the of the escaped convict is employed since it was clearly a waste of time to the there are a few token scenes of lester looming as a threatening figure but he's ultimately a distraction in a film that's really about its central visual incongruity and the accompanying lascivious glances at nia long's posterior i'm never prepared to underestimate how appealing that idea may be to other people several million of them apparently found adam sandler as an incompetent surrogate parent appealing but i know that when a tries to throw a concept at me and pretend that it's an entire film i duck out of the way the gross implausibility of big momma's house might have been tolerable if it was seasoned with more big laughs its lack of big laughs might have been tolerable if its characters were at all relevant big momma's house is ridiculous not funny it's just a sad exercise in the jaded presumption that any scene should be considered wacky and hilarious if it involves martin lawrence in a fat suit and a dress
negative	starring william baldwin cindy crawford steven berkoff all right the first problem that fair game has is the casting of supermodel cindy crawford in the lead role not that cindy does that bad it's just that anyone who watches this film knows from moment one that that little bit of casting was not done because of cindy's extraordinary acting skills but for her extraordinary ability to look drop dead gorgeous in any situation and in fair game most situations tend to find cindy either soaking wet or very hot and sweaty but i'm sure that that is just a coincidence no doubt that these situations were essential to the plot and the fact that cindy looks great wet well that's just a happy coincidence sure william baldwin isn't a bad actor unfortunately he just doesn't demonstrate it at all in this movie i'm not sure if that's because most of his lines were just so hokey or if he was trying to make cindy's acting look good if it was the latter it worked cindy does a surprisingly good job here in her first movie which is not to say that she doesn't have room for improvement although to be fair to cindy her lines were kinda cheesy in places so right about now you are no doubt asking yourself what sort of movie does cindy crawford arguably the most beautiful woman on the planet chose for her foray into the world of cinema well i'm glad you asked that question cindy plays a lawyer who by some convoluted plot twists becomes a target for former elite kgb agents why woud they target someone as likable as cindy you ask by the end of the movie you won't care the story is so contrived it isn't funny anyway after cindy gets blown out of the window of her house without getting so much as a scratch i might add she is placed into protective police custody under the watchful eve of william baldwin who's character max kilpatric a police detective seems to possess the skills of some sort of fighting machine my guess is that the writers have seen way too many of steven seagal's early films the point is that the idea of the crawford and baldwin's characters of the run from these killer russians isn't all that bad of an idea it's just everything around that basic idea which kinda stinks out loud the supporting cast members are nothing more that over acted stereotypes if i was baldwin i'd hope this film disappears as for crawford she may indeed have some acting ability unfortunately any she does have is obscured by writing that goes beyond bad this movie was obviously written with cindy in mind since the writers spend most of their time finding ways to capitalize off of her looks it's too bad they hadn't spent more time on a half decent plot since ms crawford is more than capable of looking just fine all by herself thank you very much unless you are a huge fan of either baldwin or crawford this is a movie that will only disappoint you
negative	take a look at the following equation a christmas yes scrooged is the odd mixture of sentiment comedy and horror you would get if you mixed those two elements toghether scrooged is alternatively sick gross funny and then sickly soppy bill murray plays frank cross a t v executive with a horrible personality he's evil to secretary actors crew everyone except the t v's station's boss of course played by the late robert mitchum however he is then visited by a very dead exec who warns cross that he will be visited by three ghosts past present and future who is called the ghost of yet to come for some reason sure enough they arrive show cross how much of a s o b he is and he changes his way however throughout this simple plot we've got to suffer outlandish special effects poor comedy and an very very mean performance from bill murray frank cross isn't mean he's just mean he also isn't very good at emotional scenes and totally destroys the last ten minutes of the film with an utterly desperate speech saying how great christmas is and how he has changed however the supporting cast are ok with good performances from mitchum allen who plays his girlfriend and john glover who plays cross's the ghost of christmas past isn't that bad either sadly though the audience has to suffer minutes of alone' style violence from the ghost of christmas present played by carol kane whoever thought smacking that kane smacking murray in the head with a toaster was funny should be fired straight away and the audience also has to suffer bobcat goldthwait the guy with the annoying voice in police academy if i remeber correctly who thankfully dosen't say much the script is horrendous michael o'donaghue churns out terrible bad taste jokes which i guess is the whole point really then changes direction completely to emotional scenes and he must of been on some drug when he wrote the final ten minutes which are awful the special effects look nice but do nothing for the film there's some impressive make up effects also the music is also good which is scored by danny elfman but great effects and make up don't make a great film scrooged is an appaling attempt to inject some christmas spirit into the audience seeing as the first hour minutes of the film are so depressing anyway and the last ten minutes had to make up for it with an godawful speech why didn't cross just look out his exec window and ask a young boy to buy a goose for him overall then you'd have a much better christmas if you avoid this film like something that should be avoided perhaps a plague
negative	synopsis a maniac crazed by virulent microphage slaughters more than twenty people including a street gang and troops with a small knife even with a handgun however he can't take out the two cops who are after him despite having shot one of them a total of seven times comments the most notable aspect of adrenalin fear the rush is that it marks a striking career move for natasha henstridge not only does she manage to keep all her clothes on her trademark in earlier films such as species and maximum risk was to strip naked as often as possible but she actually puts on even more clothes as the film progresses this will probably disappoint many henstridge fans but i welcome the change because henstridge is an attractive capable actress who deserves less exploitative roles though i admit it doesn't show in this mess henstridge just like every other actor in the film delivers a wooden performance in this monumental turkey the cast also includes christopher lambert who has appeared in the highlander and mortal kombat films how on earth this movie got two stars to appear in it is beyond me adrenalin fear the rush is set in boston ten years in the future boston has changed dramatically in those ten years it is now home to a bunch of interred foreigners and policed by cops who drive around in small cars with policia printed on their doors some guy has a really bad virus and he's killing people because of it so the brave good guys lambert and henstridge go after him that's it minutes never seemed so long this is a chase scene through abandoned buildings turned into an entire movie the plot development is nil we learn absolutely nothing about lambert's character and very little about henstridge's character the dialogue is littered with unnecessary obscenities and concerns mindnumbingly idiotic arguments over who will go down the next dark next and who will carry the flashlight a subplot does exist involving henstridge's character's illegal attempt to get her son out of boston in her opening monologue a monologue which sounds as though henstridge was reading from cue cards we learn that she has gone to great lengths to secure a fake passport for her son twenty minutes into the film i wondered if the movie would have been better if it focused on this plot in a defining scene of the movie however i changed my mind this fake passport drops to the ground lambert's cop immediately recognizes it as a fraud from six feet away must not have been a good fake this emphasizes another fault with the film things just defy common sense lambert's cop for instance is shot seven times yet he is still able to talk and slide about adrenalin fear the rush ends in a trite manner that doesn't seem to even fit the mood that the filmmakers were trying for i found myself rather bored with this film which will disappoint both fans and fans of henstridge and lambert don't fear the rush fear the movie watch something else
negative	amy a slew of movies this month we have kissing a fool amy's own lee and april brings us the object of my affection which may as well be titled chasing allan for it is the story of a woman who falls in love with her gay roommate to be absolutely six degrees of kevin bacon about it that film stars schwimmer's friend jennifer aniston if only kevin smith could write them all schwimmer stars as womanizing chicago sportscaster max who falls in love with his best friend jay lee book editor samantha avital a mere hours after meeting her they are soon engaged and max because of his own raging libido grows suspicious of samantha's fidelity he convinces jay to flirt with samantha during the development of his book to test her the trouble is jay might be secretly in love with her to stretch this flat sitcom premise to feature length the plot is framed by a climactic wedding at which bonnie hunt recounts the triangular events leading up to the an annoying fat man and his silly girlfriend hunt has the best comic timing of anyone in the film schwimmer can spin bad dialogue into mildly humorous dialogue and lee poor lee is miscast so hysterically funny in chasing amy here he is forced to repress his comic instincts to swear to yell to talk about oral sex the script's idea of a character trait is to stress that jay is a sensitive man and then show him drinking pepto bismol when he's stewing over his girl trouble as for avital an israeli actress she is warm and sweet but we don't know anything about her character other than that it takes her an incredibly long time to realize the most obvious things she also too closely resembles the stunningly beautiful kari wuhrer who plays schwimmer's assistant and personal temptress turning that particular subplot into an unintentional riff on vertigo there are a handful a smattering of good scenes in kissing a fool i enjoyed a moment in a comedy club during which jay gets up and asks has anyone here ever hated their girlfriend so much you wanted to kill her over and over until he's booted off stage there are also a few obviously improvised lines that are fresher than anything that's on the page kissing a fool is never as clever as the thursday night friends that spawned schwimmer's movie career so save yourself eight dollars and watch three episodes of that series back to back
negative	yet another brainless teen flick this one is about surprise drugs and sex stars katie holmes and sarah polly couldn't look more bored their characters are cardboard of every cliched teenager out there one thing you need to know is i really hated this movie everything about it annoyed the hell out of me the acting and script the plot and ending the director of the fluke hit swingers could have very well directed a bunch of actors and had a watchabe film the big stars of go pretty much drown the project of any originality i felt like i was watching dawson's creek episode although the film still would have stayed at red despite its cast the surprise ending was sooo predictable since when is a male character's sudden outing of the closet considered a surprise in hollywood anymore go is dawson's creek varsity blues she's all that go home and watch something else
negative	set in harlem during the great depression rival gangster families go to war over control of the numbers an illegal gambling lottery runners take bets from potential lottery winners and deliver them to private locations for drawings the undisputed leader of the harlem numbers is the madame queen cicely tyson who is challenged by dutch schulz tim roth a ruthless hoodlum by turning against the queen dutch defies his partner the infamous lucky luciano andy garcia who wishes to respect the queen and keep the peace the queens' army strengthens when an acquaintance ellsworth bumpy johnson lawrence fishburne is released from prison and becomes a bodyguard for her he proves himself worthy in short time as he thwarts an assassination attempt on himself and the queen and later takes control of the queens army when she is jailed for tax evasion bumpy's reign is not as restrained and subdued as the queen and he declares all out war on dutch bloody gang warfare ensues bumpy faces many obstacles during his reign his new army questions his methods his girlfriend vanessa l williams and the queen disagree with his violent solutions most importantly in his eyes dutch has become a more formidable foe than he imagined and seeks help from lucky luciano to assassinate him there have been so many movies dealing with organized crime that it must be hard to write an original story dealing with it this movie is not original at all in fact i was angered by how many similarities there was between this film and arguably the best gangster movie of all time the godfather if you are going to borrow ideas from another movie and not give credit why not borrow from a lesser known movie say millers crossing how could the credited screenwriter chris brancato not give credit to mario puzo himself here are just some of the major similarities i stopped counting at crooked cop assaults blood relative of the leader gang extracts revenge on crooked cop wife or girlfriend questions her partners' murderous activities and leaves him high ranking officer betrays the leader blood relative of the leader murdered war erupting between the families officer disapproves of the leader in front of other family members new leader runs family differently from previous leader large meeting with all families involved the setup in this movie is done rather well i enjoyed the portrayal of the network of runners sprinting through the streets collecting bets for the queens lottery this was the way of life in harlem and most people involved with the queen did so because it was the only way to support their families and put food on the table number running was the only way for the harlem population to find work i also enjoyed the interaction between the angry violent dutch and the calm patient lucky after about the minute mark all of the similarities with the godfather start appearing one after the other and in short order it was a huge distraction and an insult to my intelligence who was the screenwriter kidding here some of the individual performances were well done andy garcia was very convincing as lucky unfortunately his screen time is reduced to a supporting role tim roth effectively plays the cocky villain much like his roles in the cook the thief his wife and her lover and rob roy the good performances and convincing setup during the first third of the movie do not make up for the lackluster story that follows a couple of coincidences is one thing over a dozen is an insult directed by bill duke ellsworth bumpy johnson lawrence fishburne dutch schultz tim roth lucky luciano andy garcia the queen cicely tyson francine hughes vanessa l williams illinois gordon chi mcbride written by randy turgeon january
negative	at first glance i thought that the sword and the sorceror had promise its plotline goes like this the evil king cromwell desiring to take over the world resurrects an evil ancient sorceror xusia for power he attacks the kingdom of and kills young prince talon's parents given a sword which can shoot bad guys like a gun by his dying father talon vows for revenge eleven years later when he's established his own army the mercaneries he vows to take back his kingdom along the way he meets up with alana whose village is attacked by drunken guards and her brother is kidnapped by cromwell talon vows to help and after a series of minor escapades eventually ends up rescuing alana's brother and several other prisoners only to be captured himself in other words put on a cross to be crucified fortunately he frees himself rescues alana from marrying cromwell defeats xusia and then cromwell all with his triple bladed sword during the final battle the blade breaks but talon finishes cromwell off by using a hidden dagger in the blade then everything ends happily unfortunately the sword and the sorcerer is not even half as good as it sounds what would have been a great film is completely destroyed by uneven plot jumping bad acting and gruesomely gory bloody scenes never once does the story seem to connect together it just jumps around repeatedly this problem is extremely noticeable in the opening scene where cromwell resurrects xusia after telling him that he needs his help he leads the warlock out into daylight but then stabs him and sends him careening off a cliff afterwards wait a minute didn't the plotline say that he needs the help of xusia in order to invade which he cannot do by military force if that is the case why does he dispose of xusia after resurrecting him and why does he manage to take over anyway these questions are just never no never answered in the film another example is that one moment we see talon fighting for his life another moment we see him just about to be crucified during alana's wedding to cromwell and finally at the end instead of settling down with alana he just tells her to wait and then he just rides off in addition to the extremely bloody scenes this uneven plot jumping completely destroys what would have been a great fantasy adventure even some attempts to make it exciting a few fire scenes battle scenes don't work it just completely fails altogether miserably the only good thing about this film is its musical score contributed by david whittaker who had an extremely short music composing career the score is boomy and adventurous powerful and a billion times better than this film is my suggestion steer the hell away from this bloody mess and buy the soundtrack album instead if you can find it ironically though before the film's credits roll there is a message indicating that a sequel tales of the ancient empire would follow to my relief and delight it never got into production because the sword and the sorcerer laid an egg at the box office grossing only million critics were right on in slamming the sword and the sorcerer all right leonard maltin rightfully called it second rate in scripting and acting and film reviews called it a confusing stupid unimaginative unengaging bloodfilled bore i totally agree with these reviews all right and i hope that this piece of will be forgotten about there are far better fantasy movies than the sword and the sorcerer i hope you get a good laugh out of this review but i am not laughing in fact my insults don't even come close to the gruesome sickness that this film gave me throughout its minute running time
negative	this movie stinks although it is professionally crafted and there are some decent performances the plot is so bad it drags the film into the abyss i knew i was in for trouble when during the opening establishment shots we see a detailed of warrant officer paul brenner's john travolta military identification card and it is the wrong color this might seem like a minor detail but anyone who has spent anytime with the military knows that active duty identification cards are green and dependant cards are yellow and what about the senior military officer whose uniform shirt is so wrinkled he looks like he is a recruit on his first day of training or what about when brenner tells a suspect that because he is in the military he doesn't have the right not to answer his questions even though these rights were central to military law well before the miranda decision how hard is it to get someone familiar with the military to check these facts now details like this could be overlooked if the underlying story held up but this story is so full of holes it is painful to sit through for example at the beginning of the film paul brenner an undercover army investigator gets into a gun and knife battle at his houseboat and killing an arms dealer he had been investigating the local police investigating the death are openly hostile to the military and they discover that brenner has been lying to them about the killing but instead of arresting him or at least take him into custody for further questioning they release him duh ultimately brenner gets assigned to investigate the murder and possible rape of the commanding general's daughter a young captain also assigned to the post when brenner finds graphic sex tapes featuring the general's daughter does he use them to generate a suspect list and begin grilling suspects no his instinct is to suppress them because they might be potentially embarrassing eventually brenner discovers that this murder is related to a violent gang rape at west point eight years earlier i won't even go into the totally unbelievable rationale for the army's suppression of this horrendous crime i will just mention one final flaw brenner is investigating a crime that occurred in georgia the rape occurred in west point which is in new york he is under a very tight and totally implausible deadline to solve this case he needs to discuss the rape with a psychiatrist at west point does he phone the doctor no he travels via some unexplained very fast transport to new york to question the psychiatrist in person and then he returns to georgia again by the miracle transport without once worrying about the impact any of this will have on his deadline you have been warned stay away from this one
negative	it was not scary these are the first words that came to mind after it was over when a movie is called not scary aren't words that should be associated with it but that wasn't my only gripe john carpenter is a name associated with cinema as in the intense scares of and prince of or the offbeat action of and from new unfortunately the only thing that is cutting edge about is the level of boredom the movie is able to reach with an anemic plot and special effects carpenter's has barely enough substance to slake the thirst of even the least discerning genre fan the film is at first concerned with a group of roaming vampire slayers led by james woods of all people like some sort of holy they even have their own van the bunch invade and wipe out a nest of vampires in a new mexico shack their method is amusingly innovative the are reeled out with harpoons so they can flare up in the sun like matchsticks to commemorate their victory the loutish band decorates a motel room with hookers and parties the night away their celebration is however as a master vampire named valek ambushes and destroys most of the team woods' jack crow and buddy montoya daniel baldwin escape with their lives along with a woman named katrina sheryl lee although the woman has been bitten montoya and crow decide to keep katrina for her psychic link to the master vampire the rest of the movie is concerned with the boys' hunt for valek thomas ian griffith a freaky marilyn who's on a mission that dates back years along the way they pick up a priest named guiteau tim guinee a character who serves pretty much the same purpose as the jittery cpl upham in private some stuff happens in the middle of the movie but i can't remember most of it because i often found a twitching hair in the corner of the frame more interesting than what was happening on screen finally starts to pick up about minutes into the mix as crow guiteau and montoya assault an abandoned vampire nest only then does the film begin to even resemble a carpenter flick but it's too little too late we get the inevitable final confrontation but it seems tacked on and rather come on we're dealing with master vampire here interestingly last summer's vampire actioner was derived from a comic book and from a novel yet the latter seems more steeped in campy cheesiness than the former a more deliberate superhero flick woods' jack crow spouts glib and strolls away from exploding buildings with that stride and his motive for killing vampires take a wild guess hint a killed his when he was just a at least had decent action and slick stylishness lacks even cheap thrills to mask its plot to make up for this the movie resorts to other shocks such as its generally condescending attitude towards women crow slaps them around for the fun of it and an overplayed contempt for religion crow teases guiteau incessantly about whether his vow of celibacy has made him prone to getting woodies it can be argued that maybe i wanted too much from this movie if not scary and gory i wanted tense relentless and exhausting carpenter's is none of these i can only recommended it for the hardcore carpenter fan for the rest of you looking for a good scare beware is a film with no teeth
negative	perhaps best remembered as the recently departed news anchor on saturday night live who always started the segment with this is the fake news norm macdonald at times could elicit some laughter by blurting out phrases in his raspy voice coated with a condescending attitude his shtick was marked by crassness in this movie for example when his girlfriend says that she's kicking him out because he's been fired from different jobs over the last months he tries to calm the situation by saying maybe you'll feel better after we have some dirty sex this kind of humor can only go so far but certainly can't go the distance in a feature dirty work is nothing more than a sophomoric comedy about two best friends who grow up only physically emotionally they've never outgrown their pubescent years which is somewhat amusingly explored in a beginning flashback although having no apparent real world skills the one thing that these two have always been adept at is getting back at people if the meter maid was unjust in giving you a ticket then dump a bunch of unpopped kernels of corn onto the engine block and watch the car burst apart mitch norm macdonald and sam artie lange need to come up with in a period of two weeks so that sam's dad jack warden can have a heart operation their idea is to start a business where they'll do your dirty work in the funniest scene and possibly the only funny scene of the movie they take advantage of a live television shoot at a nearby used car lot their presence is established but when a real estate developer hires them and then reneges on the payment the two go to work to exact their sordid brand of revenge by default dirty work should treat us to some outrageous revenge plots but it delivers jerky boys level material except for the bit at the used car lot and possibly another episode that involves frat brothers the dirty work is uninspired and becomes about as funny as a prank phone call already weak on material it further spirals itself towards the video store by having jack warden constantly blurt out that he has an unsatisfied libido and needs and also includes a very unfunny chevy chase as a bumbling doctor with a gambling addiction but what's really painfully evident is that norm macdonald has no versatility as an actor relying on his trademark of speaking into his personal recorder and saying note to self note to self learn to fight he says after getting beat up note to self there's always beer he says after hitting rock bottom etc we feel like we're just watching an elongated rehash of his days on saturday night live much like the television show for minutes we get one or two funny bits the rest of the story is just dead space
negative	summer movies are by nature dumb affairs that are usually made for some quick enjoyment and to make money wild wild west the latest will smith affair follows much the same formula except that it is dumber and less enjoying than most summer movies will smith plays jim west a black sheriff with a nice line in sunglasses he is called by president grant kline to go on a mission to find out why top government scientists are disappearing west is paired up with scientist artemus gordon kline again and the two track the missing scientists to a legless mastermind named dr loveless branagh with a zany moustache before i pile on with the many negatives in this sorry affair i'll give it a chance with the positives there's a nice credit sequence the production design by bo welch is pleasing to the eye and the special effects are decent enough there's also a pleasant soundtrack buried deep in the dross are one or two amusing jokes and salma hayek pops up as the female interest which is always nice to see apart from these factors though nothing else in wild wild west works firstly there's little chemistry between smith and kline who appears to be in it purely for the money one would expect zingers passing between the two none arise both of them plod through the below standard plot knowing that there is a pay cheque waiting at the end not even kenneth branagh provides much entertainment although he is over the top the material doesn't present much opportunity for branagh to be truly crazy therefore he just comes across as loud as obnoxious the only enjoyable performance comes from the sexy salma hayek who is given so little screen time it's embarrassing she appears to be in the film to merely show off her body and be ogled at by kline and smith her character also changes at a whim to fit the mechanics of the script and there is no sense of realism about the character the in the film is also very off will smith put a little spin to his daft lines in men in black here not even smith could save the humour on display the script largely boils down to insults that aren't very funny and that barely raise a smirk it's also somewhat racist although it doesn't intend to be with one scene with jim west trying to wisecrack his way out of a lynching and actually says slavery is good to save himself it's not a funny scene and the whole thing comes off rather uncomfortably the film also makes the tragic mistake that a man in this case kline in a dress is automatically unfunny it isn't but the wild wild west makes this joke even more painful to watch through pure ineptness there's also problems with the plot jim west and artemus gordon get caught up in all kinds of sticky situations but the way they get out of them are always unsatisfying and rely purely on luck rather than audience pleasing skill plot elements are introduced into the film and then thrown away just as quickly the main piece of the story a foot mechanical steam driven spider devised by loveless looks rather impressive but there's no particular reason why it should be built why not loveless build a great big tank instead of an ungainly fragile piece of machinery that's just begging to be blown up director barry sonnenfeld always has a breezy look to them with some nice camera tricks but even this is missing from this stilted affair wild wild west could have benefited from sonnenfelds whacked out style of directing but not much of it is evident making this film drag out even more it's a sad thing when credited screenwriters a talented director and a willing star can't make a film work and eventually wild wild west collapses under it's sexist mildly racist unfunny weight
negative	what were they thinking nostalgia for the seventies is bad enough but do we really need an eighties film robbie hart adam sandler used to want to be a rock and roll star but in he's singing at weddings and having a good time a romantic at heart he loves weddings and is just about to get married to his sweetie when she leaves him waiting at the altar his tune changes to love stinks he meets waitress julia drew barrymore who is engaged to a salesman and you know that they are going to get together in fact you know everything that is going to happen during this movie sandler is somewhat adequate in his leading man role but there is no spark barrymore doesn't seem to be able to convey anything other than a pretty face with nothing behind it beauty but no attitude both characters are just there bit parts by steve buscemi and jon lovitz steal the show the eighties are shoved in our face references to deloreans madonna dallas ivana and donald burt and loni and miami vice get old fast the filmmakers must have realized that there wasn't much entertainment to the story and thought they could dazzle the audience with humorous period allusions they're not funny and it doesn't work with change on all fronts accelerating more and more nostalgia appears to have a great appeal but don't you think we could have more than years before we yearn for the past maybe we can look forward to a film next year waxing nostalgically about el nino michael redman has written this column for over years and he knows that nostalgia is not what it used to be
negative	and just when you thought joblo was getting a little soft around the corners not rating anything lower than your standard this movie sucks along comes this cinematic atrocity and he's forced to take out his secret weapon and spray it with a stench so thick even the bravest would think twice about seeing this waste of time yes despite being a third sequel to a successful original movie the latest highlander doesn't seem to have anything going for it oh stinky movie let me count thee ways plot from what i understood a really bad highlander dude comes to the present looking to whack out the nice highlander dudes in order to gain their power and become the mightiest immortal or something along those lines critique a complete and utter mess disjointed incoherent boring corny filled with bad dialogue and that's just the first thirty minutes this film doesn't seem to know what to do with itself it's confusing to anyone who doesn't know the series i include myself in that group and apparently idiotic to those who do know the series i include highlander fan the arrow in that group the film doesn't explain anything about itself it just goes from one inexplicable situation to another one moment they're in the present time the next moment they're in italy in the why who knows what are they talking about no idea flashbacks mixed in with the present mixed in with a few spontaneously cheesy fight sequences every now and again and i even remember seeing one flashback scene which went even further into its own flashback scene hullo confused yet i was and i basically stopped giving a crap about anyone in the film when i realized that neither the writer or director was interested in presenting me with any kind of semblance of a story random swordplay mad dudes showing up in motorcycles in the or were they in the present at that time who knows and to be honest who seriously cares this series should have been shot in the head and put out of its own misery a long time ago but sadly someone at the studio decided that it still had a little life left in it please please for the love of god and all that is holy in the world of and mostly out of respect for those who loved the original film put this series to bed and end it even christopher lambert knew enough to play second fiddle to adrian paul in this one the director also tries to do the best he can with the muddled material but all he could come up with is plenty of action some fight scenes and lots of smoke everywhere and is there anything spectacular about the or fight scenes nope and i think we all could have done without all those zooming lambert face yipes the man is not aging gracefully is he oh boy and i haven't even gotten around to the greatest piece of that i've seen in years the man who plays kell in this movie bruce payne should get a ham trophy for literally chewing up every piece of scenery that he gets near overacting is not a hobby for this guy it's a living he's also very funny not purposely though all in all the movie stinks nuff said
negative	is an insulting slap across the face for any dedicated horror movie fan to pull something like this off you need to have a sense of wit and style with a heavy dosage of humor to back up the process if the fright factor ever declines something like the underground worm thriller had just the perfect mixture of these elements and in return the film was tremendous fun with the notable exception of a wisecracking supporting player mainly plays it's premise for horror judging by the ridiculous premise this was not exactly a wise move the movie attempts to capture the essence of alfred hitchcock's birds' but fails miserably done right it could have been adequately amusing halloween cinema unfortunately is a prime example of a formula movie done terribly terribly wrong the only thing amusing about this festering pile of guano is in how intelligible the filmmakers anticipate their core audience to be i will recite the following paragraph in a manner that will reach the audience of individuals to whom is aimed toward those guys in hollywood have made a movie about bats these bats are not very nice because they eat a lot of people boy are these bats ugly they are infected with this bogus virus that makes them smart they've got big claws and red eyes and they are not very friendly at all a whole bunch of people in texas get killed so a sheriff guy and a scientist lady are brought in to kill the bats they have big guns and other cool things to fight them with but the bats are pretty smart so it's sorta hard to do the bats swoop down and they shoot at them to make they go away for good but no is probably too violent for the film directed by louis morneau should have ventured straight into video stores on the small screen perhaps more fun could have been derived with lower expectations but sitting through this crapper on the big screen is almost awkward although at a few moments it becomes a guilty pleasure the film is poorly written poorly acted and executed with glaring ineptitude even the bats themselves are cheesy and the attack sequences too rushed and jittery to be properly enjoyed the sheriff in the story is emmett kimsey lou diamond phillips who embodies every pathetic stereotype a authority figure usually portrays he chomps on a cigar struts contentedly in his boots etc the scientist is dr sheila casper dina meyer who specializes in flying mammals and is classified as best in her field' meyer uses a lot of technical terms designed to make the movie seem more intellectually capable but everything about dr casper is recycled beyond recognition her memories of how she became hooked on the topic of bats sounds suspiciously like oceanographic student matt hooper's tale of how he became infatuated with sharks in everything revolving around is tired drivel which desperately requires some directorial style or acting capabilities to spruce it up the supporting cast could have been constructed out of straw with voices dubbed in later in fact that may have worked out better in the end take one glance at casper's sidekick jimmy leon and you'll have immediate deja vu he's the exact same humorous buddy caricature from every other movie constructed specifically for timed comic relief unfortunately none of his comic interludes are funny in the role of deranged mad scientist dr mccabe the reliable bob gunton gets cornered with the most hideously idiotic character in the bunch mccabe released two experimental test subjects and the virus spread to other bats the entire town of gallup texas is under attack from an enormous swarm of the creatures but gunton appears to be inconspicuously contemplating something else something like is the damn movie going to be over i just want my money the bats are ugly i must say there's the occasional moment where they look moderately convincing but mainly the swarm is represented in cheesy digital imagery only bits of the bloody action even hint at the campy fun the film could have been but by the absurdly stupid climax it's way too late in the game for a decent recovery characters experiment in slaughtering the bats with gunfire let's explore the logic there is this really a very efficient way to decrease the bat population you could empty an entire clip at the flying winged serpents and not even wound one and after that there are only more of them this kind of behavior represents the regular level of intelligence behind
negative	the most interesting part of can't hardly wait just happens to be not only the most human but for many of us the one part that many of us can easily relate to that is the character of denise lauren ambrose the film's sole sarcastic member who mocks everything that goes on in the film and at one point sits down on a couch and looks totally bored the film wisely holds over this moment nicely showing her alienation in the midst of a large high school party almost too nicely for some members of the audience read me this is basically a mirror of what's going on with them watching this film we sit there wondering why we've even bothered to see a film about a long high school party we probably never felt the desire to go to in the first place i would actually highly recommend this film if it satirized all of this after all this film is filled with a bunch of pathetic stereotypes much of which i went to high school with everyone's here the jock the homecoming queen the nerd and his dominions of trekkies and the alienated wannabe writer the school spirit girl the pothead s the wigger etc etc etc and weirdly enough this film shows them as superficial lame and basically as a bunch of losers except for denise who rolls her eyes at everything and easily becomes the most likable character even before she speaks her yearbook entry something which is done for each main character quotes oscar wilde definite pointers there unfortunately the writers and directors take several major misteps on the way to making this into an admirable and even likable film the film as i said portrays most of its characters as superficial and just totally ignorant to everything however instead of sticking with this perhaps even going a bit further with it they let this lie and actually make these characters into our heroes we follow several of them all a bunch of moronic stereotypes with only a shread of humanity and realism and tries to tell boring and overly melodramatic tales about them as if we actually cared identified with them and if we did we certainly don't want to revisit that state of being here's a quick it's graduation and we follow a bunch of seniors on the last night otherwise known as the american grafitti or to a lesser extent the dazed and confused cliche the formal just followed them as they drove aimlessly the latter did a little bit of that and featured a big outdoor keg party can't hardly wait just opts for a big indoor keg party and a little bit of aimless driving albeit of the brand we follow many people around but mostly we trail preston ethan embry of that thing you do the alienated writer who's been pining over the homcoming queen amanda the totally overrated jennifer love hewitt for the entirety of high school because he thinks they shared a moment their freshman year over a freaking pop tart now that she's broken up with her football player boyfriend mike peter facinelli he decides to go to the party with a note he's written declaring his love for her in the hopes he'll build up the guts to give it to her even though he's leaving for a intensive writing program hosted by none other than kurt vonnegut okay the ingenius vonnegut or some icky noxema spokesperson since that plot is incredibly lame and a track record of what goes on with it wouldn't be able to carry a commercial let alone a feature film and because it's a party there are some more main characters such as william charlie korsmo finally surfacing after dick tracy the nerd and his dominions who has come up with a ridiculous plan to publically sabotage mike who's humiliated him for years but gets too caught up in drinking to do it kenny seth green the wigger who has decided that this party will be where he will finally get laid uh huh and denise the only exceptional character who unfortunately gets stuck in a bathroom don't ask with kenny where the two characters let down their characters and are allowed to follow the laws of plot cliches from point a to point b with nary a bit of characterization involved after awhile ugh the main comparison this film is getting to another film is actually not american grafitti or dazed and confused two films that embraced and ultimately made humans out of many of its high schoolers not to mention were extremely entertaining but to john hughes films of the most notably sixteen candles the big difference in the two is that that film managed to not only embrace but even satirize its main characters and did so equally and in an entertaining fashion this film forgets to satirize its characters and ultimately tells a story about a bunch of uninteresting stereotypes and then says that it's all okay we can't take this film seriously nor can we take this as fun so really what good is it but i will tell you some things i did like i liked the direction except for a couple features like jump cuts it's like an oxymoron and other obscurities generally though elfont and kaplan do have graceful camera movement and even manage to capture an feel to their film from time to time a thing with a note though is too hokey to really be admirable i actually did like seth green for once in about a decade when he played a very young woody allen in radio days his desintegration of his wigger character was almost believable almost and of course lauren ambrose is wonderful as denise the one character we could have used some more of even though it would have changed the entirety of the film however the character of denise really doesn't work with the film when really thought about she's far too witty and realized at least for the first half to belong in this film and whenever she appears she automatically gives everything a delightfully satirical tone she's not just the cynic or the intellectual she's just a very interesting character who provides entertainment even if it further damages other already damaged characters she may ruin the film more but at least when she's on screen we can sit up and think to ourselves well at least we'll be entertained a couple other things that just don't work mike's character who suffers an epiphany throughout the film but in the end acts as though he has forgotten everything too much the sacrificial lamb for the film in general the aimless bitchy driving by preston to try and get over his inability to shack up with amanda give me a break and perhaps the one thing that just doesn't work at all jenna eflman's uncredited cameo as an angel just didn't work but nice try basically the worst thing about this film the real reason i'm giving this such a low rating is because it refuses to give us any fully realized characters and then insists we follow around complete stereotypes from other movies doing things that are inane and unlike anything we'd do we don't feel for these characters because for most of us we aren't stereotypes going through the motions to worn subplots the acid test for high school movies is does it at all capture the feel of what it's portraying the answer for this film is no nice try though
negative	the film may be called mercury rising but that title doesn't describe the trajectory taken by this motion picture a routine thriller that combines government with a cloying and buddy story the hook that is supposed to make mercury rising unique is that the young protagonist is autistic however aside from giving actor miko hughes a chance to win raves for his performance this particular aspect of the film comes across as nothing more than a convenient plot device those expecting to see even a exploration of the condition will be disappointed mercury rising treats autism with the same degree of efficiency that many action thrillers accord to alcoholism the script for mercury rising is exceptionally tiresome and i don't know whether the problem is in the original book simple simon or in the screenplay adaptation but this movie easily exceeds the intangible threshold beyond which a suspension of disbelief is no longer possible once again certain standby plot elements the government conspiracy and the maverick law enforcement agent are recycled and not to good effect while bruce willis can play the action hero as well as anyone in hollywood this particular outing leaves him marooned in situations that are characterized by too little tension and too much nonsense the story begins with a formulaic sequence in which the tough fbi agent with a heart of gold art jeffries bruce willis is confronted with his own failure unable to resolve a hostage crisis in time he is forced to observe as two teenagers are shot to death the event weighs heavily on his conscience and establishes his motivation for protecting old simon lynch miko hughes when he discovers the autistic child hiding in a closet after his parents have been gunned down by the evil hit man who looks like an player soon art and simon are on the run from seemingly everyone fleeing for their lives and bonding at the same time with the evil hit man who looks like an player always just a step behind them along the way they are helped by the best friend who defies orders to help out his buddy chi mcbride and the supporting female who may or may not become a love interest kim dickens why is simon in danger and why were his parents turned into swiss cheese by the evil hit man who looks like an player apparently the government has spent millions of dollars developing an code called mercury to make sure it can't be cracked they do the most intuitive thing possible place a sample of it in a nerds' puzzle magazine of course no one can solve it no one except autistic simon that is when he calls the phone number listed in the solution he gets the nsa as a result the sneering government man alec baldwin decides that simon has to be eliminated for the good of the country of course but he hasn't counted on the tough fbi agent with a heart of gold even though everyone in the audience has it's hard to get worked up about a routine thriller that doesn't do anything exceptionally well and does quite a few things rather poorly for those who are desperate to find elements of this movie to like mercury rising manages to manufacture tension from but even the most exciting scenes such as the one where art and simon are crouched down avoiding passing trains aren't that the climactic struggle is a real affair which leads to a finale that is painful in its obviousness overall director harold becker is constantly struggling and failing to generate even a moment that isn't derivative or obligatory bruce willis' star seems to be fading this is his fourth straight lackluster outing following last man standing the fifth element and the jackal willis isn't terrible but this is the kind of role he can sleepwalk through and often does alec baldwin combining elements of his characters from glengarry glenn ross and malice does some chewing but his performance is surprisingly lacking in menace the film's real star is young miko hughes heather langenkamp's son in wes craven's new nightmare who does as good a job as dustin hoffman playing an autistic individual but is about years younger mercury rising joins the likes of hard rain the replacement killers and u s marshals on the heap of pallid thrillers for those who like action and adventure in the theater this has not been a good year hopefully the advent of summer will change that until then the best choices for bruce willis or any other action hero are on video and if you're determined to see mercury rising check out the morning sky in early may
negative	alcohol and drugs bad not alcohol and drugs good got it just when you though you've seen enough of brave young women dealing with their personal problems on screen be that insanity or alcoholism hollywood releases yet another one of those emotional stories about finding yourself' days' is practically a visualization of the usual true stories that people are so proudly retelling at gwennie sandra bullock is a young woman who drowned her problems in alcohol for her life was a big party with no beginning and no end this behavior has of course estranged her from her only sister and from life itself her existence is filled with endless parties and comic episodes such as when she got drunk with boyfriend jasper dominic west borrowed her sister's elizabeth perkins wedding limo and crashed it into someone's house this time she had to pay with a day stay in rehab here she must realize that the only thing that can save her is her is redemption willpower and commitment most important she must realize her place and direction in life and understand that her life is not just a big party the film itself feels like a rehab program whining and moaning about things that have been said and written a million times it is a classic cautionary tale an echo a big fat and expensive clich a shadow of last year's interrupted' which likewise followed in the footsteps of great masterpieces like cuckoo's nest' and director betty thomas has stuffed her film with so many failures and errors that it is impossible to sum them all up in one review for some paranoid reason she decided to make her film a jokes and funny characters almost deliberately delude you from the really important and complex issues alienation despair terror confusion loneliness and what awesome power and strength of character it actually takes to overcome all that and become clean isn't that what the filmmakers wanted to show in the first place even the transition process itself seems like a walk in the park betty thomas' idea of hell is a cozy homey place where happy alcoholics and cheerful drug addicts are not allowed to smoke drink or watch tv after it is simply too light simplified and unnecessary sweet to be taken seriously but the worst thing about it is that it actually thinks that it is saying something of significance that it actually tries to educate the audience with its extremely predictable and primitive story all you need to do is just say no says dr cornell steve buscemi as if was the revelation of the century and that's how simple it is in fact i would rather watch in space' once again than return to days' as for acting it's acceptable but hardly anything else for sandra bullock it's an opportunity to demonstrate that she is capable of more than she handles her part with a surprising professionalism and ease that certainly saves the film from being a complete flop dominic west shines as the source of gwenie's devilish temptations but elizabeth perkins' and steve buscemi's great talents are wasted on unnoticeable and shallow characters although intellectually interrupted' was a greater achievement days' is superior in its visual aspect there are some nice flash back sequences and occasionally impressive pacing but the overall technical aspect of this film is on the ground floor the most important thing is that we've seen it before and it was a lot better and sober' when i laugh' a man loves a woman' las vegas' and many other stronger films were made about the same issues so what's the point in other words days' doesn't contribute to the moviemaking business on any level if you're caught in a snowstorm or bolts of lightning fall from the sky and you're standing in front of the movie theatre you might as well go in and watch days' under all other circumstances stay away because this film equals and minutes lost
negative	capsule combine one quart of raiders of the lost ark a dash of a jackie chan movie sans jackie two teaspoons of and swordplay and a dollop of cgi simmer for minutes yields zilch the phantom is a depressing and tired retread of so many earlier better movies that after the mark i started cataloguing them out loud it's hard to make a good movie that doesn't simply recycle its predecessors and i've seen movies that even at least did the recycling gracefully the phantom allegedly based on the comic of the same name doesn't even bother to be graceful it's a stupid and incompetent movie in too many ways to list but i'll try the film opens up with a prelude sequence that looks like it was slashed to ribbons in the editing and then given a heavy to compensate for whatever got thrown out we go from there to a jungle sequence that i swear to god recycles the scene from raiders of the lost ark possibly even right down to the moment where indy wrenched open the door and slung one of the drivers out into the brush and then goes on to rip off the scene from sorcerer as well sorcerer as you may well remember was a remake of a french movie the wages of fear in which a bunch of lowlifes were paid piles of money to drive a truck loaded with nitro through horrible jungle terrain both versions of that movie were far more interesting than this flick but i've got my job to do so back to the salt mines we go anyway the cinematic theft doesn't stop there or at least the lack of inspiration there isn't a single thing here we haven't seen and it's not given to us in a way that remotely evokes our interest we have where's my list a bad girl a tough good girl a secret cave hideaway which seems inspired more by dr no than anything else a boardroom meeting that drips with greed and venality magical artifacts of terrible power and tagawa wasted in another stupid role where he gets to wear a fu manchu mustache and sneer a lot and generally humiliate himself what else is there the plot is a waste of time the sets alternate between big but hokey and tiny and still hokey there are lines in the script that are just begging to be and i'm sure once mike and the get the cash they'll stick it on their sked the only thing in the movie worth noting is billy zane he's a good actor and he tries very hard even when the script is sending him down one dead alley of a scene after another all i can say is that i pray this isn't the beginning of the end for him although it sure looks like the final nail in the coffin for the movie
negative	a new entry in the revisionist history genre of filmmaking dick suggests that two teenage girls are the cause of the uncovering of the nation's biggest presidential scandal kirsten dunst and michelle williams star betsy and arlene who while trying to deliver a fan letter from arlene's watergate hotel room accidentally stumble across g gordon liddy played by harry shearer and the infamous when they recognize liddy later on during a white house field trip they are ushered into a conference room questioned as to what they know and leave as official presidential dog walkers the girls manage to unwittingly uncover every bit of the watergate scandal while performing their duties but have no clue as to what they are getting involved with when they discover that nixon another performance by dan hedaya who actually favors nixon slightly unlike anthony hopkins has been abusive to checkers the presidential dog thanks to the conversations that he always recorded they quit and become disillusioned during a prank phone call the girls make to woodward and bernstein events are set into motion that eventually lead to the president's resignation this film starts off promisingly with an aged woodward and bernstein arguing with each other on an obvious larry talk show featuring a cameo by french stewart about revealing the identity of deep throat from there we are subjected to bodily function humor and just about every bad dick joke one can derive from this type of supposed comedy at one point the girls are having to scream over a high school band playing on the steps of the lincoln memorial the band manages to stop right as dunst screams you have to stop letting dick run your life much to the horror of everyone standing within earshot several other variations on this wordplay surface all throughout the film if this movie had been smarter i would have been less likely to fault it's juvenile bathroom humor but it's not the film was apparently made for relatively younger people because every major player in the watergate scandal is introduced and shoved down the audience's throat in the least subtle way possible i don't recall oliver stone's nixon having to pander to it's audience but of course that film wasn't a comedy aimed squarely at a film going audience the only redeeming thing about this movie is it's remarkable supporting cast i wanted to see more of ferrell and mcculloch's woodward and bernstein those two characters are the sole basis for my rating i wish they had been given more screen time but unfortunately they are only relegated to the final their constant bickering and fighting over trying to get the story are a major highlight especially mcculloch's constant thwarting of ferrell's attempts to gather information from the girls who in the course of the narrative are revealed as deep throat so named thanks to an ill planned trip to a porno theater by betsy's brother the other members of the cast are excellent in their portrayals of their particular characters but are given nothing to work with i'd like to see the same cast portray these characters in a script more suited towards their comedic abilities as for the two leads dunst and williams can definitely do better they come off as what could best be described as romy and michele the early years in this particular film a highly dubious distinction at best stay through the first half of the end credits though to see an interesting scene involving dunst and williams suggestively sucking on lollipops emblazoned with the title of the movie an excellent idea marred by poor execution dick could have been a great movie less of the juvenile humor and more of the smarter comedy displayed by the woodward and bernstein scenes could have made this film a wonderful satire of the nixon presidency as seen through the eyes of two naive fifteen year olds as it stands though dick offers nothing but what filmmaker kevin smith so accurately defines as dick and poopie jokes and that to me does not make a funny movie 
negative	words i thought i'd never write the sequel to urban legend lacks the grace wit and power of the original put the gun to my head pull the trigger and put me out of my misery better yet put the horror genre out of its misery when you've finished watching urban legends final cut you'll share my same grim point of view thanks to the horrible acting terrible script and ridiculous directing which has become all too common today urban legends final cut is a smorgasbord of stolen movie ideas mainly from the blair witch project and scream fabulous people with perfect teeth and skin one creepy film school and a dog eating a freshly removed kidney from one of the movie's hapless victims urban legends delivers a story about a bunch of film students working on their thesis films to win the coveted hitchcock award which guarantees the winner a director deal in hollywood one female filmmaker jennifer morrison the freaky dead girl from stir of echoes writes a fiction script based on a serial killer who kills his victims according to urban legend tales suddenly her entire crew starts getting bumped off with homicides but the bodies are always missing and she is often the only witness to the killings the killer wears a fencing mask and a long black overcoat looking like a scorned olympian out to avenge his defeat in sydney why this is scary is never explained of course the golden rule of sequels is that there must be least one recurring character for continuity's sake urban legends has one minor recurring character from the original who we never cared about anyway the security guard of all people the other central problem is that this character has already seen the urban legend killings once before but she's utterly clueless about what's going on around her call it suspension of disbelief this film is also a prime example of how horror films are now completely dead in the water the last decent horror film was the blair witch project and that seemed more like a snuff film than fiction the stalking killer with crazy motivation has become a tired clich as everyone seems to have forgotten real horror is not about what is seen but about what is unknown
negative	godzilla is the ultimate culmination of the who cares about plot summer movie a loose remake of the classic japanese monster movie godzilla king of the monsters which is itself pretty thin in the story department roland emmerich and dean devlin's disaster flick has been written with the brain dead in mind the script isn't just dumbed down it's lobotomized godzilla lives and dies on special effects alone presumably the primary target group for this film is teenage boys the demographic most likely to shell out repeatedly to see the same images of carnage that's not to say that females and other age groups are immune to the special effects seduction they're just not as readily susceptible this is the third straight movie in a row where emmerich and devlin have demonstrated that a mastery of visuals is far more important for making money than the ability to write and direct for actors stargate was a financial success independence day was a runaway hit and with godzilla already drowning in hype and merchandising before it even opens it's virtually guaranteed at least million nice numbers for a film that could have been penned by a grade school kid godzilla isn't completely without merit although it is close there's a certain visceral thrill inherent in watching the giant lizard rip his way through manhattan but it wears off quickly frankly while the special effects are competent they're not all that stunning there's nothing new here it's jurassic park meets aliens with a little independence day thrown in for bad measure maybe it will require george lucas and his new star wars movie to take visuals to the next level godzilla never really pushes the envelope preferring to remain within a comfort zone the imagination of monster movies like king kong has been replaced by a crass formulaic approach which disallows creativity how disturbing is it to know that godzilla has been chosen to close the cannes film festival worst of all godzilla isn't even exciting with the possible exception of a mildly enjoyable car chase near the end there isn't a sequence in this film that raises the pulse even the scenes with dozens of aircraft attacking the monster are so devoid of tension and suspense that they are independence day may have been dumb but it was full of adrenaline moments capable of getting the audience involved in the action in this aspect of its production as in so many others godzilla is lacking actually part of the problem is that we're never sure who we're supposed to be rooting for the green monster with an attitude or the humans trying to stop him the plot such as it is can be summed up rather simply after sinking a few ships and leaving some footprints on tropical islands godzilla shows up in the big apple he does some of the usual tourist things stops by madison square garden visits the chrysler building goes on a walk through central park and takes the subway in the process he knocks over a few buildings and steps on countless cabs but he never has trouble with traffic jams on hand to stop him is an elite u s army unit led by a slightly military man kevin dunn and a biologist named nick tatopoulos who has a theory about godzilla in his opinion the big guy is actually a lizard grown to enormous proportions as a result of the radiation given off by french atomic bomb tests in the south pacific in nick's words godzilla is a mutated aberration an incipient creature the first of its kind as luck would have it nick's old girlfriend audrey maria pitillo is a reporter based at a new york tv station along with her cameraman friend animal hank azaria she decides to follow nick around as he trails godzilla then just when the military has rejected nick's theory about why godzilla is in new york a member of the french secret service jean reno recruits him for a special assignment instead of stomping around tokyo this time godzilla has chosen new york city unfortunately manhattan has been destroyed so many times in recent disaster movies independence day deep impact armageddon that it's becoming boring the whole tradition of monsters roaming around the city started with king kong but the big ape was only about feet tall he could climb the empire state building at ten times that height godzilla would be more likely to knock it over godzilla contains a few lame attempts at humor there's an ongoing feud between animal and his wife that plays like material an unfunny and repetitive gag about how no one can pronounce nick's last name properly and a rather tame attack on film critics roger ebert and gene siskel both of the popular personalities have alter egos in the film ebert the mayor of new york is played by michael lerner and gene lorry goldman is his campaign manager ebert's slogan is not surprisingly thumbs up for new york the stuff is amusing the first time it's used but after a while it grows tiresome and although the characters don't serve any real purpose they keep popping up godzilla is saddled with an unimpressive cast this is largely because emmerich doesn't want to risk a human performance upstaging his lizard that's not to say that matthew broderick and jean reno aren't capable of good performances both have done their share of solid acting in the past but they aren't names then again considering the quality of the writing even pacino and deniro would have been pressed to shine maria pitillo dear god plays the love interest and hank azaria great expectations is on hand to present what is supposed to be comic relief ultimately it doesn't really matter what i or any other critic for that matter have to say about the movie tristar has assumed that godzilla like all summer event motion pictures is pretty much it may also be those who want to see the movie will see it no matter what i write or their friends say so when i go on record to assert that godzilla is one of the most idiotic blockbuster movies of all time it's like spitting into the wind emmerich and devlin are master illusionists waving their wands and mesmerizing audiences with their smoke and mirrors it's probably too much to hope that some day will wake up and realize that they've been had
negative	recently one night a young director named baz luhrmann couldn't sleep he tumbled out of bed and moved over to the television where he watched mtv for an hour then he moved to his kitchen where he spent the same amount of time eating spoiled food then he took down a volume of shakespeare's work and read it cover to cover never really paying attention to the words or plot and then as a climax he took out his video camera and pressed the on button the result william shakespeare's romeo juliet the worst film ever made and a complete failure though to be fair an interesting complete failure the idea at the film's core is to make shakespeare appealing to the crowds this is done by moving the camera around at a rapid rate so that we can't see what is going on and filming the dialogue in voice over and shooting leonardo dicaprio like a calvin klein model and making the frame go still while flashing the character's name at the bottom and filming long tedious action sequences in slow motion i mean man this is the dude however i've seen terrible films that are fun to watch examples are batman and robin and the island of doctor moreau that rule doesn't apply here this is a film that takes itself seriously that is it's major fault another problem was pointed out by my friend alex who was singing songs by leonard bernstein throughout the original play is a powerful piece of work because the author remained neutral and didn't take sides here it's clear that we are supposed to side with romeo just look at the way they film him from the begining he's our hero and this doesn't work and dicaprio's awful performance doesn't help luhrmann never decides if he wants to entertain us or enlighten us the result is a mess you can feel him striving to be something he isn't he tries to pull of a mix in which drag queens are filmed from purposefully arty angles he tries very hard key word tries oh look he's filming above water action from below pretty what does it represent why do people do ugly things i scrambled away from my tv set feeling guilty as if i could never read the play again and keep a straight face
negative	in times of crisis people are driven to desperate measures of course what constitutes a crisis differs from person to person what may be a disastrous situation for one may be seen as a challenge to another as deepak chopra is known to say it's not the ride it's the rider unfortunately is not always the reaction to problems wall street wheeler dealer steven taylor michael douglas is a man with troubles he's sunk his money in illegal financial activities and it's blown up in his face in a matter of days he will lose it all his wife emily gwyneth paltrow is a un interpreter and is not happy with her life either her marriage is cold and unfulfilling unknown to her her new lover david shaw viggo mortensen is not only a painter but an with a history of bilking wealthy women of their money emily is a prime target she's worth over million steven's solution to his predicament is to offer david half a million to kill his wife the artist accepts and the movie is underway drawing from frederick knott's play and loosely based on hitchcock's dial m for murder this is typical of summer releases all style and no substance and there's really not much style director andrew davis the accomplished witness and other films has made exactly the wrong choices at almost every turn douglas and paltrow have both shown us that they are skillful actors in previous films mortensen showed promise in the past here all three are walking uninterestingly through their roles with oddly waxen faces the only person who shows any sense of life is david suchet as new york detective mohamed karaman he's only long enough to make you think that there might be a likable person in the film and then he disappears the first concern of a suspense film is to create suspense surprises are important in this movie the audience keeps waiting for something to happen and nothing ever does nearly every event is telegraphed in advance on this object or that action and it's easy to guess what's going to happen as the film plods towards its inevitable conclusion you keep expecting a plot twist to make the movie worthwhile it's a hopeless quest the story doesn't make much sense steven's wife is loaded even with unfriendly relations you'd think that he could have talked to her about his difficulty rather than deciding to kill her when he does decide on the dire plan he makes an unreasonable choice if you were going to hire someone to kill your wife would your first choice be her lover no matter how sleazy he is i would think there might be a chance that he would turn down the opportunity why would steven plan the murder as a in their apartment why not just take her out as she was walking to david's loft in a bad neighborhood while deciding among the numerous summer films you might do well to skip this one you'll find more suspense than this movie offers by watching the weather channel
negative	virus is a monster movie without a monster any movie with a hurdle that large to overcome had better be pretty damn good otherwise sadly virus does not deliver on any level the movie opens with the russian space station mir about to transmit something we never find out what to a big boat with lots of satellites on it sudddenly a wave of colorful lightning comes flying through space and winds up destroying mir and using it to transmit itself to the aforementioned big boat cut to seven days later we meet donald sutherland and his band of seafaring vultures see they spend all their time sailing around looking for ships to rescue and then collect the reward money at least i think that's what they do along with many other things in the film their reason for being out in the middle of the ocean isn't really explained so they stumble upon this big boat with lots of satellites on it and decide to haul it back to russian waters the only problem is the crew starts disappearing and turning into borg yes borg complete with the red laser beam in place of an eye apparently this alien lifeform can only survive if inside something electrical so it creates machines and uses humans for spare parts blah blah blah i could go on forever describing the ludicrous plot but i won't suffice it to say the most original thing about this movie is having donald sutherland play an irish man everything else in this movie has been taken from other better movies for example many of the machines resemble those found in the japanese movie iron man and the plot is right out of aliens the funny thing is i was actually expecting to enjoy this movie i have a soft spot for cheesy monster movies like last years deep rising but virus as i mentioned earlier doesn't even have a monster it just has a big pile of circuits and wires and expects the audience to fear this ridiculous looking contraption virus is the type of movie that really makes you wonder what the screenwriter was thinking about when he wrote it besides the lame monster it's chock full of dialogue that no real person would ever say and situations that no real person would ever allow themselves to get into for example there is a scene late in the movie in which one of the characters actually attempts to negotiate with the alien now i don't know about you but if i came upon a lifeform that viewed mankind as a virus to be eliminated i doubt that i would attempt to reason with it that makes about as much sense as a baby squirrel calmly asking a fierce predator to spare his life finally virus isn't scary the least the filmmakers could have done was to make the movie just a little scary as it is it's about as frightening as a box of cookies skip virus if it's a cool monster movie you want rent the far superior and the granddaddy of this genre aliens
negative	dr alan grant sam neill jurassic park is becoming disillusioned paleontology is no longer the sexy science it once was since the ingen corporation cloned his subject matter his lectures bring people interested in his adventures on isla nubla rather than his research and funding dollars are drying up when the kirbys william h macy fargo tea leoni the family man ask him to be their guide for an anniversary flyover of isla sorna the notorious site b of the lost world he's disdainful but once they wave their checkbook he reconsiders however the kirbys haven't given dr grant their real agenda in jurassic park iii of course we the audience have been tipped off given that the film begins by showing us eric trevor morgan the patriot a young boy and ben mark harelik election going for a paragliding adventure off that same island that goes awry and looks like cheesy rear projection grant's established back home with a new right hand man billy brennan alessandro nivola love's labour's lost on site at a dig in montana sorely lacking funds he also pays a visit to old flame dr ellie sattler laura dern jurassic park now married to another with a young son who calls grant dinosaur man' apparently for the sole purpose of dredging her up again for the film's poorly imagined finale grant takes billy along on the kirbys trip which is really an illegal gambit to save their son that young paraglider the couple aren't millionaires making grant's check bogus and they're separated as well eric was with amanda's new boyfriend not that that makes much sense meaning we're in for some gooey family dynamics while waiting for the dino dining the kirbys hired hands and obvious bait are a threesome led by mr udesky michael jeter the gift didn't anyone consider that casting michael jeter and william h macy together and not having them be related was a little odd as directed by joe johnston october sky jumanji spielberg only produced this one from a risible script by peter buchman and the election team of alexander payne jim taylor jurassic park iii is nothing more than a quickie monster flick with a couple of new dinos a spinosauraus which goes head to head with the and pteranodons the plot as it were is a series of coincidences combined with extreme leaps of faith and a trifecta of stupid cell phone tricks the effects are no longer new and as shot by television cinematographer shelly johnson rather murky looking at times film editing by robert dalva october sky was presumably done by machete to keep this down to a minute run time i know of no other reason to explain the ridiculous ending which features the survivors confronting a pack of raptors then being saved by the most ludicrous of logic jumps within a few minutes music by don davis just repeats john williams' original themes while neill and young morgan attempt to inject some humor and humanity into the proceedings the rest of the cast are plodding unexceptional jurassic park iii will probably provide some quick entertainment for those who go into it knowing what to expect the same crowd who maybe liked the lost world jurassic park
negative	barb wire pamela anderson lee's first foray into films highlights the fact that her only talent lies in her silicone enhanced assets being the only notable member of the cast the camera lingers lustily o n her body at every opportunity making her character's catch line don't call me babe sound very ironic indeed from the very opening of the movie we are treated to a striptease routine from anderson ending in her hurling her stiletto smack between the eyes of a lusty male who happened to call her babe throughout the movie there is ample footage of enormous breasts and cleavage if not of anderson's then at least of the female extras this alone is enough to retitle the movie babe wire for a plot barb wire rehashes the casablanca storyline it is the middle of the second american civil war and barb wire a former resistance fighter runs a joint in steel harbour called hammerhead known for attracting resistance fighters an d characters of all sorts the bar attracts the attention of the government forces who appear dressed in uniforms in between bashing up helpless males and showing off her trademark breasts barb wire has to help a former lover and his wife get to the airport on the other side of the town past the areas and to freedom even the airport looks like the one in casablanca except that the plane in the background is a modern private jet there are hardly any significant moments in this film and one gets the impression that it was designed for young teenagers familiar with the dark horse comics version of barb wire if anything one leaves the film with the confirmation that anderson di d not do her own stunts who could fight and jump in a skimpy strapless leather top and yet keep her breasts from spilling out only a stuntwoman not pamela anderson lee
negative	humanities quest for knowledge never ends so a team of scientists and travel to the amazon to search for a legendary indian tribe the party consists of anthropologist steven cale eric stoltz and the camera team consisting of terri flores jennifer lopez danny rich ice cube gary dixon owen wilson denise kahlberg kari wuhrer and warren westridge jonathan hyde early on their journey they meet paul sarone jon voight whose boat is stuck on the shore they agree to give him a ride to the next village he claims to know the area well and can be useful locating the native tribe very soon their friendliness backfires on the group because sarone turns out to be a snake hunter without scruples who only wants to catch a giant anaconda and sell it to a zoo we don't have to wait too long for the giant snake she just had a panther hors d'oevre and now is looking for the main course our heroes paddle around in the amazonas as if it were the pool in their own backyard no wonder giant animals mistake their splashing for a dinner bell our anaconda is a polite one and swallows the first victim in one big gulp enjoy so much for the first attempt to catch her but who would want to catch a giant snake with a fishing pole our villain sarone shows his soft side when he stops terri from shooting the snake too bad that anaconda is just about to strangle another member of the expedition one by one she goes after the others eric stoltz is stung by a giant wasp right in the beginning and is mercifully unconcious for the rest of the adventure the rest of the crew keeps entertaining the viewer although not the way the makers of the movie had planned however the scenes without the anaconda are rather boring whenever the leading lady shows up we're in for a laugh the snake reminds us of a favorite character of a famous animated movie even if she should be an monster her attacks always follow the same plan one last hypnotic look she's looking at you kid then she speedily wraps herself around her victim and starts to gush it down mostly we don't see the act of devouring but she looks nice when she wiggles away with her bulging middle part whoever did the special effects on this movie may have wanted to go to a zoo first and study some real snakes maybe then the anaconda model would have looked more real the animatronics are somewhat more believable but that didn't work for the strangling scenes don't go see the movie for the they are everything but the viewer who likes to watch the end credits will see to surprise that a snake expert was a consultant for the team we may doubt though that he has ever seen the final result of his work a well known american science magazine is also mentioned in the credits but i will refrain from naming it here to avoid further damage to its reputation the majority of viewer will have left the theater as soon as the credits start rolling anyway what kind of audience is the target group for this movie hard to say this can't be a serious horror movie or can it see for yourself
negative	absolute power the new film produced and directed by clint eastwood attempts to be a thriller set in the world of hypocritical presidents and their murderous political staff it is about as thrilling as a lecture on the mating habits of the south american grasshopper one can only wonder how an utterly absurd script like the one written by william goldman could have ever interested eastwood not only is the plot unbelievable and contrived but even the writing itself lacks any consistency or intelligence continually underestimating the audience the film gives us information we already know or dont even need details essential to the story are so improbably convenient they are annoying like why would two unprepared secret service men carry two goggles in their car oddly enough the initial setup for absolute power offers interesting possibilities a masterful played by clint eastwood witnesses the murder of the wife of a powerful millionaire played by e g marshall while robbing one of marshalls mansions he is forced to hide in the bedrooms vault there through a mirror he sees the wife and another man engage in passionate foreplay their game of love quickly turns into a violent struggle as the man starts beating the woman in self defense the woman grabs a and stabs the man in the elbow she raises her arm to stab again when she is fatally shot by two secret service men the man he is the president of the united states of america where does the film go wrong it cannot be the acting clint eastwood ed harris and gene hackman as the president give but decent performances the cinematography is sufficient wild and erratic during action sequences dark and mysterious during psychologically suspenseful scenes and calm and warm during dramatic dialogue even the music is not as bombastic as it usually tends to be in the genre the fault clearly lies in the screenplay and the screenplay alone while setting up a story about misuse of power about the true possessors of that power and about intrigue and it does not resolve it not one buildup of suspense is resolved by an exciting climax rather the tense situations are left dangling at the end giving the viewer an uneasy sense of incompleteness an example of this is a very promising and tense buildup of a scene in an attempt to arrest clint eastwood the police have set up a trap at a small restaurant police officers are everywhere incognito of course at the same time not one but two hit men are preparing to kill clint eastwood when he arrives all three parties are unaware of each others presence this scene is tremendously exciting and the audience is wondering how clint eastwood who might suspect this is a trap will get himself out of this difficult position he will probably have a brilliant plan involving ingenious preparations however when he arrives at the trap both hit men miss how convenient and in the confusion eastwood simply walks away the buildup of this scene took about ten minutes ten minutes of close ups of the hit men loading their weapons intercut with the police preparing for the trap the scene was resolved in less than seconds parallel to the story line of catching the real killer is a cliche emotional tale about the estranged relationship between father eastwood and his daughter the daughter blames her father for never being there for her because he was either in jail or robbing a house somewhere of course their relationship takes a turn for the better during the adventure and they end up a happy family again it is commendable that absolute power tries to deviate from the mainstream suspense film by giving room for a dramatic subplot however trying is simply not enough the second story line should be subtle original and preferably unpredictable everything this film is not how could a screenplay like absolute power ever get the funding to be produced how could eastwood who has successfully produced and directed many outstanding films such as the brilliant unforgiven ever believe in a project like this one i am sad to say that my respect for the has diminished substantially due to this film director quentin tarantino once said i can make a good movie out of any bad script director clint eastwood obviously cannot
negative	ever feel you're spending your whole life on the net ouch eating breathing and excreting web sites that your most meaningful relationships are being formed on the net that you get your best sex on the net if director hal salwen could shoot an entire movie of characters typing at their computers he would as it is he settles for characters talking on the phone denise calls up is a movie for and about the electronic generation where characters are too caught up with their work and insecurities prefer to live out their relationships and fantasies on the phone it's a satire and a sometimes funny one about how we let handphones and answering machines run our lives the problem denise calls up is a movie about an idea a darn good one but still an idea and despite salwen's attempt at plots and despite some genuinely funny moments you can predict the movie's outcome within the first fifteen minutes you get the drift after a series of shots of characters explaining over the phone why they all couldn't make it for a party nobody is going to be meeting anybody in this film they would rather be talking on the phone here's salwen's plot while all the characters are in a dysfunctional telefixated limbo loud quirky stranger denise calls up martin to announce that she is pregnant with his child courtesy of the sperm he donated to the local bank as martin progresses from slamming the phone on her to long phone conversations over the baby's name his friends and his friends' friends get involved courtesy of and in the tigher and more tantalizing barbara and jerry are set up on a blind date that neither turns up for both profess to have too complicated schedules to ever meet but they get it going over the phone with repeated phone sex comes a glitch what if the other person is simply faking it denise calls up scores with some inspired moments mousy barbara metamorphoses into a vamp over her cordless everyone shares the excitement of denise's delivery through a conference call to her handphone and barbara's best friend gale is killed in a car accident while taling animatedly into another friend's answering machine as gale's aunt recounts her cordless was knicked into her ear and lodged in her brain but these moments are not enough to sustain the movie the pace sags the dialogue drags and not much acting appears to be required of the and the ending is literally a as expected everyone is too chicken to turn up for the party frank throws in gale's memory despite promising over the phone that they will we get the point the movie appears to be intent on flogging its statement until they have it coming out of your ears pun intended there's even a on the movie's web site where you can win cellular phones as if we haven't had enough of these things already watch the movie only if you find it philosophy compelling enough for a earful the flying inkpot's rating system wait for the video a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
negative	book should have remained in shadows book of shadows blair witch a film review by michael redman copyright by michael redman certain things in our lives are inevitable death sorrow love heartbreak pain joy we expect these events we know they're going to happen and some we even look forward to it's part of the human condition we have also become accustomed to inevitable occurrences in our society as we near the fall election several of them are hitting us in the face politicians exaggerate their own importance our side is always right theirs is always wrong in the end voters are usually forced to choose the lesser of two whocares in hollywood the one indisputable inevitable is that if a film makes big money there will be a sequel even if the original story doesn't merit one even if the first film is complete in itself even if success is a fluke the blair witch project was made with a budget of and exploded on the screen raking in huge profits the concept was brilliant the filmmakers created a remarkable buzz that the story might be real the film itself was even more convincing the movie be authentic why else would such amateurish footage be on the big screen the first film caught lightning in a bottle the sequel proves you can't pour that old lightning into a new bottle you have to give this effort some credit it would have been easy to have made the same movie again with a new group of kids it would have been easy but of course it wouldn't have worked instead book of shadows acknowledges the first film as a movie and concentrates on the hysteria following its release it's a great scheme and possibly the only entertaining way to do a sequel unfortunately it doesn't work either five kids spend the night in the woods at the scene of the first film weird stuff happens and they retreat to an old factory where one of them lives even weirder stuff happens some people die there's blood and knives and none of the characters have a lick of common sense while supposedly doing serious research the group sets up a circle of surveillance cameras in the ruins of the old house in the woods and vows to stay alert all night awaiting a visitation then they proceed to get totally trashed on drugs and alcohol and party down with very loud very obnoxious heavy metal music it's a bad plan the cast shows some early promise a couple is doing research on a blair witch book the tour guide is a former mental patient turned ebay aficionado a goth amazon princess adds a bit of comedic relief the obligatory hot babe is the spiritual cinematic descendent of the cute hippie chick the cute rock and roll chick and the cute disco chick the cute wiccan chick the first film's unaccomplished actors came across as real people in a real situation because hours and hours of video were shot during days in the woods this time these unaccomplished actors just come across as unaccomplished actors there's not one character you care about when they start shouting for no reason although what passes for a plot starts out with a solid idea it's ruined by poor execution the to one of the most successful horror films ever is nothing more than a bad slasher movie they're trapped in an old big weird house they stupidly separate into various rooms there are strange noises they see scary apparitions and people disappear ever see this movie seasoned documentary director joe berlinger should know better the film features mostly cheap tricks and unnecessary gore for a storyline filled with surprises it's oddly predicable the blair witch project was a rare triumph of style over substance the book of shadows is a triumph of tedium over promise
negative	warren beatty diane keaton goldie hawn and gary shandling star as a pair of married couples whose complacent lives are about to be shaken up in director peter chelsom's version of the classic romantic screwball comedy in town country the drawing room farce of the dealt with sexual innuendo and relied on wit and a great deal of commotion and noise to place the viewer in the thick of the duplicitous romantic action back then impossibly wealthy scions of society with too much free time would get themselves wrapped up in all sorts of sexual peccadilloes with spouses and lovers only to have everything come out all right in the end see the philadelphia story for a great farce town country has the impossibly wealthy protagonists with too much free time the kind of people that have jobs but never seem to work and sexual misconduct on several levels but there is almost no life to original script by michael laughlin and buck henry and this is downfall there is obviously a great deal of hollywood talent in front of and behind the camera involved in town country but without a likable or at least interesting story to carry through their efforts it is all for naught and that's what we get here naught porter stoddard beatty is a new york architect with a very good life indeed his marriage to ellie diane keaton appears on the surface to be perfect but there are cracks just below this pristine surface his wife is suspicious of his whereabouts his kids don't need him and his best friends griffin garry shandling and mona goldie hawn are in the midst of a divorce porter tries to get control of his life before it is too late but like a man fighting against quicksand his struggle just sinks him deeper at the mark of town country i asked myself what's the point i wasn't entertained i laughed three times over silly little pratfalls and spent most of the film marking time the end warren beatty wanders around with his character in a bewildered fog making problems for himself by thinking with a part of his anatomy other than his head keaton's ellie is an empty headed flake who can't see the obvious as porter screws around on her and as you get to know them who would want friends like griffin and mona the supporting cast is given nothing to do and sometimes does harm to the film given the material they are forced to use nastassja kinski plays a cellist with whom porter has a fling the actress who has eerily failed to age over the years is miscast as the musician and the character doesn't belong anyway jenna elfman is a sweet but smart ditz who joins porter and griffin on one of their tacked on misadventures andie macdowell is absolutely painful to watch as a wealthy heiress is there any other kind in this movie who comes on to porter the saving grace is a pair of quirky perf's by charlton heston and marian seldes as macdowell's very strange parents glib rationalization of infidelity like if he doesn't speak english it doesn't count are a staple for the screenplay the morality of the film seems to be if you can get away with it go for it the cast of characters are mostly people you wouldn't want to know never mind befriend the actors do their best but are hamstrung by the weak material helmer chelsom who made the outstanding offbeat comedy funny bones is mired in the mess of a script and never puts his imprint on town country the production values are high as one expects from a big budget hollywood film but the opulent sets by caroline hanania lavish wardrobes by molly maginnis and photography by william fraker cannot save town country the film has had a long list of production and distribution problems and it might have been better for me anyway if hollywood just said no to this movie i give it a d
negative	the crown jewel of irwin allen disaster movies the poseidon adventure features an cast including gene hackman and ernest borgnine spouting some of the most laughable dramatic dialogue in movie history while trapped on a cruise ship the story begins on the u s s poseidon's big new year's cruise where we are introduced to the ensemble of people who will soon be the only passengers left alive let's see there's the new age preacher hackman who advises people to pray to that part of god within yourself there's the borgnine who busted a hooker stella stevens six times then married her there's the hippie singer there's got to be a morning after who turns to the company of a lonely man red buttons once her brother is killed and to round out the group the elderly couple jack albertson and shelley winters who live aboard the ship the beautiful teenage girl and her brother who are sailing alone and adventurous scotsman roddy mcdowall we get to know these people a little too well in the first thirty minutes of the poseidon adventure before faced ship captain leslie nielson looks in horror at the giant tidal wave headed right for the ship everyone's in the giant ballroom at the time shortly past midnight of the new year when the ship turns first on its side then completely upside down the wants everyone to wait in the ballroom until help arrives but rebel hackman leads his small band of followers on a quest to the top of the ship in this case because the ship is overturned the top is the bottom or is the bottom the top either way we get to see a lot of bottoms because the two beautiful women in the crew are both conveniently wearing hot pants during the scenes where the camera shoots upwards while they climb up ladders and in the ballroom scene christmas trees thus begins an hour or more of hushed trips down long corridors through burning rooms etc while the ship slowly fills with water behind them it's a race against the clock which is only mildly interesting the poseidon adventure works more as a bad movie to laugh at with all the melodrama that comes the action scenes the one note in borgnine's performance is to be a cranky old man that argues with hackman every step of the way while buttons and the hippie fall in love although since there isn't a sex scene we never find out if his buttons really are red and albertson and winters wonder if they'll live to see their grandson's birth shelley winters provides the most hilarious scene in the movie in a scene toward the end where water has flooded the next two rooms of the ship and hackman is preparing to dive under with a rope for the rest of them to pull along winters who has been the whiny fat woman throughout the movie stevens even affectionately calls her fatass in one scene finally finds her purpose i was the underwater swimming champ of new york three years running when i was seventeen she brags and before hackman can even ask her how she could be seventeen for three years she's swimming through the water her skirt billowing up around her hips showing off her cellulite or do you call it shellulite ridden thighs it's not so much funny as innately disgusting which pretty much sums up the poseidon adventure as a whole
negative	while watching loser it occurred to me that amy heckerling's true genius as a is casting in fast times at ridgemont high she gave us sean penn's jeff spicoli in look who's talking she turned bruce willis into a baby and provided john travolta with is first career revival in clueless she found a star vehicle for the adorableness that is or was alicia silverstone she seems to understand instinctively how to find performers the audience will like in spite of their flaws unfortunately she may also be starting to understand that she understands giving appealing actors an appealing script creates likeable movies giving appealing actors a script in which their appeal the movie makes for unexpectedly awful films like loser naturally heckerling makes her protagonist an swell guy paul tannek jason biggs is a boy who gets a scholarship to nyu then instantly finds himself an island of compassion and diligence in the big city paul is the kind of guy who gives up his seat on the subway to an elderly woman his roommates adam zak orth chris tom sadoski and noah jimmi simpson are the kind of guys who blast their music and let their waterbeds leak all over paul paul is also the kind of guy who adores girls from afar in this case the lovely dora diamond mena suvari dora has problems of her own including a shortage of funds to pay her tuition and a relationship with a professor edward alcott greg kinnear that's more than slightly they're two conscientious kids who love animals and homeless people so clearly they belong together even if paul is a loser i must confess that for a while i was suckered in by heckerling's casting jason biggs is an engaging performer whose unconventional looks make him even easier to embrace suvari is a coquette with an undercurrent of intelligence they're pleasant enough to watch and heckerling gives us plenty of scenes establishing how nice they are and how nice their respective antagonists aren't then it gradually becomes clear that there's virtually nothing to loser but scenes of that sort in theory loser is a romantic comedy but there is scarcely a laugh to be found in the entire film notable exception a cameo by a comic actor as a video store clerk instead of taking any time to make the characters' situations funny heckerling spends minutes making her characters' situations pathetic she shows none of the ear for quirky dialogue that sparked clueless nor any of that film's interest in lively plotting not surprisingly since clueless's plot came via jane austen's emma she simply turns the film into a pity party since loser is a film composed almost entirely of establishing character you might think that those characters would be interesting or at least slightly complicated instead you have people either so perfect or so unredeemable that there's no reason to watch them paul isn't just a nice guy he's flawless consequently he's a central character who does absolutely no growing his roommates aren't just inconsiderate they're actively professor alcott drugging women with rohypnol and generally giving humanity a bad name and professor alcott isn't just manipulative he turns dora into his house slave dora's unthinking devotion to alcott is the only whiff of basic human frailty to be found in loser and even that isn't explored in sufficient detail there's more ambiguity in the snippet from alan cumming's broadway performance as the emcee in cabaret then there is in the rest of loser it's one thing to turn supporting characters into comic exaggerations it's another to flatten your leads into easily digestible mush and it would help if those comic exaggerations were somehow i don't know comic still i spent much of the film holding out the ridiculous hope that heckerling would somehow salvage loser from its tedium and justify my desire to like paul and dora that hope dissolved the moment heckerling underscored a sequence of paul in the throes of unrequited love to simon and garfunkel's scarborough instead of giving the sequence a knowing reference to the graduate a hint that paul is becoming an plays it deadly straight even in the scenes that scream for a light comic touch and a bit of a poke at her protagonist's foibles she finds it impossible to stray from the gospel of paul as saint clueless's cher had her and manipulative tendencies to balance her cuteness in loser amy heckerling shows a leaden hand with material that demands friskiness her one show of wit involves naming paul's dorm hunt's hall after erstwhile bowery boy huntz hall her gift with casting proved to be her curse loser may be a crashing bore but gee aren't those two kids swell
negative	capsule john the baptist is sent from heaven to see is the world is worth saving he must find some sign of hope in the people of newfoundland this is little more than a tv skit in movie form it is watchable and apparently will be released to theaters in canada but it is unlikely to be seen on the international market it is diverting but hardly a serious piece of cinema to minor spoilers in this review written and directed by john w doyle john the baptist sent to st john newfoundland gets an invitation to live with a family that extraordinary hospitality for some reason does not count as a reason for hope script has a lot of holes friend who adopts john is surprisingly militant and is planning actions to destabilize wall street john does look middle eastern but somehow one expects john the baptist to be more dramatic there is a conspiracy in the vatican riding on the result of the visit though that result seems small compared to the end of the world big yucks like seeing a nun give the pope a pedicure and evil pope's aid praying to a mendes goat in large part a satire of life in newfoundland taking licks at things like the poor produce the one good tomato in grocery by virtue of a miracle must have fallen off the truck to toronto based on a short film
negative	the disney rule states that disney's animated features will invariably be sublime but whenever they try their hand at kids' entertainment they will fail miserably this goes double for occasions when they try to make a adaptation of a popular cartoon remember the version of dalmations i'm still trying to forget that rule proves more dependable than ever with inspector gadget an insulting despicable and worst of all expensive piece of trash trying to pass itself off as a viable children's film it will bore anyone over five and should prove unbearable for adults even at its relatively skinny running time of minutes it's films like this that make me want to go to my local blockbuster and rent something from the days when brains were more important than budgets and wit compensated for lack of fancy effects just as matthew broderick began to convince me that there is hope for him as an actor yet his career takes a nosedive to hell with his role as john brown a depressed security guard with a big heart who hopes that one day he can become a real policemen and help the people around him he dreams of heroic deeds and the subsequent admiration of his long time crush dr brenda bradford joely fisher but after a few bizarre coincidences it seems that he has to dream no longer john breaks every bone in his body while trying to save dr brenda's father dr brenda has been working on a gadget project which would make a to fight crime feeling indebted to john she decides to save his life by making him the subject realizing his dream of becoming a policeman now when he says go go gadget name of gizmo he can use all kinds of nifty gadgets to capture crooks bang up bandits and mangle murderers in the meantime the evil claw rupert everett the man responsible for the murder of the good doctor's father is building a gadget of his own a carbon copy of our inspector gadget except evil and john brown's worst nemesis claw has plans of world domination which leaves it up to the inspector and his gadget mobile voice of d l hughley to save humanity from his wrath state of the art effects fly at a mad pace in this million dollar movie and yet director david kelogg never sets up a convincing atmosphere had they replaced all the fancy gizmos with dollar bills they would have wound up with the same effect what we see on the screen is like the raw ingredients of a meal all of the expensive amounts to nothing part of the charm of the tv series was its sly irreverence which has gone down the toilet in the condescending movie can kids really admire a hero so that he screams hey you ran a stop sign while hanging off the back bumper of a quickly moving vehicle i think that today's children will respond better to somebody dashing someone they probably receive enough preaching from their parents and its an insult to their intelligence to assume that they want to go to an action movie to see a father figure kick butt in addition to the more complex complaints above there's also the simple stuff inspector gadget is boring formulaic and achingly implausible there's no feeling that the director really cares about his story more than any other film i've seen this year this one really feels like it was made on an assembly line there's a popular commercial for sprite but that's irrelevant running in movie theaters before features that spoofs the way major studios deal with projects it consists of studio suits discussing a fictitious thank god movie called death slug each executive gleefully presents a different merchandise slug taco slug on a stick at the end one of them asks what about the movie another answers well we don't have a script yet but we can bang one out by friday they probably could have replaced death slug with inspector gadget this film contains the sort of logical contradictions and blatantly obvious adherence to formula that could have been eliminated had any attention been payed to the script it's no coincidence that most good children's entertainment these days comes from animation animated features take so long to maker that it becomes a labor of love for the filmmakers and they put care and pride into their work these kinds of films are banged out quicker and a good percentage turn out worthless sloppy and impersonal the studios are becoming factories and films their assembled products eugene
negative	as the twin surfer dudes stew and phil deedle lay bandaged and unconscious in the hospital phil comes to first and chooses the coolest way to wake his brother yanking out his iv he uses it like a water pistol to soak his brother's face this bit of lame physical humor is typical of disney's meet the deedles a movie more to be endured that watched i stopped looking at my wife during the screening since every time i did she'd start sticking her finger in her throat and she's right it is that bad directed without any imagination by steve boyum whose long background in film is mainly in stunts and in second unit direction the film limps along at best boyum attempts to keep the pace moving by staging stunts stunts and more stunts amazingly for someone with his background he seems incapable of finding any fresh ones and we have a car go off the road five different times maybe more but who's counting and then there is the script by james herzfeld whose only other film tapeheads from a decade ago was so awful that it is considered a cult classic meet the deedles however is painfully bad rather than laughably bad it will probably be in and out of the theaters like a tornado and is in no danger of becoming a classic anything herzfeld treats us to gratingly abysmal dialog that includes your geyser's a geezer and i'd like to put a deedle in her haystack as the movie opens the twins who at one point describe themselves modestly as a walking kodak moment are celebrating their birthday as they ride a parasail high above the waters of waikiki a truant officer pursues them on his jet ski as heirs to the fabulous fortune of the deedle empire the boys are sent by their father to camp broken spirit at yellowstone to transform the two beach bums into men as they arrive in their wetsuits in yellowstone they've got their surfboards skateboards and a hawaiian drink machine the size of an armoire their camp has gone out of business but they are mistaken for new park rangers the rest of the movie has them fighting the park's overpopulation of prairie dogs as well as a deranged played by dennis hopper who is out to stop old faithful before its billionth birthday celebration scheduled for later in the week hopper who has made some wonderful movies carried away being a recent favorite does have a propensity for choosing some truly odoriferous material this isn't his worst acting but meet the deedles is arguably the worst movie he's ever been in steve van wormer and paul walker as stew and phil give lifeless performances the only actor in the movie with any demonstrable talent is a cute little prairie dog named petey even the cinematography by david hennings is so prosaic that it manages to make yellowstone look dull to add insult to injury hennings is fond of inappropriate which only serve to remind us of the inanity of the dialog put a pair of lips on the screen and you naturally pay extra attention to what is said although boyum says in the notes that he is proud that his film is appropriate for families one wonders how many skateboarders will attempt the movie's stunt of lying on your back on a skateboard while negotiating a busy and twisting mountain road they make it look like so much fun that i'm sure many will try some variation of the stunt how could this possibly be worst asks phil just when you suspect it can't the movie takes a turn further downhill its low point may have you looking for an airline barf bag after phil's girlfriend digs up a big mount of moist soil they suck in a long worm like the two dog lovers eating spaghetti in lady and the tramp their lips finally meet in a kiss as they pull back their faces are full of the dirt that encased the worm they have just ingested meet the deedles runs about an hour and a half it is rated pg for a little bathroom humor and would be acceptable for kids around and up my son jeffrey and his friend nickolas both almost gave the show they both thought the scenes with petey were among their favorites nickolas also mentioned the scene in which the circus bear drives a jeep and jeffrey especially liked the one in which the circus elephant was referred to as dumbo
negative	man' is a family film without any external motive with the exception of providing the minimum dose of entertainment chris columbus the director who gave you mrs doubtfire plays on sentimental strings and mushy dialogue to make his point based on the short story by isaac asimov it is supposed to be a science fiction story about a robot who wants to be human which as you can imagine is very difficult starting in a not too distant future the film concentrates on a wealthy family that buys an android to help them with the house and children soon this robot called andrew robin williams shows abilities that makes his owner mr martin sam neill very curious andrew is interested in art and music he enjoys making clocks which clearly shows that he has genuine emotions it shows out that because of a small failure in the electrical circuits and positronic brain andrew has accidentally gained a soul this makes him unique and his evil creators worried then mr martin decides to teach andrew all the things he wasn't programmed to do soon andrew wants to leave the house in pursuit of freedom destiny and love this film can be described as a disney version of blade runner a film that still shines as the biggest gem in the crown of science fiction ever since that film the subject of humanity still stands as one big controversy what makes us human the thoughts the emotions is it possible to become human at what point can we say to a robot now you are one of us these are very tough questions that require a serious and thurral approach it is obvious that columbus didn't take them very seriously when you think about it this film is not really meditating on the question when is a robot no longer a machine but a human being but tells a story about racial discrimination and lack of understanding andrew is so complex and emotional from the very beginning that the audience immediately accepts him as a human being and only the society has troubles with it in other words it is as far from reality as from the academy awards further more there are other annoying problems to this day no serious filmmaker has dared to speculate about the future in more than years from now this has not been done for obvious reasons because the filmmakers are well aware of the fact that they lack the knowledge and imagination to perform such a difficult task columbus is the first to have crossed that line the result is as you might imagine primitive unrealistic and incredibly disappointing effort the world is simply frozen in time neither the society fashion culture or values have changed over years mom is still working at the kitchen doing the dishes when you think back to the late century and then compare it to the world we live in today you'll see a slightly bigger difference i am not saying that everything should change it is unlikely that the human rights will change but it's even more unlikely that there will not be any progress in science technology and fashion i suppose it's possible to watch this as a some sort of bizarre fairytale but it's really hard robin williams is hidden behind c and speaking in a robotic way as always he does a decent job as does sam neill but it doesn't really matter it is the sentimentality and length that turns this picture into a tiresome experience pretty much like last year's meet joe black this is a primitive and unresolved story which is presented with a splendor and professionalism that it doesn't deserve great actors and a talented crew have worked hard to achieve something that will be instantly forgotten when isaac asimov wrote this story the future seemed far away and magical everything seemed possible now is the future of asimov's time and we know that it is not as magical and perfect as it seemed a long time ago for the same reasons that the young generation of today can not be amazed by julius verne's leagues under the sea so can't we accept this story as a potential reality let us hope that next year's a i will be more rewarding
negative	in the continuation of warner brother's franchise joel schumacher has successfully killed this cash cow what makes this film such a grand disappointment is the tremendous line up of talented people involved with the film avika goldsman's screenplay is such a cluttered mess that there is no suspense built from one scene to another this coming on the heals of such a marvelously written project as the client is such a shock that it gives rise to thoughts that the latter film was a fluke situations are developed and executed with no thought of reason other that to get the characters from one point to another this is most glaringly brought to point by the appearance of alicia silverstone's batgirl who just happens to be alfred's niece the story of dr victor freeze is told almost completely in dialogue as an afterthought while working on a cure for a tragic decease contracted by his wife dr freeze is injured during a cryogenic procedure and becomes a man who can only survive in a sub zero environment now of course he has become a terrorist intent on turning the world into a frozen planet where only he can live now the logic of that little escapes me if mr freeze wanted to find a cure for his wife and bring her back from the brink of death why would he want to have her live in a world with no warmth this is indeed a cold hearted man the development of poison ivy is no less contradictory she wants to breed a form of plant life that can defend itself like an animal she joins with mr freeze in his plan to start a new ice age destroying all animal life therefore giving her plant creations no reason to have the defense mechanism she had been trying to breed into them the characters have no logic batman of course is no longer the dark knight of the earlier films now that he has an adoptive son in burt ward robin bruce wayne is trying to be a father figure constantly spouting out homilies about family and relationships while at the same time not really having any george clooney tries in vain to keep from rolling his eyes while reciting the dialogue given him to say that his performance is is to be generous his best performances are still on e r bruce wayne has the most unromantic evening with his girlfriend played by elle macpherson that it brings into question bruce's latent homosexuality there is no spark and no passion as there was for nicole kidman's psychologist in batman forever between bruce and anyone other than alfred and even that relationship is very reserved robin comes off less charismatic that in the last film in the series now he's just a spoiled kid in batman forever burt ward wanted to be batman's partner and friend now robin is suffering from ego deficiency robin's attraction for poison ivy is not believable except for a boy around the age of his later flirtation with batgirl smacks of incest even though they are not related in a traditional sense chris o'donnell once considered a rising star successfully burns up on reentry with this performance his robin needs nothing more than a good spanking the less said about alicia silverstone's performance the better this talented young actress reads her lines with all the aplomb of a dubbing actor for a godzilla film she was cast strictly for her commercial value and she knew it this brings us to the villains arnold scharzenegger walks through his part with all the concern of someone waiting for payday the most rediculous scene is during mr freeze's imprisonment the guards are at least a foot taller that arnold and yet fall at his hand in one of the most unbelievable fights scenes caught on film it's almost as ludicrous as seeing michael jackson as a gang member umu thurman struts and coos her way through her part showing a growing discomfort with her sex symbol status her poison ivy has all the come hither sex appeal of may west in sextette the only performances worthy of notice are pat hingle and michael gough these two seasoned veterans carry their scenes with a dignity sorely lacking from the rest of the film without going through the intricacies of the plot there is one question that always comes to mind with this series except for the first batman and that is how do these super villains manage to hire so many thugs only to abandon them at the final reel mr freeze is introduced with a team of hockey playing hoodlums that seem to have stepped out of an old kiss music video every villain even the minor ones have to have a look no one can be an individual with day glow paint on their face or some sort of elaborate costume with this film warner brothers has succeeded in retrograding the series back to it's tv incarnation the only thing missing from the action scenes are the superimposed titles detailing the pows gwaaaa's and clang's associated with the old series you almost wonder if william dozier producer of the tv series is collecting royalties from this film the special effects by john dykstra and production design by barbara ling are the primary stars of this film and it is a case of extravagance in the pursuit of nothing every set from ivy's lair the batcave to freeze's hideout is set with enough neon and fiberglass to keep the epa in paperwork for years to come there is no one realistic set or set piece in the film everything is set for maximum exposure the special effects have that strange cartoon look that most rushed cgi effects have there are homage thrown in by dykstra and his team to gene warren and his work on the time machine the growing plant scene but these scenes are so wroth with glaring color and art that they are almost obscured joel schumacher has directed the film with no flair camera angles are poorly chosen rehashing set ups from the old tv series master shots pepper the action scenes destroying any flow of kinetic quality they may have had mr schumacher is a good director one just has to look back on the films the lost boys cousins an underrated film and the client to know that but batman and robin comes off as a mated made for tv movie the film has no style of individuality it is the cinematic equivalent to pretty to look at but empty it is unfortunate that this film even with it's surprisingly strong box office has succeeded in doing what warner's thought tim burton would do with the franchise kill it joel schumacher's batman robin is loud colorful action packed and ultimately boring stars
negative	long ago films were constructed of strong dialogue original characters memorable plot points and solid acting one of the best examples that hollywood now completely ignore these qualities is found in the new film where the heart is this opus about the power of love and the redemption of family follows the tragic and i mean tragic life of novalee nation natalie portman hitting the road with her hick boyfriend in a gm novalee dreams of the blue skies of bakersfield and sipping chocolate milk beneath a plastic umbrella with her unborn baby due in a month stopping off at a nearby for a quick rest novalee's boyfriend decides to take off and leaves her there novalee then decides to secretly hole up in the because she's not the brightest bulb in the stagelights a wacky librarian keith david comes to her rescue when she goes into labor one night while she is camped in the outdoors section of the store then the she moves in with a family befriends everyone in town including ashley judd's character who has five kids and still can work as a nurse fights off religious freaks survives a tornado breaks the heart of the wacky librarian that saved her receives an inheritance builds a martha house becomes an photographer and manages to always look like she stepped out of a cosmo shoot all while not once doing anything with her kid this film is terrible the directing is awful it seems director matt williams had an index card with six angles written on it and used every one of them over and over and over again we get pathetic and ugly acting by natalie portman who can do good work a disjointed pacing of key scenes and a time structure so confusing that it would throw steve prefontaine off a subplot that actually validates the actions of the boyfriend who abandoned novalee in the parking lot an embarrassing display of emotions by the characters making the audience ill taking two great comedic screenwriters babaloo mandel and lowell ganz and forcing them to write drama on par with oprah's book club altogether it has the feeling of being trapped at home watching a very bad television and wishing it to end only the remote is broken however the main problem with the film is that it never answers the most poignant question brought up where is the heart no one ever seems to find it in this piece of junk
negative	stars armand assante mike hammer barbara carrera dr charlotte bennett laurene landon velda alan king charles kalecki geoffrey lewis joe butler paul sorvino detective pat chambers judson scott charles hendricks barry snider romero julia barr norma childs mpaa rating r review in the updating of mickey spillane's novel i the jury detective mike hammer is a vietnam vet who drives a shiny bronze trans am dresses like don johnson in miami vice with less pastels and has sworn off alcohol however he still smokes his lucky strikes detests all forms of authority and kills at a whim beyond that the updated film retains little or no resemblance to the original pulpy by spillane probably the most infamous and often reviled of all mystery writers the movie starts off with a bang a howler of an opening credits sequence that is a cheap steal from the james bond series complete with cheesy graphics and an overbearing jazz score by bill conti rocky after that the movie and the book begin the same with the murder of jack williams frederick downs a detective and hammer's best friend hammer declares that he will seek vengeance for jack's death and with the help of his devoted secretary the blond and shapely velda laurene landon and the alternately friendly antagonistic police chief pat chambers paul sorvino he is immediately on the killer's trail here the movie splits completely from the book and dives into a convoluted and improbable tale of government conspiracy and mind control tactics involving the mafia the cia one of hammer's vietnam vet buddies and a kinky sex clinic many of the same characters from the book appear in the movie but they take on slightly different roles for instance charles kalecki alan king a numbers runner and narcotics dealer in the book turns into a suave mob boss and more importantly hammer's suspicious love interest charlotte bennett barbara carrera morphs from a psychiatrist into the coordinator and founder of the sex clinic i the jury is one of several cinematic renditions of spillane's books including a version which was made in but this film differs from those earlier versions in one major way it includes all of the sex and violence spillane wrote about that could never be given screen treatment due to hollywood's production code although this takes the version of i the jury closer to the core of the original subject matter it is in this aspect that the film received the most criticism because it took this new license to extremes that many argued surpassed what was in the book rest assured the movie not only includes a great deal of nudity but it is thoroughly violent especially toward women it features one woman having her neck slashed a set of twins forced to strip before being stabbed to death by a psychotic sexual deviant programmed by the cia judson scott and another woman shot in the belly by hammer himself no one would deny that spillane's writing has a definite misogynistic nature but the movie seems to take it a step further by giving it such glorious screen treatment its constant equation of sex and violence much of which is played with the intention of being erotic is quite unsettling it's no surprise that the movie like the book fades to black with a dead woman on the floor i the jury had a troubled production and was not by the studio that made it which is one explanation why it didn't do well in theaters and many people have forgotten that it was ever made the script was written by larry cohen who is best known for his creatively cheesy but nonetheless effective monster movies like it's alive and its two sequels q and the stuff cohen wrote the script thinking he was going to helm the project as well but he was yanked from the director's chair after only a week's worth of shooting because he was already over budget he was quickly replaced by richard t heffron who has worked for the last three decades on a handful of undistinguished movies and dozens of television projects heffron was obviously brought in not for his talent but because he could make the movie rapidly and efficiently it shows in the final product cohen had personal interest in the updated version of hammer but heffron has none he shot the movie quickly and clumsily and although some scenes ring true most of them are flat trite and invariably dull the movie features numerous car chases and stunts but heffron's background in television is the dominant tone despite the graphic violence and nudity i the jury takes on the air of a quickie with no real punch or depth but the problems in i the jury run deeper than the technical the central fault in this updating is mike hammer whose character was lost in the shuffle while updating from the fifties to the eighties because spillane wrote all his hammer mysteries in the first person hammer's character is central to the tale because all the events are filtered through his persona we never really get that impression in the movie there is no narration and some scenes don't have hammer in them at all consequently a great deal of the texture of spillane's storytelling is lost the period updating turns out to be a detrimentally bad idea because much of hammer's moral code is thrown to the wind despite his characterization as a violent misogynistic killer hammer always stuck fervently to his own moral code the title itself i the jury refers to his notion of being his own law unlike private eyes who seek out the bad guys and then turn them over the police hammer both pursues the criminal and exacts the punishment in this way he can be seen as above the law but he still adheres strictly to her own personal code of conduct his own morality the movie forgoes that aspect of his character and hammer comes off not only as amoral in society's terms but in any terms especially his own if anything hammer always had his professionalism but the movie does away with that in the first three minutes by showing him rolling in the sack with the wife of a client who had paid him to find out if that wife was being unfaithful maybe the scene was intended for laughs but it only cheapens hammer's character and is by all accounts a lousy way to start the movie the blame for hammer's character can't be laid on assante's shoulders because despite some unnecessary marlon mumbling he delivers a fine performance spillane never once described hammer's physical attributes in any of the dozen books in which he appeared so any actor could conceivably portray him of course because of the lack of written description those who have read spillane's books will have a strong personal notion of what hammer looks like and therefore almost any screen incarnation will somehow fall short of expectations spillane who played the character himself in the girl hunters is generally considered the best of the film hammers the rest of actors are most with the exceptions of alan king and paul sorvino everyone who appeared in i the jury were who basically went nowhere many of them ended up working in television like carrera who had a short stint on dallas in the which only adds to the atmosphere of the film maybe someday someone will manage to get the right elements together and make an effective film rendition of a spillane book but this is certainly not it
negative	nostalgia for the continues as we see a revival of one of the decade's greatest achievements the marijuana comedy however half baked doesn't quite run with all its brain cells and will make you appreciate the questionable talents of cheech and chong all the more the plot follows the misadventures of four stoners there's the group's unofficial leader thurgood david chappelle scarface guillermo diaz brian jim breuer and kenny harland williams kenny gets into trouble when while on a munchie run feeds his snack foods to a diabetic police horse when the animal keels over he finds himself accused of killing a police officer and facing a bail his friends promise to raise money for a bail bond but have no idea how that is until thurgood stumbles upon a stash of pharmaceutical marijuana being tested at the company where he works as a janitor soon the three guys are dealing dope to raise funds while avoiding the cops and rival dealer sampson simpson clarence williams iii for a comedy the film is pretty humorless not that it doesn't try it's just that the comic setups are obvious and the payoffs nearly all fall flat the four leads are nearly all playing the same character only williams stands out while still performing on the level of his comedy rocket man but that is because he's imprisoned throughout most of the film giving a much needed change of pace but mostly swapping one set of obvious gags for another to help out the film is packed full of cameos steven wright tommy chong janeane garofalo willie nelson snoop doggy dogg and jon stewart all make appearances at one point or another none of them work beyond the simple hey that's level in fact the funniest work in the film comes from chappelle not as his bland pothead lead but in his second role as a rapper sir smokealot granted it's pretty much a role and there aren't a ton of laughs but this film needs every one it can scrape up to top it off and in a move contrasting with the tone of the rest of the film thurgood is given a love interest mary jane rachel true her role is that of the public service announcement to inform us why doing drugs including pot is wrong her character seems fabricated merely as a defense to the your film promotes the use of drugs camp the film would have been better off by sticking with the rebel tone it so eagerly tries to claim yet in the end it doesn't really matter watching the film clean and sober you are bound to recognize how truly awful it is
negative	i saw this film on christmas day expecting an upbeat comedy boy was i in for a christmas dissapointment after an hour of the movie i was ready to change another theater read on to see what i have to say four rooms starring tim roth jennifer beals antonio banderas quentin tarantino valeria golino madonna bruce willis marisa tomei alicia witt lili taylor and ione skye possible stars four rooms was supposed to be one of the biggest hits of the year key word here supposed four of the biggest directors in hollywood quentin tarantino robert rodriguez alexander rockwell and alison anders were all directing one big film with a big and popular cast i guess it was all just too much because this turned out to be the biggest flop of the year and it could of been great the plot it's new years eve and it's a bellboy's first day on the job he encounters many mysterious and kinky hotel guests as he tries to handle all his own problems tarantino told his directors this plot and each of them wrote a script it turned out each of them had written a dark comedy anders wrote and directed the tale about a coven of witches madonna valeria golino alicia witt and ione skye which was the worst one out of all of them the second room jennifer beals was better but lacking in plot this room was about a man who accuses every man of sleeping with his wife the third room antonio banderas was the best roomm about two rambunctous kids that trash a hotel suite the final one tarantino willis was about a movie star wanting the bellboy to chop off someone's finger the movie was just plain trash there was nothing here that even makes up a quality film it was not funny and i didn't hear one laugh in the theater throughout the whole film tim roth is horrible as the bumbling and mumbling bellboy and he ruins every joke in the film the supporting cast loses meaning to the word support and the only mentionable are antonio banderas and jennifer beals marisa tomei appears in a stupid cameo role this movie is the worst film of the year and the film could have been great perhaps like a more upbeat plaza suite but it wasn't as trashy as it was some people will call it classic do you call a man chopping off a finger with madonna's chest showing a classic film look for more of ken's kritic korner coming soon please check the newsgroups under the movie reviews section for updated reviews p s four rooms made number on my top ten worst list of
negative	anna and the king is at least the fourth film adaptation of margaret landon's fact based novel the king and i and it's big expensive and soulless though its lavish sets fancy costumes and luscious cinematography can do little to compensate for the emotional wasteland that is peter krikes and steve meerson's script so much money was spent on pretty pictures that they forgot to actually make the movie interesting this is jodie foster's first movie since the brilliant contact came out more than two years ago and it isn't the best choice to show off her acting chops she's trapped in the stoic role of anna leonowens the uptight widowed british schoolteacher who comes to siam now thailand with her son to instruct the king's chow son in the ways of the west because the ways of england are the ways of the world the king likes her so much he puts her in charge of educating the whole royal family kids with more in the way impressive no the eldest prince is none too happy about this father have i offended you in some way why do you punish me with imperialist schoolteacher but soon gets to know anna and her personality better and comes to like her meanwhile siam comes under attack from the neighboring british colony of burma the king and his close advisors suspect that this is britain's doing which arouses suspicion in siam putting anna in an uncomfortable position she is not sure what to make of this and seems to herself suspect british involvement in the crisis but works to diffuse the king's prejudices he though as ever can't help but be influenced by the eloquent anna and they slowly quietly develop affections for each other there is a scene in the middle of anna and the king where one of the king's younger daughters dies it's your classic deathbed scene with the girl's mournful eyes staring at her father who tries only successfully to maintain his composure anna then comes in and cries a bit the sequence was there for a purpose to evoke a strong emotional response from the viewer i'm usually a sucker for such scenes and yet this time i was just sitting there my emotions untouched this remains true through all of the movie which remains emotionally barren we never develop connections to the characters never given a reason to care this ludicrously long epic was directed by andy tennant whose last film was ever after one of my favorites of i do not doubt tennant's ability to put together a decent movie but anna and the king aside from being psychologically inept is also technologically deficient the sets and scenery are gorgeous but the camerawork does nothing to convey its grandeur even terrence malick managed to do more with flora and fauna in his otherwise abysmal the thin red line than tennant can muster from million worth of props and a shoot in malaysia we feel like the camera is restricted to its immediate point of view there are no wide tracking shots or sweeping zooms to fill us with awe i liked both foster and who give entertaining if not terribly involving performances in the two lead roles foster's generally stoic persona serves her well here as she is playing a reserved formal and rather underdeveloped character is especially effective perfectly conveying the king of siam's sangfroid permeated with violent outbursts what does anna and the king in is its inability to involve the viewer in its characters and situations the cast is great the director is talented and the budget is lavish but this remake of the classic rogers and hammerstein movie is unable to utilize any of those things to form a compelling whole this is an emotionless costume epic
negative	robin hood men in tights is another film in the classic tradition of movies like blazing saddles and young frankenstein mel brooks is well known for his comic look at regular life his fast paced dialogue and sharp wit unfortunately robin hood men in tights has none of the easy going humor of blazing saddles none of the fun acting of young frankenstein is devoid of the charm of spaceballs and is even lacking the good solid dialogue of history of the world it is in short one of the worst movies i have seen mel brooks or anybody else produce the plot borrows heavily from the kevin costner movie of last year robin hood prince of thieves this is not surprising in and of itself and could have been used to great comic effect mainly by parodying scenes from the orginal movie mel brooks does not take advantage of this however and uses the film to launch several ideas into the air none of which connect and none of which are explained later on the movie's scenes could be shuffled around in any order and one would be hard pressed to notice cary elwes of princess bride fame plays robin of loxley a man who was captured in the crusades fighting with king richard he escapes and joining with a man named achoo i am sure you can see the obvious joke fights in england to reclaim his name and the throne for richard which has been captured by evil prince john played by funny comic richard lewis he also tries for the love of maid marian and attempts to overthrow the evil sheriff of rottingham a good adventure plot that is sadly unused elwes and lewis are both excellent comics but the dialogue in the movie is simply excruciating neither actor has any good words to work with and the lines simply aren't funny nor believable perhaps the worst example of this is when the group of merry men encounter a man playing a macaulay culkin clone from the hit movie home alone this particular scene is so out of place and so badly acted and followed by so many other scenes of equal miserable ideas that i really felt like leaving the theatre much of the audience continued to look at their watches throughout and some left the theatre chuckles were few and far between and they mostly dealt with visual jokes such as an old beaten up horse from then from any dialogue whatsoever scenes that could have been classics such as the archery contest are ruined by poor acting perhaps the largest problem with the movie is that it is simply offensive the basic plot that robin has received a key that will unlock the chastity belt of maid marian is not witty nor funny mel brooks as a rabbi is also offensive to me and others in the audience not all jewish either the movie simply tries to hard trying to be funny and by and large fails the addition of a blind man who stumbles around falling off cliffs walking into ledges and being a general buffoon could have had some humorous potential but is also made terribly offensive the only reason to see this movie is the surprise actor at the end who plays king richard he is well worth waiting for if you can stand an hour and half of unfunny dialogue excruciating visual humor old puns ancient jokes and bad acting if you can't don't even bother watching this miserable film
negative	with his successful books and movies michael crichton is doing well with early successes with westworld and coma and recent films such as jurassic park his films have been entertaining however he seems to taken a wrong turn somewhere with sphere this million mess by good director barry levison disclosure is dull long winded and a huge disappointment considering the huge budget the all star cast and a story by crichton sphere is majorly disappointing the film opens with norman goodman hoffman a psychologist who thinks he is visiting an airplane crash to console the survivors however when he arrives he his told by supervisor barnes peter coyote that he is actually investigating an spacecraft along with goodman is mathematician harry adams jackson biologist beth halperin stone and ted fielding liev schrieber they investigate the spaceship find a massive sphere inside meet an alien intelligence called jerry and basically weird crap happens unfortunately something went wrong along the way with sphere the film starts off entertaining enough but throughout this very long movie it just gets sillier and sillier the film jaunts along from scene to scene never fully explaining what is going on the actors and directing don't help either hoffman is on autopilot and almost seems embarrassed throughout the movie churning out dull lines and probably wondering what the hell he is doing in this movie stone is useless displaying no emotion and fails to convince the audience that she has any feelings for hoffman the only person who seems to be having fun in this movie is jackson who's funny as the mathematician who slowly goes crazy and entering the sphere but he's hardly in it and by the end of the film he is just as dull as hoffman and stone the same goes for peter coyote who hams it up as the officer but is then killed off halfway through the director barry levinson who directed the better crichton adaptation disclosure messes up with the drama and the action the drama scenes are quite frankly boring and the action scenes suffer from overkill with levison throwing the camera all over the place much like the godawful speed the writing doesn't help much either although crichton is great with plots he's terrible with dialogue and practically every line in sphere is a dud the speech is too simple i was hoping it would be a bit more intelligent practically every line is just stating the obvious none of it is smart also where the hell did the budget go the sphere itself is impressive and there's a few nice special effect shots but where the million went is anyone's guess there's a giant squid attack in the picture but not once does the audience see the squid even though the film has a massive budget i assume the picture was trying to build up tension by not showing the squid and if handled correctly it probably would but the whole scene is done badly and i was just hoping we could see the stupid squid finally the film has no idea what genre to be levison can't handle his own plot it leaps from hokey to horror and finally the horizon psychological thriller and of course the film is very much like the abyss although in it's defense crichton did write sphere before the abyss was released and is far superior to this rubbish it's not all that bad though the plot is all right there's a few jump scenes although nothing very scary and there's the occasionally interesting bit but overall sphere is a big waste of some fine talent a lot of money and a potentially good movie not really worth seeing overall review by david wilcock
negative	director luis mandoki's last film was the superb serious drama when a man loves a woman but his luck has ultimately run out with his latest picture message in a bottle which is the worst type of romance a movie that tugs so relentlessly and violently at the heartstrings that it miraculously manages to dry out your eyes rather than tear them up everything that occurs can be telegraphed way in advance since this same type of story has been done many times much there's an absence of suspense and the film ultimately moves at such a very very deliberate pace as if it is trying to make great meaningful statements and plot developments that it just becomes a tedious bore to sit through message in a bottle begins with theresa osborne robin wright penn a single mother and researcher at the chicago tribune whom finds a bottle washed up on shore as she is jogging one day inside the bottle is an anonymous love letter addressed to a mystery woman named catherine and theresa is so taken aback by its honesty and sweetness that she shows it around at her work and to her objection finds that her editor has placed the letter in the newspaper soon a heavy research is conducted to find out who wrote the letter based on the type of bottle and a ship logo on the top of the typed message and after it is traced to a man named garrett blake theresa finds herself traveling to the outer banks a boating town in north carolina to find out the specifics of the message of course garrett turns out to be a handsome rugged man around theresa's age and played by kevin costner she is immediately charmed by him but hesitant to unveil the truth of why she is there and finds that catherine was garrett's late wife who died a few years earlier do you think you know where this is headed most likely you do and i wouldn't call it giving away anything to say that by the picture's end the movie has fallen into deep artificial melodrama that i didn't buy for a second if there are any positive things to say about message in a bottle it is that the performances by robin wright penn and paul newman as garrett's stubborn but loving father are far above par to be in such a wasteful shaggy dog love story and that the cinematography by caleb deschanel takes great advantage of the beautiful eastern coast and paints chicago as an equally alluring city meanwhile costner has yet to redeem himself for some of the films that he has made recently it seems that with such bad luck he wouldn't want to make another movie set near water but here he is again with one of the main and most ridiculous centerpieces set on a sea the other actors are all sadly wasted including illeana douglas an underused actress who seems to always get stuck with the friend roles here playing penn's confidante and at the tribune the first half of message in a bottle plays like a trite television movie for the lifetime channel as theresa spends a great deal of time getting to know garrett with dialogue that is not the least bit stimulating or entertaining usually i am the type of person to practically salivate over sequences since the film is no doubt trying to develop the characters and their relationships but here it all rang with a resounding falseness since the dialogue felt written and not as if people were really talking when the main characters of a film have very little of interest to say to each other and are not particularly interesting themselves you know immediately that you are in trouble i swear that while watching message in a bottle i felt as if i had just read the screenplay in its entirety before arriving at the theater heck in actuality i'm not even familiar to the novel this is based on by nicholas sparks always one step ahead of the characters the movie ran so closely and tightly to the constraints of the hollywood melodrama the film strip often seemed to almost be in danger of tearing nobody wins prizes for guessing that garrett will eventually find out theresa's secret and that several obstacles will come within their ways of living happily ever after this same exact problem occurred in last year's very very similar watch this and you will realize just how similar i mean meg cage romantic drama city of angels although theresa is deeply touched by the heartfelt letter that she finds in the bottle perhaps the filmakers might have been better off finding a message in a bottle of their own preferably before filming began it should have read memo to screenwriters use you brain
negative	i remember really enjoying this movie when i saw it years ago i guess my memory really sucks there is very very little that is funny in caddyshack the laughs are few and far between and what there are really aren't that great caddyshack as the name implies more or less centers on one young caddy working at an exclusive country club michael o'keefe plays said caddy why they cast this unknown fairly untalented actor in the lead role is completely beyond me the movie doesn't seem to have a real plot just a series of scenes that are little more than opportunities for the rest of the cast to mug at the camera the only real story if you can call it that was a subplot involving the mentally disturbed greens keeper bill murray who is having his own private little war against a gopher who is ruining the course most of the marginal laughs come from rodney dangerfield and ted knight mugging and overacting for the camera with painfully limited success bill murray is slightly amusing in places but fairly wasted the biggest waste of all is chevy chase who didn't even crack a smile on my face with his character's lame approach to golfing there are a few decent scenes involving the interaction between dangerfield and knight but they are far too infrequent to carry the movie i guess that's what you get for basing a story around an unknown kid i'm not sure what the writers of this thing were thinking of but i really think it was something far removed from comedy as they were putting pen to paper nothing about this movie works it wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out that this thing wasn't going to fly most of the scenes just couldn't possibly be funny it's as if the writers where off in their own little brain damaged world i'm sure scenes involving chevy chase and his oneness with the golf ball were supposed to be funny in reality they were painfully embarrassing to watch there is a scene at the club pool where all the caddies go wild for the hot babe of the movie walking by in her bikini olive oil would have filled out this swimsuit better than this girl everything about this movie was just completely implausible as far as the comedy was concerned maybe if you were drunk out of you mind or high off some sort of illegal narcotic this thing might be funny but for the rest of us stay the hell away from caddyshack
negative	tommy lee jones chases an innocent victim around america who is trying to prove that she did not kill her spouse the fugitive not quite this is the plot for double jeopardy another fugitive copycat without the action excitement and good acting that the original had there are other slight differences besides one movie being bad and the other good this time tommy lee jones plays a parole officer not a us marshall clever huh oh and the fugitive ashley judd was framed by her own husband bruce greenwood who needed to collect two million dollars in life insurance money not a one armed man both movies are on video make the wise choice and pick the fugitive there are so many flaws in double jeopardy it is laughable while serving time in prison libby parsons judd discovers that she can never be charged for committing the same crime twice learning that her husband is still alive she decides to serve her time in prison find him retrieve her son and kill her husband if necessary when the strict parole officer travis lehman jones stands in her way libby decides to break the rules who knows why and continue her plan despite the fact that if she gets caught she's going back to jail director bruce beresford spends way too much time trying to convince the audience that libby misses her son every other scene we are given a shot of libby staring and crying at his picture in an action movie like this valuable time wasted on these shots takes away more opportunities for libby to get up and do something all that is needed in this type of movie is a short scene in which libby tells herself or a friend i miss my son nothing more nothing less dr kimble of the fugitive didn't look at one picture of his dead wife his primary concern was to save himself libby at times shows this same determination but not nearly enough ashley judd and bruce greenwood both are excellent actors but if they continue to do movies like this they will be typecast for the rest of their careers kind of like their doomed tommy lee jones winning an oscar for the fugitive must have convinced jones that audiences will never get tired of his roles people still pay to see his movies and he makes plenty of money so i guess he was right though i don't think he will win another oscar again the ultimate mistake in the script is what eventually becomes of libby parsons even if she was excused for disobeying her parole officer the number of other crimes she commits while on the run are too numerous to count burglary assault grand theft auto are some of libby's slipups the message of the movie is you can break all of the small laws as long as you're innocent of the major crime hopefully criminals won't use double jeopardy as a reference in court for why they are innocent that would just be plain stupid
negative	while i am not fond of any writer's use of cheap easy puns i am not completely above using them myself when the situation merits it witness my review of from a couple of issues ago so here goes the juvenile black comedy is dead on arrival med student josh tom everett scott who manages to remain somewhat likable throughout academic record breaks out into fs thanks to the influence of his roommate cooper gosselaar who introduces josh to the and nights that come with university life with the threat of losing an academic scholarship josh and a life cleaning toilets for his dad looming cooper what are two slackers to do for a loophole which they find in the form of an unbelievable rule in the school charter that states that if a student's or students' roommate commits suicide the surviving student s shall receive straight as so instead of studying josh and cooper attempt to seek out the most depressed student out there move him into their dorm room and drive him to suicide before the semester ends director alan cohn and screenwriters michael traeger and mike white working from a story by anthony abrams and adam larson broder take their sweet time to build the head of steam that comes with josh and cooper's diabolical plot until then the usual boring cliches of college life booze sex more booze fill the time which is made to feel longer by alumnus gosselaar's mugging that said once cohn and company do build some comic momentum they mishandle it the introduction of the manic psychotic cliff lochlyn munro a potential roommate for josh and cooper brings some demented life to the uninspired proceedings before being hastily written out in favor of two less interesting candidates paranoid nerd buckley randy pearlstein and british death rocker matt corey page one wishes that cliff would reappear but as they say be careful what you wish for not surprisingly he does resurface and it then becomes clear that this is a character that is best taken in a small dose almost immediately his extended boorish and sociopathic antics loses its novelty the same can be said about all of whatever morbid appeal the premise has quickly evaporates and the characters especially cooper pretty much grate from the doesn't grow tiresome it already once the clever opening titles are through as it slogs along to a cheesy conclusion lives up to its title and then only does the movie grow even more tired and die it still insists on going on like a zombie
negative	boy what a great movie keanu reeves and morgan freeman acting together the director of the fugitive andrew davis back again to give us another thriller and the beautiful rachel stealing beauty weisz thrown in to boot how could this not be a blockbuster all keanu reeves fans read on ol much ado about nothing plays eddie kasalivich a machinist studying at the university of chicago to help pay for the rent he takes on this job making the machinery for a hydrogen project being conducted by the university by happy coincidence he also happens to stumble on the solution to the final problem and thus is the only one who knows the key to performing this feat of miracle physics this project holds great promise taking hydrogen from water and giving out more energy than is put in a potential solution to the earth's energy problems without the pollution cost surely nobody could have any problems with that morgan freeman is paul shannon the project's sponsor he works for a very powerful organization that disagrees with the paternal project leader as to how quickly technology should be released to the public he figures the world will disintegrate into anarchy if the results of the project are released too quickly so he murders the project leader blows up the project great but short scene here sort of like a mini thing and tries to simulate the experiment at some other location unfortunately our intrepid machinist and an english physicist weisz manage to get away and now follows a chase using a not too dissimilar rehash of that movie script this movie is just dying for a comparison with the fugitive both movies use chicago as the main city and since the place doesn't change much i guess we can't really blame the setting for the paucity of atmosphere the trouble here is that where the fugitive had harrison ford and tommy lee jones chain reaction only has keanu reeves and fred ward credit to them but we aren't really given much of a chance to empathise with the characters where ford was able to work within the confines of the movie to evoke sympathy eddie kasalivich just seem very believeable and reeves' character is never given the time to develop it might have been a better investment in film to give the characters more depth and spend less time on the chase sequences which frankly get quite boring after a while harrison ford was the man against the world he was alone in a world where he didn't know who to trust and it came across real well in chain reaction keanu reeves isn't alone now that would be fine if the fleeing couple had some chemistry and could really portray some paranoia vulnerability and confusion we don't get this we get him thinking he's still in speed only now our sandra bullock has an english accent probably doesn't drive a bus and hardly contributes anything to the movie the producers here probably thought hey what if keanu and rachel don't hit it off too well let's rope in that morgan to help us out well keanu and rachel didn't hit it off well on the screen and most unfortunately morgan freeman doesn't help much either the only thing we come to really know of paul shannon is that he always has a full load of cigars in his cigar holder it's not really his fault once again andrew davis just doesn't take the time to build his characters someone must have convinced him that this time round cinema dollars are best earned by making the movie run like a headless chicken the flying inkpot rating system wait for the broadcast a little creaky but still better than staying at home with gotcha pretty good bring a friend amazing potent stuff perfection see it twice
negative	there are those of us who think of leslie nielsen as the bumbling hapless straight man from the hysterical naked gun films crack an immediate smile and forgive him of whatever wavering movie spoof he's committed himself to starring in since the wavering movie spoofs however are less forgivable to be fair wrongfully accused the in question and nielsen's third parody since the last gun isn't quite as excruciatingly humorless as his dracula dead and loving it or spy hard which is a mighty good thing nielsen is still in comedic form able as ever to deadpan his way through even the most horrible puns but he really needs a screenplay that plays off his talents instead of relying on them and he needs one very soon wrongfully accused meshes together the premises of the fugitive and patriot games casting its always game star as ryan harrison get it a master violinist who is drawn into an affair with a married temptress kelly le brock she however sets harrison up to take the rap for the murder of her husband michael york a crime actually committed by a man aaron pearl harrison is arrested found guilty and sentenced to death but escapes from a prison bus of course and then is pursued by a determined u s marshal named fergus falls richard crenna unnecessarily riffing off of tommy lee jones' already smirky role there's also a mystery brunette melinda mcgraw and an assassination subplot involving the u n secretary general but like any of it matters wrongfully accused gets off to an assured start with an nielsen touted lord of the violin by posters pulling a jimi hendrix on his musical instrument as hundreds of mosh in front of the stage nice touch most of the scenes that follow however never top the opener hysterical exceptions the mentos and baywatch goofs movie parodies are crammed in at an rate but most are empty when a giant snake lunges onto the screen and snatches a cast member a la anaconda or baseball players disappear into a field of dreams cornfield there's really nothing to laugh at other moments like an interlude in a fishing shop are so unfocused that you're not sure what you're supposed to be laughing at there seem to be more cheap references than frenzied here so it's possible that pat proft by bombarding the viewer with a careless mixture of the two guarantees something is sure to stick and what does stick sticks well particularly the jabs at genre conventions like stylized flashbacks and dialogue what those naked gun s which proft collaborated on did great these bits are so that they allow you to remember wrongfully accused as an spoof instead of a failure the movie might have been cursed to begin with opening fast on the heels of mafia from proft colleague jim abrahams and baseketball from proft colleague david zucker but it's a strong possibility that nobody is going to be accusing wrongfully accused of being nielsen's funniest
negative	please don't mind this windbag letting off a bit of steam i just want to warn all of y'all not to waste your on anaconda it's not even worth a video rental don't listen to ebert on this one he has no clue what he's talking about btw i accompanied my friend to this one because she was required to watch it on assignment she reviews movies for a local paper now i'll actually back up my huffing and puffing here goes movie anaconda rydain's bottom line wait for it to come on usa up all night even then i doubt it's worth the price of jolt to help you stay up that late why do i hate anaconda let me count the ways first of all this movie gets way too many snake facts wrong as an ophiophile snake lover i can tell you that a anacondas would never reach a length of feet b they're scared of people c cases of snakes eating adult humans are extremely rare because human shoulders are too wide to fit in a snake's mouth and constrictor snakes don't kill what they can't eat d people can outrun snakes with no trouble especially heavy ones like anacondas e if an anaconda did eat a human it would need at least months of sitting on its butt to digest the huge meal therefore it couldn't run around gobbling up everybody else in the cast and f snakes have no vocal cords so they can't make funny squealing noises whew i was prepared to suspend reality if the movie would have been worth it unfortunately anaconda was about as suspenseful and exciting as watching paint peel my friend and i even successfully predicted who would live at the end anybody can tell the bad guy is going to die eventually that was a pity because his character was one of the few reasons my friend and i didn't give up and fall asleep he was the most likable character in the movie who wouldn't enjoy somebody who looks like a deranged walt whitman anaconda did have its cute moments arguments between ice cube's character and the british guy for instance however those small flashes of wit were not worth the other hour and minutes of boring schlock the writers had and blew a multitude of opportunities to insert funny lines i was quite disappointed with a scene where a young guy tells a young lady that the jungle makes him horny did she retort with a clever comeback of course not i'm trying to work gee that's even dumber than the crap comebacks i come up with she could have told him to go find a knothole or something p but i will admit there was just one scene where i was surprised at the outcome hint it involves the evil guy and miss crap comebacks as for the plot i'm still trying to find one this movie was basically an excuse to get a boatload of people into dangerous territory where they could get snarfed by ridiculous anacondas with the eyes and fangs of vipers and the downward acceleration of a harrier jet harrier snake not to mention instant digestion so they could go snarf countless other victims the writers tried to throw in some sort of plot twist should i call it a plot knot because it made no sense in which the sick guy's kisses the evil dude and suddenly everybody hates said evil dude and starts trying to kill him that was about as clear and understandable as mission impossible if someone could explain that movie to me i'd be most grateful all the double agents looked the same i wasn't inspired by the acting save for the evil dude i can't blame the actors though it's not their fault they had a cruddy script to work with this concludes rydain's diatribe on a shameless exploitation and perpetuation of public fear of snakes comments flames anyone the atomic cheese fresh from chernobyl dairies
negative	this movie is written by the man who is deemed to be one of the hottest writers in hollywood he wrote the groundbreaking screenplay for scream then added the successful i know what you did last summer script to his mix and also created the popular tv series dawson's creek so when he asked to direct his first movie based on his first ever script written everyone and their grandma said sure go for it uhhm my question is did anyone bother reading this stupid script plot ace student leigh ann watson is mistakenly caught with some cheating papers by the bitchiest teacher in the west mrs tingle and set to lose her scholarship to college when she and her friends visit the teacher at home in order to explain their side of the story they end up tying her up and slowly trying to talk some sense into the hardheaded woman critique it's not so much that this is a bad movie than the fact that it sucks this movie is of characters contains no actual humor that i was able to zone in on zero tension or thrills plot holes the size of my big ass lame pop tunes played to mask nothing going on in the movie and molly ringwald vivica a fox and lesley anne warren tossed away in throwaway roles i was primed for this film as its interesting premise had me thinking misery and to but unfortunately for williamson he went nowhere with the bright foundation making references to the exorcist and dr zhivago which i doubt many in his target market will appreciate he also forgot about suspense with all of his characters based on incomprehensible decisions unbelievable motivations and simply boring us with all of their trite dialogue sure katie holmes is cute and her marisa coughlan did a reasonably amusing impression of the exorcist worth two points out of my three on ten but how can we forgive the biggest character in any film holmes' rival in the film mrs tingle's complete unprofessionalism being let go by all others around her are teachers allowed to behave that way nowadays and a transparent romance between holmes and some dude hired to be the poor man's version of skeet ulrich who himself is a poor man's version of johnny depp all in all this movie was laughable for me provided me with no insight into anything demonstrated williamson's genuine lack of directorial skills alongside a juvenile script and provided helen mirren with a great role to chew into unfortunately forgetting to give her character any believability humanity or capacity to comprehend no hip lines no cheap thrills just a dull time at the movie theater if you want to see a funny teenage movie go see detroit rock city and thank my drunken sorry ass in the morning little known facts about this film and its stars kevin williamson's father was a fisherman kevin used his knowledge of fishing hooks and winches when creating the killer in i know what you did last summer he is also a huge fan of steven spielberg and coincidentally so is dawson leery on tv's dawson's creek a show kevin created he was once an aspiring actor in fact he even landed a bit part on tv's another world also williamson has gone on record to say that an unsupportive english teacher who once told him that he would never amount to anything was the inspiration for mrs tingle which is also loosely based on the book killing mr griffin by the writer of i know what you did last summer lois duncan he has also come out and said that he is a gay man helen mirren was born in london england under the name ilynea lydia mironoff she is married to director taylor hackford whose works include devil's advocate and an officer and a gentleman this film was originally titled killing mrs tingle but was changed after the columbine high school shooting incident actress marisa coughlan will star in kevin williamson next tv project called wasteland this is actor barry watson first full feature film he has played the character of seth on tv's malibu shores several times
negative	in a typical cinematic high school the football jocks have sex with the girls and then dump them but not before the boys' scores are dutifully recorded in their little black books as the sexual acts take place the other guys hang out nearby guzzling beer and grunting like pigs in the rage carrie robert mandel's terminally bland sequel to carrie there isn't a single original moment only amy irving returns from carrie and the talent of the rest of the sequel's cast is impossible to determine given the stupefying mediocrity of rafael moreu's script as rachel the horror story's lead emily bergl gives one of the least scary performances in recent memory but it isn't exactly her fault the director asks for little from his actors which is precisely what he gets sporadically in this lame and lifeless movie rachel will cause school lockers and windows to fly open but generally she just mopes around looking like a victim her fellow students delight in tormenting her of course she will get her revenge in the obligatory ending bloodbath in which she will decapitate and castrate the boys and crush the girls with burning timbers as the movie marks time until its big finale it throws in some repugnant scenes hoping to turn audience's stomachs rachel's girlfriend commits a horrible and realistic suicide after the boy who made love to her the night before spurns her he gets major points in his black book for this but his buddies say he would have gotten more if he had had sex with her after her death even a helpless puppy is run over and we see his poor little body flipping over and over under a truck the teenagers in the movie are completely blas about it all doesn't it offend you that some girl offed herself yesterday asks one of the few kids with a conscience why responds his nonplussed girlfriend she wasn't anybody remarkably devoid of any energy especially for a horror flick the movie makes one yearn for a fast forward button on the theater's armrest with material this bad the film's only hope is to go for parody but it isn't smart enough to realize it even the mandatory epilogue is as pointless and predictable as the rest of the movie the rage carrie runs it is rated r for graphic violence teen alcohol abuse sex nudity and profanity and would be acceptable only for older teenagers
negative	man this was one wierd movie similar to conspiracy theory in that it couldn't decide which genre it is the first hour is your standard stock aliens clone which nicely created an eerie atmosphere about the ship the last half hour this was when the makers blew the script out the airlock and just decided screw it let's just kill everybody from then on forget this movie becomes horror what really dissappointed me about this movie was that it tried to scare you in entirely the wrong way instead of using clever tricks or trying to build up to a scare this movie just uses loud noises sudden camera shifts and short quick bursts of gore yawn everyone's seen it all before and knows when to expect it the one thing that was done well was the lead up to finding out about what happened to the previous crew there are skeletons lying around mangled and mashed but what did this then finally after being painfully restored the new crew views the video the acting isn't too bad at all considering what the actors had to work with anyway as there is no complex or interesting dialogue to speak of there was some very nice camerawork in certain sequences though like when the hull near the bridge of the event horizon is breached and the camera pans back to follow specific objects as they bounce across the deck and are sucked out into space this movie could have been so much better it had a good experienced cast who deserved more to work with there was just nothing new here that any of us haven't seen before in aliens or hellraiser
negative	the king and i a warner brothers animated musical feature recycles the classic story of a woman who challenges the heart of a king with obvious results when anna miranda richardson a british schoolteacher travels to saim to educate the king's martin vidnovic children she learns that the king is treating his people unfairly and must say something to the greedy ruler meanwhile the king's prime minister ian richardson the stereotypical villain plots to overthrow the king taking the throne the last and most predictable main subplot deals with the king's son allen d hong and his love for a servant tuptim armi arabe and how he conflicts with his feelings and the ancient laws of saim not even the lone strong character of anna can save the unbelievably horrible waste of talent as the king and i's problems could fill the blank pages of a journal i will only note the major difficulties for it would take pages to elaborate on every detail the screenplay written by arthur rankin peter bakalian jacqeline feather and david seidler which is based upon the play written by richard rodgers and oscar hammerstein has some of the worst dialogue written in a film within recent memory as every time the obnoxious king would shout etc etc etc i would cringe literally speaking of i did quite a bit of this during the rather short film which is a classic display of terrible filmmaking besides the repetitive dialogue from the king on the whole the songs seem out of place and unlike the lyrics are unmagical the sole song which is used cleverly is getting to know you which is used as anna shows the children the great outdoors which they have never been exposed to unlike disney animated features the king and i's songs don't add to the film and are as uneffective as could be take the following scenario as an example as the sheer horror of the king and i's music is at its worst you're being hunted by a dragon what do you do sing a happy song martin vidnovic voices the king without effort or you hear the saying two negatives don't make a positive believe it with the terrible dialogue that the king has along with his awful voice track the king is completely unbelievable only shows mild signs of any personality and the only thing that changes in the king is that he says etc etc etc more and more as the film progresses no personality at the beginning of the movie none at the end and where does this character's personality change hey i thought anna was supposed to change him isn't that the whole plot the prime minister's hideous sidekick darrell hammond brings his share of cringes as well oh no another one of his teeth fell out  he is supposed to bring laughs for the kidlets but even at age five i would have cringed while watching him by the way this review is going you may think the reasoning for my hate for this film is due to not liking animated hence why i hate this movie because the king and i is a disgrace to animation animated films such as the lion king and the prince of egypt are among my favorite movies of all time the animation team does design their share of well animated settings so this makes it easier to take my mind off of the annoying king until i realize that day and night switch back in fourth within seconds i have not read the play or seen the oscar winning film adaption but from what i can tell the screenplay for the version completely butchers the play for the king and i is never magical nor interesting if it wasn't for miranda richardson who voices anna with feeling the king and i could earn the title worst movie of the decade instead the king and i will just go down as among the year's worst the bottom avoid this movie at all costs not even young children the target audience in this film will enjoy it not the slightest bit
negative	synopsis ayla loses her mother to an earthquake and escapes certain death by a lion reluctantly rescued by a neanderthal clan who likes to have sex ayla grows up to become a blond feminist supermodel who challenges the neanderthal patriarchy by throwing rocks and giving birth without a mate comments allow me to state for the record that i find daryl hannah an appealing presence in movies she proved quite charming as the intelligent astronomer in the romantic comedy roxanne and equally creepy as pris in the classic blade runner the clan of the cave bear clearly tries to capitalize on hannah as a selling point the poster art bears a striking closeup of hannah in tribal paint and the video box prominently features her name in lettering the same size as the title not even her starring role in this turkey unfortunately can save it from being an unbelievable exercise in cheese it's so uniquely bad a film dealing with prehistoric man that actually tries and miserably fails to be serious that it's oddly fascinating the ridiculous attempt at drama here leaves the audience somehow transfixed wanting to see how this dud plays out the clan of the cave bear is based upon a popular novel by jean m auel to this day the book possesses a loyal cult following i remember a dear friend of mine had a copy of the novel she had read as a child with all the dirty parts blacked out with marker by her grandmother i have never read this book but i sure hope it's times better than its film adaptation if not then i'm at a complete loss to explain its popularity the clan of the cave bear immediately opens with a comically absurd scene a young ayla looking much like drew barrymore in e t tramps about in the woods with her cute little ponytails and fur wrapped about her the audience's expectations of a convincing portrayal of prehistory are immediately shattered what follows is a laughably choreographed sequence in which an earthquake swallows up ayla's mother a blonde with fur pants er leggings tearful ayla looks on as the cameraman shakes the camera well as the earthquake slowly recedes a hungry lion becomes interested in her for lunch but the screaming manages to outrun the king of the wild and find a safe haven i won't detail the story any further this seems enough to illustrate my point this movie is really stupid it never even gives the audience a chance to suspend their disbelief also the obvious comparison between the appearance of man in prehistory and the rise of feminism in our century is about as subtle as burning a wonderbra in front of charlton heston the movie doesn't just suggest this message it whacks the message into the audience with a a blond gorgeous woman challenges the social laws of a bunch of people in gaudy brown wigs she's of the new people they're of the old people with the memories yep we get it we get it the clan of the cave bear apparently received an academy award nomination for best which surprises me the movie depends upon a lot of obviously but much of it is unconvincing as stated before daryl hannah is daryl hannah here she looks like she just stepped out of the shower all the time the rest of the characters have dark of some sort smeared over them to look like dirt the that's occasionally seen is perhaps the only notable work here in my mind this movie also suffers from its new age trappings maybe the music sounded a lot more fresh or original during but now it sounds dated and cliched like poorly conceived elevator music add to this the film's including spirit animals and dream visions and a narrator who sounds like a psychic you'd expect to hear on a number and you get a movie that has serious problems being serious the clan of the cave bear is rated r though it's probably one of the most inoffensive offensive films i've seen in quite a while it contains several scenes of sex sans nudity the violence mostly consists of hunting scenes the funniest moment of the movie occurs when a neanderthal in love with ayla attempts to rescue her from a ferocious bear the bear bites his head off and the audience sees it rolling about although this may sound gratuitous i'm sure it's so cheesy that it probably won't bother most people the clan of the cave bear is a bad movie however as i wrote at the beginning of this review it does have the distinction of originality typically when i think of films dealing with early man fantasy movies involving dinosaurs who did not exist at the same time as man and raquel welch come to mind the clan of the cave bear tries so hard to be serious that though it's so bad the audience is still interested by the unique setting and characters of the movie which is why i awarded this turkey two stars i have to think that fans of the book would be disappointed with this film version however i'm only basing this observation on the fact that the book is almost invariably better than the movie i shudder to think that it could be otherwise
negative	salaries of hollywood top actors are getting obscenely large these days and many find this to be the main reason for skyrocketing movie budgets actors who demand such salaries might be greedy but in some instances they are quite justified because many films would never be watched or even made without their participation proof for that can be found even in the realm of movies and one fine example is breakaway thriller directed by sean dash and starring in famous figure skater tonya harding face of tonya harding is most prominently featured on movie's poster but the main star of the film is terri thompson who plays myra attractive woman who works as a courier for gangster one day she decides to retire but her employers are anything but enthusiastic about that realising that her life suddenly became worthless myra starts running for her life followed by professional assassins terri thompson being the actual star of the film instead of tonya harding becomes quite understandable after the scenes that feature former figure skater although tonya harding displays convincing martial arts abilities her acting leaves much to be desired on the other hand her disappointing efforts are hardly out of place in the film that lacks originality believable characters and situations and actually represents anything that gave a bad name martin sheen's brother joe estevez whose character looks like he had entered from another movies' set is the only bright spot of breakaway unfortunately he appears in this film too little too late to prevent viewers from realising why tonya harding's silver screen debut proved to be her last film
negative	movies like six days seven nights make me mad because talented people like harrison ford anne heche and ivan reitman put a lot of hard work in to a script worth about ten cents the script was written by michael browning and he decided that instead of thinking up new ideas he'd rehash a lot of cliches omit even the slightest bit of character development and then throw in pirates to provide for a few action sequences and explosions there are good scripts out there that actors can make see the truman show for instance six days seven nights is simply a waste let's see   we have to get harrison ford and anne heche alone on an island so how do we do that well we'll make her a feisty magazine editor and we'll make him a crusty old pilot but wait she has to have a fianc e that can be david schwimmer but wait if she has a fianc e how will she and harrison ford crash on the island alone i know they'll get to their vacation spot and then she'll get called back yessssss so they'll crash on the island and that will be funny for about five minutes shucks oh i've got it we'll throw in a distracting subplot in which her fianc e has sex with a really attractive woman who acts like a bimbo and then he can feel guilty then when anne heche kisses harrison ford they have to kiss because otherwise nobody will want to see the movie it will be a vindicated action because her fianc e will already have cheated on her then for no obvious reason they'll accidentally run into pirates who try to kill them oh yes i feel so good about this story instead of using characterization to propel the events it will be completely random and yet totally predictable imagine that don't get me wrong six days seven nights is not a boring picture ford and heche both do a great job the sparks fly between them and so most of browning's inane dialogue is drowned out by the actors' sheer force of talent almost every scene between them has energy that the performers bring to the screen and i found myself laughing pretty hard schwimmer is also funny and manages to milk all of his scenes for whatever he can get and reitman who has made some good films at least tries to make things exciting even though the pirate subplot is profoundly dumb i was prepared to be pleasantly sidetracked by the action sequences it's just when i start to think about the story that my contempt for this film surfaces the picture feels like it's been hacked to pieces i wouldn't be surprised if five or six inept subplots have been edited out completely the ones that are here are as bad as they come i think i let out a very audible groan when they get the first glimpse of the pirate ships and i'd just like to shake the producers by the shoulders and scream why did you pick this awful script the film is outright stupid but some of the elements are subtly horrifying for instance take the subplot in which the schwimmer character has sex with the bimbo and then feels really guilty this is a serious problem in real life but six days seven nights reduces any chance of complexity to a weak plot device his actions are what makes it okay for heche to kiss ford in a script that lacks even a glimpse of intelligent subtlety i find it odd that such a strangely insulting device ended up in the story this is summer movie season but that doesn't mean our movies have to be dumb so far has been one of the worst years in recent memory for summer blockbusters when i was in line for six days seven nights i heard the woman in front of me ask for two tickets to that new harrison ford movie why didn't she know the name of the film i suppose she just didn't care what bothers me even more is that the people who make these pictures don't realize that their films are becoming parodies of themselves good actors should sign to good scripts and if hollywood insists on making flicks to rake in cash they least they could do is assume that we'd like to spend our money on a story worth more than ten cents
negative	if anything stigmata should be taken as a warning against releasing films relatively close to one another of the four supernatural horror flicks released this year it is clearly the worst i suppose i should have seen this coming after all blair witch thoroughly creeped me out sixth sense was mildly spooky and then stir of echoes had its moments but wasn't anything i'd lose sleep over clearly the quality of the horror this summer has slowly been dropping is it then any surprise that stigmata is the dullest most horribly executed piece of tripe i have seen in a long while no not really patricia arquette plays frankie page a hairdresser from pittsburgh who receives a rosary as a gift from her mother as it turns out the rosary belonged to a brazilian priest the priest's church had been under investigation by father andrew kiernan gabriel byrne because of the mysterious appearance of a bleeding statue father kiernan is an investigator who has made a career out of disproving supposed religious signs but this time he believes there is something to the bleeding statue his investigation is soon called off however when the frankie starts exhibiting signs of the stigmata in which a person is inflicted with wounds like that of jesus christ father kiernan is initially skeptical of frankie' s story considering she's an atheist but once he witnesses the stigmata attacks himself he dedicates himself to finding out what is going on he eventually begins to suspect that his boss cardinal houseman jonathan pryce is concealing something that could bring down the catholic church as it turns out the dead priest had been working on the translation of a fifth gospel before they were excommunicated the new rupert wainwright music video   i mean film stigmata is the sort of film that starts off ok and only gets worse indeed it would have been good if it were a music video because it's only interesting for about five minutes i'm not sure what wainwright is trying to prove with his endless parade of and extreme whoaaaaaa other than the fact that he has the most swelled head of any director in hollywood and yes he has been to film school his camera trickery is interesting for a little while but eventually it becomes what this film needed is a second audio track to be played over the dialogue such as it is with wainwright screaming at the audience see look at what i can do i'm an maybe then he'd explain why he decided to start half of his scenes with shots of water dripping in reverse or why he included random superfluous shots as that of an egg frying ooh scary if there was some underlying meaning behind all this camera trickery i didn't see it just when you thought it was safe to get involved in the story here comes a shot of two patricia arquettes collapsing into bed for no reason whatsoever arrrrrrrghhhh   then again the superfluous camera trickery wouldn't bother me if stigmata had a story or characters that were remotely engaging though wainwright's vanity certainly doesn't help he does seem to have been given a nearly unworkable script where are plot continuity and character development when you need them case in point frankie page is the character that i assume we are supposed to identify and sympathize with but we aren't given any back story on her character or any reason to like her the extent of her character development seems to be that she is a hairdresser who can somehow afford a cavernous apartment on the top floor of her building and she's kind of cute so let's start the bleeding the fact that she's clearly not the brightest bulb in the drawer doesn't help either according to frankie page what is the first thing to do after receiving mysterious wounds on your wrists and back go clubbing sure that makes sense arquette byrne and pryce give it the old college try but their characters are so that they just appear to be sleepwalking scenes between arquette and byrne that were probably supposed to be sexually charged fall almost embarrassingly flat because the setup of the romantic subplot is so clumsily handled that it almost reaches the point of becoming laughable even though frankie page's life is falling apart before her very eyes she still finds the time to hit on a priest who wanders in to her hair salon even more curiously he seems to be interested in her advances father andrew's religious doubt pops up so suddenly that it seems more silly than dramatic as for pryce he may as well wear a curled mustache and cackle i'll get you my pretty for all the depth his cardinal houseman is afforded trust me i'm not revealing anything by telling you pryce turns out to be a villain what's worse after being faced with dull characters and the prospect of having annoying camera tricks and loud music jammed down our throats we now have to contend with a story that starts off in one direction veers off in another then another and ends up being totally incomprehensible first of all the film doesn't even bother to explain what should be very simple plot details how does frankie get the stigmata merely by touching a rosary how come an atheist like her was chosen since father andrew mentions that only very devout believers have ever received stigmata actually i'm not sure what frankie was posessed by supposedly stigmata occurs when one is posessed by the holy spirit but the film later has her being posessed by the dead priest and later by some evil spirit i think which one is it the answer to this question of course is very simple the possessing entity in each scene is determined by whichever effects and flashy camera work mr wainwright wants to use this time furthermore the ending is a ridiculously neat little and the filmmakers compound this problem by ultimately turning the film into a diatribe against the catholic church if you do any research at all about the gospel of st thomas you'll find that it is not being suppressed by the church as the film seems to claim but that it is readily available at your local library there's nothing the catholics need to worry about though stigmata's religion is so that it can't be confused for anything remotely resembling the real catholic church if they wanted to portray catholic priests as mobsters they should have gone and equipped them with sharkskin suits and tommy guns which would have been far more interesting i'm not catholic in fact i don care much for the catholic church but its cartoonish misrepresentation in this film should not be considered realistic by any means it's rare to see a film that fails on as many levels as stigmata does it' s not though it would like to be and it is definitely not scary though it pretends to be i'm not sure why they tried to pass this off as a horror film because there is absolutely nothing scary about the story maybe it's an attempt to cover up the fact that none of the scenes have any dramatic weight whatsoever the initial shock of seeing arquette covered with blood is dulled by the fact that it happens over and over and over like so many films of the mtv generation this one suffers from overkill so much is overdone in stigmata that it eventually has no effect on the audience leaving us to pick out the film's many flaws i'm also still trying to figure out why the quotation they take from the gospel of st thomas is so when we finally hear it the saying sounds like something every learns on their first day of sunday school which means that for all its flash the whole film is really much ado about nothing the dog days of summer usually produce one monstrous dog and stigmata is it
negative	john boorman's zardoz is a goofy cinematic debacle so fundamentally misconceived and laughably executed that it takes on a bizarre enjoyment quality all its own not since the rampant bumblings of one edward d wood jr has a movie been so silly and so serious at the same time of course wood's career can be explained by two things he had no money and he had no talent boorman on the other hand cannot court such excuses to explain zardoz or his film the equally awful exorcist ii the heretic boorman obviously had a sizable budget a matinee idol movie star sean connery in the lead role and although you wouldn't know it from this film boorman does indeed have talent this is the man who made the slick modern masterpiece deliverance as well as the autobiographical world war ii drama hope and glory the slightly arthurian epic excalibur and the jungle adventure the emerald forest his films all show that boorman is never lacking in imagination but sometimes that comes at the cost of coherence and taste if boorman is anything he's ambitious and when he succeeds it's in grand fashion unfortunately the bigger they are the harder they fall and when boorman falls the resounding impact can be heard for miles around zardoz is meant to takes its place among the grandest of mystical movies an obsession of boorman's his screenplay tries to elicit the same mythological connotations of the arthurian legends or even the wizard of oz a book which figures into the movie's plot but despite all this reaching the resulting movie is more unintentionally funny than intentionally enigmatical or compelling the events take place in the distant year but there is little of the typical futuristic to be found in fact things seems to have moved backwards with people riding horses shooting guns and living in large victorian mansions it's more middle ages than space age the world of zardoz is divided into two distinct hemispheres the outlands where all the poor pathetic people live and the vortex where a select group of wealthy intellectuals live in comfort and everlasting life these immortals never grow old they never engage in sexual activity they possess psychological powers and they live in a sort of marxist society where everyone is equal and everyone contributes equally to the society however if one breaks the rules that person is punished by being aged so many years if someone breaks the rules enough he or she is aged to the point of senility and imprisoned to an eternal existence in a geriatric home with others aged criminals one of the immortals arthur frayn niall buggy a squirmy man with a mustache and goatee tattooed on his face is charged with keeping order in the outlands and forcing the residents to farm so the immortals can be fed like the wizard of oz he adopts a status among the people by flying in to their part of the world in a giant stone carved like a menacing head this flying head is one of the movie's opening images and it's a dead giveaway of the lunacy to come calling himself zardoz frayn gathers a bunch of outlanders and makes them into a group called the exterminators whose purpose is to kill most of the other outlanders so they can't procreate and take up more resources from inside his giant stone head zardoz bellows seriously statements like the gun is good the penis is evil that line alone is worth the movie's cult following one day an exterminator named zed sean connery sneaks into zardoz's flying stone pushes frayn out and goes back to the vortex once there the immortals label him a brutal and study him like a lab rat taking great perverse care in exploring his sexuality which is a mystery to them they seem especially interested in his ability to gain an erection and there is one downright hilarious sequence where a bunch of female scientists show zed erotic footage on a video screen in an attempt to determine what gets him worked up i say hilarious because that is exactly what zardoz is it is obvious that boorman did not intend it to be so he made this film with the straightest of faces although i have a hard time believing that as production moved forward he didn't get even the slightest inkling of how patently ridiculous it was becoming just looking at connery is enough to give one the giggles he spends most of the film running around in a red loin cloth that resembles a diaper a mane of hair braided halfway down his back a wyatt handlebar mustache and a pair of patent leather boots that would look more appropriate on a cheap hollywood hooker boorman made the film right after the critical and financial success of deliverance which is the only reason i can imagine a studio would this effort he attracted some rich talent on both sides of the camera including cinematographer geoffrey unsworth whose striking visuals are about the only good thing in zardoz besides the inadvertent humor sean connery had made his last james bond film in and perhaps he was looking for a change in pace he got exactly that in zardoz and it's a wonder it didn't end his career i'm sure boorman intended for this movie to make some grand statements is it a treatise about the infallibility of eternal life is it a condemnation of those who consider growing old to be a bad thing or is it a social statement something about the inherent negativity of class distinctions and the violence it creates karl marx might like it if he were more like timothy leary come to think of it maybe boorman made it as an extended lsd trip people high on illicit substances are the only ones i can imagine enjoying this asinine silliness as anything more than a completely unintentional comedy
negative	the kids in the hall are an acquired taste it took at least a season of watching their show on hbo before i became a believer maybe after watching a half dozen kids in the hall movies they would grow into the big screen my recommendation is that unless you are a big fan of the kids skip the film as it is their most likely at a full length film lacks the qualities that made their comedy work on tv a and glossy production can not make up for a lack of spontaneity that permeates their tv show the kids go through the motions but you get the feeling that they arent really having fun doing so and this makes it more difficult for the audience to enjoy their antics brain candy is a bunch of skits tied together by the story of a pharmaceutical company that develops a new drug to cure depression in typical tradition each actor plays several roles doctor cooper kevin mcdonald and his team create the drug then under pressure from don roritor mark mckinney founder and president of roritor pharmaceuticals dr cooper releases the drug into the marketplace the ensuing distribution of the new happy pill throughout the populace drives the rest of the film at about minutes brain candy still seems long the best thing about sketch the kids are no the ability to quickly deliver the laughs then go on to another quick skit but with the additional necessary in telling a longer coherent story the laughs just dont come fast enough strangely the show is even more tame than it was when on cable tv the movie makes several attempts at by pointing up the gayness of one of scott thompsons they seem almost forced as if they have to live up to a pg rating one of the best bits though does make use of thompsons naked buttocks we see him charging into to have sex with some guys taking a shower in the classic of this genre monty python pulled off this delicate balancing act between plot advancement and punchline delivery for most of the holy grail the kids unfortunately are not up to the task there are some amusing moments to be sure but not enough to make the experience an enjoyable one
negative	there was a time when john carpenter was a great horror director of course his best film was masterpiece halloween but he also made the fog and underrated prince of darkness heck he even made a good film in with in the mouth of madness but something terribly wrong happened to him in with the terrible comedy memoirs of an invisible man somehow carpenter has lost his touch with junk like his failed remake of village of the damned to his uninspired sequel escape from l a those movies however look like cinematic works of art compared to his latest film john carpenter's vampires if i was him i definately wouldn't want to put my own name in the title it is a sad state of affairs when carpenter can make something as misguided and flatly written and filmed as vampires the story is simple jack crow james woods is a vampire hunter who along with one of his partners montoya daniel baldwin and a prostitute katrina sheryl lee survives an attack from the master vampire valek thomas ian griffith since katrina was previously bitten by him crow takes her along because anyone who is bitten by valek becomes telepathically linked to him until they themselves turn into vampires a couple days later and crow is hoping to find him with the help of her it seems valek's mission is to steal a black wooden cross from a roman catholic church that will enable him to become so powerful that sunlight will not destroy him my question is how many time have we seen this same story played out well the answer is just about as many times as a better version of the story has been made john carpenter's vampires sadly enough is one of the most unscary horror films i've ever seen in fact there isn't even one suspenseful moment in the whole running time the vampire attack sequences are stylelessly filmed without any interesting camera work which is usually a trademark of carpenter's and then we come to the screenplay which as far as i can tell is nearly there is no story development and there isn't even an attempt to flesh out the characters james woods can be a good actor but he has nothing to do here but to say a couple of pseudo lines of dialogue daniel baldwin has some potential but his character comes off as being very dense and sheryl lee faring much better as laura palmer in twin peaks like all of the female characters plays an offensive stereotypical whore there is not an ounce of intelligence or excitement in john carpenter's vamires which is very disheartening coming from an of carpenter's he has said that he turned down directing halloween because he couldn't work up any excitement for it and yet when asked about a vampires sequel he said he would be happy to do it i think that's a definite sign that carpenter has finally lost any trace of his lasting talent not to mention a significant number of iq points
negative	two party guys bob their heads to haddaway's dance hit what is love while getting themselves into trouble in nightclub after nightclub it's barely enough to sustain a skit but producer lorne michaels creator amy heckerling and paramount pictures saw something in the late night television institution's recurring roxbury guys sketch that would presumably make a good feature emphasis on the word presumably takes an concept and tediously stretches it far beyond the breaking that of viewers' patience levels the first five minutes or so of play very much like one of the original roxbury guys skits with what is love blaring on the soundtrack the brotherly duo of doug and steve butabi chris kattan and will ferrell bob their heads scope out hotties at clubs and then bump a select few with violent pelvic thrusts there is one crucial difference guys speak that little fact has been used as justification for the film's existence that the butabis' newfound capacity for speech would open up a whole new set of doors for the characters the doors opened by director john fortenberry and screenwriters steve koren ferrell and kattan are new that's for sure but they all lead to comic dead ends there is no story per se only a loosely structured and linked series of subplots the brothers literally run into or rather get run into as in by car richard grieco of fame and through him they gain entrance into the exclusive roxbury club there they meet a hotshot club owner chazz palminteri conspicuously you blame him who takes an interest in an idea of theirs meanwhile the bros' overbearing father dan hedaya wants them to stop clubbing when doug refuses and the dimwitted steve obeys his father a rift is created between the two the narrative messiness of would have been forgivable if all that went on were the slightest bit funny but virtually none of it is the assembled press audience mostly sat stonily silent throughout the entire film with the one big exception being a big laugh near the end alas the rather lazy takeoff on only strike a chord with people who have seen that film granted a lot of people seen but the fact that the film's best joke is completely dependent on one's familiarity with another film says a lot about lack of inspiration that lack of inspiration can be traced back to the insipid characters themselves like too many of the skits on the current incarnation of the roxbury guys is a sketch that never once suggests that the characters have enough comic life in them to survive outside of the sketch context after watching one of the roxbury skits on snl this is what you come away with from the characters they bob their heads to what is love bump unsuspecting women and that's all after watching you'll be left with exactly the same